THE CENTURY'S BEST HORROR FICTION #71: A review of "The Derelict Track" by Dorothy K. Haynes

With this one, the horror genre seems to grow up a little bit. While it is pretty much polite horror, there is a lot more happening beneath the surface.



Teddy is your average kid. He runs around all day, playing at places he probably shouldn’t, and usually he’s late for dinner. When he returns from playing at the old, derelict train station, he has a box of trinkets, a treasure trove of old schedules, posters, and even a phone. His mother disapproves of where he plays (and the junk he brings home), but she becomes a lot more worried when he starts telling stories about ghost trains dropping off passengers at the place.


That’s what the story seems to be about, but there’s something deeper at play here. Vera, Teddy’s mother, has been having a difficult time with her husband. He’s become cold and distant, paying more attention to work than to life. As a result, she’s been banging one of his close friends, Mortimer. They think they’re keeping it secret, but you know how kids are. They notice everything.


Teddy starts talking about this sad couple who get off the ghost train. One of them very purposely leaves the other, and it seems to destroy the remaining person. Starting to get the picture? Oh yeah.


SPOILER ALERT: Vera and Mortimer decide to get to the bottom of this by taking Teddy to the abandoned train station when the ghost train is supposed to show up. Teddy starts flipping out when he sees it arrive and sees the people getting off. He tries to point out the couple to his mother. Mortimer sees nothing. Vera, on the other hand, isn’t sure. She thinks that she sees what Teddy is talking about, but she also thinks it might just be her imagination. At the very end, Teddy starts screaming after the couple, shouting out, “Daddy! Oh, Daddy!” Mortimer kind of gets nervous, wondering what Teddy might know, but Vera completely understands what this is all about. END OF SPOILERS.


Unlike a lot of other stories here, there is no twist ending, and nothing insane happens at the end. You don’t get thrown off the top of the plot roller coaster. It’s a very quiet and calculating ending. Haynes is all but forgotten today, but she very clearly has earned her place in this anthology.


[This story first appeared in THE SEVENTH GHOST BOOK and cannot be read online at this time.]