Going to Chicago (26 page)
Authors: Rob Levandoski
It's hard for me to sympathize with Gus Gillis' life of crime. He robbed me of the best friend I ever had, after all. But given what Gladys told me about Gus when I visited her in Mingo Junction, I think I can understand why his life unraveled like it did. He was too smart but not smart enough. He knew he could never make it through teacher's college the way his father had, but he also knew he was too smart to spend thirty years in a West Virginia coal mine. Out of high school he moonshined with his uncle and worked a while for the county fixing mountain roads that washed out. But the inadequacies of his mother's bloodline, and the pride inherited through his father's, echoed back at him continuously from the mountainsides, battering his soul to a pulp. One day he drove across the Ohio River to Mingo Junction and robbed the Bartholomews' grocery of the day's receipts.
Gustavus P. Gillis didn't get the hail of bullets he wanted. But he got what he deserved.
Looking back on my life, I've gotten pretty much what I deserved, too.
Will Randall got a lot less than he deserved.
I loved Will Randall. And he loved me. We were best friends.
We remained best friends even after he died in that Chicago parking lot in August 1934.
We remained best friends all through my World War II years in England.
We remained best friends all those years in Bennett's Corners when I ran the R&R luncheonette, and later when I ran the Dairy Doodle in Brunswick and the Clam Shack on Pine Island.
Will Randall is still a boy, his eyes still fixed on the glorious future.
I am an old man.
But goddamn.
But sonofabitch.
Will and I are still best friends today.
All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 1997 by Rob Levandoski
ISBN: 978-1-5040-1195-2
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