Time Control

by Rex Bolt

  Pike threw it into park and got out of the car, trying to keep it casual, but moving toward the guy, keeping an eye on the truck. The truck was putting out that steady Beep beep beep they make when they’re in reverse, and Pike had to make a decision.

  Pike yelled to the hardhat guy, but the guy didn’t react like he heard him. So with the truck 10 feet away, Pike scooped the guy up under the armpits and tried to gently sweep him outside the line of fire.

  Unfortunately it didn’t come out so gentle, and the hardhat guy went up in the air for a second and came down and skittered to a stop along the asphalt on the far side of the pothole.

  He got up slowly, tried to dust himself off. His work pants were torn through at the knees and his palms were kind of cut up. “What THE FUCK!” he yelled at Pike.

  The flagman was helping the hardhat guy and the driver stopped the truck and got out.

  Pike said, “I … I’m sorry sir. I just … reacted. Didn’t know if you were going to get run over there.”

  The flagman was laughing. “He did get run over,” the guy said. “You ran him over.” The truck driver started laughing now too, both of them with their shoulders wiggling up and down below their hardhats, which got Pike wanting to laugh himself, but he didn’t.

  “Anyway …” Pike said to the clipboard guy, hoping that was it and he could hightail it out of there.

  The dude was rolling his neck around, like he was making sure everything still worked. “I’m okay,” he said.

  “Oh good,” Pike said, and started getting back in the car.

  “Good throw though,” the flagman said, and he and the driver had another good laugh, and Pike drove off.

  ***

  Cathy came by after dinner and they were up in Pike’s room supposedly doing homework together.

  Pike said, “Well, there was another superman type deal today. Not as important maybe as stopping that thief.

  “Ooh,” Cathy said. “What now?”

  “Ah, I probably overreacted. I thought someone might get run over, and I sort of flung them out of the way.”

  “You mean … really flung him?”

  “I’m not sure. The man might realize later that it wasn’t quite normal. Luckily he was pretty mad, so that kind of overshadowed it.”

  Cathy thought about it. “So okay … you’re doing good then … For the world. You should be proud.”

  “Yeah well, something tells me you’re worried, just like me, that sooner or later one of these … do-goods … it’ll get way out of hand.”

  She didn’t respond to that, one way or the other. She said, “When I came in, your mom said for us to come down and get cookies when they came out of the oven. Should we?”

  “Well to tell you the truth, I’ve been smelling them,” Pike said. “Wouldn’t be the worst thing.”

  His phone rang.

  “Pike? Mitch Corrigan.”

  “Oh hi,” Pike said.

  “I wanted to touch base. Let you know I didn’t forget about you … Nothing definitive yet.”

  “Okay. Maybe don’t worry about it actually then.”

  “Whoa, are you sure?” Mitch said. “It’s my pleasure, you’re not putting me out, if that’s a concern.”

  Pike was still picturing the dude from a few hours ago, taking his little ride, airborne.

  He said, “Only reason I contacted you … a friend of mine, he got a new filling, then he felt sick the next day … Then later he got stronger than normal … Though probably he’s just thinking that. Since he’s been lifting weights too.”

  “I see … ,” Mitch said. “Your friend … is he worried about anything?”

  “I haven’t asked him lately … Hard to know, I guess.”

  There was a silence.

  “Then tell your friend, please relax,” Mitch said. His voice was kind. “We’ll sort this out … Everything’s going to be fine.”

  “‘Kay,” Pike said.

  “Where’s your friend live, if you don’t mind my asking? I see your area code, it looks like the central valley.”

  “Right. He lives with me, I mean my town. Beacon.”

  “That where he went to the dentist, then?”

  “Not sure on that,” Pike said. “I’ll ask him.”

  “That would help,” Mitch said. “When did all this happen to him … as far as you know?”

  “I’m thinking he said right after school let out for the summer. So I guess it would have been June? … The getting sick part, that was the next day, or thereabouts … From what I understand.”

  “All right, good. Now you say he developed an odd strength? … That happened along with him becoming ill.”

  “No,” Pike said. “That part came later … Like just a couple weeks ago, I think.”

  Mitch didn’t say anything for a minute. Pike assumed he was writing stuff down.

  “All-righty then,” Mitch said.

  Pike said, “Does any of this … ring a bell at all now?”

  “We’ll find out,” Mitch said, and they hung up.

  Cathy said, “Okay. What?”

  “Nah, nothing much. That was your website man, the guy in charge I guess.”

  “Wow … How did that all happen?”

  “Not important. Just out of curiosity, did you hear anything more from that Reggie person?”

  “No I haven’t.”

  “Well let’s get some cookies,” Pike said.

  Chapter 14 Up The Drive

  That Friday night Hamilton beat Walker Union, but Pike didn’t have a great game, though he was able to pull it together at the end.

  He was missing some throws to open receivers, not a big concern for a normal quarterback who could have an off-day, but that hadn’t happened to Pike before. He started wondering during the game if something was going haywire inside him.

  This just made things worse. Walker Union led by 10 in the fourth quarter, and Pike picked it up in the last 5 minutes, was pretty much letter-perfect then, and he helped Hamilton march down the field twice and take the lead with inside a minute left, and then hold on for the win.

  So afterwards he was pretty convinced that nothing had changed, that he was probably preoccupied with the UFO garbage, and that the problem earlier in the game was mental, not physical.

  There was a party afterward at a kid named Colton’s house, one of the running backs, and Pike stopped by. Foxe ignored him, but no one tried to fight him this time. Gina was there, and Pike expected Cathy to show up, and was a little surprised she hadn’t come with Gina.

  “Not sure,” Gina said when Pike asked her.

  That was kind of a weird answer. Maybe the two of them had an argument?

  He texted Cathy and helped himself to a half a glass of punch that had something added to it, and waited for Cathy to get back. An hour went by, and he didn’t have a good feeling at all.

  He left the party and drove to her house. Her dad answered the door and said he’d go get her, and Cathy came outside and they took a walk down the driveway. She looked distraught.

  “What the heck,” Pike said.

  “Babe I’m sorry,” she said. “It’s too much for me.”

  “You mean … my thing?”

  “Yes … I thought I had it under control, but I can’t handle it right now.”

  Pike wasn’t feeling too good, and he sat down on the sidewalk.

  Cathy said, “It’s totally my fault, is what it is … I’m obviously not a strong enough person. I’ve let this get to me.”

  Pike’s voice was weak. “I get it,” he said. “It were me, and this was reversed, I’d feel the same … you handled it darn well … no way was that all right for me jam you with this … burden.”

  “I’ll still see you at school, and stuff,” she said.

  “Sure. But … let’s just cool the jets,” he said. “Right?”

  Cathy put a hand on his cheek and nodded, and he watched her turn and go quick
ly up the driveway and disappear into the house.

  Chapter 15 Directions

  When Pike got home he made a beeline for his room and closed the door. He put his head in the pillow and let himself sob for a couple minutes.

  Now what?

  He turned on the computer. Maybe find a movie, to take him the heck somewhere else.

  He had his friend Vaughn’s sign-in info, which Vaughn had said use any time but Pike never had until now, and he went on Netflix and started looking around. His mind all over the place, none of it good.

  An email came in. The last thing he wanted to do was check it, but there was at least a chance it was from Cathy, wasn’t there?

  It was from that guy Mitch.

  It read: Have some information.

  That was it? What the heck.

  This is all he needed now. My girlfriend dumps me, and some loony tune off the internet is teasing me with something out of a Martian comic book.

  Most likely …

  Pike shut down the email and stretched out on his bed with the laptop and ended up watching ‘The Passengers’.

  Of all movies.

  There’s like a 99-year space voyage to another planet, and they hibernate everyone so they won’t age. But something goes wrong and one guy wakes up. Basically the movie is: Should the dude wake up someone else, so he has company, even though he’ll be screwing them over.

  Pike decided when you allowed yourself to buy into the ridiculous set-up, the movie wasn’t bad. But you had to let go of what you knew was not realistic.

  Mrs. Hopper, his 10th-grade English teacher, one of the few classes where he paid attention, called it: you’re suspending disbelief. This was when they were reading a science fiction story. A guy comes home from work, and everything is reversed in his neighborhood. The story was pretty good, it kept you off balance.

  But like Mrs. Hooper said, you had to read it with a different type mind, otherwise you’d laugh out loud and toss the book in the garbage

  It was going to be tough to sleep tonight. Pike put on some Dierks Bentley and laid there in the dark and did his best.

  ***

  He rarely drank coffee but it smelled good this morning, and he went downstairs. His dad was sitting at the table.

  “Just read the game story in the paper PK. Way to go.”

  “Thanks Dad,” Pike said, still glad his dad was as casual about it as he was. Every game, on the sidelines, and even out there on the field, Pike could hear plenty of other guys’ dads yelling stuff from the stands.

  “We’re all going to Ben and Jackie’s today,” his dad said. “They finished building that addition. They’re having a barbeque, pool party type affair. Don’t suppose you want to come?”

  “Nah, I’m good. Little chilly for a pool party too, it sounds like.”

  “Yeah, well, it’s the spirit of the thing … Tell you the truth, for your mother and me, at our stage, there isn’t a whole heck of a lot to do in this town. So you take what you can get . . . You’re looking at it different, you’re in the middle of all that action.”

  “Not that much, really,” Pike said.

  “Have fun with it,” his dad said. “You got what, seven, eight months? Then everything changes. The real game begins.”

  “Jeez. You’re dropping some heavy stuff on me.”

  His dad laughed. “Don’t mean to be. But there’s a reality. We all go through it … Anyhow, you got a terrific gal there, in Cathy. Don’t foul that up, and you’ll be fine.” He winked at Pike and headed out to the yard.

  Pike supposed he should get back to the Mitch guy. If he emailed him, that would be short and sweet, he could just say What do you got, please? and forget about it until if-and-when Mitch spelled out something halfway concrete, and even then it likely wouldn’t be worth paying attention to.

  But he went ahead and phoned him.

  “You just caught me,” Mitch said. “I’m halfway out the door, on my way to the beach.”

  “At 7:30 in the morning?” Pike said.

  “Absolutely. I surf. Or at least the old man’s version.”

  “Whatever … you sent me a message?”

  “Yes. I want to talk to you. I can drive up there, it’s only about three hours, depending on traffic.”

  “You do? … When?”

  “I can come this afternoon. The only thing I would ask, that we meet just the two of us.”

  “So … whatever it is you want to tell me—that I can pass on to my friend—it’s not for public consumption?”

  “Not really, no.”

  Pike thought it over. “How about this. I come down there.”

  “That’s fine too,” Mitch said. “Long as you’re up for the drive.”

  “I’m cool with it. I’ll figure it out.”

  “Fine then. Like I said, the only thing, you want to be travelling solo.”

  Mitch gave him basic directions to Manhattan Beach, told him where to park where he wouldn’t get towed, and to meet him at the pier, at the first bench on the left, that overlooked the volleyball courts.

  When they hung up, the question popped up again: What did I just do?

  Chapter 16 Give or Take

  Mitch wasn’t kidding when he said three hours, give or take traffic. Everything was smooth until he got to to around Santa Monica, and you’d think you were almost there, just a couple beach towns down now, but you started crawling then, and it didn’t let up until you hit Sepulveda Boulevard.

  Pike parked in a neighborhood a half mile from the beach where Mitch told him, and walked into town. This was nice. Everyone casual, no one in a rush. Lots of sandals and board shorts. Girls in bikinis heading toward the beach.

  There was a competitive volleyball tournament going on in the sand, and there was a bench on the pier that overlooked it, right where Mitch said. Pike saw an old guy sitting there with a polo shirt and one of those straw hats with something wrapped around it like you see golfers wear.

  Before he could say anything, from ten feet away the man said, “Pike, right?” The guy was pretty sharp. They shook hands and Pike sat down.

  It was early afternoon, late September, a gold-medal day down here, and you could take it all in from up on the pier.

  There were surfers and boogie boarders and bodysurfers and a million people jogging and biking and having fun. Pike decided, honestly, how could it get much better than this?

  “Let me guess what you’re thinking,” Mitch said.

  “Well I’ve been to Huntington a couple times, and Santa Monica and Santa Barbara … But I don’t know, this kinda … beats ‘em all.”

  Mitch smiled. “Exactly why the wife and I hole up in this town.”

  “I know … But what’s something run you down here? People must need damn good jobs to afford it.”

  “You got that right. We have more or less a dive. But you don’t have to be inside much, if you don’t want to … That’s not why you came down though, to listen to me ramble.”

  “No.”

  Mitch clasped his fingers behind his head and took a look out toward the horizon. “You got a friend,” he said. “Or it is you we’re dealing with?”

  Pike didn’t have the energy to keep up the charade, and he didn’t know this Mitch guy from anything. But he felt comfortable with him.

  “Me,” he said.

  “Okay then. I got nothing definitive, mind you, just a few dots that may be connecting themselves.”

  “Before you get going on that,” Pike said. “You gotta be joking, if you’re going to be telling me I got suddenly strong because of an alien.”

  Mitch said, “Before I got into this stuff, really dived into it when I started the website, I thought the same way as you … But there must be some reason you drove four hours today.”

  “Because I don’t know what else to do!” Pike said. “Not a whole heck of lot of options.” It was one of the few times since it had happened that he felt his e
motions getting away from him.

  Mitch said quietly, “Do you want to tell me about it?”

  Pike was weighing it, thinking: Only Cathy knows so far. Is there any risk to telling this guy? Is he gonna call the government and have them study me?

  His gut instinct was the man wanted to help him, nothing more complicated than that. And that went along something Coach had been telling him too, that no matter what play they want you to run, sometimes you just have to go with your gut.

  “What it was, the first I knew of anything,” Pike said, “I tackled a guy. Our first league game. Three weeks ago now … Then later in the game another guy. I shouldn’t have been able to hurt him, but I did … Then the next day, I kind of experimented, and the game stuff wasn’t a fluke … There’ve also been, some incidents.”

  “What kind?” Mitch said.

  “Ah, I threw a guy in town like he was a loaf of bread. You’re probably going to laugh, but I also picked up a car, at least the front end.”

  “I’m with you … How you feeling now? Lately.”

  “Good. I mean not good, because I don’t know what the fuck is going on … Sorry.”

  Mitch tore open a little bag of peanuts and popped a handful in his mouth. “See the gal in the green?”he said, nodded toward the volleyball court. “She’s on her way to UCLA, full ride. She’s all conference everything at Mira Costa.”

  “When I was a sophomore, we actually played them,” Pike said. “I didn’t make the trip though. I was third string.”

  “So you … doing any more damage out there on the field, these last few weeks?”

  “Not that kind of damage. They took me off defense, stuck me at QB.”

  Mitch took a minute, was scrolling around on his phone now. “Man-Alive. You been lighting it up.”

  “Yeah. It’s kind of like I was telling my girlfriend. It feels sort of hollow.”

  “So she knows? How about your parents?”

  “No. Just her. And we broke up.”

  “Okay now, I got one more question for you, kid. You hungry?”

  “Are you kidding? I’m starving,” Pike said. Mitch got up and said he knew the right place, and they walked up a couple blocks to an old-time restaurant called The Kettle. Mitch said to get whatever he wanted, it was on him.