by T J Reeder
The only way to stop this was to say, “Sure, you can learn to fly and no- you can’t mount mini-guns on them.” HA! Now the war was on! I had hit the nail square on the head. Sandy said, “That rat bastard! He snitched!” May jumped up and said, “Let’s go kill him!” Sandy said, “No; let’s just hurt him, a lot!” I grabbed both of them by the shirtfront and said, “Hey! Nobody said anything to me; you two are as transparent as a glass of water!” They looked at Beth who had returned with JC before he woke up Sam. She nodded and said, “It’s true, you are.”
Sandy said, “OK, so why?” “Why what?” “Why not?” Most people would get confused at all this but I’ve had a lot of practice. I told them that the little birds were fast and very agile but with a gun and ammo taking up the room of the second person there wasn’t room for a gunner- simple. They were stumped. May said, “Yeah, that’s what Ralph said but he can’t think outside the box.” “You put him in a box?” I asked. That got their attention, so I said, “NO! No boxes, no hurting Ralph more than you already do. So who told you ‘no unless I said OK?”
They admitted it was Jackson the head gun thug, and he’s not afraid of them. This causes them a great deal of pain. I asked what Jackson said; they admitted he had said the same thing I did, no room for a gunner. I smiled and said, “Well, heck. It was a good idea. Too bad it won’t work.”
That was about the time Blain and Kid walked in, just in time to hear me say it won’t work. Kid asked what wouldn’t work. May told them what it was that wouldn’t work. And right there all the troubles started. Blain said, “Sure, it will.” I attempted to jump up and grab him and say, “Let’s take a walk”, well that was my intention. They both dropped onto me, so that plan failed to launch.
Blain (the rat) looked at them, then me and said, “I think I hear my mommy calling me” and tried to get out the door, but the two panthers had him before he got two steps. He was looking at Kid with ‘help me!’ in his eyes, but she just smiled a nasty smile and said, “Yeah, I want to hear about this thing that can be done that John don’t want done.” Blain was screwed.
It seemed Blain (the rat) had in fact been looking at doing this very thing back when he was a tool for the tools. And being the young, bright, over-achiever he was, had pretty well worked it out. He said in his mind’s eye he saw the fast highly maneuverable little choppers as a form of cavalry for raiding behind enemy lines, so to speak. I was starting to wonder if they weren’t pulling one over on me but I think the lad was on the up and up whereas the other two are never to be found there.
I must admit I could see in my mind’s eye how these things could be used but I also felt there must be a way to have the gun and ammo and two drivers in case one got a bug in the eye. And I was for damn sure never going to allow both of ‘them’ in the same bird together. I could see the battle was lost so I gave a tentative nod to it. I would have said IF Ralph approved it but that was giving it away; ‘they’ could get anything out of him. He’s such a wimp. Beth (proving she, too, is a witch) leaned over and whispered in my ear that I was giving in too easy. And I hadn’t said a word out loud.
Out the door they went, dragging Blain along. Kid flopped down beside me and scooted over real close so I put my arm around her and asked what was wrong. Sam let us know she was awake so Beth handed JC off to Kid and left us. I asked again what was wrong. She said Blain was the problem. I said, “Well, I’ll tell him if he touches anything that’s not on the ‘OK to touch’ list I’ll pound him.” She said, “That’s the problem. I want him to and he won’t. Am I ugly?” I resorted to the age-old father’s remedy- I yelled for Beth. She came in, saw the look on our oldest daughter’s face and said, “Come on baby, let’s walk.”
I was pretty proud; I handled all the family problems just like that. In fact I deserved a nap and proceeded to take one…for about a second before ‘they’ were back, one on each side… close, real close as in ‘no clothes’ close. Now I knew I was in trouble, they were breaking out the big guns. But they went to sleep and I was left to wonder. I woke up alone, as in really alone. Nobody in the bed or the house. I looked out the door and saw the day was winding down and recalled hearing the popping sounds of the .22 rifles carried by the rabbit patrol. It was rabbit stew night! And the little shits hadn’t woke me up.
I made it down the hill and saw my ladies helping with clean up. I missed out! But Beth, sweet darling Beth took a big bowl from one of the earth ovens and some hot bread and with that wonderful smile sat down and started eating it! No! This is just wrong. Then of course they all laughed at the poor foolish old man and Beth handed me the bowl.
I had no more than sat down and JC was there demanding I share. So it went, one bite for my son and one for me. I love my kids but I never get a whole meal. Sandy calls it my baby diet- can’t get fat giving half your food away.
Charley and Old woman came for breakfast.
They found me sitting on the stump covered with the spawn of the devil quilt. I used their arrival to escape and took my son and Beth and Sam with me. My parting words were something like I was gonna burn that moldy thing. It got no response. They don’t pay attention to any of my threats before breakfast and damn few the rest of the day.
Kid was already at work in the kitchen when we got there. Old Woman got her and Charley a cup of coffee and started in helping Kid. Blain showed up moments later and tried to help but got sent to the couch with a cup of coffee. He looked at me, so I shrugged and said, “Don’t worry. When you marry them they drag you to the kitchen to help and carry out the garbage and…” I noticed how quiet it was, even Old Woman was staring at me. Common sense and fear of pain shut me up. Blain took note of that and got a deer in the headlights look. I smirked and I didn’t feel bad about it. He had a lot to learn. And they are staring at me again. I’m thinking maybe breakfast at the communal chow hall might be safer. But I made it thru breakfast and Charley and I grabbed Blain and made our escape. We headed to Charley’s place; he and Old Woman were able to move into their new places a while back.
Charley’s place was built out of heavy blocks of rock with a roof of heavy beams and metal roofing that was a sandy color from the fort stockpiles. It was one large room with large windows to allow the breeze to flow thru which I loved. He had Navajo blankets on the walls and the floor was native red and white slate. The door faced the east. He had visited the fort and found some furniture he liked. It was heavy dark wood- walnut with cushions covered in a southwestern color style, and it fit him perfectly. He also had a large library of good books, nothing I’d read but I never claimed to be a classics fan. I was surprised at not being surprised that he was. Charley is a deep man and I doubt anybody knows him completely except maybe Old Woman.
His and Old Woman’s houses fit into the locale so well that if you weren’t standing looking at them you’d miss them. They had some pinion trees all around their place and the builders did a great job of not disturbing them. I kind of wish we had some closer to the Rock Pile but what we have are where they belong so I’m good with that.
We sat out behind Charley’s place with the sheer drop to the lake below. The view was as good as it gets. It felt wonderful to have my friend so close plus on the upside it was a place safe from ‘them’. They would never charge into his home to attack me…I hoped.
I asked Blain about the things needed to hang a gun on the little birds; he said everything we needed was in the stuff we took from the big warehouse under the compound. This was news to me. He said upon questioning that he had not said a word to ‘them’ about the gear or even the project so it was just ‘them being them’ if that makes sense to anybody.
He said he had seen a video of one in use and it was pretty wild, since the little birds could turn on a dime and spit out change. I now had to think. I liked the idea, but there would be no guns mounted until they were good enough pilots to do the turning on a dime thing; too much chance of them playing with the gun instead of flying.
Blain agreed with tha
t, but pointed out that Kid was going to be ass-deep in this whole thing since her ‘moms’ were, and even Beth wasn’t going to be able to stop that. He also said one of the pilots from Texas that had settled here had a ton of hours in this type of chopper and could be a really good instructor. Instead of doing a one on one, it would be better to set up a flight school and do it the way the military does it. Charley and I both agreed with that, so we gave the nod to Blain to get with the Texas pilot, tell him it was a go and he could start as soon as he had a plan set in place. Blain smiled and said, “It’s ready now” because he had been waiting for a chance to bring it up to me. Aced again. I’m getting old, but he said the girls had no idea as of yet.
That afternoon I called a general meeting of all hands and after lunch when everybody was gathered (including my ladies) I announced that we were starting a flight school and that anybody who could pass the Doc’s exam could apply. All instruction would be handled by the Texas crew under the guidance of our flight Commander Ralph. But Ralph was not going to be instructing- only supervising. That wiped the smiles off ‘them’. Kid, of course, didn’t stop smiling until I said Blain was going to be Ralph’s second in command and also would not be instructing. Kid’s smile turned into a glare joining the other two. It was a grand moment.
I turned the meeting over to the new flight school commander who stood up and said, “As most of you know, I’ve been teaching a couple of the ladies to fly both fixed wing and choppers. As of today, all chopper training will be handled by the instructor cadre. I will still teach fixed wing but only to those not in chopper school. I believe one cannot pray at two altars at the same time.”
I wish I could have had a video of the emotions flowing across the girls’ faces! It would have gotten an Oscar! For once I had them both nailed, caught on the horns of their own creation and steam was coming out of every port.
Beth was smiling real big and I swear Sam was glaring at me. JC didn’t give a shit; he had a cookie and was teasing Molly with it. I figured sooner or later Molly was going to get too close when she grabbed something and he would learn a lesson. On second thought, he is my son; he will learn nothing. Not a thing.
In the days that followed, the flight school got up and running. There wasn’t a lot of people wanting to learn to fly, but enough to keep the school busy. Sandy and Kid were learning to fly the little birds while May was learning to fly the scout plane with Ralph.
It was interesting how quiet it was with them busy all day and no sounds of stuff blowing up or the rattle of gunfire.
In fact, it was almost too quiet. The kids were old enough to stay busy with their own stuff and usually spent a lot of time with the other young ones at the communal area. Beth and I spent a lot of time just being close and quiet. It was nice.
But I also missed the mayhem of life without ‘them’. They filled so much of my day trying to keep them from killing themselves or blowing up the whole canyon.
Like the day they decided it would be fun to fish with C4. They took a half a brick, put a cap and waterproof fuse on it, tied it to a big rock, pulled the cord to fire the fuse, dropped the rock, and then stayed right there! ‘There’ being out in the main lake, thank god, not the canyon. Thank god the wind was blowing enough to drift their boat several yards away. The blast was deep so it wasn’t too bad but it flipped their boat over.
Fortunately the guys on one of the fishing boats from across the lake saw it happen and pulled them out of the water before they drowned. The blast brought the entire community running to look out on the lake. Joe and some of the others took off in a boat and got there in time to watch them being dragged from the water.
Joe said they was coughing up water and laughing like it was the best thing since sliced bread. The fishing boat guys were stunned. Two crazy women laughing amid a sea of stunned fish.
Joe took enough to feed the entire canyon community and left the rest to the fishermen along with thanks for saving them, although he said he was tempted to tell the fishermen that since they saved the two they had to keep them, but he knew the peaceful folks of the fishing village couldn’t deal with them.
When they were back on dry ground and I made sure they were safe I told Jackson to lock up everything that would go boom and keep the key hidden. He said no: He would give me the key because he didn’t want to wake up tied to his bed with a small fire burning on his belly. I thought that was a bit far-fetched until I saw them glaring at him. I smacked them on their wet butts and sent them home to change.
So yeah, things were quiet. I started taking Buck, Beth and her horse on what became many long rides out into the wild country around us. It was really wonderful and peaceful until ‘they’ started the actual flying lessons and spent time looking for us. It became a game to hide from them and we spent a lot of time under overhangs giggling like kids hiding from mommy. I didn’t know how long Beth could ride being pregnant but I knew she needed this time while she could. Those days and rides were wonderful.
By the time Beth was too far along (in my opinion) to ride anymore the girls had passed their flying school. Kid and Sandy were now chopper pilots (in the little birds), and May was a fixed wing small plane pilot. Would they ever again be happy on the ground? Time would tell.
May signed up for the second chopper class while Kid went to fixed wing class, leaving Sandy with nobody to play with. With Beth grounded I spent time riding with Sandy and it was a lot of fun. I showed her places Beth and I had been hiding while she searched for us, and in time we were playing hide and seek with May. It was fun and at the same time we were patrolling our home area.
These horseback patrols had been taken over by Charley’s lads so really we were just riding, and once in a while we would catch a glimpse of a scout who usually just waved and faded away giving us privacy. We really enjoyed the time and spent a lot of it swimming and sunning. It brought back memories of our time together when it was just we two. I asked her if she ever missed it being just us two. She surprised me by saying no, that she loved our time and the memories, but wouldn’t trade a day of our family for all of them.
We had never really talked about how May came to be with us. She said it wasn’t planned when she invited May- it just happened, and she loved that it did. She admitted Beth was planned in part because they both loved her company before, and also she admitted with a laugh because they thought they could distract me with Beth and get away with more crap. That didn’t work because Beth had filled a place in our family circle that was needed, even though she and May didn’t know it at the time. I had to agree that she did and that I hadn’t seen it coming either. And the babies! They were an unexpected blessing. Sandy said that neither she nor May saw that coming but had hoped it might happen. And the coming arrival of another baby was a bonus.
Sandy said the one person who seemed to get the most out of the kids and the new one coming was Old Woman. She seemed to have shed years since they moved to be with us. The kids loved her and she needed them, it seemed. All in all things were wonderful. We talked about that a lot too- how out of so much death and destruction had come a new way of life that seemed to be a blessing for so many. I had a feeling at times that had it not happened the way it did, something worse would have happened. I guessed we would never know.
At last the student pilots were all trained and that left getting them out flying to build their hours to become expert, and that’s what they did. Every day the former Texas guard pilots would head out for air patrols with a new pilot in command. This added to our security and served as good training.
When the Texas guys came over they brought their air crew teams- the mechanics that keep the things flying, and choppers demand way more work than a fixed wing, so with all the flying the mechanics were kept very busy.
The building crew had got with the aircraft mechanics and came up with a workplace for them; they built a shaded area where a lot of the work could be done outside with an enclosed area that would keep the windblown sand from ruin
ing things.
As an added bonus, our motor heads decided that since they weren’t busy, they would work with the aircraft folks to help out and learn. Soon we would have a large team of men who could repair a chopper and rebuild a tank at the same time. I had a picture in my head of a tank with chopper blades just humming along; I never mentioned it because ‘they’ would be down at the airfield trying to browbeat the mechanics into doing it.
The day finally came when Blain showed up for breakfast and told me privately that he had worked out the gun mounting issues along with a couple of the older pilots. They had actually tested it and he wanted me to come along for a ride. Getting away was simple. I mentioned that I was thinking about holding another shooting contest in a few days using a three gun format, and within ten minutes ‘they’ had snuck off to start practicing, taking Kid along.
We took a hummer and headed for a place a couple of miles away where the bird was sitting with several of the mechanics and armory guys. I had to admit it looked badass with the gun mounted. They had taken out the copilot’s seat and had set the gun on a swiveling mount out the right side door which was removed to allow the gunner to sit on the floor with a safety harness. He could place his feet on the skids and even lean out and shoot pretty close to straight down. They had built a cage affair that prevented the gun from being able to damage the aircraft and a brass trap to save the brass.
