Last Train to Parthenia

By Danielle de Valera

Short story, 18 pages approximately. One night, while working on the inner-city circle of StateRail, Sydney, Bob Johnson is hit by a train. In the last seven minutes of his life before his brain shuts down, he believes he has finally reached the mythical kingdom of Parthenia. Here, he rescues the young queen L'Etoile from the clutches of the wizard Yogoroth and is all set to become king of Parthenia when he marries her. 7.250 words

• Language: English
• Publisher: Danielle de Valera
• Release date: Jan 31, 2015
• ISBN: 9780992331191

Danielle de Valera

Until now, Danielle de Valera's been best known for her short stories, which have appeared in such diverse magazines as Penthouse, Aurealis and the Australian Women’s Weekly.All in all, she's had a chequered career. She’s worked as a botanist, an editor, a cataloguer for the Queensland Department of Primary Industries Library and the John Oxley Library, and on the main floor of Arnott’s biscuit factory.The manuscript of her 1st ever novel (then titled Love the People!) was placed 2nd to published author Hugh Atkinson's in the Australia-wide Xavier Society Literary Award for an unpublished novel - in those days, there was no Vogel Award for Unpublished Writers under 35. After that, she abandoned writing for 25 years to raise her children, whom she raised alone.She resumed writing in 1990, somewhat behind the eight-ball. With Louise Forster she won the Australia-New Zealand-wide Emma Darcy Award for Romance Manuscript of the Year 2000 with Found: One Lover.That first novel, Love the People! was shortlisted for the Byron Bay Writers’ Festival Unpublished Manuscript Award in 2011, and for the UK’s Impress Prize in 2012, under the title A Few Brief Seasons. It's due out here in October 2021 under its final title Those Brisbane Romantics.A freelance manuscript assessor and fiction editor since 1992, she has won numerous awards for her gritty, streetwise short stories. MagnifiCat, a departure from this style, is her first published novel. It was followed in 2017 by Dropping Out: a tree-change novel in stories - to put it another way, a collection of linked short stories.For more information on this author, see Smashwords iInterview. There's lots there.About that NameDanielle de Valera’s father claimed he was related to the controversial Irish politician Eamon de Valera on his mother’s side. But he told some tall tales in his time, and this is sure to be one of them. Born Danielle Ellis, she found that this name was replicated many times on the web. In searching for another under which to write, she first tried her mother's maiden name, Doyle, but there were a number of those, too. What to do? Then she remembered her father’s story and chose it as her writing name. But she feels any real connection is unlikely.

Book preview

Last Train to Parthenia

Danielle de Valera

Copyright Danielle de Valera 2015

Smashwords Edition

Last Train to Parthenia

Cover and glyphs by by C S McClellan

All rights reserved. No part may be reproduced in any form by any means without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.

If you would like to do any of the above, please seek permission first by contacting the author at [e-mail]

ISBN 978 0 9923311 9 1

Published in the United States by Old Tiger Books.

Table of Contents

Story start

Halfway

Last scene

About the author

More Star, O’Neill and Lawson (aka God) stories

Other works by this author

My sincere thanks to John Beresford of the UK, who kindly allowed me to use his stunning phototgraph entitled Swindon Silhouette for the cover of this story. To view more of John’s great photography, go to https://www.flickr.com/photos/38136824@N08/ If you love steam trains, this site is to die for.

Thank you, John.

Last Train to Parthenia

He found the amulet on a dark and drizzly night when the city seemed asleep on his way to work. His gang worked from midnight to dawn in the inner-city circle of StateRail, Sydney, walking the tracks trailing spot welding gear to repair any cracks they found in the rails. Mostly they were underground, walking miles every shift to ensure the safety of those thousands of commuters who entrusted their lives every day to StateRail.

Occasionally they found strangers in the tunnels: sobbing girls with bottles of vodka, waiting for the first morning train to despatch them; truculent men with similar intentions.

What happens to these people? Johnson asked Colin, the head ganger, after he’d encountered his first would-be suicide.

We take them back to the office, Bob. The manager gives them a dressing down.

That’s all?

Colin placed a hand on Johnson’s shoulder. If they’re really ratty, someone calls the mental health team.

How many people, Johnson wondered, used the railway to top themselves? StateRail didn’t advertise, never seemed to put out any figures.

Still, work on the tracks of the inner-city circle suited him. Although he was ten years older than the rest of the gang, he had no trouble. He’d been walking miles at night for years—insomnia was one of the many problems he’d suffered after Vietnam.