Ch 10: Barry Sings Soprano

March 18th, 1995, 5:57 AM PT, Mile 2368/2230, 3 miles east of Fullerton, CA

John decided that due to the closeness of the trains, it would be wise to alert his son to his presence before the train got in to LA. He whispered to the still mostly-asleep Gretel his intentions, and quickly got dressed. He ambled down the stairs to the door waiting for the train to come to a stop.

When it finally did, John jumped to the ground and was off like a race horse. He knew that the Chief would leave him behind- they simply wouldn't be in Fullerton long enough for him to run there, alert his son, and run back. Most likely the Chief would leave before the Wind even got in to the station. They would be on the ground running, because of the Desert Wind's incredible lateness, Santa Fe would try to run it - and resultantly the Chief - through the stops as quickly as possible.

He made it to the door of the sleeping car just as the Desert Wind came to a rest. Not bothering to wait for the sleeping car attendant to open the coach door- luckily, since he had been slugged- he quickly undogged the door latches and threw it open, jumping onboard.

He started to walk to his son's room but saw Barry standing there, the knife gleaming even in the dim light of the car. He didn't wait to ask questions. Act first, ask the questions later, he figured. He raced up behind Barry.

As he raced, his leg moved back in a perfect arc. Then it shot forward.

Once again, Barry had the sensation of being impacted by a freight train. Only this time, it was in the area he valued most in life. He felt as if a freight train had impacted his privates.

"HAIYOOOODDDLLLEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAOOOOOOIEEEEAAEYYYYYYYE!" Barry screamed, "HYAOEEE AIIII OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

He instinctively grabbed for his impacted nuts.

Unfortunately or fortunately, depending on your perspective, he forgot that happened to be holding a very, very sharp switch blade knife.

Said knife punctured right in to his left testicle as he grabbed and simultaneously fell to the floor.

"HHHHYYYYYYAYYYYAIIIIIEEEEEEEOOOOAIIIIOOOYEEEAHHHHHOOOOO!" Barry continued, with careful articulation, "OHCRYSTOHHHOAAAOAIIIIIEEEEOOOO DEEEEAAARRRRGOOOODDFUUUUUUUCCCCKKKKINNNNGGGHELLLLLL OOOOOAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEAHHHHHHHHH!"

A red blood stain appeared around his crotch. John stepped over him, picked up his son in his arms, and with Jill's help, folded down the upper bunk and rested him on it. Then he dragged Barry into the room, then went and helped Brenda, who had regained consciousness to a set in the bedroom.

He closed and locked the door solidly, then chopped Barry's carotid artery, rendering him unconscious. He then undid Barry's belt. With Jill's help, he placed him on the sofa on his belly, pulled his arms and legs behind his back, and lashed them tightly with the belt. He then took off Barry's socks, stuffed one in his mouth, and wrapped the other argyle sock around his mouth, tying it tightly.

Finally, he checked George for a pulse, and finding that he had one, checked his eyes, his head, and determined he was probably fine.

Thoroughly exhausted, both emotionally and physically, he collapsed onto the other seat. Finally coming to some kind of consciousness, he realized that he had yet to say a single word. He looked around and saw someone who must be the young girl her son had found. Despite all that had happened, she seemed calm.

"Hi, you must be Jill. I'm John, George's dad," he said with a tired smile, and offered her his hand.

She shook it, "Yep, I'm Jill, thanks for coming when you did. I don't know what I would have done if you hadn't."

"I was going to rip my son a new asshole for doing this, you know. But after seeing this bastard, I think I understand it enough not to," he said, then his eyes widened, "Christ, you're naked!"

"Oh," she simpered, "let me take care of that."

She quickly got dressed, then stood on the sofa, and kissed George gently on the lips. He moaned, stirred, and then dizzily sat up.

"Oh god, my aching head," he said woozily, "What happened? I was about to kick his head off and then I am laying on the bed with you kissing me."

"It's a long story," she told him.

He looked around, "Dad, you're here. And who is this woman?"

"Barry knocked you out," John explained, "he was standing over you and was about to carve you up like a thanksgiving turkey. I ... well, I came in the nick of time, and kicked him in the nuts. He then proceeded to stab himself in the nuts with his own knife in an attempt to grab them. He screamed loud enough for your mom to have heard it all the way on the Southwest Chief up ahead.

"I then trussed him up with Jills help," he continued, "and moved you onto that bed, and grabbed this woman here and dragged her inside. I finally collapsed onto this here seat, and introduced myself to your friend here. It was not until I shook her hand that I realized she was buck naked."

"Well, all I can say is thanks for the help," he told him, then turned to Brenda, "Alright, now tell me, lady, who the fuck are you, why are you here, and all that other stuff, because let me tell you, you are a bigger enigma than the one they cracked at Bletchley Park."

Over the next ten minutes, she woozily and slowly, due to her weakened state from the punch and fall, explained how she had met Barry. She also explained why she had started to like him, and her revulsion when she realized what he was. She came across as totally sincere and they found her friendly enough. They invited her to their place and she accepted.

Soon they were pulling into Union Station. It was 6:28 AM. After hours and hours of delay, disaster, and bad luck, the Desert Wind had reached the end of its long journey, 15 hours and 8 minutes late. Its companion for the past 2 hours and 40 minutes, the Southwest Chief, was home an hour and 47 minutes early.

The two storied trains sat side by side in Union Station, discharging two sets of passengers, incredulous for two different reasons. One set because their train was unbelievably late. The other set because it was unbelievably early. It had taken the Southwest Chief 39 hours and 28 minutes, the Desert Wind 65 hours and 28 minutes; but they were both home.

Gretel met them at the door to Union Station, but nobody said a word. They just grabbed a taxi, and headed to the private varnish yards near Union Station.

March 18th, 1995, 7:25 AM PT, Silver Penthouse, Los Angeles, CA

George's home for college was an old rail car- a one drawing room, three double bedroom, dome-buffet-lounge-observation built by Budd in 1948. It was built on the order of the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy railroad for use on its flagship train, the famous domeliner California Zephyr. It still bore Amtrak colours, as it had been used by Amtrak for many years, converted to HEP.

Amtrak had sold it to John two years earlier. They were going to convert it to their new business car before a wrecked Amfleet I opened the possibility that eventually lead to Amtrak's Amfleet business car, Beech Grove. As it was currently set up, the drawing room contained a full size bed for George, the bedroom next door was set up as his office, and the other two bedrooms were in stock configuration.

The buffet had been converted to a full kitchen, and the lower level lounge had been converted into a dining room. The observation lounge was used as a living room, and was more or less as it had been except for one set of tables/chairs being replaced by a large leather sofa. The dome area had been heavily reinforced and modified, and was set up to be a bathtub, hot tub, or stationary current pool depending on how you configured it.