Donnie drove back to Elwood Village.
Elwood Village is a traditional American village, except now the phenomenon of land consolidation in the United States is not severe, and basically every family owns a sizeable farm.
However, there are always exceptions, such as the Block family, who immigrated from Italy at the beginning of the last century. After Donnie's grandfather arrived here, he did not choose to become a farmer but decided to open a tavern here instead.
This was also one of the reasons George Kurle gave for transferring the Atlantic City tavern to Donnie.
Now Donnie's grandfather had passed away, and Donnie's father, as the only son of old Block, had taken over the management of Block Tavern.
Block Tavern is located on the only main road of Elwood Village, along which, aside from Block Tavern, there is also a restaurant, a pharmacy that can sell other items... an auto repair shop with no customers, and a church. That's all there is.
Raven's repair shop is the first store on this main road, with a sign filled with a sense of age that could be blown away by the wind at any time.
Donnie parked his car directly in front of Raven's repair shop.
After getting out of the car, Donnie saw that there was no one inside the repair shop and thought that Raven might be having lunch at this time, so he shouted loudly, "Raven, your repair shop can finally do business today!"
Although the Ford car brought by those two hitmen was not damaged in the just concluded fight to affect the driving, there were still some bullet marks on the body that needed to be dealt with.
However, after Donnie finished shouting, Raven still did not come out.
This surprised Donnie because in Donnie Block's memory, Raven was a very family-oriented man. Even if his repair shop had no customers, he would sit inside the shop warmly awaiting any potential visitors every day.
What was going on today?
After shouting twice more and still getting no reply, Donnie could only shake his head helplessly, thinking of leaving the car here first, as he needed to make a trip home.
Taking his backpack, Donnie walked towards the tavern that was his home.
"Something is strange?"
At this time, the villagers should be home for lunch, so why were there so few people on the street?
Block Tavern is located on the southern side of this main road, and it would take Donnie a while to walk there.
Just as Donnie was puzzled by the empty street, he passed by Elwood Village's only church. The wide-open doors allowed Donnie to clearly see inside. On this day, which was not a Sabbath, the church was filled with people all wearing black clothes—something that only occurs when there is a death in the church.
And at this moment, the priest at the front of the church raised his head, ready to address the congregation about the deceased.
That's when he saw Donnie!
"My God!"
The priest's clear eyes immediately shone as if he had seen an evil spirit walking among the living.
At the same time, the priest's exclamation caused everyone else in the church to involuntarily turn around and look towards the church entrance.
When these people got a clear view of Donnie, some of them were so scared that they jumped up and fell forward.
In the front row, four people slowly stood up. Although their expressions had been downcast, they now looked on in disbelief and joy.
Soon after, a man with curly hair, big as a bear, ran towards Donnie, shaking the ground as if it were trembling!
In the middle of the aisle, a tall man tried to block him, but he was shoved aside easily, without the slightest ability to resist.
"Donnie, it's really Donnie, you're not dead, that's great!"
The man tightly hugged Donnie, his large palms hitting Donnie's back with a 'thump thump,' making Donnie feel like he was about to die!
This man was Donnie's older brother, John Block!
"What's going on?" Donnie was also beginning to react, "Are you holding a funeral for me?"
As soon as he finished speaking, two more people rushed out from within the church. One was Donnie's mother, Jennifer Block, whose fat body trembled uncontrollably as she ran.
She brushed aside John as if he were a little chick, and also tightly embraced Donnie.
In an instant, Donnie felt as if he had just escaped a mechanical vise only to be caught in layers of cotton, completely enveloped, making Donnie appear as if he were a bamboo pole.
"Can't breathe!" Donnie gasped for help, choking.
"I knew you wouldn't die! Damn Carl insisted on holding a funeral for you. I'll make sure he regrets it when we get back!" Jennifer exclaimed as she released Donnie, her eyes brimming with emotional tears.
Donnie caught his breath and glanced past Jennifer to see his father, Carl Block, who had just sat down in the first row of the church.
Carl, with his whitening hair and beard, even in an ill-fitting black suit, you could still see the muscles taut on his shoulders, stretching the fabric nearly to its breaking point.
At that moment, Carl Block sat there, his gaze similarly resting on Donnie, his lips trembling slightly, yet he managed to appear very calm.
"Big brother, it's so good you're alive!"
A hearty laugh reached Donnie's ears—it was his younger brother, Cameron Block!
A youth who had just turned 20, yet his face bore the composure not typical for his age, although he couldn't quite hide his excitement.
"So, this is my funeral!"
Everything before him was telling Donnie that what he was witnessing was indeed his own funeral.
"Robert, Robert, you rascal, get over here now!"
At that moment, John suddenly turned around and bellowed loudly towards the inside of the church.
The young man John had just pulled away, now approached with a sycophantic smile, bending slightly at the waist as he ran over.
"I knew it, Donnie, you rascal, you couldn't possibly be dead, after all the death notice hadn't arrived yet!"
Smack!
Robert had barely finished speaking when John smacked him hard on the forehead, causing Robert to hold his head, looking indignant but not daring to speak out, continuing to force a smile instead.
"Would we have held this funeral for Donnie if it weren't for your saying so?"
Watching the performance of these people, Donnie once again spoke up, asking, "All right, now can someone explain to me what exactly is going on here?"
"Let's talk about it when we get back,"
At this point, Donnie Block's father, Carl Block, finally stepped forward, casting a relieved glance at Donnie, then took the lead towards their family's tavern.
Donnie found Raven and whispered that he had parked the car at Raven's doorway, asking him to take care of the marks on the car body, but to avoid suspicion, he did not explicitly mention that they were bullet holes.
The rest could only say their goodbyes to the others and follow Carl out, and those in the church who had come to attend Donnie Block's funeral understood that the family would surely have a lot to discuss, so they didn't say much.
.
The layout of Block Tavern was similar to that of Korla Bar in Atlantic City, with tables and chairs scattered throughout the first-floor hall, a bar counter, several small rooms, and the second floor being the Block Family's residence.
Because they had been holding Donnie Block's funeral earlier, there were no customers in Block Tavern at that time, so the group from the church was now seated in the chairs inside the hall.
Before long, Donnie learned the whole story, and then he glared fiercely at Robert Lillard. Donnie was familiar with him, as the two were the only soldiers from Elwood Village who had served in the United States Army during World War I.
The difference was that Donnie and Robert were not in the same division, and Robert Lillard had returned to the United States mainland earlier than Donnie had.
"Back then, everyone was saying that your squad must've been wiped out. I originally wanted to inquire about it, but our squad got orders, and I left. After we finished the operation, World War I ended, and we returned early to the United States. I asked many people, and they all said your squad was finished, so I thought..."
Robert had his hands on his knees and his head slightly lowered, his voice filled with a sense of wronged resignation.
The whole incident was actually quite simple; it was the result of George Kurle's foolish decision at that time. The internal communication equipment of the U.S. military was not very advanced then, leading to the misinformation Robert had about Donnie's squad being completely annihilated.
At this point, Carl suddenly stood up, approached Robert, who quickly raised his hands to protect his head in fright.
However, Carl simply said in a muffled voice, "Enough, there's nothing here for you anymore, get lost!"
"Right away!" Robert, as if pardoned, hastily left, and at this point, only the Block family remained in Block Tavern!
Everyone was still immersed in the immense joy of Donnie's return from the dead, and for a moment, they didn't know what to say.
In the end, it was Donnie who broke the silence first, smiling and speaking to Cameron sitting beside him, "You have to take the SATs next March. Have you thought about which university you want to attend?"
Cameron Block was the oddity within the entire Block family; although he had always attended public schools, his grades were consistently excellent, leading him to be known as the 'bookworm' of Elwood Village.
Upon hearing Donnie's question, Cameron's eyes drooped slightly, revealing a trace of sadness as he said, "I haven't decided yet, but I hope to attend a public university in New York State."
This clearly wasn't Cameron's true intention; he spoke this way considering his family's situation.
After all, in the United States, the tuition between public and private universities could differ by at least twice as much.
Take Columbia University, for example, one of the oldest Ivy League universities in the United States, its tuition has always been among the highest in the nation. Although Donnie didn't know the exact tuition fees of Columbia University, it was certain that the university's tuition was at least around 500 to 1000 US dollars a year.
Just as Donnie was about to say more, Carl spoke up once again.
"We can talk about these things over dinner. Now that you're back, it's good, as the whole family is here. I wanted to inform you about selling the tavern; John and Cameron already know, so I'm letting you know now, meaning you'll have to start planning for your future!"
.
ps: Follow, follow, follow, the important things said three times. Following is the lifeline of this book, whether it can be tested in the waters depends on it. So friends who are nourishing the book, I beseech you to keep reading during this time~~