The 95th Floor

by N R Brooks

  “I still just don’t understand how you could know all of this. It makes no sense to me.” She was beginning to look almost irritated at the fact.

  “Don’t worry about it.” I gave her a quick kiss on the forehead. “I promise, I will explain everything to the smallest detail. Just don’t rack your brain about it. You have a baby inside of you that won’t like all those stress hormones.”

  “How can you expect me not to worry about it?? This is like the biggest news in the past fifty years! And here you are right at the center of it!”

  “I know, I know. Just calm down. Look, I had an idea. Our birthdays are coming up. I have nothing else planned. My work with those guys is all done. Why don’t you and I take a trip to my hometown for the weekend? I want you to see where I come from and learn about my past. And while we are there, I will explain everything to you.”

  “Stan, we can’t afford that, we have a baby to think about.”

  “It really isn’t that much. We can go there and back for under a grand. Just for the weekend. It will only make a tiny dent in our savings. What do you say?” I was trying to give her the puppy-dog eyes, but I never did master it.

  “Well, I have wanted to see the canyon there. Fine, let’s do it. And I expect you to tell me everything, you hear me?”

  “Oh trust me, I will.”

  I gave her a hug and a kiss and immediately got on the Internet to purchase two round-trip tickets to Boise out of Newark for the upcoming weekend. Now was the time to do it as ticket prices were cheaper and seats were much easier to get, even on short notice.

  We snagged two seats on a flight out of Newark with a short one-hour layover in Denver and then on to Boise. We would rent a car for the two-hour drive to Canyon and back to Boise on Sunday. All for just a little over $900.

  When we were done, the both of us walked over to the pizzeria across the street to see if Pops had heard the news. If anyone was more shocked about it than Keiko, it was him. We let Pops simmer down from the shock of what almost went down today and made some other trips around the city that was now running business as usual.

  After leaving the pizzeria, I remembered that Slayer, one of my favorite bands, released a very appropriately titled album in my original time-line on 9/11 called God Hates Us All. I figured it would be cool to be able to purchase the album brand new on its release date for a second time. How many people actually get to do that? I was disappointed to find out that the album had actually been delayed another two months. I wondered how much I actually had to do with that. I didn’t see how stopping the attacks could have affected the album’s release but the world often times works in very mysterious ways—especially when a rogue time traveler goes around messing with things.

  Now, the only thing on my mind was the trip I would be taking back home, a place I hadn’t been to for over two years. I felt now was going to be the perfect time to finally go back. I took care of everything I set out to do and today turned out to be just another ordinary September day. What could possibly go wrong at this point?

  Chapter 32

  The only word that could accurately describe that Friday would be clusterfuck. Both Keiko and I had to work our normal shifts, Keiko’s usual eight to five and I worked from noon to eight.

  Keiko’s duty was to pack both of our things after she got home since she would have a three-hour window from the time she left work until I was off. Sure, we could have packed our things the night before, but part of the fun of traveling is the rush to get everything packed and ready at the last minute.

  The plan was as soon as I got off work, I would run home and change, grab our things, and leave. Our flight left at 9:45 which meant we had to leave immediately. Friday traffic in the city is horrible, and foot traffic in the airport is equally as congested. We would be pushing it close as it was.

  We finally made it to the check-in desk at ten after nine. We could have made it slightly sooner but a woman who is eight months pregnant isn’t going to be running at full speed. Regardless, both of us were breathing somewhat heavily when we approached the counter to give the clerk our tickets.

  “Made it just in time. Whew.” I said as I handed the clerk our tickets that had been printed at home.

  “Yes, you did. Let me see here.” The clerk pulled up our reservation info on her computer. “Oh no, it looks like your flight has been canceled. We can look for a similar flight and transfer your reservations over if you would like?”

  “Canceled? What the hell for?” The rush to get here on time had already put me on edge. This only exacerbated it.

  “Let me look here.” She tapped on the keyboard, sifting through what must have been notes attached to our reservation. “Oh jeez. It says the control tower was damaged earlier today due to one of those black hole things that keep showing up on the news. God, this is the first I have heard about that.”

  “Are you kidding me?”

  “No, I’m afraid not. I sure hope whoever was working in that control tower wasn’t hurt.”

  I was less concerned about the control tower workers as I was for us to get to our destination. We only had the weekend after all.

  “Well, what other flights can we get on?”

  “Let me see here.” She began tapping on keys again, the sound of each of her key taps almost sounding exaggerated. “We have a flight leaving at 10:45 with a two-hour layover in Chicago O’Hare.”

  I looked over at Keiko who was far more relaxed than I was. She replied with only a shrug meaning ‘whatever.’

  “We will take it, I guess.”

  “Okay, let me get all of the reservation info transferred over, and I will print out new ticket stubs for you.”

  After about fifteen minutes at the check-in counter, waiting for her to hammer away at her poor keyboard, we finally got replacement tickets for our new flight and handed in our luggage. Now we had a little over an hour to kill before our flight departed. Part of me wondered if there was any Flight 93 scheduled today.

  We spent half the time just roaming about the airport, window shopping through the gift shop, trying to entertain ourselves to alleviate boredom. Our pace was much slower than it would have been had I been alone. Keiko was definitely showing her late term in her pregnancy. Still, she was much smaller than I would have expected at eight months.

  The last thirty minutes we spent sitting on the benches outside of the terminal because Keiko was getting tired. It was quite late and being pregnant takes a lot out of you. I was perfectly okay with sitting there being her leaning post to doze off on. That was my job as her boyfriend after all.

  The flight to Chicago was as uneventful as one might expect—although the fact we were flying out of Newark on United Airlines in a Boeing 757 was eerie to me. Keiko took a catnap on the flight which was only two and a half hours long. If you factor in the time difference, we arrived in only an hour and a half. We window shopped like before at the airport, but since it was so late, both of us were quite exhausted and spent the majority of the time leaned up against one another in the waiting area just outside of the boarding terminal.

  The flight to Boise was aboard a much smaller plane with far fewer passengers. Both of us spent the majority of this four-hour flight asleep. We arrived in Boise at just after six in the morning, the sun almost ready to peek up over the horizon. Taking an overnight flight saved us money on a hotel since we were able to get enough rest on the plane, we didn’t need one.

  The both of us stepped off the airplane looking groggy and puffy-eyed. I was stunned to see the airport as it was so much smaller than I remember. That was when I realized that they didn’t remodel the Boise airport until later in the year. With the plot foiled earlier in the week, I wondered if that would have any effect on the plans to remodel the airport; or even airport security for that matter. While the plot was now public knowledge but had been stopped, would security tighten as it did when the attacks had been successful? I figured only time would tell.

  We grabbed our luggage
and walked to the airport car rental agency to pick up our small economy car that we would take with us to Canyon. Once we filled out the paperwork—when I say we, I mean Keiko—we got in our little two-door 2001 Ford Focus with the manual transmission for better gas mileage and took off on I-84 for the two-hour drive to Canyon. Keiko was fast asleep before we even left the Boise city limits.

  The drive from Boise to Canyon is not what you would consider as scenic. Sure some people might envision Idaho as being a lush mountainous landscape with beautiful forests and snow peaked ranges. That would be a more accurate portrait of northern Idaho. No, the southern part of the state is actually closer to a desert. Hot, arid summers with little moisture, lots of dirt and sagebrush, and even a state park with Sahara-like sand dunes. Seriously, look it up.

  When you leave Boise, you are thrust into a flat desert plateau with nothing but weeds and dirt to look at for miles and miles. About half-way along your journey, you are finally given the welcome sight of greenery along the flourishing rich soil of the Snake River. The same view many settlers saw during their trek across the countryside on the Oregon Trail.

  It was an odd feeling for me to be driving along the Interstate in Idaho once again. I honestly had no idea when I left if I was ever going to return. The last almost three years was played out mostly by ear. The few times I had made plans were vague at best. Fortunately for me, everything has worked out so far.

  As we took the exit from the freeway which would take us south over the Canyon bridge into the city of Canyon itself, I woke Keiko up. I felt somewhat bad because she was in a pretty deep slumber, but the whole reason for this trip was to show her where I grew up; and to answer her many questions.

  She sat up in the seat of her car, rubbing her eyes and slowly starting to remember where she was and what we were doing.

  “Are we there yet?” She said in a tired, strained voice.

  “Almost. We are going to pass over the canyon into the city. I figured you would want to check it out, maybe even look down. There is a golf course at the bottom of the canyon.”

  As we finally ventured across the bridge, Keiko gasped as she looked down at the deep canyon below us. It was still morning, and the sun was up, so everything at the very bottom was visible.

  “Wow! That is a deep canyon. How far down is it to the water?” She asked with a childlike wonder.

  “It is about five hundred feet down. Quite a long drop. You will see people jumping off the bridge with parachutes sometimes. I have never tried it myself though.”

  “You said your parents died here?”

  Little did she know, it happened only a few years ago. The wound was still fresh.

  “Yeah. A good part of the bridge was destroyed in the accident too. You would never know now though, they have repaired it so now you can’t tell anything ever happened. It was pretty big news when it did happen though. I’m sure there are a lot of people that still remember it.”

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to bring it up.”

  It was still painful to talk about, but I couldn’t blame her for it. “Oh, you are fine. I wanted you to see all of this. Was it everything you hoped for?”

  “It is definitely much grander than I had pictured in my head. I was expecting something much more spread out like the Grand Canyon, but this is more like a big crack in the ground, just like you told me. Like someone took a huge knife and just cut a big slice out of the earth.”

  “Well, it is hard for me to look at it with a fresh perspective. Living here pretty much my entire life, I guess you take things like this for granted.” I was almost jealous of her sense of wonder and awe over it.

  “Well, I am glad you brought me. It is like another world from the big city.”

  “Now that I can definitely agree with. Imagine my shock when I moved there after living in a podunk place like this for thirty odd years.”

  “Well, I can say that I too have taken things for granted. I have lived in the city for most of my life. The hustle and bustle just seems natural to me.”

  I suddenly remembered another place her and I could spend some quality time.

  “Sorry, not to change the subject, but don’t let me forget to take you to the falls before we leave. I mean, it is no Niagara, but it is still awesome. Although, I am not sure how high the water will be this time of year, there are some fantastic hidden lakes along some footpaths a little ways back from it.” As I said this I realized that hiking along footpaths probably wasn’t a good idea with her in her present state.

  “Okay, I won’t.”

  “Well, we may have to save the hidden lakes for another trip, but the falls we can definitely check out.”

  I drove her around the city, it doesn’t take long. One could see nearly everything the tiny city of Canyon has to offer in just a couple of hours if most of your time was spent just viewing and not actually getting out and partaking in activities.

  As we drove around, I was startled to see so many sections of the city cordoned off with police tape and wooden barricades. Places that only a few years earlier, before I left, were perfectly fine. After the third or fourth block, I pulled the car over so I could get out and satisfy my curiosity by peeking past one of the plywood boards covering one of the sections. Around the corner, I saw a couple unmarked black vehicles parked on the side of the road. Vehicles I immediately associated with government law enforcement; the FBI.

  I told Keiko to wait in the car since I was only going to be there a moment to steal a quick peek. The plywood sheets were stacked pretty high, so I couldn’t pop my head over them to look into the area. They made it look like a part of a city block that had been excavated and prepared for a ground-breaking ceremony on a new building. When I finally found a small crack to peek through, I looked through it and saw that whatever establishment that had been there before was nothing more than a pile of debris. I knew what the cause was immediately. In the center was a sinkhole filled with dirt, water from busted pipes, and debris from the building that was there before. In the center was a large square blue tinted glass enclosure resting on top of a sturdy metal table looking device. While blue, it was transparent enough to see that held within the enclosure was yet another one of those mysterious black hole objects. It didn’t take much to conclude that the other similar cordoned off parts of town had seen a similar fate.

  I got back in the car and told Keiko that more of the black spots had popped up and more than one had shown up in this very city. She didn’t seem overly concerned. I was very concerned. After the flat in Hamburg, Germany, I had begun to think they somehow had to do with me and the things I had been doing these past few years. Now the city I was from had not one or two, but at least four of these objects wrecking havoc. This did not bode well with me at all. I couldn’t let that show and ruin our weekend. For now, I kept my suspicions to myself.

  Keiko wanted to get out and stretch her legs. I thought that was a great idea as mine had started cramping up from the drive as well as the tight legroom on the flights. I pulled up to the park that was next to my house—the house my younger self was now living in, all alone. I figured this would be the perfect place to relax and finally fill Keiko in on my strange past, and future, and try to explain how not only did I exist as the man beside her, but I also existed as a much younger man living in the house only a block away.

  We got out of the car and walked on to the park grounds and saw that we were the only two people there. Keiko saw a swing set with a pair of rubber seated swings held on by sturdy chain links. She wanted to rest on the swings, so I walked over there with her and sat down on one swing while she sat in the other.

  “So this is the city you told me so much about. It is a nice place.” She said while sitting on her swing, just barely moving.

  “Yep, this is it. It is a quaint little place, although I think I prefer the big city. I am all about convenience.”

  “Well, I wouldn’t mind living here. Seems nice and quiet.” She was looking up and liste
ning to the birds chirping in the trees.

  It felt like it should be either late afternoon or early evening, but my time was all thrown off from the overnight flight from Newark and Chicago.

  “Well, I can’t disagree with that. It is definitely quiet. It is nice but quiet can quickly morph into boredom. Not a lot goes on here. Like I said, the canyon is really about the only thing worth talking about; that and probably the falls.”

  “Yeah, I can see that. Still, it is nice to get out into the quiet and peaceful small town once in a while.”

  Just when she said that I heard a faint rumble which could also be felt through the ground. Neither one of us were swinging our legs back and forth on the swing, but both of us began moving when the rumble hit.

  “What was that?” I asked out loud, looking around me to see if something had gone off which made the sound.

  “I don’t know. That isn’t a normal sound around here? Almost felt like a small earthquake.” She didn’t know if that sound was typical for here so it didn’t really cause her any alarm.

  “No, that is definitely not a normal sound. Earthquakes don’t happen down here. Further north they do, but not here. That was strange as hell.”

  “It seems to have stopped. It sure made our swings move though.”

  “Yeah.” I wasn’t putting my guard down so quickly like she was. That was a very odd occurrence.

  “So Stan, tell me about your life here. And you also said you were going to answer my questions about the whole plane thing earlier in the week.”

  “Yes, I did. So I hope you got enough sleep on the flight and the drive here. What I’m going to tell you is going to be…hard to comprehend.”

  “Enough with the setup! I am already in suspense up to my eyeballs!”

  “Okay, okay. Where do I begin? Umm…Okay, so if you look that way,” I pointed to the southern corner of the park and across the street, to the house my other self lived in. “You see that house? That is where I lived pretty much my entire life.”