Class of '59 (American Journey Book 4)

by John A. Heldt

  "I know where it is," Mark said. "The Army develops missiles there."

  Mary Beth beamed.

  "What a coincidence. So does my father."

  "Your dad develops missiles?" Mark asked.

  "He does. He's done a lot of things."

  "What do you mean?"

  "I mean he's worked on everything from ground-based interceptor missiles to a new space launch system," Mary Beth said. "He retired from the Army as a colonel five years ago and now works full-time for NASA."

  "What's NASA?"

  "It's the National Aeronautics and Space Administration."

  "I've never heard of it," Mark said. "Maybe it's new."

  Mary Beth smiled.

  "It isn't where I come from."

  "I feel really stupid," Mark said.

  "You shouldn't. You just don't have the benefit of hindsight," Mary Beth said. She looked at him closely. "I'm sure you're very smart – smart enough, in fact, to answer a question that's been on my mind since you brought me here."

  "What's that?"

  "Will these rocks enable me to go back to June 2, 2017, as if I had never left?"

  Mark nodded.

  "I think so. I've only traveled to the future twice, but on both occasions I exited the tunnel around eight in the morning. I think the time machine is set to a particular date and time."

  "That reminds me of a movie I once saw," Mary Beth said.

  "Oh?"

  Mary Beth nodded.

  "The main character, a TV weatherman, checked into a motel on Groundhog Day and kept repeating the day over and over. Every day was February 2 and began at six o'clock."

  Mark laughed.

  "That sounds like a nightmare."

  Mary Beth smiled.

  "He thought it was."

  "I'm pretty sure you're safe from a similar fate," Mark said. "Even if you go back to June 2, 2017, you won't have to repeat the day over and over."

  "That's a relief," Mary Beth said. She paused for a moment. "Does the time machine work the same way on return trips? Did you return to a fixed time?"

  "No. I didn't," Mark said. "I came back to the time I left. I left the house – and March 21, 1959 – about seven fifteen the first time and eight o'clock the second."

  Mary Beth laughed.

  "I think this is where my head explodes."

  Mark smiled.

  "I don't understand it either. I just know I need at least one of the crystals in my possession to travel to the future and the key to access the outside door."

  Mary Beth started to say something but stopped when she heard footsteps in the hallway. She glanced at the entry just as a younger version of Mark walked into the kitchen.

  The new arrival yawned, rubbed his eyes, and tightened the belt of his bathrobe. Then he turned his attention to the people at the table and stared at Mary Beth.

  "Who are you?" Ben Ryan asked. He looked at his brother. "Who is this?"

  Mark chuckled.

  "This is Mary Beth McIntire. She's a visitor."

  Ben gave his brother a look of annoyance.

  "I can see that," Ben said. He looked at Mary Beth again and then at Mark. "Why is she here on a Saturday morning? Is she your newest girlfriend or something?"

  Mary Beth noted the word "newest," smiled at Mark, and then looked at Ben. She couldn't help but notice that the brothers had sharply differing temperaments.

  "She's just a visitor," Mark said. He turned back to his new acquaintance. "Mary Beth, this is Ben, my brother. He's not always this way around people. He just needs some coffee."

  "Hi, Ben," Mary Beth said.

  Ben looked at her shirt.

  "Are you from Alabama?"

  Mary Beth nodded.

  "Then how did you meet my brother?" Ben asked.

  Mary Beth giggled.

  "He tried to break into my house."

  Ben glared at his sibling.

  "What's going on, Mark? Don't mess with me."

  "I won't," Mark said. "I'll tell it to you straight."

  "Huh?"

  Mark smiled.

  "Take a seat, Ben. We have a lot to talk about."

  CHAPTER 7: MARK

  Thirty minutes and a dozen questions later, Mark walked out of the kitchen, pulled a light jacket from a nearby closet, and returned to the others. He put on the jacket, pushed in his chair, and looked at Mary Beth.

  "Are you ready to go?" Mark asked.

  "I'm ready," Mary Beth said.

  "Can I come too?" Ben asked.

  Mark shook his head.

  "I want you to stay."

  "Why?"

  "I want to test a theory, that's why," Mark said. "Take a shower. Get dressed. Eat breakfast. Make coffee. Or, better yet, stay put. Just don't follow us."

  "That's not fair," Ben said.

  "It may not be fair, but it's what I want you to do. If my theory is correct, we'll be back in less than a minute. Then you can do whatever you want. OK?"

  Ben huffed.

  "OK."

  Mark glanced at the kitchen clock and then at his watch, which had never stopped running. He set the watch to the time on the clock.

  "Is anything wrong?" Mary Beth asked.

  "No," Mark said. "I'm just getting my bearings. I'm pretty sure it's nine o'clock."

  Mary Beth smiled.

  "It's eight where I come from, mister."

  Mark laughed.

  "I suppose it is. Shall I set my watch again?"

  "No," Mary Beth said. She giggled. "We're confused enough."

  "I agree. Let's go."

  Mark waited for Mary Beth to pass and then followed her into a hallway, through a door, and down the stone stairs to the basement. A minute later, the two passed through the tunnel, opened the outer door, and walked up the brick steps to the backyard and the morning of June 2, 2017.

  Mark followed Mary Beth to a spot in the middle of the lawn, stopped, and then took a moment to assess his new friend. She was kind, he thought, and incredibly open-minded for someone who had been asked to believe the impossible on short notice. With long brown hair, blue eyes, a button nose, and a dash of freckles, she was also very pretty. Mark pondered his good fortune until a soft voice pierced the moist air and brought him back to the present.

  "What do we do now?" Mary Beth asked. She looked at the mansion and then at Mark. "We can't go back through the tunnel. We'll just end up where we started."

  "I know," Mark said. "We have to go through the front."

  "What if the door is locked? I'm pretty sure it's locked."

  "Isn't your family in the house?"

  "My sister is," Mary Beth said. "She's sleeping upstairs."

  Mark smiled.

  "Then it's time to wake her up."

  "I was afraid you would say that."

  The two walked in a light rain to the front gate, the one Mark had accessed on his second trip to 2017, and passed through unnoticed. No women talked or laughed on the sidewalk directly in front of the Painted Lady. No neighbors peeked out their doors or windows.

  Mark followed Mary Beth around a sleek Ford in the driveway and up a dozen brick steps to an imposing front door that hadn't changed much in nearly six decades. He smiled at Mary Beth when they stopped on the small porch and looked at each other.

  "I'll let you do the honors since I haven't met your sister."

  Mary Beth stared at him.

  "Thanks."

  She rang the doorbell and waited for someone to stir. No one did.

  "Is she a heavy sleeper?" Mark asked.

  Mary Beth nodded.

  "She once slept through a war movie at a theater."

  Mark laughed.

  "Are you kidding?"

  Mary Beth shook her head.

  "She values sleep as much as food."

  Mary Beth rang the bell again. Silence followed.

  Mark smiled.

  "Maybe she went for a walk."

  Mary Beth glared at the joker.

  "I don't think so.
"

  She rang the bell a third time.

  Mark listened for noises within the house and this time heard some. He heard a door slam and someone walk through the hallway toward the front door. He grinned.

  "Sleeping Beauty has risen."

  "Try the bride of Frankenstein," Mary Beth said.

  Mark started to laugh but stopped when a young woman, wearing a pink bathrobe and long brown hair tied in a ponytail, opened the door. The girl looked a lot like Mary Beth and even Sleeping Beauty, but she wore the scowl of Frankenstein's bride.

  "Did you forget your key?" Piper McIntire asked.

  "I did," Mary Beth said. "I went for a walk and locked myself out."

  Piper gave Mark the once over and then looked at her sister.

  "Who is this?"

  Mary Beth smiled.

  "This is Mark Ryan. He's a movie extra I met on my walk."

  Mark laughed.

  "It's too early for jokes," Piper said to her sister. She turned around and started to walk away. "Shut the door behind you. I'm going back to bed."

  "Piper?" Mary Beth asked.

  Piper turned around.

  "What?"

  "Stick around for a minute," Mary Beth said.

  "Why?"

  "We want to talk to you."

  Piper glared at her sibling.

  "I'm tired and grumpy, Mary Beth. I don't want to do anything but sleep."

  "Trust me," Mary Beth said. "You want to hear what we have to say."

  Piper put her hands on her hips.

  "You have ten minutes."

  Mary Beth smiled.

  "We'll only need five."

  CHAPTER 8: PIPER

  Friday, June 2, 2017

  Piper muttered to herself as she followed Mary Beth and the movie extra around the front of the Painted Lady to a gate, the backyard, and a stairway that led to the basement.

  She did not want to traipse around the grounds in her bathrobe. She did not want to visit. She wanted to sleep. She had agreed to put off that sleep only after Mary Beth had made a fantastic claim and offered to pay Piper a hundred dollars if she could not prove that claim.

  Mark led Mary Beth and Piper down the stairs, opened a door with a skeleton key, and then led the sisters into a dark, gloomy, tunnel-like chamber. A moment later, Mark shut the door, leaned against a wall, and looked at Piper as a string of overhead lights started to flicker.

  "This will only take a few seconds," Mark said.

  Piper stared at Mary Beth.

  "I want the money before lunch."

  Mary Beth smiled.

  "You haven't earned it yet."

  "I think we're good to go," Mark said. He opened the inner door, stepped into the basement, and flipped on some lights. "Please enter, ladies."

  Piper followed Mary Beth into a basement that looked nothing like the one she had seen when Jeanette Bell had given her a tour of the mansion. The room had a concrete floor, hanging light bulbs, and drab, unpainted walls. It did not feature wall-to-wall white carpeting, two large sofas, and a glass-and-brass coffee table. Talk about a reverse makeover.

  Piper felt a knot form in her stomach as she followed Mark and Mary Beth through the basement and up some primitive steps to the main floor of the residence. She felt the knot tighten when she stepped into a hallway and noticed even more changes.

  "This way," Mark said.

  Piper picked up her step as she approached what she knew to be the mansion's kitchen. She did not know what surprises awaited at the end of the hallway, but for the first time since walking out the front door, she suspected that Mary Beth was going to keep her money.

  A few seconds later, Piper McIntire, a young woman of sound mind, stepped into a kitchen that looked like the set of a 1950s sitcom. She stopped when Mark and Mary Beth stopped and turned their attention to a young man seated at a small table. Like Piper, the boy wore a bathrobe. Like Piper, he looked like he needed at least another hour of quality sleep.

  "Piper, this is my brother, Ben. He's a high school senior," Mark said. "Ben, this is Piper McIntire, Mary Beth's sister and a recent high school graduate."

  Ben stared at Piper for several seconds but did not say a thing. He seemed as perplexed by the situation and the sudden turn of events as his teenage counterpart.

  Piper looked at Mark and then at Mary Beth. She found a thoughtful expression on the former's face and an I-told-you-so smile on the latter's.

  "Is this a joke?" Piper asked.

  "It's no joke. At least I don't think it is," Mary Beth said. She walked to the table, picked up a newspaper, and handed it to her sister. "Look at the date."

  Piper felt her head lighten as she scanned headlines with crazy words like "Khrushchev" and "Communist." This was a dream, she thought. This was her subconscious playing a trick. This was a sign that, at the tender age of eighteen, she was going insane.

  She appealed again to Mary Beth.

  "Will you please tell me what's going on?" Piper asked.

  "I already have," Mary Beth said. "We've traveled to the past. We're standing in the same house we've occupied for a week. We're just doing it in 1959."

  Piper closed her eyes for a moment and tried to process the unusual start to her morning. She had wanted to do something different and exciting on her California escape. Now, on the second-to-last-day of that escape, it appeared as though the vacation gods had granted her wish.

  Piper glanced at the newspaper in her hands and tried again to make sense of the date, the headlines, and the photos of people with goofy haircuts. She looked at Mark.

  "Can I keep this?"

  "Be my guest," Mark said. "I've already read it."

  "Thanks."

  No one in the room said anything more for nearly thirty seconds, which Piper considered a blessing. She wanted to think this over in blessed silence. She needed time to ponder what she had seen and what two strange men and her normally levelheaded sister believed was real.

  Mark finally broke the quietude. He stepped forward, placed a hand on his brother's shoulder, and said something that made no sense.

  "It looks like you haven't done much since we left."

  "How could I?" Ben asked. "You left a minute ago."

  Mark looked at the clock and smiled.

  "Thanks for confirming my suspicions."

  "What suspicions?" Piper asked. "What are you talking about?"

  Mark turned to Piper.

  "Your sister and I returned to the same moment we left in 1959. Even though we spent fifteen minutes walking around the property and talking to you in 2017, we came back to the exact same time we left. Time stood still, as I thought it would," Mark said. He looked at Mary Beth, who returned his smile. "That opens up a whole new world of possibilities."

  "What do you mean?" Piper asked.

  "I mean the four of us are in a great position to spice up our vacations. Ben and I can travel to 2017 and return as if we had never left 1959. You and Mary Beth can do just the opposite. You can do anything you want."

  Piper looked at Mary Beth.

  "Is he serious?"

  Mary Beth nodded.

  "I don't like this," Ben said.

  "What's the matter?" Mark asked.

  "What's the matter? I'll tell you what's the matter. You've had fun all morning. I've done nothing but walk around in my bathrobe while you drag girls into the house."

  Mark laughed.

  "Is that your way of saying that you want in?"

  "You're damn right," Ben said. "I want to do something today besides mow the lawn and study for my algebra exam. I want to see 2017. I want to see the future."

  Piper glanced at Mark and Mary Beth and saw them exchange knowing smiles.

  "I think we can arrange that," Mark said to Ben.

  Mary Beth stepped forward and looked at everyone.

  "I know we can," she said.

  CHAPTER 9: BEN

  Hollywood, California – Friday, June 2, 2017

  Ben laughed to himself
as he recalled the day his father had taken him to lunch at an outdoor café in a rough part of Los Angeles. He had been fifteen at the time and completely clueless about how other Californians, particularly much poorer ones, lived.

  "Keep your eyes peeled and your ear to the ground," Ted Ryan had said before they started their meal. "You can learn a lot about the world by watching and listening."

  Sitting with Mark, Mary Beth, and Piper at an outdoor table at Wanda's of West Hollywood, a bakery and coffee shop, he couldn't disagree. He had learned more about the twenty-first century in eighteen minutes than he had the twentieth century in eighteen years.

  Dogs in 2017 wore more clothes than their human handlers. Joggers weaved between cars in the light drizzle. People of the same gender held hands and kissed. Some pedestrians spoke into strange devices attached to their ears. Others played with gadgets the size of cigarette packs. Many sported nose rings and tattoos. One man showed off a new dress.

  "You seem a bit preoccupied, Ben," Mary Beth said in a playful voice. She fixed her gaze and smiled. "Are you getting your fill of the future?"

  Ben looked at Mary Beth. She sat next to Piper and opposite Mark at a sidewalk table in front of the establishment.

  "I'm getting my fill of something," Ben said. "That's for sure."

  Mark laughed.

  "I have to agree with my brother. Life is different here. It's a lot different."

  Mary Beth stared at Mark.

  "Different doesn't mean worse."

  "You're right," Mark said. "It doesn't."

  Ben looked across the table. He wanted to see whether Piper had an opinion on the matter and was mildly disappointed to see that she did not. She tapped on one of the cigarette-pack-sized gadgets her sister had called a cell phone.

  "What are you doing?" Ben asked.

  "It's none of your business," Piper said.

  "Are you always this rude?"

  "No. Sometimes I'm ruder."

  "That's good," Ben said. "I would hate to see your rudest side."

  Piper looked up.

  "If you must know, Mr. Ryan, I'm sending a text message. I'm telling my supervisor that I won't be able to work until Tuesday."

  "What do you do?"

  Piper shot Ben a pointed glance.

  "I'm a lifeguard at the Madison County Aquatic Center. It's in Huntsville, Alabama, where I live when I'm not chilling with boys from the fifties."