Sup guys, I hope I can start putting content out more regularly than I have been recently, but life has not been a helping hand in that ordeal. Anyways, without further delay, chapter 6.
Enjoy.
Chapter 6
Chandler finished his homeschooling with Marion and was granted the summer off at around the same time Jasmine finished her freshman year. Jasmine had taken Chandler out to interact with people more his age a few times and tried getting him to make friends. He was always timid and awkward, not able to hold a conversation for too long, which frustrated the social butterfly. She talked to Hansel and Marion about it, saying that he’d rather be at home drawing or building stuff. They said he liked games, electronic and outside games alike, and recommended those activities to her but Jasmine said she didn’t care to do that kind of stuff anymore. About two weeks after summer started Hansel grabbed Chandler and brought him to the porch with him to wait. Chandler had brought one of his model kit instruction manuals with him and was examining it tediously, getting bored and asking Hansel why they were waiting on the porch.
“It’s a nice day out, I thought it’d be a good time to sit outside. Don’t you think so, too?” Chandler shrugged. He put his booklet down and scanned across the yard, taking in the lush green grass, shady oak trees along the fence, and the gravel driveway that led up to the still noticeable dirt runway that used to dominate the property.
“It’s a good day, relaxing.” His imagination ran wild with events going on in his mind, using the scene for the setting of an epic battleground. “I wish I had friends to play with.” Hansel nodded in agreement.
“I wish you did, too. Hey, Jasmine said you didn’t talk much to the kids she showed you to, why’s that?” Chad had to think about it, formulating his answer.
“They weren’t interesting. They talked about stuff I didn’t know about.”
“Like what?”
“Sports teams, movie stars, singers. I don’t care bout it much.”
“You like stuff like tanks and planes more?”
“Yeah, history, too, like war history.” Chad looked back at his model kit booklet, it was a model of the Bismarck. Hansel got it for him as a summertime project. “Mister Hansel, you said you had a friend on the Bismarck?” Hansel nodded.
“Yes, I did.”
“How did you know him?” Hansel searched way back into his memory to recall the event, he smiled and chuckled when he did.
“Oh, oh I remember. We fell for the same prank. I was running late for school one day, I was maybe seven or eight years old, I rushed to school, ran through the halls, bursted into the classroom and jumped into my seat-and landed right on a thumb tack!”
“Ouch!”
“Yeah, big ouch! Everybody was laughing, I jumped out of my seat, hollering mad! I couldn’t get it out and it started to bleed so I was sent to the nurse’s office. Sitting in there getting his butt wiped clean and patched up was Rudolph, that’s where I met him. He had sat on a tack, too, and both our butts were hurt.” Chandler giggled a little bit, Hansel smiled and thought of all the fond memories he had with Rudolph. “So, Chandler, are you excited for school?” Chad shrugged again.
“Yeah, I want to make friends. I don’t like homework, though.”
“Nobody likes homework, Chandler, but you have to do it.”
“I know,” he whinned, “but it’s stupid.”
“No it’s not!” Hansel said, just then he heard a truck rumbling down the road. “You hear that?”
“Yeah.” Hansel could see Chandler’s giant red hair spinning around as he searched for the sound’s source. Meanwhile it occured to Hansel that he should probably get Chandler a haircut.
A huge, lumbering blue semi-truck roared through the trees that hid the driveway. A massive truck with a full cab on its back and hauling a thick and heavy trailer for a thick and heavy load. Bright yellow and black signs all over the truck screamed out ‘OVERSIZED LOAD’ and as the trailer was revealed from behind the treeline Hansel and Chandler could see just how big this load was. Even with a heavy green and retaining straps to mask the form both Hansel and Chandler recognized the silhouette of a King Tiger tank. With how big the semi-truck was, the Tiger tank still managed to dwarf the thing. Chandler remembered back to when he was told that a monster truck could beat anything -but a tank. Hansel was impressed that there wasn’t any bluffing, the man actually had a King Tiger, and Chandler looked distressed again.
“Oh no, more family?” Chandler whined, Hansel chuckled.
“No, I hope not.” They both chuckled a little. The giant truck’s brakes hissed as it was brought to a stop a dozen yards or so from the house. “Come on, Chandler, let’s go check it out.”
“Yes, sir.” Chandler put the booklet down and followed Hansel over to the truck. A man with a short grey beard and shoulder length brown hair climbed out of the driver’s side. He was on the heavier side of things, but with his wrists and veins exposed Hansel saw no traces of morphing. He was completely human.
“Hi-ya, I’m Ted.” He stretched his arm out to Hansel, Hansel stretched his arm out and they shook hands.
“Hansel,” Ted nodded, broke from Hansel, and turned to shake Chandler’s hand, “and this is my son, Chandler.”
“Nice to meet you, sir.” Chandler said and shook Ted’s hand.
“Thank ya, boy. Up in the truck is my father, his name’s Will. He’s too old to really be here, but he wanted to meet y’all in person.” Hansel nodded. The truck door began to swing open, hesitantly. Through the glass they could see a small man struggling on the door. “No, dad, stay up there! We’ll come to you!” He turned to Hansel again. “Would’ya mind?”
“Not at all.”
“Thank ya.” Ted leads them to the passenger side of the truck and fully opens the door for his father. Will is a tired old man, stout and pale with deep eye sockets ringed with bags. Loose skin hangs from his chin and arms while thin stray hairs dot his mostly bald head. Hansel could tell Will was once a large muscled man built for work. He wondered if this is how Meats looked like in his later years. “Hey dad, this here is Mister Hansel, and that’s his little boy, Mister Chandler.”
“Oh? Ah well, good to meetcha, my name’s Will. Y’all’ve met Ted, my son, already. I’d come down and shake yer hands but, uh, I’m old.”
“Yup, that’s fine Will. You’re worse for wear than I am, by far.” Hansel said, Will laughed.
“Yeah, age has not been kind to this old geezer.”
“How about the Tiger? How’s it holding up?”
“Better than me, that’s for damn sure. I should probably give you the run-down of it while I still can.”
“It’d be nice, but it’s not necessary. I plan on gutting it and rebuilding it with my boy, here.” Ted smiled.
“I wish we did that,” he said, looking at Will, “I was a snobby brat, never helped dad with it.” Will laughed.
“Even if you weren’t a brat you think I could take that sum-bitch apart? Maybe, I know it’d never get back together if I did!” Now Hansel smiled.
“Oh they aren’t easy! Not in the slightest!”
“Hell no!” Will responded. He shifted his weight around and looked back to where the tank was. “I could work on the engine, it’s a diesel, beefy one, too. The motors are good, I never had to worry about the transmission-luckily-but then again I only ran the thing once or twice a month for two ‘er three hours. The paint’s old but lead so, it’s still there, too. It was in a shed for most of its life, so it shouldn’t be too rusty. The seats are original, no floor mats,” the men chuckled at that, “but everything is more or less how I found it in forty-five. Oh! One of the fuel tanks is rusted through, don’t fill the port side one. Unless you like to smear diesel all over the cabin.” Chandler looked back to the house and saw Marion nosing out of the hanger door, but he didn’t see any eyes. He usually could see them, even from this far away. He turned back and couldn’t think about anything else. “Well, we should probably get it off the trailer, now. Ted, could ya, please?”
“Sure thing, dad. Would y’all like to watch?”
“Yes!” Hansel said enthusiastically. “Chandler would love to, here, Chandler, go on.”
“Yes, sir.” Chandler followed Ted over to the tank and helped take the tarp and straps off.
Hansel talked to Will about how things have changed over time for a little bit before he also went over to the tank to oversee everything. They did the usual start by hand cranking the engine and electrically starting the ignition. Marion doesn’t have to do that so Hansel almost forgot about it. Once the engine roared to life and was thumping steadily Ted moved to the cab, properly. Hansel noticed that this engine noise was nothing like any of the tanks he knew of. The cabin was like every other production King Tiger, which is not like Marion’s, this Tiger had the hydraulically assisted steering wheel while Marion had hydraulically assisted steering levers. Chandler noted and listened to Ted as he showed how to prepare, start, and drive the tank while they waited for the engine to fully warm up. He eased the behemoth off the huge trailer, using Chandler and Hansel to help guide him. From his vantage point Hansel could see the road wheels on the tank barely move when the weight was removed from them as the tank backed off, he suspected that the torsion bars had seized up and that they’d need to be taken apart, cleaned, and lubricated. As the tank backed off the trailer and moved around the truck Hansel carefully listened and watched it move. Aside from the torsion bars Hansel didn’t notice anything. Once the engine was cut Hansel told Chandler to inspect the insides of the cabin carefully and walked with Ted over to the truck to talk with Ted and Will.
Chandler did as he was told, looking and feeling around very particularly. He could feel the cold metal walls flaking their paint off, and large sprouts of early, fine rust forming and emerging. There was a lot of grease on the gears and mothballs placed in random spots everywhere. With the power off there was no lighting, so he couldn’t see any discoloration, but the leather seats felt like they needed to be tossed out. Looking out of the various sight glasses he saw the glass was hazy and dirty, it also smelled funny, too. He tried to exit through the commander’s hatch but it was stuck closed so he climbed out of the loader’s hatch. He carefully climbed down and went to Hansel to report his findings. While he waited for Hansel to finish talking he looked over to the tank, wondering if it was alive and just hiding. The base color was a dull earthy brown, it had thinned and blended with the red primer coat to be a mute color good for the mud of the Florida swamps. His mind raced with imaginations of what they would paint it to look like. Army green? Grey? A sandy yellow? Maybe look like Marion? What about the markings, like eyes, a unit, a cool logo or a scary monster? So many options crossed his wondrous mind. His mind wandered off as he thought about endless possibilities and he looked forward to making look good again.
Fin Chapter 6
neat
Write something about female ekranoplans (that big ones) they are beautyfull machines