Chapter 5: Ricky and The Misfits

I arrived at the site around 8 pm. About a dozen U.S. Army trucks pulled in and out of the only country road which linked up the site to the highway. I scurried along camping cars, tents, a couple of ambulances(?) - wondered why? - police cars and TV vans before eventually hitting the yellow ribbon which sealed off the crash from the frenzy of viewers. Through the murmurs of the crowd, I could make out that the actual site itself was about 500 yards further, behind a patch of pine-trees and so both inaccessible and out of sight from where I was. Surprisingly enough, the top of the trees at that end of the lake were still lit by the setting of the sun, which meant that the horizon was pretty low for these parts, and the twilight glow the sun was casting over the woods sparked inside my head, somehow, an image of an ancestral Earth, long before modern man and the machines, and which was so fitting with what had happened here the day before.

I snapped out of this daydreaming when the crowd started to react to the sight of a convoy of black limos which had sprouted out of nowhere - it seemed - and bobbled up and down the rocky trails and headed onto the main road. 'It's the Vice President', denounced the husky voice of a man in his late 40s, sporting a thick mustache straight out of a Spaghetti Western. A bunch of curious of onlookers stretched their necks, like a family of meerkats, hoping to catch a glimpse of the Veep behind the smoky screens of the limos, but it proved futile. 'He arrived about two hours ago. The President is in Singapore or something...I don't know. There was also a NASA team which arrived around noon and a couple of MIGs flying around. Guess it's quite a big deal then, huh?' continued the man with a wry smile, unaware most of the crowd around him had already moved further down where the limos were.

'You been here long?' I surprised myself asking, but I guess my curiosity was taking over.

' Who? Me?... Got here around noon. I caught it as they loaded it onto an Army vehicle and then took it away', continued the man, as he stood cross-armed, feet planted firmly on the ground. 'D'you know how big it was?'

'No' I replied, knowing that was the answer he was looking for.

'About the size of a tree-log.' he continued, showing me invisible shapes between the palms of his hand. 'The density of it, however... They brought a forklift and four other men were rolling it onto the platform.

I had no idea whether he was telling me the truth or not.

'Did you get to see it then?' I asked, apprehensive that my question would make him confess something he didn't want to.

'I saw it when the truck pulled back onto the main road and stopped for pictures. Although you couldn't really see much. They covered the whole thing with a white piece of cloth. But if you want to know whether anyone was able to see it down there in the hole, I doubt it. Unless you were in the vicinity when it crashed, which, by the look of the damage it has caused, I wouldn't have wanted it to be me' he continued laughing, checking with me if he was providing entertainment along with important information. 'No. What I did...' he carried on, clearing his throat, 'what I did was drive about ten miles further up, all the way to the Pinchalada Peak, and I could see it from there. But even up there they had the place monitored somehow, I tell you, and the locals aren't too happy about it. But I got to see it and it's one big thump in the ground, I tell ya'. About 30 feet wide. Had a dodgy feeling they would fence the whole thing off so I woke up really early today. 4 am to be exact. Drove all the way from Bakersfield.'

'Bakersfield, huh?' I interjected, as expected.

'Yeap. You don't miss these, I tell ya'. It's not everyday that they crash in your backyard. Dropped off my kid at my ex-wife's, loaded my vehicle with plenty of water bottles, made some tuna sandwiches and headed to Tahoe. Not before letting Billy, my boss, know I wouldn't be coming in today. Both he and ex-wife owe me a day off. I'm the one who usually covers for my boys at work or when my old missus gets asked out by some hunk, but not today, and not when it comes to something like this. You listen to my advice. You try and do good around you as much as you can but there are certain things you can't allow others to take away from you. And the stuff that matters to you is the stuff that drives you forward as a human being. Get it? I sure ain't the first to say so but it's true', he carried on with gravity, as if it was something that he had wanted to say for a long time but couldn't find the right people who would listen to him.

His words hit me hard, though. I realized that what this man was saying was a reflection of my life of the past ten years or so, and even more acutely true now. I wasn't looking after myself anymore properly; not tending to my own emotional needs, and that was the main reason Ella had left me and why Audrey was running away from me now. I tried hard to be a good partner to Ella all these years but I did it all the wrong way. I focused on her instead of sorting out the mess inside my head, although the truth is that I had felt paralyzed, unable to change anything about my own situation. I had and continue to look down into the atoms and up at the stars for a solution, while all the same being affected by the pettiness of life, people and situations eating at me, pecking at me, liiike (it's come back again, OCD fuck it!!) the vultures were pecking slowly at Prometheus for ages and ages, unable to enjoy anything in the present, because I feel powerless and hurt accepting how things 'are done' or 'have functioned since the beginning of time'. For a while, I started reading how the Buddhists were coping with all that, and how you simply have to 'accept' problems, tragedy and disappointment as part of life, just the same way mathematicians accept 'infinity' as a concept on its own and not try and understand it, but instead use it in the calculus of Newtonian physics. Any other method, liiike trying to get into the rabbit hole and understand complexities which are not meant to be known can only result in prolonged agony or lead to madness, just liiike Cantor and Kurt Goedel experienced when they realized the mathematics of the 'infinite' they were using only enticed them to look further, but mathematics shut its door the instant they tried to get to an ultimate truth.

'I work as an auto mechanic down at a local AAMCO car service in Bakersfield, and a decent mechanic I am - have been so for the last fifteen years, may I add - but that ain't my true love', the man felt compelled to continue and I knew instantly exchanging names and more questions were gonna come my way. 'Space exploration is my true love but it doesn't pay the bills, if you know what I mean'.

'Yeap', I said and left it there.

'I wanted to go to evening classes down at the local school, and learn more about it, but things got complicated when my wife asked for a divorce and.... well, I had a small kid and all that and ...well, you know, it's complicated. It was unexpected, If I may add. The divorce, I mean. You married, if I may ask?', asked the man, trying to shift some of the weight that was starting to engulf him.

'No', and paused for a second.

'Well, I tell ya' it's hard being married but even harder when you're alone, if you know what I mean. We can never know what the future holds, of course... I mean it's possible one day my wife and I could get back together... I hope, at least, you know... she's a good mother, Madge, and loves our child. She cooks too ... and looks after the household and all that. We have our differences but which man and woman don't? I'm Jim', said the man stretching his hand towards me.

'Richie', came my reply as I shook his hand.

'Pleasure to meet you, Richie', said the man and he, genuinely, seemed happy to say so.

I would have liked to tell you more about this man and now, in retrospect, I probably should have stayed with him a little longer - I think he just wanted to open up in front of someone - but the truth is that at that particular moment, my attention was diverted to a TV reporter from a Mexican TV station, who was vying for a spot closer to the police tape, and was providing, from what I could make, more updates about the meteor. My Spanish is rusty but she spoke of the origins of Asteroid Orphana, which Nasa believe came from interstellar space and not our solar system. It had been hiding behind our Sun, which made it harder to spot in time. She also speculated that several other objects could follow, if they're part of some sort of travelling Kuiper Belt which has entered our solar system. I also seem to have heard the mentioning of Chico Xavier, a famous Brazilian clairvoyant and medium, and wondered how his name came about in this story, but then I remembered he had predicted future events and some of them had actually occurred, but now I'm not sure whether she was talking about the same person or whether my terrible Spanish was at fault, because Chico Xavier is Brazilian and I wouldn't think he would be famous enough in Mexico. I should really check it out. I did - nothing. He did, however, make predictions about numbers and astrology but no mentions of asteroids. Maybe it was somebody else.