Chapter 14: Legend

Wendy made a 180 and flew back over the village.

"Lower, Wendy. Please."

"I'm thinking this isn't a good idea, David."

"Aww. C'mon, woman. What could happen." I laughed.

Reluctantly, Wendy made another 180 over the Sears Tower ... where the Tower would be in however many years ahead of this time, dropped down to 200 feet and made another pass and headed out over the lake...

"One more time."

This time there was a young man shaking his fist at us. He threw a couple of rocks when we made our pass. Not even close.

"Last pass for luck."

"David, there are times you don't have a brain in your head." But she did it. This time she made a big circle wide of the village, slowly losing altitude as she flew at the village.

"Lower this time."

At about 100 feet we made our pass, straight and level. We were heading directly toward the young fellow at just above stalling speed, almost gliding and took an arrow in the port engine oil tank ... oops...

Talk about your lucky shots.

"'What could happen' he said," said Wendy. "THAT could happen, you idiot. Feathering port prop. Shutting down port engine. David ... she's your airplane. If you land us in the drink, I - am - so - NOT - speaking - to - you."

She unbuckled, unstrapped and headed to the back.

"Come on ladies ... we have work to do."

Back at the village, the young man was hoisted on shoulders and carried around the huts. We started a legend alright ... The Legend of How Glooscap Killed the Culloo, the giant bird of prey. Not exactly what I had in mind.

I unfeathered the prop, restarted the port engine and climbed very slowly, looking for enough altitude to glide the rest of the way home if I had to.

At 7000 feet I had warning lights. At 7500, with the cowling smoking from the heat, I shut the port engine down and feathered the prop again. The engine immediately burst into flames. I hit the extinguisher button. It went out.

The cockpit seemed awfully breezy.

Wendy and the girls were "lightening the load."

They had all the guns and explosives from the potty already dumped in the lake and were working on the crates.

None of the ladies had headsets on so I watched helplessly as the crates were skidded across the decking and pitched out the hatch. The only really heavy crate was the Winchester ammo. I wanted to keep that. AAARRRGGGHHH ... I wanted to keep the BM 59's ... nope ... out the hatch went the crate. Some day in the far future some lucky commercial Lake fisherman is going to snag that crate in his nets and wonder, what the fuck?

If they saw this from the village the legend would grow. How The Culloo lost Her Eggs before She Died. Oh what Joy.

What could Happen ... yeah, right.

Just once I'd like to be right.

Wendy came to the cockpit, sat in her seat, buckled up and stuck her right hand in my face.

She'd broke another nail. One nail she could put up with ... two? Absolutely not. Until that nail grew out ... I wasn't getting any. I'll bet I wasn't getting any from Kim or Rachael either.

She crossed her arms, stuck her tongue out at me and pouted.

I tapped her shoulder and tapped my headset. She put hers on.

"We saved all the magazines from the 59's we pitched. We loaded them before we tossed the Ammo crate ... just in case.

"We kept the six we cleaned, the cleaning kits, solvent and the armorers kit. Everything else is gone.

"That overhead rail was a Godsend. We hooked on to it with the tiedown straps from the crates and made safety harnesses from the old 'chute pack straps.

"Rachael almost fell out. You think you're in trouble now? If you'd lost one of my wives from that little stunt..."

Now I understood my marriage. We were all married to each other.

I was married to Wendy, Kim and Rachael.

Wendy was married to Kim, Rachael and me.

Rachael was married to Wendy, Kim and me.

Kimberley was married to Wendy, Rachael and me.

I didn't have three wives ... well I did. But they all had two wives and a husband.

The coast of Michigan approached. Actually, it had been visible from about 600 feet. What I really meant was, we were about to be 'feet dry' at about 7000 feet.

"Feet Dry." I said into the mike.

"About time," said Tim. "Where have you four been?"

Wendy spoke to Tim, "we had a little Legend making to do."

"David had a better idea?"