I hear a rumble in the distance, it becomes louder, making the floors vibrate. I realize it is a train approaching. I move toward the window and see a freight train go by. The tracks separate their backyard from their cornfield. I feel relieved seeing the train go by, for a moment I thought it was a tornado coming through. The twins stand next to me as I hold the drapes back and watch box cars and flat cars, click and rock against the rails. The shapes of the cars look vague in the darkness as the train rumbles along.
“Those wheels sure are big,” I mumble.
The twins look on with torpid faces. My anxiety increases as I watch the freight cars go by. I have a sudden urge to flee, but my anxiety quickly subsides as the last car goes by. A short freight. The twins go back to their puzzle on the floor.
“One more train will come by tonight, there’s usually two freight lines that come by on Wednesday night. Those box cars sure are big, you can hold twenty cattle in one of those cars,” says father.
I continue to stand by the window. Tall weeds in the yard bend violently from the wind. I hear the distant sound of the train in the distance.
“Yep, another train will come by tonight,” says father as he pulls the drapes shut. “Sometimes I go out there and stand as close as I can to the tracks when a train goes by. It makes my whole body vibrate as I feel the earth shake beneath me.”
My father has told me this many times before. I need to hit the road so I tell them that I’m leaving. I pick up my briefcase in the corner of the living room where I had left it earlier in the morning. Father embraces me and I feel his unshaven cheeks against mine. He lets out a shrill giggle. Mother pecks my cheeks but pulls away before I can give her a peck.
“Sometimes I sit up all night and wait for the train to come by, one of these days I’m going to jump a boxcar and see where it takes me,” he says with another giggle.