SEIZE YOUR LIFE AS A SWORD
Things get crazier for Churchill, Cloverfield, and Blaine
thanks to Sentient wanting to lift herself from depression.
SEIZE YOUR LIFE AS A SWORD
“A question that sometimes drivesme to distraction: am I or are the others crazy?”
― Albert Einstein
My face must have shown mytroubled thoughts at what Sentient had just told me.
Churchill clamped a firm hand onmy shoulder. “Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end.But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”
Cloverfield got into the act, andI figured my face must have been a sight. "Death, in itself, is nothing;but we fear, to be we know not what, we know not where."
“Thanks … I think.”
I believe Sentient wanted totweak my nose because of my tattle-tale face.
‘Vitus Bering, shipwrecked in1740 on Bering Island, was found years later preserved in snow. An autopsyshowed he had had many lice, he had scurvy, and had died of a “rectal fistulawhich forced gas gangrene into his tissues.’
‘And you’re telling me this justwhy?’
‘That there are many worse waysto die than the one which will probably befall you.’
‘Probably?’
‘Nothing in this life is certain… especially in your life.’
Before I could think of anappropriate retort, General Bradley barked, “There you two are!”
I quickly looked up, fearful thathe had spotted Nurse Reynolds and Cronkite. I need not have worried. TheGeneral had the two MPs by the nape of both necks and was shaking them as ifthey needed fluffing.
“Where have you two AWOLs beenthese past two weeks?”
“Two weeks?” the two of themyelped. “We’ve been right here!”
“Sure, you have! What did you twodo with Prime Minister Churchill and Major Blaine?”
The taller, more erudite of thetwo gasped, “We ain’t done nothing, sir!”
The other gulped, “What he said,sir.”
“Really? Then, why is Whitehallchewing my ass, right along with Eisenhower saying otherwise?”
Nurse Reynolds walked right up toGeneral Bradley with a reluctant Cronkite trailing behind ,,, way behind.
“What is this rubbish, General? Mr.Cronkite and I just left Major Blaine’s hospital room only minutes ago. He wasstill comatose, looking near death. Mr. Cronkite even took a photograph of thepoor man. He wants to send it to ….”
Bradley barked, “He already has,Nurse Reynolds. Two blasted weeks ago!”
Cronkite lifted the camera fromaround his neck staring at it as if it had betrayed him. “The film of thatphoto is still in this, General.”
The general in question ripped anewspaper photo from his right shirt pocket.
“You mean this photograph? Blaine looking likea male Snow White all pale and wan. His Spartan helmet gleaming beside the mostdecorated pillow in the United Kingdom?”
Bradley ironed his face with arough hand.
“In my office … from which I havejust been so rudely and incomprehensibly wrenched … is the DistinguishedService Cross and the Silver Star that President Roosevelt pushed through for Blaineat the uproar generated by your photograph of him laying comatose in bed in juxtapositionwith your photo of his severed hands still clasping the handles of that newfangled gun which saved the lives of all those rescued soldiers.”
Bradley growled, “That damnpillow. King George himself pinned a reissued Victoria Cross on it to replacethe one Churchill was supposed to have pinned on it. The outrage on both sidesof the Atlantic over Blaine’s, Churchill’s, and your disappearance is drivingEisenhower to a frenzy.”
Churchill reached inside his coatand withdrew the box with the royal seal on it, looked hard at it, and shookhis head.
Rachel frowned. “I do not understand.I have gone nowhere.”
Bradley sighed,
“You have been missing for twoweeks. I would say you being here is impossible except for the fact that notthirty seconds ago I was in my office being chewed out by General Eisenhowerfor not showing up for the briefing at St. Paul’s School … which my calendarsaid was scheduled for tomorrow!”
Bradley muttered, “My life wouldhave been so much easier if Blaine had just had the good taste to die at the handsof Rommel’s men.”
Nurse Reynolds exclaimed, “BloodyHell! He lost his poor hands! Is that not good enough for you?”
And with that, she slapped him sohard that his head rocked back from the force of the blow.
Cronkite sputtered, “Nurse Reynolds!That man is a general!”
“Then, he should bloody well actit.”
Bradley rubbed his jaw. “You …have a point … and a mean right cross. I should not have spoken like that infront of a … woman.”
Cloverfield drawled low, “Younotice he did not say ‘Lady’.”
Nurse Reynolds said menacingly, “Youmeant those words?”
The general wisely backed up. “Imean everything I say, Nurse. I just should have considered you were a …civilian.”
Churchill exclaimed an echo ofthe thought in my own mind, “What is going on?”
I looked over at him. He wasdisappearing … as was Cloverfield.
I cried out to the former MI6agent. “Go to the barracks. Check out the rest of the Spartans!”
And he was gone … along with Churchill.
A strange strength flooded throughme. My ears popped painfully. I staggered up from the stone bench.
Bradley appeared clear to my eyes… and alone. No MP’s or Cronkite or Nurse Reynolds.
‘Having fun, Sentient?’
‘It’s just beginning, little ant.’
“When I cannot understand where OurFather is leading, and life seems to be but a hard and cruel fate. Still, Ihear that gentle whisper ever pleading, ‘God is working, God is faithful. Onlywait’.”
– Rabbi Lt. Amos Stein
