Train – Sample Chapter of The Trickster

If you’ve read my blog, you know I have a serial novel The Magician…. or perhaps you don’t. Anyway, in one week it will release as a paperback novel over on the Zon. But you can also sit and read it here on the blog, or listen to a few chapters as audio files read by the other half….

That being said, I have most of a sequel written for it, called The Trickster. It was my NaNoWriMo 2023 project, but I ran out of time to do a great deal this past November since I was also buying a house and trying to get Heirs to the Realm released and all, so the NaNoWriMo project ball got dropped. But the story kept being written and is still being written (It’s about 85% of the way done now).

Those of you who also have followed this blog know that I have chosen to use my own family history from Philadelphia to write this story…… including the Hatfield Train Wreck that happened over Labor Day Weekend in 1900. (Hint, click the hyperlink I just posted to read about THAT event).

That being said… here is the first chapter of The Trickster as it appears now. I thought a little teaser might be a good thing, and it’s been awhile since some of you have read my fiction works. Though, you know… I have an entire Portals Series that can be read as well…. just saying.

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TRAIN

It was not a normal early September morning, at least for the magical Shisler family, as they got up and started their chores.  But it was a day that was supposed to be happy nevertheless. That day, Mr. and Mrs. Ellerslie Shisler were getting the farm ready for a weekend away, ecstatically anticipating a few days at the shore on holiday.

Anna Shisler prepared the morning meal on the cookstove and then went in to wake the couple’s four-year-old daughter Margaret.  As she fed the young girl, dressed her, and combed her long dark tresses, the mother reminded her of her manners and sang a few songs with her.  She cast a spell to keep the leftover stew she had made stirring for her husband to eat when he came back in.

Ellerslie Shisler finished with his morning chores out in the barn, ate quickly and then harnessed his team, waiting for Anna to finish packing up Margaret’s things and her own.  Their daughter was being sent to stay with his sister Elnora for the next few days, having her own holiday.   The little girl was distraught over the event, but the couple knew she would be fine once she was folded into her pack of cousins.

When they arrived at the Heffentrager home, Elnora was waiting, along with her second eldest son, John Joseph.  The teen looked ecstatic as well, since he would be in charge of his uncle’s farm for the next few days.  It was his responsibility to drive the team home from the outing and take care of the chores.  This was his first test at responsibility and he was looking forward to it.

Anna kissed Margaret’s forehead one last time, whispering her platitudes of love before Elnora hoisted the little girl onto her hip.  She then waved goodbye to her daughter as Ellerslie drove the wagon away.  She hoped Margaret would behave.  She also hoped her daughter would not miss her too much.

The drive to the train station was somewhat uneventful.  Anna kept murmuring about how she was worried about Margaret’s well-being, though Ellerslie continued to remind her that the young girl would have a wonderful time with her cousins.  Anna then smoothed the front of her shirtwaist, her fingers lingering at the waist of her skirt.  She had done away with her corset lately, though her figure was still slim, but she knew soon she would be showing with the child she now carried.  She caressed her stomach gently, the thought flitting through her mind that she was giving her child some of the love she felt for him or her.

She looked up at her husband’s profile, smiling softly as she fixed her hat, glancing towards the back of the cart where John Joseph sat, watching the scenery pass by as he enjoyed the luxury of a daydream.

The massive excursion train was already pulling into the station when they arrived.  Its tremendous steam-powered locomotive was a sight to behold, standing on the tracks as people ran to and fro.

“All aboard!” came the cry from the conductors.

“Come, Annie!”  Ellerslie commanded, grabbing both of the suitcases from the cart.  He zapped Anna’s hatbox with a spell that levitated it for a second and then grabbed it with his hand.  “We don’t want to be late.”

Anna kissed John Joseph’s cheek and gave him a few quick instructions as he cast a similar spell to what his uncle had just used to gather the reins of the team. 

“I know, I know!” he exclaimed as he touched his cheek with a smile.  “You are going to miss your train, dear Auntie!”

“Come, love!” Ellerslie shouted, his hands full of luggage.  He waited until the woman caught up to him, her hand holding on to the hat that was pinned to her brunette coif.

“Have fun, Uncle Ellerslie and Auntie Anna!” John Joseph shouted as he watched the couple disappear up the stairs of the train car. 

After finding their seats and handing over the tickets to the conductor, the couple smiled with joy as the train lurched forward, the engines stocked by magical fire.  As the farmland and trees whizzed by at a dizzying speed, Anna snuggled into her husband’s shoulder in their comfortable seats on the train in one of the front cars.  She couldn’t believe her luck.  She would be able to see the landscape she had dreamed of.  She had never been to the grand city of Lefteria, let alone the shores that awaited them on the other side of the sprawling city.  She could not wait to see them with her own eyes.

But the swaying of the train and the warmness of the early autumn morning sun as the rays warmed the roof and train windows left Anna feeling drowsy.  She had been up before the sun to do her chores as always, and this down time now was making her body keenly feel the need for a nap.  She nodded off a few times, waking herself as the brim of her hat hit the seat in front of her, the glass of the window or her husband’s shoulder.  

Ellerslie reached up to start taking the pins from her hat.

“What are you doing, my love?” she asked quietly.

“Taking your hat off so you can have a quick sleep,” he replied.  “You can’t very well take a snooze if you’re worried about crushing this!”

“But, Ellerslie, people will talk if I don’t wear my hat in public!”

He pulled the last pin from the hat and pulled it from her head.  Tucking the pins neatly back into the felted form, he smiled at her.

“Let them talk,” he replied, shifting his shoulders and loosening his tie ever so slightly at his collar.  He had already taken off the suit coat he had worn, placing it above them on the racks with their luggage.  “We’re on holiday, Annie dear.  We don’t care.”

She smiled as she leaned against him, resting her head on his shoulder.  

“I want to see the splendor of the city when we get there, Ell.”

“I’ll wake you then.”

“You promise!”

“I promise,” he replied, pressing a spell into her, his own unique magic that allowed her to hear a lullaby whenever she wanted.  “And I’ll be here when you wake up.  I’ll always be here, my dear.”

She smiled as she closed her eyes.  It was something he always said, knowing that her father had abandoned her long before.  He always promised to be there when she woke up.  And he always kept his promises.

She let the lullaby mix with the sounds of the wheels clacking on the rails, the sway of the carriage, and the heat of the morning sun sing her to sleep as she rested against Ellerslie’s shoulder, taking in the scent of his shave lotion with every breath.

It was something she would cherish for all of eternity.

The jolt of the crash woke her up.  There was the screeching of iron against iron and the sounds of wood and metal tearing each other apart.  Screams were heard as the train plowed into something.  In her befuddlement, she thought perhaps she was dreaming.

But it was no dream.  The excursion train, thinking they had a green light on the track, had intended to go through the first of Lefteria’s two train stations without stopping.  But alas, some poor signalman had gotten his messages crossed.  A milk train being unloaded was situated at the station on that particular track, the second of three milks cars already drained of their milk.  The two day coaches were emptied of passengers intending to spend the day in Lefteria, rather than heading on to the coast as the Shislers intended to do.

The poor engineer of the locomotive carrying the excursion cars did not have time to react.  A few shrill whistles were given as he tried to stop the engine, but it was too late.  At a speed of over forty miles per hour, the ten car excursion train plowed through the empty day cars of the milk train.  The train hit with so much force the locomotive was thrown onto another track at the station, pointing westward instead of its eastward destination.  What was left of the milk train lurched forward several hundred feet.

In the wild confusion, people screamed for each other as passengers climbed from the wreckage, assisted by bystanders.

Ellerslie Shisler’s body was found in the wreckage, mangled almost beyond recognition, the hat pinned to his bloodied trousers.  Next to him sat Anna, who survived the disaster with only a few cuts and a torn hem of her skirt.  How she managed to come out of the carnage relatively unscathed mystified everyone who looked at her.

But the poor woman seemed to be broken in her mind.  She was obviously in shock.  As one of the men who had come to help rescue people tucked a blanket about her, she continued to ask for her husband.

“Ellerslie!” she called.  “Where is my husband?”

“I’m sorry, ma’am,” the young man said sadly.  “But I believe he is gone.”

“No,” Anna replied resolutely, her eyes glassing over.  “My husband is not gone.  He promised me he would be here with me always.  He always made that promise.  He is here.  I know it.”

The young man had to move to help another person, but he made a mental note to check on the poor woman as soon as he could.  Eventually though, time got away from him and in the triage, he simply lost track of her.  When he returned to the spot where she had been left, there was no trace of her save a few scraps of fabric from the hem of her skirt.  The man thought that someone perhaps had taken charge of the woman.

It wasn’t until a newspaper account mentioned witnesses having seen a bright light moments after he had left her that he recalled having seen the same light too.  He had thought at the time that it was sunlight reflecting off of a nearby building.  But then he wondered if it was something else.

Ellerslie’s body was eventually claimed by Elnora and her family and was buried with his parents in the Shisler family plot in the small cemetery near his farm. Margaret was practically adopted by Elnora and raised alongside her cousins, since Anna never returned home.  Some assumed that perhaps her mind had been broken and she was taken in by someone who meant well.  The family placed advertisements in the various papers along the Eastern seaboard, hoping that someone would recognize their dear Annie and bring her home.

But Anna Grubb Shisler had vanished.

Where she went remained a mystery for over a hundred and twenty five years.

****I am hoping to release this as a serial novel come November….. Stay tuned!****

Disclaimer: This story is a work of fiction written by K. S. Wood, and thus is copyrighted 2024. Names, characters, places and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.  No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the author.  All rights reserved.

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