THE COWARDLY LION, Volume Four, Chapter II
I opened my eyes to see Mary sitting next to the bed I was lying in, leaning forward, her face only inches from my own. The bed was tilted so I looked a bit down at her worried expression. “Do you know where you are?” she asked, her expression serious and verbal...
THE COWARDLY LION, Volume Four, Chapter III
I didn’t remember whether any mention had been made by Richard about the Chevy having positraction. I learned that it did when Mary took off to head for the store. I watched the back end of the car disappear up Lobos Marinos until she took the corner heading north on...
THE COWARDLY LION, Volume Four, Chapter IV
I drove the Volks down to the Dana Point Marina entrance and, after working my way through the ruts of dried mud, up to Butch’s front door. It was closed, with a note taped to the handle: “If you sell vacuum cleaners or Encyclopedia Britannica’s then come right in.”...
THE COWARDLY LION, Volume Four, Chapter V
When I arrived at Galloways, it not being my usual pre-seven a.m. visiting time, the place was half full. Mike Manning sat at my table, so I walked right over and took the seat next to him, which was also usually the chair I occupied. “Want your chair?” he asked,...
THE COWARDLY LION, Volume Four, Chapter VI
I walked to the front door of the modernistic throwback of some ranch-style, but not, home, noting that it had a screen door. The sweep of central air conditioning being installed around the country had just about put an end to such doors, at least as part of the...
THE COWARDLY LION, Volume Four, Chapter VII
Saturday morning came early, as I gently climbed out of bed, knowing Mary would awaken but not stir enough to let me know she was. I didn’t require nearly as much sleep after the Nam as I had in my younger years and also had some form of sleep apnea my wife took full...
THE COWARDLY LION, Volume Four, Chapter VIII
I left Butch’s trailer and headed back toward San Clemente, but not before stopping back at Straight Ahead just to see if Paul might have showed up since I’d been spending time with Butch. The place was open like it always was, but Paul was nowhere to be seen. I’d...
THE COWARDLY LION, Volume Four, Chapter IX
Unlike the Jeep that’d been waiting for me when I flew in on the C-130 the security people would not let Tom’s Blazer out onto the tarmac. I got out, thanked him for helping me with my plan, and grabbed my bag and new briefcase. Tom had found a used Hartmann case of...
THE COWARDLY LION, Volume Four, Chapter X
Regret for my conscious decision to let the artifact lie in the shattered mess of the overhead heater on the garage floor grew, as I headed for home. Down deep I realized the motivation for such a potentially idiotic decision. I didn’t need any more complications or...
THE COWARDLY LION, Volume Four, Chapter XI
Little Mardian stared over the top lip of his coffee cup, drawn most of the way up to take a sip. My tone and the “you’re not in Kansas anymore,” comment stopped his hand movement as well as widened his eyes. I was surprised that he was reacting at all, since the...
THE COWARDLY LION, Volume Four, Chapter XII
I opened the velvet-covered blue box and looked at the medal. There’d been no ‘pinning’ the medals to anyone’s chest, as I’d experienced in the Marine Corps. The medals and an eight-and-a-half by eleven blue plastic-covered certificates were handed out. The medal was...
THE COWARDLY LION, Volume Four, Chapter XIII
It was too early to do much of anything but head over to Galloways, the place that was growing to become the one thing I might miss the most when we finally made our geographic move. Despite my high regard for the man, my conversation with Herbert had been...
THE COWARDLY LION, Volume Four, Chapter XIV
I’d met Matt aboard the C-130 on the way back from Albuquerque. We’d not truly bonded in any way except after sizing me up he uncharacteristically and very surprisingly threw himself in with me for whatever adventure he might be a part of. My being armed and speaking...
THE COWARDLY LION, Volume Four, Chapter XV
The office inside the wooden ‘bank vault’ style door was more plush than Tom Thorkelson’s office in the Massachusetts Mutual Fashion Island location. The baby blue rug under my feet made it feel like I was standing in a couple of inches of mud while four towering...
THE COWARDLY LION, Volume Four, Chapter XVI
When I got to the station and parked in the lot, I first noticed that Lieutenant Gate’s Marauder was parked in its special spot near the back door. The second thing I noticed, as I walked into the facility, was that Pat Bowman wasn’t at her desk. Gates was there when...
THE COWARDLY LION, Volume Four, Chapter XVII
I didn’t answer Mary’s question as I took a few seconds to consider its significance. Rick was a policyholder. Rick was the owner of the second-largest life insurance policy I’d ever sold. Three hundred thousand dollars was a lot of money, and the policy, being whole...
THE COWARDLY LION, Volume Four, Chapter XVIII
I drove with abandon on the semi-broken sometimes dirt road called Route 66, as the dream smooth hurtling along, even at only fifty miles per hour or so, disappeared behind us. We were finally headed in the right direction, east, instead of the circuitous selections...
THE COWARDLY LION, Volume Four, Chapter XIX
Matt pulled a folded-up package from one of the overly large breast pockets of his vest. The special photographer’s vest he’d gone on and on about earlier because of the new store on Del Mar in San Clemente called the Banana Republic. The place catered to men in what...
THE COWARDLY LION, Volume Four, Chapter XX
The seat in the Lear Jet was hypnotically comfortable and, as the pilot or pilots, since I could not see forward of the canvas between us, pushed the engine controls to maximum, I breathed deeply and went to sleep. The level of exhaustion I felt could not be held off...
THE COWARDLY LION, Volume Four, Chapter XXI
The Sheraton Hotel was located a little more than half a mile from the airport. It was a huge building about twenty stories tall with a great, although empty lobby at our late hour of arrival. Before departure while still near the gate awaiting the call for economy...
THE COWARDLY LION, Volume Four, Chapter XXII
I stood in shock, unable to say a word, my unblinking eyes staring up into glittering dark pupils in eyes that had never glittered before. He was too tall, and he was vaguely smiling as he held the door half open. People passed on both sides of us, using the other...
THE COWARDLY LION, Volume Four, Chapter XXIII
The door closed almost silently behind me. I walked a few steps to the table and pulled out the chair on my side. I continued to stare into Nguyen’s no longer twinkling eyes and the newfound smile I’d seen at the hotel was gone. I sat down and waited. “How can I help...
THE COWARDLY LION, Volume Four, Chapter XXIV
I stared at the two security men in their strange civilian, but severe attire, in shock. How could I respond when there was no possibility of selling an American-based life insurance policy to citizens of another country without licenses or permissions? My device to...
THE COWARDLY LION, Volume Four, Chapter XXV
Nguyen let his Chinese version of a soup spoon settle into his bowl of traditional Korean soup. The sounds penetrating the thin walls assured that no listening devices, if planted and that didn’t seem remotely possible, would hear nothing. “When I stopped by your...
THE COWARDLY LION, Volume Four, Chapter XXVI
I stood stunned. The weights at the bottom of the ceramic characters he’d given me were not lead. I thought for just a few seconds, remembering handling the pieces and putting them into the special broken down manger scene I’d made myself in the garage. There were too...
The Cowardly Lion, Volume Four, Chapter XXVII
There was no place to go, the small privacy room was built to hold one human being at a time and had thick wooden walls so telephone calls could not be overheard. I stepped outside, letting the spring action built into the door, and slowly close it behind me. That the...
THE COWARDLY LION, Volume Four, Chapter XXVIII
I rolled off the cushioned bench seat behind the table and onto the floor, my fake Bacardi Coke coming down on top of me, like it was seeking some sort of safety itself. The neat crystal glass rolled across the hardwood floor to stop before my eyes. There was no shot...
THE COWARDLY LION, Volume Four, Chapter XXIX
There was no point in even making the attempt to get to Gimpo Airport. There would really be only one place an American would run to in panic when being chased by the police, and that was the city’s only public airport. I was in real trouble and whatever the effect it...
THE COWARDLY LION, Volume Four Chapter XXX
I was ushered into a room that had a table and two chairs set in its center, and on the table were two large metal rings set very securely into a several-inch thick slab of hardwood that served as its top. “Take a seat and wait for developments,” the big MP said,...
THE COWARDLY LION, Volume Four, Chapter XXXI
Customs and Immigration at LAX were located in terminal two where the Flying Tiger plane taxied into. There was no jet bridge, as most airports were installing instead of the giant metal staircase that was set up to rest against the left front side of the 747’s...
THE COWARDLY LION, Volume Four, Chapter XXXII
It was hard to believe what was coming from my wife when she unloaded about the coming mission or training that was going to take me away from home for many weeks to come. EOD Naval Training Center was in Indian Head, Maryland, located coincidentally on Strauss Street...Subscribe to FROM THE WILDERNESS
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