Fook

by Brian Drinkwater

  “I’m trying. It’s harder from this angle,” Jason complained as he knelt to the floor in an attempt to get a better view of the numbers along the bottom of the lock. “It’s too dark. I can’t see the numbers.”

  Jason was right. He hadn’t noticed it before but the lights in the room were off. The glow of the device must have been enough initially that he hadn’t even noticed, but now with the briefcase closed, the blackness of the room was obvious. “Here,” Derek spoke as he held his thumb against the lock on the case. The faint blue light on the scanner lit up momentarily as he held the new light source close to the bottom of the lock beside Jason’s head.

  Jason continued to fumble with the numbers, getting the first two in place.

  “You’re worried about miscalculating the jump aren’t you?” Derek’s familiar words echoed from the hall, no more than twenty feet from where they were currently trapped.

  “I’m asking you about your calculations,” Derek informed Jason.

  “I know. The light.”

  Derek looked down. The light on the case had timed out. “Oh.” He placed his thumb against the lock and again the blue light lit the cage.

  Dialing in the last two numbers, the lock released with a faint click. Quietly, but in a hurry, Jason displayed amazing dexterity as he managed to remove the lock from the handle without dropping it, while at the same time opening the door and letting them free. Both scampered from their temporary prison toward the boxes on the other side of the dark room.

  “The lock,” Derek pointed to Jason’s hand as they reached their hiding spot.

  Looking down, Jason realized that he’d forgotten to reattach the low budget security system.

  The footsteps resumed in the hall as the familiar, yet unexpected company continued its advance.

  “Never mind. Forget the lock,” Derek instructed.

  “I can’t. I’ll know something’s wrong,” Jason disagreed as he quickly made his way back to the cage, slipped the lock back through the handle and made his way back behind the cardboard wall just as his counterpart’s hand slipped around the doorway and flipped the switch, illuminating the room.

  Derek and Jason, while attempting to remain as hidden as possible, watched in awe as the ten minute younger versions of themselves made their way toward the locked cage.

  “I take it that’s our power source,” the other Derek offered up the familiar guess.

  “Deja Vu,” Derek mumbled.

  Jason turned with a shushing stare.

  He couldn’t help himself though, as he leaned closer to his naked roommate. “Is this really happening?” he whispered.

  Jason’s disapproving stare deepened.

  “Okay. We need to get this thing up and running as quickly as possible,” the other Jason instructed as they made their way into the cage.

  Knowing the rest, Derek turned his attention away from the familiar action taking place on the other side of the room, suddenly more interested in their current surroundings. The boxes that were concealing their presence from themselves had obviously been down there for quite some time. The dank space had caused a fair amount of mold to form along the bottom of the boxes that were in contact with the floor; the yellow-green life creeping upward toward the higher stacked containers. The sides of the boxes were lined with various people’s names and short descriptions like, bathroom and books; likely the current contents of the moldy brown squares. Other names and descriptions had been crossed out on various boxes, indicating that this had not been their first storage task, though their condition would suggest that it would likely be their last.

  The remainder of the dimly lit corner was fairly empty. The floor, though covered in a thick layer of dust, was remarkably clean given the condition of the boxes, suggesting that, at least occasionally, someone must take a moment to visit the secluded space with at least a broom and maybe a dustpan in an attempt to tidy up the place. Scanning further he didn’t see any oil containers or paint cans, as he would expect to find in such a space. There were no tools or spare pieces of wood for miscellaneous repairs by the building attendant and there was no old food or random crumbs of any kind.

  Now, of course he didn’t expect to find food stored in such an unsanitary place, but its presence might have helped to explain the rather large rodent currently scurrying toward Jason’s left foot.

  “Jason,” Derek whispered as he tapped his friend’s shoulder.

  Jason showed no signs of acknowledgement, still focused intently on the two men in the cage.

  “Jason,” Derek whispered again, a bit louder this time as he peeked around the boxes to see if he’d heard himself.

  His counterpart continued to work on the electrical box as the other Jason set up the machine.

  Glancing back toward the quickly scurrying rat, Derek watched as the small animal disappeared beneath his crouching friend, but before he could offer another warning, Jason quickly jumped, almost springing to his feet as the unexpected rodent brushed against his dangling, nether region.

  A warning obviously no longer of any use, he quickly slapped his hand over Jason’s mouth to muffle the yelp that he was sure would follow as Jason locked eyes with the rat who’d paused in his journey to offer up his own ‘what the hell’ look.

  “What was that?” the other Derek questioned.

  Jason, Derek and the rat froze, all seeming to exchange the same, ‘we’re busted’ glance.

  “I don’t know,” the others continued.

  “Go check it out.”

  “Me? Why don’t you go?”

  With Derek’s hand still over his mouth, Jason could only offer up an ‘I told you so’ stare.

  The rat, apparently bored with its newly discovered company, continued on its way, making its way around the boxes and into plain view of the cage.

  Realizing that they were safe again, since neither of them had investigated the strange noise after seeing the rat, Derek removed his hand from Jason’s face.

  Allowing a moment to pass before moving again, Derek and Jason again slowly peeked around the boxes, watching as the others made final preparations and now stood holding the tiny wired orbs in their hands.

  Derek knew what the other him was thinking. He wanted to stand up and tell him to go for it; to not doubt his genius roommate and push the button, but he knew he wouldn’t and moments later the button was pressed and the men in the cage vanished, their clothes dropping to the floor where they’d previously stood.

  “I guess that explains where our clothes went,” Derek laughed as he pictured the look of shock on both of their faces when they’d discovered their nudity. Given all that had just happened in the last ten minutes however, he’d almost forgotten that he was naked. Jason on the other hand was defensively cupping himself, likely in an attempt to preserve what little dignity he had left, as well as protect himself from anymore curious scavengers.

  “The conductivity was poor,” Jason mumbled.

  “Excuse me?”

  “How could I’ve been so stupid?” he continued. The machine works because of the electrical charge. The same charge that passes through the core then passes through us, linking us to the machine at the exact moment of transition.”

  “We were good conductors but our clothes weren’t,” Derek finished Jason’s thought.

  “Exactly and since they weren’t good conductors, while they were attached to us, they weren’t technically connected to the machine and therefore were left behind.”

  “Speaking of behind,” Derek motioned behind Jason who jumped, expecting to see another rat quickly approaching for another inspection.

  Other than their first, furry visitor, now chewing at the corner of one of the boxes, they were alone.

  “Come on. Let’s get out of here,” Jason motioned, unamused as he spared one hand from its protective duty to pick up the briefcase.

  The two made their way back into the cage.

  “Give me the wires. I’ll hook ‘em back up,” Derek held ou
t his hand.

  “We don’t need to do that,” Jason responded, unsure why the reasoning, that was so obvious to him, seemed to elude his equally intelligent friend. “We’ve already caught up with time. If we go back to where we started we’ll be going back to the exact moment that we watched ourselves disappear.”

  He could tell that Derek was processing the information.

  “Jello, right?”

  “It’s too risky and completely unnecessary since we’re already here,” Jason reaffirmed his logic.

  “Can I at least get dressed then?” Derek motioned to the pile of clothing on the floor.

  “Please do.”

  SEVEN

  The lamp post lined entrance to the Turtle Creek apartments joined the car’s gauges in illuminating the interior of the Chevy Impala as Ty crept to a stop. Anticipating that the large, wrought iron barrier would momentarily slide out of the way, he waited but received no welcome from the automated gate.

  “Fucking thing,” he sighed, annoyed at the still malfunctioning scanner.

  For a month now it had been on the fritz, scanning the resident barcode on his window only half the time. Setting the car in reverse, he checked behind him and slowly backed up, again passing the scanner, then put the car in drive and rolled forward for a second time.

  It still didn’t budge.

  “Really?”

  He was going to have to buzz the apartment to get inside. Though he knew his Grandmother was eager for an update, it was nearly one in the morning and at the ripe old age of 83, she was most likely passed out on the couch, having succumbed to the sandman while awaiting the phone call he’d never made.

  Putting the car in reverse again, intending to use the visitor’s turn out where the call box stood, Ty began to back up. He considered randomly dialing another apartment, but what would he say when the groggy voice on the other end answered? He couldn’t claim to be FedEx making a middle of the night delivery. On the other hand, Everyone knew that the gate wasn’t working. Maybe he could just tell them the truth and they’d buzz him through the damn thing. No. The odds of finding a friendly night owl were slim. “Fuck off,” would be the likely response. Grandma Ushi was his only option. Either that or spend the night parked on the side of the road.

  As he rolled passed the scanner and prepared to pull into the visitor’s lane, a soft, electronic click drew his attention back to the gate, followed by the sound of the motor engaging as the metal guard began to slowly step aside.

  “Thank you,” he sighed in relief as he placed the car in drive and slipped through the gate.

  Ahead on the left stood the main office where the mailboxes, fitness center and pool were. He turned left at the side road just before it, following the road around the complex. His grandmother’s apartment was toward the back of the property, just opposite the athletic fields of a middle school, which stood on the opposite side of an eight foot tall, wooden fence separating the two properties. Parking was always an issue, no matter what time of day you came home, but in the middle of the night, with everyone in the complex home, it was damn near impossible. To make things even worse, the back of the property had a tendency to flood in heavy rain, limiting the available spaces even more.

  Slowly rolling along the dimly lit parking lot, Ty searched for an open space. As difficult as parking was and as run down as the complex seemed when compared to other apartments in the area, it was still better than where he’d lived just two years earlier. Though only five or so miles away from his current home, he and his mother had resided just off of Florida Avenue. He didn’t recall parking being an issue and the gate at that apartment had always worked, but that was about the only upside to those apartments. The wiring had either been installed incorrectly or the degenerates living in the complex had harvested so much copper wire from the building that they’d managed to disable half of the outlets and even though management was required by law to maintain the property to the city’s strict building codes, neither the city nor the police seemed to care. The abundance of drug dealers and prostitutes prowling the street just beyond the property’s walls was probably of bigger concern to them, though nothing ever seemed to get done about that either…except in his mother’s case.

  A couple of years back, in a typical display of poor judgment, she’d brought one of her clients back to the apartment. Unfortunately, the john had been an undercover cop and even though it had been her first arrest for prostitution, she was no stranger to the court. The fact that she’d brought the officer back to her home while her son slept on the pull out sofa in the living room had rubbed the judge the wrong way, and in the end, earned her a six year sentence in the Bradenton Correctional Facility for Women. Since he was only sixteen at the time, the state had two options; place him in state run care or allow a family member to take over as legal guardian. Grandma Ushi, having already been in essence a parental figure in his life, had thankfully been awarded custody.

  Water splashed against the wheel wells as the car reached the flooded corner of the property. As expected, there was plenty of parking in this portion of the lot. Lacking a pair of waders, he continued on, passing his grandmother’s apartment on the right.

  Amazingly, there appeared to be a space just up ahead, that is until he got closer and realized that it was being occupied by a tiny Ford Fiesta, hidden between a pickup truck and a van. Maybe he could push the car out of the way, he thought as he passed the half open space. It couldn’t weigh that much. If he had a friend with him they could probably just pick the tiny car up and carry it to the lake at the other end of the parking lot. Lucky for him though, and the Fiesta, the parking gods were smiling down on them that night and just another twenty feet ahead on the left was an open spot between a Ford Escort and an out of place, brand new BMW convertible…likely an overnight visitor. More interested in getting some much needed sleep than pondering a neighbor’s out of place company, Ty swung the Impala into the open space, placed it in park and swung open the driver’s side door.

  “Ty,” a faint voice struggled to compete with nature’s dominating sonnet of frogs and insects.

  Stepping from the car, Grandma Ushi came into view, standing on the sidewalk just beyond the front door of the first floor apartment. She must have been watching for him through the front window, miraculously fighting off sleep for the past two hours while waiting for the update that had never come. It was also possible that she’d been sitting on the plastic patio chair beside the door where she could be seen most mornings sipping tea and waving to random neighbors as they came and went on their daily routines.

  “Why didn’t you call?” she continued as he crossed the parking lot.

  “It’s late grandma, I thought you’d be asleep.”

  “You know I can’t sleep at time like this.”

  “I’m sorry. I just thought—”

  “—Sooo,” Ushi interrupted, not interested in his excuses.

  “It’s fine,” he responded as he slipped between the parked vehicles and joined his grandmother on the sidewalk.

  “Fine? What you mean, it’s fine?”

  “I mean there’s no problem.”

  “So you know who he is?”

  “Well...”

  “We can’t take any chances here, Ty,” the old woman went into her familiar, lecturing tone.

  “I know Grandma. I took care of it.”

  “So he dead.”

  Surprised and not sure how to respond to that, “No, I lost him at the airport. I couldn’t get past security, but the only flights leaving that terminal were to Denver, Chicago, Atlanta and Boston. He’s far away from here.”

  “Ty, we cannot have strangers getting in way. Too much at risk. This your child…our blood and now somebody might know.”

  “He doesn’t know who I am.”

  “How you know?”

  “He can’t know. You said it yourself. No one knows anything about us. I’ll get my son and we’ll get out of here before he can come back. He won’t
be a problem.”

  “You don’t know that. He knows something or he wouldn’t been there.”

  “It doesn’t matter. I know what he looks like now so I can be on guard while watching the Nesbit’s for my opportunity.

  “We might not be able to wait for right opportunity. This getting too dangerous. We need to act soon.”

  “I’ll bring him home, Grandma. Please, don’t worry. It’s late. Now let’s get you inside and in bed.”

  “That boy is the last of our blood. Our name must live on and it’s up to you to make happen.”

  “I know Grandma,” Ty agreed as he urged his grandmother back toward the open door of the apartment.

  “That boy is very important,” the elderly woman once again eluded to his son’s mysterious importance.

  He’d asked her why on numerous occasions, but every time had been greeted with the same vague explanation about the blood line and every other generation or something like that. All he knew was that his grandmother was a wise woman and that, since she’d taken him in, his life had improved tenfold. He owed her everything and would do anything for her, even if he didn’t fully understand why.

  “You a good boy, Ty,” she paused in the doorway. “I love you very much.”

  “I love you too, Grandma,” he kissed the old woman on the cheek before shuffling her into the apartment and closing the door.

  EIGHT

  “Katie!? What’s burning!?” Phil Bishop yelled to his daughter as he made his way to the bottom of the stairs, trying to refold the morning paper.

  No answer.

  Rounding the banister he began down the hall. A faint cloud of smoke clung to the ceiling overhead. He was certain that any minute the nearby smoke detector would also awaken with the new day.

  “Katie,” he called again as he reached the end of the hall and stepped into the kitchen to the sight of flames leaping from a frying pan on the stove and his sixteen year old daughter attempting to put them out by swatting at the air almost five feet away. “Jesus!”

  Dropping the disheveled paper on the island countertop, he yanked the dish towel from the oven door and tossed it over the flames as he slid the pan from the lit burner and killed the supply of gas just as the smoke detector let out its first cries for help. Pulling the towel from the extinguished pan, he rushed back into the hall, waving it overhead until the emergency device ceased its ear piercing rant.