Déjà VOODOO
Always alone in the orphanage, Richard Blaine discovers there is a worse fate than being alone.
It is being the lone survivor of a band of friends who depended on you to keep them safe.
Déjà VOODOO
“There's an opposite to déjà vu.They call it 'jamais vu.' It's when you meet the same people or visit places,again and again, but each time is the first. Everybody is always a stranger.Nothing is ever familiar.”
- Chuck Palahniuk
I awakened in the Rocinante’scommand chair up high from the deck where the other Spartans slept in cots madeof what Sentient called “memory foam” whatever the hell that was.
They would miss them once we gotinto Europe.
If we survived Omaha Beach.
I was shivering but not clammywith cold sweat. I quirked a smile. There was, at least, that going for thisnot-dream.
Rabbi Stein, ever the mother hen,rose from his cot, obviously alerted by my movement. He looked up, concernetched deep on his earnest face.
I grew chill. It would hurt likehell if he was killed … worse if it was in front of me … worst if it was becauseof me.
This was an odd feeling … to havea friend … friends.
“Another Vision Quest?”
“Yes.”
“A bad one?”
“It wasn’t good.”
“Would it help to tell me aboutit?”
“The last person I told a VisionQuest to died the next day.”
“Ah, feel free to be reticent.”
“I always am.”
“So, I’ve noticed. Doesn’t it getlonely?”
“I have Sentient ever in myhead.”
“Ah, yes, your Dark Passenger.How are you two getting along lately?”
“Like oil and water. Sometimesone of us lights the oil on fire. And other times ….”
I held up my less throbbingbandaged hands. “She does me a kindness.”
‘I do more of them than yourealize, Champion.’
‘Then, thank you … I think.’
‘How like you to give … then,take back.’
I said to the rabbi, “Amos, shegave two-thirds of the pain from these to General Eisenhower and to GeneralMarshall.”
He grunted, “In this VisionQuest?”
I nodded, and he asked, “So, it wasbad?”
“Well, everything is funnier inretrospect, funnier and happier. You can laugh at anything from far enoughaway.”
I quirked another smile. “Let’sjust say I’m going to have to be on the moon for me to laugh at this one.”
Sgt. Savalas groaned and swunghis legs off his cot. “You know, Amos, priests at least have the decency tolisten to confessions in a nice thick, sound-proof confessional.”
Cloverfield, still in his uniform… (I suddenly realized all my Spartans were still in their uniforms) … snorted,“The way our Major shies away from letting his hair down, you’d think he wasthe reincarnation of Samson.”
Pvt, “Chuck” Dickens stretched onthe side of his cot. “No, not Samson. I concur with Lady Churchill and wouldsay our illustrious leader is the new host for the spirit of David.”
Dee Steven smiled, “You know oneday, you’re gonna surprise all of us with a short simple sentence.”
Dickens tossed a pillow atStevens. “Says the man whose lofty goal is to scribble panels for pulp comicbooks.”
Cpl. Sam Wilson defended hisfriend. “Hey! There’s some mighty fine artwork in Prince Valiant and FlashGordon.”
Reese tousled the hair ofPorkins. “Old Franklin, here, is a fan of Betsy, oh, I meant Betty Boop.”
Pvt. Eric Evans grinned evilly.“You’re never gonna let that lay, are you?”
“Doc” Tennyson sighed, “No, we’renot going to be that lucky.”
I looked down on my nineteenSpartans and fought the tears from forming. They would not understand.
Hell, Sentient had piloted me allthrough Boot Camp. I did not know how to be a soldier, much less an officer ... even a poor one.
The Spartans thought I knew them.But I did not. While we had fought all across and through Sicily, Sentient hadbeen in control.
Oh, I knew the facts of them. Butnot their hearts, for Sentient did not see into hearts.
‘You would be surprised, my Champion.’
‘I always am with you.’
‘Why, a compliment. I must putyou into death’s way more often.’
‘Let’s not and say you did.’
They thought I was more than Iwas. They trusted me to come up with miracles to save them over and over again.
But I had seen the hell thatawaited us on Omaha Beach. Merde, I had been “killed” by that hell repeatedlyand painfully but, thankfully, not permanently.
This charge on Omaha Beach, deathand maiming would be permanent.
How was I going to get them inone piece across the hell that was Omaha Beach when I could hardly keep LadyChurchill, one person, alive there?
‘The answer is simple: you willnot.’
‘Thanks for the vote ofconfidence.’
‘WE will, my Champion. I, as theAngel of Death, will go before you, sowing fear, madness, and legend in ourwake.’
I felt the hair brushed back frommy eyes. ‘Now, have your Spartans gird their loins for battle. It is time.’
