Chuck & Easy: The Tale of Two Brothers

By Ron Roe

I think you would have had to know these brothers and maybe even be with them some time in order to write this story. To understand some of the feelings they had, you would have had to really know their character. The deep feelings they had made them end up where they did.

Some of this story is written from true events, and other parts are things that I think could have happened. If one little thing had not happened in the life of these two brothers, maybe their life would have turned out differently. Its sad, really, the things that could have been. I know that we will never know now what could have been then if things would have happened slightly different for two young men and their beloved fishing hole.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jul 28, 2018
• ISBN: 9781984543240

Ron Roe

Ron Roe is a Hoosier from Martinsville Indiana,he is a vet from the Korean war with the United States Air Force, 1951. At the age of 15. He made his career as a sign painter and he was also an artist.

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Copyright © 2018 by Ron Roe

ISBN:                 Softcover             978-1-9845-4305-9

                            eBook                 978-1-9845-4324-0

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 07/27/2018

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CONTENTS

Chapter 1 The Brothers

Chapter 2 The Next Day

Chapter 3 Prison Life

Chapter 4 Time Passes

Chapter 5 Changes in the Prison

Chapter 6 Companion

Chapter 7 Key Maker

Chapter 8 The Plan Advances

Chapter 9 Successful Gift

Chapter 10 A robber’s mind set

Chapter 11 The final job

Chapter 12 Revenge

Chapter 13 The Final Chapter

Dedicated to my beloved wife, Loretta, who has spent the past sixty years putting up with me. Life wouldn’t be near what is has been without your love and support. I have loved and cherished every moment of our lives together. I love you honey.

A very special thanks and dedication to my very talented granddaughter, Nichole, for helping me fill in my story’s gaps and for putting it all into words to share with all of you. She has and always will share a special place in my heart. Thank you Nichole, Papaw loves you.

Chapter 1

The Brothers

Just two regular guys wanting to make something of themselves, living in a small Midwest town with a population of around 300. You have to realize this took place in the 30’s, when jobs was not to be found. This town only had three stores; a general store, a drug store and the Transportation and more store. Transportation and more was a bit of an everything store. They were the local feed mill. Selling feed, some small live stalk like chickens and ducks, and the occasional large live stalk. They did all the black smith work. They worked on horse shoes all the way to farm equipment. It was the only place to get any sort of transportation. They sold farm equipment, bicycles, and occasionally had a few cars and trucks in their gravel lot. There wasn’t a gas station. If you had a car and you needed gas, you would have to bum some from another; or you would have to wait for a passer-by to see if he might let you have some. Luckily there was a church. The lack of things to do made it hard to do much, expect roll up some local weed and smoke it. Well, these two regular guys wanted to be able to help take care of their family. Without jobs, gas for the car, and the lack of prospective wives these brothers, now nineteen-year-old men, decided to take matters into their own hands.

They weren’t sure what they could do. They just knew they didn’t feel right living off of their parents at age nineteen. They had little education, and not many choices. The damn schools were ten miles away, and their parents couldn’t afford to drive them every day. Their Dad traded three goats and a cow for a model A Ford pickup truck to the owner of Transportation and more store. He sent Chuck and Easy to the feed mill to pick it up. Of course, they took their mule to help them tow, (pull), the truck back home. Easy worked hard on that truck for two weeks from sun up to sun down before finally getting it to run, so that Momma could go across town to church every other week. People would donate clothing to her to use to patch Chuck and Easy’s clothing. She used the scraps after patching their clothing to make quilts and blankets. Chuck and Easy sure thought she was something and wanted to do better by her.

When they were sixteen years old their horny teacher wanted them to stay after school. Knowing that they had to walk all that way home, they were just too tired to play her games. They weren’t particularly intelligent, but they knew they wanted to learn. They had to do something; they didn’t want to keep living like this. They fought to get an education but couldn’t continue to get to and from school. Nor did they want to be forced to deal with their teacher after school, even if she was a looker.

Though they didn’t have traditional smarts, they were talented. When Chuck was younger he was like an artist. Each year, for Christmas, his parents would buy him and Easy crayons, pens, pencils, and blank paper. Every year, Chuck would use all of his crayons up into nibbles. He would use Easy’s up that year too. He was really good at drawling anything that he tried. He could even drawl whatever he wanted from memory. He sketched their fishing hole and hung it above their beds, so they could still be there when the weather was bad. He didn’t understand how to use his talent. It would later prove to be a great asset. Easy wasn’t an artist in the traditional sense. He was more of an inventor. He took a reel and connected it to their clothing line at home that way his Mom could put the clothes on the line and reel them back when she got done. He saw things in a different way. His mind was always active with crazy and creative ways to change the world around him. His common sense on the other hand, didn’t seem to be in the forefront of thought.

Let’s go fishing and maybe we can think of something, Chuck said with a hopeful voice. So, they got their fishing poles and headed down to their fishing hole under the railroad tracks. For three miles they seemed to just walk and talk about nothing in particular. Even though they knew they had to think of something to do, they couldn’t think about their issues on the way to their fishing hole. Nature fully captured their thought as they heard small animals rustle in the brush. The narrow path was slightly over grown. Easy couldn’t help but climb the downed trees and try to balance as they laugh and carry on talking in circles. Only then, when they see the clearing and start hearing the railroad shutter above, were they able to truly think, to focus.

As they walk alone in their bibbed overall jeans that their Dad let them have, (they were his for about five years prior to giving them to his boys), and their white stained t-shirts, they began to see the side effects of their actions. Their long hair, dusted with debris from the path, made Chuck think about what he wanted to be thinking about. He then looked around from left to right, up and down taking in all of the sights around him. He spoke in a disappointing voice, You know this place looks just like it did ten years ago, and it’s going to look the same in another ten years. If we stay here we too are going to look the same, but older and dumber. Easy chimed in, So, let’s do something about it!

Why don’t we rob a bank? Easy said smiling and excited. Chuck replied, Hell, we can’t! As Chuck turned his head he had a cynical look and continued his reply, They’ll ask us for collateral; just like they did Dad, and we ain’t got that! Chuck loved to tell jokes, even if he didn’t fully understand what joke he was telling. He once heard his Dad talk about the bank asking for collateral, and about how it was robbery. Chuck didn’t really think about the consequences of his actions, but the punch line he could make. Why, he probably wouldn’t have robbed a bank even if he had the sense to do so.

The leaves hadn’t yet changed but the air carried the smell of fall, and a slight bite of winter from the mountains miles away. Chuck and Easy were consumed with their thoughts of getting to the fishing hole so that they can think about what they are going to do. They finally got there, and didn’t even bait their hooks. As they looked into the clear pond with sides covered in nature, a train comes barreling over the bridge, shaking the old rail road ties about them. They heard the sound of the wheels on the track, the steam shooting from the top, and the warning whistle sounding far before it was over head. The excitement and power of the train made anyone want to go where ever it was going, leaving his place be. As the sound of the engine drifted further into the distance, Chuck and Easy began to become overwhelmed with thoughts, as they always did at the fishing hole.