The Big Ten: The First Ten Books of the Beginnings Series

by Jacqueline Druga

  Frank scoffed at her. “You have a cold? That’s nothing compared to what you’re gonna get.” Laughing, Frank stepped into the both pulling out his wad of change. Picking up the receiver, Frank called Joe. “Dad, did you do it?”

  “Yes Frank. Seven pages. I’ll fax it now. Is that all?”

  “Yeah. And Dad . . . What uh, what’s Robbie’s number at base. I don’t have it with me.”

  “I think I have it . . .” Joe had a stretching sound to him. “Here. Got a pen?”

  Knowing he had many, Frank retrieved a pen from one of the five new bags he bought and took down the number. “Thanks. Oh, and Dad . . .” Just to make sure that no time disturbances were made, Frank decided to add a little insurance of his own. Jason would be proud. “Dad, you, uh, you never got this phone call. Thanks.” He hung up the phone and debated for a minute, but only a minute. Then after quickly adding more change, he dialed. “Yeah, this is Sergeant Frank Slagel. I need to speak to Robert Slagel. It’s urgent.” Turning his head to sneeze, Frank swore under his breath as he waited and added more change.

  “Frank?”

  Frank lost his breath and his body pummeled into the wall of the phone booth when he heard Robbie--sounding so innocent, so young--speak.

  “Frank?” Robbie called again.

  With a fast beating heart Frank closed his eyes. “Robbie.”

  “What’s up? Is everything all right? Why you calling?”

  “Robbie I don’t have much time, listen to what I’m telling you, it’s important.” Trying to think of how to say it, Frank just rattled on as best as he could without sounding stupid. “Soon you need to be in Ashtonville. You’ll have to go there, all right? It’s, it’s very important that you go there when the time is right.”

  “What are you talking about? Are Kelly and the kids O.K.?”

  “Fine.” Frank swallowed. “You will make a difference, Robbie. You can. Ellen . . . Ellen is gonna really need you.”

  “Ellen? I’ll do it, Frank.”

  From the corner of his eye, Frank saw Dean. “I uh have to go. Do that for me.” Frank closed his eyes again. “And little brother, it was good to hear your voice. I love you.” Frank smiled and slowly hung up.

  “Ready?” Dean tapped on the booth. “Oh, yeah, you’re an asshole.”

  “What?” Frank stepped out.

  “I beeped when I left the library, thank you very much. Thank God they believed me when I told them you stole them. So, I checked them out.”

  “You checked them out!” Frank nearly barked, “Oh way to cause one of those ripples. Now who’s the asshole?”

  “Sorry.” Dean cringed. “I wasn’t thinking. My past-self will deal with it. I take it you talked to Joe?”

  “Yep.” Frank began to walk. “That copy place is right down there.”

  “Let’s go.” As Dean began to walk with Frank, he saw the knapsacks. “Hell Frank, what did you buy?”

  “Stuff.”

  “I hope you bought Ellen something.”

  “Please, she’s my wife. Check them out.” Frank opened the sack and showed Dean. “She will have a virtually vat of health and beauty aids.”

  “Just what we need in our atmosphere.”

  “Who cares?” Frank zipped the bag up and stopped. “Here we are. This is . . . wait a second. This isn’t a copy place.”

  “Are you sure this is the place?” Dean asked.

  “Positive. Twenty-two fifteen.”

  “Frank!” Dean scolded as he looked at the door. “How could you even confuse this place with a copy place?”

  “They had a copy machine.”

  “Everyone has copy machines. It’s a doctor’s office, you moron!”

  “Shut the fuck up Dean and act responsible for once this trip.” Frank opened the doctor’s office door. “We have to get our fax. So go ask them.”

  ^^^^

  It was an eventful day. And Frank and Dean were ready to head back to their own civilization. One that was peaceful, quiet, and safe. But they had one final stop to make..

  “Man.” Frank took off his helmet as he stepped from his bike in the McDonald’s parking lot just off the interstate. “I forgot how crowded these places get. Smell how good.”

  Dean sniffed. “It doesn’t even smell right.”

  “Yeah it does. But . . . aw! Look!” Frank pointed across the road. “Taco Bell. We should go there. Screw the French fries and get everyone tacos. Come on, I love Taco Bell.”

  “Figures.” Dean shook his head. “And no, just French fries.”

  Frank grabbed for the doors and opened them, being polite and letting Dean go first. A little perturbed at the amount of people, Frank and Dean got in line.

  It was bad enough that not only did Frank have to wait, but he had to listened to the woman in front of him ask about each items. He looked to Dean. “Can you believe this?” He pointed to her and listened some more as she debated. “Lady, today some time. This is a McDonald’s.” Hearing the very chipper ‘I can help you sir’ coming from his right was music to Frank’s ears. He moved over one line to the blonde hair girl who smiled widely at him flashing her braces. “See Dean,” Frank said and pointed to the girl, “service with a smile.”

  “Welcome to McDonald’s sir, may I take your order?” She was almost too happy to be working there.

  “Yes . . .” Frank peered at her name tag. “Tracy.” Frank smiled and ran his hand down his goatee and looked up to the menu. “Oh wow, O.K. I’ll have a quarter pounder with cheese . . .”

  “Frank.” Dean tugged on him. “Don’t get a quarter pounder. Don’t. You won’t be able to handle it.”

  “Yeah right.” Frank scoffed and gave a smirk to Tracy and they both giggled as if Dean were being silly.

  “Frank, as your doctor I am telling you, if you want a sandwich get a fish sandwich.”

  “What are you nuts? No one eats fish at McDonald’s. Tracy . . .” Frank looked to the smiling girl. “Make that two quarter pounders, a large chocolate shake and . . um, forty-eight orders of Super Size fries, please.”

  The smile fell from Tracy’s face.

  ^^^^

  After shoveling down his two burgers, a taco--just because he had to get one--and sucking the milkshake so quickly that it made his cheeks hurt, Frank and Dean headed back to Beginnings.

  They were a sight for sore eyes when Henry saw them pull up. “Guys!” He jumped to his feet from the spot he hadn’t left. “What . . . what in the world did you get Frank?”

  “Stuff.” Frank patted his bags as he got off his bike. “And fries. Henry it was so cool.”

  “I bet. Did you get the information? Anything valuable?” Henry asked.

  Dean shrugged. “We didn’t really review it. We will when we get back. Of course, Frank will be sick tonight. He ate, get this, old world meat.”

  Henry cringed. “Ouch.”

  “What?” Frank asked dumbfounded.

  “Just say you’ve been warned,” Dean said. “So don’t come to me tonight.”

  “Tonight?” Frank laughed. “Tonight I’ll be too busy making love to my wife.” Fixing his knapsacks, Frank nodded to Henry. “Let’s do this.”

  “Let’s go home.” Henry waited for them to form their single line. “Ready?”He held up the pendant and punched in his birthday, opening the doorway for them all.

  Pushing in their bikes, Dean stepped in followed by Frank then Henry. Joe and Jason stood in the exact same spot they were when they had left.

  Joe clapped his hands together. “How was it?” He immediately grabbed the McDonald’s bags from Dean. “And what the hell did you get Frank?”

  “Stuff. I think we did good. Henry forgot his book and . . .” Frank saw the door open. “El!”

  “Frank,” she semi smiled. “I heard the second power surge. Oh I see you got the fries. Great.”

  “El, it was so cool. I bought you some stuff.” He rested his motorcycle against the counter.

  “Frank?” She smiled at him. “
Really? That was nice of you to think of me.”

  Biting his bottom lip, Frank stepped closer to Ellen and cupped her face in his hands. “I always think of you.” Pulling her closer, Frank began to kiss Ellen. His lips separated from hers when he heard Dean’s loud ‘Holy Shit!’ ringing annoyingly in his ear. With his face still close to Ellen’s, Frank’s eyes lifted and his heart dropped. He swallowed harshly and caught his breath when he saw Robbie standing in the open doorway.

  Robbie closed his eyes briefly and tilted his head. “Frank. Why are you kissing my wife like that?”

  Henry, hit with a trembling effect like he never felt, blocked out Dean’s laughter. Panicked, he turned to Frank with a glare that could kill. “Frank! What the hell did you do?”

  THE ALTERNATE BEGINNINGS

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  Henry raised his hand tapping on the closed bathroom door in his house. He leaned against the wall next to it, a look of utter disgust and frustration on his face, as he folded his arms. “Frank? You all right?”

  “What did I do?” Frank’s voice echoed in the porcelain of the toilet bowl in which his head was nearly buried into. “Oh God, what did I do?” His emotional words stopped to release a loud sound of regurgitation.

  “You ate two quarter pounders with cheese and a taco. That’s what you did.”

  “No. Not that. My life.”

  Henry rolled his eyes and turned his head to the sound of Dean running up the steps.

  “How is he?” Dean asked.

  “Sick. But who cares,” Henry answered.

  “Frank?” Dean knocked on the door. “I have something for you. It should stop the throwing up. Let me give you a shot.”

  “Dean.” Frank hollered out from the toilet bowl. “What did I do?”

  “You ate two quarter pounders with cheese.”

  “No!” Frank argued. If being sick wasn’t enough, why weren’t they getting his point. “What did I do to my life?”

  Henry was about as mad as he could get and with zero compassion in his voice, he blasted, “To your life, Frank? What about what your stupid phone call did to our lives? I am pissed at you Frank, really pissed. I hope to God you throw up all your insides.”

  “Shut the fuck . . .” The flushing of the toilet was heard. “. . .up, Henry.”

  Dean prepared the syringe as he listened to the water running in the bathroom. He held it up ready when the bathroom door opened. “Give me your arm.”

  Frank leaned against the archway, his face was pale. “I screwed up.”

  Henry shook his head. “Stick him hard, Dean.”

  Dean couldn’t help but snicker. “Henry, calm down.”

  “No. I hate Robbie. I really hated him while he was here. He attacked Ellen, amongst other things. And you . . .” He poked Frank in the chest. “You brought him back. Serves you right he’s married to Ellen now.”

  “Oh God.” Frank covered his face. “How did it happen? When?”

  Dean stopped chuckling. “Maybe they got married sometime in Beginnings. We keep record of that.” He saw Henry walking away. “Henry? Where are you going?”

  “Downstairs. Beginnings keeps record, but so do I. My journals.”

  For the first time, hearing Henry journal entries didn’t sound quite bad. Frank and Dean followed Henry down the steps.

  Dean grabbed hold of Frank’s arm and led him to the couch. “Just sit until the meds kick in.” He saw Henry grabbed a stack of journals.

  Frank plopped on the couch. “Why are you being nice to me, Dean?”

  “One,” Dean answered, “I think it’s really funny that Robbie is married to Ellen. And two, we’re gonna fix this anyhow.” He saw Henry stop pacing and give a cold stare. “We are going to fix this aren’t we? Henry?”

  “How, Dean?” Henry threw his hands in the air. “What’s done is done and we are all stuck with it now. Stuck because of Frank.” Henry cut his hand through the air. “Shit.” He stomped like a child. “All right.” Henry took a deep breath. “We don’t know. That’s the problem. We don’t. None of us even hung around anyone long enough to find anything out. Maybe Robbie and Ellen just got married. Maybe things really aren’t so different, with exception of Robbie Slagel, whom I don’t like. Did I mention that Frank? I don’t like Robbie.”

  “Yes, Henry.” Frank grabbed his head.

  Dean took a seat in the chair. “The wheels are turning Henry. What do you have in mind?”

  “We have to find out,” Henry said. “Dean, you go to your lab check into the medical aspect. See if we’re still dealing with the pending virus. I have my journals, the history disks, and Trish has the printout. Let me go there and do a quick review.”

  Frank peered up. “Why are we bothering to learn all this? We’re changing it back.”

  “If . . . if we can change it back., Henry stated. “And if we can, we still have to live here until we do. So we have to know what’s going on. Or we’re gonna look like idiots. Frank . . . Frank you stay put. Do not move from this couch. You understand? Do not interact with anyone.”

  Frank raised his eyes from the tips of his fingers. “I’ll stay here.”

  “Good.” Henry took a breath. “All right, let’s do this. Let’s meet in an hour at the school. It’s empty. I may need the board. And if we run into anyone, act as normal as possible. One hour. Got that Frank? And don’t leave.” Shaking his head like a disappointed parent, Henry, holding his journals, stormed out.

  Dean stood then walked slowly around the couch. He snickered some and patted Frank on the back. “Look at the bright side, Frank. At least now you don’t have to worry about messing up the twelve step plan by sleeping with Ellen tonight.” Laughing once more, Dean left the house as well.

  ^^^^

  Dean felt fortunate that his walk, or rather trot, to the clinic went uninterrupted. Running into no one was a bonus. Of course when Dean moved quickly through the community, rarely did anyone ever stop him. Things looked the same in Beginnings, which to Dean was a good sign.

  Holding his breath as he grabbed his personal notebook, Dean slid down onto a stool and opened it. Like waiting for a surprise, he opened his eyes. “Excellent.” He saw an entry. “Excellent.”

  “Someone is excited,” the mellow voice called in. “Care to share?” It was Ellen and she walked into the lab.

  “El.” Dean felt a twinge of nervousness. He looked back at her. “What are you doing?”

  “I was coming to find you. And I saw you run in here.” She stood next to him. “I brought you your fries.” She laid them down in front of him. “Seems Frank ruined the celebration for you guys.”

  “Thanks El. No, he didn’t ruin it.” Dean took a French fry. “He just ate the wrong thing and we couldn’t leave him alone.”

  Ellen leaned her elbows on the counter as she stood close next to him. She slowly reached her hand and flipped a page in his journal. “Checking?”

  “What um . . . do you mean?”

  “Checking to see if there’s anything you don’t remember?”

  “Yeah.” Dean breathed outward. “I remember how frantic you and Henry were when you discovered after your time trip there were things . . . shit.”

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Did I say something that may not be true?” Dean looked at her.

  “No why? I remember how frantic we were too. Of course that was coupled with the excitement of bringing you back.” She ran her fingers through the side of his hair. “I like the hair cut Andrea gave you.” She fixed it. “It looks really nice. You always look so handsome when she cuts your hair.”

  “El?” Dean grabbed her hand. “Are you all right? You seem kind of quiet.”

  “No, I’m fine.” She went back to propping her face on her hand. “Anyhow, I understand why you three didn’t come to the social hall. When you do the time thing, you feel like you are in a fog. Like everything is a dream. Kind of frazzled.” Ellen smiled slightly. “Trust me, you’ll be better, you’ll feel less disor
iented tomorrow. Henry should have told you all this.” She played with his hair again. “You really look handsome.”

  “Thanks.” Dean shifted his eyes awkwardly to her. “Are you sure you are O.K.?”

  “Yep,” Ellen nodded. “So how was it? How was ten years ago and being around people?”

  “Strange. El, I have to tell you. Frank, he was funny.”

  “Frank was funny?” Ellen tilted her head. “Now that’s odd.”

  “He was funny. He was so out of place.” Dean snickered. “And you know how . . .” He saw the peaceful and somber look on her face. “I’m sorry. It’s just that you seem, you seem so down.”

  “I’m not down. But . . .” She looked at her watch. “I’m late.”

  “How can you tell?” Dean laughed. “You’re cute when you look at your broken watch.”

  “My watch isn’t broken.” She showed him. “It broke a while ago, but Robbie fixed it right away. Don’t you remember? Sorry, maybe you don’t. I have to go. Are you sure about tonight?”

  Dean’s eyes widened. “Um . . . yeah, tonight is fine.” He was clueless.

  “Are you sure? I mean with tomorrow and all.”

  Be more specific Ellen. “Yeah, it’s fine.” What he agreed to, he didn’t know.

  “Thanks. My husband is being so compulsive about this new exercise for the survivors.”

  “Frank working with survivors? Now there’s something I’d like to see.”

  “Frank? I said my husband. Not Frank.” She patted Dean on the cheek. “If you need to talk, I’m here.” She leaned forward and kissed him on the forehead. “See you in an hour at your house.”

  Using the time machine memory loss theory in his favor, Dean stopped Ellen before she left. “El.” He mustered up an embarrassed look. “Don’t tell anyone but where do I live?”

  Ellen smiled. “Second row, last unit on the right.”

  Dean breathed out in relief. “Thanks. And remember . . .”

  “You didn’t ask.” She winked and smiled at him before she walked out.

  Grabbing another French fry, Dean continued to look through his journal.