ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

CHAPTER 2 ~ A long time ago, on a beach far, far away!

KAAAA-ZAP!!

In a flash of blue light, Jon-Max and Laura found themselves standing on a sandy beach on a warm afternoon, with waves rolling up the white sand and almost reaching their feet. They were standing next to a large rock on the beach.

Laura was glad Jon-Max had told her to wear sunglasses, because the sunshine was blindingly bright. A moment ago she had been standing in his room, which was lit only by a desk lamp. Now she was standing on a white, sandy beach that blazed under a clear blue sky.

Jon-Max walked over to the edge of the nearby rock and peeked around it at something further down the beach.

"Hey, look who's coming," she said in an excited voice.

Laura joined Jon-Max and looked around the rock. She saw four small boats filled with men who were rowing towards shore. One man was standing in the front of the leading boat, holding a pole with a flag at the top that fluttered in the sea breeze.

Three old-fashioned sailing ships were anchored several hundred yards further out from the beach.





"Who's that?" said Laura.

"Take a guess," said Jon-Max, smiling. "I'll give you hint. The year is 1492."

Laura eyes grew wide. "Wow! You mean, that's Christopher Columbus?"

"In person," said Jon-Max in an awed voice. Cautiously he walked over to the other end of the rock, higher up the beach, and looked around it towards the edge of the tropical forest. He said, "And right up there, hidden in the forest, is a group of Native Americans who saw the ships arrive and who want to know who these strange visitors are."

"Are we going to actually talk to Christopher Columbus?" said Laura.

"We better not," Jon-Max said sadly. "This is a pretty important moment in history, and I want to watch it just the way it happens, without being part of it."

"Yeah, I guess your right. But I sure wish we could get closer."

Jon-Max smiled mischievously. "Actually, we CAN get closer." She reached down and unclipped one of the two strange devices on his belt. "Here, you put Gazmo on your belt, and I'll keep Gidget on mine. Remember I said there were a lot of cool things they could do? Well, here's one of them."

Jon-Max looked down at the little cell phone-sized device from the future that was still clipped to his belt, then she said, "Gidget, activate stealth mode please."

The soft female voice spoke quietly from the air around them.

"Alright, Jon-Max. Stealth mode activated."

"Hey!" yelped Laura in surprise when Jon-Max suddenly disappeared! "Where'd you go?"

"Nowhere," said Jon-Max's voice. It was coming from the place where he'd been standing a second ago. "I'm just invisible. All you have to do is say the same words to Gazmo that I said to Gidget."

Laura looked down at the device on her belt and said, "Gazmo, do that stealth mode thing for me, too."

"Alright," said the male voice of Gazmo. "Stealth mode on."

Laura was looking down at her arms and legs, and she expected to see them disappear — but they didn't! She could still see her body.

"Hey, it didn't work!" When Laura looked up again she discovered that Jon-Max was now visible again.

"Something's wrong. How come they aren't working?" said Laura

"They are working. We're both invisible to everybody else now, but we can see each other." Jon-Max chuckled with glee as he explained. "As long as both Gidget and Gazmo are in stealth mode, nobody can see you and me except . . . well, you and me."

"Too cool!" exclaimed Laura. "What other neat tricks can Gidget and Gazmo do?"

"They do lots of things — but I don't have time to explain them now. There is one more thing they need to do for us." He spoke to the two devices. "Gidget and Gazmo, we need for you to translate into English the Portuguese and Spanish those guys are speaking."

"Okay, Jon-Max," both Gidget and Gazmo said in perfect unison. "Translation mode on."

"Now we'll understand what their saying," said Jon-Max. "Gidget and Gazmo will make us hear English, even though Columbus and his guys will be speaking Spanish and Portuguese."

"That's incredible," said Laura "I hadn't even thought of that."

"Come on!" said Jon-Max excitedly. "Let's get up-close-and-personal with history!"

He walked around the edge of the rock and started heading up the beach towards the place where Christopher Columbus was about to land his boats. Laura followed, but she had to keep reminding himself that she and Jon-Max could not be seen by the other people. It was weird!

When the four boats finally ran aground in the shallow water near the beach, Columbus leaped out and wadded ashore, carrying the flagpole. When he reached the sand above the water line he raised the flagpole high for a moment, then he brought the end of down hard and stuck it deep into the white sand.

"What kind of flag is that," Laura said.

"It's the royal banner of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. They gave him the money and the ships for this voyage. He's claiming this region for them, and he'll name it San Salvador in their honor."

The other boats had landed nearby, and the men were pulling them up onto the beach. One by one they gathered around Christopher Columbus in a wide circle. The men were talking excitedly to each other, and even though they were speaking strange languages, Jon-Max and Laura could understand them because Gidget and Gazmo were translating what they said into English.

The two invisible students listened from a few feet away as Columbus instructed his crew to kneel down and join him in a solemn prayer of thanks for bringing them safely to this country – which he called India!

"India?" Laura whispered in surprise. "I thought we were in America."

"Actually we're not in India or America," Jon-Max whispered, chuckling soft. "Columbus just thinks he landed in India, because he wanted to find a shorter way to reach Asia from Europe, by sailing West instead of East.

"But if we're not in America, where are we?"

"The Bahamas," said Jon-Max. "You know, like in the Beach Boys song?"

Laura was puzzled by his comment. "Hey . . . you guys in the future know about the Beach Boys?"

"Of course. We still have oldies satellite radio channels in 2058."

Columbus had finished his prayer, and all the men rose to their feet again. He started giving the men orders for the unloading of the supplies from the boats.

Still invisible to the busy explorers, Jon-Max and Laura had to scramble out of the way occasionally whenever the men almost walked right into them as they hurried back and forth, moving the supplies. But the two young students were fascinated by everything they saw, and they whispered questions to each other about the objects the men were bringing ashore. There were kegs filled with salted meat, and other kegs filled with fresh water. The two youngsters whispered so many questions to each other that the sailors began to look around with puzzled expressions, wondering if perhaps there were ghost on the shores of this mysterious land they had discovered.

Suddenly a shout arose from one of the men — and he was pointing right at Jon-Max with a frightened look!

"We must not be invisible anymore!" Laura whispered in a frightened voice.

Jon-Max didn't move a muscle except to quickly put his finger to his lips to silence Laura. Then Laura noticed that the other men were not actually looking at Jon-Max, they were looking at something behind him, towards the trees at the edge of the forest. The man who pointed at Jon-Max had been looking right through the invisible boy at the strange-looking people who had suddenly stepped out of the forest and were watching the sailors on the beach. They were dark-skinned men and they wore just enough clothing to be modest. Their hair was long, hanging down past their shoulders.

Laura hurried over to where Jon-Max stood, while the sailors began to huddle together in a group a few yards away, talking excitedly about the arrival of the men from the forest.

"Are they going to attack?" Laura said in a worried tone.

"Wait and see," said Jon-Max, smiling faintly.

The two fifth graders watched as the strange men from the forest approached the explorers who had crossed an ocean to find this new land. And nobody really knew what anybody was going to do next!


_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bud Brewster]

______________________________________________

For Pete's sake, guys, don't be shy! Leave a reply.

How am I supposed to know if you've read it? Hey, come on . . . don't I leave replies to your posts to express my appreciation?

Of course if you have read it and didn't like it . . . well, don't bother to post a reply. Heck fire, I know its good! I just want hear some nice things from the folks who recognize good writing!

I know All Sci-Fi has plenty of those!
_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)