Grandpa's Journal

by N. W. Fidler

  Him took him a good hour before he could coax me back into the old rust bucket. He pointed to the dial I touched. “Never let it change from this setting. It may be a time machine but it can’t escape earth’s atmosphere.”

  He then took me to May 1945.

  He had clothes prepared for us and I have no idea how to describe it.

  Confetti was in the streets and everyone was drinking to each other’s health. It (was/is/already?) a great time of celebration. We couldn’t help be swept up in it all!

  Everyone was always dressed up in suits or dresses, everything was dirty and smelled horrible (guess Grandpa was right), people building tall impossible things, everyone on the street just doing….what everyone now does. Just being people. No phones but people gossiped, people ate at restaurants but they acknowledged each other.

  How could I put all this into words?

  Everyone was smoking, it was hard to breath at times but I got over it.

  He took me to a nightclub where he not only bought me a drink but a few women hit on me! Heck even the show girl dancing on stage liked the way I looked. Grandpa allowed me to mingle around and I even got some alone time with the girl after her set was finished. Her name was Patricia. Too bad I couldn’t see her the next day.

  It may have been only a few hours but it was the most amazing thing I ever saw. Grandpa tried his best to slowly mess with the controls so I could see what did what but I don’t think it helped too much.

  We returned to my backyard where I could smell my parents cooking on the grill. It had to be my mom cause Dad always burnt everything. They had no idea what Grandpa had done by this point. Grandpa waved goodbye, tossing me his necklace. “Keep it close.”

  Like that he was gone.

  School came up on me after that. Mom and Dad got fined. And Grandpa was nowhere to be found to this day. I wonder where he went next?

  I think I’m going to find a better spot for this. Not only do I need to lay low but I need a break. There’s also a girl in my class that looks too familiar.

  9/13/16

  Grandpa picked me up at school. I was just leaving my Math class when he grabbed my arm and yanked me into an empty class room. “They know. They Know. They know.” He repeated over and over.

  His Time Machine and all its twisted wired, rusty glory shoved between tipped over desks and the white board. He was already hitting buttons by the time the door latched shut.

  BAM. We were in 1948.

  A lot has changed. Even the night clubs were better managed and in full swing. Homeless people were a lot more obvious but everyone was happier?

  Besides Grandpa who was racing from the Machine, I could barely keep up!

  We bounced from apartment building to apartment building, Grandpa checking all the numbers or people’s names on the doors.

  Until he found who he was looking for.

  Patricia wasn’t at the night club anymore. She was pregnant with three kids, alone in some hole in the wall. She remembered me and let us in. Grandpa spun some wild story about owing money before locking himself in the tiny bathroom.

  She did miss me. Told me there was no one like me.

  She isn’t wrong. I was wearing my Thrasher Band muscle shirt. I asked how far she was along and she just looked at me with wide eyes. Said I had some nerve!

  Yet, she said only a few months.

  There was a knock on the door, she went to get it but I stopped her. I held my hand to my lips to shush her. A man started yelling on the other side that she owed this month’s rent but I kept her silent. “I KNOW YOUR IN THERE!! You and some pair of MOOKS!”

  I’ve never been called a mook before.

  He jiggled the knob a few times but he ultimately left saying he’d get the keys if she didn’t open up. He never came back. Out the window I saw a bald man put a black fedora back on and left with another black suited man.

  Grandpa has been in there for hours now. Patricia was caring for her kids too much to ask too many questions. Maybe she’s scared of the mob coming after us and didn’t want to know too much.

  Might be a good fear to have.

  6/7/1948

  Been two days. Haven’t left the apartment.

  It’s so HOT.

  And everything tastes like ash.

  Patricia just smokes one cigarette after the other. I’ve told her she could get sick off of them but she doesn’t believe me.

  Patricia was shocked to see me just in my shorts without a shirt. I’ve helped a little with the kids when she makes food, what little she has. I actually had to tell her I’m full from the previous meal just so she’d have a little more for herself.

  Grandpa finally came out of the bathroom. His journal death gripped in his hands.

  He’s been reading it again and apparently he DOES owe the mob money and hasn’t paid it back yet.

  He doesn’t remember why he grabbed me but he said it was important. He tried to laugh it off. I didn’t find it funny. Patricia was with me on this.

  After lunch he left the apartment while we were distracted with the kids and only noticed he had left when he tried to get back in. That door is loud. “Don’t need to worry about paying the rent. It’s been taken care of.” He told Patricia.

  She shook in fear wanting to know what he did.

  She kicked him out.

  Locking the door behind him.

  She cried into my arms until she fell asleep on her bed. I put all the kids to bed, wasn’t hard they were all sleepy anyway.

  Had to lite a candle just to get this all down. Candles are a good thing to have.

  I hope Grandpa’s okay.

  6/8/1948

  I hate it here.

  Haven’t slept.

  It’s too hot!

  I don’t have any clean clothes.

  Patricia’s kid won’t stop crying.

  I’m starting to think Grandpa got it off easy.

  6/10/1948

  Left early this morning, sometime after midnight. I like Patricia. I do. But we really don’t have anything in common.

  She started talking about some gossip she had at the store about other people in the apartment building. I listened. Can’t remember any of it but I listened.

  What else is there to do??

  All she does is complain she can’t find the right man. After I left her (according to her I guess we were dating for one night??? What?) she and the owner got it on. Until the place closed then he dumped her with his kid. Hasn’t seen him since.

  It’s SO BORING here. There is literally NOTHING to do. All I do is sit all day and listen to some broken record player from someplace else in the apartment building. Yeah, those walls are paper thin. You hear EVERYTHING.

  She must have had another guy with her at some point. There was some military uniforms shoved in a cabinet. I barrowed a few to wear as I got out of there.

  I don’t know where Grandpa went but I made it back to the Time machine. It was still there so I know he hadn’t left me behind. I’m worried.

  Does he even remember where he touched down?

  6/11/1948

  Finally found him!

  He was sleeping in a theater with three tickets in his hand. Been wondering around the area all night and all day. I had to dump a cola on him to snap him out of his slumbering stupor. He screamed like a little girl, which was funny cause a man on the movie almost fell off a building at that moment.

  Everyone in the theater was laughing at us as we got out of there.

  Aaaand it’s starting to rain. Great.

  2/24/1852

  Still raining.

  A lot less noise on the street. A lot less vehicles. There was talk of a fire engine testing going on in a few months. A lot of people talk funny here. I have a hard time understanding them. Grandpa sort of gets the gist of their funny sounding accents.

  We’re lucky we came in under an overhang so the water wouldn’t get into the machine.

  Man, people are a lot shorter. Am I considered a gia
nt in this era? They do keep staring at us.

  “It’s not so bad.” Grandpa reassured me. “At least we’re not in 2060. The people there are a LOT less with it.” He added, pointing to his forehead.

  We sat just inside the doorway eating vanilla ice cream as the rain splashed around us. “That why you were bartering for scrap in 2077?”

  He had no idea what I was talking about.

  Instead he informed me of some documents he stole. They dated back to before World War 2 and several more modern calculations added on top of it. Most of it was still in code but he had it stashed somewhere just in case he could find someone.

  Unless he already has it done.

  “I’m still reading through.” Showing me his journal. “They’ve been on to me since before I took them. It was during the break in. I got a tip on where to find the passcodes to get into the research facility with the Hadron Collider. I saw them with several test subjects. Human test subjects. Jason they were testing time travel like it was a dart board! With each subject the code on the paper I had changed. Every. Time. It was like I was watching time rewrite itself right before my eyes!”

  Whatever happened next he doesn’t recall but he escaped by the skin of his teeth. That was the first time he met Kip. Some squirrelly guy with bright blue and white hair. “Either he was tripping on drugs or he was a very bad shot. Fired two whole clips over my head or just in my general direction.”

  He sounded like death just speaking the guy’s name.

  After the ice cream we found a place to sleep. Only one bed that we have to share but by this point I don’t care. He’s snoring right now. Sounds like an elephant trying to roar like a lion.

  6/29/1863

  Been wondering around the area.

  Grandpa was messing with the dials and sparks were flying as we made the jump to this time. I guess we’re trapped here for now?

  Grandpa has been talking with a so called ‘photographer’. Apparently his camera is this giant box pulled by a horse. He said he was following the Potomac around to cover their exploits. When he mentioned Gettysburg I nearly flipped!

  Yeah, Grandpa got us in Gettysburg. Freak’n GETTYSBURG. During the flipping CIVIL WAR! When the guy was out of ear shot Grandpa grabbed me by the shoulders and sat me down. “Clam yourself. The battle won’t take place for a few days from now. We’ll have enough time to repair and get out of here.”

  The photographer wanted to know what that device we were standing in a while ago was.

  Grandpa explained to the photographer the time machine was a new camera idea he had. Sadly, it’s not getting many results. The photographer thought it was funny and moved on as the soldiers were.

  One of the soldiers, said his name was J-something (he was VERY hard to understand. I don’t know what accent that is.), even shared a little bit of tobacco with me. No idea what to do with it but I thanked him. He wanted to know what regiment I was part of, noting my green uniform. I quickly told him scout, to blend in with the trees.

  He then asked if I’ve seen anything.

  “The north? I believe.” I pointed east, and he just patted me on the back, telling me to rest up.

  Grandpa said he’d try someone in town to see if he can find something remotely similar to the part he needs.

  He’s been gone for a few hours and everyone who asks about the time machine I just told them the same lie Grandpa told the photographer.

  It’s getting dark now.

  What’s-his-name invited me over to the fire for some moldy rations. The fire does look warm and I am hungry.

  7/1/1863

  Oh god. OH GOD!

  I don’t want to die. Not here not now!!

  Mom. Dad. If you ever read this then I’m sorry for everything I’ve ever done. What happened to the car was my fault. Those dents were completely me, not the 5 year old I blamed it on. I lied about my Math final. There’s so much I have to tell you.

  Calm down.

  I’ll be fine.

  I just need to get it all out. Maybe it’ll all make sense??

  We just need to get to the time machine.

  I heard the shots go off before I saw the smoke. It started in the morning and I heard men screaming in agony.

  Jack and I ran through Gettysburg, as bullets whizzed by my head. If they hadn’t it sure sounded like it!

  Grandpa was nowhere in sight and I had to abandon the time machine. Jack, the guy from before, kept with me and made sure I could get my head down. I fired from the rifle he gave me but I had no idea how to reload it!

  The bodies, the blood, I can’t…I just can’t.

  This isn’t what I signed up for!!

  The day started with a fun card game with Jack and the next second the men were yelling to take up arms.

  This is hell. This has to be.

  I followed Jack’s example and I clumsily reloaded but by the time I had it ready, the Union had already retreated farther than Jack and I would have liked.

  There were so many creepy pauses in the combat as they waited for smoke to clear or men to reload.

  I have never been more scared in my life as Confederate soldiers leveled their rifles at us and told us we were now prisoners of war.

  Then their heads….exploded. I don’t want to describe that.

  I think Jack threw up.

  One of them walked up to us, the grey uniform melted away revealing a bald, hairless man with blueish lips. His skin tight black jumpsuit flowed with him rather then move with him. He walked as if he was in water.

  When he leveled his arm toward us, he pinched his thumb and index finger together.

  Jack and I fired our guns but we either missed or it bounced right off.

  Jack was gone before I knew it. The only reason I didn’t get hit was Grandpa had tackled me down. He hurt himself but we somehow ducked into a house just to hear the wooden door splinter behind us.

  Why did Jack have to die? All he wanted was to see his brother again, maybe return to the family farm, have a few kids. He was a simple man and he was a true friend. I miss him. So much. All he’ll be is a name in the history books. Nothing more. No life story or the way he smiled.

  I don’t even think Jack was his real name! Everyone just called him that.

  Grandpa and I are held up in a farm house, trying to rest. He’s out of breath still. I think the heat is getting to him. Jack would know how to cheer us up.

  7/3/1863

  Grandpa isn’t doing too well. Got hit by a stray bullet, through his kidney, and hasn’t woken up. The Doctor’s here have been jabbing at the wound for over an hour now and I think it’s only made it worse.

  I couldn’t watch. Who could watch something like that?

  Grandpa was only awake for a short period of time before he passed out. Those screams. I’ll never forget them. I never want to hear them again. The Doctor’s couldn’t get the bullet out, so they just wrapped it up and moved on to the next patient.

  Kip is dead.

  I killed him.

  Once it was dark enough Grandpa got us to a watering hole, and we drank from it just as some Confederate Soldiers were coming up to fill their canteens. I expected a fight but they were actually very kind.

  By my ‘accent’ they could tell I was from the North but they didn’t much mind. They shared their rations with us and talked of better times. Some of them didn’t even want tomorrow to come.

  Some of them were talking about a hum. I have no idea what they were talking about but Grandpa seemed to. “Drives you nuts doesn’t it?” he asked them.

  “Yea, it gets into yer head.” One agreed with the rest completely clueless about it.

  When we went our separate ways I asked Grandpa about this. He only said. “There are things out there we shouldn’t be metaling with. Cause it tends to come back to test our resolve.” He shuttered but still managed to sound hopeful. It was weird.

  I don’t know what happened next. I think we fell asleep at some point cause the next thing I knew gun
s were firing all around us.

  It was late in the day. Don’t know how I slept that long but I did see some people at a picnic watching from a hill. That was weird. “Ignore them.” Grandpa waved to them and we went on our way.

  We creeped into town, Confederate soldiers moving around but not really noticing us. I think we might have been heading toward the Time Machine but we didn’t get far.

  A woman in a white jumpsuit plowed into us, just as the stone walls burst to pebbles in flashes of pounding death. Grandpa could get up, did he brake something? I don’t know.

  The woman held out a modern sawed off shotgun and fired back over the wall but was met with her weapon flying apart with the stones, pieces of it everywhere.

  “That’s not going to work.” She turned to me and smiled. “Is it, love?”

  Her suit scrapped the air and covered her body in a grey uniform. “We’re being flanked!!” she yelled to the other soldiers.

  The Confederates in the area all formed up around us and fired at our attacker.

  “Kip.” Grandpa growled as I helped him up but he just couldn’t stand right. “He found me. I don’t know how but he found me. Jason we can’t stay here.”

  “We have him. Look.”

  “No. You don’t understand. He’s not hu-.” Several soldiers blasted away. There was so much blood and limps. I don’t know how we got out of there.

  The woman was still in uniform as she helped me carry Grandpa to the edge of town.

  Kip was there waiting for us. How he got in front of us I’ll never know. Both his fingers snapped, the ground around us exploding. The woman fired her rifle once, and then charged him with the bayonet.

  He broke it in half with his bare hands an she struggled with him. He would have won if not for a series of loud shots puncturing his suit more times than I could count. He fell and didn’t get up. I should have stabbed him right then. I should have known something wasn’t right.