Unexpected Turnings
A Short Story Collection
by
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The Olympic Champion
A quietness blanketed the crowd muffling all conversation as the
word spread. The great Heinz Mueller
was about to jump. Everyone's' eyes
were fixed on the top of the hill.
A giant of a figure on jump skies herring-boned his way to the
starting line, crouched down, straightened himself up and with the same motion
took a mighty leap into the fall line. A very fast start. He quickly assumed the classical schuss
position; head forward, knees bent, body crouched down close to the ground like
a stalking lion about to spring, but hurtling forward at breakneck speed,
faster and faster, accelerating more and more, until the force of gravity
became so powerful that he was no longer a discrete figure on skis but a
blurred apparition, like a daytime comet with ski poles as a short double tail,
projecting into the air behind him.
With perfect timing he lifted his head just before the great leap as he
broke the classical streamlined egg position.
Then, with one forceful motion, he straightened his powerful lower limbs
and just as the spectator had said, leaped into space like the giant phoenix
bird. His body, now a sailplane, rigidly held and parallel to his skis, his
head again forward to lessen the wind resistance, Heinz soared over the heads of
the enthralled spectators. Everyone was
breathless.
There had been more powerful skiers that morning, faster skiers
who leaped greater distances than did Heinz, but no one had more grace, no one
who was more at one with the skis than Heinz Mueller, the aging master. Everyone sensed that another Heinz Mueller
might never come again.
There were shouts of “Bravo,
Oursli! Ja, Oursli. Wunderbar, Oursli!”
The cheering began even before he touched the ground, as if it
were inconceivable for Heinz not to execute a perfect landing, which he did. It
was simply the last part of one harmonious motion, which had begun a few
moments earlier at the top of the shi jump.
Heinz was now at the bottom.
He pulled off his ski cap to reveal his slightly graying black wavy hair
just as a little girl broke away from her parents. She ran over to Heinz to give him a big hug. Instead of chasing her back to the side
lines and checking with the officials to learn how far he had actually jumped,
he picked up the little girl, kissed her and returned her to her concerned
parents standing in the spectator area.
Everybody loved Oursli.
The Secret
All of a sudden, I woke up. I had no idea how much time had gone by. There was a lot of noise outside the checkroom. Uncle Solly and two of his friends were there. They were laughing. They were talking very loud, telling sex jokes. It looked like they were drinking and I remembered about the Slivovitz. There was a lady with them. She was about twenty years old and very pretty. She had blond braids on the top of her head, a big chest and a round face with skin so white that it looked like she never saw the sun. She had on a dirndl dress that was bright green and yellow with lace in the front and was also giggling. It looked like she was drinking, too. Uncle Solly was hugging and kissing her and so were his friends and she just kept laughing.
They all had their coats. I figured that like Uncle Solly, they didn’t check their coats because it cost ten cents. Besides, the check girl wasn’t there. She probably went home. It looked like they were all leaving. One of Uncle Solly’s friends said, “We can still make the Excelsior. They’ve got great jazz there.”
I looked at the clock. It was after midnight and I wondered if Uncle Solly forgot about me. I was too scared to let him know I was there. When I saw them all go out the door I had to decide fast what I s going to do. I knew my way to my grandparents’ house, but I didn’t have the key. I also didn’t want them to know that Uncle Solly and I hadn’t gone to the Educational Alliance, but to a dance hall where there were a lot of shiksa girls and Uncle Solly had been drinking and had left me.
I decided to follow them.
They went down East Ninth Street toward the East River and were very noisy. The lady was singing a song probably in Ukranian or Russian. Uncle Solly and his friends were cheering her on. I was sure that any minute somebody in one of the apartment buildings was going to call the police. When they got to the docks they walked on to a pier. It was pitch black. There was nobody around and I was scared. I didn’t want Uncle Solly and his friends to see me, but I didn’t want to stay to far away from them either, so I sat on the ground behind a pile of thick ropes, nearby.
In a little while the singing stopped and it got very quiet. Then I heard the lady say, “I don’t want any of that monkey business!” Then I heard her yell, “Hey! Cut that out!” Then, in an even angrier voice, “Let go of me, you animal!” She started to scream, but stopped in the middle, like somebody had put a hand over her mouth. Then, there was
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About the Book
These stories, many published here for the first time, were written during training missions 40,000 feet above sea level. As a Flight Surgeon, Dr. Rettek was required to log a number of hours of flying time each month and since his Additional Crew Member (ACM), status on these flights had no specific mission assignment, he occupied flight deck space formerly assigned to navigators. There he wrote without disturbance and was able to enjoy silence by turning off his headset. By turning it back on, he was able to listen to the flight crew’s ever flowing, often engaging conversations.
The story Routine Flight is told almost exclusively through intercom dialogue. Since many life-impacting decisions often depend on the clarity and accuracy of these flimsy, sometimes weak, barely audible transmissions, these one-dimensional staccato sounds become an essential part of in-flight survival. Understanding must be exact, immediate and accurate. The mixture of sudden rapidly given commands with light, sometimes-raunchy conversation among crewmembers makes for a gripping and humorous story.
In other stories, the ghost of a famous painter finds himself alone as he desperately tries to convince his widow to remain with him in their private world. The parents of a young woman appear to her in the night, pleading with her to avenge their murder so that they may cease their wandering in the Land of the Dead. A retired Colonel is infatuated with a woman his daughter’s age. A young eavesdropper hears an unemployed father plead with his shame-faced daughter to turn away from prostitution, money from which is helping support the family. A medical student sleeps with his distraught instructor unaware that her pilot husband has just been killed. A young boy witnesses the murder of a woman raped by a gang led by his uncle whom he idolizes.
The stories differ one from the other both in style and story line, giving Dr. Rettek the latitude he needs to display his unusual ability to handle difficult material including emotions that touch us all; love, loyalty, regret, courage, self-recrimination and more. His characters come to life through heartfelt, lively dialogue as they play out the discoveries they make about themselves once caught up in unusual life situations. As in his other writings, these stories, almost all of which are fictionalized accounts of serendipitous events in his own life, reflect an unusual ear for language, an original and a fertile and creative imagination.
About the Author
In the past Dr. Rettek has written many fictionalized accounts of his experiences, sharing the wonder and excitement of many fulfilling, often bittersweet, adventures. In Unexpected Turnings, he becomes a storyteller. Intrigued by the unpredictable reactions of people when confronted with unusual life circumstances, he tells their often-gripping stories in a lively way.
His interests have often evolved into literary pieces. He wrote a series of articles, for Private Practice, a magazine for physicians, including the current How I found An Old Cure For New Problems. His interest in photography evolved into a three-act play, Valentine, a supposal about Eugene Atget who was among the world’s greatest photographers. Stemming from his longstanding involvement with painting, he wrote the screenplay, Molly and the Wine Dark Sea, portraying the conflict between the purism of art and the demands of practical reality.
He has written two fictionalized biographical accounts, Myron’s World, stories about a twelve-year-old boy growing up on the Lower East Side of New York during the Great Depression and The Calling, a book dealing with the tribulations of a medical student wrestling with both life and the challenges of studying medicine in a foreign land. Bring God into Your Life, an unusual approach to spirituality includes a series of practical exercises. His most recent and more scholarly work, The Kingdom of Heaven Through the Ages, traces the vicissitudes of this concept from its beginnings to the present time.
Almost forty years of involvement with people at their most open and vulnerable moments as a family practitioner, psychiatrist and psychoanalyst has given him the experience enables him to write about people with a considerable degree of authenticity,
Trained by the US Air Force as a specialist in Aerospace Medicine, Dr. Rettek’s trouble shooting assignments included bases in the United States and Europe. When he separated from military service, as Colonel, he was in command of a Medical Service Squadron and the oldest crewmember on flying status with prior World War II service.
He and his wife, Susan, a jewelry designer, live in New York by the sea where they enjoy their children and grandchildren and live each day in joyous celebration of God’s many gifts.