The Tehachapi Weekend
The Tehachapi Weekend
by David White
Music by John Powell & Harry Gregson-Williams
Exec. Producer - Ponsonby Britt, O.B.E.
EPILOGUE:
One bright day, a month after that strange weekend, Gadget received a message with a return address for the Bascom Medical Laboratories. She retreated to her bedroom before opening it. She hadn’t wanted to ask this question, but she needed the answer, and now she had it. When a single tear fell on the paper, it not only signaled sadness, but punctuation.
The following morning, Gadget slipped out of the headquarters before anyone was awake. She wore her best suit, all in white, and drove away in a converted R/C racer. Questions now from her friends would call for answers she shouldn’t give, and wounded hearts.
Far up in the Hollywood Hills, she arrived at a small, Spanish style chapel. Rodents had built it two centuries before and it was still in use. She parked and left the car carrying a bouquet of red and white roses. Ahead, at the chapel door, stood Gary in a trim dark suit.
“I hope you haven’t waited too long,” she said.
“No. Not long at all,” Gary replied. He offered his arm, and she linked her arm closely. They walked together down the aisle to the altar, where they paused for a few moments. Then Gary led Gadget to a side door and they exited to a small churchyard and cemetery.
“Did the cover envelope work?” Gary asked.
“Yes. I often get mail from laboratories. No one noticed your message.”
Gary led Gadget to a grave marker with a name she didn’t recognize.
“This is where Stan Kellerman is buried,” Gary said.
“Thank you so much for telling me,” she said. “I hope you haven’t violated any confidences.”
“None that matter now,” he answered.
She knelt and placed the bouquet on the grave. “Is this what waits for you?” she said, the pain evident in her voice. “A funeral no one hears about? A grave with a name your friends don’t know? That they can’t even find?”
“Gordon and I can always find them. And don’t worry about missing the funeral. Stan would understand. We stood together like this at enough headstones. Sometimes... we had to go in the dark...” His voice trailed off, the memories too strong for words.
“You can’t want this, Gary,” Gadget said. “You can’t want to live your life in darkness.”
“Oh, you’re wrong, Gadget. It’s our enemies who are living in darkness. We... just stand in the shadows. The light is always close at hand for us. And there are worse things than shadows. There is always The Sin of the Dowd.”
“Sounds like Thomas Aquinas,” she said.
“It’s Star Trek,” he said. “The Dowd was a creature of fantastic, unlimited power. He fell in love with a human woman. When their colony was attacked by a race called the Husnak, the Dowd refused to fight back. His wife was killed in the battle, and in an instant of blinding pain and rage, he exterminated the Husnak, all fifty billion of them. Utter genocide.”
“That’s a terrible wrong,” Gadget said.
“But that’s not the sin,” Gary said, his voice filled with surprising passion. “The sin is that the Dowd had the power to stop them in time, and he did nothing.”
They stood silently then, each with their own thoughts.
“Gadget,” Gary said. “Every Memorial Day, Gordon and I make the rounds of the cemeteries. The Mouse Scouts put little flags on all the graves of those who served. There are a few they couldn’t know about, like Stan’s. We make sure they aren’t missed. Would you like to join us?”
“Thank you, Gary,” she said. “I’d be proud to be included. Memorial Day, if not before.”
“Before?”
“Gary, I have power, too. I don’t want that power to sit idle. I’ll read you your own business card. ‘When danger threatens, call on me.’”
“All right. You have a deal. Memorial Day, if not before.”
Gadget’s hand found Gary’s, and they turned and walked away, into
the shadows.
THE END
COPYRIGHTS AND DISCLAIMERS: Gadget, Chip, Dale, Monterey Jack, Zipper, Foxglove,
Lahwhinie, Professor Nimnul are © and TM The Walt Disney Company and are
not only used here without permission, they were grabbed by helicopter-borne
troops, dragged to a classified location and made to work for scale.
Batman © and TM DC Comics
StarTrek, The Dowd, The Husnak © and TM Paramount Pictures.
Thanks to the Black Bear Restaurant, Redding, CA, for the BLAST sandwich recipe.
All other characters, locations, equipment and situations are © 2000 David D. White, and may fall under the National Security Act of 1952. Permission to copy and re-distribute without charge is granted, provided the work is not altered, edited, or otherwise fiddled with.