FlashNano2024 No 23. The train

I'll never make it in time." Olivia looked at her watch then at the traffic caused by an accident from her perch in the front of the bus.

"Can you let me out?" she asked the bus driver. He said no until she groveled. 

She ran down Rue Chantepoulet, down the stairway, under the train station and up to platform 6, dodging the few people that were there catching the last trains of the night. At the top of the escalator she saw the train pulling out. The overhead board, announcing the stops reading Lausanne, Bern, Zurich, was blurry as she bent over panting.

"Are you allright?" The person asking was an elderly man, wearing a tweed full-length coat and leaning on a cane.

"I...missed...my...train...and..." What she didn't say was she had to be in Zurich for a job interview early in the morning, one so important that it could change her life.

"Look," the man said, "another is coming." Still using his cane he helped her to where the train had stopped, pushing the button to open the doors and helping her up the three stairs.

Olivia collapsed in the first seat still breathing heavily. If today didn't trigger her asthma, nothing would.

As the train pulled out, she noticed two things:

1.  There was no one in the car with her.
2.  Looking out the window the destinations listed on the overhead sign were gone. 

She ran from car to car in economy and first class. No one. No conductor. The door to the driver's cab was locked.

Eleven minutes later the train entered a huge building and came to a stop.

The cab door open. The driver was a man in a CFF uniform. "What are you doing here.

Olivia explained - including about having to be in Zurich in the morning.

"I'm afraid you're going to miss that interview."

Olivia started to cry.

He handed her a handkerchief. "Where do you live?"

"Vesenaz."

"I doubt that you'll get a bus tonight. I live one village over. I'll drop you home."

On the way home, Olivia looked at the driver. As they passed under streetlights, she found him good looking, but her imagination wondered if he would turn into a killer. Stop, she told herself. You read too many mysteries. Instead she wondered if there was anything she could say to the people in Zurich to convince them to give her another chance. Maybe suggest a zoom call.