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18^th Arondissement, Early February, 1941
by Earl Coleman

Jacques’ a man of iron resolution, nerveless, muscled,
lean, gnawing wolf-like on his Gauloise Bleu (bolt-action
rifles guarded by their cosmoline inside the truck, boxed snug,
tucked in beneath the tarpaulin). He is slow-moving by design,
hidden momentarily by urgent traffic flow around Place des Abesses,
while Boche SS, hunched Nazis, on alert for franc-tireurs, go double-timing
down Montmartre, eagle-eyed crack gunners in the truck-back covering their Gruppe.

Jacques steels himself in shadows of the plantain tree,
inventing crudités of courage as his only camouflage.