“How fast you think we’re a’ goin’ anyway?” Frank asked.
“Goin’ downhill like this? I’d say thirty-five, forty miles an hour. Maybe even faster,” Zeke said.
“Damn, I ain’t never gone this fast before,” Frank said.
“So, this is the first time you two boys ever jumped a freight, is it?” Mickey asked.
“Yeah, that’s what I said,” Travis answered.
“What did you jump it for?”
“What?”
“Well, I mean, you boys don’t exactly have the looks of a rail bum.”
“We jumped it for the same reason as you did,” Frank said. “We needed to get somewhere, and we didn’t have no horses.”
Zeke laughed. “See, now that’s the difference between you two, ’n me ’n Mickey here. You said you need to get somewhere.”
Frank looked confused. “Yeah, so, what’s different? We’re on this train just like you are.”
“No, you ain’t. It ain’ nothin’ like Mickey ’n me,” Zeke said. “That’s the whole point. You said you are needin’ to get somewhere. Me and Mickey, we don’t need to get nowhere, on account of because we are already here.”
“What do you mean, you are already here?” Travis asked. “You are on a train, goin’ somewhere.”
“See, that’s where you don’ understand men like Mickey ’n me. We ain’t goin’ nowhere. We are already here,” Zeke said.
“We’ll ride this train for a while, then we’ll ride another train, and after that, why, we’ll hop on another train and ride it,” Mickey said. “We ain’t goin’ nowhere in particular, which means we are already here.”
“How do you eat?” Frank asked.
“Just like anyone else. With our mouths,” Zeke replied, laughing at his joke.
“No, I mean if you are on the train all the time, how do you get food? You don’t have any money,” Frank said. “What do you do? Beg people for food?”
“Who says we don’t have any money?” Zeke replied. “We may be gentlemen of the rails, but we aren’t beggars.”
“We just got through workin’ for a couple weeks makin’ bricks,” Mickey said. “We got enough money to feed us for a month or so. Then when we run out of money, why, we’ll find us some other place to work.”
“You don’t hardly never see nobody ridin’ the rails that ain’t got some money,” Zeke said. “So don’t go gettin’ on your high horse with us.”
“Well, just how much money do you have?” Frank asked.
“Seein’ as I’m just learnin’ you boys about the life, what with you just startin’ out an’ all, why, I ain’t goin’ take no offense to that question you just asked me. But the truth is, that ain’t a question you ever want to ask anyone. How much money a man has is his own business.”
“Yeah, I see,” Frank said. “Sorry I asked.”
“That’s all right. Like I told you, you two boys is new, and you don’t know no better, so I ain’t takin’ no offense.”
The train leveled out and slowed down. Zeke got up and walked over to stand in the open door of the freight for a moment, then he came back. “Gilman is comin’ up.”
“What’s in Gilman?” Frank asked.
“It’s a new town. It has a store, a stamping mill, a cafe.”
“Does it have a saloon?” Travis asked.
“I expect it does. I ain’t never been in it though. Most of the time when we want somethin’ to drink, we’ll just buy a bottle. Right, Mickey?”
“Yeah. We don’t go into saloons ’cause we ain’t exactly what you call, social.”
“Will you be gettin’ off here?”
“No, we ain’t got no reason to get off yet.” Zeke came back to the front of the car, then sat down against the wall. Frank got up and walked over to the open door to look outside. The train had slowed considerably.
“You ever jumped off a train while it was movin’?” Frank asked.
“Yes, but you wouldn’t want to do it if it was movin’ any faster ’n this,” Zeke said.
“How do you do it?”
“It’s easy. You just jump far enough out to make certain you don’t fall back under the wheels.”
“And when you jump, you’re goin’ to tumble some,” Mickey added. “So what you want to do is make sure you’re facin’ toward the front. Otherwise you could tumble backward and break your neck.”
“Come here, Travis, have a look,” Frank said.
Travis got up from his place by the front wall and walked to the door.
“How much money you think they got on ’em now?” Frank asked Travis, speaking just loudly enough for Travis to hear him.
