Latihan: Literasi Bahasa Inggris Dasar 1

Text 3: The Last Train (a short story)

Maya reached the platform just as the doors of the last train slid shut. She watched its red lights shrink into the dark tunnel and felt her face grow hot. She had spent the afternoon telling her younger brother, Adi, that she was old enough to travel home alone from her music lesson in the city.

She took out her phone. The battery showed two percent. Before she could decide whom to call, the screen went black. Maya sat down on a cold bench and counted the coins in her pocket. They would not be enough for a taxi.

An old station guard was locking a ticket machine nearby. He glanced at her violin case and asked, “Did the train leave without you?” Maya nodded, too embarrassed to speak. Instead of lecturing her, the guard pointed to a small office. “There’s a telephone in there,” he said. “People miss trains every night. The clever ones are the ones who ask for help.”

Half an hour later, her father’s car pulled up outside the station. Maya expected a long speech on the drive home, but her father only asked about the lesson. When they arrived, Adi was waiting at the door with a grin. Maya handed him her violin case. “Next time,” she said, “I’m checking the timetable twice.”