Cumberland pencils

The pencil lies diagonally across the book, in the small circle of light.  Its upper surface is imprinted, in block letters CUMBERLAND.  The writing beneath the pencil suggests several trains waiting on parallel tracks, the words being cars and the signs locomotives.  A whistle, as though to signal the trains' departure, is actually blown in the distance, prolonged by a whistle-blowing that fills the whole building. 

Peter Handke, Absence, page 9.  1990  1987 Die Abwesenheit   Also a movie 1992 The Absence