The Castle Cross the Magnet Carter Read Free Page A

tell her the truth she’ll send me back there, cafeteria No . So the six cents a day I save: my model Sopwith.
    Feel somebody.
    Henry Lee Taylor. How long he been standing there, the doorway? Dark-hair runt, even shorter than me. “My electric train’s so big my pa had to make a special room in the basement for it.” Till then I didn’t know he could speak, we share three classes but he never raises his hand. Little as he is, there’s a crackle in his voice, well on its way down to tenor.
    After school I stand before Henry Lee’s impressive train set, laid on a table three feet off the ground. The track winds in and out of tunnels, through mountains. Each car’s about ten inches long, four high, two and a half wide. Smoke puffs from the engine. Forty-three cars, passenger and freight. Trees and houses and the post office and the fire department and the butcher’s and the school and the hospital, ding ding! at the street crossing, autos waiting as the safety poles come down, as a traffic light stays red while the train passes, this happens three times and it could happen another hundred far as I’m concerned! But Henry Lee’s already bored. He sets a Packard on the tracks at the crossing.
    â€œThis is Milly and Jack in the tenth grade. He puts his tongue in her mouth, she’s all for it. Uh-oh!” Henry Lee makes the crossing bells go off. “Oh my God! Jack, pull your pants up! Milly, get your bra on!” The warning poles falling. “Hurry! Hurry!” The poles down. Henry Lee’s voice jumps an octave. “Oh my God, Jack! What’re we gonna do , Jack!” Henry Lee hits the switch to turn on the train, headed straight for the car. Henry Lee as Milly lets out a piercing scream. The train crashes into the car, dragging it a few inches before knocking it aside. It lands right side up. Henry Lee, disappointed with nature’s choice, picks up the vehicle, snaps his wrist and flings it, allowing it to flip over and over, Milly and Jack screaming the entire time. Again it lands upright. Henry Lee grunts and flicks it with his finger. Finally it falls upturned, hood on the ground. Satisfied, Henry Lee allows a moment of silence before “Whoosh!” Sweeping his hands, indicating the car has burst into flames. A dramatic pause later, he is respectfully grave: “Tragedy.”
    â€œHenry Lee.” Someone calling from the top of the stairs. “Your mama told me to remind you to make up your bed fore she gets home.”
    â€œI know !” Furious, like she just nagged him about this ten times, though until this moment I had no idea we weren’t alone in his house. The footsteps above moving away. Henry Lee is looking at his train and not at me. “Jesus. What’s the point a hav in a goddamn maid I gotta do her job for her?” Then he jumps up, vanishing into the mysterious darkness on the other side of the basement. I’m thinking I better get going. Already been here half an hour, my mother will not be pleased I took a detour coming home without telling her. Henry Lee reappears with a pack. “You smoke?” Twice at my cousin Buppie’s last summer. We were out back, and he handed me one he’d snuck. The first Camel got me sick. The second got me sicker. I see what Henry Lee’s got and I’m betting on Luckies.
    â€œMy pa thinks I’ll be a lawyer like him.” Smoke gracefully escapes Henry Lee’s nose. Here he seems to carry some expertise, unlike academics where he’s average at best. If I get a 97, he might get a 72. “Well my pa’s in for a big surprise cuz I’m hopping the trains. He might as well get used to it: his only son’s gonna be a pro hobo.” Henry Lee chuckles and taps his cigarette. Henry Lee and the room are spinning.
    The door above us opens. “Henry Lee, your mama’ll be home in fifteen minutes.”
    â€œDammit!” He says it loud, but