A Time Slip

And up above the estuaries, was the silver-lined, grey colored plane of Mr. Stephen Aid, sailing through the clouds, as if with its half furtive effort, to avoid suspicion from the Radars.

Mr. Aid, a reknowned person in the US- air force of the late 1970’s, was always busy experimenting with his plane and learning the various skills of defending it from intruders. A workaholic by profession, little could he afford his leisure time to his flying machine. But still from his packed schedule he parceled out a significant amount of time for his dear old airplane.

One day, he took a day off. He set aside all his personal works and concentrated on his machine. Making it dance en plain air, suddenly he enacted a summersault. To his utter disbelief a peculiar and totally unexpected aircraft flew a little above him. With the wings veneered in intricate architecture, the craft could be seen for the following fifteen minutes. The wooden craft was certainly a visual wonder for Mr. Aid and left him bewildered. To see it from a more comfortable position, he tried to fly more near it, and it vanished into thin air quite unprecedented. Mr. Aid quickly landed on a nearby airport.

“Did you notice a typical wooden aircraft, flying above this place an hour ago?” asked Mr. Aid, to the Radar operating officials.

“No Sir! not at all,” they conceded, after looking into the details, being a little suspicious.

Mr. Aid tried to retrieve information about the incident from other airports nearby as well, all with a futile attempt against hopeless odds. They confirmed with a certainty that aircrafts of that kind could be seen only in early 19th century, they didn’t even smell an espionage cooking.

“Are you having more pegs than usual, Mr. Aid?” Asked his boss, facetiously, as he reported the incident to him.

The incident put him in utter dilemma, whether it was a hallucination or a momentary déjà vu; as a matter of fact the aircraft was visible for a considerable amount of time. A lunatic despondency crept into him, that made him handover his resignation.

Still reminiscent of the erratic rendezvous with the wooden aircraft, Mr. Aid, with his personal interest and tenacity started searching it in antique shops, junkyards, old museums. After a period of almost five years he definitely located it in a mortuary of vintage aircrafts.

“Would you please allow me to see it minutely?” He asked the caretaker.

“With pleasure Sir, but please be a little careful as it’s not in use for the past 80 years,” replied the concerned person, sustaining a broad smile on his countenance. A contemplating Mr. Aid found that the showpiece in front of him was an exact replica of what he had seen few years ago.

“When could have this craft flown for the last time?” He asked the attendant encore. After an enquiry with the authorities the person confirmed that it had its ultimate flight in somewhere around 1910.As he went inside the aircraft; there was one more surprise in store for him. Inside a drawer was a diary, which contained the extract:-

May 21, 1907.
What a strange experience, couldn’t really believe it. Today I saw a much modernized ash color aircraft with a silver lining. It flew below me for some time and vanished. It was not visible any longer as I landed.
Richard Harris.