her belongings at the end of her shift, he noticed that her coat was worn, and it was too small. The next day he went to the diner to talk to her mother, and he gave her some money and told her to order Barbara a coat from The Sears & Roebuck Catalog, making sure that she did not let her know that it was from him.
For several weeks, he stayed away from the diner, thinking that eventually she would ask one of the men about him. He was correct in doing so. Charlie told him that the cute little waitress had asked about him. Sydney did not say anything, he just continued shoveling coal into the furnace. As he worked, he thought about Barbara. He wanted her now, more than ever before.
The train whistle snapped him back to reality. When he looked up, he saw that he had missed the only break they were given before their shift change. He had worked at the same fast pace all night that when his shift was over, he had cleared his mound of coal.
Instead of him going to his tent, he rented a room across the street so he could take a bath and go to the diner to see Barbara. When he got to the diner, she was nowhere to be found. Her mother informed him that she had moved to Kansas to help her sister with her new babies, and he became heartbroken.
Olivia, one of the many women who were after him, overheard their conversation, and she made her way to him and suggested that later in the evening, he should stop by to have a drink. He was so lonely that he took her up on offer, but he told her that he wanted her now, so they walked to his room down the street. He took two glasses off the table and poured them both a shot of whiskey. Before undressing her, he told her that she was there for only one thing, and when he was finished with her, he told her to get dressed and get out.
Olivia did not like his attitude toward her, especially after she had done things to him that a Christian woman would only do to her husband. She took her time putting on her stockings, so he grabbed her by her arm and forced her out of his room, and he threw her clothes out the door. She picked up her things and ran down the hall, screaming.
Suddenly, there was loud pounding on his door—it was Joe Coleman, the landlord who live on the same floor. He asked Sydney what the hell was going on. He told him that he was not running a whore house, and if he wanted to continue renting there, he would have to take his whores somewhere else. Sydney had been drinking a lot, and he did not want to hear that bullshit from Joe because the woman whom he loved was gone, and he just fucked the town whore. Either way, he was in a very low place in his life.
Life had been very challenging for him because of his good looks. He felt that he deserved more. He began to drink a lot of whiskey and not show up for work. Sydney felt the need to explore life away from the railyard. He wanted to travel, but joining the army was not an option for him, so he decided to stow away on one of the trains heading west. The ride was long and hot, and he realized that he had made a big mistake traveling without a plan.
Two days into his journey, several hobos jumped into the railcar he was sleeping in and demanded that he give them his money. At the time he had $600 rolled up in a sock in his back pocket. He told them that he was a poor beggar, and he pleaded for mercy. The men beat him and searched his bags and his pockets and found the cash. After they had robbed him, they threw him off the train, and he rolled down a steep hill into a shallow pond.
When he was able to get himself out of the water, he saw that the train was long gone, but he ran alongside the tracks, knowing that it was useless. Finally he gave up and sat on a tree stomp. All that he owned was gone except his switch blade. The sun was just starting to come up when he heard the sound of steel hitting the tracks. He saw the smoke and got to his feet, and he ran as fast as he could to jump aboard the train. It was a successful jump, and he made a promise to himself that he would find those bastards that robbed him and kill them one by one.
Chapter 5
Sydney had no way of knowing where or if the men that robbed him were still riding the rails. Although he was still determined to find and kill them, he had to focus on making some money to survive. The train finally stopped in Indiana, and he waited until it was dark to exit—the police were detaining the stowaways to send them back to where they came from because it was extremely difficult to get them back out. All they did was drink and start riots, causing the jails to be crowded.
It had been a few days since he had eaten a good meal; he had been eating scraps of food from the waste bin behind a diner. So far, no one had noticed him roaming the street at night until he wore a coat that he had stolen off a clothesline earlier that afternoon. An old man called out to him, and he did not look back, instead he ran behind a shed and hid until it was safe for him to return to the train he had been sleeping in. A part of him wanted to go back to Michigan, but he knew that he had to do whatever it took to survive. This was nothing for him; he had been on his own since he was a child. Things were no different now that he was a man.
Sydney decided to stop hiding, and he boldly walked down the street hoping to find work. He was open to do just about anything that would put money in his pocket, but he did not get too far. Off in the distance, he saw one of the men who had robbed him, and he quietly came up behind him and put his knife up to his throat and told him to walk and not say a word. The man was so scared that he pissed his pants, and he did exactly what he was told. Sydney searched him, looking to see if he had any of his money on him. The man was broke; all he had in his pocket was half a bottle of cheap whiskey, tobacco, and rolling papers. He told Sydney that if he let him go, he would lead him to the rest of the gang of men to retrieve his things. He told Sydney that Lewis may have at least $200.
Sydney did not trust him, but he was in desperate need of money, so he followed him to a junkyard where the men were standing around a metal trash can fire, keeping warm. When they saw Sydney, they all started to laugh, because he held his knife to their friend’s throat. Lewis yelled out, “Cut that bastard! He ain’t nothing but dead weight.”
Sydney demanded for his money, but no one said a word, they kept warming by the fire. Lewis, the one in charge, said, “You gotta be stupid to come here demanding money,” then he pulled out a handgun and shot his friend.
Sydney was not afraid; he stood his ground and did not back down. Lewis was impressed and he told the other men to take a walk and he told Sydney that he could use someone like him. Lewis said, “I got an idea of how we both can come up, just me and you.”
Sydney asked him about the other hobos with him. He told him that they were cool, and they wouldn’t be any problem because they knew what would happen to them. He also told him that the one with the stuttering problem was his baby brother, and he better not fuck with him or else.
Sydney did not give a damn about the bullshit Lewis was talking about, all he wanted was his money back. He demanded the return of his money for the last time, but Lewis continued trying to convince him to join them. Sydney walked away, but that was not the end of it.
While he was walking back to hide out in the railcar, he thought about how he could use the plan to his benefit. First, he watched a house that looked to have valuables inside, and later that night, he climbed through and opened the back window. Once inside, he made his way upstairs to the master bedroom and stole a gold watch and a handful of silver dollar coins tied up in a handkerchief hidden in the armoire. He was in and out in less than five minutes. His heart was beating so fast, and he broke out in hives as he ran down the street.
All night long, he paced back and forth in the railcar, afraid that someone would find him. Finally, after two days, he went to town to see if people were talking about the robbery. A group of boys were hanging on the corner talking about it, so he stopped to bend over and pretended to tie his shoelaces so he could hear them.
The boy said a man went into the store to buy some tobacco with one of the silver dollars and the clerk sent a customer
