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

by Jacqueline Druga

  Joe shook his head and reached into his pocket for a smoke. “Something is up. I think we can get to the bottom of this and pretty easy.”

  “How is that?” Jason asked.

  “A little game of Beginnings trivia with our three time travelers. Can you meet me in my office tomorrow afternoon?”

  “Sure, but Joe, how is asking them Beginnings trivia questions going to help them?”

  “Not help them, help us. Help us figure out what the hell happened and Jason, something did. We have Frank, who is usually downright nasty and mean, walking around even tempered and sober. Sober mind you. He has cheat sheets written on his hands. And he thinks Ellen is his wife. I have Henry who is usually reserved, so damn nervous he can jump from his skin and saying ‘fuck’ while reviewing history. And Dean, Mr. Father of the Year, he can’t remember his own goddamn son. I’ll tell you Jason, they did something and we just have to get them to admit it.” Joe began to walk to the social hall again. “I need a drink.” He opened the door. “Time machine memory loss my ass.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  November 27

  The puddle spewed out in a large circle on the floor behind the bar in the social hall. Apparently it seeped from somewhere, but for the life of Henry he couldn’t figure out where. Mopping it up and giving it a minute to dry--Henry didn’t want wet knees--he pulled out his flashlight and, with open cabinets, searched out and felt every single pipe or line under there-nothing. On the emergency work order in his pocket from Joe, there also mentioned something about sparks coming from the bar outlet. Henry didn’t want to dare check for that until he cleared up the dampness problem. Of course, Henry chuckled to himself on he thought of sending Robbie Slagel to fix the water and electric problem. Zap the arrogance right out of him so to speak. But, because Henry was that type of guy, he tried to be nice. And, because Joe insisted that the job get fixed before Beginnings so called happy hour, Henry sent himself--like Joe wanted--directly after his brief lunch.

  Dean sounded so frantic when he flew into the social hall. “Henry!”

  Henry startled, lifted his head under the bar hitting it with a thump and a loud ‘ow!”

  Flying behind the bar, Dean slid on the still damp floor grabbing the counter top before he did a legs in the air flip to his backside. “Henry, don’t move!”

  “Why?” Henry asked.

  “Because something could be broken and you could cause more damage. Just stay still.” Dean squatted down.

  “I only hit my head.” Henry tried to pull out. “Damn it. I’m caught up. Now, see this is why I don’t usually wear long sleeves.” Henry tugged his arm, trying to free his sleeve from the small piece of metal that snagged his shirt. “Why are you here, Dean?”

  “Joe told me something heavy fell on you and you couldn’t move.”

  “Joe said that? Why?”

  “I don’t know. Let me see if I can help you.” Dean reached under the bar for his arm. “It’s kind of twisted in there.”

  “Ow Dean, it’s scratching me.”

  “If you would just stop.” Dean almost had it.

  “Ow, I’m bleeding.”

  With a loud voice that could have blasted them through the floor, Frank hollered out. “All right! Knock off the fighting shit!” Frank barged to behind the bar and he stared down with intimidation at the two. “Get up! And Henry I can’t believe you let Dean get the best of you.”

  Henry’s arm was finally released. He shook off the tiny bit of pain and crawled out, standing. “What the hell are you talking about, Frank?”

  “You two fighting,” Frank answered and watched Dean stand up laughing. “You weren’t fighting? I got a call from my Dad saying you two were tearing each other up in here.”

  Dean scratched his head. “I got a call from Joe saying that Henry was hurt.”

  Henry added too. “I got a call from Joe saying mechanically the social hall fell apart. What is going on?”

  The social hall door shut, and oddly enough, was locked by Joe who walked in with Jason. “I’ll tell you what’s going on,” Joe said. “I wanted all three of you together at the same time, without any of you knowing you’d be here at the same time.” Joe walked over to a table and pulled out three chairs, lining them up. “Have a seat, boys.”

  Henry, who didn’t know whether to shake his arm or rub his head, led the pack over to the chairs. “How come you didn’t want us to know we were all going to be together here?”

  “I didn’t want you to cheat, Henry.”

  Dean sat down first. “Cheat?”

  “Cheat,” Joe said. “Jason and I have come up with a form of entertainment for the people of Beginnings. A game show, so to speak, and you three are the first three contestants.”

  Jason hid his snicker well, standing there in the normal, tall, thin man fashion. Looking so much like he was up to something the way one arm was crossed across his waist while the other rubbed his chin. “We worked very hard on this . . . sit, Henry. It’s a trivia game. Beginnings history.” He saw the hesitation in Frank to join the others. “Frank, a problem?”

  “Fuck.” Frank moved slowly to the chair. He stood above Henry who sat in the middle chair. Bending down, Frank whispered, “Let me sit in the middle. I’m screwed.” As Henry moved a seat over, Frank sat. “I hope at least we get prizes for doing this stupid shit in the middle of the work day.”

  Joe opened his notebook. “Oh, you get a prize if you win Frank, a big prize.”

  Henry raised his hand. “Why . . . uh, why us?”

  “Simple,” Joe answered. “You three are originals. There should be nothing you don’t know about the history. We even made it easy, true or false and multiple choice.” Joe watched all three of them look to each other and try with diligence to look prepared. “We have questions that pertain to each of you. Ten points for each question answer correctly.” He saw Frank raise his hand. “Yes, Frank?”

  “What’s the prize?”

  “Don’t worry about it. First question.” Joe turned to Jason. “Ready to chalk up their scores?” Jason held up the pencil. “Dean . . . your question is easy. When we made the survival runs out of Ashtonville, which of the following were not a team? Frank and Jonas. Andrea, Jenny and Miguel. Me and George. You and Ellen. Which one is not a correct?”

  Screwed! Dean tried not to look like he hesitated while he deducted which one was not true. Rewinding that list that sounded so right in his mind, he leaned forward with his hands folded and fingers tapping before him. Then it hit him. Ellen was married to Robbie. “Ellen and I did not make the run together.”

  Joe smiled, “Very good.” He saw Dean sit back in relief. “But wrong. Ellen was the only woman to make the survival run . . . with you.” He shook his head. “Minus ten on that one, Jason. Frank . . .” His son sat up. “Easy one. Who headed security and put it together when we first came to Beginnings?”

  Frank opened his mouth to answer but stopped when he heard Henry whisper ‘think about it ’. Frank closed his eyes. “Um . . .” It was too easy. Surely the answer he wanted to give was wrong. Remembering Robbie was in Beginnings and Robbie skills, Frank would not have stuck out like he did. Someone else would have put it together. “John Matoose.” Frank held his hand out.

  Joe snickered then left out a loud buzzing sound. “Since when haven’t you ran security?”

  “Fuck, Henry.” Frank hit Henry’s leg. “I was going to say that.”

  Joe pointed to his son. “Jason, give him minus ten also. Henry . . . multiple choice. Which of the following was the very first major repair you had to handle in Beginnings? The back gate perimeter, Generator one, or the greenhouse three humidifier.”

  “Oh that’s easy, Joe. The Generator one. I was so frantic, it was solar and I hadn’t a clue on how I was going to go about . . .” He saw Joe shake his head. “It wasn’t? Yes it was.”

  “No it wasn’t. The back gate was, Henry. It happened before we even moved here. Robbie was arguing with Frank in the cab
of that truck and he drove right into the fence remember?”

  “Uh . . . yeah. But you said major, Joe,” Henry argued. “That wasn’t major.”

  “Wasn’t major? They caused a short that took you three hours to shut down the power. They were stuck in that truck the whole time. We had to make a run to get new supplies to rebuild that entire perimeter.”

  “But . . .” Henry held up his hand. “It didn’t frazzle me as much as that generator.”

  “You’re so full of shit, Henry.” Joe shook his head. “Minus ten. Next round, these should be easy. Personal issues. Dean . . .”

  “I don’t want to play anymore, Joe.” Dean stood up. “I really have a lot of . . .”

  “Sit!” Joe scolded then, calming himself and ran his hand over his head. “What is Joey’s birthday?”

  “Who?” Dean asked.

  “Minus ten. Frank . . .”

  “Joe, wait.” Dean tried to stop him.

  Joe ignored him. “Frank, true or false. A month after we arrived in Beginnings you took off and didn’t return for a week.”

  Frank knew that didn’t happen, but because Joe said it, it had to have. “True.”

  “Very good, give him ten points, Jason.”

  “Yes!” Frank clenched his fist. “I’m winning the game. I have zero.”

  Joe, seeing Frank’s happiness, decided to damper it. “Why was that Frank. Why did you take off?”

  “Is this a bonus question?” Frank asked.

  “Never mind. Henry . . . your turn.” Joe smiled. “For six months, you and Frank did not speak; Robbie busted your nose, all because you had a one-time affair with Ellen. When did this happen?”

  Henry thought he had it. He had it covered. “Joe.” He spoke somberly. “It was such a bad time in my life, I’ve tried to forget about it.”

  “Knock the shit off, Henry,” Joe came back. “When?”

  Frank turned completely around in his chair. “Yeah Henry when? When did you sleep with my wife?”

  “Frank I . . .” Henry stuttered.

  “And I’m just finding out about this?” Frank scolded.

  Henry gritted his teeth to Frank, speaking through them softly. “Shut up Frank.”

  “No, and since we’re revealing bedroom secrets,” Frank poked him, “What the hell happened outside of Beginnings that one night?” Frank titled his head and then he felt the annoying pain of Dean laughing. “And you!” Frank faced him. “You think this is real fuckin funny don’t . . .”

  “Hey!” Joe shouted as loud as he could. “Knock it off! Forget answering me, Henry. There is no answer, it didn’t happen. You know why? Because you’ve never been allowed to be alone long enough with my daughter to get an erection!” Joe was red faced.

  Henry widened his eyes. He huffed and grunted then pointed. “See Frank, you asshole. I told you.” He folded his arms and sat back. “That was a trick question, Joe.”

  “Trick question?” Joe asked calmly then raised his voice to the highest of levels. “Trick question!?” He handed his notebook to an uncontrollably laughing Jason as he walked up to the sitting three. He peered closely at all of them. “How in Christ’s name can I give you a trick question about your own damn lives? I’ll tell you how. They’re trick questions if you don’t know what the hell is going on. And the only way I can come up with why you three are so goddamn clueless is because you three morons messed with time.” He reached his hand out to Jason. “Give it to me, Jason.”

  Turning his head from the amusing verbal punishment he was watching Joe hand the three, Jason reached into his coat and pulled out Henry’s purple panda pouch. He gave it to Joe.

  Joe held it up. “Recognize this?” He showed Henry.

  Henry reached for it, but Joe pulled it away. “You went into my home, Joe. That is an invasion of my privacy.”

  “Oh yeah?!” Joe raged. “You messed with time. That is an invasion of my privacy. Now, before I go to history and find out for myself what the hell you three did, let me know now, right now.” Mistake. At that second the fingers started pointing at each other and Frank, Dean, and Henry argued like teenagers back and forth on whose fault it was, and who did what. The voices had meshed together with such speed, it gave Joe and instant headache. “Hold it!” He got the silence he wanted. “Henry, you tell me and tell me simply what happened?”

  “Your son, Joe!” Henry spoke with blame. “He’s an asshole. He made a phone call and not to just you. To Robbie. Telling him that Ellen would need him in Ashtonville. But what the big goof didn’t realize is that it was four years before the plague.”

  Joe closed his eyes and took a breath. “The phone call that put the two together. All these years you insisted you never told Robbie to go to Ashtonville. We thought you were nuts. Here, in that past, you never made that phone call. In the future, you did. I have to see.” Joe smacked the pouch off his hand and turned around, storming out. Jason followed.

  Henry, Dean, and Frank all jolted with Joe’s slam of the door. They sat quietly and waited.

  In silence, in the social hall five minutes had passed, Henry grew antsy. “Should we face it with him or hide?”

  Dean stood up and walked to the door. “Let’s go. Frank? Frank?”

  Frank waved his hands in the air. “No way! My Father will kill me! No!”

  Henry tugged on his arm. “Tough Frank. Because Joe hasn’t a clue how much things are different, and he’s about to find out what you did.”

  ^^^^

  “Dear God.” Joe gasped as he reviewed the disks in the computer. “Dear God.”

  Joe sitting on a chair with Jason next to him was what Henry, Frank, and Dean saw when they walked in the back room of history. Joe rubbed his eyes, staring at the screen. His face was so drawn. It said it all.

  Hearing them walk in, Joe faced them. “This . . . this is like a dream. Do you realize how hard it is for me to believe what I am reading? But I have to, because these are the disks that Henry came through with. If this is the way it was, what in the world have you three done?” He shook his head. “Frank, all these years you and Robbie were called, by people, Cain and Abel. You were Cain Frank, trying to steal your brother’s wife. But the truth to you, to you three is, Robbie was Cain. Robbie attacked Ellen? Robbie kidnapped you, Dean? He shot Frank?” Both of Joe’s hands went to his face. “And Denny? Denny died during all this?” Breathing slowly Joe stood up. “Frank, I can understand why you made that call. I can. But the truth is . . . the truth is . . .” Joe’s head dropped. “Jason you tell him.”

  “You can’t ripple time like that,” Jason began to explain. “To me, it is easier to believe what I am reading. I haven’t been here all that long. Now being that you made the phone call and that was the event that changed time, it would be easy to change it back.” He looked to Joe who just stood stunned. “But should we? Should we mess with time anymore? It’s risky sending them back. They could stop Frank from making that call or miss him. We also have to consider, things are better in this history, yet . . . that doesn’t give us the right to change fate that much. It’s a hard call to make. I’ll send them back, Joe. You call it.”

  Joe looked at the three silent faces of Frank, Dean and Henry. “No. It’s their conscience. Let them decide what we do.” He handed Henry his pouch. “It takes Jason two hours to prepare that machine. While he’s preparing it, you three discuss this. Really discuss this.” Joe walked to the door with Jason. “If you decide to do this, have Trish make you another set of History disks, mark them and be at the lab in two hours.” Saying no more, Joe left with Jason, pulling the door closed behind him.

  ^^^^

  “No Dean,” Henry spoke sternly in argument. “No.”

  “Yes Henry. Leave it be. Just let things be. We messed up enough we shouldn’t chance messing it up anymore.” Dean came back to him in their discussion on what to do. And those two seemed to be the only ones discussing. They paid no attention to Frank who sat off way in the back holding a notebook. “Look
at things. Good things have happened and we can’t take them back, we shouldn’t.”

  “We should!” Henry shouted. “And this is bull shit, this worrying about anyone else. This is personal for you and you know it. This has to do with Ellen.”

  “It has some to do with Ellen.”

  “No, Dean it has everything to do with Ellen and that is selfish.”

  “And it’s not selfish why Frank wants to switch it back? It has everything to do with Ellen also.”

  Henry laughed. “Have you spoken to anyone in this town about Frank? Come on Dean, we know Frank with respect. These people don’t respect him, they hate him. In this Beginnings, he’s a mean nasty drunk. That’s not right, because the Frank I know deserves more than that. Anything that Frank has done in this history has been overshadowed by his behavior. And let me honestly ask you this?” Henry stepped closer to Dean. “Have you spoken to Ellen? She’s different Dean, really different. Is that the same Ellen you fell in love with?”

  Dean’s head rose up. “No she’s not. The Ellen I love drives me nuts. She makes me scream and rambles on and on about the stupidest shit.”

  “You know why she does that, Dean? Because that is her way of escaping things that bother her. If something is bothering her she bothers other people. The Ellen we love doesn’t sit back and read a book. She doesn’t jump when a man snaps his finger. She snaps back. Ellen doesn’t just fit in a room when she walks in, she takes over a room. And she certainly wouldn’t be caught dead baking cookies with Jenny Matoose.” He saw Dean smile. “Jenny Matoose? Come on Dean. Would you like to know why she is so different? I’ll tell you my theory . . .” He saw Dean slump and moan, and even Frank gave a sigh from the back of the room. “She has no spark. She hasn’t any life in her. Why? Because the winning combination that pulled Ellen from her tragedy and made her live again is not in this Beginnings, it’s in our Beginnings. Frank and you Dean. You two. Not Robbie. And we can’t get Ellen back without having you two in her life constantly fighting over her like two high school kids.”