More writing by Bruce Taylor

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Altair II

by Bruce Taylor

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NOW YOU SEE it's like this: everybody's got their something that they just gotta show other people. Maybe it's a secret, maybe it's a record, maybe it's a picture . . . but everyone has got something that they just gotta show. And so it is with Edward when at age twelve, he discovers how to build a world. Yes, that's right, you heard me right, a world; a world made of a round balloon, covered with Elmer's Glue-All and torn newspaper, and glue and paper pushed and smoothed and ridged and valed then painted over into a world that is Edward's dream of what a world might look like way out there, circling some little star we always take for granted in the great night sky – yes, perhaps it's the fourth planet or maybe the third – little difference it really makes but Edward discovered how to make his dream planet something real and frankly down to earth and he did it right in his bedroom one rainy Saturday in March and his mother said, "Just what are you doing?"

And Edward said as he put on the last paint, "I've made me a world. I'm calling it 'Altair Two,'" and he wrote it out, smiling as he did, "The 'II' also means 'also.'"

His mother, she sort of looked for a minute and finally said, "Where did you get a name like that?"

And Edward, painting a sea a bit more blue, said, "Roy and I saw Forbidden Planet and that was the planet's name only in the movie it was called Altair Four." And scenes of the movie came to his mind though he still didn't really understand the part about "monsters from the Id."

And his mother sighed. "Well, don't forget you got other work to do – you hear? Have you done that book report?"

And Edward looked up, just a bit of disappointment in his face and said, "Nope. But I'll do it. I wanna finish this."

"Okay," his mother said, "are you ready for lunch?"

"Yes, ma'am," Edward said and he put the world on a pencil axis to finish drying and had a lunch of hamburger and soup and cantaloupe too and when he went back upstairs, Altair II was dry as the American Southwest and Edward sighed and simply said, "Neat," and then proceeded to admire his handiwork: in the southern half, was the great crescent of impact crater partially submerged by acrylic blue of deep blue sea. And along the equator, another land like two vast misshapen Italian boots dangling down from the north and it was a splendid world of water, rock, of crater pushing up a sprawl of land with two immense volcanoes there, high and white and at top and bottom of this world, polar ice gleamed and stretched and Edward went into a waking dream of climbing those high mountains there and looking out over lands brown and green, or imagining himself at a lake beneath the range of mountains that made the Andes look as low as the Adirondacks and Edward sighed and later that afternoon (after making sure the paint was really dry) he put the world into a paper bag and went out, yes, yes, to show his world and yes, the rain had ceased its tap dance and was that some blue sky that was showing through and maybe even a little sun that made drops of water on leaves dance like little transparent pearls? And into the afternoon, he took his world, first to Mr. Jackson who lived next door and who was out changing a tire on his car and having such a bad time of it but he still looked up and said to Edward, "Ho, how are you today? Edward, and how are you? Boy let me tell you, cars, they is a bitch but don't say I told you that to your mom, she might think I'm corruptin' you. Oh, why won't this damn lug come off?" Jackson was a burly man, with black-gray hair that was receding from his forehead like an army retreating from a front that was advancing from life's perplexions and he worked and said, "Boy if I ever thought I'd be where I am today – you know," and he looked up with his gray eyes, "when I was twenty-five, I was gonna have bucks galore – " he snorted, "so much for dreams." He tried to turn the tire iron again, "Oh, this friggin' car, please 'scuse my French." Then he looked up again. "Whatcha got in the bag?"

And proudly Edward brought out the world.

"Oh," said Jackson, "that's kinda nice. Buy it at the store up there? They get the damnedest things – "

"Made it," said Edward grinning wide.

"Really?" And Jackson maybe looked at it an inch closer as if somehow that might make a difference. "Huh," he said, "pretty good. Ain't you the clever one?" And after a few seconds more of measured interest, he turned again to the car and said, "Wish I had time for such things; dang, wish I did. Time goes fast when you're forty; be glad you got the time." Then sucking in breath, he finally stood up, then pushed on the tire iron with booted foot, and still nothing happened. Jackson sighed and leaned against the car and simply said, "Gawd, wish I were twenty-five I'd do it different all over again and this car would be in the garage and someone else would be doing this. Whatta mess."

Edward, smiling a little less, put the world back in the bag and simply said, "Just wanted to show you what I done."

"Yeah," said Jackson. "That's pretty good. Well, I got work to do. You tell your folks hello."

"Ok," said Edward, "bye for now."

And he went on his way and ran into Mrs. Coster coming up the street, pulling back behind her that vertical wire contraption in which she hauled her groceries from the local A & P. And she always dressed in a limp brown coat with dull brown buttons up the front and always a couple of frays dangling like strings from a kite and rattlescrattelwattle the cart, like some strange airy robot following her down the street; following this lady Mrs. Coster, who was maybe seventy with gray hair done in curls as fragile as thin spun silver and she looked out through glasses that had smudge marks near each side where seemingly she lifted them off and put them back on and she looked as meek as a dispirited mouse but she managed to smile just a bit and was in voice as wind sighing through a mausoleum, "Hello, Edward, I haven't seen you for a while," and scrattlerattlewattle went the cart containing a large brown bag filled with a big sack of sugar and prunes and marmalade and a big avocado of unripe hue plus a bag of pet food for her Siamese cat ("Muffy," who looked at you with two blue cross-eyed pools that looked into your soul and then beyond) and Edward said, "Look what I made – I just finished it this afternoon!"

And out of the bag came Altair II.

"Well isn't that nice."

"Yeah," said Edward, "I think it's neat."

"And this is what," said Mrs. Coster, "Africa? And I don't see Australia there." Scrattlerattlewaddle.

Edward frowned just a bit and said, "Oh, no, you got it wrong, this isn't supposed to be the earth. This is another planet around another star."

Scrattlerattlewaddle.

"It's not meant to be the earth at all."

"Oh, I see. How's your mother been these days? Did she get over her operation?"

Edward put the world back in its bag. "Yeah, she's fine."

"Well, that's good. You know I've known her for years. Oh, my! My husband and your father used to go fishing a long time ago. Oh, my, those were fun days. Yes, that was a long time ago." And she nodded, "Yes, time goes by very fast young man. It goes by so very fast. If we'd have stayed in Arizona like we should have – "

And Edward said, "You have a nice day now, Mrs. Coster."

"Oh, yes, I will, yes, I will."

"I'll tell mom you said hello."

"You do that dear, you do that now."

"Goodbye."

Scraddlerattelwaddle.

Edward went on and thought about going to see if Roy was at home, for Roy was his best friend and they liked doing things together and Edward thought sure he might like Altair II, and on the way, he ran into Sally Jean McKenzie who lived in this real nice home with the Cadillac out front and the yacht in the backyard that never seemed to make it into water very much, and there were always fights going on in that elegant and wondrous house and Edward went up to Sally Jean McKenzie, age sixteen and said, "Hey, you wanna see what I just did?"

Sally Jean, lovely girl with long brown hair, eyes as dark as endless hurt and with lips turned to a forever frown and sometimes sneer, looked and Edward smiled very wide as he pulled out his world and she looked and nodded just a bit.

"Ain't it neat?"

Sally said, "Uh, huh."

"See?" said Edward, "when this meteor hit, it made this ring and shoved all the land way, up there – "

Sally nodded just a bit and said, "Uh-huh."

"And these two volcanoes here, they're eighty thousand feet – "

Sally Jean nodded just a bit and said, "Uh-huh," and there came from her house, not far away, this yell, "You son of a bitch!" and crash.

Sally Jean just kept looking at the world Edward held in his hand and said, "Uh, huh," and nodded her head just a bit and wham "Get your hands off me you fucking pig!"

And Sally Jean she wandered onward, and nodded her head just a bit. And Edward sighed and put the world back in his bag and headed on up to Roy's place and Mr. Scrupner was in his yard getting ready to mow the lawn even though it was still wet and he was an older man, fifty-four, bald and wearing blue tee shirt and jeans and with a belly that looked like a sack of flour and he said, "Well, hello there Elton; how are you?"

"Great," said Edward, "but my name is Edward."

"Sorry, but what the heck, what's in a name?"

Edward paused, not knowing Mr. Scrupner all that well but he smiled and said anyway, "Can I show you what I just did?"

"Sure," said Scrupner, "Whatcha got?"

Edward brought out his world ah, slowly, like a magician pulling a rainbow from a hat. And he held Altair II as though it was a strange and wonderful fragile gem. "Whatcha think?"

Mr. Scrupner looked at it. "Well," he finally said, "whatever it is you did a real good job. It's not the earth now is it?" And he grabbed Altair II from Edward's hands and held it aloft, "No, don't look like it. Now this part here, that looks like Japan. That world war was really something; oh, them slanteyes were bastards to the end. I mean right to the end. Oh, we should have nuked them all. We should have invaded Russia too. Honest to God no wonder we're in the mess we're in. I should have stayed in Army intelligence, yes, that's what I should have done. Now this part, this looks like southern California here yes, that was a good time, why, I was manager of a restaurant chain but I didn't pick my employees right . . . caught one colored pulling change right out the register – well I didn't actually see him but someone said that he did, oh, you can't trust them at all – now Hitler, he was a bit extreme, but you know he did have some good ideas – "

"I have to go now," said Edward and he held up his hands ashamed and mortified that he had let Scrupner touch Altair II.

"Oh, certainly Elton, here you – oops!"

And in handling the world, Mr. Scrupner's hands slipped and Altair II fell through the air and crack split in half when it hit the concrete at Mr. Scrupner's feet. "Aw," he said, "God, I'm sorry about that." He bent over and picked up the pieces and placed them into Edward's still outstretched hands. "Next time make it tougher so people like me can't blow it up." He reached into his back pocket for his wallet and produced a dollar bill. "Here you go, Elton, buy yourself a sundae, it's on me."

But Edward just looked at the pieces of Altair II in his hands and without saying anything, just turned and walked on until he came to a park and sat on a bench and the tears splashed on the big blue seas and vast brown lands.

"Wow, what's that?"

Little Troy, perhaps age eight, stood there looking at the broken world in Edward's hands.

"It was Altair II," Edward said, "until Mr. Scrupner dropped it."

And little Troy continued to stare and he was always such a sight with hair always this way and that, and his eyes were that wonderful clear and honest blue like you find at dawn and he had on this cowboy shirt with pearl buttons except that the middle one was gone and he wore jeans with holes in the knees and black Keds tennis shoes and he looked at the world and said, "Aw, gee and you must be sad. What a neat world! Aw, gee, that's too bad."

Edward said not another word.

And Troy ran away but in a few minutes returned with six-year-old Mary Lynn, and nine-year-old Daniel Smith and they all had scotch tape, paper, crayons, glue – and they all helped Edward fix the broken world of Altair II.

 

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