Kaya LaGrange boards the Amtrak Carolinian train at Penn Station in Baltimore, Maryland. Many of the seats are empty. Those passengers in the train are in various shapes and sizes, wearing a wide variety of clothing. Kaya's current outfit is a little on the shabby side. She wears a fully-loaded backpack.
"There's a seat for us, baby," says her husband Lonnie, taking a window seat. He too, is similarly shabbily-dressed and wears a fully-loaded backpack.
"I wish we didn't have to do this," protests his wife. "I just want to stay in Baltimore."
"I told you about me years ago," answers Lonnie. "I told you I might have to leave at a moment's notice. And yet, you stuck by me."
"But our home."
"Wherever we go will be home."
Kaya sits at a seat close to the aisle. She rubs her pregnant belly. "I wish we could have said goodbye at least. And you didn't even give notice to your bosses."
The Amtrak train soon moves along the railroad, leaving Penn Station. Lonnie looks out the window at the city of Baltimore. It felt like home for a few years, like a place he really belonged. He would miss his fellow volunteers. He even recalls the time he managed to scrounge up enough savings to go to an Orioles game with his friends last year.
Lonnie had no more of a desire to leave Baltimore than Kaya did.
But given his circumstances, it is a necessary evil.
The interior of the passenger cabin darkens a little as the train passes through a tunnel under the streets of Baltimore. After a few minutes, the passenger cabin brightens as the train leaves the tunnel and goes out into the exposed daylight under the April sun.
An alarm bell in Lonnie's head rings when he feels the train come to stop in the middle of the track, far too early to have made it to the next station.
"We are experiencing a temporary delay," says an announcer. "Please remain calm."
Lonnie's heartbeat races. He holds his wife's hand.
"Baby, there might just be a traffic jam and the train has to stop until it's clear," she says.
"Maybe you're right," he replies nervously. "I just have to sit here."
The two of them, as well as the other passengers, wait a few minutes. The other passengers murmur, speculating on the cause of the delay.
They get there answer when several police officers in riot gear enter the train. A dark man with tightly-curled black hair, clad in a suit, holds his palm up.
"Remain calm," he says, showing his badge. "this is the Baltimore police. We just ask for your cooperation."
He then makes eye contact with Lonnie. Lonnie LaGrange is breathing heavily.
"That's him, peeps," he says. "We got our catch. Let's reel him in."