Prologue: The Oddest Thing

I was walking waterfront Chicago ... where Meigs Field use to be. That would be south of Navy Pier ... which was my intended destination. I wanted to see the Paddlewheel Aircraft Carriers. They were the sole reason for me being in Chicago.

I never go to Chicago.

I hate Chicago ... the wind, the people ... all that concrete. The only good thing about the Windy City? Museums.

You see ... or maybe you don’t ... I should explain.

I see the past.

Not the people, and not the events. I see the physical structures. I have watched whole buildings come together ... like a fast-forward film ... without the builders. I see it.

The first time? The summer of 1955. I turned 13.

I had my first involuntary nocturnal emission. It was volumetrically vast. “Mom?”

“What?”

“Would you please come here?”

“Why?”

“Please?”

“Charlie? Watch the bacon.”

Thunder on the stairs.

“What?”

“Eww.”

“Ask your dad.”

“Well, David. You’re becoming a man.”

I grew a hair.

The hair was important. I needed it for ‘dares.’

“You ain’t got a hair on your ass if you don’t.”

My voice changed from the sweetest soprano to a gravelly baritone.

I watched my house being built ... from vacant lot to ‘in the dry’ to floor sealer.

And I was smart enough to not tell anyone.

I was in Chicago because an old Navy pilot had said he trained for carrier landings on the Great Lakes ... Lake Michigan ... Chicago. A PADDLEWHEEL Aircraft Carrier ... on the lake.

I HAD to see it ... but...

The Greater Buffalo was launched at Lorain, Ohio, on Oct. 27, 1923, and sailed her first trip May 13, 1925. In 1942 she was modified to carrier in Buffalo New York.

I wasn’t going to see the steamer built in Chicago. I didn’t know that. I wasn’t going to see the steamer modified in Chicago. I didn’t know that.

What I did know? Don’t trust a taxi.

When I left my hotel I hailed a cab. “The pier,” I said. After an expensive private tour of downtown Chicago I was let out at the Field Museum ... and my voluble driver no longer spoke English.

The Field Museum is always fun ... so...

Done with that, I started walking north ... on the Lakefront Trail. Some trail ... concrete, straight as an arrow, fairly flat, direct ... no fun. There is a median between the Lake Wall and the Trail ... so ... if the wind had been coming from the east, I wouldn’t have been too soaked ... to badly. The winter wind was blowing in my left ear ... straight out of the west. Cold ... but dry ... except for the snow fluries.

I was not alone on my trek. No. In front of me, maybe a block, was a couple ... I assumed a couple ... holding hands? Couple.

I was on a mission, they were meandering ... I was gaining on them.

As I said, west wind, fluries and though I hadn’t mentioned it ... this part of the lake was calm-ish ... sorta...

If I looked east, out past the break-water ... not a day for small craft.

Here, in the lee of the wind, came a flock of small sailboats ... racing?

Ah, well ... it takes all kinds, and I could have watched for 10 seconds. Surely, not more than 30. The boats were really moving and my gaze was drawn to my destination ... Navy Pier.

Christ, Dave, you could have picked a better day.

The couple ahead must have decided it was too much. They were no longer there. Wonder where they went? None of my business. I shrugged, walked a hundred paces ... I count ... and nearly tripped over a ladies purse ... and a small revolver.

Did I leave it?

I did not.

Like a damn fool I picked up both.

And it was no longer snowing, the sun was shining, its rays dappling the leaves on the trees and glinting off the small surf rolling in.

What. The. Fuck?