It's About That Time Again

It’s About That Time Again

     A Transport could barely have been seen, hovering about a foot off the road, as it travels unsteadily down a road during a heavy snow storm. Behind the Controls of that Transport was Vollum. His body hunched over those Controls, and his face buried in a Viewer attached to the windshield of that Transport.

     Sitting on the control panel in the center of it was a small monitor that showed what the Viewer saw. Right next to that laid another monitor about the same size. On it showed an image of that area – covered almost completely in a light blue. The same color as the snow storm all around them.

     “According to the Scanner we are almost out of this.” It came from a female sitting next to Vollum. She couldn’t be seen at the moment, but she could have been heard.

     “I hate it when these snow storms suddenly begin. Especially when it’s this bad.” Vollum never took eye off the Viewer as he said that.

     “Why are you so surprised about that,” said the hidden voice. “We knew this was coming. That’s why we got out of work early. So that we could get home before this storm started.”

     “That didn’t work too good did it?” Vollum glance at his romantic female friend, Narra, with a big smile on his face for only a few seconds. Then he returned to his Viewer.

     “No, it didn’t. We would have been better to stay at work.”

     “I don’t know about that. It’s a long lasting slow moving storm. We would still be stuck at work if we had stayed there.”

     “This storm isn’t that bad. We have been moving a little slow, but we have been moving. So far we haven’t had any trouble getting through this storm.”

     “That’s because we are about the only ones crazy enough to be out in it. I’ll be glad when this nightlight is over with.”

     “You’re changing the subject. You do that every time you start to panic.”

     “I’m not panicking. At least not yet.” Vollum shifted his head to the left. When he does that Transport shifts that way too.

     Vollum returned to looking straight ahead. So did his Transport. When that happened Narra pitched forward a little. “What do you mean by what you just said?”

     “It means I just had to slip around another stalled Transport because of this storm. That makes six I had to do that with since it started. It’s only a matter of time before I hit one of them.”

     “If it’s that bad just pull out of the way and stop the transport. We can wait it out if you want to. It’s almost past us anyway.”

     Vollum didn’t respond to that at first. He just kept his eye on the road ahead of them via the Viewer. Finally, he did speak though. “If we are about to get beyond this storm it’s probably best that we continue on.”

     Narra leaned forward for a better look at the scanner in front of her. “We should be out of this in a few minutes.”

     Neither Vollum or Narra spoke for several minutes. It was only after they exited that storm did they start talking to each other again. Vollum spoke first. “I’m glad we are finally out of that. Doesn’t the night look beautiful now.”

     Vollum called it night, but it didn’t look like it. The sun was still setting in the sky next to them as they continued on. Narra shielded her eye against the sun’s rays. “You didn’t say that six months ago when you wanted it to be daylight again.”

     “I didn’t say that.” Vollum pushed a button on the control panel in front of him. The Viewer slowly sank into the windshield. As it sank in the Control Circle came out. Once out Vollum took hold of it.

     “You say that ever year. A couple of months after daylight changes to nightlight you crave it to be daylight again.”

     “No, I don’t do that. I probably do the same thing when it comes to changing back to nightlight too.”

     “Actually you are a little bit better with the nightlight. You don’t start craving it until about three months after nightlight begins.”

     Vollum didn’t say anything for a long time. He just concentrated on controlling that Transport down the road. After passing several streets he finally spoke. “How long have I been doing this?”

     “I don’t know about before we meet, but you have been doing it for the last five years. It doesn’t really matter though. In a few days you are going to get your wish. It’s almost daylight again.”