Boy, when you're outta school, the days just whiz by. I’d been set free from school for over a month, and although spending most of my time working on the farm weren’t exactly the way I wanted to spend my day, it did give me a chance to go into town every day and try to see Rosalie. Me and John Clayton was sitting on the breadbox talking about going fishing when I thought of something besides Rosalie, "Hey, I've got a birthday comin’ up.”
“Really?”
“That’s right. It’s this Saturday.”
“Think you’ll get anything?”
“Your dang right I do. I’ve been workin’ on Momma and Daddy for weeks. My birthday ain’t gonna get skipped this year.”
When I said that, I didn’t have any idea that my birthday would kick off something that would make the whole rest of the summer just the most unbelievably scary thing you can imagine, but it did. Danged right; yeah, I remember my birthday—who wouldn’t?
About that time I started thinking about my last few birthdays, and I couldn’t remember nothing happening, no parties or presents. But this year I was gonna change all of that and have a birthday party, and if I couldn’t have a party, maybe I’d at least get a birthday present. When I got home from town, I made out a list of the kids I wanted to invite to my birthday party, and of course, Rosalie was at the top. With my list in hand, I went to the kitchen, where Momma was fixing supper.
“Momma, do you know Saturday is my birthday?”
“Of course I do, Richard. Don’t you remember? I was there.”
Momma smiled, and I could see she was in a good mood.
“Well, yeah, I guess you were. Guess what I have in my hand?”
“I don’t have any idea. What?”
“Momma, it’s the list of kids I want to have to my birthday party. Here take a look.”
Momma took the list and counted the names.
“Richard that party would cost us at least 10 dollars, and I just spent nearly 5 dollars to buy you new School shoes. You know I’d like to give you a birthday party, but times are hard and this year we just can’t afford it. I’m sorry, no party.”
I hung my head and faked being upset, hoping no party might mean at least a present.
“Oh, Richard, don’t be so sad. We’ll do something for your birthday.”
Hmmm, I’m making progress.
I left the kitchen and walked out to the front porch to wait for Daddy. Shoot, Momma was always tighter with money than Daddy. I was gonna sit right there and wait for him to come home from work. In a few minutes he drove up and parked the car by the front gate.
“Daddy, I need to talk to you.”
“Just a minute, Richard; let me clean up. I’m so dirty and hot today, I can’t wait to take a cold shower.” He walked through the door and went straight to the bathroom.
In about 20 minutes Daddy walked out, smelling like Old Spice, and wearing a freshly starched shirt and khakis. He put on his hat and started for the door. It was Friday and he was heading out drinking. I knew this was my only chance. It was now or no birthday present this year.
“Daddy, do you know tomorrow is my 13th birthday?”
“Richard, you’ve mentioned it so many times during the last two weeks that I’d have to be deaf not to know. And you know what?” Daddy was smiling. I could feel it. He was going to give me something for my birthday.
“I’ve been thinking about what to give you for your birthday.”
I couldn’t believe my ears.
“I’ve decided that you’re big enough to ride the train to El Dorado all by yourself, eat at Woolworth’s, and see picture shows at all three theaters. I saw Joe Reed at work today and he said his family was going to the Union County Fair tonight. You know we usually wait till Friday, but since it’s your birthday, I'm going to let your mother drop you by the fair after she gets off from work, and you can meet John Clayton and ride home with them. Here’s $3. That should cover everything.”
“Oh, boy!” I grabbed Daddy around the waist, thanking him, and waving the money over my head, I ran into the kitchen.
“Momma! Momma! Look at this!” Well, Daddy will let me do a bunch of stuff Momma won’t even think about letting me do, so I needed to clear it with Momma.
Daddy followed me in the kitchen, and before I could say anything, he said, “Sue, I gave Richard $3 to ride the train to El Dorado tomorrow, see three picture shows, and go to the Fair with John Clayton. You can drop him off after work, and he can ride home with the Reeds.
“Momma, I promise, I’ll be good, and on my way to the first picture show, I’ll stop by the store so you’ll know everything is okay.”
“Jack, I think he’s too young to ride the train by himself. You know a lot of oilfield trash ride that train, especially on Saturday."
Momma stopped talking and looked at me real serious. Heck, I was holding my breath. Then she said, real slow, like she was talking to God or something, "But if you really want to let him go, I’ll agree on one condition.”
Momma’s conditions were sometime impossible to fulfill. I waited to hear that one condition.
“Richard, when you get on the train, take a seat back at the end of the car where the conductor stands. Tell him you’re by yourself and ask him if he’ll tell you when to get off the train.”
The train just goes to El Dorado. If I ask the conductor when to get off, he’ll think I’m the stupidest person on earth. And to tell him I’m by myself? Ha, I wouldn’t do that for nothing.
“Oh, Momma, I sure will. I promise.”
Daddy looked at me, smiled and walked out of the kitchen. Me and Daddy knew that if you didn’t agree with Momma, you was gonna be in big trouble. I could hardly wait for tomorrow. Three picture shows, a train ride, a hot dog at Woolworth’s, and the best part of it all was that I’d be by myself all day long in downtown El Dorado, and then I'd get to go to the Fair.
El Dorado is the county seat, and it’s about seven miles from Norphlet. To me El Dorado is a really big town, a whole lot bigger than my hometown of Norphlet. Heck, it has almost 30,000 people living there. My favorite store is Woolworth's, which has everything I can imagine. The long lunch counter serves grilled cheese sandwiches, hamburgers and Coca-Colas, and next to Woolworth’s is Samples Department Store, where Momma had just started working as a part-time switchboard operator.
’Course the courthouse square is where most shopping is, but the stuff a block south of the square are a heck of a lot more interesting as far as I’m concerned. Two of the three picture show theaters are here, the Majestic and the Rialto, and there’s also a place that my daddy likes to visit, called the Olympic Billiard Parlor. Boy, you can smell beer and cigar smoke while you’re still out on the street.
Just a half a block away from the Olympic are El Dorado’s two largest hotels, the Garrett and the Randolph. The Garrett Hotel is by far the fanciest in the city, and I’ve only been in there once with my momma, but the hotel across the street, the Randolph, is the one I really like to visit. It’s just as big, but it ain’t nothing like the Garrett. The Randolph has got a bunch of girls that stay there, and all the boys I run around with at school talk about these girls, but we don’t have no idea what they do. I guess they’re really trashy people. But I do know one of them, Miss Emma, and she sure is a nice lady. She really helped me last year when I had a problem with a sorry Yankee Doctor. Heck, if it wasn't for Miss Emma I'd be in the Reform School right now.
***
The next morning I was up at 5 again to run the paper route, and by 7 I'd finished my chores, and had eaten breakfast. Shoot, I was so anxious I left the house and ran all the way to the train station arriving there over an hour before the first train was set to arrive. Mr. Blevins, the station manager, finally opened the window.
“Well, Richard, are you by yourself today?”
“Yes, sir. I’m 13 years old today, and my daddy is letting me go to El Dorado all by myself to see three picture shows, and late this afternoon Momma is gonna drop me off at t
he Fair.”
Mr. Blevins smiled and said, “That’ll be 25 cents for a one way ticket to El Dorado.”
I handed my quarter to Mr. Blevins, took my ticket, and walked over and stood on the platform where the passenger coach would come to a stop. It was still 20 minutes before the train was supposed to arrive and already a bunch of people were waiting. Dang, I thought, Momma was right about one thing: This is sure a bunch of low-rent folks waiting to get on the train.
In a few minutes we heard the steam whistle as the engine approached the road crossing at Downs Feed Store, and in about two minutes the big black steam engine slowly ground to a halt with the two passenger coaches stopping right by the platform. The conductor got out, put down a little step, and called out, “All aboard!” Then everybody just started pushing to get on the train, because it looked like it was almost full.
“Hey, I was in line first!” I yelled. But that didn’t matter a whit, I couldn’t get past nobody, and I ended up being the last one to climb up the steps to board the train. When I started to enter the passenger car, the Conductor stopped me.
“Son, the train is full. There’re no seats. You’ll have to wait for the next train.”
Heck, the next train was almost noon and if I waited on it, I’d miss one of the picture shows. Well, I was about to cry, and he knew it. I looked inside the door and saw a space between the back of the car and the first seat.
“Sir, if you’ll let me, I can sit behind that end seat and sit cross-legged on the floor.”
Shoot, the conductor gave me a hard look, but then he nodded, “Well, it’s against the rules, but since you’re so small, I guess it’ll be okay.”
I jumped in and made myself comfortable behind the seat, sitting cross-legged looking out at the aisle and the two seats across from me. The end seats on each car face each other. Across from me four men were sitting on those two seats. There was a badge on one of the men, and I knew he was a sheriff. Then I noticed the other three men. Oh, my gosh. They were all handcuffed.
Wow, a sheriff is bringing three prisoners to El Dorado. I can’t wait to tell John Clayton about this.
The conductor stuck his head out the door and waved to the engineer.
“All aboard!”
I couldn’t believe I was riding the train to El Dorado all by myself, and I was sitting on the floor right across from three prisoners.
Well, I was just sitting there, thinking about my day, you know daydreaming, when I noticed something. One of the prisoners was nodding his head at the one sitting across from him and pointing to the sheriff’s gun. He was mouthing some words which looked like, “I’m gonna get the gun.” Heck, now I was watching him like a hawk ’cause I could just feel something was ’bout to happen, and that sorry prisoner was gonna start it. Shoot, I was getting nervous as a cat just watching what was going on.
Heck, it wasn’t but a few minutes when the man sitting beside the sheriff moved his hand over to where it was on top of the sheriff’s gun. The sheriff was leaning back about to nod off, and as I watched the prisoner, I could see he was trying to slip the leather guard strap off the gun. Oh, my gosh, I thought. I was just about to say something to the sheriff when all of a sudden the strap came off and the prisoner flipped the gun out of the holster. The gun went flying through the air, landing on the floor right in front of me. Whoa, hold your horses, then everything just went crazy, and I yelled, “Ahaa!” and jerked up bumping my head on the seat.
“What the hell!” yelled the sheriff, as he awoke with a start. He jumped up out of his seat and leaped down on the floor to keep the prisoners from getting the gun. Well, I’ve thought back on what happened, and I guess I should have tried to help the sheriff, but, shoot, I was so scared that I got back behind the seat as far as I could. It looked like there was gonna be one heck of a fight for the gun.
“Get him, Sam! Get the gun!” one of the prisoners yelled. When the sheriff bent over to pick up the gun, the prisoner who had flipped the gun out of the sheriff’s holster hit him on the back of his head with both doubled-up fists.
“Ohooo!” the sheriff moaned as he dropped to the floor with the prisoner right on top of him. The sheriff’s head hit the floor with a crack, and he wasn’t about to get up any time soon. The prisoner pushed the sheriff over, grabbed the gun, and stood up. “Jim! Len! Get up! Let’s go!”
Oh, my gosh, I had just thought I was scared before because right at that very minute I quit breathing and my mouth went open in a yell that never came out. Then he hollered out to the passengers, “I’ll kill anybody that moves! Jim, pull the emergency stop!” Well, the whole coach full of people just went crazy, and everybody was yelling and the ladies were screaming. The man called Jim pulled the emergency stop, and the train came to a screeching halt. Shoot, everybody was thrown up against the seat in front of them and the ladies on the train screamed like nothing you’ve ever heard. As soon as the train came to a stop, the man that had knocked out the sheriff reached into the sheriff’s pocket and pulled out the key to the handcuffs.
“Here, Len, get these cuffs off me and Jim!” The cuffs dropped to the floor and the three prisoners kicked open the back door, jumped off the train and started running. The train had been stopped right in the middle of big Flat Creek Swamp, and the three prisoners were sloshing through knee-deep water as they headed for the trees that lined the railroad tracks. But by the time the prisoners got off the train, the sheriff stood up and started after them with about 10 men.
“Get ’um! Don’t let ’um get away!” yelled the sheriff. He took off running with the men right behind him.
The man one of the prisoners called Sam had the sheriff’s gun, and when he saw the sheriff and the men running after them, he stopped and fired. Oh my gosh; the shot broke out a train window! I’d just crawled out from under the seat and was watching everything when the window right beside me broke into a million pieces. ’Course, I yelled so loud it scared some of the ladies around me, and they screamed again. Shoot, with the shooting, yelling and screaming it was the scariest thing I’d ever seen. I thought with the next bullet I might be a goner, and I scooted back under the seat, just as the man that fired the shot yelled to the sheriff, “You better stay back, or the next bullet is gonna be right in your gut!”
Since none of the men had a gun, and the prisoners had the sheriff’s gun, all the men and the sheriff turned and ran back to the train. I was so scared that I crawled all the way under the seat. Heck, I wondered if that guy was shooting at me since I had been a witness. He’d given me a couple of real dirty looks when he saw me watching him. Yeah, he was trying to kill me cause I was a witness. Wow. John Clayton ain’t gonna believe that!
The engineer ran back to the coach, yelling, “What’s going on here? Who pulled the emergency stop?”
“They did it! Those men running into the swamp!” someone yelled.
“My God! We gotta get this train to El Dorado and call the state police,” said the engineer. He started blowing the steam whistle, ringing the bell, and didn’t stop until we had pulled into the station. Well, it didn’t take but about 15 minutes for the train to arrive in El Dorado.
All the passengers were in a panic. “Look out!” “Get out of my way!” “Run!” I could hear the yells from under my seat. People got off the train as fast as they could because they were still upset from all that happened. I jumped off the train and began running as fast as I could just trying to get away from a place where something so terrifying had happened.
I just kept thinking about those three prisoners escaping, and how I could tell everybody at school that I saw it all. And how that prisoner had tried to kill me ’cause I was a witness of the escape. Shoot, as I got off the train I got to thinking about where the prisoners would go after they ran into Flat Creek Swamp. And then it hit me just like somebody had given me a slap alongside my head... Flat Creek Swamp goes all the way to my house. Dang, all them prisoners has to do is walk east from the railroad track, and they’d walk right u
p in our pasture.
Well, I put that little thought right outta my mind—but I shouldn't have. But you know something? I was determined to have a good time and not let none of the stuff that happened or could happen keep me from enjoying my birthday. So, after I’d calmed down, I started to walk up south Washington Avenue toward downtown.
CHAPTER SIX
El Dorado
Dang, I was so excited I could hardly stand it. I hurried along a little faster as I passed several hobos sitting on the curb waiting for a freight train. Shoot, they looked so mean that I just scampered down the sidewalk and across the street. After I crossed the street I was almost to the Trailways Bus Station. Something was going on because I could see a bunch of people just standing around, and I wondered what all these people were doing at the bus station. Just then a band started to play, and as I got closer, I could see hundreds of soldiers piling off busses. Heck, the whole thing was so exciting that I ran right up in the middle of the crowd to see what was going on.
The band finished playing and a sergeant blew his whistle and yelled, “Ten Hut! Fall in!” Soldiers ran from all over the bus station to line up in formation. My gosh, they looked just great. Then out of the crowd walked a tall man dressed in a suit and tie. He took the megaphone from the sergeant and started speaking to the crowd.
“Ladies and gentlemen, as mayor of El Dorado and as a spokesman for everyone in Union County, I want to express every American’s gratitude to these fine men that are returning from winning a great war in Europe. Let’s show them our support!”
I yelled and cheered and so did everyone else.
“Now, I would like for the band to play our National Anthem!” The band started playing again, and we all sang as loud as we could.
When the band finished the sergeant called out, “Soldiers, you are discharged!” Heck, you ain’t never heard so much yelling and cheering. The band started playing another song and we all yelled and waved as the soldiers found their families and left the bus station. Shoot, my birthday was turning out to be real good—and exciting.
Lyin' Like a Dog, The Yankee Doctor, The Danged Swamp! 3-Volume set Page 39
