She took the bus to the train station and the train to Concord and it was a four-hour ride between shrinking then growing then shrinking towns and the landscape was mostly shades of grey and white and she tried not to think about him and slept or read or stared blankly out the window and when the train approached the last station it was dark outside and the houses and shops were modest and decorated with Christmas lights and familiar to her and there was a small crowd on the snowy platform and everyone on it was careful not to stand too close to her parents and she saw her mother wave a mitten at every window and her father pound his gloves together and she wondered what type of reception she would receive, from him not her, and if it was like the previous Christmas it would be frigid, wit
