Gramps leans back in his chair and looks up at the ceiling. A smile comes to his face, like he’s remembering something. He starts to chuckle, shaking his head from side to side. Then leaning forward, he rests his forearms on his knees and clasps his hands together. We lean forward to hear what he will say.
“I think you were set up, young lady,” he starts off. “Everything you heard, you were specifically meant to hear. I doubt if Stiles was even talking to anybody. It’s classic.” He chuckles again.
“But he knows we got some of that gravity stuff, and he’s watching...”
“He doesn’t know squat,” Gramps interrupts me. “If he had anything other than a suspicion, you can bet your life he would have come through here with storm troopers and torn the place apart. They don’t know enough to even get a search warrant. No, Tyler. He’s just fishing, trying to save his ass.” He looks quickly at Kylie. “Please excuse my language young lady.”
“That’s okay. I hear it all the time at home.” She glances at Jared.
“And we still didn’t have it here on Sunday when he came over to invite us to the announcement. He just seemed real interested in my drawings.”
“Wait!” Gramps suddenly grows serious, thinking out loud. “That’s right. Stiles was here yesterday.”
“Yeah.”
“And he saw your drawings. So he was up in your loft.”
“Yeah,” I reply a little more anxiously.
“That sneak,” Gramps mutters under his breath. Then he asks me, “Have you been up there since?”
“No sir,” I answer.
“Good. That’s good.” Then to all of us he says, “You kids sit here for a couple of minutes.” He gets up and hurries into the house.
We do as we are told and quietly wait. I can’t imagine what he needs to get or why he has become so concerned about Stiles visit on Sunday. I reach into my pocket and pull the flashlight out to look at it wondering what kind of trouble we are in.
“Is that it?” Kylie asks. I nod. “Can I look at it?”
Gramps comes out carrying a small wand shaped gadget. “We’ll all have a look in a little bit, Kylie,” he says. “Put that away for now Tyler.”
He walks quickly across the drive to the shed. We get up and follow him, catching up just as he passes through the door. At the bottom of the stairs, he turns around and stops us, putting his index finger to his lips to keep us quiet and motioning for us to stay put. He turns and transfers the wand thing to his other hand, poking at a red switch as he does. I see an LED light up and the thing begins to hum softly. He slowly walks up the stairs, moving the wand from side to side as he goes. We wait silently.
Jared and I look at each other. We have read enough stories to guess that Gramps is looking for electronic bugs, and I’m more than curious as to why grandfather would have that kind of tool. I remember the conversation we had earlier in the day. There must be a lot I still don’t know about him.
Another five minutes go by before I hear the puttering sound of Jen’s scooter outside. “What’s she doing here?” Jared whispers to me. I shrug and walk out of the building. Jen sees me right away and waves. I wave back.
“Heard you were having a BBQ today with Jared and Kylie. Did you think you could keep me from coming?” she says jokingly.
“Huh?” I have no idea what she is talking about. Kylie has come up behind me and the two girls greet each other.
“Sorry Tyler,” Kylie explains. “We had to give our dad a reason why we were coming over here and that’s the best I could think of. We really don’t expect a BBQ.”
“Hey Tyler?” I hear Jared shout from the shed. “He’s done!”
“Who’s done with what?” Jen asks as the two girls and I head back to the shed.
Gramps is standing there with the wand thing in one hand. In his other hand are four tiny disks. I know immediately what they are.
“What are…” she starts to ask. I move my finger to my lips to quiet her.
“It’s okay, Tyler,” Gramps says calmly. “They’ve been... deactivated, I guess you could say.” We all stare at the bugging devices, then at each other. “Maybe we should go upstairs and have a talk?”
Nobody moves for another minute. Then Gramps turns around and starts back up the stairs. Jared follows, then Jen and Kylie. I go last feeling like some sort of doom is about the come down on us.
Gramps has crossed over to the window and is looking outside. Jared takes a seat in the desk chair while the girls sit together on the couch. I stand and look at all the drawings of spacecraft and saucers on my corkboard. The work of some not-so-idle dreamer, they look like evidence of a conspiracy to me now. I hear a voice behind me. It sounds serious and businesslike. I turn around to listen to what Gramps is saying.
“You kids are in pretty deep here,” he starts out, “and I’m glad I’m around to see it.” He smiles. “It seems you have two options now. Captain Stiles has given you a way to return the property he thinks you have. You also have a chance to give the world what might be the most important discovery since the internal combustion engine.” He pauses for a moment. “You could change the course of humanity with the knowledge you have gained over the last two days.”
“What are you talking about?” Kylie asks curiously. Jared shifts uneasily in his seat.
“Tyler?” Gramps looks at me. “It’s time we all take a look.”
Everybody looks at me. The room is quiet with anticipation. I hadn’t thought that what Jared and I had done as being world changing. Now it feels as if the weight of the world is on our shoulders. But as I draw the flashlight out of my pocket, the irony of that thought, and the weightless wonder in my hand, puts a smile on my face.
Gramps has placed the small end table in the center of the room. “Jared, would you get another envelope out of the top drawer?” I ask as we begin to gather around the table. Jen and Kylie look puzzled. We had told them part of the story, but seeing this is going to be altogether different.
Jared places the new envelope on the table as I kneel down in front of it to unscrew the base of the flashlight and draw the curled envelope out. After setting the flashlight down, I pull the inner envelope out of the second one Jared had put it into. Just like in the shiff, I position my right hand a couple of inches over the top of the envelope that’s in my left and let go. We all watch it rise from one to the other.
I look around at my friends in the room. Jen and Kylie have blank looks of disbelief on their faces. Jared is smiling, as is Gramps. I open the end of the empty envelope and create an empty space inside with my finger. Turning the other upside down, I open it also. This makes me nervous.
“Careful,” I hear Gramps say softly. I hold the empty envelope upside down with the flap opened to function as a funnel. Slowly I begin tilting the other envelope so that the two open ends are only about an inch apart. I keep turning until the faint, bluish-grey cloud begins to float out of one envelope into the other.
“Oh my god,” I hear Jennifer whisper.
I hand the original envelope to Jared. “Close this before you turn it over again,” I suggest quietly. Then I close the envelope with the powder in it, set it on the table anchored by the flashlight.
The others move away from the table to where they had been prior to the demonstration. I get up and join Gramps at the window. He puts his hand on my shoulder and smiles. We look out the window for a few minutes. The sun is out. There are only a few clouds in the sky and there is enough of a breeze to keep cool. The sense of doom has left me replaced by one of hope and optimism. Together, Gramps and I turn our gaze into the room.
Kylie speaks first. “You can’t keep it. Sooner or later they’re going to find out you have it. It could get us all in real big trouble.” There is fear in her voice.
“I think we should keep it. Figure out how it works and post the information on the internet,” Jared counters. “That way it can’t be kept secret.”
“They wouldn’t do that,” Kylie shoots ba
ck. Jared is about to launch another volley when Gramps interrupts.
“You’re both right, of course,” he states, diffusing the conflict between brother and sister. “We’ll give it back Kylie. But I’m afraid your brother is right too. Whoever was there to receive this material will keep it secret until they have made all of their corporate deals, and are ready to share the discovery with the rest of the world. They did that with hydrogen development in the recent past simply to make all they could off of oil before the switch to the hydrogen economy. That’s the way they work.”
“I don’t believe you,” she replies crossly.
“Study your history then, but not just what you learn in school. That’s tainted history, to push someone’s agenda. Read some of the fringe books. Granted, some of them are ‘out there’,” he air quotes with his hands, “but there is always an element of truth to the stories and reports written by some of those people who get labeled as conspiracy nuts. What we have to do is figure out everything we can about the stuff and then give it back.”
“They?” Jennifer questions. “You sound as if they are the enemy.”
“Not the enemy, just control freaks,” Jared chimes in, sounding frustrated. “It sounds like a pretty good plan to me Grandpa Williams, but how do we find out what it’s made of and how it works?”
“Willie,” I inject quickly. “He’s got access to a spectrometer at school so we can at least find out what it’s made of.”
“I really didn’t want to involve anybody else,” Jared says, “but if that’s the only option, then, okay. That’s part of the problem solved. But how can we find out how it works?”
“You’ll need to get a closer look at it,” Gramps suggests. “Tyler, does your mom still have that microscope she bought from the hospital when they were replacing some of their old equipment?”
“It’s around somewhere.”
“Good. We’ll get that out and take a look. We’ll probably see something that will lead us to the next step. That’s usually the way it works.” He walks over to the window to look outside again.
“What should we call it?” Jennifer asks after a few minutes. “We can’t keep calling it ‘it’ or ‘the stuff’.” We look at each other but she answers her own question. “How about ‘grey bits’? For now anyway?”
There are no objections or any other ideas. Gramps turns and looks at each one of us slowly as if he is trying to see something. “You know you’re all in this together. You’re a team. You can’t talk about this to anybody. You can still get yourselves into plenty of trouble. At least until we find out everything we can about it and return whatever remains to Stiles.” We all nod in agreement. “And then, even if you decide to end the project, I would suggest you keep the information closely guarded. There are other entities in the world that are trying to solve the gravity problem too, and they will stop at nothing to try and get any new information that might put them closer to the solution.” I begin feel a new sense of danger.
“Now. How about that barbeque that you all came over for?” Gramps seems himself again as he asks the question with a wink. “Is anybody ready for lunch?”
“I’m ready,” Jennifer agrees.
“Me too,” Kylie adds. “Thanks Grandpa Williams.”
“Maybe you kids should just call me Tom,” Gramps suggests. “At least when it’s just us. Grandpa just sounds too old for some reason.”
“Okay... Tom,” Kylie giggles.
“Who’s going to talk to Willie?” Jared asks.
“Oh, I think we’ll all be around to do that,” Gramps replies looking out the window again. It’s then I hear Willie’s beast coming up the drive.
Under the Microscope
I hold the case tightly in my hands. It has taken all week to convince Mom that I am responsible enough to use the delicate instrument. “You want to look at dirt?” she had asked me. What else could I tell her? Besides, it does kind of look like dirt. Maybe that’s what we should call it. I set the case on my table, release the catch, and open it.
It may be old equipment to the hospital, but the microscope still looks shiny and new to me. Somebody had taken real good care of it. They even resold it with some slides and slide covers in the case. I remember asking Mom what she wanted to use it for when she brought it home. She had said, “It’s fun to look at all the tiny things in the world.” Thinking about it now, I wonder if she was trying to interest me in a medical career. Hopefully she will still be proud of me if I contribute to the defeat of gravity.
I smile at that thought, looking away from the scope and up at my drawings. Can dreams come true? With heightened enthusiasm, I feel I’m about to find out as I lift the scope out of the case and set it on the table. Uncoiling the power cord, I plug it in and flip the switch labeled 0/1. Nothing happens. I double check the plug and try the switch again; still nothing. “Crap!”
I look around for access to the light bulb. Why can’t anything ever go right, right from the start? Somewhere in my head I hear Mr. Venturi saying, ‘The road to wisdom is filled with detours and roadblocks. Don’t be discouraged.’ I try to relax. Spotting the thumbscrews, I spin them off.
The cover comes off easily. I give the bulb a jiggle. It flickers, apparently being only a little loose. I give it a turn. Being that close, the light momentarily blinds me and I look away, quickly toggling the switch back to the off position. Then I remember, high intensity lights like this should not be touched directly. Something about oil from fingers causing overheating, lessening bulb life. Probably needs to be cleaned anyway after so much time.
Looking through the case, I find a small compartment with a cloth for cleaning and a box labeled ‘Spare Bulb’. I pick it up and hear the spare rattle around. Underneath is the manual, but I don’t have time to look through that just yet.
I use the cloth to spin the bulb out of its socket to wipe it off. Holding the bulb with the cloth, I turn it back into its socket and then wipe the microscope off. I almost feel like a professional as I put the bulb’s cover back on, tighten the screws, and try the switch again. Light!
Leaning over, I look through the eyepiece. Nothing but light of course, but I spin the lens group to the next power and look again anyway. Everything seems to be working. It’s time for the next step. I reach into the microscope case to retrieve a slide and a cover, and set them down on the desk beside the table.
Taking the flashlight from my pocket, I pull the chair up and sit down before opening its end cap to take the envelope out. How’s this going to work? I set the flashlight aside to ponder how to get something that wants to float away, onto a slide that’s designed for something that wants to be held down by gravity. And how can I get just one? The little gray bits are hard enough to see in a group!
I lean back in the chair, spinning the small envelope in my hands. I’m going to need some way to see them. That’s easy enough. I get up and walk over to the makeshift bookshelf where an old, single lens, somewhat scratched up magnifying glass is tucked in the cubby of a cinder block. As I pick it up, I feel just a little pride about graduating from my old lens to the new, compound microscope. I carry it over to my table, placing the envelope carefully under the lens. Now where’s the stand?
In the corner by the stairs, is a box with a lot of stuff that I thought I’d never use. At one point I had wanted to throw it all out, but Gramps predicted, ‘A day is going to come when you’re going to need some of that stuff.’ I guess that day is finally here. I look through the box trying to find the stand the magnifying glass came with. It’s still here but I shudder as I recall a bad memory from a couple of years ago.
Dad had just finished helping me set up the loft and I decided to decorate, if you could call it that, by placing some of my favorite items around in different spots. The magnifying glass, attached to the stand, was put on display on the windowsill. It had only taken a few minutes to go into the house for something to drink, but by the time I had gotten back, the lens had focused the sun’s late aftern
oon rays on a stack of books sitting on the floor waiting for a shelf to be built for them. The top book had begun smoking and would have burst into flames in a few more minutes had I not come back.
I was pretty shook up at the time, tears coming to my eyes as I thought about what could have happened. When Dad had come back later to see how things were going, he smelled the smoke. I couldn’t hide it, so I showed him the book, trying to explain how the accident had happened. Dad’s anger quickly passed as he realized the worst had been avoided. Smiling, I remember hearing his ‘accidents don’t happen, carelessness happens’ speech for the first time. ‘You just need to be more careful, son,’ he told me. Then he hugged me and gave me a gentle whack on the rump to help me remember.
Putting the anxiety of that memory aside, I set the stand on the floor next to the box wondering what else I might be able to use. I spot one of Gramps’ old motorcycle mirrors. I thought it was pretty cool when he had given it to me, suggesting I’d have a use for it someday. I carry the two items over to my table.
Now. How to get just one. I pick up a second envelope to see if I can transfer a single gray bit. I watch a small cloud of them tumble upward from one into the other before I can control the flow. I decide to try again with a third envelope. I remember when Mom had showed me how to separate egg whites from their yolks when I was just a little kid. Funny how you never know what might be useful.
It’s a problem juggling the different envelopes. I have to close one, set it down and pick up the next, always making sure the flaps are closed or pointing downward. With each transfer, the cloud of bits gets smaller and I return the eliminated bits to the original envelope. Finally, in one of the envelopes, I get the working group down to as few as I can, but it’s impossible to know how many. Now I want to try and get just one onto a slide. I pick up the magnifying glass to try looking at the bits through the envelope’s paper wall. I see the shadows of clouds, but also note a faint sparkle through the paper.
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