| The two officers stayed on the train as it began to slowly pull away from the small station. There were still a good four hours left to be traveled through the night before the train would pull into Budapest’s Keleti main station. I surmised that we would be late arriving because of the Gypsies. I also hoped that the Hungarian attendant might be spending some time off there so that he could rest and see his family, but I forgot to ask him in the morning when he came around to give me my passport back. I did ask him if he managed to get any sleep during the last few hours of the trip, after the robbery, and he just said, “No, no. Sleep,” and walked away to give back the few remaining passports in his hand. On returning to my compartment, I locked the door and gave it a firm shake as the attendant had taught me. It wasn’t long before we crossed the Slovakian border into Hungarian territory. I could tell from the signs we were passing at village stations where we were not stopping. Once again, I looked out the window. I saw the bright stars above the train and felt happy knowing that it would be a beautiful morning in Budapest. I pulled the curtain closed and somehow, despite all that had occurred, managed to fall asleep one more time before the loud rap on my door awoke me. “Passport, passport.” |
| Gypsies on the Train (continued) |