The following “letter” is part of the continuing series from the unpublished novel by James Garrett, “Benicia Letters Once More”. He does not plan to publish the book but instead is choosing to share the letters with the readers of the Benicia Herald. The letters continue the storyline of Garrett’s first novel “Benicia and Letters of Love”. Each “letter” tells of love in one of its many forms from a separate point of view. Benicia is represented prominently in the letters because of Garrett’s deep fondness for the city of Benicia. He hopes readers see themselves or others they know in the letters because the concept of “Love” is universal.

Hello Jim,
One afternoon after I left Rube’s Pool Hall, I walked down the street and talked to a man who I came to love in the short few months I knew him. He was a lot older than me.
I know you know of Rube’s Pool Hall because I know you. We know that site of male gathering closed down decades ago and a different building has stood on its site for years, but many people don’t know it existed. At one time the west side of the block between “H” and “I” Streets also included the “Dime Store,” a barber shop, Wolff’s Drug Store and some other buildings which were different than the ones there today.
The person I met was a seafaring man. He retired and somehow found himself living in Benicia. It was merely a temporary rest stop. The man was a sojourner who had been many places and done many things.
It was an afternoon during the summer and he was sitting on a bench in front of the State Capitol Building. That was the only place I ever saw him. After our meeting that day, I started looking for him.
I went downtown a couple times a week and during those times I talked with him for as long as I could. Usually after about an hour I had to leave. At times he said something to the effect that I must have something to do and thanked me for the conversation. I knew it was my time to move on because he wanted to be alone again. I wasn’t being dismissed. He just wanted to be by himself. I often thought over the years that those were times when some memory brought out suppressed feeling in him. When I was about a block away, I looked back and he was still sitting there. A couple times he was looking at me. Most times he was looking straight ahead at the other side of the street, nothing, or a scene he could see only in his mind.
The stories he told of “far away places with strange sounding names,” things which happened to people, how a person should live their life, and the wonder of the universe stimulated my mind.
For years I didn’t believe some of his stories and comments he made. Later I discovered he had been telling me the truth all along. I just needed some clarification and some time to digest all he said. All along he had been speaking about himself. There was pride and regret, happiness and sorrow in his words. He spoke of the past and what he felt the future would bring. His history was correct and his predictions of how the future would evolve have proven prophetic.
I started noticing he was no longer sitting on the bench. I think he looked for a warmer climate for his old bones. He needed to sit in sunshine. He taught me a lot. He was a piece of flotsam or jetsam which washed up on our shoreline, lingered for a time and then moved back out to sea.
Mike

James Garrett is a lifelong resident of Benicia and a former teacher at Benicia High School. He is the author of the following novels: “Benicia and Letters of Love,” “The Mansion Stories,” “Chief Salt,” and “One Great Season, 9-0!” He also compiled a three-volume work titled “The Golden Era: Benicia High School Football, The 1948 through 1960 Seasons, “A” History with Comments.”
He can be contacted at jgstoriesnpoetry@aol.com.

Sharing is caring!