296. Robbed

It’s cold.

 I reach for my blanket.

Zounds! 

The bottom backpack compartment zipper is open.  

I’ve been robbed! 

My blanket and my Mickey Mouse tee shirt are gone! No doubt now covering the brown body of one of my companions of the night voyage! Pretty good thieving considering that I was lying on top of my pack—trusting soul that I am! Still he missed my pants and sweater in the same compartment, so he lacked the perseverance of a really dedicated workman—he didn’t “go the final inch!” (I would give him the tee shirt in exchange for a photograph of him wearing Mickey Mouse!)

Still, he’s warm and I’m cold.

The brakeman comes and clears all us sleepers out then locks his vacant train car-- so I am standing alone in the cold waiting for the sunrise and not for the first time either.

When it is daylight I locate the train coaches that are going to Roxaul, India, the Nepal border town. My train will leave at 9:30 this morning. I find the right coach totally empty and  open so I get in to wait. A tough looking pair follows me in and lowers all the window shades nice and cozy. I think about last night’s robbery and decide I won’t wait to see what they are up to. When the train starts to move I jump out of the still-empty car, run to another car with some passengers inside and climb in. Why tempt the tough two?

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