His aunt saw him from the kitchen window, and immediately put on her hat. She hurried outside, climbed into her car, backed out of the garage and started after him as he disappeared around the first corner a mile away. She lost sight of him again on Highway 1 when a truck pulled in front of her, saw him make a lefthand turn onto Riverside Drive into Iowa City and then lost him again. She drove from block to block looking, with no success. A half-hour later she had an idea and drove to the old train station. There in the lot was the green Chrysler, empty. She hung her head, closed her eyes, folded her hands and thought in prayer: “Keep yourself headed forward. There’s nothing easy in this world—and to give up is to lose everything. Do what you feel you have to, but do it in order to improve yourself. No running. Learn how to suffer and nothing will ever be able to hurt you. Reach as far as you possibly can, without pride. Be more than you are able.”
In lurching slow motion, gaining speed, the Rock Island Line pulled out of the freight yard, headed southwest, toward Kansas City, Coffeyville, Scottsdale, Spring Valley and Moline.
As a young man, DAVID RHODES worked in fields, hospitals, and factories across Iowa. After receiving an MFA degree from the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop in 1971, he published three novels in rapid succession: The Last Fair Deal Going Down (Atlantic/Little, Brown, 1972), The Easter House (Harper & Row, 1974), and Rock Island Line (Harper & Row, 1975). In 1977 a motorcycle accident left him paralyzed from the chest down. He lives with his wife, Edna, in rural Wonewoc, Wisconsin.
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Interior design by Wendy Holdman
Typeset in ITC New Baskerville by BookMobile
Design and Publishing Services, Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Printed on acid-free, recycled (100 percent postconsumer
waste) Rolland Enviro paper by Friesens Corporation.
The characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
© 1975, Text by David Rhodes
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The Library of Congress has catalogued the cloth edition as follows:
Rhodes, David.
Rock Island Line.
I. Title.
PZ4.R4755Ro [PS3568.H55] 813’.5’4
74-15888
eISBN : 978-1-571-31824-4
This book is printed on acid-free, recycled (100 percent postconsumer waste) paper.