Boys Life

pleasant. In short, he’s had so many broken bones that the doctor’s had to wire some of him together. The screws are connected to a metal rod that strengthens his spine. It’s painful, I’m sure, but necessary.”
    “Aw,” Franklin said, “it ain’t so bad.”
    “He has the heart of a lion,” Princey explained. “Unfortunately, he also has the mind of a mouse.”
    “Hee hee nee! Dat Princey’s a laff riot!”
    “I’m thirsty,” Princey said, and he stood up. He was tall, too, maybe six four, and slender though not nearly the beanpole Ahmet was.
    “Here ya go.” Franklin offered him the canteen.
    “No, I don’t want that!” Princey’s pale hand brushed it aside. “I want… I don’t know what I want.” He looked at me. “Has that ever happened to you? Have you ever wanted something but you can’t figure out what it is for the life of you?”
    “Yes sir,” I said. “Like sometimes when I think I want a Co’Cola but I really want root beer.”
    “Exactly. My throat’s as dusty as Ahmet’s pillow!” He walked past me and peered out at the passing forest. There were no lights out there, under the firmament. “So!” he said. “You know us now. What about you? I presume you’re running away from home?”
    “No sir. I mean… I’m just gettin’ away for a little while, I guess.”
    “Trouble with your parents? With school?”
    “Both of those,” I said.
    He nodded, leaning against the boxcar’s opening. “The universal tribulations of a boy. I, too, had such troubles. I, too, set out to get away for a little while. Do you really think this will help your problems?”
    “I don’t know. It was all I could think of.”
    “The world,” Princey said, “is not like Zephyr, Cory. The world has no affection for a boy. It can be a wonderful place, but it can also be savage and vile. We should know.”
    “Why is that?” I asked.
    “Because we have traveled all over. We’ve seen this world, and we know the people who live in it. Sometimes it scares me to death, thinking about what’s out there: cruelty, callousness, utter disregard and disrespect for fellow human beings. And it’s not getting better, Cory; it’s getting worse.” He gazed up at the moon, which kept our pace. “‘O world,’” he said. “‘But that thy strange mutations make us hate thee, life would not yield to age.’”
    “Ain’t dat preddy?” Franklin asked.
    “It’s Shakespeare,” Princey replied. “Talking about the universal tribulations of men.” He turned from the moon and stared at me, his pupils scarlet. “Would you like some advice from an older soul, Cory?”
    I didn’t really want it, but I said, “Yes sir” to be polite.
    He wore a bemused expression, as if he knew my thoughts. “I’ll give it to you anyway. Don’t be in a hurry to grow up. Hold on to being a boy as long as you can, because once you lose that magic, you’re always begging to find it again.”
    That sounded vaguely familiar to me, but I couldn’t remember where I’d heard it before.
    “Do you want to see something of the world, Cory?” he asked me.
    I nodded, transfixed by his bloodred pupils.
    “You’re in luck, then. I see a city’s lights.”
    I stood up and looked out. And there in the distance, over the dragon’s spine of twisted hills, the stars were washed out by earthly phosphorescence.
    Princey explained to me that we would come to a part of that city where the freight slowed as it entered the yards. It was then that we could abandon our boxcar without breaking our legs. Gradually the city grew around us, from wooden houses to brick houses to buildings of stone. Even at this late hour, the city was alive. Neon signs blinked and buzzed. Cars sped along the streets, and figures trudged the sidewalks. Then the freight train clattered over the crisscrossed railyard tracks where other trains lay sleeping and began to slow. When it was going the speed of a walking man, Franklin’s huge shoes touched the ground. Then Ahmet went out, dust whuffing from his body as he hit. “Go on, if you want to go,” Princey told me, standing at my back. I scrambled out and landed all right, and then Princey made his exit. We had arrived in the city, and I was a long way from home.
    We walked across the railyard, the sounds of whistles and chugging engines drifting around us. The air smelled burnt, though it was a cold fire. Princey said we’d better find some shelter for the night. We kept going, deeper along