Railroad

Chapter Two: Rain Water

Once Martha gets the letter she looks very shocked. She starts cleaning up the house when Alice, their younger sister, walks in wearing her pajamas.

"Martha, when will Emma be back?" Alice asks sounding very sleepy. She's rubbing one eye and holding her stuffed bear in the other hand.

"Emma will be back very soon. Now come on. Into bed." Martha says to Alice sweetly. She takes Alice's hand away from her eye very gently. She then guides her back to her bedroom.

Once Alice is tucked in and asleep, Martha starts to wonder and wonder about how it'll be when Emma returns to Wales. Emma's been away for quite a bit now so the Carlton's have gotten used to Emma not being there. Martha is the oldest child. 26. Emma the middle. 20. And Alice the youngest. 11. Martha never really dates anyone. Most of the reason why Aunt Clara is so avid to know if Emma has found anyone.

Soon, Martha gets done cleaning. She gets in her pajamas and gets ready for bed.

When Martha's lying in bed asleep, she gets woken up by a knock on her door. She opens her eyes and removes her sleep mask while sitting up.

"Come in." Martha tells whoever's knocking at her door.

"It's me. Alice." Alice says clutching her stuffed bear while opening the door.

"Oh, Alice dear. Why are you awake? Is everything okay?" Martha asks Alice.

"There's a man loitering around in the road. He's pacing back and forth right in front of our house." Alice says.

"What does he look like?" Martha asks.

"Short brown curly hair. No top hat. He's wearing his day clothes though." Alice finishes.

Martha starts to look concerned from Alice's description of the man. What was he doing in the middle of the night? She checks her clock on her bedside table. 2:43 in the morning. What was a man doing at 2:43 in the morning. Pacing around right in front of our house nonetheless. And in day clothes too. It was even raining raining so this made it more unusual. No top hat.

"Did he have an umbrella? It's raining pretty heavily." Martha asks trying to find out if this was more suspicious.

"No he didn't. Should we give him one?" Alice asks Martha while looking out the dining room window from Martha's doorway.

"No umbrella, huh?" Martha says looking out of the window next to her bed. That way she could see the man that Alice was referring to.

"Well should we?" Alice ask's clutching her stuffed bear more.

"Yes we should. We mustn't leave him there in the cold like that." Martha tells Alice as she gets up from her bed to exit the house.

"Stay inside Alice!" Martha yells to Alice as she leaves the house.

Martha opens the umbrella and quickly walks out the front door and starts making her way to the young man.

"Sir! Sir, take this!" Martha yells out to the young man.

She catches his attention as she reaches him.

"Take this umbrella!" Martha tells him.

"Miss, I'm fine. You need that umbrella more than I do." He tells her.

"No, no. I just live right there. Besides I have so many more." Martha tells him as she points to the house behind her. That's her house.

"Thank you. How can I ever repay you? Another umbrella, money?" He asks as he looks at her with embarrassment in his eyes.

"No it's alright you don't need to do anything. Consider it a gift from me. My name is Martha by the way. Martha Carlton." She explains.

"Thank you so much! Nice to meet you Martha. I'm Louis by the way. Louis Clifton." He replies chuckling a bit.