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- Story Listed as: Fiction For Adults
- Theme: Family & Friends
- Subject: Friends / Friendship
- Published: 02/01/2022
Chance encounters.
Born 1951, M, from Wilmington NC, United States“Wow! What do you call that thing?”
Earl looked over at what his friend Nate (Nathan) pointed too. He smiled.
“Well, you remember my weird cousin Tyler?”
Nate smothered a smile. Tyler wasn’t weird. He was simply a flipping engineering genius who didn’t have time for social niceties.
“I don’t think anyone could forget him.”
“Yeah, well that’s the understatement of the year. Anyways, he invented this composite epoxy that turns sunlight into propulsion.”
Nate’s wife, Alexa, but everyone call her Bunny now, so they don’t accidentally turn on the TV or lock the doors, spoke up:
“You mean that thing, which looks like a pice of art made out of clear diamonds…is a boat?”
Earl shrugged.
“Yeah, well, it is a prototype. You can only use it on sunny days. It can’t sink. But it won’t stop once you put it into the water. So it isn’t good for just pulling up the paddles and fishing. It does go slow, so if you have someplace to stop, it will let you enjoy the scenery in a gentle bobbing motion. “
“But I don’t see any paddles…or engine…or sails…how does it move?”
Earl shrugged again.
“You’d have to ask Tyler…or maybe NASA. I know the Department of Defense DARPA guys have been all over him. I think he talked them into letting him have the Civilian Applications and he would help them find Military Applications. Anyways, he sent me a big check to improve my dock here …said he couldn’t use the money. All I have to do is let him know what people think of his “glass boat” and pass along any glitches or surprises.”
“You must have some idea, Earl. I mean you got it here for people to use.”
“Nate, it is a bit windy right now. To much wave action for it to ride smooth. But when the wind dies down, you and Bunny can take it out. Then you tell me how the damn thing works. But you have to go with another couple. The thing won’t balance right without four folks in it. It is one of the glitches I sent along to Tyler. He just laughed over the phone. He said: “Well, I never said I was a Naval Boat Builder.”
Everyone laughed. That was pure Tyler. Admitting he didn’t know anything, even though he knew more than anyone else. Nate liked Tyler, but no way would he ever consider himself an intellectual equal. Some would disagree since Nate had built the worlds largest secure network…and was the first Trillionaire in History. Nate would brush off the comparison to Tyler with aplomb: “Earl…Tyler thinks up things that don’t exist and makes them work. I find things that work already and make them a bit better.”
“That’s true. I mean you and I wouldn’t be here talking if it wasn’t for what you pulled off over in the Ukraine during the beginning of that short brutal war. How you came up with software, on the fly, that coordinated all our firings with the location detectors on the enemies cell phones and laptops…it cut that war short by months. No wonder you got that Medal of Honor. “
Bunny stared at Earl when he told that story. Nobody knew it. You had to have been there. It was Classified. Nate got his Medal in a small secret ceremony deep in the bowels of the Pentagon. The President at the time said: “I wish we could make this public. I don’t know how to thank you.” Nate stared at the President for a while and then said: “Don’t send anymore kids to war. Negotiate damn it.”
The President had stepped back at the tone in Nate’s voice. He heard the pain.
“That’s the goal of any good President. I will try.”
“Do better than try, Sir.”
The President had nodded. Some people (mostly Generals and Admirals) in that room wanted to take Nate’s Medal back right there and then. Nate looked them down.
Bunny knew about the Purple Heart that both Earl and Nate shared. Both claiming the other saved their life. Which is why they stayed friends after their Medical Discharges. And that story was known by very few …just the six of seven survivors out of 186 men in the Command Center. It would make a great Hollywood Blockbuster…but not for forty more years when the Classification of that near disaster was allowed to be released under the Freedom of Information Act. Even the redacted version would give most Directors a chance at their first Oscar. Nate and Earl never talked about it. Bunny was alert enough not to ask for details. One of the many reason’s Nate loved her.
“Who would this other couple be? Do you have guests? Or a girlfriend?”
Bunny perked up. Earl was one of the few true Independent Individuals she had ever met. Women loved him, but he didn’t want anyone to have a say in his life, and he never told you what you should do with yours. It was like he lived outside Humanity and just moved along with us. He could have married dozens of hopefuls candidates, but as soon as they corrected his language, tried to rearrange his furniture, or buy him so new clothes….he was done.
“Well, I do have a girl in mind, but not for the glass canoe ride with you folks. She is a might skittish around folks she don’t know. There is a couple that comes up here, maybe twice a season. They are about your age. I think he is a History Teacher and his wife teaches Special Ed kids. Anyways, I think they might like to try it out too. They asked me last time they were here…but the damn thing goes so slow …and it won’t stop…so once you leave the dock, it might be hours until you get back to shore.
So I told them unless I found somebody I thought could get along for several hours out on the lake without getting into a fuss, I would have to say no.”
“So you think we could get along with this couple?”
“Yeah, call it a hunch. But she is a retired Ranger…and he was a grunt…both were in that short stint of hell over there by the oil fields. So I think they will know what to say…and when not to say anything. They aren’t rich as far as I can tell. But they make ends meet and aren’t looking for any extra cash. If you want I can mosey over to their cabin and ask if they want to try out the damn thing with you guys. ”
“I don’t know Earl. Should I use my real name?”
Earl knew that wasn’t an idle question. This small out in the middle of nowhere lake…is one of the few places on earth that nobody knew - or cared- who Nate was. For the few townies (if you could call it a town) Nate was just Earl’s old War Buddy. Not the richest guy on earth.
“I think so. I mean Nate and Bunny don’t sound like rich people’s names. And you don’t act uppity at all. At least around me.”
“Me either!” Chirped up Bunny brightly… which made all of them chuckle.
And so it was.
*****
“Hi! My name is Nate, this is Bunny, We are old friends of Earls. He told us you guys were fascinated by this (tapping the diamond hard clear epoxy boat with his fist) just like we are. So want to go for a ride, together?”
“Sure do! My name is Hank.”
“And I am Sylvia, Hank’s by far, better half.”
That was their first shared laugh.
The boat was amazing, with one of them equally spaced in the four corners of the glass like boat, it bobbed gently in the flat calm making a steady two knots an hour, no more, no less. It was a bit of a hilarious scene to watch them try and all board the darn thing. For as soon as it touched water…it started to move…and left them sputtering and spitting our water as they tried to catch up to it. Luckily, Earl had foreseen such a thing, and had his little punt boat with its twelve horsepower engine waiting to herd the wayward boat back to shore. Finally after much laughter, and several dunks in the water, they got a plan together, leaping in synchronicity - one couple from the dock, the other from Earl’s boat. Success!
Away they went…not quite racing away, more of an amble.
“How the hell does this thing work?”
“I don’t know. It seems to use sunlight to create some kind of flowing energy transfer down the sides of the boat. See, watch the light ripple down the water line from bow to stern…see how it goes from bright to dim?”
All four leaned over to watch the glow go from the bow to the stern, and then over and over again. Like a rainbow shedding its colors…only to be refreshed again at the front of the boat.
“Are you saying this is some kind of novel propulsion system that uses the electromagnetic spectrum to change energy levels?”
“It appears so. Although I think it is more that it changes the heat in small segments and uses the cold rushing in to people us forward.”
Sylvia broke the silence.
“I teach Basic Science to kids who can barely understand. So I tend to break things down to their simplest structure to make sure my kids understand. This is beyond me. If what the two of you are saying…and I think you are saying that potential energy is being turned into kinetic energy via photovoltaic and chemical interactions…moving us forward. Well, then I think we are riding on a Nobel Prize. “
Everyone laughed. She was right. But not for two more years. Tyler didn’t go get his Medal, he sent Earl. As Tyler said at that day in the Future:
“You go Earl. You like people and know what to day. You can keep the money if you go for me.”
“What about the Medal?”
“Give it to your Mom, after all, she was the one that raised me after my Mom and Dad died. She would be proud of it, I think.”
He did. And she was.
During that first boat ride in what would become the preferred mode of transportation in the future, a bond was forming between two couples. On that journey it was discovered that both Bunny and Sylvia could use Sign language. Bunny learned because her younger sister was deaf (still is) and Sylvia learned because she had a crush on a Deaf guy for a year. She made them all laugh because she told them her story:
“He was cuter than ten movie stars. Tall, with dancers muscles. He had hair that most girls would give their left arm to have. And he had charm to spare. I finally learned enough to chat with him. Then enough to talk to him about ordinary stuff. Finally, I asked him out. And she signed that whole conversation to the captive audience in the boat. (Bunny shadowing the ASL signs on her own).
When we went out that first time, I realized that he really had gifted hands. Wandering hands. I called him a wolf. We drove home in silence. I wouldn’t even look at him. The rudest thing you can do to someone who signs. When he dropped me off at College…I gave him a sign that is Universal and only requires on finger. I called my Mom, I was so upset. She asked me what was wrong. I told her:
“He was all hands!”
And we laughed out loud. “
And so it began. Just the stirrings of a friendship. They saw Earl sitting on the dock with binoculars, he was watching over them as they plodded along the length of the lake at a steady two knots, never more, never less. When Bunny said:
“Look! Earl is sitting on the dock of the bay.”
Without any rehearsal, or even thought, both Nate and Hank broke into a wonderful rendition of Sam Cooke’s “Sitting on the Dock of the Bay”. Hanks tenor supporting Nate’s Baritone with ease. The subharmonics nestling softy between the two registers. And Hank’s whistle at the the chorus was spot on. Both the women clapped with glee and asked for an encore.
“You two should form a duo…I mean I can’t wait for you to do some of those old Righteous brother’s tunes. Bobby Hatfield would be flattered.”
That was Sylvia talking, and Bunny shook her head in total agreement. Hank dashed their hopes with cold reality.
“Nobody likes those old songs anymore…and besides, what if we were hits? Would you want to spend the rest of your life living in a fish bowl, and having to be on the road or in the studio half the year just to pay for your lovely home. Yech. And absolutely no privacy. No thank you.”
That is when Nate and Bunny realized they were safe with Sylvia and Hank. Their privacy would be respected. It was another link in the chain of friendship building between them. Then the War came up.
Now they had passed the small talk, get to know you stuff. War…is serious business. And no one who has been in one…wants another one. Not if they still have a mind and heart when they go home. Hank told a story that made them all cry. So did Sylvia, Bunny - the only one who didn’t serve in the Military, simply listened in awe. Wondering how tough you have to be to have those kinds of memories and still learn to laugh again. So she told them that later that night after a beer on the shore.
It was Sylvia who answered after a short silence.
“Bunny, laughter is human. It takes a while to learn to be human again after you have been in War…but you do. You just never laugh with innocence again.”
The clink of four bottles sealed that solemn piece of wisdom.
Sylvia taught them all how to play “Hand and Foot” a card game that they bought into heart and soul. They played against each other, women against men, couple against couple, and even switched partners. And they played to win. Much laughter, even some sore loser moments carried their budding friendship into full bloom.
It was almost five years before the subject of Nate’s wealth even came up. And Hank made them all laugh when he found out.
“Well, Nate, don’t you come begging for a twenty from me. I won’t give it to you. A man’s gotta learn to depend on himself. And don’t go trying to give me any money either. I have enough relatives trying to get their money back from me.”
A hearty laugh, and that was it. Bunny dealt the cards out for a roaring game of hand and foot. Earl and his quiet girl …now wife…joined in with them. The fire crackled in the fireplace, the room was warm and cozy, the beer was cold, and the game was tight. Just friends having fun.
Later that night in bed, Bunny leaned over and hugged Nate.
“We are so lucky to have met Sylvia and Hank. So lucky. And Earl and his new wife Betty too.”
Nate kissed the top of her head.
“Yeah, Bunny, it was a chance encounter…and we took a chance.”
She squeezed him tight. In the other cabin, Hank and Sylvia cuddled up and had the same basic conversation. Hank said:
“You never know what a chance encounter will bring.”
Sylvia reached up and kissed him softly on the lips and whispered:
“It brought us good friends. “
“Yes…it did.”
In anther cabin Earl hugged his quiet wife as they finished up the chores for the night. She had just told him that he was a chance encounter…she was going to leave that next day…but met Earl. And stayed.
Earl blushed.
“Maybe it wasn’t chance."
Chance encounters.(Kevin Hughes)
“Wow! What do you call that thing?”
Earl looked over at what his friend Nate (Nathan) pointed too. He smiled.
“Well, you remember my weird cousin Tyler?”
Nate smothered a smile. Tyler wasn’t weird. He was simply a flipping engineering genius who didn’t have time for social niceties.
“I don’t think anyone could forget him.”
“Yeah, well that’s the understatement of the year. Anyways, he invented this composite epoxy that turns sunlight into propulsion.”
Nate’s wife, Alexa, but everyone call her Bunny now, so they don’t accidentally turn on the TV or lock the doors, spoke up:
“You mean that thing, which looks like a pice of art made out of clear diamonds…is a boat?”
Earl shrugged.
“Yeah, well, it is a prototype. You can only use it on sunny days. It can’t sink. But it won’t stop once you put it into the water. So it isn’t good for just pulling up the paddles and fishing. It does go slow, so if you have someplace to stop, it will let you enjoy the scenery in a gentle bobbing motion. “
“But I don’t see any paddles…or engine…or sails…how does it move?”
Earl shrugged again.
“You’d have to ask Tyler…or maybe NASA. I know the Department of Defense DARPA guys have been all over him. I think he talked them into letting him have the Civilian Applications and he would help them find Military Applications. Anyways, he sent me a big check to improve my dock here …said he couldn’t use the money. All I have to do is let him know what people think of his “glass boat” and pass along any glitches or surprises.”
“You must have some idea, Earl. I mean you got it here for people to use.”
“Nate, it is a bit windy right now. To much wave action for it to ride smooth. But when the wind dies down, you and Bunny can take it out. Then you tell me how the damn thing works. But you have to go with another couple. The thing won’t balance right without four folks in it. It is one of the glitches I sent along to Tyler. He just laughed over the phone. He said: “Well, I never said I was a Naval Boat Builder.”
Everyone laughed. That was pure Tyler. Admitting he didn’t know anything, even though he knew more than anyone else. Nate liked Tyler, but no way would he ever consider himself an intellectual equal. Some would disagree since Nate had built the worlds largest secure network…and was the first Trillionaire in History. Nate would brush off the comparison to Tyler with aplomb: “Earl…Tyler thinks up things that don’t exist and makes them work. I find things that work already and make them a bit better.”
“That’s true. I mean you and I wouldn’t be here talking if it wasn’t for what you pulled off over in the Ukraine during the beginning of that short brutal war. How you came up with software, on the fly, that coordinated all our firings with the location detectors on the enemies cell phones and laptops…it cut that war short by months. No wonder you got that Medal of Honor. “
Bunny stared at Earl when he told that story. Nobody knew it. You had to have been there. It was Classified. Nate got his Medal in a small secret ceremony deep in the bowels of the Pentagon. The President at the time said: “I wish we could make this public. I don’t know how to thank you.” Nate stared at the President for a while and then said: “Don’t send anymore kids to war. Negotiate damn it.”
The President had stepped back at the tone in Nate’s voice. He heard the pain.
“That’s the goal of any good President. I will try.”
“Do better than try, Sir.”
The President had nodded. Some people (mostly Generals and Admirals) in that room wanted to take Nate’s Medal back right there and then. Nate looked them down.
Bunny knew about the Purple Heart that both Earl and Nate shared. Both claiming the other saved their life. Which is why they stayed friends after their Medical Discharges. And that story was known by very few …just the six of seven survivors out of 186 men in the Command Center. It would make a great Hollywood Blockbuster…but not for forty more years when the Classification of that near disaster was allowed to be released under the Freedom of Information Act. Even the redacted version would give most Directors a chance at their first Oscar. Nate and Earl never talked about it. Bunny was alert enough not to ask for details. One of the many reason’s Nate loved her.
“Who would this other couple be? Do you have guests? Or a girlfriend?”
Bunny perked up. Earl was one of the few true Independent Individuals she had ever met. Women loved him, but he didn’t want anyone to have a say in his life, and he never told you what you should do with yours. It was like he lived outside Humanity and just moved along with us. He could have married dozens of hopefuls candidates, but as soon as they corrected his language, tried to rearrange his furniture, or buy him so new clothes….he was done.
“Well, I do have a girl in mind, but not for the glass canoe ride with you folks. She is a might skittish around folks she don’t know. There is a couple that comes up here, maybe twice a season. They are about your age. I think he is a History Teacher and his wife teaches Special Ed kids. Anyways, I think they might like to try it out too. They asked me last time they were here…but the damn thing goes so slow …and it won’t stop…so once you leave the dock, it might be hours until you get back to shore.
So I told them unless I found somebody I thought could get along for several hours out on the lake without getting into a fuss, I would have to say no.”
“So you think we could get along with this couple?”
“Yeah, call it a hunch. But she is a retired Ranger…and he was a grunt…both were in that short stint of hell over there by the oil fields. So I think they will know what to say…and when not to say anything. They aren’t rich as far as I can tell. But they make ends meet and aren’t looking for any extra cash. If you want I can mosey over to their cabin and ask if they want to try out the damn thing with you guys. ”
“I don’t know Earl. Should I use my real name?”
Earl knew that wasn’t an idle question. This small out in the middle of nowhere lake…is one of the few places on earth that nobody knew - or cared- who Nate was. For the few townies (if you could call it a town) Nate was just Earl’s old War Buddy. Not the richest guy on earth.
“I think so. I mean Nate and Bunny don’t sound like rich people’s names. And you don’t act uppity at all. At least around me.”
“Me either!” Chirped up Bunny brightly… which made all of them chuckle.
And so it was.
*****
“Hi! My name is Nate, this is Bunny, We are old friends of Earls. He told us you guys were fascinated by this (tapping the diamond hard clear epoxy boat with his fist) just like we are. So want to go for a ride, together?”
“Sure do! My name is Hank.”
“And I am Sylvia, Hank’s by far, better half.”
That was their first shared laugh.
The boat was amazing, with one of them equally spaced in the four corners of the glass like boat, it bobbed gently in the flat calm making a steady two knots an hour, no more, no less. It was a bit of a hilarious scene to watch them try and all board the darn thing. For as soon as it touched water…it started to move…and left them sputtering and spitting our water as they tried to catch up to it. Luckily, Earl had foreseen such a thing, and had his little punt boat with its twelve horsepower engine waiting to herd the wayward boat back to shore. Finally after much laughter, and several dunks in the water, they got a plan together, leaping in synchronicity - one couple from the dock, the other from Earl’s boat. Success!
Away they went…not quite racing away, more of an amble.
“How the hell does this thing work?”
“I don’t know. It seems to use sunlight to create some kind of flowing energy transfer down the sides of the boat. See, watch the light ripple down the water line from bow to stern…see how it goes from bright to dim?”
All four leaned over to watch the glow go from the bow to the stern, and then over and over again. Like a rainbow shedding its colors…only to be refreshed again at the front of the boat.
“Are you saying this is some kind of novel propulsion system that uses the electromagnetic spectrum to change energy levels?”
“It appears so. Although I think it is more that it changes the heat in small segments and uses the cold rushing in to people us forward.”
Sylvia broke the silence.
“I teach Basic Science to kids who can barely understand. So I tend to break things down to their simplest structure to make sure my kids understand. This is beyond me. If what the two of you are saying…and I think you are saying that potential energy is being turned into kinetic energy via photovoltaic and chemical interactions…moving us forward. Well, then I think we are riding on a Nobel Prize. “
Everyone laughed. She was right. But not for two more years. Tyler didn’t go get his Medal, he sent Earl. As Tyler said at that day in the Future:
“You go Earl. You like people and know what to day. You can keep the money if you go for me.”
“What about the Medal?”
“Give it to your Mom, after all, she was the one that raised me after my Mom and Dad died. She would be proud of it, I think.”
He did. And she was.
During that first boat ride in what would become the preferred mode of transportation in the future, a bond was forming between two couples. On that journey it was discovered that both Bunny and Sylvia could use Sign language. Bunny learned because her younger sister was deaf (still is) and Sylvia learned because she had a crush on a Deaf guy for a year. She made them all laugh because she told them her story:
“He was cuter than ten movie stars. Tall, with dancers muscles. He had hair that most girls would give their left arm to have. And he had charm to spare. I finally learned enough to chat with him. Then enough to talk to him about ordinary stuff. Finally, I asked him out. And she signed that whole conversation to the captive audience in the boat. (Bunny shadowing the ASL signs on her own).
When we went out that first time, I realized that he really had gifted hands. Wandering hands. I called him a wolf. We drove home in silence. I wouldn’t even look at him. The rudest thing you can do to someone who signs. When he dropped me off at College…I gave him a sign that is Universal and only requires on finger. I called my Mom, I was so upset. She asked me what was wrong. I told her:
“He was all hands!”
And we laughed out loud. “
And so it began. Just the stirrings of a friendship. They saw Earl sitting on the dock with binoculars, he was watching over them as they plodded along the length of the lake at a steady two knots, never more, never less. When Bunny said:
“Look! Earl is sitting on the dock of the bay.”
Without any rehearsal, or even thought, both Nate and Hank broke into a wonderful rendition of Sam Cooke’s “Sitting on the Dock of the Bay”. Hanks tenor supporting Nate’s Baritone with ease. The subharmonics nestling softy between the two registers. And Hank’s whistle at the the chorus was spot on. Both the women clapped with glee and asked for an encore.
“You two should form a duo…I mean I can’t wait for you to do some of those old Righteous brother’s tunes. Bobby Hatfield would be flattered.”
That was Sylvia talking, and Bunny shook her head in total agreement. Hank dashed their hopes with cold reality.
“Nobody likes those old songs anymore…and besides, what if we were hits? Would you want to spend the rest of your life living in a fish bowl, and having to be on the road or in the studio half the year just to pay for your lovely home. Yech. And absolutely no privacy. No thank you.”
That is when Nate and Bunny realized they were safe with Sylvia and Hank. Their privacy would be respected. It was another link in the chain of friendship building between them. Then the War came up.
Now they had passed the small talk, get to know you stuff. War…is serious business. And no one who has been in one…wants another one. Not if they still have a mind and heart when they go home. Hank told a story that made them all cry. So did Sylvia, Bunny - the only one who didn’t serve in the Military, simply listened in awe. Wondering how tough you have to be to have those kinds of memories and still learn to laugh again. So she told them that later that night after a beer on the shore.
It was Sylvia who answered after a short silence.
“Bunny, laughter is human. It takes a while to learn to be human again after you have been in War…but you do. You just never laugh with innocence again.”
The clink of four bottles sealed that solemn piece of wisdom.
Sylvia taught them all how to play “Hand and Foot” a card game that they bought into heart and soul. They played against each other, women against men, couple against couple, and even switched partners. And they played to win. Much laughter, even some sore loser moments carried their budding friendship into full bloom.
It was almost five years before the subject of Nate’s wealth even came up. And Hank made them all laugh when he found out.
“Well, Nate, don’t you come begging for a twenty from me. I won’t give it to you. A man’s gotta learn to depend on himself. And don’t go trying to give me any money either. I have enough relatives trying to get their money back from me.”
A hearty laugh, and that was it. Bunny dealt the cards out for a roaring game of hand and foot. Earl and his quiet girl …now wife…joined in with them. The fire crackled in the fireplace, the room was warm and cozy, the beer was cold, and the game was tight. Just friends having fun.
Later that night in bed, Bunny leaned over and hugged Nate.
“We are so lucky to have met Sylvia and Hank. So lucky. And Earl and his new wife Betty too.”
Nate kissed the top of her head.
“Yeah, Bunny, it was a chance encounter…and we took a chance.”
She squeezed him tight. In the other cabin, Hank and Sylvia cuddled up and had the same basic conversation. Hank said:
“You never know what a chance encounter will bring.”
Sylvia reached up and kissed him softly on the lips and whispered:
“It brought us good friends. “
“Yes…it did.”
In anther cabin Earl hugged his quiet wife as they finished up the chores for the night. She had just told him that he was a chance encounter…she was going to leave that next day…but met Earl. And stayed.
Earl blushed.
“Maybe it wasn’t chance."
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Gail Moore
02/02/2022As you said yourself, A great blockbuster coming out of this piece.
Awesome Kevin. Another wonderful story :-)
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