High Iron- Chapter 9
North Towards Jackson
Part #1
The long blast from #6003, almost a mile ahead of caboose #600 and the boys and men who shared it, linked together by a coupling force of iron and steel, while one of flesh and blood took place in the caboose.
"Umm, Joe, can me and Sean go and stand on the back platform?" Jamie asked, his small but strong arms still wrapped around Sean.
"Sure you can, boys, just be careful and hold on to one of the railings at all times. You know, you don't have to leave to give me and Scott some privacy, if you want you can lay in the bunk, we don't care, but if you do go outside, be careful, you never know when Bill is going to put on the air." Joe smiled at the two teens who smiled back. As Sean started down the rungs, Scott reached over and playfully pinched Sean on his butt through the tight fitting denim jeans.
"Scott, quit pinching the boy's ass, otherwise he will slip and fall and Jamie will have to rescue him, then I will have to signal Bill to stop the train so we can back up and scrape you off the side of the track after you have landed there with Jamie's shoe still stuck up your ass."
Scott smiled at Joe, "Naw, Jamie wouldn't do that, because he knows better, if he kicked me off my own train I would just have to run him back to 'Ole Man River'."
Sean looked over his right shoulder to Joe and gave him the evil eye, then winked to show it was all in fun as he stepped down onto the rocking floor of the caboose. Jamie wasted no time in climbing down the metal rungs of the ladder to the floor to join Sean. Joe called out one more warning to be careful and to hang on to the railings in case Bill shoots the air to the brakes in an emergency.
"Joe, what are we going to do with those two?" Scott asked as he leaned back against the hard rubber of the seat.
"I don't know, Scott, keep them safe as long as we can, give them all the love we can, and stop anyone that tries to get to them," Joe said with his eyes closed as he to tried to get in a comfortable position.
"You know, Joe, we arrive in Jackson this afternoon and tonight you and I will layoff in Grenada, then what do we do, just walk home with them in tow and say 'Hi, we're home and Sean and Jamie are now your sons too'?"
Joe smiled a broad wide grin, "Sure, Scott, but first we have to sneak them past the bulls in Jackson. You know the Railroad bulls in Jackson don't like any surprises."
Scott looked at Joe, "Yeah, I know, they add a whole new meaning to 'cinder dicks'!"
"Scott, I think after what we just told each other, we ourselves have just added a new meaning to 'cinder dicks'!" Joe grinned and placed his right arm around Scott, who looked over and smiled.
"Sean, what you think will happen to us next?" Jamie asked as he clung to the handrail on the back of the caboose platform.
"Jamie, I don't really know what will happen next. We're stopping in Jackson next and it's a major yard and terminal point between the McComb District and the Yazoo and Grenada Districts, then there is Memphis, TN. I am worried tho', those Railroad bulls in Jackson are not nice to strangers and they don't care if you riding with someone you know or not. They are some mean bastards from what I have heard." Sean walked behind Jamie and put his arms around the smaller boy, "But don't worry, I will take care of you," Sean whispered into Jamie's ear. Jamie's body shivered when he felt Sean's tongue lick his ear lobe.
"Umm, Sean, you better stop before I sprout a woody, and that wouldn't be good right now. What would the people think if they saw this train pass and two naked boys on the back platform making love?"
"Well, depends on who sees us, might give the Southern Baptists a heart attack and cause some old farmer to wreck his tractor!"
"And the grandmas to faint!" Jamie added, as both boys cracked up into fits of laughter. Time seemed to stand still at that happy moment as the train rushed northward towards Mississippi's capital. The town of Norfield left in a cloud of dust and coal smoke as Engine 6003 pulled her heavy train down the shining rails of the Mainline of Mid-America with ties stronger than family blood. To Sean and Jamie, New Orleans seemed like a bad dream as the boys held onto each other as the cool air blew their hair and the clank of wheels rushed them on with fading coal smoke streaming high above. Sean tightened his grip on Jamie and slowly turned him around until his slender back was pressed against the iron rail of the back platform and reached down to lift Jamie's chin in his hand and as the wheels clanked and clicked upon the iron rails, Sean leaned down with his soft lips slightly parted and planted them upon Jamie's. Jamie inhaled deeply as he felt the warmth of Sean's velvet lips touch his own and he opened his own lips to let Sean's tongue enter. The boys kissed deeply, inhaling each other's scents, tasting each other as if for the first time. The almost primitive forest blurred past the rushing train unnoticed by the two teens, the coal smoke high overhead part of a dream or so it seemed as the boys continued to kiss in almost total privacy. Jamie's arms left the cold iron rail to wrap around Sean's neck as Sean's wrapped around Jamie's lower back, drawing him closer as their tongues danced to the drum of the wheels rushing them onward north. While to the southwest a different wheel was making its own drumbeat as the Steamboat Gray Oak blasted her mellow deep whistle as she shoved off from the Port of Natchez, Mississippi.
Eric leaned over the brass speaking tube, "Full ahead, Watson!"
The muffled reply came back, "Aye, pilot, Full Ahead!"
Eric spun the large oak wheel in the pilothouse and the big steamer pulled away from the wooden docks and turned her bow upstream towards Vicksburg. The coal smoke from her tall stacks darkened the sky as fresh coal was thrown upon the fires to heat the fireboxes under the six boilers. The steady clank of shovels was heard as engineer Watson shouted orders to the black coal heavers as the needles on the boiler gauges rose higher as the temperature rose from the fresh fuel, and the massive wheel turned the muddy water into a foam with each revolution of the crankshafts. Parsons stood on the Texas deck roof in front of the pilothouse, nursing a cup of strong bitter coffee, his bloodshot eyes scanning the mighty river that was in his blood stronger than the moonshine he had drunk in the seedy riverfront bar that morning after they had docked, before he had paid a visit to a friend he had not seen in a good while. The cool breeze blew against his stubby cheeks and tousled his long hair. The river flowed through his veins like the blood that gave him life. "Father of the Waters, give me strength to find my boy, to bring him back where he belongs beside me upon this deck, away from the corruption of the damnable Railroad in which he fled," Robert whispered to himself, almost a prayer to the great river as if could bring his son back to the man that had run his own son off. Clouds passed over the sun and shadows fell upon the man who at that very moment began to realize what many others had known for years, he was a bastard, with a slut for a wife, his oldest son gone and he did not know where, and now his second boy also gone, his slut of a wife had talked him into selling their son to make money when he was drunk one night right after the hard times had hit the United States, but his oldest boy was gone many years before when Jamie was just a baby in his mother's arms. Robert often wondered late at night when standing behind the cracked oaken wheel, staring at the river, where his boy was, "Ryan, O' Ryan, my handsome laddy, where have you gone!" Robert wanted to scream, but he held it inside him, he wanted to cry at times and others he did, when anyone asked he said he was just exhausted or made some other excuse for his reddened eyes and tear stained, weather beaten cheeks. He knew when he returned home, the house would be empty, his wife would be gone and the house, he laughed bitterly, more of a two room shack on the banks of the Mississippi, would have nothing left but memories. He thought back to five years past when the family was happy. The large clapboard house painted white sitting on a small rise of land just north of the city, a large yard full of trees and green grass, then the panic started, then the grease that turned the wheels of America's industry ground to a halt like an axle without grease, the stock markets crashed, panic set in, and the sun shone no more. First some of the fine furniture was sold, then the house, and they moved to the shack on the riverbank. The fine packets no longer needed a pilot who kept his head in the bottle when off, and only the worn-out old tow boats and freight steamers would even give him the chance. Captain Hawk gave him a second chance but it was too late to save his family. Ryan had vanished one day from Bourbon Street in New Orleans. Robert started to hit the bottle heavy after the police came up with no leads to his disappearance. Sarah, the slut of New Orleans and his wife by marriage, insisted on telling Jamie that Ryan was given up for adoption at a early age. Standing now on the roof of a dirty steamboat crowding on steam in order to beat the strong current, he wondered why he ever went along with that lie. One that never did a bit of good, "If I was an inch lower on humanity, I would kill that whore, damn you, Sarah, God Damn You for making me lose the two things I loved the most in life." Robert let out a sigh, "At least I still have you, Ol' Man River." The city of Natchez vanished around the broad bend in the mighty river and once more the Grey Oak was alone on the river as the coal smoke darkened the skies and a tattered and faded flag of the United States snapped in the breeze and only the waves, clanking of the firemen's shovels, and the whine of the boilers broke the silence as a man who thought at one time he was King of his world learned a lesson - sometimes when you took a gamble you won and other times you paid for it dearly.
The dark haired woman, dressed in a tattered shawl, walked slowly down the cobblestone street past the honking cars and horse drawn carriages. She hated Mississippi and she hated Natchez. She had watched the Grey Oak pull away from port, she saw her husband on deck, "the bastard!" she hissed under her breath. She walked into the dark tavern, the old cracked sign swung from rusty hinges - "King's Tavern". She reached for the metal handle and pulled, the door let out a squeak and a moan as it opened to reveal the darkened interior of the ancient building. She took timid steps through the doorway, it had been years since the last time she was here.
"Hello, daughter of mine!" the big man said as he stood behind the scarred bar, wiping glasses and mugs from the night before as a stream of smoke rose from his pipe.
"Hello, father," the woman said in barely a whisper.
"So what brings my better than thou daughter home, when she didn't even come home for her own mother's funeral? When her own husband is a pilot on a steamboat." The big man growled the words as he spoke.
"I have nowhere else to go, I know my husband has left me for good. I saw it in his eyes when he walked out the door, our sons both gone. He tried to sell the youngest to some foreign bastard, but Jamie escaped from him, that I know..."
"YOU LYING SLUT! DON'T YOU DARE COME INTO HERE LYING YOUR ASS OFF, BITCH! Robert came in here last night and told me the truth, you, slut, tried to sell my grandsons." Jim Lebowe walked out from behind the bar and to the center of the room, his heavy footsteps echoing off the bricks. Sarah stepped back as her father approached, the footsteps growing even louder in the empty tavern. Sarah wanted to just shrink into a crack in the bricks but she knew she couldn't. 'So the bastard came in here and turned the last of her own against her,' Sarah thought as she stumbled backwards over a chair and landed on the floor. She tried to stand but couldn't and now her angry father stood over her.
"Now listen and listen carefully, whore, I know all about your nights in that so-called tavern on the 'Orleans waterfront and you being a waitress to all the hard workin' rivermen, until one caught your fancy and you took him upstairs to ply your real trade. If that wasn't bad enough, you didn't even share the money to put food on the table for your own son. I know what happened to the oldest boy, Ryan. I hired a couple of boys to find out for me and not the city pigs. He was fucking sold right off Bourbon Street. Yes, it is amazing at what you can learn if you give a street rat enough money to buy a bottle of wine, NOW JAMIE!" Jim raised his hand and brought it down in a swift blow across Sarah's right cheek, the skin instantly turned red as the second blow struck her, causing her to fall back to the floor.
Tears began to run down Sarah's cheeks as she fought to hold them back, she hated when her father saw her weakness. Cajans had no weakness, she was taught that from early childhood till the day she ran off to marry Robert. "I DIDN'T SELL MY SONS, FATHER!" she screamed.
"You fucking lying whoring slut! I should kill you right now and let you burn in hell for your sins, but I do have pride in my heritage, unlike you! I did my damnest to raise four children right under the guidance of the Lord Almighty, but there is always one black sheep and it had to be you, Sarah, You!" Jim's hazel eyes blazed red fire. Jim snatched his daughter off the floor in a sweeping jerk. "Let me tell you one thing, whore, you're not my daughter from this day forth and if you ever set foot back in this tavern I will kill you and let the vultures eat your rotting flesh from your bones," Jim hissed as he held his forbidden daughter tightly in his grasp, his arms bulging as she tried to fight back to escape his grasp.
Jim glanced over at the huge hearth that was being rebricked, the mammoth fireplace was no longer needed to cook on so he was having it made smaller to use less wood to heat the large room. Jim smiled as he thought of a plan to make sure the family name would not be tarnished further as he began to drag his daughter towards the bar. The front door opened and two large black workers walked in the room and just stood there silent as the heavy oaken door swung shut behind them.
"Afternoon, boys," Jim said, still holding Sarah in his arms.
"Afternoon, Sur," the two black workers replied, their eyes still glued to the scene before them.
"As you can see, I have a problem with a child of mine that has decided to tarnish my family's name. Josa, remember when your family was broken up into parts because a planter didn't want your whole family?"
The big black man on the right nodded his head slowly, "Yes, sur, I sho' do remembah. My granny neve' did let me forgit about it," Josa replied. The other man just nodded, he couldn't speak, his tongue was cut out after he talked about a murder he saw to the sheriff.
"Well, she tried to sell my only grandsons for sex!" Jim spit the words out as the eyes of the two black men narrowed upon the woman, filled with hate, even if she was a white woman.
"What you want to do wit' her?" Josa asked.
"I will give you both a ten dollar gold piece to make her vanish and never to return." Josa looked over at his brother as he slid his index finger across his throat, then back at Jim who nodded. Jim continued to hold Sarah now with just his right hand as he reached into his pocket and pulled out the two heavy coins and tossed them to the men, the coins flickered in the dim light of the room as they flew through the air to the men. Josa caught the coins and felt the weight, then took one and bit into it to make sure it was real. He nodded to his brother that the money was real.
"Com'on, boys, time to take out this trash", he shoved Sarah into the arms of the two brothers and nodded towards the hearth and the hole that was being filled by the new layer of brick. "Of course there is always the river and those alligators need feeding." Jim laughed, "Now take care of business, while I leave to take care of some of my own!" Jim walked out of the tavern to feel the afternoon heat blast his already sweaty body as he headed to the steamboat landing.
"Passing Windsor Ruins, Parsons! You about ready for your watch?" Eric asked as he spun the big wheel.
"Yah, in a moment, Eric!" Robert shouted back from his place on the Texas deck roof.
"Damn, you sure are daydreaming a lot today, what you thinking about, some boy pussy since you know that slut of a wife won't be home when you return!" Eric laughed.
Robert's eyes glowed with hate as he heard Eric laugh. 'Don't you worry, Eric, what I daydream about, because it might mean you will have an accident very very soon,' he thought as he puffed on his pipe and slowly stood up to walk to the pilothouse. He let a small grin crease his face as the cool wind hit him. The wind sent shivers down his spine to touch his soul as a black crow sounded its call and landed on the jackstaff where the boat's flag fluttered in the breeze. Robert stared for a moment. 'Grandfather always said, when a cold wind touches your soul and a crow flies near, a dark wish will be fulfilled before the day turns to night.' Robert smiled once more, 'Just who would be among the spirits tonight, the whore or the bastard, just maybe both!' Robert let out a deep laugh as he stepped into the pilothouse and took over the wheel from Eric. "Now go find the cabin boy if you want some boy pussy and let a real pilot handle the wheel."
"Fuck you, Parsons," Eric scowled.
"Not on your life, you're not my type," Robert replied back.
"Try to keep her in the channel and I think I will go find our little cabin boy," Eric said as he walked out the door and almost stumbled over the door jamb.
"Don't kill yerself, I need you and we haven't reached Vicksburg yet!" Robert laughed as Eric just glared back and then stormed down the steps to his cabin on the Texas deck. 'Not just yet, Eric, old boy, after Vicksburg, you might have someone to do it for you,' Robert thought as he turned the big wheel and smiled as he looked out upon the river, the river that held more secrets than anyone could possibly guess or would want to.
"Sean, promise me you will never let go," Jamie whispered into Sean's ear over the rattle of the wheels.
"Jamie, I promise never to let you go, never to let anyone hurt you again." Sean kissed Jamie's neck and held him tightly against his chest.
Bill blasted the whistle on 6003 as he shut the throttle off and the heavy train began to slow some, two miles to the yard at Brookhaven, 12.6 miles north of Northfield.
"We slowing down, must be coming to a city or town. I guess it is time to look like innocent boys again," Sean said as he swung Jamie around and stole a kiss as he smiled. Jamie smiled back as they once more separated and gripped the iron rail on the back of the caboose as they heard the hiss of high pressure air activate the brakes as the couplers bumped together. They felt the bump and held on to the rail, then turned and walked back inside the caboose. "Where we at, Joe?" Sean called up to the cupola.
"Brookhaven, MS, boys, and last scheduled stop until Jackson," Joe said as he climbed down the rungs to the caboose floor.
"Yeah, and it means I have to actually work today!" Scott growled as he slipped on his leather gloves.
Jamie walked to the back door and looked at the sky, "Hmmm, it's not snowing in hell yet!" he chirped, then smiled as the expression on Scott's face grew.
Scott pulled off his gloves and handed them to Joe as he walked towards Jamie and grabbed the boy in his arms and picked him up. "Now what was this comment about me not working, you little bugger?" Jamie fought to get out of Scott's arms as Scott continued towards the open back door and the platform, all the time smiling at Jamie with an evil smile and then winking at Sean and Joe.
"Help me, Sean!" Jamie called as he continued to fight with Scott to get out of his strong grasp.
Joe laid Scott's gloves on the bunk and grabbed Sean before he could move. "Sorry Jamie, I got Sean right here," and he smiled.
"Sorry, babe, my hands are tied," Sean said as he felt Joe actually pull him closer against his body.
"Scott, com'on, I was joking about it snowing!" Jamie squealed. He stuck his legs out, bracing them against the door of the caboose as his hands fought to gain purchase on the other side to keep Scott from carrying him out it.
Joe was loving every second of it, laughing as he held onto Sean when he really didn't have to, but holding the youth close to him gave him a feeling of youthful freedom he no longer had since he turned 21, such a short period of time, four years, he was sure Scott thought the same thing at times.
"Scott, let me go! Please, I won't say you're lazy again, I promise!" Jamie whined.
"Oh, I am lazy now, huh?, I was going to throw you off for calling Mississippi Hell, but now I have a better reason to do it?" Scott had a wicked smile on his face.
"Scott, either throw him off the train or not, but we do have work to do, you know, at least sometime this year," Joe said as he let go of Sean and slapped the boy on the backside, causing Sean to jump.
"Yeah, Joe, you're right. Come here, Sean, and get this little bugger of yours, I can't see how anybody can love something like this," Scott said as he began to let Jamie down and placed Jamie in Sean's arms.
Jamie stuck his tongue out at Scott, "You wouldn't have done it in the first place."
"You're right, Jamie, I wouldn't have, can't throw away anything with that fine of an ass!" Scott said as he slipped on his gloves.
"SCOTT! I don't believe my ears," Joe said as he started laughing as Jamie turned beet red in the face.
Sean lifted his eyebrows, "If railroaders are one big happy family, it sure is one sick family." Joe slugged him on the shoulder. "OW, what the hell was that for, Joe?"
"For calling us sick, that's why. I ought to throw you off the back of this here hack but I am not, for one reason." Everyone turned to stare at Joe, waiting his answer. Jamie looked at him with wide eyes while Sean stood there rubbing his sore shoulder where Joe had slugged him, his eyebrows still raised.
"And just what is that reason, Joe?" Scott asked.
"The same reason you can't throw Jamie off the back of this here hack, too fineee of an ass to throw away and a halfway sweet kid to boot!" Joe laughed as everyone else just took their turns looking at Joe with mixed expressions on their faces.
Scott smiled and walked out on to the back platform and stepped down to the bottom right step as he watched the train ease across the diamond where the Mississippi Central Railroad crossed the Illinois Central right before the two story brick passenger and freight station. Engine number 5 of the Mississippi Central Railroad, an 1895 product of Baldwin Locomotive Works, sat just east of the diamond, waiting for Engine #6003 and her train to clear the diamond so it could cross over the mainline and then back into the passenger station on passing track one. While ICRR engine number #383 sat on the other passenger siding with its 10 car local of mail, baggage, and human cargo waiting, with steam shooting from the open cylinder cocks and smoke drifting from the slender stack as her passengers boarded the cars and the baggage agent threw bag after bag to the baggage handlers and the mail clerk on board.
Sean and Jamie watched as their train crossed the diamond and looked over at Engine number #5. The engine could have been a mirror copy of the ICRR Engine #383 except for her double bells, one mounted on top of her boiler while the other hung over the front of the boiler above the pilot, below the headlamp. The one on top of the boiler continued to toll, sounding the presence of the 4-6-0, Ten Wheeler locomotive as it sat there waiting for caboose #600 to clear the last few feet of the diamond. As the caboose clanked over the clearance points, Mississippi Central Number #5 sounded her whistle and released her brakes and the three car train crept over the rails of the ICRR and the rear brakeman stepped down from the last car to throw the switch and give the signal to the engineer to ease back down the siding to the platforms where #383 was waiting on the other platform track, leaving the double track mainline open for passing freights and crack express trains that did not stop at Brookhaven. Once number 6003 and her train had cleared the station, Engine #383 would pull out on the northbound track and cross the MCRR, then proceed to the crossover switch and switch tracks back to the southbound mainline and continue her journey south.
"I wonder why that engine has two bells for, Sean?" Jamie asked as he watched the big plump brakeman in his fancy blue uniform lean way out and over, passing hand signals to the engineer.
"I dunno, Jamie," Sean replied as he watched the same scene as Jamie and he both thought the man was going to fall off the last car of the train, 6003 continued to ease past the stopped passenger train, her bell continuing to sound its warning to all the people waiting on the platforms.
"Well, boys, the Mississippi Central had a bad wreck here last year. That very engine #5 hit a loaded school bus about a half a mile from the diamond and over thirty kids were killed. The Railroad management said the fireman forgot to ring the bell for the crossing, so upper management took action before anyone else could level blame on the Railroad for not obeying state law and installed an automatic bell that rings continuously when the locomotive is moving forward. You will hear it when the train leaves the station because engine #5 will have to back out of the station onto the track we are on now, then switch over to the southbound track, then once at the interchange track, that one to the west, switch again back onto home rails and continue towards Natchez. That is why she looks so sharp in her fresh black paint and white lettering. The engineer involved in that wreck could not stand the fact that the engine he was driving killed so many so young and before the courts could clear him of any wrong on his or the fireman's part, committed suicide by putting a bullet in his head. The court removed the blame from the Railroad nine days after the engineer's death. The cause was the school bus didn't stop. A witness came forward along with several others and some of the school kids, but the Railroad insisted on two bells on all passenger and freight engines except switchers."
"WOW!" Sean said in amazement and also in a hushed tone. "I know that will haunt both the Railroad and the citizens for a long time around these parts."
"They have more pride than the Illinois Central, they put the number on the side of the cab and spell out the name across the tender sides," Jamie said as he watched the train back to a stop at the station and the conductor step down to assist the boarding passengers and the baggage handlers once more went into action, tossing bags up to the mail clerk and baggage man in the old wooden baggage car as #383 sounded her departure call and the semaphore raised her blade to show clear for engine #383 and her train. Two sharp blasts on the whistle signaled her departure from the station and faint voice of the bell could be heard tolling as #383 picked up speed and her unlit markers soon vanished from the view of the two teens as #6003 picked up speed to clear the crossover switches.
"I doubt that, my boy, each to his own way, each to his own," Scott said as he watched the departing train as he leaned against the wall of the caboose. The wheels clanked over the crossover and Joe began to mentally count cars until there was enough room for #5 to back up safely and continue her journey. Joe reached inside the door of the caboose to the flag rack and grabbed the green signal flag and waved it to the conductor of the passenger train. The conductor of the passenger train saw Joe's signal and nodded his head that he saw the signal and continued to wave his own red flag, telling the engineer of his train to continue backing as the bell tolled on #5 as Bill continued to ease number 6003 down the track towards the yard.
The last car of the local was keeping about 100 yards to the rear of caboose #600 until the boys heard the whistle of #5 as the engineer put on brakes and the fireman stepped down to throw the switch at the interchange. Once the switch was lined, the fireman gave the signal and with two short blasts from the whistle #5 began to ease forward and the fireman stepped on board and soon the boys heard both bells begin to chime, then stop once more as the fireman stepped back down to throw the second switch to put the passenger train onto the MCRR mainline and the train moved forward once more on home rails as the fireman climbed back onboard and as the overweight brakeman lined the switch back to the main line on the ICRR and ran to step back onboard the last car. He waved to the boys on the caboose before entering the car and begin his job of collecting tickets and fares to points west giving the conductor a needed hand.
"I think that brakeman needs to go on a diet!" Jamie laughed as he said it.
"Ya', me too!" Sean said and flashed a quick smile to Jamie as Scott and Joe shook their heads. The faint chime of the bell from Engine #6003 could still be heard as they continued to coast past the yard lead, the heavy clink clank of the wheels told them they were passing over a loose joint in the track as they cleared the frog of the switch. Joe swung down and hit the ballast with his right foot forward as if he was walking on the fly. He stepped off and was instantly pacing the train until Bill applied the airbrakes and the train eased to a stop.
"Sean, use those muscles and tighten that hand brake right there in front of you, turn it until you can't turn it no more," Joe called as he walked through the caboose and stepped down in front of the boxcar that was right in front of the caboose.
"Come on, Jamie!," Sean called as he ran through the caboose and Jamie was like a shadow on his heels. They got to the other platform just as Joe was closing the angle cock on the brake line to the caboose.
"Turn your heads, boys, don't watch the hoses part, they might fly up and hit you, so stand back a few feet or hop down on the ground!"
Sean and Jamie climbed down to the ballast and stood behind Joe out of his way as he gripped the uncoupling lever and lifted it. "O.K., Scott!"
Scott waved to Bill and he released the brakes and moved forward as the airhoses parted, sounding like a gunshot. Joe climbed upon the rungs of the boxcar steps on the corner of the car and rode it down to the switch that was several hundred feet from where the hack sat alone with Sean and Jamie watching Joe ride the car as if it was nothing to it. Scott was now at the switch, waiting for the train to clear, so he could line it for the siding. Joe was passing more hand signals to John in the cab with his free hand raising the proper number of fingers for feet until they cleared the points of the switch. They saw Joe raise one finger, then make a circle.
"Ten feet?" Jamie asked.
"I guess so, that what it looks like to me," Sean replied.
Joe dropped his hand down and swung it back and forth to signal stop and Bill applied the brakes as Scott pulled the lever and spun the switch stand, lining the rails for the siding. Scott then stepped across the track to the other side of the car and hopped on and gave Bill the signal to back slow. Bill gave three short blasts on the whistle and the train began to ease into the siding. The boxcar began to rock on the uneven track as the rails sank and rose under the weight and joints popped and moaned as more cars entered the siding. They joined the waltz of rocking back and forth as they rolled down the siding under the careful control of Bill in the cab.
"DAMN, JOHN, I BARELY CAN SEE SHIT WITH ALL THE ROCKING OF THE BOXCARS AND THOSE DAMNED NEW TANKCARS THAT HAVE NO PLATFORMS!"
" I SEE SCOTT, BILL, AND HE IS STILL TELLING US TO EASE ON IN ABOUT ANOTHER FIFTY FEET!"
"I AM SURE GLAD YOU CAN SEE SOMETHING BECAUSE I CAN'T SEE SHIT!." Bill and John continued to shout back and forth to each other in the cab over the whine of the boiler and the clank of rails under twelve big drive wheels.
"OK, BILL, SHOOT THE AIR!" John shouted.
Bill reached over and grabbed the red handled train brake and turned it to the right to set the brakes on the train.
"THAT'S GOOD, BILL, LOOKS RIGHT ON THE MONEY TO ME!" John continued to watch, leaning far out on the tender gangway.
"I wonder where the ten spot and her crew are?" Bill said now in a more normal voice with John back in the cab for a few minutes.
"Most likey getting beans at the cafe, it is that time, you know."
"Yeah, but we not stopping that long. Once Joe cuts those cars off and we grab the hack, then we're northbound again."
"O' great, we're eating Joe's cooking again," John said as he broke out into a large grin.
"Yeah, his famous whatever he finds to throw in the pot all at once." Bill laughed as they waited.
"And his famous coal sulfur biscuits!"
"Well, we can't blame him for that, it's not his fault the sulfur actually improves the taste!" Bill cracked up and John couldn't help to let out his own burst of laughter.
"O.K., Joe, air is cut off, give Bill the signal," Scott said as he pulled the uncoupling lever on the 12th car in the cut.
Joe gave the highball to Bill and climbed onto the corner of the boxcar that now was the last car of the train.
Bill gave two blasts on the whistle and released the brakes and began to ease forward once more. The cars rocked and swayed until they passed the switch and were back on the level mainline track. Joe swung down and reversed the switch and replaced the brass lock and climbed back onto the corner of the boxcar and signaled Bill. Once more two short blasts answered Joe's signal as the train began to ease back down the mainline to where the caboose sat and Scott was standing with Sean and Jamie, watching the train ease back towards them.
"O.K., boys, once we're coupled up, next stop is Jackson, we not even taking time for beans here," Scott said as he watched Joe signal Bill 20 feet to a coupling with the caboose.
With a clang in the crew's ears and a bump under Bill's chair the caboose once more was attached to her train. Joe lined the air and the four climbed back aboard. Joe checked the air gauge in the caboose and nodded to Scott to give Bill the highball to depart. Bill signaled back with two long blasts and the train started to move through the yard, bell clanging and plumes of black smoke shooting from the stack as the heavy train once more got under way.
John saw the "ten spot" sitting on the siding in front of the freight house with her crew lounging on the hard benches in front of the platform.
"I told you they was doing nothing but sitting on their asses," John called over to Bill."
"Yeah, I see that now, the bastards!" Bill shouted back as he sounded his deep toned whistle to the crew and freight agent.
Joe was rolling up the way bills, one for each car that was dropped off in the siding. Then stepped to the back platform where Scott and the boys were still riding. Joe stepped over the left steps and as he passed the freight house threw them to the agent who caught them and waved along with the yard crew finishing up their meals and stowing away their tin lunch pails or stuffing their pipes for one last puff before returning to work.
Train number 26 continued to build up speed as she left Brookhaven behind in a cloud of dust and cinders. Sean and Jamie once more were alone as the last few shanties vanished around the curve. "Just a whistle stop on the Mainline of Mid-America, Just another whistle stop...." Sean was whispering till Jamie chimed in.
"Just another port of call on life's journey, just another stop on life's journey till we reach that final port of call and our packet is due..."
"Right on time for the Master Superintenant to say well done, boys, well done, time to draw your check for happiness." The two boys looked at each other deep into each other's eyes, their hands reached for each other and touched their souls as if combining from two to become one.
"Sean Davis, I love you with all my heart and soul, I would not be whole without you anymore, promise me you will never leave me...." Jamie whispered for Sean's ears only.
"Jamie, I promise you that I will do my damnest to never leave you. I will walk to the ends of this Earth, because I am not a whole person without the beating of your heart, the warmth of your soul and the completness of you." Sean pulled Jamie into his arms and they kissed briefly on the lips.
"Come on, boys, time for y'all to learn how to cook at 60 MPH!" Joe shouted through the door.
"Awwwww... Damn, Joe, why couldn't you waited a few minutes?" Jamie whined.
"Because this not the varnish but a red ball freight! Now get your butts in here!"
Hello, My dear Readers,
I first off must apologize for taking so long to finish this chapter in my tale of the High Iron. I have been very busy with work and traveling since I last posted. Since that time I have been to Atlanta in September with friends, then in October a dear friend came over from England to tour the old South which was great, covering Memphis to Shiloh to Natchez, then the Gulf Coast. Then on November 4th I left for a tour of the East from Chattanooga to Hartford, CT to visit my friend Justin and Boston, MA, then back for a wonderful week in South Carolina. I covered a lot of sites from the Famous Horseshoe Curve in Altoona, PA to glimpsing Old Ironsides and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad museum, the best in the Nation in Baltimore, MD, and many Civil War Sites including Manassas, Sharpsburg, Harpers Ferry, Gettysburg, and Fort Sumter. A wonderful trip in almost all ways except for the cold air up in the mountains and along Boston Harbor. I hope this chapter lives up to the rest of the story and I must thank my loyal readers for sticking with the long silence.
Sincerely yours, Stephen W.
I must thank Ed for his work on this and all my stories.
And to my special Sunshine out in sunny CA. Thanks, Peter, for just being who you are and a dear friend.
A Grateful thanks to my dear friend Willy for having me with him on the trip to the Great White North and to Justin and Joe for letting me stay in their homes and for making me feel welcome and to Wayne, Kelly, and John in SC for making me feel like someone again. and one more special friend from the MS coast, thanks for putting up with me all this time and for letting me continue to be part of your life. I wouldn't know what to do at times if you weren't part of my life.
I love to hear your comments as always at Swarri1349@aol.com
and my home on the web is located at: http://swarri1349.tripod.com/ The door is always open so come on in. I hope to soon update my Civil War pages and these pages as well, please bear with me.
A few quick last minute notes on this chapter. The train wreck at Brookhaven, MS actually did take place in 1930. A 4-4-0 American Type locomotive on the Mississippi Central hit a loaded school bus on a foggy morning. Killing 30 students and sending over 20 more to the hospital. State, Federal and Railroad investigated the accident and found the locomotive crew not guilty of any wrong doing. The engineer could not stand what happened and did kill himself five days before the verdict was reached the fireman quit firing for the MC and headed west. The Railroad did it's best to increase safety at grade crossings by adding an automatic second bell to all but it's yard switchers.
S.W.W. 12-03-2001