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 movie Wizard of Oz, although much watched wasn’t often quoted from, or misquoted in this case. When he finally spoke, he confirmed a developing suspicion that he was smarter than I’d originally thought.
How many more know the existence of the artifact? I wouldn’t trust little Mardian & his restaurant personnel to keep its existence amongst themselves. They must have an inkling of its importance beyond just the monetary value they have attached to it. Didn’t you think there might be a threat not to just you but your family as well? Keep them coming. Waiting to see how this gets resolved.
thanks for the investigative thinking and writing about the chapter.
More to come, of course, to answer some of the questions.
Semper fi,
Jim
Jim,
I was happy to read yet another chapter you have dropped before us (like dangling a carrot on a stick and string before a donkey to move him forward).
After reading a chapter, I have also done some mental gymnastics trying to guess how things might have fit together, etc. and where things will go next in your story. But there seems to always be too many “curve balls” in your narrative for me to be accurate in where I THINK things might go…
Keep bringing it.
Blessing to you and yours.
THE WATER DUKE. Thanks for the great comment, as per usual, and the compliments that came with it. My life was and remains a dynamically changing mess
of alternative and dead end one way streets in many respects. But I am here and have accommodated pretty well all that has happened and is still happening
in some way or other.
Thanks, my friend,
and Semper fi,
Jim
When I see this car I would love to find a brougham with them thick seat I want a big body chevy
Thanks for the comment on the Chevy. The big boat was considered ugly by a lot of people but
as a family car it was wonderful…and for my wife and I, plenty powerful too.
Semper fi,
Jim
I like the chapters Julia, MS Beasley and my hero Bozo are featured.
Thanks Keith, I wish we’d kept Mrs. BEasley, even in her tattered condition.
Thanks for liking the characters so much as some o them are still with us.
Semper fi,
Jim
Great read it is very interesting keeps you guessing what will happen next.
Thanks Pat, the compliment is well received here on this end.
Much appreciated.
Semper fi,
Jim
Must have been interesting to have the gov pin on your medal !! I have several earned in Nam and had to get them myself after getting out 😉
Little “M” may make you wish you had never said OK this time, just a funny feeling you know ?
I have driven fast myself but never with family aboard, and certainly not in an exotic sports car like that, can’t hardly imagine doing it now, although my ’32 Ford hotrod does OK .
Keep the artifact safe from prying eyes seems to have become another issue or distraction to deal with – good grief !!
Great chapter James , keep ’em coming 🙂
Semper Fi
The governor was there with Linda, but did not pin on the medals. That was the attorney general and I presumed at the time
that the attorney general wasn’t surrendering his planned position. The governor and he did not get along.
Thanks for the great comment, as usual. My BMW M6 would do 155 but only did that once and then the fastest I’ve even
been in my life was in the back seat of an F-14 at just around 1430 MPH. 40,000 feet and you don’t really have a feel for
going that fast…dead fast smooth…
Semper fi,
Jim
James
how cool to hear you of all people was excited about a medal
Little Mardian is a dickhead
What is coming next?
Dancing lessons at Arthur Murray?
Will you bide the artifact in a cloak room?
what i Dmire most Bout your writing is you humble storytelling
it reveals your amazing character and integrity
I wonder what true core integrity is sometimes. I have a core of honor running up an down my center. I labored long to make that so.
But sometimes I have violated those hard fought and tightly braided core values, and each time have been sorry…although sometimes it’s more important to remain on
earth rather than have tons of integrity honored as you pass on to the next world a bit early. Thanks for the usual great comment
my friend, and the twisted way you fashion compliments.
Semper fi,
Jim
better to twist than to damn with faint praise
Ah, Rich, my friend, do not take offense. You are a natural wordsmith and I much appreciate the way you
construct your criticism and yes, your compliments. Mea Culpa…
Your friend, and,
Semper fi,
Jim
Jim, i have a big smile on my face as I am blown away by your ability to draw me in and captivate my imagination! I like to think I am a connoisseur of competent authors, but you are one of the best! I can’t wait for more! Semper Fi. Batman
Makin you smile makes me smile…like the image in a mirror. Thanks so much for such a sincere compliment
and the weekly reading you do of every chapter. Much appreciated, as you know.
Semper fi, Batman, and my friend,
Jim
What is next? Another great chapter, thank you! I always wonder what is coming next!
Ah, such is life, or at least my life, as I report it as faithfully and I know how.
Thanks for expecting and wanting more. Much appreciate that sentiment.
Semper fi,
Jim
Driving a Ferrari has always been on my bucket list but no way now! Closest I ever came was a souped up Javelin and resulted I being invited to never set foot in that dealership again! Great chapter LT, thank you!
I rented a Ferrari once in Hawaii. Yes, they had the same model and color as Magnum P.I. My dad wanted to ride in one. I took him out to show him with it could do and that was that. He was so angry it’s still hard to describe, as he had no experience in not only fast driving but race driving. Drifting around corners and off-ramps didn’t suit him, to put it mildly. I loved it, of course. Have never been in one since. I did like pulling up to the lobby of the Royal Hawaiian and having two beautiful young girls ask if I would give them a ride. I didn’t do it because I didn’t want to get divorced…or dead (she’s very Irish). Thanks for your own experience on here.
Semper fi,
Jim
3 let me know if you received 2….
Comment I was trying to make on “ life of redemption”!
The sheep lament about the actions of the wolf or the sheep dog and they are only acting out their nature! You can’t be redeemed for acting with the gifts given you & attempting to fit! I wonder where I fit in….think I am more of a manipulator than AA predictor?
Has to good if you have generated all the thought along with saving Wausau!
Thanks for the interesting comment, as you so often make. The guy at the Wausau Honor flight, Ed LeRoy, is doing fine. I called him at home and talked to his wife about the seizure I observed and reported. He’d had one other, a Petit Mal I am assuming, several months before. I stayed with him because it wasn’t at the level of a 911 call, as he popped right out when the doc checked vitals. Those were normal. Now his wife is taking him in to have an EEG. The doctors today have a lot of great medications that, if taken regularly, prevent the small seizures and forestall or eliminate the likelihood of a Grand Mal. Just basically did whatever anyone else of the guys around would have done. Besides, he turned out to be the kind of man who was most enjoyable to spend time with. I don’t do that will with memorials. You are a very quiet and insidious predator of the most unusual kind. Only another predator of my ilk would spot and admire and enjoy that about you.
Semper fi, my great friend,
Jim
I don’t know how you manage it Sir, but you outdo yourself every single chapter. I’m on the edge of my seat, waiting for the next one. Semper Fi LT.
Thanks a lot for that neat compliment Mike. Means a good deal to me this morning as its been a trying day and its not even ten yet! Sometimes it’s hard to ‘clear the boards’ enough to get a time, place and state to write the chapters in. Comments like your very own here help me to refocus and get back to what really counts…and that’s the continuation of the story so that I get it all out before…well, I can’t.
Semper fi,
Jim
Mr. Strauss, Sir,
Wait, what? Was the Governor suggesting that you were someone that he knew? Refresh my memory, please. Had you been at some event at the Western White House with him? I seem to sort of remember part of the story, quite a while ago, included Linda Ronstadt – foolishly or not, I’m more impressed with a musician than I am a Governor. Thanks for sharing this story of your trip as you “follow the yellow brick road”. (giggle)
Linda Ronstadt was not beautiful. She was overwhelmingly cute, kind of like Sally Field. And she was anything but a famous star in her actions
or personality. I met her on the beach twice and walked with her across the sand while everyone else did their Kissinger party thing. The governor was her date both times and I spoke with him then, and then several times later when he’d actually call me on the phone. My insurance staff thought I was making that up until I put him on the phone with my secretary once. Gerry was very cogent, bright and liked me. That’s what he was saying when he leaned down before the awarding and pinning on of the medal. That second in time was the best thing that ever came of getting the medal, as you will read. Having high decorations, like high rank, is not at all what those who do not have them, is not pleasant, for the most part. I never saw Linda again but she definitely ate a small hole into my heart. Fortunately, I married a woman as cute as either her or Sally…and I still have the going for me.
Semper fi,
Jim
So Little Mardian wasn’t smart enough or maybe likable enough to surround himself with people who could solve his problems ? Do you think he had a heart to heart with dad and dad clued him in as to took care of his beloved Porsche and why it happened ? So now he would like your help in the future if has any serious problems ? Now that is laughable , but as you have shown us he is still in business so any problems he did have were taken care of, but most likely by people who didn’t need to use extreme measures to solve them. Of course on the other hand he might not have liked the idea of crawling to Butch or anyone else to get your number! LOL Getting a personal congratulations from Jerry Brown had to be something , but I’m thinking you would have preferred Linda Ronstadt instead ? Anyways another fantastic chapter that brightened my otherwise dreary day.
I loved Linda, but hardly knew her.
That one walk on the beach when she sang for me and talked a bit about how unhappy she was being famous and without anyone truly in her life.
I had no reply for that and, in fact, I was a bit afraid to say anything.
I never spoke to her again. At the awards ceremony it was rush, rush, rush, and out the door into the parking lot…all the hubbub over the governor showing up uninvited and without proper warning.
Thanks for the comment and the compliments.
Semper fi,
Jim
I was thinking as I finished this chapter about the about the time line we have experienced so far and the events that occurred circling this corner of California! The Western Whitehouse and the significant impact of the number of Marine back in the changed world we had left. Your comment about an Honor Flt Letter find me mentally moving between now and then!
Thanks for driving me to and from the honor flight hotel up in Wausau.
You are a true friend, and the talk along the way was, as usual, stirring and a lot of fun.
If you drive a Tesla, like you do, then its good to have somebody along to talk to in the abandoned places many superchargers are found.
Twenty minutes or more of simply standing around.
Thanks for the interesting comment, not that I really understand it.
Semper fi,
Jim
Very good read. Did you get to speak to Linda and tell her about the beach? She was so good looking back in those days, with the Time article and her in roller skates. I wish her well if she ever reads the reference, as I understand she is having challenges like all we contemporaries.
Kemp
Parkinson’s disease, apparently. What a grand talent and a wonderfully delightful woman to be around.
Not like some of the divas of today at all.
Thanks for the cogent comment about her.
Semper fi,
Jim
I thought for sure Little Mardian was going to threaten you right there in the restaurant. Maybe the little weasel didn’t have the stones or he needed someone to back him up. At least you had the once in a lifetime opportunity to drive a Ferrari. Seeing Paul there also must have made you wonder what was up , made me wonder if he was reporting back to someone in the Western White House after your visits. Can’t wait until the next chapter. Hope you enjoyed the Honor Flight although it had to be extremely emotional.
Thanks Chuck, for the sympathy about the Honor Flight. Actually, I spent the day in and around the bus, observing another veteran who’d had
a seizure but not to the point that he or anyone else except me wanted him taken to an ER. Damn difficult situation when you’re far from home\
and flying out in a few hours. So, I didn’t do any of that memorials or the strange army unknown soldier gig. Then there’s Paul!
Semper fi,
Jim
Well I guess your not in Kansas any more yourself… And Jerry Brown saying hello, Linda Ronstadt, Paul, Lions and Tigers and Bears oh my!!! And I guess that Little Mardian is the wicked witch of the north????This was an awesome chapter full of twists and turn, almost like being in a tornado, just not in Kansas!! Keep em coming sir and Semper fi
Thanks Bob, and yes, it was a whirlwind time, not that the wind died down any time soon after that.
The story rages forward with a mind of its own, easier to understand now than it was back then.
I was in the combat reaction mode and not doing anything much about thinking ahead and then tailoring my
actions toward that future. Thanks for the great compliment.
Semper fi,
Jim
Another amazing chapter, Jim.
Little Mardian appears to be quite the character, in his own mind. And yes, I’ve driven quite a few times. I usually forego the clutch except for starting and stopping. And preferred my (not legal for street use) Lola T-396 C Sports racer. Seat tailored for me, right-hand drive mid-engine car. But the Ferrari cars were fun at the time. Taking the pain and other pills have made me get out of racing and flying.
That sphere intrigues me more and more – are we ever to know more about it? I doubt that, as it appears to be highly secret.
It is easy to see why the CIA wants you- you are very adept at reading people. Wish I had had that ability.
Keep it going, Jim, as you are definitely on a good roll.
You are ‘sdept’ at reading people…as you are here and have ‘read’ me. And others, I am certain, not that you will
ever admit that. My wife is very adept and constantly through the years has let me know that being adept at gauging others
has not been my strong point. Thank God I’ve had her along for the whole ride. Hope your health is improving.
The Lola sounds divine. In fact, as a formula car its much greater than that. Does it take a lot of work to keep it
running as that thing was fine tuned out to the max?
Semper fi, my friend,
Jim
What a bunch of strange bedfellows you’ve managed to attract. I understand why you need to figure out the connections before you leave. However these folks are professionals and I don’t think that will be easy! You are in such a groove with your writing and storytelling my friend. I can’t get enough! Semper Fi my friend!
Thanks Jack! Your compliments have special meaning as we now go back so far through this journey.
Yes, I was denifintely working and being worked by some pros at the intelligence game.
You go along knowing almost nothing while assuming that they know all or discovering what seems to be the case…
only to find out later that they didn’t know much either. Everyone is important or makes believe they are…and how
to tell the difference? By the time you figure that out you are as old and out of the game as I am!
Semper fi, my friend,
Jim
James, Wow! Interesting photo. What a ’70s suit, shirt & tie. Plus haircut. Did they misspell your last name?
Re: Volks and shifting. There was an aftermarket addition to the shifter that moved the rotation point higher. The result was a tighter pattern.
Seems you have reached a truce with Little Mardian. For his sake I hope he keeps his end of the bargain.
Some minor editing suggestions follow:
he confirmed developing a suspicion that he was smarter
Move “a” to before “developing”
he confirmed a developing suspicion that he was smarter
assure that the object was there, a project that failed in every respect
Could be two sentences
Period after “there”
Capitalize “A”
assure that the object was there. A project that failed in every respect
evident fact also makes it likely that they weren’t complete idiots
“made” instead of “makes”
evident fact also made it likely that they weren’t complete idiots
while Mardian ran on about the potential for confidential buyers, Bob might have guessed that about me but I didn’t know
/Assume Bob = Little Mardian as his dad’s name was Robert/
/What “that” means is unclear. My guess is “that” = revulsion/
Maybe rewrite
while Mardian ran on about the potential for confidential buyers, he might have guessed my disgust but I didn’t know
dad had absconded with wool Navy jackets and purchased a few bucks worth of Navy blue dye
/I’m a bit confused. Wool jackets OR wool blankets? Context makes it seem like blankets./
dad had absconded with several wool blankets and purchased a few bucks worth of Navy blue dye
accept anything from the man but the old expression about keeping your friends close but your enemies closer
Add “remembered” or “recalled” before “but”
accept anything from the man but remembered the old expression about keeping your friends close but your enemies closer
jerking my right thump rearward before shifting into second
Maybe “thumb” instead of “thump”
jerking my right thumb rearward before shifting into second
wanting to be down with the strange difficult man, but no longer seeing him as an enemy
Maybe “done” rather than “down”
wanting to be done with the strange difficult man, but no longer seeing him as an enemy
my mind already on working out a plan to place the artifact
Drop “on” after “already”
my mind already working out a plan to place the artifact
The governors not supposed to be here
/I can’t decide if this is correct as it stands./
Maybe change to “governor is”
The governor is not supposed to be here
row to see Paul, Richard, and Dutch, along with Lieutenant Gates
“Butch” rather than “Dutch”
row to see Paul, Richard, and Butch, along with Lieutenant Gates
who had allowed me to drive his car and then to the event in some other vehicle
Maybe add “come” after “then”
who had allowed me to drive his car and then come to the event in some other vehicle
whatever the linkage was between these men was all about I knew
Maybe drop “was” after “linkage”
Change “I knew” to “I didn’t know”
Period at end
whatever the linkage between these men was all about I didn’t know.
Blessings & Be Well
Great edits here Dan and the comments you made at the start are pretty damned good too.
Thanks of rite undying support, the compliments and the hard work.
Semper fi,
Jim