The last train
A B2 short story: two friends miss the last train from Ella and learn something about each other. Practise the past perfect and narrative tenses.
In this lesson
The last train is an original B2 short story of about 850 words. Two old friends miss the last train from Ella after a day on Ella Rock, and a long, rainy night changes how they see each other. As you read, you will practise the past perfect and the other narrative tenses used in storytelling.
Before you read
These eight words and phrases are important in the story. Read them first, and notice how they are used when you meet them in the text.
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| dread | to feel very worried about something that is going to happen |
| edge | the outside end of a high place, where the ground drops away |
| take a wrong turn | to go the wrong way on a journey |
| soaked | completely wet |
| veranda | an open area with a roof along the front or side of a house |
| make a mess of something | to do something badly or to spoil it |
| confess | to admit something that you feel embarrassed or ashamed about |
| pretend | to behave as if something is true when it is not |
Part 1: A careful plan
Amali had planned the weekend for weeks. She had booked a room in a small guesthouse, checked the weather forecast twice and bought two tickets for the last train back to Kandy on Sunday afternoon. All Priya had needed to do was say yes.
The two women had been friends since their first day at school in Colombo, when Priya had shared her lunch with a shy, tearful girl who had forgotten her own. Twenty years later, they still met every month, but lately those meetings had become shorter and quieter. Amali had lost her job at a travel company in June, and Priya’s father had been in and out of hospital for three months. Neither of them talked about these things very much.
Part 2: Lost in the cloud
On Sunday morning, they set off early to climb Ella Rock. The sun was shining, mist was rising from the valleys and the tea bushes were glowing a bright, fresh green. Amali talked and laughed all the way up. Priya said very little.
At the top, Amali walked to the edge and spread her arms wide. “Isn’t it amazing?” she shouted into the wind. Priya stayed back, sitting on a flat rock with both hands pressed against the ground.
They started down just after two o’clock, which should have given them plenty of time. But by three, thick cloud had rolled over the hill, and every path looked the same. They followed one through a tea estate that seemed familiar, but after half an hour it ended at a stream. Somewhere, they had taken a wrong turn.
By the time they found the railway line and walked along it into the station, it was ten past five. The platform was empty. A railway worker was sweeping slowly under the benches.
“The Kandy train?” Amali asked, although she already knew the answer.
“It left at a quarter to five, miss,” he said kindly. “That was the last one today.”
Part 3: An unexpected night
It had started to rain, a soft, steady rain that made the whole town smell of wet earth. Amali felt terrible. She had organised everything, and now she had ruined everything.
She spent ten minutes on her phone, searching for a bus or a car that could take them to Kandy. There was nothing. The last bus had gone too, and the only tuk-tuk driver at the station shook his head when he heard how far they wanted to go. Priya, meanwhile, had quietly phoned her manager and left a message to say that she would be late for work on Monday.
“I’m so sorry,” she said. “I’ve made a complete mess of this.”
To her surprise, Priya laughed. “Let’s go back to the guesthouse. Mrs Herath told us she had no other guests tonight.”
Mrs Herath opened the door before they had even knocked. She had seen them coming up the hill, soaked and muddy, and she had already put the kettle on. Twenty minutes later, they were sitting on the veranda in borrowed jumpers, holding cups of hot, sweet tea, while the rain drummed on the tin roof.
Part 4: What they had not said
For a while, neither of them spoke. Then Priya put down her cup.
“Can I tell you something? I’m terrified of heights. I always have been.”
Amali stared at her. “But you climbed Ella Rock. You never said a word.”
“I know. I’d been dreading it all week.” Priya smiled. “But you’d been so quiet since June. You’d stopped calling. When you suggested this trip, it was the first time in months that you sounded like yourself. I didn’t want to say no.”
Amali felt her throat tighten. “That’s funny,” she said slowly, “because I only planned this trip for you. You’d been going to the hospital every day for three months. You looked exhausted. I thought you needed a break.”
They looked at each other, and then they both started laughing, the kind of laughter that is very close to tears.
“So we were both pretending to be fine,” said Priya, “for the other one.”
“Apparently,” said Amali.
That night they talked until long after midnight. Amali admitted that she had applied for fourteen jobs and had not heard back from any of them. Priya confessed that she had been sleeping badly for months and had been too proud to ask anyone for help. None of it was easy to say, but each thing felt lighter once it had been said.
Part 5: The first train
The next morning, they caught the first train to Kandy. Mrs Herath had wrapped two egg sandwiches in newspaper for the journey, and she had refused to take any extra money for the night. The cloud had lifted, and the hills looked bright and clean after the rain. As the train curved slowly around the mountain, Priya sat by the window, and for once she did not seem to mind the long drop to the valley below.
“You know,” she said, “I’m glad we missed that train.”
Amali nodded. She had planned every detail of the weekend, but the best part had been the one she had not planned at all.
Tip
On your first reading, follow the friendship, not the grammar. On your second reading, notice each time the story jumps back to an earlier time. Look for the word had.
Language focus: the past perfect and narrative tenses
Good stories move backwards and forwards in time. The writer uses the past simple for the main events and the past perfect to jump back to something that happened earlier. Together with the past continuous, these are often called narrative tenses. Our lesson on the past perfect tense explains the form and the rules in detail.
| Tense | Use in a story | Example from the story |
|---|---|---|
| Past simple | the main events, in order | They caught the first train to Kandy. |
| Past continuous | the background, or an action in progress | The sun was shining, and mist was rising from the valleys. |
| Past perfect | an event before the main time of the story | Somewhere, they had taken a wrong turn. |
| Past perfect continuous | a longer activity up to an earlier time | She had been sleeping badly for months. |
How does the past perfect help the reader?
The past perfect tells the reader that one past event happened before another one. Look at how the writer uses it to fill in the background without stopping the story.
Examples
- Amali had planned the weekend for weeks. (before the trip started)
- By three, thick cloud had rolled over the hill.
- Mrs Herath opened the door before they had even knocked.
- She had seen them coming up the hill, and she had already put the kettle on.
- You‘d been going to the hospital every day for three months.
For more on the other two tenses, see our lessons on the past continuous tense and the past perfect continuous tense.
Common mistake
When they got to the station, the train left. → When they got to the station, the train had left.
The first sentence means the train left at the moment they arrived. The past perfect shows that it left before they got there.
Note
In speech, had is often shortened to ‘d, as in I’d been dreading it. Be careful: ‘d can also mean would. Our lesson on contracted forms shows how to tell them apart.
For more graded texts at this level, try the British Council LearnEnglish B2 reading lessons.
Reading quiz: check your understanding
The quiz shows the story again, so you can look back at it. Answer the questions, then write your own short story about a plan that went wrong and compare it with the model answer.
Found this story difficult? Try A new job in Colombo, a B1 story with shorter sentences, then come back to this one.
Summary
- Amali planned a weekend in Ella for Priya, and Priya came for Amali.
- They took a wrong turn on Ella Rock and missed the last train to Kandy.
- During a rainy night at the guesthouse, they finally shared their worries.
- Use the past simple for the main events and the past continuous for the background.
- Use the past perfect (had + past participle) for events that happened before the main time of the story.
Frequently asked questions
What level is The last train?
It is a B2 (upper intermediate) story. It has longer sentences, phrases such as make a mess of something and a mix of narrative tenses, so it suits confident intermediate readers.
When should I use the past perfect in a story?
Use it when you go back to an event that happened before the main time of your story. When you tell events in the order they happened, the past simple is enough.
What does ‘d mean in “I’d been dreading it”?
Here ‘d is the short form of had. Look at the next word: had is followed by a past participle such as been, and would is followed by a base verb such as like.
Practise this lesson
11 questions
