Baldacci, David - The Christmas Train by David Baldacci

Author:David Baldacci
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2012-01-12T15:44:37+00:00

chapter twenty-one

Upon Roxanne and Eleanor entering the coach car housing the boys’ choir, Roxanne pul ed out a can of Lysol and started spraying everywhere. “Okay,” she said, “we got us some serious travel funk going on here. Now, do not try to deceive Ms.

Roxanne about this for she has five sons of her own and lots and lots of grandsons, and thus she has a Ph. D. in what she likes to cal ‘stinky young men syndrome,’ and that just won’t cut it on Ms. Roxanne’s train. Do we al understand this?” Al the young men nodded. “Good, now I have two showers reserved for you for the next hour, and we wil make good use of that time, won’t we?” They al nodded again. She assembled them in two rows. “Three minutes per boy per shower, no more no less, for this train does many wonderful things but it does not make water out of air. And we wil shampoo and we wil get behind our ears and between our toes, won’t we, and we wil come out with not one dirty digit because there wil be an inspection—oh yes there wil . And the good Lord wil look down upon al of you squeaky clean young men and He wil bless you this Christmas like no other.” For emphasis she sang snatches of tunes Pearl Bailey and Bil ie Holiday had made famous, and then the chaperones marched the lads out.

“How did you end up being the choir’s caretaker?” asked Eleanor. “I understand the singing connection and al , but is there something else?”

“They’re good boys, with a lot of potential, but also lots of things in their way too, especial y where they’re going back to. I won’t accept that fifty or twenty or even ten percent of those boys won’t make it to adults, I won’t! Every one of them, every single one of them, is going to make it. I’m taking a month-long vacation come this summer, been saving up for a while now, and we’re going to go on the road, me and those boys, and we’re going to play some places, and they’re going to see some things that wil make their bel ies burn to do the right thing in life. They’l find dreams they never thought they even had, and old Roxanne wil be right there holding their hands ’til they don’t need me being Momma anymore.”

“That’s quite an ambitious undertaking,” said Eleanor.

“But they’re worth it, don’t you think?”

Eleanor smiled. “I think they’re more than worth it.”

They went into the next coach, where a dazed-looking man was walking up and down the aisle.

Roxanne said in a low voice to Eleanor, “You’l find that coach on the long-distance trains can be an interesting place.

You want some stories, you could do a lot worse than plunking yourself down right here.”

She said in a loud voice, “Hel o, Ernest, you feeling okay today, baby?”

“Demons, demons everywhere, Roxanne—out the window, in my clothes, the food.

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