~WILLIE~

As a child I grew up in a very close neighborhood where
everyone knew everyone else and everyone was
always helping one other.
We had quite a gang of playmates, separated only by age. 
One of my best friends was a guy named WILLIE.
He came from a big family as I did. As children, Willie and
I were always together. We walked to school and played together from childhood into and beyond high school. We dated the same girls and when I got my first car...Willie was a permanent fixture in my front passenger seat.
I remembered smoking our first cigarette together,
and drinking our first beer.  Boy, did we ever get sick!
I remember Mw & Willie holding hands
as the world spun one way & then the other! That
home brew was very powerful stuff and it sure smelled bad!
We really enjoyed our last summer together.

Then, I joined the Service & Willie took a job at the
 local hardware store.  As the years rolled by,
whenever I came home, I always looked up Willie and we would go out on the town, so to speak, and raise a little hell...nothing bad, just cruise around & chase a girl or two...just normal stuff every guy does.  Well Willie met this girl & they went together for a long time. Unfortunately, as the years passed, she ran off with a guy from the carnival.
He never got over that. He never married.

  Willie kept in contact with me. I traveled all over the world, flying as a fighter pilot for the US Air Force. 
I got hurt during a crash landing and was hospitalized and finally resigned my commission and  became a civilian. 
I came home and looked Willie up and we painted the town RED. We had a ball! The towns people thought we were brothers as we did look a lot alike.  

As the years went by I landed up going into the trucking business, long haul.   I traveled all over this great land!  I got married and  started a family.  I bought a home just outside of town and  when I needed any bolts or chains or any parts to run my truck, I always went to Willie at the hardware store. My new job took me away from home for long periods of time. I had lost touch for awhile.

 One Christmas  I came home early.  I had been gone for a couple of months and my wife had called everyone for a welcome home party. I was surprised that Willie was NOT there!  The next morning my wife needed some groceries so I unhooked my Peterbuilt tractor and off to the store we went.  It had snowed about 4 inches and  now it was very mild out and the snow was getting very slushy.  I dropped my wife off at the store and  I pulled up and parked on the side of the parking lot, so I would be out of the way.   As I sat there waiting for the wife to finish her shopping,  I looked up the street I lived on as a child and noticed a very ragged man walking towards me.  He had on a knitted hat, an old Army field jacket,  and very dirty baggy pants, gray wool stockings and  just low rubbers held on with canning jar rubbers.  No shoes...his eye glasses were broken and taped
together.  As I got a good look at him, its WILLIE!  I yelled to him and he stopped.   As I jumped out of my truck, he lit up like a light bulb and yelled my name.   We ran to each other and  I hugged him and shook his hand!  We walked over to my truck and talked for perhaps 15 minutes.  My wife came out of the store and  I introduced her to Willie. 
She only had heard a lot about Willie, till now.  
She shook his hand and we all talked together for perhaps ten minutes.  

I asked Willie what had happened to him?  
He told us he had fallen on hard times!  I invited him to come
home with us and he said he would like that.  He said he  had
some things to do first.  I told him to remember my phone # on my truck door and  call me when he was done doing whatever it was he had to do.   I told him I  would come and pick him up and bring him home.  He could stay at our house as long as he liked.  He smiled that big smile of his! 
I never pushed the hard times issue.  Willie never told his
problems to anyone.  He did ask for a few bucks and I gladly gave him some money.  He told us he wanted some wine.  I thought that was kind of funny, as Willie never drank wine, but I never questioned it.  Willie promised he would call me as soon as he was done getting his stuff done.  So we said our goodbyes and we headed for home.   I had to wait for
traffic to go by and as I got out into the road we had to pass
Willie again.  I tooted my horn and we all waved to each other as I drove away.

   I got thinking?  Why would the owners of the hardware store let Willie go?  This was making me a little more than mad!  I drove into the hardware store parking lot and  we went in.   I knew the owners from childhood and had to ask them why they would let Willie go?

 The wife and I were asked to come into the office! Stanley, the owner, informed us that Willie had died nearly a year before. I told Stanley he was nuts and we just ran into him.   
Willie was walking this way and  should be right in front of the store about NOW!   I ran out and looked up & down...NO WILLIE!   I was shocked!  He was no where in sight!   The wife and I assured everyone we had indeed just seen and talked to him just moments before!

To set the record straight, I know it was Willie and  not a look alike because Willie had mentioned a childhood secret we shared that no one else knew about!  Positive proof to me that it was WILLIE! 

Why he appeared to me, I have given it a lot of thought and I
have NO idea.  The fact that we both had shook his hand and  I had hugged him, he was no ghost, or misty figure.   Willie was as solid as you or I and  had been dead for nearly a year!  

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