I think that the scent of her hair caused me to first notice her. It had a clean, crisp, tang like the bright sunlight glittering after an early spring ice storm. She was young, very young, not yet twenty, maybe not even eighteen. I caught myself gazing at her where she sat beside me facing the empty seats across the aisle, her knees demurely together. Each time that I found that my eyes wandered back to her, I made an effort to look away. But I found my gaze fixed on her over my newspaper, past her to the countryside whipping by, the winter grays about to give way to the lush foliage foretold by the green haze that is each season's buds of promise to become billions of leaves in a verdant quilt spread over the now naked backbone of the earth.
My thoughts wandered to my daughter who would be just a bit older than this slip of femininity nestled so snuggly against my hip and arm. If she had survived that is, for I long ago had accepted that of which everyone had tried to convince me. My little girl was gone. She simply vanished. One moment she was last seen turning onto the path that was a shortcut through the park and the next she was gone. Even her foot prints stopped in the middle of a sandy place near the creek. Some said that she had been carried off. Others opted that she had wandered off into the woodlands and had became lost. And still others had even darker theories. I shivered involuntarily and forced these memories back into the recesses of my mind where they would stay until fatigue or boredom allowed them to once again rise and lurk as shadows just below a murky surface.
She must have felt my slight quake, because she was saying something to me. I turned toward her and nearly was lost into eyes of the bluest of blue. She repeated her request and I managed to catch "blanket?" as I drifted back to reality.
"I beg your pardon, miss?" I managed to stammer out as my voice began to roll out of my throat before my thoughts became fully engaged.
"You were shivering just now, sir. With night coming on, perhaps the porter might bring us blankets. This early in the spring the setting of the sun can bring a chill over the land and the trains are not always warm enough for comfort."
"Yes. Why yes, of course." Where upon I turned to summon the porter. He was a strapping heavy black man, a bit past his prime with a thick gray mustache and sideburns the color and texture of steel wool. Everyone called him George because he hailed from Georgia although his given name was Floyd. In his youth he had been a prizefighter but now he was inclined to be stout. A man who took his job seriously and performed flawlessly as if he intuitively could anticipate each passenger's needs before the traveler himself. In fact, as I turned to request the blankets, I saw George heading toward us with blankets over one arm and pillows under the other.
"I would imagine that Mr. Richard and..." he began, but the young lady sitting next to me finished the sentence for him by saying, "and Mr. Richard's niece, George. You may call me Miss Slayer. May I add that it is a pleasure to finally meet you as my thoughtful uncle has mentioned you on numerous occasions, always to your credit of course."
George was professional and astute if not formally educated and so he contained his surprise except for the barely noticeable widening of his eyes. "Yes Ma'am, Miss Slayer, I am honored and have always found Mr. Richard to be most kindest of gentlemen." He smoothly replied as he placed the blankets and the pillows on the seat opposite us.