Читать книгу Train 653 - Angela Yvette Thurman - Страница 7

Chapter 3

Sydney’s first day was very challenging. Although he was used to being watched, he still felt uncomfortable. No one spoke to him; all they did was stare and point at him. Henry George was the first to say what everyone else was thinking. He asked Sydney how he ended up there. He asked him how long he planned to work there because they didn’t want his kind around causing trouble.

Sydney only said, “I am here just as you, to make a living.”

Henry George was trying his hardest to provoke him, and he did not let up on Sydney all that day. Sydney knew that he had to stand up for himself if he wanted to be respected. There was no way he would let a man drive him to the brink of murder again. Deep down, he was afraid that people would begin to ask him questions about the fight he had with Earl. So far he was safe, but he continued to look over his shoulders. He had never let anyone get that close to him to choke him since he was a child in the orphanage. By the time their shift ended, no one could tell each other apart due to being covered in coal dust from head to toe. It was the perfect opportunity for Sydney to slip away unnoticed and head to his tent.

The next morning while he was at the creek fetching some water, he heard a lot of commotion coming from the yard. He could hear the men getting closer, so he ran behind some bushes and hid until they left. Somehow he felt that they may have been looking for him. On his way back, he saw Leon walking along the tracks with his duffle bags, a large one across his shoulder and a smaller one in his hand. A part of him was excited to see him go, but his curiosity took the best of him, and he walked alongside him and asked him where he was headed. Leon told him that he was late for shift change, so he was fired by Walter without pay.

Leon’s only thought was how he was going to tell his girlfriend and her father that he lost another job. He had lost four jobs that year. At the age of eighteen, he should have been more responsible in the beginning—he should not have gotten a thirteen-year-old girl pregnant. Lucille was the eldest of seven children. Her father was a share cropper, and he demanded that Leon get a job and marry his daughter before the baby arrived. He would have to send for her in order for her not to bring shame on her family. The way things were going for him, Sydney knew that it would never happen because Leon lacked self-discipline. He was more of a talker than doer who tried to impress people with fancy words. He was the only one in his family who had some education, although limited, but none the less he could read, write, and do basic math equations.

Leon told Sydney that he was not heading back home just yet. After walking several hours, the men sat on the tracks to rest for a while. They got lost in the time, and night was upon them. Sydney knew that he had to make his way back to the yard in order to make the shift change; he could not afford to lose his job.

As he stood up, Leon placed his hand on his shoulder and asked him to stay a little while longer. He looked up at him with tears ready to drop from his eyes and told him that he did not love Lucille, he said that he was in love with Edna May Jones. He said that Lucille was young, and she had never been with a man, so he felt proud to be her first. He did not think that he would become a father after one time.

Sydney told him that he was heading back and that he wished him luck, and he briskly walked the tracks, making sure to stay as close to them as possible because now it was close to midnight. He regretted that he did not let Leon go on his way. There was no way that he could make it back in time.

Suddenly, from a distance, he could hear the whistle of a train coming up behind him, so he decided that he would hop on board so he would not be late. Sydney ran as fast as he could so that when the train was near, he would jump on. He reached out his left arm to grab the door hand bar—the train was moving so fast that it almost pulled him underneath. Somehow he was able to get inside the railcar without getting hurt. Once inside, he fell unto his knees to catch his breath, all along shaking from fear, but he made it back in time to start his shift. The very train that he rode in on was the same one he had to unload.