081418 People telling other people what they said to still other people. The boys on the train; relationships, beer, drugs, sports, work, people who’ve been killed on motorcycles, seeing two pedestrians get hit by a car, used to been beat up by your brothers, how standing on a tall building makes you freak out more than skydiving cuz there’s like no *scale,* whether in the grand scheme of things you should back down or stand up for yourself, it’s hard to get fired once you’re in that union, chickens on steroids, growing your own lettuce cuz it’s not safe, knowing a girl who ate prepackaged lettuce and her kidney shut down, just like that, a tv show they all like that’s the funniest thing ever, when dudes go out away from chicks, Xbox, the Nashville guy is a little verbally smarter than the others, he’s kind of got pretty lips too. sort of a civilized elvis look. the two Illinois boys behind me have the rhythm of affirmation; their sentences overlap as they agree with each other and build a cooperative somehow, $5 Budweiser from the cafe car, one of em looked thru the curtain at the ritzy seats, Nashville, Carbondale, Marion, that area, yeah, yeah, they all talk like it, white trash tattoo, casual bonding, it just keeps rolling on, mile after rusty green mile But now they're getting tipsy and looking at stupid internet videos and suddenly they're not charming or interesting anymore. Now they're just kind of normal and sweaty and pathetic Except the dicknosed red faced one said this is going to sound stupid but we all gotta take a selfie to send my girlfriend cuz I was dreading this but I told her yeah train rides are awesome I met some guys and we're hangin out shootin the shit and she's like are you being sarcastic is that sarcasm and I'm like nah, train rides are awesome But then he ruined it by saying hey girl (as if, not for real, like planning ahead what he was going to say to his girlfriend) I had a long train ride, I sure could use a good back rub. You ever been inside a train? well a train's about to be inside you. next stop, penetration station Huh huh I used to say that to my old lady all the time! Good lord give me a fucking break Small world connections. two of em met a girl in chicago who used to work at this coyote strip club place in the middle of a bean field that we just passed. kind of near duquoin Now we're back to remembering high school sports. You can only listen to the accent for so long. It starts out sawtooth soothing like whiskey but after a couple straight hours it starts to grate like a vacuum cleaner with bad bearings. I still can't believe you know who Sophie is man Now they got Swedish (cuz someone's uncle gave dude some) dip in their lips and they look fucking retarded. Having your bottom lip stick out like that just makes you look fucking brain dead. Even though one of them knows what wolfram alpha is because he took a math class. He also said how people make fun of people's English when it's not their first language but then, hey, you know, how many languages do *you* speak? He seems like he's smarter than he sounds. Sweden's so dope. If I could live in Sweden. Talking about going to afghanistan. i’d like to see that, and the mountains and the people. but they will shoot your ass just cuz you’re an american. AND THEY CAN TELL... like you could be from europe, but no, they can tell just by looking at you that you’re american. it’s crazy it is. but then, we could do that too. look at someone and be like you’re not from here. (pause) I’m not gonna shoot ya, but. hahaha yeah, that’s the difference. enjoy it. enjoy your stay.. i’m not going to cut your head off with a dull machete. they keep talking. they don’t get why people say “why do they hate us”--they understand that we’ve done some hoorible shit in other countries. they think jim crow and stuff was stupid. I’m glad i was never raised like that, one says and the other agrees. to be trained to hate some people. huh. i’m really impressed. i didn’t even realize how rapidly i was subconscioulsy heading towards assuming they were just typical rednecks. it’s one of those things you’ve gotta understand why they do what they do. don’t sit there and wait until he gets to the car, just go. (remembering a time when they went thru some inner city, and he was a little kid, and his dad was rolling up the windows and he didn’t understand at the time. stopped at a red light and one of the black guys on the corner started coming toward the car) but there’s rough spots anywhere. hell, even carbondale. a little while ago, a guy shot a cop in the face with an AR. hah, dicknose redface is getting off at the nexst stop. he’s riding the train back from chicago because he got fired slash quit work today up in chicago. he and this kid got into it, and of course it was his fault because the other kid was the boss’s son or something so of course he’s going to get away with murder. he was kinda thinking maybe he should just keep riding the train and find a ride back from carbondale, because he’s enjoying hanging and bullshitting with these guys. Redface gets off. They exchanged snaps. We should get together man. Yeah cuz we're not too far apart really. You ever been to Nash? I have not but. I will. Yeah it's a blast there. We'll go to the bars and... good to meet you thanks for making my train ride good have a good ride They're still talking about him and the small world and people they've met on this trip and how it's crazy and it's all good. Talking about all the restaurants in cdl. Oh that's the vapor shop I go to. Buy eight get one free. Gotta love that. The wolfram alpha one is more submissive conversationally. More agreeing and affirming and that's so great! That's funny! like their smoothies they use real fruit. And he's like yeah, real fruit instead of some kind of... but he doesn't have to get specific and finish the sentence because Marion boy is already on his next declaration, description, anecdote, or avowal The anecdotes have so much specificity. My girlfriends cousins boss knew her in high school. There was pretty good damage to the front left side when the deer ran into me. I wasn’t gonna say I hit a deer. They take the time to say the stories. Even though... who cares? And yet. What the aftermath looked like when the train hit a deer. Just a rib cage. And a couple of feet. And it painted the road. The road was stained red for quite a while. I’d kinda like to have seen that. It must have been just a *mist....* Nashville went to sleep. But Marion he’s still going and going and going. Talking bout how many deer he’s killed. He’s been talking straight for five hours. Fuck. Small world conections. they said all this stuff and i wrote some of it down. we are part of each other’s lives now, even if i don’t know how or why and they don’t know period. like how there’s a rock from the south dakota badlands out behind my house in wisconsin. rocks from the moon on the earth. dust from the stars, from god knows how many billion years ago, here, right now, slipping through my hands, flashing past the windows in a blur