by Terry Smith
There was a long silence on the radio, which was partially due to the time required for the transmission to reach Earth. When they finally received a response it was “Able3, this is NASA Control. Your heroism and support of the United States will not go unnoticed. We will notify your families. NASA Control, Out.”
The group continued to stand there in amazement. Thad was the first to speak, “Woody, I certainly hope that works as it is a big action. I assume there was no other choice. I think we agreed last night that the only option was to somehow prevent people from Earth from coming here and possibly that will do it by removing any gains they might anticipate by coming. Maybe their only mission would be to save you, but from our monitoring life on Earth as it exists now the people appear to be desperate to find a new planet to inhabit as theirs is nearly destroyed.”
Woody addressed Thad, “Thad, I suggest that you cease monitoring life on Earth. They may have developed a way to monitor any visual or auditable access to their activities, and possibly trace them. If they can, they may soon be able to reverse the technology and monitor this planet in the same way. If they did, they could see the wonderful life that is here and possibly think that my communication was coming from somewhere else. Hopefully they have not been able to gain such access yet, but I suggest you move quickly in dismantling your systems.”
Thad said “I agree. I will do that immediately. I also need to tell the rest what just occurred here. Many of them are now suspicious of your actions, but there are also many who know you and are just confused. Some of you have developed special relationships with our people, and I know they will want to take everything as a positive indication of your interest in them and this planet. We will need to see.”
As Thad drove off and approached the community there was a big explosion and fire from the Neighborhood. He assumed it was the rocket as Woody had referred to blowing up the rocket. That would be another way to eliminate NASA from tracing communications. The fire burned brightly from the fuel that was still on board.
Thad reached the Garden and was immediately met by a huge group. They had heard the explosion and could even see the fire and smoke. There had never been anything like it on their planet, ever. Thad told the group, as best as he could, what had transpired at The Neighborhood, especially the communication between Col Lambert and NASA Control. They listened intently to every word from Thad. There were a lot of side discussions and they finally asked Thad what was his feeling about it all.
Thad told them again about their conversations last night and their feeling that any communications with Earth would be futile. He said he didn’t feel it was the fault of The Neighbors, but the fact remained if they had never acted to land their space ship on their planet none of this would be happening.
Then a voice from the group asked “Was anyone hurt in the explosion?”
Thad looked sad and responded, “I don’t know. I was a long way from there when it occurred. Even where I was I could feel the heat from the blast and the noise was deafening. I don’t know how anyone could have survived such a blast if they were anywhere near it.”
Walter from the farm was running to his vehicle and said “I am going to find out. Someone I truly love was there and I want to see if she is ok.” A number of other people were going to their vehicles and joined Walter as he headed toward The Neighborhood. As they neared The Neighborhood they saw that the fire was still burning brightly. They were a little concerned that there may be another explosion, but their need to know was much greater than their fear.
When they reached The Neighborhood everything was burned to the ground. The animals had been released and could be seen in the distance. There was no sign of any life. They called all of the names and there was no response. They started toward the fire but realized anyone that was in the blast would be dead and there would be no trace of their bodies. They joined together in a group and everyone was sobbing. They wandered around looking at the damage, but everything was gone. There was nothing to look at. One by one they dropped to the ground and sat, with their heads down and they continued to cry. Part of their lives had gone with The Neighborhood and the people in it.
As they sat there Gus appeared. “Come with me. I have something to show you. Leave your vehicles here. We need to walk.” They proceeded in the direction of the river, walking slowly and staring at Gus as they walked. Where was he taking them? They finally reached the river and there they were, the Neighbors, all of them. They were sitting in a group with their dogs, quietly holding hands and saying nothing. They finally heard the group coming their way and jumped up to greet them. There were hugs all the way around. A lot of them.
Walter asked “How did you get here? We heard the blast and saw the fire and wondered how anyone could live through it.”
Evin responded, “Woody told us he was going to blow up the rocket, but we didn’t realize everything would go with it at first. He told us to start moving to the river, and at first we started walking at a leisurely pace with our dogs in tow until we saw Woody running at full speed in our direction with his dog right behind him. That old man can really run. He had set a fuse devise and started his run when he saw us meandering along, when he told us to run. He told us to run fast. And we did. He didn’t think about all of the stuff around the rocket that would go off until after the explosion, and then he realized what he had done.”
Wanda asked “We assume The Neighborhood is gone, right?”
Walter responded, “Everything. Someone must have released the animals and they are probably ok, but everything else is burned to the ground. It is still burning, but not much left to burn. None of us have ever seen a fire or heard a blast like that, so we didn’t know what to expect until we got there.”
Then Gus was there. “I released the animals. I think you people are wonderful and cared for the animals, but when I saw Woody setting the fuse I knew I had to do something. See you guys later. Oh, and Woody, the next time you decide to blow something up, give it a little thought before you strike the match.” And he was gone.
Everyone laughed, but in the end there was nothing funny about it. The Neighborhood was gone – everything. They had no place to go. They were not sure they were welcome at The Garden. The hope of ever returning to Earth was gone, but it was already gone. They didn’t even have chairs to sit on, just the clothes on their back.
Walter said “It is not our place to invite you back to The Garden, if we even have to call it that anymore. We will go back and see what we can do, but don’t have a lot of hope. We are not sure this changes anything with them. Their concern about the people from Earth coming to our planet may still be there. Thad is in the process of dealing with our ability to see activities on Earth, and hopefully changes were made in time. We’ll be leaving now. We are happy you are safe. We will at least bring you some food and blankets for tonight.”
The group walked back to The Neighborhood, slowly as they realized they would be welcomed by destruction. There was really nothing to go back to. As the approached their dogs were the first to really react to what they were seeing as they began to whimper and get closer to the person they were walking with. As they reached the Neighborhood they walked around and looked for something that may be familiar, but found nothing. Everyone could tell that Woody felt bad about what he had done, but the group realized that they would have probably done the same. Who really thinks in a situation like that?
Thad and Walter returned with mattresses, pillows, blankets, food and water to last the group for a couple of days. They left without saying anything, which was not a good omen for the group. They said their nightly prayer and went to sleep in the open air.
They needed to move away from where the fire burned as it still smoldered and they could smell the burned fuel. Besides, it was sad to be where their once beautiful Neighborhood had been. It probably wasn’t much, but it was home and a place where they felt comfortable.
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sp; They prayed that night and talked about a lot of nothing. They tried to get their spirits up but they were not very successful. Dave mentioned that the only good thing about the fire was that Wanda’s chess set was a casualty. “Just when I was getting good enough to beat her.”
Wanda was quick to respond “You can say that now because there is no way to prove it. You are probably going to tell us you were on the verge of being the best croquet player at The Neighborhood. But guess what, we all know a bunch of baloney when we see it.”
They fell asleep but like the nights before their sleep was restless. They all had their rescue dogs to keep them company, but the dogs were restless too.
Chapter 12
What Will Happen Now?
The next day the group awoke with their daily prayers, holding hands tightly while sitting in a circle on the ground. They could still smell the ashes from yesterday’s fire. As they prayed they looked around at their ruined home; there was nothing left. The cattle in the distance returned to graze on the remaining grass that remained and drank the water that was still flowing from the river. Not a pretty sight as even the cattle looked sad.
Thad didn’t return until much later in the day. He had more food, which again didn’t seem like a good sign to the group. He said, “Let’s talk. Our people have had the first bad experience any of them have ever had. They have never felt afraid; they have never felt any distrust within their group; and they have never sent anyone away. They don’t know how to handle this. They are sending a small group over here tomorrow morning as they feel that a discussion needs to happen. You were their friends, and for some even more than friends. They are not comfortable just cutting off everything with you. They will be here early.”
That was all Thad said. He didn’t seem too optimistic. He simply acted like this was a step in the process where The Neighbors would be cut off from The Garden. When he left he didn’t even wave – nothing.
After Thad left the group talked, and talked, and talked. They wish that their spaceship had just been allowed to continue to float through space and had not landed on this planet. Of course, they would probably be dead by now, but maybe that will happen anyway as they no longer had a source for food beyond the few cattle that were now wandering away from their home grazing area. Their garden was burned to a crisp and even their chickens and 3 pigs were gone. What would they say tomorrow morning? Do they beg to be taken back into The Friends confidence and allow them to move to their communities? Do they just ask for supplies and items to help them reestablish their home here at The Neighborhood?
Wanda said “The one thing we do need to do is to talk in a united way and don’t start arguing among ourselves in the morning. Maybe we need a spokesperson to lead our discussion, but that would leave any positive ideas out that any of the others may have. And, do we even have any ideas on what we should say, and how?”
Woody stood and started pacing, but said nothing. Everyone was just watching Woody pace, and waited for him to make some speech. Nothing came, and he sat down. Wanda said, “Woody, don’t you have something to say. Your little walk gave us all some inspiration that you had the answer for us.”
Woody, “No answer. We just need to make sure we don’t burn down our chances to reconcile with these people.” Everyone laughed at this statement about burning down, except Woody. “We all agree that they are wonderful people, right? We all agree that we would like to live with them and be one of them, right? We all agree that they will not substitute for the loved ones we will never see again, right? We don’t want to feel that we are settling for second best just because we have lost the best. We can possibly have the opportunity to join a group of people who, as a group, are far better that the American people we left behind. There is no prejudice, no hatred, no judgment of each other, and nothing but love for everyone, with the possible except of us. We talked the other night about losing our families on Earth and the possibility of having to remain here without them. While there was no consensus, I feel we all agree that if we had to decide as a group we would choose this place.”
Evin said “I suggest we have a primary spokesperson taking the lead and as each of us has a positive comment they can jump in. It needs to be a positive comment and we cannot disagree with anything that is said. I guess we can say different things, but in a positive way. The Friends can interpret our comments. Are we ok with that?”
Wanda nominated Dave to be the spokesperson. “He has experience giving the weather, and if anyone has the gift of gab it has to be Dave selling the weather when it is seldom what everyone wants it to be. Do you think you can handle the responsibility Dave?”
Dave “Wow. I have been the quiet one in this group. I haven’t met a girlfriend here. I haven’t established any great relationship with a group like some of you with the schools and churches. I’m not even a good croquet player.”
Wanda laughed and said “Dave, you are really a bad croquet player, and not that good at chess either. With what you just said, you would probably be the best spokesperson. You would not be presenting our case for yourself, you would be presenting it for the rest of us who have met a special person, who have established themselves in The Friends lives, and may be speaking too much for themselves. I think you are the man – or person.”
Evin jumped in and said, “Wanda, if Dave should ever run for political office he would need you as his campaign chairperson. I agree that Dave is our person. Do we vote? Or do we have a unanimous consent?” Everyone chanted Dave – Dave – Dave. “So I guess it is done, all the rest of us can sleep well tonight while Dave sits up and wonders what to say. Don’t worry Dave, as they say – we have your back. Just don’t let Woody have any matches while we are meeting in the morning.”
Woody winced, “Guess I am never going to live that down. Good thing I am not running for political office. If I did I don’t even think Wanda could help me out. I remember once I was in the Dentist’s chair when he asked my advice about him running for City Council. It’s hard to answer when you have their hands in your mouth and drilling on your tooth. When he finished taking care of my cavity I advised him to stick with being a Dentist.”
The next morning a group arrived, which included Thad. None of their special friends were included in the group. They thought ahead and brought enough chairs for everyone and even some beverages. They all did the routine wave and began to sit down. Ivan started with “Thanks for bringing the beverages, but be careful about drinking too much as you can probably see our restroom facilities are gone. We had a small fire here and we haven’t had a chance to rebuild.” It was good to start the meeting off with a little laughter, but then it was down to business.
Thankfully Thad began the conversation that was going to be much shorter than everyone in the group imagined. “We have come here this morning to talk about what has happened over the past months after you arrived on this planet. We bought you here because you were cascading in our direction and we were concerned that your spaceship would crash into our planet. We weren’t aware at the time that there was anyone on board, which we discovered as you entered our atmosphere. We sat you down gently not wanting anyone to be injured. As you arrived we worried about who you were and how you became a wandering vehicle without any control. As you landed we worried if you were peaceful or if you carried any diseases that would be contagious to our population. Those were the reasons why we waited for so long to approach you.”
“We realized that you did not come here with any bad intent; you were simply a victim of someone trying to get rid of you. After much discussion we also think you were not the cause of the people on Earth contacting you. But, we also think that your very existence here may have endangered us and our planet by possibly having people from Earth coming here and eventually taking over our planet. We have seen the way Earth has been damaged and how people treat each other on Earth, and we don’t like it. You are here, and we now feel that we have a respons
ibility to you, just as we think you feel that you have a responsibility to us. So, we want to hear what you think about where we are.”
The group looked first at Woody, and when he said nothing they looked at Evin, and he said nothing. Finally Dave spoke which seemed to shock everyone, even The Neighbors who were worried Dave wouldn’t come through as the spokesperson since he waited so long to speak.
“Thad, we appreciate your comments. And yes, we do feel not only a responsibility to the people on the planet but even the planet itself as it was created by Gus, that’s what we call him, and it is a special place. We not only feel a responsibility but we have created a love for you and The Friends, which we sincerely hope we can continue calling you, and a great deal of admiration for the way you care for the planet and each other.”
“I believe you are aware that Col Lambert returned a contact to NASA Control on Earth. I must tell you that this action was very special as it violated all of the principles that go with being an officer in the U.S. military. They are always to tell the truth, always. Col Lambert went against this for only one reason, to save your people and your planet. It eliminated any chance of our ever being picked up and returned to Earth to our families and loved ones. We had made a commitment to you to not reveal the location of this planet, and he, as well as all of us, felt strongly that this commitment must be kept, regardless of what the ultimate result was for us. When we first heard Col Lambert on the radio we wondered what the hell he was doing, and as his message was delivered we knew exactly what he was doing. We could never be prouder of a person than we are of him.”
“We hope that we still stand the chance of being accepted into your community. We feel closer to you than we probably have felt with anyone outside of our own families. We don’t know what we can do or say at this time. Of course, you can have all of our belongings in exchange for your friendship.” And Dave and the others gazed around at the charred ruins. The laughter started slowly at first, and grew louder with Woody ending up the loudest of them all.
