Free The Train by Diane Hoh

overhear what he was telling Lewis. She was careful not to get too close - that was easy. All she had to do was mingle with the crowd heading from one car to the next. What wasn't so easy was inching her way toward Mack and Lewis. But she kept trying, and finally found herself separated from them by only one person, a small girl with a blonde ponytail.
        Mack and Lewis didn't turn around.
        By focusing her attention upon them, blocking out the rhythmic clackety-clack of the wheels, Hannah managed to make out what Mack was saying. "Why are you arguing?" he asked Lewis, "I told you, I know it sounds crazy. But I could have sworn…"
        The girl with the ponytail sneezed. Once. Twice. Three times.
        Hannah felt like screaming. She had missed hearing whatever Mack could have sworn.
        They entered a new car.
        "… me get this straight," Lewis was saying. "We came out of the restaurant and started for the doctor's office to meet Hannah and you thought you saw… what?"
        "Not what," Mack's voice replied clearly. "Who. I told you…" Hannah strained forward to hear.
        "Someone was coming out of the drugstore on the corner. There was something about the way he walked, the way he moved, his hair… I would have sworn…"
        Hannah held her breath. But she knew what Mack was going to say before he said it.
        "… I would have sworn it was Frog."
        
        

Chapter 13
        
        Hannah would have fallen to the floor if Mack hadn't heard her sharp intake of breath and turned to see her wavering in the aisle. He lunged for her, catching her before she could fall.
        "You… saw… Frog?" she gasped, leaning into him.
        "Oh, gosh, Hannah, no, you thought… geez, I'm sorry. I didn't know you were listening." Kerry and Jean Marie arrived in time to hear Mack add, "I thought it was him, but of course it wasn't."
        "Who?" Kerry asked, seeing the look on Hannah's face. "Thought it was who?"
        "Frog," Hannah breathed. "Mack saw Frog."
        Kerry and Jean Marie gasped in unison even as Mack protested. "No! No, I didn't. How could I? This guy came out of the drugstore in town and he looked a lot like Frog. Dressed like him, too. Jeans and a plaid shirt with the sleeves rolled up, baseball cap. He looked so much like him, I lost my headand took off after him." Mack shook his head. "I don't know what I was thinking. I feel like a total jerk."
        "But you're not!" Hannah creed. "It was him! I know he's alive, I can feel it. I didn't say anything because I knew you'd all think I was crazy, but now that Mack's seen him - "
        "But I didn't!" Mack insisted. "That's just it. That's why I feel so foolish - "
        "Did you catch up with the guy? Did you talk to him?" Hannah asked feverishly. "Did you see his face?"
        Mack hesitated. "Well, no, but - "
        "Then it could have been Frog! I knew it, I just knew it!"
        "Hannah," Kerry warned, her eyes wide with bewilderment, "get a grip! What's wrong with you? Frog is dead. His coffin is right here on this train, remember?"
        Hannah pounced. "Yea, but he's not in it! No one is. I ought to know. I was in there! So don't tell me Frog is dead. Someone else must have died in that car crash and Frog let everybody think it was him."
        "Hannah," Jean Marie said softly, "that really doesn't make any sense. Why would Frog do that? If everyone thought he was dead, he'd never be able to show his face in town or at school, he couldn't go out or see people - why would someone do something so crazy?"
        "That's just it," Hannah answered, her eyes glit-tering with fear, "he is crazy! Don't you get it? He faked his own death so he'd be free to get even with all of us for the nasty things we did to him. He knew that no matter what happened to any of us, no one would suspect him because everyone thinks he's dead. It's perfect." Her eyes traveled from one