Gus

by Terry Smith

  Thad responded “Yes, he did quite a wonderful job, and in return we have taken care of what we have and have not harmed our world that we have and maybe even made a few improvements.”

  Evin asked “Have you ever given a name to your planet and your universe? We call ours the World, or Earth, and since we thought we were the only universe we simply called it the Universe.”

  Thad responded “We have never needed to have a name for our planet or universe as to us it is home and the only place we have ever been or want to be. We are aware of other planets, like your Earth, and universes and have given them numbers, not names. Your universe is number two, because we are number one. Planets we name with their universe number and then alphabetically. Since we are both a planet and a universe we are still just number one.”

  And then Gus appeared, with everyone having their own image. “So you think I did a pretty good job, huh? I learned from my mistakes. Earth was my second try; I’m not going to tell you about my first try. But, the most important thing is that the people here have taken care of what they have, and have actually made some improvements. They used to ask me thousands of years ago if they could make a change or two, but since I always said that this is now their planet and universe they eventually quit asking but were aware that they were taking responsibility for their changes. They did a pretty good job, don’t you think?”

  Billie Jo asked “You once told us that when we are given something good, or something we want, it often comes with something we don’t want or is not so good. In looking around I just see mainly good, and very little not so good.”

  Gus responded, “They started out here with a mix of both, but over many thousands of years have been able to fix some of the not so good things and improve the things that are good. You are looking at the improved product. I assure you they started with some tough times but have turned it into what you see now. Again, pretty good, huh? See you guys later. The Garden is having burgers and fries tomorrow and I want to be rested up for the feast.”

  Thad said as Gus disappeared “I guess I better warn the group to prepare a little extra.” Everyone laughed as they loved Gus joining them and he seemed to like being with them. They assumed he had many options as to where he could be, but Number One seemed to be his favorite.

  So Wanda asked, “Thad, can you give us a name other than Number One? That is a slang term we use on Earth that you really don’t want to know what it means.”

  Thad responded “Yea, I have heard some of your slang terms which is why we love your language. I will talk to some of our people about giving it another name. I am sure we can come up with a name that would please you. By the way, have you named your sewer system yet? I am sure deep down Jim wants it to be named after him.”

  Jim said, “No Thad. I have nominated that it be called Thad’s Sewer Service. What do you think?”

  “Sorry I bought it up. Someday I will learn to keep my mouth shut. I’ll see you guys later. Time to go home. This has been very interesting and I hope it has given you some appreciation for what a wonderful Planet and Universe we have here.”

  After Thad left the group discussed what they had just learned. The whole idea behind the planet and the universe was very intriguing to them. Woody seemed to have the most interest in learning more by exploring the rest of the planet, but couldn’t find anyone that would join him in the exploration. They were a little interested to know if there were other people on the planet, but what would they do if they found other life forms. Since the monitoring equipment has never detected any communications coming from anywhere on the planet, at least they had a good feeling that any other inhabitants were not advanced. Finally they let it drop, but Woody still hoped that someday he could find someone to join him in exploring the rest of the planet.

  Dave sat there the entire time taking notes. “I am really amazed at this entire discussion. I studied meteorology for many years and thought I knew something but never would have thought about how this planet and universe work. I have observed it and noted the entire atmospheric system and wondered how it worked, but this solution never came to me. I am just glad that I would never have to be a Meteorologist on this planet as the weather is always the same.”

  “On Earth we know there is great heat deep underground, but never enough to do what is done here. It would be great to be able to convert Earth to the same conditions as they have here but it would definitely take the work of Gus.”

  Chapter 8

  New National Sport

  The next day Jim went to the wood shop to make the croquet balls, mallets and end peg. Everyone was interested in what he was making, especially Barbara.

  “I’m making a croquet set. This is a game that was played mainly by our grandparents on Earth, but we decided to resurrect it to play here at The Neighborhood. We are getting bored and want something to occupy our time. The game doesn’t require hitting anyone, like football, or a big court like basketball. I think I am the only one who knows anything about the game as we used to play it when I was little. Now I need to try to remember how it is played and all of the rules. When it is all set up you can come to The Neighborhood, have dinner with us and play a game of croquet. By the way, I have told them about our friendship and they are excited to meet you.”

  Barbara shot back “Gosh Jim, I hope you didn’t build me up too much and they are expecting someone really special. I will need to dress up and be on my best behavior.”

  “Barbara, you are someone special and if you are on your best behavior they will think you are way too good for me, which you are anyway. Be yourself. They are a great group and they won’t judge you anyway. If I take you there that will be good enough for them. We have really developed a kinship among our small group and we all want the best for each other. And the best is what we each feel is the best. So there, but first I need to finish making these croquet pieces, and somehow try to remember all of the rules.”

  Jim remembered the game to be something like the following. He felt it really didn’t matter if he got anything a little off as no one would be able to challenge it anyway as they didn’t even know what the game is.

  The game involves four players, two on each team. The game is played by each player hitting their ball through the course which involves six hoops and finishing by hitting their ball against the end peg.

  The game is played on a court. The court is 40 yards long by 30 yards wide. The four outer hoops are positioned seven yards in from the side and end lines. The center peg is placed in the center of the field with the remaining two hoops seven yards from it on either side along the center line.

  The 6 hoops are each 12 inches high and 4 inches in diameter.

  The mallets and balls have matching colors which allows the players to keep track of who is who.

  The game begins with each player taking a turn striking their ball onto the court. The players then alternate hitting their ball attempting to go through the hoops in order. If a player goes through a hoop or hits another ball they continue with their turn. If the player hits another ball he places his ball against that ball and may send that ball off of the court.

  The game continues with the players going in order hitting their balls through the course of six hoops in the right sequence and finish by hitting them against the center peg.

  The side which completes the course first with both balls wins.

  Jim remembers that there are other rules and he may recall them as they start playing. He is anxious to make the croquet balls, mallets and center peg to take them back to The Neighborhood and start playing. Everyone watches his every move as he goes through the process of making the croquet game pieces and they ask a thousand questions, most of which Jim doesn’t know the answer. He knows it will be difficult when they start trying to remember the rules and even demonstrating to the group how to play the game.

  Jim finishes the lathe work in onl
y two days, using a third day for painting the balls and mallets. He then makes the hoops out of wire and takes it all back to The Neighborhood. He sets up the course and gives it a try. It was a little rough but he was ready for the challenge. He and Wanda make up one team and Larry and Billie Jo the other team. They play two games for practice, and then it is time for the competition to begin. The games seemed to take forever as after almost each shot they would need to discuss the rules, and of course they all felt that the rules were Jim’s rules and not the real rules. But, it didn’t really matter and they were all anxious to get on the course and try their skills.

  Jim starts by hitting his ball right in front of the first hoop. Larry follows with his ball barely getting onto the court with a great laugh from all. Wanda hits her ball just before Jim’s and Billie Jo smacks Wanda’s ball to the side. She then can place her ball next to Wanda’s and knocks it off the course. Wanda will have to place her ball on the side of the court where it was knocked out and start from there. Of course Wanda is threatening to get even with Billie Jo and hit her ball all the way to planet Earth. The game is on and the trash talking begins. They are glad Gus isn’t there to hear their bantering.

  The game continues with Jim and Wanda playing with precision like they had been doing this for years and of course Larry and Billie Jo come in a miserable second. Billie Jo, not taking the laughing lying down, exclaims that “Jim, I think you cheated somehow.” Billie Jo checks out the balls, the mallets and everything that Jim did to get a win. Finally Larry and Billie Jo concede and proclaim that croquet is a stupid game but are anxious to play again. They all got a good laugh and Larry and Billie Jo head to the starting line, but the teams have to rotate before it is their turn again. While the other teams are playing Larry and Billie Jo are practicing over by the outhouses, an appropriate place for their skills at this time.

  Jim reminds Wanda that they need to start practicing their victory dance. Of course, all of the rest of the group tell them where they can put their victory dance and it will be a long time before they will be able to demonstrate it. Jim couldn’t remember trash talk being a part of the game, but being a million miles from Earth probably didn’t make a difference in the game. It would be impossible for this group to play the game without some bantering back and forth to keep the game interesting.

  They played until it got dark, and wanted to get up at first light to begin again. They were hooked. After breakfast as usual some of them were off to The Garden for their normal activities. It was agreed that anyone left behind couldn’t practice while the others were away. That evening the games continued and after about a week they were all getting better. Their trash talking wasn’t improving however and they were just repeating some of the same talk. Jim and Wanda finally got to do their victory dance, but no one was really impressed. They were told to work on their croquet skills and their victory dance.

  The workers at the wood shop were anxious to know how the croquet game went. A couple of them wanted to go watch, including Barbara, and they showed up at The Neighborhood as the others arrived. Of course they had to be fed, which made the trip even more worthwhile for the visitors. They watched the game intently and asked Jim if he could help make a couple more sets of croquet balls, mallets and a center peg for them. They also asked Jim to give them a copy of the rules which he typed up for them on the Garden typewriter and made copies. Then those sets went out to the community, and more sets were requested. Soon the wood shop was putting out two sets every day and they still couldn’t keep up with the demand. They started putting them in the adult toy store as lines were forming outside of the wood shop waiting to get on a list for a set. It was pure croquet mania.

  As the croquet explosion went on at The Garden each community had a number of courts, with even some at the farms and ranches. They eventually had to restrict games until after normal work hours as production on normal goods and services was falling behind, especially the wood shop. They played every evening until it got too dark to play and on weekends. They began having community contests and eventually came up with teams that they wanted to represent them against the so-called All Stars at the Neighborhood. A contest was set up for a weekend at the end of the month.

  As the interest in the game continued it became obvious that there were too few courts. One solution adopted was to make the court size bigger measuring 120 yards x 60 yards with 16 hoops. They called these the championship courts that were used for competitive matches. The court area also expanded from just one regular court to six so there was little or no waiting to get to play.

  Each team came up with a name and they even made shirts with their names on the back, just like they had seen for teams on Earth playing competitive games. The first community called themselves the Chargers, followed by the Texans for the second community, the Cowboys for the third community, the Sea Hawks for the fourth community and the Broncos for the fifth community. I wonder where they got those creative names. The Neighborhood stayed with The Neighbors and started to build their trophy case to display all of their winning awards that would be coming their way. The games were on.

  People from every community showed up to watch the first of the competitive games. They all bought chairs and food – a lot of food. The games were ready to begin. Gus was the referee and Thad was the master of ceremonies. Thad announced the first teams to play and Gus told them the rules. Of course, no one would break the rules since Gus was the referee, and there was a lot of the trash talking that they had learned from The Neighbors. They were competitive with people from each community cheering for their team and booing when the other team made a good shot. Gus would give them warnings for various infractions, but he really didn’t know what the rules are. Everyone was just joining in the fun. After each game Thad announced the winner with a great deal of fanfare and was ready to announce the competing teams for the next game.

  The losing teams were eliminated and the winning teams went on to round two, and then to the finals. The winner, which somehow was the Broncos, won the trophy and the honor of hosting the next monthly competition. The Neighbors hung their heads in shame, knowing that they had to win the next month. Before the next month each team had developed a vehicle with their team name on it. Banners were put up around each community cheering on their team.

  The second monthly competition was on and Thad was all decked out to announce the beginning of the competition and everything that went with it. Even Gus had on a referee uniform like they have in Earth football. He even had flags that he threw whenever there was an infraction of the rules. Cheering and booing continued plus banners supporting their teams. They all played hard with The Neighbors claiming victory for the second competition and they had their first trophy for their trophy case.

  The community fields continued to be improved and they were adding bleachers for the crowds that were growing. The area for the baskets of food was developed by each community along with areas for the individual chairs that many of them took to the games. The games were truly festive. They all knew that the rules were kind of loose and that Gus made up rules as he went along. No one really cared, and even though they cheered for their team and talked smack, they really didn’t care if their team won or lost but enjoyed the competition. It was the shear excitement that surrounded the games that was the core purpose of the sport and the monthly tournaments.

  Somehow Gus was able to get a copy of the official croquet rule book from Earth. He and Thad read the rule book and found that some of the rules they used didn’t even exist and they did not enforce some of the rules that did exist. Then the book just disappeared and the games went on with rules changing whenever Gus wanted them to change.

  Croquet courts were being built at schools around the communities, and school kids began their own teams and contests. They combined daily exercises with playing croquet which was a goal that Ivan had for the schools. Playing croquet was treated as a reward for exercise. The kids
couldn’t wait until they grew up so they could be on the adult teams.

  The planet never had a sport of their own before. They had seen sports on Earth but none seemed to meet what they were looking for. The players on Earth would fight and players would get injured while playing. They even watched boxing and wrestling, which seemed barbaric to them. Of course they had no snow so they couldn’t ski, and had not even tried to determine how golf could be played on their planet. They were excited, not because croquet itself was so wonderful, but because it was a game they could play and compete and maintain their caring ways for each other. They would even cheer for each other’s teams, and loved the development of the sport as part of the schools. The sport even developed some community pride for the different communities, but they would continue to work together to make life on the planet a unified goal.

  The game seemed to bring the people of the planet even closer together and helped in their continued acceptance of the people from The Neighborhood. They wondered why they had never seen teams playing croquet when they were observing life on Earth but were truly glad that it had been added to their lives. Of course there were no injuries in the croquet game except the time one of the players hit his own foot trying to knock another player’s ball off of the court. The people watching wanted to carry him off the field just for the excitement of it, but a sore toe is hardly worth being carried off the field.

  Chapter 9

  Communication Creates Major Conflict

  It is morning and Jim goes about his routine checking on the equipment inside of their vehicle. There is no particular reason for this except that it has always been his job and is a way to somehow maintain his connection with Earth. Then he hears something over the communication system and raises the volume. Able3, this is NASA Control – come in. Please respond. Able 3, this is NASA Control – come in. Please respond. Able3, this is NASA Control – come in. Please respond.