Justification For Killing

by Larry Edward Hunt

  Not believing their eyes on what they had initialed, each read the ten items slowly anyway:

  1. Attempted Assassin - was Lee Harvey Oswald. (Initials)

  2. Oswald fired shots from Texas School Book Depository at 12:30 P.M. (Initials)

  3. Official records - 3 shots fired. (Initials)

  4. President wounded by an assassin at Dealy Plaza, Dallas, Texas. (Initials)

  5. President Kennedy received severe bullet wounds to head and back. (Initials)

  6. Secret Service Agent Hill wounded. (Initials)

  7. Jack Ruby arrested as he entered Dallas police basement. (Initials)

  8. Severely injured but after months of recuperation JFK survives. (Initials)

  9. Brother Robert Kennedy was JFK’s vice president in 1964. (Initials)

  10. John Kennedy re-elected to 2nd term in 1964. (Initials)

  “Okay, at the time you read, agreed with and initialed numbers one through ten. Look you can see your initials after each statement. Now look at the same whiteboard on the easel.

  Grandpa walked from the end of the conference table over to the whiteboard and flipped the cover sheet over to reveal the notes he had written earlier; however, now the notes were entirely different from before:

  Assassin - Lee Harvey Oswald.

  12:30 P.M. shots fired from Texas School Book Depository.

  Official records - 3 shots.

  President assassinated by a lone assassin.

  President Kennedy received a mortal wound to his head and back.

  Secret Service Agent Hill was not wounded.

  Jack Ruby killed Oswald in Dallas police basement.

  President Kennedy died at Parkland Hospital November 22, 1963.

  Vice president Lyndon Johnson, was sworn in as President on the same date.

  10. President Lyndon Johnson re-elected in 1964.

  11. Hubert Humphrey elected vice president in 1964.

  “All right, is there anyone that does not agree with the facts I have placed on the board? If so, speak up now.” Everyone was nodding his or her head in the affirmative.

  “Let me just summarize - at the time I wrote these items, and you all say this was just a few minutes ago, right...? Right! Okay, Lee Harvey Oswald fired three shots from the Texas School Book Depository building in an attempt to assassinate President Kennedy; he wounded President Kennedy and Secret Agent Hill. Jack Ruby was arrested trying to get into the basement of the Dallas City Jail. John Kennedy was re-elected in 1964 and had his brother Bobby Kennedy as his vice president. These are the items you all agreed on, right? Must be... there are your initials after each statement.”

  “I do not know about the others here at the table, but those items on the big screen are not the ones I agreed on, I didn’t okay them Grandpa. Those are not true facts. Why would I initial something I understand to be historically inaccurate?” Stammering Gabby continued, “The statements listed on the small whiteboard sitting on the easel are correct. I don’t understand why my initials are on the incorrect items on the screen.” Bewildered see added, “My initials should be on the whiteboard sitting right there on your easel. Somehow Grandpa you faked the whiteboard photograph that is being projected on the screen,” exclaimed Gabby.

  All those sitting around the table nodded their heads in agreement with Gabby’s statement. “That’s right!”, someone at the table commented, “Somehow, Grandpa, you faked that picture.”

  “The picture has not been touched - it is not a fake. Neither is the whiteboard here on the easel. I’ll now show my second picture.”

  The scene of the whiteboard on the screen suddenly changed to a group picture of everyone sitting at the conference table.

  Forrest was the first to speak, “It’s just us Grandpa. I don’t see anything unusual about the picture. What are we supposed to be looking for?”

  “Look closer Forrest.”

  He strained trying to see something out of the ordinary when it hit him. “Ooooh... mmmmy... ggggoodness,” he could barely get the words out of his mouth.

  “What? What? Gabby cried out. “What do you see Forrest?”

  “Gabby, it’s not what I see, it’s what I don’t see!!”

  “Doggone it Forrest, you’re as bad as Grandpa. What do you NOT see?”

  “Bud! I don’t see Bud! Bud you are not in the picture.”

  Olive Marie replied, “Yes he is... he’s got to be... he was sitting next me the whole time! Right here on my right. He... ”

  “You’re correct Lou, I’ve been here all the time except my trip to the restroom.”

  As they all viewed the scene at the table, Bud was nowhere to be seen. All they could see was an empty seat between Lou and Olive Marie. “How did you do that trick Grandpa? That’s a good one.”

  “Is this the photo I snapped right before leaving the room?”

  “No!! It can’t be, Grandpa, Bud is not in the picture. That was taken at a different meeting, and you switched photos... somehow.”

  “What time did I leave? Does anyone recall?”

  “Yes, I do Captain,” said Spook. “You took the last photo and left the room a few minutes past two o’clock.”

  “That is about right Spook. What was the date?”

  “Captain? Are you serious? The date? Okay, the date was today, Tuesday the 20th of November 2012.”

  “Does everyone agree?” All heads were again nodding in agreement. “Okay, I’m going to enlarge the calendar clock in the photo. The one over in the corner of this room.” All eyes immediately shifted toward the corner and back at the photo on the screen, then they stared intently at the tiny clock image in the picture - Grandpa pointed the computer cursor, clicked, and the clock began to enlarge... bigger... bigger...

  “Forget everything I just said. Forget it... forget it... wash my mouth out with soap Grandpa... I’ll never doubt anything you ever say again. Just look...! Just look...!” Gasped Gabby.

  She and the rest of the group stared intently at the photo of the clock. The whole room was shocked, as the clock began to get large enough to read the time and date. They were startled by its revelation.

  The time on the clock read 2:05 and the date was... was... Monday the 19th of November 2012!!

  “See it is no trick, Bud you are not in the picture, and the picture was taken yesterday!! Gabby, I thought you said I was only gone about five minutes! If you all will return to your seats, I am going to explain what you are seeing, or in this case - not seeing. I realize it is going to seem strange, but just remember one thing: I am not making this up, it actually happened.”

  “Grandpa, this is freaking me out. You are not making any sense.”

  “As you sat here, in your minds, just a few minutes ago, we talked about the assassination of President Kennedy - sorry, but we talked about the attempted assassination of President Kennedy. Let me explain.

  “Friday I had a surprise visit from our old friend Anhur. Yeah, you are right Bud I can see you, Forrest and Olive Marie grinning. He saved you from an airplane crash on your trip to Mexico City. He interfered in an event that would have caused the death of many people. Because of his interference in our future, people on our planet were allowed to live that should have died. That possibly could have included you three.

  For his unselfish act, Anhur was sentenced to death back on his home planet of Sunev. His Supreme Council did not carry out the death sentence instead they gave him another chance to redeem himself and live. To do so, however, he had to undo another interference he had caused many years earlier. Forty-nine years to be exact. Anhur is a terrific Lilliputian, but he just cannot keep his fingers, all eight of them, out of Earth’s business.

  “That brings us to the topic of our meeting today - when Anhur visited he told me a most unusual story. A story about Parallel Universes and how our ‘Time-machine’, ‘Timerider’, ‘Lightening Rod’, ‘Pegasus’ or whatever we wish to call it can bridge the gap between our current time dimension and another. We can actually tr
avel from one Parallel Universe to another Parallel Universe. Even Einstein had his e equal mc square theory of relativity. He believed time wasn’t a straight line. His equations prove time travel is theoretically possible. Well until now his theory implied it was mathematically probable, but most scientists agree it was also impossible. I have now proven not only is it probable, but also it is, in fact, possible.

  “I have an admission to make: Gabby, you were wrong - that ‘dadgum’ machine really does work.”

  Almost in unison, the group emitted a questionable, “What? How do you know?”

  “When I left the room you thought I was gone for just a few minutes. I was gone more than a few minutes - I was gone nearly three days!”

  “What! What are you trying to tell us? Grandpa you’re talking out of your head!” said Gabby.

  “Gabby, at the beginning of this meeting, I outlined on my board the situation with the attempted shooting of President John F. Kennedy. Yes, I said ‘attempted’. You see, when you walked into this meeting yesterday morning, we were all living in an Alternate Universe. Anhur and his people called it Parallel Universe B or ParUn B. I get the idea you are saying, ‘Captain, have you lost it?’ Well let’s take a look at all those items lying on the table in front of you, and I will try, using them, further to explain this Parallel Universe paradox.

  “You all witnessed Lou, Sam Lin and Si Lei as they had sealed my shoulder bag before I left to go downstairs, and they inspected and determined the seal had not been tampered with when I returned. On my return, I broke the seal and gave each of you an envelope containing some strange items. Let me make one statement: this bag was in my possession when I left you all, traversed the Parallel Universes with me, and I personally brought it back along with all the items inside. As I previously said these items are real also and have not been faked. They were representations of real events, items and people at the time I put them into the bag. Any of you, if you had so desired, could have assembled a package matching the ones lying before you, with no trouble at all. Two caveats – you would have had to assemble the items before I went down to the laboratory but today it would be impossible! I’ll explain.”

  “Lou, Sam Lin and Si Lei sealed all of those items, from your brown envelopes, in my shoulder bag before I left this room. Isn’t this right? Yeah, I see you all agreeing. When I left this room we were all in a Parallel Universe we all knew and at the time was correct. I left that Universe of yesterday and returned to our Universe of today. They are not the same; although, you did not recognize the change. My duffle bag and I left one Universe and my bag and I came back in another Universe. I perceive this is hard to grasp, but remember I cut the seal in front of you all just to prove I had not altered anything in my bag.

  “Now let’s take a closer look at the items from my bag - first is the Washington Herald newspaper. Check out the date - it is November 10, 2012 and then the headline: “PRESIDENT DIXON MEETS WITH HUSSEIN.” Who is President Dixon you have already asked? And you all know Saddam Hussein was executed December 30, 2006. Notice the article describing the forty-ninth anniversary party celebrating the survival of Presidential Kennedy in the assassination attempt on November 22, 1963. To commemorate that event, the Kennedys were planning a grandiose party at Hyannis Port, Massachusetts.

  “The other newspaper article dated August 15, 2012, attests to the fact the seventy-four year old Lee Harvey Oswald was trying to seek a parole from prison. How can this be true you say? We all have knowledge that Jack Ruby killed Oswald in the basement of the Dallas City Jail Sunday the 24th of November 1963, two days after Oswald killed JFK. How is he now alive and seeking a parole in 2012?

  “The next item - the thick blue book - was the final output of a congressionally ordered commission that investigated the ‘attempted’ Presidential assassination. Notice it is dated September 24, 1964.

  “I saved some of the best for last... in our alternative universe, which began when Presidential Kennedy was almost killed, a war slowly evolved in Southeast Asia. Yes, you are familiar with Vietnam, and understand that war officially ended August 15, 1973. The other war, in the Parallel Universe, had its beginning as the Vietnam War. The Russians gradually got more and more entangled in the fighting. The Chinese did not want to be left behind, so they got mixed up in it too. It quickly outspread the borders of Vietnam and eventually involved all of South East Asia.

  “It became known as the Viruchi War, VIetnam - RUssia - CHIna.

  “Finally the escalation ended with the Russians sending a Tomahawk type missile streaking over South Vietnam, launched from a submarine offshore in the South China Sea. This nuclear missile nuked Saigon on Independence Day July 4, 1982. A few minutes later our military reduced Moscow and roughly seven million Russian people to dust. The vast empty steppe on the Moskva River, once the capital of the old USSR, would be uninhabitable for the next thousand years thanks to America’s modern military firepower. Counting both the two atomic explosions millions upon millions of lives were killed, maimed or otherwise rendered useless. Millions more died of hunger, disease or radiation poisoning in the ten years following those final attempts with men trying to settle their arguments using big boy toys. All sides finally saw the futility of continuing this war, so on July 4, 1984, exactly two years to the day after Saigon and Moscow had been vaporized, a peace treaty was signed.

  “Less than seven years later the U.S. was embroiled in yet another war, this time with Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Syria and a couple of other smaller nations. This was the Southwest Asian War. This war killed millions of people too. It lasted from 1991 until 2008. You, unfortunately, were one of the casualties Bud. You had been in the National Guard, and your unit was activated and deployed to the Middle East. Later, while your unit was fighting in Iraq, you fatally succumbed in one of Saddam Hussein’s poison gas attacks.

  “Bud, the Purple Heart Award and the Death Certificate - both, from that Parallel Universe, sadly I have to say were truly yours. Bud you cannot believe how devastated we were when the Army Chaplin personally delivered the news of your death to Trey and Krista.”

  Krista spoke up, “Captain, wait! I don’t remember any of this - I never saw an Army Chaplin. Bud killed! I definitely would have remembered something as devastating as that!”

  “You’re correct Krissy - you have no memory or knowledge of this other Universe, just like you have no memory of hundreds or maybe thousands of other Universes you may be in at this very moment.”

  “Captain,” said Krista, “this is all so confusing it sounds like science fiction.”

  “When Anhur approached me yesterday, he allowed me to use an alien device, they call the Visiondome, to see what our world would be like if President Kennedy had not survived the assassination in Dealey Plaza, Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963.

  “In this Alternate Universe world that I was shown there was no Viruchi War, no Southwest Asian War. Without this war, Bud you did not have to die... this alone convinced me to try Pegasus myself for the fourth time. Even if I never returned, I had to try to change our future. I had to insure President John F. Kennedy WAS assassinated at 12:30 p.m. on November 22, 1963, AND I DID!!!

  “I left this meeting with you all, carried my duffle bag and camera downstairs to the lab. At exactly 2:30:00 I dematerialized from the Universe of yesterday and materialized forty-nine years earlier to attempt to change our Universe onto a different Universal path.

  Anhur had informed me the split in the Universe must occur at exactly 12:30 p.m. November 22, 1963 at Dealy Plaza, Dallas, Texas. The trigger was the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. I will tell you now it worked. I left from one Universe and returned one day later to an entirely new world – the world we are living in today.

  Gabby the change in the Universes explains why the items in my bag seem so strange. Those items of yesterday represent a Universe where President Kennedy was only wounded, the Universe of today is a world in which he died, but remember, I kept my bag wi
th me the entire time I was gone so the items in my duffle would not have changed. They would be the same today as they were yesterday. As I crossed between the two Universes, the duffle bag and its contents crossed with me.”

  Gabby spoke again, “Grandpa, I hear the words coming out of your mouth, and I have never heard you tell us a deliberate lie, but Grandpa you sure are stretching the truth with all of this. I’m still not convinced you left us in that Lightening Bug thing from one world and then returned in the present world we now live in. This is all very, VERY confusing to me.”

  “Bolt! Gabby, not ‘Bug’. Okay,” Grandpa said clicking his remote control. “Take a look at this picture on the screen. The one I took after walking across this room, but before I opened the door to go downstairs.”

  Instantly the screen on the front wall was covered with a scene of the group sitting around the table staring at Captain Scarburg taking their picture.

  “Gabby, look at this picture - you all are sitting at the conference table – notice again the seat between Lou and Olive Marie is empty!! Don’t you see Gabby? Bud was not present when I left!!

  Gabby said. “But no, wait a minute Grandpa! Bud got up and went to the restroom.”

  “You’re right granddaughter, but AFTER I left. He should have been at the table WHEN I left.”

  Gabby, shaking her head said, “Grandpa, I said a while ago I believed everything you said. I now want to put an asterisk beside that statement. I now believe I grasp what you are doing, you are trying to get us to go to Dallas, and I’m totally against it. I bought into the whiteboard changey thing, and I was blown away with the props concerning the Army’s award of the Purple Heart and Bud playing the missing man game and all that other stuff from the brown envelope. Even that last picture with Bud’s empty chair between Lou and Olive Marie was ingenious, still can’t figure out how you pulled it off, but it was real good. I’ll give you credit for that Grandpa.