Past Life by Dick Wybrow

Author:Dick Wybrow [Wybrow, Dick]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dee Dub Publishing
Published: 2021-04-18T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

When I got back, Julius was waiting on the shore. He waved and blinked quickly as I skated up. He eyeballed Ferris on my shoulders, keeping an armlength back.

“Thought you might be leavin’ me here in Chicago,” he said. “Fine town, but, uh, got some pretty awful memories from back in the day. Was stationed here for a while. Camp Grant.”

I looked at him. “You a war hero, Julius?”

“Nah, never went over,” he said, looking across the bay. “Saw plenty of young men go, though. Kept my head down, worked on the skill set that would keep me alive.”

“Sniper?”

Julius shook his head, stone faced. “Laundering.”

Laughing, I said, “Yeah, Germans had little defense against crisp white linens.”

“Germans! How old do you think I am?” he said. “Go on with your giggle fit, but I stayed at the camp, never sent over, because I kept the infantry’s clothes clean. It was like doing battle, though. You ever see a pile of two thousand pairs of underwear?”

“Gross. Maybe you shoulda gone over.”

“Cleanin’ part was easy,” he said and sighed. “You had to separate them out, getting back to the right man. Everyone had their names written in their clothes, so stuff wouldn’t get mixed up, but digging into the shorts of a thousand other guys?” He finally looked at me. “Maybe I should have gone over.”

“I’m glad you didn’t.”

“Maybe that’s why I was a bit worried,” he said. “I know what it’s like to be left back.”

“Nah, man, I’m not the type to, you know, leave anyone behind,” I said and told him to grab onto Ferris’s tail again.

“Hold on a moment,” Julius said and touched my shoulder.

My eyes flashed for a moment as I saw Julius as a young man, laughing with a beautiful woman, both lying in a field of—

I broke away. “Dammit, Julius!”

“Sorry, sorry,” he said, rubbing his fingers and eyeballing my cat. “I’m so sorry. I forgot.” I ran a hand over my face and nodded, waving a hand gingerly to tell him it was no big deal. He continued: “You said something in there. About Mad Jimmy’s wife.”

It would take about an hour or so to get Julius to Minneapolis, then another hour to get back down to Atlanta. Yes, I could go faster, much faster, but if I lost Julius along the way at top speed—whatever that was—I might never see the guy again.

After I got back to the ATL, it would be my turn to chase my chaser.

I realized that Julius had asked a question.

“Huh? Sorry, what?”

“You said something about the man’s wife.”

“I dunno. Something just, you know, rang a bell.”

“Oh, I rang a bell or two in my time, now,” Julius said with a huge grin, running his fingertip across the brim of his hat.

“I don’t wanna hear it.”

“Hell, I rang a lotta bells. My younger days sometimes it was dingin’ like a five-and-dime with a revolving door on a Sat’day afternoon.”

“Please stop.”

“You know, because they useta have a bell above the door, so if you got a revolving—”

“Dude, I got it!” I laughed.

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