The Colonel at the Gas Station.

By Biltong

Jack having fun at the at the local Gas Station

"Morning Colonel"

The man in question looks down at me from his massive pickup and gives me a grin.

"Morning Pete.How are you doing today?"

"Better than you." I say, taking in the massive bruise covering one side of his face.

For a moment our eyes lock, this senior Airforce officer and me,then he smiles self-depreciatingly.

"Training accident," he says lightly, as if the repetition would someday convince me.

"Fill her up?" I ask, patting the bonnet of his silver behmoth.

"Please," he says. "I would do it myself but..." his voice trails off as he opens his door, and I see the crutches.

"You allowed to drive like that?" I ask, shocked.

"Probably not," he says softly, "but it's an automatic, and I'm taking things real slow."

"Nevertheless," I say doubtfully, wincing as he slid from the truck.

His leg is heavily bandaged, from mid-thigh to ankle, and, from the awkward way that he is standing, it hurt like blazes.

"Don't tell me, you got run over by a tank?" I ask, studiously looking at the pump so as not to see his face as he lied.

"Not even close, " he said, suprising me. "This is what happens when you fall down a cliff."

I gave him an innocent stare. "We have cliffs in Colorado?"

He looks at me like I'm stupid. "We have the Rockies in Colorado. Where there are mountains, there are cliffs."

"So, you hurt yourself whilst hiking?" I ask.

"Well, sort of," he says, his eyes twinkling. "Put it this way, I was in a place where gravity played an intergral part in my downfall."

"And this was in Colorado somewhere?" I ask, seeing the wary look return.

"Maybe," he says.

"And maybe this wasn't in Colorado at all," I grunt, accepting his money. "Maybe it was on the other side of the world from Colorado, in a place of sand and oilwells."

He grinned. "I may very well have been, Pete"

"Or maybe it was Mars, " I say, knowing that I was not gonna satisfy my curiosity anymore today than I did any other day.

"I'm sure that is was further away than that," the Colonel says, his smile fading as he painfully climbed back into his truck. "In fact, at the time, I felt like I was on the other side of the Galaxy."

"Not Mars?" I ask.

He leaned through his window at me.

"I never said that Mars was out of the equation, Pete. Maybe it was Mars"

"Yeah right, Colonel," I snort, giving the side of his truck a friendly swipe.

"Drive careful, ya hear?"

His grin was back. "On this planet I always do."

"Mars," I mutter as he takes off in a cloud of dust.

"Yeah right, like I believe that."

EINDE

BeTa Tested, and TYPED by CiGiK.