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Fiction: Jung and Sue
Nonfiction: “journey of a lifetime.”
Jung and Sue
From the ground, Jung said, “We call this keeping a low profile,”
Twin lorrylights appeared, grew, loomed, eased past. The lorry seemed a little high to Sue, she said so to Jung. “Ya, Scully’s Lorry is a little high off the skirts, she has crates of milk up there.”
“How do you know her?”
“She’s an older lady, widowed, driving her old husband’s lorry. I got to know Scully from unloading milk for the mess hall, when I was on kitchen detail. Don’t ever be a cook: they get up too early. I get up early sometimes too.”
“You do?”
“Ya, sometimes if I can’t sleep I might as well get up and go visit anyone on duty. The kitchen, the gate shack. The kitchen crew are fine if you stay out of their way. Sometimes I help carry stuff for the boys on kitchen detail.”
Sue said, “I only get up at daylight. To go across to the water closet. Carrying a stick in case I meet a dog.”
“Do you and Auntie keep a stick by the door?”
“No! I’m not allowed to touch hers! I found my own, I hide it.”
“Sounds like dogs would be afraid of Auntie. Like she wouldn’t need a stick.”
She doesn’t!” Pause. “Her stick, —her stick is for me.”
“(!) No more!… Dam that woman… If—When the king gives us a reward, you’ll be fine, and no one will ever beat you again.
To Outrun Danger
“Scully drives slower at night, so she doesn’t “overdrive her lorrylights.” That’s a phrase meaning when you go too fast to stop if you see something in your lights.” When the lorry approached, Jung stood at the side of the road broadly waving his arm. The machine stopped, the noise lowered, but the machine did not lower; the skirts stayed inflated. They couldn’t see the driver behind the lights.
“Scully? Is that you?”
“Jung! I’d know your voice anywhere! What are you doing here?”
“We need a ride to town. Can we come up?
Scully answered by turning down the engine, the skirts deflated. “Come in.”
Up three steps and in the door. Sue sat on a bench between the two.
“This is my friend Sue.” Sue and Scully looked at each other. Sue saw someone as old as her aunt, with a rough kind face. “We’re in trouble,” Jung continued “You never saw us.”
“Hello Sue, OK.” Scully grunted, and leaned forward to charge up the engine again, and get them moving forward. When she could spare a glance she said, “So? Are you the reason I saw lights around the barracks?”
“What? Are they looking for us already?”
“What did you do? I can’t see you doing anything wrong.”
“Nothing. But I’ve got to get this girl away from here. She knows too much. As do I.”
“Hmm. Ok. Let’s whoosh out of here. Maybe it’s best I don’t know.”
“That’s true…. Sue would never do anything wrong. She was in the wrong place, at the wrong time.”
Scully nodded. The meters passed by. “Uh, Sue? Is this your first lorry?” Nod. “How do you like it?”
“It’s nice to be on a padded bench, in a warm cab.”
Scully smiled. “Enjoy it while it lasts.”
Jung looked over Sue at Scully. “Sue lives with her aunt. It’s rough.”
Scully made eye contact, nodded.
Jung said, “I want to see that aunt. Could I ask you to drop me at her place, wait for me, with Sue?”
Scully nodded. “Let’s do that. I wish I could be a bug on the wall, there with you, listening.”
…
…
Prompt- journey of a lifetime
(Editor’s note: January, according to the travel agencies, is when some people resolve to travel)
I did that once. I had traveled before, but none of those travels were childhood dreams. No, my big travel was dreamed in elementary school after I read War of the Worlds all in one sitting. When I told people at Friday Free Fall that I would be following the path of the Martians advancing on London, most folks believed me, but one lady, who was going to see SouthEast England said, “You’r joshing me.” But no, I wasn’t, I had a childhood. I mean, some adults go to see Paramount Studios, but I had an older classic in mind.
The town where Wells wrote has a heritage plaque on his house, the convention centre and a hotel is named after him, the big tunnel under the road has big murals of the war, the town square has inset pictures underfoot, and stylized artsy cylinder, and best of all, a huge three legged fighting machine striding in from the direction of the common. Where the first cylinder landed. The library gave me a walking map, a local showed me on it where the sandpit was (not on the map) that the first cylinder landed in. A local pub is name Olgivie’s, after the astronomer in the novel, and inside are all sorts of old engravings of telescopes.
Much more grand is a franchise pub devoted to Wells. The engraving of a Martian high up in it’s fighting machine taking out a bridge is in the hallway to the loo. How merciful, as no one wants to drink a beverage under the malevolent gaze of humanities’s enemy. On the ceiling, stained glass fashion, are pages from the classics such as The Time Machine and The Island of Doctor Moreau. In the window, with his bandages, sunglasses and overcoat, sits The Invisible Man. The locals told me that George, over at the nextt table, served as the model. George heard, and raised his glass in a toast. Britishers no longer wear cloth caps, so I was the only one with headgear, wearing my baseball style cap for My Neighbour Tottoro. With Tottoro’s big smile on it. Locals called me “Smiley.”
Also in the ceiling, also in stained glass, was a clock face. Someone asked me excitedly, “Do you want to see time go backwards?” “Yes.” He rushed around the corner to a secret button and the clock started moving backwards. That clock, of course, was for The Time Machine.
I walked a canal in London that was choked with Red Weed in the book, infested by Martian plants. On my next trip I took a canal tour, and ended up on that some one, with the same rope grooves, from horses, that I had discovered, being pointed out to us.
The highest point in London is primrose hill, where the hero finds a silent machine amidst a murder of crows. I went there, I looked down across the vast panorama of London. In my time Saint Paul’s cathedral did not have the awful gash from the Martians. Folks were enjoying themselves.
…
…
Sean Crawford
under an “extreme cold weather advisory”
with a risk of frostbite in minutes,
Wednesday, January 5, 2021
Human note: The common is big! Fields and forrest. The librarian who told me about walking maps warned me about getting lost. I replied, “I’m from Canada.” I wondered if that was arrogant, but hey: I came in first in orienteering at college, and when driving I always use a map, not GPS.
My note is: When I travel, librarians and tavern locals are set to be helpful once I make the first move. I say, “Dress tacky on purpose,” and “Leave your “bad hair day” at home.”
Further weather: There will be a rocket launch Monday night, with a “rocket summer” pushing the city temperature to plus five! Then back to below freezing in the daytime. Darn, why do they always launch at night?
