Mt. Snow for Lunch

        It wasn't long before the two brothers were off to lunch. It was Shep's idea. He 

wanted to go down to the Dog Barn, where they knew the owners and tell them 

about the Moose. He wanted Rinny to come off like some kind of big game hunter 

hero of the Green Mountains and just get into being part of it somehow. He'd been 

doing it his whole life and Rinny was well aware of his older brother's intentions and 

simply tolerated it. Anyway, he was hungry and he liked the crowd down there. 

     They got there just before sunset. It was early December and the sky was a 

special Vermont blue, electric in its intensity and exciting in the way it tickled your 

outlook, your interest in life. Not too many days have these qualities in a lifetime. It 

was an invitation to be, and be thankful for life and the joys it brings. The sky became 

darker and darker blue and blue-gray and set like the end of a fine song - quietly, 

     "I'm glad we came down here tonight Shep". You could feel the enthusiasm inside 

and the mood of the mountain resort. "There's girls in there Rinny". 

A Cool Day in Bennington

                                        

                                       

                                     A Cool Day in Bennington

          Rinny was doing about 35 on the old Interstate because of the slick ice that 

had formed overnight. He smiled when the warning signal came on. "What're you

 trying to do, you **##ing idiot, kill us both?" Shep had recorded the warning for 

slick ice. Their Pontiac Road Warrior had a surface reflector sensor (SRS) installed

 and  could analyze the average available road surface friction and keep it posted

 on the dash. Anything really dangerous had appropriate beeps and voice warnings

 as well. "What's the recommended safe speed." he queried. "20 mph maximum",

 came the reply. 

     Rinny was tired from the long drive down from Canada and could have put it 

on automatic and been safe and able to rest, but he liked to drive and check out 

any changes along the way. It was a good ride. 20 mph was really monotonous,

 but he didn't really feel like getting towed back the rest of the way home. 

     "Hey Shep". he called out. "Whaddya do? Rinny?" "Gimme an hour and I'm 

home." "Holy Mud", Shep heard on his transcomm. "Wait, damn Moose - right in the

 middle of the road,"  "Careful!"  "Car's got it - no problem - took the picture too and 

sent it to the state troopers." "Maybe she knows you Rinny - watch out she might

 catch up to you." They both laughed. 

 

                                                            Brand New  4

     Rinny had an older brother, Shep, who was always trying to interest him in a "more 

constructive life", as he put it at times. Today he was reading about glass bottles that were 

used as containers for all kinds of things way back in the early part of the century, even as 

recently as the 2040s. "Here's one for you Rinny," he said as he handed him a blip of a light 

green-colored soda bottle from around 2020. "Liquid refreshment. Lime flavored carbonated 

water" -  Rinny started to smile - "Jackson's Key Lime Soda". "You got any, looks good?" He 

asked."You probably would drink it too," Shep answered.  They both laughed.

     He said, "play song" and the blip started to play the jingle about Jackson's Key Lime Soda  

and all these funny-looking kids from the 20s are singing and dancing around, having a great 

time drinking their soda. "So what? That's how they were. You want me to be like that I 

guess?      

     "I was just showing you the bottle Rinny." "Glass bottles and carbonated water, Bad 

enough drinking carbonated water, what a waste to manufacture all that glass though huh?" 

     'It took a while to develop organic materials, so what? Carbonated water fizzed and tickled 

their noses or something. Who cares?" "You think you're so smart, I bet I could sell you glass-

bottled soda today if I felt like it. You'd be telling all your friends to try it too. He 

started to sing the Jackson jingle and they both had a really good laugh. 

     It was May 2073 and it was raining lightly outside their window In eastern Connecticut. 

 

                                             Brand New 3 

      Rinny was out of a job and sorting through the agency lists. They did 

everything but examine your glands and sign you for job training at, "New 

Introductory Free Start to a New Career", which you had to try unless you knew how 

to bypass their programs. What you had to do was query "lost my job data" to get a 

list of job locations and contact numbers and then play it by ear. He found two 

convenient locations and it was easy to guess what their line of work was by their 

titles. "New Rama Personality Specialists" was perfect. He could just about 

smell their hot vulture breath and see the blood trickling down their chins. He was 

one of them. He was home, like a wolf echoing a blood-curdling howl, he 

answered. 

"Rinny Bader, tracking specialist, Lost my job data" They'd find him fast enough. 

"Takes one to know one", he thought quietly and lit a smik. 

     At the same time that Rinny was click clacking away, looking for a job, a parallel 

search engine, launched over 90 years ago, refired its generators and broadcast a

a message which anyone with half a mind could understand as "is there anyone 

else out there that can read this message?" This came from the RCA camera that 

NASA left on the Moon to record the Apollo 17 Lunar Module with Cernan and 

Schmidt aboard as it took off to return to earth.

Brand New 2

 

                                                           Brand New 2

       It hadn't been that long, and Bill reached out again for something that simply seemed missing in his life. He wasn't quite sure, but something definitely seemed to be responding to that very emptiness. He tried his mobile phone again, just to have something respond to his curiosity about the seeming immense changes in his life. 
Was it his age, his relatively remote location, his unorthodox training in philosophy, the changing world? Something else entirely?

     Are we being invaded, is humanity under attack currently by people on this earth, are we reacting to the heavy shock of world wars I and II? I'll tell you this: "I'm not the only one venturing into these depths to find answers to the radical changes that have occurred in just my own lifetime. It's all of the above, and probably more as well. 

     We have been reaching, most of my life "out there" into near space and more distant space as well,  not only with our imaginations and words, but really, and this is new. We've bumped into something in our actual travels, and it's not just our own science fiction, It's real other cultures, real other thought, real other people. We've reached with our probes the targets we were interested in. It's time we recognized this. You know, you throw a bottle overboard, at sea, with a note in it. Someone just might find it, and, with enough skill, might even reply.  

 

                                                       

                                                          Day Dreams

           

     ...and there they were. As quickly as they could think of it, they were whisked 

  away to a world not so unlike the one they were born into, but one more closely

  resembling the hours and days they would sit outside together laughing and 

  dreaming of a future filled with what they would like it to be. It was an imaginary

 place, yet it was real and Harry had actually located  it. Certainly a place that fit

 their childhood fantasies, warm, like vacations from school in Florida. There was

 plenty of water around too, to sail in. 

     They were there and   it was totally magical and both of them could see why

 Harry would choose to be there instead of a world that hunted him down like a

 criminal. 

     Something like what people do when they withdraw within themselves when

 things don't seem to be going the way they wanted? Perhaps more like an escape 

from reality you might get from watching a movie or even reading a book.

     "So here we are, everything we dreamt of when we were kids. You should be 

  really happy about that," Bill sort of asked. "Not really Bill. Sure I missed you and

  Evelyn, but that's not all. I missed everything else too! The whole darned world.

 Most everything!" 

       It took a moment or two, but the full impact of what he said sunk in. Our world

  wasn't perfect, but even this dream world originated there.

       Harry would not have to answer all the millions of "We All Still Love You Harry"

  with his own, "I still love all of you too!." 

 

                                                     

                                                    Two Months Later

     Bill and Evelyn had both returned to Miami. They met for lunch in a southbeach 

restaurant where  they and their friends often used to just hang out and have meals

 occasionally. They knew the owner for decades. "Hear anything Bill?" "Nada, I was sure he'd

 get back to us before now." Bill looked out at the ocean. Some young children were playing with

 frisbees just across from the beach.There was a light breeze. It was early spring. Suddenly, Bill

turned like he'd just remembered where something was he'd lost. "I know where he is. I can just

 about see  him. He has our boat." "Mind telling me where that is?", Evelyn asked almost

 sarcastically. "Yes, it looks like he's found another model", and laughed. "Only kidding", and

 laughed again, .