Chapter 39: Shaky Starts

Late-August, 1986

ON A TROPICAL-LIKE ISLAND ON A PLANET 350,000 LIGHT YEARS FROM EARTH

BOB POV:

Right now everybody is freaking out that our portal just up and disappeared. Greg is afraid, that because he threw a rock through it, he might have accidentally destroyed it!

“Greg, Buddy, I don’t think you did anything by throwing that rock, but hit me on the arm! Look, your watch says exactly five minutes. Maybe it just disappeared so we don’t accidentally wander into it?”

He took a deep breath, then sighed, looking all around, “You might be right. It might do that so animals don’t accidentally wander into it either. That makes sense. I’ll feel better though, when we see it reappear with our shed. I hope Ibera doesn’t forget!”

I huffed, “You’re not planning on just sitting here for the next three and a half hours, waiting, are you?”

He was looking around absentmindedly, deep in thought. Ed was grinning at me and Linda, but, was also checking out our surroundings. I could sense that he was chomping the bit, wanting to get moving, just like me. He was also amused at Greg’s absent-minded musings about our situation.

Greg was a profound thinker and felt responsible for us. Like we couldn’t take care of ourselves.

I decided to get him thinking about something simple, “Hey, where are those pictures we took and had laminated?”

“Um, oh yeah, I think they’re in Linda’s backpack.”

I looked in Linda’s pack and sure enough, there was a tube containing the 11”x17” photos we took while at Ibera’s. I pulled out the one showing an aerial view of the entire island and a dry-erase marker. “Okay, I say we go on a recon flight, to see where we might want to set up camp. I don’t think we want to be right here on the beach, do we, Greg?”

He finally started coming around, “No, we don’t know about the tides or anything, so, it might be good to find somewhere up higher, maybe near a stream or pond. I know the water is supposed to be good, but I brought a test kit, anyway, just to be sure.”

I noticed what looked to be a fairly large pond or lake about a mile from where we were, according to the photo-map. We needed to test our ‘scale’. So I reached into my backpack and pulled out my black helmet. I also had a spotter’s scope that had a range finder. I figured if we landed near that pond, I could get the distance across it then mark the map, giving us a reasonable idea just how big this island really was. Standing here on the beach, it looked much bigger than the island we sent Chen to. I wanted my night vision, so I could look for heat signatures so I could check where any animals might be. I could also get a rough size.

I didn’t want no damned grizzlies sneaking up on us!

I should tell you, this island is a lot like Fiji. It is somewhat mountainous in places, but has tropical vegetation and hills most everywhere else. The only flat area is on what appeared to be the north side of the island. I also plan on seeing if what we thought was north, would be the same as what the compass in my helmet showed.

Linda donned her regular daytime helmet, with the telescopes, direction and elevations showing in it. Ed put his on too.

Greg said his was in the storage shed. Aaargh!

I told him we’d fly slow and he could hold the map. He just looked at me and frowned.

Sometimes Greg was like the ‘Absent-minded Professor’. I think this whole experience was causing his brain to go into overload, even more than Ed’s!

Shortly after we took off, I chuckled, “Well, another question has been answered ... we have our powers!”

Linda chuckled, “Yeah, but did you notice the altimeters in our helmets said -50 just before we took off? Why do you think that is?”

Greg answered, “It has to do with the atmospheric pressure. It’s obviously different here than Earth, where our helmets always showed our altitude above sea-level. We’ll have to use our watch-altimeters, so we can set it to zero, properly. That’s a good observation, Linda, my sweet Forest Nymph!”

I flew up high, as I wanted to find the big pond that we wanted to check out. I found it and my compass heading was Azimuth 32˚ (NNE), however, according to our ‘map’, we should be going almost due East or AZ 88-92˚. I had Greg mark our map, so we could update our data, once we set up camp.

We decided this trip was going to mostly be about fact-finding and figuring out how to make this a fun place to visit and hopefully bring the rest of our Family someday.

We had a lot to do.

Ed wants to add his two-cents worth!

Ed Hopkin’s POV:

Okay, so I know my predecessors have done a credible job on this story. But, I feel I need to give you just a little background about my wife and I that you may not know.

I am a Sci-Fi geek. I have been ever since I listened to Orson Welles’, ‘War of the Worlds’ when it was re-broadcast when I was 8. Since then, I’ve watched every Sci-Fi movie and TV show ever made.

Some were great, some, not so much. I still had to watch ... and dream!

My first ‘favorite’ was ‘Star Trek’, but then, ‘Star Wars’ blew that away. I loved ‘Time Tunnel’ and H.G Wells’, ‘The Time Machine’ and ‘Time After Time’ about how Jack the Ripper used H.G. Wells’ Time machine to escape justice. And of course, ‘Back to the Future’, ‘Starman’, ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind’, ‘ET’, ‘2001 A Space Odyssey’, ‘The Day the Earth Stood Still’, ‘The Terminator’, ‘Alien’ (Which scared the bajeebers out of me!), and ‘The Philadelphia Experiment’.

I know I’m forgetting a bunch, but, you get the idea.

Oh yeah, also, ‘The Adventures of Superman, the TV series, with George Reeves and the later movies, with George’s Son, Christopher, as Superman. I mention these because of my good friend, Charlie.

I won’t go into how I met Charlie, as you already know, but I do need to tell you how I ran into Gracie, the love of my life!

I’d been working as the stock boy for a little shop, ‘Pop’s Hobby and Tobacco Shop’, that sold comic books, baseball cards, model car kits, custom mixed pipe tobacco, pipes and all that kind of thing. It was located in a strip mall that had a local grocery store as it’s anchor on one end and a family restaurant, called ‘The Manor’, on the far end. It also had a small beauty parlor/nail salon, two doors down from my shop.

I’d been working there since I started my Sophomore year in High School. I had to get a job so I could ‘support’ my 16^th birthday present. My dad bought me a brand new Honda 450 street bike! He said he got it for me since my favorite transportation, since I was 6-years old, was my bicycle. I’d managed to ride my various bikes without crashing or getting into trouble for 10 years, so he figured this new Honda was the natural progression for me. It was cheaper than a car and less maintenance was required to keep it on the road.

I was stunned and ecstatic! I was always the ‘little geek’ and now my new Honda put me in near rock star status. The few kids at school who had bikes, mostly had Junkers that were cobbled together and were less than reliable. My Honda was very reliable and I could ride it all day without worry. I had to take two different tests to get my Driver’s License, but, had no trouble passing either one. It sucked that I couldn’t ride in the snow, but with my snowmobile suit, the cold I could deal with.

My parents, (Dad especially) were cool and I could borrow my mom’s car in the really bad weather, since she didn’t like to drive, anyway.

So, over the summer between Sophomore and Junior year in High School I was working full time at Pop’s Shop. I also picked up a part-time job doing janitor like duties for the Hair and Nail salon.

That was owned by a nice lady named Helen. She was a frequent visitor to the shop buying things for her nieces and nephews. Shortly after school ended, she asked if I wanted to make some extra money by mopping and waxing her floors and cleaning the sinks and mirrors and windows for a couple hours before they opened each day. Like Pops, she opened at 9:00am. She offered to pay cash and it was at an even better rate than Pops paid me. So, it was a no-brainer.

The more money I made over the summer the better.

It also led to meeting my Gracie!

Gracie was her niece, who was 15 and wanted to be a beautician someday. Helen was taking her on as her apprentice for the summer. Gracie was even shorter than me and the first day she came in with Helen I about tripped over my tongue. She was so pretty and she giggled and blushed when Helen introduced us.

“Ed, this is Grace, my niece. Grace, Ed here is one of the most honest and industrious young men I know.”

If Helen knew the lust I had the second her sweet niece grinned at me, her statement might have been different. I wanted to stay there and talk some more, but, I had to run down two doors and get to my real job. As I left, I saw Grace waving goodbye to me through the window.

All morning all I could do was think about her.

At lunch, I took my bagged lunch and thermos of iced tea out back, where Pops had a picnic table set up with an umbrella. As I ate my lunch, I kept looking at the back door to the salon longing for Gracie to come out.

She didn’t. I was forlorn. I’d hoped to maybe get her to join me.

I was just getting ready to go back in when I heard a couple giggles. I looked and Helen and Gracie had come around the back way from the Manor. Helen said, “See Grace dear, I told you this is probably where Ed was! He brings his lunch, so he doesn’t waste money eating at the restaurant. He’s a very smart young man!”

I was blushing like crazy and looked at Gracie, apologetically, “I need to save my money so I can keep my bike up. Dad makes me pay for my own gas, license and insurance.”

Gracie giggled, “You have to put gas in your bicycle?” She asked, pointing at someone’s bike parked by the building.

I laughed, “Oh, not that bike! I have my motorcycle parked next to the gas station across from the Manor. Dad knows the owner and he lets me park there so I don’t take up a space in the parking lot.

Gracie’s eyes lit up and she squealed, “That Honda is yours!? Wow! I saw it when we walked to the restaurant. That looks like brand new!”

Helen was still giggling as she left Gracie and me and headed toward the back door to the salon. Just before she went in, she hollered, “Don’t make Ed late for work, dear. Maybe you can talk more after work?”

Gracie looked distressed, but, I patted her shoulder, while hollering back at Helen, “Don’t worry Mrs Helfrich, I still have a few minutes.”

Helen just winked as she stepped inside.

Gracie was bouncing on her toes, “Ed ... um ... could you maybe give me a ride home? You know, after work? Pleaaase?”

I don’t know what possessed me but I hugged her, “Sure! As long as you know I don’t have a helmet. I don’t wear one and I also don’t have one for you. Sorry.”

She giggled and hugged me tighter, “If you were wearing one but I wasn’t, then I might be nervous. But, since you don’t have one either, I figure you must be a safe driver.”

“I try. I’ve been riding for a while now and DO try to be careful. I’m allergic to road rash!”

She was giggling as she started pulling away. “Me too! Thanks, Ed, I can’t wait to get done today ... please don’t leave without me?”

I was chuckling, “Oh, you don’t have to worry about THAT. I’ll be looking forward to it, too!”

She then quickly turned and ran down to the salon. She DID stop to wave at me and blow me a kiss, just before she ran in the door.

That afternoon was the longest, slowest shift I ever worked!

I restocked every shelf, cleaned every display case and every time I looked at the clock, it’s like the darn thing wasn’t moving! I even swept the floor and asked if I could help with the tobacco.

Pops was laughing, “Jeez Ed, you MUST be in love or something! You usually work hard, but, you’ve got this place shining!”

I could feel my ears getting warm and it felt like 100 degrees in there. “I just wanna earn my keep, Pops.”

Pops smirked, “Ed, I have an idea, since we’re slow today, why don’t you go down to Helen’s place and get a haircut? You’re look-in’ a mite scruffy.”

I almost felt a conspiracy. I knew for sure when Pops added, “Maybe Helen’s new helper will give you a shampoo? Helen charges the same as Bill’s Barber shop, and her shampoo is nice and included with all men’s haircuts! I told her I’d steer some customers her way. She’s only been doing men’s hair for a few weeks.”

On the one hand, I wanted to run down there. On the other hand, I was embarrassed to death going into a Beauty Parlor.

I felt like a perv.

So, just like a perv, I slinked on down to Helen’s. I never remembered there was a paint store next to Pops’ place ... and sooo many colors! Yeah, one step forward and two steps back. Finally, I figured if they were busy, I could just say hi and get the heck out of there.

When I walked in you could hear a pin drop.

Helen’s was as dead as we were this afternoon! Shit!

“Well hello, Ed! What brings you in here?” Helen was waving me in and grinning at me.

“Ummm, Pops said I needed a haircut. He said you were doing guys’ hair now too. Is that true?” I was blushing like crazy and kept looking at the floor.

Helen giggled, then hollered, “Grace, dear, I’ve got a shampoo out here for you to do!” I looked around and Gracie was nowhere to be seen.

When Gracie came around the corner from the back room and saw me, I don’t know who’s eyes were bigger, mine or hers. Her ‘O’ expression turned to a smile, when she realized I was the only one in here.

Then she nearly ran over to me. “Hi Ed! Are you going to be my first solo shampoo?”

She looked at her Aunt.

Helen was just grinning and nodding ... and led me over to a low-backed chair with a goofy looking sink behind it.

I climbed in and Gracie tied a big plastic bib around my neck. I was shocked when the chair reclined and I noticed my neck was now in the cutout on the sink. I was staring up into the most beautiful sky-blue eyes in the world!

And, they were smiling at me.

I heard the water come on and Gracie was moving around, getting everything she needed situated. I felt her using a sprayer as a warm flow of water was wetting my hair. I think she was just being careful, but it took a long time for her to turn it off and put some shampoo in my hair. She giggled softly, “Aunt Helen said to make sure I’m thorough. Let me know if I’m taking too long, okay?”

“As long as I get home before dark, as far as I’m concerned, you’re not taking too long!”

She lightly slapped my arm, “It doesn’t get dark till 9:00pm, you goof ... we close at 5!”

“Then proceed, I guess.”

I noticed she was leaning over me and my upper arm was nestled between her perfect breasts.

Trying NOT to get wrapped up in wishing that my upper arm could grow fingers, I tried to figure out her bra size.

Gracie had really big breasts for such a short, petite girl. I was thinking C-Cups, but, I’d read something about cup sizes being purely about volume.