A Gift of Time

by Merritt, Jerry

  She stood crouched still brandishing her stiletto for her last stand as she surveyed the glider deck. When she saw Joey in the corner, she lowered the knife to her side and stood up straight. “Is that you already, Cage? My god, you did it didn’t you? I thought you would if you weren’t being chased all over the country.”

  When she turned toward me, the same flood of emotion I had faced that morning of my return home caught me by surprise. It had been forty years since I’d last seen her. She ran to me, but I was only a ghost in her mind. She passed through me like a warm current. In the confusion, Aunt Cealie stepped in.

  “Arlene, honey, we ain’t exackly what we was. Not right yet anyways. You sees us but we not really here. We jus’ in your head. But don’t you fret. Micajah gonna fix that soon enough.”

  Reluctantly, I left Aunt Cealie to handle the explanations and turned back to the activity in the woods below. The two men who had chased Arlene were stumbling back out of the brush, but the backseat passenger remained in the wagon. The driver helped him out while the other lowered the tailgate and opened a cage. Within seconds, he had two hunting dogs circling around him. “Garlan okay?”

  “No, he ain’t, Harlan. That little bitch done cut your brother up somethin’ fierce.”

  “He gonna live?”

  “I think so.”

  “Then I’ll be back shortly with tonight’s fun.”

  It was time to pay them a visit.

  All three men turned, squinting through the light drizzle into the headlights of the virtual Packard the glider projected into their dull brains. I pulled up within five feet of their tailgate and climbed out as Old Man Quintin. The three stared at me like raccoons caught in the garbage. Garlan held a blood-soaked handkerchief to his neck. Several deep slashes crossed his face and right arm. There was a lot of blood. Arlene’s little Damascus steel blade had done well.

  The driver was the first to break the silence. “Damn, hoss-fly, you must a fell out the ugly tree and hit ever limb on the way down.”

  “Shit, Coy, he’s uglier’n your sister Freda” Harlan added. “You need to clear outer here right now, mister. That kind a ugly looks catchin’. Else wise we gonna make you dead and ugly,” he threatened with a menace of someone eager to get on with foul business.

  “That’s pretty big talk coming from a man wearing earrings,” I said, as I walked up to a rear tire and studied it for a moment. “Looks a bit overinflated.” With a sudden flick of my hand, I drew out a large switchblade, snicked it open, and drove it into the tire as the glider opened a slit in the side. The wagon bounced heavily as the rear dropped six inches. “There. That’s better.”

  “Hey,” Coy called out. “Stop that.”

  I strolled unhurriedly over to the other side and repeated the action. All three hillbillies stared in disbelief.

  As I came back around the tailgate, Harlan had gathered the two dogs to him and called out, “Sic’im, Porkchop. Git’im, Rattler.” But the dogs merely looked up in bewilderment. “What’s a matter you idjit dogs? I said sic’im.” But, of course, the dogs neither saw nor smelled anything to sic. For their confusion, they both got swift kicks.

  “You boys got something I want,” I said after the matter with the dogs settled down.

  The three glared at me stupidly until Harlan grabbed his crotch. “Like what? Like this?”

  “Save that for your livestock. I want the girl you three morons picked up. She took off when I wasn’t looking. I got plans for her.” The trio blinked as understanding set in.

  “Then you oughter took better care. She’s our’en now. We got plans too,” Harlan said reaching into the wagon. As he pulled a sawed-off shotgun from behind the backseat, I had the glider pull the trigger, opening up the overhead and scattering liner into the night air.

  “Sumbitch, Harlan, you just blowed a hole in my roof,” Coy yelled. “And it’s rainin’. Gimme that.” As he snatched the weapon away, I had the glider rack in a fresh round and fire it through the open door taking out the dashboard and steering wheel.

  “Shit fire!” Coy said, goggle-eyed, holding the gun at arm’s length. It racked and fired again, exploding the front tire. At that, he eased the shotgun warily onto the back seat where it immediately blew the opposite door to smithereens.

  I transferred the three, along with what was left of Coy’s station wagon, into a separate holding area in the glider and transported the kicked dogs to a third.

  Back on the glider deck, I explained to Arlene that I wasn’t allowed to harm anyone with the glider.

  “Well, it won’t stop me will it?”

  “No, but that’s not quite what I had in mind for them. I suspect they ended up killing you. Aunt Cealie said you never came back to visit her.”

  Aunt Cealie nodded. “And that weren’t like you. Not a’tall.”

  “If I never came to see you, Aunt Cealie, then Cage is right. I was dead. And I suspect it happened right here.” Then she looked back at me. “I guess I didn’t get very far on my own.”

  “But what you did worked. It let me come back for Joey again. We’ve got your daddy too, and I need to take care of that problem, but I can’t do it directly with the time glider, and I don’t want any of us with another’s blood on our hands.”

  “I don’t mind, Cage. Just like I don’t mind stomping out cockroaches.”

  “I know you don’t. But those days are over, and we don’t want to bring any more of the pain from them with us. You don’t know it yet, but ….” I shrugged and glanced at Aunt Cealie. “I don’t even know how to tell you what’s coming.”

  “Thas for sure, Sweetie. Jus’ leave all this bidness alone. I ‘spect Micajah gots it all worked out or else I ain’t Cealie Byrne no more. And you can put that frog sticker you holdin’ away for good. You ain’t gonna have no more need a that where we goin’.”

  Chapter 69

  I took us back to the night Old Man Quintin had returned with Joey’s body in his trunk. “Are you ready for the final act?” I asked Arlene.

  She bristled. “I’ve been ready my whole life.”

  “You know your daddy probably won’t come out of this alive don’t you?”

  “Neither did Joey or my mother.”

  I nodded understanding. It was almost poetic. All four men who had killed Arlene at some point in her life would meet in a face off.

  I transported the Packard and station wagon down to what would look like the logging road in Tennessee. Old Man Quintin suddenly found himself standing by his car in the middle of nowhere at night facing three wet, feral goons with a demolished vehicle. I had removed all the firearms before dropping the wagon back into the scene, so it was hand-to-hand combat the whole way.

  I have to give Old Man Quintin credit, though. In spite of having an eye gouged out in the first minute, he fought like a crazed weasel. Eventually Coy and Harlan lay on the grass panting, as Quintin nursed his empty eye socket.

  I had the glider fill the night air with a fusillade of gunfire followed by a roaring boom that echoed across the countryside. If Arlie and I had gotten a patrol car called out just by running naked up River Road, this should get the whole of Stubbinville’s deputation to the area within minutes. Then, just to make sure, I set the back woods on fire to draw attention to the right spot. That got Coy and Harlan up and on the run, leaving brother Garlan sagged against the now useless station wagon.

  The partially open graves would be enough to get the sheriff to investigate their connection to the missing kids. It would be a slam-dunk to solve those open cases after that. My guess was the overly ambitious Tiberius Colcraine the 3rd would convict all four before it was over. If all four made it through the night alive.

  As we left, I dropped the two kicked hunting dogs off in the park. They would have no trouble finding a good home there in Stubbinville.

  Chapter 70

  After a brief discussion, we all agreed Arlene and Joey would remain in their real-world bodies for the moment. We were headed back wit
h Joey to a time shortly after I had told Mom and Arlene about my coming back as my ten-year-old self with the help of a time traveler. It would be a confusing time, and having Joey and Arlene in a form Mom could hug would be a great help in getting her through it.

  When we arrived over the hospital that night, Dad was still there. “Might as well pick both up together,” I said to general agreement. Joey had missed too much to understand the whole business, so Arlene suggested I send her in ahead to tell Mom what was about to happen. I transported her down into the hallway right outside the room.

  Mom drew back in alarm at the change in Arlene as soon as she came through the door. A year had passed for Arlene since Mom had last seen her. Her hair was dyed dark-brown and she was more mature. And her eye was now swollen nearly shut. Dad only sat and stared blankly, apparently not sure who this battered, rain-soaked girl was that had just entered. Arlene ran to Mom, falling across her in tears. It took some time before either could speak.

  Finally, Mom brushed her fingers across Arlene’s swollen eye. “What on earth happened to you, sweetheart?”

  Arlene waved her hand dismissively, “That’s not important.” Then she got right to business. “Remember what Cage told us about time travel?”

  “Time travel?” Dad snorted.

  “Yes. But we aren’t supposed to mention that to anyone,” Mom said, nodding toward Dad.

  “Well, he’s done it.”

  “Done what?” Dad asked.

  “Invented time travel. He’s got Joey with him now.”

  At the mention of Joey, fire flashed in Mom’s eyes. “Arlene, don’t come in here with some made up story trying to make me feel better. It’s cruel and it won’t work. Now that’s enough. No more talk of Joey. He’s gone.”

  Stung by the accusation, Arlene stepped back. Each time she tried to continue, Mom cut her off. Finally, Dad stood up and took her by the arm. “You better leave now. This is no time for such stuff.”

  I turned to Joey who had been watching the whole event through the glider’s real-world feed. “Do you see what’s happening, Joey?”

  “Sure, Cager. But why is Mom in the hospital, and why does she think I’m gone?”

  It was a legitimate question. As far as Joey knew, it was his first day of school. Finally, I just hoped for the best and sent him down along with a projection of Aunt Cealie and me in my younger years.

  Sick though she was, Mom kicked her covers off with a cry of joy that must have rung the vaults of heaven. She flew from her bed to grab Joey up in her arms, and in that electrifying instant I forgave myself for all the times I had fallen short.

  It took several minutes for things to settle down enough for me to gain everyone’s attention. I told them Aunt Cealie looked young again because she had joined me in another kind of existence. A world I hoped they would enter with us. But it was obviously more than they could take in.

  Mom finally asked Aunt Cealie somewhat disparagingly if her other world was any improvement over this one.

  “Julene, if folks thought heaven was half as good as where I been lately, they wouldn’t be no sinners.”

  Mom released Joey and tried to hug Aunt Cealie but fell back in disbelief. “What’s this? Are you now a ghost—and Joey is real?” Then followed a dreadful pause. “He is real, isn’t he?”

  “He’s real, Mom. As real as you. As real as Aunt Cealie is in our world. It’s just that she’s a construct in your mind at the moment.”

  But Aunt Cealie and I were unable to convince either Mom or Dad to join us. Joey was the deciding factor. Mom clung to him. “I want Joey to have the opportunity to grow up in this world.” Then she asked if I would come back and be a part of the family again. At my hesitation, Arlene stepped in and offered to stay in my place if that was okay.

  “Of course it’s okay, honey. You’re my daughter now.”

  “Maybe I can teach Joey to play baseball,” she said as she glanced at me enjoying the absurdity of the former Arlie teaching anyone baseball yet missing the incongruity of the whole meeting.

  “Yay!” Joey cried, missing it as well.

  Everyone was now so pleased I hated to say anything. “There’s just one problem with that plan, Mom.”

  It broke my heart to see the despair slip back into her eyes. For a few brief minutes, she had escaped her cancer. “Oh! Oh, dear.”

  “Mom, I entered this world where Aunt Cealie and I are now to save my own life. I’d been shot. To survive, I had to leave my body behind. Joining us means leaving your body behind, too. And the cancer. It’s essentially a cure.”

  “But Joey deserves a chance to grow up like you did.”

  “I understand that. So let me just assure you that you’ll have total control over your world. Joey’s world. You can live in Stubbinville again if that’s what you want. It will be no different from life when you were there before if that’s how you want it.”

  “Thas so, Julene. Jus’ like Micajah say. I seen things already in jus’ the short dash I made through there that makes me think I done finally woke up after all these years. Things is different there, if you wants them different, but the same if you wants that instead.

  “An’ you gots to remember you in the same fix old Lige were in. If you wants to live, you gots to let go all you has. ‘Cept Lige didn’t have nobody to go off wid him. You gots all us right here in dis room. And it seem to me if you wants Joey to have a mamma, ain’t no other choice in the matter. None a tall. Am I right?”

  I saw the light dawn in Mom’s eyes. The dilemma was over. If Joey was to have a mother, she had to go with us. Her shoulders slumped in resignation.

  “So how do we do this, Aunt Cealie?”

  “It’s ‘bout as easy as your first nap, Julene. I was there wid you then and I’m here wid you now. An’ when you wakes up—well, you jus’ gonna have to see it to believe it.”

  ***

  I made one final stop that last trip to earth. It was a stop I’d been sure would never be possible when I’d asked Lovely Pebble to return me to my ten-year-old body back in 1953.

  “Hi, Pops. I always figured you’d make it back someday. What’s been happening?”

  I should have known Jimmy wouldn’t be terribly surprised when he saw me standing at his front door. He had, after all, been on a glider and had within him one of the gifts it could confer. That evening, he and his family all agreed joining us would be an adventure too mind-blowing to pass up. Before leaping back across the galaxy, I introduced him to Mom, the grandmother he’d never met.

  Chapter 71

  As our glider coupled to the home docking port, it dumped us into the Network complete with the virtual realms Ell and I had set up earlier. The change was noticeable only by the increased richness of our worlds as the far more advanced Net took over from the glider.

  While Ell and I were gone, the Network had completed a study of the simple glider we had made and, from that, realized the Creation Equation held other solutions to time travel not previously known. Our glider had needed only enough power to energize its IC chips. This was as surprising a discovery to the Network as had been the ability to upload conscious beings as originals. While we were in port, the Oversight Council asked Ell and me to clarify the time-drive mechanism in the chips. After meeting, I simply gave them access to my memory from the development period and they seemed quite satisfied.

  They were about to adjourn when Ell indicated she had something to say on the matter of life in their virtual world. At that, the council members stopped their shuffling about and returned to their seats, or whatever contrivances served to accommodate their various anatomical protuberances.

  “You don’t know it, but your Network lives lack something of great worth,” Ell started. That seemed to catch their attention. “I have memories of living here with you for many human lifetimes and have lived with Cager for half a lifetime as a real-world copy of myself. That has allowed me to see things I would never have noticed otherwise.

  “As you
know, this virtual-world goes on without end. And anything you desire is available instantly.” She glanced at me. “If, however, you were in the real world and you wanted something, you would have to work for it and would have but a limited lifetime to obtain it—with no assurance you would ever get it. But if you did succeed, you would still have but a limited time to enjoy your success. Yet even in failure, you would get something. A sense of challenge. And if you triumphed, of achievement. And exhilaration. So that whatever you got would have something we don’t have here. Value.

  “I know, we speak of value. It’s built into our protocols. Payment must have value commensurate with services rendered. But our virtual possessions have no value. They are all provided at our merest whim.”

  That struck home. She was addressing that same, nameless discontent that had settled over me during my brief stay with Lovely Pebble.

  “I’ve checked our records,” Ell continued. “We never had reason to use the Fair Payment Protocol until Lovely Pebble received Cager Fenton’s help. That protocol is a relic of our original condition. It has no meaning for us now, but we fail to see that. We’re too engrossed in our interminable lives to notice.

  “If we in our virtual world were human, I would say we have lost our humanity. Just as we never bothered to solve the copy problem Micajah Fenton solved so easily on his own, we made copies of ourselves, as real as us, and left them on alien worlds to die alone—used once and discarded. Of course, copies like me are now allowed back into the Network but only because a human intervened. We should have caught that ourselves.

  “These humans, to whom I find myself owing so much, have remained outliers in the remote reaches of our galaxy. They have no great, interstellar civilization, so we know nothing of them beyond what a few of us more adventurous types observed during excursions through their star system.