In The Air

54 the minnesota review Robert Nichols In The Air 1. There's an airstrip in our back yard. They say that it's ours. But we have no title to it and only recently found out it was there. It's not a small airstrip. It's in an open field, in a part of the property which was once farmed but had grown up to brush. You could call it a hidden airstrip. All these former meadows were bounded by stone walls along which trees and bushes have grown up over a period of time. They were each reached by a lane for wagons. And the road to the airstrip is still usable. In fact it passes right by our house. The airstrip is there. But we have never seen any of the airplanes. We hear the noise all the time. When the pilots take off they make no attempt to hide the noise, how could they? A deafening sound. It's as if the whole sky directly over the house were being torn apart and exploding. Then the plane is gone, impossible to tell in what direction. This thundering sound is heard all over town. The noise is acceptable because it's self-evident. It's simply there. So it's not like it's some clandestine operation and anyone is trying to conceal it for some wicked or illegal purpose. The noise is there. Everyone hears it and understands it. That is its protection. Still, the airfield is used night and day. So in a sense it's a regular operation. There's no mystery about what planes are being flown. They don't all have the same sound, they have different ones. So people have become expert in listening. This is particularly true of the high school boys who, from the noise, can tell what plane is being flown, its type, even with a fair degree of accuracy, its engine make. Sometimes they can even tell whether it is a new model or an old one. There are constant flights with this excruciating and terrifying noise. By now everyone has accepted it. Some people even welcome it as a sign of the town's prosperity. This is the claim of the mayor and the city council. Since the noise is so large, there must be something happening. People are drawn from all over. The streets are full of airmen. With all this, you'd think people would trust it, the airfield. But after all, it was hidden for a long time, it was kept secret. But why? This in itself makes it suspicious. Nichols 55 2. The school children have identified a new plane. This happened, positively, on a certain day. They were on their way to school. There was the noise of aircraft passing overhead, a common feature of the early morning hours when people are going to work and the children to school. One of them halted on the sidewalk, his head tilted back. Of course, the other stopped too. The boy's body was stretched taut and his eyes half closed, as if this posture afforded the maximum degree of discrimination and as if summoning the intelligence to bear. The noise was not quite the same as before. It was fractionally different, perhaps a shade more treble. "It's an OVl Mohawk." This was the conclusion of the others, the rest of the students. And soon was the opinion of the rest of the town. The new plane being flown out of the airstrip is a certain military reconnaissance plane. All the planes are new, they have this new sound. The old sound had been produced by combat planes. But these are reconnaissance and observation planes, the sound is softer and gentler. Now it is quite clear to everyone why the airstrip had been concealed. Even the authorities admit it. Before, you would ask them about it, they would deny there was an airstrip. But then there would be this terrifying noise. So the flying activity was obvious. Previously the pilots had operated in hostile territory against a distant enemy. They had claimed they were commercial pilots. This, far from being a lie...