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The Child - Seven resort, he found out, and they would arrange his transporta- tion there at no cost. “Let me know what day you can leave,” the manager told him, “and the nearest train station.” ‘That would be Birmingham,” Ted replied. “Fine. When you get everything set, call me and I’ll have a rail pass waiting for you.” Ted hung up the phone in a daze. The rest of the day, he was so excited that he couldn’t concentrate on anything - studying was out of the question-and he almost failed the next exam. As soon as there was a break in his schedule, Ted took the telegram and rushed to the placement office. “Look!” he announced joyously, waving the telegram in the counselor’s face. “I did it! They gave me the job!” He could hardly contain himself as the dumbfounded counselor read the precious piece of paper, wondering who this young man might be and what made him able to achieve the impos- sible. In spite of his exuberance, though, Ted had no real grasp of how unusual this job offer was. He thought only of all the plans he had to make. After completing the last exam, Ted packed a few of his belongings and went to Birmingham, picked up his pass, and began the two-day journey to Idaho. It might as well have been the moon, his parents feared, apprehensive about the great distance that would separate them from their son. But Ted was looking forward, not back at what he was leaving behind. He was too naive to imagine what a very different person he would be the next time he saw his parents. The long train ride was never boring to Ted, as he watched the familiar countryside pass away. Gone were the pine forests and hot rural farms, replaced by vistas that widened and flattened out across the great plains to the west. Then these, too, were transformed when the majestic Rocky Mountains emerged, looming far ahead. He watched, enrap- tured, letting the train carry his body forward and upward, into forested altitudes as his spirit soared even higher. His old reality seemed to fade away until Ted felt as if he were in some waking dream. And when two thousand miles Masquerade of Angels 58 The Child - Seven lay behind him, separating him from his past, the train pulled into Shoshone, Idaho, and Ted stepped down into a new world. The station manager gave him directions to a bus station, explaining that the rest of the trip to Sun Valley would be by road. Ted walked through the small, sparse town, so foreign to his experience, and tried to absorb every new detail. The landscape had a different color, the people on the streets dressed in ways Ted had never seen before, even the air smelled new and strange, and he relished it all. He was proud of himself, impressed by his own audacity and adven- ture in taking on such a great unknown. A couple of hours later, the bus arrived at the station, and Ted froze in place as he watched the huge, yellow Gray- hound-type vehicle pull into the loading zone. “No,” he told himself, “it can’t be,” and he shook off the eerie feeling that had begun to move up his spine. He loaded his luggage on board, and the old bus lurched off northward. Ted could see snowy mountains ahead in the distance, like beacons. As the journey continued, he settled back for the ride, and that was when he noticed his position, halfway back from the driver. Looking around, he saw that the few other passengers were absorbed in their own thoughts, paying him no attention. Ted felt strange, almost disoriented, as the entire scene set up an echo in his mind. And then the bus braked and pulled to a slow stop. He sat there a moment, fighting a growing sense of apprehension, until he glanced out the window and saw that the road ahead was filled with sheep. Hundreds of them, herded by cowboys on horseback. He couldn’t make a sound, he could hardly breathe, and when a small chuck- wagon rolled by, Ted actually felt faint. Through the open window, he heard the strange language of the cowboys, unknown words he’d heard so many times before. “What are they saying?” he whispered to another pas- senger. “Why are they talking so funny?” “They’re Basques, from Spain,” the person replied. “They herd sheep all over this region.” The sheep traversed the road, and the bus resumed its Masquerade of Angels 59