Wooden Ships
Authors: Donald Piazza
Wooden Ships
By Donald Piazza
©
2014
Acknowledgement
Initially I want to thank my wife, Lynette, who endured many nights role-playing scenes from Wooden Ships during dinner; and the many spirited conversations over grammar and content. Thanks to Christine, my wife’s sister, who graciously reviewed Wooded Ships, especially since science fiction was not her favorite reading material. Big thanks to my son, Nathan, who for some unknown reason remembers all the obscure and exotic grammar rules. In addition, thanks to a handful of addition friends who reviewed this story – you know who you are. Finally, a special thanks to my second grade teacher, who said many years ago, “You should be a writer!”
Contents
Chapter – One
T
here was a warm afternoon Sun, which shared the sky with beautiful white puffy clouds silently floating from east to west. In the distance, you could hear the laughter of young children playing. A gentle breeze with a sweet scent of flowers from someone’s garden made the air smell delightful. The breeze whistled as it zigzagged through the maple trees and the musical melody of chestnut brown songbirds sang with sheer happiness as they perched on the highest branches. A maple leaf broke free from a tree limb and caught the breeze as it floated gently to the ground, landing on the head of a curious and rambunctious one-year-old boy named Adam, as he sat on a freshly mowed lawn in the backyard of his parent’s home, enjoying this beautiful day.
As he brushed the leaf off his head with a giggle, he began exploring this great outdoors, first by slowly scanning the horizon as far as his eyes could see, or in his case up to the fence that surrounded the backyard. He continued searching, looking for any signs of wild beasts that could be lurking behind his mother’s prize rose bush, his older sister’s wagon or his mother’s laundry basket. Feeling confident he was safe from danger, Adam pulled himself up into a squatting position and then carefully stood up. A little wobbly on his chubby legs he stood there until he steadied himself and as he looked down he noticed a scuff on the toe of his brand new shoes. Not caring that his shoes were already dirty he looked forward and took a step and then another, then fell. Excited to try it again he pulled himself up, took a couple more steps and fell again. Being proud for walking like a big boy, he laughed, and as he stood up again he turned and looked towards his mother for her approval of his big achievement. She was taking advantage of the warm sun to do laundry. While she hung clothes on the clothesline, she smiled at Adam as she watched him practice his newly acquired walking skills. “Don’t wander away, please stay close-by,” she said.
Adam stood still and looked at her with a slightly defiant expression on his face. How dare she interfere with his important exploration? However, he quickly went back to practicing his walking. He was very excited as he toddled around the backyard, touching everything he could and getting dirtier. As he continued to wander and explore, he found himself all the way around the back of the garage. Distracted for a moment with her laundry, she didn’t notice Adam was now out of her sight.
As he continued to explore this new area, he spotted something he had never seen before, two large galvanized trashcans at the far end of the garage. Curious at what they were he awkwardly walked up to them to find out for himself; they towered miles over his head. Looking up he uttered some of his newly acquired words, “What’s that?”
With the confidence of a brave explorer and with his little fist clenched he banged on one and as he did, the trashcan echoed with a deep hollow sound.
Trying to mimic the sound it made he shouted, “Bang, bang!” and then giggled.
He was so proud of himself for banging on the big trashcan, but something caught his attention. There on the ground between the trashcans Adam noticed a small object that was about the size of a deck of cards. However, it resembled a piece of plastic about a quarter of an inch thick. The object was slightly transparent and as Adam squatted down to get a closer look, he could see his reflection on its shiny surface. Becoming more interested and oblivious to any consequences touching the object might have, he slowly reached out and touched it. Immediately it began to glow a pale blue and made a faint humming sound, then it began rapidly pulsating, like a strobe light. Slowly Adam slipped into a hypnotic trance and was unable to move or run away and all around his head a swirling vortex of energized plasma of blue and orange began to spin. Without thinking, he stood straight up and with his back slightly arched, began to levitate off the ground. Adam’s body slowly started to rotate in the same direction as the spinning tornado of energy. As it continued swirling around him, lightning bolts striking the Earth filled his mind and visions of Earth’s future flashed through his brain in short incomprehensible scenes. A small child such as Adam would never comprehend.
Perhaps symbolic, in Adam’s mind he saw the following:
On a dreary late afternoon on the high seas, a thousand Wooden Ships in full sail were battling their way through a terrible storm, struggling through violent waves that peaked as tall as their main mast. The fleet bobbed up the crest of the large wave and then raced down the slope with the sound of every wooden board creaking with pain. This fleet of Wooden Ships was hell bent on achieving their mission and nothing, not even the horrible storm was going to stop them...
As quickly as they started, the images stopped. With a single touch from his hand, the device prepared Adam for his future and the future of earth; however, he would never understand, nor remember any of this until many years later.
At the same time his mother hung another piece of laundry, she experienced a strange dizziness. Thinking she was going to lose consciousness, she reached up and grabbed onto one of the clothes lines for support. Taking a deep breath, she tried to focus on something to steady herself. As she looked up, the once-peaceful birds that were cheerfully singing in the nearby trees suddenly flew off in fear. However, what she saw next shocked her. The ground under her feet vibrated and everything she looked at kept going in and out of focus.
As she tried to understand exactly what was happening to her, she began to tremble and was completely terrified. Then without warning, she suddenly lost her balance and in slow motion floated like a feather to the ground. She landed on her back with a gentle
thud
. Frantically she struggled and rolled over onto her belly, and with every ounce of strength, she screamed out for help, but was barely able to utter a sound. Concerned for her son’s safety, she quickly looked around the backyard for him, but he was nowhere in sight. She heard a strange sound, a loud
ping
that stunned her, and then slowly faded away until she heard nothing. As fast as it started, this strange event stopped. Now there was an eerie silence. The life of the day had vanished. She listened for any sound from Adam but didn’t hear anything.
After she regained control of herself, she sprang to her feet and screamed for her son, “Adam where are you?!” Running to the back of the garage, she saw Adam lying on his back. He wasn’t moving, and he appeared to be unconscious. As she ran up to him, he opened his eyes and stared at her. With terror in her voice she hollered, “Adam, are you okay?!” Quickly she picked him up and again tried to get him to respond, but he would not move. That’s when she noticed blood from a deep gash over his left eye. “Oh my God!” she screamed and ran for help. ...
She arrived at the hospital within thirty minutes and ran into the emergency room. “Please, someone help me!” An emergency room nurse looked up from her desk and noticed the blood from above Adam’s left eye. She jumped up and quickly whisked the child away to the examining room with Adam’s mother trailing close behind.
The nurse took some gauze, soaked it with a sterile solution, then cleaned out the cut over Adam’s left eye, making it easier to examine. It had stopped bleeding and now she was able to get a better look at how deep it was.
“That’s a pretty deep cut you have there, little buddy.” Looking up at his mother the nurse asked, “How did it happen?” How could anyone explain exactly what had happened in their backyard? Even she didn’t understand what had happened. No one would ever believe her story.
Adam’s mother tried to look nonchalant as she explained to the nurse, “He was playing in the backyard, and ah, he fell and hit his head on something sharp.”
“Well, we’ll need to give him a couple of stitches and then he’ll be as good as new.” Not being too concerned what the nurse was doing to him; Adam quietly sat on the examination table playing with his toy car.
“You’ll need to bring him back in about a week to have the stitches removed, other than that he seems fine.”
“Oh thank God!” replied Adam’s mother, “I was afraid he might have a concussion from the fall.”
“Just keep an eye on him for the next 24 hours and bring him back immediately if you sense something out of the ordinary.”
“Thanks, I will.”
After the nurse released Adam from the hospital, he seemed to be back to normal and oblivious to the bizarre event that had happened. She looked at him carefully trying to detect any change in his demeanor but he was happy and busy playing with his toy car. Adam’s mother continued to struggle with the strange event that happened to them earlier that day. It was puzzling and strange with no explanation.
Days after the strange incident, she still was unable to comprehend what had happened; neither scientists nor the military reported anything on the news. Were they really the only ones who experienced this oddity? She probably would never learn the cause. Adam quickly forgot about it, but his mother would always remember.
A week passed and she took Adam back to the doctor’s office to have his stitches removed. The doctor pulled five stitches from the cut above Adam’s eye, and noted that the swelling was almost gone. Adam sat very still for the doctor.
“Doesn’t look like you’ll have much of a scar, little buddy,” he said. “Most kids his age would be screaming bloody murder as I pull the stitches out.” However, Adam didn’t make a whimper. Adam’s mother was glad it wouldn’t leave too much of a scar.
Later that evening after dinner Adam’s mother got him ready for bed. She bathed him and dressed him in his favorite pajamas with pictures of airplanes. Then laid him down on her bed where she lulled him to sleep by humming a nursery rhyme and as she did, he slowly closed his eyes. After he fell asleep, she carefully picked Adam up so as not wake him and laid him down in his baby crib in her bedroom. With the night-light illuminating the bedroom, she could clearly see he had fallen asleep, and was breathing long soothing breaths. This was her chance; quietly she tiptoed out of the bedroom slowly closing the door behind her.
After a couple of minutes, Adam woke up to an unusual disturbance emanating from the direction of the closet in their bedroom. He looked but wasn’t able to make sense of what he seen. Next to the closet was a shimmering apparition that frightened Adam so much he started to cry with fear.
In the corner of the bedroom were two unknown Entities, these highly advanced Entities were capable of opening space like a zipper, stepping inside and then zipping it back up – hidden inside an invisible bubble they could watch the boy, but the boy couldn’t see them. They do not talk verbally as humans do, but communicate telepathically with each other, and when they do, images scroll across the surface of their faces indicating a communication process was occurring between them. Their species did not have individual names they use to identify one another, as humans do; they’re only identified as E-1 and E-2.
Seeing that the child was distressed, E-2 began to communicate with E-1, “It appears this child can see us.”
“The child doesn’t see us. He probably sees our energy signature,” thinks E-1.
However, Adam did see a vague outline of the two figures floating near the closet, perhaps because the child’s visual acuity was so keen at this young age he was unable to block visual anomalies from his sight, something that older humans would do automatically.
Hearing Adam crying his mother rushed into the room to comfort him “What’s the matter Adam?” his mother asked. He was unable to articulate what he saw and he continued to look toward the closet. Adam’s mother turned and looked in the same direction only to see the open closet doors and nothing more.
“Is that what’s scaring you sweetheart, the open closet doors?” Adam’s mother soothingly cooed. “I’ll close them for you.”
As she walked to the closet, she realized the air suddenly turned ice cold as if she walked into a pocket of arctic air. This unexpected drop in temperature startled her so much that she jumped back in surprise and fell onto the bed. It was so cold that she could see her breath. Frightened she yelled for her husband, but before he came into the room the temperature suddenly returned to normal. “What’s wrong?” he asked.
Covered in goose bumps and trembling she said, “There’s a cold spot in front of the closet, can’t you feel it? It’s creepy.”
“No! It’s feels normal to me.” Looking toward the closet he responded, “Maybe the open closet doors scared you; did you see a boogey man?” Sarcastically he chuckled as he walked over and closed the closet doors. “There, do you feel better now?”
