Review: Science Fiction: “An Incident on Route 12” by James H. Schmitz

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Phil Garfield has a plane to catch. Madge is waiting for him at a private airfield. The rendezvous isn’t romantic, but has more to do with with the suitcase on the front seat of Phil’s Packard and the $35,000 in it. Some thirty miles south of the little town of Redmon on Route 12, the car starts making funny noises. It coasts to stop and ceases making noise. Phil is no mechanic. The Packard is useless as transportation, but maybe not as bait. Phil needs a car. When Phil thinks of the bank guard, and begins remembering how he made a clumsy play at being a hero, and how that set that fool of a woman off, running into their line of fire, the reader knows this isn’t going to end well for Phil. And it doesn’t. But it is funny. He gets what he deserves in a cosmic way. I rather enjoyed this short tale. It wasn’t going to be too much of a surprise, but the ending came with some humor. Not all the money in the world will be doing him any good. Any Madge is probably starting to think he skipped out on her. Author James H. Schmitz was born in Hamburg, Germany and grew up speaking both German and English. His family spent time in the United States and Germany. He worked for International Harvester in Germany between the world wars and left Germany before the outbreak of World War II. During the war, he served in the U.S. Army as an aerial photographer. His writing, which spans from the 40s, and into the 70s, is characterized as space opera, but with surprisingly strong female characters. No damsels in distress for him. This story is available from Project Gutenberg: _____ Title: “An Incident on Route 12” Author: James H. Schmitz (1911-1981) First published: If, January 1962 Source: ISFDB