Finding 52 (12 page)

Palindromes

1961

I
t was 1961 and eleven-year-old Harley was convinced this would be a pivotal year. First of all 1961 was even better than a palindrome. The next palindrome would occur in 1991 and there would be more after that, but 1961? That was a year that looked the same to Harley when he turned it upside down.

In the spring of that year he went to visit his Aunt Caroline and Uncle Simon. The Benchleys realized Harley simply made them uncomfortable. It wasn’t a question of not loving him. They didn’t even know him. Harley had no real desire to visit them, but he was curious. Caroline was, after all, his mother’s sister. He needed to determine whether or not she was a REAL person.

The Benchleys had arranged to have a party the weekend Harley visited. Over a hundred people attended and Caroline made sure there were other children there as well. The adults eventually were left alone while the children played together. They played softball and then hide-and-go-seek.

Hannah Ruhland caught Harley’s eye. She was young and pretty and very athletic. Hannah was popular and she chatted with Harley. “Where do you go to school?” Hannah asked.

“A place called Winston Academy.”

“Is it fun there?”

“Sure, but it’s an all-boys academy. I don’t know a lot of girls and I never met a girl named Hannah. Your name is a palindrome, like Mom or Pop.”

“I know, but not too many kids think of that. Where do your parents live?”

“They lived in New York, but both of them are dead.”

“That’s so sad. You must miss them.”

Harley just looked at her. He was terrified. Here she was; the Six of Clubs. Hannah Ruhland was one of the REAL people. He placed his hand in his back pocket and felt the playing card. The Six of Clubs provided understanding and he knew what he had to do. “I didn’t really get to know them, I was younger and they were gone a lot. I don’t mind being alone. Can we play hide-and-seek?”

The children paired off in teams. Harley and Hannah were partners and he had already devised a plan. They ran off into a heavily wooded area and were secluded from the others. He took the Six of Clubs out of his back pocket and showed it to Hannah. “This is my lucky card. You can have it if you like. Maybe it will bring you luck, and when it does you’ll think of me.”

Hannah gratefully took the card and said, “You can be my boyfriend if you want. We could even write letters to each other.” Hannah looked at him and smiled. She was hoping Harley would kiss her.

Harley had other ideas. “We should go back and see if any of the others have been caught yet. I bet we win the game,” he said.

Hannah was disappointed at first but when he held her hand and led the way back she was pleased. They walked to the edge of the woods and it was dusk. A state highway was right in front of them and there was traffic.

Merle Ahrens was a teamster and a very good driver. He was hauling logs that were destined for a sawmill fifteen miles away. Merle was behind schedule so he sped up and was doing sixty when he crested the hill. The road ahead was clear so he accelerated even more. With any luck he wouldn’t be too late when he arrived and someone would still be there to meet him.

Hannah and Harley were crouched near the tree line, and Harley was still holding her hand. “I can hear some of the others and I think they’re captured.”

Hannah said, “Let’s wait a few more minutes to be sure.” She was still hoping for that kiss.

He heard the truck coming and stood up. He helped Hannah to her feet and just as the truck got close, he pushed her directly in front of it. She was dead before Merle even had a chance to hit the brakes. It was almost if she had thrown herself in front of the truck.

Harley laughed as he sang out, “So long pen pal. It looks like the Six of Clubs really was lucky for me. My good luck is your bad luck. I know you were going to kill me. Just like mom and pop wanted to; the three of you are nothing but palindromes. That’s how I caught you Hannah. This is what you get for messing with me. If you get a chance to see my parents in hell tell them I said,
Live not on Evil
…another palindrome. Show them your card, if you still have it.”

Harley slowly doubled back to his aunt and uncle’s house and by the time he got there pandemonium ruled. The police were there and so were the ambulances. The Ruhlands were in shock. Several adults and many of the children sobbed when they heard the unbelievable news.

Simon Benchley walked up to Harley and said, “Where have you been? Hannah Ruhland was struck and killed by a truck on the state highway.”

“We were still playing hide-and-seek and we got separated,” Harley said. “I was looking for her in the woods. I should’ve watched her better.” Harley began to cry and Simon held him close.

“This isn’t your fault,” Simon said. “The damn truck driver was probably speeding, all of them do.”

Harley said, “She was my friend, Uncle Simon. I liked Hannah. We were going to be pen pals. This is the worse day of my life.”

Caroline walked up to Harley and said, “He claimed he never even saw her until she was right in front of the truck. He must have been speeding.”

Merle Ahrens was charged with negligent homicide. Accident investigators estimated the truck’s speed at seventy miles an hour and Merle never disputed their findings. In fact, he admitted he’d been running behind schedule and was going fast, but the road was clear and the girl came out of nowhere.

******

Merle was haunted and rarely slept. Feelings of worthlessness, guilt, shame, and self-hatred consumed him. Before trial could even be scheduled he drank plenty of courage and stuck a revolver in his mouth before pulling the trigger. He was nothing more than collateral damage as far as Harley was concerned. He knew there were plenty more out there just like Merle; people that weren’t real and didn’t matter much in the scheme of things. He thought of them as stage props in a play.

In 1961 the average income was just over fifty-three hundred dollars a year and Harley was worth over thirty-five million. He already knew his Uncle Simon was stealing from the trust fund but wasn’t concerned, at some future point he’d be handling his own investments and those investments would quadruple before the end of the decade. Harley understood stocks and securities better than the firm that was hired to safeguard his trust fund.

John F. Kennedy was inaugurated earlier in 1961 and Harley wondered again about the loser, Richard Nixon. It was readily apparent to Harley the guy was a crook with plenty of tricks up his sleeve. He was sure he’d be back soon or at least soon enough.

1961 was also the year that Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space. Harley wasn’t surprised when President Kennedy asked Congress for five hundred and thirty-one million dollars to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade. Harley knew it was possible and would probably happen. He liked how the new president stood up to the Russians and that rat bastard from Cuba.

Fifteen hundred CIA-trained forces of Cuban exiles invaded the Bay of Pigs in April of that year. All manner of chaos ensued in southern Cuba. Over a hundred were killed and twelve hundred were captured by Cuban forces. Harley could only hope that none of the REAL people were in the numbers that died. He tended to worry about that very possibility. He had plenty of cards to deal out, but what if? What if one of the REAL people happened to die at another’s hand? At the end of the day, Harley simply figured if they were the only ones that could kill him, he was probably the only one that could kill them. He rather doubted that very many of them lived in other countries. He was prepared, however, to travel as much as necessary. It was imperative that he’d get every last one of them, all fifty-two. He’d never be really safe until they were all dead.

The cold war worsened and the Russians were testing some very big bombs. Americans were building fallout shelters in their own backyards at the advice of President Kennedy. Why wouldn’t they? Walls were being built in Germany and American and Russian soldiers were having a good old-fashioned stare down as the Berlin Wall went up.

Harley was curious about a little-known place called Vietnam. 1961 was also the year the first direct US Military involvement occurred in Vietnam. He had an idea that Vietnam and Richard Nixon would both fuck over a lot of people before they were done.

While Freedom Riders rode racially integrated interstate buses into the South and some were attacked and beaten by white supremacist supporters of racial segregation, Harley continued his studies at school.

At the end of every school year the teaching staff would get together and review the students’ performance. All of them understood Harley was the best Winston Academy had to offer, probably the best ever. He was only ten years old, but it was evident he was capable of college-level studies. They asked him to meet with them.

Harley had no idea what they wanted to talk about. He didn’t think it was about Aaron’s death, but he was on high alert for any telltale signs. Walter Panko was in charge of the school’s science department. He asked Harley several questions about Robert Hofstadter and his work on determining shape and size of atomic nucleus, as well as Rudolf Mossbauer’s methods for producing and measuring recoil-free gamma rays. Harley explained that he’d read their papers and was familiar with their work, but thought they both lacked substance and he was surprised they received Nobel Prizes in Science. He said, “I would rather discuss Melvin Calvin and his work establishing chemical steps during photosynthesis. Even Georg von Bekesy and his discoveries about physical mechanisms of stimulation within cochlea provide more spirited discussion, wouldn’t you agree? ”

Walter Panko was shocked at Harley’s response. He said, “You would rather discuss Chemistry or Physiology or even Medicine and disregard Physics?”

“Not at all, Dr. Panko,” Harley said. “I was only mentioning a lack of material. I thought he should’ve waited longer and gathered more data. Physics is important as all of the sciences are of great consequence.”

Walter Panko was amazed at the knowledge and understanding Harley had with the questions that were posed to him. Questions Harley had no idea would be asked. He was astonished and at the same time frightened. Walter had the notion that Harley was a man among boys in the world of academia.

Other department heads discovered the same. In some cases it was apparent that Harley could probably lecture them. When they finished with their meeting, Dr. Shust asked Harley what he would like to do with his life.

Harley stared at him and his eyes were daggers. “I have no idea what life has in store for me, but I will remain true to myself.” Dr. Shust was terrified of Harley but didn’t know why.

Spring turned to summer and Harley went on vacation with the Benchleys. They were more than happy to travel with Harley on his dime. The trust fund had more than enough for everyone and Simon continued skimming money for himself as he acquired a new hobby. He met someone while on business in Chicago. Her name was Evelyn Gale and she was footloose and fancy free. Simon had expendable income and was able to get plenty more. He really was very good at siphoning funds from the trust.

He hated to leave Evelyn behind, so he made separate travel arrangements for her. His plan was to slip away whenever he could and meet her while Caroline and Harley would explore the sights. This vacation would be in Hawaii.

Harley loved Honolulu and spent most of the ten-day vacation with his aunt. The accommodations were high-end while Evelyn stayed a mile away and would meet Simon whenever he could manage.

Harley and his aunt spent their days along the two-mile stretch of Waikiki Beach. She marveled at the white sand, and Diamond Head was so close. Harley was already an excellent swimmer and wanted to try kayaking. He felt bad for his aunt, because he was aware of what kind of business his uncle was conducting…monkey business.

Harley had overheard Simon on the telephone and was aware Simon was meeting someone, a woman from the sound of things. Harley followed Simon to the front of the hotel and watched him walk into a restaurant. He waited a few minutes and went inside as well.

They were seated in the back: Simon and the whore. Harley was mesmerized by her. She was holding Simon’s hand and his back was to Harley. She was laughing and then she leaned in and kissed Simon.

She was younger than his aunt and Harley grudgingly admitted she was prettier. He had a very bad feeling about this one. He got closer and sure enough! She was one of the REAL ones.

The next day when Harley left the hotel he found where Uncle Simon’s love interest was staying. Harley spent more time in town than on the beach. The fourth day he watched her get on a tour bus. He got on the same bus with the knowledge that Uncle Simon was with Aunt Caroline. They were lying on the beach reading.

The tour bus took the passengers all over the Honolulu area and there were plenty of scenic stops. Harley waited for his chance and it soon arrived.

When they reached the Halona Blowhole on Oahu’s southern shore, Evelyn got off the bus with her nearly new Kodak Starmite Camera. Harley loved the
Ozzie and Harriet Show
and they both endorsed the Starmite camera. One commercial depicted Harriet as she took a picture of Ozzie while he slept in his recliner. The flash never even woke him up. The camera only cost twelve dollars and Harriet was right, it fit right in the palm of Evelyn’s hand.

The windy day was perfect for visiting the Halona Blowhole and it was high tide. The view from the lookout was magnificent and just to the right of the Blowhole was the famous beach that appeared in the celebrated 1953 film
From Here to Eternity
. Evelyn was eager to take pictures of the area where Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr appeared in their famous love scene. It was a steep drop to that part of the beach, but she’d be careful.

Many of the tourists were back on the bus and the only ones that hadn’t returned were Evelyn and a young boy. She thought his parents must be back on the bus. The driver had just finished his cigarette and announced, “A couple more minutes before we leave.” The young boy nodded, and Evelyn was busy taking pictures.