Chapter 3

Within two years we were doing so much business that the largest national coach company approached me and offered a goodly sum to buy me out and run the business themselves. This purchase to become a subsidiary of theirs would cut their tax liability as well. I took the generous offer and escaped to the far north of Scotland for freedom and a bit of relaxation away from the bustle of city life.

George was impressed by my story. “You know something about road vehicles then,” he commented.

I agreed but added, “I knew what I didn’t know; which was why I chose to hire the right staff to do the work to the high standard I needed, George. That is more important and reliable for a business than doing such work yourself.”

He congratulated me on knowing when to run my company ‘hands off’.

“Far too many businessmen fail to realise they don’t have the technical knowledge and expertise to help on the shop floor or offer advice on a job. You give that task to a qualified automotive engineer. I grew up learning the business, however, obtained my qualifications, and I can still step in if needed.”

I warned George when I thought we were getting close to where we had left the craft, and as we approached the spot, we were surprised to see a military Land Rover sitting on the grass just off the road, very close to where I wanted to be.

At my suggestion, we ignored the presence of this vehicle and scanned the general location for the flying machine. Phyllis saw it first.

“There it is, Bob!” she declared, and pointed to where it was just visible in a dip among the grassy hillocks. George drove his vehicle closer and stopped to allow me and Phyllis to alight and walk towards the craft.

As we did so, a soldier got out of the Land Rover and began to approach us. I told Phyllis to go on, but I waited for the soldier to come closer to me. He was in an immaculate uniform, and I noticed he had an earpiece in his right ear, with a wire going down to his collar; possibly playing music while he waited. As he came up to me, I assured him, “This is our ultralight, my good man; nothing to do with the military. It is not yours, so hands off.”

He nodded politely but spoke his own piece. “Quite so, sir. We don’t wish to interfere. We are more interested in yesterday’s arrivals and departures. Care to enlighten me?”

“What do you want to know, Corporal? You are a bit unclear in your question. Care to be more exact?” I asked, seeing his shoulder stripe.

“At what time did you arrive in the machine, sir?”

I chuckled, replying, “Oh, I didn’t; not me. We simply interacted accidentally. My car was parked here and I was farther up the valley, doing hillwalking for a bit of needed exercise. Wonderful country for it, you know; empty yet full of interest. I paid little heed to the exact time, I admit, as I was enjoying the fresh air and the wide views, with no timetable to keep to. It was Phyllis and Jenny who arrived in their flying machine around then. They had a technical problem.”

“Oh? What sort of problem? Electrical?” he asked, hoping for a specific answer.

I waited as Phyllis laboriously dragged her machine towards us, and nodded towards her lovely form. “Phyllis can fill you in on that, corporal.”

Phyllis got to us and stood up again, puffing at the exertion, a question on her radiant face.

“What’s up, Bob?”

“The military is asking about your mishap yesterday. You can tell them all about it, I said.”

She straightened her clothes before replying, but that merely emphasized her lovely form. “Oh? What exactly do you want to know, young man?”

She could see that he was probably younger than herself. His rank suggested he knew what he was doing, though. He drew himself up and introduced himself with a swift, efficient salute. “Corporal Sinclair, ma’am. What problem did you have? Engine failure or what?”

“You could call it that. We had a slow leak in the fuel tank and were almost out of fuel, so I steered towards the nearest road and happened to land near Bob. He was kind enough to take us to his house overnight and arrange for George to come collect the ultralight.”

Corporal Sinclair frowned at this news. “Just fuel loss? You didn’t see anything in this area when you were coming in to land? Nothing that affected your machine’s operation? Things like an electrical fault?”

“Corporal, fuel was the only problem, and I was solely intent on getting us down safely. Piloting an ultralight is not as easy as most imagine. Landing safely is even more tricky. You have to know how to land anywhere, even on rough ground. You seldom have a flat airfield available. All I saw on the ground other than tussocky grass was Bob here. He was a godsend for us, I can tell you.”

The corporal turned to me, “And you, sir? Why were you at this spot, or wherever you were standing when she landed?”

“I was a mile or so over in that direction, near that small clump of trees, taking a breather to admire the scenery, when I noticed this aerial vehicle coming towards me. After it landed safely, the two ladies got out and asked if I had a mobile with a good signal so they could call for assistance. Knowing more about this area and its total emptiness, I took over and offered to drive them back to Thurso, where I live. It was the logical decision at the time. We had to leave the machine here until we could get it collected. Thus the lorry today; end of story.”

“You didn’t see anything coming down earlier or going back up to the sky?”

“Going back up? How odd. You mean, like a balloon? The answer is no, to both options.”

“I see. You didn’t see anything on the ground? Nothing that shouldn’t be there?”

“Nothing. Just trees and a large boulder; that’s all there was.”

“Boulder? We checked the whole area and didn’t register a large boulder anywhere.”

“Well, there was a boulder sat there when I was watching the girls land. Near the trees. It was big enough to notice, I assure you!”

The soldier looked thoughtful. “So there was a large boulder sitting there at the time, but it isn’t there now?”

I stared him in the face as I replied, “Well, YOU are saying it isn’t there now. I can only report what I saw yesterday. You believe in vanishing boulders, do you?”

“Not as such, sir. Can you describe the boulder?”

I looked over at Phyllis and rolled my eyes to the sky at the stupidity of the question.

“Let me see: it was boulder-shaped, it was large, and looked like it was made of stone. Most boulders tend to be that, you know.”

I tried not to make him sound too stupid. He ignored my sarcasm.

“Can you be more specific about the ‘large’ size, sir?”

“Not really interested in boulders, corporal, but I will try. Let me see.” I gestured with my arms. “Taller than me, perhaps two to three metres at a guess, and roughly the same in each direction, it being rounded in shape, more or less. I was not really interested in stones of any kind at the time, corporal, and not even now. When you are not interested, you don’t pay much attention to such things. A few generalities may register, but that is all.”

“Thank you, sir. That is helpful, for the stone you describe is now missing.”

“Missing? Gone for a walk on its own? Or perhaps fractured, broken into small pieces, corporal? It wouldn’t appear as a boulder then, just rocks among the grass.”

“No, sir. A colleague is scanning the entire area with high-powered binoculars, and he reports that there is nothing on any size at all near the spot you describe.”

“My goodness. He must be well-hidden.”

“We are trained in that art, sir, so we are good at it.”

“Well, congratulations are due to him, for he is certainly not visible from here. Now, can we load up the ladies’ flying machine and take it away? It is not evidence of a crime or anything of that sort, I take it?”

“No sir, just an anomaly, so we had to find out more about the circumstances. We like to be thorough. Thank you for your assistance with our enquiries. May I have your name, so I can say I met you?”

“Robert Jenkins, currently resident in Thurso. That do you, corporal Sinclair?”

With that, George and I manhandled the machine onto the back of the lorry, and George fastened it to a side panel with a wide canvas strap and then closed up the back flap of the lorry. The military did not offer to assist us.

George announced, “That’s it secure, Mr Jenkins, so if miss Phyllis is ready, we can depart.”

Once we were aboard, Phyllis gave a goodbye wave to the corporal, and George steered us to the nearest passing place where he carefully manoeuvred the lorry in a clever six-point turn to get it facing back towards Thurso. This part of the road was single track with passing places. Many of the roads in Sutherland are like this, but the tarmac surfaces are well-kept on the whole.

We trundled back to Thurso, George noticing that Phyllis was holding my hand tenderly.

“You two together?” he asked convivially. “You look like it!”

Phyllis turned to look over to him. “Yes. Very much so. It may be forever, if I am lucky.”

I smiled and added, “That is the way I feel as well.”

George nodded. “That is the way it should be. Far too many people in the south of the country think that marriage is a temporary state of affairs. Commitment should not be a temporary thing; it is a long-term arrangement.”

I said, “Thank you, George. You express my ideas very well.”

George nodded but said, “Sorry. I have to concentrate on the road, in case we meet someone coming the opposite way. I have to watch for the next passing place until we get to the twin-track section. Car drivers from the south are not good at reversing their cars back to a passing place: lack of practice.”

I knew exactly what he meant. Since the North Coast 500 route had become popular, the number of cars on this road had rocketed. Fortunately, this only means going from a few cars per hour to dozens, and over a long stretch, that is easily managed, provided the visitor has learned how to drive on a single-track road with passing places. It needs care and attention all the time. The worst offenders are those with motor homes who think that passing places are available for parking. They are not!

We all chatted from time to time, and George got around to asking about what the soldier was looking for. Phyllis gave him his answer.

“Beats me, George. He was talking about something coming down from the sky and going back up again, but apart from me and Jenny, there was nothing in the sky around us.”

“Weird thinking,” George commented. “Whatever made him think there was something else?”

I admitted, “Yesterday, shortly after we had left, I noticed in my mirror an Air Force helicopter quartering the countryside behind us. I assume there was a radar trace that indicated a landing of sorts, and they were hunting for what it might be. Of course, it might be that it was the girls’ machine that appeared on the radar and they got confused.”

George frowned, “No, it cannot have been that. A military helicopter would have to come from RAF Lossiemouth at a minimum, with a full load of fuel, and that is 250 miles or more for the round trip. It possibly would have come up from further south, so it would be several hours after the event before it got here. The radar trace would have to have been hours earlier, and not be your flying machine. I wonder what it was they saw, and why they were interested?”

I chuckled, “Would that be the proverbial Unidentified Flying Object?”

George chuckled back, “Could be. Depends on how good the radars are that they were using. And interpreting the results is just as important. Back in the cold war the Americans spotted what seemed to be a missile coming from Russia over the pole, but it turned out to be high-flying geese! God, were their faces red!”

I laughed at the picture George painted.

Phyllis added, “They are just wasting the military’s time hunting for things that are not there.”

I interrupted, “Not quite, Phyllis. The word is unidentified, that’s all. Who knows what they saw, but they didn’t know what was on their screens; that is most likely why they were interrogating us, hoping we would tell them more than their radars could inform them. If only!!”

George nodded while still watching the road ahead. “Quite right, son. They play their games, but never come up with a reliable and definitive answer.”

I added to that, “Even if it was aliens, why don’t they ever land and say hello? That seems to me the rational question to be asked. If they are there, for some reason, they don’t fancy dealing with us. Maybe it is how we treat each other, nation to nation. Not a good example for them. Would you want to discuss things with us humans, if you were observing our behaviour as a species? Wars, wars, and more wars?”

The conversation petered out, and soon we were arriving at Thurso.

“Where do you want this machine delivered, Mister Jenkins?”

I looked at Phyllis, who shrugged. I said, “We can stash it inside my car’s garage on Barrock Street. Most of the time my car is out on the road anyway.”

We did that, and then George said, “Call in at my place tomorrow, and we can settle up, Mister Jenkins.”

“Will do, George,” I responded. “I’ll bring my credit card.”

Leaving George to get back to his business, Phyllis and I walked round to my front door. It was unlocked, indicating that Jenny had arrived back from her grocery expedition. I had given her my spare key to use. We seldom get burglaries in Caithness, and many folk never bother to lock their doors.

Stepping inside, Phyllis called out, “Jenny? We are home.” I was pleased that she regarded my house as ‘home’.

Jenny came rushing from the kitchen and threw herself into my arms. “I missed you, Bob,” she squealed excitedly, and then smashed her lips against mine to prove her point.

Phyllis, who I could see past Jenny’s head, shrugged and commented, “Being your best friend comes second, I see.”

Jenny heard this and pulled back to say, “For this, yes, Phil. He is the one who is going to fuck me later, remember. We share his attention, sister.”

“Agreed,” said Phyllis. “Bob held my hand for much of the trip there and back. If we had been alone, it would have been much more, much much more. Did you get a good lot of shopping done, Jenny?”

Jenny released me, allowing me to head to the downstairs toilet, but I heard her starting to recount where she had shopped and what she bought with my debit card.

I had just got back to them when I saw Phyllis exclaim, “You did what!!?”

Jenny looked at me with alarm. “Did I overstep the mark, Bob?”

Phyllis almost exploded as she reported, “Jenny brought a teenager home with her! Without your permission, Bob! It is your house, after all.”

I was surprised, but tried to calm Phyllis down.

“Hang on, Phyllis. There must be more to it than that. Care to tell us, Jenny my love?”

At my words, Jenny came back to give me a quick kiss then said, “You are right as usual, Bob darling. The girl was shoplifting when I saw her, so I stopped her, laying a hand on her arm. I asked, “Why are you doing this, girl?”