The Story Begins Read online

  “As anal retentive as that dude is, it probably was a bunch of shit-holes that somehow coalesced into one single person,” Jaden joked.

  They laughed as they headed out the building.

  “You have no idea just how much he’s despised around here, sir,” the Sergeant said as the entrance door to the building closed behind them. “I shit you not when I say that some of the guys in his platoon wish they could just beat the shit out of him. Don’t tell anyone that I told you this but sometimes when we get drunk at the barracks over the weekend, that’s our favorite topic of discussion. It’s almost like a group aspiration. It’s pretty sad when somebody’s ambition is no greater than simply wishing to beat the fuck out of someone else, sir. Damn, that’s sad!”

  The Lieutenant laughed. “As long as you don’t actually execute it, I don’t suppose that it can hurt to dream about it. I’m sure it’s therapeutic,” he said.

  “You have no idea, sir. You have no fracking idea!”

  “I try not to deal with him but, honestly, just looking at him makes me want to kick his ass sometimes,” the Lieutenant shared.

  “Damn! He’s gotten to you too, sir?”

  “I’m only human.”

  “Aren’t we all?”

  “Yeah, aren’t we all? All right, I’ve got to get back to my office.”

  “Thanks, sir.”

  “Don’t mention it, Sergeant.”

  When Jaden walked back into the bay, unnoticed by the mechanics, he couldn’t believe that the mechanics were still going back and forth over which was the better vehicle. Without anything pressing demanding his attention, and curious as to for just how much longer the utterly meaningless debate would persist, he decided to stand at the entrance of his office and listen in on what sounded and appeared to be a most profound philosophical discourse, as far as the soldiers were concerned.

  After a couple of minutes of what Jaden perceived as a decidedly mindless discussion, Private Phillips, who was working on one side of the truck and closer to Jaden, asked his buddy, who was on the opposite side, for a favor: “Hey, would you roll over my bottle of water? It’s right behind you.”

  “You got it!” replied Turner, who then rolled the bottle beneath the undercarriage, unaware that the cap wasn’t wound tight. Most of the water spilled as the bottle rolled.

  “Sorry dude, I didn’t know that the cap was loose,” Turner apologized.

  “Don’t worry about it,” Phillips told him.

  “Hey, have you asked the Lieutenant yet if it’s okay for us to go and help out the aviation mechanics with that chopper that almost crashed into the TV tower?” Turner asked.

  “No, I haven’t yet. Is he in his office?”

  “How am I supposed to know? Just look behind you, you should be able to see if he is or isn’t,” Turner said.

  “Oh yeah! You’re right!”

  “Soldiers these days… no brains, I tell you!” Turner joked.

  “I heard about that chopper that almost crashed,” the Lieutenant chimed in, stepping away from the doorway and into the bay heading towards the truck. “That would have been tragic,” he continued as he leaned against one of the rear wheels of the vehicle his troops were working on.

  “Roger that, sir,” agreed Private Phillips.

  “Where exactly is the TV tower?” the Lieutenant asked.

  “It’s by a place called Luisen Park. It’s in the direction going towards downtown. It isn’t actually a TV tower but a rotating restaurant. Why it’s referred to as TV tower I really couldn’t say,” explained Turner.

  “Any idea what went wrong? Why the pilot didn’t see it sooner?” Jaden asked.

  “I couldn’t tell you for sure, sir, but I’ve heard it had something to do with the weather. Heavy rains and low visibility due to fog, I think,” Phillips explained.

  “I guess what’s important is that a tragedy was averted,” said Jaden.

  “Yes, sir, I agree,” said Phillips before taking a sip of the little bit of water that hadn’t spilled out.

  “Still, I’d like to know what brilliant ass cleared the pilot for take-off knowing what the conditions were, or would become. The lot of them should be kicked out of the Service for such recklessness, if you were to ask me. I mean, how stupid can one be? You know!” grumbled the Lieutenant.

  “Oh sir, believe me when I say that I’ve met some pretty dumb people in and out of the army. I mean, not everyone has the same level of intelligence, that’s just a fact of life regardless of if you are in the army or not; but some of the people I’ve met so far in my life, it’s like they were consciously and actively working towards a degree in stupidity,” Phillips said, laughing. “As unbelievable as this chopper thing is, believe you me, the stupidity behind it isn’t.”

  Jaden couldn’t help but laugh. He agreed with Phillips. “No arguments there,” he acknowledged. “And nah, I don’t have a problem with you guys going over, provided that you’ve finished up in-house first, and that the platoon sergeant doesn’t have anything else he could use your help with. No sense in fixing somebody else’s stuff when your own crap still needs a healing hand.”

  “Wilco, sir,” said Specialist Turner.

  “Guys, make damn sure that you don’t forget to run it by Sergeant First Class McHenry, unless you want to spend the next couple of weekends mowing the grass all over Coleman Barracks,” Jaden stressed to them. “You know how he gets when it comes to the accountability of his troops,” he continued emphatically.

  “All too well, sir,” answered Phillips.

  “Only all too well,” echoed Turner. “You know what, sir? You’re all right!” he said as he grabbed a wrench then carted back beneath the vehicle.

  “Damn straight, sir,” added Phillips. “I plan on extending my tour in this unit until you leave. I am not leaving here before you do, sir. I know I won’t come across another officer out there like you. Someone that can motivate his soldiers and be cool with them while never losing their respect; I’m sure there are a lot of soldiers out there that can learn from you. There’s no wonder why Lieutenant Krappa doesn’t like you much, if at all. Just the way he looks at you, it’s obvious that he has a problem with you.”

  “You’ve noticed that too, huh?” The lieutenant’s suspicions were confirmed. Though he mostly thought that Krappa looked at him somewhat askance only because the former was eccentric to begin with, he did wonder if, perhaps, there was more to it. What Phillips had just said confirmed that there, in fact, was more to it than Krappa merely being idiosyncratic.

  “Oh yeah, sir! It’s pretty obvious,” said Turner from beneath the truck! “What’s funny though is that the more that he dislikes you, the more popular you become with his own soldiers and the more they can’t stand him. Funny how that works, don’t you think?”

  Jaden chuckled. “Come on, give the guy a break. Can you really blame him for being the way that he is? With a name like Krappa, you’re bound to have issues,” the Lieutenant joked before heading back to his office.

  WHEN the work day had come to an end, Jaden decided that he’d again take a trip downtown to break the monotony of his depressing routine. He believed that a walk and maybe a bite while out might do him some good. After a quick trip home for a wardrobe change, he headed out.

  Following a leisurely walk through the main shopping strip, he stopped at a Turkish food stand to grab himself a doner sandwich. While awaiting its preparation, he thought back to his soldiers’ less-than-life-altering debate and wondered if they’d ever come to some kind of agreement, including at least agreeing to disagree. Then thoughts of the spilled water and the chopper that almost crashed into the TV tower preoccupied him; the thoughts became persistent, repeating as a song on a broken record.

  “Mister. Your doner, ready,” said the man who tended the stand with a heavy accent. Jaden welcomed the interruption. Water and tower had played in his head like a broken record long enough. “Danke schone,” he said, taking it while slipping the attendant a five
euro note. Deciding that he was close to the Water Tower, he thought he’d saunter over and enjoy his sandwich there.

  As he neared the tower, he observed that there were quite a few people at the park, just as there had been during his last visit. The atmosphere was a cheerful one. Children played as their parents watched. Old couples watched as young men courted young ladies, possibly reminiscing on their own younger days, he imagined. Some of them, he thought, might have been remembering when they were the age of the little ones now running around playing.

  How interesting the cycle of life, he mused. At a point in time, the older couples were once children who had also run and skipped about before becoming young men and women, the former working tirelessly to woo the latter and then, later in life, they had themselves become the parents of another generation, thus giving life anew to the amazing cycle all over again. He smiled.

  He walked past the tower then down the steps. Though this was only his second time here, he noticed that it seemed to have a calming effect upon him. He found that it eased him and all that caused him anguish seemed to be no more. While here he felt not a void within his soul, and his agony over Melanie was no more than a fleeting thought.

  Hungrily he eyed his sandwich. Removing the wrapping he took a bite of it while walking to the same bench he had sat on during his last visit. Raising his head after taking another bite, which had made him realize just how famished he was, he saw that a middle-aged couple was sitting on the bench he had hoped would be free. Looking about for another place he might sit, he noticed that all the benches had been taken. “I suppose I’ll have to take a seat on the steps,” he decided. However, just as he was about to do so, through his peripheral vision, he perceived that the bench upon which the old couple had sat when last he was at the park was now occupied by no one. It seemed so sudden, he thought. He looked both to the left and right of the bench but saw no one. What struck him as rather odd was that the bench which now was vacant had been the very last seating he had looked at immediately prior to deciding that the steps would have to suffice. He couldn’t have been any more certain that people had just been sitting there. He had barely looked away so how could it now be empty without any one nearby? Unless one’s brisk pace was unnatural, it was not humanly possible that anyone could have moved away from the bench without still being a few feet away from it. The closest steps leading out of the park weren’t far but certainly not close enough to have afforded anyone the ability to exit the park in a few seconds. Again he looked to the left and right of the bench thinking that he must have missed something, but he hadn’t; there wasn’t anyone near it, or even walking away from it, nor was there any exit that might have been hidden by the hedges. He decided that his mind must have been distorting reality. Brushing it aside he walked over and took a seat.

  Taking another bite he looked at the middle-aged couple sitting where he had sat before; they might have been perhaps a hundred meters away to his left. The distance prevented him from seeing the pair well yet somehow the twain reminded him of the elderly couple he had seen at the park the first time. Thinking of them, he looked about the park, hoping that he’d see them there again today. Though he didn’t know them, he liked them and thought that they were sweet. Perchance coming to the park was a daily activity. How wonderful it must be, he thought, to come out to the park in your golden years and watch the younger generations have their turn in the grandness that is life. It must be wonderful to be happily married into one’s golden years and be as much in love, if not even more so, as when first you met, he thought, still searching for the couple. He was disappointed when he could not find them. The world was a forlorn hope, he was almost convinced, but seeing such couples made him believe that perhaps the world was not necessarily entirely lost just yet. “Yeah, right!” he said sarcastically after the thought. Nevertheless, just entertaining the notion that perhaps there was a chance that the world could and would redeem itself was pacifying. He appreciated all the serenity and joy of the place.

  Everywhere he set his eyes he either saw children playing, couples – young and old – and young people gathered together, laughing and making merry amongst themselves. The few people he saw on their lonesome seemed to be students. They had books spread out across the grass or stacked on benches. He was a bit bothered. As far as he could tell, he was the only one there – who was not a student – all by himself. Finishing his sandwich he balled up the wrapping and set it down beside him, meaning to dispose of it when he was ready to leave. He leaned back on the bench and while so doing noticed the middle-aged couple seemed to be looking at him. Then their attention was turned elsewhere. Why did they remind him of the other couple? From that distance he thought that they almost looked like a younger version of the couple he had seen there the last time. Would this couple remain together into their golden years as did the first couple he had seen, he mused, choosing to believe that the latter had always been married. It made the world seem a little brighter to believe that the older couple had been lifelong partners. While his thoughts dwelled upon this, and he still looking in the direction of the couple, what had drawn their attention now drew his. Three teen-aged children – a boy and two girls – and a younger girl of perhaps seven had walked over and joined them. The children were interracial so he assumed them to be the couple’s offspring.

  Resting his head against the back of the bench, he closed his eyes and tried to imagine what it might be like to be married and have a family. Imagining the couple seated there being himself and his own family, he endeavored to conceptualize how he might feel and be as a husband and parent. He drifted away into a daydream, trying as best he could to create the emotions he believed he’d feel.

  The sound of a little girl screaming out of sheer fun brought him out of his preoccupation. She was being chased by another child. He looked at his watch and realized that he had been in dreamland for quite a while. It was now late evening. He also awoke from his daydream just in time to see the couple leaving. The woman and, presumably, one of her daughters, who looked to be the oldest of the children, looked back at him. They smiled and then waved. Initially he wasn’t sure if it were he that they had waved to. It couldn’t have been, he thought. They did not know him, nor had any kind of passing interaction occurred between them. He looked behind him but, seeing only the hedge immediately to his rear, he knew it could only have been him they had gestured to; there certainly wasn’t anyone hiding in the hedges nor was there anyone else in his vicinity. Seeing him look back then forward again, they smiled, or so it seemed for he could not be sure given the distance. He waved back. People in Germany are pretty cool, he thought. It reminded him of small towns back in the States where, in his opinion, people were usually far friendlier than those in the bigger cities. But then, being the cynical being that he was, he reminded himself that two friendly couples with their families didn’t represent a nation. And with that thought, he decided it was time that he returned home.

  As he got up, a thought suddenly struck him; Phillips had asked for his water and Turner had mentioned a tower. Water Tower! Was he meant to visit here on this day, or was this merely a coincidence which his mind sought to magnify and create into that which it wasn’t? But if this were not a coincidence then what was it? And just as intriguing, if not more so, who was its author. No! It had to be a coincidence, he assured himself. After all, nothing out of the ordinary had taken place at the Water Tower while he was there. He decided that this was no more than his mind simply compensating for his unhappiness. “Simple psychology, nothing more!” he told himself.

  Still feeling hungry he stopped at the same food stand as before, grabbed a couple more doners, walked back to the parking garage and was then on his way home.

  That night he thought of Melanie and wondered what life might have been like with her. What would it have been like if the family at the park had been theirs? Desperately did he want to get back in touch with her but decided that it were best if he left the past where it
belonged. He hoped that wherever she was that she was happy; he didn’t want to do anything that might have had adverse effects on her life. Time, he vainly sought to convince himself, would eventually heal him.

  *

  Though Jaden believed that nothing extraordinary had occurred at the Water Tower, had he been closer to the couple and their children most uncanny would he have found the resemblance between himself and the gentleman; for the family he had tried to imagine was none other than his very own.

  21

  Down Falls A Domino

  Having dropped off Lydia at her apartment, Cassandra was on her way home when her phone rang. Adamant with regards to cell phone safety while driving, her ear piece was already in place.

  “Hey, where are you?” It was her brother.

  “On my way home. Why?” she asked.

  “You aren’t past the gas station yet, are you?”

  “No, I’m actually just coming up on it. Something you need?” she asked while decelerating.

  “Yeah! Would you please pick me up a magazine?”

  “The music one?”

  “Yes.”

  “Is that it?”

  “Yep!”

  “Are you sure? Because I’m not going to turn around twice after almost getting home like I did the last time because your list kept growing.”

  “No, that’s it this time. Thanks. Love you.”

  “Ditto. See you in a bit.”

  Pulling into the gas station, Cassandra noticed a group of American soldiers gathered by a car while one was fueling it. More than likely from Coleman Barracks, she thought, given the proximity of the installation to the gas station. She parked a few park spaces away from the store doors. As she walked a brisk pace towards its entrance, she felt that she was being watched; however, not wishing to impress wrongly by venturing a look back, she kept on walking. Men, she believed, weren’t exactly God’s most brilliant of creatures. Someone in that group of soldiers, she was certain, would have gotten an entirely wrong impression if she had risked a quick glance back. She hoped that she could get in and out of the store without being approached.