Mae's eyes went to his desk, noticing the gnawed wood.She ignored his comment, instead pointing at the gnashed-out legs.
“Petr Qwill,” he said.
“And why is Peter...wait, what?”
“That damned porcupine.You know he traveled the ten miles from Jiminy's house to mine, and I found that bucked tooth monster in my back yard gnawing on the Adirondacks I just built,” he said.“I don't like that little snot.”
“The porcupine is named Peter Quill?”
“P.E.T.R.Q.W.I.L.L.,” he spelled for clarity.
Pearlie Mae appeared in the door of his office.“Boss, you want me to have this desk taken out and another brought in from storage?”
“Yes, if they have the old metal leg ones, that would be great,” he said.“Pearlie Mae, this is Mae Weston.”
“May or Mae?”
“M.A.E, which is an abbreviation for Mary Alice Elizabeth,” she told her.
“Hmm, you...”Pearlie Mae started, but Thom interrupted the probing and rude question about to come from her mouth.
“Pearlie Mae, Ms.Weston is from Corporate.She is in town for two days.I've called in Jack to cover the station for me until Wednesday.I have my phone on me, and I leave it in your capable hands until Jack arrives in the next twenty minutes,” he said, and the woman said no more.
Mae began to understand the man as she spent the day with him.His next stop was a local small grocer.She said nothing as Thom gave the man two hundred dollars and a twenty for delivery.He explained a friend was renting the little house at Jiminy's and needed basic staples.Thom asked the man to stock the pantry, explaining it was a dorm sized fridge, so easy on the meat.He also requested the two hundred be spent wisely to ensure the friend was covered with rice, beans, and canned tuna and chicken.
Mae noticed he never said the friend was a woman.The man also assumed it was a man, offering to add things like dried jerky, which Thom agreed to, in moderation.
“Interesting,” she said.
They drove around town with Thom explaining how the 9:04 was the primary method of bringing supplies to the town, but as the town grew, the school no longer wanted the train passing by to disrupt classes.The new wing of the hospital also didn't care for the patients to be disturbed with the frequent whistle blows. Thom pointed out the inconsistencies in the marketing for the current jazz festival and how no one ever thought of marrying the tourists from the ghost hunting crowd with music lovers.
“Do ghost hunters like jazz?”she asked.
“Everybody likes jazz,” he said, “but most people only think of one sort of jazz, the moody bluesy kind or smooth jazz remakes of popular tunes, but imagine marrying those together and teaching others about music?”
“And the train aspect, how does that factor into your thought process?”Mae wanted to know.
“I can imagine, during the time that jazz greats, who weren't so great as they were coming along, didn't have tour buses,” he said.“Greyhound and Trailways may not have allowed them to ride along with other passengers.The easiest way to get from Chicago to St.Louis was via train.Alton is the birthplace of Miles Davis, so I can see this being a stopover to see the family.”
“A stopover?”
“Imagine leaving a hot session in ChiTown and boarding the car for St.Louis to be seated with John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, Dizzy Gillespie, and Gil Evans,” he said smiling.
“You seem to know a great deal about jazz,” Mae commented as they pulled up to the home so she could tour the museum.“Do you also play an instrument?”
“I play the trumpet and a bit of guitar and know my way around a keyboard,” he said, watching her facial expression.“See, you thought I was some weirdo who just collected trains.”
He said this as he opened the door to the museum.It looked like a train hoarder had hired an organizer to catalog the history of locomotives in the world.Mae's mouth fell open.She'd never seen anything like it, and she stood in the middle of the floor, pointing.
Thom sighed, “In my defense, I got this set when I was six years old, this one at 7, 8, 9.”He continued going around the room until he hit 21, which brought him to an orange trolley.
“Is that...?”Mae asked, leaning forward, whispering to the orange trolley car.“All aboard to the Land of Make Believe...”
She was smiling when she looked up at him.Thom pointed to the diesel engine she had arrived on, which was also part of the collection.Mae simply smiled, appreciating the man more and more by the second.Outside, a horn blew.
“Dinner has arrived,” he said, leading her out of the museum.
Mae checked her watch and saw that it was nearly five in the evening.The day had gone by so quickly that she didn't realize they hadn't eaten anything more than a hot dog from a vendor cart in the city since breakfast.Thom paid the driver for the food, leading Mae into the home.
