The door shrinks and a tiny blue child comes in.

They've apparently remodeled the train station a lot since last week.

Maybe the shadowed figure in the corned knows the way to the train of thought. Sadness approaches him hesitantly.

"Hello?"

The figure's bends until his head is only a little bit above her level."Hello. Are you lost?"

"I think so? I'm looking for the train station?"

"I do not know of any train stations nearby. Would you like help searching?"

"Yes, please. I'm sure the train station was here last week. What is this place now?"

"This is a restaurant. The door leads many places, and does not always allow people to return to their place of origin immediately, but I believe it does return them without allowing any time passing, so that they aren't missed."

"Oh. Might the train station be one of the places the door leads to?"

"It might be. I do not know. Why are you going to the train station?"

"Good. I was going to help unload and load the train of thought. How can we make the door leads to the right place?"

"I have heard that the door is unpredictable, but will always return people to where they came from in time to do what they need to do. What is the train of thought?"

"Um. The train of thought is- a big machine that moves thoughts and ideas and so on around Riley's mind so she can think about them in different ways? And sometimes we also use it to transport other things?"

"You help someone control what she is thinking about? That's interesting. What else do you move with it? Does it only work for one person?"

Sadness is confused.

"I guess so? Um, sometimes people travel on it. What do you mean, does it only work for one person?"

"Is Riley the only person whose thoughts the train affects? Who else travels on it?"

"I think the train only effects Riley's thoughts? How would it effect other peoples' thoughts? And I traveled on it once, and I think sometimes mind workers travel on it."

"What do mind workers do? And what do you do?"

"Mind workers do lots of different things. I make Riley sad about bad things." (She sounds proud of this) "What do you do?"

"That sounds very helpful. I save people who are lost or despairing from dying. It's much harder to help people who don't know how to be sad."

"That sounds really good, it's really sad when people die. And yeah, we used to think we shouldn't let Riley feel sad about anything or let me influence her actions at all, and that ended up being really bad for her. Do you save people inside or outside of Riley?"

"Yes, it is. I'm glad you came to a better understanding. I can only save people when I see them. I think if I were inside of Riley, I could save people there, but I think that I am not inside of Riley right now, so I could only save people outside of her."

Sadness looks surprised and concerned by this assertion.

"What? Why do you think you're not inside Riley?"

"From your description, I believe that inside Riley, everything and everyone is in some way focused specifically on helping Riley think and feel. Where I am from, there is no overall focus to the world and the things and people within it, most of which have unrelated goals. To the best of my knowledge, none of the people I regularly encounter are focused specifically on Riley at all."

"Oh! Wow. So this is some sort of collective unconscious? I should get the other emotions, they'll want to hear about this."

"To the best of my knowledge, I am not an aspect of any person's mind, although I suppose I cannot completely discount the possibility. Once a being returns through the door to their place of origin, the door ceases to lead to this restaurant, so that when the door eventually leads to the restaurant again, the people present earlier are likely not to still be there."

"Oh."

Sadness, having stopped fidgeting, starts again.

"What are people dying from in other worlds? How do you stop it?"

He bows his head. "Accidental or maliciously inflicted bodily damage, disease, age, magical or emotional damage to their souls or brains. If a person is sad enough, I can save them by making it so they won't die unless someone deliberately kills them."

"But only if they're sad? Are people usually sad when they're about to die?"

"Sometimes they're frightened or angry, or too sick to really know what's going on, or not feeling anything at all. Some people hold onto hope until they die."

"I suppose that makes sense. I'd have thought people would be able to be sad in a situation like that if it was as important as it sounds like, though. I guess it might be the sort of situation where so much is going wrong it's hard to do anything reliably and where lots of people make mistakes."

"Yes. It is a tragedy. And of course, upon death while being asked to try to feel sad, many people find themselves unable to."

"Do you think there's anything I can do to help?"

"Oh, would you be willing to? I know you are Riley's Sadness, but do you think you might be able to help other people feel sad if you met them?"

"Not the same way I do for Riley, I don't think, but I could point out sad stuff to them?"

He nods. "I try to do that, but I'm not always successful. What sorts of things might you tell them?"

"Um. I guess they already know they're going to die and if they're too scared to be sad reminding them wouldn't help. I could remind them of all the things they were hoping to do that they won't be able to now. Especially if there are things they won't be able to do anymore even if they survive. I could remind them of the people who their death will hurt. I could remind them of the other people who've already died the same way they're dying and how their deaths were just as bad as this one."

"Thank you. I will try using those strategies when next they seem appropriate."

He pauses, considering. "Would you be willing to come with me to the Unknown, to show me how you would do this? Time in Riley's mind would continue not to pass until you returned."

Deep breath.

"Okay."

"Thank you very much. Is there anything else you would like to do here, before we leave?"

"I think I'm ready to go."

He leads her out the back door, through the trees of the backyard, until the surrounding forest takes on a different quality, from rough-barked evergreen trees to brown and gold with flat leaves and smooth bark, and its air from warmth and humidity to dry crispness.

"Welcome to the Unknown."

Sadness continues to be nervous and a bit afraid.

"How do you find dying people?"

"I ask the trees whether they have seen any who might be lost, or who otherwise might be in danger of dying soon, and then I walk in that direction, but take shortcuts to places they are likely to be going."

Sadness nods

"Okay."

He tilts his head, listening for a few moments.

"These ones say that someone who seemed lost and possibly injured came through here about a week ago, going away from the nearest village. It may not be too late to save them. I believe we can likely reach them within a day or two walking separately, or within half a day if I carry you, if you are willing."

"I don't mind being carried."

She moves to help the arborist pick her up.

He gently scoops her up. His arms feel like they are made of wood, covered with clusters of holes and small ridges. "Please let me know if you are uncomfortable," he says as he begins to run.

"M hm."