Chapter 10
A bottle of Jack Daniels did little to quite the demons in Kelly’s soul as he slowly woke up with an agonizing hangover. For a moment Kelly thought that the call from Deloris was just a dream. John finished the last sip of Jack and cast his green eyes upon a forty year old photograph perched on a side table. Though the picture was faded, Kelly could still identified all of his friends in the picture. Kelly tried to smile as he looked at Kevin Spencer’s youthful face in the picture. As Kelly dusted off the accumulated dusk from the picture, he could see Kevin, Todd and younger version of himself all dressed in their army uniforms. Kelly took another sip of whiskey as he remembered all the friends that were not in the picture because they were murdered by German troops. Kelly placed the picture frame face down on the side table and opened another bottle of cheap whiskey. Though it was nearly dawn, Kelly knew exactly where to find his friend Todd Beacon. Kelly took another sip of whiskey as he dialed the number and waited for an answer. Kelly was growing suspicious till the phone answered by a bar keep. “Hey Carl is Todd there?” Kelly took another sip of whiskey as he waited for his old friend to answer the phone.
“What’s up Kelly?” Todd slurred as he answered the phone.
“I have something to tell you Todd. It’s very important; we must meet now. It’s about Kevin and the platoon’s secret.”
Bewilderment lurked in Todd’s heart as he listened to the anguish in Kelly’s voice and realized that the news was bad.
Todd always hated talking about the past. It was a fordable enemy he fought with every nightly and usually lost on more than one occasion. “What is so important Kelly? Can’t this wait till tomorrow?”
“It’s Kevin Spencer our friend from the eight-six airborne platoon. I just heard that Kevin was-” Kelly’s voice fades into despair.
“What is it Kelly? Is he dead?”
Kelly wiped away an unsuspecting tear from his face as struggled to utter, “I haven’t confirmed anything yet, but his wife said that Kevin didn’t return from a fishing trip. He has been missing for two days. The police presumed he is dead. Deloris said that Kevin was sailing that little boat of his down the sound towards Oregon the day before yesterday. “What happened? Do they suspect anything?”
“Kevin Spencer's fishing boat was found adrift in the bay. The police found no sign of a struggle or theft. They think he slipped on the wet deck in the middle of the night and was swept out to sea.”
Todd was grief-stricken as a tear trickled down his face. Anger tore at his soul as he remembered that last time he saw Kevin Spencer alive. “That's impossible Kevin was a nautical man since birth; he lived on the water more than he did on land.”
Nervousness swelled in Kelly’s tormented soul. “You're right Todd, you’re absolutely right.”
Without even speaking a word, Kelly and Todd soon came to the same realization that Kevin Spencer, was not killed in a boating accident, but rather murder.
Todd’s loud barbaric voice bellowed from the phone “Where is Robert Freeman? Bob would know what happened to Kevin.”
“I don’t know,” it’s been years since I have seen any of our old friends from the platoon. Most of our friends died during the D-day invasion.”
Todd and Kelly lamented their friend as they agonized over who was responsible for Kevin’s murder. It was then that they vowed to revenge Kevin’s brutal murder and to keep the platoon’s secret concealed.
As John hanged up the phone, it accorded to him that it has been forty years since he and this fellow brother in arms took a blood oath to keep the platoons secret concealed until their own demise. The drama of hearing about his friend's murder only reminded Kelly of the youthful, strong, courageous and indestructible man Kevin Spencer use to be.
The murder of his friend made Kelly think about his own mortality as he stared into a mirror. The image that looked back at him was not the youthful boy he use to be, but rather an anger, stubborn and wrinkled man. Kelly’s once happy youth was now only a faint memory. Throughout Kelly’s miserable life, he always had his friends Todd Beacon and Kevin Spencer. Kelly thought they would live forever. The death of his friend and mentor distressed him to the core. Kelly knew that his life would never be the same.