Defenders of Destiny, book one, the Discovery of Astrolaris

Joseph watched the yellow lines in the middle of the road appear and disappear in the headlights in seemingly endless monotony as they drove through the darkness. Joseph leaned his head against the window of the truck to rest his weary eyes for a moment.

  Slowly, Joseph became aware of flashing red and blue lights; he looked out the window of the truck into the night sky to see a giant spacecraft with red and blue lights flashing above them. He heard an ominous deep female metallic monotone voice: “Release my baby!” Joseph perceived that the truck was no longer moving. He felt the truck and trailer being lifted off the road toward the alien craft. He felt powerless to do anything. He looked down toward the ground and closed his eyes, then slowly opened them. When he looked up again the spacecraft was gone, but the flashing red and blue lights still illuminated the interior of the cab.

  “Don’t you know you can’t haul wide loads after four pm?” the highway patrolman demanded.

  The flashing red and blue lights from the patrol car reflected off the mirrors and lit up the inside of the truck.

  I must have been dreaming, Joseph thought with great relief as he pinched his cheek to make sure he was really awake.

  “I’ll need your commercial driver’s license, your wide load permit, proof of insurance, and the registration for the truck and the trailer. Oh yeah, I’ll also need your over length permit – your load is hanging over the end of the trailer at least ten feet,” the officer directed, as he walked to the back of the trailer and began untying the rope holding the tarp. He flipped the tarp back and shined his flashlight at the feet of the robot hanging over the end of the trailer.

  Thomas watched him in the rear view mirror with dread as he got his commercial driver’s license and insurance card from his wallet and the registrations from the clip on the sun visor.

  “What’s your story?” asked the patrolman, when he returned to the driver’s door.

  “We found this giant space robot out in the middle of the desert and we’re going to take it to Area 51,” announced Joseph, with a tone of sober seriousness.

  The officer paused for a moment as he involuntarily pursed his lips, as if he were trying to hold in some invisible force. Suddenly, a burst of air escaped, followed by an explosive thunder of laughter so powerful that tears were rolling down his cheeks by the time he finally, partially, regained his composure.

  “Actually…” began Dad, as the officer held up his hand.

  “I know…” interrupted the officer, still laughing a little. “Tomorrow is the 4th of July and you are going to Salt Lake City for the parade and you couldn’t get your float ready in time.”

  “Well…” continued Dad, as the officer raised his hand again.

  With another chuckle, the officer said, “It’s okay I’ve heard that half the floats aren’t ready until the parade starts. Good luck and drive safe.” As he turned back toward his car they heard him say to himself, “Area 51!” Then they heard another restrained burst of laughter, “I love it.”

  After tightening the tarp and the straps, they resumed their journey and were soon pulling onto the gravel country lane where they lived. Their place was a little twenty-acre farmlet. Thomas loved trees so he had planted several hundred of them on the property years before, so now they had a nice secluded mountain feel to the place.

  “I think we’ll back the whole trailer with the giant on it into the barn,” said Dad. Thomas had built it with a woodshop in the east wing, a truck shop in the lower portion of the center with a large loft above it, and a tinkering and welding shop in the west wing.

  Joseph jumped out of the truck to guide it into the barn. “Ho!” he yelled when it was in the perfect spot.

  “We’ll take a closer look at it when we get back tomorrow,” said Dad, as they closed the doors to the barn.