Phillips High School - Phillipian Yearbook (Phillips, ME)

Page 26 text:

24 THE PHILLIPIAN parachute. In a few minutes he would emerge, ostensibly a citizen of this country. As he approached the edge of the forest a burst of laughter warned him that people were near. He dropped the parachute and stood still, releasing the catch of the pistol with automatic precision. This time there must be no mistakes. As he stood poised there three people emerged from the wood, their arms full of underbrush, an old woman and a young couple, evidently on their way home with firewood for cooking their meal. The laugh- ter lingered on their faces a moment when they saw him. Then the lengthening light of the moon glinted on the revolver, and they saw the parachute. They stood wavering, uncertain, confused, as he raised the pistol. It would be easy he refiected. Thank God for the moon. No, not God- The people remained frozen into rigidity. Their arms did not even relax to drop the faggots to the ground. With the slow inevitability of a slow mo- tion picture he squinted through the sights of the pistol. The man first, he decided. Then the women. Nothing could stop him -nothing. Then, as his finger tightened on the trigger he sneezed. He aimed again, but another sneeze shook him. Swearing under his breath he prepared to take aim again. The three people had dropped their loads of wood, and the man suddenly began to run toward him. Oberleutnant Schroeder squinted into the sight but his eyes were blurred, and he sneezed again, this time more violently than before. The human military machine had been trained never to be aware of nature except as a battleground, therefore he did not know at first what was disorganizing the perfect balance of his plan. But, being a doctor, he suddenly realized that his trouble was due to the fact that he was standing in a field thickly covered with rag-weed. The military organization had overlooked this completely. As the big German stood there, cursing and sneezing, his eyes streaming, the three people found it easy to seize his pistol and start him stumbling before them to their nearby home. Their home was a large one with many rooms and Schroeder, whom we will now call by his given name, Karl, soon discovered that it was used as a sort of hospital. It was crowded with patients suffering from an epi- demic of typhoid fever, due to the contami- nated water supply of the community. The three people whom Karl had tried to kill owned the place and had been after dry fire- wood for the numerous fireplaces in the hos- pital. Since Karl could not be sent to the authori- ties immediately he was set to work scrub- bing fioors. Soon the people at the hospital learned his story. They learned, too, that he had made a special study of typhoid. He was asked to contribute his knowledge. This he did, and soon the patients were well. His fame spread, and soon, instead of entering cities to blow up dams, he did so to save the people. Everyone knew the name of Karl Shroeder. He became known more familiarly as Dr. Karl. So far as I know he is still practicing medicine in that country. He plans, after the war, to get his wife. The three people whom he thought would be his victims often say to each other, Our capture of Dr. Karl was a lucky day for us, wasn't it? N. T. '43. THE DATE I DIDN'T WANT T was April Fool's Day but I wasn't aware of it. My girl friend told me that her boy friend had brought a pal along, at her request, so he would be over to see me. Picturing him to myself, I imagined him tall, dark and intelligent. I thought about the good time we would have, we could have a lunch, play the radio, play cards, look at snapshots taken on our trip South-oh, I was so anxious to see him! That evening I put on my best dress, my pumps, my ear-rings and fixed all up even

Page 25 text:

THE PHILLIPIAN 23 a uliiii! 4 DR. KARL BERLEUTNANT SCHROEDER sat very still in the plane staring straight in front of him like his other comrades. He didn't look at the huge mountains of clouds rolling below him, gleaming gray and white in the moonlight. Young German soldiers were not supposed to waste time contemplat- ing nature. He was repeating to himself the orders given to him that morning. . . . You will be Hown over enemy ter- ritory. Under your flying overalls you will be attired in civilian dress. In a secluded section of farmland you will be dropped, armed against possible capture. From there you will proceed to the dam near the city, where you will locate from the map given you the hidden switch that will destroy the dam. Due to our sudden evacuation of this section we were unable to set it off before. This time there must be no mistakes. . .U The drone of the plane made Oberleutnant Schroeder vaguely drowsy. He was not par- ticularly excited at the prospect of his immi- nent adventure. Most emotions had been carefully trained out of him. He had graduated with honors from the University of Berlin six years before obtain- ing then his M.D. degree. He had always wanted to be a doctor and through the efforts of his zealous mother he became one. A general practice was what he had wanted, he felt as if he could do more good in that line. He had married pretty Fraulein Schneider, a school teacher, and had a most successful practice when he was called into Hitler's army. He had been promoted quickly. Now he was as close to being a machine as military discipline could bring him. There was no emergency for which he was not prepared. He had long ago learned to speak the lan- guage of the enemy. -Achtung, Leutnant! They were ap- proaching the spot where he was to para- chute down. Feeling quickly to make sure his pistol was ready in case a farmer saw him, he crouched in the narrow doorway. The rising moon slid from a bank of clouds illuminating clearly the landscape be- low him. A deep blue lake caught the sil- very rays and ripled them OH into the shadows. The dark green plumes of a for- est spread out on one side, on the other, bleak fields extended as far as he could see. No human being was in evidence he noticed with satisfaction. That made things simpler, he refiected as he swung to and fro, a deadly doll suspended from the white mushroom of the parachute. The earth rushed up to meet him, and the wind dragged him several hundred feet through the dusty weeds before he could de- flate the chute. Extricating himself he stood up and looked around. A cloud of smoke rising some distance away told him that people were living in this section. Fingering his revolver he started for the trees in order to strip off his overalls and cache them with his

Page 27 text:

THE PHILLIPIAN 25 to the perfume! Around eight o'clock there came a knock at the door. At the very same time the telephone rang. Was this a sign that my caller wasn't so important? Which should I tend first? Well, I answered the phone and guess what-it was my boy friend! YVait just a minute, Peterf' I said nervously. No, on second thought, wait and call later. I-lim awful busy. What? he drawled sarcastically. Really, Peter, you'll have to call again. G'bye --uh-bye, dear. With that I banged the receiver into place, hurriedly com- posed myself, smiled, and walked easily to the door. Telegram, ma'am, came the voice. O-U,', I blurted - then added, Thank you very much. I closed the door. I sighed. I sank into a chair and sighed again. Without looking at the telegram, I sat thinking. lust then the front door bell rang. It must be the date. Again I made ready. I walked to the door with my fingers crossed. I opened the door with a Welcoming smile but I felt it gradu- ally fail as I beheld that which was before me. Yes, it was the date I' but not the date I had looked for. There stood a-a -fwell, to be frank with you, a gawklj He was tall, skinny, not so intelligent- looking and pimply. Handsome-my eye! What was Madge thinking of? Her boy friend must be dopey to have this thing for a pal! My heart sank and I wanted to cry. O, well, I thought, maybe he isn't as bad as he looks. I can stand it just for tonight. All this flashed through my mind as he stood grinning at me. We greeted each other, introduced our- selves, and proceeded to the parlor. What would the kids say if they could see me now? We had talked only a little when I found he had a sissified voice, halitosis, and warts on his hands. I tried to overlook his faults, to talk and laugh. It was in vain! After about twenty minutes I said despairingly, Please excuse me a moment. I think my mother wants me. I knew it was rude and besides Mother was at a bridge party but I just had to think of something. I went to my little brother's room. He was reading but had not gone to bed yet. I quickly ex- plained my troubles and asked him to think of something. Interrupt us, play stupid or anything but please relieve me. As we were talking again, Horace and I, the sound of terrible violin music came to our ears. My little brother is practicing. We think he does awfully well, I said. K' Well, if that's music, then I'm a bird in a gilded cage. Horace said this trying to think of something witty. However, I didn't take it that way. I wanted to bop him! I hnally got out the pack of cards and we attempted to play. Never had I been so ill at ease-and that music was deafening! Finally little brother came in, dressed in an old summer suit, far too short. I introduced him to Horace and little brother shook hands -and I mean shook hands! Horace almost lost his arm. The telephone rang, so I asked David to keep Horace company just a minute. It's a pleasurefl he grinned. He began to pester him, he pushed the card table into his stomach, accidentally jumped on his foot, dropped the pack of cards and said, Please pick ,em up. I have a sore side. Horace, trying always to be courteous, obligingly ex- cused everything. O, yes, my telephone call was from Peter. I explained my situation to him and he said held try to help me, too. In fact, he came over to call! Perhaps I was doing wrong but I was suffering! Peter talked of electricity, Caesar, aviation and everything to embarrass Horace. Horace tried to answer intelligently but we really got some laughs. Peter de- cided to go home saying he just came to see if the milk cart had come! He secretly wished me luck, saying he shouldn't stay. I was glad to have so much time taken up but then happened to think I could take him into the kitchen. We made sandwiches for ourselves and had some milk. Because Hor- ace said he thought roosters, eggs were nice to eat, David said he'd fry one. Oh, said Horace, giggling, don't bother. I only re-