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

though, that means I can’t continue to exploit him… for a ride to and from work. I’m going to have to buy a car! Another big adventure! For me, anyway. Could probably get away… with riding my bike! But, I really think . . . I’m gonna need a car!”

“Oh, Jason! That’s wonderful! This whole thing! This whole thought process! Wonderful!”

“It can be! Hopefully, it will be! But, listen. What I know about anything mechanical . . . or electrical . . . you could stick, in a thimble! And have plenty of room left… for your thumb! To me, a rubber band . . . is a machine! Fortunately, Eric says he’ll go car shopping with me! Another exploitation, of the guy! Speaking of such things, he’s taught me how to drive! He even let me drive… drive the two of us home… in his precious Nash! That was a helluva sacrifice . . . for him! He loves that car!”

“What kind of car are you gonna get?”

“I don’t know! I can’t afford anything… much newer than a thirty-seven! Or… possibly… a thirty-eight! And I’m damn well not gonna let Eric advance me the money… to buy something newer! And I’m afraid that he’ll insist! Ain’t gonna happen!” (He was afraid that the last remark might be too “futuristic”. But, she seemed to not notice.)

“Well, my father had a thirty-one Terraplane! Had it for years! Was a good-looking car… I’d always thought so, anyway. But, then he went and bought the Studebaker. A thirty-six. I liked the Terraplane better.”

“Didn’t I see a new . . . a forty-one Ford . . . in your parents’ driveway?”

“Yes. He just got it… maybe two or three weeks ago. All part of his settlement, y’know! Their settlement!”

“Their… settlement?”

“Yup. They… both Mom and Dad… they got run-into! A couple of years ago, it was! Hit… from behind! Took all this time for the insurance company to come across! I really didn’t think… that they’d really got hurt! Not all that badly, anyway! Either one of ’em! But, they got this guy… this Doctor Keltner . . . to issue, a really critical diagnosis! And the insurance company… they had to come up with some pretty serious bucks! Very serious money! Were forced to! But, they fought! Fought like hell!”

“Doctor Keltner? Did you say ‘Doctor Keltner’?”

Jason’s mind began spinning! This couldn’t be the same Dr. Keltner—the one who’d “helped out” his mother, in her settlement! That Dr. Keltner had been in his late-forties—or, possibly, in his early-fifties! But, that was 60 years—in the future!

If this Dr. Keltner—the Krenwinkles’ Dr. Keltner—was in his forties, or fifties, he’d be 100 years-of-age, at the beginning of the 21st century! Impossible! Could that Dr. Keltner be the son (or, maybe even, the grandson) of this Dr. Keltner? Some kind of family, that must be!

“. . . since then,” Valerie was rattling on, “they don’t do much! Just sit around the house! All damn day! Doing nothing! Getting fat! I think that both of ’em have put on thirty-five or forty pounds! Maybe more! They’re my parents . . . and I love ’em… but, I really don’t think they were hurt! Well, not all that badly! They’d adopted me, you know. When I was eight! And I’ll always be grateful for that! I’d always thought that I’d spend my entire childhood… in that crap-hole, of an orphanage!”

“Wait a minute! You were… they adopted you?”

“Yeah. That seems like forever ago! They were different back then! Both of ’em were! Everything was! Different, that is! Dad used to work hard! I mean, really work… hard! He sold real estate! Worked all kinds of goony hours! Now, he just sits around! Doesn’t do anything! Listens to all those stupid sob serials . . . listens to ’em… all day! He’s really wrapped up in Ma Perkins and Helen Trent . . . and, I guess, Our Gal Sunday. But, those idiotic things are only Monday-through-Friday! Frankly, he’s totally lost . . . on weekends! Listens to the… well, to the… to the damndest stuff!”

“Good heavens! I’d never realized . . .”

Jason also had never seen his newly-minted girlfriend—bedeviled by such a troubled look! It was—literally—clouding her pretty face! Something he’d thought impossible!

“And,” she continued, “I think Mom is even worse off! She used to devote hours every week… hell, every day . . . to her gardening! She had… literally… hundreds of flowers! Maybe even thousands of flowers! All kinds of plants! Blooming… all over the back yard! Used to play tennis . . . with her friend Sophie, who only lives three doors away! Now? Now, she never sees Sophie! Spends all damn day . . . just working, on those stupid jigsaw puzzles! And picking up the phone… to see if Mrs. Grimaldi might be spreading any juicy morsels, about our neighbors! It’s really quite depressing, y’know! To see how they’ve… well, how they’ve gone to seed, over the past couple of years! Both of ’em! That new Ford? I don’t think they’ve put a hundred miles, on it!”

That whole revelation got Jason to thinking! About Patricia Krenwinkle! If it would’ve appeared impossible—for the beautiful, the wonderful, Valerie to have produced anyone, like the subhuman Manson follower—well, maybe that would not hold, for her adoptive parents! Or their close relatives!

The disconcerting thought—troubled the male portion of the celebrated “Hockey Date”!

And recalling her parents’ plight—seemed to have remained a disturbing thought process, for the distaff member!

Oh! The Wings beat the Blackhawks 6-1!

It was slightly past eleven o’clock—when Jason delivered Valerie home, “in reasonably good shape”. (Quoth Our Hero.)

He took her into his arms—and they kissed! Tenderly! As they had—on numerous occasions before! Only this time, Our Hero added a new fillip: He was—consistently—patting her, on her derriere! Consistently!

When the elongated buss ended, he slapped her—sharply—on her right buttock! Then, he hurried down the cement steps—and made it, quickly, across the front lawn! And there it still was: That 1941 Ford—parked in the driveway!

“Well,” mused the recipient of the kiss—and the smack—as she (vigorously) rubbed the starboard side, of her bottom, “our little boy is growing up!”

TWENTY

October 16, 2001

A loud—impatient—knock upon the apartment door! Manny Foster heaved himself up—and off his smelly sofa! Uttering three or four