Turning the page, she moved on to a more solvable riddle. She wrote, “Where did T learn to read? He has traveled where else in the Baldlands?” She glanced up at the bunk overhead where Theo was sleeping silently. “And why no longer cared for by Sue?” However much more commonplace, the riddle that was Theo eluded her also, and Sophia closed her notebook with a sigh.
They moved steadily across Georgia. At each stop, the whistle blew into the still night. At five, the train passed into New Akan. The sun had begun to lighten the edges of the horizon, but the sky above was still filled with stars. The flat fields spread out like calm waters on either side of the tracks. As they pulled into the first station in New Akan, Sophia leaned out the window. The humid air smelled of earth. Only a woman with two small children stood next to the station agent on the platform. The three passengers climbed aboard and the train sat idly for several minutes. Two of the ticket collectors walked onto the platform to stretch their legs. They shook hands with the station agent.
“Bill. Surprised to see you here. Thought the mosquitoes would have eaten you alive.”
“They come near me, they’re liable to drown in sweat,” the station agent said, mopping his brow. “Most humid June I can remember.”
“My clean shirt feels like I’ve been wearing it two days,” one of the ticket collectors said, fanning the flaps of his uniform jacket.
Then the whistle sounded and the ticket collectors went aboard. As the train pulled out, Sophia saw the pink light of dawn rising behind the platform.
They traveled another half hour into New Akan. The sky was beginning to lighten in earnest when the train suddenly lurched to a stop—but there was no platform. As far as Sophia could tell, they were in the middle of nowhere. Toward the front of the train, she saw what appeared to be a cluster of horses. She leaned farther out to get a better look, her belly pressed against the sill, and in the gray light of dawn she saw that the knot of horses was, in fact, a coach. A number of people were emerging from it right there, beside the tracks, and boarding at the front of the train. Two, three, four men.
The Sandmen had caught up with them.
SOPHIA DUCKED BACK into the compartment. “Theo! They’re here. They’re boarding the train. Get up!”
“What?” he mumbled from the top bunk.
“Wake up!” Sophia was almost shouting. “We have to get off, now!” She stuffed the notebook into her pack, shouldered her pack, and tied the lower straps securely around her waist. As she pulled on her shoes, the train began moving once again. “Oh, no! We’re too late.”
Theo, rumpled but alert, was already tying his boots. “Where are we?”
“Somewhere in New Akan. Four men just got on the train. We weren’t even at a station.” Sophia could feel her heart pounding, but her mind was calm. All night she’d been preparing herself for the situation that lay ahead. Now it had arrived, and it was almost a relief. She opened the door and looked out into the corridor. There was no one in sight.
“You thinking we should hide?” Theo whispered.
“We’re going to jump off the train.” With Theo on her heels, she hurried to the rear end of the train and opened the door, stepping out onto the narrow railed platform at the back of the car. The tracks unfolded behind them, disappearing into the dawn sky as the train continued to pick up speed. Wind sucked at the sides of the platform and the wheels clanged against the rails in a quick, accelerating staccato.
“You sure about this?” Theo said into Sophia’s ear, over the noise. “I’m no expert on trains, but we’re going pretty fast.”
“If we don’t jump, they’ll find us. We should do it now before they notice we’ve gone.”
Sophia walked to the far end of the railing. Suddenly, Theo grabbed her arm. “Wait a second,” he hollered. He pointed to the narrow ladder that led up from the platform to the roof of the railcar. “Maybe we can just climb up there and wait them out. They’ll think we’ve jumped. We can watch from there and see when they leave.”
Sophia hesitated. She looked down at the blur of rocky ground beside the tracks and back at the ladder. “All right,” she called out. “I’ll go first.” Climbing deftly onto the railing, she swung around to grasp the ladder. The wind buffeted her, but she held onto the rungs and moved swiftly. When she reached the roof, she dropped onto her stomach and clung to the flat metal surface.
A moment later Theo appeared. They inched out carefully on hands and knees to the middle of the car and then lay flat, the slick metal vibrating against them. “This should do it,” Theo shouted over the wind. “Now we just wait them out.”
Help us escape them, please, Sophia implored the Fates.
For several minutes they lay silently, listening to the whir of the wheels against the rails. The metal roof was hard against her ribs and she palmed the surface desperately, feeling as though a sudden jolt or turn would toss her away like a crumb brushed from a sleeve.
Then she heard it, the sound she’d been dreading: the rear door of the railcar slamming shut. Someone had stepped out onto the balcony. A moment later, she heard the clang of boots. “They’re on the ladder!”
Theo braced himself. “We have to run.” He rose, stepped over Sophia, and put his hand out. “Come on!” She pulled herself up and tried to get her balance. Theo let go and began moving toward the next railcar.
Sophia took a few steps forward and then broke into a halting run. She turned to look over her shoulder, nearly toppling; Mortify was climbing onto the roof. “Run!” she shouted. “Keep running!”
Theo reached the edge and in one easy bound jumped to the next car. Though the distance between them was only a few feet, Sophia felt her knees buckle at the prospect of hanging in midair above the moving train. She looked over her shoulder again; Mortify was halfway across and he was somehow, despite the moving train, loosening the long rope of the grappling hook from his belt loop. Sophia crouched, her knees shaking, and then jumped.
Fly, Sophia, fly! A distant pair of voices reached her: the memory of her parents, holding her high above the ground. For a moment she did fly, or float, caught in midair by the wind. She looked down and saw the tracks, two long black smudges on a gray canvas, and then her feet landed on the other roof, as if the two hands that held her had let her down again gently, safely.
She ran haltingly across the whole length of the second car. The train moved under her each time she put her foot down, and every step threatened to pitch her sideways. She held her hands out rigidly, balancing herself. Mortify had jumped the gap between the first and second car, and he began closing the distance. He loosed the grappling hook and held it deftly in his right hand, readying himself to throw it.
Theo and Sophia jumped, one after another, onto the third car. The violent clang of metal striking metal sounded over the rushing of the wind. The grappling hook had struck the edge of the car and Mortify was hauling it back toward him like a fishing line. “We have to jump off,” Theo shouted.
“No, wait,” Sophia said. “Look!” A train heading in the opposite direction had stopped on its parallel tracks to allow their train to pass. In a few seconds it would be beside them.
“Perfect,” Theo shouted. “Get to the first car.” He took off, and Sophia ran with abandon now, her arms flailing at her sides, no longer looking to see where her feet landed. She kept her eye on the front of the train, covering three railcars, then a fourth, and then a fifth. They were almost at the front. The other train loomed, waiting.