It was only a dream. Paul knew it had to be only a dream because of the suddenness with which he'd found himself there. There at the train station downtown. The big gray building he almost never visited because, after all, who did he know these days who traveled by train?

It surprised him that there were lots of people milling around in the station. Far more traffic than he would have predicted. There couldn't be all that many passenger trains these days passing through this city. It's not like it was a major terminal or a junction point where trains might converge from many directions.

And it was strangely quiet there in the terminal, considering the large number of people present. Almost all of them were adults. Most seemed elderly. The crowd was moving about and the great open room with its elevated ceiling and cavernous spaces should have been full of echoes and voices.

But there were none. An indistinct kind of murmur was detectible, but what little sound there was remained subdued.

Paul looked about in mild confusion because most of the other people present seemed to be moving purposefully. Unlike him, they were on their way someplace. They struck him as being aware of their surroundings and intent on their individual missions.