About this story
Across the aisle a travelling salesman in a bright waistcoat decides the introduction is already made, and spends the ride mapping Chicago for you: which shops, which streetcars, what four dollars actually buys. At the station he writes his business address on a card and does not press it.
Who you’ll meet
Charles Drouet, the travelling salesman across the aisle of a Chicago-bound day coach holding out an engraved business card, and the railway conductor working the same car behind him — the only two people in the chapter who can be drawn, since Carrie Meeber is the part the reader plays.
How it opens
At eighteen, you left Columbia City with a small trunk, four dollars, and your sister's address.
The afternoon train carried you toward Chicago while familiar fields flattened behind smoke.
Train ConductorTicket, miss; this car runs through without another change.
Train ConductorKeep the claim check; Chicago stations swallow careless luggage.
Charles DrouetThe gentleman means they swallow careless travelers too.
Choose
I can manage my ticket without a guide.
Does Chicago truly confuse every newcomer?