—I’ve got it, Emmett.
As Emmett resumed his pace, he glanced at Billy’s watch and saw that it was quarter to twelve. They had left the station at quarter past eleven. Though the walking had been harder than Emmett had anticipated, it seemed like they should have been at the pine grove by now, so he breathed a sigh of relief when he finally saw the pointed silhouettes of evergreens up ahead. Reaching the grove, they took a few steps into its shadows and waited in silence, listening to the owls overhead and smelling the scent of the pine needles underfoot.
Glancing again at Billy’s watch, Emmett saw that it was now eleven fifty-five.
—Wait here, he said.
Climbing the embankment, Emmett looked down the tracks. In the distance he could see the pinpoint of light that emanated from the front of the locomotive. As Emmett rejoined his brother in the shadows, he was glad they hadn’t walked on the tracks. For even though to Emmett’s eye the locomotive had seemed a mile away, by the time he reached his brother, the long chain of boxcars was already flashing past.
Whether from excitement or anxiety, Billy took Emmett’s hand.
Emmett guessed that fifty cars raced by before the train began to slow. When it finally rolled to a stop, the last ten cars were right in front of where Emmett and Billy were standing, just as the panhandler had said they would be.
So far, everything had happened as the panhandler had said it would.
* * *
? ? ?
What’s the difference between a ton of flour and a ton of crackers? That’s what the panhandler had asked Emmett back at the freight yard. Then with a wink he had answered his own riddle: About a hundred cubic feet.
A company that has freight traveling back and forth along the same route—he went on to explain in his good-natured way—was generally better off if they had their own capacity so they weren’t exposed to fluctuations in price. Since Nabisco’s facility in Manhattan received weekly deliveries of flour from the Midwest and sent weekly deliveries of finished goods back to the region, it was sensible for them to own their own cars. The only problem was that there are few things more dense than a bag of flour, and few things less so than a box of crackers. So while all of the company’s cars were full when they headed west, on the way back to New York there were always five or six that were empty and that no one bothered to secure.
From the free-rider’s perspective, the panhandler pointed out, the fact that the empty cars were hitched at the back of the train was particularly fortuitous, because when the engine of the Sunset East arrived in Lewis a few minutes after twelve, its caboose would still be a mile from the station.
* * *
? ? ?
Once the train had stopped, Emmett quickly scaled the embankment and tried the doors of the closest cars, finding the third one unlocked. After beckoning Billy and giving him a boost, Emmett climbed inside and pulled the door shut with a loud clack—throwing the car into darkness.
The panhandler had said that they could leave the hatch in the roof open for light and air—as long as they were sure to close it when they were approaching Chicago, where an open hatch was unlikely to go unnoticed. But Emmett hadn’t thought to open the hatch before he closed the boxcar’s door, or even to make note of where it was. Reaching out his hands, he felt for the latch so that he could open the door again, but the train jolted forward, sending him stumbling back against the opposite wall.
In the darkness he could hear his brother moving.
—Stay put, Billy, he cautioned, while I find the hatch.
But suddenly there was a beam of light shining in his direction.
—Do you want to use my flashlight?
Emmett smiled.
—Yes, Billy, I would. Or better yet, why don’t you train the beam on that ladder in the corner.
Climbing the ladder, Emmett threw the hatch open, letting in moonlight and a welcome rush of air. Having been exposed to the sun all day, the boxcar’s interior must have been eighty degrees.
—Why don’t we stretch out over here, Emmett said, leading Billy to the other end of the car, where they wouldn’t be so easily seen were someone to look through the hatch.
Taking two shirts from his backpack, Billy handed one to Emmett, explaining that if they folded them over, they could use them as pillows, just like soldiers. Then having refastened the straps, Billy lay down with his head on his folded shirt and was soon sound asleep.
Though Emmett was almost as exhausted as his brother, he knew that he wouldn’t be able to fall asleep so quickly. He was too keyed up from the day’s events. What he really wanted was a cigarette. He would have to settle for a drink of water.