Over the Rainbow - Book One - 'The Gathering Place' (18 page)

Walter leaned on his own club and asked, “Okay,
lucky lady, what other tricks have got up your sleeve? Oh, oh,
wait, I know, I know! You still need a hole in one to get a
'Yahtzee' bonus, don't you?”

Abigail playfully stuck out the remainder of her
tongue at Walter and replied, “Smart aleck.” She slowly took the
club back and swung, sending the ball straight to its target,
holding the club over her shoulder as she fixed her gaze on it,
watching its flight as it arrowed down the fairway.

The ball landed softly on the distant green and
rolled a sinuous curving track straight at the gently waving
flag-stick, striking it in silence and rolling a few feet away.
Abigail exclaimed, “OH! I almost got it!” She turned to see Walter,
pale and shell-shocked, nearly fall from his leaning perch. “Scared
the crap out of you, didn't it?”

Walter didn’t reply, staring at yet another in what
was becoming a litany of near-miracles on this most unusual of
days.

Abigail walked back to him with a slight swagger,
brushing past him as she slid her club back into her bag and said
with just a bit of whimsical mysticism, “Just goes to show you, be
careful what you say…”

Chris turned off the engine, the growl of the beast
fading into silence, and slowly climbed out of the car. Crossing to
Alani, who held a tire iron limply in her hand, he ventured the
obvious, “Uh- Car trouble?”

Alani smiled thinly, “No, I'm
practicing to be a mechanic. Want to watch?” And then her smile
turned to a scowl as she turned back to the vehicle and proceeded
to
beat the crap out of
it
, all the while uttering muffled curses
in Hawaiian, Japanese, and who knows what else, punctuating each
blow with an “Arrgh!!! Nhh! Nhh! Nhh! Errrgh!! You- stu-pid piece
of -!!” Finally, her anger spent and frustration weighing on her
shoulders, her blows lessened and she ended her assault with a
groan of defeat, her head slumping limply between her
hands.

Chris leaned in over her shoulder
and mused with a querulous frown, “Wow, I never tried
that
before. Is it
working?”

Alani whirled on him in frustration, raising the
tire iron like a weapon, conking her head on the hood of the Jeep
and knocking her hat from her head. “NO!!!” she wailed, tears of
frustration welling just behind her limpid green orbs.

Chris backed away slightly, raising his hands in
defense. “Whoa! Easy there...”And then he gestured toward the inert
Jeep, asking, “May I?”

Alani flung the tire-iron into the rear of the Jeep
and leaned wearily against its’ side as she gestured toward the
open hood. “Help yourself,” she said dejectedly.

Chris poked his head into the
engine compartment- checking wires and palpitating hoses, opening
caps and sniffing their aromas,
whistling
all the while. He finally
pulled out the oil dipstick and sniffed at the end like a chef
sampling a stew, nodding sagely as a single drop of oil formed, and
then dropped off. Replacing the dipstick with a look of
satisfaction, he pulled back out from under the hood and said to
Alani without looking at her, “Get in and try it...”

“
WHAT!?”

Chris said gently, “Get
in
and turn the
key.”

Alani climbed into the driver’s seat, all the while
looking at the back of Chris like he was a strange but harmless
lunatic. Shaking her head with a skeptical frown, she turned the
key- and the engine roared to life. The unexpected action startled
Alani, and she flung herself back into the seat with a look of
shocked amazement frozen on her face.

Chris merely put his hands on his
hips, and waited. After a brief pause, he counted out to no one in
particular, “Three- two-
one
…”

And the engine coughed- and died.

Chris smiled ironically, and said, aside, “Yup, just
as I suspected.” Then he called back over his shoulder to Alani,
“Your fuel pump's shot.”

“
How do you know that?”

“
Because I had a Jeep just like it
in high school- same thing happened to me. Twice.”

Alani said, raising a singular sardonic eyebrow,
“You're kidding.”

“
I wish I were.”

“
Can you do anything to fix
it?”

“
Not here, not now.”

“
Why?”

Chris turned to Alani and
scratched his head idly with one hand as he gestured vaguely toward
the rear of the vehicle with the other, “Because the fuel
pump's
inside
the
gas tank. It's not exactly an easy fix.”

“
Great, now I'm gonna be late for
work.”

Chris smiled his lop-sided grin,
“Your
other
work?
Bummer. Where are you headed?”

Alani hesitated, and then stated flatly, “The
Honu-Kai. I dance there every night.”

“
Really? What a
coincidence. That's where
I'm
staying.” Chris smiled in chagrin and tilted his
head as he continued, “At least, I was...”

“
What are you talking
about?”

“
Well- I'm, uh- I’m kind of lost,
actually. You want a ride? You could show me the way.”

Alani looked skeptically at Chris, and then at his
car. A sardonic smile crossed her face as she asked, “Are you sure
it's safe?”

“
What? Oh, very funny. Yes, it's
safe.”

“
With
your
track record? I
wonder.”

Chris shrugged, “Best offer I have. Unless you want
to walk. Come on, you'll be fine- I promise.”

Alani looked at Chris with a long, considering
glance. And then without a word, she snagged the yellow backpack
from the Jeep and flung it into the Mustang and turned to Chris
with an odd sigh of resignation, “Okay- Let's go.”

Chris strode quickly around the side of the car and
gallantly opened the door, ushering her in with a theatrical sweep
of his hand.

Gingerly stepping into the car in an awkward attempt
to not expose an embarrassing amount of her anatomy, Alani slipped
on the muddy road, and with a sharp cry she began to topple
backward.

Chris reacted swiftly and grabbed
for her hand to stop her fall, but the moment he touched her
delicate brown wrist- the world suddenly whirled and
shifted…

Alani looked up. Chris stood above her, perched on
the side of an idling P-38, his hand clenched in hers, smiling
brightly down at her. He released her hand with a quick, reassuring
squeeze and sprang jauntily up the remaining rungs of the ladder
affixed to the side of the plane. He gave her a short, mocking
salute and flashed his trademark lop-sided grin, and then closed
the multi-faceted canopy with a sharp ‘click’.

Chris looked down through the
dusty canopy glass at Alani, but noticed that she looked-
different.
Clad in a
dun-colored WAC’s uniform, her long, glossy hair concealed under an
Air Corps cap,
this
Alani smiled tightly up at him, a crease of worry marring her
porcelain features. Chris waved another reassuring salute and
gunned the engine of the P-38, and Alani hunched her shoulders and
held her cap in the blast of prop-wash as the aircraft began to
slowly move off.

Chris’ gaze swung to the long, narrow runway as he
gave the plane a quick burst of acceleration- when suddenly a HUGE
EXPLOSION rocked the scene, the front of the P-38 exploding in a
blast of SEARING WHITE…

And the world went dark.

Below – Part One

T
he world
slowly faded back to normal, the soft sounds of late afternoon
birds lending an almost ‘Looney Tunes’ like quality to the bizarre
occurrence that had just passed. Alani stared up at Chris from
beside the car, open mouthed and silent. Chris stared back, his
face reflecting the same. Shaking his head to clear the disturbing
vision, the echo of the explosion still faint and receding, he
called down to Alani, dazed and sprawled at his feet, “Hey! Are you
okay?”

Alani swiveled her head to take in
her surroundings. She was apparently undamaged, her
dignity
the only thing
injured by the fall. Well, mostly. She was now sitting in a shallow
puddle, and her ass was soaking wet. “Yeah, uh- fine. I just-
slipped.”

Chris extended a shaky hand to her and gently hauled
her upright. Alani turned and sloshed into the seat, and Chris
closed the door. Turning to get into the car himself, he suddenly
slipped and disappeared from view, a sodden splash telling Alani
all she needed to know. She burst into a fit of giggles as Chris
heaved himself up against the side of the car, a sheepish grin on
his handsome face, and then she said softly to herself, “Now we
match.”

Walter sat in silence next to Abigail, his lips
moving silently as he scrutinized the scorecard. His eyebrows
disappeared into the shadow beneath his visor, and he exclaimed,
“Good God, Abigail- are you aware-?”

Abigail interrupted, reaching for the card, “What-?
Walter, let me see-”

Walter snatched the card away, saying with
impatience, “Just- wait a minute, will you?” He narrowed his eyes,
his face unbelieving, “That can't be right-!”

Abigail grabbed at the scorecard, “What? Honey, let
me see-”

Walter snagged the card back and
replied with irritation, “Just- give me a minute,
please?”
He breathed a
sigh of astonishment, “My God, do you know, you are now at par,
with three holes to go?”

“
I never keep score. Is that
good?”

“
Is that
‘good’?
Abigail,
sweetheart, it's damn near miraculous.”

Abigail looked into the distance, a vague smile
gracing her lips as she pondered the truly bizarre events of the
day. And then she turned to Walter and said with a note of wonder,
“It has been strange, hasn't it? I make just about everything I
hit- I could probably play blindfolded. On the other hand you are
having a- shall we say, a ‘disappointing’ round- to say the
least…”

Walter replied with a snort, “Oh
don't be so damn P.C. Abigail. My game today is positively in the
crapper.” Walter looked again to the scorecard with disgust and
thrust it into the holder on the wheel. “And I don't care
what
you say- it's still
no fun when I don't… win.”