1931 The Grand Punk Railroad: Local/Prologue I: Costumed Bandits

Synopsis
In December 1931, thieves Isaac Dian and Miria Harvent are mining for gold in California when Miria remembers they received a letter from Ennis and Firo Prochainezo. The letter mostly entails Ennis' and Firo's wish that the couple will visit them in New York City, but includes a passage in which Ennis says she thinks of Isaac and Miria like siblings, bringing her cheer since she never got to meet her own 'brothers'.

To allay Miria's fear that Ennis' brothers are dead, Isaac says that Ennis must just want a younger brother. They decide to buy her an expensive gift and go to New York to give it to her - and in order to pay for the gift, Isaac suggests they pull off a train robbery.

The lamplight winks out without warning and the two nervously stay put, waiting for a rescue team to come looking for them. They end up dying of oxygen deprivation, and the next morning are found and carried out in stretchers by their fellow minters. They revive quickly.

The incident is discussed that evening by several other miners, and one of them recalls that the surviving man had said they were digging for gold because they say a centipede with hundreds of legs - something from an eastern Orient religion. An astonished elderly miner chimes in that "those things with hundreds of legs" are millipedes, not centipedes.

By this time, Isaac and Miria are already on a train bound for Chicago, where they plan to pull off a heist and escape via the Flying Pussyfoot to New York.

Cultural References

 * Isaac claims the centipede is the god of gold mining in the orient. (This is not true.)

Characters in Order of Appearance

 * Isaac Dian
 * Miria Harvent