Pilgrimage (The New World) (2 page)

Jessica was quite a bit smaller as she was only in the first grade, but she had long curly dark brown hair with brown eyes and dimples just like her absent mother. She also had a great smile, which was really special considering the potential lifelong obstacle associated with the metal brace on her right leg.

When Jessica was two years old, her mother Janet had noticed that she was favoring her leg dramatically as she toddled around. A visit to the doctor at the Fort Hood hospital revealed a problem with the development of the bone and muscle structure that would require a brace to help prevent further damage. Jessica was then fitted with a brace that would need to be swapped out occasionally for larger ones as she grew taller until they would no longer be necessary, and began to move around with less effort.

Soon after that was the automobile accident and it took quite some time and effort by her brother Ross to convince her to keep wearing the brace. Her father Robert was in a state of shock over the loss of his wife and Grandpa Hank had not yet arrived, so it was up to Ross to take the lead role for his little sister’s well-being. Now almost four years later, Jessica was very comfortable with the brace in all aspects, and had learned from Ross how to put it on and take it off in the same way she had learned to tie her own shoelaces.

As Hank pulled up to the normal spot in front of school to drop the kids off, a few greetings came his way from some of the other folks nearby. He returned the courtesy with a wave, gave Jessica a kiss on the top of her head, and wished the three of them a good day at school. After helping the two girls down from the truck, Ross concluded the daily ritual of leaning back into the cab with outstretched arm to shake his grandfather’s hand. Ross had been taught early in his life that proper gentlemen parted company in this way as a show of respect, and there was no other person that he respected more than Grandpa Hank.

With the three youngsters in his care safely delivered to school, Hank set off for Main Street and another of his favorite rituals. Stepping into the diner, he was greeted by the waitress Mable as he headed for the corner table. She followed close behind him with his usual cup of hot coffee, and placed it in front of him as he said hello to his friends. The three other gentlemen already seated at the table were also former military officers who had served proudly, and he enjoyed discussing current events with them on a regular basis.

The main topic on this spring day was the concern over the Russians putting a man into space. Hank had heard the news on the truck radio while on the way to school, but had missed some of the details as the kids were engaged in conversation about homework and such. As one of his friends spoke his mind about how the “red menace” needed to be stopped, Hank suggested that our recently founded National Aeronautics and Space Administration, or NASA, get busy with trying to catch up with the Russians. He said to his younger group of friends, “The Russians probably won’t wait for us in the space race, so we better get busy or face the consequences!” After all, they had already beaten the United States into space with the Sputnik satellite, and had now further added to the insult by putting Yuri Gagarin into a spaceflight that completed a single orbit of the Earth.

After a refill of his cup from the smiling Mable, Hank finished his coffee, said goodbye to his friends, and headed back to the house to take care of other business. Along the way the thought of the future, and mankind exploring space, weighed heavily on his mind, but what he really wondered was what Ross would think about the subject. That evening there was a spirited discussion at the dinner table about the news of the Russian space flight between the two adult generations of Martin men, while Ross and Jessica listened intently with eyes and ears wide open.

THE NEXT FEW
weeks went by without much deviation from the norm, as Lieutenant Colonel Robert Martin would head off to the base every morning shortly before his father Hank would take the kids to school. Hank would meet his friends for coffee at the diner, and then several hours later pick up Jessica from school. Ross and Patty would walk home together after a few more hours of classroom time, and then he would continue down the dirt road until reaching the Martin homestead.

Jessica was always waiting for her big brother on the front porch so they could tend to their chores together, and then they would enjoy whatever free-time was left over. That usually meant that Ross would push her on the tire swing for twenty minutes, while they talked about school and whatever came to mind. At least once a week though, Ross would use his free-time to do some fishing with Grandpa Hank at the small Lampasas River that ran along the end of their property.

On the morning of May 6
^th
, a new story about the space race became all the talk about town. As Mable filled the coffee cup with her obvious flirtation, Hank sat with his friends to discuss the triumphant spaceflight of Alan Shepard the previous day. That flight was only suborbital and didn’t have the altitude or duration of the Russians previous flight, but it was a huge step in the right direction if America wanted to catch up in the space race. Hank had promised Ross during their customary handshake when dropping the kids off at school that he would gladly discuss the matter with him in greater detail when they were fishing later in the day.

Meanwhile, the teasing in the fifth grade classroom had started up again for Ross. When his teacher began the school day with a discussion about the first American manned spaceflight, Ross had mistakenly verbalized his opinion about how other species could be waiting out there to make contact with our astronauts.

Generally Ross fit in well with his classmates, and had many friends. He was fairly tall for his age with the same brown hair and eyes of his father and mother, and due to his athletic skills was usually chosen early in the lottery of players for football or baseball games. In this case however, it was a different story. This one topic, which Ross felt very strongly about, caused him ridicule from his peers and his teacher every time. His belief that humans were not alone in the universe was not accepted by the general public, so he needed to learn the hard way how to keep his opinions about such matters quiet. Grandpa Hank had warned him several times about discussing such matters in public, but he sometimes just forgot about the sage advice and let his mouth take control of the situation.

That afternoon Ross walked Patty to her house before running the remaining distance home. He quickly did his chores and put off his homework until after dinner so he could meet Grandpa Hank at their fishing spot along the back edge of the property. The secluded spot allowed the two of them to privately discuss the spaceflight of the previous day at length, and the new science project that Ross’ teacher had assigned to each member of his class. Like most fishermen, they didn’t catch something every time out, but luck smiled upon them this day as they both caught a few nice pan fryers during the two hour session. During the short walk back to the house, Grandpa Hank suggested that Ross take some time to think about how he wanted to tackle the science project. His advice to write some ideas down on paper, collect the necessary materials, and then construct it seemed like a good idea, so that’s what Ross decided to do. After all, he had about four weeks to build it and prepare his presentation before the early June due date.

Another few weeks rolled by much the same as the previous weeks, and Ross was busily preparing his science project. He knew most of his class would take the easy way out with a simple design and report, but that’s not the way Ross did things. He had several conversations with his father and grandpa about his intent, and they both admired his enthusiasm towards the project. With assembly nearly completed, he asked his grandpa to help him in the barn to see if everything was working properly. Hank agreed to do so, but brought a radio with him so they could listen to a replay of President Kennedy’s speech while they worked. It was now May 25
^th
, and the message of that speech made both Ross and Grandpa Hank drop what they were doing to listen. The President had just laid down the gauntlet that he expected the American space program under the direction of NASA to “Land an American on the Moon and return him safely before the end of the decade.”

Timing for the daunting challenge couldn’t have been better, as Ross felt his science project would really impress the teacher. His plan was to make a scale model of the entire solar system, as opposed to choosing just one planet. He figured some of his classmates would simply paint a ball red and give a few boring details about Mars without really caring. The same could be said about Saturn, which the girls would probably choose because of the rings, but that would at least take a little more effort. In either case the students would probably mention the number of moons around each planet in their report, but it was doubtful they would include them in the model. Ross had gone the extra mile that he had become known for when it came to academics, as his model was massive. All nine planets were represented and to scale against each other with as much accuracy as Ross could manage. They were Styrofoam balls that he planned to paint with the appropriate colors as shown in pictures within the school library’s Encyclopedia Britannica, and some orbiting moons were connected to them by pieces of wire. Ross knew the scale of the sun was incorrect, but was prepared to inform the class during his report that the sun would be much larger than the classroom if the planets were the size of the model.

Grandpa Hank thought it was amazing how detailed the model was, but he was unprepared for the best aspect of it. Ross had the idea to connect the planets to welding rods that were fastened to some sort of sprocket under the basketball used for the sun. Each rod went straight out the appropriate distance before a ninety degree turn upwards brought them all onto a level plane with the sun. Ross then showed Grandpa Hank the really cool part, as he began to turn the bicycle pedals by hand that were linked to the sprocket. Each planet began to revolve around the sun before their eyes, and at that instant Hank knew his soon to be eleven year-old grandson would somehow be destined for engineering or scientific greatness.

With the demonstration complete, Ross explained that he still needed to paint all the planets their proper color before the model would be ready for his report. Grandpa Hank said “You will get a fantastic grade on this project even if you don’t paint it”, and then began to inspect the intricacies of the model. Ross said “Can you help me load the model into the truck and carry it into the classroom on the day of my presentation next week?”, and Hank immediately began to wonder if they might have to leave the tailgate down for the ride.

On the morning of the day before his presentation, Ross was feeling great. In drawing names out of the hat several weeks ahead of their presentation dates and times, Ross had been lucky enough to get one of the last few spots of the week long procession by drawing Friday morning. That increased his chances of having the best presentation of the class, as nobody would have the time after his report to alter theirs. The school year would also be completed in another week, which meant more free time for fishing with his grandpa and playing baseball with his friends. As Ross and the girls were getting out of the truck at school, his grandpa asked him if he wanted to go fishing again that afternoon. With a huge smile on his face he agreed to meet his grandpa at their regular spot as soon as he got home from school, and then extended his hand for their customary handshake. Little did Ross know what a great afternoon that would become, as his grandpa had a special gift waiting for him along the banks of the Lampasas River.

Ross ran home from Patty’s house as best as he could with an apple pie that her mother had made for the Martin family dessert, and asked Jessica where their grandpa was. She told him that he had gone to the river a few minutes before to get the fishing poles ready, and that Ross should hurry up and get over there. When Ross ran up to the site, he couldn’t believe his eyes. Leaning against the old stump that they always used for their gear was a brand new fishing pole and reel with a big red ribbon on it. As Ross shouted out with joy over the gift, Grandpa Hank reminded him that he was scaring all the fish away. Hank told his grandson that he was so proud of him for all the help he had been with Jessica, and the hard work he had done on the science project, that he wanted to give him his birthday present a month early. The only catch was that he had to wait to use it until they went on their four-day camping trip in two weeks at Stillhouse Hollow Lake.