Insert 4

April 22

The group boards the train at the Poplar Bluff Station. They lived at the end of Matt Lane just down a bit an’ outside Poplar Bluff… Two-point-four miles from the Amtrak Station, at South Main Street… Five of them… Hippie-gypsies… and they’d been waiting since about lunchtime… Sandwiches and long-teas, sun-made and poppy cake… Five kaftans… billowing cotton, ankle-length… five shades of green and beige and touches of sallow-rose… Four knapsacks and a guitar… A basket with fresh ham-rolls and cucumber salad for supper, on the train… all from the 60s, leftovers… Flowers-in-their-hair… Elder youths stuck on rerun…

It was May Day… with their one-way tickets to San Francisco… One-way, $213.00… each…

Time 4:16 p.m. Fourteen minutes to pull-out…

“All aboard...”

The group squeezes up the three steps and slides the right door of the coach-car… It’s the third car… Their Club Car…

“Make sure we get four-plus-two.”

“Across from each other...”

“And a table…” The compartment door slams…

Midway, down the center of the rose and magenta compartment are four-on-the-right and two on the left… All with hideaway tables… The Hippie-gypsies steer right to their space… The Couple, catty-corner to the two-set-on-the-left, frowns… A young Redhead smiles at the group and relaxes into a game of Mario Bros…

“Lyndsay, you and the Dristane store the knapsacks and the basket overhead. I’ll just take the guitar out of the case and put the case up, on top.”

And the group appears to be settling down. Three take their seats… the guitar on the right and the other two on the left. The Couple is whispering. The beep, beep from the Gameboy chimes… 4:24 p.m. Down a bit on the right side of the aisle a Latina with black Shirley Temple curls, and wedges, listens to a cell phone…And everyone is talking…

The compartment door slides open, again… The Hero and the Angel move into the car. Voices lower… Heads turn… And heads look up… The Redhead and the Latina smile… The Hero and the Angel move to the vacant seats, on the right, above the Hippie-gypsies… across from the Couple… They sit… The Hero’s arm tremors slightly… and the Hero breathes quietly… and the Angel moves in close…

Lyndsay and Alpha are sitting together in the two-on-the-left… Both have taken out books to read… One hardcover and one paperback… Five hours time to St. Louis. The first leg of the return… Lyndsay is reading Carl Limbacher’s Hillary’s Scheme… Alpha flips through a worn copy of Stephen Baker’s treasure, How to Live with a Neurotic Dog… Jonna and the Dristane have dismantled chair tables and set out a deck of fifty-one and a hand-drawn Ace of Spades… And the Other polishes the face of the guitar…

“All aboard…” And two quick jolts… The Conductor pockets a silver time-piece, and closes the slider… and moves on through the compartment… 4:29 p.m. and two more jolts… 4:30 and the Amtrak moves out of the Poplar Bluff station… Good-bye Charlene… Good-bye Linda…

The Redhead continues his Mario trek and freezes his hands on the Gameboy… and breathes… The guitar bumps and the Other grabs forward to steady it… and looks up to the overhead… and then out the window… The Station house has moved to the rear and the empty warehouse buildings sidle on by…

Five hours to St. Louis… Five more hours to Kansas… and then thirty-five hours and twenty minutes to Los Angeles… and still another five more hours to San Francisco… A long train ride…

The Angel had dozed for the past couple hours. The Couple is still whispering… giggling, and squinting their eyes, occasionally … They’ve round-robined the Latina, each of the five Hippie-gypsies, and the Redhead, and they stop at the Hero and the Angel… And the Conductor opens the slider, and moves into the compartment, and announces…

“Tickets, please…” The Conductor produces a silver clipper punch-thing. Questioning the person by the slider first…

“Ticket please.”

“Thank-you, to Bakersfield…” The Conductor clips…

“Ticket, please?” The Conductor addresses the Hippie-gypsy group…

“Tickets, please?” The Other hands over an envelope, number 10 size, opened… The Conductor rifles through the packet and clips five times… The Conductor hands the envelope and packet back to the Other…

“One way to Emeryville, California?” the Conductor addresses the Couple… Both nod… and pass a ticket… The Conductor clips once.

“Snap!” cries the Dristane, and Jonna frowns…

The Hero rises… and moves out of the seat and forward to the door on the left… The Hero enters and shuts the door… An Occupied sign slides over Vacant… at 7:30 pm… The Hippie-gypsies are passing round ham rolls… fresh from this morning… made last night… and cucumber salad… A thermos of sun-tea passes around… with small paper Dixie cups… five, one for each… and napkins… recycled paper…

Lights streak by… White interlaced with smudges of red and yellow… and grimy oranges of sunset through the left windows…

The Hero re-enters the compartment… A shaky hand struggles to close the levered handle… The Hero steps foot… before foot, and cautiously balances to make it back to the Angel and the seat… The Hero slips… The Hero’s hand reaches out and grabs onto Jonna’s shoulder… The Hero steadies and smiles at Jonna… Jonna smiles back. Jonna’s eyes close…

7:47 pm… An hour and 13 minutes left to St. Louis. The Hero sits. The Angel takes the Hero’s hand… It doesn’t shake.