A War Far Away
A distant war reaches a quiet valley
By morning the line was clear, and the night train had gone on.
The stranger had left with it, taking his secret back into the snow.
Thomas wrote the whispered name inside the logbook and underlined it twice.
For weeks he has wondered who the man was and why he came.
Then a thin grey letter arrived that changed everything at Wraythorn.
Margaret wrote that a great had begun in a country far away.
"The newspapers are full of it," she said, "and everyone is afraid."
Young men are being called to fight, and the trains are full of soldiers.
Thomas has kept the signals for two years without missing a single day.
Now posters are being nailed to every wall, asking men to .
Even Wraythorn is not forgotten, for duty reaches the quietest of places.
A grey was delivered to the station one cold morning.
It said that all men are needed, and the country is counting on them.
Thomas has lived by the rule that his post must never be left empty.
If he goes to the , no one will keep the signals safe.
Trains carrying soldiers are being sent north along his single quiet line.
Their safety has depended on him since the day he first arrived.
He has stood at these levers through storms, snow, and lonely nights.
Yet the says his duty now lies on a distant, bloody field.
Margaret's next letter begged him not to before he was called.
"Too many have already gone," she wrote, "and few have come back home."
Thomas has read her words a hundred times by the failing lantern light.
The signal box is warm, but the whole world outside is being torn apart.
That night a special train was ordered to stop at Wraythorn.
On its side, painted in white, were the letters of an army .