Chapter 3 

	The sunlight reflected glaringly off the beach sand. 
The trio enjoyed their regular Sunday morning stroll.  They
thought of it as their beach because they had searched for it 
and found it. They wanted to find a beach where visits by other 
people would not spoil its natural beauty. 
	They walked north, Helen in the middle, Joe on her right, 
nearer the ocean, and Bob on her left. "Look at those seagulls 
wading in the surf. How cute they are!" Her voice showed her 
amusement. 
	The trio continued to walk as they talked while enjoying 
the ocean breeze. Suddenly, she turned, walked up the steep 
sandy hill a short distance, and stood still in the loose dry 
sand. 
	Both Joe and Bob stopped walking immediately. While 
waiting, Bob entertained himself by looking in all directions, 
never resting his eyes more than a few moments in any direction. 
Joe chose to turn towards Helen. He admired her beauty, and took 
a moment to just stare. Helen had straight light brown hair 
that came down to her waist, blue-gray eyes, nicely shaped 
ears, and a very cute nose. He especially admired the way her 
zest for life beamed out from her. 
	Finally Joe found his voice. "What is it? Why did you 
stop?" 
	She gave him a blank look. "I'm just trying to figure 
something out." Then on impulse, she kicked the sand, and a coin 
flew out, making a soft plop sound as it landed by Joe's feet. 
	"Wow". Joe bent over and scooped up the coin. "How did you 
know about the coin?" 
	She stared at her friends. "I didn't." 
	"Co-incidences like this happen all the time. There's no 
way she could have known about the coin." Bob felt very sure.
	Because he had been looking in all directions, Bob 
noticed the approaching beach-walkers first. "Looks like we've 
got company". 
	Joe turned and looked in the direction Bob faced. He 
laughed. "Hey, it looks like our kind of people. They like 
lonely beaches also. I wonder how they found our beach? Helen, 
Are there any valuable coins in their path?" 
	As Helen followed Bob's gaze she remembered how Bob had 
found their beach. Bob had acquired coastal maps from the 
national oceanographic institute and they had all spent several 
hours scanning the map of the coastline. Finally, Bob found this 
one spot that had not yet been developed and might never be 
developed. Ever since, they had walked here each Sunday morning. 
	Next, she considered Joe's last question. She knew Joe 
liked to tease her, and wondered how she should respond. 
Suddenly she had a clear vision of the people walking in the 
distance. 
	Her voice took on an odd, far-away quality. "A man and 
a woman . . . we don't know them . . . The man has red-orange 
hair and is smoking a cigarette and also wearing a nicotine 
patch . . . He's wearing white shorts and . . . an extra large 
light green t-shirt . . . with Maxwell's physics equations on 
it . . . She has short blond hair and is wearing flower 
patterned . . . matching skimpy bikini bottom and top." 
	Bob and Joe looked at each other, then at her. "All that 
and no really valuable coins?" Joe joked uneasily. 
	Helen looked confused. "Huh? I'm not joking. I can see 
them clearly." 
	Joe and Bob exchanged glances again. Bob looked 
troubled. "Helen, are you claiming to have super vision now? 
It's not like you to tease us like this." 
	Joe clapped his hands. "Just goes to prove how super 
Helen really is." Joe's grin turned into a frown as he thought 
of another possibility. "Helen, could that electric spark that 
hit you last night have made you farsighted?" 
	"Of course not. I didn't think they were that far away. 
However, I did have a strange dream about Sparky last night." 
	Joe merely looked puzzled, while Bob spoke it. "Who is 
Sparky?" 
	"I dreamed I talked to the electric spark 
that knocked me out yesterday. I named it Sparky." 
	Bob grinned. "Now I get it. I bet the spark said it gave 
you super powers. Will you show us a new super power every day 
from now on?" 
	At that instant, she felt Sparky speak silently to her. 
"Since we became one person, you are as a goddess." 
	Helen shivered. "What an idea! I thought you didn't 
read fantasy. What made you think of it?" 
	Well . . . You do sometimes dream about 
flying.  Also, I knew you were very concerned about your friend 
Melody up there on the moon, and the spark giving you super 
powers would be a wish fulfillment dream that you could rescue 
her." 
	She shrugged. "I don't have wish fulfillment dreams. 
Freud's dream theory is just another Freudian mistake." 
	"Helen!" Joe exclaimed, "You made a pun!" 
	She laughed. "I made it by accident." She pointed to 
the approaching beach walkers. "Anyway, let's move upwind of 
those folks so the cigarette smoke won't harm us." 
	Bob ran his hand through his dark hair, and shrugged his 
shoulders. "The wind's coming from the ocean. We'll have a good 
excuse to go swimming and wait until they reach us. Then we'll 
see if you are just making this up." 
	Helen immediately began to wade out into the waves up to 
her waist. Bob and Joe followed her. 
	As the two beach strollers came alongside them, Bob 
confirmed her unlikely description. "Gee Helen, even with the 
recent merger of the tobacco companies into United Tobacco 
Company, only 2 percent of the population are actually smokers. 
And those Maxwell equations! What did you see to guess that? I 
didn't even know you knew any physics." 
	Bob paused briefly "You don't know any physics! The 
only explanation that makes sense is that you knew these people 
in advance. You planned this with them! You told them how to get 
to our beach. Isn't that it?" 
	Joe corrected Bob. "I don't think she would do that. It's 
less likely than her guessing everything right. 
	Helen didn't hear their comments because she had focused 
intently on the couple walking by. "Doesn't he know it's against 
the law for people to smoke on the beach? I wish he would put 
that cigarette out." 
	As she spoke, a huge wave formed immediately in front 
of her. The wave reached chest level on Bob and Joe as it sped 
to the beach. The strolling couple turned their heads toward 
the ocean just as the wave reached them and doused them. 
	"Wow!" Joe said, unable to think of anything else to say. 
	"Well, you got your wish, Helen," Bob laughed. "That 
cigarette is definitely out now." 
	All three friends rushed through the receding waters to 
the beach to see what help the soaked couple would need. As she 
easily passed the other two, Helen briefly wondered why they 
struggled so hard to wade through the water. 
	She reached the couple first. She observed the man 
lying on his back, with his eyes closed, and the woman kneeling 
by his side, with her hands covering her face. 
	As Joe and Bob came up behind her, Helen spoke to the 
kneeling woman. "Are you okay?" 
	The man opened his eyes. He moved his left hand forward 
as if to push them away. Then seeing their response, he frowned.
 "Thanks. I appreciate your stopping. I tried to stop 
a tidal wave. I may have broken my wrist again." 
	Helen desired to help. "Can we get you to a hospital?" 
	The woman uncovered her face and smiled at them 
wonderingly when Helen first spoke.  "Would you do that for us?" 
	Bob answered for everyone. "Of course. We'll be glad to. 
We can all fit in my car. By the way, my name is Bob and my two 
friends here are Helen and Joe." 
	Joe smiled and extended his hand toward the kneeling 
woman. "Provided you tell us how you found our beach." 
	The woman grasped his hand, and pulled herself up. As 
she gained her balance, she skillfully turned her grasp of his 
hand into a handshake. "Thank you. You are angels to do this for 
us. I'm Angela, and this is my husband Victor. He got the map 
and directions to this beach from one of his friends." 
	Bob glanced toward Helen. Did she mean Helen? "Who is 
his friend?" 
	Angela looked sharply at Bob. "Why would you want to 
know? You don't know him." 
	Bob nodded his head. "Right. Apologies. Now you know 
that I'm no angel. But you definitely are. Is Angela your 
original name? Were you always a little angel to your mom?" 
	Angela shook her head. "No, I wasn't." Then she smiled.
"I'm pretty sure she never thought of me as her angel. And, yes, 
Angela is my birth name." 
	Angela continued. "My mom believed God put at least one 
angel to live in every community." 
	Bob looked puzzled. "Then did she name you 'Angela' in 
honor of the local angel?" 
	Angela grinned. "Not exactly. She hoped that, because of 
my name, the local angel would pay special attention to me." 
	Meanwhile, Joe extended his right hand to Victor to help 
him get up. Victor extended his left hand and Joe awkwardly 
helped him to a standing position. "I'm glad you changed your 
mind and let us help you." 
	Victor's face showed his surprise at Joe's words. Then 
he laughed. "Oh no, you misunderstood. When I signed that I 
tried to push away the water, you thought I meant to push you 
away. No, no. I never intended that." 
	Joe smiled. He stared at Victor's bright red-orange 
hair."I've never seen anyone before with your color hair. Did 
you eat so many carrots that the color went to your head?" 
	Victor grinned at Joe's question, but didn't say anything. 
But Angela did. "Joe! If you insult my husband that way again, 
I won't want to have anything to do with you." 
	Immediately Helen reached out to Angela and softly 
touched her shoulder. "Angela, I'm sure Joe meant well. When you 
get to know him better you'll realize that." 
	Joe replied, "Gee, Angela, I didn't mean to upset you. I 
sincerely hope you give me at least a second chance." Joe smiled. 
	Angela looked at Joe. His teasing smile puzzled her. He 
seemed sincere, but also seemed to be making fun of her. Did she 
misinterpret his intent? 
	Angela shook her head and spoke to the trio. "It's ok. 
And I'm so glad you stopped to help us. We might have been stuck
here all night with out your help."
	"Why would you have been stuck?" Bob's voice carried his
puzzlement.
	"I can't drive. I didn't know what to do." 
	Bob expressed his surprise. "Why not?"  Then he fell 
silent as Joe kicked him softly in the shin and raised a finger
to his lips.

	Angela stared at Bob. "I don't want to talk about it 
now. Let's go." 
	As they walked, Helen talked with Angela. "We're 
musicians. Our band is called "Vocal Strings", but we are 
thinking of changing it again. I'm just waiting until I hear a 
better name. I'm their singer, and Bob and Joe play guitar and 
fiddle." 
	Angela smiled as she replied, "I'm an accountant at the 
university union store. Actually I'm part of the accountant team 
there. I mainly keep track of inventory and re-order when things 
get low." She glanced sideways at Helen.  "What do you do?"
	"We're full time students!" Then she realized that 
Angela just wanted a sense of understanding who they were.
	"I'll tell you what our parents do.  My mom 
teaches music at a nearby elementary school.  My dad builds 
music instruments from scratch for the music department at the 
university.  Bob's dad is the famous Robert Mercury in the
math department.  His mom heads the Chemistry department.  Joe's
dad invites himself along to every big university conference
to take pictures of the guests, and survives by selling them
their personal photos.  His mom supplements their meager income
by free lance consulting through the home ecomomics department." 
	"I sometimes drive Bob's car.  I can help you get 
used to driving.  Would you like that?"  She felt the need to 
do Angela and Victor a favor. Irrationally, she couldn't help 
feeling as if she had caused their problems. 
	Angela's face showed her doubt.  After a few seconds she
spoke.  "Give me your telephone code and I'll call you when we 
can get together." 
	As Bob started his car, the car radio came on. "Grayjay 
is still stranded. So far we have no confirmation as to why. 
We only have hints that the fuel tanks were damaged. Tune in 
the 6:00 news report for more." Victor leaned back, carefully 
resting his injured wrist against his stomach. "It's too bad 
about those astronauts. I'm guessing rocks from space punctured 
some of their fuel tanks either before or after they landed on 
the moon. It looks like they are truly stranded on the moon." 
	"Not good! Do they have extra fuel available?" Helen 
showed her worry. 
	"I don't know. Even if they did, they would have to fix 
the leak in their empty tanks before refueling them." 
	Joe expressed his hope. "Perhaps we have a spare rocket 
ready to rescue them." 
	Bob chimed in. "Joe, I think it's only in fiction that 
there are spare rescue rockets. This is only the 21st century. 
Safety concerns still make the rockets so costly that they can't 
have more than one at a time." 
	When they arrived at the hospital, Bob pulled the car 
up to the front door of the emergency room. "Victor, you and 
Angela go on in. We'll find a parking place." 
	Helen spotted a possible parking space, and a problem. 
The car in the adjacent space straddled the line taking up too 
much of the parking space they wanted. 
	Then she had a wild idea. "Hey Bob, I bet the three of 
us could move that car over a little bit." 
	Bob laughed. "Okay, if you say so. Do you have super 
strength now as well as super vision?" 
	Bob stopped his car just short of the two spaces. Then 
led by Helen, the three of them stood, with bent knees, under 
the back bumper of the other car, with Helen in the middle. 
"Now at the count of three,lift and shift to your right. One, 
two . . . three." 
	As Joe and Bob grunted, straining to lift the car, the 
car rose and slowly moved about 30 centimeters to the right. 
Bob and Joe looked at each other in astonishment. 
	Helen ran around to the front of the car. "Hey, come 
on you guys, don't stand there all day admiring your work. 
Come help me lift this end of the car."