SHADOW TRAIN

An Arizona Ghost Story retold by

S. E. Schlosser

[1] A young miner was on his way to Dos Cabezas, where he heard there was a good chance of finding gold, when

he found himself lost and alone in the plains just north of the Dragoon Mountains. In the hot sun of midday, his burro

died because of the heat and the miner knew that he would shortly follow if he did not find a place to hide from the

sun and something to drink.

[5] The landscape oscillated before his eyes, and he tried to keep on walking, determined not to drop. But the heat

of the desert invaded his body and he started to perambulate. Then he collapsed.

He was awakened by a constant chug-chug sound. He raised his head from the hard and dry ground and

looked around him. It sounded like a train was approaching. But that was impossible. There were no tracks in this

inhospitable location, and no town for miles. Clackity-clack. Clackity-clack. The sound came again, louder this time.

[10] Chug-chug- chug. Then he heard the sound of an engine. He was hallucinating, he decided.

The miner put his head on his arms and waited for death to come. As he was there, feeling extremely hot, he

seemed to hear the words of the old miner who had told him about the good mining sites in the north. The

grey-haired man had spoken of a shadow train that had appeared out of nowhere and ran just above the plains

where no railroad tracks had ever been placed. The shadow train had passed across the desert before his very

[15] eyes. It had disappeared into the distance while the old man watched, turning into a mirage and then vanishing into

the strong light of the sun.

At the time, the young miner thought the old man was a bit of a nut. It was an illusion caused by the heat, he

presumed. But with the constant chug-chug-chug becoming louder in his ears, he was not so sure. He raised his

head again, and saw something, approaching rapidly. He heard the sharp whistle of a train, once, twice. After a

[20] while, he could make out the shape of a black steam engine pulling two cars.

The whistle sounded sharply again as the train advanced toward him. The young miner wanted to jump out of

its path, but he could not lift himself. He closed his eyes and braced for the impact, but the train slowed down and

stopped just a few feet from his head. A jolly-faced conductor stepped out of the train and came over to him. The

conductor bent down and lifted him from the ground. Someone else whom he couldn't see caught his feet, and he

[25] was carried inside a passenger car. Kind faces surrounded him. "Water," he murmured, __________ before losing

consciousness.

He was wakened by the feeling of cold water onto his face. He opened his eyes and saw a tall man wearing a

sheriff's badge carefully pouring water from a pitcher over him. The man held a cup to his lips, careful not to give

him too much water at once. The miner had difficulty to drink it. After having some of it, when he was finally able to

[30] speak, he asked the sheriff what had happened.

"A farmer found you nearly dead about five miles out of town," the sheriff answered laconically.

"What town?" he asked cautiously.

The sheriff looked at him strangely. "That sun sure must have messed with your head, son, if you can't even

remember where you were going to," said the sheriff. "You're in Wilcox, Arizona."

[35] "It's a stop on the train, then?" he asked hesitantly.

"Train? There ain't no train around for miles," said the sheriff. "You'd better have some more water and rest a

bit. That sun's nearly sent you loco!"

The young miner laid back down thankfully and closed his eyes. He wasn't sure why the shadow train had

come to his rescue, but he was sure glad it had stopped for him.

[40] Years later, the Southern Pacific Railroad put a track right through Wilcox, Arizona, and real trains started

rolling through Arizona. But some say the shadow train still races through the plains at midday, where no track was

ever laid.

(Disponível em: . Acesso em 11 abr. 2011. – Texto adaptado.)

  How often do we tell our own life story? How often do we adjust, embellish, make sly cuts? And the longer life goes on, the fewer are those around to challenge our account, to remind us that our life is not our life, merely the story we have told about our life. Told to others, but – mainly – to ourselves.

BARNES, Julian. The Sense of an ending. Disponível em: <https://www.goodreads.com>. Acesso em: 22 set. 2016.

No fragmento do romance de Julian Barnes, publicado em 2011, o autor discorre, através da narração feita por um personagem, sobre