The huge metallic door banged behind him as soon as he went outside. He was released from jail after a two year-detention and felt happy to be free again like a bird on a tree. He was hungry but had no money to buy some food. He was bringing only some personnel belongings. Fortunately, he was given a ticket before he left to travel by train to go home. As the railway station was at least two miles away, he decided to walk and quicked the pace. The station was a small one built of stones with benches on both sides of the entrance. Inside, people queued to bye tickets and crowded downstairs on the plate-form waiting for the next train to Sullivan.
John was hungry and felt bad, the smell from the nearby restaurant made the situation worse for him. The smoke of cooking meat issuing from the nearby restaurant's fences smelt good and made him salivate. Passengers waiting for the next departure gathered in the terraces to have meals and drink and seemed happy. As far as he could remember, he never felt so poor and clueless. Times were hard with him but despite the misery, it never occurred to his mind to beg for some food and preferred to starve keeping well the value of the aristocracy.
The distant grumbling of trains could be heard. The train for Sullivan arrived at last. As soon as it stopped, the doors opened and a crowd, the size of the population of a small town poured away. John jumped on board and took place in the coach. Beside him sat a red face man who picked up a cigarette and opened a newspaper. Facing him, two young men, probably soldiers on permission, took also place.
John glanced through the window. People were hurrying up to go on board. He heard the clatter of the doors closing. The train had a gentle lurch. They were off. As the train run, houses, electric pylons became scarce and gave way to plains, woods and down hills with glimpses to the highway. He enjoyed the trip because the two persons who sat opposite him made him laugh. They talked a lot but were never tedious. They related their experiences as soldiers in the front.
It was two o'clock when he arrived home; the house remained as he left it before, with no particular changes. He approached the door and rang the bell but there was no answer. He rang a second time then repeated ringing with more anxiety but no reaction came. His wife might have left the house with the children, he thought. She decided to join her parents who lived in the Northern England, in a small village where his father was a land owner. He wondered why they had to leave the house and worried about it. The idea that she or the children would be ill occurred in his mind and bothered him a lot.
Discouraged by the silent atmosphere surrounding the house, he decided to go down the street. He wandered aimlessly around the block of houses he used to live. At this time, he saw M. Gordon, a friend of him who lived two streets beside, just in front of the Church. Gordon, a teacher, had changed in a positive way. He used to be drunk, wandering in the town, prowling around pubs while his wife was looking for him asking desperately his acquaintances where she could find him. Many times, John shielded him and kept him out the troubles in those mistrustful days of war heavy with suspicion and misunderstanding.
But today, he looked smart and happy. They talked and laughed together to their hearts' content. Gordon was very happy to see him again. His apprehensions concerning his wife and his children were groundless. He was relieved by the news Gordon gave him. They were neither ill nor...as Gordon had seen them early in the morning once going up the street (...)
Gordon invited him for a dinner and insisted so much that it was pointless to argue. As his wife Clara was on holiday, he prepared the dinner. The duke he cooked was good but there was no bread to go with it. John really liked the meal and was relieved.
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