This is another picture in my Hobo series. It's based on an actual even that happened to me when I was a hobo in the early 80s: I approached the train, which had stopped briefly for some reason, outside Winslow, Arizona. It consisted of about fifty empty flatcars, two blue and yellow Santa Fe GP type locomotives and a blue and yellow caboose. The train's whistle made two long blasts, which meant that it was getting ready to leave. I threw my backpack onto one of the flatcars then climbed up the short ladder onto the car. I crawled to the other end of the car, dragging my backpack with me. I placed my pack in the corner of the car, resting against the raised rim that went around the edge of the car, then brushed the dirt from the floor in front of it and lay down resting my head on the pack. After a few minutes the train started moving, slowly at first, then it gradually sped up. The car rocked side to side and I could hear it and the other cars rattling as the train skimmed along the rails. The rattling sound that empty freight cars made was the reason hobos referred to empty trains as "rattlers". Under the car's wooden floor I could hear and feel the steady rumble of the wheels. I watched the scenery, such as it was, roll by. I always had preferred to ride on flatcars, partly because they were easier to get on and off of, and partly because the view was much better, unlike boxcars, where you had to sit in or near the door to be able to see anything. This preference for flatcars had earned me the nickname "Flatcar" among the hobo community. After a while, lulled by the steady side to side motion and the rumble of the wheels, I drifted off to sleep. I awoke briefly when I heard a loud screeching noise. The car suddenly tipped about thirty degrees and I rolled over the edge, landing on the roadbed. I felt a stab of sharp pain in my left arm as I struck the ground and rolled down the side of the roadbed and down the hill. I bumped my head on some rocks, and then everything blacked out. I woke up in a sort of daze, thinking that it had all been a dream My whole body seemed to be in pain.. I tried to see my surroundings, but everything was a bit hazy. I could hear a siren screeching. Someone was beside me, but I couldn't see well enough to see who it was. I moved my head. "Try not to move" a female voice said.. "Where am I?" I managed to ask. "You were in a train wreck and you're banged up pretty bad" ", she answered. We're taking you to a hospital in Flagstaff." I tried to raise my arm and was rewarded with intense pain, which made me cry out. "Your arms are both broken" the woman said. "Am I going to die?" I asked. "I don't think so" she answered. I drifted back into unconsciousness. I regained consciousness briefly. I was outdoors. The gurney I was on was being pushed kind of fast and I could hear a lot of noise. We entered a door, then I passed out again because of the pain. I regained consciousness again. I was on a sort of narrow bed that felt kind of hard . I could feel weight on both arms. There was a doctor there. I seemed to have a headache, but the pain seemed to be less than it was earlier. I turned my head slightly, and the doctor turned around. He smiled at me. He leaned over and looked closely at my eyes. "Do you know who you are?" he asked. "What's your name?" I tried to think. "Flatcar" I finally answered after a few minutes. "You don't know your real name?" he asked. I shook my head. "Am I going to die?" I asked. He smiled again. "No" he said. After a few minutes I blacked out again. When I awoke again, I was in a bed in a hospital room. There was a window a few feet away. It was open and I could here traffic and other city noises. On one side of the bed was a curtain. My mind was a blur. I could recall very little of the previous day's events. I remembered leaving my camp outside of Winslow and getting on a train, but everything else was a blur. I noticed the weight on my arms and I noticed, for the first time, that my arms were covered by two casts. One on my right arm that came up to above the elbow and another on my left arm that one covered only my forearm. After a while, I heard a door open. A doctor came up to me, an older Native American with greying hair. "Where am I?" I asked him. "You're at Flagstaff Medical Center", he said. "How did I get here?" I asked. "The paramedics brought you," he answered. You were found by a member of the train crew when they were inspecting the damage to the train." "Train?" I said. "Yes, you were riding on a train, and it derailed. You must have fallen off. Don't you remember?" I thought for a few minutes, then it came back. I nodded my head. "I remember the ambulance too," I said. "She said my arms were broken." "That's right," the doctor answered. You also have a fractured rib, a concussion and you're pretty bruised up. Also a few minor lacerations. But we've got you patched up pretty well". He looked at me. "So what's a kid your age doing riding trains? What are you, 16 or 17?" "A kid?" I said." I'm 21. I have an ID in my walled to prove it. Unless I lost it in the wreck." "I don't think so," the doctor said. "They were able to identify you, so you must have had something. I'd advise you to quit riding those trains though. It's too dangerous. The thrill isn't worth all this." "I don't do it for any 'thrill'," I said, "it's transportation. It's how I get places. Easier than hitchhiking. And when I leave Flagstaff it'll most likely be on another train" "I'd advise against it," the doctor said. "If the train crew hadn't found you, you likely would have died out there.If you had regained consciousnesses you wouldn't have been able to get up, with both arms broken, and you'd probably have died before anyone found you. The place where the train derailed was pretty isolated"" I stayed in the hospital for a week. The hospital made arrangements with a local homeless shelter to allow me to stay there for the two months until I got my casts removed. Also the homeless shelter was able to get some local churches to pay my hospital expenses. I finally decided to take the doctor's advice, at least for a while, and took to hitchhiking for a while.