The Christmas Train Part 18

"Off and on? Three years?"

"Yes!"

"And you expected her to be content with that?"

He just looked at her blankly.

Eleanor continued. "So she wanted to make a commitment but you didn't. You were perfectly happy with popping in, popping out, sharing the good times not the bad, and going your solo way when you felt like it?"

"It's not like that, Ellie. I'm not like that anymore."

"Sure you're not. You haven't changed. Not a bit."

"It would be different. With the right woman."

Eleanor rubbed her temples. "Listen, we have a wedding to do tomorrow. Someone else's else's wedding. I need some sleep." wedding. I need some sleep."

"We can't leave it like this."

"Oh yes we can, and we are."

He moved to take her in his arms but she firmly pushed him away. "We'll do our duty tomorrow, we'll get to LA, and we'll go our separate ways. This time for good."

"Ellie!"

"Goodbye, Tom." She slid the door closed with finality.

chapter twenty-six.

The dawn broke over the high plains of Colorado near the New Mexico border, but the sun was completely hidden by a vast sky of threatening clouds. The snow lay thickly over the ground, covering the ubiquitous sagebrush. Most folks a.s.sembled for an early breakfast, because word had spread rapidly about the upcoming nuptials. As the train neared La Junta, the excitement grew and virtually all the pa.s.sengers and crew crowded into the lounge car such that there was barely enough room for the wedding procession, which consisted of the bride and groom, and a maid of honor and best man who never once looked at each other. Even though they walked in together arm-in-arm it was as though an invisible force separated them.

The wedding went off without any major glitches. A group of musicians Max had hired and who'd gotten on early that morning played the traditional "Wedding March" and other tunes. Kristobal filmed the entire event, and Max directed as best he could, with most people on the train not even knowing this was a Max Powers production of sorts. Tom and Eleanor did their respective parts though Tom, for one awkward moment, couldn't find the ring and then for one even much more awkward moment seemed to be trying to place it on Eleanor's finger instead of handing it to Steve. Then that was all straightened out and Tom was able to step back and quietly ponder various suicide opportunities that might come his way.

The bride and groom kissed right as the train stopped at La Junta, and Julie raised her fist in the air and shouted, "Yes!"

Normally, Pike's Peak would be clearly visible at the stop, but not even that towering chunk of rock could be seen through the cloud cover. All throughout the ceremony Herrick Higgins had sat quietly in his corner and watched the vicious-looking sky.

Everyone on board threw rice, and outside the window a group of mostly train personnel from the station did the same, the white kernels disappearing rapidly in the swirling snow.

At La Junta the Chief also attached the third diesel engine to help it over the pa.s.s. As the train pulled out of the station, the crowd lining the track roared in appreciation at the "Just Married" sign that had been hung on the last car of the Chief and the strung tin cans rattling just below the sign. It was an enviable beginning to any marriage.

Then the party on the train really started, highlighted by the enormous feast Max had also paid for. As people stuffed themselves and the official wedding photographer took photos, Roxanne came sweeping out in a flamboyant costume that was definitely not Amtrak standard issue. She was trailed by the LA Boys' Center Choir, also dressed in their finest. The crowd grew quiet, the musicians stood ready, and Roxanne and the choir began to sing. It was all a vast yet delicate thing of beauty. They sang cla.s.sical songs, then the blues, then some hiphop, and next a string of tunes from Nat King Cole to Sinatra. Roxanne followed that up with a solo by urging Steve and Julie to "Think... Think..." and then belted out "Chain of Fools," doing her best Aretha Franklin impersonation and next the queen of soul's signature piece, "Respect." The crowd was so into it by this time that people were standing and shouting out each letter with her: "R-E-S-P-E-C-T!" The woman's voice was booming, and she was swirling around the floor in intricate dance steps with a grace and litheness that belied her great size. Sweat was streaming down her face and neck, and she seemed truly possessed by something heavenly as she shouted out a series of "Amen"s.

Max could only sit back and smile. He ceremoniously tore up his script when Roxanne looked over at him, and then she pulled him up with her and they danced together, at which point everyone else joined in. While the Capitol Limited had probably seen such strutting before, this was probably a first for the Southwest Chief.

Lelia pulled Tom over, but he managed to promptly pull himself away, citing nausea, which wasn't altogether a falsehood. It had truly been a rough night for him, much of which had been spent in the communal bathroom giving back most of the alcohol he'd drank. Poor, deserted Lelia looked around and spotted Kristobal, who was packing away the video equipment.

"Care to dance?" she asked the handsome young man. Kristobal looked up and his eyes perceptibly widened at her glamorous figure and attire. "You work for Mr. Powers, don't you?" Kristobal nodded. "I'm Lelia Gibson."

His eyes widened further and he blurted out, "Lelia Gibson, the voice of Cuppy the Magic Beaver?"

She was taken aback. "Why, yes. You know the show?"

"Know the show? It was my favorite when I was a kid. My little brother still watches it. And all my nieces and nephews, it's their number-one program. You're terrific. I saw you at Mr. Powers's party last night but I never heard your name. And I only knew you, well, by voice."

Lelia looked fl.u.s.tered. "You watched it as a child? My, I have been doing the show a long time, haven't I?"

Kristobal dropped all pretense of self-restraint or professional dignity, so overwhelmed was he. "And Sa.s.sy Squirrel and Freddy the Futon and Petey the Orange Pickle, they're all cla.s.sics. I cried during the episode when Petey was caught in the storm drain and all his color was washed out. The depth of emotion you gave him during that tragic scene. It took me weeks to get over it. Look, I don't mean to gush, but I just can't believe you're on this train. Would it be asking too much for your autograph? My family is just not going to believe this. My little brother is going to freak."

"Why, certainly you can have my autograph, um..."

"Oh, where are my manners? I'm Kristobal Goldman." He gave her hand an enthusiastic shake that almost lifted pet.i.te Lelia right out of her outrageously expensive, open-toed three-inch heels.

"I tell you what, Kristobal, I'll autograph anything you want if you'll dance with me."

An astonished Kristobal bowed deeply and off they went.

While everyone was preoccupied at the wedding and party afterward, about twenty more compartments were robbed of various items, from watches and rings to bracelets and even Max's pair of Bruno Maglis. Once more the thief made a clean getaway, although there was someone lurking in the corridor who might have seen something suspicious. Yet no alarm was given, and the thief quickly melded back into the partygoers. The bag of loot was bulging more than ever, and they still had a day remaining before their scheduled arrival into LA.

During the night before the wedding the storm had settled over the border between Colorado and New Mexico. Virtually locked in place by a high-pressure system, the clouds were now so heavy with moisture that something had to give; and it did at about three o'clock in the morning, with the Chief still over eight hours away. The gauges used to measure snowfall were filled within an hour; the enormously strong instruments erected to quantify windspeed were toppled in thirty minutes. All commercial flights were instructed to give the area a wide berth and all nearby ski resorts were closed.

The Raton Pa.s.s had endured five winter storms already, and the snow packed on the mountains was kept there by freezing temperatures and the weight of the snow itself. When the current storm finally came crashing down, two things happened: The temperatures actually rose a few degrees, and the new snow fell so heavily and so fast that it didn't simply settle on top of the snow below, it hit and then slid, with more snow falling and tumbling right behind it. Thus tremendous momentum was built up in a very short time. By seven o'clock conditions were near whiteout. Then at nine-thirty, there was a sudden lull in the storm and the forecasters predicted the system had exhausted itself and would rapidly dissipate, with a change in the prevailing winds now directing the worst of it north and east.

Someone once said to Mark Twain, upon the occasion of a sudden rain shower, that he hoped the storm would stop, whereupon Twain had replied that the odds were good because it always had. He'd also remarked that weather in general was very accommodating: If one didn't like what it was doing at any given moment, all one had to do was wait a bit and the weather would change. Twain had never put much stock in weather predicting, no doubt sensibly concluding that the science of foretelling what Mother Nature intended was a sorry one at best and a fool's gamble at worst.

Well, some things hadn't changed, because even with satellites and super Doppler radar and other state-of-the-art devices to help them, the meteorologists following the current storm did what meteorologists often do: They got it wrong. The blizzard had been merely resting. Now millions of tons of Pacific moisture and galelike winds were perfectly posed to add one to the history books.

chapter twenty-seven.

Most of the wedding partygoers had dispersed by now, but Max and Misty, Kristobal and Lelia, and Herrick Higgins were all sitting in the lounge car. Tom and Eleanor had left separately right after Roxanne had finished singing, and they hadn't been seen since. Roxanne had gone to take care of train business and get the choir settled back down after their hard work. Married now, Steve and Julie had been given an empty double deluxe in which to officially commence their honeymoon with, no doubt, considerable gusto.

The Chief was now well past Trinidad, Colorado, and had its sights set squarely on the Raton Pa.s.s. Everyone watched as the train started its ascent. As the grade grew steeper, and the deep whine of the three engines grew louder, there was a creeping uneasiness among the pa.s.sengers. The vast amounts of snow being pushed off the track by the lead engine's plow could be seen at every curve. It was a wonder that the engineer could see at all with all that white flying around.

Kristobal said, "Uh, what happens if one of the cars comes loose? Do we just go barreling down into the abyss?"

Higgins replied, "No, the automatic braking system comes on and the car stops. Train technology has come a long way over the years." He pointed out the window. "We'll climb to 7,580 feet at the highest point."

"That's pretty high," said Kristobal.

"Well, it's not the highest track elevation in this country. That's on the California Zephyr past Denver at a little over 9,200 feet. In South America - I forget which country - there's a train track at an elevation so high they have to give out oxygen to the pa.s.sengers. We go through a half-mile-long tunnel that runs under the pa.s.s, and once we get out of that we're in New Mexico. We'll descend down the eastern side of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains and into Raton. Raton's at an elevation of 6,666 feet, so while the descent is sharp, it's not really that far."

Misty looked stricken, and she grabbed Max's arm. "Did you say 6,666 feet?"

Higgins looked at her over the rim of his coffee cup. "Yes, ma'am."

"Are you sure that's the elevation? Exactly?"

"Well, yes, ma'am. They measure those things pretty precisely."

"Oh my G.o.d!" said Misty.

"What's wrong, honey?" asked Max.

"Don't you see, 6-6-6-6? It's the worst possible combination of numbers, it's even worse than a triple 6."

Max turned pale. "You're right, the mark of the Devil, plus another 6. Totally bad karma."

"Is this really a problem?" asked a nervous-looking Kristobal.

"In my line of business, it doesn't get much worse," said Misty emphatically. "Can we stop the train?"

"Isn't there a brake rope to pull, like in the movies?" asked Lelia. She was seated next to Kristobal and was anxiously clutching his arm.

"Uh, no, they don't have those anymore," said Higgins. "Now just calm down, it'll be okay. The Chief runs this route twice a day, east and west." He checked his watch. "We'll be entering the tunnel pretty soon."

"Is it dark?" Kristobal wanted to know.

"Well, most tunnels are, son," replied Higgins judiciously. "But we won't be in it long. In and out in a blink and then on to Raton and New Mexico."

Tom eyed the diamond ring in his hand. It had belonged to his mother, and ever since her death he'd carried it with him. In fact, he'd very nearly pulled this ring out and handed it to Steve instead of the one he was supposed to. In turn, that bit of confusion had also led him to start toward Eleanor with the band of gold rather than merely handing it to Steve to place on Julie's finger. He pocketed the ring, examined himself in the mirror, smoothed down a few stray hairs, adjusted the tie that Kristobal had loaned him for the wedding ceremony, took a long breath, and told himself for the hundredth time that this was what he had to do.

A few minutes later he knocked on Eleanor's compartment door. She slid back the curtain, stared at him, then drew the curtain back and he heard the door lock click into place. He rapped on the gla.s.s again. "Ellie, I really need to talk to you, right now."

"Go away!"

"I need to ask you something, and I'm going to ask you right now."

She flung the door open so hard, metal plunked hard on metal.

"I thought I'd made myself more more than perfectly clear!" than perfectly clear!"

Tom reached into his pocket for the ring and started to shakily descend to his knees.

The interior of the train was thrown into darkness as the Chief entered the tunnel. The next events happened with terrifying suddenness. All of the snow covering the southern crest of the mountain closest to the train tracks broke loose from the overpowering strength of relentless wind gusts and the tons of new-fallen snow. Officially, the avalanche started at 11:15 Mountain time, and it raced down the mountainside at tremendous speed; it was enough snow that, if it were melted, it would have formed a decent-sized lake of considerable depth. The avalanche hit the slide fences located between the mountain slope and the train tracks, which had been installed there for the very purpose of detecting track intrusions. The impact occurred with such force that it not only flattened the steel fence but also ripped it off its supports and carried it down the mountain.

This collision sent an automatic red alert to Amtrak Dispatch that, in turn, instantly communicated to the engineer of the Southwest Chief to stop the train dead in its tracks pending further developments.

The Chief had just emerged from the tunnel under the Raton Pa.s.s when the signal was given, and the engineer applied the brakes with the swiftness that the gravity of the situation required. Indeed, he didn't need the warning by Amtrak Dispatch because he could see the awesome spectacle clearly through his windshield, though it was a considerable distance up the track. So powerful was the tidal wave of snow and rock that it spread out laterally, and a substantial tributary headed dead at the Chief with enough potential lethality to cause the engineer, who'd been running this route for fourteen years, to whisper a quick goodbye to his wife and kids. He'd seen many things during his railroad career but nothing that came close to what was presently bearing down on him and his train. He closed his eyes, because all he could envision happening in the next few seconds was the utter destruction of the Southwest Chief and all those on board.

As the train lurched to a halt, everyone sensed that this wasn't a normal stop. When the idling train began to shake as though an earthquake were occurring, they became sure of it. Thankfully, they couldn't see what the engineer could, but they all heard a growing rumble that was immediately identifiable to several people on board who'd heard such sounds before.

"It's an avalanche," shouted Tom, as he looked out the window.

Eleanor paled. "My G.o.d."

He ripped a mattress off the bed, grabbed Eleanor, threw her on the floor, put the mattress on top of her, and then covered the mattress with his body as the train continued to shake and gyrate and the sounds of the mountain's snowy skin sliding off became deafening.

Back in the lounge car everyone was under the tables. Some scribbled last will and testaments on napkins, others stumbled through long-forgotten prayers. Max and Misty clung to each other, and Lelia and Kristobal did the same, his long arms wrapped protectively around her.

Higgins was under the table too, but he was looking out the window still, his worst fears realized with sudden ferocity.

Miraculously, the enormous sideways thrust of the hurtling snow stopped before it knocked the train off the track. However, when the engineer finally opened his eyes, the only thing he saw was an impenetrable wall of snow.

He managed to report in to Amtrak and was told that, presumably, a second avalanche on the other side of the tunnel had taken another slide fence with it. A minute or two either early or late and the Chief would be at the bottom of a ravine, not a single person on board having to worry further about the upcoming holiday. Yes, lucky indeed, the engineer was told by Amtrak Dispatch, though he'd seen that for himself. On the other hand, the Chief was now sandwiched in, unable to go either forward or back, and the storm apparently was just getting started.

The meteorologists had now weighed in with an updated forecast, an accurate one this time. The region was being blasted by a winter storm the likes of which hadn't been seen in thirty years. The old storm had claimed over six hundred lives, with some people, cut off from every known point of civilization, having died of starvation. They were folks in remote, inaccessible areas, precisely like the one in which the Chief was now idling helplessly.

Higgins looked to the sky as high winds began to sweep off the mountain and buffet the Chief with such power that the enormously heavy train was rocking back and forth at unsettling angles. In all his years working the rails, he'd never been in a position quite like this. Looking out the left-side window, no one could fail to see that it was a long way down. With the snow continuing to fall, another avalanche couldn't be ruled out. And the next one just might take the Southwest Chief with it.

chapter twenty-eight.

An hour later Roxanne issued a formal announcement over the train's PA system, telling people what had happened and what was being done to help the trapped train. The latter was fairly meager, since there wasn't a whole lot that could be done right now. As she explained, with twin mountains of snow blocking both the way to LA and the rails back to Chicago, the Chief squarely in the middle, and a blizzard hammering the region with high winds and snow, the best that could be done right now was for people to remain calm and in their compartments. It wasn't an easy instruction to follow, and the corridors were constantly filled with anxious folks seeking more detailed information.