by Tamara Bernardo
Weird things’d been happening on base for a while. I think the first big one was when Cooper picked up a call in the bay. He says the Cap told him Japan’d surrendered. Caused a big ruckus for a bit, ‘til the man himself came down and straightened us out. Didn’t make sense, though, for Cooper to make something like that up. He was the quiet type, good boy. Not big on lyin’. He swore he was tellin’ the truth. He didn’t tell anyone else, I think, but he mentioned to me later that the Cap’d thanked us for our part in the bombings. This was sometime in July.
Then Richard was out cleaning the engines one day and this little toy soldier falls out. No idea how the thing got in there. Had his initials on the bottom – he swore it was from his childhood set. He grew up in Cali, no way that thing got out there on accident. Thing is, the mailroom had no record of a package coming in for him or any of his friends. Started some ghost stories, let me tell you.
Sometimes Duzenbury would show up dazed and ask us how he got wherever he was. We thought he was a drunk, mostly, ‘till he tripped off one of the maintenance catwalks and just kinda skipped about ten feet. He didn’t get hurt bad, just a couple ‘o bruises. Nobody could explain it so we let it go, but I think everyone was aware of it after that.
There were a few more, and these were just what I was around for. God knows what else happened when I wasn’t. The big one, for me at least, was the time I went into the hanger at night. I kept hearing this ‘bang, bang, bang’ and I went to check it out. When I got there, I saw this guy; he was tearing apart the bomber. I told him to stop and he just looked at me like I was a ghost or something. I asked what he thought he was doing, and he said part of the plane was going to be put on display. Then he asked me who I was. I turned around to get someone to help me get rid of him and there were suddenly people everywhere with flashing lights and weird clothes, all staring and pointing at the bomber. They weren’t really there, though—all see through like film or something. I high-tailed it out of the hanger. When I looked back in all the people were gone, the place looked like it always did.
I’ve got no explanation for what happened on that base. I don’t think any of us did. We didn’t really talk about it much during and there wasn’t any point in it after.
—Results inconclusive. Unexplained small traces of radiation found on ENOLA GAY prior to loading of LITTLE BOY. Unidentified seventh man photographed bears coincidental resemblance to Col. Ryan Heck, deceased. No action needed.
Spring 2015 