ought to be thrown out.
Back at the counter the Baron ordered a bucket of fried chicken with several sides and Isaac was immediately sorry they’d come, the bill was over twenty dollars and he got out his wallet to pay but only had a single dollar bill. The Baron was looking at him.
“You got this or no?” he said.
The people at the counter stared at them and waited. Isaac turned away and unzipped his pocket with the money and tried to carefully slip a bill from the envelope, but it wouldn’t come, it was awkward getting at the envelope and he had to lift it slightly out of his pocket to get at it. The Baron saw it and then looked the other way. It was a fifty- dollar bill that Isaac handed the clerk, and she held it up to the light and checked it with a felt-tip pen.
“Glad you had something else,” said the Baron. He picked up the food and carried it out as Isaac zipped his pocket back up.
“Tells you we’re near Detroit,” said the Baron. “They love fried chicken.”
They sat on the curb and ate. Isaac bit into a drumstick, there was a hard thin crust, it was peppery and salty and the juice from the meat dripped down to the curb. He ate it as quickly as he could, the crunchi-ness of the skin and the tenderness of the meat underneath, stuffing it into his mouth, it tasted like the best food he’d ever eaten, there was an entire bucket. He was beginning to get an easy feeling about everything. Every time you eat, now. The kid is a simple animal. World’s Best Fried Chicken. The kid agrees with that claim, gives his highest endorsement. Diddy Curtin’s chicken. He will remember.
They ate until they couldn’t force any more food down, then wrapped the remaining pieces in napkins and put them in their packs. Isaac lay back on the sidewalk, he looked around, he didn’t think anyone would bother them for a minute. He closed his eyes. For the first time in several days he didn’t notice the bruises on his hips and shoulders, the aches from sleeping in hard places.
“We lie here like this we’re going to catch trouble,” the Baron said. “What we ought to do is get a motel, sleep in a real bed, do our laundry, maybe watch some movies even.”
“Nah,” Isaac said, without opening his eyes. It occurred to him: you can ditch this guy easily The next time they were separated, used the bathroom, anything, he would take off. He began to feel even better about things.
“I been riding rails all my life. You got to take the little luxuries when you can afford em. Keeps you sane. You can always make more money.”
“Well, you can pay for it if you want.”
“At least how bout we get something to drink,” he said. “Can you spare that?”
“Fine. Gimme a minute to rest here.”
When Isaac noticed someone watching them through the window of the fried chicken place they sat up and got walking. There were houses and then businesses and then houses again, the road passed over a broad canal, then under a freeway, then dead- ended into a large boulevard. Everything was so flat, you didn’t know if you were coming or going. Isaac realized he’d been expecting the houses to end and give way to woods but they just continued, the town went on forever. It had been gray all day and they’d been out of sight of the river for a long time, it was the same low buildings everwhere, he had no idea what direction they were headed, he guessed they’d come two miles since the steelmill. People would know where that was, if he had to ask someone. On the other side of the street they saw a Laundromat, it had a handwritten sign stating WE NOW HAVE HOT WATER, but it was closed. “Our luck,” said the Baron. “But look.”
Farther down there was a liquor store. “You old enough to buy,” said the Baron.
“No.”
“Then give me ten and I’ll make sure we’re well taken care of.”
Isaac thought for a second. He gave the Baron a bill. “Here’s twenty,” he said. “Take your time.”
The Baron went in and Isaac was already walking down the street when the Baron caught up to him. He was carrying a handle of whiskey.
“Keep going,” he said. “The clerk was in the back.”
“What?”
“Go go go.”
They began to walk more quickly down the street. When it was safe, the Baron held up his trophy again. “Goddamn Jack Daniel’s. Just saved us thirty-four bucks.”
Isaac nodded.
“Let’s find our spot for the night,” the Baron continued. “Now that I think about it we should have either rode that train longer or not as long. We got no resources around here.”
“I just want to get back to that other trainyard.”
“One thing I been thinking about,” he said, “is that with sixty, eighty bucks, I could get to see my sister in Canada. They got free clinics up there.”
“You got twenty already.”
“I’ll get our next meal,” said the Baron. “You know I had to ask. I’ve never been good at saving money myself. I respect that about you.”
“It’s fine.”
“In a lot of ways I have a million- dollar mind, which basically runs in my family. My father had his own business. Only I saw what happened to him and all these people, too.” He waved his arms around. “They’re trapped by all this shit. We own it as much as them. It’ll be around after they’re all gone—what does that tell you? You build a cage for yourself. You don’t ever own anything, really, that thing just owns you.”
Isaac nodded. They continued to walk.
He guessed they were close when they came to another small canal with a park alongside it. There were trees and mown grass. On one side of the canal there was an upscale trailer park and a small office complex, on the other side a nicer neighborhood, single- family homes with fenced yards.
“There’s our spot,” said the Baron. “We don’t gotta spend a nickel.”
Walking the edge of the canal they found a suitably large cluster of bushes and trees and made their way to the center of it. Isaac could hear cars passing on the road a hundred yards away and it was comforting. Tomorrow you get a train south, wake up before him.
He was at the end of one thing and the beginning of another. Tomorrow you will head south. He wondered if a warrant from Pennsylvania would transfer to Michigan, or if there was a warrant yet, and he could feel himself getting depressed. Best not to think about it, he decided.
In a small clearing they both unrolled their sleeping bags. There was music coming from the trailer park and people laughing. Isaac was extremely tired but he did not want to fall asleep.
“Well, good night,” said the Baron.
“Night to you.”
He tried to zip his sleeping bag up but something was wrong with the zipper, it had come apart and it was too dark to fix. Better this way anyway, he thought. Keep my boots on. He pulled the sleeping bag around him like a comforter and found a position where his hand could stay close to his knife as he slept. Then he thought about the dew settling overnight and got up again in the dark and crawled partway under a fallen tree. He took the knife out of the sheath.
After a few hours he woke up, he could still see the Baron sleeping twenty feet away, he hadn’t moved. You should get up and get going now, he thought, but he was too tired, he couldn’t move his legs. He woke up again later, heard leaves rustling, looked for a long time in the darkness before deciding it was just an animal. The Baron was still right where he’d gone to sleep.
He knew he ought to get up but he couldn’t. It seemed like he could sleep forever.
7. Lee
She made lunch for her father, risotto with a starter of
