Railway Confessions: A Collection of Short Stories

By Carolyn Moncel

2012 Global eBook Award Finalist

Would you ever reveal a dark secret to a complete stranger - even if you knew you'd never meet that person again? This question is at the heart of author, Carolyn Moncel's latest work, Railway Confessions - A Collection of Short Stories. As passengers traveling aboard a TGV train from Paris to Geneva one summer evening, three couples casually disclose very intimate, truthful details that could potentially transform their lives either for the better or for the worst. In the story, "My Brother's Keeper," a couple must come to terms with the murders that each of them had a hand in committing and their aftermaths; In "A Choice in the Matter," another couple must address the questions of wanted and unwanted pregnancies and the circumstances for which such requests are ever acceptable; and in the last story entitled, "Pretty Prison," a last couple must deal with love, infidelity and all of its complexities. Ellery Roulet and Lola Sanchez from 5 Reasons to Leave a Lover return, and along with four others, confront their deepest fears with unexpected results.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Carolyn Moncel
• Release date: Sep 25, 2012
• ISBN: 9781301672578

Carolyn Moncel

A virtual media and web consultant by day and author by night, Carolyn Davenport-Moncel moved to Paris from Chicago, her hometown, in 2001. In Paris, she started the first English-speaking Virtual Assistance firm. Known for her online articles on media relations, Moncel owns MotionTemps, LLC, a Digital Project and Web Content Management firm with offices in Chicago, Paris and Geneva; and its subsidiary, Mondavé Communications, a media relations training and publishing company. She has written, placed articles and been featured in such diverse publications as Entrepreneur.com, Expatica.com, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, Wired News, International Herald Tribune, Wall Street Journal, Working Mother, Bonjour Paris, and PrissyMag.com. She currently resides in Lausanne, Switzerland with her husband and two daughters Encounters in Paris is her first work of fiction. Her next collection of short stories, 5 Reasons to Leave a Lover will debut in fall 2011.

Book preview

RAILWAY CONFESSIONS –

A COLLECTION SHORT STORIES

by

Carolyn Moncel

SMASHWORDS EDITION

* * * * *

PUBLISHED BY:

Carolyn Moncel on Smashwords

Railway Confessions –

A Collection of Short Stories

Copyright © 2012 by Carolyn Moncel, Mondavé Publishing,

a subsidiary of MotionTemps, LLC

Cover Design: MotionTemps, LLC &

Maciej Noskowski (Bim) – Courtesy of iStockPhoto.com

Smashwords Edition License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author’s work.

* * * * *

Also By Carolyn Moncel

Encounters in Paris – A Collection of Short Stories

Life is filled with random encounters and Ellery Roulet, a 35-year-old American PR executive living and working in Paris, has experienced enough of them to last five lifetimes.

She has the perfect life until trouble enters her world via job loss, infidelity, and death.

Paris seems like the most romantic thing in the world, until you live there. … A fun read that blends plenty of romance, Encounters in Paris is quite the pick, recommended.

—The Midwest Book Review

About the Author

Carolyn Davenport-Moncel is also the author of Encounters in Paris – A Collection of Short Stories. Originally from Chicago, she lives in Lausanne, Switzerland with her husband and two daughters. Her next two projects, Geneva Nights – A Novel and Encounters in Chicago – A Collection of Short Stories debut in 2012. Discover her other works at www.carolynmoncel.com

Acknowledgments

My thanks go to my family, friends, clients, designers, publishers, bloggers, reviewers and readers for their unwavering support. To my daughters, Jillian and Chloé, thank you for correcting mommy’s French. To my husband, Philippe, thank you for reminding me to keep the stories real. To my brothers Tony and Kirk, thank you for keeping me grounded. A very special thank you to my sisters, Lorain and Janet, for always reminding me of what’s important; and to my editor and sister in the craft, Priscilla Lalisse-Jespersen, for all the amazing work she does and for patiently working through all of my drafts.

He who is only a traveler learns things at second-hand and by the halves, and is poor authority. —Henry David Thoreau

You will never succeed in life if you try to hide your sins. Confess them and give them up; then God will show mercy to you. —Proverbs 28:13

PARIS 20:00 – 22:00

My Brother’s Keeper

Lola Sanchez just made her train. She loathed Paris in August; she’d agreed to a girlfriend getaway to Geneva with her best friend, Ellery Roulet. From there they planned to visit Munich for a week; a trip essentially designed to help Ellery forget about her pending divorce and perhaps find a new residence.

If it were up to Lola, this destination wouldn’t have been her first choice. Even a relatively quick jaunt to Tunisia or Morocco would have been better options. However, money was a little tight this year so a trip to an exotic location like Bali (which was more her taste) would have to wait. Plus, August in France signified a countrywide holiday. Even as a French woman, it irked her that all of her compatriots had to leave the city simultaneously, in mass migration, like a bunch of stupid lemmings.

As expected Gare de Lyon was jam packed, people standing around; every square inch of space occupied. Lola lost count as to how many crawling babies she nearly stumbled over because their parents let them run wild while waiting for their train heading for Toulouse, Lyon, or wherever the hell they needed to go. A departure from this station usually meant a destination south or east.

Somewhere in the chaotic stew was Ellery. Her last SMS sent 15 minutes earlier signaled that she was already at the station but where exactly remained a mystery. The four extra quotation marks at the end of the message meant that she was growing impatient. Ellery hated waiting. Lola detested searching for lost people even more.

Lola could barely read the departure boards informing her of the correct track number; names of places flipping and changing at dizzying speeds. To make things even more frustrating, the trip would not be direct. Before the mix up at the guichet or ticket office, the train was suppose to travel directly from Paris to Lausanne and then on to Geneva. Instead, there would be several stops: first in Dijon, then Lyon and again briefly in Bellegarde before finally arriving in Geneva or Genève as the Swiss city was called in French. Requiring only 45 minutes of air time, it would have been so much easier to fly. The last straw being that she and Ellery would be sitting in different sections. They would have to meet up upon arrival in Geneva, which was disappointing. With Ellery’s recent marital troubles and her on-again-off-again tumultuous relationship with Olivier, they had not seen each other in a couple of months. Lola missed Ellery and had hoped that they could catch up on their gossip while traveling.

They were a lot alike, Lola and Ellery. Maybe it was because Ellery understood Lola’s desire to succeed. She shared Lola’s drive and ambition, striving to create a life that was far better than their own working-class backgrounds. Like Lola, Ellery was also considered an outsider. They could communicate without words. Theirs was a special bond, and for Lola, Ellery was the next best thing to having a husband or a serious boyfriend.

As the intended train pulled into the station, she took one last opportunity to check her belongings and also to search for Ellery, whom she found boarding, but from eight train cars away. Lola waved to her but with so many travelers pushing and shoving in all directions, she doubted Ellery ever saw her.

Waiting for the passengers to disembark also annoyed Lola. No matter how short the journey, there were always way too many suitcases; enormously cumbersome black ones that no one could ever easily maneuver through the doors. She helped at least three women lower their strollers down to safety on to the pavement. Each designer contraption most certainly contained a screaming toddler (sometimes two) with a runny nose and sticky fingers. Then the mad rush toward the doors commenced, as if there were no assigned seating. On a long journey like