When they had come back from town to their train carrying many sacks of bread, the 6 travelers expanded their circle of friends. Susan, Peter, John, Mary, Barbara, and Michael shared their available bread, and as a bonus, other people shared their bottles of wine. Soon many people were sleeping in the darkened car. The train moved through the night into the mountains.
"Mountains?" said John. "We're not supposed to be going through mountains now. We should be passing farms now. We should be passing flat wheat fields."
They all moved to put their noses on the window and look out into the dark. "John's right," said Peter. "That's pretty strange."
The car was dark, and most of the people were sleeping in miscellaneous positions. There was no one to ask these questions to, except each other.
"Did we get on the right train?" said Mary. "Did they cancel ours?"
"Of course we did," said Susan. "Here is my case, and my books, just where I left them when we went into town."
"Then, this train is not going where we were going," said Michael.
"Well, the train is clearly going wherever it's going…But we're the ones not going where we thought we were going." Peter was more precise about these things. "Now what should we try to find out first: why it's not going where we were going, or where it is going now?"
"That we probably don't want to go…" finished Barbara."I wonder if we will miss a morning meal?"
John rose up from his seat. "I'll go find a crew member and ask." He walked between the rows of dark seats, and out the front end of the car.
They waited 10 minutes for John to return. When he did not, Susan said," I think I will see what is going on.
After 5 more minutes, Peter said, "I think I will look in the other direction." He rose and walked out the back of the car.
Barbara and Mary and Michael looked at each other after 10 more minutes. "Do you think we have been hijacked?"
"How can you hijack a train?" said Michael. "It has to go on rails. And they know where the rails all go."
"Who is 'they'" said Barbara.
"Whoever is looking for this train." said Michael. "I hope someone is looking for it."
"What would you do with a train anyway?" said Mary.
"Lots of stuff," said one of the passengers across the way, a young man who they thought was asleep, but was sipping on a bottle of wine. "I heard that one train was taken about a week ago by a strange professor. The guy held everyone hostage because he had a pilotless rocket bomb which he was going to deploy inside a city and smash down buildings. He said he was freeing oppressed people. But he really did it because his college denounced him and vetoed his funding awards. They suspended all of his budget for research, and ousted him from his position."
"It sounds like…you the one who has four bottles of wine?" said Barbara.
"Yeah, want some more? I have some snacks in my traveling kit as well."
"What's your name?" said Mary, acting as a barrier between Barbara and the snacks.
"Albert." Albert sneezed as he said his name.
"So why didn't we hear about this professor, Albert?" said Mary, stopping Barbara's hands from taking the bottle Albert offered.
"The train people didn't want the media to leak the story." Said Albert, taking another drink of wine. "So it's a pretty big secret."
"So what finally happened?" said Michael.
"The hostages survived, and he escaped. But he guaranteed he would do it again," said Albert. "I think I saw someone who looked like him up there in First Class, where your friends went."
Just then John appeared at the front door. "You'll never guess what happened!"
"We were worried about you and Susan."
"I apologize for taking so long…Really, we're fine…Better than fine."
"What happened?" Mary said.
"These guys bought the train," said John.
"Is that why we are going the wrong direction?" asked Barbara.
"No, it's really the right direction. These people also bought a specific railway segment that gives a short cut across the mountains and it really shrinks the length of the trip."
"Well, that's my main criteria: distance equates with time," Michael said.
"How do you know all this?" said Albert to John.
"They have their own party car up front. Come on, we're all invited."
"Party car?"
"Come see," John smiled, as he supervised their movement into the space between the rows of seats. "Time to erase all your doubt."
"OK…I'm never one to boycott a party," said Barbara.
All four of them cooperated, marching forward to the car ahead. Just as they got to the door, Peter came in the back door.
"Where's everyone going?"
"Come on, to the Party Car!"
The Party Car had a rock band and dancers. Colored lights were blinking and people wore plastic party hats. Everyone seemed infected with joy. They held their glasses high as Michael, John, Barbara, Mary, and Peter walked in. Barbara went directly to the snacks, and started putting them in the pockets of her pants.
"I could easily adapt to this kind of life," said Mary.
"Have a drink, it won't pollute you," said one woman, "I'm Sandra, and we're celebrating buying this railroad."
"Who bought it?"
"Our business group. My daddy over there with Mrs. Mendez, and Roberto and Benny. We've all invested together in this railroad now. It was going under financially, and we injected a lot of money into it."
"Who else is here?"
"All of the people who have been taking this course," Sandra said, "Now they're finished and they deserve a great party."
Roberto was on the stage. He stopped the music and spoke to every one. "So we welcome you all who've made it through this new kind of learning. Now your job is to take what you've learned…and DON'T LET YOUR SUCCESS EVAPORATE! GO USE IT! You can do it! It's not magic! It's not ethnic…everybody can use it. So let me go around the room and ask each one of you how you are going to go out and try to use this new language with people….Now if you DON'T come up with some way to start using the language you have, you will be banned from the Party Car and will have to go back to the other cars. You can sleep there with everyone else and not have to use what you know. But your idea for us is like a ballot ...you vote, you stay. And, if you have a new idea that you will do in the Future, we give you an new beer. So...Who's first?"
People lined up at the stage to give the ways they would use this language they've studied in this course.
"I'm will make dates with girls before I go to their countries," said one young man.
"GIVE THAT MAN A BEER!" said Roberto.
"I will be reserving a hotel room in London, Dublin, Sydney, New York, Chicago, Hong Kong, and Toronto."
"GIVE THAT WOMAN A BEER!" And on it went, into the night.
"I will go to the gate and greet people coming in on flights from New York and London at the gate, and ask if I can get them a taxi."
"When the next ski season is here, I will have learned the words to 15 Beatles songs..."
"I will learn to say all the parts of a sailboat like "port" and "starboard" and "bow" and "stern" and "aft" and "tack" and "clue" and "luff" so that I can crew for free around the world."
"I will be texting this to mobiles around the world: 'hi, im jenna whr r u from.'"
"I'm going to START MY OWN BUSINESS!"
"Oooo...K!"
And the Party Car, and the students, rolled through the night on their short cut through the mountains.
Ready-to-Use
a.
cooperate:
cooperate with
someone
b.
adapt:
adapt to something
c.
apologize:
apologize for+V+ing
d.
award:
make an award
e.
hostage:
take hostage