| Even Love Is
Odd: True Old-Fashioned Pioneer Stories of Love and Romance Excerpt: Gift of Gab I elbowed Wally out of the way and scrambled up the train steps ahead of him, grabbing the railing at the top to catch my balance when my snow-slick shoes threatened to send me skating down the aisle. As I stopped to shake snow from my pant cuffs and stomp my shoes free of the icy stuff, Wally jostled me from behind. “Get a move on, Sherman, some of us want to get warm.” “Hold your horses,” I shot back. “Some of us want to keep from falling on our fannies.” I gave Wally a backward butt before I started down the aisle to find a seat. Then I saw her watching me. The girl couldn’t have been more than twenty, with soft waves of chestnut brown hair that curled alluringly around her ears. Her lovely figure was clothed in a burgundy dress. Large brown eyes regarded me curiously as her full, pink mouth curved with the hint of a smile. I wondered with a hot flash of sudden embarrassment if she had heard what I’d said to Wally. I hoped not. My heart fluttered in alarm when I saw that the seat opposite the beautiful young lady was empty. I didn’t dare take it. I could smooth talk the hometown girls who were my own age, which was eighteen, but this was completely different. I knew that if I tried to converse with this pretty stranger, my tongue would trip all over itself. I abruptly turned and slid into a seat that was across the aisle but just ahead of where the girl was sitting. From my vantage point, I could watch her without being blatant. Wally plopped down onto the seat opposite me. Each pair of seats on the train faced one another so that four people could sit and converse comfortably as they rode to their destinations. “Boy, Sherm, I never thought when Christmas break started that I’d be looking forward to school again,” Wally said as he stretched his legs out long in front of him. “Yeah, me too,” I said absently, my eyes glued to the girl. She was casually watching other people find seats along the train car. She had an open and friendly expression. Maybe I could speak to her after all. But what would I say? If I could only think of an impressive opening line, there was still time to change my seat. Wally could even tag along. Maybe he would sit beside me like a gentleman instead of sprawling all over his seat like a scarecrow missing some stuffing. Maybe not. If I took Wally, he’d probably make a mess of things. I’d be better off to go alone. But Wally would follow me anyway, asking me where I was going and why I was changing seats. There was nothing sophisticated about Wally. “Sherman? What are you staring at?” Wally said, craning his neck around to look behind him. The girl noticed his movements and fastened her deep brown eyes on me. “Turn around!” I hissed at Wally through my teeth as I quickly dropped my eyes. “She’s a looker,” Wally said as he turned back to face me. I stared hard at him. “What’s with you, Sherm?” Wally’s eyebrows raised along with his question. Then a wicked little smile turned up the corners of his mouth. “Oh, Sherman, are you in love?” he taunted. “Shut up,” I said. “How can I be in love with someone I don’t even know?” Wally extended his hand into the aisle. “Go introduce yourself,” he said too loudly. “Your carriage seat is empty, Prince Charming.” “Your head is empty,” I growled at him before I folded my arms stubbornly across my chest. I felt a hard bump against my shoulder and shot a look up into a man’s square jawed face. He sported a pencil thin moustache on his upper lip. “Oh, sorry,” he said as he pulled his sales case closer in to his body. He smiled with perfect teeth and nodded his head in apology, his smart-looking bowler hat bobbing agreeably. As soon as he finished speaking to me and turned his head forward, I knew he’d seen her. I could tell because his shoulders pulled up straighter, his head tipped, and there was a slight pause before he stepped forward. “Is this seat taken?” he asked the pretty girl in a deep voice as smooth as butter. “No,” she answered. An adorable little smile played around her mouth. My heart swelled with a curious mix of pain from missed opportunity and relief from removal of temptation. I reasoned that I couldn’t very well sit across from her if there was already someone else there. The salesman set his case on the floor and leaned back into his seat. He removed his hat and expertly pulled a hand over his hair to smooth it into place. “Trains are one of the best inventions ever,” he said as he laid one arm casually along the back of his seat. “Imagine having to make this trip in an open air wagon.” The girl’s face drew up in sudden consternation. “That would be so cold!” she said, sliding her hands around her elbows. The salesman’s voice continued confidently. “Fortunately, you don’t have to worry about a thing. You’ll ride warm, safe and sound until you need to get off at…?” He paused to let her fill in the blank. He acted as though he was the man to personally thank for the young woman’s journey being a pleasant one. “Did you hear that?” I whispered to Wally. The train floor rumbled under my feet as we pulled out of the station. “What?” Wally asked, rummaging in his valise for a packet of sandwiches that his mother had tucked somewhere inside. “He found out where her stop is.” “So? I could have done that,” Wally pulled the linen napkin back from the double stack of bread in his hand. “Just ask her.” “No, no, that’s too bold. You put girls off if you’re too bold.” Wally’s forehead creased in puzzlement as he bit into the sandwich. He didn’t even bother to swallow before he asked, “What about brave, bold and daring? Aren’t those things a girl wants in a man?” “That’s different,” I said impatiently. “Listen, Wally, we could learn some things from this guy. He’s suave.” Wally shrugged. “My mother taught me that listening to other people’s conversations is eavesdropping.” Wally swallowed his bite of sandwich before he said, “Not that I mind eavesdropping on occasion, but it has to be something interesting before I stoop so low.” He lowered his head and looked up at me, making his eyebrows a stern barrier as a schoolmaster might while scolding a cheating pupil. I gripped my armrest and leaned forward. “This is educational,” I said firmly. “If we learn some of his methods, we’ll be able to talk to girls when we get back to school.” “I can talk just fine,” Wally said. “Any girl that doesn’t like the way I talk isn’t worth talking to.” He took another bite of his sandwich. “Want some?” he asked through his unchewed mouthful as he extended the sandwich toward me. “No, you eat it,” I said, exasperated. He did. After he’d swallowed the last bite, he leaned his head back and went to sleep, his mouth falling open like a fish going after bait. I was glad for the absence of his opinion until he started to snore. The noise made it hard to eavesdrop on my unwary tutor. After a while, we pulled to a stop in Thistle Junction. The conductor announced that we were awaiting a connecting train from Price before we continued our journey. His announcement woke up Wally, who yawned hugely, stretched his arms high overhead and announced, “I’ve got to go answer nature’s call. What about you, Sherm?” “Oh, keep your voice down, will ya?” I said in a hoarse whisper. Several people got up to stretch their legs and wander about the small train station, including Wally and me. After we took care of necessities and worked out some kinks, we got settled in our seats again. I noticed the salesman walking with the girl as they made their way back to their places. I could hear her giggling and wished I knew what the salesman had said to her. I re-dedicated myself to learn as much as I could from this man while I had the opportunity. As the couple sat down opposite each other, I leaned forward and slightly out into the aisle with my elbow on my knee and my chin on my hand. I hoped I looked casual. “Hey, Sherm, what are you …” Wally began. I was just getting ready to tell him to mind his own business and do something useful like stare out the window when a sudden jolt threw me off my seat and into the empty spot beside Wally. My eyes were wide with surprise as I caught the back of the seat with my hands. I had a perfect view of the salesman in the same predicament I was in. He had also been thrown forward, but since he had placed himself directly opposite the girl, he was in danger of bumping heads with her. He threw his hands out at the last second, bracing them on either side of her head. Something flew out of his mouth and landed in the girl’s lap as he took the sudden weight of his body on his extended arms. My face reddened in sympathetic embarrassment for him. Pushing himself quickly away from the back of the seat, the salesman boldly snatched whatever it was from the girl’s lap. Her expression of shock made me mighty curious. A partially chewed bite of bread would more likely elicit a feeling of disgust. I should know. I threw a withering glance at Wally. “Whoa, what was that?” Wally asked, looking out the window. I looked back at the salesman in time to see him whirl away from the girl and stalk down the aisle, his mouth pressed together in a mushy line. I glanced down at his hand and glimpsed a set of false teeth peering out from between his fingers. Little wonder there was no smile on his face. It was clutched in his hand. The salesman disappeared out the door at the end of the train, which led to the next car. “Well, look at that,” Wally said in delight as he pointed a finger at the window. “The Price train must have bad brakes. It bumped right into us!” After the new cars were coupled to our train, we again got underway. The salesman never returned to his seat. Even when we pulled into the Salt Lake City train station there was no sign of the girl’s missing seatmate. She stood and brushed her skirt absently with a gloved hand before she made her way down the aisle and off the train. It was then that I noticed the salesman’s case sitting crookedly between the two facing seats. “Wally! Look at that!” I said, pointing. “Do you think we should take it?” “Oh, eavesdropping isn’t enough for you. Now you want to become a thief, too,” Wally chastised me. “I didn’t mean it like that,” I answered defensively. “What if the salesman was so embarrassed that he got off the train at Thistle and left his case behind? How’s he going to know where to find it?” “How would you know where to find him?” Wally asked reasonably. “Look, Sherm, the D&RGW deal with lost luggage all the time. They’ll know what to do with it. Come on, let’s get going.” Wally led the way. I kept hanging back, feeling for some reason that I had to keep my eye on the case. Wally finally managed to pull me off the train and onto the ground. “Quit dragging your feet,” he complained. “We’re the last ones off the train.” As I followed my friend toward the station exit, I threw one more look back over my shoulder. Framed in the doorway of the train car was the salesman. He stood on the bottom step, his head turning right, then left, then right again. Seeming to satisfy himself with what he saw, or maybe what he didn’t see, he quickly stepped down and hurried away, his teeth clamped firmly in his jaws, and his sales case gripped tightly in his hand. |
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