No time for incredulity, the seconds are
ticking away and the space pirates are closing in. My converted freighter has
broken out of the atmosphere, but must achieve light speed in 60 seconds,
that’s how long before the enemy ship will intercept. The passengers are
counting on me. Escape is their only hope. Already, a shot from the pirate's directed
energy weapon has damaged my ship, and that’s why I’m crawling along the
outside of it wearing magnetic grips on my hands and feet.
The ship’s hull shudders, a result of the
damage and I hold my breath inside the space helmet, but the grips hold and I
keep moving. The pirate ship, closer now, fires another energy bolt that lights
everything around me. Even though it misses, the proximity of the flash darkens
my visor momentarily. I hate not seeing where I’m going, but creep along
anyway, the seconds are ticking.
Finally, I reach the primary buffer panel,
rattling loose from the enemy fire. Only a quick fix for now, I begin to bolt
it back down. The visor goes dark again as a directed energy bolt hits the
ship. The deflector shields absorb the blast, but for just a moment, my
magnetic grips lose touch. I grab at the loose panel and feel my body tossed up
and then slam back into the ship. Pain stings up my left leg, but I keep up the
repair until the panel is fixed.
It takes four rivets to secure it, but
I feel the ship stop shuddering. I make my way back. As soon as I’m in, I throw
the lever that closes the airlock. When the door clicks and the air begins to
fill the chamber, I feel the ship accelerate to light speed. I’ve done it, the
orphans are safe. I feel something else too, my foot is injured from being
tossed around out there. Well, at least it was for the greater good.
At
least that’s what I’d like to say when people ask me what I did to my foot.
Waiting
at the Grand Canyon for the train to take us back to Williams, a little boy
looked at me with amazement and concern as I walked by on my crutches. “What
happened?” he asked.
I
did not want to tell him that I had been hanging my foot out of a golf cart,
like I did every day, when I drove up against a fence post, unnaturally
pointing my foot down, spraining it. So I just told the boy, “I wasn’t being
careful.”
His mom seemed to like that answer,
she looked at her son, the dad too, with a look of “you see what can happen?”
So
I did the vacation on crutches and I managed. At meals, my family would help me
with my food. Most places we went had ramps and the steps weren’t too
difficult. There were limitations. Doors were sometimes a challenge, heavy
restroom doors especially. And on the train ride, I didn’t try to get up and
move around. I still enjoyed it all.
And
I enjoyed the vacation too. It was everything I hoped it would be. And I was
really just hoping for one thing, that it would be a good time with the family.
I
used to abhor the idea of settling down with a family. I thought I was destined
to be a free spirit, out on the road in a retrofitted muscle car like Mad Max, or
better still, out in space executing some thrilling heroics. I dreaded the thought
of domestication and a mini-van.
But
all of that changed when I actually became a husband and father. And last week,
we as a family took a righteous road trip, saw The Grand Canyon, Route 66, Meteor
Crater and The Petrified Forrest. We drove through Winslow, Arizona where I stood
on the corner. We took a scenic drive down through Sedona and went through the town
where I lived as a young kid.
Friday
night I drove from Phoenix to Yucaipa with only one stop. It was about a 5 hour
drive and I loved it. There were no space pirates in pursuit. My passengers were
my family and it was interstate 10, not hyperspace. But it was better.
Even
though I wish that I had sprained my foot in a less embarrassing way, or better
still, not sprained it at all, I can live with the injury knowing that the thrilling
space heroics are nothing compared to what last week really was. Like I said, it
was what I hoped it would be, a time that will create memories that last a lifetime.
The family together in a van, a hotel suite, a lookout point, or gathered together
for a photo. All of that was better than any fiction I could ever compose. Reality,
sprained foot and all, at its best.
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