Justification For Killing (71 page)

Slowly the old green,
pick-up truck and the Jeep inched their way toward the Texas Ranger
standing in the road checking vehicles. Olive was so nervous she
could not even voice her opinion to Forrest – she had to be truly
scared and extremely nervous to stop talking. All she could see was
the Ranger, his shiny badge over his left pocket and the .45 Colt
strung low on his right hip. Yes, she was afraid.

Captain Scarburg, driving
behind Forrest, knew he had not spoken the truth to Bud – he was
worried, real worried.

A couple of the Rangers
were talking to Forrest; another was walking around the truck
giving it a thorough going over. The Captain sat solemnly watching,
not daring to breathe. How long had he been holding his breath, he
could not tell. Finally, they gave an arm wave to Forrest allowing
him to move forward through the police roadblock. It was now the
Jeep’s turn.

“
Good afternoon sir, we
hate to bother you – may I see your driver’s license,” the police
officer asked as Captain Scarburg extracted the fabricated DMV
license the SCAR team had prepared before he left SCAR
headquarters.

“
Is something wrong,
Officer?”

“
Where you been mister? In
outer space! Don’t you know they killed President Kennedy this
afternoon? We’re checking all vehicles for his killer.”

“
Oh, sure... yeah right...
I just thought you all would have the criminals in jail by
now.”

“
You ain’t got no rifle in
this Jeep do you... uh... uh... (looking at the Captain’s license)
Mr. Scarburg?”

“
Nope, no rifle, got me a
pistol there in that glove box tho’.”

Opening the glove box the
patrolmen pulled out the Colt .45 automatic pistol. Turned the
barrel end to his nose and sniffed. “Hey, this thing’s been fired
lately! Right mister?”

“
Sure nuff, and if you
ain’t careful your gonna lose the end of your nose. I got a full
clip of bullets in that thang, and its cocked and locked,” Grandpa
said laying on the Texas accent as thick as possible. “Darn them
there coyotes... I wish I could’ve shot ’em all!!”

“
Yeah, don’t blame you
there Mr. Scarburg, those varmints are pesky little critters...
here’s your gun back... y’all have a good day now, ya’ hear,” the
officer said waving Captain Scarburg through the
checkpoint.

Driving down the road, the
Captain wondered if his heart were going to resume beating or was
an untimely demise forthcoming. Before he had a chance to give his
heart more thought, he saw Forrest’s truck in front of him making
its turn toward Love Field. In the main parking lot they parked
next to one another to await Lonnie Joe, Rocky, Lou and Bud to
arrive; within the hour Lonnie and Rocky rolled in. Rocky got into
the Ford truck with Forrest and Olive Marie. Lonnie Joe rode
shotgun with the Captain in the little Army’s finest. “We’ll give
them another thirty minutes, then we must go,” commented Captain
Scarburg. For the next half hour, they all nervously kept glancing
at their watches. Forrest made some comment about a watched pot
never boiling, but despite their constant vigilance Bud and Lou
never arrived. “Try reaching them by phone,” the Captain said to
Olive Marie.

“
We can’t,” answered
Lonnie Joe, “we’re more’n five miles from the Texas School Book
Depository. We are outside the range of our cell
phones.”

“
POLICE SIRENS...
LISTEN”

Bud and Lou had just
turned onto West Mockingbird Lane heading for Love Field when Lou
remarked, “Bud you hear that?”

“
What Lou? No, I don’t.
What is it?”

“
Bud, I think I hear
police sirens somewhere behind us, listen.”

As they both strained to
hear the faint noise, the sound began to get louder. Within a
moment or two it was definite, the sounds they could hear were
sirens, police sirens approaching from their rear, and
fast.

“
What do we do, Bud?”
Asked Lou.

“
I guess we’re caught –
nothing we can do but surrender once the police catch up, but be
careful Lou, if they think for a minute we are part of the
assassination plot we might get shot on the spot, no questions
asked. Remember these are Texans we are dealing with – they shoot
first and ask questions later.”

“
Bud? What are we going to
tell them? Should we just make up something or try to tell them the
truth?”

“
Lou are you nuts? You
know what we are going to do — we’re going to lie like we have
never lied before! There won’t be anyone that would believe we are
time travelers from the year 2012. Lie, Lou... lie and act like you
believe it.”

The sirens on the police
cars were rapidly approaching. The little black Ford had just
rounded a curve in the road. Bud thought by the time they were on
the straight away past the curve the police cars would be on them.
“Oh well, we gave it our best shot Lou.”

Bud was correct; from
around the curve the police cars appeared first one, then another,
then another, three cruisers in all. Sirens blaring full blast and
their red lights flashing like lights on a Christmas
tree.

“
I guess I might as well
pull over to the side of the road and stop. We’re caught! No reason
for them to chase us any farther. We surely cannot out run them.”
The police cars were narrowing the gap between themselves and Bud
and Lou until they were practically on the stolen 1954 Ford
municipal car. Bud began to inch the Ford toward the emergency lane
when all of a sudden... What! What is happening? The police cars
pulled over into the left passing lane and one by one they blasted
by like three bats out of Hades without even the hint of noticing
Bud and Lou. Obviously, they were heading somewhere else; Bud and
Lou were not their objective - this time.

NORTH TO THE
PONDEROSA

Back out on the Dallas
Freeway the truck and Army Jeep were finally headed north to Celina
and the safety of the Ponderosa. Rocky had climbed into the cab
with Forrest and Olive Marie. Lonnie Joe was riding in the open air
Jeep with the Captain. Sadly, they waited in vain - Bud and Lou
never showed up.

The further north they
traveled the more snow they found on the roadway from the recent
blizzard of a couple of days earlier. The roads were quite passable
and were not in the least bit hazardous to drive on; however, the
recent snowfall covering the ground had dropped the temperature to
a very cold, bone-chilling level. The two in the Jeep were about to
freeze to death.

The fortunate thing,
if anything could have been fortunate at this particular time, with
the traffic flowing freely on the highway leading to Celina, Celina
was only about an hour’s drive away.
One-hour
, Captain Scarburg
thought
, and they would be sitting in
front of Clem and Penelope’s roaring fireplace, warm and toasty
drinking hot coffee and chocolate.

As they pulled up to the
front door of the Ponderosa Forrest honked the truck’s horn. The
Captain did likewise with the horn on the Jeep.

Before they got out of
their vehicles and into the five or six inches of snow that
remained, Clem and Penelope stood waiting for them on the front
porch. Lady’s ears perked up. She recognized the Captain and raced
down the porch and bounded across the snow and into his waiting
arms. “Durn that little dog,” said Clem grinning, “she thanks more
of the Captain, than she does us.” Laughing Penelope looked at Clem
and agreed.

“
Come on, you all...git
yerselfs into this house. I’ve got a big pot of fresh, hot coffee,
and iffin you all will wait a tetch supper is almost ready. Come on
in Captain... you’ve got some more folks with y’all that me and
Clem ain’t seed afore. Howdy there Forrest and Olive Marie, good to
see ya both agin.”

Inside Grandpa introduced
Lonnie Joe and Rocky. He told Clem and Penelope about his other
grandsons Bud and Lou who had preceded him to Dallas. He also
explained they had failed to meet him at the rendezvous point at
Dallas’s Love Field. Forrest returned the chauffeur and waitress
outfits they had ‘borrowed’, and at the same time apologized for
the deceit he and Olive Marie had pulled on them. “I’m sorry for
getting your clothes Clem and Penelope, but we had an urgent need
for them, and you both were sleeping, so we did not want to wake
you up so early. We’re sorry, they were perfect for the job we had
to do.”

“
Oh, no need to apologize
Forrest, we’s glad to lend’em to y’all.”

Lonnie Joe nodded to Clem
when introduced. As he was being introduced he reached out and took
Penelope’s hand. “It is nice finally to meet you Miss Penelope –
Captain Scarburg has told us so much about you.” Not perceived by
the rest of the group, a spark was ignited in Penelope’s eye as she
grasped Lonnie Joe’s hand. Lonnie Joe felt the same romantic,
electrical spark.

Oh, hes so much more
handsome in person than on that Iphony of the Captains,
she thought. “Why thank you Mr. Wheeler, I hope
everythin’ he told you was good,” she said
smiling.

“
After seeing you Miss
Penelope, I couldn’t imagine anything but nice things could have
been said about you.” He quickly caught himself, “Oh, and about
your brother Clem too.”

“
Mr. Wheeler, you come on
in this house and git up there by the farplace and git yerself warm
while I go git you a hot cup of coffee.”

After everyone else had
found a comfortable, warm spot around the fireplace, and was
sipping their hot drinks Clem asked, “Thar’s jez one thang I wants
to know. What was so gall darned important you had to git to Dallas
so quick?”

“
Clem,” asked the Captain.
“Haven’t you watched television today?”

“
Naw, we had to plug it in
to git it to come on, well that plug in thang don’t work no more.
You know Captain, I’s a fix-it man, but I jest ain’t had time to
get around to fixin’ hit.

“
You no’s what they say
‘bout the plumber and mechanic don’t you John? They’s got leakin’
pipes at home and their cars won’t run. Clems right in there
with’em,” said Penelope sitting next to the fireplace.

“
So you haven’t been
keeping up with the news today? It that about right
Clem?”

“
Yes sir, you got hit
right. We ain’t hear’d a bit of news since yesterdee. Has somethin’
happened we should’ve no’d about.”

“
Clem, get me a
screwdriver, a pair of wire cutters and some electrical tape, and I
will tell you a story.”

He would have asked
Penelope for the items, but she and Lonnie Joe were huddled up
close to the fire, heads close together whispering to each
other.

As he began repairing the
television’s electrical plug he began to explain, “Today about
12:30 someone shot and killed the President of the United States
John F. Kennedy. They assassinated him in Dealy Plaza, in
Dallas.”

“
Well you don’t say! Clem
exclaimed surprised. “What would they want to do that fer,
Captain?”

“
Clem, you remember I
previously jumped from 2012 back to 1963. Remember you knew all
about the assassination of President Kennedy when I was here
earlier?”

“
Nah, don’t seem to recall
that John.”

“
Never
mind. Forrest, Olive Marie, Lonnie Joe and Rocky, Bud and Lou,
jumped from 2012 with me this time. The first time I came here was
to make sure President Kennedy was killed and not just wounded.
Clem you helped insure that happened. We went to see your Uncle
Jack Ruby; I got thrown into the Dallas City Jail; Penelope gave
you the money to bail me out; you repaired
Pegasus
, my time machine, and I gave
you my watch and some 2012 money. Oh yeah, this old, brown, sweat
stained, tattered cowboy hat I’m now wearing – you presented this
to me right before I left the cow pasture and returned to
2012.”

Clem said scratching his
head, “This is kinda like they say, ‘Day Jay Fool’. I done believe
this has truly happened afore, I surely do. I jest can’t recollect
all the pieces.”

Penelope spread the
kitchen table with all the “vittals” and everyone settled into a
chair around the table. They all enjoyed the meal as though they
hadn’t eaten in a week. They all agreed, Captain Scarburg had been
correct: Penelope was an exceptionally good cook. During the
conversation at the supper table, the Captain asked Clem and
Penelope if they could put his entire bunch up for the night – he
explained they would be leaving in the morning. Clem and Miss
Penelope were more than happy to oblige. The Captain again
emphasized how worried he was about Bud and Lou.

Back in the living room
Clem asked a question, “Folks, I noticed when y’all come up y’all
were drivin’ a green Ford truck and an ole Army Jeep. Them wouldn’t
belong to Larry Brock, would they? They shore look like hizzen. The
ones he kept in his ole barn.”

Captain Scarburg explained
how Forrest and Olive Marie had arrived first, during the ferocious
blizzard. They got the truck from the barn and drove it to the
Ponderosa. Clem nodded in agreement and added how they later
slipped out before daybreak. Yes, answered the Captain and he
explained how Forrest and Olive Marie made their way to the Clint
Murdock estate on the north side of Dallas. Later Captain Scarburg
described how he arrived, went to the barn to borrow the truck, but
it was already gone. That was when he found the Jeep. The Captain
explained that tomorrow they were going to drive back up Saddlehorn
Gulch, find the cow pasture and replace the two vehicles in the
barn where they found them; however, they had two small problems:
both the old Ford truck and the Army Jeep were running on fumes –
both vehicle’s fuel tanks were almost empty. They had considered it
a minor miracle they had gotten as far as the Ponderosa. As the
Captain further explained: at exactly 11:55 tomorrow Saturday,
November 23, 1963 they would get into their time machine – the door
would stay open for five minutes, and at twelve o’clock sharp they
were to leave and return to 2012. He explained they would have to
leave whether Bud and Lou arrived or not.