12 Years Young

Chapter 14

All of us jumped and pulled ourselves into the train as it slowly started to move forwards. I looked around to make sure everyone made it. Everyone did.

I sat with my back against the wall next to Gordie. The train began to pick up speed and so did our excitement.

"Hey you guys I brought a deck of cards." Said Teddy holing up a deck.

"Nice thinking." Ben said clapping his hands together.

All of us gathered at the back of the car and Teddy dealt.

I got out first. We decided to just go one out since no one had anything to use as chips.

"Shit." I said slapping my cards down. The boys all laughed.

"How much did you have?" Asked Teddy grinning at me.

"11." I said standing up. My answer made the boys laugh even harder.

I shook my head and made my way over the open cart door. We were up on a mountain looking over Oregon.

"Wow." I whispered under my breath. I held onto the door and stuck my head out a little bit.

I looked to the right to see only tracks behind us. I looked to the left to see a train bridge coming up.

"Hey you guys come see this!" I said turning to see Teddy right behind me. I jumped and nearly fell backwards. Teddy reached out and grabbed my arm and pulled me back in.

"Sorry." He said chuckling a little. Gordie looked up but then returned to the game.

"It's fine. Look." I said pointing at the train bridge. Ben was by us now too.

"Wow." They both said at the same time.

We were going over it now. I reached out and grabbed onto he door. I pretty much hugged it and looked down into the water.

"Holy shit." Chris said from behind me. All of us were now watching as we went over the bridge that was about 100 feet in the air.

It was the most beautiful sight I had ever seen.

"Vern would have shit himself." I heard Teddy say making us all laugh. He's right, but I also think Vern would have loved this.

Then it was gone. Trees replaced the view. The boys that were still in the game returned to it. Ben and I sat in front of the open door and watched the trees pass.

"I might be moving again." Ben said quietly.

"What? How come?" I asked looking at him sadly.

"I don't know if it's for sure yet. My dad said he didn't like the "shitty little town that was awful for his business." Ben said shaking his head.

"What does your mom think about it?" I asked making him look at me.

"She's my step mom and she only married my dad because of money. She'll do whatever he wants as long as she is getting money still." Ben said staring at me.

"Are you going to tell the guys?" I asked looking back at them.

"Not until I know for sure." He said following my gaze.

"Hopefully it'll be okay." I said turning back to the trees. I didn't really believe it though. Ben said something else under his breath but I didn't catch it.

"Hey weirdos, new game." Teddy called.

"I don't wanna play." I called to them as Ben walked back over. Gordie took his spot.

"Hey." He said scooting closer to me. We were both sitting cross legged with my left knee and his right touching.

"Hey." I said back smiling at him.

"You okay?" He asked searching my face.

"Yeah of course." I said chuckling.

"Okay." Said Gordie not so sure. I could tell he knew something was up.

"I didn't think of how we were going to get back." He said laughing nervously.

"What?" I asked. Now I felt dumb too. We'd probably have to walk back now.

"We're idiots." I said laughing.

"Yeah we are pretty dumb sometimes." Gordie said grinning.

"But what will our parents think? They might actually think we ran away!" I said with realization making me dizzy.

"We'll be fine." Gordie said smiling. I wasn't reassured though.

Soon the trees started to fade and I could see farther into the forest. I got to my feet and stuck my head out the train.

The train slowly started to slow down and the boys were all standing at the door with me now.

"Do we wait till it's fully stopped, then jump?" Chris asked from right behind me.

"No way, you want the guy runnin it to catch us all? We gotta jump while it's moving!" Teddy said grinning.

I rolled my eyes and looked out down the railway towards the town. I looked for a population sign.

'Harlow-3,043' was the sign I read. So it almost double Castle Rock's size.

The boys were still bickering and I turned around.

"Shut up you idiots!" I yelled over top of them making them all go quiet and stare at me.

"We jump just as its about to stop." I said pointing backwards with my thumb.

"Okay then what?" Ben asked crossing his arm. "Yeah then what?" Chris said right after Ben.

"We run and hide behind the nearest thing we can. A building, tree, shed, anything so the conductor won't see us." I said shrugging and turning back around.

We waited in silence for about two more minutes before the train started to slow a lot. It was getting so slow we could maybe walk to keep up.

"Jump now." I said to the boys. First Gordie and I jumped off and took off running down a dirt road and to behind a shed type thing. The rest of the boys followed not far behind.

"That was grand." Said Teddy rolling his eyes.

"Sorry Teddy, you can jump out of a speeding train another time okay?" I said putting a hand on his shoulder and squeezing.

"Whatever." He said shaking my hands away.

"Well," said Chris standing next to me. "Let's go have a look at this town." He said grinning at me.

I nodded and looked to Gordie who was in the other side of me.

We all started following Teddy down the road and into the new town.