Tuesday, December 10, 2019

charlie in the corner's tale


story by horace p sternwall

art by konrad kraus

for previous story, click here

to begin series, click here





they thought they had me.

but i was too quick for them.

bam! bam! a left and a right! a left and a right! just like joe louis and custer when they blew up the maine.

be careful what you wish for, because i’ve seen it all.

my pappy told me, son, aways draw to ace joker.

these people who run the city now, they are just a bunch of lollipops.

back in my day, we knew how to wait them out.


they said it couldn’t be done.

but we did it, didn’t we? just like the old days.

i remember the first time.

al capone says to me, charlie, we’re counting on you.

dillinger, he wasn’t all he was cracked up to be. but custer, he had the goods.

when we got back to the hideout, we had a good laugh, didn’t we, boys?


nobody will ever know what really went down on that fateful day.

don’t believe everything you read in the paper.

babe ruth, lou gehrig, walter johnson, those were ballplayers.

too bad about that little girl, though, the one by the side of the road in the snowstorm.

we got through, though, we did what we came for, what we had to do.


i wanted my mother to be proud of me.

charlie, charlie, you spilled your drink again!

hey bob, charlie spilled his drink again.

we had to do what the boss man said, get through to the hideout in the smowstorm, little girl or no little girl.

it’s what custer would have done, and teddy roosevelt and black jack pershing too.

charlie, what did i tell you, you can’t go spilling your drink every single night. once in a while is all in the game, but not every single night.


bob, bob, give me a break, this is - this is the first time i spilled my drink… in a week, in at least a week.

no, charlie, you spilled it last night, and the night before and the night before that. tony, why don’t you take charlie home to his room?

and ypu’ll give me a free drink for my trouble, right, bob?

sure, sure, it’s all part of the game.

come on, charlie, let’s go.

just let me finish my drink.


what are you going to do, lick it off the floor? let’s go.

hey, it's snowing! snowing! where’s the little girl?

there’s no little girl, charlie. and it’s just a few flakes. now stand up straight like a little tin soldier and i’ll get you back to your room.

i hope the little girl gets back, i hope she gets back to her poor old mother.

merry christmas, tony!

merry christmas, my friend, as you can see i’m on an errand of mercy here.

that’s the spirit! merr-y christmas!


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