The Glory Train by Robert Williams

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The man sounded like a carnival barker, and nobody trusts those folks. But his face looked real old-fashioned and honest. He was an old fellow, with a white beard around his chin and bushy white eyebrows.

After a bit, I found my voice. "That's some fancy double-talk you got there, mister," I said, "but I believe I'll pass just the same. I don't have no money to pay you, so I'll stick to my honest walking, thank you very much."

"Young man," he said, "don't misjudge me. I'm no huckster or snake-oil peddler. I don't sell rides on the Glory Train. When I invite you aboard, it is because I need good men to work with me on the greatest of all ventures!"

I'd noticed how quickly I'd changed from a boy to a young man in the old fellow's eyes. I still didn't trust him, but it sounded like he was offering me work, a priceless treasure these days. I still couldn't say yes, though. He had a shiftiness about his eyes, and my Momma had warned me about strange men offering gifts.

"I thank you again, but I got to turn you down. Don't take it personal, but your Glory Train don't look all that right for me."

"Hard times have made a hard lad, I understand, I certainly do," said the man. "Men begging for work and living on dust. Parents turning out children they can no longer keep. The roads and byways are filled with young men like you: the cast-offs, the unwanted. Well let me offer you a place on the Glory Train one more time, lad, and tell you that you are not unwanted. I want you. You will have a place and a job with me."

That hit me pretty hard. It still hurt that Momma and Daddy had turned me out. Even though I knew they wanted me, it still felt like they didn't. And now this man had come along, saying things that sounded like he knew everything I'd gone through. Maybe he wasn't all that shifty. He looked like good people, real father-like. And since I just lost my Daddy, well, I wouldn't mind finding another.

The man must have seen my look of indecision, ‘cause he said, "Well, we haven't been introduced proper, have we? I'm Samuel, Samuel Harper. And you?"

"I'm Joe," I said. "Just Joe."

"Well then, Just Joe," said Mr. Samuel Harper. "What'll it be?"

"I reckon I could use a job, all right. It'd be quite a sight to work on a train like yours."

A smile burst across Samuel's face like you ain't never seen. "Well chosen, my lad! Well chosen! Come on board, time's a wastin'!"

I stepped up, took Samuel's hand, and stepped on board the Glory Train.

The train looked even stranger on the inside than it did on the out, with lots of shining metal and flashing lights all twinkling like church at Christmastime. With those pale walls curving around me, I felt like Jonah inside the whale. After he shut the door behind me, Samuel walked up front to a metal panel with a bunch of levers and buttons sticking out of it, which I supposed must have been the controls for this contraption. I opened my mouth to ask him what he'd hired me on for when he pushed one of those levers, and that train took off so fast it threw me clear against the wall.

As I hauled myself back up, rubbing my sore behind as I did, I asked Samuel, "So where is this Glory Train headed, mister?"

He tossed me a wink and a grin back over his shoulder and said, "Washington, D.C., my good lad! You'll be working for me in this great nation's capital! I've a precious cargo to deliver there and I can't be late, so I must not wait, debate or procrastinate!" He cackled, and as he pushed another lever, I felt the train start to speed up.