the rails a novel kris kemp with graham schofield Copyright © 2014 Kris Kemp with Graham Schofield All rights reserved. ISBN: 1500886289 ISBN-13: 9781500886288 Kris Kemp is a writer, musician, photographer, actor, traveler currently living in Brooklyn, New York. This is his first novel. Find out about ‘the rails 2’, “Dumpster Diver the musical”, and his other projects at: http://www.kriskemp.com http://www.facebook.com/kris.kemp1 http://www.twitter.com/OwnLessLiveMore [email protected] Graham Schofield is a writer, editor, and publishing consul- tant and is the founder of ‘Books from Start to Finish’. He can be contacted at: http://www.write-edit-publish.com Octavio Jimenez was born in Mexico City (Mexico-Tenoch- titlan) on a cloudy day in 1979. In 2002, he received a degree in Design and Visual Communication specializing in Illustration, from the National School of Plastic Arts (ENAP) of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). Currently, Octavio works as a freelance illustrator and assumes himself as graphic producer. He can be contacted at: www.behance.net/moztadio www.angelcaido.deviantart.com/gallery [email protected] CONTENTS PROLOGUE............................................................................... 9 THE WORLD BENEATH ........................................................ 19 WATCHERS ............................................................................ 25 THE OUTSIDER ..................................................................... 34 ASSAULT AND ROBBERY ..................................................... 59 THE SECRET DOOR .............................................................. 69 GREGORY’S APPOINTMENT ............................................... 77 JILL’S DILEMMA ..................................................................... 88 THE EVENT .......................................................................... 110 AFTERMATH ........................................................................ 122 FRUSTRATION ..................................................................... 135 UNDER SURVEILLANCE ..................................................... 141 COMPLICATIONS ............................................................... 147 CAUSE AND EFFECT ........................................................... 159 RENDEZVOUS ..................................................................... 168 DIFFERENT AGENDAS ....................................................... 177 A THOUSAND WORDS ...................................................... 187 INTO THE TUNNEL ............................................................ 192 THE MUSE AND THE MUSIC ............................................ 195 RAMPAGE ............................................................................. 204 SOME KIND OF ARRANGEMENT..................................... 209 FAMOUS ON YOUTUBE ..................................................... 216 FALLOUT .............................................................................. 225 INCESSANT .......................................................................... 232 TOGRUL’S NIGHT OUT ..................................................... 238 A SIGN ................................................................................... 258 INTERVENTION ................................................................... 280 A SECRET REVEALED ......................................................... 289 THE MISSION....................................................................... 300 SUBWAY SHOWDOWN ...................................................... 319 RUNAWAY TRAIN ............................................................... 333 AFTERMATH ........................................................................ 340 REVELATIONS ...................................................................... 358 “I feel sorry for them in their dirty pot houses. I feel sorry for me feeling sorry for plants that can’t think about a place they’ve never been, where people smile because they’re never cold, those plants can’t miss a life they’ve never known.” Meghan Hurley (Equatorial Cravings) “… how can I speak of the world rushing by with a lump in my throat and tears in my eyes …” A-Ha (The Swing of Things) “A pain stabbed my heart, as it did every time I saw a girl I loved who was going the opposite direction in this too-big world.” Jack Kerouac (On the Road) “I wanted movement and not a calm course of existence. I wanted excitement and danger and a chance to sacrifice myself for love. I felt in myself a superabundance of energy which found no outlet in our quiet life.” Leo Tolstoy (Family Happiness) “By the night, in a warm shoe, something that looked like a piece of dirt turned into a beautiful butterfly. She had sparkling vibrant wings and breeze of freedom in front of her, that’s all she had.” Marian Volkava (The Butterfly and the Elephant) “He could say nothing. He had no right to be there, he had already been profoundly changed, he was not good at small talk, she was half naked, it was dawn, and he loved her.” Mark Helprin (Winter’s Tale) “The advantage of a communal life is that you belong to a new society, if this could be called a society – you live in it, talk in it, become part of it. There are so many things to say, to hear and to do that you no longer have time to think.” Henri Charriere (Papillon) PROLOGUE EVERY CITY has its secrets. Even New York City. Along with the recorded history of the New York City subway system, there is also a hidden history, one that has been unmentioned of until now. Years before the subway was built, Alfred Ely Beach, an American inventor, publisher, and patent lawyer developed a pneumatic subway line beneath Broadway, in Manhattan. Nothing like this had ever been done beneath the streets of New York City. In order to put his idea into motion, Beach began the project, Beach Pneumatic Transit Company, by claiming he was building postal tubes—pneumatic tubes for the transport of letters and packages. Inspired by the underground Metropolitan Railway in London, Beach believed enough in his idea to fund the entire project himself, at a cost of $350,000 dollars. This was an enormous sum of money in 1869, the year construction began on the project. 9 the rails Fifty-eight days later, the project was completed. The result: a single tunnel 312 feet long and eight feet in diameter that ran under Broadway from Warren Street to Murray Street. The line opened to curious fanfare. During its first week, the Beach Pneumatic Transit sold over 11,000 rides, with 400,000 rides during its first year. The twenty-five cent admission went to charity. Beach hoped that his line would garner enough en- thusiasm to support a bigger line, in order to get public funding. The public was enthusiastic, but official obstruc- tion caused delays. In 1873, by the time he gained per- mission to build a bigger tunnel, support for the project had ameliorated. Eventually, the existing tunnel was shut down, the entrance sealed, and the tunnel swallowed up into other purposes. Rumor has it that in the original journals of Alfred Ely Beach, something caught his eye, and curiosity, during the first month of construction of the tunnel. This incident was significant enough to warrant a journal entry among his meticulous notes, most of which document the technical details and difficulties of his mission to establish the first subway line. The journal notes, recovered from his great-great grandson, William Beach, are revealed here for the first time. 10 kris kemp with graham schofield July 9, 1869 Hot. During the blasting of the tunnel earlier today, saw hundreds of rats take shelter into their holes, moments before the blast. How do they know? Perhaps God has given them this intuition in order to survive. Following the blast, a portion of the tunnel had an opening that led further down. Using a sledgehammer, I widened it, then made the descent, with cable rope. It was lunchtime and I was alone. For one hundred feet, I made the descent through the narrow space. Then, a rush of frigid air came up from below, as the opening widened into a large cavern. At this point, I was out of rope, so I could descend no further. I heard sounds, like that of animals scurrying. I aimed my lamp downward. I saw four figures, running to an entrance in the cave below. They looked human. They were slim and their skin was very pale, almost translu- cent. One looked at me with his eyes wide appearing to be astonished. But when he looked at me, I could feel his thoughts. He was curious. It was like looking into the eyes of a child. I was shaking. I dropped the lamp and it fell to the ground and shattered, casting me in darkness once more. I was scared and made my ascent hastily. Although I was hungry and thirsty at the time, I had not been drinking, nor was I dreaming. I decided it best not to mention this 11 the rails to anyone, as any queer behavior might prohibit me from getting the funds and public support necessary for this project. After lunch, I sealed the opening. Before doing so, I took details of its location, from the north entrance of the pneumatic transit tunnel. Below is a sketch of what I saw when I was down there. (This part of the page was missing.) § § § § § ACCORDING TO great-great-grandson William Beach, who shared this information, Alfred Ely Beach had no history of telling tall tales or even simple exaggeration. Nor was he known to drink to the point of succumbing to fanciful imaginations. William believes the story