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Printed from https://www.writing.com/main/books/entry_id/1025194-The-Capitol-Is-Calling-and-I-Must-Go
Rated: 18+ · Book · Music · #2231553
Fictitious and delicious!
#1025194 added January 23, 2022 at 5:34pm
Restrictions: None
The Capitol Is Calling, and I Must Go
"Ladies and Gentlemen, may I have your attention please?"

Felicia peered up from her tablet and glanced around the lounge. The other passengers waiting on the scattered chairs and couches followed suit but paid her no mind. They'd done when she arrived an hour ago, and she'd dodged questions about both where she was going and what she'd be doing away from the Twin Cities in the middle of April. 128 gigs of documents on a card in her tablet answered both questions, but to onlookers Felicia appeared to be catching up on regular old reading.

"The Empire Builder trains 8 and 28 eastbound to Chicago will be arriving here at Union Depot in fifteen minutes. We ask that all passengers being lining up in single file to prepare for boarding. Sleeping car passengers may report directly to the check-in desk."

Felicia took that as her cue to slide her tablet into the front pocket of her backpack and extend the handle for her rolling suitcase. Everyone in the lounge soon gathered their luggage and filed out the doors on either end to begin their trek through the waiting area. As Felicia followed the others, she saw that the general boarding line stretched on a good few yards, and half the passengers appeared to be under 30. She sighed. Her patience in letting others go before her was a significant misjudgment on her part. She hoped that the conductor and staff would allow her cohorts to go to the track sooner rather than later.

Instead, she stood in the escalator lobby with her fellow sleeping car passengers. A few sat on the green and tan chairs and benches. Given that she's be seated (or lying) in her own room for the next eight hours or so, Felicia opted to stand and look out at the tracks. The windows afforded her a view of the Mississippi River that ran nearby, and the sun illuminated the activity along the riverbanks. In this area, it was other train traffic, including several rust red freight cars at a standstill off to one side. A train horn to her right made her look down just in time to see the silver and blue-gray locomotive of her train begin its slow roll along the platform. The good news is her specific car was towards the back of the train, so she didn't have much of a walk once she was off the escalator. After making sure the train had reached a complete stop, the staff cued her and the other sleeping car passengers to begin making their way to the platform.


After finding just enough space to squeeze her suitcase into the racks on the lower level, she climbed up the narrow stairs and made her way to her room. She figured out which of the two chairs would be facing backwards and took that seat. Placing her bag in the opposite chair, she closed the door but left the curtains open so she could see whenever the room attendant or conductor was approaching. For a moment, she sat back and gazed out the window at the stillness of the surrounding area. Soon, though, she felt the lurch of the train as it began to make its way out of the station and onward to the southeastern part of Minnesota.

Felicia was engrossed in the rolling view of the river when she heard a knock at the door. Looking over, she spotted a man in a blue monochrome uniform. With a small smile, she opened the door.

"How are you doing today?" he asked.

"Doing alright," she murmured.

"Good, good. My name is Armand, and I will be your car attendant all the way to Chicago," he introduced himself. "Lunch will start serving around 11:30, and there is coffee and juice at the end of the roomettes. Is there anything you need or I can assist with?"

Felicia nodded. "Will you be able to bring lunch to the room?"

"Absolutely. I can stop by around 11:15 to get your order. It may take a bit to bring it over since the dining car is about a quarter mile from here."

"Yeah, that's a walk I know all too well."

Armand chuckled. "Sounds like this isn't your first ride."

"Not by a longshot."

"Sounds good. Feel free to ring the call button if you need anything else. Otherwise, I'll stop by in a few hours to get started on lunch for you."

"Thank you, Armand."

Once Armand left and the conductor had scanned her ticket, Felicia locked her door and drew the curtains. The welcome solitude gave her a moment to let her mind wander and not focus on dodging questions about her plans. Instead, she could actually think about her upcoming testimony before Congress, walking herself through the prep work for the two days scheduled so she could talk about what she discovered.

What started as an offhand remark from a teenager in north Minneapolis about plainclothes police officers giving kids cash to tag residences and businesses throughout the city resulted in Felicia tumbling down a rabbit hole of municipal spending investigations. She had managed to connect with volunteer cyber researchers who had been penetration testing various Minnesota government sites, which gave her cover for digging into the police site (a site happened to have a lot of encryption failures that were ripe for exploiting). When she stumbled upon the bodycam footage database, she'd spent three sleepless nights trying to find the right person at the Department of Justice to inform of all this. All of this frantic research and digital contacts happened six months ago, right before the DOJ was set to present their initial findings on the practices (and malpractices) of the Minneapolis Police Department. Felicia's findings forced them to postpone the release of their findings, and there was the possibility that some DOJ staffers had been compromised. All of this had been enough for the US Government to subpoena Felicia. She had no problems with testifying. Getting to the nation's capital without anyone knowing what she was doing was another story.

Even though it would take longer, going to DC by train afforded Felicia far more privacy compared to being on a plane. She was able to be in a space by herself most of the time, and the stations gave everyone more room to spread out. This reduced the risk of someone peeking over Felicia's shoulder if she did any preparatory reading when she wasn't in a train car. Likewise, the lack of scanners at train stations meant less of a chance of her electronics being compromised. Even if the X-Rays didn't affect the components of her tablets, all the futzing in her bag increased the chances of her losing the tablet or the microSD card containing what she needed. Instead, these items stayed nestled in her backpack when she moved around the stations and track platforms.

Most of the ride revolved around this prep work. She even did some reading while eating a romaine and goat cheese salad Armand brought to her room. After about five hours, Felicia decided to set that aside for a while and take a nap. After all, the 5 AM wake up needed for catching the train hadn't done her any favors. The warmth of the sun further lulled her into slumber. She found a plastic wrapped blanket hiding in the stowed bunk above her head and tore through the plastic. Once wrapped in the blanket, she slept the rest of the way through Wisconsin, not waking up until the conductor announced the Glenview stop on the outskirts of Chicago.

The train was a half hour late in its arrival, but that was still plenty of time for Felicia. Her train to DC was scheduled to depart at 6:30, so she had a couple hours to get to the lounge and hang out there before an overnight on the rails. After what felt like an endless trek through the labyrinth known as Chicago's Union Station (replete with its echoed track number announcements that always taunted a migraine or hundred), she got to the lounge and checked in with minimal fuss. She grabbed an herbal tea and some fresh veggies from the snack station before taking the elevator to the second level of the lounge. When she arrived, she found a couple Mennonites dozing in the chairs nearby, but the quiet lounge was otherwise empty. Giving them some space, she found a spot with a view of the street nearby and sat down to take advantage of the wifi. It would do her brain some good to play her design game for at least an hour.

Before Felicia knew it, she was heeding the instructions of the first class lounge staff announcing the initial boarding of her next train. She rolled her suitcase away from the nook where she had settled in and stood up. The second leg of her trip was about to begin, and she'd managed her Chicago layoff with no interruptions (despite being somewhat recognizable in town). After an elevator ride and another long trek to the track, she found her train. The cavernous maze of tracks in Chicago was a far cry from her early morning boarding in St. Paul, and she had to rely on watching what other people did to make sure she got to the right car. At least this time she wouldn't have to fight as much for luggage space since this was the train's starting point. As she waited in line to board, she contemplated the night ahead: a dinner in solitude and an early-ish bedtime. She hoped beyond all hope that she'd actually get some sleep.







Word count:1619

Prompt Ten-Travel


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Printed from https://www.writing.com/main/books/entry_id/1025194-The-Capitol-Is-Calling-and-I-Must-Go