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Fateful Epilogue

Lou Normann


    I shuddered as she made her statement. I couldn’t see myself blushing, but the warm sensation that rushed my face let me know for sure. I looked around and the guys were all laughing together, bent over pointing at me. The nerve, they knew how I felt about being put on the spot.
    It’s been said that a woman of the street can sense the shyness in a man and mark him as an easy “John”, and if it was true, then this lady smelled me a mile comin’.
I couldn’t believe that the guys took to laughing so hard about it knowin’ full well how sensitive I was at the moment. It was at its worst, just downright shameful.
    “Hey, lover boy, over here. Did you hear me? I said, ‘Give me a minute and I’ll give you a lifetime’...so, are you willin’, yes or no?” she cupped my chin with her soft hand. Her nails gently scratched through my short beard.
    Her look alone was enough to burn me out of my britches, but I wasn’t going to let on, nope. I’d show her, I’d show them all!
    “N... no Ma’am, I most definitely am not willin’, sorry.”
    Chuck stopped laughing, but I saw that Paco and Dave were still on their knees. I think it was finally my look of despair that caused Chuck to walk over to me. A close friend usually knows when you’ve had enough. He waved his hand at the others and they stopped.
    “Uh, Robbie, you Okay?” he stepped back, stared into my eyes, patted my shoulder.
    “Yeah, yeah Chuck... I’m just fine.” I faked a smile.
    The lady shined a lusty grin through glistened lips and then turned away struttin’ her stuff across the street in a well-choreographed gait making sure she had caught the attention of not only us, but every other man nearby. And as sure as it was Friday, it worked. The guys watched every bounce, every shift her well toned body made as she crossed away from us. Even in that long frilly dress, with lace everywhere and the purple lining going straight down her back, she may as well had been nude as far as any of the men around us were concerned with all the hootin’ and hollerin’ going on. I’m not going to lie and say that she wasn’t attractive, but I couldn’t see how a man would want to pay a woman to have sex with him, no matter how gorgeous she was, or how desperate he was knowing full well the dangerous elements out there in the world. I mean if there was one thing I’d always remember from Ma and Pa, it was that they taught me about the evils out in the world. And frequenting this side of town was definitely not acceptable in Pa’s eyes. That’s for sure. If he knew I was even a mile from here I wouldn’t know where to put my face if he caught me.
    “Come on, Robbie, she played along with a gag, that’s all. I had asked her to do that before we got here. It took the darndest time trying to get a hold of her but hell man, it was worth at least a half laugh, don’t ya think? Don’t let it get to ya, she wasn’t really going to do it, she was only just...”
    “Save it Chuck,” I lifted my hand to his face, “all I would have needed to do was wave money out in her face. I’m not as naive as you reckon me to be, you know. Not in the least sense.”
    “Rob, we didn’t mean anything; we just wanted to ruffle your feathers a little bit. You need to get out a little more, you know... have a taste of the real world, that’s all. We figured it must be stuffy living in that big house with your parents and brother across town. You don’t get a chance to experience the world.”
    “Ok, so I’m out now – in the world, away from the stuffy house. I’ve experienced, we laughed, we had a good time - can we go back now, please?”
    “No, we may not. We agreed to introduce you to a great time now that you’re back and by God, we’re going to do just that!” Chuck smiled smacking me on the back.
    He was the closest thing to a friend I could cling on to lately. After attending Harvard and a stint in the army, I came back to Washington DC to spend time with my family. Chuck was the first friend I’d met in my age bracket on the train ride back. He had moved up from Florida, said he was looking for a government position. He told me that government positions were the way to go, the future for our generation. I guess he must be right; a lot of young people at Harvard were talking about the same thing. The other guys in the group just happened to live in the same apartment house next to him; friends of Chuck’s he had met down South before I came. They just clung together.
    “Robbie, sorry about the thing with the lady of the night, I thought you’d enjoy a good laugh. You take things too seriously. Anyone ever tell you that, compadre?” the Hispanic friend said.
    “I appreciate it, Paco, really. But we come from two different cultures, what may be funny to you may not be to me.”
    “Hey,” Dave interjected, he was the only blonde of the group, “I was born and raised in Kentucky, I thought it was funny too Rob.”
    We were on our way across the street, leaving the theatre. It was Dave’s idea, and a boring piece of entertainment, but I acted like I enjoyed it, just for them. My Pa always told me that a periodical visit to the theatre was good for you, gave you a sense of culture. I tried, I just couldn’t get into it, had too many other things on my mind especially after coming out of the army. I was worried about the affairs of our country and it seemed to me that nobody else my age did.
    As I glanced about into the panorama of the city, I noticed two men crossing the street. They were quite a way from us, but it seemed like one of them had just pointed our way and they proceeded to follow us. They looked military. I mentioned it to Chuck, he just brushed it off, his mind was on one thing - beer.
    Having just left the army, I knew that those two weren’t just lollygagging, they were on a mission.
    “How about a couple of drinks guys, this being Rob’s first time out with the guys here in our fair city, our nation’s capitol of Washington in the District of Columbia, I propose that we introduce him to the ways of the Wild Bunch. What do you say, Rob?”
    “The Wild Bunch huh? Well do I have a choice?” I asked. I tried to walk away.
    “No!” they all barked in unison.
    I already knew the answer, but it never hurt to try. We walked over to the pub. Just a look at the exterior alone told me that this was a place people came to bury their troubles into bottles of demon water. I didn’t drink alcohol, and they knew it. The broken glass windowpane to the right side told me that they usually got rough in this place and some of the men standing outside certainly didn’t look the friendly type at all.
    “I don’t know about this, guys.” I gulped.
    I turned to walk the other direction and Dave took my arm.
    “Come now, it’s the 60s Rob, you’ve got to learn to live it up, loosen your shirt tails a little. These are the Unites States of America.”
    He pulled my buttoned-up shirt from my trousers and it hung, flapping in the brisk wind that rode by us. Then he unbuttoned my top button and mussed my hair with a quick hand jig.
    “Loosen up!? Look at where this country’s headed. Didn’t you attend the speech Vice President Johnson gave last week? The 60s is going to be a decade that this country will never forget! Come on Chuck, you guys just don’t see the future the way I do. Let me tell you it looks very grim, what with the war and the aggressions happening all over? Did you read about what happened in Pennsylvania? I mean, remember when...”
    “Robert, Robert, Robert... we’re young, we have a whole lifetime to worry about that stuff, besides – right now we’re just going to enjoy the night, OK? Tomorrow’s another day; tomorrow we will worry about the 60s, is that fine with you dear brother of the Wild Bunch?”
    I threw my hands up in the air in frustration, and then from the corner of my eye, saw the military men still following us. In my short stint with the army and the duties I served, they didn’t look like any regiment I was familiar with.
    I turned to Dave, who was still awaiting an answer from me. I simply nodded in agreement to pacify him.
    We walked into the bar, there was a ruckus about. Seemed everyone was in a panic for some reason. Chuck walked up to the bartender, squeezing through the crowd. Paco and Dave were equally pulled away by the rowdiness in the room. I stood uncomfortable in the midst of craziness, trying to stand my ground and secure my place in the bar amidst drunken men who smelled like they lived here. I glanced back over my shoulder and noticed the two distinguished dressed men peeling through the crowd coming my way. I had no reason to be alarmed, I knew that I had done nothing wrong, yet their look disturbed a part of me.
    “He’s dead, dead I tell you!” screamed one voice just ahead of me.
    I turned around again and caught sight of Chuck who was finally coming back my way, with drinks in hand. His look perplexed me; it was a mixture of shock and grief. The fun-loving grin that always seemed pasted on that face of his was gone.
    “Our commander... rest his soul...” said another patron just yards away from me.
    I turned again. The pandemonium in the room was too much to bear. I couldn’t believe the madness. It seemed no matter where I turned, I was being shoved or stepped on. A woman screamed. Glass shattered. The musicians stopped playing.
    These sudden changes of mood in the room drew my curiosity; I had to know what was going on.
    Chuck was pushed against the counter by a crazed, half drunken man, barely standing himself, and lost one of the two drinks in his hand to an ear shattering glass breaking sound and liquid splashing on someone’s boot. I had never been in an establishment like this; it was against my family’s beliefs. The craziness didn’t subsist; the men were mumbling something about gunfire. I couldn’t make it all out, as there was too much going on. A lady across the room who screamed burst into tears and ran out the door into the evening.
    Finally, as Chuck seemed to be at hearing distance, I reached up to signal him and felt a firm hand grasp my arm behind me. I turned to find the uniformed men, one with a firm grip on my arm, and the other approaching. At the same time, Chuck had come up on the other side.
    “Chuck...” I called out.
    The men came to either side of us, never ceasing their solemn stare into me.
    “Rob... the President. He’s been shot...”
    “What?! No... noooo!!” I felt my knees buckle underneath me. Suddenly the swarming in the room of people felt like a crushing pressure against my chest, “No Chuck...no.” I gasped again.
    “Yes, it’s true,” said one of the men, still diligently hanging onto my arm, “... Robert Todd Lincoln, please accompany us to the Peterson Boarding House. Your father, the President, has been shot.”

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