Gloriana

General Morris continued, "One of those crazy storm chasers saw you coming down out of the sky and put it on live television. We had a medi-vac chopper there by the time you actually landed. You've been in a special ICU thawing out for the last two weeks. They just stopped the medically-induced coma."

A doctor stepped over into HH's view at the side of the bed. "They recovered the telemetry from your ejection seat," he said solemnly. "Your body did something absolutely unheard of. Somehow it brought itself out of the deep hypothermia for a few seconds on three different occasions. Just before each occurrence you were right on the edge of death. If it hadn't happened, you wouldn't have survived. But we can't explain what triggered it."

'I can,' thought Colonel Hammen,'but I'm not going to.'

"What's so funny?" asked General Morris.

"I'm just remembering some strange dreams I had on the way down," he answered. "It's funny what your mind does when you are dying."

"For now, you need to concentrate on building yourself back up," said the General. "There are a bunch of TV news shows that want an interview. We'll work out what you can say and what you can't. The news media knows you were testing a new fighter plane, but nothing about the slingshot program can go public at this time."

"And you have a huge pile of get well cards," said a female voice. HH turned to see a nurse holding a large pile of envelopes. "Hospital procedure in circumstances like this is that all cards are opened to insure that there is nothing improper or harmful to the patient."

She held up one of the envelopes and said, "There is one card that I'm not sure was intended for you. There's no return address, but it has your name on the envelope and again on the inside."

She shrugged her shoulders and handed him the envelope. " It's not really a get well card. I'm not sure what it is."

Inside the white envelope was a green card. On the front of the card was a rural scene of some sort with a full moon shining in a dark green sky over what appeared to be the silhouette of a house and barn. The moon was obviously a wheel of green cheese. Inside was a message written in green ink. It said simply, "Until we meet again, Colonel Hammen." At the bottom of the card it was signed, "Gloriana."

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END OF STORY

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