Military Madness Volume Two

By George Hawkins

Short stories from out of the past. Hawkins confesses that the stories included in Military Madness volume two were scribed while living in a commune-like neighborhood near Palo Alto, CA in the early 1980’s and offered here for the first time. Volume One of the series has been out of print for over 30 years. Wally Davenport of the Bakersfield Chronicle called Military Madness volume one, “A GREAT BIG, BRAWLING BOOK...compelling, explicit, but poignant...ROUGH and RAW, but timely...a shocker that makes you stop and THINK.”

• Language: English
• Publisher: George Hawkins
• Release date: Apr 14, 2016
• ISBN: 9781310369667

George Hawkins

A writer of both fiction and non-fiction, Hawkins has been honing his craft for over fifty years. Although novels and short stories are his preferred métier, he has written a non-fiction, adventure travel book titled, A Bicycle Journey to the Bottom of the Americas, recounting his three and a half year, 17,500-mile bicycle adventure from Alaska to the tip of South America, available from iUniverse, Apple Bookstore or Amazon or in either paperback or eBook versions. In the Irish Goodbye, his latest fiction offering, Hawkins has drawn heavily on his youth growing up in Albany, New York, an Irish-Democratic stronghold where machine boss Dan O’Connell ruled for over twenty-five years. This bittersweet coming-of-age tale harkens back to the mean streets of Albany so eloquently penned by William Kennedy. The protagonist, Brian Reilly, maturing from childhood to adolescence, passes through a tumultuous period of disillusionment, betrayal, and finally redemption. His beliefs and trust are reaffirmed by a crippled outcast who saves his life and teaches him to look below the surface of things. Overcoming multiple losses and setbacks Brian achieves manhood. When not writing or rewriting novels and short stories, George swims in the Pacific Ocean in Santa Cruz, California where he also enjoys hiking or biking in the nearby coastal mountains. Of course, he is a voracious reader.

Book preview

Military Madness 

Volume Two Stories

George J. Hawkins

Military Madness: Volume Two  Stories

by George J. Hawkins

Copyright 2016 George J. Hawkins

Smashwords Edition

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author's imagination or used in afictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

Contact the author at:

[e-mail]

Books By

George J. Hawkins

Military Madness Vol. One

A Bicycle Journey to the Bottom of the Americas

The Irish Goodbye

Santa Cruz Stories

Dedicated to

Micki

Cincinnati Red

Author’s Note

Military Madness is not a syndrome, rather it is a neighborhood somewhere in the Northern California Bay Area.

"If voting made any difference they wouldn’t let us do it."

— Mark Twain

MMMapNEw

The Astronomy  of Love

Late at night I sometimes prop my head on my left hand and observe the sloping alabaster contours of my redhead lover's skin. She is asleep and her back is toward me. She has this thing about sleeping on her side. I can't sleep that way, at least not for long. My hip components get sore and I have to turn over on my back. She, however, can sleep on her side through the night.

Blue eyes glide down soft, curving human flesh like a solitary skier schussing down a mountain slope of untracked white powder. Rich scarlet curls are the rising sun, warming deep, fleecy snowdrifts. I watch in silent hunger.

Observing the imaginary skier carve a wide arc down her side, I think of the thing called love and the astronomy that brought me to your planet.

I've been a closet lover all my life. I never once told anyone I loved them, not even my cyborg father. I am ashamed and apologetic for this omission, but you see on my home planet, Zoron, that is the custom. For better or worse, closet-love is a way of life there. How unfortunate, I mused. I stood in my closet so long my love started going bad. Like a jar of honey turning to sugar. Technically, it's honey, but the crusty, scalybark on the surface is repulsive and unappetizing.

Thanks to Cincinnati Red I discovered the problem before it was too late. My visit here has been educational, to say the least. Therefore, I exited the closet and set my jar of honey in the sun to preserve its integrity.

My redhead lover is a representative of your kind -the human race. This includes you, according to my instruction manual. Whether man or woman, old or young, healthy or infirm, I love you. I whispered this out loud as I turned onto my back. Relaxed and confident, I whispered it again. I love you. My guide, Cincinnati Red, taught me to say that. So, my friend, if you've been standing in a closet with your jar oflove going bad, my advice to you is - get the hell out of that closet! 

I've only been on this planet for a short time, well, calculated in earth years that is. From what I've seen and experienced, I'd say closet-love is a terrible waste of a valuable h uman resource, LOVE. For a visitor, I'm learning your language adequately, don't you think? I guess it's no big thing as my cyborg father was h ere a billion light years ago. Disguised as a mailman, he purloined dozens of paperback books and magazines. Upon his return home, Iliberated much of his plunder. Plus, I've been studying your language for at least a million and a half earth years. I even played an earthling in my kindergarten recital. Don't knock it. I got a lot oflaughs. I played Sergeant Bilko, if that means anything to you. Onvoyages to other planets I learned that LOVE is valued far more than oil, gold or diamonds. In fact, there's a resort planet in the bunghole galaxy (excuse me, the word used here, bunghole, is a loose translation of the Zoronian word X-Z754. It's difficult to translate into a meaningful English word as you earthlings won't experience this phenomenon for another million or so Earth years.)

So anywho, this quaint, little resort planet is approximately several hundred light years west of Zoron. Or is it east? Jeez, I'm lousy when it comes to directions. My comrades never let me navi gate. A fine kettle of fish! Hey, I'm being totally candid here. As I was saying, on this resort-planet they have extensive LOVE forests and preserves. The inhabitants, early on, realized that LOVE was their most precious resource. They've never allowed the LOVE forests to be harvested. Consequently, a handful of trees in one LOVE forest have exceeded the hei ghts of the Transamerica Building in San Francisco, planet earth. Moreover, they have a LOVE festival there every 23,000 earth years. Life forms from all galaxies, save yours, go there for a weekend ofmerriment, uninhibited love, and primal rejuvenation. Yes, a rather poor show on earth's part, eh?

My comrades and I made reservations well in advance of the last LOVE bacchanalia. We enjoyed the amenities of a cabin overlooking one of the largest LOVE preserves. We spent the entire weekend saturated in LOVE. I even broke down and bought a few inexpensive LOVE souvenirs for the folks back on Zoron. I cheated and put them on my expense account as emergency repairs! Gad, what a panic!! Can you believe that, Charlie? What the hey, there won't be another LOVE festival for quite awhile.

Hey, don't get me wrong, you earth folk have a lot of neat things down here. Like coffee, cigarettes and beer. I'd never smoked a cigarette before my visit to your planet. I'm up to a carton of cigs a day now. Before departing your lovely orb, I'll try to smoke five cartons each and every day. Will that be acceptable? Crazy me, I promised some comrades on Zoron that upon my return I'd attempt to smuggle aboard a few cases of beer. You see, we've never had beer on Zoron , so naturally anyone who is anyone wants to sample it. Please understand that our consumption of earth beer would be completely different from your chosen method. i.e. pouring it down your throat. Crude