The Car:  Chapter 1

I was on my day off from working up the street at LAX as an air traffic controller, and was out for a morning stroll when the strangest day I have ever seen in my 42 year old life began to unfold in front of me.

It all began on at 7 AM Monday morning at a No Parking Tow Away Zone at Sepulveda and Marine in Manhattan Beach, when I saw Missy Jones, traffic cop, stopping her cart in front of an illegally parked car.  Putting on her flashers, I watched her walking around a night black car with no license plates front or back and in fact, now that we were both looking, we could see that there was no place for windshield wipers.

The car was very aero dynamic looking and I could now see that it was either the most opaque windshield I had ever seen or it did not have one.

And where the hell were the wheels of the car?  The car was almost resting on the pavement except for about two inches of clearance.

“ That’s a weird looking car Missy”.

She looked over at me and nodded as she was writing out the ticket.

“ Lot’s of ticket dings for this guy.  It’s tow away time”

Like a suddenly blocked river, traffic was backing up due to morning rush hour cars finding themselves blocked on what should be a clear lane.

She walked over the car and started to tape the ticket to the windshield.

“ Ow! she exclaimed, the damn thing shocked me!”

I backed away from the passenger side.

“ It shocked you?”

Missy was on her phone calling it in and a few minutes later Fast Tow pulled up along with a Manhattan Beach police cruiser to redirect the snarled traffic which by now stretched back two blocks.

I watched the tow truck guy who looked like his basic breakfast was donuts, get out and start walking to the car.

“Watch out Jesse, that think shocked me when I went to tape a ticket to it.” Missy called out.

Jesse, in his early 50’s and smoking a cigar, lumbered three times around the car and then got down on his knees to look under the car and in the process accidently touched the front door with his left hand.

“Crap!” he shouted as he shook his hand and glared at the car.

“ Told you Jesse“

That damn thing shocked me!”

Missy was lingering around rather than continuing on her way ticketing cars. Matt Higgins, according to his name tag, and one of the cops now directing traffic, glanced towards Jessy who was standing swearing and shaking his left hand and rubbing his arm.

“Did you say the car shocked you” he asked as he walked over to Jessy and looked closely at the silent black vehicle that had made his morning far more involved than normal.

“ See for yourself” said Jesse as he nodded in anger at the car.

Matt shook his head.  “Not necessary, I believe you.  How are you planning to tow it?”

“ There ain’t nothing to hook a tow to from what I can see and where the hell are the wheels?”

Matt looked closely at the black car and saw that indeed the car had no wheels and the metal framework was almost resting on the roadway.

“ No plates, no way to see in the windows and no way to tow it.  Any recommendations?”  asked Matt to Jesse.

“ There’s enough clearance to toss a toss a belt under the car and then linked together and hooked to a crane lift.”

“ Wait a moment while I call this in and let them make the decision.”

“ Yeah, those tows ain’t cheap but its either that or this,” (Jesse pointed to the blocked traffic now reaching back as far as he could see.

Well this was really getting interesting.  I took out my mobile and started to take some pictures and about 15 minutes later the semi tow showed up.

The two guys who got out looked like they lived on donuts..

“ Watch you don’t touch it Joe” called out Jesse.

Now two lanes of PCH were blocked.

It took another 40 minutes to toss the belt under the car and then catch it from the curb side with a hook to keep from being shocked.

Big Sammy, the other tow guy, who easily was 6’6, and had been down on his knees at the edge of the curb to hook the belt, stood up and looked closely at the car.

“ This thing is humming.  You hear it?”

We all drew closer and Higgins standing by the street side, gingerly leaned close to the drivers side.”

“ You’re right.  Let’s get this out of here.”

Joe was standing over by the driver side and grabbed the belt that Big Sammy was carefully extending to him over the car with his hook.

By now quite a crowd of gawkers had gathered and bets were being placed on how long before the black car was on its way to the pound.  

Big Sammy, who had a gut that overlapped his pants by several inches and who was the main crew chief, started the tow and watched the wide belt tighten about both sides of the car as the crane pulled upwards on the belt.  

“ Look! The crane can’t lift the car!” shouted a teenager who had been walking his golden retriever and had been hanging around ever since watching the show.

I had my video going along with about 6 other bystanders.

“ This crane’s rated for lifting semi’s!” said Big Sammy”

We watched the semi tow truck slowly rise from the ground as the crane kept pulling up on the car.  

Big Sammy cut the crane lift.

 “That’s impossible!” called out a bystander.

Big Sammy most heartedly agreed.  Yet there it was.  The car had to weigh more than 10 tons!

“ Well, we can bring in some heavy dozers and push this thing into scrap metal and..” Big Sammy was saying and then the car erupted as a solid ball of silvery light and slowly moved forward down PCH

Everyone gasped and quickly moved back.  No need for crowd control here, I thought.

And so began a most strange parade as the car now enveloped in light that made you look away it was so bright, moved at about 3 miles per hour down the middle lane.

“ Well hell, I thought, I can keep up with this.”

I called home to Reb.

“ Forget breakfast Reb, I’m walking along beside a car with silvery light moving about walking speed down the middle of PCH and you can’t see inside, you can’t see the wheels and the tow that lifts semi’s was not able to lift it.

Yeah, I know it sounds nuts but I’m looking right at it.  The cops are forming a blockade of cars to stop its progress and forget PCH.  This has got to be all over the Internet now as about 20 people are videoing it.”

I signed off and noticed a helicopter flying towards us from the south.  KABC was the first on the spot and in the distance I could see other helicopters coming our way.  The circus was starting up and the weather was nice and friendly so why not enjoy?

It was really funny watching multiple police cars with their sirens blowing and lights flashing trying to halt its progress in a race at 3 miles per hour.. About one mile down the road which now had been cleared of all traffic and very close to LAX, a line of highway patrol cars was blocking the road and local police were bracketing it.

The car which shape could still be seen within the light orb, gently touched the nearest Highway Patrol car and implacably pushed slowly forward. It was the equivalent of a powerful earth mover or tank taking its time to do no harm or damage to life or property but which was unstoppable in its titanic controlled strength.

Multiple news helicopters were now circling overhead but at a fall back position as ahead of them was LAX air space.

I found myself now walking with a crowd of about 50 onlookers and noticed that about the same number was across PCH and keeping pace.  I glanced down at my phone and could see that videos were popping up on You Tube and Huffington Post was already posting headlines.  At this rate, at 8:30 AM, the international community was undoubtedly watching the parade.

Up ahead the car pulled even with a guy sitting in a wheel chair with no legs.  We later found out that he had lost his legs from a car bomb while serving in the Marines in Iraq.  He had wheeled himself as close as possible to watch the advancing ball of light and his wheel chair was parked at the edge of the curb.

I was about twenty yards away.  Suddenly, the silver light changed to a golden dome of light that enveloped me and the amputee in an orb of light that reached across PCH and englobed us all including the Manhattan Beach police and highway patrol cars and hundreds of onlookers who did not have any alert as to what was going to happen.

All the news networks along with countless mobile phone cameras caught this image.  

I wasn’t one of them as all I remember is hitting the ground and feeling an amazing wellness spread over me.  I couldn’t move or even close my eyes.  It was like I was being dipped in the essence of health.  I felt wrapped in peace and happiness and wonder and joy.  I felt tears come to my eyes.

It was later determined that the golden light extended out in a golden circle in all directions for the length of a football field.  

I vaguely heard someone scream out but it was as if I was enfolded in a dream scape and though I knew I was lying on the pavement; I could not feel the cold stone against my back.  

I felt something moving through my body spreading wellness with everything it touched.  

My back would most definitely be yelling at me by now to get up off the sidewalk as my 5th cervical disk had only a few weeks ago slipped out of formation with the spine and Reb and I were trying to decide if an operation made sense or to just let it go and see what happened.  The pain medicine could only do so much and for sure I was not advised to lie on a stone cold sidewalk.  

There was a moment when I was somewhere else just sort of floating within a golden ball of light and then suddenly I was back and standing on my feet and looking around at lots of other people all standing on their feet in dumb amazement at what had just happened.

I was staring at the veteran who was now lying naked and unconscious on the pavement.  But he now had two healthy looking legs!

In stunned amazement, the world had watched the golden light grow in such intensity that viewers could no longer look directly at the car but everyone apparently had been watching what was happening to the amputee.

I saw a guy standing next to him rip off his t shirt to lay over the naked and still unconscious man.  I had never felt better and my lungs felt like I was 16 years old again before I had started years of smoking and had only finally stopped a few years ago.

It was later reported that doctors and medical staff in the medical prosthesis wings around the world had all stopped their daily routine and watched the miracle happening before their eyes.    To say that they had been speechless was an understatement as hardened professionals had watched with their jaws open a sight that although they knew was theoretically possible, no one until now had ever seen.

That video was played and replayed over the next day as the world had to adjust to a new reality.  Namely, something was now amongst us that had technology a century ahead of us and it was not from earth.

The golden light paused and then disappeared, and the car, now enveloped by the familiar silver light, then continued its slow progress forward crossing by Rosecrans and heading towards the tunnel that went below LAX.

All who had been caught within the golden globe of light that day reported that their medical conditions had vanished and each person no matter what age, was later found to be 100% healed of all medical issues.

If the international community was not riveted before the golden light incidence, now not one country or nation was not watching.  Pope Francis had cancelled all his meetings and surrounded by his staff, was intently watching the golden light healing Sammy.

Sepulveda had been closed down for ten miles in either direction and all side streets blocked.  LAX access was closed and the airport shut down as a security precaution as the car made its way forward past another attempted blockade set up by the airport police cars, and then entered into the tunnel.

As the glowing car emerged from the other side of the tunnel, the blockade placed ahead of it was now a series of concrete beams set in its way by hastily summoned cranes and road crews.  The car paused and studied the roadblock and then moved forward by enveloping the wide beams in a green light wide enough for the car to pass through the beams as if they were no longer solid.  As the car passed into and through the beams they reformed again behind it leaving veteran road crews staring in awe as what they had just witnessed.

The car advanced implacably forwards up Sepulveda and then following the Lincoln avenue turn off which ran past the far side of the airport and runways 24 R and 24 L. made an abrupt left hand turn towards the airport.  Crossing Lincoln south, the car reached the fence and moved through it.  Passing runways 24 R and L, the car kept moving towards the far side of the airport and crossed Runway 25 R.

No heavy equipment nor hastily built blockades could halt its steady peaceful progress.  The silver orb now extended 200 feet in all directions.  The order came from the White House to stop impeding the car’s progress and to stand down and see what was going to happen next.  The airport had been evacuated of all passengers and non-essential staff.  Military jets from Camp Pendleton were patrolling the airways and basically the watching world was holding its breath to see what happened next.

The car reached runway 25 L and traveled slowly to the center of the runway.  It stopped at the exact spot that the Endeavor had landed on its final flight, and now began to emanate a blue gold silver light and the orb expanded to envelop the width of the runway.  

The next day

Samantha, our head of the tower control, who had been working all night with her staff as to how to manage flight schedules with a non active runway, looked out at the car and noted that the sun was rising.

“ Well, its dawn, she started to comment, when abruptly a golden orb of light suddenly erupted from the car and reached out with a radius of 1,000 feet.

“ Hey, that’s the same light that grew that guys legs back yesterday,” said Joe Sillik, one of the air controllers.

The golden orb enveloped the airport police, ground crew and tech and scientists who had surrounded the car with their respective duties and were now suddenly within the reach of the golden light.  

And once more the healing began.