The Old Timers

By Craig L. Barr

Carl Mosley awakens from a very realistic and bothersome dream, which he shares immediately with his older brother, Roy. Due to the detailed, emotional nature of the dream, though, Carl begins to wonder if somehow his memory has been altered. Is it possible the dream he had was his real life and he now lives a waking lie?

Soon, the brothers cross the path of a time traveler. He is hell bent on manipulating the past to further his self-righteous agenda, but to do so he requires the help of Carl and Roy. The brothers agree to travel into the recent past, where they meet strange and zany characters with much to offer in the realm of self-reflection.

For the Mosley brothers, their lives become unrecognizable overnight, due to alterations in the past. Their fellow time traveler just might be a madman. Still, the fault is not all his. Messing with the past in order to change the future has the potential for good, but for Carl and Roy, they must learn the hard way: the past is better left alone.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Jul 27, 2015
• ISBN: 9781491772072

Craig L. Barr

Craig L. Barr is a retired computer programmer, designer, and technician. He and his wife, Becky, enjoy exploring and live in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. When not playing with computers or writing, Barr is a small game hunter who collects and builds air guns.

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THE OLD TIMERS

Copyright © 2015 Craig L. Barr.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

ISBN: 978-1-4917-6809-9 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4917-6789-4 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4917-7207-2 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015911010

iUniverse rev. date: 7/20/2015

Contents

Character Reference Guide

Chapter 1    Starts Up Like a Dream

Chapter 2    Not from Outer Space

Chapter 3    Traps, Guns, and Russians

Chapter 4    This Is Not My House

Chapter 5    Just Like a Bad Penny

Chapter 6    Ruler Has Remote Control

Chapter 7    Gone into Last Century

Chapter 8    Snow Ride to Sac and Fox

Chapter 9    No Chance to Wave Goodbye

Chapter 10    Where Is That Old Motel?

Chapter 11    Tall Smile in His Aisle

Chapter 12    Max, Max, and the Noble One

Chapter 13    Car Fires and Bramley Jenkins

Chapter 14    Get Me off This Batoes!

Chapter 15    Royal Thomas Mosley Hangs

Chapter 16    Pepper Drinks Root Beer

Chapter 17    Inside His Intrepid Knott

Chapter 18    Hey Dad, Are We There Yet?

Chapter 19    He Was Just Shooting Blanks

Chapter 20    Future Trek with Egress Dawn

Epilogue - What just happened?

Character Reference Guide

Royal Thomas Mosley: The older Mosley brother.

Carlton Edward Mosley: The younger Mosley brother.

Ellen Rose Mosley: Wife of Royal Thomas Mosley.

Dorothy Hyacinth Mosley: Alternate time wife of Royal Thomas Mosley

Alexa Lee Mosley: Wife of Carlton Edward Mosley.

Martha Ann Mosley: Alternate time wife of Carlton Edward Mosley.

Lilith Jean Mosley: First wife to Carlton Edward Mosley from 1969.

Boris Tuttle Simonov: The Evil Genius. Alias John Word, Normal, Law, Ruler, and Pepper.

Intrepid Knott: Time-Travel Schooner designed and built by Boris Tuttle Simonov in 2055.

Egress Dawn: Time-Travel Schooner designed by the Old Royal Thomas Mosley in 2081.

Captain Hansel Mario Cook (Captain Mary): The original Captain of the Intrepid Knott.

John Ruler (Alias of Boris Tuttle Simonov): Captain of the Intrepid Knott. Chapters 01-10.

John Pepper (Alias of Boris Tuttle Simonov): Captain of the Intrepid Knott. Chapters 11-20.

Key-San: First Mate, Ensign, First Officer, and final Captain of the Intrepid Knott.

Bramley Jenkins: A bad Russian clone of the younger brother, Carl Edward Mosley.

Batoes: Various biological-mechanical creatures created by Simonov for his Intrepid Knott.

Kah-Lee Warriors: Simonov’s very own designed and cloned personal minions.

Brian Geralt Mason: A very tall and funny Hy-Dee food store manager.

Kyle Clayton James: Cop revived after being killed at the Motel 9 motel bombing site.

Jinx: The childhood Shetland pony owned by the younger brother, Carlton Edward Mosley.

1

Starts Up Like a Dream

12.17.2011

Roy, you are not going to believe this dream I just had! I’m going to get this on paper before it leaves my memory, so here we go!

So, in my opinion faith creates religion. you exclaimed.

Really, Roy?

Evidently you treated that small stint of deep thinking as if it was an actual accepted reality for all of mankind to enjoy! You were getting very boisterous on the subject of how people can be scared or tricked into believing just about anything.

Depending upon the era, many people were governed by force, fear, or even by shame.

Your voice raised as you continued explaining how churches were invented to keep the masses of people in line and to keep people under the control of the Church, State, or the Government. Your theory then expanded into large organized churches and how they became much larger controlling government.

The more you explained, the more bored I became, Seriously Roy, who really cares, man.

In my dream, you and I were walking down the grassy valley next to the Cedar River and close to the Sac and Fox trail where we began laughing about some of the dumb acting people we’ve known in our past. We also shared fond memories about some of those we cherish yet today because of their interesting beliefs, achievements, short comings, and all the good shared times we’ve spent together at some point within our lives.

Why the hell I was hanging around people like that back in those days, I have no idea! you said, It must have been the stupidity of my wasted youth!

Under the still of the cold night air you furthered the subject and talked about how quickly the time was approaching for the December disaster of 2012.

It’ll be almost a full year away now when the December twenty-first day comes up on the Mayan calendar where apparently time stops for the Mayans during December of 2012!

"I know, Roy! And of course our expert consensus of today’s science claim how the Mayans believed they did not need a calendar after December twenty-first of 2012 because there would not be any viable days to track or live out after the December cataclysmic disaster. Right! So remind me to explain that to all of the people still living and surviving after that passing date!"

You know, just short of the whole planet blowing up into dust, Carl, there will always be another tomorrow! I don’t care who you are, nobody knows when the end of the Earth will arrive.

Hey! What was that? Shhh! Roy! Did you hear that? What was that snapping sound? Did you hear that?! Something broke off a big branch over there in the south woods.

We stopped walking on the grassy path to listen closer. No, Carl, I didn’t. How can you hear a branch breaking off a tree while you’re talking so much, you round head?!

Well, I was almost sure I heard a couple deer… Okay. Yah, forget it, Roy. It was nothing.

You continued on with your rant, Well, so the interpreters of Mayan language and Mayan heritage have claimed anyway. I just read recently that almost forty percent of the current world population actually believes that December twenty-first of 2012 is indeed the last day of the Earth before the whole world blows up!"

Wow. These people need to find a purpose for life, Roy, and maybe find something real to believe in besides tracking Earth’s demise!

"What is that old adage you’re always repeating? If you can’t find something to believe in, then you’ll keep falling for just about anything? That typically works for me, Carl."

And that is so damn true too, and so I rest my case. This is exactly my point, Roy.

Then you briskly chuckled and exclaimed, Yah know, that Mayan date of December twenty-first is as close to our Western celebration of Christmas as you can possibly get without hitting Christmas right on the head!

Then you told me about how Christmas, if it existed at all, was originally denoted and celebrated in May and how the original date of Christmas was not in December, as we celebrate it today. You went on to say how Saint Paul really needed a holiday in December to celebrate the end of the year, which would then fit into his ongoing Religious calendar and Bible storyline. He simply moved the celebration of Christmas from May, forward into the month of December!

The grassy path was leading us east about 400 yards across the valley pasture from where I had just parked my Chevy Cobalt at the Trailhead. That’s where I heard the second clicking or snapping sound. The sound was similar to a small sapling breaking from some running deer.

What was that? I asked you again as we both turned toward the south woods to listen closer.

There it is again, Carl. I hear that. That sounds like… more than a couple deer running!

We stopped in our tracks again and waited for signs of what had caused the noises. Together, we heard several more snapping sounds which had consecutively followed in a much louder but ordered succession. The snapping sounds were definitely made by several branches and small limbs breaking away from their more solid and larger tree hosts. The crunching and breaking noises had become louder now, and much more frequent in quantity.

Tell me you heard all those breaking branches?! you asked, but I didn’t have time to answer.

My eyes were suddenly stung by a very bright bolt of white light quickly blinding and blocking out any sense of sight! All visibility around me instantly turned black! The visual absence of enjoying a bright moonlit valley with towering tall trees and quickly dropping into a totally dark environment without any light, was enough to knock me off balance as I stumbled for more solid ground. My quick loss of balance was like having the ground pulled right out from under me!

I threw out my arms and hands to my sides trying to grab a hold of something to keep from falling! Apparently you reacted in the same way as I felt your hand tugging on my backpack while I grabbed onto your left shoulder.

Dammit! That was way too close!

No shit Roy! What the hell was that?! Then we both nervously laughed together.

You okay Carl?

Yes, I am! So, get off me already, will you?! I laughed.

The strike of light was an exceptionally bright flash which only lasted for a fraction of a second, but the brightness left me very blind. In the past I’ve had my vision blotted out by many bright near-miss lightning strikes before, but this flash was several times brighter than any strike I’d ever witnessed! I was listening for the rumble of thunder to follow but it had not arrived yet.

I could now hear much louder and more frequent cracks, which quickly evolved into larger and faster moving snapping sounds. These several noises sounded like saplings and small tree branches breaking by deer jumping and thrashing through the woods while they randomly pick a righteous path to escape a perceived danger or some threat lurking within the bush.

Maybe the cougars are out tonight. You said, They must be scaring up a herd of deer nearby. It would be nice to actually see something right now, Carl!

It was amazing to me how many more sounds I could actually hear because my eyes were not functioning correctly. My ears were eagerly compensating for my loss of sight, as I strained to listen closer. And yet, I still could not detect thunder following the earlier strike of lightning.

I felt my watering eyes slowly narrowing as they adjusted for a vision of white slivers and pale moonlight. I used my free hand to wipe the invisible dark shield blocking my vision, but small scrolling circles of my imagination continued their orchestrated dance across my eyes.

That was unreal! Where the hell did that bright flash come from, and where is the thunder? A thunderstorm would not be throwing down a bolt of lightning without marrying a clash of thunder to travel behind it. And, I don’t think that bright vertical flash was some kind of heat lightning either. Kind of weird, don’t you think? Lightning without some kind of thunder? Not in Iowa.

You’re right Carl. There is no thunder!

Roy, how is your vision? Can you see anything yet?

Yes, I can just barely see some dim reflections above us Carl. Maybe those are stars, and maybe I can see a dull glow from where the Moon was shining a little while ago. That’s about all I can see right now. And you?

Yes, me too, Roy. I can see some small spots of light drifting in now.

You know, Carl, that strike of lightning was way too close not to have a rumbling thunder. I’m just glad we didn’t get hit by fifty million volts of a lightning bolt!

Hey, maybe we did get hit and survived! So, what was that flash, Roy?

It had to be lightning, Carl. What else could it be? Do you still hear all those branches and limbs breaking yet? It sounds like a huge herd of deer running right towards us. Man, what the hell?

Without any reliable vision, my brain started exploring edgy feelings of what might be happening around us next. The many sounds of scattered deer running through the thicket nearby were very unnerving to me. I’ve seen a couple Cougars here before, and I also knew how cats have attacked people just for the thrill of practicing and honing their hunting and killing skills.

Yes, I do hear it, Roy. That deer herd must be huge! So, do you think we should grab some heat just in case Mister Kitty wants to come over and play with us instead?

"Tell yah what Carl. If Mister Kitty is over there, he can’t see jackity-shit either! I don’t think any animal eyes are immune to that strike of blinding light! Right now I can only shoot at what I can feel because I certainly can’t see too much! You know, I’d really get pissed if you shot me just because you thought I was an attacking Cougar!"

Yah. Good point Roy. And you smell gamey like a cat too, so it could be an easy and innocent mistake for me to put a cap in your ass! You run out of soap and water over there again in Marion town? Hey, I bet those Deer are crashing through the woods like this because they can’t see where the hell they’re going either! That flash had to blind every creature around!

My eyes continued their focus toward the south where I first heard the sounds. I knew this territory well, and both the Sac and Fox trail and the Cedar River laid only a few yards away from these breaking branches. From that same area, I could now hear some loud splashing over the surface of the river’s water.

Suddenly, the snapping of small branch sounds quickly progressed into larger crashing noises. You and I have heard these same sounds many times before as those are the exact noises made by tall trees dropping several broken limbs downward during a straight line windstorm. The broken limbs slowly filter down through the thicket of the surrounding forest where they loudly join the ground surface below.

What is that?! What the hell, Carl?

Whatever was causing these tree limbs to snap was definitely moving closer to where we stood. These louder sounds were absolutely not made by running deer or animals. I crouched lower.

Then I could feel a deliberate chopping vibration in the ground below my feet as something started scraping through rocks buried within the ground ahead. Something metal and very heavy was deliberately prying them out of their earthen nests!

I couldn’t tell if the metal object was scrapping across the ground, or if it was somehow actually coming up through the ground like a plow share. My imagination couldn’t decide either way.

What the hell is that?! Dammit Carl! I can’t see anything yet!

Then I heard and felt two distinct loud cah-chunk grinding explosions just ahead of us as the ground shook! I could hear a heavy mass of metal come to a stop only a few sort yards from where we stood!

We both grabbed each other again and braced ourselves to keep from falling to the ground! I looked over at you, and I could almost see the outline of your head and shoulders against the dark canvass of our night. Finally, my vision was starting to return!

We both stood our ground, almost afraid to move in any direction, Roy? I said, almost afraid to speak, You still there, man?

Well, no shit Carl! I’m here. I’m not moving an inch until I can see where I’m going! Yah know, this had been one of those bright nights where one can clearly see objects at least 100 yards in all directions! It was so bright that a normal shadow was casting another darker shadow of itself. Bam! A double shadow! But look at it now! I can’t even see my hands!

Somehow, we both kept standing on the flat bottom ground of the valley without falling over. You and I have been in this same area together several times before on some of our summer and fall excursions, but tonight was different. Without clear vision, this familiar area became only a memory of what I had seen before with eyesight. Now I wished I had paid closer attention, because right now, I was lost! I felt like running, but without my vision, where can I run?

This is the same place where you and I have explored and looked around to find scattered red bricks after the old chimney imploded from age and fell among other remains of the farm house foundation. But without vision, where are they now? I really didn’t like this world of darkness.

I looked in your direction, and even though I could see your outline, I could not see the features of your face yet, Roy, let’s just stay here and not move, maybe shoot the shit for a while until our vision comes back. I don’t want to fall in a hole or trip over a fallen tree.

We’ve had conversations about the lay of the land here before, and we both can agree why those early Century Homesteaders built a house on that property back in the early 1920’s and earlier, and then tried to farm the area until they were driven out by the overwhelming floods caused by too much field drainage, poured cement, and all the growing urban sprawl.

Carl, have you noticed how there are no more sounds of breaking branches? It’s almost too still out here. You know, it could be worse. It could be cold and snowing during this time of the year, and typically it is by now. What is the thing with this warm weather? 30 degrees is so much better than 10 below zero!

I’ve noticed before how all the fields of that surrounding flat land had to be prime farming land and how they had very easy to access from the nearby farm buildings. The scenery of the rolling hills there, and the tree covered bluffs are so enjoyable there. And the fishing from the Cedar River, residing only a hundred yards away, had to be quite convenient and enjoyable too.

Roy, I just noticed that I can now see your ugly face again! And there are those wonderful stars up there, and there is that awesome bright white Moon! These bright nights are so rare but they are so much fun to experience! I can hear the bright stars trying to communicate with us by their clicking, chirping and squeaking to us from above.

I lowered my head from the magnet of the rich night sky, and tried to focus on the darkness ahead. Slowly, and as my eyes finally made it back into a brighter visual reality, I observed an enormous long cigar shaped object reaching out of the Cedar River.

My eyes were now straining to see father away, as my vision was reporting in with new stark input from what lay before us in the blemished woods.

Incredibly, the length of the object was beaching the trail where it had pushed over several trees, as it apparently had gouged the surface of the Earth several hundred yards away.

Where the hell did that come from?! you blurted out, I never saw it land!

Roy, we were blinded by the flash, so we couldn’t watch it land, but I sure heard and felt it!

Look at that, Carl! Do you have a camera or phone in your pack we can use?

"I don’t. Seriously Roy? Are you kidding me? Get real! You’re the damn camera nut in our family always taking several hundreds of new and different pictures every year!"

I bet you’re right. We had been too blind to witness the landing. Yah, my camera batteries were dead before I left home, but I was going to get new ones later. Carl, we didn’t see this craft before because apparently it just landed! Look at that! This thing is freaking huge!

Roy, do you believe how close we are to this craft! Man, we are so lucky. We could have been underneath that damn thing when it started plowing and skidding across the river bank! What the hell is this thing?! It’s so huge!

That, little brother… is a damn spaceship! It’s a damn freaking huge monster spaceship, Carl! I wonder if this thing is putting off any radiation.

And you were right. The length of the craft reached across the trail and also extended well into the valley where we had just been walking. The rear tail of the object extended way out onto the Cedar River and yet we were looking at the nose of the craft several hundred feet away!

That relative distance made the craft length at least 250 to 275 feet long, or more, and it rose up to a height of at least 50 to 60 feet into the sky. In my judgment, the spacecraft was almost oval or cylindrical, so it appeared to be about as wide as it was tall.

Like you said, we had not seen the craft land or arrive. But apparently, and by the sounds it had made earlier, it had skidded to a stop only a mere 30 feet away from where we found ourselves standing! My vision was almost back to normal now, as I poured over the details of the strange craft and the damage it had just caused to our large grove of trees.

Some of the small trees were still waving and springing back up from being pushed over to the ground, while others were quite broken and still slowly falling over to the ground. Some were still fighting giving up their ghost. Larger trees had been sheared off and chopped down to the ground, never to return upright ever again. The large foot print of this craft might just barely fit inside a football field! I felt my jaw still dropping farther open in utter disbelief!

I looked at where the craft stood, or where the craft had stopped. Not only had the front end of the craft pushed up at least a 15 foot high furrow of dirt ahead of its arrival, but it also pushed up dirt furrows all around its sides and also behind of the craft. But why? How? To me, that made no sense at all. I looked closer at the craft, but that only made questions grow faster inside my head. Why did these broken trees lay over to the ground in every imaginable direction?

It was odd to me how the craft had somehow dug up so much dirt all around most of its perimeter, and in all directions. I could understand why there might be huge mounds of dirt ahead of the craft where it had skidded to a stop, but how could there be mounds of dirt and broken trees laying all around the craft?

Had the craft been dropped straight down out of the night sky and through the center of our Sac and Fox woods where it came to a rest upon the soft ground below?

The night air was so clear, that I could easily see the dark bluish tint of the craft’s shimmering metallic shell. Even though neither of us had not seen this craft land, I could see the warm wet steam rising up from inside the furrows where the Earth had just been penetrated. The smell of fresh cut and torn wood, along with the scathed and scorched bark, stung my nose like fresh homemade horseradish cooking over the stove.

The metallic craft had hewn its own odd and unnatural tracks onto the surface of the Earth. The craft appeared to have landed almost straight down in a vertical angle, not unlike how a helicopter might land. I could now observe the damage and destruction of several dozen trees literally destroyed when this craft arrived. Together, you and I stood there only a few feet away from where the uninvited metal craft had arrived, in utter awe and sheer disbelief of it size and destruction. I was appalled by the damage the craft had created upon our Earth.

Carl…? you asked. I could tell by the tone of your voice how serious you had become.

Yah, Roy…

"So Carl. Did this thing land using a diagonal approach or did it drop straight down from the skies above? Look at the dirt mounds. This craft did not make a hop, skip and slide into place from across the Cedar River."

I agree, Roy. I replied, as I looked over at you scratching your head.

Or, now ponder this, Carl. Did this thing somehow just rise up from under the surface of the ground because it’s always been here? Was it just hiding here under the ground?!

Geezus Roy! Where do get this shit?!

Man. I am baffled, Carl. I never heard an electric engine, no sounds of jet turbines shutting down when it stopped. Nothing. There were no mechanical noises made by this thing.

There seemed to be no smoke or fire emitting from this craft, nor any visible exhaust polluting our air. You were right. I could not see or hear any kind of power supply running either. There was no hum, no static discharge, no sounds of motors or engines, and no signs of a rocket. There were no propulsion sounds of any type. Was this craft nuclear? Or was it something even more devious and dangerous?

It was obvious now that perhaps the breaking branches we heard earlier had been the realistic sounds of what a 275 by 60 foot very heavy metal object would be making, as it was slowly dropped and drifting down through our forest canopy to etch out its enormous footprint upon the skin of the Earth.

You turned and looked at me, and when I glanced back at you, your empty stare seemed almost as helpless as I felt. Your face was almost expressionless while you searched for a reason or an explanation for what and why this incident took place. Obviously, both of us were at a loss for words right now. We turned our attention back towards the glimmering dark craft.

In almost perfect unison we slowly mumbled out together, What the hell?!

Indeed. We are like two deer standing in the middle of the highway and staring right into the headlights of an oncoming fast moving car.

And we didn’t even try to get out of the way, Roy, nor did either of us turn around and try to run away from the noises we had heard coming closer.

I thought about how different it would have been for us, had we not been blinded by the flash first, and how we could have watched the decent or growth of this thing when it arrived.

This is nuts, Carl. No wonder it was so difficult for us to stand up straight while this monster was arriving! Look at the size and the potential weight of this craft!

Again, we turned and looked at each other in unison. Something we have done since we were kids back on the farm. Then I heard a small whirring sound from inside the craft. We both took a couple slow steps backward.

I could just barely hear you whispering, Dammit. Listen… What is that buzzing sound?

The small muffled noise coming from within the craft, reminded me of an old 1950’s very loud electric razor winding up and getting ready to knock that crap off my face as the Old Man would say just before he’d tackle shaving his beard in the morning.

Suddenly, a soft hue of greenish light blinked on at the very top of the craft, perhaps some sixty to seventy feet up in the air. We both took yet another couple steps backward together as we craned our heads farther back to watch the new display of movement so high above our heads.

Is that a man up there? I asked, Roy, look…

You whispered back, I see him.

The green light appeared to be glowing from inside the craft, perhaps below where the man stood as the light definitely shown brighter at the man’s feet and legs than what reflected or was displayed across his shoulders and face. Just like an old scary movie, the glowing greenish light and the long shadows it cast, seemed quite ghoulish to me. This craft was so huge! The man standing at the top of the craft looked like a very small toy by comparison.

So now what, Roy? Out of the corner of my eye, I could see you just shrug your shoulders again in one of your typical noncommittal I don’t care right now responses.

The far-away man standing atop the huge craft was somehow, and strangely, standing there without any visible support. He appeared to be only a couple feet away from the precarious edge of the craft.

Watching him stand so close to a potential slip and fall over the edge made me shudder as I felt butterflies rise inside my stomach. He was simply looking down on us without holding onto a handrail, pole, rope, or visible support. Both of my knees buckled as I was getting a little vertigo from watching him stand so very high up in the sky!

So, is he glued down, Carl? Or does he have strong magnets in his shoes? you laughed.

I don’t know, Roy. But, right now he’s making me sick to my stomach.

I know! What is holding him up there, Carl? No way could I stand up that high without a damn harness or without holding onto something solid! Look, he’s right on the damn edge! You wanna take a bet he falls off the edge before I have time for a quick piss in the woods?

You made me laugh, He’s glued down, Roy. He has to be glued down…

The greenish light showed the man was about normal height and weight, maybe 6 feet tall or maybe a little taller. It looked like he was wearing blue jeans and a red and white checkered flannel shirt. From sixty feet away, and with the soft tones of that greenish light reflecting his face, he looked like he was smiling down at us. I found that quite odd and unnerving. Then the man suddenly raised his arms above his head. We took yet another step backward.

The man started moving his hands in what appeared to be calculated gestures. Was this a sign-language of sorts? To me, I thought his motions were designed to calm down frightened dogs or excited animals. I didn’t like that as I just frowned back in bewilderment.

What the hell is that crazy bastard doing up there? you whispered, Ten bucks he slips and falls down ten feet ahead of us and then he bounces another ten feet into the drink!

Man… Roy, I don’t know. I laughed, What do you think? Maybe he’ll jump? Ten bucks says he does not slip, Roy, but that he jumps, instead! And then, he does not bounce at all!

You’re on, Carl! Nah. He just wants our women. In a couple minutes he and twenty other little farmers will come out of this cigar crate and ask us where we keep our experienced women.

"You make me laugh. Man, you are so damn worthless!" I laughed.

Yah, and then he’ll pass out skins to his crew, wave some cold cash in our faces and demand to see our fearless leader. I’m gunna tell him you’re in charge of the Earth, Carl!

I laughed out loud. The man was still waving strange hand gestures above his head.

You watch, they always go for the women first before settling down to talk about the weather, our leaders, the bad mail delivery, the laundry, or anything else important.

Yes, we were both pretty nervous alright, each of us groping for something clever that would take the edge off this rather odd ball scenario. It was pretty evident to me how we could not take control of the situation, let alone survive if somebody decided to fire-up this cigar to produce more blinding lightning flashes and burn the forest down around us.

Hey Roy. I whispered, Maybe, you know, if he would just say something!

"Yes, I can just hear it all now, Carl. He’ll say something like, Hey lighten up guys, I mean no harm to you. I don’t want anything, I just want to have a couple laughs. Don’t pay any attention to my little fifty-million-ton football stadium parked here in the woods! I’m just here to ask about some directions on how I can get down to the local grocery to buy some gas and beer and maybe get some directions on how I can get the hell out of Iowa. Or, some silly game like that!"

No kidding, Roy! The size of that thing is really intimidating, isn’t it?!

The man looked like a Mime enacting his latest moves on a new stage in the sky. He made way too much movement while he was that close to the edge of the craft. I shook my head and then I had to look away for a moment to calm down my butterflies. At that height, if he slipped and fell, we’d never find any of his broken and splattered body parts.

Why doesn’t he say something? Roy, you think we should yell up at him?

The way he was dressed, the young man looked like he was just one of us, or somebody we’d recognize as a neighbor back on the farm from the 1960’s. He looked to be in his middle thirties, maybe a bit older. But then, he was really high up in the sky, so, from where I stood, he could have been a lot older.

What is it with these hand gestures, already?! I asked, not caring about staying quiet any longer, Are we supposed to be calm and be thankful about seeing him, right after he just destroyed our trail?!

Man, I don’t know, Carl. What is he trying to do up there? Seriously, that idiot is going to fall!

"Think about it, Roy. This guy just landed a 275 foot long by 60 foot tall Cigar right across one of our favorite country trails, knocking over dozens of trees and gouging up the countryside along his path. Those quick arm gestures make me think the guy is trying to mislead us into some kind of a wrong direction or maybe lead us into some kind of false reality. I mean, that is quite a show he’s putting on up there. Seriously Roy, why doesn’t he fall?! How can he not fall?!"

I agree, Carl. Why the hell doesn’t he do something else or maybe talk to us or maybe try to yell down at us? And do you see a ladder or elevator? So, how does he get down here?

It’s kind of odd, Roy. I don’t know if it’s a reflection, but a couple times I swear I saw some bright stars behind him showing right through his chest!

What? Really? Are you sure about that? you asked as you took a closer look for yourself.

I’m pretty sure. Look. There it is again. Little dots of bright light showing through his chest!

I think I can see it now, Carl. And assuming you’re right, what would that mean to you?

That means, we are watching an image or reflection of somebody standing someplace else other than where we are directed to be looking. That guy is a mirrored image or perhaps a projection of some sort.

That makes sense, Carl. With all of that movement, a real person would have fallen off the edge by now! So, we’re watching a hologram or some kind of a decoy.

I think so. You know, Roy, I do have my Grendel with me. Maybe a couple quick shots up in the air might help hurry up his communication skills a little bit.

Are you crazy, Carl?! Do you not see the size of this thing? Unless you have a whole crate of RPG’s in that backpack of yours, keep that pea-shooter holstered and quiet!

And you were right. The size of this craft was just nuts. A third of this craft was still lying across part of the Cedar River, which seemed out of place to me. It was half in the water and half sprawled out across the woods. It was just wrong.

Hey, we kind of missed the runway there, pal. I laughed.

License please? you followed.

I chuckled through my clenched teeth, Hey, maybe you could either get the whole thing out on dry land or maybe push it back into the Cedar River and just let it float downstream.

Apparently, we both were getting a little braver now in our private little peanut gallery. Looking closer, I noticed how the surface of the craft was not marred, dripping, or wet, nor was the surface dirty from the mounded earth scattered around all its sides.

The skin of the craft was very pristine and unblemished. Nothing clung to its shell at all. The more I looked at the craft, the more it seemed to have somehow, grown right up through the surface of the cold ground.

What do you make of this thing being half ways out of the water, Roy? Do you notice there is no water dripping off this thing nor does it have any dirt clinging to its sides?

I see that. You’re right, Carl. It’s just odd, isn’t it?

Finally, the young man tried to speak down to us. At least his jaw appeared to be moving now. He was too far away to hear. I looked over at you, and you just shrugged your shoulders again.

What? Are you kidding me? Did he say something or did he just move his lips? I just shook my head. I had no idea what the lad was trying to say. I was getting nervous again.

So Mister Spaceman, I can’t hear you! Roy, where is his megaphone or bullhorn?

Apparently, the man didn’t have any communication devices to make himself clear? This man tried to yell down to us because he doesn’t have a speaker or any device for communication other than moving his arms around? What is wrong with this guy? If the situation wasn’t so serious, it would almost become laughable. It took a lot of Intelligence to build this craft and to land it on Earth, and yet, he had no communication devices to make himself audibly understood and clear?

Yah know what Roy?

Yah…?

"There is something wrong here. It’s like I said before. I just saw another star shine right through his chest up there. I know I’m right. I just saw it again. We’re watching some kind of hologram or some kind of projection, or a damn reflection up there. That man up there is not real!"

Then, more feelings of dealing with the unknown crept up on me once again. I hate not having answers! I thought seriously about reaching into my backpack and grabbing my thirty round .22 Magnum Grendel pistol. No sooner than when that idea crossed my head, I noticed you already had some kind of a pistol in your right hand and another spare magazine in your left hand!

Alright Roy! You obviously beat me to the punch here. I whispered.

I just let the notion go about grabbing my Grendel. A quiet and subdued chuckle came out of my mouth and quietly fell down across my chest when I saw that Pistol in your right hand. Some things never change. It was always nice to have a big brother around when crazy things started surfacing!

Damn! And when did you grab that? I asked, but you never replied. You kept staring up at the man standing on top of the craft.

And then we finally heard the man’s voice ring out loud and clear for the first time!

Can you hear me now? Good. I am… I am Mister John Ruler. I am… I am from your Future.

The voice was quite clear now and it very much startled me.

I thought it strange when the man spoke the words, Can you hear me now? And, when he quickly followed up with his own answer, Good.

Somehow he already knew the damn answer without even waiting for us to give him our own response? So, how did he know that we could now finally hear and understand him now?

Stay right where you are men… he continued, I will join you in just a couple of seconds.

THE OLD TIMERS: End of Chapter - Starts Up Like a Dream

2

Not from Outer Space

And, in that same moment, the greenish light suddenly faded back into the darkness while the young man above the craft virtually disappeared! The Moon was bright enough outside for us to witness… that if young Mister John Ruler moved even so much as an inch… we’d know where he was standing or where he was moving to next.

Okay. So where is he? Where did he go? I whispered. "The little man is somehow making his move, Roy. He did say Mister John Ruler, didn’t he? I wonder what ego trip he’s driving. Hey Monkey Boys, I’m the Mister John Ruler here!"

Then you jumped in with that old classic, Mister Johnson, you say? Hey, my name is Raymond J. Johnson Jr. But you doesn’t has’ta to call me Mister Johnson. You can call me Ray, or you can call me Jay, or you can call me RJ, or you can call me RJJ, or you can call me RJJ Junior. But you doesn’t has’ta to call me Mister Johnson!

I laughed hard! I was nervous and on edge, I couldn’t hold back my laughter any longer! Man, how the hell can you remember all of that, Roy?!

In the excitement of something finally moving forward, I looked over at you again. You were wearing a wide grin from what you had just recited, but I could see the expression on your face how you did not trust Mister John Ruler’s short words either. John Ruler didn’t say that much before, but what he projected seemed very much prepackaged and scripted… so your, You doesn’t has’ta call me Mister Johnson gambit was really dead on.

Even though you were cracking me up, you still had a very strange far-away look about your face… and that scared me. When you wear that serious look, something bad is going down. I assumed you were pretty much blocking out everything else around you other than where that John Ruler bastard must have gone! You were staring straight ahead and looking right up to where we had observed Mister John Ruler standing last, only a few seconds before.

Then my previous thoughts of an unknown threat came back to haunt me, so I reached into my backpack and hauled out my trusty Needle Gun. I chambered off the top round and without even thinking, I flipped the red control safety button down to display, FIRE.

A grin of pride and security danced across my face as I thought about my Grendel .22 Magnum and its loaded thirty round magazine. Even though the Grendel P-30 was designed by George Kelgren, and was produced back in the middle 1990’s, it was still my favorite can do it all pistol for camping and trail exploring. I was very proud of my very rare pistol.

As usual, I was also carrying another three full magazines in my backpack for one of those rare just in case scenarios which can potentially materialize and demand 120 rounds of Hollow Point .22 Magnums traveling at a nominal velocity of 1500 feet per second.

I knew this weapon could be very devastating at close range for the target receiving the directed lead on the other side of the equation. I was now ready for the Spaceman to make his attack!

By the way, Roy, did you even blink your eyes when the glow of that green light went dark? Wait a minute. You can’t answer that, Roy. This was my dream!

If you think back, Roy, you and I have been hunting, camping, and exploring the country sides in Iowa for over 50 years, ever since we were kids. And to this day Roy, we have not used our weapons to kill anything in order for us to stay alive or to keep from being eaten, or attacked and mauled by something running through the woods.

Sure, I can remember several times when there were some close calls, but I think there is something to be said about not finding trouble if your security and mind set won’t allow it. Animals can typically sense and know when potential prey is vulnerable or not. People, on the other hand… well, yah never know about what people might do.

I looked over at you, and observed your right hand, and under the bright moonlight I could see your knuckles had turned rigid from gripping your pistol so tightly. Seeing you that tense and ready to go also turned my anticipation up a notch too. Nothing like a little high blood pressure in these situations to keep up an edge!

I noticed that your pistol was large enough to have been a