excerpt from the next issue of origins a reader
When I put my head back out the window I saw Snooky’s grade coming at us.
“How’s the whiskey holding out,” I hollered at the old stoker.
Jake yelled back over all the commotion, “it’s going down pretty fast Bill, the sooner we get to town the better.”
I looked at the gage again, then realized what he meant. I noticed he was right about the bottle too. It was going down fast. Jake had guzzled a lot more than his usual share.
*****
I wouldn’t be surprised if that miserable Clare Kincaid lied. He’s known well enough for it, but the whole town believed him anyway, so did the passengers and that fool line manager right along with them.
I guess maybe we did have up a considerable head of steam and I know that we were making quite a racket. I suppose it’s true that we did come over the top of that hill faster than anybody else ever had. And I bet we must have been going some kind of fast for him to tell everybody in town that night that the loco’s wheels came four inches off the tracks for a split second when we topped Snooky’s Grade.
That doesn’t mean I believe him though. I never could before and I can’t now either. But whatever it was that Kincaid saw scared him bad enough to make leave off jack rabbit hunting right then and there and trot for home.
Jacob looked out the back just as the middle ore car came over the hump of the hill and said, “Bill, I hate to bother you right now, and it’s nice that we made it and all, but I got a thought. We got a mile and a half between us and Detlor’s Falls and it’d look bad for us if this steam kettle blew up in town.
“How’s the whiskey holding out,” I hollered at the old stoker.
Jake yelled back over all the commotion, “it’s going down pretty fast Bill, the sooner we get to town the better.”
I looked at the gage again, then realized what he meant. I noticed he was right about the bottle too. It was going down fast. Jake had guzzled a lot more than his usual share.
*****
I wouldn’t be surprised if that miserable Clare Kincaid lied. He’s known well enough for it, but the whole town believed him anyway, so did the passengers and that fool line manager right along with them.
I guess maybe we did have up a considerable head of steam and I know that we were making quite a racket. I suppose it’s true that we did come over the top of that hill faster than anybody else ever had. And I bet we must have been going some kind of fast for him to tell everybody in town that night that the loco’s wheels came four inches off the tracks for a split second when we topped Snooky’s Grade.
That doesn’t mean I believe him though. I never could before and I can’t now either. But whatever it was that Kincaid saw scared him bad enough to make leave off jack rabbit hunting right then and there and trot for home.
Jacob looked out the back just as the middle ore car came over the hump of the hill and said, “Bill, I hate to bother you right now, and it’s nice that we made it and all, but I got a thought. We got a mile and a half between us and Detlor’s Falls and it’d look bad for us if this steam kettle blew up in town.
posted by originsareader | 5:26 AM
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