Hello, everyone! Sorry I didn't post anything yesterday. I was at my grandparents' house...and, well, let's just say their Internet connection isn't the best. So I virtually had no computer. But now I'm home again and can post some more! Yay!

P.S. I wouldn't count on this being done by Christmas...maybe a couple days after...

Enjoy!

CHAPTER TEN: CARIBOU COFFEE AND GLACIER GULCH

"We'd better get down there," I said after a minute. "We wouldn't want Mr.-I'm-Never-Late to get any more frustrated than he already is."

"Yeah," Dad agreed. "I think if he blows up one more time, that vein in his head will pop."

We both laughed at that as we climbed carefully down from the car and joined the others.

"We're in some serious jelly," the conductor was saying.

"Jelly? Ooh! I could go for some jelly with toast!" I piped up. "And maybe some coffee from Caribou! Get it? Caribou Coffee? And there's caribou?

He turned and glared at me. As soon as he looked away, I started to snicker.

I suddenly heard this really weird moaning sound. It turned out that Dad and slipped and, trying to grab ahold of something, he grabbed the beard of one of the engineer's. One of the caribou in front made a similar sound, but it was more high-pitch.

This gave the conductor an idea. He did the same thing Dad did a couple more times, and, miraculously, the caribou moved off the tracks! If that wasn't a miracle, I didn't know what was.

Oh, wait…never mind.

...

The engineers went back to the coal car to start up the train again, which left the conductor, the weird girl, Dad and I at the front of the train. For some reason, I had a bad feeling in my stomach. A feeling something was going to happen.

Something bad.

"We're going pretty fast," my dad remarked. And we were. The train started to move faster and faster and faster…

The conductor turned to the girl. "Tell the engineer to slow down, Shannon," he said.

Shannon? So that was her name? Well, I guess it was better that way. I wouldn't have to call her weird girl anymore.

As soon as I thought that, I realized I was starting to…change. I was starting to care about things.

I was starting to believe.

Oh, man.

I hated this train.

Anyway, Shannon yelled to the engineers to slow down, but as soon as she did, I knew it was hopeless. We were going so fast, her tiny voice was probably lost in the wind the second the words came out of her mouth.

"They can't hear me!" Shannon reported.

Oh, great, I thought. Those bumbling idiots have really done it now! They probably broke something on accident and now are trying to fix it, so they can't hear her!

We started to pass warning signs-the kind you'd see going up to the Wicked Witch of the West's castle-and the tracks started to get rickety. I made an effort to look down and saw that frail wooden beams were the only thing holding us up. I gripped Dad's hand tightly, and I saw that he tried not to grimace in pain.

"I don't like the look of this," the conductor said. "Quick! Under the safety bar!"

"Is everything…is everything all right?" Dad asked worriedly, managing to wriggle his hand out of mine. "What should we do?"

"Well," the conductor said, tying a belt around all four of us, "considering the fact that we have lost communication with the engineers, we are standing totally exposed on the front of a locomotive, the train appears to be accelerating uncontrollably, and we are rapidly approaching Glacier Gulch-which just happens to be the steepest downhill track in the world, I suggest that we all hold on…TIGHTLY!"

We hit the drop, and down we went. It was just like Valley Fair's fastest, biggest roller coaster, the Wild Thing.

Only steeper.

And scarier.

And I wasn't sure I was going to make it off alive this time.

I obviously had no time to think because all four of us were screaming. Dad was now crushing my hand with his-either for payback or for comfort or both, I'm not sure-and screaming like a girl. I would have laughed, but I was too busy trying not to notice that my stomach kept dropping.

"Jiminy Crickets!" the conductor yelled. "The ice is frozen over the tracks!"

I had no idea what he was talking about, so I looked at him funny. Then he pointed straight ahead, and I saw what he meant.

There was a huge lake coming up, and it was frozen. No tracks were in sight. And for the third time that night, I assumed we were all dead.