Michael Martone - Four for a Quarter - Fictions

ARIZONA

So out of the corner of my eye, I catch this glimmer of something sparkling off in the distance, out in this painted desert and immediately I think it is some kind of mirage, so I don't look right at it because, I remember from someplace, you are never supposed to look at things square on but kind of off to one side so as to focus the thing better on the curve of your eyeball as if I could even take a look as I am driving like a bat out of hell on this interstate between Phoenix and Tucson, surrounded by a herd of shimmering cars and trucks all going at least a hundred, and I remember that the not-looking bit has to do with stars in the sky, I think, not mirages in the desert, and so I look and it looks like this mirage out in the desert is an airport like the one I just flew into and out of in this rental car like a bat out of hell, but this, that is, this airport, is a kind of mirage, since what it is is one of those graveyards for bombers and fighters and airliners parked out on the dry and preserving desert, so in other words, it isn't an illusion but it is not really what it seems to be either as this airport isn't going anywhere and in a second or two, going like hell, it's out of my range of sight.

NEW MEXICO

So, that night, this Navajo drops me off at a filling station, closed, on the outskirts of Truth or Consequences after giving me a lift from Las Cruces and he gives me a buck for a cup of coffee and points out this diner, catty-cornered, where I go in and I get to telling the guy behind the counter about the trip and the Navajo and the buck for a cup of coffee and the place goes silent and it seems I have stepped into the old story about the ghost driver and the hitchhiker and the guy gives me the coffee and says I can keep the buck since it was given to me by a ghost in a pickup truck who died swerving to miss a stalled school bus or some such and he said it sure must seem to you like a lot of things aren't what they seem around here, like the name of the town which was the name of an old television game show, like the ghosts at White Sands or Roswell, where it seems like every corner of the state is filled up with these squared patches of ground that are off-limits so who really knows what is really happening here, and, by the way, what brought you here, and by that I don't mean an Indian in an old pickup but why did you come here to this or that place in the first place, I bet for no more reason than to verify the truth of some story you'd been told by the talking heads on the TV or some ghost voice that is drifting between the white spaces of some old book you read, you see, you came here to see it with your own eyes.

LIGHTING ON A BOXCAR

He said, hopping a freight is easy. He said, leaving town is a breeze. He said, you have to wait beyond the yard limit, beyond the sign that says “yard.“ He said, you watch for the highball. He said, you wait for the hog to pick up steam. He said, you wait for the drag to pick up the slack. He said, you walk in the other direction from the direction the train's going. He said, you walk back. He said, you start watching for the boxcars. He said, you start watching for the rungs on the sides on the boxcars. He said, there are rungs on the head-end and the back. He said, take the rungs on the front. He said, always take the rungs on the head-end. He said, the rung in the front. He said, so when you swing on you won't get hurt. He said, so when you swing on you'll swing into the boxcar's side. He said, so if you swing on and can't get a hold you'll bounce right off. He said, you'll bounce right off and light into the ditch. He said, don't you swing on on the ladder in back. He said, you swing on on the ladder in back, it'll likely take you on over in between the boxcars. He said, you'll just swing on over between the cars. He said, and then where will you be? He said, you'll be lighting on the ground; you'll be lighting on the ground between the wheels. He said, there's no place left to go. He said, that's no place to be.

EMPTY REEFERS

He said, half the time the reefers are empty. He said, half the other time they are full. He said, when the reefers are full they are full of meat. He said, when the reefers are full they are full of dead meat or fruit, fruit or lettuce. He said, the reefers got iceboxes on both ends. He said, when the reefers are filled with meat or fruit or lettuce or what-have-you, the iceboxes are filled with ice. He said, the ice is ice they cut from frozen lakes and rivers. He said, they pack the ice in sawdust in the iceboxes of the reefers. He said, it keeps the reefers cold. He said, but half the time the reefers are empty. He said, half the time the reefers are empty, and the iceboxes on the empty reefers are empty too. He said, now here is a fine ride. He said, here is a fine ride especially in winter. He said, you can get out of the cold and wind, hunkered down in the empty iceboxes. He said, the doors for the iceboxes are on top of the cars. He said, you can get into the iceboxes through the doors on top of the cars. He said, be careful about the latches on the icebox doors. He said, there are latches on the doors of the iceboxes. He said, you have to hold the doors open when you're inside the iceboxes. He said, no way to open the latches from the inside. He said, you get in those empty iceboxes and the door closes shut, there's no way out. He said, who knows when you get found. He said, the empty icebox on the empty reefer you found won't be empty. He said, you know what you find. He said, meat. He said, just meat.

SOMETHING HE'S BEEN TOLD

He said, he's heard everything. He said, he's heard this before. He said, he's heard this a hundred times. He said, do you want to hear it? He said, he's not sure he believes it. He said, the way I hear it, it always starts the same. He said, what they tell goes like this. He said, a conductor or a brakeman is switching cars in the yard. He said, the conductor or the brakeman switching cars in the yard gets caught between two cars. He said, the cars are moving slow in the yard, and the yardman or conductor doesn't get out of the way. He said, the story goes that he gets caught between the cars. He said, the cars couple right through him. He said, the cars couple so quick and so clean right through him, he's still alive. He said, the cars couple so clean, it stops all the blood, stops all the pain in the nerves. He said, the nerves get all crushed. He said, he is alive above the place where the cars have coupled so cleanly through him. He said, he's alive, can you believe it? He said, then everybody gathers around to figure out what to do. He said, he can hear them talking about what they can do with him. He said, sometimes he talks to them about what can be done. He said, sometimes he just listens to them talking about what to do. He said, it always turns out that there is nothing to do. He said, it always turns out that they will uncouple the cars, uncouple the cars that are coupled through him. He said, he will die. He said, he gets that he is being kept alive by the thing that killed him. He said, he gets that he is already dead. He said, then they always say that they go and fetch his wife. He said, when they tell the story, they always tell about the going to get the wife. He said, it could be the wife or it could be a girlfriend. He said, but she is always close enough by. He said, they tell you that they get to talk. He said, they tell you they talk, but nobody heard what was said. He said, they tell you they saw him talking to his wife. He said, whispering really. He said, they tell you about holding her up as she is like to faint at the sight of her husband coupled between the cars. He said, she gets taken away. He said, she gets taken away and you go with her. He said, she's walking away stepping over all the rails in the yard. He said, she is stepping over all the rails in the yard. He said, then you hear the switch engine whistle. He said, the switch engine whistles twice, a warning. He said, the switch engine whistles twice, a warning. He said, that means it's time to move. He said, you hear the whistles, and then the engine moves. He said, the engine moves, and then the whole train moves. He said, then you know what happens then.