Small Town Hero

“Erik?” Chris yelled into the other room, “Want to head home or make a pick-up?”
Erik walked into the office with a cup of coffee, “I’ll take it, you head home. Seeing as though I just had to have one of these.” Erik held the cup up in the air and smiled.
“Good,” Chris stood up and started toward the door, “I need some sleep. You coming down to the match tomorrow?”
“Have I ever missed a match?” Erik asked.
“No, and you even had the courtesy to get hit by that car after New England’s,” Chris turned and leaned in the doorway.
“Yeah, a big ball of consideration,” Erik took a sip of his coffee which was still too hot.
“Anyway, the address is on the desk. I’ll see ya in the morning. Drive safe.” Chris turned and walked out of the office.
“You too,” Erik walked over to the desk and picked up the address. He recognized the address and laughed out loud to himself. “The middle school? This has got to be a joke.”
It wasn’t cold enough for the snow to stick to the ground, but it came anyway. It melted the moment it hit Erik’s windshield and what made it to the ground blew around in little funnels sparing the snowflakes a few moments grace.
The streets were empty, but Erik still took it slowly. Even under the speed limit it only took five minutes to get to the middle school. He pulled into the entrance and drove around the circle of grass in the center of the parking lot. He searched the foyer but couldn’t see anyone or anything there. So, he came full circle to the entrance and drove back toward the street.
Out of the corner of his eye Erik saw something fly out of the gazebo sitting on the lawn in front of the middle school. He came to a stop and looked out of his passenger window and could barely make out a figure standing in the gazebo. Then the figure walked down the steps and looked over at the car.
Erik lowered his window, left the car in park and got out. The figure began walking toward the car Erik could see it was a man wearing a suit with the tie balled up in his jacket pocket and the collar hanging open.
“You need some help, Mister?” Erik yelled through the wind and snow.
“Yeah,” the man in the suit said and Erik knew the voice from that simple proclamation. “I could really use a ride.”
“Saferides is a program for students,” Erik said and turned back toward his car. “Not middle aged alcoholics.”
“P-please,” the man squinted in the flurries, “I don’t have enough for a cab… I don’t…I don’t think I could even get a c-cab out here now.”
“Again, our service is for students,” Erik was at the car now and got back inside. He rolled the window up, put it in drive and pulled out onto the street. He drove slowly and in his rearview mirror he could see the man in the suit begin walking down the sidewalk in the other direction. The man stumbled and fell to his hands and knees and his breath filled the air around his head as he struggled back to his feet. Erik punched the steering wheel then pulled at his hair.
Erik put the car in reverse, threw his right arm over the back of the passenger seat and looked over his shoulder as he backed-up the street. He stopped on the side of the road where the man wiped off his suit missing the dirt and snow completely.
“You don’t live in that direction,” Erik said through the open passenger window, “Mr. Reynolds.”
Mr. Reynolds leaned into the car and Erik returned his view to the street in front of the car. Erik could smell the liquor from his breathe even through the cold and the snow, “You know me? Who... who’s that in there?”
Erik kept his stare fixed ahead of him on the swirling snow on the blacktop. A few spots had started to dust over with the light powder, but they were few and far between.
“Just get in the back Mr. Reynolds,” Erik said.
“Mr. Reynolds reached out and grabbed onto the front passenger side door handle but slipped off because the door was still locked, “Fuck!”
“I said the back, Mr. Reynolds,” Erik rolled the window up and waited for Mr. Reynolds to put his hand on the rear handle, then unlocked the door.
“You know where I live?” Mr. Reynolds said righting himself in the back seat after falling into it.
Erik looked at him in the rearview mirror but didn’t respond. Then he put the car in drive and pulled off down the street.
Mr. Reynolds sat with his forehead against the cold glass staring at the flurries as they whipped by the window. “Can I open the window, its so much cooler outside?” He pushed at the window lift button but Erik had locked them.
“No,” Erik said, and he wondered how Mr. Reynolds had gotten the number for Saferides.
“I didn’t have anyone else to call,” Mr. Reynolds seemed to read Erik’s mind, and he held a business card up in font of his face. “I found… this in my pocket. Must belong to m daughter. Do you now my daughter?”
“Yes, Mr. Reynolds. I know her.” It was Marie’s fault he was in this situation. Seemed like the whole family wanted to torment him in some way.
“Wait... I know you. You’re the McManus kid aren’t you?” Mr. Reynolds looked over the business card that he was still holding up in front of his face. Erik could see his eyes were glassy over the card in the rearview mirror.
“Yes, Mr. Reynolds, I am.” Erik pulled his bad leg up and shifted in hi seat to fend off a hip cramp.
“You can let me out here if you want,” Mr. Reynolds reached for the handle, but the door didn’t open, Erik locked it.
“I don’t leave people stranded when they need help, Mr. Reynolds.”
“I don’t suppose you would be that kind of person.”
“Just sit quietly and I’ll have you home in a few minutes.” Erik turned off of Main Street and was back near the high school when Mr. Reynolds broke the silence again.
“I really didn’t know what I did, Erik.”
“So you’ve said before Mr. Reynolds.” Erik wrapped his fingers around the steering wheel so tightly you could hear his calluses scrape over the vinyl. “And I would prefer it quiet while I drive.”
“Your parents must be good people,” Mr. Reynolds said quietly, “raising such a respectful and tolerant young man.”
Erik kept quiet as he turned onto Mr. Reynolds and his road. He pulled to a stop a few minutes later in front of Mr. Reynolds’ house and put the car in park.
Erik turned in his seat calmly and said, “They did just that Mr. Reynolds. But my tolerance is only so fervent. If anything like this happens again, I will report it to your Probation officer and do my damnedest to make sure it hurts you.”
Mr. Reynolds looked at Erik with a sullen face and then dropped his chin to his chest. Erik unlocked the door and the man got out. Erik pulled off and headed up their road toward his house. Mr. Reynolds watched for a moment, then walked to his door and unlocked it but not after trying three keys before finding the right one.

Above Us only Sky

Joe woke up alone in his room an hour before dawn. He was been alone for three months. Three months doing everything alone in preparation for the next seven years of isolation he will endure.
After showering and getting dressed, Joe walks to the front door as the hour strikes six. The doors open and he walks out looking at a doctor and an armed Security Officer. Joe was used to seeing this, even after three months alone, with only them watching.
“Colonel Ricen,” Dr. Owens said, “How are you doing?”
“Well,” Joe said.
“Good, good,” the doctor said and turned and began walking up the corridor. “Follow me then.”
Joe fell in between the doctor and the Security Officer. They walked what seemed like miles to Joe, not that he was complaining, before coming to a small room where a tray of food was sitting. Joe sat down at the table without being told to, and looked over the fruit, the oatmeal and the hard-boiled egg in front of him. He had nothing but dehydrated food for the past three months. Nothing but that silly Astronaut Food little kids always want their parents to buy them at the science museum, but without the interesting variety of flavors.
“We hope this will lift your spirits a bit,” the doctor said and sat down on the other side of the table. “We understand the feelings associated with prolonged isolation. And we wanted to give you at least this much before the rest of your trip.”
“Thanks,” Joe said before eating the egg whole.
“We have everything ready for today,” the doctor opened the file that he had been carrying. “Is there anything else we can take care of for you?”
“Just a ride and an hour alone,” Joe looked at the Security officer, “Well, as alone as you can allow me.”
“Only visual surveillance for one hour. We are more than happy to give you that. And I must ask you one more time, do you want to continue with this assignment?”
“You think that after spending a year in that bubble on the bottom of the Atlantic, six months alone on that space station of yours and another alone with no outside contact in that chamber I would say I don’t want to do it?”
“It is within your rights guaranteed in your contract. And you would know better than us if you are ready and willing to complete this assignment.”
“Yes, I want to continue with this assignment.” Joe picked up the oatmeal and began eating it. He has always hated oatmeal, but it was warm and tasted like heaven at that specific moment. “But the question is, do you still want me to carryout this assignment?”
“You still have our full confidence.”
“Guess I haven’t snapped then yet, huh doc?”
“No, you haven’t ‘snapped’, Colonel.”
“So much better than beating around the bush isn’t it?”
“Pardon?”
“Just saying something out right instead of your psychological rigamarole.”
“I suppose it is. Well, I will see you in a few hours. I hope you have a pleasant time.”
“I’ll have a time, that is definite. See ya Doc.”
Joe finished his breakfast and walked with the Security Officer to the jet way. There was a small transport waiting to take him wherever he wanted to go. He knew that there would be another transport following and he would have an hour to spend with his mother. He still didn’t really know what he was going to say to her.
Once in the air, the trip lasted only five minutes and the parking lot had been emptied for their arrival. Joe breathed in deep then sighed before opening the door and stepping out onto the tarmac. He looked out at the entry gate and over the headstones that rose out of the grass. The walkways between the graves were lined with white bricks that were rounded at the top making a strange wave patterned along the manicured green.
The metal of the gate was black with time in most places with spots of red where the elements had taken their toll, and Joe ran his hand over a bit of red as he walked through the gate. He looked at the smear of iron oxide on his hand then rubbed them together as he walked toward the center and found the small head stone with his mother’s name on it. It was flush to the ground and only her name, birth and death were engraved into the granite. Joe knelt down and brushed the grass and small debris away slowly. Then he traced the letters of his mother’s name with his fingers as his eyes filled with tears, and he wiped them away with his other hand before they had a chance to fall.
“Hey, ma?” Joe whispered to the ground. Then he sat back Indian style with his hands clasped together in his lap. “I know it’s been awhile since I’ve come around, but I’ve been real busy with a new job. Still working with the government. Still flying really fast. Just now, I’ll have a chance at breaking some of those records I always used to talk about.”
Joe stops and looks around. He can see the transport sitting in the parking lot, and he can see the Security Transport that was watching him further away in the lot. He sighed and looked back down to the grass in front of him.
“I’m not really sure how to explain this, it’s all so complex and unimaginable. It’s strange that I can read all the material on what I am doing and understand it, but I can’t explain it. I know exactly what I’ll be doing, where I’m going, but trying to explain it, trying to say it just sounds so impossible.”
Joe pulled at the grass tearing some away and then let it fall from his fingers slowly.
“I will be leaving tomorrow to travel to Alpha Centaury. That is the second closest star to our own. Why not travel to the one that’s closer, you say? Well, that has to do with the things that we consider when we look for stars that could support planets like our own. So, we look for stars like ours and Proxima Centauri doesn’t make the grade. But Alpha Centauri is almost exactly like our Sun, just a little bit older. This will take me a little over three years. And I will be traveling faster than the speed of light. I know your asking yourself, ‘How do you know your going to find anything there?’ But that’s not really the point of this mission. This mission is to do it. To finally leave our solar system with a manned craft. To prove that we can. And I’m the one that’s going to do it, ma. Me. Others will come after me, but I will be the man who did it first. Like Neil Armstrong, or Sir Edmund Hillary. I’ll just be gone a lot longer.”
Joe stopped again and pushed himself off of the ground. He paced back to the path then back over to the headstone. He did this a few more times before stopping near the headstone again.
“This part is pretty hard to say. Not only because of the implications, but also because of how crazy it sounds. A little over seven years will have passed for me, but over two hundred and fifty will have passed here on Earth. I’ve spent the better part of the past two years in some form of isolation or another, but the doctor’s have given me their full confidence in my abilities as a pilot, as an explorer, and in my ability to handle the stress of isolation and what will come if I come back. And I do mean if. There’s always the possibility of an unknown obstacle or of just a plain old accident, but I’m doing it ma. I’m making a name for myself, making a difference for humanity.
My biggest fear, ma is that if I get back, you won’t be here. I know your not really here, or you might be, but what I mean is this place. This has been my only respite from everything else all these years since you died. And I’m just so scared that if I come back, I won’t be able to come here and look at your name written in this stone,” Joe knelt down and ran his fingers over the impressions in the stone, “And I won’t be able to talk to you like this.”
Joe stood back up and breathed in deeply. It was Fall; he could smell it on the air. The smell of burning leaves filled his head and he smiled at the images of piles of red, yellow and dead brown leaves, of pumpkin pie and splitting wood in the back yard. He remembered the warmth of the house when the oven had been cooking all night and day. When He looked around again, he noticed the red, yellow and gold hanging in the trees. He noticed the few spots of yellowed grass around the cemetery, and he smiled.
“I’m leaving tomorrow, ma. And I don’t know if I’m coming back.” Joe knelt down in the grass again, then he lied down on his back with his head right below the headstone, and looked up at the sky. “I only have a little more time ma, so I’m just going to lie here with you looking at the sky, like we used to, when I was a kid. I really hope I can see this again. Especially from here, cause I’m going to miss coming here, more than anything else in the world.”
When the hour was up, Joe kissed his mother’s headstone and walked back to the transport. He watched the cemetery fall away through the window as they were swallowed by the sky above.