Three Views Of Churchill
2. Helicopters
One of my jobs involved cleaning the helicopters with another volunteer Robyn. We were shining them and taking off, the little spots of the dome window, accustomed to hovering in skies. I polished the propeller of the copter and the tail, by standing on a step ladder. The floors were almost lovingly attended to, like polishing the shoes of someone enriched. During the hour or two of cleaning, we were the servants of the machine, that suspends itself in the sky, like a tadpole suspended in a pond. As we approached the shed, where the helicopters were parked, we shone the headlights around the area, in a quick check for polar bears, that can easily conceal themselves, amongst the willow. A couple of days ago, I saw a polar bear turn its head so fast, that it appeared as if its head was in first one position and then another, the movement between the two positions too fast to detect. I assumed one could hook you from out of a vehicle, as fast as hooking a ringed seal, up from an ice hole. We pulled up at the big shed, after having spotlighted the area. Robyn said that a polar bear, had been up on the roof, of one of these sheds this week. They were attracted to rubber and petroleum products. We left the engine running and the car headlights on, leaving a gap, at the front of the vehicle, so that on our way back out, we could check for bears, that may have crept up. The helicopter was like a delicate egg, that would contain life in an vast atmosphere of sky. This same sensation might be gotten, by touching the side of a submarine, as it surfaced from the ocean. |
