The project was really coming together
I'd actually gotten a little help from the eldest Mormon boy
When I had first met the family
I'd told a tiny white lie
That I was putting an airplane together
To attempt a low altitude speed record
And it hadn't sounded that far fetched
Even to me
The dad thought his boy should learn some mechanical skills
So I'd happily obliged and put him to work
We'd finished installing the new titanium bulkhead in the aircraft
Him on the inside
Me on the outside
Putting in fasteners
Things went so much better with a helping hand
Dog would go from the inside with the boy
To the outside with me
For a certain dog allotted time with each of us
It made me smile to see the boy and him getting on so well
Spending so many days together
I couldn't really hide that I wasn't well from him
When I dropped a tool he'd grab it for me
Once my legs decided not to work at all for no reason
He offered me a hand up
He didn't ask what was wrong
He didn't pry
He just asked if I was ok
I told him I was
That that's just how things were
My cross to bear so to speak
He understood that
The boy helped me put together a test stand for the rocket motors
We welded one up and anchored it to the only concrete pad on the property
I had to move my trailer off it's solid perch to do that
But it was worth it
I prepped all three motors and had them ready to go
We hid behind the truck with a fifty yard control cable leading to the stand
He was so excited to be there for that
His dad probably wouldn't have approved
I let him push the start button
Dog ran further away and hid under the trailer at the noise
It was marvelous how the old motors fired off
We let them go for ten seconds each
Smiling like crazy at each other
Sneaking peeks over the hood of the truck
At the awesome ground rumbling sight
I also finished up the aircraft systems
Just before I lost my helper from down the road
School was about to start
September had come sooner than I could have thought
The boy stood as ground crew for me
Giving me the thumbs up
I worked all the flight controls
Idled and ran the two stock engines until I was satisfied they'd work
Nothing overheated
Nothing flew apart and killed us
Ground tests were a success
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