Episode 2

'Mister President, this is General Millaise calling from NASA,' said the voice on the phone. 'Our surveillance satellites have picked up a possible problem with one of the Midwestern states, Nebraska to be exact...'

'Is it tornadoes again?' President Woodhed said hopefully, remembering that the last round of tornadoes in that state had given him some much-needed favorable publicity. 'I can be out there first thing in the morning. Oh, and I think there's still some money in the Federal Disaster aid account.'

'Well, sir there might be tornadoes there, but we can't be sure,' General Millaise said. In fact, we can't even see the state any more. To put it in plain English, Mr. President, Nebraska seems to be missing altogether.'

President Woodhed frowned as he scanned the caller ID device for signs that the call was from a prankster rather than NASA. 'Mister President,' the white House switchboard operator broke in, 'You have an urgent call from the Secretary of Transportation. Will you take it?'

'Gladly,' the president replied, little realizing that the next call would be even stranger than the last one.

'Mister President, this is Diesel Trayenne,' the Secretary began. 'We have quite a lot of truckers who are disappearing on the Des Moines to Omaha routes. A couple have returned to Des Moines unable to deliver. They say there's a big crater where Nebraska used to be. We didn't believe them at first, but NASA confirmed it. Anyway, one of them says the crater is turning into a giant lake because of the Oglalla Aquifer, or something like that. I hope we can straighten this out soon, 'cause the trucking industry is hurting.'

'Thanks, Choo Choo,' President Woodhed said sadly. This was looking like a one-term presidency for him, and the worst part was that he wouldn't have a home state to return to.

Paulh

22.01.24 Front Page

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