Charlie did this for nearly three decades. It was while he was on a sabbatical that he found out about the experiment. He applied because he saw an opportunity to truly see how progressive policies could benefit mankind, only on a much smaller scale. And that is why he found himself on this train, speeding across a part of his country that he’d never wanted to see, imagining what his life’s work could do for these naïve and gullible people that were about to become his neighbors.
He already had plans for after he arrived, but he knew that it was going to take months, if not years, to make it all happen. But like most true believers, Charlie was patient.
Anna Radinski yawned deeply and readjusted herself to where she could see out of her window. The train was zooming past the landscape. Apparently there were no towns or people in this part of the country, she thought, cynically. There was nothing to slow down for in Wyoming anyway. This barren landscape contrasted greatly from where her trip had started, in Newark, New Jersey. She balled her red Cornell hoodie into a pillow and rested her head as comfortably as possible.
Like most of those headed to the experiment, she was excited for what the future held, but scared about the unknown. Perhaps, she thought, she leaving behind more than most people. She thought of Patty and the sudden thought of her friend brought back the sadness of their goodbye. Both she and Patty applied to be part of the experiment, but only Anna was selected. Anna felt like she was betraying her friend by accepting the slot, but there was no way she could refuse the opportunity. It helped that Patty insisted that Anna accept.
To Anna, being selected felt like destiny. It would now be her mission to bring about the social changes that America had needed for so long. It’s so hard to convince over three hundred million people that they’re wrong. Convincing thirty thousand people was a different story, however. Once she, and whoever would follow her on her crusade, showed that socialism could work in an American society, their approach could be modeled by the country as a whole. This sense of mission hadn’t lessened the pain of her parting with her friend, though. Anna and Patty were inseparable, in mind, in spirit, and in purpose. They tried the “one in body” thing once, but they both decided it was strange.
Anna had been an achiever in college, but most of her professors saw her as an intellectual lightweight. A follower. A lemming. In reality, she’d always been a big fish in a small pond. Because of her many awards and accomplishments, she’d gained an extremely inflated sense of self. Once she reached Wellesley College, however, she realized that she was just another student. Nothing rankled her more than the thought of being mediocre. Her best talent was taking other peoples’ ideas, inheriting them as her own, and then properly regurgitating them at the right times. She was also adept as repackaging, or rebranding, ideas.
It was graduate school at Cornell where everything changed for her. It was there that she blossomed into a beautiful young woman. Instead of wearing frumpy outfits, she, with the help of her mother, entirely replaced her wardrobe. She got LASIK surgery so she could get rid of the her nerdy glasses. She grew out her hair and began carrying herself with more confidence. She was hot, she knew it, and she used it to her advantage. She flirted with classmates for notes and help on tests. She flirted with professors for good grades.
At the end of Anna’s first semester of grad school, Patty moved close and got a job teaching a local middle school. It was at the end of that first school year that the experiment was advertised. While only Anna was selected, she and Patty started to make their plans. Anna would get settled in and would then help bring Patty and their mutual friend Mark out there to live. It was against the rules, but who would ever find out?
Now here she was, finally on the train, close to her destination. The thought of Patty and Mark joining her in a few months eased the pain of the long journey and for the first time in hundreds of miles, she smiled. She was looking out her window again. A brownish-gray haze hung over the grayish-brown landscape. Much of her trip from Albany had been pretty, but this was the ugliest, most barren landscape she’d ever seen.
Thick raindrops began to splatter onto her window and although she was warm inside the entertainment car, she felt cold. She rooted around in her backpack and found her iPod. She navigated and found her “Patty” playlist. Listening to these songs would make her cry again, but luckily, if things went the way they’d all planned, her friends would be joining her very soon.
Being the true Texan that he considered himself to be, Mike Wilson wanted to roll into Utah with one of those Cadillac land boats with the wide bull’s horns on the front. His dream was killed, however, when he was informed that participants had to arrive in an official train. To make up for the dashed hopes of a grand entrance, Mike was showing out. He had on his biggest hat, his pointiest boots, and his largest, gaudiest belt buckle. The hat and the boots were off now and he was in the entertainment car of his train, lying across three seats. It was a relatively short and easy trip for this train, which originated in his hometown of Houston. The stretch through the Rocky Mountains would be slow going, but so far, the trip had been flat and fast.
Mike was a throwback to an earlier time in Texas, when the oil wildcats tried to scare up dollars out of Texas’ hard-packed earth. He’d made some serious money with oil and with cattle. He tried, as best as he could, to emulate J.R. Ewing from the 1980s show Dallas. He wanted the money. He wanted the power. He had actually accumulated quite a bit of both.
Now, after having gone through the experiment’s tedious application process, Mike wondered why he’d gone through with it. He shook his head at himself that day as he scrawled his signature across the contract—one, if he were to break, would cost him five hundred-thousand dollars. Yet, here he was on the train, headed west. Mike figured he needed some adventure and excitement. The fact that a member of the Saudi royal family had put a price on his head was also good motivation to run away. That said, these were not the only reasons for his wanting to start new.
During one of his many long and sleepless nights—before giving away almost his entire first fortune and before making his second—Mike was flipping through channels when he came across a movie about a man who had become rich and successful. The man realized he wasn’t happy because he was no longer on the way up the mountain, but was sitting and waiting at the summit. Searching for a purpose, the man gave away all of his money and challenged himself to get it all back through a new business venture. The fun was in the getting, not the having.
Mike’s watch beeped. He slapped impatiently at the snooze button but couldn’t find it. He swore at the watch, but he was awake now and decided that he might as well get ready for the day. He put his hat on, did up his belt, and slid into his boots. He stood and did a yawning stretch in the middle of the aisle. A woman, who had been walking down the aisle, had to stop because he was blocking her way. She glared at him impatiently.
“Sorry, ma’am,” he said, grinning at her and tipping his hat. She scowled at him and slid past. He smiled to himself and followed her down the aisle. He made his way to the dining car and ordered a cup of coffee.
“Where we at, darlin’?” he asked a pretty, young, blond barista.
“New Mexico somewhere,” she answered with a huge, gorgeous grin.
He returned the smile. She was probably half his age, but that never bothered him. After a few minutes of small talk he slipped a ten dollar bill into her tip jar. He grabbed his coffee and made his way back to his seat, striking out yet again. The train stopped in Santa Fe, Tucson, and Phoenix, and then headed north into the pine forests in the heart of the Rocky Mountains. The progress was slow but Mike reveled in his last moments in the old world. It was an escape on two fronts. First, he would be able to start new—to make a new conquest in a new place. Second, he had a better chance of avoiding any further attempts on his life by that crazy Saudi.