Orphan Train, page 10
Ernie instantly wrapped Theodore in a bear hug that threatened to pop Theodore’s lungs. Although he hadn’t been in the mood for their antics, the laughter and demeanor of the older boys instantly lifted his spirits. He did his best to break from of Ernie’s grip, but Ernie held like a vice until Theodore announced he’d given up. He was now smiling again.
“You boys are back early.” He said once his feet were back on the ground.
“We didn’t worry about papers today. Had more fun instead.”
“Thanks for inviting us,” Ernie piped in. He’d already been told about their day and how much more exciting it had been than sitting in a schoolhouse like he and Theodore had been.
“What did you do?”
“Took the new steam train to Coney Island,” Anselmo announced proudly. “Played in the cold water, ate some good sausage. Just had fun on our last day. Not like you intelligent boys here, reading words and trying arithmetic.”
“That does sound fun,” Theodore agreed, jealous that he’d been left out of the events of the day. “Yeah, thanks for inviting us.”
“We’ll go again when we get back from our fun little train ride,” Anselmo joked, although it didn’t have the effect he wanted on the group. Everybody slowly stopped laughing and became somber after minute. He didn’t show it, but Anselmo knew it wasn’t a funny thing to say to the group of boys who would undoubtedly run from the train or return home as rejects.
“I heard Michael ran away today,” one of the boys in the group changed the subject after nobody said anything for a long beat.
“From school?” Ernie asked.
“When I ran back to the home a little while ago, they said he didn’t go to school.”
“We saw him leave this morning with everyone else.” Theodore pointed out. Ernie nodded in agreement. “All he had with him was his schoolbooks.”
The boy shrugged. “Just telling you what I heard. Nobody has seen him since he left this morning.”
“He’s the last one of us I thought would run,” Ernie picked a pebble from the ground and tossed it in front of him, kicking it before it hit the ground.
“Me too,” Anselmo added. “I always figure he’d stay in the home until he was too old, then he’d probably just start working there.”
“Where would he go?” Theodore joined Ernie in what was quickly becoming a contest to see who could kick a pebble the farthest.
“He never told me he had any plans,” Ernie said as he knelt down and searched for the perfect pebble to beat the distance of Theodore’s first kick.
“Me neither,” Anselmo added. “I bet he comes back before supper. Be awful dumb to run away before the big going away dinner.”
The other boys laughed. There had been a rumor going around that the boys would be treated to a feast the night before they board the train. Most of the boys figured Anselmo started the rumor. There hadn’t been a feast in previous years, so nobody believed it to be true. It had become a joke amongst the older boys.
With the sadness of saying goodbye to Roy gone and the friendly competition of kicking pebbles in full swing with all of the boys taking a turn, Theodore relaxed and enjoyed the moment. He wondered about Michael, if the boy had actually run away or not. Theodore assumed the boy would turn up at supper just like Anselmo suggested. So he let go of his worries of leaving his home town, losing his brother, and anything else that had him feeling sad, and enjoyed the afternoon as best he could.
19.
When the dinner bell rang that evening, the older boys were shocked to find that the rumors were true. Their final supper had arrived. Miss Brighton wanted to treat the boys to a special meal, so she and the other workers pitched in their own money to throw the boys a feast. There was more food than Rollie had ever seen! Every boy in the home ate like a king that night. It added to the excitement and anticipation of the following day. Even the older boy’s spirits lifted when they saw the vast amount of food spread around the dining hall. While they ate, they all joked and talked, shared stories and worries about the upcoming trip. It was almost a normal meal.
“Boys, I need you to do something for me.” Ernie leaned in close. He, Theodore, Anselmo, and Sam were sitting together at the end of the table. When they were all close enough to hear his whispers, he continued. “I made up my mind. I don’t want to be a three-time reject. When you boys finish eating, I’ll be up on my bed.”
He got up and left, and the rest finished their food quickly to see what Ernie had up his sleeve. They each raced up the three flights of stairs, sounding like a heard of elephants as their fast-moving feet hit every step with full force. When they made it to the bedroom, Ernie was sitting on his bare bed, with the blanket folded nicely at the foot. His footlocker was open and empty. A small bag lay at his feet. He fidgeted his thumbs as the other three reached the top of the stairs. When they saw his bed, they knew what his announcement would be.
Anselmo spoke first. “Where will you go?”
“I met this woman just after Christmas. She’s a stage actor who lives in Brooklyn. She’ll put me up and I can be a stage actor with her. And if that doesn’t work out, I know a ferry operator in Brooklyn who will let me apprentice with him. Either way, I’m staying in Brooklyn.”
“You sure you don’t want to try to come along?” Theodore hopelessly tried to change his mind.
Ernie shook his head. Once again, the bully was gone. He looked like a grown-up, sitting upright with his bag on the floor next to him, expressing feelings and showing real emotion. “I can’t do it again. I don’t want to do it again. It’s fun, to ride the train, but a piece of you dies when you reach Kansas City and you board the train back here. I don’t ever want to feel like that again.”
There was a long pause during which none of the boys seemed to know what to do next. Anselmo twisted his body nervously at the waist with his hands in his pockets. Sam took his hat off and rubbed his hands through his hair. Theodore looked all around and noticed at the far end of the room that Michael’s footlocker was closed. The sleeve of a shirt could be seen hanging out, pinched tightly by the lid of the locker. The bed was still neatly made. It sure doesn’t look like Michael was planning to run, he thought. But he didn’t show up for the supper feast, and nobody had seen him since he left for school that morning. Theodore was torn by emotions as he endured the silence – worry for Michael, fear for Ernie’s future, nervous for himself.
The silence finally lasted long enough that all the boys were uncomfortable. Anselmo stepped forward and reached his hand out coolly to shake Ernie’s. “Good luck.”
Sam gave Ernie a long hug. The two had been in the boy’s home longer than anyone, both arriving within days of each other over four years prior. The two had developed a friendship that would be hard for either to find again. “You take care of yourself.”
“You too.”
Theodore shook his hand. “Best of luck.”
“I hope you get to stay with your brother,” Ernie replied. “I truly do. You boys won’t tell on me until lights out, right?”
They all nodded.
Ernie gathered his bag and walked toward the staircase. The trio didn’t follow him. He turned and smiled, looking at the group of boys he’d come to love as much as he had his own parents at one time in his life. Anselmo and Sam were close friends. And Theodore would have become one too, if they’d known each other longer. He would never admit he was nervous to leave them, or to truly be off on his own for the first time in his life. When he saw a tear in Sam’s eye, he felt one start to form in his own, and he knew it was time to go.
“If you boys ever find yourselves back in Brooklyn, don’t forget to say hello.” He tipped the worn brim of his favorite old hat and descended the staircase, each step taking him closer to his new life.
When Mr. Thomas inquired where Ernie was just after lights out, he wasn’t mad when the boys explained his whereabouts. He’d worked at the boy’s home for nearly a decade and had come to learn that most boys know when it’s their time to go. Ernie had been there long enough. He had matured about as much as a boy can living in the home. Mr. Thomas knew he was ready to be off on his own, and thanked the boys for their explanation. He respected Ernie’s decision. There would be no search party. No report of a runaway. They would load everybody onto the train the next morning and life would go on as if Ernie had never been there.
THE MORNING WAS A WHIRLWIND of excitement! Breakfast was fast and simple – completely opposite their meal from the night before. Before the clock struck nine, the boys were split into groups based on the location of their beds and started the nine-bock walk to the Hudson River Railroad livestock yard. The specially chartered train would board the large group of boys – coming from seven different boy’s homes – in the livestock yard, where it was easier to load larger groups in a shorter amount of time.
“The real reason is,” Anselmo theorized as the group walked along. “The mayor doesn’t want two hundred orphan boys clogging up his pretty rail stations downtown. So we get sent out with the cows.”
When the large gathering of orphaned boys snaked their way around a large building and into the rail yard, their train was sitting on the tracks waiting for them. Theodore’s heart jumped with excitement. For a brief moment his stress and worry disappeared and he felt truly excited. The train looked a mile long. At the far end of the yard stood a steam locomotive, painted grey but the top had turned black over its years of use as the smoke billowed out of the stack and down the length of the rail car. Men could be seen moving about the locomotive and in between it and the coal tender. The tender was a dull hue of red and looked brand new – the result of a new coat of paint. The cars that followed were an array of colors, some with paint more worn than others. But they all looked to Theodore like the massive chariot that would take these boys on an adventure to the unknown. His mind raced as he pondered what it would be like to actually be on the train in just moments. He remembered stories he’d read about train robbers and outlaws sneaking away on trains. He hated to admit it at that moment, but he was enlivened by what lay on the steel tracks before him.
Rollie was elated. He could see the plume of smoke from the burning coal rising above the locomotive at the far end of the yard. He could smell hot grease and was close enough to touch the shiny metal wheels of the cars. All he could hear was the rocks crumpling under their feet as the two side-by-side lines of boys finally reached the car that was designated for the Washington Square Boy’s Home. He, like Theodore, breathed a sigh of relief when they learned the entire home would be on the same car. The car would be cramped, but he and Theodore would be together throughout the journey.
Theodore was taken aback as they loaded onto the car. While the train looked to be more than a block long, there were in fact only eight railcars lined up behind the coal tender and locomotive. Washington Square Boy’s Home was toward the back of that line, and once Theodore found his seat next to Sam, he watched out the window as the rest of the boys from different homes passed by to get onto their respective cars. There was nobody in the yard to see them off. Nobody to hug and say ‘good-bye’ to. There was nothing in the yard except another train and a corral full of cattle that would be loaded onto that train later in the day.
When he tried to explain how odd the scene was to him, to feel so forgotten and uncared for, Sam took the approach of the hardened veteran of the orphan train that he was. “Kind of like being an orphan, isn’t it?”
And just like that, lacking fanfare or a single person to wave to, the locomotive blew its whistle long and loud, then the train lurched forward.
20.
The excitement of riding the rails died down after a couple of hours on the train. The car was cramped; benches filled the front half of the car on either side, with a narrow aisle separating them down the middle. The benches were designed for two adults to sit comfortably; three or four boys sat on each wooden bench now. The soft padding that had covered the bench when the car was new was now worn thin, and only the boys unlucky enough to be sitting in the middle of the bench actually had any padding underneath them. The back half of the car was an open space, with piles of blankets stacked in the corners. This, Anselmo explained, is where the boys would sleep during the journey.
Theodore couldn’t help but notice how hot the car was; hotter even than outside. Windows running the length of the car on either side provided access to spectacular views of the river and city as they left New York, and later the beautiful fields and rolling hills as they passed through Pennsylvania. But they also allowed the sun to beat down unrelentingly into the car. A dozen small windows on either side of the car could slide open from the top down, and they had stayed open since the moment the train pulled away from the yard. But the breeze it provided was warm and circulated high in the car. Most of the boys spent a large portion of the trip standing, not only to relieve the crowding but also to feel the breeze through their hair.
The train rode straight through to Allentown, Pennsylvania, where they stopped for a little more than an hour. Theodore, Rollie and the rest of the boys watched through the windows as boys from the first car disembarked and were walked in two lines through the rail station. Anselmo explained that these were the first up for adoption.
“We’re at the back of the train. We won’t even get off for a few days.” He continued. “We had the first car last year. You have to get out a lot more, because you get off at every stop until you’re adopted. Or rejected. So those boys will do this a lot in the next couple weeks. We got lucky. I bet you we won’t start until St. Louis. So we just relax and enjoy the ride for a couple of days.”
An hour later Theodore leaned out the window and watched as the boys he’d watched walk away now returned to the train in just one short line. Anselmo walked up from two rows behind and knelt down next to Sam.
“What’d I tell you. More than half! That’s a penny.” Anselmo’s grin stretched ear-to-ear. Sam fished a penny from his trouser pocket and slapped it into Anselmo’s hand.
“Isn’t it wrong to bet on people getting adopted?” Even though Theodore enjoyed a friendly wager, he was appalled by the thought.
“It’s as good a thing as any,” Anselmo proudly held up and inspected his penny. “What do you say, I bet you less than half get adopted at the next stop.”
“Don’t take that,” Sam stepped in. “Next stop is Harrisburg. They’ve never adopted more than half.
“What do you take me for,” Anselmo asked with his signature sly smile and a wink. “It’s a fair bet.”
The boys found ways to entertain themselves throughout the trip. Anselmo had been right; the boys of the Washington Square Boy’s Home sat on the train and watched without moving as they stopped in Harrisburg, Pittsburg, Columbus, Dayton, Cincinnati, Louisville, and finally, St. Louis. The days were long, and scuffles between the boys were becoming common during mid-day, when the car was the hottest and the train was stopped, allowing no air to flow.
In Dayton, where the train was stopped for more than two hours under the noon-day sun, Sam and Anselmo teamed up to convince Mr. Thomas to let the boys off the train. It took some smooth talking and 5 cents from both of them, but Mr. Thomas agreed to let all the boys out of the train car then slipped in the closest saloon for an hour.
One of the boys revealed he took a ball from the boy’s home and most of the boys followed him to an open field near the station where they took turns kicking it back and forth. Theodore and the older boys walked up the road, searching for a general store. They found one just a block away and enjoyed ice cream with strawberries and blueberries. It was a welcome change from the repetitive and bland food they’d eaten so far on the trip.
“Were you serious about jumping the train?” Sam asked when they finished their cold treats and were walking back toward the station.
“Yeah,” Anselmo replied with a shrug. “Like Ernie said, it kills you to be a reject. I had a small hope that I’d get adopted, you know. But look at all the boys that keep coming back from the stops.”
It was true. Theodore had noticed that in Columbus. All of the boys who came back were twelve and older. There were even some younger boys that kept coming back, for whatever reason. He didn’t want to say anything, hoping it was only in his head. But he knew it was true.
“Were you serious about working together? Buying the land and everything you said?”
Anselmo’s sly smile returned. “Why? You thinking of joining me?”
Sam nodded. “Wouldn’t know what to do, but it’s nice out here. Pretty land. There aren’t a hundred homes on every block. I think I could get used to this.”
Anselmo wrapped a friendly arm around Sam’s shoulders. “Well let’s do it. Just pick the place and we’ll go!”
They walked the rest of the way in silence. Theodore was feeling both left out of the conversation and afraid for the two of them. Sure, they were the most mature boys in the home. But they were still just fifteen years old, and only knew how to hock newspapers in the big city. Would either of them find serious work? Or would they end up hanging the same as Ernie’s friend had?
When they stepped back onto the train car, Theodore stopped and looked at the two. “You boys will tell me before you run, won’t you?”
Sam nodded and Anselmo hit him in the chest.
21.
St. Louis was the first stop that the Washington Square Boy’s Home would be up for adoption. The whole train would be. St. Louis was, historically, a big stop where many boys were adopted. The stop was longer than most to cater to the larger group being adopted. They would spend four hours in the city, most of it at a large auditorium, and then the remaining boys would have free time until they returned to the train. It was also the most common city for older boys to walk away from the train.
The excitement in the car seemed to die down when the train finally came to a stop. Mr. Thomas walked to the front and instructed every boy to get their bag and line up in two lines. Every boy went silent, without being asked. Rollie suddenly appeared at Theodore’s side and slid a hand around his brother’s suspenders; a team of horses wouldn’t have been able to break the grip. Theodore looked nervously at Sam and Anselmo. He noticed a look in their eyes he’d never seen before. It was a blank stare with the slightest bit of hope. Sam gnawed on his fingernails as if he hadn’t eaten in a week.
