The Sleigh

Chapter 12

Previously on "The Sleigh": The boys had decided to move their base of operations to a spot near Messamore's pond. On the move, the advance lookouts, Wes and Wayne, rushed ahead to investigate the likelihood of getting the box past the barbed wire fence that stood between them and the pond. Having selected a possible site they returned to their roles as centurions and waited for the box to arrive.

Wes and Wayne shared a moment of prideful rhetoric as they waited for Jay and Leon to arrive. Wes said, "Wayne, we are getting pretty good at this centurion guard stuff don't you think?" "I reckon we are." said Wayne "I don't know any other centurion guards, so I guess we are the best there is." Wes nodded in agreement. Moments later the box and its attendants approached the fence squarely between the positions being held by centurions Wes and Wayne. Just as it reached the wire boundary the command came. Jay said, "Box, stop six inches from the fence wire." Leon's level of confidence increased with each bit of forward progress. Summoning all of his newly found authority, he relayed the command to the box. The box responded perfectly.

The team of four once again gathered in a huddle around the box. Wes explained the positive aspects of the place he and Wayne had chosen. It boasted the wide separation between posts, the loosened staples, the pre-stretched nature of the wire. Taken together, all of this made it the optimum crossing point. Jay agreed. Leon agreed also but he didn't know why. "Jay said, "Okay, guys, test the fence to see what kind of room we can get between the wires. If it is wide enough we can pass the box through. If not, we will need to coax the box up high enough to pass over the fence." Wes and Wayne dutifully took their positions at the fence. With one foot on the lower wire and a two fisted iron grip on the second wire, they pulled up and pushed down in unison to present the largest possible opening their small frames would afford. The space appeared to be large enough for the box but they could only hold the opening for a short time.

Wes lost his grip on the upper wire first. While he was smaller, Wayne yielded to no one easily. He held his position as long as he could before he too let go of the upper wire. They both held a foot on the bottom wire. They should have tried harder to coordinate the next move. As they looked at each other in a manner that would presume commonality of thought, such was not the case. Wes let his foot slip off the wire before Wayne was ready. The tension returned the wire swiftly to its natural state of rest. The net effect was a release of energy that transmitted to Wayne's foot. Wayne was lifted off the ground by the recoiling wire. He went airborne momentarily before finding his own state of rest which as it happened was to be sitting upright on a fresh cow patty. Wes and Wayne took a moment to look at each other and take stock of their injuries. Wes could complain of a painful throbbing in his hands but he didn't. He knew Wayne had the same problem plus the added indignity of having to eventually return home with the unmistakable scent of cow poop emanating from his back side. Wes got up and offered a hand to Wayne to help right himself.

A muffled snicker began to surface from the general direction of Leon. That first little chortle set off a chain reaction so that Leon, Jay, and even Wes burst openly into laughter. All of this was of course at the expense of Wayne and his fast departing dignity. Soon enough, Wayne himself saw the humor of the moment and he too began to laugh.. The others laughed so hard they nearly choked on their own spit. That's when Wayne waddled over to the nearest patch of grass and started scooting his bottom on the ground like a dog on a rug. The others tried feebly to contain themselves without success. Wayne's scooting performance caused them to scream even harder with laughter as they rolled around helplessly on the loose dirt and patchy grass. Even so, they had the presence of mind to steer clear of any other offending piles of bovine by-product.

Jay finally brought the whole thing to an end when he said, "Hey, we'd better quieten down. We don't want to attract any attention." He said this as he pointed to the box. Too late. Someone did hear them. Johnny Baker and Leon's older brother, Jokas, heard the ruckus. They were taking turns shooting Johnny's BB gun at whatever came into their sights down by the edge of Messamore's pond.

Jokas and Johnny looked at each other then turned to look back in the direction of the laughter. They couldn't see anything since the sound came from over the hill. "It's them Poole boys." said Jokas. "Let's go up there and give them a scare for laughing at us! You got plenty of BB's, Johnny?" Johnny answered by patting his pant leg which contained a paper tube with enough BB's that it sounded like a rattle snake with ever step he took.

Back at the fence Jay was trying to settle the gang down enough to allow them to proceed with box in tow. "Leon, you ready to do your magic?" asked Jay. The blank stare that often visited Leon's face had returned. Leon's only experience with magic was the black magic kind that his family took very seriously. They believed in ghosts and haints and such. Leon broke his stare and asked, "What magic you talking about, Jay?" Jay quickly calmed Leon by saying, "I'm just talking about the box and the way it follows your voice commands." "Oh, that." said Leon. He was noticeably relieved. "Yeah, let's get moving on down to the pond.

After some study and a few rudimentary calculations Jay announced that their only recourse was to cause the box to pass over the wires rather than pass through them. All agreed, including Wayne, who was in no hurry to repeat his earlier flip, slip, skip, and scoot maneuver. They set up for the task of commanding the box to move. They were completely unaware that they were soon to be confronted by Jokas and Johnny.

Leon very carefully navigated his way between the strands of barbed wire. He had felt the sting of one of those barbs before and basically he didn't like it. This time he got to the other side of the fence without incident. Jay stayed with the box just opposite where Leon stood. Wes and Wayne moved forward a little toward the pond to reestablish their roles as centurion lookouts. Wayne set the pace as he still found it difficult to walk normally with the cow pasture plaster drying on his backside. They could see all the way to the pond and saw nothing out of the ordinary. Wayne kept looking as Wes turned to report their findings.

"All clear down here, Jay." said Wes. He was a little proud of himself for forming a rhyme with his words. They didn't see anything to report because Jokas and Johnny had cleverly circled around and away from the source of raucous laughter they sought to investigate. Given the go ahead signal, Jay spoke to Leon. "Okay, Leon, you've got to take your time with this maneuver because it's going to be a little more complicated than what we've done so far." Leon tilted his head to the left and then to the right, much like a dog does when you say something they don't understand. Jay read his expression and said, "Leon, it's going to be harder so you have to go slow." Leon got it that time and nodded to show it. At this point Jokas and Johnny had reached a point where they could see all that was going on. Whether or not they believed what they saw was a different matter.

Jay said, "Alright, Leon, say "box raise straight up five feet."" Leon relayed the instruction word for word. With a miner rumble and a shimmy shake the box slowly rose up to the appointed height. "Leon." Jay continued, "Say "box come forward toward me six feet."" Again Leon repeated the words and the box moved as directed.

At this point in the process the unexpected began to happen. Wes yelled, "Hey Jay! There's somebody down there watching us!" Wes pointed in the direction of Jokas and Johnny. He could not tell who it was at this point so he didn't know if they were friend or foe. Jay looked but he couldn't see them over the rise but he knew fast action was required. Jokas and Johnny didn't know whether to be amazed or to be scared silly from what they had just seen. Having been spotted, they decided to approach cautiously.

Jay reacted quickly. "Leon, tell the box to set down slowly to the ground." Leon wasn't blessed with the same calm reserve as Jay in situations like this. The pressure of being the communicator to the box and the fear of unknown assassins looming just over the hill weighed heavily upon him. As much as he wanted to bolt toward home Leon somehow held his ground. While Wes and Wayne returned to the fence as fast as they could, Leon relayed Jay's last command. He said, "Box drop." The box responded with a freefall to the ground. The impact was hard enough to knock both Leon and Jay off their feet.

Once the box landed a huge boil of dust rose up all around it. The dust began to whirl around the box. Jay moved down a Next time on "The Sleigh": Will the Box adventure end with the arrival of Jokas and Johnny? Will the be smote by the positive power exhibited by the Box? Will the group be adding to new member to their number? Will Wayne decide to cut his losses and run home for a quick scrub and a set of clean clothes?couple of fence posts to pass over to the other side. Leon was moving backward in the general direct of the pond as fast as Wes and Wayne were running away form it. Jay got close enough to the box to feel the dusty air moving around it with ever increasing speed. The box began to move toward Leon. Jay hollered at Leon, "Slow down, Leon, it's trying to follow you. It's not going to hurt you. Leon slowed down for a moment and the box did too. The dust continued to increase to the point the box could not be seen.

Jokas and Johnny were pretty sure they had seen all of this strange activity but they couldn't bring themselves to be the first to confess it. Jokas said to Johnny, "Did you just see...Did I just... Did we..." He could bring himself to speak the words out loud.

Next time on "The Sleigh": Will the Box adventure end with the arrival of Jokas and Johnny? Will the be smote by the positive power exhibited by the Box? Will the group be adding to new member to their number? Will Wayne decide to cut his losses and run home for a quick scrub and a set of clean clothes?