Kate thought she understood. “Thanks, Uncle Herbert. I feel a little better.”
“Good.” He straightened up. “But also the adventure is literally not over. You’re leaving on the Silver Arrow again in three weeks.”
“We—we are?”
“Now that you’ve completed your first journey,” Uncle Herbert said, “you are both formally officers of the Great Secret Intercontinental Railway.”
He took two thick, very official-looking pieces of paper out of the inside pocket of his banana-yellow blazer and handed one to Kate and one to Tom. They were covered in important-looking stamps and seals and signatures.
“These are your letters of commission. And here are your pins.”
He pinned a little silver train onto each of their chests.
“And here’s your schedule.” More papers. “You’re going to be busy. As I said, the world needs good conductors, now more than ever, and there aren’t many of you.”
His yellow Tesla was waiting in the driveway. He shook their hands solemnly, climbed in, and rolled down the window.
“Get some rest,” he called. “Tom’s birthday is coming up, and I’m thinking of getting him a submarine.”
His taillights blazed red in the twilight as he drove away.
When he was gone Kate and Tom crept inside their warm, quiet house, full of all the old familiar sounds and smells. Kate slipped back into her own room. All her old stuff was still there, just the way she’d left it. Adventures were a good thing, a great thing, but it turned out that coming home wasn’t all bad either.
Standing in the middle of her room, she took a deep, shaky breath. She could barely think with all the excitement that was blooming inside her. There was so much good that needed doing in the world, and she was going to do every bit of it that she could. She knew it wouldn’t be easy, or simple, but she couldn’t wait to get started.
She was just changing out of her conductor’s uniform and into regular clothes when she heard footsteps in the hall.
It was her mother. Probably she was coming to tell Kate to stop sulking, which was fair, and that it was time for her birthday dinner. Kate snuck a look out the window at the great dark shape of the Silver Arrow in the moonlight, patiently waiting to take her somewhere new and amazing.
It was like the heron said: The old balance was gone—but it wasn’t too late to find a new one.