Age of Men Read online

group disbursed and then all the lights came on. Some of the passengers immediately woke up and shielded their eyes while they moaned.

  One of the flight attendant took the intercom and cleared her throat.

  “Ladies and gentlemen, this is the senior flight attendant.” She announced, “It seems there is a situation occurring. The pilots are unable to make radio contact with Sydney Airport. It also appears that we have somehow steered off course as Sydney is not visible from the cockpit.”

  A sea of gasps washed over the passengers and some got rowdy by asking questions like, what do you mean? How did this happen? What is happening? Are we going to crash?

  The flight attendant raised her hand and motioned for the passengers to calm down.

  “Our fuel supply is running low.” She continued, “We don’t have enough fuel to reroute to Auckland, and therefore I need everyone to prepare for an emergency water landing.”

  More gasps of horror rose up from the passengers. Somewhere a woman was crying and praying while another tried to calm down her crying baby.

  “I need everyone to stay calm.” The flight attendant said, “Please pay close attention as our crew demonstrate how to prepare for a water landing.”

  4

  Professor Jack White stood at the front of his lecture hall and smiled at the young faces that sat in front of him. He’d been a professor of Paranormal Phenomena and Folk Lore for the last six years and never got tired of seeing the young and interested faces that stared back at him every day. Paranormal Phenomena, Folk Lore and mysteries were his passion and also earned him nicknames under the students like Professor Spooky or Mr. X Files. He had been with the university for just over seven years and had recently entered his late-forties – the milestone most men feared, but he embraced with open arms as he’d reach most of his life goals before his internal clock struck 39.

  “Now.” Jack announced, “Our next subject is Frederick Valentich; he disappeared in 1968, the year I was born.”

  A few of the students chuckled at the remark, but most contained themselves.

  “I know that makes me ancient in your eyes,” Jack said, “and yes; I’ve heard all the jokes from ‘were you scared when they invented the train,’ but that’s beside the point. Anyway, Frederick Valentich was piloting a light aircraft in the direction of King’s Island off the coast of Australia, but never reached his destination. Neither his body nor his aircraft was ever found. The Australian government conducted an investigation into his disappearance, but the exact cause was never determined.”

  A student in the third row from the front raised her hand. Jack pointed at her and she stood up.

  “What do you think happened to him, professor?” she asked.

  “It’s all open to speculation.” Jack replied, “His last radio transmission was a bit incoherent, but Frederick managed to point out the fact that he thought he was being followed.”

  “Followed by whom?” Another student asked.

  “We’ll never know exactly.” Jack said, “Some say he was abducted by aliens – but that makes no sense. If aliens existed they would come to our planet for exploration. Take our own scientists for example; astronauts exploring Mars take samples like little rocks and stuff –they don’t take an entire boulder, so it’s safe to say that if Frederick Valentich was abducted by aliens that the aliens would’ve taken him alone and left the airplane – so it rules out the theory of aliens.”

  Jack took a sip from the bottled water that stood on his podium before continuing. He enjoyed giving lectures, but his throat started getting dry much quicker nowadays as age started sinking in. He knew his body wasn’t as young as his mind told him he was, but that never stopped him from doing or accomplishing anything.

  “Flannen Isles, 26 December 1900.” Jack continued with his lecture, “Yes, that’s the year I went to college.”

  A few of the students laughed and then, with a smile, he continued, “Joseph Moore, a relief Light House Keeper was on his way to the Light House of Flannen Isles to relief the three keepers for the rest of December. When he got there, the entrance to the lighthouse was locked, the beds were unmade and all the clocks had stopped at the same time; 14:08. The oil lamps were all recently filled and one was missing – suggesting that one of the missing keepers took it with him. Despite an extensive search, the three keepers were never found.”

  One of the popular boys in the front row smiled with confidence; he had it all figured out as it was not much of a mystery that needed cracking. Jack could tell from his arrogant smile that the jock that every girl wanted, had the wrong answer, but allowed him to speak.

  “This one is easily solvable.” The popular boy said, “Logic suggests that they were swept away by a freak wave or a storm.”

  Jack nodded approvingly and the boy smiled with pride; impressed with himself that he had the right answer. Now nobody could say he was just another pretty boy with no brain. It took him only a few seconds to crack one of Professor Spooky’s mysteries.

  “December of 1900 saw great sea storms in that area.” Jack said as he paced up and down, “When Joseph Moore and a search party returned they found the iron railings were bent over and the railing by the footpath was ripped from the concrete; suggesting that major waves did indeed slam into the lighthouse.”

  The jock gave his mate to the left a high five. It was the first time he cracked one of the professor’s mysteries and he was reveling in it.

  “But…” Jack paused a moment.

  Jack stared at the boy and could see that his pride was waning with the uttering of that one single word – ‘but’. It was one of the shortest words in the English language and had the biggest implication. ‘But’ can steer any situation right off a cliff.

  “The three light house keepers kept their log up until the day of their disappearance” Jack said, “and it clearly indicated in one of their entries that the storm hit a few days before their disappearance. The seas were calm on the day that they disappeared.”

  The jock’s smile faded completely. His buddy chuckled then calmed down when he received a stern look from his embarrassed friend.

  “And then the town of Ashley.” Jack continued, “Nobody’s really sure what happened, or whether such a town ever existed, but the mystery behind the town of 700 residents that simply disappeared without a trace in August of 1952 is fascinating. It’s said that the town was so small that it didn’t have its own police station, but instead relied on the police station of the neighboring town of Haysville. Over a period of eight days, the Haysville police station was inundated by frantic calls from Ashley residents about strange lights in the sky and the dead returning to life, but whenever the police went to investigate they were unable to locate the town.”

  Jack stepped in behind his podium, opened a file and started reading an old police report;

  “I, Alex Marcus, state the following under oath:

  I am an adult male aged 39 and am employed as a police officer stationed at Haysville Police station.

  On the evening of August 8th, 1952 I received a complaint from the neighbouring town of Ashley about an unidentified black object hovering above the property of Jonathan Gabriels (property address 45 Killan Street, Ashley). The complainant was rambling and incoherent – unable to give a clear description of what he witnessed.

  More complaints from nearby residents were received stating that they all witnessed the same thing – a growing black abyss hovering in the sky.

  At about 20h30 that evening I was dispatched to the town to investigate the claims of the unidentified black object, but was unable to reach the town of Ashley as I somehow got lost. I drove along route 214 which connects Haysville with Ashley and despite the road never curving or bending in any direction, I somehow ended up back in Haysville.

  Officer Andrews accompanied me on my second attempt to get to Ashley, but the road led us back to Haysville.”

  Jack could see from the perplexed faces before him that the strange tale of Ashley had
his students dumbfounded.

  “When the police were finally able to reach Ashley,” Jack said, “They found nothing except a fissure in the earth. The entire town along with its 700 residents and all its buildings had disappeared into thin air.”

  “Government experiment gone wrong.” Someone said from the back, “A bomb or something?”

  “Maybe.” Jack said, “That might explain why it’s so hard to find concrete evidence about this lost town, but what about the black hovering sphere that was reported to the police? It’s safe to say that since such technology doesn’t exist today, it didn’t exist back in the 1950s. You won’t easily find information about this town or its disappearance as it’s been covered up so thoroughly that it’s become an urban legend.”

  “What do you think happened to the town?” A girl to the middle asked.

  “It’s hard to say.” Jack responded, “There is little to no information when it comes to such cases, so the best I can do is theorize.”

  “And what’s your theory?”

  “Maybe the town never existed to begin with.” Jack said, “Maybe the town only existed as a mirror image from a parallel universe… who knows.”

  “Do you have a favourite disappearance?” A boy at the front of the class asked.

  “Do I have a favourite?” Jack asked amused, “That’s the first time anyone’s asked me that question… do I have a favourite disappearance…