Knight of the Rails by Christine Welldon

Knight of the Rails by Christine Welldon

Author:Christine Welldon
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Red Deer Press
Published: 2022-08-12T16:28:26+00:00


— • CHAPTER 13 • —

NO GOODBYES

Billy figured that if hobos ever wrote a book of rules, it would soon be well-thumbed and grimy with smoke and cinders. The most important rule would begin at the top of Page One: “No Need for Goodbyes.”

He had seen men travelling along together only to take separate paths without a backward glance or a parting word. It seemed as if they had never known one another, never once shared a crust or a laugh.

But Billy knew he would always remember Tiny.

He now stood beside her in silence, trapped in their boxcar prison as the wind moaned outside. Then with rising anger, he began to pace the boards and beat on the walls with his fists. “Let us out! Let us out!”

Tiny slumped to the floor. “Don’t blow your wig. That ain’t workin’. Dammit! What are they plannin’ to do with us?”

She hummed tunelessly as she took out her tobacco pouch and stuffed her pipe.

Billy sank to the floor and watched her smoke rings rising toward the ceiling.

“Look! There’s a hatch!” Billy pointed upward. “Come on! Get on my shoulders, Tiny. Try and shove it open.”

He squatted and she stepped up, wobbled, then steadied herself as he slowly stood. She walked her hands along the ceiling as he moved along beneath, holding her ankles.

“Move to the left,” she breathed. “A few more inches. Stop.”

He felt her straining to push on the hatch.

“Won’t budge. Locked.” She jumped down and picked up her pipe again. “Wish I had my gun, I’d shoot it off.”

Outside, feet crunched on the gravel and Billy moved to the door. The bolt slid and it rolled partly open.

“Step back, you!” the policeman ordered him as two hobos climbed inside. “Hope the accommodation is to your liking, gentlemen.”

The newcomers gazed around as their eyes adjusted to the gloom. Each had a square jaw and cleft chin that hinted they might be brothers.

“That sonabitch!” one said as he settled into a corner. “Gonna be a night in the clink for us.”

“Nah. Bastard’s gonna send us to one of them prison camps, I bet,” said the other and glanced at Tiny and Billy. “They catchin’ kids now! How long you two been in here?”

“Too damn long,” Tiny said, as she blew more smoke rings and watched them curl upward.

“This is Bennett’s idea of fair play?” The first man grimaced and shook his head. “While he sits there in Ottawa, living off the fat of the land—lock us all up to die in a boxcar and them rich bastards livin’ the sweet life.” He hacked and spat and muttered more curses, then burst out with anger once again. “That Bennett would steal the pennies from a dead man’s eyes!”

“Relief camps!” grumbled the other. “Where’s the relief! Drop us in the wilderness and forget us, that’s their game.”

“I hope he goes to hell and damnation,” his partner continued, his mind still fixed on Bennett. He took out a flask and raised it in a silent toast, “ .



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