Killing Time - A Time Travel Adventure Novel

by Jack Hunt

  “Is he staying again?” she said leaning in.

  “I said he could crash as he’s had too much to drink.”

  “And he’s still drinking?”

  I shrugged.

  “So are you going to tell me?”

  “It was just a party across the street at Kelly’s. It got a bit out of hand.”

  “A bit?” Eric stammered.

  She shook her head and I figured she would say something about my father but she never did. It was getting close to ten and she usually turned in around then.

  “Alex, remember to lock up.”

  “Will do.”

  She strolled off. I heard her bedroom door close upstairs. I went and got a blanket for Eric and tossed it at him. Since we were kids we would go back and forth between each other’s houses. He’d usually take the couch at my place and I’d take the floor at his. Our parents just got used to it. That evening as Eric passed out I was watching a movie. It was a little after eleven when there was a knock at the door. Two sharp bangs. Startled I got up and peered out the window to see Officer Parker and his sidekick. At the bottom of our driveway was a cruiser with its lights on. Another hard bang and I went to open the door. My mother must have been tired as she would usually hear it and tell me to get it.

  I opened the door and leaned against the frame, casual and all. Inside of me I was having a panic attack. The thought that perhaps a neighbor had seen me was what I figured.

  “Sorry to bother you again, Alex. Is your mom home?”

  I thumbed over my shoulder. “She’s asleep.”

  He nodded looking around. “Have you heard or seen anything tonight? It’s just there was a break-in at your neighbor’s house.”

  I widened my eyes acting all surprised. “Are you kidding? Did they steal anything?”

  “It doesn’t seem so but… we just wanted to check with others. It’s possible that someone broke in while the party was going on across the street.”

  “Well, um no.” I thumbed over my shoulder. “Everything seems fine here. No signs of breaking and entering.”

  “And you didn’t hear anything?”

  “Nothing.”

  Out the corner of my eye I caught sight of my neighbor. He was standing in front of his garage with a cigarette in his mouth. Officer Parker followed my line of sight.

  “You get on with your neighbor, Alex?”

  “Haven’t met him yet.”

  “Oh, you should. Always good to know who lives beside you.”

  You can say that again, I was thinking.

  “Is that all?”

  “Yeah, if you see anything, give us a call. Don’t try to investigate, okay?”

  “You bet.”

  I closed the door and went over to the window. I watched them amble down the driveway and over to the neighbor’s home. He was speaking with them and pointing at our house. The cops looked back and I stepped away from the window. Did he have surveillance? Had someone seen me? I was starting to become even more paranoid. All the while Eric slept soundly. He was snoring up a storm. The TV was playing lightly in the background. It was barely audible. I heard my mother get up and walk along the landing.

  “Alex, who was that?”

  “Nothing to worry about. Go back to sleep.”

  I woke up on Saturday morning to the sweet smell of bacon. I groaned and pried my eyelids open. I hadn’t slept many hours that night. I had finally fallen asleep sometime after four. I’d spent the better part of the night awake worrying about what I’d seen. Eventually realizing that nothing untoward was going to happen, I’d wandered off to my room.

  Now, as I lay on my bed I could hear chatter downstairs. I imagined Eric was chewing my mother’s ear off about something he’d seen or done over the past year. I was sprawled out on my bed, still in the same clothes I’d worn the night before. I forced one of the pillows over my head and tried to block out the groan of the coffee grinder. It was no use. The clock was showing just after eight. I slipped out of bed, paid the restroom a little visit and then made my way downstairs.

  As I came around the corner that led into the kitchen — I froze.

  Seated at the breakfast table along with my mother and Eric was Harry Castle. He glanced at me and his eyes narrowed.

  “Ah, there are you,” my mother said as she returned to the table with a plate of toast. “Alex, I want you to meet Harry Castle.”

  Eric looked equally disturbed by our guest.

  “What uh…” I struggled to find words to convey my surprise.

  “I thought I would introduce myself.”

  “Yeah, Harry brought over a box of donuts and some fresh coffee. He’s joining us for breakfast.”

  “You don’t mind, do you?” Harry asked.

  I shook my head.

  “Coffee? But I heard you grinding some.”

  “No, I was making smoothies. Alex, take a seat.”

  “Yeah, Alex, come and take a seat,” Eric said glaring.

  Harry slapped the back of Eric’s shoulder. “Your friend here was just telling me how you are looking to become a police officer.”

  I nodded but didn’t reply.

  “Doesn’t that require a degree or such?”

  “Yeah. Well, no. Not really. You can apply without it. But I was taking—”

  “Was?”

  I shuffled over and took a seat across from him after my mother burned holes in me with her eyes. It didn’t take much for me to understand what she was thinking. My mother placed a plate of eggs in front of Harry. I reached for some toast.

  “Alex has dropped out of university. Lost his job too,” my mother said returning to the counter and bring over a few bowls of fruit.

  “Thanks for clearing that up,” I said, shooting my mother a scowl.

  “That would explain why I see you a lot.”

  I stared at him and he met my gaze. I could tell there was more to what he said. A sense that he knew I’d been watching.

  “Do you mind me asking why you dropped out?”

  I hesitated. “I… um, decided it wasn’t for me.”

  He nodded slowly taking a drink of his coffee and eyeing me over the top. I nursed my cup with two hands. My eyes darted between him and Eric. My mother took a seat and started piling fruit on her plate. I began buttering a piece of toast while he continued talking.

  “But your mother said you were keen on it?”

  “I changed my mind. It happens, right?”

  “Well, that’s not exactly the truth, is it, Alex,” my mother piped up. “He was late a few times.”

  “Mother.”

  “Well it’s true.”

  I shook my head.

  “His father was a police officer. With the Sacramento department before he died.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that.”

  By the expression on his face, I didn’t believe he was.

  “So you were going to follow in your father’s footsteps?”

  I took a sip of my coffee hoping to avoid the question. Heck, I had hoped to avoid any conversation with him. I wanted him out. He must have seen how uncomfortable I looked. Perhaps that was the whole point of coming over. He wanted to rock the boat. Let me know he wasn’t afraid. Let me know who was really in control.

  “Bryan, my husband, worked for a sales company. He was a cop for sixteen years and then just like that, he changed occupation. Still don’t know why but he said he needed a change.”

  Harry didn’t take his eyes off me or Eric while my mother carried the conversation. It was beginning to give me the creeps.

  “So you’ve always lived here?” he asked.

  “Yeah,” she said biting into some toast. “It seems like forever. And what about you, Mr. Castle?”

  “Call me Harry.”

  “Yeah, what about you? What do you do, Harry?” I asked.

  It was about time to turn the tables and watch him squirm a little. This was going to be interesting.

  “I’m a surveyor.”

&n
bsp; “A what?” I replied.

  “A land surveyor. You know, I determine property boundaries, prepare maps and so forth.”

  My mother furrowed her brow. “I’ve never met anyone who does that.”

  “Oh believe me, it’s not a lot of fun. I spend most of my time observing, taking notes, scouting out new locations and gathering information.”

  I snorted thinking about all the passports he had. “Bet that takes you all over the place, right?”

  “Yes, yeah Alex, it does.”

  “How come I haven’t seen you go out much?”

  All three of us at the table looked interested in hearing the answer.

  “Well to tell you the truth, a good portion of my work is done at home. And of course with moving in, I’ve been busy renovating the place and whatnot.”

  “Adding new rooms to the house?” Eric asked.

  Harry looked at him. “No. Just painting and such.”

  He chewed his toast slowly while looking at me. A smile formed at the corner of his mouth. Like a tennis match, I thought I had managed to hit the ball in an area that he wouldn’t have been able to reach, but he had just knocked it back over with all the ease of a pro.

  “Well, it sounds like interesting work,” my mother said. “Can I get you some more bacon?”

  “That would be lovely, thank you.”

  He seemed to relish the fact that he was in my home.

  “Well I really should get going,” Eric said jumping up.

  I screeched my chair back. “What? Are you leaving now?”

  “Yeah, my roommate is going to be eh…” He glanced at Harry.

  “Eric, um. A moment outside.”

  “Sure.”

  “Excuse me,” I said leaving the table. As soon as we were outside I pulled him in close. “What are you doing?”

  “This is freaking me out, dude. I have got to get the hell out of here.”

  “What about what we talked about? You know, making the call and such.”

  “You don’t need me for that.”

  “Eric.”

  Eric peered through the window. “Dude, I gotta go.”

  Before I could say any more he was halfway down the driveway. “I’ll call you later.”

  And like that he was gone and I was left to deal with this all by myself. I swallowed hard and returned to the table. Harry had his eyes on me the entire time.

  “Alex, Harry was saying that he was broken into last night.”

  “Yeah I heard.”

  “You did?” my mother replied.

  “Police dropped by.”

  “Oh, that’s who that was,” she muttered.

  “Yeah, seems someone smashed my window.”

  “Yeah. That’s too bad.”

  “And you didn’t hear anything?”

  “No. I didn’t hear a thing.” I thumbed over my shoulder towards the stairs. “I’m gonna…”

  “Alex. Don’t be rude.”

  I blew my cheeks out and took a seat. I really didn’t want to be stuck there with him. The last thing I needed right now was to have my mother dash out to work and leave me alone with this guy.

  “This food, Laura, is amazing. You really are a good cook.”

  My mother blushed. In the awkward quietness of eating, I could hear the TV. I glanced around and saw news on the next president. I got up and went over to the clicker to turn it up. It was a report about how she was going to visit Hornet Stadium to give her speech.

  “Did they say the next president is coming here?” My mother seemed taken aback by it.

  I nodded, my head turning slowly to Harry who looked as if he was taking great interest.

  “Do you mind turning it up a little?” he asked.

  I hit the volume button a few times. According to the news Loretta Dempsey had studied at the same university that I went to when she was younger. She felt obliged to return to the place that had played a significant role in her political career.

  “I would have thought they would have brought her to John Smith Field. It’s so much more personal,” my mother muttered.

  “Too small,” Harry replied.

  I glanced at him, noting his interest and familiarity with the area.

  John Smith Field was a baseball venue right beside the university in Sacramento. It seated around twelve hundred people. Those who couldn’t get in tailgated in the parking structure that was close by. That way they didn’t have to pay to watch the game. Hornet Stadium was about five minutes from there. It was far bigger.

  Harry sucked in air between his teeth. “Wow, is that the time? I must get going. Um. Thank you, Laura, for breakfast. Next time, perhaps I can talk you into having dinner at my place?”

  There was a pause, as if all of us felt that he was being a little forward.

  “Oh I meant, you and Alex.”

  “Right. That would be nice. Wouldn’t it, Alex?”

  “Yeah, real nice,” I said sarcastically.

  “Well, it was nice to have met you both. Excuse me.”

  With that he left and my mother mumbled something about what a nice guy he was. I snorted and thought about the cut-out pieces of newspaper that I’d seen at his house. Especially the one covering details about Loretta Dempsey.

  “A land surveyor my ass,” I muttered.

  Chapter 7

  I paced back and forth in Eric’s apartment; it was a little after ten that morning. He lived on campus not because he had to but because he felt it was a great way to meet women and it got him out of the house. His father was a total control freak. The crazy part is he didn’t eat there, he went home for his meals as he only lived twenty minutes away.

  “A land surveyor?”

  “I know. The guy is talking out his ass.”

  “You honestly think he’s got some kind of nefarious plan to kill the next president?”

  I scratched my head hard. “I don’t know. Hell, what do we really know about this guy? What do we know about any of our neighbors? People come and go, smile and wave but none of us really knows what a person is like and then boom you wake up one day and find out you’re living next to Jeffrey Dahmer.”

  Eric screwed his face up.

  “Okay, a bit extreme but you get what I mean. We don’t know this guy from jack.”

  “So let’s follow him.”

  I tapped the side of my head. “Are you out of your mind?”

  “You want to find out what this dude is up to, then you’re going to have to dig up some dirt on him.”

  While I was pondering the thought, Eric’s idiot roommate Ash came in. Ash wasn’t his name, it was actually Nigel but he went by Ash. He was the kind of guy who hadn’t outgrown the goth stage. His earlobes were pieced but not in the regular way. No, these had big gaping holes that you could have put a nickel through. Then there was his tongue, which he’d recently got split in half. Like who the hell does that?

  “Oh hey, not interrupting anything, am I?”

  He ambled in with a vaper in the corner of his mouth. When he blew out smoke it came out the sides of his nose. He called them body modifications. When Eric asked him why he did it, he said it was bit like getting a tattoo. It was a way to express himself. We couldn’t argue with that.

  “Ash, what do you know about Loretta Dempsey coming to Sacramento?”

  It might have sounded like an odd question to ask someone who looked like him but the guy was a bright spark. He was majoring in English literature and political science. As much as his appearance might have conjured up all manner of preconceived ideas about him, one thing for sure, he was the smartest guy in the room.

  He slumped down on his bed and picked up a bag of chips.

  “She’s arriving tomorrow.”

  “Sunday?”

  “Yeah, a whole group of us are going down there. Apparently she’s going to be making a ‘surprise’ visit to the university but everyone already knows about it. The Secret Service was there on Friday.”

  “You saw them?”
r />   “Yeah, they always go ahead, scope out the place, make sure no nut job is going to try something.”

  “So what did they make of you?” Eric said before he burst into laughter.

  “I’ll have you know that I’ve been selected to give her an honorary plaque.”

  “You? Get out of it!” Eric tossed a magazine at him.

  “Whatever, man.”

  “What time is she speaking?” I asked.

  “To the university?”

  “No, at Hornet Stadium.”

  “One o’clock. That place is going to be jam-packed.”

  Eric and I left his place early in the afternoon and headed back to my house. On the way over Eric asked about the light I’d seen. “So what do you think that was?”

  “It was the same kind I saw the day my dad died. The guy was there one second and gone the next. It seemed to distort the space around him.”

  Eric removed the cigarette lighter from his car and singed the end of his cigarette.

  “Dude, you need to give that up. Go with a vape,” I said.

  “A vape. People have blown their faces off with that stuff. No, I’ll stick to this.”

  “Your funeral.”

  He inhaled deeply then dropped the window to blow the gray smoke out. “A blue glow. I remember you first telling me about that. I didn’t believe you. I still don’t really believe you, to be honest.”

  “Yeah I know.”

  “It’s not that I don’t think you saw something but it just isn’t logical. People don’t disappear unless…”

  He paused for a minute and the car came to a halt at the light. The car idled as he tapped the steering wheel. Rock music played lightly in the background.

  “Unless?”

  “This is going to sound stupid but you know those interviews I listen to.”

  I let out a chuckle. “Yeah.”

  Eric listened to a radio station that broadcast out of Las Vegas. Every show was another dose of weirdness. I don’t actually recall them ever covering anything that was serious. I mean, covering stuff that was accepted by the mainstream. It was always shows on UFOs, the paranormal, and all that kind of nonsense. Well, I didn’t think it was nonsense — just a little way out there. My father said that those who believed in it lived on the fringe of society.