Just a Girl

 

   A small twin engine aeroplane flew through the sky, heading over the Pacific Ocean. Stopping every few hundred miles to refuel their path was a trail blazing one. Never before had a lady flown a plane into the middle of nowhere, on purpose. This lady was Amelia Earhart and her seasoned navigator Fred Noonan. They were a crack team and were sure of their coming round the world flight record. Earhart held many other world records, she was the best.  A few more miles had to be covered and then it was over. History would be made. Little did Amelia realize in 1937, it would be a different type of history that she would be remembered for.

 

   Overhead the young boy saw a twin engine silver aeroplane doing stunts in the sky at an airshow. Tony had to shield his gaze when the sun caught its shiny metal wings. The plane looped, rolled, stalled, turned and arced about the blue like a kid’s toy; it was almost impossible for an old antique twin engine plane to do this. A voice over the tannoy announced the type, top speed and history. Half of the information being lost by the snarl of aero engines when the plane came close to the crowd line and pulled up steeply. One name was mentioned by the announcer – Amelia Earhart. And how she owned a similar aeroplane and vanished fifty plus years ago.

 

A chill ran up young Tony’s spine. Who was that again? Emily Hart? How could someone vanish in such a speedy plane and weren’t women banned from flying them? His thought’s were interrupted when the twin engine plane did a last turn and flew off, finishing his display. Tony looked towards his father and said he wanted an ice cream. All thoughts of a silver antique plane and a woman named Amelia were gone, for now.

 

   Now the boy was a man named Tony. He had been dreaming but was now awake. A new day was here and he wanted to enjoy it. Being aware it could be his last day on earth, Tony wanted to enjoy each hour his Pagan Goddess gave him. If the spell back fired he had done earlier...

***

   In the barren beautiful waste of the Pacific Ocean a discovery was made. A corroded wing was recovered from three and a half miles of sea water, at the limits of human technology and great cost and effort. A mystery was solved, the bit of scrap metal belonged to an airplane which had been missing seventy plus years. When it was safely hauled onto the deck of the salvage/research vessel and secured in place with ropes, a team of experts and researchers quickly went to work. They removed coral and marine growths to find the serial number on the single rusty engine. After many hours of painstaking work one of them yelled, “Hey! Hey, I’ve found the serial number!”

 

   “Can you read it, is it legible? Can you read it?” shouted an aviation researcher, clad only in shorts and white t-shirt.

 

   “Look, you see it? It’s clear enough to read. I think we have a match. We just found the wing of Ameila Earhart’s lost airplane,” answered his companion with excitement on his face.

 

   “Okay we got the wing. Now we got to find the rest of the damn plane and the crew.”

 

   “Yes we do. We have to rinse away all the salt water and immerse the wing in the tank of preservative chemicals to stop it corroding anymore. When we get back to dry land we can minutely inspect if for any clues to why she disappeared. Let’s get on with it. Then we have to look for the rest of the missing plane.”

 

   The port (left) wing from the lost aeroplane was fifteen foot long. In places the metal covering had corroded through revealing the internal structure, almost like the insides of a human being. The aileron was missing and the wing tip was bent upwards; the single engine hung down at an angle from impact with the ocean. The propeller and engine cover had vanished and the wheel was still in place, after decades in salt water. What state would the rest of the plane be in? Would the skeletons of the crew be trapped inside?

***

   Tony ignored the droning TV set, more crap spouted by politicians on how they would win the failing war in Afghanistan, how the five year recession could now be a ten year one and more rubbish. He was about to swap channels when a news flash came up, something to do with an old plane being found in the ocean. When the name Amelia Earhart came up, Tony froze and stared at the twenty year old television. They had found her! He knew his spell would work. Tony sat down and watched the broadcaster say more details.

***

   She had been here for years, not that she knew where here was. She guessed it was somewhere in-between here and there, the real world and death. Hidden noises and blurry images filled her head, disorientating her. Questions came to her: Why am I not in my airplane with Noonan? We should have landed now. How come I can’t see, are we in fog from the ocean or flying in a cloud?

 

   Then it dawned on Amelia what had happened. The awful truth of their predicament and how she would never see her dear husband and her loved ones again; her soul cried out in torment and she attempted to scream but couldn’t. It was always like this she knew now, each and every time. What do they want of me? Why did they take me? I tried to fly away and manoeuvre my small plane but they stole us from the sky. I know they’re aliens!

***

   In the cockpit of the Typhoon fighter the pilot pushed his throttles into full afterburner to chase the unidentified contact that had been in English airspace for half an hour. He was on alert duties and was ordered to scramble to intercept the intruder. Climbing his speedy agile jet fighter on a tail of fire, he saw the aircraft ahead, through a thin layer of cloud. It almost looked like the cloud was coming from the plane. He wondered, Is it damaged? I see it now. That’s no plane!

 

   “Red One to Control. Come in, over. I see the intruder, I am closing on it now for interception,” spoke the pilot, barely able to think clearly. How was this possible?

 

   “We read you Red One. What type of intruder is it? We have you both on radar,” replied Radar Control.

 

   “Ah, you’re not going to believe this Control. It’s not a plane. I don’t know what it is! I think it’s a U.F.O!” shouted Red One.

 

   “Say again Red One.”

 

   “A U.F.O Control! It’s moving away from me now, I can’t keep up. My fuel will soon be gone. Permission to open fire?”

 

   “Okay Red One, permission to open fire upon the intruder. Stay safe. Control out.”

 

   “Roger that. Opening fire now. Fox Two!” screamed the pilot, his fingers working his weapon options on his throttle. In less than two seconds he fired a single ASRAAM (Advanced Short Range Air to Air Missile). The intruder was three miles ahead and widening the distance, passing through seventy thousand feet altitude. Up here the sky was permanently dark blue, almost purple, with the curve of the earth far below. Closing his throttles, the Typhoon pilot reduced speed and turned away, diving to earth away from the Unidentified Flying Object in case it fired upon him.

 

   His ASRAAM weapon flew upwards at two thousand miles per hour and hit the U.F.O. A purple mist enveloped the flying disc after the initial yellow missile blast. The object slowed lost altitude and trajectory. Fatally damaged it wouldn’t make escape velocity to leave earth’s atmosphere. Alien technology compromised, now wobbling and tumbling, all control was lost. Falling through the dark blue clear sky, the disc was doomed. For long seconds it fell, end over end, until a huge silent explosion rent the heavens and only falling debris remained. It exploded at fifty five thousand feel. The Royal Air Force Eurofighter Typhoon had a kill. Would it start war of the worlds?

***

   Tony had long since turned off the television. He felt quite odd that a wing from an old lost plane had been found, believed to belong to Amelia and her missing navigator, and that only the previous night he’d done his spell on her. Was this some warped coincidence or was his magic working? Being a trained witch, he knew the answer.

 

   It was then he saw a bright flash through his window, in the sky. What the fuck is that? A firework?  Tony mused. He walked over and moved the net curtain aside and peered up into the autumn sky but saw nothing. Must be seeing things coz I’m tired, really should get more sleep. Doing a strong coffee, he sat down to read for a bit.

***

   Amelia was suddenly jerked awake, not a dream but really awake! She tried to open her eyes, something stopped them opening, like a person’s hand. She sensed movement now, strange and sickening movement, almost like being on a fairground ride. Gagging on the tube in her mouth, she struggled to breathe and fought panic when she felt cold liquid sloshing around her. Where am I? What the bloody hell is this? Suddenly a huge noise and yellow blast filled her entire being, took over her life and became her. Then she felt huge forces pummelling her body and felt she was falling with increasing speed. It was now she was able to open her eyes, for the first time in seventy four years. Her vision was blurry but she saw the dark purple blue sky. Amelia smiled before passing out due to oxygen starvation. Slowly she fell ten miles towards the earth. Around her the disintegrating flying saucer smouldered and fell, leaving tendrils of smoke which drifted in the jet stream. I wish I had my airplane and Noonan was with me and we could finish our round the world flight, were her last conscious thoughts.

***

   A huge thud jerked Tony awake from his slumber. He’d fallen asleep while reading a book on gangsters. The coffee hadn’t kept him awake. What the hell was that? Someone trying to break in? Getting up, he ran to the back door and struggled with the old key. Come on you piece of crap, open!

 

   Throwing the door open, he stepped outside, his left fist raised and ready for trouble. Slowly he walked and expected to see an intruder ready to jump him. What he saw was a naked woman lying in his overgrown hedge. He struggled to put thoughts to what his eyes saw. This wasn’t normal, a naked woman on his hedge! She looked ill, her skin was blue. Was she dead? He walked over to her and touched her; she was icy cold and very dead.

 

   He struggled to lift her from the hedge, she was quite heavy and her coldness numbed him to the bone. Long branches and leaves impeded his progress. After ten minutes of struggling, he got her inside and awkwardly put her on the old sofa. Tony covered her with two blankets and tried to revive her. Her hair was icy and stuck to her skill like a death shroud, he felt for a pulse and found nothing. Then he remembered back in time, when the Nazi’s experimented on people doing awful experiments on those condemned to death. One experiment he read about was placing a naked person in a very cold room and taking the air out. The Nazi’s found the best way to revive them was by the warmth of another human being, naked and in bed. Then the experiment was started all over again. This awful knowledge helped in high altitude flight research for pilot safety.

 

   Quickly taking his off t-shirt and lying next to the corpse he covered both of them with the blankets. It felt strange being next to a dead person. Her cold took away his body heat. Would it help her come round if she wasn’t already dead? Why was she like this, naked and frozen? Had she been kidnapped and kept in a freezer? But why dump her body here? Tony felt stupid and embarrassed, in his own home, doing this. After half an hour she came to! Tony got the fright of his life; it was like Frankenstein’s bride! Yet there were signs of life.

 

   She choked and struggled to breathe her first breath of normal air for seven decades. She felt cold and disorientated. There was something else; the presence of another person, not an alien. Where am I? Amelia opened her eyes and saw Tony looking at her, his gaze unflinching, felt his naked skin next to her own. He had saved her life! She knew she’d have been in shock, frozen to the bone in a coma and dying, if he’d have not been there to help her. With huge difficulty Amelia whispered, “I’m Amelia.”

 

   “I know. I’m Tony,” replied Tony, equally quiet. He embraced Amelia and delicately held her. “You’re safe now. No harm will come to you.”

 

   It was only later that he worked out what had happened to Amelia. He waited patiently for her to come round after resting, to fill in the gaps. This was a uniquely surreal situation for him. It was one thing to be an aviation historian spending his time reading and researching past historical events, very much another to have an alleged real aviatrix here in his front room of his council flat. She needed rest so her body could gain its strength. Noticing her breathing was regular and shallow, meaning she was asleep, Tony relaxed. He kept her close in his warm safe  embrace, looking at her blondish hair which was matted and messy with some kind of dried liquid that smelt faintly of marzipan. What is that dried liquid? It wasn’t something she was kept in, keeping her alive and frozen in time, like from out of the X-Files? Or like Star Trek when the ship was lost in space, coming across an old truck and airplane, finding Amelia Earhart who had been abducted by aliens.

***

   The RAF Typhoon fighter jet that had chased and shot down the U.F.O. landed safely back at base. De-brief began straight away, many questions were asked on what the pilot saw and what happened high in English skies. Radar tapes were studied and video footage from the missile launch from the plane was analyzed. It didn’t take long for the answer to be provided – this was no man made aeroplane that was brought down. Small bits of metal were brought in to for study; this would take longer. Calls were made to America to the CIA and United States Air Force to assist in the enquiry. Were alien ships really invading our airspace?

 

   Back in 1945 in the dying days of World War2, many sightings of strange lights, airborne phenomena and strange flying machines had occurred, some were chased but none were properly filmed, shot down or captured. Nor were those who piloted and controlled them apprehended. Now some of the strange questions were slowly being answered. Luckily no one knew the truth about Amelia being abducted in mid-air over the distant Pacific in 1937, not yet. Her silver airplane, minus its left wing, was aboard the strange craft when it was shot down. Amelia’s airplane had been torn into thousands of pieces by the explosion and long fall to earth. Her navigator, Noonan, simply disappeared.

***

   On the huge research vessel that was now steaming back to North America, having abandoned further attempts to locate the rest of Amelia’s lost plane, work was under way cleaning the single damaged wing. Beyond doubt it was hers; the serial number matched that of her plane. Questions mounted up without answers: why did she crash, where was the rest of her plane and more importantly, where was Amelia and her navigator? Lost at sea?

The wing was priceless and would be minutely examined in a lab with state of the art facilities, the engine would be stripped down for clues. If the answers were here, hidden, they would be found.

***

   Amelia dreamt of her last flight, of how they had flown through turbulent free clear blue skies. They had been due to touch down on a small island to refuel and take on supplies but they never made it. Something terrible happened stopping them from ever finishing their round the world record braking flight.

 

   A sudden buffeting shook their aeroplane, not turbulence, like the wash from a closely passing plane. Suddenly the engines began to run rough and backfire, finally stopping dead. A huge shadow materialized over and above them. In desperation to avoid a mid-air collision, Amelia shoved her control stick downwards, plunging them in a steep dive away from whatever was above them. It was no use! The object followed them and stole them from the sky. No trace of the twin engine silver Lockheed airplane was ever found or of its two crew members, despite a huge search effort. They disappeared into nowhere and so began a huge aviation mystery that lasted for over seventy years, until a single wing and engine were found. More mysteries were presented than solved. This would be the case till the remainder of the wreck was dragged up from the seabed on a new expedition.                                                          ***                                                                                                                                                     

   Tony had dropped off to sleep; he was woken up by screams. At first he didn’t know where he was, when he saw the young woman in his arms, he remembered. Amelia Earhart had ended up in his garden! She was screaming incoherently and her body shook. He did his best to console her. “It’s okay Amelia, you’re safe. I’m here. Shh, tell me what the matter is,” he soothed.                                                                                                                     

 

   “Aliens! Aliens. I was abducted by aliens!” she cried, a single tear slowly flowing down her cheek.                                                                                                        

 

   “God in Heaven! Aliens? How an earth? How come you ended up here, now with me?” gasped Tony, wide eyed and awake.                                                                                   

 

   “I don’t know. Each time, my nightmare is the same. I see blurry grey faces with big black soulless eyes starring at me, placing me on a table and being unable to move. All I could do was scream. Endlessly I screamed. Then they examined me and put me in some kind of thing with liquid in it. I couldn’t see or breath properly, it was like a big spider covered my face,” Amelia explained, sobbing now.                                                                                                

 

   Tony held her close and stroked her hair tenderly. “Were you flying along and they took you? It sounds an awful experience you had.”                                                       

 

   “I’m not sure. I don’t remember fully, just bits of it. It’s not very clear. Yes, I think we were flying and something happened, the engines stopped but we didn’t crash. Something took us in mid flight.”                                                          

 

   “That sounds like aliens to me, that you were abducted by them while you flew along. I’ve heard some stories before like that but I never believed them, I guess I needed real evidence. Now I do, there’s no other way you could have got from 1937 to 2011. No other way.” Tony had never said that to anyone before, in case they called him a nut.                                                                   

 

   “What did you say? What year is it?” gasped Amelia, wiping away her tears from her fearful grey eyes.                                                                                         

 

   “It’s... it’s 2011. You’re in 2011. I think you disappeared in 1937. Before the Second World War.”                                                                                                

 

   “2011? That’s over seventy years since they took me. The bastards!” Her expression was grim, for the first time she realized all her friends, family and her husband were dead. And what was that about a war?                                                        

 

   “Yes, seventy four years to be exact,” Tony said, nearly a human life time.                 

 

   “What was that you said about a war? A war with who?” queried the pilot, now getting used to her glitch in time.                                                                                 

 

   “Of course you won’t know. There was a huge war; it engulfed the entire world killing millions of people. Hitler started it by invading Poland and the rest of the world was swept along like dominoes.”

   “Was America involved?” frowned Amelia. She knew the answer was yes.                              

 

   “Yes it was,” confirmed her new friend. “Not at first but when Japan hit Pearl Harbour they were. I can’t believe you missed that!”                                                   

 

   “Me neither. I must have been on board whatever it was that took me, all this time.” She felt her face slowly, brushing aside her tears. I must be well over a hundred and ten now but I feel the same as before. How is that possible?                        

 

   Tony guessed her thoughts, “I have a theory. It goes like this: say you were flying along in your aeroplane and some kind of alien ship saw your plane and they abducted you as you flew along. If that ship then left the earth, our planet, to head into space to wherever it came from, then you may not have aged much. But you’d have to be flying close to or faster than the speed of light for that to be possible. I read somewhere that a person wouldn’t age much, if they flew that fast, light speed. I don’t know much about this, I’m not sure anyone does but it’s the best I can do. And earlier, I saw a flash up in the sky. I thought it was a firework going off. But what if it wasn’t, what if it was the ship you were on exploding or crashing or being shot down? And you fell free and lived by a miracle? I guess it’s possible.”                                                                

 

   “I don’t know. That sounds crazy, aliens, spaceships, going into space and not aging. But what other explanation is there?” pondered Amelia, placing her hand on Tony’s. She smiled shyly. “Thanks for saving my life.”                               

 

   “It’s okay, you’d have done the same for me,” he replied, kissing her on the lips once. He noticed she didn’t pull back. She had nice lips and was very pretty.                                                                                                                         

 

   “But where’s my navigator, Noonan? Last time I saw him, he was in my plane when we were over the ocean,” asked Amelia, sad again.                                             

 

   “I’m not sure. Really, I don’t know,” Tony replied, honesty breaking in his voice. “Listen, the other day, something happened. They found the wing of your lost plane in the sea. It was on the news. There was no mention of finding the rest of the plane or you or your navigator though.”                                                     

 

   “In the sea? The Pacific? Is this true?”                                                                            

 

   “Yes, it would be the Pacific, I don’t know what part. They said they’d look at all possibilities and reasons why you were lost and look again for your plane when they could. I’m sorry for the loss of your navigator, also for the others you loved. You went missing so long ago,” whispered Tony, now sad himself. It was a heavy subject. He looked away.                                                                          

 

   “It’s okay. There’s nothing you could have done, really. Nothing anyone could have done. Thank you for saving me,” Amelia confessed, silently crying.

 

   “There must have been a collision or something for the wing to come off my plane while I ended up in the spaceship.” She gently touched his face, so he faced her. She saw he was weeping, grief stricken and lost.                                          

 

   “It’s my fault, all of this,” he whimpered, like a child.                                                      

 

   “Don’t talk silly, how can it be your fault?” she almost laughed. She made a strange sound, crying some more.                                                                                

 

   “Because I’m a witch. I did a spell to find you. I did a magic ritual the other day!” he confessed in a whisper.                                                                                   

 

   “A magic spell?” Amelia asked.                                                                                      

 

   “Yes, a spell,” Tony confirmed.                                                                                

 

   “Well... it looks like it worked, somehow. It’s okay.” Amelia took a few minutes to think about all of this. This was her new reality, there was no way back to 1937. She sighed and said, “You did your spell and now it can’t be undone.  I believe in fate, don’t cry my love. Its okay, I’m here now. We’re together and never will be apart, not ever. Fate brought us together; your spell worked and released me from that alien ship that was my prison. Now I have a new friend called Tony. I owe you my life.”                                                                                           

 

   “I know,” he said, nearly inaudible. He was beyond words. Tony’s face met hers, they kissed, their tears joining, becoming one just as they became one. Amelia and Tony. Now they were together, the circle of fate was complete. She wasn’t just a girl...                                                                                            

 

   Dedicated to my heroine and to those who dare to seek the truth in the search for Amelia Earhart and Noonan. Visit www.tighar.org Earhart Project. Will her lost airplane be found in the sea off Niku Atoll in July 2012? We all need to believe in fairytales.