CHAPTER 18

That night, Lopez has to leave us to check on the other cars and make sure there aren’t any stowaways hiding among the packages. He tells Eustace and me to stay away from the door. Well, he uses a combination of talking and gesturing to tell us these things. He warns us that the train will stop in the morning, and that the conductor will make his rounds, peeking into each car to make sure everything is as it should be.

While Lopez is out, Eustace and I work on moving boxes and crates to create a small cubby in which we can hide when the time comes.

It’s hot in the car with the door closed, and the Medicine Head is whispering to me again. My palms sweat. “Why does he think it’s any of his business what’s in my crate?” I ask crossly. I’ve got the bad feelings, the angry ones that make me want to walk hard and talk sharply.

Eustace sighs. “He doesn’t,” he says. “He’s being as curious as any other normal person would be. Don’t be distrustful.”

I think about this for a minute as I inspect the cubby from all angles to make sure we won’t be seen. “Maybe you’re right,” I say. I pick up the Medicine Head’s crate, weasel my way into the cubby, and push it back behind other boxes.

“What are we going to do about Fob when the conductor comes?” asks Eustace.

“I don’t know,” I say. “Can’t he sit and be quiet?”

“Not reliably,” says Eustace. “Can you, Fob?”

Fob barks. For the next hour, Eustace tries to teach him the difference between “speak” and “be quiet.” As evening comes, the train car becomes cooler and more comfortable. The light from the moon and stars creates a very dim glow in the car, but I wouldn’t be scared even if there were no light because I’m used to being in small dark places. I wonder if Eustace is afraid, and I’m about to ask him when I see that he and Fob have fallen asleep together, Eustace curled up and Fob resting his head on Eustace’s legs.

I’m just about to doze off, too. I close my eyes and see the things that I miss: Mother and Priss… and even Kansas, a little bit. I scoot a bit closer to Eustace and Fob.

In the morning, the train pulls into Chicago, Illinois, and Lopez bursts in from the small door at the end of the car and tells us to hide. Eustace, Fob, and I squeeze into the small place we’ve created behind the boxes, and Eustace tries to keep Fob quiet. Lopez leaves again through that small door and crosses a platform into another car.

We wait for what feels like forever for our big door to slide open.

When it does, the car is flooded with light, and we can feel the cool air circulate. Fob starts to get excited, like he wants to go outside and run around. Eustace shoves a piece of dried meat into his mouth. I peer through a couple of cracks between the boxes.

A man in a sharp uniform is talking as he runs a cane along the floor of the car. He looks up and down and side to side and then shouts, “All clear! Lock it up.” Then I see Lopez, who is walking behind him, look directly at me as he slides the big door closed again. We’re safe, but we have to stay quiet while the train is in the station.

For hours, we sit with our ears pressed against the sides of the train car or our heads leaned back against them. The inside steams with heat. Eustace paces back and forth, casting furtive glances at me and the Medicine Head. From the confines of its crate, it starts up its call again. This time, it sounds pleading.

“Be quiet,” I say.

“Who are you talking to?” Eustace asks. He frowns at the crate.

“Never mind,” I say. Eustace is really getting on my nerves. Even Fob bothers me. The way he walks, the way he skulks around, the way he whines and cries. All of it works on my last bit of patience. I press my ear to the train car’s wall again.

I can hear a husband and wife having an argument about how the husband squandered the wife’s father’s money. Another person says he has to find an outhouse. Somebody else remarks that this town smells like cow manure. I sit quietly and listen to the noises and arguments and confusions of the people.

The Medicine Head continues.

What if I just opened the crate but didn’t hold it? Maybe that would cool it down a bit. Maybe it would stop taunting me then. I pry my fingers between the ropes of the knot on top. I make a little wiggle room. When Eustace has his back to me, I loosen the whole thing and the rope falls to my lap.

Eustace spins around. “What are you doing?” he asks.

“Nothing,” I say. “Just sitting here roasting to death, like you.”

Then another train pulls into the station. Its gears grind and squeal to a halt. I peer between the slats of the wood. It’s difficult to see, but I recognize the train, with its leaf-green engine, as one that comes in and out of Tolerone.

I wave Eustace over. “Eustace!” I say. “Is that a train that comes through Tolerone?”

“Sure looks like it,” he says. “Think Greeney’s on it?”

“Certainly,” I say. My stomach flops, and saliva collects on my tongue.

Eustace and I watch for a long while. We’re both quiet. But the Medicine Head keeps up its taunt.

I spit on the floor. I shuffle my feet. I clear my throat. The Medicine Head whispers Hold me. I wonder if it means me or Captain Greeney. “You don’t hear it?” I ask Eustace. He ignores me. I don’t blame him.

We wait for what seems like another long while. My stomach rumbles with what I think is hunger, but it could be from the long train ride or my nerves. I’ve felt stomach-sick since I got on this thing. I try to remember the last time I ate or did anything normal. That all seems like a lifetime ago. I curl over my stomach. Eustace sees me do this and pulls a hard biscuit from his pocket.

“Thanks,” I say, and bite into it. It’s dry, but at once I feel its nourishing effects on me. My head gets clearer. My muscles strengthen. I don’t feel so tired anymore. But I get that strange tingly feeling, like something is about to happen.

I listen. There are voices right on the other side of the train car’s wall.

“I don’t know what it is or does,” one voice says, “but Greeney wants it, and that’s all there’s to it. No sense asking questions because you’re not gonna get no answers.”

Immediately, I suck in my breath and hold it there.

“It’s some kind of magic ball he wants,” says a gruff voice. “If we don’t bring him that Medicine Head, he’ll have our tails.”

Fob shuffles his back legs, as though he’s nervous. Eustace puts his hand on Fob’s neck. I put my finger up to my lips.

“If you’d a gotten it the last time, we wouldn’t have to be out here in the middle of nowhere,” says another man.

“We’ll just see how good you are at finding it,” says the first man. “We done everything we could to get its whereabouts last time. If Wonder had just told us where it was, he’d still be walking the earth. It’s his own fault.” Then he adds, “Must be a mighty powerful thing Greeney wants.”

“Sounds like hocus-pocus to me,” says the third man. “But I hate to be the one who crosses Greeney.”