Read Online Snow Globes and Hand Grenades by Kevin Killeen - Free Book Online Page B

only problem was that he had no real troubles to run away from. Unfortunately, his parents loved him. And his brothers and sisters were good to him. He shared a room with his older brother John, who was a freshman at St. Aloysius. So he had that to look forward to, going to high school with his brother. But even so, the tracks knew what he reallywanted and they were always there, waiting for him to give in. Waiting for him to join them.
    A speeding freight train on the second set of tracks sounded its horn.
    Shit
. Patrick flinched and turned. It was charging toward him a hundred feet up the line by the golf course. He stood still in the no man’s zone between the twin sets of tracks. The engineer laid on the horn ordering him to get off the tracks. Now. Move fast. Run for your life!
    Patrick gave him a gentle wave of the hand. The engineer was furious. The front of the engine shot toward his spot, its horn blaring one long, solid
Holy Shit
note that bent into a lower key as it shot passed him. Now he was between two trains going in opposite directions. He looked up. Blue sky above—rushing, grinding metal on either side. His hair whipped up and twisted in the whirlwind. Wheels as sharp as butcher knives sliced and thumped all around him. His thin blue uniform tie pulled to one side in the vacuum of wind sucking under the cars of the fast train. Dust and grit picked at his face, and he squinted against it. If he wanted, he could reach out his arms and touch both trains. But he kept them clamped tight at his sides and listened to the metallic melody. The trains hummed and groaned and roared like the shout of all the dead wishing they were living again, and only Patrick was alive in the middle to hear it.
    And then it stopped.
    The trains passed. Dust settled. Quiet returned. And standing there looking at him by the side of the black bridge was Tony and Mimi.
    â€œWhat the hell?” Tony said.
    Patrick looked at Tony to see if he felt the same way about the trains. But he didn’t. The only thing he was feeling was being with Mimi.
    Mimi walked over in the middle of the tracks, looking both ways to be safe, and Tony followed. “I’ve got a plan,” she said.
    â€œShe told me some of it,” Tony said, “but the rest she wanted to wait for you. We were looking for you.”
    â€œDid your dad notice the grenade missing?” Patrick asked her.
    Mimi rubbed her nose a little worried, but not too much. “No, not yet, probably tonight he’ll notice.”
    â€œWhat are you gonna say?” Patrick asked.
    She shrugged. “I don’t know. Probably just say I don’t know what happened. We did have a party last night, so anybody could have borrowedit. I’m not worried about that.” She took a breath, worried about something else.
    â€œWhat?” Tony said.
    â€œTony, I need you and Patrick to steal a letter from the mailman today at my house.”
    Patrick and Tony looked at each other.
    â€œNo way,” Patrick said. “Are you kidding?”
    She turned to Patrick and put her hand on his shoulder like Joan of Arc assigning a soldier an important battle task. “It will help me with the snow globe investigation to get this one thing out of the way.”
    Tony saw her hand on Patrick’s shoulder and grabbed her other hand. “What do you want us to do?”
    She laid out her plan, glancing back and forth at them. It was a daring idea that would mean sneaking away from the playground at recess and getting back just in time for the next class. Mimi told them for the first time that she had sneaked into Holy Footsteps Academy a while back to get some letterhead and that she had mailed the fake letter rescinding her acceptance to the school. Patrick and Tony traded glances. They didn’t tell her they had followed her that day.
    Mimi was also holding back something. What she didn’t tell them was she also had a second piece of school letterhead