The Test

by Robert Longley

  Otherwise, we were headed back to town and back to our regular lives. No sooner did I get home then my cell phone rings.

  "Hello"

  "Hey, how you doing?"

  It was Henry. "Did you try the prime rib at George's this week? Absolutely fantastic."

  "Were you there spying on us again"

  "I wouldn't call it spying. Just keeping you safe. That's all it is.”

  "I suppose if I don't know you're there, it's not as bad"

  "Just think of us as kind of an insurance policy.”

  "So, assuming everything is still there, what exactly am I looking for?"

  "You're looking for something called the Corrective Action Plan for Project Rainbow. It should be dated sometime after 1947.”

  "And you know this because…"

  "Well we have the corrective action plan from 1946 and it involves scrapping the project. But this was written before the jump in the Bahamas. The assumption is that he came up with a fix that would help control the experiment in the future.”

  The good news was I knew where to look. The bad news was I didn't know if it would still be there after 70 years. I was already nervous about sending my kid off to school. Having to do this at the same time just made it worse. Henry decided to be reassuring, "Don't worry, he'll be fine. He's in good hands. By the time your daughter goes to Boston College in two years, you'll be a pro at this"

  "How do you know Stephanie is going to go to Boston College in two years. She hasn't even applied to schools yet.”

  "Let's just call it a hunch for now. But I would tell you to have her start working on the scholarship applications now. You never know what you might end up with.”

  "What about our friends in sunglasses? I suspect they will be waiting for me at Princeton.”

  "Well, they can't out you as a time traveler. That would be a disaster. All they want are the notes and we just have to make sure that they don't get them. So, it's going to be interesting.”

  "Won't the office be locked? How am I going to get in?"

  "Don't worry about that. We will provide you with a little help.”

  "So roughly an hour into moving in, you're going to get a visit from campus police. They're going to tell you that you need to move your car. You're going to move your car to Einstein's building; You've got a parking spot set up for you, so it won't take very long. But during that time, you're going to hopefully do a little B and E."

  "I'm not breaking into anywhere. How's that going to work?"

  “No, actually we shouldn't call it that. We'll let you in. Nobody is going to be breaking in.”

  "Do I need to wear gloves or anything? Are there security cameras I need to worry about?"

  "There's going to be a bunch of tours going on at that time, and we'll make sure that the cameras are off. You will probably have the sunglasses guys there are at some point. Sound easy enough.”

  "I guess. I just want my life back, even if it's not the one I started with."

  "Okay. I guess that about covers it. So, see you at Princeton tomorrow.”

  "Wait, you're going to be there?"

  "Not really, more a figure of speech. Try to enjoy yourself."

  What could go wrong?

  Chapter 25 - Back to Princeton

  I'm not sure if we did more sorting or packing. Marie Kondo would have been proud. Eventually, the car was loaded, and we were ready for the big day tomorrow. "Everybody get a good night's sleep.” Kelly and I headed up to bed. She's getting ready and I'm thinking, do I tell her what I’m doing? She lies down and says, “Our baby is getting ready to go off to school.”

  “Yeah, about that….”

  “What,” she says.

  “Remember all that craziness happened earlier in the year? Yeah. Well, part of it has to do with Princeton.”

  “Okay.”

  “There's something there that I knew about in my previous life and if I can find it, we should all be safe. If not, this craziness is likely to continue.”

  “So, what do you think is going to happen?”

  "I don't know. I just know that I'm going to have to leave you for a little while with the unpacking. If all goes well, I'll be back, and we go home and all will be well.”

  "This is scaring me."

  "It scares me too. The good news is that if all goes well, it'll be all over tomorrow and we can go back to having a normal life.”

  "Sounds good to me. Love You."

  "Love you too."

  6:00 AM came a little too quickly. Kelly and I bounced up, got ready and headed for the kids' rooms. I could have used a bucket of water to wake them. Those two were still in summer mode. "Come on, get up," I yelled. 40 minutes and a dozen blueberry pancakes later, my daughter was still in the bathroom putting on makeup. "This isn't about you, Stephanie; this is for your brother.” "But I'm going to be meeting all of his friends. His new hot friends"

  Dear God, when did my little girl turn into this?

  On the opposite end of the spectrum, my son was sitting there eating pancakes telling me, "You know, they have a particle accelerator that we can use as a freshman.” My children had very different views of the college experience. My son had been face-timing or whatever they do, with his roommate Ritesh for about the last month. Ritesh was as excited about the particle accelerator as Michael was. These two were going to be a matching set. Another 15 minutes goes by. My daughter finally makes an appearance. She is wearing a crop top and some of the shortest shorts I've ever seen. Thankfully Kelly's stepped in.

  "Back upstairs young lady and put something else on."

  "Thank you" I said.

  Meanwhile, I'm wondering where did she get these clothes in the first place. Another 15 minutes and she came downstairs looking a little bit more modest or at least less distracting for the male population she's about to be meeting. This was almost two hours of my life that I wasn't going to be getting back. We had planned to leave by eight. Now it's looking like we were closer to nine given any last-minute things we needed to do.

  "Oh, we still should make it to Princeton by 10 o'clock.” My son wasn't freaking out too badly. We headed out to the car. Stephanie says, "Can I drive?"

  “No, I'm driving.”

  “So, Dad, are you ready for this?” she added.

  “I'm ready as I'll ever be.”

  “Lock and load”

  “I don't have a gun.” Although I was starting to think that might be a good idea.

  “It's a metaphor, Dad.”

  Kelly was already back to sleep before I was even out of the driveway. Once the earbuds went in, the kids were silent. Normally I like a quiet ride, but I think it made things go slower this time. I was playing different scenarios through my head. None of them ended well.

  It didn't take as long as I was expecting. I guess I was stalling when I got into Princeton. I plugged 112 Mercer Avenue into the GPS. Everyone ignored the turn by turn directions until the English-speaking voice said: "you have arrived at your destination.” Everyone looked up expecting to see the front gate of Princeton but instead, we were down the street a bit in front of a white house with black shutters and a four posted porch. The hanging flowers were a nice touch. The last time I had seen the house there were some rocking chairs on the porch, but that was a couple of lifetimes ago. This was Albert Einstein's house.

  I was only there once for a small dinner party in 1945. I wasn't exactly the same caliber as the other guests, but Einstein invited the team at the last minute after we got the test system operational in his lab. We didn't need to be back to Norfolk until the next day so some of the guys and I went to dinner.

  We were underdressed but Einstein welcomed us as if we were in tuxedoes. Still, between the Navy brass and some of the Princeton elite, I think we spent more time talking to Einstein's housekeeper. She was a rather sturdy woman, but she kept a clean house and she could cook. Einstein's wife had died almost a decade before and the house reminded him of her and the fact that she was gone. I t
hink he was more comfortable in his office at Princeton, but he couldn't bear to get rid of the house. Also, the Princeton administration wouldn't let him live in his office.

  I think the other reason Einstein kept the house was the acoustics were better when he played the violin. He regularly played in the office, but this was the first time I heard him play as part of a quartet. I thought he was pretty good. I commented to one of the other members of his group that I thought that they were good. He said, "Einstein can't count" and walked away. What did I know?

  I wanted to share my Einstein story, but so far only Kelly knew the truth so I shifted into classic Dad mode and said: "I saw a brochure on this at the rest stop and thought we should do a drive-by on the way."

  My son jumped in, "Dad we are going to be late and you won't get a parking spot.”

  "You could walk to your dorm in less than 5 minutes" Oops! Everyone just brushed it off to a lucky guess as we pulled up to the gates a couple of minutes later.

  We were greeted at the Princeton gate by a guard and a sign that said: "Freshmen check-in.” The guard directed us to the dorm and told us that we had 30 minutes to unload and then move to one of the student parking lots. He gave us a parking sticker, so we got to the dorm and started hauling boxes and moved all the boxes up to my son's room and started unpacking. Between the 4 of us, and a few members of the football team that wanted my daughter's number, we had everything out of the car and in his room in about 15 minutes.

  All of a sudden, campus police, showed up. They were a little early, but more or less on queue.

  "Sir, you need to move your car.”

  I said, "It hasn't been 30 minutes yet.”

  "Sir. You need to move your car. You've been there too long.”

  I looked at Kelly, "Showtime!"

  She said, "Good luck.”

  I went over and kissed her, and I said, "Go to the Science Center if I'm not back in an hour.”

  I got in the car and headed over towards the science center. As I slowed up, I saw a parking spot that said, reserved for Mr. Emc. I knew this was thanks to Henry's warped sense of humor. I sat there for a minute and pondered my fate and watched a few tour groups going to the building. As I gathered, my strength a knock came at the window. I rolled it down.

  "I am Professor Douglas; you're here for the private tour?"

  "Something like that. Let's just get this over with"

  He says, "let's go get it. I don't have much time", so he looked at me and said, "So where are we going?"

  Most of this building hasn't been renovated since the forties so I'm hoping whatever we're looking for is still where it should be. We walked down the hall and I said, "This is it.” The sign said Supply Closet.

  "Really?" Douglas said, "We're going into the supply closet?"

  Well, it wasn't a supply closet in 1945. He reaches in his pocket, grabs the key and opens the door. “You've got 10 minutes. I'll keep an eye out here.”

  Luckily it wasn't much of a supply closet or at least hadn't been filled up yet. There were still some scorch marks on the woodwork from what I remember. I did feel bad about that, but it couldn't have been avoided. Luckily, they just tried to convert it to a storage room as opposed to renovating it. If they had, they would have potentially found what was in the radiator cover. Amazingly it was still there and hadn't been moved. People probably thought it was connected to the wall like others, but Einstein had added a little pouch to the back of it that he stored some of his documents in.

  Somewhere along the line, someone had painted it and it stuck to the wall as if it were attached. It just took a couple of hits to break it loose. Sure enough, I moved the cover to the side and there was the pouch. I push the cover back and started to move towards the door.

  All of a sudden, the room turned blue and a small portal opened up. Henry steps through.

  "You got it"

  "How did you do that?"

  "Well, we can do lots of things. Let me have it.”

  So, I handed the pouch to Henry and he handed me back one that looked just like it.

  "Now what do I do?"

  "Run"

  Chapter 26 - Run

  One of the problems, when somebody tells you to run, is that they rarely tell you where to run. It's incomplete information and in this case, I stepped out of the storeroom and into an empty hallway. Douglas was gone. Two guys with the sunglasses yelled, "There he is." So, I headed for the parking lot. Luckily while I was in the closet, my wife, even though I told her I'd be about an hour, decided to tell my daughter to go look for me. As I was coming out to the car, Stephanie was already there. I pressed the door release and said, "Get in.”

  She says, "Can I drive?"

  “Yes, you can drive.”

  "Aren't we going back to the dorm?"

  I said, "No, just get off the campus as quickly as you can.” "Is it those guys again?"

  "Yes Stephanie, just drive.”

  As we left campus, I could see another black SUV coming up behind us. We had about a quarter mile head start, but I had no clue what I was going to do next.

  "Dad, this is becoming a pattern with you, isn't it?" It amazes me how completely unfazed my daughter was by the whole thing.

  I said, "Let's just get out of here. See if we can lose these guys.”

  "Not a problem. It's not as much fun without the Camaro though. I don't know how well I can do with just a minivan, but I'll try.”

  Then my phone rings. It's Henry.

  "Hey, nice escape.”

  "You could have prepped me for this.”

  "Well, I thought we did prep you for it. You got away right?"

  "I've still got somebody in a black SUV following me.” "Take a right up here quick.”

  "Where exactly are we going?"

  "Just keep driving. We've got seven minutes to the window."

  "What window are you talking about?"

  "Seven minutes and counting. You should be coming up on the highway now.”

  "Get on the highway going north. Tell Maria Andretti to pick up the pace a little bit. You've got eight miles to go and six minutes to get there.”

  "Where the hell am I going?"

  "Just keep going north.”

  "Stephanie, step on it.”

  "Well, what if I get a ticket? I just got my license. I don't want to get a ticket."

  "I will pay for the ticket. Do not stop for anyone including the police. You hear me?"

  “Yes.”

  Even though she dialed it up to almost 95 it wasn't a big deal. Since everybody else seemed to be doing about the same, she was just keeping pace.

  Then Henry says, "three minutes to window"

  "What window are you talking about?"

  “Tell her to maintain her speed.”

  "Stephanie just keep it at this speed.”

  “But Dad, they're gaining on us.”

  “Two minutes to window. This is going to be close.”

  “I don't even know what you're talking about.”

  “It's probably better that way. Tell her to keep it at between 92 and 93 for the next minute.”

  “Are we going somewhere? I'm not time traveling with my daughter.”

  "No, you're not going anywhere.”

  “Make sure your seatbelt is fastened. Keep it at between 92 or 93. You've got one minute to the window.”

  "What is this window you keep talking about?"

  "You see the overpass?" Henry says.

  "Yes. I see it.”

  "As soon as you get to the other side, punch it. I know it's a minivan, just try to go faster. We are cutting this a little close. You've got 10 seconds, nine, eight, seven. Get under the underpass and go as fast as you can. Six, five, four, three, two, one - NOW!"

  At that point, a blue flash appeared between us and the overpass. Suddenly the black SUV that I'd been in the accident months ago and the truck that hit us appeared directly behind us. As a blue flash faded, the black SUV that had been chasing us plowed dir
ectly into the wreck of the other two vehicles. I must admit it was rather epic.

  “Stephanie, I think you can slow down now.”

  Henry says, "BOOM! Nailed it!"

  “We need to work on our communication, Henry.” "Yeah, but then this wouldn't be quite as much fun.”

  "So now what?"

  "Well, get off at the next exit. Head back to campus. Your wife is probably wondering what happened. We'll be faxing your daughter her NASCAR certification.”

  "So, what happens now?"

  "Well, you're probably going to have another visit from these guys, but at which time you can give them the envelope that you have",

  "But this isn't the real envelope.”

  "Not exactly, but it is close. They'll never know. The difference is it's incomplete. It won't give them what they need. So that's a good thing.”

  "What if they figure out this is a fake?"

  “Well, it's not a fake.”

  “But you said it's incomplete.”

  "You're right. It's an earlier version. This version was written before 1946 when they did your experiment. There was a failed experiment before that too. So that's your bargaining chip. They have nothing to arrest you on. Also, they aren't interested in you. They can't publicize what they know about you. They just want the documents. As far as they're concerned, they just know you came through the portal in Iraq. But according to the official report, it was a failure of the portal that caused the explosion and not a missile. They don't even think it's safe to try again.”