Artifact 23: Raynor’s Unshakable Attraction

We return to 1947 where Raynor and his ranch hands find something very disturbing.

 

For those of you following “Artifact” recall that Raynor and his three Spanish-speaking ranch hands decided to investigate the aircraft crash site that happened to be on Raynor’s neighbor’s property. Out there at the site, Raynor knew right away that this crash site was not of an ordinary plane or a single plane.

As they investigated, Jose burned his hands on a strange piece of metal, but the worst sight would be found under a piece of wreckage. Raynor and Jesus lifted the piece to reveal a grisly severed arm.

 

All four men reacted in their own way to the sight of the horrific find, a severed arm wearing a glove and the remains of a jacket. Still holding the metal piece and arm off the ground, they peered beneath the twisted sheet of metal expecting to see blood, bones, and gore, but they saw only the dangling, gruesome severed arm. Nothing else indicated where the rest of the body might be.

            At first, Raynor reacted the same as the ranch hands, and that is, with horror and revulsion, but in the Army during the war, he had experienced physical human carnage where they had not. He quickly got a hold of himself.

            “Jesus,” Raynor said calmly. “Colocar metalico paerte agi.” He nodded off to the side. After setting the metal down as instructed, Jesus backed away from the metal and the gruesome amputated arm, but Raynor moved closer to the edge where the arm lay exposed from under the metal. He studied the partially exposed arm without touching it. Glancing about, the severed arm had been separated from a body, but scanning about, there was no body, and no other body parts in sight!

            “Espera hombres!” Raynor said trying to calm his men while recalling the carnage of the battlefield he had witnessed during the war. But the vast difference here was that there was no blood; not a drop, smear, or puddle on or near where the arm and hand had laid and there was no sign of an explosion which might have thrown the arm to where they found it.  

“Mida aqui, no sangre! No cuerpo partes, nada!” He tried to reassure his men but they weren’t having any of it and kept their distance.

Raynor kneeled down to examine the arm. Gingerly, he picked up the metal a little and grasped the fingers of the glove, but he paused when he heard gasps from the men. He eyed them sternly and proceeded with his action. Slipping the glove off, he touched the stiff fingers. Jesus gasped again. What? Rigamorgis has set in like this? He wondered, but the skin’s color and texture seemed entirely wrong. Then, touching the fingers again and looking closer he recognized why�"surprisingly, it was a mannequin!

            “Hombres, esta artificial persona!”  With his own calm and relief, he told the others pointing with one hand while lifting the arm up. He couldn’t tell if the men were relieved or not the way they stared wide-eyed. He motioned to Jesus to tip the metal over so he could see the whole arm. Raynor had to admit to himself, even though relieved it was a fake plastic arm and not a real human arm it was still a very horrendous spectacle.

            He bent over to examine the arm without touching it a second time. It had worn a green flight jacket apparently with the shoulder seam ripped with broken threads, hanging, draped and twisted over the broken metal shoulder socket. The glove was the type a pilot or flight crew would wear. The arm obviously was plastic or wood, Raynor couldn’t really tell by looking, but it was life-like flesh-colored and the shoulder attachment bolt was of course broken on one end though remained half-torn out of the arm socket. Other than being detached, the arm for the most part was in an undamaged condition.

 Again, Raynor stood and looked around but saw no other body parts or any metal pieces large enough to cover a mannequin’s body. Interestingly, he found the crumpled remains of the flight jacket nearby, but again, no additional body parts. He picked up the jacket, rolled it up, and set it aside. He thought a few moments in silence wondering if the Army, for some reason, had taken the body away. He stood and faced his men.

            “Martinez, tu y Jose veo de la rancho. Applicado la slavo en manos de Jose y pasado con fabric blanco en la caja veternario. Jesus, nosotros inspectar el fence.”  

They all went to their horses to carry out Raynor’s instructions but obviously, the two men didn’t want to leave the crash site because this was, beyond a doubt, the most exciting thing that ever happened to them or perhaps will ever happen to them in their entire lives. They loitered for several moments before Raynor gestured for them to get on their way.

            Martinez stood nearby ready to give Jose a leg up to take the strain off his injured hands, but Jose, the proud man he was, groaned in pain as he hoisted himself up unassisted onto his paint horse. Martinez seeing that he wasn’t needed to help untied his horse and mounted as well. They started walking their horses slowly back to the ranch away from the debris field looking over their shoulders at Jesus and Raynor who stood with their horses, reins in hand still surveying the crash scene.

            Raynor looked up to the sky at two circling hawks riding the afternoon thermals while scanning the ground for their next meals. Jesus looked at him wondering what was on his jefe’s mind. Raynor turned his face into the light hot breeze because he knew that he could trust his good ear because he thought that he heard the drone of a far off airplane.  

            “Avion grande,” he said facing Jesus.  “Possibly para vista localiztion de estrellarse.  Militaire no gusta nosotros aqui y vista los avión partes.” 

            “Si, yo comprende,” Jesus replied.  

              “Jesus, vomenos de rancho tambien pronto.”

            “Vali jefe, y tu?” Jesus asked.

            “Yo vomenos rancho de Senor Thompson. No se Senor sabe avion aqui.”

            They mounted up and Jesus started a light trot in the direction of the ranch. Just as he went over the first rise, Raynor reined his horse back toward the crash and trotted back. He dismounted and left his horse off to one side. He stopped a second and confirming that the airplane was not any closer, he walked to where the ribbon was in the cactus. Carefully, he picked up one end the ribbon that snaked around and caught in the cactus. A wisp of smoke drifted up from between the cactus and ribbon with his handling.

Interesting reaction, Raynor thought, but I don’t have much time. His damaged fingers cautiously coiled the ribbon, and he watched for any indication of a dangerous change. Just as he tightened the ribbon into a tight coil, the heat boiled from it and Raynor instantly dropped the ribbon. What is this and how can a person handle it? He wondered a moment but an idea bubbled into his head. 

            Taking the mounting end with the loop, he laid it doubled over onto the next section. He didn’t see or feel any heat. Alright Raynor, he steadied himself, the airplane continued its droning above, and he wondered if it was searching the site even now. I can’t be sure of their range up there. He took the doubled over section and flipped it under the next section. Success again. He made flip after flip while holding the loops down with his pocket knife. Finally, he finished with the ribbon looped up into a series of folds that was a little over a foot long and an inch or so thick.

Still holding it down with his knife, he drew his kerchief out and draped it over the pile. Holding the kerchief down over the folds, he withdrew the knife and laid it down. Holding the pile together and tipping it over, he wrapped the lower ends of the kerchief around the ribbons’ underneath. He then overlapped the kerchief and gripped the package in both damaged hands. He still half-expected the ribbon to heat up, but it didn’t.  Now what? He stood up, looked at the kerchief, and wondered how to secure it. 

            He walked back to Star where she waited patiently. Looking at his saddle, Raynor’s first inclination was to tear lose a leather tassel sewn into a stamped flower on the saddle flap. On second thought, he looked at the saddle pad; it was a Mexican style pad of woven cotton. A strand of thick yarn hung loose between Star and the saddle.  Raynor was tempted to hold one end of the ribbon between his legs but remembering Jose’s burns he decided in good prudence against it.

Holding the kerchief carefully vertical, he let go with his right hand, reached up and tore the yarn out with a brisk downward motion. A piece about a foot long pulled out. Holding one end of the yarn in his lips, he then grabbed the lose end with his left last two fingers and wound the yarn around the kerchief and ribbon in a spiral fashion.  When he reached the end, he let go to tie both ends snuggly.

 The neatly tied-up package resembled a type of kerchief sausage roll. He quickly put the ribbon package in his saddlebag, mounted Star, picked up the reins, and was about to pull the horse around but something caught his eye�"or did his eye catch it? Maybe he saw it in another way. The approaching aircraft droning went unnoticed to Raynor�"he was focused. Something undefined drew all his senses back deep into the debris field. He dismounted yet again.

Raynor slowly stepped through and around the debris focused for some reason toward the middle of the debris field. He thought he heard, or saw, or smelled something out there that drew him in. I never had a feeling like this, he thought, but his thoughts drew him on. Chills of a potentially ill-defined danger racked his body, but despite this, he continued forward. He could hear the aircraft approach above and behind, but he couldn’t tear his attraction from what all of him focused on.

And that was what?