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

“I’m sorry,” blurted his date. “I never should have asked that question! It was patently stupid! And insensitive! Completely uncalled for! I really apologize!”

“Not at all.” He was trying to rally. “The question, though! It just came out of… came out of, you know… came out of left field, is all.”

Again, he was frightened—that he’d used an expression, which, he was positive, had never “seen the light of day”, in the early-forties. Again. she seemed to have harbored no adverse reaction, to his reply. Amazing!

“You just seemed,” she advised, “just seemed, to have taken on a… well, taken on… a special glow! Each and every time… that you spoke of her. Spoke of your ‘Aunt Debbie’ . . . is all! That’s all.”

“Well, she was, y’know, special!”

“Are you happy? Happy now? Happy… where you are?”

“You mean… living with Susie and Eric?”

“Well, yeah. That too. I’d imagine… I’d hope, anyway… that, eventually, you’d want to set yourself up! Set yourself up, in your own living quarters!”

“Uh… well… yeah. Yeah… I guess I would.”

“You know? Jason, you seem to feel that… living on your own… is some kind of an almost-far-fetched idea! Have you ever lived… ah… lived independently?”

“Uh… well, no.”

“Why is that? Are you not in your early-twenties?”

“Yes, Ma’am.”

“‘Yes, Ma’am’? Jason! Are you that . . . that . . . that . . . ah… insecure? That . . . well, what I was gonna say was… are you that submissive?”

“I don’t know that I’m being… well, that I’m being all that submissive! The idea… the prospect of living independently . . . well, it’s just never come up!”

“Then, you’ve lived with… lived with your mother? For your entire life? Your whole, entire, life?”

He was staring two burn holes in his, hardly-touched, spareribs—as he’d answered, in a half-whisper “Yes.”

“And I get the impression, that the relationship . . . the relationship, with your mother . . . that it was not all that congenial!”

“It was… well, we didn’t… I mean…”

“Nuff said. So . . . by coming up here, from Tennessee… you’re, more or less, declaring your independence? You’ve declared your independence? Is that it?”

“More or less… yeah, I guess.”

“Have you ever pictured yourself… pictured yourself, actually living independently? Having your own apartment? Or even renting a house? Maybe even buying a house?”

“Well,” he groused, “it’s not been, y’know…”

“Never mind! Your expression . . . your bewildered expression… has already given me my answer. Tell me… have you ever held down a job? Before this one, I mean. The one with your landlord? With the hods . . . and bricks . . . and everything?”

“Well, yeah. I worked… for a pretty good while… in a coffee shop. In Tennessee.”

“What did you do there? Wash dishes? Oops! I’m sorry! Another little gem… that came out, in a manner that was unintended. I apologize! What did you do there? And… if it was working as a dishwasher… that’s fine!”

“Well, I started out, you know… as a dishwasher. But… after three or four months… I got to where I was a waiter!”

“That’s great! That’s wonderful! You do have the moxie! The moxie… to move up! Have you given a whole lot of thought . . . to what you want to do, when your brick-lugging days are over?”

“To be honest, no. I really haven’t. I’ve only been a laborer… for just a couple of weeks.”

“Well, I’d suggest that you start thinking of what you want to do when…”

“When I grow up?”

“Well,” she responded—with that charming smile, “I don’t think I’d have put it quite that way. But, yes. What is it… that you’d love to do? Not like to do. Or even tolerate! But, something… that you’d love! Would gladly work at… for all your life! To the point… almost… that the amount of salary would be secondary! Almost!”

“Hmmm, that would require a good bit of pondering.”

“Jason? Jason… let me ask you this: Have you ever thought… of getting into radio? You’re certainly well-spoken. And I think you have a really good… a modulated… speaking voice. You might have to work… a bit… on projection. But, unless you want to become a carpenter… or a florist, or a doctor, or something… you might give a thought to it! To radio! A half-a-thought, anyway. A quarter thought?”

“But… but, to get into radio,” he replied, “you’d have to be… some kind of star! Or a really famous celebrity . . . or something! Wouldn’t you?”

“Not really! I don’t think so, anyway. I’m not saying you should wind up being Bob Hope or Fibber McGee… or someone. I think that… if you’d audition, for some of the smaller, local, stations… I believe that you’d stand a pretty fair chance, of getting on! Sooner or later, anyway. As, probably, a staff announcer. You know… give station breaks, read commercials. Stuff like that.”

“I’d never really thought about…”

“Probably wouldn’t pay much. Not to start, anyway. Probably not as much… as toting around a hod-full of bricks. Maybe not nearly what you’re making now… although I have no idea, as to what that might be. I also don’t know what local radio stations pay their announcers! Have no idea! But, I believe that… eventually… your future would be much greater. Much more lucrative, for you… eventually!”

“Yeah.” He was still staring at the now-cooled ribs. “It’s certainly something to… something to think about! I just don’t know, if I…”

“Jason!” The exclamation came out much more judicial than she’d intended. “Jason?” The tone turned much softer. “Jason, you can do . . . anything! Anything… that you set your mind to! Anything! But, you have to devote virtually all your time… and every ounce of effort… to it! Make it an almost-obsession! Maybe not even ‘almost’!”

“I dunno. You make it seem so… so… so…”

“Jason… you have no conception! Absolutely no conception… at all . . . as to how broad your horizons are! You are a far better man… than you’re giving yourself credit for. Far more talented! There really is nothing you can’t do . . . if you set your mind, and your heart, to it!”

Grandpa Piepczyk had often said something similar. But, for some reason, his pronouncements had never “packed the punch” that Valerie’s “Sermon From The Mount” was brandishing!

Well, for one thing, Jason had been