“Probably it was a dog.”
“You think I don’t know a bear? It stood up and waved at us.”
“Really, Nitty?”
“Well, not like a person would. It didn’t say
A strange voice, a lady’s voice, Little Tib thought, said, “Hello there yourself.” He heard the thump as somebody’s feet hit the floor of the boxcar, then another thump as somebody else’s did.
“Now wait a minute,” Nitty said. “Now you look here.”
“Don’t get excited,” another lady’s voice told him.
“Don’t you try to throw us off of this train. I got a little boy here, a little blind boy. He can’t jump off no train.”
Mr. Parker said, “What’s going on here, Nitty?”
“Railroad police, Mr. Parker. They’re going to make us jump off of this train.”
Little Tib could hear the scraping sounds Mr. Parker made when he stood up, and wondered whether Mr. Parker was a big man or a little man, and how old he was. He had a pretty good idea about Nitty, but Little Tib was not sure of Mr. Parker, though he thought Mr. Parker was pretty young. He decided he was also medium sized.
“Let me introduce myself,” Mr. Parker said. “As superintendent, I am in charge of the three schools in the Martinsburg area.”
“Hi,” one of the ladies said.
“You will begin with the lower grades, as all of our new teachers do. As you gain seniority, you may move up if you wish. What are your specialties?”
“Are you playing a game?”
Nitty said, “He didn’t quite understand—he just woke up. You woke him up.”
“Sure.”
“You going to throw us off the train?”
“How far are you going?”
“Just to Howard. Only that far. Now you listen, this little boy is blind, and sick too. We want to take him to the doctor at Howard—he ran away from home.”
Mr. Parker said, “I will not leave this school until I am ready. I am in charge of the entire district.”
“Mr. Parker isn’t exactly altogether well either,” Nitty told the women.
“What has he been using?”
“He’s just like that sometimes.”
“He sounds like he’s been shooting up on chalk.”
Little Tib asked, “What’s your name?”
“Say,” Nitty said, “that’s right. You know, I never did ask that. This little boy here is telling me I’m not polite.”
“I’m Alice,” one of the ladies said.
“Mickie,” said the other.
“And we don’t want to know your names,” Alice continued. “See, suppose someway they heard you were on the train—we’d have to say who you were.”
“And where you were going,” Mickie put in.
“Nice people like you—why do you want to be railroad police?”
Alice laughed. “What’s a nice girl like you doing in a place like this? I’ve heard that one before.”
“Watch yourself, Alice,” Mickey said. “He’s trying to make out.”
Alice said, “What’d you three want to be ’boes for?”
“We didn’t. ’Cept maybe for this little boy here. He run away from home because the part of his eyes that they take pictures of is gone and his momma and daddy couldn’t get benefits. At least, that’s what I think. Is that right, George?”
Mr. Parker said, “I’ll introduce you to your classes in a moment.”
“Him and me used to be in the school,” Nitty continued. “Had good jobs there, or so we believed. Then one day that big computer downtown says, ‘Don’t need you no more,’ and out we goes.”
“You don’t have to talk funny for us,” Mickie said.
“Well, that’s a relief. I always do it a little, though, for Mr. Parker. It makes him feel better.”
“What was your job?”
“Buildings maintenance. I took care of the heating plant, and serviced the teaching and cleaning machines, and did the electrical repair work generally.”
