The Night Train

Hugo bought his ticket at the last minute. The night train to the mountains left at eleven o'clock, and he arrived on the platform just in time.

His compartment was small, with two narrow beds and a window. An old woman was already sitting there, knitting a long red scarf.

“Are you going to the village of Valbrume?” she asked. Hugo said yes. He was going to visit the house where his father was born.

The woman stopped knitting and looked at him carefully. “Your father… was his name Antoine? He had the same eyes as you.”

Hugo was surprised. The woman explained that she had been his father's teacher at the village school, more than fifty years ago.

All night, while the train climbed through the dark forests, she told him stories: how his father loved to climb trees, and how he once saved a goat from the river.

At dawn, the mountains appeared in the window, white and pink in the first light. The train slowed down and stopped at a tiny station.

Before getting off, the woman gave Hugo the red scarf. “It's cold up here,” she said with a smile. “Welcome home.”