Time Lapse

by Rex Bolt

  The deal now must be, Pike realized, if you hone in on a very specific event that happened at a specific time, such as the Deuce Coupe speeding by, then that’s when you get there.

  Apparently.

  The main thing, he was here, and it was Saturday October 1st.

  He’d gotten up this morning and driven to school and hurried into the custodian’s closet . . . all that taking place on Wednesday November 30th.

  So . . . however you cut it, he was again back two months, but this time hopefully in business.

  Now to get to work . . .

  It had to be, what, 4 or 5 miles to the Milburns’ house. There was a city bus that ran along Dayton Street every so often and got you to Sansome, which was maybe 2 miles away from Audrey’s. Or he could stick out the thumb again and see what happened. Or walk it.

  Or he could run. Why the heck not? He hadn’t had much exercise since football ended. Not to mention, let’s face it, he could cover the distance without a whole lot of effort. If anything, he’d have to slow himself down to not attract attention.

  That was another thing he’d learned, or at least was pretty sure of. That there was no apparent loss of his newly endowed strength when he traveled back. Pike supposed that was a good thing, in case he needed it to get out of a jam, and you never knew what else might pop up.

  He wondered if that would still be the case if he went back to before it all happened, which he now was convinced, whether he wanted to believe it or not, meant before the dental visit on the summer trip with his parents in Albuquerque.

  On top of that, could he even go back that far?

  The answers could wait of course, they had nothing to do with today’s activities.

  Meanwhile, it felt to good to run. Pike was never much of an exerciser, but he had to admit it was nice to think that those positive endorphins, that people were always carrying on about, might be kicking in. Maybe there was something to that. Or else it was just the good feeling of moving around, the freedom of it, after all the recent stress.

  Then again maybe it was the anticipation of what was on tap today, that had him fired up.

  One thing he had to keep reminding himself of, was that he and Audrey weren’t going out. Not back on October 1st. She was with Hannamaker, and he was at the tail end with Cathy. Or actually, he was thinking back on it, Cathy’d probably already dumped him by then. It was kind of a blur.

  Bottom line, when he stopped by the Milburns’ on Sunday, the day after the tragedy, to awkwardly pay his respects, Hannamaker was with Audrey in the living room.

  So now, as he turned the corner of Ortega Street, the Milburns’ block, and slowed it down from a jog to a walk, it was going to be tricky explaining to whoever answered why you happened to be ringing Audrey’s bell.

  One thing he was learning though from this travel business was it generally didn’t pay to screw around. The less paralysis of analysis the better. If you didn’t know why you were ringing the bell . . . ring it anyway and figure something out . . . what’s the worst that could happen?

  Pike rang the bell, and Mr. Milburn opened the door.

  “I apologize,” Mr. Milburn said. “I know who your are, but I can’t quite place you . . . That sounds strange, right?” He was a happy guy, at least at this point. Pike couldn’t help wondering, did he know about Mrs. Milburn’s unfaithfulness? Either way, it was pretty weird, considering the state Mr. Milburn was in the last time he saw him.

  “That’s not strange at all actually,” Pike said. “I can’t always remember guys I see every day in school.” They both laughed, and Pike said, “Gillette? . . . Pike? Way back with Audrey, to Mrs. Chegwidden’s, in kindergarten.”

  “I knew I’d seen you somewhere,” Mr. Milburn said. He had a good sense of humor. “Audrey’s home, shall I get her?”

  “Actually sir, would Hailey be around?”

  "She’s not. She plays tennis on Saturday mornings. She should be back by 1 or so . . . You’re most welcome to come inside and wait.”

  Jeez what a nice guy.

  “Thank you, but would you know where she’s playing? Which courts?”

  “Over at the high school, I believe,” Mr. Milburn said. “It’s a group of them, they move around a bit, but it’s usually there.”

  Pike was wondering, did his suspension apply on the weekend? And then he remembered it was 3 days total, which would be Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, so he should be okay showing up on school grounds.

  Then he realized, what an idiot, this was only October, so don’t even think about it.

  Pike said, “Would you . . . by any chance have a bicycle I could borrow?” Might as well ask.

  “Oh, absolutely,” Mr. Milburn said, not questioning him as to why he needed it. Which Pike admired, the same as the no-nonsense librarian who found him the books.

  Mr. Milburn stepped outside and opened the garage door and told Pike to take his pick, and there were three bikes hanging on the far wall and Pike took the one with the fattest tires and thanked him again and pedaled off in the direction of school.

  He could have walked it, or continued his morning jog he supposed, but forget all that.

  They had a lively setup in progress, considering it was tennis. Someone appeared to be in charge, and every few minutes they blew a whistle and the kids scrambled around to different courts with different partners. The ones that weren’t hitting balls at a given moment were doing various exercises, some of them with bands that were attached to the fence.

  It kind of reminded you of a well-organized football practice, everyone had a task and nothing lasted long before you switched it up. Hailey wasn’t bad, though she struggled with her backhand.

  They took a water break and she saw Pike and it was clear she was embarrassed. “Sorry, but what are you doing here?” she said.

  “What’s the problem?” Pike said. “It looks like fun . . . though I can see you’re trying to hit mostly forehands.”

  “All forehands if I can help it,” Hailey said, smiling. “My backhand sucks.”

  There was a slightly awkward silence.

  “Okay now, here’s the deal,” Pike said. “I need to talk to you about something. When’s this end?”

  Hailey tried to hide her curiosity, much less her excitement. Hot shot senior guys didn’t usually have an urgent need to talk to sophomores.

  “At 12:30,” she said. “Then we’re on the honor system to run laps on the track, but I can skip that part.”

  “I’ll see you then,” Pike said.

  He had about 45 minutes to kill. He looped around the campus a few times, nice and easy, thinking things through . . . It was crazy to put it in perspective, that right now, in real life, he would have been just hitting traffic, around Wilshire Boulevard where it runs into UCLA, and spending the next hour and a half crawling toward Manhattan Beach, Mitch waiting for him on the pier.

  You couldn’t over-analyze this stuff though. It would wear you out, and could easily screw you over royal. Pike wasn’t sure how, but was pretty convinced of that, and didn’t want to tempt fate, or those universal laws in the book, or whatever else, and find out. On all these trips so far, he had to stay on himself, hard, to keep it in the here and now.

  The tennis thing ended and the kids all came out one gate and were heading over to the track to run their laps, and Pike knew a few of them and said hi, including two girls who were football cheerleaders.

  It came back to him now, that last night (in the real world) they played Walker Union, and Hamilton won the game but Pike struggled until the fourth quarter. It was his worst game at quarterback. He was concerned briefly that something was going on draining his strength, some mutation or what have you, but concluded it was mental, that he wasn’t focused enough on the game because of all the developments that had his head spinning, including the Reggie Riley brother’s teeth stuff and Mitch’s website with the wacko UFOs entering into the picture.

  The worst part of last night, he remembered now, was t
here’d been a party at Colton’s house, and Cathy wasn’t there, which was a red flag, and Pike found her later and she broke up with him. What she said was the pressure of his secret (which he was an unbelievable dumb ass to tell her about) was too much for her.

  Now he thought he’d detected some funny looks from the two cheerleaders, like they knew Cathy had dumped him last night and were watching him with amusement for signs of how he was handling it.

  Actually, Hailey may know about it too, and may be thinking the same thing . . . Or the whole shebang could have been his imagination. Whatever.

  Pike said, “You drove, or what?”

  “Usually I get a ride, or my dad picks me up,” Hailey said.

  “So you’re 15?”

  Hailey seemed slightly hurt by Pike’s assumption. She said,“I’m 16 . . . I can’t believe you think I’m still 15 . . . I’ve got my permit, but I’m not rushing into it.”

  “Good idea, that’s wise to take your time then, stay safe,” Pike said. Thinking of the irony.

  “So?” Hailey said. “What was it, that you need me for?” She wasn’t doing as good a job containing her curiosity now.

  Pike tried to phrase it the best way. “You know me, right? I mean you’ve known me all these years, at least on the fringes . . . You’ve never thought of me as, like, off the hook, or something . . . have you?”

  “No . . .” Hailey said, tentative, probably starting to wonder that exact thing now though.

  “Good . . . Because you need to listen to me carefully . . . There’s no other way I can sugar-coat it . . . I’m pretty positive if you and your mom walk the dog tonight, something bad’s going to happen.”

  Letting that one ride.

  “Ohhh-kay . . . so we won’t walk the dog,” Hailey said.

  “Wait a minute, just like that?”

  “A,” she said, “you’re crazy . . . But B, no big deal, we’ll take him to the park, throw the ball for him. He loves that.”

  “Which park?”

  “I don’t know, what difference does it make?”

  “You gonna drive there, or what?”

  “That’s one option, yes.”

  “If not, then you’re walking the dog to the park . . . which is what we can’t have happen . . . and we’re going in circles here.”

  “Wow,” Hailey said.

  “You’re messing with me,” Pike said. “This is dead serious. I can’t impress it upon you enough.”

  “I see . . . so what exactly is that very bad thing that you fear happening.”

  Pike took a deep breath. “Only that a car would lose control, ride up the sidewalk and kill your mom.”

  Hailey squinted her eyes at him. “This is . . . like . . . a vision, or . . . ?”

  “Something like that, yeah.”

  “Is that what they call a premonition?”

  “How about . . . whether or not you think I’m crazy, which is understandable . . . just don’t walk the damn dog so I don’t have to worry about it . . . Even if I’m nuts. Can you just give me that?”

  “That sounds reasonable,” Hailey said.

  “Thank you,” Pike said, “more than you might know.”

  “Well you’re welcome,” she said.

  “But the problem now,” he said, “I’m starving. I’m getting low blood sugar.”

  “Okay then, I’ll see you later,” she said.

  “Or you can come,” he said.

  “You’re just being polite.”

  “No. I’ll buy you lunch.” Wondering could he afford it, and then remembering the hundred he lifted from his dad.

  “Oh,” Hailey said. “You mean we’ll just walk somewhere?”

  “You can call your dad, to drive you and I’ll meet you . . . or . . . I think I can ride you on the back.”

  Pike hadn’t ridden anyone around in a lot of years. What you had to do was stand up the whole time and let the person sit on the seat. He was trying to picture the closest place that served big portions of meat, and came up with Garibaldi’s, on the plaza.

  “Well how would it work?” Hailey said.

  Pike held the bike straight and she sat on the seat. She had the darn tennis racquet, but Pike said he could deal with it and she gave it to him. He straddled the middle bar and started pedaling, and it was working okay, though Hailey was sliding around a little too much.

  “You can just kind of hang onto me,” Pike said, so she did, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and leaning her head forward against his back.

  Pike thought to himself, this isn’t the worst thing. Though of course it was his girlfriend’s kid sister he was referring to. Still . . . today Audrey’s with Jack, that’s a fact . . . and Cathy and I are history as of 12 hours ago . . . so I can take her out to lunch without any consequences, right?

  Hailey ate like a bird but Pike wolfed down a meatball parm sub and a side order of linguini al pesto.

  “So how’s everything else?” Pike said.

  “Oh, pretty good.”

  “Just pretty good?”

  “Only that . . . I think my parents may be having some problems.”

  Jeeminy. “What kind of problems?” Pike asked cautiously. Praying that his own dad was not part of the equation.

  “I don’t know . . . men call for my mom sometimes, on the landline.”

  “And what . . . your instincts kick in . . . and your mind starts running away from you?”

  “Sort of . . .”

  “That happens with me and my folks too,” Pike said. “I think it’s normal. Look at it this way, they’re all still married, which is saying something.”

  “I guess,” Hailey said. “Thank you for putting it in that light.”

  Pike had a piece of cheesecake to conclude matters. He tempted Hailey with a bite but she declined.

  “Now this business with the dog,” he said. “What do we got now, about 2: 20?”

  “Yes? . . . So?’

  “No I’m just thinking . . . can we get your mom to do something different maybe . . . take her somewhere?”

  “You mean on the back of your bike?” Hailey was laughing.

  “Come on, I’m serious here. We need to focus. We can’t leave this shit to chance . . . like have it all set up, that you’re driving to the park to play catch with the dog, but then first your mom takes him up the block to relieve himself.”

  “My Goodness. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen anyone this insistent on avoiding a daily activity.”

  “You have to take my word for it,” Pike said, but he was started feel some air coming out of the balloon. It was becoming clear that heading Mrs. Milburn off at the pass might not be good enough. Even with Hailey on board. Which he wasn’t convinced she really was.

  “What do you have the rest of the day?” he said.

  “Are you asking me if I have a boyfriend?” she said.

  Pike had to give her credit for not shying away from a topic that they both might be thinking about a little bit. “I wasn’t, but I might as well now,” he said.

  “Well I don’t.”

  “Ah,” Pike said.

  “So until that changes,” she said, “on Saturday nights I tend to babysit.”

  “What do you charge ‘em these days?’

  “That’s none of your business,” she said, playful.

  “More importantly,” he said, “what time are you doing it tonight? And where?’

  “7:30. There’re two cute little sisters I taught swimming lessons to last summer. They live a couple blocks down.”

  “So . . . you’ll be leaving like, 7:20?”

  “Oh my God . . . What the heck, Pike.”

  “What’s your dog’s name?”

  “Mark.”

  “Jeez, never heard of a dog named Mark . . . But forget that, does he bite, or anything?”

  “Never. What do you think we are?”

  “Well does he, hang out . . . in the backyard, at all?”

  “You’re a piece of work,” she said.
<
br />   Pike had an idea. “Okay, how about this? Let me walk him tonight . . . Then you and your mom don’t have to do anything. You can relax inside.”

  Hailey smiled and shook her head. “I like being with you,” she said.

  Pike didn’t answer that one, he said they should be going.

  They’d sat there for a while. It was close to 3. Pike never had pinpointed exactly when it happened, with Mrs. Milburn. It wasn’t something you wanted to find out.

  He remembered getting home from Manhattan Beach a little after 8:30, and his dad with the long face when he walked in, said the accident had happened about two hours ago.

  So . . . say between 6:15 and maybe 7:10 at the outside, since Hailey wouldn’t be around much after that, with her babysitting gig.

  Screw it, make it 5:30 to be on the safe side.

  “You have anything else you need to do?” Pike said to Hailey. “Or should I ride you back.”

  “Well I like ice cream,” she said. Pike thinking so do I, though you sure didn’t show any signs of an appetite in Garibaldi’s, but why not.

  They killed another hour, between the ice cream and then strolling around downtown looking in shop windows. Halfway into it, Hailey took his arm and Pike let her, and again, he supposed it wasn’t the worst thing.

  “You and your sister, you guys competitive at all with each other?” he said.

  “Now why would you bring her up?” Hailey said.

  “I’m just curious. Are you, like best friends . . . or if you barely run into each other for a week that’s fine.”

  “Somewhere in the middle.”

  “Jack a pretty good guy?”

  “Oh boy . . . you’re interested in her, aren’t you?”

  “Not at the moment. Honestly.”

  “I don’t believe you,” she said, again with a winning smile. “But in the meantime, that ride home sounds fun.”

  There was still time, and what was the rush? So Pike strung it out a little, gave it about a six block detour, and if Hailey noticed, it wasn’t a problem. Pike checked the time as they pulled into the Milburns’ driveway. It was 4:42.

  “So . . .” Hailey said. “See you around?”