The Predators by Paul Lederer

Author:Paul Lederer
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781480487567
Publisher: Open Road Media

SIX

The two younger women shrieked. The old lady in black began crying again as Jack tumbled from the platform. The two children started dancing and pointing as if Jack had performed a clever trick for their amusement. The father of the unruly kids muttered something that sounded like, ‘For God’s sake!’ at his wife but remained fixed where he was. Killeen vaulted off the platform, spurred on by the whistle, grumble and clank of an arriving locomotive, now not that far away, racing along the tracks toward them.

Kneeling beside Tombstone between the rails, Killeen lifted the man’s head and said, ‘Come on, old-timer. There’s a train coming.’

Tombstone didn’t move. There was a lump on the side of his head the size of a hen’s egg and his eyes were unfocused. Killeen glanced up, expecting some help, at least from the young husband, but he got none. They all stood nearly in a row, simply staring down at him, the children clapping their hands.

Muttering a seldom-used, almost forgotten curse, Killeen reached down and scooped Tombstone up in his arms as the locomotive bore down on them, its brakes screeching, its whistle shrilling. There was no easy way up and over the lip of the depot platform, so Killeen chose to carry Tombstone across the tracks and deposit him in the unkempt brush there just before the iron behemoth clanked to a stop at the Westfield Station. A man peered out at Killeen.

‘Is he all right?’ Frank Ames, the engineer, called out above the whoosh of escaping steam.

‘I think so!’ Killeen shouted back.

‘I saw you, but these things don’t stop on a dime, you know!’

‘It’s all right. It’s not your fault,’ Killeen answered, his heart still pounding. He returned his attention to the stunned Tombstone Jack.

Crouching down again, Killeen again looked around, expecting some help, but none came. He lifted Tombstone’s head and placed it on his lap and finally Jack’s eyes flickered open. He gazed dumbly at Killeen.

‘Take it easy for a minute,’ Killeen said. ‘We’ll get you fixed up. What happened, anyway?’

‘I am a man at the mercy of hard liquor,’ Jack muttered. At least that was what it sounded like he said. His voice was incredibly slurred.

‘It’s all right. We’ll find you a cot or at least a comfortable place to lie down. You’ll be all right.’

Jack coughed once, twice. Then he clutched at Killeen’s shirt sleeve with a claw-like hand and added quite distinctly:

‘Mister, take my advice. Don’t ever get tangled up with no predators!’

‘No,’ Killeen said in a soft voice though he had no idea in the world what Jack was talking about. It would take the man awhile to get over that crack on the head – or the alcohol – both of which were contributing to causing this confusion in his mind.

Killeen waited on the side of the tracks until the train was once more ready to roll and with an ear-piercing shriek of its whistle and the clanging of its bell, the grinding of the heavy iron drive wheels searching for purchase, it finally churned away from the station.

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