IN MEDIA RES
“Childhood is the kingdom wherenobody dies.”
― Edna St. Vincent Millay
Richard Blaine awakens surprised that he is still alive.
Life and Sentient are not finished with him ...
IN MEDIA RES
“Just because it’s maddeningdoesn't mean it's not a miracle. Quite the opposite.”
– Rabbi Amos Stein
When the lights came back on, Iwas standing up and in a completely different place and time. My body feltstrong and resilient … and my mind more confused than ever.
In New Orleans, I had come acrossalcoholics who blacked out, awakening with no idea of where they were or howthey got there.
I never felt sorry for them. Theyhad done it to themselves. It was why I never drank. I got into enough troublesober.
Now, I had become just like thosemen, but without the cure of never taking up a bottle in my hand again.
Sentient had done it to me oncemore.
‘You have done it toyourself. Stupidity has consequences.’
‘You healed me! But how? You saidyou couldn’t … that you were depleted.’
‘The doctors are mystified as arethe military investigators. In the morning you were found unconscious on thefloor in the middle of a large swath of dried blood with no memory of how yougot there … or how you were quite improved from the night before.’
‘But where were the bodies ofthose two killers?’
‘I … incorporated their …essences into you. In a very true sense, you are three times the man you oncewere. After that, I took control of you for a time to fend off bothersomequestions and position you where I need you to be.’
Beside me, a lieutenant murmuredlow, “God turns you from one situation to another and teaches by means ofopposites so that you will have two wings to fly, not one”
‘Amazingly apt for your situationeven though the Rabbi Stein has no idea of your present confusion.’
‘Who?’
I flicked my eyes to get a betterlook at the older man. I stiffened as a strange thing happened: like in thecredits of some movies, words appeared beneath his face. I read:
Rabbi Amos Stein. Lieutenant,father of one daughter, Rose, husband ofRuth Goode Stein. At 31 years of age, he was already accomplished beforeenlisting. He followed in his father’s footsteps, became ordained and receiveda PhD. Enlisted after the M.S. St. Louis filled with 937 Jewish refugees wasdenied permission to dock in Miami and turned away. A third of the passengersto be later murdered.
‘He is the man whom you and Sgt.Savalas saved months ago in that alley when I was piloting you. He, Savalas,and you are the core of the Spartan 300. The triumvirateif you would. And you two are currently in somewhat of an interesting situationthat has me in something of a quandary in how to pilot you.’
‘Why am I not surprised?’
A harsh voice intruded into ourmind-conversation. “Am I disturbing you, Lieutenant Blaine? Or are youstill in shock from me telling you that General Eisenhower has just demoted youto lieutenant?”
I had no clue what mess Sentienthad dumped me into. So, I deferred to my old stand-by: when in doubt, confusethem with bullshit.
“No, sir. I was thinking of theBelgian gates on Omaha beach that I and Sgt. Savalas observed.”
“What?”
“The tidal-flat obstacles beganwith so-called Belgian gates, which are gatelike structures built of ironframes ten feet high. These sat in belts running parallel to the coastline,about 150 meters out from the high-water line.”
“I know all that prattle, Blaine.You shoveled that nonsense to Admiral Ramsey … who still hates your guts by theway.”
‘Excellent strategy, Blaine. Heis quite off-balanced, allowing me time to plant another bombshell on hisdesk.’
‘Who the blazes is he?’
Words of neon ice appearedbeneath his chin:
Thirty-two-year-old Captain VictorSturges is in charge of the training for the LCT (Landing Craft for Tanks) crews. He had been aprofessional wrestler and high-school coach in Detroit before the war. Althoughhe had never been on salt water, he joined the Navy after hearing a recruiting appealfrom former heavyweight champion Gene Tunney. The Navy made him an instructorin physical education, but Sturges did not approve of the Navy’s PE program andsaid so. He voiced his criticisms so often and so loudly that he gained areputation as a “Bolshie.” As a punishment he was posted to landing craft,which his senior officers regarded as a suicide squad.
He leaned over his desk and waveda sheet of typed print in my face. “This is why you were demoted to lieutenantand placed under my command! This!”
Why was everybody shaking crushedpapers under my nose for whose contents I had not one blessed clue?
“You jumped the chain of command,Mister! When I refused your request for rescue boats to accompany tonight’sexercise, you wrote directly … directly! … to General Bradley.
He paused as if expecting areply, so I gave him one, “It seemed the thing to do at the time … sir.”
Lt. Stein groaned low.
“I can bust you down to buckprivate, Mister. Is that what you want?”
Sentient took over from me. “Iwant you to save the hundreds of lives that will be lost tonight because youare too afraid to counter General Eisenhower’s inane orders against sendingrescue craft along with ….”
“That’s it, Blaine!”
Sentient shook my head. ““Most ofyour early exercises were nothing less than catastrophic. All manner of thingswent wrong, but you were learning, correct? At the expense of slain soldierswho trusted you to be smarter than you were, more caring about the livesentrusted to you than you were. Vehicles broke down, lives lost.”
“Lessons were learned, private.”
“At what cost, Captain?”
The door jerked open, and arattled female lieutenant rushed into the room. “F-Four military policemen arehere, sir.”
“For what”
“T-To arrest you, sir. F-For murder.”
“That’s ludicrous!”
My right hand raised without mywilling it with my forefinger pointing at the surface of his desk. “Observe thethree photographs upon your desk, Captain.”
Sturges gave a small shriek andstumbled backwards against the blinds of the window in a clatter of smashedblades.
“Sarah Arkel, on the evening ofher high school graduation … the last evening of her short, trusting life. The secondphoto, her unmarked grave into which you dumped her after having strangled thepoor girl upon her telling you of her pregnancy. And the third, the DetroitMedical Examiner’s photo of her decomposed corpse.”
The female lieutenant looked atSturges in horror. Had the man asked her out in the past? I hoped not. Even ifshe were Axis Sally, she deserved better.
The four M.P’s walked brisklyinto the office. But the captain had already left. At least his sanity.
The stocky man stood titteringsoftly to himself, the fingers of his left hand held to his trembling lips. Thepolicemen obviously expected another response from the captain altogether. Theylooked questioningly at one another, apparently at a loss at how to proceed.
The captain was not. He fluidlydrew his Colt 1911. He pointed it straight at me. The barrel was depressinglysteady. There was no way he could miss when he fired.
‘Eisenhower was right about you.You are the spawn of Satan!”
“Something like that,” Sentientsaid through me.
But my words were drowned out bythe four shots from the M.P.’s own automatics. A homicidal officer wassomething they obviously knew how to deal with. They, too, were so close thatthey could not miss, nor did they. Not one of them.
The pale receptionist cleared herthroat, not seeming to be able to tear her eyes from her dead former commander.“G-General Bradley. who called the captain to warn him, also told me to tell you,Major ….”
I raised an eyebrow, and she wasfinally able to tear her eyes from the bloody corpse of Sturges. “The paperworkfor your demotion has yet to be filed. And as soon as you leave here, I willtear it up.”
She turned to the four policemen.“Unless you gentlemen object.”
The one closest to her waved acareless hand to her. “We have more paperwork with this than we want,sweetheart.”
Rabbi Stein cleared his throat,and the man amended his words while giving my “friend” a hard look.“Lieutenant, tear away to your heart’s desire.”
“Satisfied, Stein?”
“Lieutenant or Rabbi,” I said,finally being given control of my vocal cords again.
He shot me an encore of the hardlook, which went from granite to steel for me. “You’re a Jonah, you know that?”
Sentient took control of my voiceagain. “Actually, a Moses.”
“That don’t make no sense,” saidanother policeman.
“It will, Officer. It will.”
I fought a sigh. Now, what newhell would those words bring to my doorstep?
The receptionist cleared herthroat. “General Bradley wanted the two of you to come to his office as quicklyas possible.”
I turned to Lt. Stein. “You bestdrive. I am not myself right now.”
He whispered, “The DarkPassenger?”
I nodded, hoping none of themilitary policemen had heard. As usual, my hopes were dashed.
“What was that?” came thequestion from another policeman.
“I was quoting the Quran,”answered Lt. Stein.
“I thought you was a rabbi?”
“I’m well read.”
“Oh, yeah? What was the verse?”
“Quran II 261: And Allah madehim die a hundred years, then brought him back to life. He said: How long hastthou tarried? The man said: I have tarried a day or part of a day. Allah said:Nay, but thou hast tarried for a hundred years.”
The fourth M.P. jerked his headat the dead Sturges. “Well, that guy isn’t coming back.”
Fully myself again, I said,“Then, best bury him quick, Officer.”
I felt the receptionist’s eyes onme all the way out the office.
“In nature there are neitherrewards nor punishments: there are consequences.”
― Robert G. Ingersoll
