Story Telling For You - Chapter Six c- Gene's right, she always is...

“Look I know what went down, that’s

not the point; I’m still tryin’ to get my mind

around what it means.’  We were back at

my house; my humble abode, actually it

wasn’t so humble, it was a nice little brick

house on the edge of town, and I liked living

on the dead end street.  But where I was when

saying these things wasn’t the issue at all,

the issue had to get settled, we, Gene and I,

were into a mess, deep, and it appeared the

only way we were going to get out was with

a lot of money, and no small amount of luck.

She picked up on my silence,  “what it means,

Chuck is that we have now made even more

trouble for ourselves, and I didn’t think that

was possible.”

“You had the right idea Gene, it just didn’t

happen like we thought.”

“You’re talking like it’s going to work out?”

“How else can I talk?”

“Chuck can you just, for one minute talk

real here- and quit with the dreamy “it

will work out,” non sense?”

“What if it’s not non sense Gene?’

“But it is Chuck, that’s the point.”

“So you say, but what if?”

“See there you go again, I can’t get you

to see how unreal your ideas are?”

“OK Gene I’ll give you that it’s odd, and

that not everybody thinks of such things,”

“No they sure don’t…”

“But that doesn’t mean they aren’t possible,

it may mean, that folks who are living day

to day, just working their way through life

don’t ever get to think that there might be

something different.”

“Chuck, when you first brought this up,

I thought you were crazy, then when I

heard these guys talking about the welding

that they did on the rigs, to keep water from

getting up into the rig, suddenly something

clicked and I saw your idea.  But after all this

Chuck, I think we’re in somewhere where we

shouldn’t be, and I don’t think we ought to

continue to move forward with this.”

She leaned forward on the table, folding her

hands together, her point was a final one.

When she did that, it was her way of saying

that she’d said what she had to say and that

was that.  Usually I went along with that, but

this time, it just wasn’t going to happen.

“Gene let’s back up and think amounts, so that

we understand the real deal, we’re talking more

millions than we’ll ever see, ever.”

“The millions make sense some, I have to admit

that the money would be incredible…”

“Uh huh-“

“But we’re not these kinds of people Chuck.”

“Uh huh-“

“Chuck why do I get the feeling you ain’ listenin’ to me?”

“Uh huh-“

“And so they gave me a thousand dollars

just to dis you, so I’m leavin’ alright…”

“Uh huh- hey, wait a sec, do I get some

of them bucks too?”

She reached across the table and punched my arm.

“Chuckles you got to get serious about this man,

it ain’ goin away now, it’s on us, we brought it,

and I feel scared of those dudes, they are weird?”

“See when you say that to me, it makes me feel

all warm inside, cause I thought I was weird?”

“You are, that’s not the point, they are weird

in their own little “gangster with guns” sort of

way, and I just ain’ used to nothin even close to that.”

Her point was a really good one, one I couldn’t

and wouldn’t argue with, yeah; right.

“What do you want to do?”

“Whoa there cowboy, you tryin’ to put

this on me?  This wasn’t my idea-“

“Goin to see them was-“

“And you said it sounded good, remember?”

“You apparently aren’t going to let me forget-“

“I’m just sayin’,” by now I knew Gene as going

to let the hammer down, it was just a matter

of time, and I figured I knew where she was

going to land it at. “We started down your

path, your idea, your craziness, we didn’t

need the money-“

“Yes we did-“

“No, Chuckles, we didn’t, that was in your

mind, I’ve never bugged you about

money, it’s not an issue to me and

you know it, if it were I would have

left you like those others who left

Jeff holding the bag-“

“Hey, Smadge is a good guy-“

“That’s what I mean, bad deal for

him, but worse deal for them, they

lost a good guy, but babe, I’m not

about the bucks, never have been.”

“So how come you always like to

go downtown and get new stuff?”

“Ah c’mon man, that’s just ladylike,

what, you don’t want me to be

ladylike?”

“Oh yeah, it’s real ladylike getting

us into a shooting match with hoods.”

“Chuck, we might’ve needed what they

were talking about they could do.”

“I hate relationships based on need,

don’t you?”

“Apparently not-“

Story Telling For You - Chapter Six-b - Magic time

Gene was giving me that look, you know the one,     

she could’ve tapped her foot with it, that look.

“They had guns Gene, guns, these people are criminals.”

“So you thought you could do crime and that

you wouldn’t deal with criminals?  This whole

stealing thing wasn’t our idea Chuckles.”

“Gene’s right man, it’s not what we wanted,”

this wasn’t the time I wanted smadge chimin’

in.  “Guns people, this is serious.” I’m not even sure

what I meant by that?

“Well, la dee dah, man, I’m glad you let us

in on that Chuck with all your considerable

skills.  What’d you come up with, huh, a

rumor, an idea?  Not even an idea, you

overheard some security, no not even

security, former security guy(!) talking about

something he thought he’d seen, and off

you went into lah lah land with us.” 

As much as I thought of smadge, this was

not what I wanted to hear.  “OK. I’ll admit

I got a little heavy handed.”  Evidently what

I’d just said didn’t sit well with Gene?

“Heavy handed?  You don’t remember saying

to me that we didn’t have any guts?”

“I remember.”

“Well isn’t that grand, he remembers Jeff,

great, that’s just great, do you also remember

saying that if we didn’t at least try to back your

play on this, your play Chuck, that we just weren’t

even family?”

“Yeah I did…”

“How could you say that to smadge, I get being

pissed at me, I really do, but smadge?  Chuck,

no smadge no you, remember, out there in the

140 degree sand, in everything you tell me, in the

beans even, and how it stunk like urine constantly

in that damn bio-hazard coffin, what’d you call

them…”

“Green heat,,,”

“Yeah, green heat, that was it, how people threw

up in ‘em, start of the shift, but couldn’t take the

mask off ‘til all clear, how that mine had gone off

and then the fire, and how no smadge draggin

your sorry butt out, and you ain’ here?”

“Yeah I do…”

“So what did you expect Jeff to do, let them

get to me?”

“That’s not the point Gene…”

“Oh, oh great,” she gestured to Jeff, “that’s

not the point?” I remembered a scene out of

a movie – it was a lawyer who was drunk and

he was carrying on about how if he did what he was

supposed to do he’d end up teaching something like

how to take care of typewriters at a Federal Prison?

Don’t know why such stuff pops into my head but I

love movies…guess that’s why?

“Gene you’re goin’ off on me about the something

that turned out wrong, it just turned

out wrong, you said you were going to go

out there and follow up on what you thought

you heard those guys talking about.  When I

said I was goin,  you insisted that it would be

better for me to keep up appearances and just

go to work.  Then I get out of the truck, and

what do I catch, this call?  I think all things

considered, I’m doin’ pretty well?

Pretty well always got under Smadge’s’ skin.

“Pretty well,” Smadge had always hated half baked,

“you think you’re doin’ pretty well?  Chuck I do

really wonder about you sometimes,” he

slanted his face toward me, “what’cha think this

is Chuck, war paint?”  I shook my head no, so he

wouldn’t hit me, “they cut me man, they were ready

to shoot, me, Gene, whatever, they aren’t wrapped

tight, get it, while you’re doin’ pretty well?”

It had all gone south so fast that Gene and Jeff were

caught in a situation that nobody anticipated, we’d

walked into real criminals, and without knowing it, and

now; they weren’t, apparently, just going to let bygones

be bygones- at least that’s what Smithy was getting at

when they found us at the ER.

Alan and Smithy, wow, now there was a pair, but the

question was, of what? 

“We don’t want to have trouble follow us around,

we know we shouldn’t have acted like we did.”  And it

was impossible not to believe Alan, he had those

kind of deep blue eyes that made lying from them

hard to fathom?  “We followed you over here to

see if we could help pay for what we did when

we cut your man there?”

I wasn’t concerned about money- I was, but not

really, know what I mean?  Money wasn’t the

issue, Jeff’s face being cut on, was.

“It ain’ the money.”

“We kinda figured that is why we’re here.”

Gene stepped back saying, “any other reason

you might be here?”  What did she suspect?

“We –“ and Alan stopped, Smithy gestured

toward a cop car pulling into the ER space.

“We are not looking for trouble here dude.”

“Yeah I got that, us neither, let’s just be cool.”

“Works for me,  Al?”

“We might oughta split man?”  He looked at me

like I’d know if that was the right thing to

do?  I cooperated with his head – “well,

walk past ‘em, we’re sayin’ it was a fishin’

accident, they got nothin’ to say.”

That’s what he did, but it was also

obvious, we were gonna see ‘em again.

Story Telling For You - Chapter Six-a - Unbelief That Is Real

Chuck liked the idea of Jeff being with her, but he’d have rather done the deed himself, however, he had his job to do, and keeping his mind on that and the plan had become a full time endeavor.  At least that is what Chuck was thinking when the cell buzzed.

“We’ve got trouble, can you…”

“We, what we?”

“Chuck ain’ the time for it, Smadge’s hurt…”

“What’cha mean hurt?”

“Just get here…”

“Where?”  She told him as he was crankin’ the car.

He pulled into what was a gravel and dirt drive where Gene was standing

and Smadge was sitting on the edge of the culvert.  Smadge stood up as Chuck got out,

“Chuck – I know…”  “You know what?”  “I know you’re pissed…”

This wasn’t a Smadge Chuck was used to, in fact, almost never did Smadge step it down.

Gene was moving to the back door saying, “Chuck can we talk about it driving?”

“What’s the,” then it dawned on him, Smadge was hurt?  She’d said that.

Then  he saw why Gene was being urgent- the two guys on the porch- they were moving slowly, blood was all over their faces, Chuck looked at Smadge, and saw his jaw, there was a gash on it, but it wasn’t bleeding, but it had been, it was swelling maybe two inches, it was a cut. It might need stitches?

Getting the car rolling he couldn’t stand not knowin’  “who wants to tell me what went down?”

Chuck was a little leery, those guys looked pretty bad off, he knew Jeff could be lethal; but his real concern was what had he just walked into otherwise?

“ Chuck just think for a minute,”

“I’m trying Gene, I really am.”

“It’s really simple Chuck, you know Smadge, if somebody starts to get cross wise with me, what’cha think he’s gonna do?”

“Yeah well, suppose we start where this ends and work backwards?”

Smadge wasn’t speaking and Gene picked up his slack and it was Chuck who got why, “man your jaws a mess big guy, let’s head to the doc, get some stitches?”

Smadge didn’t say a word, and Gene let the silence give her a chance to think it through it had been pretty confusing from the first moments at the house until now.

Turned out Alan, the shorter guy, wasn’t much for conversation; in fact, he wasn’t much for people being around him at all, and what’s worse, he wasn’t friendly.  They pulled into what Gene had been told was where he lived, and right away it was tense.

“Hey, didn't you see the sign,”  he hollered at Smadge and Gene as they got out of the car.

“It says, “private property,” it means what it says, so just get back in your car and go on out of here.”

“Whoa there sir, aren’t you the gentlemen I saw drop this at the E-Z mart yesterday,” Gene held up a twenty dollar bill, "wasn't it you- dropped this?"

Alan came toward her, “what E-Z mart?”

“The one in Springhill, just off main.”

“Your sayin’ they knew me, knew where I lived, and I dropped that twenty so you just felt like you needed to bring it out here?”

“That’s it; well," she paused for effect, "part of it- they said your name is Alan?”

“Well,” he reached for the twenty, “that’s nice, didn’t know they knew me?”

Gene let him have the twenty, “look;" Gene dipped her head slightly to allow for being good on the name?  "Alan, I don’t wanna seem weird, but, I overheard you talking with a tall guy,”

“That’s Smithy,”

“Smithy?”

“Yeah he’s not here right now, but sometimes he stays here.”

“Heard you and him talkin’ about something about Bossier, some work you were doin?”

Alan stood still and looked at Smadge, looked him up and down, Smadge didn’t care, he wasn’t intimidated by anybody on earth, and this Alan character didn’t mean anything to him at all.  Gene on the other hand, well, that was another matter.

“He don’t talk much,” Alan said to Gene,” does he?”

“Oh, he can say plenty if he needs to, so, are you Alan?”

“Yeah, that would be me, so; what’s with this?  I’m missin’ somethin’ here ain’ I?”  He grinned a bit.

“Uh, well,” Gene filled in the space, “this is Jeff, Jeff this is Alan.” They shook and Gene continued, “we are actually interested in what I think I overheard the other day.”

“Geez,” Alan was grinning, Gene wondered why?  “Now I, suppose that I; just have to know what you think that was.”

“Hey what she heard is what she heard.”  Alan snapped his head from Gene to Jeff.

“Yeah, that’s right, I ain’ impressed with ya,”

“So what man?”

“So the what is, you better watch how you say what you say,”

Gene saw it goin’ down fast, she cut in, “what Jeff means is,”

“I get what he means,” it was obvious Alan was going the small man’s defensive response route?

“No what I meant is,” Gene didn’t grin, but she was being deliberately light, “I thought you and another man, the one you say is Smithy, thought I heard you talking about working in Bossier, that’s all.”

“Bossier, why would we be working in Bossier?  I’m a welder, Smithy is a project super?”

“So you’re sayin’ I missed it and didn’t hear that?”

“Didn’t say that lady,”

“Hey,” Jeff stepped toward Alan,” you didn’t get it or somethin’?”

“Naw I got it,” Alan signaled palm down, “I got it, I just don’t wanna not get somethin’ said what needs to be said, that’s all.”

“Well fine, then, say it.”

“You guys come out here, drive up on our private land, start sayin’ all this stuff, and you wonder how come I got questions?”  That was when the van pulled into the drive and Smithy jumped out the driver’s side.  He didn’t look happy either, Gene felt like it wasn’t going to go well, she was glad she had her cell with her, and she reached into her bag to get it.  When she did that, Smithy pulled a big black gun out of his back, and Jeff reacted.  Before Smithy even had it up, Jeff had him on the ground, as he went down, Alan tried to jump into it by running around the back of the car and jumping his back, as he did that, Jeff threw him into the hood of the van, with one foot kicked Smithy in the throat, who started chokin’ and blood ran out his nose, and with the other he straddled Alan’s face with a kick from out of nowhere, Alan broke nose blood too.

Jeff was so much faster than anyone ever anticipated, he was big, but not overly so, strong, but deceptive and intimidating in his strength, he threw Smithy several feet and grabbed Alan by the scruff and literally tossed him like a rag doll a good five feet toward the house.  He was between Gene and the two he positioned, so quickly that they didn’t even realize he was punching them, when he was.

Gene wasn’t pleased because her information was gone, they’d never cooperate now, and she’d never know, on the other hand, she had no doubt Smithy might’ve shot them.  She couldn’t help but wonder “who are these guys, really, that they’re pulling this?”  Her question was a good one.

Smadge threw them onto the porch, kicked each of them into total submission holding their stomachs, and then, like electricity in motion, moved the van into the yard, as he did that, Smithy recovered, took a spike and threw it into the tire on their car, and then he lunged at Jeff.  Alan took out the other tire with Smithy’s gun, and the silence after the shot heard Jeff grunting from the spike smacking across his jaw and drawing away skin and blood.  Jeff threw a rock of all things and caught Alan square in the forehead, Alan dropped the piece,  which is when Jeff knocked Smithy out with a high kick. 

As they stopped the fighting, Gene realized they had two choices, she liked calling Chuck better than stealing their van, she felt so weird by all that had taken place, that she barely knew what to say, and so she started relaying what she could of this odd fight to Chuck, “well after all,” she thought, “he asked.”

Chuck realized that he was in no mans land with two people at once,  Jeff was hurt, bleeding, and his Gene was bleeding as well, but that was internal emotional bleeding - from fright, what, could he; what, should he, do?  “Jeff you need to see a Dr. with that.”

Jeff harrumphed, and Chuck didn’t push it, he knew Gene saw the sense in it.  “Gene they probably thought you were going to shoot them.”

“Yes I look threatening, don’t I?  That big galloot just don’t know nothin’ he is an idiot, doing something like pulling a gun on us, we were only there to,”  her voice cracked, and the enormity of it hit Chuck as well, they came to the left hand turn to short cut past the lake and get to the hospital off 157.  Chuck pulled the car over – it would be safe to say that the only one who wasn’t shook up and a bit weepy eyed was the one bleeding a bit.

Gene jumped out the back and killed some grass with some spew- it wasn’t chunky, thank goodness, but Chuck was shaky as well, and then he also realized, they were only blocks from the scene and needed to move, those guys might decide to come after them?  “Let’s get goin’ Gene, I don’ want no more trouble than we already have.”  

He got them to the hospital, the emergency room was around back, it was not so easy to explain an injury from a fishin’ accident, but that’s the one they used.  All the while being slightly on their guard, but the two nut jobs didn’t come after them.  Jeff wasn’t concerned about that, he was in pain, but Gene was and it showed as she constantly looked out the air doors to see if they’d been followed.  Chuck didn’t try to talk with Jeff much, what was the point?  “I do appreciate that you were there, and my God, what might he have done?”  Jeff couldn’t really answer so he grunted.  It was odd but somehow Jeff’s grunt carried the message that this was a damn mess, and they all realized that Chuck had started a ball of mess rollin’ and now it wasn’t going to stop.  What they were uptight about wasn’t the mess, but what might come next?

Story Telling For You - Chapter Six - Smadge This

The Army had made Smadge wise 

in the way of people who had agenda’s, 

he’d seen officer after officer come 

in mellow and go out full blown ass kisser; 

while he found it disgusting, he also understood it.

“After you get down to it,” he thought, 

“it’s not that you kiss it, it’s who’s your kissin’.”  

Smadge was getting a little cynical, and he realized 

his internal dialogue was more cynical in the morning 

for some reason, maybe a day hadn’t gotten into it to 

mellow all those thoughts?  The cell buzzed.

“Hello, Jeff here,”

“Love the way you answer that phone man,”

“Hi Gene,”

“Yeah I know, you love a healthy greeting,”

They never tired of it.  “And what can I do for you young lady,”  it was the friendly way that age between them didn’t become an issue, although lately, it had become somewhat of one, they weren’t young but they weren’t old.  They both knew that all this “60 is the new 40,” crapp was for the birds.

“Chuck’s idea,”  “oh that,”  “yeah, that,” “well Gene we’ve been all over it, I’m not changin’ my mind.”

“What if I were to tell you that someone else is thinking along the same lines as Chuck?”

“I’d say you were imagining things.”

“What if I told you that I’d heard them talking about it.”

“I’d say you were imagining things.”

“What if I told you that I knew who they were and that I was going to go talk with them about what I’d heard them talking about to see if I was right?”

“I’d say you were crossin’ lines you don’t wanna cross, tell me you’re kiddin’ right?”

“If I could turn back time,” she’d forgotten who sung it, thought it might be Cher, after  Sunny became a Senator; but she just loved the idea, “smadge you can’t undo some things you hear, ya know?” 

He knew, and it wasn’t what he wanted to hear, he was starting to suspect where this was going.

“Should I say no now and save us some minutes?”

“You aren’t going to say no, and you know it.”

“I know no such thing.”

“You love me, you…”

“Love’s got nothing to do with this, Chuck’s lost his mind and he’s takin’ yours with it…”

“…and you know you don’t want me in danger, without you being there…”

“Which is why you shouldn’t listen to him, I could just brain his butt…”

“…because you’d feel lousy if something happened to me…”

“and why in the world,” his voice went up an octave,”would you, a beautiful…”

“…not that anything is going to, but…”

“…gorgeous, attractive and smart woman, listen to him.”

“…so you comin’ with me?”

“What choice do I have?”

Story Telling For You - Chapter Five - Gene busts a move...

Gene felt a little rush of energy, nervous energy, in her stomach- Chuck might not like what she was going to say, but he was, “by God, going to listen!”

“They were just standing there in line talking this stuff…”  With no need to pout her lip, Gene just continued to smile that slight smile of knowing she knew, she could see it in Chuck’s eyes.

“So they were talking about the Casinas?”  Chuck loved his pretend accent.

“No doubt at all, the one who was shorter, and a little fat, couldn’t catch his name, sounded like it might be Allen; he was kind of, quiet, seemed a little intense, but also, like he was trying to get the tall guy to stay quieter, and the tall guy was excited about something.”

“So that’s what made you think they would be somebody we might could get some information from?”

“Ye...”  She didn’t get the S out and he was on it…

“When we already have Hef?”

There he’d said it, she didn’t like Hef, but it didn’t matter, she had no reason to, just because a guy is named after a genius about human wants and desires, Hugh Hefner, is no reason not to like him; but for Gene, reason wasn’t always the guide it was to other people.

“I knew you were going to say that…”

“Kind of just hung out there didn’t it.”

“You know that this is some great news, you know it and I know it, all we have to do is find out if these guys are for real, maybe they are, maybe I overheard something that will gain us an edge.”

“Or get us ratted on, or killed, or kybash the whole deal?”

“It’s what they were talking about Chuckles, c’mon man, you can see it, and I know you can?”

“Not that sweety, not that at all, stop and think about what you heard.”

“That they were thinking about the Casino’s and that they had been working there, or knew somebody who knew the schedule that the Casino’s had.”

“There you go.”

“But so what?”

“Hef darling, don’t discount what’s goin’ on here.”

“Huh?”

“Stop that train you got goin’ on this deal and think about who we’re talking about dealing with, those places aren’t just normal places of business where people go and spend a fortune.”

“Well sure that’s true.”

“So we aren’t just talking about normal folks, these folks are obviously tied into some heavy people that are either now, or used to be, what we’d call – mob- right?”

“We don’t know that.”

“Yeah but we can take a good guess.”

“So your point Chuckles, your point?”

“You and smadge both thought I was nuts, and now you are comin’ round, and it’s the money isn’t it?”

“Some, some of it is the money.”

“And the rest?”

“Your kind of cute when you’re excited.”

“Kind of?”

“So maybe I did think it was nutty, after all, we do have a life, and we not be rich, but we have each other?  That counts with me.”

“Me too.”

“So why bother to try something so outrageous?”

“Maybe that’s just it, it is outrageous, maybe that makes me think that it will work, that we can do it, that we can get away with it?”

“So no good deed, huh?  Well where’s the good deed in this?”

“Well first I had to just get you guys on board, then we could talk deeds, are you on board?”

“If you let me find out some more about these dudes?”

“Not by yourself.”

“Smadge?”

“Smadge.”

Story Telling For You - Chapter Four

Normal people live on the edge
of the madness that is exceptional;
and it can be good or evil,
but exceptional is always,
not normal.  As Jeff discovered
about his lifelong friend Chuck,
normal meant nothing to him.
"That's got to be the biggest crock I've ever heard."
"Why," Chuck asked, mildly, "because it doesn't
fit some presumption about how we're supposed
to live?"
"C'mon man, be real, there is no honor in what
you are talking about."
"But," Chuck smiled a bit, "there is a lot of
money, and isn't that just as well?"
Jeff had to admit, it made him think, he didn't
like it, but, it made him think.

Gene wasn't like Jeff, she wasn't like anyone
that Chuck had ever known, no two people
are the same, but they are in so many ways
similar; until, like Chuck, you crossed the
line; then suddenly, people like Gene became
so much more than precious.
"Chuck you've said some strange things before
but this one, I just don't know what to..."
"Gene I know how you feel..."
"Don't think so..."
"No I do know a bit of how you feel,
look, do you think I dreamed this up and
it was just all rosy?"
"Didn't say that..."
"But you must've been thinkin' it?"
Actually Gene was thinking, "he's lost
his fool head, and he thinks I'm supposed
to lose mine with him, it's nuts."  But
she didn't want to say that, so instead she
said; "Chuck let's try to look at this in a
sensible way.  You aren't a thief, and you
have no idea what to do with a lot of
money, you've never had it."
"That's for a reason you know..."
"Oh here we go," Gene had heard this
tale many times, "is it going to be that
you've never had an even chance to do
what others have?"
"Didn't say that..."  Chuck could feel
his jaw muscles tighten.
"Well is it going to be the no father tale?"
Chuck felt hot, flushed.
"You know,"  she continued, "that's almost
buy able.
"Is it indeed?"  It wasn't going to do him any
good to argue with her, it was obvious she'd
missed the main point entirely.
"Nobody has tried harder to become a success
than you Chuck, we've all watched you try
stuff, but nothing works, is it possible that
your lot in life is to just be normal?"
"I can't accept that, and this, well, it didn't
come to me out of the blue, it was worked
up to; I think that Cody knew exactly what
he was doin'"
"From what I've heard about Cody, that would
make sense, word out is that he's a flake."
"Nobody calls anybody a flake anymore..."
"Well you got me, maybe they didn't say
flake?"
"They?"

Gene had overheard the conversation more
than heard it, before she'd invited herself
into it, at the local Mom and Pops.
The tall guy said, "it's not that easy, if it was
it would happen all the time."
The shorter guy without the blonde hair
wasn't responding the way the tall guy
wanted him to, and the tall guys body
language gave that away, "and you think
you'd hear about it, they keep that stuff
super quiet man, c'mon. You talkin' about
the Casina's" (short guy lopped his o on
the name Casino- maybe he was from the
south?)
Tall guy wasn't amused at the going gray
shorter guys remark, "yeah I know that,
I ain' stupit you know."  Tall guy clipped
his d's which was a dead give away to
being from somewhere besides the south.
He continued, which is where Gene's ears
perked up; "but if we was gonna try such,"
the smaller dark headed guy, Cody, got
steely eyed, Gene could see it, "would you
please cool it, quiet."
"Oh, yeah, sorry man..."
Then they left, but not before Gene had
seen his black truck, Ram charger, older
model, image of some cartoon character
peeing on something in the back window,
license JUT453; she was going to have to
find out what that whole conversation
was about, and that, would be Gene's fun
for the next few days.

Gene tried to find out without anyone being
aware of it, who owned that truck, she found
Cody, she found an address, well, she didn't
find it, her friend on the force did; which was
sort of, how friends helped friends in the south.
The address turned out to be one which was
lived at some months back, the current lady
said she'd heard they'd moved over onto a
country road 167.  Said she'd know it was the
right place if she seen a black BMW rag top
and about seven other cars, said they called
it Cody's lot, because he took cars and worked
on them when he wasn't playing oil field trash.
Gene thought, "good info to have." That was
Thursday, Friday was going to bring much
in the way of understanding what it was that
Gene had walked into, which meant that
Chuck had walked into it, which meant that
some was probably going to get on Jeff as
well, no sense trying to hid what the wind
can do when it gets spinning.

Story Telling For You - Chapter Three

Thinking back to those days about
the cold, the relationships that I had
today, that were formed,
some of them, back then,
seemed; solid somehow?
Jeff and I went through a frozen
sort of Hell and a hotter than hell
sort of desert, to be here.
Until I met Gene, then; oddly, her life took over
my life, it was not like anything I'd ever experienced,
but, over the years; my relationship with Jeff, who
got out of the Army after Desert Storm; where
as the Battalion Sergeant's Major, he had won
several commendations; not that they mattered to him,
Jeff was into leading men, and even today, that was
what made Jeff so important to me.  So when Gene
had blown into my life, she had completely taken
me by storm; so much so that my oldest buddy
from the Army, even, had to comment about how
much time I'd spent with her, rather than him?  But
in those days, nearly a decade ago, she had overwhelmed
me with a personality and style like nothing I'd ever
known, and her smile disarmed even my foulest moods.
Gene had appeared to be the answer to every doubt
I'd ever had about life.

We'd been thinking, together, she and I, for some time, but
her thinking and my thinking they weren't the same;
ever have that happen?  Ever think you know what
she means, and you don't?  For women, if I understand
what my friend says, it's about the same, they think
that men say one thing and mean another- is that
how men are, and women are, so there must not
be a whole lot of understanding going on?  We'd
been thinking, together, which was often not the
best of ways to handle things.

So I made a very simple statement to her; "if I
needed your help, would you give it to me."  I
didn't mean anything by it, I wasn't doing any
sexy double entendre', I only wanted to know
if we had something going down if she'd help?
"Would I give it to you?  Well of course I'd
give it to you, I've been trying to give it to you
for a while now, you act like you could care less?"

That's not true, it wasn't an act, I wasn't really
all that much into her that way; she was getting
older, the lines in her face more pronounced,
the hanging leftovers of arms which used to
be stronger and more attractive, were beginning
to sag even more.  She was still pretty, but
she'd moved from an object of desire to a
person but one with not as much desire.  I know,
it's crass; I know it sucks; I know, but it's the
truth; what do you want me to do, lie? I said;
"why do you have to turn every remark I make
into a physical deal?  Seriously, is that all
you have on your mind."
"I'm not a slut,"
"Did I say you were a slut?"
"You make it sound as if I am."
"Where you get that..."
"Because the way you say it, I'm always
bringing up physical with you and you
aren't even into that?  Which, by the way,
would make me a women who likes sex-
and sometimes, women who like sex
are called, and perceived as, sluts.  That
what you were thinking, that I must be easy?"
"You can't be serious?"  What would you
have said?  I was in a bit of a hole in this
conversation, with no easy way out, apparently?
"Yes," her eyes danced, lit up, and her smile,
oh that smile- it was like nobody else's anywhere-
"I was serious about wanting you to want me-
you used to; what happened?" She was intense.
"How about you quit caring - what was I
supposed to do?"  I could be intense too!
"How about, keep caring?"  "Yeah," I thought,
"like an idiot being fed small doses of poison?"
But I didn't dare say that did I, so I uttered;
"Look I tried, I tried to call, you told me
not to; I tried to even text you and you told
me you were too busy?  So what can I say,
when Cynthia came on to me, what was I
supposed to do; she's prettier than Laura,
you remember Laura,"
"Yes, my lord, who can forget her, the lady
who has an orgasm from a massage," Her
eyes were showing a touch of something,
was it jealousy?  I wasn't trying to make
her feel anything, so if it was, it was on her.
"Ok I was due that, but she did, and I
couldn't do a thing about that, it was
after all, just a massage, what was I
supposed to do?"
"You could give me a massage?"
See what I mean- this conversation wasn't
going the way I needed it to go.  Ever
have that happen to you?

Jeff didn't know about these conversations,
he didn't know about the feedback, but
he did know from me, where things stood.
"And somehow you figure that's going to
get her back?"  Jeff wasn't being cynical.
"Jeff you know, I'm not sure that's where
I am going, she's still someone that I'd
do anything for.  That's a huge problem
in our business."
"Do tell."
"So you think I'm being silly?"
"Would you listen if I said you were being
less than manly about this?"
"I might?"
"You ought to turn her completely and
totally loose, go with Laura, or Cynthia-
they are really turned on by you, and they
care about you, look Chuck, Gene don't
call, she don't care, apparently that hasn't
registered with you yet, you're still trying
to cut her in on a fortune, and of course,
I'd love to know why?"
"Jeff, ..., I can't stop it, this is ten years now,
and I love her- I don't want to, but there it
is, I love her."
"Figured that was it."

Story Telling For You - Chapter Two

Sometimes you find yourself wondering 

why things go the way that they do; 

and often, you realize that

they had to go that way.  But that’s

looking back when you are in the 

midst of it, you aren’t able

to look back, yet.

“Tell you something else Chuck,”

between the cold and smadge being pissed the

whole day was turning ugly and it wasn’t five A.M.,

so my sense of listening increased.

“Smadge, it goes like it goes…”  Hey that was

intellectual wasn’t it?

“These folks leading this mess don’t have a plan.

If they had a plan we’d know what we’re supposed

to be doing, but we don’t.”  He said it from that

base of experience that lets you know he knew.

“Sure, that makes sense, only we have to try

and do what we can to get the platoon ready.”

“Now see chuck, that’s why I got you on staff

you get it.  What we need to be doing right now

is getting our guys and gals ready to go and

fight another skirmish.  Only those folks runnin’

this mess aren’t capable of diggin’ their heads

out long enough to give us a word about how that

is going to go.”  I could hear his blood pressure

rising and his temper coming up.

It wasn’t going to be long and smadge would

be talking about what people with no morals

would do someones mom, and I really didn’t

like that conversation, so I tried, all the time

to keep him just below the threshold.  Don’t

know if you have a situation like that?

When she smiled at me it melted my day, and

there wasn’t a thing I could do about it, maybe

in my mind those times in the past flooded into the

present and left a mark on it, whether I liked it or

not, it was there and apparently there was no

escaping it.  The past had a power that could

not be cured, folks talked about curing it, but

a past is a past, and it isn’t about being cured,

it is about coming to peace with it, somehow

getting that past to lay to rest in your present.

Every time she smiled at me, that was over.

Why do some people cause a turmoil in your

soul?  My friend would say that it is because you

choose to let them have that power over you,

I’m not so certain that is the case; I’m not so

certain you don’t get that choice, but when it

comes it doesn’t look like a choice, it looks like

anything else.  When she smiled it was to everyone

a smile, it was to me; a power in my life that I

neither wanted nor needed, and yet, there

it was.  According to Hindu beliefs there are

hungry ghosts which can consume you.  While

anyone not being a Hindu, not believing in ghosts,

might raise their eyebrows on that one; when she

smiles, I hear a rustling of the winds of ghosts,

they come to consume my desires and turn my

path from where it could go to somewhere else.

Maybe that’s why the past kept coming back?

“Well finally, took ‘em long enough,”

We were told to fall out, which meant to get into

a formation outside the barracks.  This was it,

we were in the cold again.  Germany is a beautiful

country, but the cold, there isn’t any way to make

that go away, nor to forget how it moves through

all that cold weather gear, right into your bones.

“Smadge is this it?”  I wasn’t afraid, just wanting

to know.

“Who knows with this bunch of sock grabbers…”

Story Telling For You - Chapter One

When somebody says something odd, well, sometimes it
goes right past you; ever have that happen?  You hear it,
but you don't really hear it, so you have to say:
"What was that, oh, I'm sorry, I was lost in something and
didn't catch it, what did you say?"  Because she knew
that it was something she wanted to hear, because I
was responding to her bizarre remark.  When she said
that odd thing, right then I'd wondered, "why, why
bother them with what they don't need to know?"  She'd
said that she'd had to tell her reasons for why she
wasn't feeling well and just hope that she wouldn't
be thought unkindly for what she'd done?  My thought
was, "yes but you could just keep your mouth shut?
People get sick all the time, they don't give a run down
of who's hand they shook that sneezed so they caught
the cold, do they?"  Yes I realized, that was a bit plastic,
but lately she'd been such a nuisance that it just amazed
me that she felt she had to vent her Spleen in public
and then expect folks to be accepting of the bile?

Now I can think it, just like you, think it, but that
doesn't mean we can say it, does it?  So instead my
mouth uttered, "well after all, that was the honest
thing to do."  But inside my heart was amazed at
the foolish choice she'd made.  Of course some
would say that was courageous; but in my mind,
sometimes not saying something can be a lot more
courageous that saying it...

It was cold out that night; I remembered the cold
because it was the European cold, and the European,
German, cold, is very cold; it gets down into your
bones, quick.  We'd been hassled and messed with
and called out to stand at attention in ranks, only
to be told it wasn't going to happen, until every
nerve in us was frayed.  Every person in the platoon
was fed up with the in and out, and then out again,
and then in again, hot; cold, hot and then cold,
and then hot again- it was a nuisance.  "If they're
gonna send us, why the hell don't they do it
and quit playin' with us like little tin soldiers."
Dan had his way of saying things, I just listened,
because when Dan was uptight, as he was now,
it was smarter to listen, and even sometimes grunt.
"Tell you one thing, if they think they can keep
getting the smadge (pronounced as a slurred and
shortened Sergeant's Major) in and out and
in and out and in again, they're dreaming in a
mud puddle they'll drown in by God!"  He wasn't
enjoying himself, and who could blame him,
it was three in the morning, it was cold, bone
cold, and we'd been up since dawn being told
we'd be next to go.  That was when big Dan,
because he was a ferocious fighting giant
of a man,  said that odd thing?
"Chuck you speak some Latin don't you?"

"Latin," I thought," at three in the morning?"
But what I ended up saying was, "Yes
Seargeant's Major, I do, speak; some;"
"Hey come on, Chuck, what've I told ya,
when we're by ourselves, you can knock
off the formal, O.K.?"
"It's just easier for me, Dan, to just keep it
all the same, talk wise, you know I know
that we're friends to the core."
"Well anyway, Chuck, Latin you see is this
strange language to me, language you know
has a lot to do with how well a nation does,
did you know that?"
"I'd actually heard something like that as
a theory once, yes..."
"Turns out if folks speak your language because
it's easy to use, they'll likely come around to
your way of thinking, language tends to carry
the power of thought with it, and culture..."
"Yes sergeant's major, and?"
"And Rome, well, they conquered so much of
the world, and yet, the countries they conquered
were slow to adopt their language, and in fact,
Rome wasn't respected, and their language may
have been tied to that?"
"Interesting seargeant's major but what are
you really saying?"
"I'm sayin' that they had a saying, "Tenet
Nosce" know what it means?"
"Uhm, let me see, nosce means to
get to know doesn't it?"
"That's right,"
"and tenet is occupancy, so, get to
know your occupancy, oh, that's it,
know yourself?"
"There you go, another way of saying
be true to yourself."
"And your point..."
"We aren't anymore.  You know that lady
I was seeing in the town?"
"The pretty dark haired lady?"
"None other, know what she did?"
"No but you are going to tell me, aren't you?"
"She tells me that she's so busy that she can't
talk to me.  I'm thinking, that's odd, so I am
talking with one of her friends, who says that
she gets calls from some guy who isn't my
name, all the time; and she giggles like a little
school girl with him.  Well you can imagine
how I took that?"
"You were probably pretty pissed?"
"No I wasn't pissed, I was hurt actually, here
I thought she and I really had something; that
she really cared, and then she goes and does
something like this, seems dishonest to me,
doesn't it to you?"
"Dishonesty and lying are something we
tend to do sergeant's major."
"But not to people you care about- why didn't
she just come out and tell me the truth?'

I snapped back to the present, realizing that
my former girlfriend had said the very same
words to me, and they'd had the same effect.
I realized Dan meant a lot to me, because the
experiences are precious, but it is also the
meaning of what happens when your heart
gets ripped up, when people who shouldn't
lie, and when those lies are even for so called
"good reason," how those lies still cut to the
bone when you discover the truth and they
can no longer hide behind the convenience
of the lie that they thought they could put over
on you.  Such is life, as the French have said,
"as in love, so in war"?

Do you suppose that is why Dan's
moment came into my mind as
she finished telling me that she was just too
busy to take my calls?  Then when I saw her
with her "Bo" and she had that " oh crap,"
look on her face, well, do you suppose
that what Dan said that night, made an impression
upon my heart, that came ringing into the
present to save it from breaking?  Do you suppose
that sometimes the past that we created
can burst truth into the present to save our
hearts from drying up and dying midst all
the present pain?  I'm asking because sometimes
it seems to me, we could just keep our mouths
shut, and avoid a lot of pain?  Made me wonder
how many times in the world lies are told
to cover up behavior that is not only dishonest
but, against the grander feeling of truth and
love?  Since love is a verb, doing for the other
person, and since, obviously, she no longer
felt like that was what she wanted to do,
why go through all the elaborate lies, when
a simple dose of;  "we're not what I want
and I should never have lied to you about
loving you," would have been best for all?
My theory on this may not suit you, but
have you ever wondered...

Story Telling For You

The somebody special, you have them, the ones who make you
smile, make your life worth living, make you know that there
is more; because there is, we just sometimes, don't realize it.
"Oh that's easy for you to say, you don't hurt like me..."
I'd known Dan for years, at least it seemed like that, and
his way of saying things, well, it was neat- I liked Dan.
"Oh Dan, you always have a new pain somewhere,"
"not like this one; I'm tellin' you, it hurst clean down
to the bone."  That's just how they say it, and in the
South, we know what that bone is, don't we?

But my somebody special has no idea that they are; you see, that
would wreck the fun, and because they don't know;
well, they can't hardly do much about it.  Think about
what Dan would fuss about, if he couldn't fuss on
account of, he didn't know what to fuss about?  That's
how it is with my somebody, oh, they try their very
hardest to be just as rude and crude as they can.  They
even refuse to speak to me, imagine such; not being
even spoken to?  Yet, in some odd and unspoken way,
that makes them all the more lovely; all the more special;
even though, as time passes; we no longer know one
another, you see, if Dan couldn't fuss about his pain,
because he didn't know it, eventually what would he
call it; eventually I'll call my someone special, someone
who was, and that's very, very, sad.

So the day was bright, very bright; and it was already
hot- that's a sort of hot which hits you before the sun
is even good and up in the sky, know that sort of hot?
"Never seen it so hot,"  and she meant it.
"I think you're right, it seems like it is getting hotter
than it used to be?"
"You don't say," she was being coy for some reason;
"I do say, and what's more, its not just that it's hot,
it's that it is so hot, much hotter than it's been.  It's
not just that we have storms, don't you know, its
that they are so much more intense."
"Now that's what we call being scientific; want some
more coffee?"
I did, but I couldn't stay, after all, we all have things
that we have to do, don't we?  It was then that she
said this odd thing...

Call it temporary nut-E-ness

What possessed me to put my character driven
fiction onto a blog designed to push the edge
on rural America?  Only the inner child who
made that error could say, BUT, this little
entry here is to let folks who've been
reading it and saying, "dang that dialogue
is pretty catchy there son..." a chance to
keep on reading, as it transfers to DRD.

All it is...-4-

Her wanting to know what I did was
an open invitation-all I had to do
 was answer her, but there
was a problem, like always- the answer
could be many different things?
"Madeline that's a good question- what
do I do?  Well I do what needs doing to
try and help the community, how's that?"
She looked intently at me, she had that
look when I'd suggested that it'd be fun
to explain to her what I did over lunch?
Now she was looking at me again, intently,
and so I noticed she had a strange color
to her eyes?  How does the color of a
persons eyes go with their shape and
size and bearing- I don't know, but from
some weird place, hers matched.
"Chuck you just generally do whatever?
That doesn't sound like the man who
asked me all those entangling questions
last year?  Yes," she saw my shock," I
do remember..."
"What must have been going through my
mind at that party?"  We both smiled,
it had been a quick year.
"You kept coming back to me, and I
really wasn't in the mood..."
"I remember that..."
"So why'd you act like that?"
"Might've been, nerves?"
"Not from you - that just doesn't fit."
She was positioning me in this and
I couldn't have that be the way that
this conversation went, it had to go
to a point where I could try to discover
what she'd meant about explosions?
So the hard part, I looked intently back
into her dark brown eyes and asked
her, "You asked me, now it's my turn,
what are you up to these days?"

She actually paused - and it wasn't for
effect, I could tell, wheels were spinning,
"Chuck, it is odd that you were out there,
my appointment with Bert had been made
weeks before.  We had decided to look
over whether his plane was what we
needed."
"We?"
"The folks who are paying me..."
"Folks?"
"Chuck let's just say that I work in an
area of security that you'd find creepy
I think."
"Oh why's that?"
"Because you seem like such a normal
middle class guy?"
"True, that's exactly what I am, but that
doesn't mean I'm not interested in what
is going on around me?"
It was as if a light turned on behind her
eyes, as if the gears meshed, she smiled;
"so if I were to tell you something that
was so incredible that it hardly made
sense, what would you do?"
"Can't know that until I know what it is?"
"No I mean, do you think you could
keep your mouth shut?"
We'd gone into dark murky water faster
than I had wanted to, but this is precisely
the conversation I was wanting?  That
struck me as odd?
"I could..."
"So that if, for example, people that you
cared about, were in a situation that was
very dangerous, and they didn't know it..."
"I'd try," had to cut in, "to help them."
"Yeah - well see Chuck that's exactly
the problem, you'd try."
"What's that supposed to mean."
"Just what I said, we're not talking about
a situation where you have the luxury of
trying to succeed."
The way this conversation was going I
was feeling a lot better about Bert
bugging out, which when he'd done it,
had seemed lame, at this point, it didn't
seem lame anymore.

You Say When...-3-

Sadist, a person who likes, pain, they get off on
pain, in a way that is closely tied to being sexual,

and I couldn't get it out of my mind for some reason?
His comment had a nearly
sensual, charge.  "Bert says he has no idea?"
"That so?"
"He says that the history of the place is just that
it came to be, sort of out of need?"
"That how you see it?"
"Can't see any reason it'd be otherwise?"
Mr. Politic wasn't convinced, and it was obvious;
you know somebody for all these years,
you start to catch on when they aren't agreeing
with you, but don't want to be confronting
you with that?  There were rumors about Bert,
rumors that involved sadism.  Maybe Mr.
Politic knew about them?  Was it time to
test those waters?

The conversation with Mr. P and the short
interrogation with Bert were rolling through
my mind as I walked away, I'd turned to the
side of the hangar area; and it occurred to me
that there was an extra vehicle sitting there?
Was Bert taking someone up, I hadn't seen
them?  Maybe they'd know something
about the airstrip that Bert hadn't?  One
never knows, and living in a small
community, you get used to seeing the
same cars, fact is, even in so called big
cities, the same cars seem to be in the same
place a lot, don't they?  Curiosity got me,
I circled back to the hangar, approaching
it I heard voices raised like an argument?

"You...sure that's easy for you to say..."
"Don't give me the "we can't do anything
about it pitch..."
I was not comfortable ease dropping, on
the other hand, what was I actually hearing?
Gingerly, because too much, and my face
would show, I squeezed onto the corner
trying to see the face of the person, but
Bert was in the way, saw the feet; and they
were surprising.

"It doesn't matter what you think."
"It does matter, you can stop this."
"Yeah I could stop it," Bert's voice
went up a notch, "but I'm not gonna."
"So you're willing to stand bye and
do nothing while these poor people
get blasted to hell and gone?"
What- hell and gone?  Blasted?  What
was the mystery speaker talking about
and why couldn't I recognize his voice?
I pressed into the corner trying to see
past Bert to who it was.

"You don't get it do you, I'm not gonna
be here, and if you're smart, you won't
be either."  Bert said it like a man who
knew what was going on, and who was
not going to get sideways about it, but
what was it he was talking about?
"Sure, but how you gonna know?"
So there it was, the mystery voice,
"let's just say that I have my connections
and they let me know what is going
on."
"Sure they do, like last night?"
Now my curiosity was getting into it,
I was trying to think of a way to get
into that hangar without being
obvious about it?  Couldn't come
up with one...so, in I walked, and
as I've come to understand it, if you're
gonna show your butt, put it out there!

"Aw, man, Bert, can you..."  I acted like
I was coming back after forgetting to
get gone, they were standing there, and
I realized, her voice sounded male, but
she wasn't!  Bert did nothing, no introduction,
no, "hey man, this is," he did nothin'.
So since my behind was exposed, and
intrusion wasn't any longer a question,
I took care of it- stuck the paw out.
"Hi I'm Chuck."  The hottie, which it's
fair to say, she was, very, drop dead
gorgeous, didn't know what to say,
evidently- obviously I'd barged in on
a conversation that I wasn't supposed
to be in on, and now, the discomfort
became palatable.  I kept my paw
out, since we humans don't do butt
sniffing, so that wasn't an option, I
was gonna see what she did.
"Chuck, well, it's good to meet you,
Chuck; I'm Madeline."
"Madeline...?"  Might as well go for broke?
"Chuck, I'm shocked, you don't
remember..."
What was I supposed to remember now,
that I wasn't?
"Oh, my," she half laughed beneath a
light lilted giggle, "I see you really don't-
we met at the Senator's get together
over in the valley,"  and the light
went on, "Oh," my brain sent a message,
"that Madeline," and I said:
"Oh my gosh, how could I forget, of course,
you're the young lady who brought the
gentlemen from the chamber in, weren't
you?"
"That was me, you've got it, and you were
there for some fund raising or something?"
This was nice, she assented to my paw,
so evidently the butt sniffing was out of the
question, sometimes being human, well,
what is it women say, men are dogs?

Bert, on the other hand, had gone positively
still, and was looking at us as one would
look at some painting, curious, but not all
that interested, and yet, not wanting to turn
away?  When I catch someone playing that
game, it's usually my turn to have some fun.
But this wasn't fun, they'd definitely said
that some folks were gonna get blowed up.
"Bert I came back because it occurred to me
that I'd not left you my card if you needed
to reach me."  Pretty lame, but sometimes
lame will do.
Bert had no problem going paw to paw,
apparently, men are dogs?  "Oh man, I
know how to reach you if I have to,
you've always got your nose so far up the
Mayor's..."  And he caught himself before
he said it, but we all knew what he was
going to say; and I didn't care, if you
have to put your nose somewhere, the
hope is, occasionally it will be a rosy
resonance that meets it?  "Yeah but
just the same man," reaching into my
jacket, "maybe someone else might
could use it, feel free to hand it out."
"So Chuck," and Madeline was off to
the races, "what are you into these days."
With a platform like that, it was going
to be easier than I'd hoped to try and find
a way into the topic of things that go boom.

You Say One Thing...Mean Another! -2-

If someone told you the
Department of Justice
was poking around,
wouldn't you have a few
hundred questions?
"What are they asking?"
Yeah, I agree, dumb question,
but I had to start somewhere,
and as I walked across the tarmac,
the conversation ran through my mind, his
twinkled eyed answer answer had been nearly curt;
"your supposed to be good at finding things out?"

Now as my other associates plane came into
view, the conversation kept nagging at me,
because it was strange.  It wasn't that he
was tense, it was that he was deliberately
not telling me some things, which in that
he didn't hide that fact, meant he was
sending me off on a mission with very
few supplies?  Alas we all go there someday.

So as Bert came into view, my mind was
racing a bit, as I knew exactly what Mr. Politic,
had in mind, if my connections were used
right, I'd work back to those questions
myself, and he'd know what he wanted to know.

Bert was a challenging person, his very presence
was one that evoked something, he is big, not
just large, but, fit; you could put my 5'8", 190
pound, next to Bert and you'd see it instantly.
He dwarfed me, and yet, he was not the sort
of large person whom you felt you could
hug like a Teddy Bear and survive the hug?
My guess was 6'5", about 230, but I'd never
asked, wasn't necessary, when you were in
Bert's presence, you realized size had ceased
being the issue, and was he going to attack
or not, became the central point.

"Yo Bert,"  Friendly, smiling, a good greeting...
"Well, look at what the cats set loose, what's
up Chuck..."  Bert, always quick with the wit.
"Bert how long you been parkin' your Cessna
out here?"
"Cessna, son, something wrong with your vision?
This is a ways up the ladder from one of those
hoppers." He touched the fuselage, "it's O.K.
Gina, he just don't know what he's talkin' about
when it comes to splendor?"
"Huh?"
"Wrong make there Chuck ol buddy- this here's
a full blown, 100% Comanche, best of the line,
top of the release.."  As he continued I realized
that I'd set him off...he was proud of the plane,
that was obvious, so I tried on the breath to
get in another opening question.
"Sorry Bert, you're right, I don't know much
about planes."
And he was off to the races again, only this time
it was me not knowing what I was looking at,
and once again, the pedigree speech, well
third times a charm, nothing ventured?
"Yeah, Bert, got it," back to square one here,
"how long have you been parking the plane
out here?"
Now there's a good question, but
I wasn't expecting his answer.
"Writin' a book Chuck?"
"Well, uh, no, just wondering?"
"Why you wondering?"  No aggression
just standing there against the plane asking.
"Bert, easy, your my bud, just curious, I don'
know much about this place, don't come out
here, just looking for some history a little
and I know you a bit."
That seemed to relax him a bit, although I
was still a bit taken aback, was he paranoid?

Bert was an associate, someone I knew at a
distance, but, knew; had been knowing for
decades now.  Weird rumors hung around
Bert like bad air over a crowded city; and
while my teeth testified to the fact that I'd
never been stupid enough to try and confirm
or deny them directly with the big man;
nevertheless they were there.  One thing I
did know personally, some decades back
when we'd worked on a pretty simple
project, Bert had decided it needed to go
one way, and the group had decided it
needed to go another, and Bert had let
them know, very deliberately, very,
meanly (must be a word, sure describes
what happened) that he wasn't going to
allow things to go any other way.  Folks
here about call that a temper?  Bert was
also rumored to have used that temper
with family, and wife, and it wasn't kind,
and those rumors were the ones I for
sure would not ask about, which is why
my teeth weren't in any danger, see?

"How long you been around these parts
Chuck?"
"Since 1980,"
"Where'd you come from?"
"Colorado..."
"My Lord," Bert loved euphemisms,
"had no idea about you, hope you
don't mind the questions, we've
never really chatted much?  Always
been business this, business that."
"That's our lives Bert, we don't have
time for much with any meaning."
It was a point everybody had been
noticing lately, how time had been
seeming to compress, be going
faster, as if that were possible?
"So, what's this history thing you're
talking about and my parking my
plane here?"
"Yeah, well, this airport hasn't
always been here, has it?"
"You mean was it built for a specific
reason, like a downtown extension?"
"There you go,"
"Near as I can figure, originally this land
belonged to one family, years back,
in the mid 60s, I hear that their farm
was doing real well, this was their farm
area here, anyway, I heard they had
this strip put in to bring in crop dusters
for their fields, and the surrounding
farmers who wanted dusting."
"Mid sixties, so it's about 40 years old?"
"Something like that, why, whats up?"
"Oh, it's just that the area here is growing,
and also, we've got lots of materials
that are being handled in the area, and
this strip is nice sized, but it's not called
a full blown airport by the FAA?"
"That's right, this is called a division
sized, but, that's cool as far as our rent
on storage areas goes, that fixin' to change?"
"Oh I wouldn't give it much thought Bert,
it won't happen anytime soon, but we
would all benefit from a regular sized
landing strip, and we may have the chance
to get one?"
"Well, if that happens, I only hope the
powers that be give us old timers a chance
to hold off on that high rent?"
"Sure shouldn't be a problem."
"So what else you got on your mind Chuck,
you don't come around much..."
It wasn't gnawing at me yet, but it was coming.
Had it just been coincidence that I'd
found him at the hangar?  Or had I
been sent there like a heat seeking
missile, find the heat, miss the fire?
Did I dare go into the meat of the matter
with him?  For that matter, did I even
know what sort of meat we was fixin' to eat?

Bite Off More Than You Can Chew? -1-

"It matters to me, a whole lot."
If sparks could've shot out his eyes-
"How can you say that, seeing as how..."
Then my eyes would've reflected them back-
"I can say it, and I do say it, because..."
"Look you have to slow down a bit, that's all,"
"If that's all, well, shoot let's just
sit down and really slow down..."
"O.K., maybe that was a bit simple,
but you know what I'm saying,
you just haven't thought through
some of these things?" Ah my blue
eyed friend wasn't really wanting to
hear his brown eyed boy come
up with that one.
"Man," and here's where he blew my mind, "I don't
even know what things to think through?"  That's
when it occurred to me, "son you may have bitten
off more than you can chew."

The picture is really a pretty funny one, kid sittin'
there with potato, stuffed so full up in his mouth,
that if he could get the milk in there, it wouldn't
help- and he's about to gag, and tears are beginning

to break on his eyes, it's so dry it's
painful, and all he wants is a drink,
but he can't spit them out,
and he can't get the drink in?
Darned if you do,
and darned if you don't;
what a spot to be in?
So that bit about size not mattering-
don't buy it, somehow the bigger dudes,
both of us being men shorter than six foot;
big dudes, well, they have those mouths
that seem to be able to hold it all, don't they?
But our boy, he ain' all that big -
so, he's in a real tough spot.
He should have known the food
would be there after the next forkful,
but when you're really hungry?

My long time associate, who became a fairly powerful
politician; knew that the weak link in the whole idea
was that the community had no plan.
"Well, you guys have this as part of the plan, don't you?"
I was asking because it seemed important, after all,
we've all heard, haven't we, that if you don't plan,
then you plan to ...
"No," and he said it with that air that says, "I'm going
to say more..."  "We don't have a plan for the next
ten years, in fact, we don't have a plan at all, that
I know of..."
You can imagine that I was perplexed, thinking that
it just made good sense for a community to be
planned?  Thinking, like all reasonable people,
that government would have a plan, right?
"So let me get this straight - you have no strategy
for the future, for this community?"
"That's what I'm sayin'"  You can imagine my
reaction to that?  Or maybe you can't, because
you really don't know enough about me and
what I do, to make such a thought, or about my
associate, and what he is supposed to do; but one
thing you know now, they weren't ready, they
had no plan, now that creates the question,
what might that mean?  Why wouldn't they
have such a plan?  Be following some course
to the future?  Seemed odd to me?

It wasn't going to do me any good to explain to
my associate that there are two problems with
planning, one is long term and one is short
term; because if you have those two together,
the middle tends to work itself out?  Or that
the person who taught me how to do planning
was a NASA project director, a Disney project
director, for their theme parks, and had done
numerous other project plans, all of which had
been enormous, and therefore, enormously
detailed.  It also wouldn't do much good to
let him know that this far into the life of the
death of the community, it was going to be hard
to find a pulse, much less, establish a steady heartbeat?
None of that would help my associate, what
would you have told him?  Here's where I went.

"If you do nothing, what will happen?"  Seemed
like a reasonable place to put down a peg?  Gonna
put a tent up, might be nice to put that first peg
down, don't you think?  I remember when my
step-dad, who used to beat me regularly after
drinking some Whiskey, would take me and
my cousin up to the hills of California, to
"camp."  What he meant was you boys all of
seven and eight, go wander around the forest
and maybe get eaten by a bear, me I'm gonna
stay here in the tent and get hosed.  So he'd
say- "well where should we set that corner,
it's important to set the corner right, don't you
think?"  We'd seen him take about four snorts
on the way up, and while my cousin hadn't seen
him go off on me, he'd seen the year of bruises
showing up, enough to know he didn't want
any of it, his pupils expanded a bit with the
adrenalin, there was this weird understanding;
we'd better answer this one right?  "Yes sir,"
we'd done it in unison, who says, the Army
isn't one where fear creates union?  Oh yeah,
where you set the peg is important!  So there
I was suggesting to my friend that it might be
good to think about where to start, or even if
it was wise to start?  

He thought about the question, it wasn't a deep
one, necessarily, but he'd thought about it a good
bit, you could tell.  "If we do nothing, things aren't
going to be good around here in a couple of years."
He was starting to look down the road, see, it's
not hard to get folks looking there, it just takes a
few well aimed well timed and well seasoned
questions?  And maybe a step-dad who beats you
in your past, sets that up?  Something in his odd
blue eyes and set of jaw told me he didn't have
that, which I'd known anyhow, since I'd known
his dad, who was an incredible example of good
dad, a man who could outwork, out sweat and
flat out think most everybody, who went to war
instead of any other options.  So my brown haired,
blue eyed buddy was moving his mind down the
highway, a hard place to get people to move
their minds lately; seems folks are getting more and
more short sighted, less and less likely to think
about the future much, and; folks seem more scared
about the future than perhaps I'd ever known?

"So you want to bring me on board to help with
the planning you need to do?"
"No we've got that covered, I need you to do
something else."
Now he had my attention, something else's weren't
my usual.
"I need someone I can trust, someone I've known
long enough to know they won't sell me out."
"Not many of those types around you, are there?"
My observation was so cliche neither of us
really wanted to even bring it into the talk, so why
had I?
"It's not even that, this goes deeper than that?"
"In what way?"
"I'm not certain Chuck, in fact, this whole thing has
only recently become something of a front burner
issue?"
"Issue?"
"Well we've done some things with making life
in our town here, better.  Folks are starting to see
some good changes in the quality of the life we
lead."  He paused, but not for effect, it seemed he
was going through a list in his mind maybe?
"When we started on this water project, nobody
could see it, but me; and a couple of the the really
hooked in leaders; but we stuck it out, hired the
right people to do the paperwork, got the money,
and now we have a water system coming in that
is truly, remarkable."
"Do tell?"
"And after this last election, folk in the town
seem to be saying that they are looking for some
new ideas."
"Not a single returning member to the council,
you think?"
"Except me."
"Goes without sayin'"
He sat back in the chair, hooked his fingers into
a link on his chest, and nodded affirmatively.
"So when the deal about the airport came up,
I thought, "just makes good sense."  After all
we need a new airport, other towns our size,
get them, so it just seemed to make good sense
that if some folks said that they wanted to
have improvements to the existing airport, why
not?"
"Hey, you're talking job to me, remember, you
don't have to explain..."
"Naw, that's not it, you get it, but just like me, it
doesn't seem troublesome, does it?"
"Seems ...right?"  Well there it was, my brilliance
and deep analysis of Sun Tzu shining through.
"That is why the call from Justice was so," he
paused briefly, choosing the word, or words, "out
of place."