Locomotive to the Past by George Schultz (iphone ebook reader .TXT) 📕

“You know, Jason?” she mused. “You’re a funny duck!”

He’d never heard that description before.

“Why… why do you say that?” He was totally bemused. “How come you would say something… like that?”

“Look! I’m not trying to tell you that I’m easy! I’m… very definitely . . . not! Quite frankly, I’ve never been to bed, with a man! Ever! And I don’t see it happening! Not any time soon! But, when it took you so long to hold my hand… and then, when I had to ask you, to put your arm around me… I began to doubt my attractiveness! Again, don’t get me wrong… beddy-bye-wise… but, every girl wants to think that she’s, at least, a little bit desirable! Any woman feels that way. Any woman!”

“Of course you’re desirable! Of course you are. I can’t imagine . . .”

“Well, it’s nice to hear you say. Although I was encouraged… when you did keep your arm around me, for the rest of the movie. But, that brings me back to my original question: You really do not have… a whole bunch of confidence! Do you?”

“Naw,” he gushed. “No, I don’t. In fact, hell no… I don’t! Listen! I’ve never won a fight… in my life! I’m probably… in fact, I’m undoubtedly… the least-coordinated guy, you’ll ever meet! Every time it came time to choose up sides… you know… for baseball, or football, or hockey, or something, I was always the last one, to be chosen. And the guys… on what-ever-team that was… they all let me know, that they were stuck with me! Always! I mean damn always!”

“How did you do… in school?”

It occurred—with a frightening rush—to Jason, that he’d told Susan that he was from Tennessee! He could not remember how much (or how little) he might’ve expanded, on the subject! On any subject! Especially when the conversation might’ve gone to his schooling! Would his landlady—and this lovely (and highly desirable) young lady—ever have the opportunity to compare notes? (Looking back, the reference to hockey—might not have been the most intelligent thing he’d ever said.)

“Ohhhh,” he’d responded—at length—with a languid sigh. “I guess I did all right,”

“Merely all right?”

“Yeah. Yes. I guess I must’ve probably averaged, maybe, a C-plus.”

“Hmmm, A C-plus! That means that you’re better . . . than the average student!”

Jason had this totally-stupefying idea: That his date—was going to launch, into a Yogi Bear routine! Not possible, of course—since “Jellystone Park” was almost 20 years, in the future.

“I suppose that maybe I was,” he semi-agreed, weakly. “But, I never really felt like it!”

“Where did you go . . . to school?”

“In Tennessee,” he muttered. “Little town. Fairly near… pretty close to… to Memphis.”

“Tennessee? I know that you told me that… before. But, you sure don’t sound like you’re from Tennessee.”

“Well, my parents… they were born, and raised, in Detroit. Both of ’em. We used to do a lot of talking… at home. But, I’d never had much to say . . . or to listen to… when I was at school. And… after awhile… I just stopped, y’know. Stopped even playing sports. Trying to play anything. So, I just didn’t much…”

“I guess I can believe that… although I’ve always heard that people, in the South, were more, you know, friendly. I would’ve thought that that would’ve held true… for the kids, down there, too. That you’d have had lots of friends… when you were down there.”

“Well, I didn’t,” he responded—too defensively. “They weren’t, y’know! Friendly, I mean! Not in our little town, anyway!”

He was hoping—desperately—that he was not coming across as whining! He also hoped—that she would not pursue his “roots” any further! Any of his “roots”!

“Jason, listen. You’re a nice boy, and…”

“That’s what they all say! That I’m a ‘nice boy’! Sorry! Didn’t mean to interrupt.”

“Well,” she said, softly—and with a trace of a smile, “I see that I hit a really sensitive spot! I didn’t really mean for it to come out . . . not that way. What I was trying to get at… and doing it, very badly… was that you have a lot of really good qualities.” She sighed—deeply. “That didn’t come out right, either! Listen, Jason! This is not an invitation to my bed! Definitely not! But, take it from a woman… this woman, anyway… that you are desirable! A most desirable young man! And I mean that! Truthfully!”

“Really? You really think that?”

“I really think that,” she echoed—smiling broadly. “I would never have said it… if I didn’t believe it! I probably shouldn’t have said it… at all!”

“That’s… that’s the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me. Ever!”

“You don’t have many friends . . . do you? Or maybe I should say ‘close associates’. I’m suspecting, that you didn’t have a lot of them… down there, in Tennessee,”

“Not many.” He was sighing again. “I guess I’ve always been a bit, of a… a bit, of a loner.”

“You guess? A bit?”

“No. I know! I know it! Know it… in spades!” Those last two words came out more strongly—than he’d intended.

“Jason, you told me… when June first introduced us… that you were living, with a nice couple. Down close to Plymouth Road. What do you do? For a living, I mean. Do you have a job?”

“Yeah,” he replied—prying his eyes from hers, and almost staring a hole in his ribs. “I’m a damn hod carrier.”

“A what? A damn what?”

“A hod! I haul around a hod! It’s a thing… that holds bricks! A lot of bricks! A helluva lot of bricks!” He sighed, once more, and smiled slightly. “Heavy bricks,” he continued. “And I haul ’em around! At a construction site! We’re building a defense plant! Down… on West Chicago. Near Schaeffer. It’s run… by Eric. He’s my landlord.”

“Sounds like a lot of manual labor!”

“You’ve got that right.”

He was afraid that, just then, he might have used a too-much-futuristic phrase! But, she seemed to not notice!

“Are you happy there? Satisfied . . . with what you’re doing? Or are you looking? Looking for something else? Something less… ah… less physically demanding?”

He’d reached a genuine “puzzlement”—as The King