The family lived in a couple single wide trailers that stood about 15 feet apart at the front of the property. One was a fancy model, a Bel Aire that had a lowered floor and raised roof over the living room area. And a trailer that the Old Man called Winston. It was never revealed why, Winston, but the name stuck.
The Old Man, and Grandma lived in Winston, while Mom, Dad, the boy and toddling girl lived in the Bel Aire. It was a good arraignment. The boy was free to wander from trailer to trailer at will. Occasionally with the toddling one in tow, more times not. Grandma always had goodies at the ready just in case raiding parties of wayward teens showed up at the door. The boy and his friends were in constant battle with factions of invisible 7th, 8th, and 9th cavalries. The boy always used the Old Man's US Cavalry tach as proof of victory of many battles. The raiding parties always succeeded in counting many coup on the invisible horde. The end of the battle always signaled snack time. Grandma was always ready.
Parked next to the garage was the Old Man's truck. A Peterbilt tractor that was fully loaded with climate control and a sleeper in the back of the cab. During the summer the boy would either sleep out in the open under the stars or in the Old Man's sleeper if he wasn't out on the road. During his driving career the Old Man had contracts with two companies, United Van Lines, and Mayflower. The Old Man owned his truck, but would change the paint depending on which company was hiring his business. Mom was seen once repainting the lines on the doors of the truck from green/blue and gold to orange. She just said, "the Old Man switched companies." Again.
Because he actually owned his truck he was considered Independent, always a source of chuckling from Grandma, and the Old Man. It seems the only truly independent man died a couple thousand years ago and every one since has been reliant. The joke was over the boy's head. Independent trucking is an illusion.
In the morning early, the Old Man woke the boy and said he was going on a run and the boy needed to get out of the sleeper. Grabbing his blanket and pillow the boy headed to the bench seat in front of Winston to lay back down. The sun wasn't even thinking about coming back up yet. Sometimes the Old Man had a strange sense of humor. On his way out of the truck The Old Man told the boy to take care of his sister, and watch the clouds at night if he decided to sleep out. The skies are unpredictable. Then he got in his truck, fired her up, and drove off taking a right at the end of the driveway and headed down the dirt road to the highway. He had a trailer to pick up and deliver somewhere in Wyoming. He would be gone about a week. The boy waved and went back to sleep. The bench was pretty comfortable. It had a quilted mattress that was just long enough for him to stretch out. Later in the morning as the sun decided to make an appearance the boy was awoke by the smell of breakfast as Grandma was holding a plate under his nose saying softly, "Get up and eat. Then go feed the horses and milk Bessy." Every milk cow Grandma owned was named Bessy. This was actually Bessy number 4, and she wasn't as young as she looked.
After doing the chores, and finding out that the toddling one was with Mom for the day, The boy packed a bag, grabbed a sleeping bag, saddled Pacos, his horse, and trotted out to the back forty. The back forty acres of the property had running through the middle of it a nice bubbling stream, to big to be a brook, and a set of large White Birch trees that offered shade. To one of the trees was set a hook that made a convenient place to hang a fishing rod. A box at the foot of the tree with a supply of crawlers was kept to bait the hook. From the back of the saddle the boy unwrapped a mesh net and hung a hammock between the two large trees. He stocked a campfire, grabbed the rod, baited the hook, cast the line out into the stream. Setting the pole between a few rocks the boy jumped into his hammock and stared up at the sky listening to the water, birds, and breeze, then slept. Zen in action.
A little bell woke the boy up. He looked over at his pole and noticed it was bending at the pull of the water. The bell tied to the top of the pole was ringing, a sign that he had caught a fish. He jumped down and checked his line, yes indeed there was a fish on the other end. He waged a short battle and reeled in what appeared to be a nice rainbow trout. The boy was pleased with his catch. He looked up checking on Pacos and said to the horse, "Look, I caught one." Pacos just snorted and put his head back down in the short grass and nibbled. The boy got the impression that the horse didn't care one way or the other. Horses just aren't into fish.
The boy cleaned the fish and liberated a cast iron skillet he found tied to the back of the other tree. Throwing a couple more sticks onto the fire he found a small bottle of olive oil in his pack and poured a small amount in the skillet and put it on the coals. Letting the pan get hot he put the boned and cleaned fish in the pan and started frying dinner. After eating the fish he noticed the sun was sitting low on the horizon. Pacos was drinking from the stream. It was time for bed. He jumped into the hammock and watched the darkness come. The stars were bright, the breeze was light he was tired.
The boy felt someone tapping on his shoulder. He was dreaming and told the toddler to go back to bed. Again there was a tapping on his shoulder, this time followed by a light tug on his big toe. The boy finely began waking up and looked in the direction of the campfire. The fire was out, but he could see the red glow of the embers. In the glow he saw a shadow. He couldn't quite figure the shadow out it didn't make sense he had come here alone. The shadow looked like a small person somewhere between the toddling girls size and his own. That would be about 5 feet tall. This was all happening in his head as his conscious mind finely kicked in. Then he heard it.
There was a soft voice just over his right shoulder. He looked in the direction of the voice and saw a soft blue glow. Standing in the glow was a short girl. She was wearing a blue jump suit and had what looked like light blue skin. Her hair was a dark and he noticed she had very large dark eyes. She looked like she might be about his age. Then he heard the voice again, this time in his head, "Hello."
The boy was confused and tried to get out of the hammock. He landed with a thud. "Ooof." Followed by an, "Are you ok?" in his head again.
He stood up and said, "I'm ok." Then he saw the other one. A boy a little taller than the girl petting Pacos' mane and rubbing his shoulder. The horse nuzzled the boy and blew out. He only does that when he's happy.
"Holly shit! What the Hell is going on!" The boy began to panic.
Then he heard the voice in his head again, "It's ok. No one's is going to hurt you. We're friends." Then the soft blue light became comfortably warm, and the boy was calm. Pacos trotted away.
He heard another voice, "My name is Marcus, her's is Leta."
The boy thought his name, but before he could answer he heard, "Pleased to meet you. We can hear your thoughts. We have something to show you."
The soft blue light became brighter, and brighter. Then on the horizon he saw a disc coming toward him getting larger and larger the closer is came. Before he could react straight over his head was a huge circular object glowing blue and making unusual music that sounded very much like something the Mammas and the Pappas would play, or even the Association. The boy had a complete feeling of joy come over him in a rush.
He woke up riding Pacos on his way back to the horse barn. He looked around him and everything was with him, and even looked like he hadn't even used it. He arrived and unloaded the horse, brushed him down, fed him some oats, hay, and gave him a bucket of water and left him in the coral with the gate to his stall open so he could wander in and out as usual. The boy was still feeling very happy, but didn't know why.
When he returned to Winston he found the Old Man waiting for him. How long had he been fishing? The Old Man smiled then winked at him and asked, "How was the trip?"
Peace and Balance,
John
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