• 3 months ago
by Liz Rosenberg
illustrated by Lisa Desimini
Transcript
00:00Adelaide and the Night Train. By Liz Rosenberg. Paintings by Lisa DeSimone.
00:18To my husband David and our son Eli who might have been Adelaide. But we're glad he wasn't.
00:25L.R. For Catherine Chavonne and Victoria. L.D. One warm spring night, Adelaide could
00:34not fall asleep. All her brothers and sisters were in bed. Her mother and father were asleep.
00:42Even her dog was curled up at her feet dreaming of chasing rabbits. The hall light was out
00:48and the streets were dark and silent. Now and then a train passed by behind the house.
00:55The railroad crossing bells would ring softly. Lights from the train window fluttered on the
01:01grass. The train horn would grow loud and then softer. Adelaide loved it when the train passed
01:09by. But afterward the night seemed even darker and quieter than before. Only Adelaide was awake.
01:17I have lost my way to sleep she said. Then. All aboard, cried the conductor.
01:25He put out his hand and helped Adelaide up the metal steps. And the train set off into the night.
01:33They passed a field where rabbits sat on their hind legs and watched the train go by.
01:38They passed a slow moving river. An owl glided beside the train as noiselessly as a falling leaf.
01:46They passed the restless ocean combing out her hair. The hem of her long gown dragged like
01:52lace on the shore. The lighthouse blinked sleepily but stayed awake. Four firemen played cards.
02:01A night watchman sat in his car and read by flashlight. Two girls stayed up all night and
02:07talked. Frogs practiced their singing. Bats looped over and under the telephone wires.
02:15In an all-night diner a waitress served hamburgers to a young couple holding hands.
02:21At the rear of the train stood a man with a lantern. Every now and then he would sing out,
02:27all's well. The train went so fast it seemed to fly. At the top of the tallest city building
02:35a small red light blinked off and on. Inside the building, workers polished the doorknobs
02:41and swept the floors. A late-night disc jockey played a love song dedicated to Laura.
02:48And Laura heard it. The grass grew on front lawns. A white moth hovered near a street lamp.
02:57People stayed up late and watched TV. The train slowed and went into a tunnel.
03:03It came out again, blew its horn like a harmonica, and came to a whistling stop.
03:09We rehear the conductor said. He helped Adelaide off the train and onto the empty platform.
03:17The air was warm and still, and the sky full of winking stars. Everything was asleep.
03:24There were flowers with their petals folded up like umbrellas for the night.
03:29Birds slept huddled together in the trees. Adelaide walked carefully among the sleeping things.
03:37The man who stood at the back of the train dimmed his lamp and walked at Adelaide's side.
03:42All's well he whispered. The wind rested in the branches of the trees. Horses slept standing up.
03:51Babies napped in their cribs and grown-ups in their beds and one woman dozed in a hammock
03:56between two oaks. A milkman dreamed he was an astronaut and an astronaut dreamed he was
04:02delivering the milk. Even the sun slept behind a hill. It was peaceful there, and Adelaide wished
04:10she could stay. But the conductor cried, bored. So the train hurried back the way it had come,
04:18past the houses with their windows shining, past the wakeful city, past the all-night diner.
04:25Deer stepped carefully down the hillside watching the train pass.
04:30Cloud raced overhead playing tag with the moon. A sleepy policewoman walked up and down the street,
04:38and a baker slid fresh loaves of bread out of the oven. All's well, cried the man with the lantern.
04:46They passed the blinking lighthouse and the ocean and the field near Adelaide's house where
04:50rabbits still leaped under the moonlight. At last the train came to a stop and the conductor
04:57let down the metal stairs again and held Adelaide's hand as she stepped into her room.
05:03He tucked the covers around her and said, good night. On nights when Adelaide couldn't sleep,
05:09she listened for the train. As soon as it passed by, she began to feel sleepy for she knew where
05:16it was going. Often the last thing she heard before she fell asleep was the distant voice
05:23of the man with the lantern calling, All's well. Liz Rosenberg is an associate professor
05:46of English at the State University of New York at Binghamton. She is the author of The Fire Music,
05:53a book of poems that won the 1986 Agnes Lynch Start Prize.
05:59Miss Rosenberg was graduated from Bennington College and Johns Hopkins University.
06:05She currently lives in Binghamton with her husband David Bosnick and their son Eli.
06:11Lisa Dissimini was born in Brooklyn, New York and was graduated from the School of Visual Arts in
06:171986. She is the illustrator of Heron Street by Ann Turner. Miss Dissimini lives in New York City.
06:27The End