Stone Ranger

by Bob Blanton

  “Sounds good to me.”

  Then he spent the rest of the day working on his term paper for European History, a paper on the strategies of Otto Von Bismarck. Brea and Emily were off to a tennis tournament, and his mom had taken Jessica to a birthday party, so he didn’t have any distractions.

  Occasionally he checked on Alex. She spent most of the day working on her term paper, also; but at 9:30 P.M. she headed up to spy on Sayid. Alex got excited right away when she realized that Sayid was back. She spent a lot of time trying to listen with her parabolic microphone and peering through her night vision binoculars, but in general it was an uneventful evening.

  ◆ ◆ ◆

  The next evening when Emily knocked on the door to Matthew’s house, Mrs. Brandt answered.

  “Oh, hi, Emily, Matt said you were coming over to study. Come right in.”

  “He’s got you set up in the office, just around the corner there. Can I get you anything?”

  “No thanks, Mrs. Brandt, I’m fine.”

  “Call me Margaret,” Mrs. Brandt said. “Mrs. Brandt makes me feel old.”

  “Sure, Margaret.”

  “I’m glad that Matthew is able to go on the ski trip with you.”

  “Brea’s the one saving his seat.”

  “I’m sure; I’ll let Matt know you’re here.”

  Mrs. Brandt went upstairs where Matthew was dressing Jessica in her pajamas.

  “Was that Emily?”

  “Yes, she’s in the office waiting for you.”

  “Okay, Jessie’s ready for bed, aren’t you?”

  “No; I want a story first,” Jessica demanded.

  “Jessie, Mommy’s going to read you a story tonight,” Mrs. Brandt said. “Which one do you want to read?”

  “Winnie the Pooh,” Jessica said with emphasis on Pooh.

  “Okay, you’re off for the rest of the night,” Mrs. Brandt said.

  Matthew gave Jessica a kiss, “Night, night, Jessie.”

  “Night, night.”

  Matthew went to his room and grabbed his computer and the SAT study guide he and Emily were using. Then he raced down the stairs to the office.

  “Hi, Emily, you ready?”

  “Yes; what’s up with you, forget to undress before you took a shower?” Emily said, pointing at Matthew’s damp shirt.

  “I had to give Jessie her bath; Mom and I try to alternate nights.”

  “I’m sure it’ll dry.”

  “Jessie always likes to share her bath with whoever is helping her.”

  “I know how little kids can be. It’s nice that you help out so much; I’m sure your mom really appreciates it. How’s she doing?”

  “She’s okay, still working hard at the university, and it’s tough with Jessie being so young. At least this year she’s in kindergarten, so it’s not so much day care. Mrs. Maier, our neighbor, usually brings her home when she picks up her son at 4:00.

  “I get her Mondays and Fridays till Mom gets home from work. Mom comes home early on Tuesdays and Thursdays so we don’t have to pay for extended day care. And Jen watches her on Wednesdays.”

  “Brea’s friend?”

  “Yes,” Matthew said. “Let’s practice the analogies?”

  “Sure.”

  “Do you want anything to drink or snack on?”

  “Not now, I just finished dinner.”

  “Me, too.”

  The two friends went through several exercises from the vocabulary section of the study guide.

  After an hour of studying Matthew got up, “I’m going to get a soda, do you want one?”

  “Sure, and pretzels if you have them.”

  “I’ll be back in a sec.”

  “Matt, would you check on Alex?” Emily asked when he came back into the office.

  Matthew looked at his watch, “8:30, I’ll check but she usually doesn’t set up until after 9:00.”

  “Check anyway.”

  Matthew gazed ahead as he slowed his breathing, and closed his eyes as he focused on Alex. He heard her talking to Jason, “Jason, what did you get for an answer to problem 24?”

  Matthew opened his eyes and saw Alex and Jason at Jason’s house. They were in the alcove off the Winthrops’ family room, studying.

  He closed his virtual camera and sat down. “She’s fine; she’s at Jason’s studying.”

  “Why did you close your eyes first?”

  “Your suggestion, making sure that Alex wasn’t in the bathroom or something.”

  “That’s nice; I hope you use such manners all the time.”

  “I do now.”

  “Good, well we’d better get back to it.”

  After another forty-five minutes, Emily asked Matthew to check on Alex again.

  “She’s just set up her stakeout. The house seems quiet. It looks like Sayid is out for the evening.”

  “I hope our luck holds out at least until Wednesday.”

  “One can hope. Emily do you want to do some more experiments with me?”

  “Just what kind of experiments are you thinking of?” Emily teased.

  Matthew blushed, “You know what I mean.”

  Emily laughed, “I know, but I couldn’t resist. But sure, it’ll be fun.”

  “Good, I want to see if I can reverse the configuration.”

  “What?”

  “Change it so that you can see the room through it instead of me.”

  “Great, so I get to be the peeping Jane.”

  “Whatever; you ready?”

  “Ready,” Emily said as she turned her chair so it faced to the right. Matthew turned it so his faced to the left.

  “I see your eye,” Emily said.

  “Okay, now I’m going to move the end just in front of your right eye.”

  “Now I’m really looking into your eyeball.”

  “Now I’m going to shrink this end.”

  “Just your pupil.”

  “Now I’m going to try and move this end away from me.”

  “Now I can see more of your face, and I can see myself behind you; this is so cool.”

  Matthew closed the portal down.

  “Wait, can’t we do some more?”

  “Sure, but we need to work on whether I can hear through it, so we need to be in separate rooms. I don’t think we should do that now.”

  “I guess you don’t want your mom wondering what’s going on.”

  “No, I don’t. Sometimes I think I should just tell her, but I’m worried about how she’ll react.”

  “I don’t think you should worry about that.”

  “I know, I totally trust her, but she might start worrying that I’ve got a brain tumor like my dad; then she’d get doctors involved. Soon my secret would be on the front pages of some rag.”

  “I see what you mean.”

  “Yes, it’s very complicated. Now let’s see if we can both look through this end.”

  They rotated their chairs so they were sitting side by side. Then Matthew brought up his portal again. He focused on Jessica, and she came into view immediately. He pushed his end away from his face and expanded it a little; it grew to the size of a quarter.

  “I can see it,” Emily said, leaning her head until it touched Matthew’s, “you’re peeking in on Jessie. Hey, it’s bigger this time.”

  “Yes, I’ve been practicing so I can make it bigger. I’ve had it as big as my hand once.”

  “That’s cool, you should be able to do more with it being bigger.”

  “I think so. It does make it easier to see things. Now can you hear?”

  “I think I can hear her breathing.”

  “Good, well let’s check in on Alex.”

  Matthew closed down the view of Jessica and focused on Alex.

  “There’s Alex,” Emily said. “She’s reading Les Misérables, but I can’t hear the stereo playing.”

  “She keeps it off so she can hear with the parabolic mic she’s got set up.”

  “Oh boy, that’s a sacrifice for her; she ca
n hardly do anything without her music.”

  “I’ve noticed.”

  “Wait, it’s before 10:00 P.M., so my folks will be at the La Jolla Playhouse; we can check out the sound there.”

  “Sure.”

  Matthew opened the portal on Emily’s parents. They were seated in the center section of the theater, about halfway back.

  As he expanded the portal, he and Emily were treated to the closing scene of Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard.

  “Well, I can definitely hear,” Emily said.

  “Good, now what else can we try?” Matthew mused. “Let’s check out the backside again.”

  Matthew refocused the portal so the other end was in front of Emily.

  “Still can’t see anything,” Emily said.

  “How about pushing the pen against it?” Matthew asked.

  Emily picked up the pen and pushed it through the back of where the portal should be. Matthew saw a hole form on his end of the portal.

  Emily waved the pen around. “It’s like there’s nothing there,” she said.

  “It makes a hole on my end. And the hole keeps moving around in the portal, I guess wherever you’re moving the pen. It seems to reform around the pen. Let’s try again.”

  “I’ll use my finger this time,” Emily said.

  Matthew brought the portal up and Emily reached out with her finger. She gently stroked the back of the portal. “It’s cool and soft,” she said. She pressed a little and her finger went through.

  “It’s like the surface of water. Some tension, but with a little pressure it goes right through.”

  “Hm, like a weak force field,” Matthew said.

  “I guess.”

  “Okay, let’s see what it looks like from the side.”

  Matthew rotated the portal until they could see the edge.

  “There’s nothing here,” Emily said. “It can’t be very thick; if I couldn’t see the front I wouldn’t even know it was there.”

  “Use a pen again and see what it feels like,” Matthew suggested.

  Emily picked up a pen and tried to press it where the edge would be.

  “There’s some resistance,” she said, as the pen passed through it as though it wasn’t there, “but then it just slides right through like it’s moving through water.”

  Matthew could see the pen, as half of it was visible in front of the portal. When he looked at the other end of the portal, there was just the hole moving around following the pen.

  “It’s like surface tension,” she said. She pulled the pen back and looked at it where it had passed through the portal. “No damage to the pen.”

  Emily swept her hand through the portal. “It’s like nothing is there but a floating pool of water.”

  “Just one more thing, come with me,” Matthew said, closing the portal. He led Emily to the garage where he took out a hammer, a punch and a piece of plywood. “I thought we’d test its strength.”

  “Okay, and the hammer is for?”

  “I’m going to open it really big. I’ve been practicing opening it larger without letting it be flexible. I’ll put this piece of plywood in front of my face for protection, and you try and drive the punch into it.”

  “Okay.”

  Matthew brought the portal up again. He rotated the other end so it was horizontal on top of the workbench. He positioned his end to the side where he could see what Emily was doing but so that any slips of the hammer wouldn’t have a chance to reach him. He put the plywood in front of his face and said, “Give it a whack.”

  Emily put the punch against the portal and tapped it with the hammer, “Nothing happened.”

  “Hit it harder.”

  Emily drew back and tapped the punch harder.

  “Ouch!”

  “What happened?” Emily asked.

  “I couldn’t keep the plywood steady, it hit my forehead,” Matthew said. “Let’s see what happened.”

  Matthew turned the plywood over and examined its surface. “I don’t see a punch mark, but the force of the blow made the plywood move.”

  “There isn’t a mark on the workbench,” Emily said. “So it’s really shifting everything to the other end.

  “Let’s try it again and I’ll make it flexible this time.”

  They repeated the experiment. This time when they examined the plywood, there was a distinct mark where the punch had dented it, just as though she had applied the punch directly to the plywood.

  “I guess when it doesn’t pass sound, it’s totally hard. Makes sense, the sound energy needs to vibrate it like a membrane for the sound to pass through, so it would need to be a little flexible.”

  “That makes sense. How flexible do you think you can make it?” Emily asked.

  “I don’t know, but I’m almost at my limit of keeping it open.”

  “You have a limit?” Emily asked.

  “Yes, I can only keep it open for about ten minutes continuously before I have to rest a few hours.”

  “Oh. Have you had it open for ten minutes?”

  “Not quite, but opening and closing it tires me out. I don’t mean it tires me, but I just can’t open it anymore. Anyway, the more often I open it, the less time I can keep it open.”

  “That makes sense, just like any muscle.” Emily gathered her books and stuff up into her backpack. “I guess no more studying until after the ski trip. Are you ready?”

  “Sure, I’m really looking forward to it,” Matthew said.

  “So am I. See you at school tomorrow.”

  Matthew showed Emily to the door, Emily stopped and turned to Matthew, her eyes asking the question for her.

  “Okay, I’ll check on Alex,” Matthew said.

  He opened the portal and looked in on Alex. She was listening in on the parabolic microphone and taking some notes, presumably of the conversation she was eavesdropping on.

  He checked the house. Sayid was in his study talking to someone on the phone about coming to visit the next week.

  “Yes, bring your friend,” Sayid said. “We have plenty of room.”

  Sayid listened for a while then said, “We’ll play golf. I’ll get a friend to join us so we’ll have a foursome. No, it’s no trouble; I should get some benefit from belonging to that country club.”

  Sayid nodded his head a few times as if the caller could see him.

  “I’ll see you on Sunday; I’ll have my driver pick you up. Maa asalaama,” Sayid said as he hung up the phone. He stood up, went into his living room, and picked up a book. The book had a green jacket with gold Arabic writing on it. He poured himself a drink from the bar, it looked like a cognac, and sat down and started to read. Matthew refocused on Alex; she was packing up to leave.

  “She’s fine, getting ready to leave right now,” Matthew said to Emily as he closed the portal. “Sayid has guests coming on Sunday.”

  “Oh that’ll drive Alex nuts, we don’t get back until after 8:00 on Sunday. She’s going to worry she’ll miss something.”

  “Yeah, and that also means she’s not going to forget about it.”

  “Don’t you know it? Well, bye.”

  “Bye, see you tomorrow.”

  A White Thanksgiving

  “Matty, are you packed?” Mrs. Brandt asked, as she knocked on the door to her son’s room.

  “I’m just finishing up.”

  “How about your homework, are you going to take your books with you?”

  “No, Mom, I finished it all up this afternoon. I’m free and clear till after the weekend.”

  “That’s good; you’ll have a lot more fun that way. Are you riding with the Reeves?”

  “No, Jason’s going to pick me up on his way to get Alex. He’s going to get all their gear stowed away tonight, so after he drops the rest of the family off, he’ll come and get us.”

  “That’s a lot of trips to the airport. Won’t the traffic be horrible, and the Reeves are just across the street.”

  “We’re on Mr. Stevenson’s jet, remember?�
� Matthew said. “We’ll be flying out of Palomar so there there won’t be much traffic to fight. I think Jason wants support to get Alex, she’s not much of a morning person.”

  “I can sympathize with that. Nice to have rich friends,” Mrs. Brandt sighed.

  “It sure is, except I feel kind of like a poor relation sometimes.”

  “Yes, it’s hard to keep perspective when you’re surrounded with people with so much money,” Mrs. Brandt said. “It’s a good thing you get to come home to Jessie and me; we’ll keep you grounded in reality.”

  Mrs. Brandt struck a modeling pose, which looked funny since she was wearing K-Mart sweats.

  “That’s what family’s for,” Matthew laughed. “Don’t worry, I just have to look in my wallet to be reminded that I’d be stupid to try and keep up with them.”

  “Good. Is your alarm set?”

  “Yes it is, don’t worry,” Matthew said. “Are you and Jessie all set for your trip to Seattle tomorrow night?”

  “Ready as we’ll ever be. The more I think about traveling with a five-year old by myself, the more I think about how much you owe me, buster,” Mrs. Brandt said, poking her finger into Matthew’s chest, a mischievous grin on her face. “And I plan on collecting.”

  “I know I owe you, so I’ll pay,” Matthew said.

  “All right, you’d better get to sleep so you’ll wake up tomorrow. Wake me before you leave.”

  “Okay, goodnight,” Matthew said, closing his door.

  “Night,” Mrs. Brandt’s reply was muffled by the closed door.

  ◆ ◆ ◆

  Matthew was up at 5:30 on Wednesday morning. He did a quick 30-minute workout before showering. Then he hauled his bags down to the curb. At 6:15 he knocked on his mother’s bedroom door to say goodbye.

  “Are you ready to go?” Mrs. Brandt croaked, as she opened her door, more asleep than awake. She came into the hallway, closing her door behind her, “Jessie decided to sleep with me last night, and you know what a blanket hog she is.”

  “Blanket hog, space hog and she kicks,” Matthew commiserated with his mother. “So does that mean you didn’t get much sleep?”

  “Yes, as soon as you leave, I’m going back to bed, but in your bed.”

  “You’re welcome to it. I’ve already got my stuff outside, so I’m out of here,” Matthew said, as he gave his mother a kiss and a hug.