pain, in a way that is closely tied to being sexual,
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.
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