Everybody froze when the train whistle blew one long time and the engine started saying shuh-shuh-shuh. The big steel wheels creaked a couple of times, then started moving.
Four of the other cops threw their hats and billy clubs down too. The boss cop said, "You lily-livered rats," and it was like someone said, "On your mark, get set, go!"
The engine was saying SHUHSHUHSHUHSHUH- SHUH -- and a million boys and men broke for the brain.
I got pushed from behind and fell on top of my suitcase. Someone reached down and pulled me up. I squeezed my bag to my stomach and ran. The train was going faster and faster. People were jumping on and reaching back to help others. I finally got to the tracks and was running as hard as I could. I looked up into the boxcar and saw Bugs.
He screamed, "Jojon, throw your bag, throw me your bag!"
I used both hands to throw my suitcase at the train. Bugs caught it and when he set it behind him the blue flyer blew out of the twine and fluttered outside the door. But it was like a miracle, the flyer flipped over three times and landed right in my hand. 1 slowed down and put it in my pocket.
Bugs reached one arm out and screamed, "Jojon, don't stop! Run!"
I started running again but it felt like my legs were gone. The car with Bugs in it was getting farther and farther away. Finally I stopped.
Bugs was leaning out of the door and stopped reaching back for me. He waved and disappeared into the boxcar. A second later my suitcase came flying out of the door.
I walked over to where it landed and picked it up. Man, this is one tough suitcase, you couldn't even tell what it had been through, it still looked exactly the same.
I sat on the side of the tracks and tried to catch my breath.
The train and my new pretend brother got farther and farther away, chugging to Chicago. Man, I'd found some family and he was gone before we could really get to know each other.
There were six or seven other people who didn't make the train, so we all walked back toward Hooverville. They must've lit the big fire again, the sky in that direction was glowing orange.
The cop that first threw down his billy club walked over to us and said, "He wasn't lying about the Flint police coming, but they're coming to bust up the shanty-town, you all should get out of here."
When we got close to Hooverville we heard four gun-shots. We all spread into the woods and sneaked up to see what had happened. I peeked from behind a tree and could see a bunch of cops standing around with pistols out. All the men and boys and women that were left in Hooverville were bunched up on one side and the cops were on the other.
The fire had been lit and was burning bigger than ever, but now it was burning because the cops were tearing all of the shacks down and were throwing the wood and cardboard and hunks of cloth into the middle of it. One of the cops dragged the big clothes-washing pot over to the side and stuck his pistol down in it and shot four more times. Whew, instead of shooting people they were shooting holes into all of the pots and pans.
A man was yelling, "You yellow-belly lowlifes, you waited till you knew most of the men was gone, you cowards!"
The cops wouldn't talk or nothing, they just kept piling Flint's Hooverville into the fire.
I tried to see if I could spot Deza Malone but there were too many people.
It seemed like the only good thing that came out of going to Hooverville was that I finally kissed a girl. Maybe someone was trying to tell me Something, what with me missing the train and the blue flyer floating back to me, maybe Deza Malone was right.
Maybe I should stay here in Flint.
I walked back farther into the woods and sat down. I pulled the blue flyer out of my pocket and opened my suitcase back up. I smoothed the flyer out and took another good look at it.
Maybe it came floating right back to me because this Herman E. Calloway really was my father. Wait a minute! I sat up. The names Crichton and Calloway are a lot alike, both of them have eight letters and there aren't too many names that have a C, a A, a L, and a W all together like that. I remembered what I read in that Little-Big Book, Gangbusters. It said a good criminal chooses a alias that's kind of close to their own name. Except I couldn't figure out who was a criminal here and why anybody needed a alias.
I wanted to stay and look for Deza and her mother but it was too hard to hear all the people crying and arguing. Besides. I was still on the lam. I started walking. If I hurried I could get breakfast at the mission.
***
I GOT TO THE FOOD line in plenty of time, but my pretend family wasn't anywhere around. I had to eat by myself, without the brown sugar.
After I was through I went back to the library and sat under my tree to wait for it to open. I couldn't stop thinking about Deza Malone and her dimple. How could her father find them now?
Finally I saw people going into the library.
The same librarian was there again. I said, "Good morning, ma' am." "Good morning, young man.
"Could I please borrow a pencil and a piece of paper and see that book about how far one city is from another again, ma'am?"
She said, "Of course you may. You know, after I went home last night I finally recognized you. Didn't you and your mother used to come in here a long time ago?"
"Yes, ma'am"