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Steel Rails, Brittle Lives

In early 1998, author Lucius Shepard embarked on a new journey…Shepard joined the “hobo nation”—riding the rails throughout the western half of the United States, his “neighbors” the disenfranchised, the homeless, the punks, the gangs, and the joy riders. At the time, the Freight Train Riders of America (FTRA) were making headlines across the country: Were they an organized gang using the U.S. rail system to rape and murder, to smuggle illegal drugs, and to terrorize unsuspecting train-hoppers? Or, were the FTRA members simply a “brotherhood,” united for support and companionship only? While investigating the facts for an article that appeared in the July 1998 issue of Spin, Shepard traveled the rails with FTRA members Missoula Mike and Madcat for the inside story.

The author then gathered together these facts, along with rumors and innuendos, and melded them into his fiction, thus creating this unique collection of facts and fiction entitled Two Trains Running. In addition to “The FTRA Story”—unedited and expanded from its original Spin appearance—this volume also contains two novellas written in Shepard’s award-winning inimitable style: “Over Yonder” and “Jailbait,” the latter novella published here for the first time.

In “Over Yonder”—winner of the 2003 Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award for best SF story of the year—suffering alcoholic Billy Long Gone chases a stranger, who supposedly stole his dog, onto a black train—a train like no other Billy had ever seen or rode: a living train. As Billy travels on this train, his health improves and his thinking clears. The train passes though strange, arabesque, monster-infested landscapes as it journeys to Yonder—a likely paradise where a few hundred hobos live within the confines of a majestic tree in apparent peace and tranquility. But every paradise has its price, and in Yonder, peace and tranquility breed complacency and…startling deaths. “Over Yonder” brilliantly showcases Shepard’s world-building skills in a story that serves as a metaphor for every human’s soul-searching questions: Why are we here? Is this life after death? Is there something beyond paradise?

A hardcore tale of deception, lust, revenge, and murder, “Jailbait” takes us into the seedy underbelly of rail yards and train hopping: Madcat, who functions best in a whiskey-induced haze, must decide between solitude and companionship when he meets up with Grace, an underaged runaway. Grace, in turn, seeks the security of an older man and the life about which only young girls can dream.

“Introduction: The Steel,” copyright © 2004 by Lucius Shepard.

“The FTRA Story,” copyright © 2004 by Lucius Shepard. Originally published in a much shorter version as “Attack of the Freight Train-Riding Crazed Vietnam Vet Psycho Killer Hobo Mafia…or Not,” Spin, July 1998.

“Over Yonder,” copyright © 2002 by Lucius Shepard. First published on SCI FICTION, January 2, 2002.

“Jail Bait,” copyright © 2004 by Lucius Shepard. Previously unpublished.

Copyright © 2004 by Lucius Shepard

Cover illustration copyright © 2004 by John Picacio

Edited by Marty Halpern

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGUING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

ISBN 1-930846-23-1 (alk. paper)

All rights reserved, which includes the right to reproduce this book, or portions thereof, in any form whatsoever except as provided by the U.S. Copyright Law. For information address Golden Gryphon Press, 3002 Perkins Road, Urbana, IL 61802.

Printed in the United States of America.

First Edition