1
Ryan
Ijerked awake the second I felt the weight of my head falling forward. My eyes instantly were fixated on the opening of the boxcar. The open field that was directly across from the train yard was no longer dark.
Morning.
It was finally Sunday morning. Day two out here alone. Mostly alone.
The wind blew cold gusts of air into the boxcar, forcing me to move out of the direct line of the opening.
“Ow,” I whined under my breath as I stood. Slowly, I walked to the corner of the boxcar, swiping the last package of saltines from the table.
I was careful when I opened the package so I didn’t drop any of it. Dad said the coyotes in the field would be able to smell any open food. My jaw hurt as I chewed, but I didn’t care. I was so hungry. I quickly ate the crackers and put the wrapper in the pocket of my pants.
I’d heard several dull horns in the distance and felt the vibration on the floor of the boxcar as trains approached. Even though I had just eaten the crackers, my stomach growled. My head and stomach ached badly, and I just wanted to go home. I closed my eyes for just a few minutes and abruptly woke up to a fist pounding on the metal floor.
“Let’s go.”
Dad!
I quickly pushed myself up and hurried to the opening of the boxcar. Dad had already walked away, so I scooted down each of the steps and jumped to the gravel once I reached the bottom step. I don’t know if it was jumping or the landing part that made all the pain in my stomach seem so much worse. I held my stomach and hurried to catch up to Dad. When I finally reached him, I tugged on his shirt.
“Dad, are we still going to McDonald’s?”
He didn’t answer me.
“Dad.”
“Quiet, Ryan,” he gritted out.
“Sorry. But are we?” I whispered.
“Brad!”
A man I recognized from yesterday called out to my dad as he stepped down from an engine. Dad stopped, and I quickly hid behind him and buried my face against his shirt. The heavy scent of Mom’s laundry detergent made me want to be home more than anything.
“Thank you for bringing your little guy around for the tour of the train yard,” the man said.
I peeked around Dad’s back to look at the man again. Yep, he was the guy from yesterday. I reached up to make sure I still had on the sticker of the railroad badge he had given me. Yep, still on. The man reached into his overalls and handed Dad some money.
“I’m glad you were able to meet him this time. Was he well behaved?”
“He was very well behaved. You have a very good young man there. How old is he? He was a bit shy, and I wasn’t able to get much out of him.”
“He’s six and a quiet one. His teacher says he doesn’t talk much in school,” Dad told the man.
“Well, that’s probably not a bad thing, right?”
“Exactly.”
As we walked away, I looked over my shoulder and made sure the man wasn’t following us. He waved at me when I looked at him. I only waved back because I thought I’d get in trouble if I didn’t.
“Dad,” I said and waited for him to reply. “Dad.”
“Get in the car, Ryan.”
I hurried into the backseat and scooted to the middle.
