Another Place Episode 29

Another Place Another Time

Book Two

Luke and Traveler

Episode Twenty-Nine

Parkers have farmed their six hundred acres in central Tennessee for more than a hundred and fifty years. The farm has passed from generation to generation, beginning as a grant to Thaddeus Parker, signed by Andrew Jackson in 1834, down to the current crop of Parkers, Andy, Rick, and Lois.

The Parkers are a tall, lean, handsome clan. Even the women are strong and tall. Six-foot-tall women are not unusual in the Parker lineage, though they appear average beside their six-and-a-half-foot tall male relatives. Other common family traits include, black hair, blue eyes, and a gaze solidly anchored to the earth they love and tend.

Andy, Rick and Lois are clearly Parkers. Clad in period clothing, they could have had their picture taken and placed beside those of their ancestors, hanging above the mantle in the old farmhouse, and no one who saw the picture would have suspected that generations separated them.

Rick and Andy top the six-foot-five mark by a quarter of an inch. Their “little sister,” Lois, touches the mark at exactly six feet. If her height doesn’t get attention, her beauty never fails to, though she gives it no regard. She holds other personal qualities in much higher esteem, qualities such as integrity, courage, and strength; traits she has in common with her bothers and her ancestors.

“The Parker Kids” have owned and operated the farm for more than eight years. They took it over the day the commuter plane that was bringing their parents’ home from their first trip out of Tennessee, flew into a fog covered mountain just north of Knoxville. Neighbors said they would never be able to make it on their own. Distant relatives even tried legal action to gain control of the farm. However, the kids - ranging in age from twenty-one to seventeen with Andy being the oldest, Lois the “baby,” and Rick the middle child - weathered every storm. The farm became their lives, and they were totally committed to it.

These days the farm is more prosperous than ever and the Parkers’s could have eased off some, but that never crossed their minds. Their work is their life.

Lois once told a friend, who suggested that she begin dating some of the local boys, “I can’t do that. I believe in love at first sight.”

Her frustrated friend retorted, “Lois, it doesn’t matter if you believe in love at first sight or not; you never see anyone except your brothers and the County Agent. You have to see someone, to fall in love.”

The Parkers do all the work on the farm themselves, though they could easily afford to hire farmhands. The County Agent says the Parker Farm is the best he’s ever seen, and he continually tries to persuade them to enter contests, or become the subject of this or that study or magazine article. They steadfastly refused, saying it is a waste of their time.

********

The storm swept in from the west and engulfed the farm just a few minutes before nightfall. Andy and Rick were in the kitchen beginning supper. Lois was in the equipment shed servicing the newest tractor when the storm hit. She never enjoyed cooking and refused to do more than her share of the “house stuff,” just because she was a woman. Rick and Andy understood and never thought that it should be any other way. The Parker kids considered themselves equals, Andy’s age didn’t give him an advantage any more than Lois’ gender put her at a disadvantage.

Lois poured the last quart of oil into the John Deere and replaced the oil filler cap. She closed the hood and stepped back to admire the tractor, thinking how much her Daddy would have loved it. She was standing there, daydreaming a bit, when a flash of lightning lit the equipment shed like it was high noon. The boom of thunder almost deafened her, and it instantly ended her daydream.

She stopped at the door and tucked her hair under the hood of her sweatshirt, stalling for time before making the dash across the yard to the house. Finally, she took a deep breath, held it, and jumped out into the driving rain. She took two long strides toward the house and stopped like she had run into a wall. Thoughts of the storm were gone. Sailing over the yard, just under the low, fast moving storm, was a strange looking aircraft. It seemed as big as their house, and it was only a few feet above its roof. It was wobbling and appeared on the verge of falling from the sky. It was so low; its metallic skin reflected the light from the house and yard back on to the trees and grass as it passed over.

The airplane silently fought its battle to stay in the air. Around its outermost edges was a row of multicolored lights that were flickering, from washed out yellow to bright white. Clearly, it was in big trouble.

It flew over the yard and out of sight behind a tall oak tree beside the barn. As soon as it was out of sight, Lois sprang forward. As she did so, she finally remembered to breathe. She ran to a point just short of the back porch and stopped there in the driving rain, watching as the aircraft disappeared behind a row of trees on the far side of the cornfield. She felt, more than heard, a thud, and knew the plane had gone down in their hayfield.

She took the kitchen door almost off the hinges. Andy and Rick stared at her. There was a long moment before she could talk. Time shifted into slow motion. The loudest sound in the kitchen was the sound of rainwater dripping from Lois’ soaked sweatshirt.

Time returned to normal when she screamed, “Let’s Go! NOW! A plane just went down in the hayfield!”

She didn’t wait for their response. Instead, she turned and ran back into the storm, disappearing toward their pickup truck parked beside the house.

*********

Neither Rick nor Andy considered questioning their sister. They knew her too well for that. They sprang for the door in pursuit. Despite their quick reactions, Lois had already started the pickup and moved it to the porch steps when they got outside.

The windshield wipers beat hopelessly at the storm, as the pickup slewed out of the yard, with the three Parkers wedged in the cab, all staring wild-eyed into the wall of rain that separated them from the hayfield.

I post two episodes of Another Place Another Time every week

For info on receiving each episode directly on your Kindle click here
Or, if you don’t want to wait, click here to purchase the complete Kindle version of the book.

Currently I’m working on The Mystic Trilogy – the first volume – The Sages – it is posted weekly – click here to read the first and all subsequent episodes.