are you even trying? - 8. eddie's dream

by nick nelson

part eight of 23

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> eddie had to get out of town. there was only one way out of town. the train staton. but there were no trains at the train station, only buses. eddie had never been on a bus before. he did not know how to get on one. did you need a ticket? did you pay when you got on the bus? or when you got off? or somewhere in the middle, like in kansas or wyoming? eddie was afraid to ask, he didn’t want to look like a rube. or call attention to himself. he remembered a book he read - the magnificent rebel, by laura j peterson. or maybe it was a movie - they thought they were dirt, starring betty walker and jeffrey hardcastle. either way, when the hero, mitch davis or jeffrey hardcastle, got on the bus, nobody stopped him. but when he sat down in the back of the bus, a couple of secret policemen in black raincoats and white hats asked him where his ticket was. i thought the bus was free, mitch davis told the two secret policemen in black raincoats and white hats, i thought we were all free now. a girl in a red dress in the seat across the aisle from mitch davis started singing or shouting - we are all free now, we are all free now. a song made popular in that long ago summer by ruby and the train whistles, back when the world was young. shut up, you little fried egg, one of the secret policemen snarled at the girl in the red dress, your turn will come, you better believe it. now eddie saw the girl in the red dress , right there in the station, at the news stand, buying a newspaper. he wondered if he had the nerve to ask the girl if he needed a ticket to get on the bus, or if he paid when he got on the bus, or in tennessee in wyoming, or when he got off in san jose california. but as he stood there frozen the girl in the red dress took the change the guy behind the counter gave her and put in her pocket and started walking away with the newspaper she had purchased… eddie wanted to look at the newspaper the girl in the red dress had bought and see what the headline was. but when he approached the news stand he recognized the guy behind the counter… next