The train swayed as she walked towards my seat. Her steely blue eyes zeroed in on me and her brow furrowed as she took in the otherwise empty lower level I was in.

“She’s here …Alone?”she actually asked aloud to God knows who, the flinty European clip to the words still full of mathematical confusion and a bit of terse concern at the lone wolfisms.

“Don’t start, lady~” my innerchile growled telepathically, “just walk away…” I grinned and dutifully looked out the window, knowing if I locked eyes with her it was over.

My joy of joys ride home continued uninterrupted… until when she popped up two hours later.

I was not surprised to see her.

I was shocked when she stopped right at my row of empty seats and leaned in, calculating eyes racing as she peered out my windows instead of every other free window in the train car.

I leaned back and chuckled as my minime glared. It was obvious she’d been thinking about my ‘predicament’ for the duration of the ride so far.

She chose and measured her words carefully.

“You know…” she murmured, not looking me in the eye, “I realized(…💁🏾‍♀️told ya! I was On her mind😬). . . that THIS…” she finally looked at my face, “is a Very good seat. Why are you here- and why is no one else here?”

Don’t worry.

German.

Obvious.

Tall, elder German woman.

I know the kind. Valkyrie. Not leading with the hostile energy that would be tied to that query coming from an older American meemaw.

“You have to select a lower level seat. Same price though. ” I grinned.

“Wow.” Blunt statement. “I had no idea~what a beautiful, peaceful view-“

minime perked up and pulled out her Fantasia magician’s cap and grinned at the initiate as I began to wax poetically on the majestic glass-roofed realm called “the observation car,” describing the animals ambling above and beyond its confines. Her eyes followed my hands as I pantomimed condors flying overhead as the train chugged along cliffs down the coast.

Didn’t even have to go into the bar on the cafe level below it. She was already sold.

“That’s where I’m going, ” she said with the terse grin of a retired school teacher on her first holiday in eons, and was off.