The stop at Nothing

Sam Potter has seen every convention prank in the book. A veteran meat salesman attending the final night of a sweltering Providence gathering, he dismisses an ominous telegram as a tasteless joke: “Your time is up. Take twelve midnight train. Track nine. Will meet you at Nothing. Charon.” But the message becomes harder to ignore when Potter discovers it in his hand downstairs—after crumpling it up and throwing it away in his hotel room.

As the evening unfolds, memories of his devoted wife, Karen, draw him toward home, while the strange name “Charon” and the impossible return of the telegram trouble his confidence. What began as a familiar gag now feels like a summons from somewhere beyond ordinary maps and explanations. With midnight approaching, Potter must decide whether to laugh off the warning, attend the convention’s final festivities, or follow its chilling instructions to a station and a destination called Nothing.