Chapter Fifty Seven

By Chris Fulmer

"Watch out below, the Milesnator is coming through!" Miles shouted to all relevant persons in his path at Crystal Mountain. He took off running with his sled and made a strong slide about seven-eighths of the way down the hill.

"That was good, Miles, that was good," Buck commended his nephew. Predictably, the storm from last night had knocked out much of the Christmas Eve business Crystal Mountain ordinarily would have seen, but he'd been surprised to see a good number of local people at the slopes trying to enjoy the deep snow pack at the only sledding slope in the Tri-State area.

"I guess you didn't get to do too much of this back in New York," he asked Cutter.

"Not really, but occasionally I'd get on a charter bus up to one of the Catskill or Adirondack resorts," Cutter told him, "They weren't terribly impressive in my opinion, though."

"Well at least you had that," Tia informed him, "We didn't even have a minor hill like this back in Indianapolis. The best we could have used there was one of the interstate off-ramps, but the nearest was at least twelve blocks from our house."

Maizy crested the hill after her last slide. "I need to use the bathroom, Uncle Buck," she told him.

"Across the road, watch out for traffic," he told her, pointing the way. "I've always wanted to share something like this with them, Chanice," he told his fiancé, "Something that'll make us feel like a real...." he suddenly became aware of the sound of heavy machinery approaching from up the road. Without any warning, a large army truck swerved recklessly around the corner and bore down on an unsuspecting Maizy.

"MAIZY WATCH OUT!!!" Buck launched himself like a rocket after his niece and just managed to push her to the safety of a ditch in time. "Arrogant jerks!!" he yelled up at the truck as it sped off, followed by a large convoy of military vehicles, "Kids are our future, you know!" He turned to his niece. "You're not hurt, are you Maizy?" he asked her with deep concern.

"Nope," Maizy said, actually looking thrilled to have nearly been killed. The two of them watched the convoy go past, made up of tanks, artillery pieces, jeeps, and various trucks, most notably several with large orange signs on their sides warning DANGER: HIGH EXPLOSIVES. When the convoy had finally passed, Buck whistled a sigh of relief. "Glad that's over," he said out loud.

"You look strange, Uncle Buck," Maizy observed.

"Oh, uh, nothing major, Maizy; seeing army cars like that made me think for a moment of the time I was in the army," Buck said, closing his eyes in dread and shame, "Why don't we go the bathroom together, so that neither of us gets killed?"

"Works for me," Maizy said. The two of them shuffled over to the bathroom, although Buck found he had enough decency to wait outside, feeling Maizy couldn't do any harm in a woman's room by herself. In the meantime, Chanice came running over. "Buck, that was either the stupidest or the most heroic thing I've ever seen you do," she told him breathlessly.

"Well which is it?" Buck asked her.

"I'll probably need some time to think about it," Chanice admitted, "Is Maizy OK?"

"Yeah, she's a real trooper; no injuries whatsoever," Buck reassured her. "You look a little pale," Chanice pointed out, "You've been acting strangely the last few days."

"I don't know, Chanice, just some bad memories," Buck said, "But all day today I've just had the sneaking suspicion something was wrong in town. These trucks that just came by don't help."

"So what?" Chanice posed, "They're probably just on their way to some base in the state to be with their families. You're starting to get paranoid."

"I don't know," Buck shook his head, "I just have this feeling....."

"Ready," Maizy popped out again.

"Okay then," Buck took her hand and looked both ways before crossing the road again. "Let me take a shot there, Miles," he told his nephew as came back up, "I've wanted to do this for a long time."

"Are you sure you'll fit on it, UB?" Miles asked, reluctantly handing his uncle his sled.

"Yeah, I guess I can," Buck said optimistically, "I just wish I'd have brought my own and I wouldn't have to ask."

He squeezed his frame onto the sled. "The Buck is coming through!" he announced to the slopes in general and pushed off--about five inches. "The Buck is coming through!" he said again, less fervently, and tried to push off again, also to no effect. "Something's wrong here," he mused, it was working fine before."

"Maybe you're too heavy," Tia suggested.

"Oh that's not it," Buck scoffed. He pushed off one more time--and went right off the sled and rolled head over heels down the mountain. He lay still for a minute as what had happened sunk in. "Am I dead yet?" he asked no one in particular.

"Close," Chanice came running down to him, "You still have the mind of a three-year-old, Buck."

"Do you mean that positively or negatively?"

"Both," Chanice helped him up, "Why don't we leave the sledding to the kids from here on? Then you can relax away your fears without worry of injury."

"I don't think that'll help," Buck admitted, "I can't just let those fears go. I KNOW I've seen that hawk before...."