Back at the Beach Bar

The letter was written in cursive, as always, but readable, with a few jiggles here and there and the cross on the “T” s were a little jagged and the ink often dangled below the lines like a diving submarine, but I knew who it was immediately.  No return address, as always, and addressed to Carson at my work address.  No postage stamp either, and I had no clue how it arrived at my office and on my desk.  I no longer cared.

Carson.  The Guinness is calling and you need to come to the beach bar at Six pm on the 18^th.  Bring your notebook in case you want to write something down, but I’m not sure there will be anything interesting to write.

So, of course, I canceled my previous plans for the evening of the 18^th, and I hoped she would understand, but either way, I would make it up to her.  Ollie called, so I must respond.  Who knows how long he will live or if this opportunity will come again.

At the Beach Bar

He was already there and was drinking his Guinness, and mine was sitting to his left, closer to the exit. Sam knew this was an automatic and never-changing refreshment choice for us both and it would never change, because if it did, it meant something was amiss.

“Carson, why didn’t you bring your trusty black and white school notebook?”

I was six feet away from his position and his back was turned and there was no way he saw that I came without the notebook, but then, none of this surprised me anymore.  Then he said, “I’m glad you brought your Glock again.  This is a dangerous world, and if you remember, I warned you of this early on, if you wanted to follow me, and you made your choice.”

I sat down, and smiled at the old man, took a long swig of the Guinness and said, “Yes, I remember your warning, and there was no way I was walking away from you. Now, what’s going on in your life Ollie?”

“Been working with an inner- city kid and he’s doing well now. President asked me to do him a favor.  I’m proud of him.  I knew in his eyes the first day, that he felt trapped and had potential.  I simply released the hidden goodness of his soul to escape into the infinite cosmos where it belonged, to flourish and lead those who need him.   And then, I made a brief trip to Washington, the cesspool that it seems I can’t avoid anymore.  Other than that, not much going on.”

“Right Ollie.  Usual stuff for a 105-year-old man.”

“Don’t let the old man in.  Remember?

“Yep. But tell me, do you ever get lonely?  I mean, I never asked but it seems you don’t have anyone close to you except maybe strangers you meet and change, or maybe the president, or maybe bar patrons, jail guards or church pastors, to name a few.  But no family close to you, I guess is what I am saying.”

“I’m never lonely.  God is with me and I pray to him multiple times per day.  But I have much work to do yet, and I will not slow down because I have been gifted with a long life and a brain that still works and a body that does the best it can with a limp. And I will keep going until he takes my soul with him some day.”

“Did you ever have someone?  A wife, or a lady friend?”

“Yes”

I chugged some more beer, and I saw out of the corner of my eye that he started chugging too.  He could still chug faster than I ever could.  Just gulping.  I figured I would not pursue this line of inane questioning anymore because I felt like a little high school girl asking personal questions about Grandpa.  So, we kept drinking and nurturing the leaden silence for a good long while.  The bar patrons continued piling in and saying hi to Ollie and he smiled and engaged in small talk.  I remained silent.  He did this because he would not ignore good people, but I did not possess his massive charisma.

“They took her from me.”

“Who?”

“She was the love of my life.”

“Who took her, what do you mean?”

“They killed her because she was too close to me.”

I realized Ollie was now opening up. He ordered two more Guiness bottles.  My heart sank and I felt a grapefruit successfully occluding my Guinness-coated esophagus.  But I let him continue if he wanted but I had to ask one more thing.

“That is horrible, I don’t know what to say.  But, I mean, did you have anyone else, after —”

“Yes.  She left me two children.”

“Oh, my Ollie, and where are your children?”

He looked at me with eyes showing a pain that seemed to be trying to escape from a dark tunnel, but could not leave the tunnel because the doors were bolted shut.

He finished his beer, then said, “Carson, I can’t tell you this. I do not discuss this, in order to protect them, and they are both successful adults, who do not know who their father is, or maybe never will know until the end, and also, it seems now, you are in the middle of it.  So, I stay away from my only remaining family. However, I have a specific quest, and I will not stop until I accomplish it, finally, any means necessary.”

The Shadow man walked up to Ollie, made a signal, and the two of them started walking out.

“Take care Carson, and remember, I am never too far away, if you need me.”

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