Chapter 41

"David? What is that?" Andrea was point down at the blob in the water.

"It looks like an airplane. Can you get closer?"

David and Andrea were aboard the Wilga running the coastline east of Valencia Island. They had just turned into a little bay and Andrea had spotted a man-made shape in the water. She made a one eighty and over flew the object ... a lot lower this time.

"One more time ... let me get a picture this go-round."

One of the devices David had found while rummaging through a pawnbroker's on McMinn was a Japanese Aerial Camera. A genuine war trophy recovered from a shoot down during one of Darwin's intermittent air raids of the 1940's. The Mitsubishi G4M-11 (code named Betty by the Allies.) had been seen trailing smoke but heading east.

Some years later, a few boys, as boys do, went walkabout. Mothers, as mothers do, worried. Dads, as dads do, made sure the boys had everything they needed to survive a long weekend in the NT.

Roads ... such as they aren't in the outback of the fifties ... allowed the dads to organize stashes of water and a few luxuries ... like food ... that the boys could 'find' ... and they did. What no one expected them to bring home was a samurai sword of very ancient vintage, a Nambu pistol and a camera.

"Daddy, there's an airplane out there ... It's in pretty good shape. The crew ... well ... it's kind of sick ... the crew is lined up and beheaded ... except for the guy who had this sword." Tim looked a little green, "He had a knife stuck in his belly ... I left it."

That caused a second expedition ... this time it was fathers, mothers, sisters, cousins, aunts, uncles, nephews and nieces ... lo ... unto the fifth generation ... every fricken busybody and his mother's brother.

The "Press" was present ... and the Army, Navy and Air Force all sent representatives.

A commission from Japan descended upon the scene and gathered up the remains of the 'honorable' dead and did whatever it is they do with mummified skeletons.

The aircraft was, indeed, in reasonable condition. The pilot had managed to set her down on the only flat and brush free spot in miles. As part of a small collection of miracles the craft blew one tire and scraped a wingtip in the ground loop ... otherwise she was undamaged. Except for a few strategic and very important holes, the bomber looked flyable. It wasn't. A few years later a group, Americans, looking for resurectable warplanes, disassembled the aircraft and took it who knows where.

The sword was 'repatriated' ... for a small fee ... the Nambu wasn't mentioned and the camera was kept by one of the boy's stepfather ... there being a lot of 'stepfathers' in the fifties. The camera was passed down and passed down until the need of drink overtook the relic-ness of the device ... and it visited the pawnbrokers ... quite a few times ... until the American bought it.

"If I'd had any idea the damn thing took that good a picture I'd never sold it!" the pawnbroker exclaimed. "Bloody Yank ... robbed me, he did." A common complaint heard often in the pubs around Darwin.

So ... David took his picture and several more ... the mangrove swamp held other mysteries to be deciphered ... Andrea continued her search and returned to the small field east of town, Eventually, the government would abandon said field and an enterprising chap would build a race course out of it. The half mile of runway made an excellent front straight.