Chapter 9: The Boy She’s Gonna Marry

October 5th, 1995, 6:30 PM CT, Chart House Tower of The Americas, San Antonio, TX

The restaurant was amazing, one of those revolving restaurants in a tall tower, 700 feet off the ground. They could see the entire city, and the view was absolutely spectacular. The prices were high, but it didn’t matter. George had money, and Amtrak was picking up $100 worth of the tab. Money was for spending, life was for enjoying, and enjoying life was for sharing with friends.

“This is amazing,” Jill said, summing it up for everyone, in her usual overly flowery way.

“You can repeat yourself,” Akilah agreed.

“It’s sure awesome,” Josh said, “Eatin’ like dis I couldn’t affawhd myself, thank yuh so much Geawhge. Yuh with me?”

“I am with you,” Akilah said, “Thank you so much for this meal, George.”

“It’s my pleasure,” said George, “It’s worth it to have such fine company with us, believe me.”

The waiter came over and took their orders.

“Hmm,” Jill started, “I’ll have the bacon wrapped scallops for an appetizer, the surf and turf for dinner, and Bananas Foster for desert.”

“I’ll have the Ahi Tuna appetizer, the prime rib, and second the Bananas Foster,” Josh agreed.

“How about the prime rib Brushetta for an appetizer, and the salmon?” George said, “And since everyone seems to like the idea of the Bananas Foster, I’ll have some too.”

“I will have the Chicken Francese, for dinner, and the shrimp for an appetizer. And yes, I want the Bananas Foster, too, it sounds quite delicious,” Akilah made the dessert order unanimous.

“Very good.” The waiter melted away the way excellent waiters often do.

The kids ate their dinner and talked about the future. It was beginning to seem that they would be sharing a future for a lot longer than initially planned. They would have fun together, if this was how much they got along staying together; it seemed pointless for the cash-strapped kids to be spending money on accommodations when George and Jill had what they kept saying was plenty of space. They finally got a bit annoyed at the mystery, though.

“So, Geawhge, I must axe yuh, exactly what is dis Silvuh Penthouse meshugas, or what?”

“Ok, ok, I give up. It’s an old railcar. It was built by Edward G. Budd company in 1952 for the Chicago, Burlington, & Quincy. It was for use on their California Zephyr that they operated Chicago and Oakland, just like the current train with the same name.”

“So why Silver Penthouse?” Akilah pressed.

“Well, first it’s called ‘Silver’ because it’s the color silver,” George explained, “Budd invented a technique called shot welding which allowed people to weld stainless steel. Since it is stainless, it need not be painted, and in use on rail cars, it rarely was. It’s called ‘Penthouse’ because it was one of the flagship cars used on the train; there were four of them built, Silver Lookout, Silver Penthouse, Silver Solarium, and Silver Horizon. They were originally three bedroom, one drawing room, buffet, lounge, observation cars.

“Silver Penthouse is modified for our use. The bedroom adjoining the drawing room is remodeled to be an office, and the internal bathroom is removed for that one. The other two are intact as designed. The porter’s room is now a shower. The lower level lounge is a dining room, and the buffet has been outfitted to be a kitchen. The observation lounge is mostly intact. But the pièce de résistance is the dome. We have remodeled the dome with a water-filled tub. It can be used as a bathtub, a current pool, or a hot tub. It’s really nice normally, but you have no idea how awesome it is underway. The car is Amtrak certified and can be pulled behind Amtrak trains.”

“Wow,” said Akilah, “So you can take your house wherever you go, is that correct?”

“Well,” George said, “Anywhere Amtrak is willing to haul it. We could, I suppose, also have a freight company move it, so I guess it could technically be taken anywhere there is tracks to take it on. I’ve never actually been on this particular car when it was underway. It was transported separately; had I taken the car to LA, I would never have met Jill, most likely.”

“Ladies and gentlemen,” the maitre ‘d announced, “We are opening the microphone to anyone who wants to sing along with our piano player. Any volunteers?”

“Acky,” Josh said, kissing her on the ear, “Why don’t yuh go up and sin’ somethin’?”

“Alright,” she said, “I will. But you are going to regret asking me to do this.”

Josh looked horror stricken as she went up to the microphone, and asked the piano player if he knew the song she was going to sing. By shocking coincidence, he did.

“It was actually two days ago,” she told the audience, “But I dedicate this song to my boyfriend, Josh.”

Her voice was a little off; her accent was in there a tad. But she was surprisingly good as a singer.

Today I met the boy I am going to marry
He is all I wanted all my life and even more
He smiled at me and the music started playing
Here comes the bride when he walked through the door

Today I met the boy I am gonna marry
The boy whose life and dreams and love I want to share
The boy whose on my hand a band of gold will bear
The band of gold I always dreamed I would wear

When we kissed I felt a sweet sensation
This time it was not just my imagination
Today I met the boy I am going to marry
He is just what I have been waiting for oh yes

With every kiss, oh this is it as my heart keeps saying
Today I met the boy I am going to marry
When we kissed I felt a sweet sensation
This time it was not just my imagination

Today I met the boy I am going to marry
He is just what I have been waiting for oh yes
With every kiss, oh this is it as my heart keeps saying
Today I met the boy I am going to marry, yeah, yeah, yeah

When Akilah came back to the table, Josh was indeed beet red.

“Was that a proposal, Akilah?” Jill asked, looking more serious than she usually did, “Because it’s supposed to be the man who proposes, but it sure sounded like it.”

Akilah blushed. But Josh suddenly got up, kissed Akilah on the cheek, and then knelt down beside her on one knee.

“She’s right, yuh know, Acky,” Josh said, “It’s supposed tuh be de man who does de proposin’.”

“Well, I,” Akillah stammered.

“I don’t have a rin’,” Josh said, “I’m sawhry fawh dat. Butcha made me realize somethin’. I have tuh axe yuh, now. I love yuh, and I am done tryin’ tuh tell myself its somethin’ else. I love yuh, and I am done vacillatin’ on it. I love yuh, and I am done axin’ myself quesshuns. I know what I want. What I want is yuh, fawhevuh. Akilah Ganem, will yuh marry me?”

Akilah was in shock. Jill was frozen with her mouth hanging open. Even George was waiting on tenterhooks for the answer.

“You are serious, Josh?” Akilah asked, “This is not a joke?”

“I have nevuh been mawh serious in my life.”

“What would your parents say about us?”

“I don’t care,” Josh averred firmly, “What would your parents say about us?”

“I do not really care either, actually,” Akilah said, then suddenly jumped on Josh, “Yes. Yes. Yes, I’ll marry you. Of course.”

“Congratulations,” George said, still in some degree of shock.

Applause erupted from the entire restaurant.

The dinner had become a celebration.

October 6th, 1995, 2:30 AM CT, Joe’s Diner, Houston, TX

Sharon looked out the window. Across the way was the Motel 6 her kids were currently sleeping at. They had a long drive down to Houston, but it helped that Miguel was willing to help relieve her at the wheel. He was eating a half a chicken, and she was having some crappy roast beef. It was not the finest eating establishment, but one does not generally expect to find that across the street from a Motel 6.

“Thank you for this, Miguel,” Sharon told him, she would not have had the strength to do this without him after the sabotage attempt on her car.

“No, thank you for this, Sharon,” Miguel insisted, “I feel like I have a more useful purpose now, besides making my mother annoyed at me for sticking around the house.”

They had gotten into Houston an hour before. Miguel had helped her by paying for a second room. Miguel and the two boys were going to sleep in one of the double-bed rooms, while she and the three girls would stay in the other. There was a connecting door between them. She felt secure in that arrangement, as Miguel agreed to keep his side of the door open, and let her lock her side.

It really made things less cramped. The kids were exhausted and were in deep sleep practically as their heads hit the pillow. It had been a long ride, and the seats in the back of Chex had not been designed for long distance comfort; they had been designed to seat 6 passengers in the back of the car, and three in front. They had plenty of space, but they hadn’t really been able to sleep much.

“I called Amtrak,” Miguel told her, “The train won’t be through for a few days. Probably late at night on the 7th. It’s a good thing we took the rooms in my name. It’ll make you harder to find. I booked us seven coach seats on the lower level of one car. We should have that whole lower level to our self, but no guarantees. Don’t worry about the cost of it, though.”

“Why not? I thought you told me you weren’t going to take her-” Sharon was shocked.

“I didn’t. I have never been a spendy person. 15 years of salary and nothing to spend it on can be quite a lot, you know.” Miguel smiled, “We have a enough to not worry for a little while.”

He took her hands in his.

“I’m glad we’re friends,” he said, “And I can see in your eyes that maybe it isn’t ending there. I hope I can be a man that will make you smile, regardless of the capacity I do it in.”

He picked up his soda, “Here’s to the future, Sharon.”

“To the future,” she agreed. They clinked glasses and drank.

October 6th, 1995, 3:45 AM EST, Amtrak Headquarters, Washington, DC

Thomas Downs had been sleeping at his desk. With all the problems going on with his railroad as of late, he was tired, harried, and stressed. They had a couple of minor derailments in the past few days. Nothing major, but it would remove several trainsets worth of cars from commercial service for a few days for inspection. In essence, he had no spares for several different cities. He was already running a system with no slack, and this was taking out even more. One more thing happened, and they would have a major problem.

A few other trains had been experiencing major delays. Their funding problem was a serious one, and they were having trouble making their bills. The F40’s were dropping like flies from insufficient maintenance combined with old age. He knew that at some point in the near future, better funding would be coming out of Congress. It was a vicious cycle, but until then he’d have headaches on top of headaches. He was trying to meet his mandate, but it was not an easy one given the circumstances.

He also wanted to retire the Turboliners. The Turboliner trains were one of the many stupid political purchases that Amtrak made more for political reasons that practical ones. It continued to amaze him that people wanted these cumbersome, inept, and inefficient dinosaurs to continue riding. The customers seemed to like them, and the idea of their maximum operating speed of 170mph appealed to politicians who could say they had high-speed trains in their district.

The history behind it was telling, he thought. In the 60’s, the rail companies were trying to look at ways of competing with aircraft, and so was the government. Rather than going to the expense of electrifying and building high speed trains that way, as the Japanese, British, and French were doing at the time, they decided to try and create one that didn’t need the electrification. It was all about doing it on a budget, doing the bare minimum, while making the greatest possible fuss- it was the American way.

The solution was quite simple, but stupid. They used small but powerful jet turbine engines to power the trains, transmitted through a hydraulic coupling. They used two power cars, one at each end, with a few passenger cars unpowered between them. They looked modern, were quite fast, and could run as fast as possible for the track they ran on. They also had a passive tilt system that allowed for quicker running around curves. They did not, however, have the acceleration of a diesel-electric motor or a full electric motor, which meant their speed was only useful for long distances over straight track.

Which was one of the problems. The biggest problem was that the track was never designed for high speeds in most cases. As a result, the trains never saw the 170 mph they were in fact capable of, except in testing. There were other problems, though. Massive ones.

The first one was unique to the UAC TurboTrain sets, the first fruit of the idea. CN and VIA ran them from 1968 to 1982, and PennCentral and Amtrak ran it from 1968 to 1976. The track quality was horrible in those days, and the train sets were constructed to be light. They were not up to the rigors of operation. They were made out of very thin carbon steel, and they rusted. Oh, how they rusted. Amtrak ran them for five years, four of them with great reluctance, and then left them in a siding to rot under the excuse they didn’t run. They didn’t run because they didn’t want them to run.