by J. C. Allen
“Can’t say I blame you. Seems foolish to even attempt to buy you out. Do you mind if we check out the property?” Rick asked as nicely as possible.
“You planning on buying it?”
“Of course not. I’m not foolish!” Rick answered quickly.
“Well sure, then. I’ve seen no rules about trespassing. It’s fully insured, too. I see no reason why not. It’s as if Mrs. Taylor wanted someone to explore it someday…”
Rick was elated, “Do I need to contact you or get a letter stating permis—”
“Contact? Why, no, just walk right on up to it. I hear the caves are fairly interesting and completely stable; otherwise, it’s just a steep hillside. No minerals have ever been found in the caves or anything. I’ve always speculated that it was just special to the couple because they got their first jollies there or something.”
“Is there a fence or anything?”
“Fence? Why, I don’t know. No, I suppose not, or there would be some upkeep on it. No, there must not be anything but weeds around it. Worthless hunk of land, it is.”
Anna came down the stairs and told Rick it was 11:10, and she needed to be at the track soon.
He held his hand over the receiver and said, “Put your stuff in the van and tell Kaylie to load hers too and everyone else pack the cave gear. We’ll be up in a minute!”
He turned back to the phone, “Well, Mr…?”
“Johnson, Edsel Johnson!”
“Johnson, I thank you so much for your time. You have been most helpful. I hope to check the place out today, it’s all so intriguing to me!”
“I’m glad I could help, and glad you weren’t trying to buy the blasted thing,”
Rick chuckled. “Goodbye, Mr. Johnson, thanks again for your time!”
“No problem. Good-bye.”
Rick hung up and smiled at Abby.
“Intrigue, surrounded by mystery, wrapped in an enigma…” she said.
“Yeah… Yeah, definitely,” he replied distractedly. “Well, we have a track meet to go to; let’s move it!”
They gathered the girls and their things, piled into the minivan and left for the school.
On the way, Alex took out the ‘UC’ as they now called the Chronicler, and started to play with it.
“Honey,” Rick said, “I don’t want you using that thing at the meet or anywhere in public for that matter.”
“Why?” she asked.
“It’s dangerous enough to have knowledge of the future, but even more dangerous to have actual technology. We have to keep this a complete secret. There are seven people who know about it already; that’s probably seven too many. There’s some reason why Taylor thought it should be destroyed. Do you understand?”
“Yeah, I guess so. Can I stay in the van and play with it?”
“It’s not a toy, Alex.”
“I know, Dad. The windows are tinted, someone would just think I’m watching a DVD or playing a video game or something...”
“OK, but you will keep the doors locked and keep it out of sight completely. And use your cell phone to let me know if you’re getting out so I can watch you.”
“Oh Dad,” she whined.
He turned and glared at her.
“OK, OK!”
“Can I stay, too?” Kaylie asked.
“Me too?” chimed Christy.
“Yeah. Same rules apply to you, too. Nobody opens a door or even a window without me watching. Got it?”
“Can we have the keys to run the air?” Alex asked.
Alex giggled, “Like we would want to be seen cruising around in this hunk of junk!” She rolled her eyes for effect.
Rick pulled into the parking lot minutes later and easily found a spot where he could watch the van just to be safe. Rick had always been a little over-protective of the girls — he readily admitted to it — but the girls were all used to it, and he hoped they actually appreciated his total devotion to their safety.
Rick took the extra key with its own key ring, one he had made just for this purpose — the girls often wanted to stay in the van and watch a movie or something while he went in to shop or they were stranded at a hopelessly boring event. He left the van running, cracked the sunroof barely a quarter-inch and joined Abby, Anna and Jessica after reminding the girls of the rules and closing the doors, checking each lock personally.
Jessica pulled Rick and Abby to a place she claimed would give them the best view of Anna’s events. Sure enough, they were near the finish line for all of her running events and only 25 yards away from the high jump pit.
Rick sat down with Abby and Jessica bracketing him. They sat silently for a minute, waiting for the events to start. Jessica was already bored.
“OK, this is fun. How about we go get some hot dogs and drinks and candy?” Rick asked, seeing her boredom.
“Sounds good to me!” his daughter answered instantly.
“I’ll stay and watch the stuff,” Abby offered.
Rick pulled out his phone. “I’ll see what the girls want on the way. Let’s go Jess; we don’t want to miss any of the excitement.”
Jessica rolled her eyes.
Rick dialed Alex.
“Uh, hello Dad?” she answered, perturbed that he was already checking up on her.
“What are those boys doing getting in my van?” he accused angrily.
“What! There’s no—”
“Don’t give me that, I saw three boys go around the other side of the van and disappear just now. Was that really your plan? Is that why you wanted to stay?”
“Dad! I—”
He burst into laughter, “I’m joking honey! Sheesh! What would you girls like from the concession stand?” he asked.
“Uh…” she was still shaken from the joke, “we just ate like a couple hours ago...”
“So you don’t want anything? Drinks? Candy?”
Alex asked the other girls, eventually giving him a list of drinks, candy, and nachos for Kaylie. They were already in line to order when he hung up. They placed their order and walked over to the van to give the girls their food.
Kaylie slid the door open when they arrived, excited. “OHMYGOD! Rick, you have to see some of this stuff, we just watched an entire herd of dinosaurs! It was—”
“Shhhhh!”
She instantly lowered her voice, but continued, “So neat! And cavemen and—”
Christy butted in, “You should have seen some of these creatures Rick. A lot of them had fur! We’ve always assumed all the dinosaurs had scales, but half of them had fur. Some of them were soooo cute!”
“Cavemen were stupid, Dad,” Alex chimed in next.
“Yeah,” Kaylie continued, “we saw one smash his own hand with a rock, and then he showed another guy what he did by smashing his hand again! S—T—U—PID!”
“Must have been one of your ancestors,” Jessica commented with a giggle.
“That’s really cool, kids, but keep your voices down and promise me you won’t look at any future ones, OK?”
They nodded agreement.
He then considered something else, “Also, a lot of things in the past may be violent or cruel… I want you to promise to stop any of them that are, OK? Like if they start killing each other or get eaten by a giant lizard or something—”
“OK, Dad, but we already watched a bunch of cavemen beat each other up, but it was almost funny, like watching wrestling and the Three Stooges combined!”
“That’s what I don’t want you to see. I wish the thing had some kind of parental control—”
“It does. I mean there are options to hide certain content or skip or black out scenes. It’s all in the instructions but I haven’t tried any of it yet.”
“Here, let me look,” he said.
She handed it over and he found the options. He quickly checked the options to filter out and censor vulgarity, violence and sexual content, and then handed it back.
Alex rolled her eyes, “I’m not that immature, Dad.”
; “You girls be careful with that thing, you hear me? There are still things that are dangerous to watch. I’ll call you in a while. Call me or write down anything you think is important as well, OK?”
They all agreed. Rick closed the door with a slightly uneasy feeling of what they could still see, but decided to trust them a bit more. He and Jessica strolled back through the crowd and sat back down beside Abby. Anna had joined her.
“I don’t have an event until 12:45. Coach said to join my family if I wanted until then!”
“That’s cool. You want some of my drink and hot dog?” Rick offered.
“A little — a bite or two. I might get sick if I eat too close to a race.”
“What’s your first event?” Abby asked.
“A 200 meter relay. Then I got the 100 relay, high jump, 200, then the 100 is last. The high jump and the 200 are at the same time.”
“How do you do them both then?” Jessica asked curiously.
“I have to either finish the high jump before the 200 or ask to do it after. Coach said it won’t be a problem.”
“I hope not. It’ll be nice to see five blue ribbons today,” Rick said while chomping on a hot dog.
“You think I can win all five, Uncle Ricky?”
“Coach says you can.”
“I’m just a freshman...”
“And taller and stronger and faster than everyone else on the team,” Jessica interjected.
“Don’t get cocky on us or anything though,” Rick warned, shaking his fist at her.
“Whatcha gonna do, beat me up, Uncle Ricky?”
“If I have to humble you, I will, little buttercup!”
“Don’t call me that!” she protested.
“Dish it out, but can’t take it, eh, buttercup?”
“You’re lucky I have food in my hands or I’d kick your butt!” she threatened hollowly.
“You’re lucky I paid for it or I’d get it all over you while I kick your butt,” he stuck his tongue out and shook his head like a bratty child.
Anna laughed, “Stop! You’re embarrassing me!”
“Good! You need it! Hah.”
Abby said with a sly smile on her face. “You sure you’re not their brother instead of their father?”
“Why, thank you for the compliment,” Rick said happily. “I didn’t realize I looked so young!”
“You don’t, you just act like it,” Jessica told him.
“Ouch!”
“It’s OK, Dad, we love when you’re silly!” she added.
“And immature,” said Anna.
“Look for more cavemen, I’m fascinated by evolution!” Christy said.
“I want to see something from the Roman Empire. We do have that assignment to do, remember?” Kaylie argued.
“Those dinosaurs are so incredible, though!” Alex cried.
“One more, then we get to pick some,” Christy agreed.
“OK, I’ve picked enough, you go ahead and do some,” Alex said as she handed over the UC.
Christy checked through the previews of several entries between 200,000 BC and 50,000 BC, and stopped at one around 80,000 BC. “Hey, these guys look a lot less ugly. They don’t look so hairy either. They’ve got on those weird shiny coats like Dr. Taylor had on,” she observed; the other girls closed in. Christy selected and played the file.
The men on the display were all wearing the same metallic-looking fabric they had seen the doctor wear in his lab, and were all milling about as if preparing for something significant. The majority of workers stopped and focused suddenly on a single point. Christy tried to zoom in on it, but couldn’t tell exactly what was going on. Conversations abruptly stopped as all the workers focused on a count-down timer that suddenly appeared clearly in the distance. A monotone voice could now be heard, “…six, five, four, three, two, one.”
In a flash of brilliance, accompanied by a rumble that shook the display, came a dart trailing fire into the sky.
“A missile?” Kaylie asked in shock.
“Looks that way, but why?” Alex questioned
They stared as the roar died and voices could once again be heard, “—like a success. If my calculations are right,” a brown-haired man with an enlarged nose stated, “it should impact after the planet passes Mars.”
“Perfect, do you think it will really alter the course enough?” asked another man.
“We spent eighteen months calculating to the nearest millimeter; it should impact Earth on May 30, 75,252 at 4:15 AM, to be precise,” the first man answered, entirely too satisfied with the prospect.
“And you’re sure nobody will detect it?”
“Of course not, its next orbit around the sun will be in the third millennium BC, then the 76th. Nobody has the technology to detect it until it’s upon them because it will enter the second orbit and approach Earth hiding in the shadow of Mars!”
“What’s the predicted damage?”
“Total. It’s roughly half the size of the moon and at the speed it will be traveling, that’s more than enough for our experiment.”
Christy was dumbfounded. “Experiment? They call destroying Earth an experiment? How could… Why? I mean…”
The voice continued for thirty minutes as the two men discussed speeds, forces, orbital changes and even chemical reactions as the silver-suited crews proceeded to sweep the area of any trace of their existence.
“We gotta tell Dad about this!” Alex finally declared and grabbed her phone.
“Didn’t that guy look familiar to you?” Kaylie asked no one in particular.
Anna was thirty yards from the finish line when Rick’s phone rang. He pulled it out and hit the button to answer but continued to watch the race. Anna was ahead by three yards, they had been even at the start of the straight stretch, but now she was pulling away handily. She increased the lead to five yards as she crossed the line, her other teammates were on the way, cutting across the field to help her celebrate. Rick, Abby and Jessica were all cheering when Rick realized he had turned on his phone and put it to his head. “Hello?” he finally managed to say.
“It’s about time Dad! What’s going on there?”
“Anna just won the 4x200 relay! Sorry, what’s going on there?”
“You have to see this Dad,” Alex insisted.
“What honey? Anna has another race in ten minutes, can’t you just explain it?”
“Well, I guess so, but it’s really important that you see it, too.”
“How important?” he asked, knowing the girls tended to put false weight on things in their lives.
“End-of-the-world-as-we-know-it important.”
“I warned you not to watch anything in the future,” he reminded her.
“We weren’t. Remember the video we saw where Taylor went to the future and the Earth was a cinder? Well, we were watching an entry from 80,000 BC and we saw what caused it!” Alex explained what she had seen in the video over the next few minutes while Anna was getting ready for the 4x100 relay.
Rick interrupted, “Honey, that’s definitely amazing, but Anna is about to run again. Just write down the entry for me. I do want to see it for myself but I can’t do anything about it now, can I? You’d kill me if I ran off during one of your races, wouldn’t you?”
“No, I guess you can’t do anything about it now, and yes, I would kill you,” she admitted, although definitely sounding defeated. “I guess it can wait, we have all the time in the world if this stuff is real, right?”
“Are you girls gonna stay in the van all day or are you gonna join us anytime soon?”
“We’re way too interested in this right now. Call when Anna’s gonna do her last event so I can watch, OK?”
“OK, will do. Be careful with that thing, Alex. I’m serious.”
“What was that about?” Abby whispered in his ear.
“Wait until Anna’s race is over…”
A few seconds later, the gun sounded for the start of the relay. Rick watched as the first three girls g
ot a slight lead in the first three legs, then Anna’s turn came up and she simply trotted away to grab the baton and left the second place girl in her wake from there, coasting to victory. Jessica continued to cheer for her cousin as Rick and Abby sat back down to continue their conversation.
“I’m kind of worried...” Rick started.
“About?”
“Well, Alex just called and told me about an ‘experiment’ they watched in 80,000 BC to alter a planet’s course to collide with Earth seventy thousand years from now. We already witnessed the aftermath of that, I think, and I’m not too sure that kind of thing is really within the kids’ ability to cope. It hit them hard; I wonder what else they might witness on that thing?”
Abby studied him for a few seconds, “Rick, that’s why you’re such a great father and I’m never going to be a mother. You seem to like to worry, I don’t. Personally, I think they’re extremely mature. Well, at least Alex and Kaylie. But I may be naive in such matters. You know them far better than anyone, so you’re the best person to make that decision. So, do you think they can handle it?”
Rick pondered a minute, “Yeah, I guess they can, but I don’t think they should watch it happen. And I don’t think they could handle too much knowledge of the future either.”
“You already laid out rules for that, Rick, and those girls rarely ever break your rules. I don’t think you need to worry.”
“Says Ms. Oblivious...”
“Shush.”
“I can’t not worry,” he admitted, betraying the fact that it was a burden to him, regardless of whether he liked it or not.
“Maybe not, but remember what you said about your own childhood? Your mother let you take your own chances and learn from your mistakes. She admitted that it was often painful to watch you get hurt or screw something up, but it was best for you—”
“But girls are so much more affected by emotional trauma—” he argued.
“Don’t give me that,” Abby said indignantly. “They only are if you shield them and don’t allow them to experience any. Look at me; you’re a hundred times more emotional than I am!”