“Roscoe? Is that my little spud?” The pup licked Sherman’s chin and both smiled.Īnother shuttle launched and all three turned towards the immense rumbling coming from the lower bay – and all three stared at the huge ship lumbering into the clear blue sky. There was a brown dog, a very small puppy, peeking out from inside Sherman’s flight suit – and that seemed to catch Sherman off guard. The pilot lifted his visor and Callahan thought he… Even the aviator’s helmet looked kind of familiar – because he recognized the symbol of The Boomers from VA-165 emblazoned on the side of the flight helmet. The man landed on his two feet and he pulled a release that caused the parachute to drift away, and Callahan recognized the US Navy flight suit. Falling towards the metal catwalks a few feet from where he and Bullitt were standing. “What the fuck?” both Callahan and Bullitt whispered.Ī man in a parachute. “I know.” He looked at the bay just off the Embarcadero and saw a clipper ship lying at anchor, then they both turned towards the sound of a deep rumbling that shook the earth – and they saw what appeared to be some kind of space shuttle launching from SFO, except the airport seemed to now be a busy spaceport.Ī shadow passed overhead and they looked up. “Helluva shot,” Bullitt said, leaning against the railing by the rust colored curtain wall and looking down at the Hilton Hotel’s rooftop swimming pool.Ĭallahan looked at Frank and nodded. Hair graying and stiff – and the wind does not move him.Ĭallahan shrugged. Blue jeans and a crumpled old tan corduroy sport coat. And he smiles, because he remembers pain from a Time far away and almost forgotten. He lifts up the legs of his trousers and sees two legs. He remembers death.ĭeath in the form of shining brass, right there by – shoes?

‘This can’t be death,’ he realizes.Īnd a spent rifle cartridge. Then in the next instant he feels something solid underfoot. Is it the color of the light? The feel of the wind as it passes around and through him? Is that why everything feels so familiar? ‘Am I alive?’ he wonders, because he feels he must be light now-because the darkness is gone. He can feel tiny pinpricks of light passing through his skin and he doesn’t know what to think now.

With blue light all around, what air he can taste is alive with the ozone-rich scent of passing rain on a summer afternoon. Then he realizes he is standing inside the lightning. Nothing underfoot, only the vaguest suggestion of being adrift.įalling? Slowly falling? Inside blue lightning. He can’t see beyond the mountains while the sky and everything within seems a kind of electric blue. Blue sky overhead, the only clouds far away beyond mountains to the east. Then the light returns, and he feels a fine, cool breeze running through his hair. He could finally relax in the light, for there was no place left to run. All input ceased and even the darkness was gone.

Yet it seemed he had chased time all his life, until time turned on him and changed the terms of the chase. And at the end of it all, simply running blind.

Such moodiness, and so clearly expressed. I’d highly recommend getting this set to go and punch play as you start reading. The music to lead off this last part of the story sets the mood perfectly. Harry is now gone so grab a cup of cinnamon tea and read on.

Grapefruit size hail 2022