CHAPTER NINE: DAD SAVED ME!
I saw Dad. Falling, falling, falling…into a bottomless pit. I tried to call out, but no words would come. It was as if I was glued to wherever I was. And all I could do was watch him fall, fall, fall…
"DAD!" I finally shouted, sitting up and breathing heavily. I looked around and saw that I was in an empty passenger car, much like the one the little boy had been in.
And then in hit me.
I was alive!
I wasn't dead!
But…how? I was sure I'd hit the tunnel! I'd passed out, hadn't I?
So…how did that explain…?
"And she's awake!" I heard a gruff voice say. I turned to see a different hobo, sitting around a makeshift campfire. "Oh, thank God, she's awake!"
I stared at him. "What…what happened?"
"Do you really think you should be asking me that?" he asked.
I continued to stare at him blankly.
He sighed. "With that look you're giving me, I'm starting to understand why you just stood there."
"Stood there? You mean…?" I pointed upward.
"Yeah. You was just standing there, with your toothpick arms over your head. I couldn't let you be so stupid! So I pulled you through the roof and in here." He indicated the car.
I nodded, starting to understand. "But…how could you possibly have known? I was the only one up there…besides my dad."
He nodded. "I know, I know."
My eyes widened. "You know what? That we were the only ones up there, or that I'm really…?"
"Both."
"What? But how…that's impossible! Realistically, as of right now, I'm the only one who knows!"
He looked at me. "Do you believe in ghosts?"
"I don't see how that could…" I trailed off, staring at him as he grinned at me.
"We folks know these things," he said.
I nodded slowly, trying to process this information. "So…where is my dad, anyway?"
"How am I supposed to know?"
"You're a ghost! I thought ghosts knew these things!"
He packed up his supplies in one swift move as the fire went out. "We only know the things we want to know."
Suddenly, the train was coming to a stop. I ran to the front of the car. "I think I know where he is!" I exclaimed.
I turned around, and the hobo was gone.
...
Now, as you can imagine, I had no time to worry about some crazy hobo. I jumped out of the car and somehow managed to climb onto the roof. I plopped down, holding myself and breathing heavily. It was the first time in about a half-hour that I could really calm myself and think about things.
I looked out over the frozen tundra to see why we'd stopped. A bunch of caribou were standing in our way.
And I'm not talking maybe thirty or forty.
I'm talking hundreds.
Thousands.
Hundreds of thousands.
Millions, maybe.
"CARIBOU CROSSING?" the conductor yelled, obviously frustrated. I laughed. For some reason, it made me laugh to see him very, very angry.
I heard footsteps beside the train, and the sounds of grunting as someone tried to climb up the car. A head suddenly came into view, and my dad climbed onto the roof.
"Oh, thank the Lord," he said, crawling over to me. But his relieved tone didn't last long. "What were you thinking? I told you to stay in the car! I don't know how it happened, but you're alive, and you should be very thankful! It could have been a whole lot worse!"
He started breathing heavily, tired from his mini-tirade. I looked at him, having the impulse to start crying.
Which I did.
I threw my arms around him and buried my face in his shoulder, sobbing up a storm. He froze at first, not sure what to do, but then put his own arms around me and held me tightly. "It's okay," he said consolingly. "It's gonna be okay…"
"It was the hobo," I said, my voice muffled.
"What?"
"The hobo," I said, pulling away and looking at him. "He said he knew I was in trouble and pulled me through the roof just as I was going to hit the tunnel."
He stared at me and then looked away. "That is so weird," he said, "because right when you were going to hit, I…I prayed that…you would be safe. That you wouldn't…you know…"
We sat in silence, knowing what had occurred was truly a miracle.