Justification For Killing (27 page)

“
Need me a Phillips head
screwdriver,” he said opening the toolbox.

As Clem was opening the
lid on the box of greasy, dirt coated tools they both heard the
swooshing sound of air escaping again. The hatch was closing. “Oh
dadburn John I hope I don’t git a fit of that closetphobee. I never
did like these little bitty closed in places. How’em I gonna’ get
out on this thang?”

“
Don’t
worry Clem, we only had five minutes to get IN
Pegasus,
but I have a button right
here,” Captain Scarburg said pointing, “I can use it to open the
hatch at any time to get OUT.”

“
Thanks,” Clem said not
too enthusiastically.

“
What are you doing Clem?
What are you and Mike Watkins up to?”

“
Nothing, I’m jest goin’
to fix this here flyin’ machine of you’rn John. It ain’t nothin’
but a big ole shinny John Deere tractor without wheels, and it
ain’t painted green, as fer as I can make out. Well, it is a little
diff’rent – it flies... but if’en I had the parts I believe I could
git my ole green tractor into the air. It ain’t bragging if’en you
can do it.”

Down on the floor Clem
went, screwdriver in hand. He worked feverishly at the circuit
breaker panel. Next he opened up a larger panel on the rear wall.
This panel was large enough to allow Clem to crawl inside. The
Captain looked on in amazement. “Hand me that thar Cresant ranch
John.”

Pegasus will never
be worth a red cent after Clem gets through with it!
The Captain thought.
What am I saying - of course it won’t be worth anything - no
one will ever be able to find it! And besides who ever heard of
working on delicate, highly sophisticated, electronic, computer
equipment with a screwdriver and an adjustable
wrench?

“
Pass me that thar big
hammer John.”

“
Are you kidding me...!!”
the Captain said, reluctantly handing Clem the hammer.

“
Okay John, watch that
gauge that has to put you down in the right place and call me out
the numbers. They’re fixin’ to start changin’... you
ready?”

“
Yeah Clem, ready,” he
replied unenthusiastically.

“
Alright, here goes...
what happened John?”

The Captain half-heartedly
turned around to look at the GPS gauges not expecting anything to
happen... He was right, nothing changed, “Sorry Clem the number did
not change!”

“
Try’er now John... what
do the number say now?”

Excitedly the
Captain answered, “What... this cannot be!! Clem the 96 in
‘
DESTINATION
’
changed to 97.”

“
Galldurn wiggled the
wrong bunch of shiny thangs... what about now?”

‘
John’
had his eyes glued on the dials now, “the 77 in
‘
RETURN
’ dropped
to 76...” he relayed to Clem.

“
Galldurn it, got to move
over another passel of pluggey thangs... hold on I got to move a
wire... okay, what about now...?”

“
That’s
it Clem! That’s it... the 47 dropped to 46... keep her up Clem...”,
the Captain hollered. He began yelling the numbers as they
descended: 45, 44, 43, 42, 41, 40, 39, 38, 37... Whoa... Stop...
Clem you got it right on the money.” The ‘
RETURN
” dial now read 38 degrees 57
minutes 0 seconds North, 77 degree 37 minute 35 seconds West,
exactly as it should have been from the start. But the date was
locked in to November 20, 1312. Clem needed to change the date to
November 19, 2012. “Clem the date is still 20 can you change it to
19?”

“
Sorry John, I can’t find
the thang-ah-ma-jig that controls that there date thang. “But,”
yelled Clem from inside the console, “look on the bright side, yer
gonna get wharever yer goin’ a day later, but you won’t be wet!
Whoa! John! I thank I found the son-of- a-gun that runs that return
day thanggy. John,” Clem hollered.

“
Yeah? That’s great
Clem.”

“
John, this here wire that
runs to the date thang ain’t hooked up right. It’s jest dangling
here. It shore looks like somebody did this a purpose. I don’t
believe this here wire could’ve fell off by itself. Somebody done
pulled this thang off! Hold the fort, let me put this here wire
back on. Now then, that’s got ‘er. What happened John?”

“
Well I’ll be! Clem, the
‘one’ in 1312 changed to a ‘two’ and the ‘three’ changed to a
‘zero’!! Now we have 2012. This thing was programmed to return me
back to the year 1312. I would have splashed down in the Potomac
nearly 183 years before Columbus discovered America!”

“
Dadburn John, I believe
somebody don’t want you to git back home! What you thank? Hold on
John, I’m gone to change this here yellow wire with the blue
wire... now what?”

“
Great Clem, the ‘one’
changed back to a ‘two’ and the ‘three’ is back to ‘zero’. She’s
right now, except for the day.”

“
All righty, now that I
know what this here blue wire does this here red wire must change
the day...” After a second or two he asked, “What’d it do
John?”

“
By-ned Clem... you did
it, the day is now ‘20’. Just one more click and the day will be
the 19th.”

“
Sorry John, that there
war that would’ve done that is missin’. Somebody done stole that
thang. I can’t change it to ‘9’, is this bad?”

“
That’s okay, Clem I’ll
just be a day later, that is no problem. I will get home on the
20th instead of the 19th that will be fine, don’t worry Clem,
you’re doing great!”

“
Thanks, now fer that darn
little blinkie red light. If’en I don’t get that bugger switched
off me and you‘er goin’ to be nabors fer a long spell... what’s
that light doin now?”

“
Still blinking,” answered
Captain Scarburg.

“
Hand me them big pair of
Vice-Grip plyers...

“
Vice-Grip pliers? I’m not
even going to ask. Here,” the Captain said handing the pliers to
Clem.

“
What about
now?”

“
Nope, still
blinking.”

“
Dadburn, why didn’t I see
that in the first place... okay... check’er out now... how we
doin’?” Asked Clem.

“
Well I’ll be... the light
is out Clem... it’s dark as a dungeon. Come on out of that hole and
let me shake your hand.”

Clem’s head appeared
first, still wearing that old, brown, sweat stained, tattered
cowboy hat he had on that first day he and Captain Scarburg met. It
had only been two days earlier, but it seemed like a million
years.

Clem was grinning from ear
to ear, “Told you I was a handy man, John... guess you’ll believe
me now, huh? Oh, I squeezed two of them pluggy thangs together to
stop that blinkie red light, I can’t be sure, but I thank you may
be okay.”

Picking up one of Clem’s
saying, “Your galldurn right I believe you Clem. You’re a genius...
by-ned, a genius, and I’m confident you fixed that red
light.”

GOOD BYE MY
FRIEND

“
Well,” said Clem, “I
guess it’s time to be agoin’. John it has, what can I say, been an
experience meetin’ you and...”

“
Hold on a second... I
cannot in good faith let you go without telling you something. It’s
about me. You see Clem, I’m not whom you think I am. My name is not
John Doees... My real name is Robert Edward Scarburg, Jr. They call
me Captain because of my rank when I was in the Army. I’m known as
Captain Robert Scarburg.”

“
Why? Why didn’t you just
give me yer real name when we first met John?”

“
I didn’t want to put you
in a bad position to lie if things had gone wrong in all our little
adventures in Dallas, if questioned, you could have truthfully told
them my name was John Doees. I was just trying to protect you and
Penelope - please forgive me for my feeble attempt at deception,
will you?”

“
Shore John... uh... uh,
Captain... I ain’t blamin’ you. You jest had a hard job to do and
you dun done it. But I take exception with them words ‘little
adventures.’ There sure warnt nothing little about
them.”

“
No Clem, WE did it. And
the name John’s fine.... here’s something I want you to have.”
Unsnapping the clasp on the Rolex band from his arm he handed the
watch to Clem. “I want you to have this - it was given to me by
some of my closest friends in Vietnam. I consider you one of my
very special friends now. Someday you can get the crystal replaced,
or you can sell the watch. You already know it is eighteen karat
gold. It’s inscribed to me on the back, so now you will always know
my name, and speaking of watches I really appreciate Penelope
allowing me to use hers, please give her watch back and give her my
thanks.”

“
What does this writtin’
say on the back... uh...Captain?”

“
It’s
inscribed
“To Capt Robert Edward Scarburg,
Jr. 5th SF (ABN), RVN, 1968.”

“
Well Captain you still
didn’t tell me what it sez!”

“
Okay,
it reads,
“To Captain Robert Edward
Scarburg, Junior, 5th Special Forces, Airborne, Republic of
Vietnam, 1968
”, is that
better?”

“
Thanks John, I mean
Captain, yeah that’s much better.”

“
By the way, here is
something else I want you and Penelope to have. You two will be the
only humans possessing objects like these for the next forty-nine
years. Until then they could be worth a million dollars, who knows,
they are the only two in existence in 1963, but in 2012, there will
be millions of them, and then they will only be worth a quarter, a
mere twenty-five cents.” As he spoke, the Captain handed Clem two
brand new ‘George Washington’ quarters. The date stamped on the
front of one quarter was ‘2004’ and on the reverse was a map of
Texas. It was a Texas State Quarter released in June 2004, the
other was a regular ‘George Washington’ quarter issued in 2012. The
Captain continued, “Quarters like these will not be produced and
released until the year 2004 and 2012. With the two quarters and
the watch I wish you could remember me each time you look at them,
but of course I know you will not be able to.”

“
Shore John me and
Penelope will always ‘member you.”

“
I wish that were true
Clem I’ll explain in a minute. I almost forgot, here Clem take this
ten-dollar bill that Linda thought was counterfeit back in Uncle
Jack’s bar. It’s real Clem, it’s not counterfeit, but you will have
to wait to 2012 to spend it also.”

“
Ah, Shucks John... thanks
- dadburn I wont never be sellin’ your watch and other stuff. I’ll
treasure these thangs forever, well until 2012, if’en I live that
long. I’m goin’ take’em home, and Penelope is goin’ put’em in that
wooden box on the farplace mantle. That’s whur she keeps her
‘valuables’ so she can ‘member whur they’re at.”

Standing for a second or
so Captain Scarburg was hesitant to speak. He did not want to
explain the last bit of information he had for Clem. “Speaking of
remembering Clem, there is something else I have to tell you. After
you leave I will be waiting here, invisible, until exactly 12:31
p.m. tomorrow afternoon when I will, hopefully, return home to the
year 2012. The thing is Clem... exactly six hours later at 6:31
p.m. the memories of each and every person whom I have come into
contact with will have their memories erased. At 6:32 tomorrow, you
will never know I was here Clem. I am truly sorry, but those people
in the stars... the ones that I told you about... decided it would
be this way. You and Penelope will never remember me - but rest
assured Clem I will never forget you and Penelope... my dear
friends.”

Captain Scarburg’s eyes
were beginning to tear up. Turning so Clem would not see, he wiped
them with the sleeve of his flight suit. Turning back he said,
“Good bye my good friend, maybe we’ll meet again someday, who knows
what the future will bring.

“
Mighty thanks to you
John. You know I ain’t got nothin’ worth somethin’ to give you
but...,” taking off his cowboy hat he handed it to the Captain, “my
old hat is about all I treasure in this life... well ‘cept
Penelope... it belonged to my Pap... the hats you’rn
John...”

“
Put your hat back on one
last time Clem, I need a picture to remember you by.” With a fast
click, the Iphone had recorded another instant in the year 1963.
Captain Scarburg, taking the old, brown, sweat stained, tattered
cowboy hat said, “this is a present better than a gold monkey, I
will treasure it always, good bye Clem. Oh, I almost forgot, do you
still have that pink napkin I gave you in your Uncle Jack Ruby’s
place. The one with the gangster names on it?”

Handing the napkin
to Captain Scarburg, they shook hands, and the Captain pressed the
button opening the outer hatch. Clem crawled out of
Pegasus
; turned the key
on the old mufferless, Ford F-600, bucket of bolts, and with a loud
roar drove off into the cold Texas night. Before the hatch closed
and re-sealed Captain Scarburg reached into a small, drawstring,
black velvet bag and removed a six inch bronze circular plaque,
hurrying to the hatch he tossed the object out into the dew-covered
grass of the pasture. Had anyone been present to see, he would have
observed glistening in the slight moonlight a beautiful engraved
plaque divided into four equal sections. In one, a face of a man;
the second a lion, the third a bull and the final section contained
an eagle.