From The Shack

This is - Poetic Expanse - promoting my Novel

The Preview Part . . . . .

An excerpt from Mantler’s Shack, a novel by R G Schmidt

CHAPTER 16
WILL DENMAN

Sounds of love in our hearts, as our souls relate the signs;
Nature gently tugs at the reins, gently as we cross the line.

. . . . . This particular Tuesday in July was a rainy day and, therefore, not a good day to work on the shack. The roof had been totally removed, so there was no productive way to work in the rainy weather. So Jon sent Harvey home and asked him to come back only if the sun began to shine. It was a summer thundershower and difficult to predict what would come next.

In the meantime, Jon planned to go to the garage to take inventory of the wood that he had already sold and try to determine what he currently had ready to offer the public in his next newspaper advertisement. The used-wood sales to date had been terrific, and there seemed to be a solid demand for the rest of the wood that he was salvaging and storing.

As Jon sat in his one-ton watching the rain and preparing to drive around the block to the garage, a big white Cadillac pulled up and parked in front of him. Through the soft, steady drizzle, Jon could see an elderly man sitting in the driver’s seat, studiously looking out through the wet window at what remained of the shack. Jon delayed his departure to wait and see what this man would do next. The man noticed Jon sitting in his truck, and despite the rain, exited his car to approach him. Jon rolled down his window.

“Hello, I’m looking for John Mantler’s place. I was told he had passed away but that his son still lived around here.”

“That’s all true. And I’m Jon, his son.”

“I’m very pleased to meet you, son. I’m Will Denman, and I knew your dad many years ago.”

“Wow, that’s interesting, but hey, you’re getting wet, why not jump into the truck?”

“Sure.” Will quickly passed around the front of the one-ton and entered from the passenger side. Inside, he extended a greeting hand. “Pleasure to meet you, Jon.”

“You too, Bill.”

“It’s Will,” the man corrected.

“Oh, I’m sorry. Got it. I really don’t know anybody who knew my dad. It’s kinda weird.”

“I suppose that’s true,” confirmed Will. “I only knew him for a few years, during our war years, and, well, he was really something. I’m so sorry that he has passed. It’s really thanks to him that I can sit here today.”

Jon remained silent. He was confused and trying to think of something to say, but mercifully, the man continued to speak.

“I was so sorry. I always intended to find John and connect again, but until I saw the wood for sale advert in the Herald, I didn’t know where he lived. And I didn’t know until a few minutes ago, when I asked for directions at the store back there, that he had passed on. I’m so sorry, son, to hear that.”

Jon saw the sincere emotion and the near tears in this stranger’s eyes, and it made him inordinately uncomfortable. He didn’t know what to say.

“I don’t think I’d ever have survived those years in France without him. Not a chance! Your father took care of us, son.”

It seemed like the man forgot Jon was in the car beside him. They both looked straight through the wet windshield as Will continued talking.

“John was a bit older than me, but hell, we were both still pretty much kids, but John, he, he, was way more mature, and bigger, and stronger. Nothing got to him like it did the rest of us. He was the force that kept us alive, our leader, for sure. The one we knew we could depend on when things got too hard to bear.”

The rain slowed down. Then the sun came out, and the air changed so abruptly that the windows on the one-ton fogged up from the inside. They both opened their windows at the same time without comment and let the cool, fresh, and fragrant air blow in. It was now one of those rare after-thundershower moments when the rain falls and the sun shines at the same time. It was a bit eerie, but Will didn’t seem to notice. He carried on talking.

“There were five of us right from the start who were always together, right from the first training camp. Only three of us came back in the end. Gerry and Cam never got through Caen. Even John couldn’t save them there. I was the luckiest of all, I guess…never even got a scratch, even with all the shit we went through. Now it seems like a lifetime ago. Makes me crazy sometimes. Before we shipped out, we actually had a lot of fun trying to act like we knew what we were doing, but we had no idea what was coming at us.” Will paused. “Do you know how your dad got hurt?”

Actually, Jon did not, and sensing an opportunity to enter the conversation, he was about to verbalize that when the man carried on and answered for him.

“Probably not, I guess. It was a strange day. We were in a convoy trying to assess the distance between us and the enemy positions near the town where we had established our base. There were about eighteen of us in four vehicles. We were the last in line, just Robbie, your dad, and me. Robbie was driving when we got messed up way too far behind the others. It was late in the afternoon, and the sun was shining low and bright, making it really hard to see. Robbie decided to step on the gas and try to catch up with the rest of the convoy. It wasn’t exactly a road we were on; more of an inter-farm trail that suddenly turned into either a soft left or hard right turn. Robbie chose left, and just after that, there was a slope and a ravine in front of us. The actual road was even farther left, but by the time Robbie realized this and turned for it, he hit the side of the slope and it flipped our Jeep. I was on the back and jumped up and left while the Jeep rolled right. Robbie, on the driver’s side, did pretty much the same. But your dad didn’t have a chance. The Jeep was flipping, and the only place he could go was with it, and then under it, as it rolled over him and down into the ravine.”

Will paused, wiped his eyes, and looked at Jon. The sun was in full shine now; the rain had passed, and neither Jon nor the man had any idea what time it was or how much time had passed. It felt like days to Jon, but it was much less than an hour.

“My dad never told me anything about this. He didn’t actually talk that much,” Jon managed to utter. He was tense and emotional and was now sweating. He was also afraid that the sun would bring Harvey back to the job site, and he wasn’t ready for any of that. He wanted to learn more from this stranger.

“I understand that. I’ve been that same way all my life, just stuffing it all away, trying to leave it somewhere else, kind of ashamed of myself. But for me, eventually, going forward and not backward seemed like the only way to go,” Will revealed.

“What happened next?”

“Yeah, well, I saw the Jeep land on its side halfway down the slope and I was sliding down toward it, so I got to my feet and ran to it. I turned off the ignition ’cuz the damn thing was still in gear and running and the wheels were still turning. Kinda crazy, I know, but I didn’t think anyone got hurt. The Jeep seemed to be fine, just sitting tilted on its side. I checked it out for a minute or two, and I was trying to figure out if we could get it back on its wheels and moving so we could get the hell out of there. I didn’t want us to be stuck, and it was getting late in the day. As I was checking the Jeep, I looked farther down the ravine to the lower road. There were two big German Army trucks parked down there, looking up at us. We weren’t much more than three hundred meters away, and within a couple of minutes, they were up on the road above the ravine and on us. In that time, Robbie had come down the slope to get me and tell me that John was hurt and that he couldn’t move him. He said, ‘He got rolled over by the Jeep. I think his legs are smashed up. He can’t get up or walk.’”

“I started to run up the hill to John and got there at about the same time as the Germans got to the top of the ravine. Now I was scared shitless. We had no defense. We were screwed.”

“Jeez, that’s crazy.” Jon was filled with bewilderment. He wanted to cry, but when he looked at Will Denman’s sad face, he stopped himself. He felt that he had to be the stronger one in order to help the man with his story.

“I really thought we were done for, and that if we survived this, the best-case scenario was prison camp. But this wasn’t a movie, so it didn’t play out like people might think. The Germans didn’t come in guns a-blazing; they could see that we were no threat. All our shit was strewn between us and the Jeep, and there were about twelve of them and two and a half of us. They sent three people from the truck to speak to us, and the rest stayed on alert at their vehicles. This was when John, lying flat on the ground, took control of the situation. He was on the side slope between Robbie and me, and he began to speak in German to the approaching men. I couldn’t understand a damn thing, but it was the craziest thing I ever saw. I went from shitting my pants to smelling like a rose.”

At that moment, Harvey sauntered up to the two-tone Ford and greeted his young boss, ready to demolish something. Jon didn’t know what to say or do, because he couldn’t focus his attention on anything with his head so full of Will’s chronicles.

“I think we’re just gonna shut it down for today since the wood is still pretty wet. What say you meet me down at the well tonight if it’s not raining again?” Jon asked Harvey. “I still gotta meet with this guy some more now, anyway.”

“Okay by me. You’re the bossman. See you later, Jay!” Harvey turned back down the alley toward his house.

“I hope I’m not taking you away from anything, Jon,” Denman offered.

“Definitely not, sir. I really want to hear about my dad. He never told me any of this. It’s like a whole new world to me. Say, do you want to see his grave? I can drive you down there. It’s only two minutes from here, on the edge of town.” He pointed to the right.

“I’d like that,” Will responded. “I should have come to find him years ago. I’m so sorry…I wanted to, but something always got in the way. Time just gets away from us, you know?”

Actually, Jon didn’t know this yet. . . . . . . . .

The Promotion Point . . . . .

First, my novel is selling well, thank you. Reviews have been stellar. However, it would help enormously if readers posted honest reviews on Amazon and Goodreads in order for them to generate more readers, I hope you can help:

HOW TO LEAVE AN AMAZON REVIEW

STEP 1 - Log in to your Amazon account

STEP 2 - Search for “Mantler’s Shack” and select book

STEP 3 - Scroll down to “Customer Reviews” and click “Write a customer review”

STEP 4 - Click on the appropriate number of stars to rate the book (5 = I loved it)

STEP 5 - In the text box, paste your review. Add a headline. Click “Submit”

STEP 6 - Check email for a message from Amazon confirming your submission

“I guess you could say that I liked it a lot - and it has got me reading again. Just bought two more books in fact. SG

“It kept me interested throughout to see the main character’s development. KG

“Captures the roots of what trauma can do....from Abigail to Roxanne....it’s pretty accurate…”

“The overall feel of this book is INTENSITY combined with capturing HUMANITY....a person would have to be dead inside if their soul isn’t stirred in a big way….” GS

“Overall impression is I liked the book very much. I liked the ending very much its almost preparing a sequel on how they reunite. The fact they didn’t reconnect I thought was a nice touch. The fact that we are left with the idea they both wanted to was enough.” FM

“I really enjoyed it! - I thought the character development of Jon was excellent. The relationships with all the important people in his life- his mother father and his best friend were all excellent. I really felt his struggle after the loss of his father and how he carried on. Good writing style and easy to follow.” AB

HOW TO LEAVE A GOODREADS REVIEW

1. Navigate to the book you want to rate or review.

2. Under the book cover image, specify your star rating by tapping or hovering over and selecting the number of stars. On the iOS or Android app, the book automatically moves to your Read shelf (if not there already).

3. Select Write a review and type your review in the text box.

4. Select Post or the checkmark to publish your review to the book’s page.

Keep in mind: New reviews automatically save as a draft if you leave the page before posting your review, while updates to posted reviews are not saved as draft.

There was not one bit - not a tinkle - of Artificial Interference - AI - used in the writing or publication of this novel.

I wrote a poem about that. As a bonus read - it is served up below.

The Poetry Piece 1 . . . . .

ABOUT THE D

(Or The AI Stealing Your Stuff)

Reducing it all to it’s morals, people’s eyes cross on the rows,

then when a hole appears and hides, while increasing it’s size, it guides the motion of pawns under rulers.

Sick!

Drunken louts, on the side of the road, in contact two by two, seized by a rare moment, then saddened, then framed, then the brain reaches an absurd recollection and contests what is.

True!

Smooth flat rocks lay in the sun, pausing the stutter steps to the sea,

crystallizing sites, parlaying with the gods, in a manner not to offend,

while dangerously lighting fires, promising something not achievable yet.

Desirous!

It’s a state and a condition, an offense nonetheless,

a practical gasser, an ingenious assertion, out to something someone, and perform for the dastards.

Bastards!

Slow and relaxed, piloting, fixing the flowers, highest of grades, overflowed, playing with and acting brave, in a heavy loose,

drop and splash.

Bash!

Now you know everything, and I know no more.

Now you are the be, and I am the fore.

Or?

The Political Portion . . . . .

Has been purposefully blocked today. Stop with war in Iran! Find a way to stop the misery in Ukraine!