The Switch

The Switch

By John Sullins

All rights reserved

Chapter 1

August     

They sped along the calm lake
at nearly sixty miles per hour. Sue had her left hand on top of her head in an
effort to fight the wind and keep her hair in place as much as possible. Her
right hand was tight around the handle on the console of the fast moving bass
boat. 

John gripped the steering
wheel with both hands and stared straight ahead, concentrating on the water in
front of the boat.

As they neared a steep shady
point on the north side of the lake, he eased back on the throttle and the boat
slowed quickly. He shut off the motor and the boat drifted towards the bank. 
The only noise was the waves from the boat striking the rocks on the bank.

He rose from his seat and
stepped upon the front casting deck. He lowered the trolling motor into the
water, turned on the boats fish finder, and picked up one of his casting rods
from the deck of the boat.  Both John and Sue’s lures hit the water close to
the bank at about the same time.

Sue’s chugger brought the
first fish. She had not moved the lure six inches before the water exploded and
a spotted bass was leaping from the water with its mouth full of treble hooks.
The fish jumped four times before she pulled it over the side of the boat. She
looked at John and said, “One to nothing.”

They both smiled as she
removed the hooks from the fish and put it back into the clear water of Smith
Lake in north central Alabama. They continued to cast along the bank until it
began to get dark.

By this time the score was Sue,
four bass, John only three. He asked if she was ready to leave, she said, “Yes,
if you admit defeat.”

He gathered the rods and
placed them in the rod boxes in the floor of the front casting deck and said, “You
win again tonight, that is two in a row.”

They sat back in their seats
as he started the motor and headed the boat down the lake towards home. The
evening had cooled so he kept the boat at only half throttle. As they wound
their way around the twisting arms of the lake, Sue spotted three deer at the
water’s edge. She tugged on John’s arm and pointed towards the deer. He eased
back on the throttle and the boat slowed to a stop. They watched the deer
drinking from the lake until it was too dark to see.

He started the boat and again
headed for home. The light from the moon reflecting on the water provided
plenty of light for navigation.

They reached their cove in
about ten minutes. He pulled back on the throttle as they arrived in their
cove. A few feet from the boat dock he shut off the motor and allowed the boat
to drift quietly into the slip. When the boat was only a few feet from the end
of the dock, the motion sensor light on the dock picked up the movement of the
boat and switched on the dock light.

She stepped onto the front
casting deck as she always did, and watched closely over the right side of the
boat as they passed the night light hanging only inches over the water’s
surface on the front of the dock.

Under the surface of the
water they could see dozens of fish swimming under the light. They could see
eight-inch shiners swimming in circles, dozens and dozens of minnows, and large
and small brim.

When the boat stopped against
the inside of the dock, they both stepped out and stood watching the fish under
the light. They waited for what they knew would soon happen. In a quick flash,
a large silver streak busted through the minnows and chaos erupted. Minnows
were jumping from the water and there were more flashes of silver.

They loved to watch the strippers
and large spotted bass when they fed under the light. The poor minnows were
almost helpless. The fast action always brought up the question how could there
be so many minnows when big fish were constantly eating them by the hundreds.

The feeding frenzy ended just
as quickly as it began. In an instant the flashes of the big fish were gone;
the minnows slowed their frantic pace and tried their best to remain perfectly
still. It often seemed that the minnows being eaten were those that were moving.
A fish usually would swim past a motionless minnow to eat one trying to flee.
The smart minnows did not move.

John stepped away from the
end of the dock and pushed the handle of the boat lift switch to the up
position. He flipped the switch to on and the electric lift motor hummed lifting
the boat from the water as the web straps tightened under the boat.

When the boat was well out of
the water He switched the handle to off, and the boat halted. He reached over
the side of the boat and pushed the motor trim button and the motor tilted
forward. As he raised the motor from the water Sue used a small net to remove
the bass from the live-well and return them to the lake. They sometimes kept a
couple of bass to eat, but most of what they caught were returned to the lake
at their boat dock. They were never sure, but they always hoped most of the
bass they put into their cove would stay there.

They walked hand in hand up
the sidewalk towards the house. The motion sensors detected their movement and
the flood light on the front of the wooden shed switched on, as did the small,
low voltage lights along the sidewalk.

John went to the living room
and turned on the television to the evening news before going to the bathroom
to wash his hands. As he was at the sink he was only partially listening to the
voices on the television. He heard something about another shooting at a high
school and something about solar storms or solar flares, but he paid little attention
to either story.

Sue had prepared the dinner
earlier in the day and needed only to put it in the microwave to warm.

The TV was still on during
dinner but the volume was set low. John and Sue talked about a needed repair to
their lawn sprinkler system. The pump, which pulled water from the lake, had
became clogged with leaves and lost its prime. The automatic timer had came on
today, but the pump was unable to pull water.  She was worried that the pump
had burned up when it was turned on automatically but did not pump water. He
reminded her that the pump had a safety feature that would not let it run
without water pressure and would turn off automatically if water did not begin
to flow within two minutes of being switched on. The problem would be easy to
fix. He just needed to remove the leaves blocking the strainer and re-prime the
pump. She would be able to water the lawn and flowers in the morning.

He picked up a few words on
the TV about the solar flares through dinner, but did not pay close attention
to the conversations of the news broadcasters or scientists being interviewed.

As they finished dinner, she
turned on their Home Theatre system and put in their favorite DVD movie. The
scenery and music in THE LAST OF THE MOHIGANS took full advantage of the
sixty-inch screen and the sound system. They both enjoyed watching movies more
on this system than in a large movie theatre.

John fell asleep, as usual,
before the end of the movie and did not awake until the credits were playing.
He got up and went to take a nice warm shower.

John checked his alarm clock
and climbed into bed.

Sue checked the setting on
the air conditioning and then went to the lower level to throw a load of
clothing into the washer. When she turned off the lights, the nightlights in
the kitchen and bathroom switched on providing light should they need to get up
in the middle of the night.

They appreciated the
conveniences and luxuries of their lake home.

Chapter 2

Five men were sitting in the
restaurant at a table near one of the many televisions hanging from the walls.
No one was paying much attention to the baseball game as they talked through
their dinner. Most of the conversation was centered on the coming changes
within their department.

As usual when this group was
gathered, one person in particular was dominating the conversation, Steve. As
Steve chewed on his very rare, almost bloody steak, he continued to talk with
his mouth full. He was grossing out everyone at the table as he chewed and
babbled on.  He was insisting that the new Vice President would bring in new
faces to the department and reassign some of the old timers.  He seemed to take
pleasure in complaining.

John had been through many
such situations of new leadership, and was not concerned about another new
boss.  He leaned over to Bob Coster of Boston and said, “Steve sounds a little
worried, maybe he is on the ropes.”

Bob whispered, "That is
no surprise to me, have you looked at his stats?  He is near last in every
category. He has made some enemies along the way too. I hope he doesn’t get
canned, but if he does, it will not surprise me.

John nodded in silent
agreement and turned to look at one of the televisions. He could not hear what
was being said but he read the scrolled message across the bottom of the
screen. “Tomorrow’s scheduled launch of the space shuttle ATLANTIS was been
cancelled due to concern that the expected solar flares could interfere with
shuttle communications, more on the eleven o’clock news.”

Bob had also been glancing at
the television and asked John if he knew what was just said. John told Bob of
the cancelled space shuttle flight but he did not say anything about the reason
for the cancellation.  John was a science buff, but solar flares had never been
a reason for fear. He would soon regret he had not paid closer attention to
that news report and did not alert his co-workers.

He turned his attention back
to his dinner and tried to ignore Steve’s ramblings about the new boss. He
turned to Bob, “Maybe they should fire him for bad manners” and motioned with
his head towards Steve.

Bob smiled and nodded
agreement.

Chapter 3

John was sitting beside Steve
in the next morning’s meeting. In whispered voices John and Steve discussed
their impatience with the worthless and boring meeting. After five days of
endless meetings and training classes covering the same topics which had been
covered for the past nine years, the patience of all but the newest managers
had long since vanished.

“If he does not stop talking
I’m going to miss my flight,” said John.

“My flight does not leave for
five hours and at his pace he may threaten my time schedule too!”

John slumped in his chair, “I’ve
attended dozens of meetings over the years, but I’ve never seen anyone repeat
the same thought in sixty different ways. Christ, isn’t he ever going to stop?”

The Vice President of Asset
Protection finally said the magic words, “In conclusion,

I want to thank each and
every one of you for your undivided attention this week. Have a safe flight home.
The bus to the airport is waiting at the rear entrance.”

Before his words could echo
from the rear wall of the huge meeting room, most of the regional managers were
moving quickly towards the exits and the awaiting bus scheduled to transport
them to O’Hare airport.    

When the bus stopped and
opened its doors at the airport, John hit the pavement running. He had only
sixteen minutes to get to his plane. He had attended these meetings for years
and knew from experience that with the limited flights to Birmingham, if he
missed this flight at 5:25, he would have to wait until tomorrow morning for
the next flight. He hated big cities like Chicago and did not want to spend
another miserable night there.

As he entered the terminal he
saw a line of people waiting to check in that looked like it extended to
Indiana. He by-passed the ticket counter and proceeded directly to the nearest
gate viewing screen. He quickly located his flight and gate, B-33. He took off
at a run for the gate; he looked at the clock on the wall and calculated he was
down to only twelve minutes to get there. He passed through the security gates
with no delay and rushed onward. As he pushed his way through the crowd of
travelers he silently prayed the flight would be delayed.

When he reached gate B-33, he
was breathing hard. He was in good physical condition but the run through the
airport carrying a ten pound laptop computer and pulling a small suit case on
wheels, had taken most of his breath. There were no people in the gate seating
area so he looked out the window and saw the airplane pulling from the gate. He
had missed his plane! He stood motionless looking out the window at his
departing plane while he caught his breath.

He watched the plane fall
into line with the other departing flights until he turned and walked back
towards the main terminal area. He lifted his cell phone from his belt and
dialed home.

“Hello, it’s me, I have bad
news. The king wizard could not shut up, the meeting ended late again, and I
missed my flight. It looks like I won’t be able to get a flight until tomorrow.”

As he was about to say that
he would call from his motel room, the phone went dead at the same time all
lights in the airport went out. 

He heard a couple of screams
as the place went dark but the screams quickly turned to muffled laughter.

Suddenly there was a burst of
light from an explosion on the runway outside the terminal window. People
hurried to the window to see what had caused the fireball. On the runway was
the scattered debris of a crashed plane. Parts were spread everywhere and the
remains of the plane was on fire. Then off in the distance a second fireball
was seen a few miles to the south, then another similar explosion even further
to the south. It appeared incoming planes were falling from the sky.

Then there were screams of
terror and fright. An airport security officer was heard talking excitedly into
his two-way radio, but the radio did not answer. The emergency lights, which
should be on, were dark. No one knew what was happening, but it was becoming
obvious that whatever had happened was not good.

John turned from the window
and pushed his way through the crowd. He had been through O’Hare enough to know
his way back to the terminal and exits even in little or no light. There was
enough light to see his way in most places, but it was so dark in some places
he could not see the floor. As he made his way through the terminal it was
tuning into a chaotic scene. The darkness combined with the explosions on the
runways, followed by the hollering of confused instructions by the airport
staff was frightening most people.

His mind was racing and he
was now almost running towards the closest exit out of the airport. He had made
no decisions on where he was going in such a hurry, but he just knew he wanted
out of the confined space of the airport. He did not like being confined. He
was an outdoorsman, he felt much more comfortable and safe outside. He wanted
out, and he wanted out now! As he moved past a large overweight man they bumped
shoulders and the man fell to the floor. John continued for two or three steps
before stopping and going back to help the man.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t intend
to knock you down. Are you Ok?”

The man held out his hand to
John’s to get help from the floor. “I’m fine. Do you have any idea what is
going on?”

John looked around at the
confusion, “No sir, I have no idea.” He turned away and moved towards the exit
as the man brushed off the rear of his pants.

He
followed the crowd through the exit doors and immediately noticed that the
evening sky was a strange color of orange and blue. He looked up and studied
the sky a long minute. He said to no one in particular, “What in the hell?”

 He saw constant streaks of
lightening but there were no clouds and no thunder, just constant and sporadic
lightening, or was it static electricity? He was stunned and confused, just as
was everyone else.

Now outside, John began to
calm down and tried to evaluate the situation. Under pressure, he had a habit
of talking aloud to himself. “I’m in Chicago; there is some kind of weather
disaster which has caused a power failure. Planes have fallen from the sky,
what is going on?”