remote control robots and mechanical arms, super magnets, crystal radio kits, inertial guidance systems, prisms, a basket full of small polished rocks and geodes, Erector sets, clear plastic steam engines, calculators with special functions beyond basic math, science oriented software programs for home computers, special wristwatches that could keep time in up to five separate time zones, Happy Drinking Birds, water balloon catapults, Sea Monkeys, potato cannons, walkie-talkies, Currie-effect heat engines, magnetic levitation kits, telescopes and astronomical charts, and T-shirts and sweaters with pictures of Einstein saying things that were funny if you knew about Einstein. They had the Visible Man, Visible Woman, Visible Horse, and Visible Cow. There were hand-blown glass radiometers, infrared cameras, neutral buoyancy Frisbees, dinosaur Chia-Pets, binary wristwatches, Mexican jumping beans, compasses, sextants, pedometers, otoscopes, microscopes, kaleidoscopes, oscilloscopes, gyroscopes, periscopes, 3d mirascopes, laser pointers, the World’s Smallest Motor, a game called Identify That Mineral!, pin-depression pads of various sizes, potato clocks, miniature wave pools, those metal balls that clack against each other, magnet powered kinetic art sculptures, metal detectors, analog Geiger counters, genuine moon rocks, petrified dinosaur dung, water pressure rockets, Bigger Bubble Builders, Rube Goldberg toast maker kits, frequency finders, custom kite kits, micro helicopters, magnetically crushed quarters, air cannons, voice changers, mini echo chambers, ant farms, bonsai potato kits, homemade hair-gel kits, model dinosaur bones made of balsa wood, anatomical models of the brain, ear, heart and lung, sugar crystal farms, young architect kits, origami architecture kits, cassettes of whale vocalizations, optical illusion posters, spiral spinning tops, invisible ink pens, black lights, snap circuit boards, magnetic Silly Putty, Light Bender kits, laser pointers, erupting volcano models, brew your own Root Beer guides, make your own bubblegum kits, dead tarantulas and scorpions encased in clear resin, lava lamps, true mirrors, bacteria farms, Jacobs ladders, infrared cameras, pixel cameras, and all sorts of puzzles and games and globes and maps. There were posters of the earth as seen from outer space, and many different products with names like: Glo-blo, Bananascope, Mega-Magnets, Mummy-Tummy, Geiserium, Geo-Polymer Fun-Cubes, Guess that Function board-game, Whirlpool Mania, the Gravitron, Instant Goop, Light-Absorbing Mini-Munchers, Multi-Directional Marshmellow Blasters, The Mad Scientist’s New-Animal Laboratory, Particle-Timmy and the Micronauts Junior Explorer Kits and a handheld computer device called the Random Pattern Generator. There were sand art and spin art kits, 3D books and pop-up books, and books of puzzles guaranteed to waste hours of time. They had a device with mirrors in it for looking around corners. There were Magic Rock kits and Shrnk-E-Dink sets next to magnifying glasses and a case for the display of butterfly carcasses. There were ‘mood rings’ and ‘mood bracelets’ and even a ‘mood headband’-they had decorative neon light cubes, and a make your own keytar kit. They had Legos. They even had a couple of those glass balls that shoot lightning to where your fingertips touch them.
The man behind the cash register wasn’t paying any attention to me, but I was staring at him. He looked familiar but I couldn’t place him. He was in his mid thirties and a bit paunchy. He had a bald spot surrounded by wispy blond tendrils, and wore rimless glasses and beat up tennis shoes. He finally looked over and it hit me. “Hey, Mr. Bennett, how you doing? Remember me?” I asked.
“Oh, hi.” He said walking over. “Yes of course I remember you, you’re one of my former students. I’m sorry, I’m unable to come up with your name.”
“Nick. I had you in eighth grade science. I used to have longer hair.” I said.
“Oh yes, of course, Nick. Hi, what have you been up to all these years? Still interested in science I see.”
“Well, actually Mr. Bennett I just came in here to see about possibly getting a job. I already hit the book store and the toy store so I thought I’d try my luck with this place too.” I said.
“I see… Looking for a summer job, huh? Always good to earn a little dough over the break from school, right? Good for you.”
“Actually, I was looking for something a little more permanent. I don’t go to school anymore Mr. Bennett. I’m a drop-out.” It was the first time I’d said it out loud and I liked the way it sounded. I looked for surprise on Mr. Bennett’s face but saw none.
“I’m sorry to hear that Nick. If I recall correctly, you were a promising student when I knew you.”
“Actually, I got a C in your class. I don’t think I did any of the homework.”
“Well if you didn’t do any of the homework and you still got a C, that means you must have done really well on the tests. And you must have participated in class discussions. Grades aren’t everything… Now that I’m retired from teaching I can freely tell you that I gave many stupid, boring children As, and unfortunately I gave many of my brightest students Ds and Fs because they didn’t bother to do the work. Grading is the worst part of being a teacher,” he shook his head, “after all, the grading system is so narrow. Think about it! There are only five grades you can give: A, B, C, D, or the dreaded F. I mean it’s completely unscientific. There are four hundred categories for the common field cricket for example, yet only five for the human student. It’s silly. I never judge a person’s intelligence by their grades, only by their curiosity.”
“Wow Mr. Bennett, I wish I could’ve said the exact same thing to my Gram last year when my final report card came in. I never had good grades. I even got bad grades in classes I really liked, like your class, or world history.”
He looked at me skeptically. “You say you liked my class? What’d you like about it?”
“Well, we did some good experiments in there Mr. Bennett… Uh, the thing with the light and the cardboard with the slits in it… One time we sprayed fog all over the room and bounced a laser around with some mirrors. It was interesting stuff. A lot better than any of my other classes that year. Also, just sort of considering the way the universe works, you know, the boundaries of space and time.” I said.
“I appreciate that. I taught most of that stuff right out of a book to be honest. I was afraid to do anything else. I’m sorry if I taught you lies, I didn’t know I was doing it at the time.” He said.
“Lies? What do you mean?”
“Maybe not lies, not lies exactly, but not the whole truth either. You just said something about the boundaries of space and time for example. Well, there is no such thing as space. It’s an illusion of time. I couldn’t tell that to my eighth grade science class. The school would’ve fired me. So I perpetuated the ignorant view that we exist in something called space, which of course is not true.” He said. I looked for signs that he was kidding or testing me to see my reaction or something. He looked very serious.
“Sorry Mr. Bennett, I think you lost me there. If there’s no such thing as space, what are we standing in?” I asked.
“Time.” He said.
“You mean the present?”
“Ah, see, I knew you were bright. Yes the present…” He was going to continue but a pear shaped woman who was also wearing a Science Store T-shirt was giving him the eye. “I’m not supposed to be chatting right now,” he said under his breath. Then in a normal voice so she could hear he said, “always nice to run into an old student. Is there anything else I can help you with today?”
“No thanks.” I said. “I’ll come back another time. Nice to run into you Mr. Bennett.”
“Call me Chris,” he said, then, in a conspiratorial whisper he added, “remember, the thing we call space only exists in the present. Yesterday is not a place we can go to, is it?” I shook my head no. As I walked back into the mall I wondered if Mr. Bennett was all-there mentally.
There was a Sam Goody record store on the ground floor near one of the exits and I decided it was too good to pass up. I didn’t feel like killing another hour waiting for the manager of Kaybee Toys to show up when there was such a good money-making opportunity right in front of me. I strolled in and surveye
d the place. There were two employees, one at the cash register, the other arranging the music magazines at the front of the store. There was no security system that I could see. Down near Gram’s house there was a Tower Records that had been shoplifted so many times they started putting magnetic strips on all their tapes and records. This Sam Goody seemed to be lacking the gates at the entrance that would set off a security system like that.
I made my way to the Pop/Rock cassette section and acted like I was browsing. There was only one other customer in the store, so my exposure was high and I had to be careful. I pulled a tape out of the stack and looked at it with my left hand while my right hand pulled a tape out down low, and slipped it into my pocket. I put the decoy tape back and moved down the aisle as if I was searching for something. I repeated the maneuver and now had two unknown tapes in my right pocket. I was about to do a third when the employee who’d been arranging magazines walked up. She was chubby and blonde, a few years older than me. “Can I help you find anything?” She asked.
“Nah.” I said. “I’m just looking.”
“Well, let me know if I can help.” She said smiling.
“Okay. Thanks.” I said. I realized she had
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