The headlights flashed before the lives of the three boys the night of July 21st. It was like opening the blinds after a late night when you wake up at 3 in the afternoon. They entered a new state of being, their eyes captured every frame like a stop motion video. Everything had happened so fast that got them into this in the first place, but it slowed down as their heart raced faster and faster like a race horse competing for the Triple Crown. There was a young boy standing on the train platform watching it all happen, waving to the train as it passed by.

-MAY 4TH, 2004 3:23 AM [START]-

MAJOR TRAIN COLLISION IN JONES, ARKANSAS. FIVE CONDUCTORS FOUND DEAD IN THE ACCIDENT. SURROUNDING HOMES ON FIRE. FIRE DEPARTMENT COOPERATING WITH POLICE TO EXTINGUISH AND EVACUATE CITIZENS OF THE AREA.

-MAY 4TH, 2004 5:01 AM [END]-

Several families were affected and devastated by the loss of people and homes in the area, but none as much as Tommy, an only child now being held in the local foster home. He was old enough to understand what happened to his dad in the crash, but not quite enough to accept the loss. He was at an age where it was even harder for him to be adopted, he was just about to start 5th grade. As for what the adopting families saw, he was just about to go through puberty and enter middle school. Even the families that accepted a challenge thought it would be traumatic for the kid, it'd be too hard for him to fit in and feel comfortable with himself after his dad died.

Despite that, Tommy had kids that worshipped him in the foster home. He was rebellious and explained that he didn't want to be adopted. He told the kids that life was better here, the adopting parents were never nice to the kids. He had developed a group of kids that would do anything he says in order to not be adopted. It was more like a group of friends, but no one knew that Tommy didn't really like them, he just wanted to not be left out. Not one of the kids knew what actually happened to Tommy's dad, he told the other kids that his dad 'is' a conductor and passes by the house every night. Tommy snuck out of the house every night to wave to his dad as the locomotive rolled across the landscape. The other boys said they never heard any trains go by at night, actually they said they hadn't heard any since last spring.

There was no train, we're not sure if Tommy knew that though. Not since the crash. But every night, he would go to see the train. Somehow, the parents were different from the kids at the foster home. There had been reports from families near the tracks that heard a train horn, mind even a few reports of seeing the headlights of a train. The tracks were removed, so police didn't even bother to investigate. Probably just some old folks off their rockers looking for some dumb thing to nag about in the town.

Tommy wanted to take his friends to prove there was a train one night, they snuck out an hour after nightfall. The boys said they would never believe Tommy until they got to go see it. Of course rumors had gone about and Tommy had to tell them only a certain amount could go because they might be caught if too many go. The plan was to go to the old train stop just at the end of the downtown area across from the general store.

When they got there Tommy explained how the train arrived every night at different times. You would have to lie on the path of the old tracks and sleep. The horn would wake you up well before the train was even close to you. You would have about a minute to move. How long this minute would be was completely different than what the boys thought it would be. Tommy had brought a sack that had snacks for after they woke up, he figured they wouldn't expect anything out of that. They lied down for a nap on the tracks like Tommy had said and done himself.

He sat back up as soon as he knew the boys were all asleep. He crept over to the pillow case and untangled the ropes he kept. The rest of the boys were fast asleep as he tied them up like a caterpillar knitting itself into a cocoon to enter the afterlife. After he was done, he went to the waiting station and peered through the window waiting for his dad to come home again. Like a super moon rising from the horizon, the locomotive chugged again and Tommy ran out to the platform. He called to his friends that the train had come back again. The boys tried to sit up immediately but fell and wiggled around struggling to get out of a sleeping bag type knot as if they had smelled bacon in the morning after a long night by the campfire. Tommy smiled and waved like a kid at a Disney parade, he never saw his dad, but he felt the spirit of him. The reunification only came with more blood to be spilled on the iron beams. Tommy made an agreement in order to see his dad, no one would ever see these boys again.

The headlights flashed before the lives of the three boys that night. It was like opening the blinds after a late night when you wake up at 3 in the afternoon. They entered a new state of being, their eyes captured every frame like a stop motion video. Everything had happened so fast that got them into this in the first place, but it slowed down as their heart raced faster and faster like a race horse competing for the Triple Crown. There was a young boy standing on the train platform watching it all happen, waving to the train as it passed by.