Third Time Is a Charm

by Ed Nelson

She giggled at that.

  “Well I would love to see more of you.”

  “What about a date once a month and special occasions.”

  You would think I had proposed. Maybe I had. She squealed a yes. It was loud enough to attract a Mother and a Mum.

  Judy didn’t hesitate to tell them that I wanted to fly to Columbus every month to go on dates. I figured I was about to get an earful.

  Instead there were two smiling mothers. I raised an eyebrow at Mum.

  “Rick, it is a win for both Sandra and me. You will be dating, and Judy won’t be dating as much. You have had no social life and Sandra has told me that Judy’s has been a little too much.”

  Judy and I both blushed for different reasons. I suspect I now knew why Judy knew her way around the backseat of a car better than me. Not that I cared.

  After that we talked for hours, every time we were about to run down we started up again. Everyone else had gone to bed. Judy and I watched the sun come up on top of the tower. It was pleasant having coffee and croissants at day break.

  Chapter 33

  Too soon we got in the limo to take her and her parents to the airport. I was the only one from the family to go. We had a nice conversation on the way to the airport. I saw Judy off at the gate.

  The ticket agent standing there said I looked like I had it bad. I asked how she knew.

  “Well I don’t think you put that tux on this morning.”

  “Busted.”

  “Oh to be young again.”

  I went home and took a nap. Then I caught up on the exercises I hadn’t done yet today. After a ride on George the day was almost over.

  There was one last item to cover. It was Sunday night and Maverick was on. I had a call from Jim Garner earlier this week to tell me it was the episode I was in.

  Watching it with the family I about died. They played me as a naïve young kid. While not the blatant butt of jokes I was the center of the humor of the show. It is amazing how they can take a series of scenes and string them together to tell the story they want. Thank heavens the news people don’t do that.

  My week started out fine. Good weather, well except for the eternal smog over the Los Angeles basin. We were up high enough it didn’t affect us. Looking from the top of the tower it was like looking down on a sick miasma. The city looked diseased. I hoped they could do something about it someday.

  After my normal morning routine I cleaned up and went for breakfast. The whole family was there. Mary was excited because Mum had agreed to take her to a casting call for a cereal advertisement. So their day was planned. Dad was doing his normal work. I’m not even certain what all he is involved in these days.

  Denny was still working on the photographs he took at the beauty contest. Eddie sort of looked lost. He was the only one of us that didn’t have real plans for the day. Well except for me.

  Even that changed. There was a phone call for me. Chief Redstone was in Hollywood and would like to get together. After some discussion I agreed to pick him up from the Beverly Hills Hotel and bring him out to Jackson House for dinner.

  He wasn’t due at the studio until tomorrow so that would work out fine.

  I hit the books for the rest of the morning and most of the afternoon. Around three o’clock I was getting ready to leave to pick up the Chief when I noticed Eddie sitting at the kitchen table looking bored. I invited him along. He was up like a shot.

  I guess homeschooling has its drawbacks. We talked about that during our drive. He told me he made more progress at his own pace but he missed his friends. He thought it would be forever until he got to go back to school after the first of the year.

  Our taking over of the school was now complete. The name hadn’t been changed but Mum and Dad had put a new board of directors and superintendent in place. Each existing teacher was being interviewed for their job. A few who had known about the bullying environment and favoritism and had done nothing had been let go.

  I asked Eddie if he had any money making ideas yet and he revealed his frustration. Everyone in the family but him had extra income, he felt like a failure.

  I tried to tell him he wasn’t but you could tell he wasn’t buying it. I wondered if Mum and Dad realized how he felt about things. When questioned about what he would like to do he shrugged his shoulders. I don’t think most twelve year olds do.

  I had a newspaper route when I was his age. It was different in California. It would be too dangerous to try to deliver papers on a bicycle in our area. Lawn mowing another mainstay of Bellefontaine youth was carried out by landscaping companies.

  He wasn’t old enough to be a life guard. Caddying wasn’t a kid’s job, at least at the courses I played on.

  “Is it making money you want or something interesting to do?”

  “Something to do, I guess.”

  “I have enjoyed the Boy Scouts, I know Denny had little interest in Ohio and didn’t rejoin out here, but have you thought about it?”

  “Not really, no one would have the time to take me.”

  “I do.”

  “You do?”

  “Certainly, I am still a Boy Scout. I should really join a troop out here. Would you like to go with me?”

  “Wow, yes I would, when can we go?”

  “Well let’s find a troop first.”

  By the time we got to the hotel Eddie was fighting bears and forest fires on our camping trips.

  Chief Redstone was waiting in the lobby so when I pulled up to the entrance he joined us immediately. He had two large hard cases with him. They barely fit in the trunk. The Corvette would have never held them.

  We shook hands and proceeded to Jackson House.

  He updated me on the Shawnee Museum and how the medals I had donated had put them on the map as a serious Indian Museum. No one had caught on how they ‘discovered’ them in the museum storage area, so there were no counter claims for custody.

  Eddie asked him if he was a real Indian Chief. Doctor Redstone assured him he was. Eddie spent the rest of the trip in awe.

  My parents were waiting for us at home so we spent some time catching up with how everyone was doing. Dad and I took the Chief on a tour of the house. He chuckled as our circumstances had changed since he met us in Bellefontaine.

  He brought in the two hard cases he had with him.

  The first one contained a flintlock rifle. It wasn’t in the best of condition. I examined it carefully as the Chief explained it was a Northwest gun. The smoothbore full stock musket had a brass sea serpent side plate.

  Chief Redstone explained the 60 caliber weapon had what was called the tombstone fox. That is an outline of a tombstone with a sitting fox inside. This indicated it was probably made by Barnett.

  He had brought it to present to the studio as a reward for trying to make the picture fair to both sides.

  I asked if it was worth much.

  The Chief started laughing.

  “Yes it probably is Rick. You don’t see many of these about. They were used in the woods by Indians and used hard. That makes them rare.”

  “Why are you laughing about it?”

  “Their value is in their rarity, at the time they were pieces of junk the white man pawned off on the Indians. This is a trade rifle.”

  “I thought it justice that I returned the white man’s junk to him.”

  “That’s harsh.”

  “Yeah but it’s funny.”

  I wasn’t sure about that but since Dad was laughing I didn’t continue questioning. I’m glad I didn’t.

  Chief Redstone then opened the other case.

  “Now Rick the tribe has decided this is the rifle you should use in the movie. Even though you play the bad guy you yourself are our friend.”

  The flintlock rifle was beautiful. It had fancy brass fittings. The wood was a curly maple. On the top of the octagon barrel was the maker’s name, J. Dickert in script. The mark on it was a tomahawk crossed with a bow contained within an oval.

  “Dickert was
an early Pennsylvania gunsmith who made rifles for Washington’s army. These were used by the Rangers and credited with winning major battles. They were accurate out to 250 yards, while the British Brown Bess only did 100 or so.”

  “These later became known as the Kentucky long rifle. They were used in battles from the French and Indian Wars up to the Civil War. One of these is the only known surviving rifle from the battle of the Alamo. It is what Davy Crockett and the other frontiersmen used.”

  “This rifle is rare, top quality and in fantastic condition. It is worth a lot of money.”

  “I will take care of it and return it in the same condition.”

  “Oh you didn’t understand. It is a gift to you from the Shawnee. You my friend are our friend.”

  That started to choke me up.

  Chief Redstone then got a pensive look.

  “You may not thank me later.”

  “Why not?”

  “You’re going to have to learn how to load and fire it.”

  “That doesn’t sound hard.”

  “While running.”

  “Oh.”

  “Oh, how do you do that? It takes force to push the bullet down the barrel.”

  At his suggestion we waited until after dinner and adjourned to the outside. Dad and the kids joined us.

  “Now to answer your question about the force to push the bullet down the barrel it is because you have a wad of cloth wrapped around the bullet to keep it from rolling out and to contain the force of the explosion. It also keeps the ball turning against the grooves. The tightness of the wadding makes it hard to ram it home.

  For this you don’t use wadding. Since the ball will be pretty free in the barrel you will have to be careful not to tip it downward. Also you will lose accuracy and force but at a close distance it won’t matter. ”

  “What about spitting the ball down the barrel?”

  “I don’t recommend it, a good way to get a fat lip or lose a tooth.”

  He then walked me through the actions, first the ramrod down the barrel to clear any embers from the last shot. A best guess pouring of powder then the ball dropped manually into place, then the ramrod again to tamp the powder down. Lastly I put powder into the pan.

  It seemed easy standing there. Trying it at a jog was a different story. I commented that I don’t think I could ever do it at a dead run. He agreed but that was where the magic of Hollywood would come into play. The camera would make it seem I was running faster than I was.

  After I showed him how fast I could really run he told me the cameras were really needed. In the real world I would be run down and scalped before I could load my weapon. Now that was just mean.

  I performed several run throughs under his tutelage. I would need to do it several hundred more times to get it down pat but I could see it was doable.

  Dad and the boys had to try it. At least I wasn’t the only one looking like a doofus. Mary watched for a while and then told us that she would hire soldiers to shoot for her, wise beyond her age.

  I asked the Chief about doing this at a dead run, not that my dead run was anything to brag about.

  “You will be chased through the woods, you will have to keep your eye on your surroundings so you don’t trip and fall. You will work on your loading only when on a comparative clear straightaway. This means the loading will be performed in stages rather than all at once. Your chasers will have the same problem.”

  So with the help of cameras I could appear to do this. Thinking about doing it in the real world like Kenton and Wetzel was mind boggling. Though I suppose being chased by people intent on scalping you would be an incentive for speed.

  After the guys all had a go at it and failing miserably we called it a night. I returned the Chief to his hotel. I agreed to be back at nine in the morning to escort him to the studio.

  Back at home I spent several hours on my school work. I really wanted to be done with high school.

  Chapter 34

  I had a good start to my day, a little horseback riding, my exercise routine and a large breakfast. What more could a boy ask for?

  I picked up Chief Redstone as agreed. I took him to the studio offices, saving him a lot of nonsense at the gate. Mr. Monroe came out and greeted the Chief. I received a curt, “Sir Richard,” as he led the Chief away. He did turn and tell me that they would take care of the Chief’s travel home.

  Boy I guess I had made him angry. Tough, he started it.

  I spent the rest of the day flying. It was in two sessions as the instructors didn’t have more than four hours open at a time. I did eat lunch as they refueled the plane between instructors. I wanted to get this out of the way.

  At dinner I shared how I was in the dog house at the studio. Dad thought it was funny and Mum got that look on her face. I hastened to tell her that it wasn’t that big of a deal with me, as I wasn’t certain that I even wanted to continue acting until I had completed all my schooling.

  That opened up the discussion of where I would go to school. As usual that went in circles. To break the circle I brought up Eddie and me finding a scout troop. Mum and Dad were very supportive. Well supportive to the point that I was tasked with calling the scout council to find troops in our area.

  After dinner I hit the school books for a while but got sidelined in reading one of the referenced books in European history. It was about the Kings of England. What a bloody bunch! Murder and treason were the name of the day. Talk about survival of the fittest.

  Today’s royal family had been out of true power long enough they shouldn’t be included. Well maybe they had gone from the sword to the stiletto, something to keep in mind.

  That brought up the picture of Queen Elizabeth in crown and robes stalking the Palace Halls. It was a good thing I was in my room with the door closed as I laughed like a loon.

  When I calmed down I called it a night with the school books and read about the adventures of NYPD Detective Baley and his partner Olivaw.

  The next morning had a typical start to the day. After breakfast I call the BSA office listed in the white pages. They described several troops in the Beverly Hills Area. The most likely was Troop 33 who met in a ‘scout house’ behind El Rodeo School. Their meetings were on Wednesday nights at 6:30 so I planned to be there with Eddie tomorrow night.

  I no sooner hung up and the phone rang. I answered, “Jackson House.”

  It was for me, the studio wanted me to come in for some costume fittings. I told them I was available this morning and was told to come on over.

  I noticed the T-Bird was low on gas. Mum was walking out at the same time so I asked if I could take her Morgan instead. She just held her head high as she brushed by me.

  I detoured on the way to the studio and filled the tank. Getting back to the route to the studio brought me to the school with the large playground. The light had just changed to yellow so the three cars in front of me stopped. I hated this long light it apparently had been set so that kids crossing the street to walk to school had it in their favor.

  As I waited I noticed something a little strange. There was a man holding something out to a little girl. She was coming through an opening in the fence for kids coming onto the grounds. As she neared him he stepped forward and grabbed her which brought out a scream from the girl.

  This looked so wrong I was out of my car and half way to him before I wondered if I had put the car in park. Later I found out I had.

  The girl’s cries also attracted the attention of a teacher, but she was too far away to stop the man before he could get to his car. I wasn’t.

  He had just turned the girl in his arms when I arrived. On seeing me he dropped her. He just had time to pull out a revolver before I hit him. A moving six foot four two hundred and ten pound object hitting a five foot ten one hundred and maybe fifty pound object carries a lot of force.

  Wrapping my arms around him he went down hard. Too hard as I heard his head hit the pavement. It was the most sickening sound I have ever heard. I
was slightly stunned by the impact. By the time I shook it off the teacher had arrived and had the little girl in her arms.

  Whistles were blowing and all the other kids were pouring into the school. This must have been a preplanned drill as two other teachers joined us while the rest herded students inside.

  The little girl who looked like a first grader was asked if she knew the man.

  “No, but he said my mother told him it was okay if I shared his candy.”

  I took a good look at the man. From his eyes and stuff seeping out of the back of his head I knew he wouldn’t be offering candy to little girls again. I told one of the teachers.

  “Don’t let her see him.”

  The startled teacher let out a gasp as she looked. As I went to my car which was blocking traffic she got between the girl and the body. I got a beach blanket out of the trunk and covered the guy.

  It was about that time it came to me that I had just killed a man. I had to sit down on the curb.

  Since my car was blocking traffic it didn’t take long for a police vehicle to show up. I got lucky as it was a sheriff’s car. Since George Burrell had won his election they might not shoot me on the spot.

  The deputy didn’t recognize me. He was calm and cool in taking my statement. He didn’t imply by his questions that I did anything wrong. He was just trying to establish what happened. I was feeling better as he finished. Then he made a statement that scared the heck out of me.

  “At most it is involuntary manslaughter.”

  I thought I was going to be sick. I had just killed what may be an innocent man. In the long run it didn’t matter as two teachers told him they had seen the guy trying to lure the girl to his car but couldn’t get there in time. I was a hero.

  That was a relief. Not the hero part, the witnesses.

  An older gentleman showed up, he must have been the school principal. He sent most of the teachers back to their classrooms. I heard him ask the Deputy an interesting question.

  “Do you think it is the predator we have been looking for?”

  “I hope so,” was the reply.

  It took several hours before I was allowed to leave. Of course during that time period reporters had shown up and even one radio station. Shame it wasn’t Dads.