The Rabbit Factory by Marshall Karp

Author:Marshall Karp [Karp, Marshall]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-59692-926-5
Publisher: M P Publishing Limited
Published: 2006-06-15T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 52

A few minutes later Penina found Ari and Dov waiting on line for The Freedom Train. As Ari’s guidebook had predicted, the line was relatively short.

“Where were you?” Ari asked. “The train gets here in a few minutes. We were afraid you were going to miss it.”

“Well, I didn’t,” she said. Then she took a tissue from her purse, wet it with her tongue and began wiping Dov’s mouth. “It may be freeze-dried, but it’s still chocolate.” The boy squeezed his eyes shut, but held still for the cleaning.

The Freedom Train was the longest ride in the park. It circled the perimeter of most of the property, stopping at five stations along the way. Passengers could get on or off at will. Most people only took it two or three stops, to get from one end of Familyland to the other. That was Ari’s plan. They were headed for The Spirit of ’76 on the opposite end of the park.

Penina heard the train whistle and looked at her stopwatch, which was still marking time. Just under ten minutes. The locomotive was a beautiful replica of trains Penina had seen in the American movies of the Old West. The passenger cars were open, so people could get on and off quickly, as well as get an unobstructed view of the scenery.

About fifty people exited the train, and the line to board started moving. Ari and Dov ran to the front and sat in the first car directly behind the engineer, a robust, middle-aged black man, whose name tag said Samuel. Nice Jewish name, Penina thought, as she caught up with her sons and stepped aboard.

And then came the sound she had been waiting for. Three musical chimes rang out from every speaker in the park. They were the signal that an announcement was about to be made on the Public Address system.

“Buddy Longo, please report to Area 47,” the voice said. “Buddy Longo, Area 47. Thank you.”

Penina looked at her stopwatch. Thirteen minutes and twenty-seven seconds. She stopped the timer and reset it.

None of the park visitors paid attention to the announcement. But the employees all stopped when they heard the words ‘Buddy Longo.’ She could see in their faces they knew something was wrong. They just didn’t know what.

A dark-skinned woman in a conductor’s uniform was in the cab behind Samuel. Her name tag said Valencia. “Buddy Longo,” she said to the engineer.

“Haven’t had one of those in about two months,” Samuel said.

“Where’s Area 47?” Valencia asked.

Dov had set his bag of ice cream pellets on the seat next to him. Penina picked it up and pretended to read the label, so she wouldn’t be noticed tuning in to the conversation between the engineer and the conductor.

Samuel pulled a spiral-bound book of maps from his pocket and flipped through the pages. “Forty-Seven. The Space Shuttle Restaurant.”

“Kitchen fire, I bet,” Valencia said.

“No way, kid. Buddy Longo is for the big stuff. Heart attack, probably.”

“You ever have a Buddy Longo on the train?” Valencia asked.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.