Saucer

the saucer fly down until the descent slowed.

The descent stopped at about two hundred feet. Low. Too low.

She almost flew into a radio tower that loomed in front of her, lit by only a few red beacon lights.

Safely around that, she followed a road toward a town she had seen when she came out of the bottom of the clouds.

Thank heavens the land hereabouts was relatively flat. Coming down in this thing into a mountainous region at night would be a good way to commit suicide.

Rip was standing beside her now. 'Where are we?' he asked, looking out the canopy for lights.

'I don't know.'

'Missouri, you think?'

'Not very likely.'

'The United States?'

'Maybe.'

'Pinpoint accuracy. I like that.'

The sky was getting light in the east when she brought the saucer to a stop on the edge of a small town.

It wasn't much of a town, just a conglomeration of houses on a small paved road in farming country.

They looked the town over from a hundred feet up. Not a car was stirring. 'It must be about four-thirty or five in the morning here,' Charley muttered.

'Yeah.' Rip pointed. 'Try that filling station. Maybe they got a water hose.'

'I'm getting pretty desperate for a bathroom, now that we're back in civilization.'

'Bet everything's locked.'

She maneuvered the saucer through some trees and set it down in a vacant lot beside the filling station, as close to the building as possible. Rip opened the hatch and dropped through.

The smells of earth and summer and motor oil were like perfume. He inhaled deeply. The sky and clouds were pink in the east, which bathed the landscape in soft light. After two and a half months in the desert, Rip thought he had never seen a prettier place than this little town.

There was a water tap on the corner of the building but no hose. He turned on the tap, just to make sure. Water came out. He turned it off and stood up, looking around. Across the street from the filling station was a diner, still closed, of course. Four little houses were in sight, with pieces of others visible through the trees. Might as well try the house next door, Rip thought.

He walked through the trees. The house was a white one-story with a single-car garage. The garage door was open, revealing a Chevy pickup and lawn mower parked inside. A coil of garden hose hung from a hook on the wall. Rip helped himself.

Two minutes later he had water flowing into the saucer.

He tried the door of the filling station's men's room. Unlocked.

He was standing beside the saucer looking around at the trees, the buildings, the flat fields stretching away toward comfortable horizons when Charley came out of the women's rest room.

'Ah,' she said, adjusting her gray flight suit.

'Maybe you should take off your name tag and captain's bars,' Rip suggested.

'You're right. The saucer is going to attract a lot of attention.'

Rip thought Charley's remark a masterpiece of understatement. still, he was desperately hungry. 'Let's get something to eat when the diner opens, okay? And please let me do the talking.'

'Okay,' she said without much enthusiasm as she removed the rank devices and name tag from her flight suit. 'I should have taken off the captain's bars two weeks ago,' she said and tossed them away.

'Why did the rockets hiccup when we did that reentry burn?'

'Your guess is as good as mine.'

'If we can get this thing to Uncle Egg's, he can figure it out.'

Rip Cantrell laughed. He felt wonderful. 'This is so cool!' He opened his arms to take in the filling station, the diner, the houses stretching down the street, then pirouetted and gestured grandly at the saucer as he bowed from the waist.

Charley Pine applauded.

'Thank you, thank you. For you, ma'am, we have a seat front row center.'

She checked the water tank. The hose was delivering water under a good head of pressure, yet from the sound the tank was a long way from full.

When she turned around an old dog was sniffing at the ship, then at Rip. He waited until the dog had had its sniffs, then he bent carefully and offered an ear scratch.

Rip is just an overgrown boy, she thought.

She turned back to the saucer, laid both hands upon it.

She had flown it.

Yes! She closed her eyes and remembered how it felt, how it was with the rocket engines going and the ship quivering in her hand.

When she turned back toward him, Rip was looking at her strangely.

'What's wrong?'

'In this light… well, you look awful pretty,' and he reddened nicely.

She grinned at him then, at the boy still in him and the man he had become.

He shuffled over to listen to the water rushing into the tank to hide his embarrassment. 'Half full, maybe.'

The sound of a car coming down the street made them turn and look. The car turned into the station and parked on the other side of the building, well away from the pump. The driver came walking over. He was a kid, maybe sixteen, wearing dirty jeans, with a face splotched with acne. The dog lying beside the saucer's nearest landing gear thumped its tail in the dirt.

'Hey,' the kid said. 'What the hell is this?'

'An oversize hauler off-loaded it about a half hour ago,' Rip said matter-of-factly, without inflection. 'He said it was gonna be a sign for an amusement park in St. Louis. Said there was an overpass down the interstate that it wouldn't go under.'

'Well, I'll be… ' the kid said. 'Why'd he leave it here?'

'Didn't have anywhere else to leave it. Said another trucker would be along to get it in a couple hours.'

The kid tore his eyes from the saucer and directed his attention to Charley and Rip. 'Why you putting water in it?'

'Darn thing is so light it needs some water to hold it down if the wind kicks up. Fellow next door brought his hose over.' Rip nodded with his head. 'Hope you guys can spare a few gallons of water.' 'I reckon we can.'

The kid put his hands on the saucer. Then he rapped on it with a knuckle. Before he could speak, Rip said, 'I'd be careful. Just Styrofoam under there and you're liable to dent it.'

'Oh.' The kid put his hands in his pockets and tried to look nonchalant.

'By the way,' Rip continued. 'My sister and I broke down a few miles east of here. After we get some breakfast, could we get someone to tow the car in? I think the water hose broke.'

'Lots of steam, huh?' 'I should say.'

'Well, the owner drives the tow truck. He'll be in after while. You got Triple A?'

'I think so. Somewhere in my wallet.' Rip touched his hip.

'How much more water you gonna put in there?' 'Oh, this is enough, I reckon. It's just to give it some weight.' Rip turned off the water tap and disconnected the hose. Charley closed the cap on the water tank.

As Rip coiled the hose, he said to Charley, 'Meet you at the diner.'

'Nice of you to let the trucker have a little water,' Rip told the kid as Charley strolled away.

'Ain't my water,' the kid said, still looking over the saucer. 'Sure looks real, huh? Looks like it's full of little E.T. guys.' 'Uh-huh.'

'Make these things in Hollywood, I guess.' 'Somewhere in New Jersey, actually.' Rip got the last of the hose coiled up on his arm and took it back to the garage where he had borrowed it.