Nabler thought about all those mangled toy tanker cars on the floor, and the fact that this was often the time in the evening when a large chemical train made its way through town.

Some of his trains had more chaotic agency than others. The tanker cars that hit the floor clearly packed a punch.

Nabler said, “Oh shit.”

Forty-Seven

“Dad promised we’d go out for pancakes Saturday,” Dylan said.

He was in his bedroom, doing math homework, when his mother checked in on him. She rested a hand on each of his shoulders, looking at the exercises he was doing in his notebook.

“That’ll be fun,” Janice said. “We haven’t done that in a while. The diner?”

Dylan nodded. “You like their coffee.”

“Oh yes, I do.”

She took her hands off his shoulders and sat on the bed. “Put your pencil down. I want to talk to you.”

Dylan did as he was told and turned in his chair so he could face his mother.

“I hope you’re not mad at your father.”

Dylan shrugged. “I guess not.”

“It was my fault, what happened. I should have discussed it with him first, buying that train set. If I had, we wouldn’t have had that scene this morning.”

“It was just a train set. Aren’t you allowed to do things without asking Dad?”

“Well, yes, of course. But some decisions we should make together, and that turned out to be one of them. It’s hard to explain, but your father had a good reason for us not keeping it.”

“He said the man who runs that store is a bad person.”

“He doesn’t know that for a fact, but he thinks he might be, so we don’t want to give our business to someone like that, do we?”

“I guess not.”

“Your father’s a good man, you know.”

“I know.”

She smiled. “In case you were wondering.”

“I wasn’t.”

“I should let you get your homework done. You have much more?”

“Just this.”

“When you’re done, you want to come down and have some ice cream? There’s two cartons in the freezer with a tiny bit in each one, and I’m going shopping tomorrow so I want to make some room. So, you know, you’d be doing me a favor.”

Dylan smiled. “Okay.”

“Five minutes?”

He nodded.

It only took four. He was down the steps and coming into the kitchen, where his mother had set up two bowls and was scooping out the ends from two Ben & Jerry containers, when the entire house began to shake.

Janice said, “What the—”

The vibration was enough to prompt Dylan to reach out and grab the counter to keep from falling over.

“Wow!” he said. “Was that an earth—”

The house shook even harder.

Dylan turned and started running. “Gonna see what it is!”

“Dylan! Wait!”