THE BOLAN CHRONICLES: Reading #4

4. Approximate Minutes Reading (AMR): 8

Introduction to Characters:

Bill Fetland: Dishwasher/Helper at Ken's Diner

THE BOLAN CHRONICLES

Chapter 1

Jake and Donna

**Ken’s Diner**

Officer Palmer had become a sort of father figure to Jake over the span of nearly five years. He’d advised Jake to get a job after graduating from high school, any job, and work hard for a couple of years; secure the kind of reputation that the department valued. Jake took this advice seriously. In late June of 1978, just two weeks following his graduation, Jake found a job as a dishwasher at Ken’s, a local steak house where cops were known to frequent. Officer Palmer had told Jake about the place, and after hearing that it was a local police officer magnet, he immediately applied. The manager knew Officer Palmer well, and she was all too happy to help a friend. She hired Jake after a ten minute, poor-excuse-for-an-interview, and Jake started work the following day.

Jake went to work at three o’ clock in the afternoon and got off promptly at eleven. His sole responsibility was dishes. Occasionally, one of the cooks might ask him to fetch an onion or to break open a box of flour, and Jake was happy to do anything, but the end of the shift shriveled his hands. He was a full time dishwasher, through and through.

 He worked with a twenty-eight year old single man named Bill Fetland, a tall, skinny guy with curly brown hair and a rather distinctively pronounced Adam’s-apple. Bill had been hired when he was twenty-three years old. He’d served four years in the military immediately following high school then had spent an entire year in what he called “a funk,” half-heartedly looking for work here and there, but never really wanting it. 

When Jake was first hired, Bill hardly spoke with him. Jake would bring up the simple everyday things that one might expect; the weather, food, sports. But Bill didn’t seem to have interests. He worked hard, clearly the reason Ken had kept him for as long as he had, but Jake was sure that anything other than back of the store tasks would probably never come Bill Fetland’s way. 

But one day Jake did get him to crack a smile. They were unloading a produce truck behind the restaurant. When they finished, the driver, a husky guy, about thirty years old, asked them to sign the invoice. He handed the pen to Bill, and while Bill was signing, the driver took out a picture of a girl.

“You guys ever seen anything like that?” He handed the picture to Jake. The toothy blonde had her backside to the camera. She was standing next to what looked to Jake like a barn door, her upper torso turned just enough to reveal a rather long line of cleavage. Her come-and-get-it smile accented with a long cigarette took Jake aback and he shouted, “Holy Shit!” And he laughed nervously, “Look at that! Holy shit!” Jake repeated, and he handed the picture to Bill. “Take a look!”

Bill gazed at the picture, and the longer he looked, the more his eyes widened. He whistled, and then he grinned, and with that, Jake felt that he’d accomplished a lot. 

Bill said matter-of-fact-like, “Lord, that’s amazing. Look at that.”

The driver swiped the picture from his hand and said, “Get that tongue back in your mouth, Rufus!”

Jake asked, “Who the hell is that? Your girlfriend?”

The driver snickered and said, “Hell! I wish on my granny’s grave!” Then he said, “I cut it out of a magazine I found at Rawlins Bowl the other day. It’s a fuckin’ cigarette advertisement!”

Jake replied, “Hell, I’ve got a Virginia Slim she could put in that pretty little mouth any day!” 

Bill had by now just about made it back into the restaurant. He stopped, the grin still lingering. “Lord, that is amazing.”

The driver climbed up into the cab and slammed the door shut. He stuck his arm out the window and said, “Sorry ta’ tease ya’ with somethin’ like that, boys! ” As he drove out, he yelled, “Hope I didn’t rile up ole’ little Willie too much!” And he laughed like he’d just told the funniest joke ever. Then he laid on the horn and yelled, “She’s even got this old rig horned up!” And he let out a belly laugh.

Jake shook his head and laughed. As they walked back to the kitchen, Jake asked Bill if he was married or had a girlfriend. This is where Bill seemed to lighten up a little.

“Well, I’m not married. Not yet, anyway.”

“Aha!” Jake replied. “Tell me more, my friend.”

“I got a picture of my own, if you you’d like ta’ see.”

He slid it from his wallet and turned it over. The grin on his face revealed more life than Jake had seen from the first day he’d met him. “She might not be something like that nasty Virgina Slims girl with the big boobs, but my girl is somethin’ special.”

A brunette with a big smile, Jake didn’t see her as anything to write home about, but he responded favorably. “That’s nice. What’s her name?”

“Her name is Nancy.”

Jake froze. The look on his face surprised Bill. 

“What is it?” Bill asked.

“Oh,” Jake said, “Uh, nothing really. It’s just that when you first showed me the picture, I thought she looked a little like a high school buddy’s mom.”

“Is that right?” Bill asked.

“Yeah, and now you tell me her name is Nancy, right?”

“Right. That’s her name.”

“Well, I think that’s his mom’s name, too.”

Bill returned the picture to his wallet and said, “Imagine that.”

Jake changed the direction of the conversation by asking if she was his fiancé.

“No, not yet,” Then he smiled and said, “But I got plans for next week to change that.”

“You’re getting married to her next week?”

“No, no. I’m going to ask her next week; pop the question.”

Jake smiled and said, “That’s great, Bill!”

“Yeah, and I been savin’ up for a long time now, and I got her a promise ring that she’ll have to wear ‘til I can buy a better one.” Then he led Jake to the lockers and pulled a small box out of the back corner of his own. He slowly opened the box to reveal a narrow gold band, two tiny diamonds embedded, one next to the other.

“Wow!” Jake exclaimed. “That must have cost you a pretty penny!”

“Well over two hundred dollars.” Bill admitted.

“And two diamonds; that’s nice, man!”

“Yep. The diamonds are me ‘n her.” He pulled the picture back out of his wallet and pointed to it. “She’s a gem. And I’m hopin’ to be a gem fer her!”

“Geez! Did you buy it new?”

Bill sighed and said, “Well, sorta. I got a friend who works at Murley’s pawnshop down round Trumbull. He told me about it. Said he’d give me a good deal.”

Bill closed the lid and slid the box to the back of his locker and said, “I don’t wanna take it ta my apartment on a counta’ they’ve been havin’ some break-ins lately. So I just keep it here.”

“Makes sense to me.” Jake replied. 

They worked together well, Jake and Bill, and the more time passed the more comfortable Bill felt around Jake. He slowly began to answer some of the questions that Jake asked. It wasn’t that Jake was all that interested, but talking helped to pass the time. Bill soon became accustomed to Jake’s keen sense of humor, and he even laughed with him from time to time.

After a few weeks, Jake felt comfortable enough to ask Bill why he’d stayed at the job for as long as he had. They were sitting in the break room just behind the kitchen. Bill took a drag on his Pall Mall cigarette and replied calmly, “I’m lucky to be workin’ at all.” He lifted his paper cup filled with ice and Coke and took a sip then looked at Jake. “Ken’s been good to me these past five years. I like this job, so that’s why I stay. That’n it keeps me sane. Everyone needs something to keep ‘em sane.” He took another drag off of his cigarette and asked, “What do you know about the war?”

Jake shrugged his shoulders and replied, “Just glad I was still in high school when it ended.  Never wanted to go, myself. And that damned draft woulda’ been a bitch, to be sure.”

Bill took another hit on his Pall Mall and exhaled, “I never wanted to go either, but I wasn’t born at the right time, and that draft was a sonuvabitch, to be sure.” He paused then mumbled, “But it was the war that was the real bitch.” He stared at the wall in front of him.

Now curious, Jake asked, “Hey, is it true that they used to just walk into some of those buildings and kill anyone in sight, even if it was a kid?”

Bill looked at the ceiling and held his stare for a moment then nodded, “I heard that use ta’ happen. Never seen it myself, though.”

Jake shook his head, “Jesus H. Christ, that was a messy war. Glad it’s over.”

Bill stood and tossed his cup into the garbage can. Then he looked at Jake and said, “You’re not the only one, my friend.” And he walked out the door and back to work.