2.
"What's wrong, Pinoko?", Dr. Black Jack asked.
Pinoko turned to look at the doctor. He was still dressed in his usual top coat, opened to reveal his ribbon tie. Upon hearing Sensei's voice, the eerie interior of the ancient El car vanished, and was replaced by a more modern stainless steel one with hard metal benches and bright lighting.
"We were on the ghost train!", she stammered.
"I think you've let that stranger's ghost story get into your head, perhaps." the doctor suggested.
"Yeah, but it was so real!" Pinoko sighed with relief.
"You just have a very good imagination," Black Jack laughed. "Want some chocolates?"
"Yes," she smiled, grabbing the bag of M&M's out of the doctor's hands.
"Ding Dong!" The doors of the train closed after the electronic warning chimes sounded, and the train gave a slight lurch as the traction motors engaged. The four car unit slid southwards on the tracks as it left the station. There was a clicking sound as the wheels rolled over a switch that split the single track into two. Through the windows, they could see a north bound train on the other track that had been waiting for their's to pass so it could pull into the Franklin Avenue station.
Pinoco turned to look at the doctor, who now had his face buried in his copy of the New York Post. Her eyes caught a headline on the bottom of the first page, whose story continued somewhere in the middle of the paper, '100th Anniversary of New York's worst Subway Crash'. "Sensi!", she cried out, "That's what that creepy man was talking about!"
The doctor lowered the newspaper to look at Pinoco. "What?"
"That!", she yelled, pointing at the newspaper headline.
The doctor quickly skimmed through the story. "No wonder you got so upset. You don't really believe in ghosts do you?"
"But today is the day after Halloween!", she said.
The doctor shrugged his shoulders and continued to read the paper.
The train lurched ahead, wheels squealing. The lights went out in the car ahead of theirs, and then went out in the one they were sitting too, as the train crossed over a short section of track where the third rail switched from one side of the train to the other. When the lights came back on again, they were the soft yellow of the carbon filament bulbs, and the interior had reverted back to that of the old wooden El car. Once again the wheels squealed as the brakes were heavily applied. The train came to a rather abrupt stop at the next station, which was dimly lit. Pinoko could barely make out the station sign though the window, 'Dean Street'. The doors opened, and some of the passengers rushed to get off the train.
"Sensei!, I'm scared!", Pinoco cried, jamming her elbow in the doctor's side. As the train jumped forward to leave the station the lights again blinked. The doctor lowered his newspaper and looked around. The bright white glow and modern metal interior of the car had returned. "What's the matter now, Pinoco?"
"You didn't notice?", she insisted. "We'd gone back in time twice now, to 1918 aboard the ghost train!"
"Your imagination is just too much," the doctor sighed, as he turned a page in his newspaper and continued to read it, ignoring his assistant.
Pinoco crossed her arms and pouted. She hadn't just imagined their being in a ghost train, had she? The train descended from its elevated right of way, downwards into the open cut. As it took the grade, the train speed up, and the clicking of the wheels over the small gaps between the sections of rail came faster and faster. Once again, the lights blinked out as they passed over a dead section of track where the third rail shifted. Again the brakes were again heavily applied as the train entered the next station too fast. The lights came on, again the soft yellow of the Edison era lamps. The passengers were jolted forward out of their seats as the train stopped hard, overshooting the Park Place station. This time when the doors opened even more people hurried to leave the train, like rats leaving a sinking ship. Pinoco shivered in fear with her eyes tightly closed as the train again left the station. She burst into tears, and cried loudly, until Black Jack pulled her close and hugged her.
"Do your really see us in the 1918 train?", the doctor asked softly.
Pinoko slowly opened her eyes to see the doctor's face, lit by the bright white lights of the stainless steel subway car. "Yes, but we're back to normal now," she sobbed.
"Sit close to me if that comforts you," the doctor sighed. "We only have two more stops until we get off. Then it will be a straight shot down the main line to our destination."
"Good!", Pinoko said clenching her teeth. "I don't like this train!"
"Ding Dong!" The electronic warning chimes again sounded as the doors shut. The shuttle slowly inched out of the station, gently accelerating. "See, just your imagination," the doctor said softly, as Pinoco lay her head in the doctors lap.
The lights blinked again, and the shuttle accelerated rapidly. The lights came back on yellow, as the brakes squealed. The motorman seemed to have given up even trying to stop as they blew past the Botanic Gardens station (though Pinoko could see the sign 'Comsumer's Park' on the platform sign out of the corner of her eye). Again she moaned in fear as the sound of the steel wheels against the steel rails grew louder and more mournful. They could hear the sound of the brakes being applied to their fullest in a vain attempt to slow the now out of control train. A loud explosion like sound from the front of the train echoed though the tunnel, followed by that of splintering wood, and the screams of terrified passengers. The lights in the train went out, and the tunnel was lit by the eerie blue light of the third rail shorting out against the undercarriage of the cars ahead of them. The carnage in the tunnel seemed to go on forever. Passengers were thrown out of their seats to the floor, as the car they were in finally came to a halt. Now it was quiet, except for the moans of the injured lying in the gloom.
Black Jack felt around in the darkness. His left hand found Pinoko lying on the floor next to him, while his right hand located the leather strap of his medical suitcase. "Are you OK, Pinoko?" he asked in a concerned voice.
"I think so," she moaned. "Where are we?"
The doctor rolled over from his face down position, and sat next to Pinoko. His fingers located the latch on the bag, and he opened it and felt inside. He removed a flashlight and switched it on. The torch revealed their surroundings. Pinoko had a small bump on her forehead which she was gently rubbing. The doctor scanned the torch's light around him to see his fellow passengers slowly trying to get up from the various positions they had been tossed into. At once he noticed that the car they were now sitting in was not the stainless steel shuttle train, but that of an ancient wooden El car. The passengers were dressed in fashions from a century past. "Looks like you were right, Pinoko," he said. "Can you get up?"
The doctor got to his feet, and then helped Pinoko to hers.
"Let's get out of here," Black Jack told her. He retrieved his medical suitcase, leaving their other bags behind. They slowly made their way to the front of the car, carefully stepping around their fellow passengers. The doctor stopped every few feet to look around, but it seemed that all of the injuries in their car were just minor bruises. No one in the last car had been seriously hurt.
They made their way through the front door of the car and looked ahead. The doctor's flashlight revealed that their car had become disconnected from the rest of the train ahead of them, and had come to a stop about twenty feet behind the fourth car. The doctor descended the front stairs of the car, and jumped from the last step to the track bed below. He held up his arms to catch Pinoko as she stepped from the car and then lowered her down. "Be careful walking down the track, Pinoko," he said. "Keep clear of the third rail, if the power is on it will be dangerous!"
Ahead of them, the fourth car sat low in the tunnel after its wheels had jumped clear of the tracks. The left side of the car was further from the tunnel wall than the right, so they made their way towards the stairs on that side of the car. "Keep your feet on the main rails," the doctor instructed Pinoko, they are grounded and should be safe to touch. Don't go near that one," he pointed towards the heavier, current carrying rail that sat on top of insulated blocks.
They entered the rear of the fourth car.
"Help us!" "We need a doctor!" All around them the doctor's torch revealed the passengers that had been tossed about as the train had left the rails and slammed into the right side of the tunnel. Wood splinters from the collision had speared some of the riders.
"Looks like we have work to do Pinoko!," the doctor said, as he opened his medical luggage case.