The Boxcar Blues (8 page)

At four in the morning, as the engine was
pulling away from the water tower, they jumped through an open
boxcar door. The boys hid in two empty crates and rode the entire
day and into the night. For most of their trip Catwalk wondered if
they’d really get far enough away that the law wasn’t looking for
them. He hoped they did and smiled at the thought of finding work
with no one trying to arrest, or hang him.

The next morning Catwalk heard the hiss of
air brakes, meaning the train was stopping for water. He saw
several groups of men waiting to board the train. He said, “There’s
a bunch of men getting on, Curly. Let’s drop off.”

As they walked away from the tracks he
squinted back into the sun and tried to read the name on the water
tank. “Vaw-gun?”

Curly said, “Vaughn. Vaughn,, New Mexico. It
looks like we made it, Cat.”

“
I see the town in the
distance, but I don’t think we should go there yet. Let’s head down
this road and see if there’s any working farms that need
help.”

“
O.K. I’m watching for a
chicken coop. Those peaches didn’t last long.”

The boys had been walking for an hour when
they saw a farmer struggling with a plow behind a mule. They
watched from the shade of a tree. Curly said, “No wonder that guy’s
having trouble; his arm is in a cast. Ain’t nobody can handle a
plow with just one good arm.”

“
Do you think we should
offer to help him?”

“
He needs help, and we
might get a meal out of it.”

Catwalk hopped over a stand of barbed wire
and walked toward the farmer. The man was eyeing him suspiciously
when he called out, “I seen you was having trouble ‘cause of your
broke arm. I’ll help you.”

With his good arm, the farmer pulled a
pistol out of his overalls and shouted, “Just hold it right there.
Tell me what you want and remember, I ain’t against shooting if I
have to.”

Catwalk stopped and held up his hands. “We
could use a meal, and I’ll finish your plowing to earn it. Honest,
I’m not going to do anything except plow. We don’t mean no
harm.”

“
You want to help me
finish this plowing?”

“
Yes sir, I spent lots of
time behind a plow. I can finish this field by sunset.”

“
How ‘bout your friend,
what’s he do?”

Curly shouted back, “I can feed your
livestock, repair machinery, shoe your horses, butcher a hog or
milk your cows.”

The farmer took off his straw hat, revealing
a head of dark hair going grey. He was a strapping man, well over
six feet and in spite of his suspicious greeting, had friendly
eyes. He wiped his brow and waved the boys over. “O.K. You can work
‘til sundown and I’ll feed you. If you do good work and don’t steal
anything, I might keep you on.”

Catwalk said, “Mister, we just want to work
for our dinner.”

“
OK, finish plowing this
section.” He then motioned to Curly, “You can repair the door on
the chicken coop. Dang wolf almost tore the thing off trying to get
at my hens last night.”

“
Yes sir.” Catwalk said as
he hung the plow harness over his shoulder. After the events of the
past few days, it felt good to be working. He didn’t blame the
farmer for being cautious and in spite of that, there was something
about the guy that he liked. He hoped they’d be able to stay on and
work for him. Maybe they’d even be able to write his Momma that
letter soon. With a smile on his face, he laid the whip to the
mule.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Catwalk silently ate his third helping of
beef stew. After a full day’s work it tasted wonderful and he hoped
the farmer, whose name was Barney, would keep them around. He’d
seen the farmer’s look of appreciation at their work and in spite
of his broken arm, Barney didn’t sit down and watch. He worked
harder than most men with two arms.

Their fourth day on the farm found Catwalk
mending fences and Curly butchering a hog so Barney could take a
ham to the soup kitchen for the transients. Over a lunch of soup
and ham sandwiches, Catwalk said, “Curly, we’ve gone to heaven.
Steady work, sleeping under a roof and regular meals, this is
great.”

“
It beats walkin’ down the
road with your stomach growling. We’ll probably get fat like that
lady I seen in the circus.”

Catwalk laughed and said, “I think this
guy’s pretty rich. This is a big spread and he don’t seem to be
wanting for anything.”

“
I know. He’s got two new
Ford trucks in that garage and he said he’s buying a new tractor.
What do you suppose is in that big building out by the
field?”

“
I don’t know; must be
more machinery. What’s a tractor? I never heard of a tractor
before.”

“
It’s kind of like a
truck, with a motor and all, but it’s used to pull your farm
machinery. You can even put a plow behind it so you don’t have to
plow with a mule.”

“
No kidding.” Catwalk said
behind a smile. “If a guy had one of those you could plow a whole
section in a day.”

Two weeks later Barney invited the boys to
join him and his housekeeper on the porch one evening. A cool
breeze rustling through the chinaberry bushes and the thrashers
constant chirping made for a relaxing setting. Catwalk took a long
sip of lemonade; it tasted so good.

Barney handed both boys three ten dollar
bills and said, “This is your first two week’s wages. I held off
paying you until I was sure you earned your pay without stealing
anything. I like the way you work and you can stick around if you
have a mind to.”

This was more money than Catwalk had ever
seen. Tears filled his eyes as he said, “Thank you, Mr. Barney. I’m
going to send my Momma twenty dollars, first thing.” He smiled,
thinking of the joy his Mother would feel when she got the
money.

Barney said, “She’ll be real proud of that,
Catwalk.”

Curly said, “We like working for ya’ and
we’ll stick around as long as there’s work to do.”

Barney said, “I was skeptical because the
last two guys I hired, stole from me. One took off with a mare, so
I didn’t figure to hire anyone else, but when I broke my arm things
changed.”

Curly asked, “How long you had this
place?”

“
About four years. I used
to be in the oil business back in Odessa. Back then, a small
producer with a few wells pumping could make a lot of money, and I
did. A few years back I thought the economy was going take a
plunge, so I got out of that and bought three farms. Then my wife
died in the spring of ’29. She’d been sickly for a year or so.
That’s another reason I got out of the oil business, so I could
take care of her. Turns out I didn’t have to for long.”

Barney looked off into the distance. Catwalk
knew he was thinking of his late wife and he felt sorry for the
man’s loss. He liked Barney and thoroughly enjoyed his new
home.

Barney continued, “Oh, there ain’t nothin’ I
like more than working the land and having a good crop year. I paid
cash for all my property and put the rest of my money in a foreign
bank. When all the American banks had to close, I was still O.K. I
sold one of the farms, but I got this one and another up north by
Cimarron. A couple of my hands, Sam and Julio stay up there and run
the place. I consider myself fortunate because I’ve seen what
happened to the rest of the country and it’s about as sad a state
of affairs as I can imagine.”

Catwalk asked, “Will the President make
things better so they can open the schools?”

“
I think so, son. He’s
talking about forming a Civilian Conservation Corps to create jobs
and that should help. Do you want to go back to school?”

Catwalk said, “I’d like that better than
anything. My Momma would be so proud . Curly said he’d teach me to
read letters as soon as we found some books.”

“
Son, that’s good that you
want to learn, but you don’t have to be in school to learn things.
If you keep your eyes open life is the greatest teacher there is.
And, I’ve got a room full of books you boys can read. Say, have you
boys ever seen an airplane up close?”

Both boys silently shook their heads. They’d
seen a few planes flying over during their travels, but never
dreamed of seeing one up close. Barney lit a lantern and told them
to follow him as he walked to a large building off by itself that
looked like a barn. Both boys were speechless when they saw a real
airplane parked in the building.

Barney said, “This is a Curtis Jenny
biplane. It was built in 1918 and used by the Air Service Corps for
training pilots during the big war. I bought a couple of them when
the Air Service sold some off. It’s got a Hisso four cylinder
engine and cruises about ninety knots.”

The boys were astonished and watched with
open mouths while Barney showed them the details of the airplane;
how the engine and propeller worked, and how the rudder made the
airplane turn. They marveled at the construction as he let them run
their hands over the smooth polished curves of the wooden prop and
feel the tension in the wing cables. When they’d had a good chance
to look it over, he asked, “You want to go up flying one day?”

The thought of flying in a plane made
Catwalk speechless. For a change he had a good feeling about their
future. That night he slept well, with a full stomach, money in his
pocket and dreams of flying through the clouds in a real
airplane.

Two weeks later, Catwalk had finished
painting the new shed when Barney asked him, “Are you ready to go
flying?”

“
Yes sir, but what about
Curly?”

“
I can only take one of
you up at a time. He’s got to finish churning the butter, then it’s
his turn. Here, put this helmet and goggles on.”

Barney pulled the airplane out and told
Catwalk to get in the front seat, while he started the engine. On
the third pull of the prop, the engine started and Barney climbed
into the rear seat. When they taxied out to the takeoff field,
Catwalk felt a thrill he’d never known before.

Barney took off and flew around the area,
scaring sheep and buzzing windmills. With the wind in his face and
the sound of the engine purring along, Catwalk was mesmerized. He
felt free as a bird, sailing through the sky, and the best part
would be writing to his Momma to tell her that he rode in an
airplane.

After they landed, Barney said, “Would you
like to learn how to fly, Catwalk?”

Hands in his pockets Catwalk shook his head
and said, “I don’t know if I could do that.”

“
Sure ya’ can. You learned
to drive the truck real fast and this is easier than driving. Over
the next couple of weeks, I’ll teach you guys how the plane works
and then I’ll teach you how to fly it.”

Catwalk broke out in a wide grin, but
couldn’t find words to express his excitement.

Two days later Catwalk wrote a letter to his
Momma, telling her how well Barney was treating them, that he’d
learned to drive a truck and about his airplane ride. He didn’t
mention his experiences with the deputy back in Texas.

For the next two months Catwalk and Curly
worked like men possessed. Every few days Barney taught them a
little more about the Jenny and the theory of flight. They soaked
up the information and spent most of their evenings at the hangar,
marveling at the plane and sharing their dreams about learning to
fly it.

One Saturday Barney told the boys he’d take
them into Vaughn, so they could buy some new clothes and go to the
ice cream shop. Looking forward to another treat in their new
lives, they climbed in the back of the truck.

At the dry goods store, they bought new
Oshkosh B’Gosh overalls, denim work shirts, a cotton dress shirt,
new long johns and two pairs of Red Wing work boots. When Catwalk
tried on his new work clothes, he told Curly, “These are the first
new clothes I’ve ever worn. My Momma sewed me new shirts on my
birthday, but I never had any good work clothes like these.”

Curly admitted, “I haven’t had any new
clothes since my tenth birthday. Cat, we really lucked into it and
now we gotta work extra hard, so Barney keeps us around.”

“
I have been working extra
hard, haven’t you noticed?”

”
You was laying down by
the creek yesterday,” Curly said as he laced up his new work
boots.

“
That’s because I finished
mucking out the barn and then dressed out the deer that Barney
shot, all before noon.”

Curly smiled. He knew how proud Cat was
about the work he performed and he enjoyed joshing him whenever he
got the chance, even though he realized that his pal could work
rings around him most of the time.

After buying their new clothes, they walked
across the street to the ice cream shop. The boys devoured
chocolate sundaes while Barney talked to a neighbor. When it was
time to head back to the farm, Catwalk wore a permanent smile. For
the first time in a year he was eating regular and for the first
time in his life he had new clothes on his back. And, he was going
to learn how to fly an airplane. He felt bad because in his limited
vocabulary, he couldn’t thank Barney enough. He decided to show his
appreciation by doing some extra work on Sundays, rather than
reading or fishing down at the creek.

Three days later Catwalk and Curly were out
on the west side of the spread mending fences. Barney was
collecting eggs when he saw a police car drive up. Vaughn Police
Chief Zane Thomas stepped out.

The chief sounded sociable, but his face
said this was all business. “Morning Barney, how’s that arm
feeling?”

“
It’s a nuisance, Zane.
Doc Bowman says the cast’ll come off in a couple days.”