Page 120 of Devil’s Disciples

Her nose wrinkled. “You want to be older?”

“I just wish I could have experienced some of the stuff from the sixties and seventies.”

Her face glowed with wonder. “Like what?”

“Woodstock. The Vietnam War. Kennedy being shot. Disco. Protests. Riots. You name it. The sixties and seventies would have been awesome.”

“If you could go back in time and change one thing, what would you do?” she asked.

My response was immediate. “I’d toss Lee Harvey Oswald out the sixth-floor window before he took that shot.”

“Why that, of all things?”

“Because I think the world would be a better place if Kennedy would have remained president. Everything went to shit after that. Johnson, the war, Watergate, all the lies. Kennedy would have paved the way for a better nation, and a better way of life. That’s my opinion. What would you change?”

Wearing a slight smile, she gazed blankly at me for some time before responding.

“I’d do the same thing,” she said. “But with John Wilkes Booth.”

“The guy that shot Lincoln?”

She nodded. “Yeah.”

“Fuck.” I let out a sigh. “I wish I would have picked that shit hat instead of Oswald.”

The corners of her mouth curled up just a little. “Why?”

“That guy was a fucking shit hat. The war was over, and he didn’t even realize it. It still makes me mad when I think about it. One half of the United States believed in slavery so much that they were willing to kill their brothers to convince them they were right. I’ve never been able to understand that. We’re talking about human beings. Who, in their right mind, could think keeping someone as a slave was humane? It’s impossible for me to comprehend.” I pushed my plate to the side. “Still makes me mad to think about it. Yeah, I want to go back in time and choke that prick out.”

She tilted her head to the side and rested her cheek against her hand. “Did you do well in school?”

“I hated school. Damned near flunked out. Loved reading, though. I just hated authority.”

“You’re intelligent. I can’t believe you hated school.”

I shook my head. “I’m not intelligent. I’m just not stupid.”

She tilted her head to the side. “Do you know when World War I started?”

“On June twenty-eighth, nineteen fourteen, they assassinated Franz Ferdinand. The war started right after that. Why?”

“What about World War II?”

“What about it?”

“When did it start?”

I wrinkled my nose. “You don’t know when it started?”

“I want to know if you know,” she said.

History was a subject that I knew a lot about. Reading about the past experiences and expectations of our country – and other countries – let me form opinions of what was right and what was wrong based on the mistakes and choices of others. Although no other subjects interested me in school, history fascinated me.

“Germany attacked Poland on September first for no reason,” I said. “The Prime Minister of Britain declared war against them for it on September third. It was in nineteen thirty-nine.”

“What’s the speed of sound?” she asked.

I glared at her. “How the fuck would I know?”