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playing on them. A woman, not much older than Corinne herself, stopped in the process of gathering her belongings to look at her through tear-reddened eyes. Corinne could tell without asking that the other woman had just said good-bye to someone she held dear. Her sense of loss was so acute that it reached out through her eyes and needled at Corinne’s heart. “Oh, no, Miss.” The porter hurried up behind her. “This here is the colored waiting room. I’m sure you’ll be much more comfortable in the big waiting room. Here, let me show you.”
    “Sorry,” Corinne said and let the door close. It banged shut with a much louder clack than she would have wished. Once it was closed, she noticed the sign reading “Colored” for the first time. She had nursed white soldiers, black soldiers, Oriental soldiers, and civilians. All of them with the same red blood.
    “Nothing to be sorry for, Miss. You just follow me, and we’ll get you settled.”
    Corinne had just turned to accept his invitation when she heard an unfamiliar voice calling her name. “Miss Ford? Miss Corinne Ford?”
    She couldn’t make out anyone’s features in the fog, so after a moment she stopped trying to pin down the source of the voice. “Yes. I’m Corinne.”
    A man with a long, steel-gray beard waded to her through the thick air. “I’m Charlie Aarons. I work for the Dunnes. I’ve been sent to fetch you.”
    “Oh?” Corinne asked. “Is everything all right? Elijah had written that he’d be here himself to meet me.”
    “Don’t you worry none. Everything’s fine. Elijah just has his hands busy with a difficult foaling. Thing’s coming out wrong way first.” He clasped his dirty hand over her shoulder and guided her in a bum’s rush away from the platform.
    Corinne knew she was marrying into a farming family, and difficulties with horses and other livestock would inevitably arise from time to time. Rather than allowing herself to dwell on the fact that Elijah hadn’t arrived as promised, she decided to dive head-on into the role of farmer’s wife. “Take me to him. Perhaps I can help.”
    The old man fixed her with his gaze and smiled. One of his eyes was covered in a cataract; it was unlikely that he could perceive more than shadows through it. His other eye remained a sharp, burning blue. “Good Lord, no,” he said. “That ain’t no kind of thing for a lady to get herself into.”
    “But I’m a trained nurse,” Corinne protested.
    “I ain’t questioning that, but Elijah’s mother told me to bring you straight to her, and she’s the one who pays my wages, so to Mrs. Dunne we go. Boy,” he said, addressing the porter.
    “Yes, sir?”
    “Put the young lady’s bag in the back of my truck, and there’ll be a shiny new dime in it for you.”
    “Thank you, sir,” the porter said and, shifting the bags under his arms in order to get a better grip, crossed over to the decades-old red Ford truck that had emerged from the fog. As he neared the bed of the truck, Corinne jumped at the sudden sound of snarling and barking. Three enormous brindle canine heads with cropped ears reared up over the side of the truck, saliva flicking as they growled and showed their fangs.
    The porter reacted by jumping back, but he kept a tight grip on the bags he carried. “I’m sorry, sir, but I don’t think your dogs are gonna let me get any closer.”
    Charlie doubled over with laughter. “You right about that one, boy.”
    “It’s all right,” Corinne said. “Leave the bags there, I can manage.”
    “Sorry, Miss,” the porter said.
    “You have nothing to be sorry for.” The porter tipped his hat and headed back toward the station.
    “Wait a moment,” Corinne called to him. “Aren’t you forgetting something?” she asked, turning to Charlie.
    The man stroked his grizzled beard. “No, don’t think so.”
    “You promised this gentleman a dime.”
    Charlie narrowed his eyes and leaned in toward her. “I promised this boy a