bad road to the dead river - 2. the professor

by nick nelson

part two of thirty-two

for previous episode, click here

to begin at the beginning, click here

dago red, as usual, was in no mood for small talk. he brought his little truck to an abrupt stop. tossed the three bundles of newspapers at the feet of the three boys, jumped back in his seat and drove off. a quick look at the ordinary sized headline - tensions mount - prez urges calm - showed that there would be no war, and no extra edition, at least until the afternoon. gus the greek, the oldest and strongest of the three boys, grabbed his bundle and hoisted it on his shoulder. “i’ll see you two kikes later.” he disappeared into the swirling snow. benny was left alone with the professor. benny would have liked to get going too, but he knew the professor always liked to talk for a while, and expound his views on the world situation, and benny, being naturally an easygoing sort, usually humored him. the professor was a couple of years younger than benny, small for his age, wore the thickest glasses in the world, and had strong opinions on a lot of subjects. whether he developed these opinions himself or was repeating what he heard from older people, was not something benny had ever wondered about. “well, prof, what do you think?” benny asked. “do you think we might get a war and some extras tomorrow?” the professor pulled his scarf away from his face. “ i think we better get a move on if we want to sell any papers before we are buried under five feet of snow.” “good thinking,” benny agreed readily. he headed uptown, to “his” spot in the sheltered entrance to the b train subway station. the professor was left at his own spot, on the corner in the wind and snow. but he did not have to wait long to sell his first paper. a long black limousine pulled up in front of him. the rear passenger side window rolled down anda familiar face looked out. “hello, kid.” “hello, lugg. what can i do for you today?” “mister w wants to see you. he is thirsting for your advice.” “what about these papers?” “i will give you the price of them all. “ “but - “ “i know, someone might complain to the paper if you ain’t here. we brought a ringer along, just like the last time.” another car pulled up behind the limo, and a voice shouted - “hey, kid, any time you want to sell a poor man a paper!” “sure, mister!” the professor hurried down to the car, ran around to the driver’s side, handed the driver a paper and collected his nickel . “sorry to keep you waiting, mister!” the professor backed off as the car roared away. when he got back to the limo, the “ringer”, a dwarf named grundy, was waiting to take the bundle of papers from him. the professor got in the back seat with lugg, and the limo moved smoothly away from the curb, turned around and headed bak out of town. “mister w must want my advice awful bad, to go to all this trouble.” the professor said to lugg. “maybe. who knows what he wants? just relax and enjoy the ride. the snow began to fall heavily, and the limo’s new high-powered windshield wipers were put to the test as they headed into the wind. 3. mr wilson

bad road to the dead river - 1. benny

by nick nelson

part one of thirty-two

to read prologue, click here

it looks awful cold out there, benny. and the sky is gray. you should check with mrs anderson to see if it going to snow.” “i’ll be all right, mom. it is either gong to snow or it isn’t. and mrs anderson probably isn’t up yet.” “she’s up. i can hear her.” benny laughed. “o k, maybe i will look in on her. this sure is good oatmeal, mom, the best ever. “ “make sure you tie your scarf nice and tight now, and i polished your crutch for you, so people can see it in the shadows as they drive by.” “aw, you didn’t have to do that. and most of my customers walk or take the trolley, they don’t drive, you know that.” “but you never know, some billionaire might be driving by and like your looks and give you a real job.” “selling the federal-democrat is a job, mom. maybe not the greatest job, but is a job.” “i want you to have a real job, in an office, where you wear a suit and tie and have a secretary.” “well, maybe someday.” benny finished his oatmeal and liked his spoon clean. he got up from the kitchen table and hobbled over to the low cupboard where he kept his jacket, cap, scarf and crutch. mrs bergdorf was looking out the window. “here comes the snow.” “then i guess i won’t have to bother mrs anderson,” benny said, as he wound his scarf around his neck, and adjusted his crutch under his left arm. “you could still ask her how much snow. and you should put on your gloves.” “i’ll think about it.” benny had gloves but only wore them when the temperature was below zero, because it was too hard to make change with them on. his mom rushed to open the door for him, and he went out into the landing and began clumping down the seven flights of stairs to the street. he paused before mrs anderson’s room on the second floor. there was a crack of light under the door. mrs anderson was the building’s resident witch. benny decided not to call on her. he could see for himself through the little window ion the landing that the snow was really starting to come down. and dago red, and not old sarge, would be on the truck today and he never waited even a second if a guy was a little late. the wind and snow hit benny in the face when he pushed the door open. he didn’t care. it promised to be a good morning to sell papers. war was in the air! it might even have been declared last night! there might even be an extra. he hurried down the street to the drop off spot on lexington. 2. the professor

bad road to the dead river - 0. prologue

by nick nelson

part zero of thirty-two

the space fleets and home fleets of the combined human empires had been wiped out. * it seemed just a matter of time before the humans were overrun. the only mystery was why the aliens had not simply blown the human headquarters to kingdom come and been done with it. the only explanation the humans could think of was that the aliens wanted to capture the last leaders or representatives of the human empires, to study for their own purposes. although the aliens, once they had made their real intentions known, had never shown any interest in capturing humans for any purposes, and had simply obliterated them. * the human armies had been reduced to two companies of infantry, which were attempting to protect the human headquarters. the headquarters was located in a valley somewhere east of suez, in the shadow of some mountains . the valley was enclosed on three sides by rivers, but these of course posed no obstacle to the alien armies. there were several castles on the plain, abandoned by humans centuries ago, and the aliens were quartered in them, and the only plan the humans had was to periodically attempt to attack and retake the castles. attempts which had not met with any success, or were expected to. morale among the human troops was low. * the time for recriminations among the humans had passed, and the representatives of the seven human empires were left to ponder what might have been, if they had met the alien threat in a different fashion. when the aliens had first appeared, the first instinct of each of the various human empires had been to attempt to align with the aliens, to gain advantage over their historic rivals. chancellor hitler of the teutonic empire, mr capone of the american empire, and ms x of the olduvai empire had been the most forthright - or at least the most obvious - in pressing their claims on the aliens, but the others - general khan of the golden horde, prince saladin of baghdad, ms nan of the pacific empire, and lady chiang of the middle kingdom - had also made their advances in less obvious or more subtle fashion. * but the efforts of all were thwarted - by the rise of the popular movement led by the lovely and charismatic joanie smith . joanie had, seemingly, come out of nowhere, to the consternation of the oligarchs and their lackeys. * 1. benny