by Tim Blagge
There was a pause and her father said “We love you no matter what you have done Brenda, so don’t worry. All will be forgiven.”
“Dad, I’m not apologizing to you. It’s been the best thing I’ve ever done. We’ll be there in half an hour.” Brenda said and hung up.
“That sounded a little awkward Brenda.” I commented.
“It was but if I know my folks, after we explain everything, they’ll welcome you into the family.”
“By ‘everything’, you don’t mean everything like in the truth, do you?!”
“I have never lied to my parents, Bill. They will believe us.”
“Are you kidding? Somehow I’ll get blamed for this! It’s your perceived insanity I’m talking about, Brenda. It’ll be my fault. Remember your parents were never big fans of mine. The best I ever felt around them was one day when they appeared to tolerate me.”
“Bill, it’ll fine. We love each other and we have a beautiful baby boy as an expression of that love.”
“Brenda, I think you’re wrong. And I sure hope your Dad isn’t packing. He may shoot me before I can leave the house.”
When Brenda stopped laughing, she grabbed Four and asked me to call a cab.
“I think Pops’ car is still in the garage. If it still starts, we’ll use it.”
I grabbed Pops car keys out of the basket by the door and went to the garage. Pops car, his pride and joy, a 1965 GTO was still there and except for a couple of recent bullet holes looked fine. When I tried to start it, it cranked over twice and died. I hooked up Pops battery charger and knew it would take a few minutes to charge the battery enough to start the car so I went back into the house where Brenda was feeding Four. By the smell of things, he needed to be changed too.
While we waited, I went into the closet where Pops had stored his cash. “Rolf, Pops has some cash stashed here, do you need any?”
“Bill I’ll take a little for now until I can reopen our accounts. Can you spare a thousand dollars?”
“Coming right up!” I said. I also took a thousand for Brenda and me.
I handed the money to Rolf while Stella tended to Abe. I told them that we were going over to Brenda’s parent’s house and they’d be alone for awhile.
“I expect it will be interesting when you see Brenda’s parents again Bill,” Stella said. “I can hardly wait for a blow by blow recap.”
“I’m hoping it doesn’t come to blows but I need to ask one question. You’re not recording anything anymore are you?” I asked.
“No Bill, we have been forbidden to do that.” was Stella’s response.
For some reason, that uncontrolled little voice in my head told me not to believe her while I tried to look like I fully accepted her answer.
I went to the garage and the car turned over and started. I pulled around to the front and Brenda strapped Four into the back and hopped in. It had been a while since I had driven a stick but after a jerky start it came back to me and we were on our way.
As we walked up the path to Brenda’s house, a strong feeling of trepidation came over me.
“Brenda, I’m more scared than when I thought I was going to die in my firefight with the Cromwells.”
“Families can do that to people Bill. Take a few deep breaths. It will be okay.”
The front door to Brenda’s house burst open and her mother charged out and nearly knocked Brenda over. Her father came out and wrapped his arms around both. After a minute or so, Brenda stepped back and said. “Mom and Dad I’d like to have you say hello again to my husband Bill and the product of our love William Burton the fourth. We call him Four.”
When Brenda’s parents looked at Four, he grinned from ear to ear and it was love at first sight. Her mother Betty took Four and carried him into the house. After the excitement of this amazing reunion mellowed her father asked the inevitable question.
“So tell me, where have you young people been for the last year?”
Before we could answer, Betty jumped in and said the most startling thing. “Brenda you can tell us anything and we will believe you because you have always told us the truth.”
“But before you begin, I’d like to tell everyone about a letter that I received from you almost five years ago now. I know it was from you because it was in your beautiful handwriting. I never discussed it with you or your father at the time because the message was quite surreal and, well simply unbelievable. I wasn’t sure if it was true or some kind of hoax so kept it to myself.”
“It was post marked from Russia and at the time, touched me deeply. When you have finished your story, I’d like to read it to everyone.”
“But first, go ahead. I’m anxious to know where your life has taken you.”
“Two hours later, after a myriad of questions, head shaking and disbelieving facial expressions, Brenda and I finished our story. There was a long silence followed by a comment from Brenda’s father.
“So there really are aliens?”
He said it in such a matter-of fact way that we all started laughing. Even Four started laughing at the happiness in the room. It was a wonderful moment.
After the laughter subsided, Betty got serious and pulled Brenda’s letter out of a drawer in the coffee table. “With your permission I’d like to read this. Even your father is hearing it for the first time.
Dear Mom,
Assuming this letter finds you, I will expect you to be asking yourself, how was Brenda able to send a letter from Russia when she just entered high school? You will find my answer both puzzling and unbelievable.
Some time in the future, I will be forced to be away from you for a while. I’m not sure for how long, but it will be frightening for you because it will occur suddenly and without warning. I want you to know that I am currently doing something dangerous and noble in the future and an entire society may depend on me and my fellow patriots.
Through some miraculous technology I have returned to my past and mailed this letter. Do not mention this message to the Brenda who will return to you from school today. She will have no knowledge or understanding of it.
Assuming I survive this endeavor, I will do everything in my power to return and see you again.
I love you, Mom and Dad!
Brenda
“Brenda, that was beautiful,” I said.
I looked at her father and tears were rolling down his cheeks. After the brief emotional moment waned, her mother got serious and asked Brenda about getting married in her church.
“Mom, that’s my plan but there is way too much to decide before Bill and I get to that point. There is something I do want you to be certain of however. We were married in front of millions of people and it happened before we had sex and I got pregnant; not the other way around!”
After that bit of truth Brenda stood up and said to her parents. “Bill and I have got some things to do so, with your permission, we will be leaving. I’ll call tomorrow.”
Brenda with Four and I walked back down the path toward the car waved good-bye and got in.
“Where to now young lady?” I asked.
“We need a crib and American legal car seats for Four and Abe.” Brenda answered “Let’s get those and go to the market. We’ll need some food if we are going to stay at your Grandparents house for a while. I’ll call Stella and tell her what we are doing.”
An hour later we arrived back home. Rolf came out and helped carry in our new acquisitions.
“Bill, you’re the engineer, I think you should put the cribs together.” Rolf said.
“Nice try Rolf,” I answered. “Unless the directions are in Chinese, together we’ll get these cribs assembled in no time.”
Two hours later, we finished with the last screw. “Our fifteen minute project took us two hours?” I said in disgust as I looked at my watch. “So much for a Cal-Tech education”
“For all we know, maybe we finished the assembly in record time Bill.” Rolf said.
“Stella, I think Rolf actually made a jo
ke! And it was funny.” I commented.
We carried both cribs upstairs and put Four in his new bed surrounded by pillows to keep him from moving very far. Rolf had left and Brenda closed the door behind him and whispered to me. “Let’s get that bug finder and see if there are any bugs around anymore.”
We looked for it everywhere in the room, but it was gone.
“I put it in the top drawer of the dresser,” Brenda said. “I have a perfect recollection of doing that. The only people in the house were Rolf and Stella. They must have taken it, Bill.”
“This doesn’t bode well at all,” I said. “But let’s not say anything just yet, okay.”
“Okay Bill.”
That night at dinner the four of us began discussing a strategy for launching anti-gravity.
“I kind of like the people and atmosphere at JPL but being associated with the government, I don’t know, it may not be the best decision to return there,” I said. “What do you think Stella?”
“We need to pick the lesser of two evils, Bill. We’ve just seen that large organizations like Mindcon can benefit civilizations but they also have their problems. Giving the technology to Forest Buckholder might create a behemoth that we are not prepared to deal with.”
“But there’s no bigger entity than the U.S. Government.” I added.
“And it gets bigger and more out of control by the day.” Stella added. “There’s no telling where their growth will stop. The President may even declare some sort of national emergency and seize ownership of the technology once we have working prototypes.”
“We could get investors and sell stock,” I said as a light came on in my head. “With some thorough planning, that may be the best solution to keeping the technology out of the wrong hands.”
“And keeping us alive,” Rolf added.
“I suggest that’s the path we pursue,” I said. “If it turns into a dead end, we’ll go with one of the other plans.”
“I agree with Bill,” Stella said and Rolf agreed. Brenda abstained.
“Stella got up from the table and mentioned that she and Rolf were meeting with one of their ex-associate’s who was preparing to go back to Velador. They said they’d be back later and asked if they could borrow Pops car and if we would watch Abe.”
Brenda and I agreed and a few minutes later they left.
“Bill, we need to search Rolf and Stella’s room for the bug device thingy,” Brenda said.
I agreed and after we heard the GTO go around the corner we went to their room. We searched everywhere being careful to replace everything precisely where we found it. We found nothing after looking in every corner. As we were walking out, I remembered something.
“Brenda, the hatch to the attic is in Joanna’s closet. We didn’t look there.”
I got a chair to stand on and a flashlight to see and pushed to hatch open. Just inside the opening was a box. Inside it was our anti-bug device, a wave gun, and what appeared to be several odd looking communication devices.
“Bingo,” I said as I grabbed the bug finder. “Let’s see if there are any bugs here right now.”
I turned the machine on, went to our room and scanned the space. The device indicated no bugs.
Bill, flick the switch on the side. Remember Pops instructions?”
When I did, the machine led us to three bugs in our room. We took it downstairs and found four more.
“What the hell, Bill,” Brenda said. “Are these people spying on us again? We’ve got to get them out of our lives, and right now!”
“I agree Brenda. Let’s wait until tomorrow morning and confront them. We’ll ask them to leave and go somewhere else. You know my masculine intuition has been telling me that something was wrong and here we are. It was right.”
The next morning, after we’d eaten breakfast, I went over to Stella and opened my hand showing her all seven bugs.
“Tell me about these Stella!” I demanded.
Stella looked shocked and started to stammer. “Bill, I am so sorry. We didn’t mean any harm.”
“Spying on us does no harm? Why did you do this when you said you wouldn’t? Rolf and Stella, I want you out of this house. You obviously can’t be trusted and now I’m not sure what motivates you. Who are you working for?”
“Bill, let me tell you the truth. Rolf and I aren’t sure what our future holds. We don’t have a real job anymore and our only hope for a bright future is with you and anti-gravity. The recording of our lives again was a back-up plan. In case things didn’t work out here, we could sell the continuance of your reality show to Mindcon if we needed to go back to Velador. We figured it would give us at least some way to support ourselves.”
“Why should I believe you?” I said loudly and with anger.
“Because I am holding your son in my arms Bill.”
“Pack up and go, now! I can’t take any more deception from you two. I owe you my life, but that doesn’t give you an unbridled license to lie and be constantly deceitful.”
“Bill, Rolf and I will go, but don’t forget, we can help you. Call us if it’s in your heart to forgive us.”
After packing, Rolf, Stella and Abe left in a cab they had called.
“That was hard, Bill,” Brenda said, “but it was the right thing to do. And as long as they’re still here, you can still see Abe once in a while. Bill, have you ever wondered if Abe really is your son?
“With Veladorian surgical technology, who knows what’s possible.” I answered.
-Chapter 41-
The next month, with Brenda’s assistance and guidance, I made contact with Forest Buckholder and several other investment bankers. I got nowhere with anyone except Forest because we had decided not to divulge the real basis of our request early in our discussions. Forest promised everything we needed and then some.
We started to sell some of Brenda’s diamonds but it was a slow process. We knew that selling more than one or two at a time would start people asking where we got them. The story we used revolved around the selling of family heirlooms. It only worked if we sold them to different jewelers or auction houses. The good part was that each diamond was fetching between fifteen and thirty thousand dollars each and we could tell that the buyers knew they were getting a great deal. The Queen of England we were not so we decided to go slow to minimize the chance of an IRS investigation.
After a few meetings with Buckholder and his engineering staff, we came to an agreement. He and his associates would own twenty-five percent of a new corporation that we would form. For that ownership, he agreed to fund our entire endeavor for three years.
After Brenda and I signed the agreement, I stopped on the way home and bought a bottle of Dom Perignon. Brenda didn’t drink but I did a little and the festiveness of opening a bottle of Champaign seemed appropriate for this happy and momentous occasion.
I poured two glasses, toasted our success and we clinked the glassed together. As I took the first sip, what I never wanted to happen, did. The communication device Pops gave me started to whistle.
I grabbed it out of my pocket, pushed the button and inserted it into my ear while holding my breath.
“Pops told me he’d only call in the event of an emergency.” I reminded Brenda.
“Hey Pops, what’s up.”
“Bill, your sister and I are in one of my fighters and we literally had to battle our way to get to the jump zone. If Joanna weren’t the best combat pilot on Velador we’d be dead. We are in Earth’s space now and so far it’s quiet over here.”
“Bill, we’ve got a problem!”
-THE END-
Of Episode Two
For the Curious
If you’ve read this far, you are going to want to read the next installment of “The Gravity of Anti-Gravity Series. Tentatively titled “The Gravity of Anti-Gravity III, the Fight for Earth!” It will be available on Kindle by the end of June, 2013.
I have included the first three chapters of this next and possibly last Chapter in the lif
e of Bill and his world changing invention. Since this third segment is not complete as of this writing, it is subject to change. What I have submitted however should offer you a taste of how Bill and his family’s lives have developed and grown.
Quite a bit darker and significantly more complex, this installment shows how constant stress and difficulty can play upon one’s mind causing sometimes less than optimum solutions to life’s difficulties.
Don’t miss this third chapter of Bill’s unique existence! It’s a never ending battle of honor and justice against the evil whims of entities consumed with possessing ultimate power!
Thank you for reading this series. I hope you’ve found it enjoyable! Tim Blagge, author.
“The Gravity of Anti-Gravity III”
The Fight for Earth !
-1-
“I knew it was too peaceful on our side of the universe, Pops, so what’s the crisis?”
“There were several ships who tried to prevent us from getting here Bill. Fortunately, it’s quiet on this side so we should be able to talk.”
“Bill, you won’t believe this but it turns out that Mindcon never had any intention of fulfilling its agreement with you, the Government of Velador or the Cromwells for that matter.”
“What agreement was that, Pops? Mindcom seems to be a huge magnanimous organization determined to do good in the galaxy. When they gave an entire planet to the Cromwells for nothing, I was flabbergasted.”
“Bill, what are you saying?” Pops said sounding completely confused and a little frightened. “You were the one who smoked those bastards out. They purposefully ruined Cromwell’s economy and God knows how many other civilizations along the way. It was apparent that Earth was next.”
“Pops, I’m sorry. I just don’t remember it that way.” I said. “And Brenda remembers it the way I do too.”