I lost my big brother on October 2, 2021. That’s one of the reasons I’ve been silent of late. It wasn’t unexpected, he had been diagnosed with a brain tumor in early June and then, when the biopsy came back, they diagnosed it as malignant and Stage 4. He and his wife, Helene, made the very hard decision to not go through the chemotherapy.
Arthur was a “Brother of the Heart.” While not born into the same family, we’ve been friends, more than friends, since 1979. We’ve had more adventures in those 42 years than most people have in a lifetime.
It just dawned on me, we knew each other 42 years. If you’re a fan of science fiction, in particular, you’re familiar with author Douglas Adam’s popular 1979 science-fiction novel The Hitchhiker’s Guide the Galaxy, the first book in his series, you recognize the significance of that number. The number 42 is the answer to the “Great Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything.”
And that book was published in 1979, the year we met. Can you say “fate?”
But that was what life was like with Arthur, fate.
We used to work at science fiction conventions, both doing sales in the dealer’s room and security or gopher. I know we did a lot in the 1980s.
I have some great stories from those days. I had meant to write an autobiography of all the crazy we used to do.
But, instead, I’m writing them all down in a book for Helene because she’s not heard all of them. In keeping with his story telling ability (which was fantastic) the ones he did share probably were enhanced to amuse the audience.
In the book, I’ve been reminiscing about things like the time he shot the refrigerator when trying to shoot a spider (he was phobic about them…spiders, not refrigerators). Or his love of sacrificing character candles, hanging around thrift stores, collecting children’s books and weapons.
Art had an alter ego that he built for the Society of Creative Anachronism, the reenactor’s group for the Middle Ages. We were both members for several years.
He was Kaless, the Semi-Honest Merchant. It worked for the SCA, it also worked for the conventions. Kaless, in the conventions, was a Klingon (Star Trek, the Original Series ones). His dark eyes and hair fit the Klingon image totally.
Art was always a writer. He wrote all sorts of things, articles, short stories, and finally a book. He always cheered me on, which was awesome. When I finally got published, he was on the phone telling me how great it was.
I helped him publish his first book. It’s loosely based on life growing up in the Texas panhandle with family on a ranch. But, it’s got kidnapping, and all sorts of other great mystery.
Art did a lot of living in his years. He also did movies as an extra. Things like Two for Texas where he had his own costumes so they hired him. In that movie, he played both a Texican and a Mexican soldier. He laughed and said I might catch a 2 or 3 second view of him in the background of one of the scenes as a Mexican soldier, leaning against a tree, sleeping.
Another movie he did some extra work on was Ride with the Devil. Art was a soldier in this one. It’s a movie, released in 1999, set during the Civil War. It’s a dramatization of the time during the war in the 1860s. Rather than focusing on the main generals and battles, it covers a soldier who has lost much, his best friend, his father, and their friends. The civilians caught in the crossfire take in the soldier, who falls in love with the widow of the best friend who died. The film also touches on racism when the soldier meets a black soldier.
He later told me about the fact that Jonathan Rhys Meyers was in the movie and he had a picture of himself with the Irish actor. Meyers went on to play Vlad Dracula in an NBC series. He knew how big a Dracula fan I am.
One thing Art could do, he knew his weapons. Having shot from a young age, he had handled so many different weapons, he was an expert. He also knew knives, and swords. The “Rust” shooting that happened with Alec Baldwin would have really pissed him off, the handling of those guns was so wrong. He was skilled enough he could have been a weapons master on a movie.
He once told me that the movie sets he was on, he would be handed replica guns, he wasn’t shooting but his character carried. He impressed the weapons master because they would bring the replica in, show him it wasn’t loaded (or loaded with dummy bullets) and then hand it to him. He then did another check for himself. He said that everyone who worked with a weapon on set should know the safety rules and always check the weapon for themselves because, even if they were the big-name actor/actress, it was their responsibility to know what that weapon could do or if it was safe.
One thing he did was teach “Weapons for Writers” panels at conventions and at his home place. Reading books and watching movies where it was obvious that the author didn’t know what they were doing drove him crazy. Especially when someone put a silencer on a revolver and then the people around the target couldn’t hear the shot. It doesn’t work like that!
I miss Art so much. I hear things, or read something and I want to pop up on his Facebook page or pick up the phone and talk about it. It’s just so hard to think that he’s gone.
Tomorrow is his memorial. Several of his friends will join me and his widow for a pot luck lunch and a celebration of the man who was so influential in so many ways to so many people.
I’ll see him again, and we’ll get to talk about all the things he missed.
Charlayne, thank you so much for writing this about ‘our’ brother. It seems that I mostly handed him off to you all those years ago. We stayed in touch by phone, email and a handful of times in person over the years. I got to see he and Helene a few years ago for dinner when my son was in a bowling tournament in College Station. We didn’t know it would be our last chance to see each other in person.
I love the stories you told above. Most of mine involve he and Ma-Moo – chocolate chips and big dogs with a turtle thrown in there. The constant conflict with several others in the family and his quirky sense of humor.
Stay in touch. Alesia