City Out of Time. William Robison III
Colonel Buck countered.
“Damn,” she muttered, as the tears filled her eyes, “I really hate time travel sometimes.”
Chapter One
Mt. Charleston, Nevada
April 7th, 1996
Lanz Franco sat in the folding lawn chair overlooking the closed wood coffin. The coffin looked rather flimsy, like the sort of thing one might bring home from Walmart. Lanz wondered briefly if the Army had shipped his brother Seth home from Iraq in a cardboard moving box.
Even at this early hour, there was almost no breeze. The hot air was already beating down on Lanz’s head and it was hard to hear the chaplain speak over the sound of the crowd that had gathered.
If anyone was upset at the acoustics, Lanz had little interest. Other than a few Army people and an odd acquaintance or two, Lanz didn’t know a single person in the crowd. He’d been meeting with people all week who wanted to pay their respects to his brother – but none of them were familiar to Lanz. In fact, Lanz felt almost like a stranger at his own brother’s funeral.
Lanz stared at his hands and tried to pay attention to whatever the chaplain was saying, but his mind wandered to the phone call he’d had the night before with Seth’s only other living relative, Uncle Pete.
“I’m sorry I haven’t gotten back to you before, Lanz, but, well, things were busy. I’m sorry to hear about Seth.”
“Yeah… well… he was in the Army. These things happen.”
“Is there anything I need to do… or did the Army take care of it all?”
“They killed him,” Lanz said, “The least they can do is bury him.”
“Yeah… good… so, um, obviously I’m not going to be able to make it.”
“I wasn’t really expecting you,” Lanz noted.
“It’s just that with the kids being in school and all… It’s a bad time.”
“Yeah, Uncle Pete… I understand.”
They’d talked about something else after that, but then Pete had hung up and left Lanz to remember his brother on his own. Lanz had gone to the movies instead, hoping the change of scenery would do him some good. It hadn’t. He’d run into twenty people at the casino who wanted to know where the funeral was and when Lanz had told them, they laughed at some kind of inside joke that Lanz did not understand. The reminders of Seth were all over the city. Only now that Seth lay immobile in a coffin did Lanz realize how much Seth had been constantly moving in life.
Lanz yawned and tried to remain in the moment of the funeral – to soak it all in like the sunlight that was punishing the living things all around him. The chaplain droned on.
Somehow Seth being dead wasn’t nearly as shocking as Lanz had thought it would be. Though they were brothers and had spent most of their lives together, they had never really been close. When Lanz had gone off to college, he had known Seth wouldn’t stay put for very long. So when Seth had joined the Army the day after graduating from high school, it hadn’t surprised Lanz. He had seen his brother sporadically after that – less and less frequently as time went on. Even if the miles and the battles hadn’t separated them, the gulf between them continued to grow through the years. Lanz hadn’t spoken to his brother for more than a year. It had always been in the back of Lanz’s mind to reconnect with his brother once he had returned from Iraq. But now that wasn’t going to happen and Lanz found that he was okay with that. They’d never really had much to talk about anyway.
The chaplain finished speaking. He turned to Lanz and asked him if he’d like to say a few words. Lanz shook his head.
They fired the rifles. They folded the flag and set it in Lanz’s lap. They lowered the coffin. Finally, mercifully, it was over.
Lanz stood up and shook hands with complete strangers who wanted to tell Lanz all about his brother. One had been a ski instructor with him at Mt. Charleston. Another was a dancer at an exotic club in Vegas. A couple of guys tried to reminisce with Lanz about the time Seth had pulled some practical joke at Ft. Benning on their commanding officer that involved a goat and… Lanz had no idea what they were talking about, but pretended to be in on it anyway. Everyone loved Seth and they were all very sorry he was gone.
As the last person walked away, Lanz took one last look at the hole in the ground where Seth would remain forever before he headed across the brown lawn to his car.
He stopped halfway when he remembered that he’d left the flag back on his chair. He turned around and saw a burly Army officer approaching him carrying the flag. The man was a physically impressive sight – tall, broad shouldered, with a short shock of graying hair and a square jaw. But as the man drew closer, Lanz noticed that he walked with the help of a cane and that there was a cast wrapped around his lower leg. The rows of ribbons he carried included a purple heart with two stars.
Lanz saluted. This caught the officer off guard, but he smartly returned the salute and then came a few steps closer and stuck out his hand. Lanz grasped it warmly.
“Lanz Franco?” he asked.
“Yes Sir.”
“I am Colonel Isaac Buchman. I was your brother’s commanding officer in Iraq. The men call me Colonel Buck.”
“I’ve heard of you, sir,” Lanz noted. “Colonel Buck was well known in Riyadh.”
“Seth told me you served in Iraq as well?”
“Very briefly, sir. I was a combat medic, but the war was mostly over by the time I arrived. I stayed with my unit during the mop up, but then we went back to Germany.”
“Well, you missed out on a damn fine war, son.”
“I know, sir. I’d only joined to keep an eye on my brother. But, as usual, he was just fine on his own.”
“Franco… I am terribly sorry for your loss,” Colonel Buck said with evident sincerity. “Seth was a good man… and a good soldier. He will be missed.”
“If I may, sir… how did he die?”
“I’m sorry… that’s still classified. What I can tell you is that he died bravely and honorably,” Colonel Buck answered.
“Thank you, sir,” Lanz replied. “I’ll try to imagine the rest.”
“I wouldn’t dwell on it too long, son. There’s nothing to be gained by carrying the dead around with the living. The living have got quite enough to haul around on their own. Your brother died honorably as he lived. I’d leave it at that.”
Lanz admired the man’s straight-forward talk and nodded his agreement.
“However, Franco… there is one last bit of business I need to take care of while I’m here,” Colonel Buck noted. “Your brother asked me to give you something should he ever die.”
“Oh?”
“Unfortunately, he left very specific instructions about where I was to give it to you. He said you’d understand when I told you.”
“Sounds like Seth to me,” Lanz replied. “Where is this mysterious place?”
“Baker, California?”
Lanz nearly laughed. Baker was about an hour and a half south of Las Vegas on Highway I-15 – the first town you come to when leaving Nevada.
“Sorry he put you to so much trouble, Colonel,” Lanz answered, and then explained, “There’s an all-night diner there that has the best pie. Seth and I used to go there whenever we needed to get away from things for a while. It was just about the only thing we ever really agreed upon. You don’t really need to go all that way, though. You can just give me whatever he gave you.”
“My instructions were specific,” Colonel Buck