The Boxcar Blues (10 page)

After dinner he and Sam went out on the
front porch with a copy of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. The sun
had just dipped below the horizon leaving a lavender glow in the
western sky. A slight chill and a gentle breeze rustling the sage
bushes made for a pleasant evening. Oblivious to the weather and in
the light of a coal oil lantern Catwalk read, with Sam occasionally
helping with the difficult words. After two chapters she told him,
“You’re doing wonderful Cat. Through the past few pages I hardly
had to help you at all.”

He blushed at her praise and admitted, “I’m
getting better but I’ve got more to learn if I want to read the
newspapers like Barney does.”

“
Well, there’s no reason
why you can’t learn to read just as good as anyone else, is
there?”

“
No, I don’t guess there
is.” Catwalk liked her positive attitude and knew it would be an
asset in his education, but he’d also discovered that when Sam sat
close to him, he had a hard time concentrating.

A few days later, on a crisp, clear
high-country morning the men finished the corral and Julio asked
Curly, “You ready for your first flying lesson?”

“
Yes!” Curly shouted. He
then ran toward the hangar, leaving Catwalk sitting on the porch
working his way through a book.

Catwalk watched Julio take off and disappear
into the distant sky. When the plane was out of sight he returned
to the porch. A few minutes later Sam came out and said, “You’ve
got your nose in a book again. Are you going to read every book in
the house?”

“
I might, but I’m not sure
about this word.” He held the book up where she could see
it.

“
Problematic. That means
something that causes you a problem. Like this word is problematic
to you. But as you get better there are fewer words that cause you
problems.”

Sam realized that his Momma’s pride was his
motivation to learn. She took the book from him and looked into his
eyes with her beguiling smile. “Catwalk, it’s wonderful that you
want to learn to read and better yourself, but I have to tell you,
your Momma is very proud of you now.”

“
How do you know? How can
you know what my Momma feels?”

She took his hand and said, “Let’s go for a
walk. I know a wonderful place down by the creek. C’mon, I’ll show
you.”

As they walked, Sam said, “Catwalk, there
are some things you can’t learn from books. One of them is, women
folk know what another woman feels about her son, even if they’ve
never met her. Your Momma is just as proud of you now, as if you
had the best job in the world. She knows that you’re doing your
best to help her and she’s probably telling everyone about her son
that sent her all that money. When she saw that, she was probably
the happiest and proudest mother in the world. Catwalk, I think you
should keep learning to read and write, and go back to school if
you can. But, no matter what happens, your Momma is real proud of
you now.”

Sam’s words almost brought him to tears. He
said, “I sure hope so. My Momma works real hard, trying to take
care of all my brothers and sisters. I wish I could help her get
off the farm and go live in a nice house, with curtains on the
windows, maybe even a flower garden.”

“
I don’t see why you can’t
do that. How many brothers and sisters do you have?”

“
Eight. My baby brother is
Petey, then there’s Alice, Martha, Mathew, Cecil, John, Rose Ann,
and Georgie. Georgie is older than me, but he caught the fever a
few years back and he ain’t been right in the head since then. Rose
Ann, Cecil and John are the only ones that can help Momma in the
fields.”

“
With a large family like
that they’ll certainly appreciate the money you sent to
them.”

Catwalk smiled. “I hope Momma can buy
herself a new dress or something nice.”

“
I’ll bet your mother will
buy something for your brothers and sisters first. But maybe when
Barney pays you again, we can go into town and I’ll help you buy a
new dress for your Momma. Then we’ll send it to her.”

With a wide grin, he said, “Sam, that’s a
wonderful idea. Sending her a new dress would be the best thing of
all.”

Sam led him to a clearing under an oak tree
and next to a babbling brook. They sat down and she said, “What
about you, Catwalk?”

“
What do you
mean?”

“
I mean, you’re so worried
about your family that you never stop to think about what Mr. Luke
Jackson is going to be doing in his life?”

“
I’m going to work for
Barney, and learn to fly the Jenny.”

“
So, that’s going to be
your whole life? Work for Barney and fly the Jenny?”

Catwalk looked at Sam. She was dead serious,
but still very pretty. In his haphazard, nomadic life of trying to
survive in a hostile world, he’d never thought about his future; a
future that until now had only consisted of the next freight train
he’d be catching. He said, “I don’t know what I’m going to be doing
in my life. When someone is going to hang you, you don’t think
about the future because you ain’t sure you’re going to be
alive.”

Sam looked at him with a hurtful expression.
“Someone tried to hang you?”

“
Back in Texas. This
hateful deputy, if I didn’t’ escape, I know he would have hung me
because he thought I’d killed those hoboes.”

“
That’s not why he was
trying to hang you. You know darn well why he wanted to hang
you—because you’re black—that’s why he was going to hang
you.”

“
I suppose that’s so. I
don’t like to think of one person doing that to another, because of
his color.”

“
You’re so kind hearted,
I’ve never met anyone who was so gentle.”

“
Being kind hearted don’t
mean you’re stupid.”

Sam moved closer to him. Her smile had
returned and she ran her hand across his muscular shoulders. She
felt him shiver from her touch. “No, it doesn’t and you’re not
stupid, that’s for sure.”

Samantha wanted to throw her arms around
Catwalk and hug him forever, but she suspected her closeness was
making him uncomfortable. She retreated and asked, “How’d you get
that burn mark?”

“
A branding iron. We were
branding cattle and my brother did this by accident.”

“
I’ll bet when that
happened he felt as bad as you did.”

“
Yeah. He cried the whole
time they were putting the liniment on me.”

“
You’re lucky to have a
big family that cares so much for each other.”

“
Yeah, you’re right there,
Sam, my family is very special. Do you have family
anywhere?”

“
I’ve got a twin sister
somewhere. When my Momma died she went to live with an aunt who
lived in Alabama, but my aunt died a few months later. I never
heard from my sister, so I don’t know what happened to her. As far
as I know, she was my only family.”

Catwalk said, “I’m real sorry you don’t have
anyone, Sam, but I’ll always be there for you, just like you’re
part of my family.”

Sam kissed him on the cheek and said,
“Catwalk, you are so sweet.” Then she stood up and said, “I have to
get back to work. Julio likes apple pie and we have only two pieces
left, so I have some baking to do. He might take you flying when he
gets back.”

“
I’m always ready to go
flying.” Catwalk walked with her wishing they didn’t have to go
back to work, because he enjoyed talking to her so much. Ever since
he went on the road, he hadn’t had anyone to talk to except Curly,
who was his best friend, but he’d discovered that talking to Curly
was nothing like talking to Sam.

Alton Jones was in a hobo jungle north of El
Paso, along the Southern Pacific railroad tracks. He’d been asking
again about the two boys and still hadn’t found anyone who’d seen
them. He did, however, get some help from a guy who told him, “If
you’re looking for someone in this part of the country, go on up to
Vaughn. There’s a good soup kitchen at the mission there. Anyone
who is on the road knows to stop in Vaughn for a good meal. Chances
are the guys you’re looking for have gone through there.”

“
Thanks, mister. I think
I’ll go up there and get a meal myself.”

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

When Catwalk and Sam returned to the house,
a jubilant Curly met them, shouting, “Catwalk, I flew the plane!
Julio told me what to do and I flew it all over, turning and
diving, it was great!”

With a smile, Catwalk grinned at his
friend’s joy and threw an arm around his shoulders. “Curly, the
pilot. Ain’t you something.”

“
It was easy, Catwalk.
There ain’t nothin’ to it. You gotta try it.”

Sam said, “We were hoping Julio could take
him up this afternoon.”

Julio said, “We’re kind of short on gas,
Sam. We’d better wait until the Sinclair truck gets here on
Thursday.”

Sam turned to Catwalk and said, “Sorry,
looks like you’ll have to work.”

Julio said, “That’s right, we’re going to
pick corn. If we get started, we should be able to finish the small
field by Thursday.”

Catwalk tugged at Curly’s arm and said,
“Let’s go, mister pilot. Picking corn will make you feel like
you’re back home.”

The next day the men were in the field and
Sam was baking bread when Barney landed in the Jenny. Sam went out
to meet him and he said, “Morning, Sam. Is Catwalk around?”

Concerned that this might have something to
do with the police, she said, “He’s out picking the small field
with Julio and Curly. Is anything wrong?”

“
No, nothing’s wrong, Sam.
I just got a letter for him from his Mom back in
Mississippi.”

Sam smiled, “Oh my, is he going to be
excited. I’ll drive out and give it to him.”

“
Thanks, Sam.”

Driving as fast as the dirt path would
allow, she made it out to the area they were picking in minutes.
She hollered, “Catwalk, can you take a break? I’ve got something
for you.”

Catwalk wiped his brow, approached her and
said, “Did you bring me a slice of fresh apple pie?”

“
No, silly.” She held out
the envelope with a wide grin. “A letter from your
Momma.”

Speechless, Catwalk looked at the envelope.
Then, with a smile he tore it open.

As he read it, Sam saw his smile disappear.
She asked him, “What does she say?”

“
It ain’t from Momma; it’s
from John. He says Momma took sick.” With a worried look on his
face, Catwalk held the letter out to Sam, “What’s that
word?”

Sam said, “Leukemia? I think that’s
Leukemia.”

“
What’s that?”

“
I don’t know.” She asked
Julio, “What’s leukemia?”

The old man looked at Catwalk with sad eyes.
“It’s a blood disease, son. I’m not sure how serious it is, but a
doctor should be able to help her.”

Catwalk said, “Trouble is, doctors are for
white folk. My Momma ain’t got enough money to pay for a doctor.
When a black worker takes sick, they just let the sick person lay
up until they die and then they find another worker.”

He’d reached a point where the unfairness
and injustice of the world was about to rear its ugly head in the
worst possible manner. If his Momma died because she couldn’t get
the medical help that was available, he felt it was just as bad as
if he’d been hung back in Texas.

Sam grabbed his arm, “Cat, you don’t know
she’s going to die. This might be a sickness that doesn’t kill
people. It might just make her sick for a while.”

Catwalk said, “I want to go back there and
find out how bad it is.”

Julio said, “If you want to go, son, Curly
and I can finish the field.”

Sam led him to the truck. “Come on. We’ll go
talk to Barney.”

When they arrived at the house, Sam told
Barney about Catwalk’s mother. Barney thought for a moment, then
said, “If Julio said it’s OK, you can take off and go back to see
her, Catwalk. I’ll loan you enough money for the train trip and
medical help she needs.”

Catwalk immediately thought about traveling
while he was a wanted man. It was a chance he’d have to take.

As if he was reading his mind, Barney said,
“I don’t think the railroad police will bother you if you’re riding
in the Pullman. They’re only looking for the men who are trying to
ride for free.”

One thing that Catwalk knew more about than
Barney was life on the road. He said, “Barney, if I’m riding the
cushions, there’s still a chance that a conductor will recognize
me, and turn me over to the law.”

Sam asked Barney, “Can I have some time off
too?”

“
Sure, I guess we can do
our own cooking for a few days, but why do you need time
off?”

“
I want to go with him.
The police are looking for a black man and a white man. They’re not
looking for a woman. If I’m with him, we’ll just look like your
average couple.”

Barney said, “It might look less suspicious
if you’re traveling with him.”

Catwalk gave this some thought. He liked the
idea of having Sam along, but he worried that if he was arrested,
he’d be dragging her into his problems. He said, “Are you sure you
want to? Even if we’ve got tickets, it’s not easy for black people
out there. Lots of times it’s hard finding something to eat even if
you have money in your pocket because so many places don’t serve
meals to black folk.”

Sam said, “I don’t care, I want to go. Don’t
you want me along?”

“
Yes, I’d like you to go
with me, Sam, I’m just worried, that’s all.”