Роберт Беллем - Pulp Frictions

And in that can it stayed ’til your grandfather Dane Coolidge was called upon by his country to go overseas and fight the Germans once again. This time they called it World War Two. Your great-granddaddy gave it to your granddad for good luck.

Unfortunately, Dane’s luck wasn’t as good as his old man’s. Your granddad was a Marine and he was killed with all the other Marines at the Battle of Wake Island.

Your granddad was facing death and he knew it. None of the boys had any illusions about ever leavin’ that island alive.

So three days before the Japanese took the island, your 22-year-old grandfather asked a gunner on an Air Force transport named Winocki, a man he had never met before in his life, to deliver to his infant son, who he had never seen in the flesh, his gold watch.

Three days later, your grandfather was dead.

But Winocki kept his word. After the war was over, he paid a visit to your grandmother, delivering to your infant father his Dad’s gold watch. This watch.

This watch was on your Daddy’s wrist when he was shot down over Hanoi. He was captured and put in a Vietnamese prison camp.

Now he knew if the gooks ever saw the watch it’d be confiscated. The way your Daddy looked at it, that watch was your birthright. And he’d be damned if any slopeheads were gonna put their greasy yella hands on his boy’s birthright.

So he hid it in the one place he knew he could hide somethin’. His ass.

Five long years he wore this watch up his ass. Then when he died of dysentery, he gave me the watch. I hid this uncomfortable hunk of metal up my ass for two years. Then, after seven years, I was sent home to my family.

And now, little man, I give the watch to you.

Grateful acknowledgment is made to the following for permission to reprint their copyrighted material:

Robert Leslie Bellem. “Dead Man’s Head.” Copyright by Spicy Detective Stories, 1935, and reprinted by permission of Walter Arundel.

W. R. Burnett. “Travelling Light.” Copyright by Harper’s Magazine, 1935, and reprinted by permission of H.N. Swanson Inc.

James M. Cain. “Pastorale.” Copyright by Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, 1945, and reprinted by permission of Davis Publications Inc.

Raymond Chandler. “The Man Who Liked Dogs.” Copyright by Black Mask, 1936, and reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin and Hamish Hamilton Ltd.

James Hadley Chase. “Get a Load of This.” Copyright in Get a Load of This, 1942, and reprinted by permission of Robert Hale Ltd.

Peter Cheyney. “Nice Work.” Copyright by Sunday Dispatch, 1936, and reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Ltd.

Carroll John Daly. “The Egyptian Lure.” Copyright by Black Mask, 1928, and reprinted by permission of Mary A. Daly.

James Ellroy. “Torch Number.” Reprinted with the permission of Scribner, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group, from Hollywood Nocturnes. Copyright © 1994 by James Ellroy.

Samuel Fuller. “The Deadly Circle.” Copyright by Underworld, 1934, and reprinted by permission of Carwood Publishing Co., Inc.

David Goodis. “It’s a Wise Cadaver.” Copyright by New Detective, 1946, and reprinted by permission of Scott Meredith Literary Agency.

Dashiell Hammett. “Arson Plus.” Copyright by Black Mask, 1928 as by “Peter Collinson,” and reprinted by permission of Harold Matson Company Inc.

MacKinlay Kantor. “The Hunting of Hemingway.” Copyright by Detective Fiction Weekly, 1931, and reprinted by permission of Paul R. Reynolds Inc.

Stephen King. “The Fifth Quarter.” Copyright by Cavalier, 1972 as by “John Swithen,” and reprinted by permission of the author.

Elmore Leonard. “Freaky Deaky.” Copyright in Freaky Deaky, 1988, and reprinted by permission of Viking Publishers Inc.

Ross Macdonald. “The Singing Pigeon.” Copyright by Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, 1953, and reprinted by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.　

Ed McBain. “Accident Report.” Copyright by Manhunt, 1953, and reprinted by permission of the William Morris Agency Inc.

Mickey Spillane. “The Lady Says Die!” Copyright by Manhunt Detective Story Monthly, 1935, and reprinted by permission of Mickey Spillane Productions.

Quentin Tarantino. “The Watch.” Copyright in Pulp Fiction, 1994, and reprinted by permission of Faber & Faber Ltd.

Jim Thompson. “The Frightening Frammis.” Copyright by Alfred Hitchcock’s Magazine, 1957, and reprinted by permission of Richard Curtis Associates.

Cornell Woolrich. “Dead on Her Feet.” Copyright by Detective Fiction Weekly, 1935, and reprinted by permission of Popular Publications Inc.