"The Damn Train" by Keith Roysdon
The girl came up like a squirrel or some other small wild thing: In a hurry, then frozen by
caution, then slowly. Scrawny and mostly made up of hair that hadn’t been brushed, she stopped on the other side of the tracks from Leelee.
“Hello,” the girl said.
“Hello,” Leelee said.
“What are you doin’ out here?”
“Tryin’ to find some peace and quiet.”
The girl screwed up her face and looked over her shoulder. “There’s not enough peace and quiet for ya back in town?”
“No.”
The girl thought for a minute and sat cross-legged on the gravel on the other side of the tracks.
“Why do you want peace and quiet?”
Leelee shook her head. The gray streaks caught the sun. “I came out here to be alone.”
“Why would you want that?”
If the whole damn situation hadn’t been what it was, Leelee would have laughed or thrown a
rock at the girl or something.
OK, she felt more like laughing than throwing rocks. For the first time in a while.
But still, the kid seriously couldn’t take a hint.
“Why are you sitting next to the train tracks?”
Leelee sighed.
“I could ask you the same damn thing.”
A look flashed across the girl’s face. “My mama used to say that you shouldn’t curse at someone unless they deserve it.”
This isn’t how this was supposed to go, Leelee thought. Shoulda waited until after dark. Nobody would have known until they found me.
“What time is your bedtime?”
The girl put her hands on her hips and looked as offended as only a cat or a child could look.
“My bedtime? It’s not even lunchtime. How old do I look?”
“Maybe 9.”
“Jesus Christ,” the girl said, and now it was Leelee’s turn to make a face.
“I thought you weren’t supposed to cuss.”
“I didn’t cuss. My mama used to say you couldn’t take the Lord’s name in vain even if you put the f-word in the middle of it. It’s still the Lord’s name.”
Laughing and not trying to hide it now, Leelee said, “Your mama has some funny ideas.”
The girl looked down the track. “Mama went on to her heavenly reward two months ago.”
The smile faded from Leelee’s face. “I’m sorry, kid.”
The girl wiped at one eye. “She passed in that big cancer hospital in Dallas.”
Leelee nodded.
“I got to see her and talk to her right before she passed, though.”
“That’s good.”
“Birdie.”
Leelee looked around. “Say what, now?”
“That’s my name. Birdie.”
Well, hell, Leelee thought. No choice but to get personal right back. “I’m Lee.”
“I got a cousin Lee.”
“Here in town?”
Birdie shook her head. “Up in the panhandle.”
The girl was wearing a watch.
“What time is it, Birdie?”
“Eleven-ten.”
“You should probably run along home now.”
Birdie shook her head. “I like to come down here sometimes and watch the train go through. I guess I could go to the old depot and watch ‘em go past. My aunt says the trains used to stop at the depot but they quit that and then she says, ‘The Union Pacific doesn’t give a damn about these towns anymore.’”
“Your aunt is right.” Leelee looked down the tracks. “Anyway, you better head home.”
“I live with my aunt now. Her name is Mary Smithfield. You know her?”
“What time did you say it is?”
Birdie looked at her watch again. “Three minutes later than the last time you asked.”
Eleven 13 then.
“Birdie, ain’t your Aunt Mary gonna be looking for you? You better head on home.”
“Did you say you know Aunt Mary? And she’s not home. She works at the grocery store during the day. She’s got a cool white streak in her hair. And you know what? She didn’t have Suzie at the salon put that streak in. It’s natural.” The girl peered at Leelee. “Your gray looks natural too.”
Leelee thought that Birdie’s Aunt Mary was probably gonna have a few more white hairs in the years to come.
“Ten,” Birdie said.
“Do what now?”
“I’m 10. Not 9.”
Leelee nodded. “Well, hey, 10-year-old Birdie. You oughta head on back to town. Maybe go to your aunt’s store and get a pop out of the cooler because it’s getting hot out here.”
Birdie squinted. “You got someplace to be?”
Leelee didn’t answer.
“Because there’s nothin’ goin’ on out here but the goddamn Union Pacific.”
Leelee looked down at the gravel under her. “What about that whole cussing thing?”
“It’s god, so no harm, no foul. Mama always said.”
“Oh yeah, yeah, right, right.”
“Hey, do you hear that?” Birdie stood and craned her neck and looked down the tracks, away from town. Then she bent and put her hand on a rail. “Holy shit, you can feel it. I wonder how far away it is?”
“Kid, get back.”
On her side of the tracks, Birdie was standing and leaning out to try to spot the train.
Then they heard it, loud, its horn blowing and its wheels churning.
“Birdie!” Leelee got to her feet and shouted but the kid couldn’t hear because of the goddamn train whistle.
The girl was less than a foot back from the track but standing on loose gravel.
“BIRDIE! STEP BACK!”
Leelee could see the train now, coming around a hill. The engineer was yanking on the horn,
probably having a conniption that the kid was so close.
I guess maybe because we’re both so close, she thought.
“BIRDIE! GET THE FUCK BACK!”
The girl looked over at Leelee and smiled like this was the most exciting thing ever. Before
Leelee could motion for Birdie to get back, the girl looked down the tracks again. She covered her ears.
Well, hell.
Leelee put one sneaker on the rail and pushed hard, then hit the tie with her other foot and then cleared the rail on the other side. She tried to slow down but she couldn’t and she pretty much tackled the little girl with the mussed up head of hair and they tumbled.
There was nothing else in the world right then except the roar of the train and the horn blasting and the ground shaking under them and the girl hollering.
The train got past and Leelee could make out what Birdie was saying.
“Shit, Lee,” the girl said. “I really wanted to watch that.”
The Damn Train
“Next time, you gotta stay further back, Birdie.”
The girl grinned and Leelee was close enough to see she was missing a baby tooth.
“You wanna come watch with me next time?”
They stood there, brushing themselves off, and Birdie looked after the train.
Well, hell, Leelee thought and smiled a little.
“Sure, I’ll come with you.”
“We can bring some sandwiches and a couple of pops!”
“Sounds nice.”
Birdie took her hand and they began the walk into town. The kid started skipping or some silly thing like that and then Leelee did too.
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