Page 67
Story: Whistle
“You sound pretty confident. But if it needs oiling or something we can go back to that hardware store where you got the Brasso and—”
“It will work,” Charlie said, sounding slightly irritated. “You thought the bike was old and crummy, butitworked.”
“Okay,” she said.
“I can’t set it up out here,” he said. “I have to do it inside. If it rained and it was blowing it could get all wet.”
“What about your bedroom?”
“It’s too small. There’s a lot of track here.”
It was a big house and just the two of them. Annie wondered whether she should let him take over the dining room. But then she hit on a better idea.
“If you don’t mind sharing space with me, what about the studio? You could put it on the floor.”
Charlie cocked his head at an awkward angle, considering. “Maybe...”
It was as big a space as any, and her worktable only took up a fraction of it. There was plenty of natural light, and she didn’t know how much work she was actually going to do while they were here, so he’d mostly have the room to himself.
“Okay,” Charlie said. “Will you help me get it all up there?”
She did. Once they had everything moved, and Annie had tossed the empty Tide box down into the basement, she came back up and offered to help Charlie put the track together.
“That’s okay,” he said. “I want to do it by myself.”
“You sure? Because it would be fun, a project we could work on to—”
“No,” he said firmly, already on his hands and knees, attaching a straight length of track to a curved one, inserting the end pins from one into the openings on the other.
Annie felt as though one of those pins had pierced her heart. She was willing to bet if John were here, Charlie would want his assistance. Who said trains had to be aguy thing? She’d have been on the floor, helping him put this layout together, in an instant if he’d let her.
“Okay, then,” she said, trying to keep the hurt out of her voice. The last thing she wanted to do was make Charlie feel guilty.
She turned, walked out of the room, and left him to it.
Her hurt feelings aside, the discovery of the trains could not have come at a better time. The day before, Charlie had seemed restless and asked twice about whether his friend Pedro could come up from New York for a visit. Annie had offered that old parental standby: “We’ll see.”
The truth was, as much as she wanted Charlie to have a good summer here, she did not want Pedro, or any other friend of Charlie’s, coming for any extended period of time. Two boys running around made a lot more noise than one, plus there would be extra meals to organize, a different daily routine. Annie felt selfish thinking this way, and if Charlie really wanted his friend to visit, she would find a way to make it happen.
But Charlie’s restlessness had been cured with the discovery of the box full of trains. She supposed the novelty might wear off, and he’d return to asking again whether Pedro could come up, so Annie, as John used to say, would jump off that bridge when the time came. For the moment she would just enjoy this special time, having Charlie all to herself.
She went into the kitchen and resumed work on her puzzle. Managed to find all the pieces she needed to make “Yo.”
Charlie came down long enough to eat a grilled cheese sandwich, then bolted back up the stairs. While he was on his last bite, dipping his sandwich into a puddle of ketchup, Annie asked, “How’s it going?”
“Almost there,” he said, and dashed.
About an hour later, Annie heard a sound. Actually, it was more of a vibration at first, the ceiling above her humming. There was no carpet in the studio. A train running on tracks set up directly on hardwood was bound to make a racket.
She came out of the kitchen and stood at the bottom of the stairs and listened.
Chuffchuffchuffchuffchuff
Her heart swelled. Charlie was right. It worked.
Chuffchuffchuffchuffchuff
She smiled. She wanted to see what he’d accomplished. Pausing halfway up the stairs, she heard another sound drift down to her.
Table of Contents
- Page 1
- Page 2
- Page 3
- Page 4
- Page 5
- Page 6
- Page 7
- Page 8
- Page 9
- Page 10
- Page 11
- Page 12
- Page 13
- Page 14
- Page 15
- Page 16
- Page 17
- Page 18
- Page 19
- Page 20
- Page 21
- Page 22
- Page 23
- Page 24
- Page 25
- Page 26
- Page 27
- Page 28
- Page 29
- Page 30
- Page 31
- Page 32
- Page 33
- Page 34
- Page 35
- Page 36
- Page 37
- Page 38
- Page 39
- Page 40
- Page 41
- Page 42
- Page 43
- Page 44
- Page 45
- Page 46
- Page 47
- Page 48
- Page 49
- Page 50
- Page 51
- Page 52
- Page 53
- Page 54
- Page 55
- Page 56
- Page 57
- Page 58
- Page 59
- Page 60
- Page 61
- Page 62
- Page 63
- Page 64
- Page 65
- Page 66
- Page 67 (Reading here)
- Page 68
- Page 69
- Page 70
- Page 71
- Page 72
- Page 73
- Page 74
- Page 75
- Page 76
- Page 77
- Page 78
- Page 79
- Page 80
- Page 81
- Page 82
- Page 83
- Page 84
- Page 85
- Page 86
- Page 87
- Page 88
- Page 89
- Page 90
- Page 91
- Page 92
- Page 93
- Page 94
- Page 95
- Page 96
- Page 97
- Page 98
- Page 99
- Page 100
- Page 101
- Page 102
- Page 103
- Page 104
- Page 105
- Page 106
- Page 107
- Page 108
- Page 109
- Page 110
- Page 111
- Page 112
- Page 113
- Page 114
- Page 115
- Page 116
- Page 117
- Page 118
- Page 119
- Page 120
- Page 121
- Page 122
- Page 123
- Page 124
- Page 125
- Page 126
- Page 127
- Page 128
- Page 129
- Page 130
- Page 131
- Page 132
- Page 133
- Page 134
- Page 135
- Page 136
- Page 137
- Page 138
- Page 139
- Page 140
- Page 141
- Page 142
- Page 143
- Page 144
- Page 145
- Page 146
- Page 147
- Page 148
- Page 149
- Page 150
- Page 151
- Page 152
- Page 153
- Page 154