THE LEGEND: With enduring legends there is more than one version and there are claims that each version is the correct one. The cartoon 'Kilroy was here' emerged as a symbol of a super hero for US troops during World War 11. Whenever military personnel arrived in a sticky situation they would find, so it was said, that Kilroy had already been there, paving the way. As one report states about the Kilroy phrase: 'It was often accompanied with the image of a face with a long nose and two big round eyes with small dot eyeballs peeking over a wall or a line representing a wall. Everything else, except sometimes his fingers gripping the top of the wall, was hidden behind the wall itself.'
ONE
Veronica Ross was born in the late 1950s and a cheeky cartoon β Kilroy was Here β hung over her cot. She was, of course, not up to reading at that stage but in later years her maternal grandmother told her about the cartoon when the young girl asked about her deceased parents, Bob and Betty-Lou.
Initially the disclosures were part fact, part fiction but when Veronica turned eighteen Grandmother Rose, believing she was on her deathbed, told Veronica the truth. Veronica's father Bob stormed into the house carrying a shotgun one dark stormy night when he was supposed to be on night shift and killed Betty-Lou and her lover Mason Kilroy as they lay in bed; he then killed himself. Veronica, still not a year old, became the ward of her maternal grandparents.
At the age of 20 Veronica, a former teen Beauty Queen, married the high school hero of her class, Seymour Barrington, who became a hack sports reporter on the
Cable Creek Echo
and Veronica became a receptionist for a law firm, and there they stuck β not much in love, keeping their heads above water financially and managing to buy a new house thanks to a hefty bank loan.
They were like thousands of other couples except they were without children. There were problems and no solutions: Veronica wanted to adopt; Seymour didn't; Seymour suggested vitro-fertilization but unfortunately it was not successful so that was that.
Late at night Veronica occasionally had very realistic dreams about her mother and they 'talked' and she found comfort in that. The dreams began on the eve of Veronica's 16th birthday and she knew it was her mother because Betty-Lou told her she was. Betty-Lou finally came through at her baby's darkest hour when Veronica was copying with the finality of knowing she'd never have a baby.
TWO
Tired of weeping, sick of watching crappy late-night TV on this lonely Friday night Veronica padded to the kitchen to make a sandwich, wishing Seymour had not gone away for two nights with the football team for the play-off final. The kitchen lights were on and there waiting for her was a chicken sandwich and mug of hot chocolate. A stranger was sitting at the table.
"Hi," said Veronica, knowing the doors and windows were securely locked. But she also sensed this wasn't an ordinary intrusion. Are you Mason Kilroy?"
Mason nodded. "Yep, your mom sent me, and she was right. She said you'd be smart enough to guess who I was although you've never seen me, not even as a photo."
"But she described you to me several times, as grandma had done β curly brown hair, green eyes, quite handsome with a dimple under your left cheek. Mom even told me I'd know you when I saw you. Sorry I never got to know you."
"Or her, really."
"Quite."
Mason looked serious.
"Are you angry I was responsible for you becoming an orphan as an infant? If you are, I'll disappear immediately."
"No, I've long accepted what happened and mom has told me many times she truly loved you whereas dad was a stuffed-shirt moron."
"She said that?"
"Yes, aren't you two communicating?"
"Well yes, but only when we are together. But she never talks to me about her relationship with you β she still feels so bad about what she did to you. But now she can make amends."
"Really, how's that?"
"She's send me to impregnate you."
Veronica choked on her sandwich.
"Shyte!"
"Quite," Mason said solemnly. "Drink up and then get ready."
"What for?"
"We're going out to get revved up; you wouldn't want me humping you stone cold sober β you wouldn't have the nerve to go through with it."
"Erβ¦"
"Quite."
"Wear your tight silk dress, garter belt and stockings, no bra or panties. You mother says that is my fetish."
"And still is?"
"Oh yes."
"God, I think I'm getting wet already."
"Then let's get a move on, huh!"
"I've never gone out without wearing knickers, but must admit I've come home without them a few times, especially prior to marriage."
"What young woman doesn't?"
"I wouldn't know. You stay here, I don't want you watching me dressing as it could be embarrassing."
"Nothing compared with what we'll be doing in a few hours time."
"God, tell me about it. No β don't!"
Seymour who looked 24, the age he was when he died, drove them to their first watering hole in Veronica's battered Japanese compact. She noticed he didn't stop at red lights yet they never appeared in danger, nor did cops come chasing after them.