First Paragraph

For at least six months after the incident took place every train used to slow down almost to a standstill at exactly a hundred and eighty-four kilometers from Moscow. The passengers would crowd to the windows and go out onto the open gangway at the end of the carriages to find out whether the track was under repair or if the train was ahead of schedule. But these were not the reasons for the delay. Once it had passed the level crossing, the train would pick up speed again and the passengers would go back to their seats. Only the drivers knew why they had to slow down. 

- From Matryona's House, a short story by Alexander Solzhenitsyn