by Chris Pike
On lazy summer days, when May and I were kids, we would dive to the bottom looking for the diamond necklace my dad said was there. Family lore said a lover, fraught over the death of his betrothed, had cast the necklace into the pool where it would shine for eternity and bring good luck to whoever found it.
Although we didn’t believe the story, that didn’t keep May and I from searching for the necklace. Perhaps when I got there I’d look for it. We all could use additional luck.
My thoughts took me back to the time when we were kids, and how happy our family had been. A smile crept across my face, and it was the first time I felt safe since the world as I knew it ended. I was exhausted, and I couldn’t keep my eyes open any longer. The heat, the loss of my parents, the lack of sleep, May and I injured, our future was…
“Ella? Are you awake?” I opened my eyes a slit to find Kyle kneeling next to me and yawned. I must have dozed off. “I am now. Did you find anything useful?”
“We found a few bottles of water, stale chocolate stashed away in a drawer, two ready-to-eat pasta meals which we decided to split into six equal servings, regardless of who weighs more. That’s not what I woke you up for though.”
“What then?”
“We need you to sit in the cockpit while we move the pod.”
I propped an arm on the mattress and sat up. “You’ve decided to move the pod?” It was incredulous they’d attempt it.
“We did,” Kyle said.
“How?”
“The old-fashioned way.”
I gave him a quizzical look. “What do you mean?”
“Elbow grease, and lots of it. When we searched the train for whatever we might need, we found logs in one of the cars, the kind people use to make flower beds with. We will use those and a sturdy rope as a pulley system. We’ll roll the pod a few feet then we’ll position another log in front of it until we get it on the flatbed. We also found a tarp, so we’ll be able to cover it with that.”
“What do you need me for then? My ankle is too sore to help push it.”
“We need you to sit in the cockpit.”
“Get the president to do that. I wouldn’t know what to do.”
“He says it’s easy to work, like driving a car. It’ll take all of us guys—me, Travis, Tommy, and Charlie—to push it.”
“You’re on a first name basis with the President?”
“He did tell us to call him that. We need you to steer it, and Charlie told us the pod is designed to resist movement unless the pilot seat is occupied.”
“It sounds hi-tech.”
“More than any of us can imagine.” Kyle flicked his eyes to the top bunk, then whispered, “Is she awake?”
“Probably not. She’s been snoring.”
“We thought about asking her to sit in the pilot seat, due to how petite she is, but we didn’t want to stress her out anymore than she already is.”
“She’s had enough to deal with. Let’s let her sleep.”
“Can you walk?”
“I can but I don’t want to put too much weight on my ankle. Did you by any chance find a crutch in one of the cars?”
“I’ll carry you.”
“I, uh—”
“What’s the matter? Don’t you think I’m strong enough?” Kyle stood and playfully did a strong man gesture, showing me his arm muscles.
With an embarrassed smile I giggled and said, “No, no, that’s not it at all.”
“Then what?”
“Nothing. I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to try to carry me down the steps from the train.”
“I wasn’t planning to.”
“You weren’t?”
“No, Ella.” Kyle was the one embarrassed now. He ran a hand over the stubble on his beard. “You can hop to the doorway. Once you’re on the ground, I’ll carry you piggy back.”
“Of course.”
“I’d say ladies first, but I need to be out the door before you. Do you mind?”
“Not at all.”
Kyle’s unexpected chivalry was a welcome surprise, and I momentarily forgot our predicament. I briefly pondered how two brothers could be so different. One who served his country and helped total strangers, versus Tommy, who was only out for himself. In the short time I’d been around Kyle, he had impressed me.
After I hopped awkwardly to the door, Kyle backed up to the steps to make it easier for me to climb on his back. I looped my arms around his neck, careful not to choke him, cinching my legs across his mid-section. He put his hands under my legs to support me.
“How’s that ankle?” Kyle asked as he hitched me up on his back.
“A little sore. I’ll be okay in the morning.” I had my eyes on an upcoming thicket of vines. “Don’t get too close to that.”
“I won’t. I’ve been keeping an eye out for more snakes.”
“Good to hear.”
The sun beat down hot and unrelenting, and I was suddenly aware of my thirst. I glanced at the sky, blue and clear, not a cloud or a hint of one anywhere in sight. It was dry, and I hoped we’d get a rain shower to cool things off.
Kyle carried me to the pod where Charlie, Travis, and Tommy were waiting. Charlie had removed his suit jacket and draped it over a thorny bush. His shirt was stained with sweat and was sticking to his chest. Travis and Tommy were equally sweaty after carrying the lumber from the train to the pod.
“Listen up,” Charlie said. “We need to work as a team. Travis, Kyle, and I will take turns ferrying the lumber and pushing the pod. Tommy will push from the rear. Ella will sit in the pilot’s seat and steer. Once we get to the flatbed, we’ll cover the pod with a tarp, and secure it with rope.”
Charlie gave me a crash course on how to steer, then asked if I understood. I told him I did.
“Good,” Charlie said. “Let’s get this baby moving.”
The guys played leapfrog with the lumber and took turns pushing the pod. I sat in the pilot’s seat, keeping my hands on the controls, cocooned with only a little bit of room to move around in. Not an inch of space was wasted, yet it was a comfortable space with two padded seats, controls within easy reach, pedals on the floor for acceleration or braking, and though it was a tight space, it was not claustrophobic at all. I even noticed an airplane sized toilet behind a paneled door. A photo of the president’s daughter and wife was taped to the dashboard. I squinted at the photo and shaded my eyes from the sun-glint shining through the reinforced glass.
A shadow darkened the sky, and I heard the flapping of wings. Large wings. Not the flapping of a dove…something bigger. I glanced skyward, past the tips of trees and beyond to the empty expanse. A shiver tingled down my spine, a feeling I had a week previous when I heard a guttural sound like a large carnivore claiming a kill.
“Did anybody see that?” I yelled.
“See what?” Kyle yelled back.
“That shadow.”
“I didn’t see anything.” Kyle put down the timber he had been holding then straightened and stretched his back.
“Ella, don’t tell me you’re afraid of your own shadow or the big bad boogie man,” Tommy said, jumping in front of the pod, waving his arms as if he was mocking me.
“It was probably a cloud floating in front of the sun. That’s all,” Kyle assured me. “Don’t pay any attention to Tommy. We are all a little jumpy.”
Chapter 17
Charlie barked orders and did more than his fair share of the work. That man was no slacker, unlike Tommy, who was pretending to push the pod.
Charlie wasn’t afraid to get his hands dirty or sweat like the other guys. Fortunately, they had found several pairs of work gloves in the train, and I’m glad they did because the lumber had enough splinters to tear hands to shreds.
We all worked as a team. I steered while Charlie, Travis, and Kyle relayed lumber from the back of the pod to the front as the pod rolled along. Tommy pushed, although not with much effort. He hadn’t even broken a sweat.
Once we reached the train,
I hobbled out of the pod and stepped into the engine room, where I sat on a swivel chair. By then May was awake.
“What’s going on?” she asked.
“The guys put together a pulley system to haul the pod onto one of the empty flatbeds.”
“Do they need any more help? I could probably do something.”
“I don’t think so, especially considering your snake bite.” I reached down and rubbed my throbbing ankle. “They don’t need any more help, and besides I wouldn’t be much good with this ankle. I think we should stay out of their way.”
“Okay.” May sounded disappointed she couldn’t help.
“But they did ask for you to steer the pod.”
“They did?” May’s eyes brightened. “Why didn’t they come get me?”
I made a sympathetic expression. “May, you were sleeping. I thought it was best you rested. You don’t want to mess around with that snake bite. You could make it worse.”
“You’re right. You’re always right, Ella.” She had resigned to play the role of the baby in the family, and then she surprised me. “Next time they need my help, I want to pitch in.”
“I’ll be sure the guys know that.”
I was glad to hear her offer to help. I was concerned my little sister’s fiery spark had flamed out. She didn’t have the in-your-face, youthful bravado prevalent from months past. I supposed there was only so much a person could take. I still had an overwhelming need to protect her since there was nobody else who could. For me, I could protect myself when needed. I was bigger than most girls, I could run fast, and hit where it counted, thanks to a self-defense course I took.
During the time the guys worked to get the pod on the train, I rested my ankle, which had disappeared into a puffy blob of skin and fluid. What I needed to do was to lie down so my foot could be higher than my heart. I searched for anything to raise my foot a few inches. Looking around, I found two books in the console in the engine room and placed them on the bunk I had slept in earlier. I crawled into the bunk and put my foot up on the books.
I rested, listening to the banging and clanging of the guys hoisting lumber, hammering nails and boards in place, and using whatever they could find for a pulley. Some colorful words were used, and frankly it amazed me at the cleverness of using the F bomb as a noun, an adjective, a verb, or an adverb. It made me smile, and for a moment I forgot the seriousness of what they were doing.
Although Tommy was an annoyance, Kyle and Travis were on the up and up, and even President Sayer acted like one of the regular guys. When he rolled up his sleeves, he meant business, and the muscles in his forearms were impressive for a man his age. It was too bad I missed voting in the election by one month; otherwise I would have voted for him.
The minutes turned into half an hour, and before I knew it, an hour had elapsed. I hadn’t realized I was so exhausted, and I was so very thankful I didn’t have to bear this burden all by myself.
It was unseasonably hot, and the warmth of the engine room lulled me into a fitful sleep.
I woke when the guys piled into the engine room.
“We did it,” Charlie announced, wiping the sweat from his brow. “Thanks to Travis’s ingenuity, we managed to get the pod into one of the empty flatbeds.”
“That’s great!” I exclaimed, looking around. Their faces were shiny with sweat. Charlie had his sleeves rolled up, his shirt untucked. Travis had taken off his baseball cap and was fanning himself with it. “Y’all look thirsty. Let me get you a glass of water.”
“Ella, you need to keep off your ankle or it will never heal,” Kyle cautioned.
“It’s fine,” I said.
“You may be able to fool some people, but not me. Stay where you are, and let me get everyone a drink.”
I reluctantly obliged.
Kyle took three plastic bottles of water, poured them equally into the cups, and handed them out. He put the lids back on the empty bottles, then stashed them in a cabinet.
“Are you keeping the empty bottles for some reason?”
He nodded. “Once we get to where we are going, I’m planning on filling them back up with water.”
“Makes sense,” I commented. “Where exactly are you going?”
Kyle sat on the floor next to me and crossed his legs, his back resting against the bunk bed. “I’m not sure. I thought I’d go as far as this train went then figure out the rest.”
“How far is the train going?”
“Travis said he’d take us about twenty miles west of Waco. After that, he’ll check the routes to D.C. so he can take Charlie back there. If there is any government left, he needs to know about it.”
“Well…” I trailed off. I was taking a big chance on what I planned to ask.
“Well what?” Kyle gave me a quizzical look.
“You could stay with us at our ranch house. There’s enough room. We could ride this out there.”
“I don’t have anywhere else to go,” Kyle said after a moment. “So yeah, sure, why not?”
“I’m coming too,” Tommy said, looking straight at his brother. “No way you get to have all the fun with the girls.”
Kyle snorted his repugnance at Tommy’s comment. “If you consider backbreaking ranch work fun, then yeah, you’ll have the time of your life.”
Tommy’s face went red. “I was only kidding. Can’t you even joke anymore, big brother?”
“That wasn’t a joke. It was a backhanded attempt to marginalize Ella and May.”
“Alright, alright. Sorry it was interpreted that way,” he said, glancing at May and I. Tommy angrily gestured at Kyle then walked away.
“I guess you two don’t get along,” I said to Kyle.
“Not for a long time. I blame my parents.”
“Why?”
“My mother always coddled him and never made him take responsibility for anything. She thought she caused his learning problems by not taking enough vitamins when she was pregnant with him.”
“Tommy is very smart,” I said. “His problem is that he doesn’t want to work hard to find ways to cope with dyslexia. He’d rather play off people’s sympathies and—”
“Like yours?” Kyle asked pointedly. “I know about you doing his homework and helping him on tests.”
“I thought I owed him because when I was in third grade, all the kids made fun of me. He told one of the bullies if he didn’t stop teasing me, he’d beat the kid to a pulp. After that, I wasn’t teased anymore. So when we got older I helped him with his homework and tests, and he took me to movies.”
“And how did that work for you?”
I folded my arms. This is an inquisition now? He does have issues with dyslexia.”
“It doesn’t give him a pass for being a jerk.”
“Let him cool off,” I advised. “Things will get better between you two. A week ago, May and I were at each other’s throats. Now we’re a team. My dad was right.”
“About what?” Kyle asked.
“He said when he and Mom were gone, when our friends had moved on with their lives, that May and I would always have each other. Give your brother time, he’ll come around.”
“We used to get along, but about the time I left for the service, things changed. I thought it would make him proud, but no. When I came home the first time, he went out of his way to pick fights with me.”
“Did you ever ask him why?”
“No. I figured it was a phase he was going through. It doesn’t matter. I’m through putting up with his crap. He doesn’t have our mom and dad to rescue him anymore.”
“I’m sorry to hear about your parents.”
“Thanks. You’re in the same boat, so all we can do is to move forward and get through this.”
Travis and Charlie entered the engine room. Travis went straight to the control panel, and typed on the keyboard. Charlie took a seat on the swivel chair I had been using earlier.
“Is everybody onboard?” Travis asked. “That’s only five counting myself. Where�
��s Tommy?”
“I’m here,” Tommy said, running up to the engine room. He plopped down in a chair behind the conductor’s seat.
“Where have you been?” Travis asked, casting a wary glance at Tommy.
“Checking the cars to make sure we don’t have any stowaways.”
Travis scowled, unsure if Tommy was telling the truth. “Okay, that’s all six of us. Everyone take a seat, and let’s get this baby rolling.”
The engine room had four seats bolted to the floor like the seats on airplanes, except these were more like first class seats, minus the ability to recline. The leather chairs swiveled, and I found them quite comfortable. To the side were two foldout seats, the kind a flight attendant would sit on when the plane landed.
Travis took a seat in the conductor’s chair, and Charlie sat next to him. Kyle and Tommy sat directly behind them. May and I were in the bunk beds.
Since Charlie had been a fighter jet pilot in the Gulf War, Travis gave him a crash course on how to operate the train. “Pretend it’s a slow, landlocked jet. The same principles apply, except pretend it’s molasses you’re pouring while watching grass grow. This baby takes a long time to start, and even longer to stop. If there is an emergency where you have to stop quickly, pull this lever,” he said. “It’s the emergency brake. Although with a train this heavy, by the time you see an obstacle on the track, it’s impossible to stop in time.”
The windshield was in the shape of a three-sided bay window, allowing the train conductor to have a one-eighty degree view. The instrument panel was covered in different colored knobs and levers, and had multiple computer screens with keyboards.
While Travis worked his magic pushing buttons, keying in commands on the computer, Charlie divvied up the two boxed pasta meals he had found earlier, and we ate like we hadn’t eaten in days. Soon the train sputtered to life, chugging, groaning, like it was an Olympic athlete whose muscles were stiff and needed to warm up before the marathon. The noise the train made was like sitting above the engines on a jet. It was loud, the room was hot, the train rocked, reminding me of sleeping in a boat when my dad and I went night fishing near Galveston.