There Must Be A Mistake Ch. 27

"You chased him out of the house, where is he going?"

"If Gordon is not at home, where does he go?"

"He goes to work."

"Does he remind you of anyone?"

"Yes, he is just like his father."

"When are you leaving for Paris Payne?"

"We leave Wednesday morning."

"Oh how thrilling, are you excited Zoie? I've never been to Paris."

"Doctor Luck has never taken you to Paris?"

"No he hasn't, we've had a wonderful life together, and traveled all around this country, but we have never gone overseas. Is this your first trip out of this country Zoie?"

"Do the Bahamas count as another country mom?"

"Yes Zoie, the Bahamas are a different country."

"In that case, I've been out of the country once."

"Are you looking forward to Paris?"

"My dad showed me the films of my mother getting fitted for her bridal gown."

Payne screamed, "I'll kill that bastard, I was naked."

"You were also the most beautiful woman there."

"You're 17 Zoie; it's too late to flatter me."

Zoie sat on her mother's lap. "No it's not, because your bridal gown was stunning, and still is."

"I should have put you on birth control pills instead of breast milk."

"Who knew mom, who the hell knew? Do you know what else we haven't done; we haven't set a date for the wedding, and time is getting short"

"What you talking about Zoie, I got my invitation yesterday."

"You can't do that to me mom, it's my wedding."

"I can, and I did. You weren't home, and as you said, time was getting short. I sent invitations out to all the adults I wanted there. I have a list of all your teenage friends at home ready to go. You will go through them and decide which ones you want to come and which ones you don't. It should take you less than an hour to decide. We already told you that you're getting married in the same church that your father and I were married in, by the same priest that married us. We rented the largest hall available, and every five-star hotel room available for every adult who is coming. When you look at the list if you have anyone else you want to come let us know, and we will take care of it."

"Am I allowed to know the date of my own wedding?"

"If you start getting snippy I won't tell you. I will keep you captive until the appropriate day and make you show up."

"I will stop taking my birth control pills, and return to the old wonderful me."

"Oh God, no, I could not handle that again. Your wedding day is December 15 at 3 o'clock. I picked 3 o'clock specifically because that was the time of my wedding to your father. I called him at a 6:45 AM and screamed at him to look out his window. He did and he asked me why I was worried. I told him it was pouring outside and the winds were blowing like a hurricane.

He said, "Go to sleep Payne. At 2 o'clock the sun will come out, the winds will die down and you won't get a drop of water on your dress. I asked him if he was sure and he said have I ever lied to you. He never has during our entire marriage."

We will leave the house at 2 o'clock and arrive at the church by 2:30 PM. We will take some pictures to pass the time. At 3 PM exactly, your father will walk you down the aisle to meet Gordon. You will be a beautiful bride."

"Not as beautiful as you were mom, I looked at your wedding pictures. You were an angel with wings."

"I'm going to kill you. You turn into a wonderful human being, and you are going to leave me. What am I supposed to do but cry?"

Zoie kissed her mother's cheek, and whispered in her ear, "You are still a beautiful young woman, have another baby."

Zoie went flying into the air, as Payne stood up. "Are you out of your fucking mind? A baby at my age, it's not going to happen."

"Remember mom, grandma did it when she came back from Paris."

"Thank God I got your father fixed, because it's not going to happen to me."

"Have you ever thought about buying a jet fighter?"

"I tried, but the government won't let me."

"Mom, you are some piece of work. There is another option for you."

"I know I'm going to regret this. Okay Zoie what is my other option?"

"You could have the boys draw one up and have dad build it for you."

"What a marvelous idea. Why didn't I think of it? It would open up a whole new engineering, and industrial field for your father to tackle. He would be in seventh heaven. Zoie you are brilliant."

"Mom, did my mother just call me brilliant?"

"Savor it honey; it won't happen very often."

"Come on everyone, we're going to the NEST."

"Richard, Holden, we're going to the NEST. If you are going to blow anything up, at least it won't be the house."

Holden replied, "Mother, we are not using any explosive materials, yet. When we are, we will go under your bed, because your mattress is the heaviest."

"Do me one favor Holden, make sure I'm not sleeping on the mattress when you do your first test. I'd like to be alive for your second test."

"If you're not nice to us we won't build Mrs. Schneider's hypersonic airplane. We've already decided it will be a Uniframe construction. It won't have wings or a tale, and the engines will be above the body of the airframe."

"We only talked about that possibility five or six minutes ago Holden. How could you put that much work into something in that period of time?"

"It's not like we hadn't thought about it before mom. It's just that we were busy on another project, and no one else had an interest in that type airplane."

"You must not mention this to anyone outside our family. You don't know how dangerous your knowledge is."

"Yes we do mom, we've already talked to dad several times about it, and we know our lives will never be normal. Our lives will be just like his, CRAZY."

Jennifer smiled at her youngest. "You're right Holden. My three children are just like their father, CRAZY AS LUCK'S!"

***********

Gordon nearly forgot to follow one of the paths safely across to the spacecraft, and nearly found himself eight feet down in sand. For the last six feet, he did a high wire act, trying to balance himself on the very edge of the path to get safely to the other side. When he made it, there was a round of applause from all the agents who were watching him. He stopped and politely bowed to his audience. Then he ran directly to his father and hugged him.

"Hello dad, I'm back."

"It would seem so. Did you learn anything?"

As they walked away from everyone, Gordon began to talk about what happened between him and Zoie. He saved the juiciest stuff for last. The most important thing he told them was not to mention his birthday in front of Zoie, and the reasons why. He went into the skinning of the buffalo, cutting off the meat, which would be aged and eaten by the ranch hands and her parents over the next 4 to 6 months, and how Monty brought religion into the whole process of man's early survival.

"I sent requests to all 19 members of the Deep Space Project before I left. Have you received any replies yet?"

"Yes I have received 19 replies."

"What was the result of the vote?"

"There were 10 yes, and nine no votes, with one vote outstanding."

"You are the one that hasn't voted yet."

"That's correct. This is a very big decision to be made."

"Monty is only 33 years old, she fits the profile. What is your problem?"

"I'm not at liberty to say. I've seen Monty's file, and she is a superb human being. The world should be filled with her, and it would be a much better place. She has one problem deep in her soul I will not talk to you about, and you must not talk to her about ever. That's the reason I have not voted yet."

"I asked her if she wanted to go on this trip with us. Her face lit up like a Christmas tree, and she said in a heartbeat. Maybe she wants to run away from that place in her soul. Give her that chance dad, I need her there, I want her there."

"I know Gordon; we have time, please give me the time to think."

"Okay, what are we doing with the bearings?"

"Colonel Canyon introduced me to Colonel Jack Daniels. He's an engineer. He had the problem solved in a minute. We're going to build a scaffold, put a conveyor belt on it, and use a medium pressure hose to blow the bearings in. Dycke brought 23 million of them with him, and if we were pressed for time, we could use eight conveyor belts at one time to blow in the bearings. Since he's a month early, we are only going to use one conveyor belt, and more manpower. It will probably take two weeks to get the job done."

"Not to rain on your parade dad, but where are we going to get 505,000 gallons of purified water and get it pumped into the spacecraft in the last two weeks before liftoff?"

"I will tell you if you promise not to laugh at me."

"Why would I laugh at you dad?"

"When we placed the order for the water the man at the other side of the telephone fell off his chair, because he was laughing so hard. He broke his elbow."

"I didn't know taking orders for water was a hazardous occupation."

"Apparently ordering 505,000 gallons of pure water is."

"All right dad, I promise I will not laugh at you."

"If you do, I'm not going to tell you that your mother owes the pretzel jar $180, but you didn't hear that from me."

"I swear dad I won't say a word about my mother or about the water. This is going to be so much fun."

"Are you ready?"

"Yes dad I'm ready."

"Here I go."

"You're doing this to torture me."

"Have you ever heard of the town called Idaho Springs?"

"Our Idaho Springs, the one with our laboratory in the basement, and your sister's monument by the house, that Idaho Springs?"

"Yes that's the one I'm talking about."

"I didn't know anyone there could count that high, except Rod, and he moved."

"Well I placed it through Idaho Springs so they would make a profit from the order. I'm sure you've heard of the Coors Brewing Company."

"No."

"Why do I keep forgetting you're only sixteen?"

"I will be seventeen the end of next week."

"Well, to put it in a nutshell for you, Coors is going to ship by rail 505,000 gallons of purified water to us over a one-week to ten day period. It will be offloaded at the Texas Southern Railway station into large tanker trucks and brought here. We will pump it, using cranes holding an eight-inch hoses that will be attached to the frame of the spacecraft. There will be four of these in use at all times.

There is a matter of a wedding in the middle of this procedure, but we have very able-bodied people handling this. No one will think about working or rushing back here to make sure it's going correctly, because it will be going along correctly. We are not indispensable, not me, not William, not Stephano, none of us are indispensable, there are others that can take our place at a moment's notice, and they will."

"Dad, my heart will be in the wedding, I..."

There was a bloodcurdling scream and all eyes turned towards the pits. Agents were running, Gordon and I were running, anyone with in the sound of the shout was running towards the sound. When we got there, Jennifer, Payne, and Richard were all looking into the eight-foot hole in the ground.

Jennifer yelled, "I told you to stay single file, while we were on the path Zoie."

"You are going to be minus one son mom. I was telling Holden how deep the pit was, but there was soft sand at the bottom so you wouldn't hurt yourself when you fell in. Guess who wanted to test that theory out?"

I said to my youngest, "Did you really do that on purpose?"

He nodded his head in affirmation, and smiled.

"If you wanted to find out why did you take Zoie with you?"

"I just thought if she was wrong, she might as well get hurt along with me."

I looked at Payne. "You can't argue with his logic, it's flawless."

"Dad, did you know there are ants down here?

Zoie jumped up and started brushing the sand and tiny ants off everything she could find.

"It only makes sense that there are ants down there Holden. 30 percent of what you are laying in is beet sugar, and ants like sugar a lot."

"Can I have some too?"

"Absolutely, all you have to figure out is which grain is sand, and which grain is sugar. They are both the same color, texture, and weight. The only thing that makes them different is where they come from. The sand comes from the beach, and the sugar comes from a vegetable."

Zoie yelled, "Is school closed yet, I'd like to get out of here."

Gordon said, "Could you move a little to the left Zoie?"

As soon as she did, she screamed again. Then she started hitting him, because he just jumped into the hole.

"Young miss, what did we say about hitting?"

"You just scared the shit out of me Gordon."

"That's no reason to hit me, so stop doing it."

"Okay, I'll try, I'm sorry."

"Send down the ladder please."

Zoie raised her hand to hit him again, when he grabbed her hand. Yes miss, how can I help you?"

"You could've come down by ladder, instead of jumping, and breaking your neck?"

"Yes but I would not have had any fun doing it that way. Now step on the ladder and I will be two steps behind you while you climb up. If you slip don't worry about it, because I will be right behind you grabbing your ass."

"Pervert."

"You've known that for a long time. Now climb before I put my hand under your skirt."

"I'm wearing slacks dummy."

"There are ways, and then there are ways. Climb little girl, there's a pervert behind you."

As soon as she was close to the top that arms reach out, grabbed Zoie, and brought to safety.

Gordon slid down the ladder and grabbed his youngest brother.

"Holden these steps are spaced too far apart for you to climb up by yourself. I'm going to put you on my shoulders, and tie your legs with my belt and loop it through my arms. I want you to hold onto my head, and lean forward. Will you do that for me?"

"I'd rather hold on to your ears, they are bigger."

"As long as you hold on all the time and lean forward, you can do it."

"You have a deal brother."

"Up we go, is that too tight on your ankles?"

"A little, but I like it that way, it makes me feel secure."

"Lean forward big guy, we're going up."

Before the ride began, it was over, and Holden was being scolded. He was unhappy with this part.

"Mom it was only a test. I wanted to see if Zoie was lying to me."

"There had to be a better way to find out."

I walked up behind my wife and hugged her. How would you have done it dear? Someone tells you there is a trap, but at the bottom of that trap is soft sand so you won't hurt yourself when you hit the bottom. It doesn't make much sense to me, because if you're catching an enemy, you really want him hurt so he can't hurt you anymore. Right?

Jennifer agreed.

However, as Colonel Daniels explained it to us, if the guy is dead you can't get any intelligence out of him. If he's injured he uses up all your medical supplies. The best way is to let him fall into a cauldron he cannot get out of, but will not get hurt when he hits the bottom. Do you understand?"

"No not really Even."

"Okay, let's try it like this."

It took us less than a second for us to hit bottom, but the laughing must've gone on for an hour. Jennifer took off her heels and chased me around that eight-foot circle, until she was exhausted. I also think she suffered from lockjaw, because of her yelling. When she reached the top of the ladder, she tried to kick it so I would fall back in. All that happened was she nearly fell back into the pit behind her. I don't believe she would've been happy with that result. It was a fun Sunday afternoon, and we were all starving at the end.

When Dycke finally joined us he said, "What the hell did I miss?"

Zoie jumped into her father's arms and said, "Daddy you missed one hell of a good time. We're going for dinner would you like to go with us?"

"You folks look like you're having more fun than I am, so I guess I will."

Holden grabbed Dycke's hand. "Aunt Payne wants to fly a jet fighter, but they are too slow. I'll have mommy send you a drawing next week to see if you can make an airplane without a rudder or a tail. It will be like a lifting body. I will start working on the engines, as soon as I have the body correct. However, they will sit on the back of the aircraft and will provide lift as well as stability. Gordon's new fiber will be wonderful for the top of the fuselage and back to the engine pods. However, I believe you are going to need my Uncle Gray's fiber for the undercarriage, because it will absorb heat much better. Moving at 4000 miles per hour, we can expect the skin to reach 1000 degrees before she reaches 120,000 feet. It will cool down to about 800 degrees while she's in level flight, and build up again as she begins her descent."

"How long have you been working on this Holden?"

"I guess about 12 minutes."

"Don't you look at me that way Dycke? This is the first I'm hearing about it."

"Holden tell me about this new project of yours?"

"The Air Force won't let Aunt Payne have a fighter jet. So I figured I'd build her one, only better. Theirs are too slow anyhow."

"If her airplane is moving at 4000 miles per hour, she won't be able to turn, because of the G forces."

"You are living in the wrong century Dad. I'll show you how well she'll do it when we get home. Will"

My friends and family were laughing hysterically at my expense. My five-year-old son had just sucker punched me, and I winced in pain. He must have noticed something was wrong, because he left Dycke and ran over to me.

"Did I say something wrong daddy?"

I picked him up and said, "You said something so right, it was perfect."

"Why is everyone laughing at you then?"

"Whose spaceship is going to be bigger, mine or yours?"

"Mine is daddy."

"There is something your sister said many years ago, and it is very appropriate: For Those Whose Shoulders We Stand Upon. Do you know what that means?"

"No, not really daddy."

"It means my spaceship is small but we made a lot of discoveries building it. Your Uncle Dycke made the shell through hard work and testing. Your sister discovered how to defeat gravity. She also discovered the Ion/H2 engines. Your brother discovered nuclear fusion.

The Germans invented the first jet plane, and it flew at about 500 miles per hour. Now we have jet planes that fly at close to 1600 miles per hour. You just said they were too slow.

When you were playing with Newton, the other day, building the engineering section, did you have to discovered the fusion engines?"

"No because Gordon already did that."

"Did you have to discover how to defeat gravity?"

"No because Delicious already did that."

"Where would you be right now if those two items had not been discovered already?"

"We wouldn't be anywhere, because we have no way to get off the ground."

"Now listen again: 'For Those Whose Shoulders We Stand Upon.' Do you understand now Holden?"

"I get it now dad. I get to build my dream, because someone else is letting me use theirs."

"Exactly, someone learned how to build the wheel. Why would you go back and reinvent it. Use it, and build something new, and exciting."

"I think I will begin working on transmitting sound faster than the speed of light. Maybe you can send me a birthday message next year."

"Holden, I don't doubt that you could do it. People said I couldn't transmit sound around mountains, and I became very rich because I did. You do what your dreams tell you to do, and don't worry about the money. It will be the accomplishments that will draw people to you and help you build bigger and better dreams."

****************

Lucius walked into William's office with a smile on his face.