Michael didn’t mind being placed in containment. He knew they did that for their own protection, was already trusted to lead a prayer service and was told by the nice guy Richie that he wouldn’t be in there long.
Those inside were interesting.
Particularly the man who sat next to Michael in the skills room. Michael was tuning his guitar when the heavier man with wavy hair and an uncanny likeness to Elvis sat down with him.
“You’re a little sharp on that one,” the man said.
“Nah,” Michael said. He always turned his guitar by ear.
“I’m telling you.”
Giving a smug smile, Michael lifted the tuner that Robbie had lent him, plucked the string and the smile fell. “You’re right.” Hence that one note had Michael starting all over again with the tuning.
“What’s your name?” the man asked.
“Michael.”
“I’m Elvis.”
“As in Presley?”
Elvis nodded.
“I see.” Michael smiled. Danny had told him that Containment also served as a psych ward equivalent. “Well, you look just like him.”
Elvis chuckled. “Thanks. Do you play? Sing?’
“I’m tuning the guitar, aren’t I? And I sing,” Michael said. “I’ve been playing all my life. I brought my own guitar.”
“I would have too, but I was on the toilet when I got here. Robbie gave me one. Mind if I …” he pointed back with his thumb.
“No please.” Michael tried not to laugh or break the man’s delusion, but he had to give it to him, he had the Elvis thing down pat.
Elvis returned with his guitar. “You don’t mind me jamming with you?”
“Not at all. Absolutely would love it.”
“They say you’re a priest,” Elvis said, checking the tuning on his guitar before striking a chord.
“I am.”
“Still a priest in all this?” Elvis began to pick the guitar.
Admittedly, Michael was impressed. “Um, yes. Always. Nice picking.”
“I’m gospel based, you know.”
“So I’ve heard.”
“I’m not Catholic. I know Catholic stuff. Did some research. Nine years ago I played a doctor in a movie about nuns.”
Michael snapped his finger. “Change of Habit.”
“You know it?”
“Uh, yeah, it was my mother’s favorite and a staple favorite in the seminary. It never gets old. But it was a bit more than nine years ago.”
“For you maybe,” Elvis said.
“Of course. By the way cool sideburns in that.”
Elvis curled his top lip and smiled. “Thank you. Thank you very much.”
“Man, I loved that movie. Mary Tyler Moore …”
“Nice gal.”
Michael chuckled. “I bet. She played an undercover social worker. You were the cool guy and joined the church... wait … wait. The song at the end.”
“I was gonna play that for you. You know it.”
“Do I?” Michael smiled. “I do it in C though.”
“Me, too. Ready.”
“Count it.”
“On four.” Elvis tapped his foot. “One, two, three …”
Elvis started strumming, it was exactly as Michael had known it.
Michael played with him and a few bars into the intro, just laughed a squeal of delight, especially when Elvis stood. His mind flashed to watching the movie, to Elvis standing in a Catholic church, keeping the sway in check as Mary Tyler Moore stared him down.
Michael stood as well and Elvis began to sing.
He sounded like Elvis, looked like him, if Michael didn’t know better, he would have believed it was Elvis.
Michael knew better.
Whoever the guy was, whether or not he believed he was Elvis, Michael enjoyed it and let him lead in vocals, while Michael took the backups.
They were so engrossed in their playing that when finished they were greeted by a plethora of applause.
The residents, Richie, along with Joe and Danny had come in.
“Wow,” Danny clapped. “I felt like Mary Tyler Moore without the nun habit, staring at you wondering if I should stay in the church or leave.”
“You know the movie?” Elvis asked.
“Of course.”
“Gotta tell you,” Joe stepped forward. “Fr. Mike, I have to get you into Bowmen. We have a great church there with a priest who can’t get on the wagon. You and Elvis together would just pack the place.”
“I would be honored to serve Mass,” Michael said.
“I’ll have you out before Sunday so start working on the sermon,” Joe said. “In fact, you guys should practice the music.”
Michael nodded. “We will. What brings you guys here?”
Joe pointed to Elvis. “He teaches music at the school. I just came to get him.”
“And I came to visit you and install a land line router,” Danny said. “Let me take care of it.” He held up the box. “And I’ll be right back.”
“Oh, sure,” Michael replied. “Oh, Danny.” He walked up to him. “That guy is really like Elvis.”
Danny reached out and swat Michael’s arm. “That’s because he is.” He turned and walked away.
Michael laughed and shook his head. “Still a practical joke and tale teller.” Another shake of his head, he sat down in the chair and started to play while waiting to have a visit with his friend.
SIX
It was a rare occasion that Ellen hummed and when she did it was usually Barry Manilow. But for some reason, Dean couldn’t place it. He carried the case of the future LEP up to the clinic lab to run some tests while on duty and looked quirkily at Ellen when she walked into the lab singing, said hello, then continued.
“You’re either happy or have an ear worm,” Dean said.
“An … ear worm?” Ellen chuckled.
“When a song is stuck in your head.”
“That’s pretty good, I never heard it called that.”
“I made it up.”
“Good job.” Ellen continued to hum, changing into a lab coat.
“What is that song?”
“It’s an Elvis song from a movie he did. Elvis and Father Michael were jamming over there. I cannot wait to go to Mass.”
“For real?” Dean asked.
“Yeah, it may get me back to church.
“I didn’t realize you ever went to church.”
Ellen gasped. “Dean, I did. I was Catholic. Joe made me convert, then he called every Sunday night to see if I went to church. I was so afraid to tell him no, I just went.” She walked over to him. “I see you brought Chaka’s man bag.”
“Yeah, I want to run some tests on the fluid in the syringes. Maybe it is something we don’t have that can help us.”
“That would be awesome. Do you think something in there plays music?”
“No, why?” Dean asked.
“Because those four things look like ear buds.”
“Actually they look more like hearing aids.” Dean held one up. “They have a little section that presses against the head.”
“That’s really advanced.”
“He comes from a thousand years in the future. I would expect he’s advanced.”
“Not really. They’re just beginning right now. Think of man one thousand years from the cave man days. We weren’t advanced.”
“True. You have a point.”
“Knock, knock,” Jenny called into the lab.
Ellen turned. “Hey.”
“Am I early?” Jenny asked.
“Nope, right on time. Go on down to OBG three. Be right there.”
“I’m so excited.”
“Me, too. I hope it’s a keeper.’
“It will be. I’ll be right now.” She waited for Jenny to leave, exhaled and clapped her hands together. “Okay, I’ll be back.”
“Do you need me to help?”
“No, I’m good.” Ellen giggled. ‘Dean, everyone comes to me for
the ultrasound.”
“Yeah, but El, you don’t do them for medical reasons. You do them to see the baby. I need measurements.”
“I measure the femur and head and make sure everything is there.”
“That’s fine, can you at least document them,”
“Oh my God, Dean. This isn’t like the old world. If I see something wrong, I just need to call you in. I don’t need to do reports.”
Dean stared at her for a moment. “On this one you do.”
“Why?”
“Because, El, you know as well as I do, we need to know if she’s carrying a LEP.”
“If she is, it will be a genetic mix.”
“And it still … how does Frank put it, will be the baby that jumps starts the devolution of the human race.”
Ellen laughed.
“Oh, you think that’s funny.”
“I just can’t see Frank saying devolution.”
“You know what I mean.”
“I do. No worries. If I see something I’ll let you know. Right now we haven’t a clue how far along she is. So this will only give us a starting age. We don’t know if she got pregnant a couple weeks ago by Chaka or months ago by someone.” Ellen shrugged. “We do one now and in a week, we do another. That’s the only way we’ll know.”
“You don’t think you’ll know by looking?”
“Not a chance.” Ellen shook her head. “We didn’t know with Melissa.”
“We didn’t have 3D then.”
“We won’t know. Besides, I’m only there to get the best first picture. I do the best ultrasounds. Everyone says so. I get the baby to pose.”
Dean laughed. “The babies do not pose. You luck out.”
“Every time?”
“Yeah, El, there’s no way you’re getting them to pose.”
“Frank thinks so.”
“Frank also thinks he has nine lives.”
“Seven now.” Ellen darted a kiss to Dean’s cheek. “I better get back there. I’ll keep you posted.”
She left the lab, headed down the hall and to the right where the obstetrics examining rooms were and into the one where Jenny waited.
Jenny was on the table and Ellen had already had the equipment on and warmed up.
“Nervous?” Ellen asked.
“A little. I mean everyone is concerned that this is an LEP.”
“I know.”
“They want me to abort it.”
“No one has said that,” Ellen said.
“Frank did. Dean did.”
“They’re assholes.”
“Ellen, Dean has said that when you guys went into the future there was an infertility virus started by a woman who had sex with an LEP. What if that’s me?”
“Well … if you have it, we can know early and work on a cure. Also … having that knowledge will be helpful in preventing that plague.”
“I’m worried.”
“Don’t be. It will be fine.” She rolled up Jenny’s shirt and paused.
“Something wrong?”
Ellen shook her head and said nothing about how much larger Jenny’s stomach looked. After all, it was not uncommon for a woman to suddenly spurt in growth or show early with a second child.
After squirting the substance on Jenny’s stomach, Ellen lifted the wand. As soon as she placed it against Jenny’s flesh, the sound of the baby’s heartbeat was strong.
Jenny smiled.
“Hear that?” Ellen turned it up some. “A hundred and forty beats.” She moved the wand. “Oh, I got a good full body.”
Jenny looked at the monitor. “That’s not 3D.”
“No, I’ll switch when we want to get the face shot.” Ellen clicked. “Okay, the baby is measuring …. Eighteen weeks.”
“Eighteen weeks? I know I had a period in the last three and a half months. Ellen … would this be right if I were carrying a …”
“You aren’t.”
“What if I was?”
“Jenny, you aren’t.”
“When Melissa was pregnant with Marcus, she grew really fast.”
“Three months. Yes. But that was a genetically altered. If … and I stress if … you are carrying a LEP, then it will be genetically mixed. So we don’t know.”
“But you don’t think I am?”
“No. I don’t. Baby looks one hundred percent human. Now, let’s get a nice face close up and you can stare at that while I do the boring medical stuff Dean wants.” Ellen reached to the machine, switched to 3D and placed the wand on Jenny’s stomach. The second she did, she immediately lifted.
“What? What’s wrong?”
Ellen cleared her throat and replaced the wand. “Jenny …” She stared at the image of the baby. Even though 3D often distorted and made the baby in utero looked monstrous, there was no mistaking the immediate features of the face. “Jenny, the baby ...”
Jenny looked at the image on the screen and gasped.
“Maybe we can’t be sure,” Ellen said. “You know how these 3D images get. Remember Leah? Everyone was convinced she as having a Cyclops baby.”
“It is Ellen, I can tell.” Jenny said softly.
“There really is one way to be sure. I’ll get Dean in …”
“No.” Jenny stopped her. “Please don’t. Don’t tell Dean, don’t tell anyone. Not yet. Promise.”
“I promise. I won’t say a word. Can I ask why?”
“I don’t know what I want to do,” Jenny said. “LEP or not, it is still my baby.”
Ellen understood. She snapped off a photo and printed it, then resumed the medical portion of the ultrasound and gathered her results. Results she wouldn’t share with anyone.
<><><><>
It seemed as if every twenty seconds or so, Hal’s phone was going off and making some sort of noise. A beep, a bling, or buzz.
He didn’t mind that Danny made that post about him not wanting video chat. He didn’t even mind that Frank commented. What annoyed Hal was, the insane amount of people “liking” Frank’s subtle reply.
One hundred and seventy-nine people and still counting, liked Frank’s post, “Hal sucks.”
And to make matters worse he got an alert every time someone either liked it or replied to Frank. And people didn’t reply to Frank.
They praised him.
LOL Frank.
OMG Frank, you’re so funny.
Way witty.
What? Really? They praised him as if he were some sort of literary God. It was unbelievable. Hal tried to put it behind him and even called his father and his father just said, “Hal let it go.”
He would. He had too many things to do. Number one was to visit Jason up at the quantum lab. He requested that Fort meet them up there, as well.
Fort was from the future
Hundred years in the future. A time when there were such things as time cops. Fort was a time cop. He was raised to be one. A time when embryos were grown in labs and given numbers then distributed for different types of skill sets and raised that way.
Fort was a different type of entity. He was chasing Roy when he arrived and got stuck in Beginnings.
Fort had a lot of knowledge of how things worked, that was why Hal wanted him at the meeting. He was used to chasing Time criminals.
By the time Hal arrived Jason was already at the lab as was Fort.
Both sat on opposite ends of the lab Hal shifted his eyes from Jason to Fort. “Am I missing something? Are you two fighting?”
“No,” Jason said. “We have nothing to say to each other.”
“We have nothing in common,” Fort said.
“You’re kidding right?” Hal asked. “You guys both have a bit of time guy in you.”
“If you want to call him that.” Jason pointed to Fort.” “He’s more in a monitor and time cop. I, however, am the father time.”
“Oh look at you being all arrogant,” Ford said. “Please. You may have invented but you didn’t perfect it.”
“Gentlemen.” Hal held up a chance
. “An insult fest is not why I brought you here. I came to ask both of you a question. Are all time travel devices and pendants for return trips accounted for?”
“I believe they are. I mean every device that I know of” Jason said.
“I turned what I had in,” Fort said.
“Unless somebody invented a new one. Which I highly doubt,” Jason said. “We’re covered and have them. Can I ask why you are asking?”
“Seems our former President George Hadley has come up with a theory about our would be Frank killer,” Hal said. “He believes the reason that the killer is so lax, and so bold about what he’s doing and sloppy is because he plans on leaving. And that somewhere is not out of Beginnings distance wise.”
“You mean he plans on going somewhere else in time?” Jason asked. “That’s actually a very good theory.”
Hal nodded. “That’s what I thought.”
“So you are starting to think that this would be Frank assassin,” Jason said, “is possibly our time jumper?”
Hal nodded.
Fort looked confused. “Time jumper?”
“Yes,” Jason said. “We discovered that someone had come from the future. The not too distant future and went all the way 12 years pre-plague. We believe he or she probably did that to get into our good graces. So they could easily kill Frank”
“Or…” Foresaid “they may have been sightseeing. I know that people don’t have elaborate plans when they decide to time jump. You wouldn’t believe the crazy shit that people do and where they go. Hell, 1954 is a big place. Don’t ask me why. Also, death by plague is a very popular thing.”
“Death by plague?” Hal asked.
Fort nodded. “Yup. They time jump back to the time of the plague. As soon as they step through the Time Machine they get sick and die. Death by plague. Usually when we discover that’s where they’re going. We don’t follow.”
“So you’re saying, that is possible, that our time jumper that Jason and Roy discovered, isn’t an assassin, but could possibly be a suicidal tourist?” Hal asked.
“It’s possible,” Fort answered.
Hal looked at Jason. “Can you lock down the Time Machine?”
Jason nodded. “I can lock the facility I can shut down the machine.”
“What about…” Fort said. “Something else. The ability to track the time jumper has not been invented. If the would-be assassin actually is here to kill Frank, he or she has the intention to kill Frank and jump through time. They have a destination in mind. So, instead of locking the cryo lab, lock time.”
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