Much Ado About Something 865 Words

Although the distance between Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon was in reality only a few hundred miles, I felt a million miles away from that neon paradise.  To get Jenny to agree to come to Vegas with me, I had to take this day out of our trip to go white water rafting on the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. 

         “Why would you want to spend all your time in a smoke-filled casino when you can get a first-hand view of nature?” she asked me.

         As it seemed like a trick question, I didn’t bother to answer.

         It was a typical summer day in the desert.  The sun beat down its oppressive heat constantly, the temperature at 9 A.M. had already risen to over 100 degrees.  Jenny and I had are life jackets on, all ready to go.  We were joined by an older couple, Paul and Sheila Henderson, and our guide, a local named Jose.

         “This is considered a Grade 3 rafting trip,” Jose said, in his heavily accented English.  “There will be a lot of turns and some tiny waves, but we should be in no considerable danger.”

         The Hendersons nodded in relief.  We entered the slightly choppy water and headed on our way.  Jose pointed out local plants and wildlife, typical boring guide talk, and barked out when we needed to turn our paddles to keep us on our path.

         He was talking about a vulture, or something, I must admit I wasn’t paying too much attention, when a loud explosion ripped through the air.  It sounded like the air was being ripped into two.  Ahead of us, something plummeted into the water making a large splash rocking our raft.  It crashed into the river too quickly for me to get any idea of what it was.  Somehow, the raft refused to tip over.  After the water calmed back down to its normal state, we all sat in the raft, too stunned to speak.

         I looked over to Jenny who had a look of complete terror on her face. 

         “What was that?” she whispered quietly.

         I just shrugged, immediately kicking myself for leaving the glamour of Vegas for whatever was going on in the river at this point.

         “What the…?”  Paul Henderson said loudly, his question not needing to be finished.

         “I don’t know.  Never seen anything like it,” Jose said.  “I think its 100 yards ahead.  Maybe less.”

         “And?” I said.  “Surely, we’re just turning around now.  The river’s obstructed.”

         “What if they need help?” Jenny contributed.

         “Who?  I don’t even know what that was.  If we go on ahead and the river’s obstructed, we’re just turning around anyway.”

         There was silence as all eyes went onto our guide, Jose.

         “She’s right.  We need to go forward.  We can always turn around, if need be.”

         As slow as the river would allow us, we paddled toward the obstruction.  It was a calmer part of the river, with the initial turbulence of the crash having left it. 

         The obstruction came into view, once we were about twenty-five yards away from it.  A saucer.  A giant, silver saucer looking like it was a dish half crammed into a sink full of soap. 

         “Can we get around it?”  I asked Jose.

         “No,” Jose said.

         “Whoever flew that might still need help,” Jenny offered.

         My girlfriend.  A white knight in shining armor.

         “No, we need to leave now,” I said.

         The Hendersons just stared mutely at the silver saucer in front of us, the surprise having stricken them deaf mute.

         “A U.F.O.,” Paul Henderson, finally muttered under his breath.

         “Let’s take the raft here over to the shore.  It’s shallow enough, I’m going to wade up to it and see what’s going on,” Jose said.

         “We need to go, period.  Let’s go.  What is there to see?”

         Jose shook his head, staring at the silver saucer obstructing the river. 

         “We need to see,” he repeated.

         We took the raft over to the bank of the Colorado River, about 10 yards away from the obstruction.  Jose, with a look of grim determination on his face, went back into the river and slowly walked over to the object.  There was nothing for the four of us to say, sitting on the bank.  We all just stared at him, getting closer and closer to the obstruction.  What was going to happen? 

         Jose got to about five yards away, when the sky erupted again.  This time the noise was more familiar, blades spinning followed with a stiff breeze flattening us to the bank.  Helicopters.  Military helicopters, swooping in from the sky.

         The soldiers seemed to impossibly flow out of the helicopters, being everywhere at once.  They tackled Jose, stopping him short of the silver saucer.  On the bank, we were all handcuffed before we could even sit back up from the blades having stopped.  We were quickly being hurried onto a helicopter, and then the whirly bird took off again taking us away from the obstruction, which would ever remain a mystery.

         “What was that?” I asked, the saucer becoming smaller and smaller.

         The solider just grunted.  “What was what?  Believe me, son, you didn’t see anything.”