Another Place Episode 37

Another Place Another Time

Book Two

Luke and Traveler

Episode Thirty-Seven

I looked in the outside rearview mirror and watched the lights of Tucson disappear behind low sand dunes. I looked ahead toward the west and could see only more sand and darkness. Highway 50 was deserted; the interstate had taken all of its traffic and left it alone and empty in the desert.

The heat of the day had long gone. The sky was a solid wall of blackness. Though I knew there was a high-flying cloud layer obscuring the stars, it was still strange looking at a sky that had no sign of light. I shivered despite the warmth in the cab of the Kenworth.

I gave up my search of the empty night sky and settled back in the seat. I checked the gauges. Everything was in the green. I flipped the button on the gearshift and at the same time eased off the accelerator. There was a soft smack from inside the Roadranger transmission case, and I knew the shift to thirteenth gear was complete. I pushed the accelerator to the floor and gave the big CAT diesel its head.

********

Two weeks to the day had passed since the afternoon that Rick Parker hijacked Traveler and me. I thought again of the two hours after the Greyhounds left. I had thought of that morning often in the past two weeks.

As soon as the helicopters left, Charlie gave us the second present he had promised. I’m amazed that it only took a couple of minutes for him to do that. Then he said good-bye to the Parker’s, promising us that he would be back in a year.

He turned to me and asked me to walk with him to his aircraft. He, Traveler, and I turned away from the Parkers and began moving to the ship. We took a few steps in silence, and then Charlie said, “Luke, this is what I started to tell you before the Greyhounds showed up. When I told you and the Parker’s about the conditions on earth in my time I didn’t tell you everything. I didn’t tell you the worst part.”

He started walking again as he considered his words. “We are replanting the forests and we have discovered ways to speed the growth of the trees that you would find unbelievable. It appears the new forests will have the atmosphere clean within the next eight years; and I don’t mean just livable. I mean as clean as it was a ten thousand years ago. We had to do that, and do it quickly, or else we would have died. However, I didn’t tell you about another problem. It doesn’t threaten our lives, but it has had a marked affect on the emotional health of everyone on the planet.”

We walked in silence for a few steps then stopped. Traveler sat beside me looking straight at Charlie. I knew I was about to learn the cause of the deep sadness that I could feel in Charlie, even in moments when he smiled or laughed.

“All the mammals on the planet have died.” I must have gasped.

Charlie continued, “We still don’t know exactly why it happened. When we realized that no new mammals were being born, scientists began working to restore what they called the “way things had always been.” They tried everything from hormones to artificial insemination. Nothing worked. After the death of the last known mammal, the psychologists theorized that after being abused by humans since the beginning of time, the mammal, and I mean every mammal on the planet, including whales, stopped reproducing. Every effort made to reverse the situation, failed. The last one, an elephant at the San Diego Zoo died.” There were tears in Charlie’s eyes, and for a moment, he couldn’t speak.

We began walking again. At the foot of the ramp, we stopped and Charlie turned to me. It still wasn’t easy for him to talk; he was so choked with emotion. “Traveler is only the second live mammal I’ve ever seen or touched; Whispers was the first. I cannot tell you how great it has been to see him, to pet him, just to be close to him. That brings me to the favor I want to ask.” He paused; I knew he was thinking about his next words, making sure they were exactly right. “Luke, I want to take Traveler with me.” Before I could interrupt, he held up his hand and added, “Just for visit, a short visit. Two weeks, that’s all. I’ll bring him back two weeks from tonight and meet you anywhere you say. You have my word on it.”

He looked at me with such intensity; I could barely maintain the eye contact. Then he added, “Luke, there is no way I can tell you how much it would mean to the people of my day to see Traveler.

I broke the eye contact with Charlie and looked at Traveler. I had a lump in my throat, but I still managed to say, “What do you think about it, Big Guy?”

Traveler looked at me and then at Charlie. He barked sharply one time and turned toward the ship the way he turns toward the truck when he’s ready to go. I looked at Charlie and said, “I guess that answers your question.” A rare smile lit Charlie’s face. We quickly made plans for our meeting in two weeks, and then Charlie and Traveler disappeared up the ramp. A moment later the ramp retracted, and silently the aircraft rose straight up, accelerating rapidly as it climbed. Quickly, it was gone from sight leaving the Parkers and me alone in the middle of the hay field.

As I walked toward the Parkers, Lois ran to my side, took my hand, and asked, “When is Traveler coming back?”

“He’ll be back two weeks from today. He and Charlie are going to meet me just outside Tucson.”

She smiled and said, “That’s not bad. Now we’ll just have think of something to keep your mind off Traveler, until he gets back.”

She dropped my hand and started running toward her tractor, as she called over her shoulder, “Just follow me, and we’ll figure it out.”

I followed the Parker’s across the field. It was quite a parade, three John Deere tractors, followed by a Kenworth pulling a World War II water wagon.

As we pulled into the barnyard, General Cavanaugh returned and made a slow pass over the field, then the house. He turned, and as he passed over us, he gave us a thumbs up. We watched until his helicopter disappeared in the direction from which he had come.

The Parkers drove their tractors into the shed, and I backed the water wagon into its stall. Andy and Lois went into the house to prepare breakfast. Rick and I removed the wheels and tires from the tanker and put them back on my trailer. In less than an hour, the task was complete. I hooked up my trailer, and then moved the rig up the driveway under the cover of the ancient oaks that surrounded the house, where I was confident that it would be invisible from the air.

Rick and I washed up in the shed, and then walked up the path to the house. As we stepped onto the back porch, two jet fighters, flying low over the house, shattered the stillness of the morning. They were quickly gone beyond the trees without giving any sign that they had seen anything suspicious in the hay field. Rick and I looked at each other and grinned.

********

When we walked into the kitchen, Lois, who had been talking to Andy immediately hushed. Rick said, “Don’t let us stop you. What were you talking about?”

Andy turned toward us, a grin on his face, “Oh, it wasn’t very important, Lois has decided that….”

Before he could say another word, Lois slapped him smartly in the back of the head with her open palm. “I’ll tell it, thank you very much.” Then she stopped talking, and I realized that she was blushing.”

Andy, more serious than I had seen him, said, “Okay, everybody, sit down; and I’ll get the coffee, and Lois can tell her story her way.” He pointed to the chair at the head of the table, “Luke you sit there.”

Lois, looking straight ahead, sat beside me. Rick sat at the opposite end of the breakfast table, and Andy poured the coffee. With all the cups full, Andy sat down, looked at Lois and said softly, “Do you want me to tell them?”

“No you nut, I’ll tell it. Just don’t rush me.” There was a long pause, and no one tried to break it. My left hand was touching my coffee cup; my right hand was lying on the table. Lois turned toward me, covered my right hand with her left, looked directly in my eyes and said, “Luke, I love you. In my whole life, I have only loved these two guys, our parents, and our grandparents, but that’s enough for me to know what love is, and I know that I love you. I’ve always said that I believed in love at first sight, but since it had never happened to me, I wasn’t totally sure about it, until you walked in the house yesterday. Then, I knew that I believed in it, because it had happened to me. I don’t know how you feel, but I think you feel the same way.”

I didn’t trust myself to speak, but I knew I had to. I managed to say, “I do.”

Andy quickly returned to his lighthearted self and chimed in, “Then by the power vested in me by the great state of Tennessee, I pronounce you husband and wife.”

That broke us all up. When the laughter finally died away, Lois said, “Luke, if you’ll let me, I want to go with you.”

I didn’t have any trouble talking that time, “Let you? I’d already been planning a way to kidnap you.”

We finished breakfast, at least I think we finished, while Lois, Rick, and Andy made hurried arrangements about Lois’s chores, local commitments, and other logistical matters. Then she looked at me and said, “Give me ten minutes.” She jumped up and ran for the stairs.

Rick said, “Well, Luke, we Parkers are nothing if we aren’t unconventional.”

I laughed and said, “I noticed that when you climbed in my rig yesterday.” We talked for ten or fifteen minutes without saying much of anything. Just three guys getting to know one another. Then Lois came bounding down the stairs and burst into the kitchen. She held a large red gym bag, straining at the seams, in her left hand and a smaller one in her right hand. There was a pair of running shoes, laces tied together, slung over her shoulder, and she was slightly out of breath. She was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen in my life, and she still is.

I jumped up and took the large red bag from her as I said, “Let me get that.”

Andy said, “Luke, she’s stronger than you.”

Lois gave me the large bag, but when I reached for the smaller one she laughed and said, “One is enough Luke. I can carry my share.”

Rick said, “She’s not kidding there Luke.”

*********

Tucson was behind us. I looked at my watch for the hundredth time since we had left the city. Just then, I felt a touch on my right shoulder. I covered Lois’s hand with mine as she said, “Stop worrying, Luke. They’ll be there. And slow down, or else we’ll be in California instead of at the meeting place.”

I eased off the throttle, as she slipped from the sleeper into the passenger seat. We searched the sky though the windshield and in the mirrors. Charlie had to cover a lot of time and miles to find us. I have to admit, I was a little concerned that he might miss us. A tractor-trailer looks big on the highway, but when you’re coming from another place in time, it might not be so easy to find.

I looked at my watch; it was midnight. The time we had agreed to meet. I glanced in the mirror again, and all of my concerns faded away as a dark shadow slipped from the sky, and turned into more lights than I could count. The ship sailed noiselessly over the rig and hovered over the highway a quarter of mile in front of us. I began to gear down. When I was within a hundred yards, Charlie turned off the lights and moved the aircraft to the shoulder of the road. I pulled off the highway about fifty feet behind the hovering ship. The ramp began to drop from its belly.

By the time I got out of the truck, Charlie had extended the ramp to the ground and Traveler was covering the distance between us in great long bounds, accented with loud barks. Then, he was standing on his hind legs, front paws resting on my shoulders, licking my face. Charlie walked up just as Lois moved up beside me, a large cardboard box in her arms. Charlie didn’t seem at all surprised to see her.

Lois put the box down and grabbed Traveler, who quickly began licking her face. Then she stood, and we both shook hands with, and then hugged Charlie, who said, “You cannot imagine what a hit Traveler was. He is a superstar in my time.” Traveler barked.

“I have to be honest with you, Luke. Bringing him back to you is one the hardest jobs I’ve ever had to do.”

“Maybe this will make the job a little easier,” I said as I picked up the cardboard box and handed it to him.

“What’s this?”

Lois laughed, “Well open it and see.”

Charlie put the box on the ground and opened it. Traveler peered in and began wagging his tail. Charlie said, “I can’t see.” The box whined just as Lois turned on a small flashlight, revealing its contents – two small puppies, one a miniature of Traveler, the other a replica of their mother, a golden Lab.

Charlie finally took his gaze off the puppies. There were tears streaming down his face when he said, “The black one looks just like Traveler.”

“What a coincidence,” I said. Traveler barked sharply.

Lois said, “The puppies are a gift to you from Traveler’s vet in Rocky Top, Tennessee. Of course, he didn’t know they would be going to the future. We thought about it, and frankly, we don’t believe that moving these two puppies from here to there will have a major impact on the course of events, but then who knows, maybe it already has.”

Charlie, said, “To quote Luke, ‘I’m willing to risk it.’”

*******

The highway was deserted as far as we could see in each direction, but we knew we couldn’t stay there much longer. We hugged again, and Charlie reminded us that he would see us at the farm in a year. With the cardboard box held securely in both arms, Charlie headed up the ramp and entered his time machine.

The three of us stood beside the highway for a while after the lights of the ship disappeared through the clouds. Finally, we turned toward the rig. I put my arm around Lois and marveled at how well she fit there. As we walked, I looked at Traveler and asked, “Well, Big Guy, are you ready to go back to work?” He barked. “We have a new driver to train, you know?” He barked again as he ran ahead to the tractor.

A few minutes later, I slipped the Roadranger into thirteenth gear, and glanced at the gauges, assuring myself they were all in their normal operating range. I listened to the engine and knew that it wasn’t my imagination; it was running smoother than it had ever run…and it was running on water.

That was Charlie’s second gift to us. He told us how to convert gas and diesel powered engines to run on water. I couldn’t believe how simple it was. We agreed to keep it our secret. It would change history far too much if we “discovered” the process before it’s time.

I have to dummy fuel tickets so my CPA doesn’t get wise, and then I pay fuel tax on the fuel I didn’t buy, but I’m still way ahead of the game. Not to mention the extra revenue that has come from having a new co-driver; who happens to be my best friend and my wife.

*********

After Charlie and the puppies left, we continued west on Highway 50. Traveler was sitting in the passenger seat staring through the windshield. Pavarotti was singing, softly, so as not to wake Lois. We hadn’t seen any traffic since leaving Tucson when the headlights picked up a sign that read, “Four Way Stop Ahead.” I began to brake and gear down. Just before I came to a full stop, I reached across the cab and locked the passenger door.

As I straightened, I patted Traveler’s head. “I don’t know about you, Big Guy, but I’m just not ready for someone else to come crawling in here with us.”

The End

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.

Another Place Episode 36

Another Place Another Time

Book Two

Episode Thirty-Six

Ben Cavanaugh

We finished our first pass over the primary search area without seeing anything out of the ordinary, and then we turned and began our second run. About twenty minutes into it, I radioed Colonel Sprague, “One, I’m going to take it up a couple of hundred feet just to get a better look.” Sprague responded by clicking his transmit button twice.

I pulled the Cobra off the treetops. I hadn’t climbed fifty feet when a reflection caught my eye. I looked closer and almost had a Vietnam flashback. In the middle of a newly cut hay field, I saw Charlie Evans’s aircraft. There were five people and a big black dog standing beside the time machine, looking toward me. I recognized Charlie’s distinctive uniform and blonde hair and, though I knew it couldn’t be possible, the dog, even at that distance, looked exactly like Whispers.

I began a tight turn toward the ship, and in the same motion, radioed the flight on their intercom frequency, “Go to our secure frequency and do it now.” I dialed in the secure frequency and heard Sprague say, “One,” followed by “Two, Three, Four…” until the entire flight had checked in on the secure frequency. Then I keyed my transmitter, “Gentlemen, do not acknowledge or respond to this message. As soon as I sign off maintain total radio silence until further notice, and I mean no talk whatever, no intercom, nothing. Circle and form on me. We are landing here. You’ll see as soon as you get off the trees that we are about to join an old friend from another place and another time.”

********

I knew that it was my duty to immediately report to NASA that we had found the UFO. I grinned, thinking, ‘I didn’t report it before, and I’m not going to report it now.’

Luke and Traveler

It was a sunrise I’ll never forget, and I suspect that is equally true for the forty-nine men, one woman, and one dog who witnessed it with me.

I shook hands with every one of the Greyhounds, all forty-six of them. We told a few stories and got to know one another as best we could in our short time together. For Charlie, it was simply recalling something that happened less than two weeks before. For the Greyhounds, Charlie’s mishap had happened more than thirty years before.

General Cavanaugh said, “We were lucky that we didn’t crash into you that day, Charlie.”

Charlie laughed, and said, “You think you were lucky. I came so close to dropping into the river I don’t even like to think about it. I stopped the water pickup, reeled in the filler pipe and began to climb. I don’t think the aircraft gained more than a hundred feet of altitude before the engine stopped running. Almost immediately, it started again, but I knew I was in trouble. I forgot about making the mind computer link and headed toward a cleared space beside a rice paddy at the edge of the river. I did a better landing there than I did last night in the hay field. I guess a crash landing from 70,000 feet involves a more finesse than a crash landing from seventy feet.”

Charlie looked around at everyone standing in the hay field. “That day in Vietnam, we looked a lot like we look here today…”

One of the Greyhound pilots called out, “Only some of us were a whole lot younger.”

Charlie laughed, “Speak for yourself. For me it was only ten days ago.” Everyone laughed again.

General Cavanaugh looked pointedly at his watch and said, “We are going to leave now and continue our search as if nothing happened. I’ll radio NASA, report our progress, and give the details of the area we’ve searched. I’m going to tell them we’ve found nothing, but, though I’m a believable character, even when I’m lying, I suspect Colonel Atkins of NASA is going to send his fighters over for a final look, so Charlie, you need to be gone soon. When the Greyhounds are back in search formation, say in ten minutes or so, I’ll come back, fly over the field to see if there are any signs of your having been here that you might have overlooked. If there is anything at all, I’ll land and tell you. If I don’t land, it will be because there is nothing to report.”

General Cavanaugh shook hands with Charlie and each of the Parkers. Then he directed the Greyhounds back to their ships and told Captain Shultz to get the Cobra started. Then he turned toward me, signaling that he would like to talk. We moved a few feet away from Charlie’s aircraft and stopped. The General nodded toward Traveler and asked, “Luke, where did you get Traveler?” That wasn’t what I expected, so I stuttered a moment, then quickly blurted out the story of finding Traveler on Mont Eagle over a year earlier.

“Here’s why I ask, Luke. I know it’s been thirty years, and you might think my mind is slipping, but I can assure you that it isn’t. Traveler is a dead ringer for a Scout Dog I knew well in Vietnam. His name was Whispers, and I have some photos of him and his handler, Jake. Give me your address, and I’ll send them to you.”

I pulled a business card out of my wallet and gave it to him. I leaned close to hear him above the noise of the helicopters starting. “Luke, I could have seen Traveler anywhere else and not made the connection, but standing here beside Charlie’s aircraft, it came back to me like it was yesterday, because Jake and Whispers were with us the day we helped Charlie in Vietnam.” He glanced at the line of helicopters; I’ll explain it all in my letter.” He shook my hand, turned sharply on his right heel and walked away. I was still standing there as the Greyhounds lifted off.

As the sound of their engines began to fade, I realized that Charlie was standing beside me. “The General wanted to talk to you about Traveler didn’t he?”

“How did you know?” I asked.

“I’m not psychic, if that’s what you’re thinking. There was someone else with the Greyhounds that day in Vietnam, a scout dog and his handler. The handler’s name was Jake and the dog was Whispers. The reason the General mentioned it is simple, Traveler is Whispers’s twin….” He glanced at Traveler and added, “Luke, they are, identical, absolutely, perfectly identical.”

I stood there for a few seconds, lost in the idea that General Cavanaugh had planted, and Charlie had confirmed. Charlie snapped me out of it with a light slap on the back; “Let’s finish this up…” and he turned back to his aircraft.

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.

Another Place Episode 35

Another Place Another Time

Book Two

Luke and Traveler

Episode Thirty-Five

An hour before dawn we knew we were running on borrowed time and our luck could run out at any moment.

I glanced at Charlie, standing on top of the aircraft. He looked at me and shouted, “That’ll do it Luke. You can shut it down.” I could barely hear him over the sound of the pump. I pushed the spark plug wire off the old, single cylinder motor with a scrap of board I had found in a storage compartment of the trailer. That was the only way I had come up with to stop the engine. It wheezed, bucked, and backfired to a restless death. I thought of the irony that the survival of this flying machine from another time depended on an old pump from the past. I couldn’t help but grin at the thought.

I disconnected the pump from the pickup hose, and Charlie reeled the hose in, looked at me with a twisted grin of his own and said, “Okay, let’s see if it will run.”

He disappeared through a hatch that I assumed was an emergency port. I stood gazing like a kid who had wandered on to a Star Wars set, and then I heard Charlie shout, “Luke, before I try to start the engine, I think it would be a good idea for you to move the rig.”

I ran for my truck and quickly moved it into the trees that bordered the field. I blew a short blast on the air horn to advise the Parkers that we had finished, then I shut the big diesel down.

As I jumped from the cab, I heard the three John Deere tractors turn toward us. I looked in their direction, but saw nothing in the fog and predawn blackness.

Traveler whined, and I looked down at him. He was standing at attention. I looked toward the spot where the aircraft had been lying like a beached whale. No longer beached, it was hovering motionless and noiseless, six feet off the ground.

I don’t know where all the lights came from. I had been within arm’s reach of the aircraft for the past three hours, and I knew there were no lights on its surface. Now there were thousands of them, set in lateral lines around the aircraft. They pulsated as if they were alive, changing from yellow to white to blue, then red. I thought, wow, the science fiction guys got that one right.

A ramp swung down from the belly of the aircraft, and Charlie came walking down it as if he did it every day, which I suddenly realized, he did. He had a grin from ear-to-ear, and he gave me an enthusiastic thumbs up.

Hypnotized by the sight of the ship, somewhere in the back of my mind I heard the Parker’s shutting down their tractors nearby. In another moment, Lois’s shouts shattered the stillness, “See, see…Wow. WOW! Will you look at that...”

Andy put his arm around his sister, and the four of us and Traveler met Charlie at the foot of the ramp. He looked at each of us in turn, and said, “There aren’t words for me to tell you how grateful I am.”

We gazed at the aircraft, hovering silently, lit up by thousands of lights. I don’t know about the Parkers or Traveler, but I felt a tear slip down my cheek, and, for the first time, I began to feel like we were going to pull this off.

“I know none of you expect anything for what you’ve done, and I also know there is no way I could ever repay you. However, I do have two presents for you. The first is a ride in my magic machine.”

If he was going to continue, I’ll never know. Lois and Traveler were halfway up the ramp before he could get out another word. Traveler was barking and Lois was screaming “WOW!” Over and over.

********

Inside, the ship was as impressive as it was outside. Two single chairs in the front faced a console that stretched from one side of the cockpit to the other. There wasn’t a single gauge or digital readout on the console; instead, there were light arrays, dozens of them, each in its own hue and shade. Seeing it that way, I realized the obvious advantage of lights over gauges. The other major difference was, there were no foot pedals or yokes like those in conventional aircraft, at least the ones I’ve seen in the movies.

On the right armrest of each chair was a control stick that was about three inches high. Rick whispered, “It looks like a big Nintendo game to me.”

There were six more seats in the ship. They were in two rows of three, one on each side of the ramp and mounted at an angle so each had a good view of the console. These seats were low-slung, padded and covered in the same plush fabric as the command seats.

Charlie made a sweeping gesture that took in the two rows of seats and said, “Have a seat gentlemen and lady; enjoy my flying machine.” Somehow I managed to sit beside Lois, who I should note, didn’t seem to mind. Rick and Andy sat down in the opposite row. Charlie dropped in the command seat on the right side, turned to Traveler, and without a word that I heard passing between them, Traveler jumped into what I assumed to be the copilot’s seat. Charlie grinned as he slipped a headband made of a plastic material over his brow and turned toward the console. He gripped the control stick lightly with his right hand, and the light arrays from one side of the console to the other immediately came to life and began to pulse rapidly.

He slowly scanned the light array, pausing to touch a button here and a light there; he had become an integral part of the aircraft. Satisfied, he touched the top of the control lever and the entire surface of the ship suddenly became transparent. Rick made a sound of exclamation, Traveler barked, and I threw my left arm around Lois and grabbed the arm of my chair with my right hand.

Charlie chuckled, “Sorry, I should have warned you about that. The outer surfaces are an alloy whose molecular structure I just rearranged with an electromagnetic pulse, allowing one-way visibility. That’s why there is no windshield or windows. If you were standing outside, you would have noted no change in the appearance of the ship.

The feeling was one of flying inside a soap bubble, a very fast soap bubble. It initially had an unnerving affect on my stomach, but surprisingly, that feeling passed quickly.

With no sense of acceleration, we were suddenly climbing. I have never flown in a jet fighter, but I know the fastest fighter ever built could never hold a candle to Charlie’s ship.

I heard him say, “We are going through 70,000 feet at a speed nearly twice the speed of sound. All the systems are performing perfectly…thanks to all of you.”

Traveler barked.

Charlie paused for a moment, considered his words, and then said, “I need to cut this ride short. I promise each of you a longer one, soon, but I have people waiting for me, and they are, no doubt, becoming anxious because of my tardiness.”

“I do have one other gift for each of you that I will give you as soon as we land.” There was another pause then he added, “And Luke, I have one more favor to ask of you…” He glanced at Traveler and the dog returned his stare, “You and Traveler, I should say.”

*********

In a couple of minutes, we were back on the ground. I had not moved my arm from around Lois, and she had touched my hand a couple of times. Frankly, I didn’t want to get up and leave Charlie’s aircraft, but I did.

We were standing at the foot of the entrance ramp when I heard the helicopters. They were flying so low and slow; they were almost on top of us before I knew they were there. I had heard them pass to the south about forty minutes before, but in the fog and darkness, they had not seen us. Now, with the fog lifting, I knew that we were about to discovered.

The nearest helicopter was about a quarter of mile away from us. It was the one that would spot us. The rest of them stretched in a line north of the field. There were several of them, but they were too low for me to see them all.

For just a moment, I thought they might not see us, and then the one nearest us suddenly began climbing. I shouted, “Charlie, run for it. We’ll be okay.”

Charlie didn’t budge. I glanced at him and saw that he was staring at the helicopter, which had leveled and begun a slow left turn. I followed Charlie’s gaze and could clearly see the faces of the two pilots staring back at me. I noted the Greyhound logo on the side of the helicopter, and I remember thinking how out of place it was on a military helicopter, then I shouted again, “Charlie, run for it. You can get out of here if you go now.”

Charlie didn’t move. I looked at him and saw a smile appear on his face. Without looking at me he said, “It’s all right Luke. They’re friends of mine.” I looked back at the helicopter and couldn’t believe my eyes. The copilot, at least I guessed he was the copilot because he was in the backseat, was waving. Charlie waved back. Suddenly the rest of the helicopters rose from treetop level, and began turning toward us. I counted them; there were twelve in all. As they continued to turn, obviously getting ready to land in the field behind Charlie’s aircraft, I turned to him, “You said they are your friends. Who are they Charlie?”

“Luke, do you remember when I told you that this was the second time polluted water forced me down, and that the first time happened ten days ago in my time, which was thirty years ago in your time?”

The noise of the helicopters was making conversation difficult, but I had to hear the rest of it. I shouted, “Yes, I remember.”

“Thirty years ago, in your time, I went down in Vietnam, after I picked up some polluted water from the Saigon River. The guys that got me going again were from an Army National Guard helicopter unit whose home base was Montgomery, Alabama.”

The flight of helicopters had just touched down. The air was full of newly cut hay and the noise was deafening. Charlie moved closer and shouted, “They were called the Greyhounds.” He pointed toward the line of helicopters, now shutting down their engines, “That’s them, Charlie. That’s the Greyhounds.”

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.

Another Place Episode 34

Another Place Another Time

Book Two

Ben Cavanaugh

Episode Thirty-Four

The 545th Support Helicopter Company is an Army Reserve unit based in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. The company has twenty-two new AH-64D Longbow Apache helicopters and four Cobras from the Vietnam era. Of the fifty-six line pilots assigned to the 545th, all except eight have qualified on the Apaches. Those eight pilots are longtime friends, mediocre pilots, and uninterested in qualifying to fly the Apache. Therefore, while the rest of the company went on maneuvers to Fort Rucker, Alabama, they were sent on a navigational training exercise that amounted to flying from Tuscaloosa, to Little Rock, Memphis, and back to Tuscaloosa. They were refueling in Jackson, Tennessee, having failed to find Memphis, when Colonel Atkins found them.

The Colonel told Yancy Brooks, Bloodhound One, the leader of the flight of four Cobras, that their commanding officer had placed them temporarily under his command. He gave them the coordinates of Kingfisher One and Two and the radio frequency on which he could contact the fighters. Ten minutes later the Bloodhounds were airborne and more or less heading for a rendezvous with NASA’s fighters.

Thirty minutes later Kingfisher One spotted the Bloodhounds on his radar and radioed, “Bloodhound One, Kingfisher One.”

“Yo Kingfisher, Bloodhound is here.”

“Bloodhound, you are twenty miles south of my position. Turn to heading 346.” Ten minutes later, Kingfisher One radioed Bloodhound One, “Turn to heading 240.” The Bloodhounds slowly complied with the direction change, and Kingfisher One radioed, “Now you are on the last reported track of the boogie. Repeat, you are on the heading of the UFO. There have been no reported ground sightings, so your stumbling onto the aircraft before daylight is a real long shot.”

“That’s what we figured too, Kingfisher. Anyway, do you have any information on what this aircraft looks like? Just in case we accidentally spot it, you know?”

“Bloodhound Leader, the Delta Captain said it was an airplane but not like any he had ever seen before. He said it was similar to one of NASA’s space shuttles. That’s all I can tell you. When we got to the area the storm had obscured ground visibility and the trail was cold.”

“Right Kingfisher, well we’ll take a shot at it now. You guys go on home. The Army Reserve has this under control which means you can sleep well tonight.”

******

Jimmy Cobb, NASA’s senior aircraft traffic controller, and Colonel Jameson Atkins, NASA’s facility commander, listened to the exchange between the Air Force fighter pilot and the Army Reserve helicopter pilot. Later, Adkins told me that Jimmy looked at him and said, “Kingfisher was right. It is a long shot, and with that bunch searching, it’s a lost cause. Besides the fact there are only four of them, which greatly restricts the search area, I’ve got to believe that it’s almost a sure bet that their lack of proper radio protocol shows their level of incompetence.”

Atkins said, “I agree with you. If we have a hope of finding the aircraft, we are going to have to have experienced people in the air over the area, but I’ve called everyone I could think of, and these four Reservists are all I came up with.”

Jimmy said, “Sir, I have an idea, it might not work but we have nothing to lose.”

“What is it?”

“Yesterday the weekend flight operation bulletin from Nashville Air noted the Greyhounds of the Alabama National Guard were going to be on maneuvers in south central Tennessee this weekend. Are you familiar with them, Sir?”

Colonel Atkins told him that not only was he familiar with the Greyhounds, but that he and I had met a few months earlier at a military open house held at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery.

That’s how the Greyhounds got in involved, and it’s how I became a link between these two stories.

********

I was asleep on the sofa when the phone rang. I still caught it before it rang a second time. Struggling to open my eyes I said, “Cavanaugh here.”

“General, this is Colonel Jameson Atkins, NASA, Huntsville, we met…”

I interrupted him and said, “I know when we met, Atkins, and I know you must need something to be calling me at home. Let’s skip the history and cut to the chase.”

That didn’t rattle him, so I knew he was calling about something serious. He said, “Sir, I’m the facility manager here. Earlier this evening a Delta Airline commercial flight had a near miss with an unidentified aircraft over central Tennessee. Nashville Flight Service tracked it until it got below their radar coverage, and then they contacted us, because we’re responsible for UFO investigation in the area. I scrambled our two station fighters, but the storm had visibility down to nothing, and even if there hadn’t been a storm, my fighters are too fast to conduct a ground search. I found four Alabama Army Reserve helicopter crews that were on weekend maneuvers in Jackson, Tennessee. They were nearest to the location, and to be honest with you, they were the only ones I could find.”

I interrupted him, “Colonel, you are obviously in a time bind, don’t mince words, tell me what’s going on right now.”

“Yes sir. My pilots circled the area until the Army Reservist arrived. The storm is still over the area and visibility at ground level is about a hundred feet, however it is beginning to clear and we expect the storm to be out of the area in an hour or less.”

“And what exactly is the problem Colonel? Are the reservist not up for the task?”

“That appears to be the case, Sir.”

What other aircraft and troops do you have available now, Colonel?”

“No troops at all, General. I haven’t called for any because the possible crash site is too large to cover effectively on foot. I have only the four Army Reserve Cobras on location, and no one else can get to the area in less than five hours. My senior air traffic controller read in the Nashville Air Traffic Tactical Bulletin the Greyhounds would be on maneuvers in the area this weekend and I thought…”

“Colonel, I’m an Alabama National Guard Officer. My area of operation is the state of Alabama, unless there is a national emergency. You are not declaring a national emergency are you?”

Colonel Atkins knew that I wasn’t serious. He said, “No sir, I’m not declaring a national emergency but I thought…”

“It’s okay, Colonel, I know that we have a reputation for being effective and rather, shall I say, unorthodox?” I considered the mission and its ramifications and said, “Colonel, you must live right. Since NASA is in Alabama, and we are an Alabama National Guard unit, I think we can stretch the rules a bit and determine that this mission does involve Alabama. Now the good news is, the Greyhound’s are drilling this weekend. In fact, they are spending the night in Chattanooga. Give me your number, and I’ll do some checking. Stand by the phone and expect a call either from me or Major Billy Sprague, the Greyhound’s Company Commander, within the next three minutes.”

*******

The Greyhounds are an embarrassment to some of the top brass at the Pentagon, but they are a treasure to everyone in Alabama who knows of us. Neither of those opinions means a tinker’s damn to me. I know that we are one of the best Aviation Units in the Army, and we have been for the thirty-five years since forming the unit. That’s all that I care about.

We served three years in Vietnam. During our time there, to use official Army terminology, we served with great distinction, and became the Army’s most highly decorated aviation unit.

We returned to Montgomery on Christmas Day, 1970, three years and two days after we left. We weren’t the same unit that had left. Twenty-three of us had died in Vietnam, and the rest of us had the “thousand yard stare” in our eyes. A look, that I know now, time does not erase.

Governor George Wallace declared December 26th, 1970, a state-wide holiday honoring us. That wasn’t the end of our notoriety, far from it. I took advantage of the publicity to make a casual suggestion to the Governor. He thought it was a great idea and called his good friend Senator John Sparkman, a Democrat from Alabama, who happened to be the Chairman of the Armed Services Committee. As a direct result of that conversation, the Greyhounds assumed special status in the Alabama Army National Guard. We became a “closed unit” which meant that no one could serve in the 240th who had not served with the unit in Vietnam.

Through the years, everyone has risen to, and in some cases beyond, the rank of the position that they presently hold, which is why I’m a General, even though my command is much too small to justify having a General as its commanding officer. In fact, we are the highest ranking unit in Army Aviation, and we are also the oldest. The youngest pilot is CWO Sam Bailey, forty-eight. The oldest regular pilot is Colonel Sprague, fifty nine and I’m sixty-one. The youngest crewman is Staff Sergeant Chuck Titcomb, who claims to be thirty-nine, but is forty-nine.

Many of the original members of the company have retired. Now we maintain only twelve helicopters; eight slicks, three gunships and a Cobra. We’re scheduled for demobilization in eighteen months and frankly, it’s time. I don’t think anyone in the company will have a single regret when we stand down.

******

Two minutes after Colonel Atkins hung up the phone, I called him back, “Colonel, Ben Cavanaugh here. I found the Greyhounds for you. They just refueled at Lovell Field, in Chattanooga, and they were getting ready to tie down there for the night. I spoke to Colonel Sprague and gave him a report of your situation. They are getting ready to fly as we speak, and he is standing by waiting for your call.” I gave Atkins the number and hung up.

********

I thought about going back to sleep, but I considered it for only half a minute. I knew there was no way I could sleep, and that eventually my rolling and tossing would wake Evelyn. I went to the kitchen and started the coffeemaker.

Before it finished brewing, Evelyn walked into the kitchen, sleep still in her eyes. Even after all these years, she looked liked the schoolgirl I had met fifty years ago and married ten years later. She looked at me, smiled, and, for a few seconds, she was that schoolgirl.

“Ben, what’s going on?” she asked softly.

I told her about the call from NASA.

She looked at me and said, “Well what are you sitting here for?”

I said, “They don’t need me, Evelyn.”

She said, “Well of course they don’t need you, Ben. You need them. Now get yourself up and start moving, or you’re not going to catch them.”

The woman knows me better than I know myself. I went to the phone hanging on the kitchen wall and dialed the number.

It only rang one time, “Greyhounds, Sergeant Whitley speaking, Sir.”

“Sergeant, this is General Cavanaugh.”

“Good evening General. How can I help you?”

“Sergeant, who is the Officer of the Day?”

“Sir, Captain Schultz is the OD. Shall I get him for you?”

“No, Sergeant, that won’t be necessary. I’ll give you the message to save time.”

“Go ahead, Sir, I’m ready to copy.”

I told Whitley to have Captain Schultz preflight my helicopter and prepare to go with me to join the rest of the unit in Tennessee. I also told him to call in the stand-by Officer of the Day.

I changed into a flight suit, grabbed my helmet and gloves, and in two minutes, I was back in the kitchen. I kissed Evelyn and said, “I’ll call you when I know what time I’ll be home.” I paused, looked in her eyes and said, “I love you.”

“I love you too, Ben,” and as I turned to leave she added, “You and the boys have fun.”

I said, “We will; we always do.”

********

When I walked into the deserted Greyhound orderly room, Sergeant Whitley, who was standing beside his desk, snapped to attention. “At ease, Don,” I said.

“Yes, Sir,” Whitley relaxed and smiled. We’ve worked together for thirty years and though we’re military, we’re friends first.

He began reporting without waiting for me to ask, “I’ve spoken to Captain Dirler. He’s on the way in to assume the OD duties. Captain Schultz is on the flight line preflighting Cobra One.” He glanced at his watch, and then continued, “You two should be ready to fly in three minutes. Captain Dirler will be here inside ten minutes. Don’t wait on him; I think I can manage to keep the old place together for six or seven minutes without the help of an officer.”

He was still laughing as I stepped through the door leading to the flight line. As soon as my feet touched the tarmac, I heard the Cobras’ engine breathe out, then cough, signaling it was about to come to life.

I walked around the corner of the hanger and saw my ship outside on the concrete pad under the glare of ten bright floodlights. Though the Cobra is from another era, and is almost twenty-five years old, it still looks new. Even the six foot long Greyhound leaping forward on the side looks like it did the day the guys installed it in Vietnam. Captain Schultz strapped in the rear seat of the narrow tandem-seat cockpit, looked up from the gauges, caught my eye, and tried to salute from his cramped position.

I returned the salute, then pulled on my helmet, the same one I wore in Vietnam. Just before we shipped out for Vietnam, one of the guys had stenciled “BOSS” on it, just above the visor. At first, it made me a bit self-conscious, but I grew to like it. I tightened the chinstrap and swung into the cockpit.

I strapped in, plugged my helmet cord into the communications jack, flipped to the intercom position and asked, “Are we ready to go, Richard?”

Captain Schultz’s reply was immediate, “Yes, Sir. Everything’s in the green, the ‘Old Lady’ is ready to fly. The tower has cleared us to go when ready. The active runway is 24. Do you want to brief me now or when we’re airborne?”

“I’ll bring you up to speed as soon as we’re in the air. Thanks for getting everything ready so quickly.”

“My pleasure, Sir.”

I gripped the collective and cyclic lightly, and, at the same time, moved my feet on to the pedals, keyed the intercom again and said, “I have the aircraft.”

Captain Schultz changed radio frequencies and contacted the tower to confirm our immediate departure. Seconds later, I lifted the Cobra free of the tarmac and moved across the field to the active runway where, in a continuous movement, I turned, lined up with the center strip, lowered the nose, and opened the throttle. As we cleared the outer marker, Captain Schultz popped a cassette into the player connected to the intercom and Wild Thing, 1967’s number one hit, immediately blasted into our helmets.

Fifteen minutes later, just north of Birmingham, I contacted NASA and asked that they relay a message to Sprague, advising him that I expected a rendezvous with them just north of Ripley, Tennessee, in eighteen minutes.

I briefed Captain Schultz minutes after we left Montgomery. I told him when the Greyhounds had left Chattanooga and gave him the coordinates where they planned to rendezvous with the Army Reservists. He navigated flawlessly, giving me new headings every few minutes as he anticipated the location of the Greyhounds. He also managed the music, the same music we’d played on the intercom in Vietnam. As we neared the rendezvous with the Greyhounds, the only sound in the cockpit was Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell singing, Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing.

As we crossed into Tennessee, I pressed the radio transmit button, “Greyhound One, this is Greyhound Leader.”

Sprague’s response was immediate, loud, and clear, “Boss, this is One.” Without waiting for my acknowledgment, he continued, “Five minutes ago we relieved the Army Reserve and set up a search line, moving west, with a half mile between us. We are moving on the treetops at twenty knots on the last known heading of the unidentified aircraft. I have you twelve miles south of our position and closing fast. Continue on your present heading and descend to 400 feet.” He paused and then asked, “What position on the line do you want, Boss?”

I pressed the transmit button, “One, I’ll take the southern end of the line and give you another mile of coverage. What’s the status of the search?”

“The storms have moved out of the area, and the ground fog that it left behind is beginning to lift. Nashville Air believes the aircraft could have flown as far as a hundred to a hundred and fifty miles after they lost radar contact with it, and even that is just a guess, as is its final heading. If it went further or turned off its last heading…well, there’s just no way to know, Sir.”

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.

Another Place Episode 33

Another Place Another Time

Book Two

Luke and Traveler

Episode Thirty-Three

There was silence in the large, warm kitchen. I guessed that they were giving me some time to digest everything I’d heard. I looked at Rick and said, “I love an adventure as much as anybody. As far out as it sounds, I believe everything all of you have told me.”

Rick said, “Boy, you got it quick. Frankly, if I were you, I would have probably shot somebody by now.”

I laughed, “Trust me. I considered it, but I got so caught up in Charlie’s story, I was afraid I would miss something if I started shooting.”

Andy raised his hand and everyone looked at him. His eyes twinkled then he glanced at Lois, seated beside him, and across the table at me, “I don’t think Charlie’s story is everything that you believe…”

Before he could say anything else, Lois swatted him on the back of the head, something that I suspected happened often in any given day. Then all three Parkers laughed. Charlie joined in and Traveler barked. I was blushing when I joined in the laughter.

When some order returned to the room, Rick said to me, “I was sure lucky when I picked you to stop. I let the first two rigs go past.”

“Why did you let them go? And more important, why did you pick me?”

“That’s easy; we need you to get the water to Charlie’s airplane. We have an old Army water trailer in the barn. Daddy used it to haul water to cattle on the backside of the farm during the summer. It’ll hold 6,000 gallons. The problem is we don’t have a truck to pull it.”

“How did your Daddy pull it?” I asked.

“He had a truck just for the job, but we don’t raise cattle anymore so we sold it.”

Andy added, “it’s fortunate there wasn’t a market for the trailer or we would have sold it when we sold the truck.”

“Okay, but why me? You said you let two rigs pass through before you stopped me. Why did you do that?”

“Well, the first rig that came by was a van line. That guy was driving a single axle tractor. I’m not sure a single axle will pull a loaded water wagon into the field. The second truck through was a Roadway truck. Roadway is a regular freight carrier. I don’t know a lot about your business, but I figured somebody, somewhere, keeps close tabs on where that rig is, all the time. Then you came along. There’s never been a regular truck line in the world willing to invest their money in a truck like yours.”

I laughed.

“I figured you must be the owner.”

I nodded, admiring his logic, “Not bad reasoning for somebody not in the business.”

He grinned, and for just a moment he looked like a ten-year-old who had hit his first little league home run. That expression remained on his face for a moment, and then he quickly returned to his explanation.

“A couple of other things clinched it. It sounds like you have power to burn, maybe a big CAT engine?” He raised his eyebrows.

I nodded, “That’s right, 450 horsepower. Is that all? If there’s more, I need to know right now.”

Lois, Andy, and Rick looked at one another for a moment. Then Lois said, “There is something else, Luke. We figure we don’t have long to get Charlie moving. If we can believe half of what we hear about the government and UFO’s, we know they are looking now and looking hard.”

She paused and Rick picked up the conversation, “I had to pick a truck as quickly as I could. You were the first one who had everything I was looking for.”

I thought about what I had heard in the past twenty minutes. “You know, if the Army, the Air force, the FBI, or CIA or whoever handles this comes swooping down on us before we get Charlie back in the sky, there is no telling what will happen…to all of us.”

There was a moment’s silence then Rick said, “We talked about that and realized that whatever happened if they caught us, would probably happen even if we called them. So, we have a major problem whether we call or don’t call, and the only way to avoid that problem is to get Charlie back in the air before we’re caught. Let’s face it; we have nothing to lose and everything to gain by giving this a shot.”

He was silent for a few seconds, and then he continued, “On the other hand, Luke, we live here. This is our farm, our land. We are here and we can’t change that, in fact, we wouldn’t if we could, but you are here by invitation, so to speak. We need you, but if you want to avoid the risk of a memorable meeting with the feds…well, now is the time to leave.”

You may think I’m the dumbest guy that ever walked, but I never even considered the possibility of leaving. In fact, I was a bit ticked that Rick would suggest it. I said, “I wasn’t trying to pull out. I only wanted to make sure you had thought everything out. Now, let’s take a look at the water wagon.”

A lot of tension left the room. Rick smiled, “There’s a little problem with the trailer.”

“Problem?” I said, “It is here, isn’t it?”

Already up and heading for the door, he said without stopping or turning, “Yeah, it’s here, it just doesn’t have any tires.”

I jumped up so quickly my chair fell over, “What do you mean no tires?” I shouted at the open porch door.

********

I caught Rick halfway between the house and the equipment shed. “What do you mean there are no tires?” I shouted again, this time at his back, as he continued toward the shed.

He stopped, turned toward me and said, “Calm down, Luke. The tires were rotten, so we scrapped them a couple of years ago. I’m sure it won’t be a problem.”

“No problem! How am I going to pull a trailer with no tires? Just explain that one to me.”

“We’ll just take the tires off your trailer and put them on the water wagon. Simple.”

I couldn’t believe my ears, “Rick, do you know how many tire sizes there are on the road? Not to mention wheel types?” I asked, as he opened the door and disappeared inside the shed.

I was hard on his heels when he said, “That’s another item I checked when I picked you for the job. I can’t be sure, because I didn’t have time to check closely when you pulled up to the stop sign, but I’m almost positive your trailer wheels and tires will fit the water wagon. I guess you could say that’s an educated guess, you see, I used to work summers and part-time changing tires and fixing flats at a truck stop.”

That took some steam out of me. “Oh, well, why didn’t you say so?”

Rick stepped into the equipment shed without bothering to answer my question. He flipped a switch beside the door and a triple row of overhead fluorescent lights lit every nook and cranny of the shed. The building was as well-equipped as any mechanic’s shop I’d ever seen. It had a concrete floor, insulation between each wall stud and two large gas heaters suspended from the ceiling. There were three huge John Deere tractors parked in the first three bays, and two other pieces of mechanical equipment that I couldn’t identify in the next two bays, followed by the final bay where I saw the “water wagon.”

The wheels and tires were gone, replaced by stands under the rear suspension. I looked at the front dollies and noted they were heavy-duty, built to hold the trailer even when fully loaded. I walked to the rear of the trailer, stopped beside the hubs and noted that Rick had been right. My trailer tires would fit.

“You’re right. They are the same size and wheel type. However, let’s talk about the next issue….”

Before I could continue Rick said, “Do you mean the fact that your trailer is loaded?”

“That’s it exactly.”

“That’s going to be easy. First, you drop your dollies and then pull out from under the trailer. We’ll use two of our tractors to lift the rear of the trailer and then we’ll put four jacks under the rear suspension. We have air impact wrenches and a dual wheel tire jack to lift and move each set of wheels and tires. Then all we have to do is move each set into the shed and put them on the trailer.”

“You make it sound easy.”

Rick grinned, “It will be.”

Just then, Andy, Charlie, and Lois came into the shed. In the brightest most optimistic voice, I had heard since meeting Charlie and the Parker’s, Lois said, “Well, guys, what are you standing around for? Let’s get this show on the road.”

I wasn’t fully aware of it then, but looking back, I’m sure that was the moment I fell hopelessly in love with her. However, there was no time to dwell on that right then, but I knew there would be.

*********

I lowered the dollies, released the kingpin, unhooked the brake and air lines, and then drove the tractor out from under the trailer. The Parkers immediately went to work with Charlie, Traveler, and me standing to one side watching. Like a well-coached team, with minimum conversation between them, they lifted the back of the trailer, placed four heavy-duty truck jacks under each end of both axles and then lowered the trailer onto the jacks.

Lois and Andy backed their tractors away and in seconds, they were moving down the pathway to hook-up their haybines before cutting the field to hide any evidence of Charlie’s landing.

Less than an hour later, Rick and I had finished transferring the wheels and tires from my trailer to the water wagon, and I was backing my tractor under the old tanker. The kingpin locked into position, and I jumped out of the cab. Rick was standing beside the dolly crank.

I said, “Rick, cross your fingers the brakes will work all right.”

He laughed, “I’ve thought of that. If for some reason they don’t, it won’t take but a few minutes to release them and we’ll move it without trailer brakes.”

I connected the airlines and heard the long unused brakes activate, and called out, “No need for plan B, it’s our lucky night.”

With Traveler in the sleeper box and Charlie in the passenger seat, I had a moment of recollection to the time, three hours earlier when Rick had climbed, uninvited, into the cab.

Rick climbed up on the running board beside my open window and said, “I’m going to get my tractor out of the shed. When I come past you, follow me. I’ll go the way Andy and Lois went. About a hundred feet down the drive, you’ll see a drive that goes back to the right toward the barn. I’ll turn there, you follow me and stop the water wagon under the overhead pipe, and you’ll see the spigot to line up with.”

In a minute or so, I was lining the tanker up with a four-inch overhead water spigot. Rick climbed up on the trailer, dropped the filler hose in the front compartment and opened the spigot. As he rinsed down the compartment he explained, “This is the main water line from a deep artesian well. The water is so pure that we use it for everything on the farm. Although I’ve never measured it, I suspect the flow rate is better than 2 gallons a second.”

The trailer had three compartments. The capacity of each one was 2,000 gallons. Even with a quick wash down of the first two compartments, the only ones that we used, and moving the fill hose from one to another, we finished loading in a little over an hour.

I didn’t look at my watch, but I guessed it was after midnight. In the distance, I could hear Andy and Lois cutting the hay field.

We still had to get the water from the trailer into Charlie’s aircraft and though there was plenty of darkness left, the storm had stopped raging, and I suspected it wouldn’t be long before the fog lifted and search planes or helicopters could easily spot us. A shiver ran through me at the thought.

Charlie, Traveler and I, followed Rick’s John Deere to Charlie’s aircraft. I shut down, and Rick pulled up beside me and shouted down from the cab of the massive John Deere, “I’m going to go and help Andy and Lois finish cutting the hay field. Give us a blast on your horn when you two finish.”

I waved and he drove away.

Charlie drained the polluted water out of his aircraft, and we rigged the old pump mounted on the rear of the water wagon to Charlie’s water filler pipe. That was the only way to get the water into the aircraft, since Charlie’s internal pump relied on power from his engines, which weren’t running. We’d tested the pump at the shed, but I still held my breath when I pulled the starter cord. The pump came to life on the first pull, and I breathed again.

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.