Roundhouse practically shouted, “What do you mean, don’t bother? We got a fully loaded train of coal, here in Wyoming, ready to bring it back to Texas for power generation, and you’re telling me don’t bother? Even if the value of the cargo is slipping by the minute, which is not my problem, the biggest issue here is how the hell am I supposed to get home if we don’t move these hundred-eighty cars of coal?”
The caller on the other end of the line tried to offer in a conciliatory tone. “Now, Roundhouse, I wasn’t going to strand you there in Wyoming just because they said, stop what you are doing. The problem is our buyers in Texas have multiple fuel options they can use in their power generating plants. With oil and gas so cheap they have opted not to buy this load of coal, so we need to hold you up while I try to find another buyer.”
Roundhouse was a huge man who had worked the railroads all his life. It had been his passion to be a train engineer for as long as he could remember. His hands were so huge that a quarter would easily slide through the center of his wedding ring. When he had married Mildred, she said that he could follow his dream and found a ring that would fit, not bind. They had spent their lives in Cut ‘N Shoot, Texas, raising three girls, who were all the apple of his eye. They all successfully wrapped him around their fingers. It actually pained him to see his beloved railroad being hammered by a heartless commodity market-driven world.
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