Friday, December 28, 2018

i ask of you the truth - 15. the farmer's daughter


by nick nelson

part fifteen of ?

for previous episode, click here

to begin at the beginning, click here




“i’m on what you might call my own secret mission.”

“of course. i understand.”

the countess did not ask slim any more questions about himself. she lay back on one of the couches and started working her way through a pack of the luckies from the carton slim had tossed her.

she did not turn the light up, or make a move toward the fireplace.


slim felt cold. he was hungry too, and for something besides the c-rations in his sack. what is the point, he wondered, of going awol, and hooking up with a real live countess in more a less a real live castle, if you were going to be cold and hungry?

“you got anything to eat in this place?” he finally asked her.

“of course.”


slim waited her to go on, but she did not. what was she, some kind of farmer from farmersville that would only answer the exact question you asked them. like if you asked, is there a train to chicago, they would just say “yes,” and you would have to say, “well, when is the train to chicago?”

“the next train to chicago from where?,” the countess asked. “ paris? moscow? istanbul?”

did i say that aloud? slim wondered. my brain must be going. or maybe she’s a mind reader. maybe countesses are mind readers, like gypsies.


but before he could think of anything to say, the countess asked him. “are you from chicago?”

“um - i just passed through it a few times - on fast freights.“

“i always wanted to go to chicago - and meet al capone.”

“everybody wants to meet al capone.”

“is it true that he takes his tommy gun with him everywhere he goes? even to most exclusive restaurants?”

“al wouldn’t go anywhere without his tommy gun.”


the countess blew a couple of smoke rings and continued. “i always wanted to meet all the famous americans… john dillinger… billy the kid… buffalo bill… sitting bull… annie oakley… shirley temple. have you met all of them?”

“sure. they are all just folks. happy to pass the time of day with anyone who wants to pass the time of day with them.”

“i am only a farmer’s daughter, but i always wanted to see the world. especially america - the new world, where anything can happen.”


”a farmer’s daughter! i thought you said you were a countess.”

the countess turned and looked directly at slim. “i married the count. i was born a farmer’s daughter.” she sighed. “i was young once, and beautiful.”

“i wasn’t too hideous myself,” slim answered. “but, say, if you’re a farmer’s daughter, couldn’t you rustle up some grub for a hungry man? isn’t that what farmer’s daughters do?”


the countess laughed. “what, didn’t they feed you on that secret mission of yours?”

“not as much as i would like.”

“maybe in the morning, sir american, when the rooster crows and the world awakens to a bright new day, i will see what i can do for you.” the countess tossed her cigarette into the dark fireplace and stood up. “right now i want to see what our friends next door are doing.” she picked her little binoculars up off a table besude her and strode to the window.


“probably nothing much,” slim told her. “sleeping, or getting ready to.”

“no. i see some activity.”

“you don’t say so.” slim got up and joined the countess at the window.

she handed him the binoculars. “see for yourself.”

16. left behind



Saturday, December 22, 2018

i ask of you the truth - 14. big trouble


by nick nelson

part fourteen of ?

for previous episode, click here

to begin at the beginning, click here




“mister o’rourke! you have to help me.”

i have been down this road before, johnny thought.

too many times.

but he turned and looked into the fog, in the direction of the voice.

a girl was standing in the shadows, and took a step towards johnny. at least she is not wearing a mink coat, johnny thought.

she was wearing a plain blue cloth coat, and an old fashioned round hat with a little feather in it and she looked like she just got off the bus from nowheresville…. except that she did not have a suitcase with her.


and she was young, maybe about eighteen, but johnny thought there was something familiar about her…

“don’t you remember me, johnny… mister o’rourke…”. she was saying, looking up at johnny with eyes as blue as the skies over nebraska an hour before a tornado hits.

“you seem to remember me, miss,” johnny replied. he looked around in the fog but did not see anyone or anything else.

“i’m betsy ross! rose ross’s sister! from back in coldwater. .. do you remember me now?”


rose ross… coldwater…. yeah, johnny remembered all right… what guy doesn’t remember the first girl that breaks his heart and throws it away like a broken beer bottle… any more than he forgets his first dog...

“i’m all grown up now,” betsy was saying. “sort of… i guess…”

“say! you are not mixed up with professor sturdivant . are you? or colonel mappington?”

“who? who are they? no, johnny … i can call you, johnny, can’t i…”


“sure, just like old times…”. johnny looked around again… still nothing he could see… but he could feel something…

“it’s about rose,” betsy continued, “she’s in trouble… big trouble…”

“right,” johnny amswered, “but let’s not stand here in the rain… i know someplace we can talk… let’s go.”

“sure, johnny, whatever you say. i hope it’s not to far away.”

“no, it’s just around the corner. it’s a nice place, where we can get a cup of coffee. real friendly… you’ll like it.“

*


sid’s diner was almost always empty. johnny did not know how it stayed in business and never asked. it was empty when they entered. the gray haired woman who was always behind the counter was there at her post. her name was grace and that was all johnny knew about her, including whether or not she owned the place or just worked there. he never asked her questions about herself and she never asked him any about himself.

“lousy night,” johnny said as he and betsy sat down at the far end of the counter.


“looks that way,” grace answered.

sid’s had lousy coffee but pretty good blueberry pie.

“how’s the blueberry pie?” johnny asked.

“fresh baked every day for fifteen years, same as always.”

“give us each a slice, and coffee.”

they waited until grace had brought them the coffee and pie. grace moved to the other end of the counter and johnny nodded to betsy.


“all right, what is the story?”

betsy took a swallow of the coffee and grimaced but did not say anything about it.. “rose is in trouble. big trouble.”

“you already said that. any particular kind of trouble?”

“she - she fell in with a bad crowd.”

johnny barely kept from laughing. rose fall in with s bad crowd? the rose he remembered back in coldwater nebraska was the last person in the world to fall in with a bad crowd…



15. the farmer's daughter



Monday, December 17, 2018

i ask of you the truth - 13. secret mission


by nick nelson

part thirteen of ?

for previous episode, click here

to begin at the beginning, click here




after slim and wiley left, the general took his time finishing his cigar.

there was a small lamp on the table beside the armchair, and when he heard the sound of the deuce and a half leaving, he turned the light up a little bit.

the indian was now visible in the shadows beside the fireplace.

“find goldbrick,” the general told the indian. “wake him up if you have to.“

“goldbrick likes his sleep,” the indian replied solemnly.


the general laughed. “be that as it may, do what you must to wake him up. the two of you get ready to move out again - just the three of us. we will leave the second jeep behind. make sure there is no gas in it."

“what about sarge and the other two?”

“they are gone. forget they ever existed.”

the indian nodded. “how soon will we move out?”

“in about an hour. we will give our former friends some time to get down the road.”

*


slim walked up to the front door of the chateau. he looked around. not that he could really tell in the dark, but the place at least did not look like it had been completely trashed. maybe the krauts had not even touched it.

he pushed at the heavy door. it opened smoothly.

he gave himself half a minute to let his eyes adjust to the dark, then moved inside.

he knew right away that there was someone in the darkness, and no sooner had he sensed this than a match was lit about fifteen feet in front of him, blinding him for a second.


the match lit a lamp, and slim saw, just as he had hoped, that the hand holding the match belonged to a woman.

“hello, there,” the woman said.

“hello, yourself.” slim considered the woman. she was not as young as she might have been, but what the hell, it was wartime, you had to take the bad with the good.

“what is in the bag?” the woman asked.

slim looked down at the sack in his hand. “food. and cigarettes. “

“ah - food.”


“not excactly home cooked.meals like mama used to make. but look here, aren’t you going to invite me in?”

“you already are in, aren’t you? but i am being a bad hostess.“ the woman pointed to some chairs and couches. “please, make yourself confortable. take a load off, as you americans say. you are an american, are you not?”

“yeah, i was born on the fourth of july. and on washington’s birthday too.” slim looked around and saw that the room he was in was pretty cluttered with furniture.

and there was a huge fireplace, but it was completely dark and cold.


slim sat down on a small sofa. “i am so glad you are an american,” the woman was saying. “and not an englishman, with their nasty red faces and their awful cigarettes.”

“yeah,” slim agreed. “say, how about a little light in here?” he was pretty sure there was no one else in the room, or the house, but he wanted to make sure.

“we have quite enough light,” the woman said. “i can hear you perfectly well. in fact, i think i will turn the light down a little bit.” and she fiddled with the lamp and turned it down.


slim could now barely see her. “are you a countess?” he asked.

“of course. what else would i be? would you like to give me a cigarette?”

“sure, baby, help yourself.” slim reached into the sack and took out a carton of lucky strikes and tossed it onto a chair beside the one the countess was sitting in.

“ah - a true american gentleman. however, i do not care to be addressed as ‘baby’ even by an american gentleman. it is ‘madam’, if you please.”


“sure - madam. and you can call me whatever you like, as long as you don’t call me late for dinner.”

“tell me, sir american gentleman, are you on some sort of secret mission?”

“uh - not exactly.”

“not exactly?” the countess began opening the carton of luckies.

“i’m on what you might call my own secret mission.”

“of course. i understand.”

14. big trouble



Thursday, December 13, 2018

i ask of you the truth - 12. the woman


by nick nelson

part twelve of ?

for previous episode, click here

to begin at the beginning, click here




wiley asked slim what he thought their chances were.

slim just laughed. “you mean of actually finding the frammis?”

“yeah.”

“zero. obviously. you think we are actually going to see it lying beside the road as we go along, and we are just going to stop and pick it up? driving with no lights on? ”

“no, but … we got to think, use our heads, you know? think about where he could of lost it.”


“he didn’t lose it.” slim took a pack of luckies out of his shirt pocket and lit one. “this is just some kind of test. you know what he’s like.”

“you think so?’

“or else he just wants to get rid of us.” slim turned his head and looked hard at wiley, who was keeping his eyes on the road. “because we know too much.”

wiley laughed. “but if he wanted to get rid of us, all he has to do is send us back to 99.”


“but we know too much,” slim repeated.

“who is going to believe us against him? a couple of 99’s against a general? or he could just shoot us, leave our bodies by the side of the road for the wolves.””

“you want to know why?” slim answered. “hey, watch where you going!”

wiley swerved a little to avoid a shadow - a dog, a wolf? - on the side of he road.

“i’m watching where i’m going, don’t worry about me. you were saying?”


“he’s devious. our friend the general, he’s devious. he does things in a sneaky or roundabout way even if he doesn’t have to because that’s just the way he is. i knew guys like that riding the rails, and in jail. prisoners and guards. he’s just like them. even with those stars on his shoulder.”

“so you think he wants to get rid of us?”

“i think he is rid of us. we just have to figure out where to go next.”

wiley considered this. “what about sarge? is he getting rid of him too?”

“it looks that way.”


“i don’t know, brother, i think you are making too much out of all this. you got too much imagination.”

“and you don’t have any.”

wiley shook his head. “i say we just drive back to the beach, then turn around and go back and see what happens. otherwise, we are deserters again, and if we get picked up this time they will probably shoot us. is that what you want?”

“i’ll take my chances.”

“really?”

slim gestured out the window at the dark countryside. “there’s a big world out there, and a war on. there has to be a beautiful dame in a deserted house somewhere, just waiting for me. look out there.”


“i don’t see anything.”

“over to your right. that big house. see it? with no lights?”

“probably with no anything. the krauts probably stripped it down the scruds before they moved out.”

“i think there is a beautiful woman in it, waiting for me.”

“if you say so. you want me to let you off?”

“if you don’t mind.”


wiley stopped the truck. slim started to get out.

“maybe you should load up with some c-rations out of the back.” wiley said. “just in case that dame doesn’t have a steak and some champagne ready for you.”

slim laughed. “good idea.” he went around to the back of the truck and climbed in. old sarge was dead asleep.

slim grabbed a sack and filled it up with c-rations and cigarettes and a jug of water. then he dropped back out of the truck and waved to wiley.

“so long, pal, “ wiley told him. “see you in hell.”

slim watched as the deuce and a half disappeared into the darkness.

he would not see wiley again for four years.

*


the countess stood at the window, surveying the darkness outside through her small binoculars..

there was one light on in madame de c————’s chateau. a small - very small - group of yanks or maybe englishmen had stopped and were apparently staying in it, at least for the night.

the countess had been relieved and also slightly insulted that they had not stopped at her establishment.

now as she watched, one of the trucks they had arrived in started up and came back down the road towards her, and towards the coast, moving without its headlights on.

then it stopped. after a few minutes it moved on again.

she could barely make out a figure who seemed to have been left behind. she focused the binoculars on it.

the figure slung a bag over its shoulder and started walking across the field, towards her.

13. secret mission



Thursday, December 6, 2018

i ask of you the truth - 11. the frammis


by nick nelson

part eleven of ?

for previous episode, click here

to begin at the beginning, click here




slim drifted off to sleep, thinking about the general…

wondering if the general had changed any ….was any less of a son of a bitch… but how likely was that?

and wondering again if he, slim, was crazy for hooking up with him again…

but it was too late to back out now…

or was it?

it was after midnight. the countryside was quiet. any shooting that might be going on was comfortably up front or to the side.


the general had just gotten comfortable in his new chateau. slim and wiley started to leave him and find some place to sack out when he suddenly stopped them.

“wait!” slim and wiley turned around and saw the general going through his pockets.

“i haven’t got the frammis,” he said.

“it must have fallen out of your pocket in the jeep,” slim told him.

“let’s hope so, “ the general rumbled in his deepest menacing voice, glaring at slim like it was slim’s fault.


slim shrugged . “i’ll go look for it.”

“you do that.”

wiley was left with the general. the fire slim and wiley had got going in the fireplace was blazing away but wiley asked, ““want me to throw a few more twigs on that fire, general?”

“there's nothing wrong wth the fire,” the general growled as he stared into it.

the general took a few sips of his whiskey. the dead silence continued outside, broken only by the occasional crackling of the fire.


finally slim returned. “the frammis is not in the jeep,” he announced, “and i looked all around the driveway and in the bushes and i couldn’t find it there either.”

“but you will find it,” the general immediately replied.

“any idea where?” slim asked.

the general shrugged. “somewhere between here and the beach.”

“but that is two hundred miles back.”

“find it,” the general replied, without looking at slim.

“yes, sir. i suppose you want me to leave now.”


“no, when the war is over. of course i want you to leave now, you idiot.”

“yes, sir. should i take the jeep?”

the general thought for a few seconds. “take the deuce and a half. take wiley with you, and old sarge. goldbrick and the indian will remain here with me.”

the general turned and looked directly at slim. “take what ammunition and supplies you think you need. but find the frammis.”

“yes, sir.” the general did not have to add “or else.” slim and wiley both knew what else. what else was being returned to detachment 99.


detachment 99 was a replacement unit, mostly for suicide missions, made up from convicted murderers and other irredeemable reprobates.

the general’s personal entourage was comprised of slim, wiley, goldbrick, and the indian - all recruited from detachment 99. and old sarge. old sarge was old sarge, and had been with the general since moses was a mess sergeant. old sarge wasn’t good for much any more, but the general kept him on.


outside, slim and wiley and old sarge loaded the truck up and headed back down the road. old sarge was in the back with the supplies and ammo. slim told wiley to drive so that he, slim, could “keep an eye our” for the frammis.

when they were about a mile from the chateau, wiley asked slim what he thought their chances were.

slim just laughed.

12. the woman



Sunday, December 2, 2018

i ask of you the truth - 10. just happen


by nick nelson

part ten of ?

for previous episode, click here

to begin at the beginning, click here




johnny settled back as best he could in the chair in the interrogation room at the station house, where grogan and morelli had left him.

he tried to think beautiful thoughts.

fnally grogan came back. “you still here? you got no place better to be?” he asked johnny, and laughed at his own joke.

johnny did not pretend to laugh, and grogan sat down across from him. “all right, o’rourke, spill it.”

“about what?”

“everything you know about the late colonel mappington.”

“whoever he might be.”


“don’t play dumb, o’rourke. you are dumb enough already. mappington , the gentleman you wee visiting at the grenada towers when he was so sadly inconvenienced by a couple of slugs in his miserable carcass.”

“he didn’t call himself mappington, or colonel. he called himself professor sturdivant.”

“you don’t say so.”

“i do say so. what was he, the first person who ever used two different names?”

grogan shrugged. “he rented the place as mappington. we didn’t find any papers on him. or anything else except a little cash. ”


“no, but you found the slugs in him. and you have had time to check they did not come from my gun. not to mention that you shot the guy who did kill him. so what are you holding me for?”

“no need to get testy. why don’t you tell me what you do know about this guy , whoever he was?”

“nothing. he said his name was professor sturdivant, he might have a job for me. i went to see him, but before he could tell me anything - you know the rest.”

“he write to you? you got a letter or anything from him?”

“no, he called me on the phone.”


“you took the call yourself?”

“yeah, i just happened to be in the office.”

“just like he just happened to get bumped off before he could tell you anything.”

johnny yawned. “i guess i’m a guy that things just happen to happen to.”

“and a guy the commissioner and the chief of police are just happening to get awful sick of.”

“i can’t help that. maybe the governor will get sick of me next. or the president of the united states. or the pope. come on, grogan, you know you got nothing on me. “


grogan gave johnny a tired attempt at a glare. “all right, o’rourke. you can go. oh, one more thing.”

“yeah?”

“the guy that shot mappington. that i shot. you sure you never saw him before?”

“positive,”

“all right, but if we get a line on him, we might get in touch with you.”

“you know where to find me.”

“until then.” grogan got up and johnny followed him out of the interrogation room.


“you know your way out of this place,” grogan said, and disappeared.

when johnny got out on the street a light rain was falling, and it was foggy. he started walking.

when he got three blocks from the station, he heard a voice calling him.

a woman’s voice.

“mister o’rourke! you have to help me.”

*

slim woke up. he was lying fully dressed on the bed in the motel room. the copy of i ask of you the truth had fallen out of his hand on to the floor.

he decided to get undressed and get some real sleep. he might have a long day tomorrow.



11. the frammis



Thursday, November 29, 2018

i ask of you the truth - 9. down this road


by nick nelson

part nine of ?

for previous episode, click here

to begin at the beginning, click here




the doorbell rang.

the professor got up to answer it.

i have been down this road before, johnny thought. he reached under his arm and pulled out his .357 and followed the professor who was headed to the door.

but he was too late.

no sooner had the professor opened the door than two shots blasted out, sending the professor’s body hurtling backwards right into johnny.

johnny managed to keep his feet and shove the professor’s body aside. he made it to the door expecting to see the shooter disappearing down the hall into the entranceway to the stairwell.


instead the shooter - a guy in a black raincoat - was standing at the end of the corridor and got a shot off at johnny that ricocheted off the wall and knocked johnny’s hat off!


his brand new hat that he had just paid a sawbuck for!

johnny ran down the corridor without putting his hat back on, but when he got to the door to the stairs he heard three more shots echoing up from the stairwell.

now what? johnny edged into the stairwell, but there were no more shots.

instead, floating up the stairs, he heard the unmistakable voice of detective gus grogan!


grogan must have everything under control, johnny thought. he heard the elevator rising up behind him and kept his hand on his .357 just in case the elevator door should open and reveal some other unpleassant surprise.

but the elevator opened and it was only morelli, grogan’s sidekick. he didn’t seem any more surprised to see johnny than johnny was to see him.

morelli looked around, took in the right foot of the professor sticking out of the door of his apartment.


“is that guy sleeping?” morelli asked johnny.

“probably for a long time,” johnny answered. he slipped his gun back under his arm and went and picked his hat up. it looked like a moose had taken a bite out of the brim.

his brand new hat, that he just paid a sawbuck for.

the door to the stairwell opened and grogan walked out of it. he looked at johnny and didn’t crack wise, just nodded as if seeing him there was the most natural thing in the world.

i have been down this road before, johnny thought.



10. just happen