Train Hopping (2)

[GT Jones]

Levi knealt down to pick up his pack. Inside the gondola he could hear it coming. A dampened pounding something like a soft hide drum, perfect rhythm. The train was still going hot, slow enough to make its crossings, but pushing. He reached up for the lip and leaned forward with his chest against the gondola sidewall. He balanced on his toes against the pipe. Cars snapped at their couplers, making the steel bodies shiver one to the next. They swayed from the jolt. No depot ahead, no town left. This train was not stopping. The ding of the final crossing blurred by, the bell warped by speed. He listened to it like a lifeboat disappearing.

He did not want to put the pack on his back and try to climb. He needed every bit of balance he had. He pulled the blanket from his pack and started to wrap the shoebox. The wind caught the blanket and whipped it uncontrollably over the freightcar. It was taken by the wheels so quickly. He couldn’t get a release on his grip and it pulled him into the sidewall knocking away his breath.

The slight hiss of the brake lines meant they were charging, pulling their plates back from the wheels to roll freely. The hum of the engines was faint from a quarter mile in front of him but unmistakable. He had little time to make a decision. In four hours he would end up in Yuma Arizona. Three hundred miles away. The train was not under full power yet, but was picking up. In sixty seconds the train would be moving forty miles an hour. He removed his gloves for a better grip, throwing them to the floor. He squatted up the treadless steel wall with worn rubber soles. The sound of the cars snapping taught was much closer. boom...Boom...BOOM....BOOM.

[Edson Carlos]

Duuude what an amazing read.