I took my time, carefully disassembling each and every part of the old motorcycle, cleaning them and examining each part as I went. I even sawed the frame into pieces so I could inspect the hollows inside. And after 3 days I found myself staring at boxes of old motorcycle parts and nothing more. I decided to stoke up the coals in the campfire and cook myself something for Christmas Eve dinner and wishing I was back home at Momma's where my brothers and their families would be gathering for Chocolate Gravy, Egg Butter and other secret family recipes served only one day a year.
"Hello in camp," a voice behind me shouted in the distance. It was BR Newman. "I see it ain't blowed you up yet."
"Nope, far as I can tell, ain't nothin' in it that could blow up."
"Wooley called me to check on you and when Dari found out you were up on the mountain she baked up a batch of fresh Christmas cup cakes for me to carry up here to you."
"Well you tell Dari I said you risked life and limb to bring me those cup cakes and I appreciate every single bite."
The first time I had met BR was many years before on a mountain just a few miles north of where I was camped. Seems Drew, myself and others were camping at the foot of that mountain when BR's homemade airplane sputtered, coughed and stalled before crashing into the mountain above where we were camped. It would be hours later before we found him and got him down off the mountain to a road wide enough for the ambulance to fit. Believe it or not, BR went on to build more homemade airplanes-- he just learned to make them better so they didn't stall and crash into mountains. A few years later he swept Dari,herself a budding young artist and writer, off her feet and married her. Or maybe it was the other way around.
"You mean there's nothing hidden inside that motorcycle?" BR asked.
"Not that I can see. Not unless it's cast in the metal itself."
"Well I tell you what," BR said. Why don't we ride on over to the plant and carry all the parts into the lab? Won't nobody be there on Christmas Eve except a couple of security guards and they're both friends of mine so they won't be no problem. If there's anything cast inside those parts we'll find them."
You see, BR worked for Volvo Trucks at their nearby New River Valley plant, in nearby Dublin Virginia, a state of the art manufacturing facility with everything we needed to look inside of every part for anything out of the ordinary. "Are you sure I'll not get you in any trouble?" I asked.
"All the big wheels are home in Sweden for the holidays," BR laughed. "Won't be nobody there but us hillbillies. And then you can be home in time for your momma's chocolate gravy tomorrow morning."
Well, being you put it that way..."
I admit to being quite nervous as I drove up to the gate at the Volvo truck plant but as soon as the security guard recognized BR setting in the passenger seat he opened to gate and waved us through. An hour after having left camp we were unloading parts and running them through X-ray machines, magnetic particle inspection, (Magniflux) ultrasonic testing, penetrant inspection, checking for radiation and a whole bunch of other tests I had never before heard of.
Continue to Puzzles.
