The two sisters had made it to the train by midnight and were hoping to get to Vienna by morning. Everyone on board was suiting up for bed but the two young ladies with freckles on the same spots of their noses wanted to stay up and see what the moon could give them for a view out their windows. Lhana the eldest took out her book and ate a banana, Cassie the little one bit her nails and stared down the other passengers walking by their door.

   “You’re not going to meet your husband at this hour Cassie so you might as well occupy yourself with the mountains,” said Lhana, barely peaking up from her Byron.

   “Even the Alps seem to be asleep,” sighed the little one with strawberry hair and eyes not fit for droopy lids. Lhana eventually succumbed to the fashionable retreat of the hour leaving Cassie to think with the ticking of the clicking tracks. She couldn’t even see outside anymore, all of the lights were out and the stars had fallen back behind the clouds and smoke of the train. She tried to talk to her sister to wake her up, making declarations that everyone had been dieing for her to say for months.

   “Alright I’m in love with Harry and will marry him. He’s a fine fellow and I can get over the fact that he can’t say my name without that lisp and the fact that he asked you to marry him first. He’s perfect. I hope he meets us at the station.” Lhana snored and Cassie giggled. Those words would have to be lost with the dreams coming out of her sister’s ears. Cassie got up and walked out to the hall. She peaked through every window to see more snores and sleeping children and blankets covering heads. She opened another car door and bumped into a girl just her age and with almost as many freckles. The two looked at each other, a bit disappointed but a bit curious.

   “Can’t sleep?” Asked Cassie, never one for silence.

   “I thought I’d just walk around for awhile. I always find trains rather exciting,” said the stranger with eyes just as wide and twitch just as eager. The two smiled then parted, with the stranger walking ahead to the next car. Cassie stayed for a moment, not wanting to trail directly behind the girl but not wanting to give up her evening adventure. It wasn’t until an old man half naked looked through his window to see the commotion that Cassie decided to move on. She walked down the hall and into the next car, the dinner car. It had been closed but the bar was still up and running. No one was there except for a young man and the girl. The man was handsome, in uniform, and drinking a brandy. The young girl sat across from him, just getting her drink delivered by the bartender. Cassie stood and watched.

   “I’ve never been to Vienna in all of my life,” laughed the girl,” I’m so excited. Quite the adventure I’m sure!” The man laughed with her, paying the bartender for her drink. Cassie listened in by the door without being noticed for a good ten minutes. The two in the booth had not known each other, they both were visiting Austria for the first time, they both were single and obviously flirting. Cassie swore to herself in the shadows, if only she had walked a little faster, she would be having a brandy with that fine man right now. They were obviously falling in love. She pinched herself for being such a fool, she made a promise from that moment on she would walk faster. She looked at the man, he was perfect. He obviously had been sent by god to sit in the bar alone for her, she could have entertained him much more ferociously than that lucky bitch across the way from him. Cassie would have stood there all night but Lhana soon appeared yawning, realizing she had forgotten her night cap before bed.     (to be continued)