Unable to move, Billy watched the tomahawk approach, as if it was in slow motion. Looking towards the chair his focus shifted. Joey was gone, there was a flash and his perspective changed. Now he was sitting in the chair looking at the bed as the tomahawk crashed and embedded itself into the headboard. Crack! Billy took a gulp of air, his heart racing as he saw the tomahawk, the blade buried several inches behind where he had been lying only a moment before. The surrounding wood splintered and cracked.
Beep. Beep. Beep. His alarm sang furiously. He rose from the chair and turned it off. As he did he realised that he was not laying in bed waking from a dream. He had gotten up from the desk chair which was always kept slid under the desk at night. Joey was gone, that must’ve been just a wild and vivid dream.
Looking over at his bed, there was no tomahawk hanging from the headboard, but wait there was something. Looking closer, he could see a mark, no it was a thin split in the wood where the tomahawk should have been. Laying on the pillow directly below was a large splinter.
He picked it up and examined it, definitely a splinter. It looked to be exactly the size of the split in the headboard. He aligned it and pressed it in place, it fit perfectly. He reached back to remove it but as his fingers were just about to grasp it there was a small puff of something. He thought it was smoke but his fingers were momentarily wet. Brushing them across where the splinter had been it was perfectly smooth, no blemish or trace of any kind of impact.
He thought to himself, “My life just keeps getting stranger and stranger…” He stood there just staring for a while, all kinds of thoughts racing through his head.
His mother hollered from down stairs, “Breakfast is up. You going to join us, sleepy head?”
“Yeah mom. I’ll be right down.”
After breakfast, Billy’s dad was on his way to the office, “I suppose you’re heading back to school today?”
“Yeah, I’ve got a few things to prepare and my classes start up again on Wednesday. But I’ll plan on coming by this weekend.”
“Great! We’ll see you then.” He gave Billy a hug, “Thanks for your help.” As he headed outside, “Please use the garage to check over your truck. Let me know if you find anything major wrong.”
“Thanks Dad. I’ll see you before I leave Mom.” He followed his dad out the door.
Once Ralph had backed out of the garage and headed off to work, Billy pulled his Bronco into the garage. His dad had a full tool chest and a number of specialty tools for working on vehicles which Billy had access to ever since he gotten his first vehicle.
Billy laid out the parts he had picked up on the workbench and popped the hood. He held the work light over the engine compartment. “Whoa!” All the ignition wires were bubbled on the outside as if they had been exposed to a great deal of energy and heat. One by one he removed each cylinder plug and replaced it’s associated wire. Each plug appeared to be normal not even the normal trace of oil he would usually find. All the components of the electrical system showed more than the normal amount of wear. The battery was yet another story, though intact the outer shell was bulging and the top was glazed over. “Shit, I’ll have to replace that too.”
When he went to remove the old coil he had some resistance getting it out of it’s restraining clamp. Taking it over to the better light of the workbench he could see that the outside of the coil was not only bubbled but the outer case had actually started to melt around the mounting clamp.
He thought, “That’s strange with the wire so burned I would expect the plugs to be damaged more. Yet the plugs appear perfectly normal, too normal; there normally was a certain amount of oil but these were cooked clean. I expected the coil might be bad but the entire electrical system has been exposed to high temperatures.”
When he drained the oil out it had a particularly bad smell to it, as if it had been roasted. After completing the tuneup and oil change he decided to check over the engine compartment for any other signs of problems but found nothing else out of the ordinary. He started the engine and though it was a bit sluggish on the initial crank it caught and ran. A new battery should fix the cranking problem.
While at the parts store, he’d also have them check the alternator. On the way there he got to thinking, “All these components that were in rough shape were mostly wires or coils. As if they had acted like antennas receiving too much energy.” His mind immediately jumping back to that day at McCrory’s cliff… “I wonder…”
At Cleary’s Auto Parts they checked the battery and found that it was marginal as was the alternator. He had to shell out a couple hundred bucks for both, luckily they had a rebuilt alternator. He swapped out the battery in the parking lot before he left. The alternator he decided to change back at the garage, where there was a good selection of tools, just in case something got hung up or broke.
Back at the garage, he removed the alternator and put it on the bench. The bolts had been really tight and the threads appeared almost seized. Fortunately, the new alternator slipped into place without too much persuasion after he cleaned and lubricated the mounting holes. He examined the terminals on the alternator and the insulator appeared melted and burned, just like the ignition coil.
This time when he fired up the Bronco it kicked over strong and steady, turning on his headlights he noticed no difference in electrical performance. He pulled the car out of the garage for a test drive before heading back to campus.
He headed around the block and was thinking about all of the events of the last week. He’d been just enjoying the drive kind of on autopilot when he realized he had driven out as far as the turnoff to McCrory’s cliff. He turned off the road and drove right past the cliff and up the dirt road to where he could see Mallory’s cabin but her truck was not there.
Turning back around to the cliff he decided to explore the base again without his dad. Poking around in the rubble he discovered that the surface was loose rock on top but underneath though the rock appeared the same it was fused together. “This is so strange.” Still there was no indication of the burgundy rock he had seen that day he had been thrown off the cliff.
As he turned back towards his vehicle, he heard what sounded like the shriek of a large bird. Scanning the trees at the edge of the cliff he saw nothing moving. Then suddenly appearing as if out of nowhere the Indian warrior he had seen the other night was holding a bow pointed in his direction and released the arrow. Again, Billy couldn’t move. He was frozen in place watching the arrow fly towards his chest.
Come on back next Monday and we’ll find out how Billy get’s out of this one…
Episode 11 – 6/21/21
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