by Gilbert Wright
Located in the checkroom in Union Station as I am, I see everybody that comes up the stairs. I think that if you wait long enough in a big railroad station like Union Station you'll see everybody that travels. I've told my theory to lots of people but nobody ever did anything about it except Harry. He came in a little over three years ago and waited at the head of the stairs for the passengers from the 9:05 train.
I remember seeing Harry that first evening. He was dressed up and I knew he was meeting his girlfriend and they would be married twenty minutes after she arrived. I didn't look toward the stairs again until nearly time for the 9:18 and I was very surprised to see that the young fellow was still there, and when the passengers from the 10:02 had all arrived and left. Harry was looking desperate. Soon he came close to my window so I called out and asked him what she looked like.
"She's small and dark," he said, "and nineteen years old and she walks nicely. She has a face that has lots of spirit. And her eyebrows come to a little point in the middle."
I couldn't remember seeing anybody like that.
He showed me the telegram he'd received: ARRIVE THURSDAY. MEET ME STATION. LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE. ---- MAY.
"Well," I finally said, "why don't you phone your home? She's probably called there if she got in ahead of you."
He gave me a sick look, "I've only been in town two days. We were going to meet and then drive down South where I've got a job promised me. She ---- she hasn't any address for me." He touched the telegram. "I got this general delivery". With that, he walked off to the head of the stairs to look over the people from the 11:22.
Well, Harry met every train for the next three or four days. Of course the railroad lines checked and the police looked into the case. But nobody was any real help. I could see that they all thought that May had simply played a trick on him. But I never believed that.
One day, after about two weeks, I told Harry about my theory. "If you'll just wait long enough," I said, "you'll see her coming up those stairs someday."
Next day when I came to work Harry was behind the counter of the magazine stand next to my checkroom. He looked at me sheepishly and said, "I had to get a job somewhere, didn't I?"
We never spoke of May any more and neither of us ever mentioned my theory. But I noticed that Harry always saw every person who came up the stairs.
Then came yesterday. I heard a cry from Harry. He ran across and grabbed a girl not ten feet from my window. She was small and dark and her eyebrows came to a little point in the middle.
For a while they just stood there laughing and crying and saying things without meaning. What had happened three years before was that May had come by bus, not by train, and in her telegram she meant "bus station", not "railroad station". She had waited at the bus station for days and had spent all her money trying to find Harry. Finally she got a job typing.
"What?" said Harry. "Have you been working in town? All the time?"
She nodded.
"Well, didn't you ever come down here to the station?" He pointed across to his magazine stand. "I've been there all the time. I've watched everybody that came up the stairs ---- "
She began to look a little pale. Pretty soon she looked over at the stairs and said in a weak voice, "I ---- I never came up the stairs before. For three years, I've been right over there ---- working right in this very station, typing, in the office of the stationmaster."
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Harry
May
checkroom
desperate
detour
eyebrow
girlfriend
grab
nicely
railroad
sheepishly
someday
stationmaster
ahead of
come in
dress up
get in
look into
look over
play a trick on somebody