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There was still enough light, however, from the street and the window display, for Gavin to see the items that filled the shelves. “Wow, this is some very cool stuff you have here. Really takes me back. There was a kid on my block, his parents were rich, and he had this monster setup in the basement with bridges and tunnels and everything.”

“Wait’ll you see what I’m working on out back.”

“Can’t wait, but I gotta ask, and I hope I’m not getting ahead of things here, but I’ve been wondering all day what kind of opportunity you have in mind for me. I don’t know anything about this stuff you sell. I don’t think I’ve got any experience that would be useful to you. I mean, I can fix machines, like I said, like snowmobiles, but the motors in the model trains are a lot smaller than what I’m used to.”

“That’s not going to be a problem,” Edwin assured him. “I want you not for what you know, but for what you are.”

Gavin smiled awkwardly. “I’m afraid these days that ain’t much. When you get right down to it, I’m a homeless person, Mr. Choo. I’m down on my luck, and five years ago, if you’d told me this is where I’d be, I wouldn’t have believed it.”

Edwin put a comforting hand on the man’s shoulder. “You’re just who I’m looking for.”

He held open the door to the back of the store and with a wave of his hand directed Gavin to walk in first.

“Holy moly,” Gavin said. “I’ve never seen anything like this.”

He stood openmouthed, staring at the display. Edwin could forget how impressive something like this could be to the uninitiated.

“There’s a town and a bridge and—oh, that mountain looks amazing. And a river and—how long did it take you to build this?”

“Quicker than you might think. I don’t sleep much.”

“It would take me years to make something like this.” The layout ran along two walls of the back room. Gavin inspected every foot of it, marveling at the details. A factory sign caught his attention and he laughed.

“The Flushing Toilet Company? Oh wait, this one’s even better. A hair salon called Curl Up and Dye? I love it.”

“Always fun to add a little humor to the scenes,” Edwin said.

“How did you—this pond here, under the bridge? Is that like a hard epoxy?”

“Something like that.”

“Is it supposed to look polluted?”

“What makes you think that?” Edwin replied as he stepped over to a transformer and powered up the track. He eased the throttle forward and a steam engine trailed by more than a dozen tanker cars began to roll out.

“Well, it’s red. The water’sdarkred, like, well... You don’t see that in the real world unless it’s downriver from a chemical plant or something. And this little row of rocks, bordering this garden?”

Chuffchuffchuffchuffchuffwent the train as it wound its way through the scenery.

“Yes?”

“They kinda... they kinda look like teeth, Mr. Choo.”

“They do, don’t they. Look what’s coming your way.”

Gavin gazed down the track at the approaching train. The steam engine’s smokestack was furiously pumping out puffs of white vapor. A whistle sounded, followed by a clanging bell. Gavin, no longer focused on the blood-like water and rocks that looked like teeth, was briefly transfixed.

“Those tank cars look just like the ones that pass through town every day,” he observed. The train sped past tall grasses that had been planted at the track’s edge, and Gavin found himself runningthe tips of his fingers over them. “The grass is so... fine. What’s that made of? Is that corn silk or something?”

“Look at the train, Gavin.”

Chuffchuffchuffchuffchuff

Gavin, seemingly without realizing it, was twirling his fingers through his hair. “I was asking because it also reminds me of—”

“Look at the train.”

Chuffchuffchuffchuffchuff