by Clark Graham
“Swept wings. It’s where the wing tip is at an angle from the fuselage.”
“Hmm, never heard of that.” She then went back to cooking.
“You aren’t going to tell the base everything I relate to you, are you?” He was suddenly suspicious, especially after Andy had been assigned to spy on him.
“They don’t care. They are just worried about the droves of wounded soldiers that are making their way here from the aid stations in Vietnam. They patch the guys up and then we get to rebuild them as best as we can.”
She dished the eggs and bacon onto two plates, added some toast and set them down on the table. “Breakfast, then I have to go to work. Do not do the dishes. I will get them when I get home.” She smiled at the thought, “I have never had to say that to a man before.”
“There is a first for everything,” John replied.
She ate quickly and then was out the laundry room door. John ate at a much slower pace.
“Well, what can I do around here to earn my keep?” He asked himself out loud. He took one look at the front door. It was missing half its paint. He tried the handle, it wasn’t locked, but when he pulled on it, it would not budge.
He stood back to appraise the situation. There was a small chain that hung down. The door was so stuck that Susan had not ever latched the chain. John went outside and turned the knob. Putting his shoulder into it, he lunged at the door. It opened with a loud pop. He instinctively looked around to see if anyone had heard it and was thinking that he was breaking in. Nobody was outside that early in the morning so he examined the door. It had swollen against the jamb due to the lack of paint. The hinge was also loose and the door frame was gapped away from the wall studs so the door was out of square. He went off to look for some tools, but after looking all over all he found was a finishing hammer. There were no nails or screws either. All he could do at that point was to force the door back closed and do up the chain.
When Susan arrived at work she was met by Doctor Ralston. “So I hear you have a live in boy friend.” He sounded more than just a little bit jealous.
“You were going to kick him out onto the street. I am just giving him a place to stay for a few days until he can get a job and get settled. Besides, he is not my boyfriend.”
“Really?” he replied, but he wasn’t waiting for an answer as he started to walk off.
“Fine, I will prove it. I will go out with you on Friday.”
That got the Doctor’s interest and he turned around. “Um, yes, okay,” he stammered. She had taken him by surprise. “I will pick you up at eight.”
“Eight? That is way too late for dinner. You will pick me up at five.” She was being demanding.
“Yes of course, five it is, on ah, Friday. I will pick you up at five.”
“What should I wear?” she asked.
This took him completely by surprise. “Um, what do you normally wear?”
“Well if I am going to a diner, I wear my regular clothes, but if you are taking me to somewhere fancy, I will wear a nice dress.”
“Yes, of course. Wear the nicest dress you have, and we will go to the fanciest place in town.” He had gotten his confidence back.
“Great, I will see you then.” She walked off and started making her rounds. Most of the beds were now full. The battle to reopen the highway had started and the young men were paying for it with their lives and body parts.
When Susan got home that night, she was tired and her feet were sore. She had put in extra time because there were so many more wounded. She turned on the television and sat down. “Later on I am going to go get a pizza, but for now I am getting off my feet for a while.”
“They don’t deliver the pizza?” John asked.
“Not in this town, they don’t.”
“I can go get it.”
Susan chuckled. “You don’t have a driver’s license, remember. You don’t have anything, no identification, no social security card. All you have is a burnt up flight suit.”
“I can make you dinner then.”
“You stay out of my kitchen.”
John sighed, “Or what? We just won’t tell anyone that I cooked so you won’t be embarrassed. I mean, if that is what is bothering you.”
Susan looked at John, and then she considered how tired she was and then she looked back at John. “Men don’t cook in my family, but since you are insistent, go ahead. If it’s terrible, I will go and get us some pizza.”
“Sounds like a challenge.” John accepted it readily. He should have opened the refrigerator before he volunteered. It was just before payday, so it was nearly empty. Undeterred, he got out what was left of the ground beef, and fried it up.
Put some mushroom soup in it with a little lemon juice, pepper and salt and then put it over some noodles. When he called Susan over she looked at the food dubiously, but when she tasted it she smiled. “Wow, I underestimated you. This is good! What do you call it?”
John just shrugged, “I don’t remember.”
“It tastes a lot like stroganoff to me,” she said trying to help.
“Okay.” He shrugged again. It was frustrating that he could not remember even simple things.
Chapter Ten
Susan had left John some money to get the nails and supplies to fix the door. It didn’t look like a lot, but he took it to the hardware store that was just around the corner. When he got there he noticed a Help Wanted sign in the window. When he went in he asked to talk to the manager. A guy named ‘Chuck’ came out of the back. He was an older man with silver hair. He had smile wrinkles on his face. He was thin but not skinny.
He looked around the store. All of the shelves were made of wood and seemed heaped from floor to ceiling with hardware. John wondered how customers would reach those items near the top.
“How can I help you?” Chuck asked.
“I see a Help Wanted sign. I was wondering how I could apply.”
Chuck looked John up and down. “I would love to have someone your age, young and strong, working for me. All the young men around here are in the service or in college so they can avoid going in the service. What is your name?”
“John Buck.”
“Well, John, do I hire you, or are you just going to leave after a few weeks and go to the Army or college?”
“I just got out of the Air Force.” John didn’t know that for a fact, but it was very probable.
“Oh, good. I can start you out at $1.25 an hour.”
John thought about it for a minute, “that doesn’t sound like a lot.”
Chuck lowered his voice, “all right but you drive a hard bargain. I will start you out at $1.30, but don’t tell the others. They are all still making $1.25. You can start Monday. You will need to bring in your Social Security card before I can give you your first paycheck.”
John agreed, not knowing what else to do. He needed money. He did not know what he could do about his Social Security card. He bought the items to fix the door and headed back home.
He forced the door open, replaced the lock, then sanded down the outside and inside and painted both. Then he tightened the hinges. When he was done, it looked like a new door.
Susan arrived from work out of breath. John was anxious for her to see his handiwork, but she ran to her bedroom, changed clothes and then ran back out.
“Where are you going in such a hurry?” John asked.
“I have a date.”
John was taken aback by that. He didn’t know what their relationship was but he was a little hurt that she had a date and had not talked to him about it. But then again, she didn’t owe him anything. He owed her, if anything.
“I fixed the door,” he said sadly.
She paused on her way back out to the laundry room. “Oh, looks nice.”
“You can use it,” he said as she was heading out of the laundry room door, by force of habit.
She retraced her steps, “Oh, wow, it works and everything? You even painted it.” She walked out the fro
nt door for the first time in years, then started running for her Jeep.
John shut the door behind him. He turned towards the television. “I guess it’s just you and me tonight, kid.” He sighed as he sat down.
Dr. Ralston was a bit early when he pulled up to Susan’s house in his black sedan. He saw her running around the corner towards her Jeep. She stopped suddenly in her tracks when she saw the Doctor.
“Oh, you’re here already.”
“Were you going somewhere?” He asked. It was odd that she was out in the driveway.
“I was going to buy some perfume, but since you’re here, I guess I can go without.”
“Nonsense,” the Doctor said. “The store is right on the way, hop in.” He even got out and opened the door for her.
“Thank you, Doctor,” Susan said with a slight blush. She had gone out with lots of guys but they didn’t open the door for her. In fact most of them were army types picking her up in their Jeeps that had no doors.
“Please, call me Tim.”
Susan giggled, “Tim, it is, then. It’s sounds so unprofessional though.”
“We are on a date, not at the hospital. We don’t have to be professional.”
“Okay.” It was an automatic reply. She didn’t know what else to say.
They drove for a few minutes in nervous silence, until the doctor could take it no more. “Is the patient getting back any of his memories?” It was common ground but then he realized he was bringing up his competition and regretted saying it.
“No, not really. He questions things that seem odd to him but he doesn’t remember why they seem odd. He was standing by the couch trying to turn on the television. Then he asked if we only have three channels. The funniest was asking about having to get up to change channels. I said of course you have to, but it seemed odd to him. It makes me wonder what the future is going to hold.”
“How can you change channels from the couch?” Tim asked.
“Telepathy, I guess.” They both laughed at that.
“Oh, he also said there was something wrong with the color on my television. I don’t think he’s ever seen a black and white one before.”
Tim got a good chuckle out of that one.
When they pulled up to the restaurant Susan was surprised. “Do you know how much they charge for the food here? I hear it can cost as much as $6.00 per person.”
“I can’t help but think this could be my last chance to impress you. It will definitely be worth it,” Tim said with a smile.
“I’m impressed already.”
The hostess led them to a table for two right away in a romantic corner. Of course the good doctor had pre-arranged all of this. They had wine and a violinist played music while they ate. Susan had never seen anything like it. She didn’t know how a place like this survived in a mostly military town. She liked it though. After dinner they got back in his car where he drove up to the hills that surrounded the town so they could look down at the lights. The doctor put his arm around Susan, which made her uncomfortable. Sensing that, he pulled it back.
He then took her to a lounge for a nightcap. It was smoky when they entered. They sat at a table for two in the back and had a couple of drinks. Songs from the Beatles and Herman’s Hermits played softly in the background.
Susan looked at her watch after about an hour. “It’s late; please take me home.”
“Of course,” he replied, but when they got into the car he could not resist going the long way to her home. He reasoned it could be his last time alone with her and wanted to make it last. He walked her to the front door, which she remembered to use. He gave a half hearted attempt to kiss her good night, but she put her finger on his lips and said, “not yet.”
John fell asleep somewhere around eleven. It wasn’t until Susan opened the door that he woke up. “It’s late,” he said. It was just an observation.
“You are not my father. You didn’t have to wait up for me. I am a grown girl out on my own; I don’t need you treating me like an adolescent.”
“But,” was all he got out as she stormed through the room and then slammed her bedroom door.
“That didn’t go well,” he said out loud. He then looked at the television. It had a test pattern on the screen. He was about to tell Susan there was something wrong with her TV, but she was upset enough, so he let it go. He just turned it off and then went to bed.
In the morning he was getting ready to go to work. Susan heard him rustling around and then she heard what she thought was the front door shutting so she got up and went to the bathroom. He was just getting in the shower when she went in. “Oh, I’m so sorry,” she stammered and then shut the door.
He ignored her and turned on the water. He heard her saying something so he turned it back off to listen. “What?” he asked.
“I said you could have locked the door.”
“You weren’t up yet. Besides the lock doesn’t work, remember?”
“Oh, yeah.” She was even more embarrassed now. She then heard the water turn back on. ‘Well, he doesn’t seem to be the least bit bothered by it,’ she thought to herself. She then waited patiently for him to get out so she could go to the bathroom.
After he finished she rushed in. While she was in there she could smell bacon cooking.
Susan went into the kitchen and asked, “What are you doing up so early?”
“I have to go to work,” he replied.
“You have a job?” She was very surprised.
“Yes, at the hardware store. I have to come up with a Social Security Card somehow.”
“I can help you with that. We also need to get you some more clothes. One outfit isn’t going to work when you start to get all sweaty.”
“I’ll pay you back with my first paycheck,” he promised.
“And while we’re out we will get a lock for the bathroom door, one that works.”
“Darn, I was hoping to accidentally walk in on you when you went to take a shower.” He smiled as he said it. “Fair is fair.”
“Don’t make me take my gun into the bathroom with me.”
“Okay, that would be bad. Get me a lock and I will fix it.”
“It’s a deal.”
Chapter Eleven
The first day of work went well for John. He didn’t know a lot of the products but went around looking at shelves to familiarize himself with the items. There were door knobs that looked like they were made of crystal, push button light switches, and a vacuum tube tester near the front. Some of the key blacks had skeleton keys. Chuck showed him the whole store and how to use the register.
“What I need you for mostly is when we get trucks in,” Chuck said. “I have the girls here and they help where they can, but my back isn’t what it used to be.”
“Sure, no problem,” John replied.
“They come in Tuesday mornings, early. You will need to be here at six. Also you will work a long day that day and Saturday too. My busiest day is always Saturday.”
“What about Sunday?”
Chuck looked shocked. “Nobody works Sunday in this town. We all go to church. Don’t you go to church? What religion are you anyway?”
“I don’t know. I mean, I was in an accident, and I have lost a lot of my memory.”
Chuck’s face relaxed into a smile. “Okay, maybe not everyone goes to church. I was just giving you a bad time. We still don’t work Sundays. My church meets at the golf course. You are welcome to attend. You can rent the clubs there.”
“Sounds fun,” John replied. He didn’t know about this Chuck. John was going to look pretty naïve if Chuck kept playing these jokes on him. A combination of not being in his own time and amnesia were taking its toll on his being able to gauge people.
The store opened so they got busy after that. Early in the afternoon, John was figuring out that he would need to take a lunch with him from now on. He was starving. When Chuck came through he looked at John and asked, “Have you had your break yet?”
“I forg
ot to bring a lunch. I can just keep working.”
“Don’t be silly, go and get something. Here is a dollar. There is one of those burger joints down the street.”
“A dollar?” It somehow did not sound like enough.
“Yeah, I figure you worked for four hours. I can afford to advance your pay a dollar.”
When Chuck handed him a dollar, John mumbled, “Cheapskate,” under his breath. Nevertheless, he took it and started walking down the street. He looked up at the sign board. The hamburgers cost fifteen cents.
“I will take two hamburgers,” he said to the lady behind the counter.
He paid for them. It didn’t take long before he was eating, sitting at one of the tables. Pretty soon someone’s shadow was over his table. He looked up to see Lieutenant Granger. “Is this seat taken? I promise not to arrest you.”
“I don’t own the table. You can pretty well sit where you like,” John responded. Granger sat down.
“How are you making out? I have not seen you since you left the hospital.”
“I’m doing fine. Susan has let me stay in her spare bedroom and I just found a job at the hardware store.”
Granger scratched his head. “What is a pilot doing working in a hardware store? You should be flying.”
John laughed. “I don’t even have a driver’s license, let alone a pilot’s license. I am wondering how I am going to get a social security card that I have to have to get my first paycheck. Besides, the only airplane you guys have seen me fly is in pieces now.”
“I see. I have an uncle in Idaho who does crop dusting. He is always looking for new pilots, even those who have crashed a couple of planes. He says those are the kind he needs. He tells me the only reason they crashed is because they pushed the envelope. He needs guys who are crazy enough to do that. As for the social security card, tell them you are from Tortilla Flat. A flood in ‘42 nearly washed the town away. It destroyed all of their records so people from there have a hard time proving their age because they don’t have birth records. The town wasn’t real fast in getting the information to the state so the state doesn’t have any copies of the birth records between 1936 to 1942 when the flood happened. So you need to tell them you were born in 1941 sometime.”
