by I D Johnson
Another whistle blew, this one angrier, somehow, which was strange, and Elliott and the other workers exchanged glances. By now, the engine was out of town a mile or so, but it sounded close by it was so loud, and then there was a screeching noise.
“That didn’t sound good,” Sheryl, the receptionist, noted.
“No, it didn’t,” Elliott agreed, grabbing his attaché case and fishing his keys out of his pocket.
“Probably some stupid kid putting a penny on the tracks again,” Peter mused. “One damn piece of copper can derail an entire train.”
Something about Peter’s comment caught Elliott’s attention. He scowled at his rival for a moment, wondering why that hit him in the stomach the way that it did, but he suddenly felt like something was very wrong. After a long moment, he shook his head to clear it and then turned back to Sheryl. “I’m headed out,” he said.
She wished him a good night, but Peter chuckled, “Yeah, have fun staying home with the kids while your wife goes out with… her friends.”
Again, his tone caught Elliott’s attention, and he turned to stare at the blond salesman. He had a knowing look on his face, and Elliott was of a mind to go and wipe the smug look right off of him. He silently wondered if Peter happened to know who Nancy was spending her evenings with.
Before he could interrogate him, the sound of police and ambulance sirens had them all on their feet rushing to the windows. One of each vehicle was headed out of town, toward the sound of the train’s screech, and once again, Elliott had the sensation that something was wrong. He shoved past the other employees and headed out to his car, the idea that the last time he’d chased an ambulance things had not turned out well stuck in the back of his mind.
He raced down the road that paralleled the train tracks, spying the emergency vehicles up ahead of him. The closer he got, the more he thought whatever was wrong was personal. Now more than ever, he wished he had one of those special telephones Janette and his mom had so that he could call Peggy and make sure Jimmy was okay. He knew how much his kid brother liked to play around down by those tracks. If anything were to happen to him….
He knew. Before he saw that the train had come to a complete halt a few dozen yards past the intersection with the road that led down to his parents’ place. Before he saw the emergency workers standing at the front of the train, staring down at the track and pointing, as if they were trying to determine the distance from impact to where the body lie, mangled, beneath the front of the train. Before he spotted the familiar blue ten-speed Schwinn. Before he saw the one Converse sitting back down the track a little way, closer to the point of impact.
Elliott pulled his car over off of the road and slowly made his way toward the officers. One of them, Officer Garret, who had been there the night Reggie died, and whom Elliott had gotten to know well over the years, saw him coming and stopped what he was doing, talking to the other officer and the ambulance workers. Almost in slow motion, Officer Garret approached across the uneven ground.
About ten feet away, he called out, “Mr. Sanderson, why are you here?”
“I don’t know,” Elliott admitted. “I saw the ambulance and police car go by. I just… had a bad feeling. It’s…” he couldn’t get the words to come out of his mouth at first. “It’s my kid brother, ain’t it, Officer Garret?”
The older man drew in a deep breath and straightened his belt. “We ain’t sure yet, son. We can’t really tell at this point. Looks like a young boy. Your folks’ place is just up the road, ain’t it? Your Jimmy like to play near these tracks?”
Elliott nodded to both questions. The sound of more approaching sirens behind him drew his head around for a moment, but mostly, his eyes were focused on that shoe. “Is he….” He didn’t need to finish the question. And he didn’t need to hear the answer to know.
Officer Garret nodded. Whoever was under that six-ton train was long gone.
“Can I… see the shoe?”
“Certainly, son,” Officer Garret said, turning slowly and walking beside Elliott as he traveled closer to the remnant perched in the middle of the road like a trail marker. He knew it was Jimmy’s before he even stooped to pick it up, but he did it nonetheless. He remembered him unwrapping these last Christmas. He’d been so happy, and Peggy had smiled to see her son receive a gift he liked.
Elliott held the shoe as if it were made of ancient paper and likely to crumble in his hands and blow away in the wind. It was the right size, the same color, and even had the frayed ends on one side of the shoelace his mom had been nagging Jimmy about the last time he’d visited.
The bicycle looked like it had been dropped by the side of the tracks, and as Elliott approached it, there was plenty of evidence that this bike belonged to his brother. He saw the spot where he’d ran into a tree last summer and scratched the paint a little near the handlebars and the worn spot in the seat where the stuffing was beginning to stick out a bit.
There was no way to prepare himself for what he was about to encounter at the other end of that locomotive. The officer had said they couldn’t identify him, and he was certain that was because when a train hits a person, there’s not much left. He walked slowly toward the spot on the tracks where the engine had come to a halt. Very little of the body was visible from here, but there was enough. One arm was sticking out slightly from the far side and a leg from the knee down, mangled at the point of separation, was pushed off to side of the track. The foot wore a matching Converse.
Tears were streaming down his face already before he was even able to acknowledge for the officers and medical personnel that he was certain the remains were his little brother Jimmy. “Oh, God!” Elliott exclaimed, trying to keep himself under control as much as possible. He covered his face with his hands, wondering how in the world he was going to tell his parents what had happened. He could hardly understand it himself.
Officer Garret squeezed his shoulder. “I’m so sorry for your loss, Elliott,” he said quietly. “We’ll do our best to get Jimmy out of there so there can be a proper burial.”
Elliott nodded, but there were no words he could say as he began to sob, and Garrett turned him away from the scene, pulling him back toward the squad car. He heard another man crying on the far side of the train and caught a glimpse just before the engine blocked the view. It looked like it was the conductor. All he could hear was, “I tried to stop. He wouldn’t get out of the way….”
The words cut through Elliott’s heart. He had, of course, believed this was all an accident, that Jimmy had somehow gotten caught on the tracks trying to cross when it was an inopportune time, or gotten his foot caught, something explainable. But this—the idea that this might have somehow been on purpose—was more than he could bear. By the time Officer Garrett got him into the back of his car, he was inconsolable. How could he have let his little brother get into such a state that he would take his own life? Why would he do such a thing when all he ever wanted to do was join LIGHTS and protect others? No, it just didn’t seem possible that Jimmy would stand in front of a train and let his young life come to an end so tragically.
Ten minutes, an hour, Elliott wasn’t sure how much time went by before Officer Garrett ducked inside his car and said, “Son, we need to go up the road and let your folks know. I can do it, but….”
“No,” Elliott said, finally managing somehow to pull himself together. “I’ll do it. I just… I don’t think I can drive myself right now.”
“I’ll give you a ride, Elliott.” The officer went around and climbed inside the patrol car and headed down the road. Elliott saw a lot more vehicles there now, and a stretcher was set up on the side of the road, though he could see that the body hadn’t been removed yet, though the severed leg was gone. For the first time, he realized he was still clutching Jimmy’s shoe.
It didn’t take long for them to arrive at his parents’ house. Elliott wiped his face on the back of his jacket sleeve several times after the handkerchief he carried in his pocket failed h
im. He wasn’t much of a praying man, but he said a few silent pleas that he’d find the right words to tell his parents the tragic news without making it even harder.
Peggy was out the door before the car even stopped, and she was moving much faster than humanly possible, a sign that her gut instinct had also told her something was wrong. Elliott came around the side of the car, and as soon as she saw his face, and the empty tennis shoe, she began to sob. Without a word, he wrapped his arms around his mother as Frank made his way out the door. He looked up and caught his foster father’s eyes, and he too, wrapped his arms around both Peggy and Elliott.
It seemed like forever the three of them stood there drawing upon each other’s strength and leaning on each other when they had nothing left to give. Eventually, Peggy stopped crying and stood up, causing the men to do the same. “What… what happened?” she asked. “Did he… was it the train?”
Elliott nodded. That’s all he could do.
“And you… saw him.”
He swallowed hard, trying to fight back his tears enough to answer the question. “Wasn’t much, but… it’s him.”
She nodded once, and covered her face with both hands. Frank wrapped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her close.
Officer Garrett stepped over and explained they were doing their best to extricate the body, and once they had him out, the coroner would determine what to do next. He wasn’t sure if they’d be allowed to view the body or not, to which Peggy insisted she needed to see him, no matter what. Office Garret nodded, and took his leave, promising they’d be in touch, soon. He even volunteered to have Elliott’s car dropped off, but he assured the officer he’d get it later.
He followed his parents in and set about the unbelievable task of planning a funeral for his kid brother, the one person in the world he was certain would last forever. Even without the magical Transformation process, Jimmy Lee Baker was the type of kid who was destined to do things, Elliott had just known in it. Now, they’d be putting pieces of him into a wooden box and sinking him into the ground before he even reached seventeen. Just like Reggie, so much potential had been lost with absolutely no explanation or reason. Elliott decided in that moment there was no way to make sense of a nonsensical world.
Chapter 11
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, 1965
Anderson’s Used Car Emporium was the place in Oklahoma City to buy your used car, and soon, he was thinking of expanding into the new car market, now that Elliott was making them all a pretty penny. Hardly a buyer came through the doors and left without buying a pricey used car, usually marked up way above market value, and they happily went out and told their friends to come by and ask for Elliott Sanderson. He was selling them almost as fast as they could get the cars onto the lot.
“There’s another customer waiting for you in the back,” Tanya said as Elliott walked passed reception, giving him a little smile and wiggling her cleavage at him.
“Thanks a lot, doll face,” he replied, winking at her, and heading over to where he saw his second best sales person, an older guy by the name of Virgil, talking to a couple with a small boy. For a moment, thoughts of his own boys flickered through his mind, but he pushed those images aside because he had a job to do. It had been almost two weeks since Nancy had let him see them. She and Peter had bought a large home outside of town as soon as the divorce was final. The other times recently when Elliott had driven down to Norman, she hadn’t been home, and he’d looked all over town and still came up empty handed. She was making it nearly impossible. He’d considered taking her to court, but most judges would side with the mother, even though he had a feeling he could persuade them otherwise. Half the town of Norman wondered about her story—that she’d walked in to see Elliott holding a knife over Wally’s bed—and he decided it wasn’t worth it to have that story brought up in court, so he’d left it alone, though his heart ached every time he saw a boy their age.
“Howdy folks,” he said, smiling widely as he came up to them. “How are y’all doin’ today? It’s a mighty good day to buy a fresh pair of wheels.”
The man, probably a little older than Elliott, with a neatly trimmed mustache, began to explain how the car they were looking at was just out of their price range when Elliott launched into his speech, the one that had every buyer signing paperwork within minutes, and it wasn’t any different this time. Once he had them thoroughly convinced that this was the car for them, he patted Virgil on the back and headed over to check on another sales person. He had to keep on his toes, making the rounds, making sure no one snuck passed him before he had a chance to make eye contact and tell them why this was the car for him. More sales meant more dough, and while he and Tanya weren’t doing so shabby, he had a few side businesses going now, ones that could be costly in other ways if he wasn’t constantly able to hand over the cash that was due, so he had to stay on his toes.
Tanya smiled at him, and he thought about how nice her ass was and how easy she was to talk into moving in with him. After Nancy had essentially cut him off when the boys were young, he’d been hungry for a woman who knew how to spread her legs, and Tanya was attracted to his money and likely would’ve given it up even if he hadn’t used his powers of persuasion. He hadn’t taken the chance, though.
He had just finished the transaction when Tanya rushed over, a scrap of paper in her hand. “Elliott, honey, your mom called. She said it’s important. She wants you to call her at this number.”
The number was foreign to him, but he took it, wondering what might be the matter now. He hadn’t spoken to his mom much at all since Jimmy died five years ago. She’d said a few accusatory things, sort of implying Elliott had let Jimmy down by not being there for him, to which Elliott had shouted that it wasn’t his damn job to keep raising his brother; he’d done enough of that when he was a child himself. They’d since patched things up, and he took his boys over to her house whenever Nancy would let him have them, but things weren’t the same as they were before.
He had a feeling he knew what had happened, though. His dad had been diagnosed with lung cancer the year Jimmy died, and while they’d done as much as they could, it had spread. Frank was a fighter, but he’d been recently moved to the hospital, and Elliott had a feeling this was his mom calling him to come and say goodbye. He went into the break room and dialed the number. A nurse answered, and he asked to speak to Peggy Smithstone. A few minutes later, the weary voice of his mother said, “Hello?”
“Hey, Mom. It’s me. How’s Dad?”
She was silent for several minutes. “He’s gone.”
It wasn’t exactly what Elliott had expected to hear. He’d known he was sick, obviously, but he didn’t know the situation was that dire. “Oh, God, Mom. I’m so sorry. When—when did he….”
“About an hour ago. He passed in his sleep.”
Elliott wished he’d have been there, but he knew making such a comment would probably have her agreeing that he should’ve been, and he didn’t need to hear that right now. “I’ll, uh, I’ll be down as soon as I can.”
“When? Like, two weeks ago when you said you’d come?” She didn’t sound angry so much as disappointed.
“Mom, please don’t. I would’ve, but when I got to Nancy’s house, and the boys weren’t there again, I didn’t know what to do.”
“You should have come here, Elliott. To your family.”
“I know, Mom. I know. I’m sorry. But I’ll be there, now, okay?”
She was silent, and he knew she was contemplating continuing to tell him how he’d managed to screw up again, but she didn’t. “Fine. I’ll see if they’ll leave him be until you get here. But leave that tramp of yours at home.”
He thought about reminding her that Tanya was his girlfriend, not a tramp, but he didn’t. There was no sense in arguing with the woman when she’d just lost the love of her life. “Okay.”
A little over an hour later, Elliott pulled into a parking spot outside of the hospital and hurried in. He was given a r
oom number and entered quietly to see his mom holding his dad’s hand, stroking the back of it lovingly.
He’d known his father had changed in appearance quite rapidly over the last few years, but standing here, looking across the room at him, it was amazing just haw gaunt he was now. His cheeks were shallow, his skin pale, his hair all gone. He looked nothing like the man Elliott had first met as a twelve-year-old boy.
Peggy looked up, and when she met his eyes, tears began to stream down her face again. He wrapped her in his arms, wishing he could give her strength. It seemed like neither one of them could go more than a few years without losing someone they loved dearly. The idea that one of his kids could be next stabbed him in the heart, and he squeezed his mom tighter. They were all he had left now.
She released him and sat back down, and Elliott pulled a chair from against the wall next to her. “Was it peaceful?”
“Yes.”
He nodded, glad for it. At least someone was taken that way, without blood and carnage.
“He woke up for a little while, looked at me, told me he loved me, said to tell you he loved you, and that you made him proud. He said he’d be with Jimmy soon.” She teared up again, her voice breaking at the mention of her beloved son’s name. “He said not to cry, that that’s not what he wanted. We both knew that he’d be leaving this earth long before me, which is true. I just didn’t think it would be this soon.” She wiped at her eyes, and Elliott got up to pull a fresh tissue from a box on a table behind them. He handed it to her and sat back down.