by Rex Bolt
“Yeah, well, Melinda’s been getting on me. Too much time at the computer. A little break never hurts … Plus I want to go over some stuff.”
They went to Applebees which Pike figured wasn’t the worst thing because it took twenty minutes each way, and Mitch could get whatever he needed to off his chest and then hopefully just leave when they got back.
After Pike finished his club sandwich with a side of chicken wings he said, “I’m more energized now. I can listen better,”
“You don’t say,” Mitch said. “Appetite has never been your strong suit … Of course I’m kidding … Incidentally, not the main reason I’m here, but did you know Aaron Rodgers saw a UFO?”
“Wait. The football Aaron Rodgers?” Pike said.
“Yeah, there was just an article about it. I’ll link it to you right now … It happened several years ago, back in New Jersey. Near a power plant … A nuclear one … Does that sound familiar?”
Pike was skeptical. “What’s he doing bringing it up now then?”
“Just that a sportswriter asked him a question that triggered it. Aaron was playing for Cal then, was driving cross-country with a couple of college teammates. They all agree they saw it.”
Pike didn’t watch a whole lot of pro football but Rodgers was one of his favorite players, and probably his favorite NFL quarterback. In fact his dad had taken him up to Berkeley for a couple of Cal games when Rodgers was there. Pike was maybe six years old, but remembered them clearly.
“I’ll check it out, if you say so,” he said. “But cut to the main reason you’re here.”
“Fair enough … I got one reply to my APB. But it’s a doozy. A gentleman, retired actually in Bermuda now, he insists there was an incident over Hillsdale in 1956.”
“You’re saying he saw something there?”
“Not with his own eyes, no. But his daddy was a state trooper. New Mexico State police … Years later, he let his son in on it. That one night at dusk he’s patrolling down there, one of the old two-lanes, barely any cars, when he sees this circular craft … Hanging there … Low. Maybe a mile away … Which he places as right smack on top of the damn town. Hillsdale.”
Pike let it sink in. One more thing to have to process.
“Son, we got our smoking gun,” Mitch said.
“Hold on a second,” Pike said. “This guy’s probably making the whole thing up. Having fun, jerking you around. What’s stopping him?”
“What’s stopping him,” Mitch said, “is I didn’t mention anything about Hillsdale in my APB.”
“You didn’t?”
“No … that’s the information I was zeroed in on obviously, but my APB simply asked for knowledge of other UFO incidents in New Mexico around the time of Roswell.”
“Oh,” Pike said.
“And I said I got one response. What I really meant was one pertinent response, a gold medal one in fact … I did get two others which I’ll check out at some point, but I’m only concerned with the Hillsdale sighting right now, for obvious reasons.”
Pike didn’t address it again until they got back in the car. “I’m going to level with you … It’s killing me to have to buy into this shit.”
“I can tell,” Mitch said. “Honestly? I’d probably be reacting the same way.”
Pike said, “But if I bought in … and I keep coming back to this: They messed with the silver supply? They radiated it, or some shit? Which energized me? And why would they do that?”
Mitch said, “Or possibly added to it … Since the silver itself checked out normally in the lab, if we can believe Wayne … It was what they couldn’t identify, that was the issue, and the reason you almost wasted the guy.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. I didn’t almost waste anyone.”
“Be easy to do though, son … You need to keep a lid on yourself. I’m sure you’ve heard it, but the expression ‘he didn’t know his own strength’?”
“Don’t worry about it,” Pike said, but he was flashing on Dani, and picturing Marcus suspended up in that wall.
“You were saying though?” Mitch said. “It’s killing you to buy into it, but … ?”
Pike said, “Okay this is totally crazy … But if someone bought into it … then the time travel part, could you change stuff?’
There was a dirt pullout up ahead, that put you alongside a big walnut orchard, and Mitch took it, stopped the car, and turned off the engine.
“What would you want to change?” Mitch said, quieter, more serious now.
“It doesn’t matter … Could be one or two things.” Pike took a long look at Mitch. “You really think, part of my power, is maybe I can go back?”
Mitch nodded. “You may feel you’ve been cursed. But part of me believes the opposite, that you’ve been blessed with supernatural powers … Time travel could indeed be a logical extension of that.”
“Why … because of the gobbledegook that Reggie Riley spit out about his brother doing it?”
“Partly that, yes. But even more, we UFO fanatics believe time travel is an inherent part of the extraterrestrial experience … It allows them to traverse vast distances—and quite likely multiple dimensions—that earthy physics deems impossible … Rather than travel via conventional propulsion across space, the thought is they bend it. Fold it up. Same with time.”
Pike resisted another Oh my God even though he wanted to blurt one out. He said, “So bottom line … you’re saying there’s more chance I could travel, than there is for the average Joe?”
“I would say so, yes … I wouldn’t be surprised if you’ve been empowered in that capacity … I’d put the odds at 50 percent at least.” Mitch winked at him.
“Gee, thanks for such a such major vote of confidence. As I actually toy with the idea of trying it.”
Mitch said, “Something tells me you’re not joking around.”
“Why not?” Pike said. “I still don’t think I believe any of it, no matter who claims they saw what … And now you’re telling me 60 years ago someplace? … But what’s the worst that could happen?”
Chapter 42 Narrowed Down
Mitch dropped him at home and took off back to Manhattan Beach, and then right away Pike started thinking, WHAT’S THE WORST THAT COULD HAPPEN? could mean a few different things.
I may get stuck somewhere and that’s it, I can’t get back.
I may think I can change something, but it could backfire on me, and everyone might end up worse off, myself included.
I may die trying this.
The other possibility of course, the likely one, is he wouldn’t be successful in going anywhere.
Which, when it came down to it at this point, wouldn’t be great either.
How did Mitch say it worked again? Wormholes and space portals and such … But there could also be a mind-over-matter element to it? … In theory … Had Mr. Gillmore given any insight into that, that he’d missed?
Monday felt like a light day at school, probably because there was no football practice to worry about. Mr. Fanning the assistant principal made an announcement at lunch, over the campus PA system, how we appreciate the incredible efforts of our student athletes and so on, in contributing to Hamilton’s best-ever showing in football, and let’s keep the momentum alive into next season and beyond, and GO WILDCATS!
A bunch of the football guys were getting together to play a little basketball after school, have fun, blow off some steam. It was getting some juice though, becoming an event, and there were going to be people watching.
Pike could dunk the ball easily now, not just routine slams but real showtime stuff. Part of him wanted to do that, put on a little show, nothing that was beyond human, just raise a few eyebrows and have some fun.
But instead, when the bell rang Pike headed to the Beacon Municipal Library.
He’d only been in the place a few times in his life, when he’d had to write a paper where you need the old fashioned encyclopedias. He didn’t
know his way around, but luckily there was a friendly librarian sitting at a desk in back, who didn’t look busy.
“Books on time travel please?” Pike said. “Where would I find those?”
The librarian rattled around on her keyboard. “Would you be needing time travel in literature, or metaphysics?” she said.
“Gee,” he said, “Literature, that might work, but that’d be fiction, right?”
“Yes. We have quite a few titles there that reference your topic. In metaphysics we have three.”
“So that’s non-fiction then? How someone would do it … with, like, instructions.”
“Yes, I believe so,” the librarian said. “Let’s have a look.” She got up and led Pike down an aisle and then turned left down another one. “Here are the first two,” she said. “The third is in our reference room.”
Pike thanked her, skimmed the first two, which were all over the place and as far as he could tell barely touched on the subject. He found the librarian again and asked her about the third one, and she took him into a special room where all the books were locked up in tall glass cases.
They had these built-in wooden ladders that you slide around, and she got up there pretty high and came down with the third book. It had a leather cover, something Pike had never seen before, and it felt old. The librarian told him he couldn’t check it out, but to please make himself comfortable in this room, and to simply leave the book on one of the tables when he was finished.
It was cozy in there, they had some overstuffed chairs where you could relax and read, and Pike pretty much had the whole room to himself.
The book was called ‘In Due Time’ by W.H. Wallabee. There was an introduction to the subject, then there was a section on methods, and then one on people’s experiences.
But what caught Pike’s eye was Chapter 6, second from the end. It was titled The 10 Rules of Time Travel. He read it through, and before he left the special research room of the library that day, he read it through three times more, and then pulled out a piece of binder paper and wrote them all down.
The rules were:
1. What the mind conceives, the mind can achieve.
2. Success is contingent on the traveler’s need.
3. Consider the present-day setting when preparing to back travel.
4. One travel day equals one present-day hour.
5. Travelers must maintain focus on the task at hand.
6. Travel can be facilitated by implementing time and place assistance.
7. Reverse travel is fundamentally identical.
8. Consequences of alterations should be carefully considered.
9. Any alterations should be enacted according to the laws of the universe.
10. Travelers should avoid engaging non-travelers.
It was dinner time when Pike got out of there. He grabbed a deli sandwich and didn’t really want to go home, having to psychoanalyze now what was going on with his parents. Plus he was so mad at his dad.
So he drove to the mall and walked around. Hopefully he wouldn’t run into anyone he knew, and it gave him a chance to think.
He wanted to tell Cathy what he was considering, since she would get it, but again, that would be downright rude now to involve her, since she’d moved on and seemed happy.
Then there was Dani. Would this be a good time to clue her in on all the latest from Mitch, and also on what he was considering now?
Pike decided that would be a mistake, the last part, because she might get some notion in her head and try it herself. And who knows how that could turn out. If it turned out at all, of course.
He did wonder how she was doing though, so he gave her a try. She answered on the second ring. “It’s sweet of you to call,” he said. “Everything’s fine in eastern Idaho.”
“Because that last time,” Pike said, “it didn’t sound all that fine.”
“Yes, well that was Richard,” she said. “He’s out of the picture at this point.”
Pike almost asked, but didn’t, what out of the picture meant, but Dani clarified it anyway. “I told him it wasn’t a good fit, and he walked out without saying anything, and I haven’t heard from him since.”
“Good then … no … lingering effects or anything.”
“Not a one. The best thing, I’ve found someone else, Bob. We met at the gym. We’re getting along famously.”
So far, Pike thought, but he hoped for the best.
“Let me ask you something,” he said. “You mention going to the gym. If you don’t work out, do you gain weight?”
“Gosh, that’s kind of strange question … But now I see where you’re going, of course … I don’t think so. Do you?”
“I don’t think so either,” Pike said.
He was intending to tell her about Mitch’s findings, the amalgam sources being narrowed down, the mysterious disappearance of the Texas filling, the Hillsdale silver mine and the supposed 60-year-old UFO.
But it was too much tonight, both for him to get into in detail, and probably for Dani to absorb.
Plus there was no solution, no conclusion that he could share with her, so what was the point, really.
“Thank you for staying in touch,” Dani said. “It means a lot.”
“Well … stay safe,” he said.
“And you as well,” she said.
Chapter 43 Just One Day
The week continued uneventfully, except in Pike’s head, where a whole lot of possibilities were being mulled over. Thursday evening he called Mitch.
“What I’m working on now,” Mitch said, “is finding someone from back in the day out there to collaborate our story.”
“Wait a second,” Pike said, “I thought you said you believed it, that you had the smoking gun.”
“I do believe it. There must have been other witnesses though. I want more details … The problem we have, Hillsdale became a ghost town quick, once they closed the mine.”
“So how do you find anyone then?”
“I don’t know exactly. Maybe old tax records. Work it from there … I have to go out there though, most likely.”
“Okay. On the travel part, I’m going to try it Saturday.”
“Whoa, hold your horses now,” Mitch said. “What’d you just say?”
“That I’m going to give it a go … What’s the problem?” Pike wasn’t at all sure he was going to go through with it. He was testing Mitch.
Mitch said, “Well not a problem … so much … as … I don’t know, are you prepared?”
“What do you mean? You already convinced me I’ve been empowered, that I can achieve this … I’ve been doing some soul-searching … and I think I can.”
There was about 30 seconds of silence on the other end of the line.
“Well where would this be taking place? … Do you need help?”
“I think I got it,” Pike said. “But I found these 10 rules, I’d like to run them by you.”
“Read ‘em again,” Mitch said, after he’d listened carefully. Pike did.
“Okay the main thing I’m picking up from this?” Mitch said. “Actually two things … but the first one, you want to acutely visualize the time and place … So you don’t end up somewhere way the hell off target.”
“What was the second thing,” Pike said
“It was the one about, Consider the present day setting when preparing to back travel … To me, that means start from the appropriate place. In this case, I would begin your transcension in a structure that pre-dates 1956.”
“Now how in the world do you make that leap?” Pike said. “There’s nothing in there about that … And that makes no sense at all.”
“Do it anyway,” Mitch said. There was a conviction in his voice.
“We’ll see,” Pike said. “My main thing I wanted to run by you … in case this backfires somehow and I can’t get back home … which is pretty ridiculous to even talk about, because I seriously doubt I’ll be going a
nywhere to start with.”
“Keep going.”
“Well I was going to try to go back … just one day.”
“Ah, I see … So Heaven forbid there’s an issue, you simply live out the one day and you’re back where you started.”
“Kind of like, no harm no foul.”
“That could work.”
“Could?”
“Should,” Mitch said. “I wouldn’t try to interact with your self though. If you happen to run into yourself back there.”
“Ah Jeez … that wasn’t in the rules.”
“I think it sort of is,” Mitch said.
Pike took a moment.
He said, “I know I give you a hard time. But I appreciate everything you’ve been doing for me … I’ll call you Sunday.”
Pike hung up before Mitch had a chance to respond.
Chapter 44 Main Quad
It was a weird feeling heading over to school on Saturday afternoon.
If they’d somehow beaten Ramsey Tech last weekend, today would be the sectional championship game, also down in Fresno. Once they lost, Pike hadn’t even been interested enough to find out who Ramsey Tech’s opponent would be.
This afternoon there were two people playing tennis, one dad playing catch with his kid on the baseball field, and a couple of dog walkers on the track. Pretty quiet.
The gym was open but it was dark and there was nothing going on. Maybe they had kids’ basketball practice or indoor soccer or something else earlier, but that was all finished.
You walked through the gym, then you had the regular student locker rooms, and then the football locker room, all by itself at the end of the hall, where the door opened out to the practice field. Just before you got to the football locker room there was a custodian’s closet.
Pike decided a couple days ago that that would work. It was private, he could focus, and he felt safe being at school, on familiar turf.
