“Danny, I told you to be discreet, but right there’s a photo of you and Jessica kissing – plain as day. Now, we’re in a lot of trouble. I never mentioned it previously, but there’s a good chance my fingerprints have been found on the limo’s steering wheel. All they need to do is to physically link me to the scene of the crime, and we will both go to jail. As long as Jessica’s husband never regains consciousness, the authorities would have a hard time incriminating her without his damaging testimony of being tied up in the wine cellar. However, both of our fingerprints can be found in the limo, so it would be an open and shut case against us.”
A deeply concerned looking Danny commented, “Oh, I can’t believe this. I’m so sorry for being careless. I was in a state of euphoria over the wondrous night I just spent with Jessica Sweet Hart – the girl of my dreams. I admit I was careless when I left. The hotel security boasts about keeping the paparazzi away, but the photographer must have somehow managed to sneak by security. So, what can we do now?”
“Unless you choose to rot in jail for three or four decades for kidnapping, bank fraud, murder, and so on, the only option is to try to escape back to the universe you came from.”
“Actually, Aldo, I believe we’re only guilty of ‘attempted murder’, since it was the other Danny Donaldson who killed the limo driver.”
“OK, Danny – fine, but you’ll still be in jail for a very long time. I wouldn’t expect Jessica to wait for you for so long. Besides, when all is said and done, she might get a lengthy sentence herself – especially if what’s-his-face wakes up from his coma. We can only be safe if we can make it back to your original world.”
“Oh, no – Aldo, I don’t want to go back there and be a crippled guy in a wheelchair again. Besides, now I finally gained the love of my dream girl. I’ve been head over heels in love with her since sixth grade, so – no, I’m not willing to part ways with her anytime soon.”
“Although I can’t make any guaranties, there’s a reasonable chance that you won’t be paraplegic if you return to the other world.”
With a look of surprise Danny asked, “What makes you think that?”
“It so happens that during your short stay in this dimension, you’ve already exchanged blood with your alter-ego twice. First, I gave you some of his blood when you nearly bled to death from the gunshot to your leg, and later, you gave some blood back to Jessica’s husband when he cracked his head on the marble floor. I’m still unsure exactly how the ions of luck work, but I believe there’s a good chance that your perennially bad luck – as well as your alter-ego’s consistently good luck, may have counterbalanced each other and your luck might have gravitated closer to the norm, which is average luck. Thus, in scientific terms, both you and Jessica’s husband would have a more equally distributed balance of positive and negatively charged ions of luck than you guys had prior to the transfusions.”
“Gee, Aldo – if I could even have normal, average luck, I’d be very grateful. However, I still can’t just leave Jessica behind.”
Aldo looked at Danny squarely in the eye and said, “The old guardian at the central black hole was right. You shouldn’t have chosen to come down the tunnel to this world. If you decide to return to your universe, and if you were to find yourself in a healthy body with normal luck, who’s to say you couldn’t win the love of the other Jessica Sweet Hart you originally fell in love with? Although you’ve established a relationship with a different Jessica Hart from a different world, don’t forget that the Jessica you originally fell in love with is not the same girl you just met here a few days ago. If you can win the love of one Jessica Hart, then I’m sure you can charm the other one as well.”
Scratching his head in a state of confusion Danny said, “That’s an awful lot for my average brain to absorb, but I understand your point. I surely don’t want to go to jail, so I agree to go with you down the wormhole tunnel to another world. Just allow me to talk to Jessica one last time.”
Meanwhile, back at the Westin Hotel there was a surprise knock at Jessica’s door early in the morning. It was Detective Harrison. He had a very serious expression on his face…
“Good morning, Mrs. Donaldson, may I come in for a meeting?”
“Sure, come on in.”
Jessica smelled trouble as soon as Detective Harrison clicked on a tape recorder and placed it in the middle of a table…
“Mrs. Donaldson, I was almost ready to postpone this investigation until someday in the future. We were willing to wait to see if your husband emerges out of his coma. However, there are now even more loose ends which make no sense at all. Now that the TV news is reporting that you have a secret lover, I sense that you haven’t been entirely honest with me.”
Jessica tried to alleviate the tension by saying, “I’m willing to cooperate. What would you like to know?”
“Last night you had an unknown visitor. I saw photos of him leaving this hotel in a scuffed-up Toyota Camry. The last three numbers on his license plate are, ‘six-four-nine’. I was able to trace that car to a man by the name, Aldo Paganini. I find it interesting that on the day of the murder of the limo driver, you and your husband made a trip to the downtown branch of Key Bank. Your husband made a three million dollar donation to the University of Washington in Aldo Paganini’s name. I need to know – is Aldo Paganini your lover?”
“No – I won’t deny that I had a male companion last night, but his name is not Aldo Paganini.”
“Mrs. Donaldson, then please tell me his real name.”
A nervous Jessica hesitated for a moment before she said, “His name is David Dawson. He’s a friend of Aldo Paganini. The three of us met while we were bird watching. Detective Harrison, as you already know, my husband was guilty of cheating on me with a girl named, ‘Babs’. There’s nothing illegal about me having some companionship as well. This sort of behavior is typical among the rich and famous.”
“No, Mrs. Donaldson – I have no problem at all with people having illicit affairs, but when one is involved with kidnapping, murder, accessory to murder, blackmail, aiding and abetting known fugitives, and lying under oath – well, those actions are all highly illegal, and likely to land one in jail.”
Detective Harrison got up and clicked off the tape recorder. He said, “For your information, we found an unidentified set of fingerprints on the limo’s steering wheel. They belong to neither the limo driver nor your husband. I’m willing to bet they belong to either David Dawson or Aldo Paganini. If that’s the case, you’ll be guilty of obstructing justice. Before I go, allow me to package these two champagne glasses for fingerprinting. Mrs. Donaldson – don’t leave town. We’ll probably need you to come to the station for further questioning.”
Jessica’s heart sank as she felt her whole world caving in. As soon as Detective Harrison left, she sat on the edge of the bed and burst into tears. She knew that at minimum, she was guilty of obstructing justice, but that was rather minor compared to potential charges against Danny and Aldo. She shuddered to even think about what lengthy sort of jail sentences both Aldo and her new love, Danny, were facing. As deeply as Jessica had fallen in love with the new Danny, she chose to never see him again if that would prevent him from spending decades in jail. Thus, even though Aldo had instructed her not to call his residence, she felt compelled to warn him of the terrible turn of events which had just happened.
“Ring… Ring…”
“Hello,” answered Aldo.
“It’s me, Jessica. Aldo, I have to talk to you – and Danny too.”
“Jessica, I told you to never call me at my residence, but since you went ahead and called us here anyway, can you please tell me what’s going on?”
“Detective Harrison knows pretty much everything. He identified your car from a paparazzi photograph. Also, he’s found some unidentified fingerprints on the limo’s steering wheel. He already guessed correctly that they belong to either you or some guy named, David Dawson. He made a trip to their fingerprint lab. He’ll be very
intrigued by the fingerprints on a champagne glass that Danny touched last night. He’ll be sure to interrogate me as to how two different people can possibly have identical fingerprints. I just had to call you to give you and Danny a warning. You guys need to run make a run for it. I’m serious – run for your lives. My guess is that the police will be showing up to your house very soon, but first, please let me speak to Danny.”
Aldo handed over the phone. Danny fought back some tears as he said, “I overheard the terrible news, but I don’t want to go without you.”
“Danny angel, I love you with all my heart – but you must run. If you stay, both you and Aldo will be spending most of the rest of your lives behind bars. That would kill me. Right now, I can probably get off rather easily, as long as my husband remains in a coma. If he wakes up and tells the police about my involvement, then I’m in plenty of trouble too.”
“Jessica, now that I finally found my soulmate, there is simply no way that I’d leave without you. Aldo and I will try to escape to the parallel universe through his communication chamber, but I want you to come with us. Please meet me there in a half an hour and come with us.”
“Oh Danny, I would love to join you, but there must be over a hundred cameramen outside the hotel watching every move I make. Someday and somehow I will find a way to join you in the other world, but right now it would be impossible for me to join you at this time. I’m afraid that you and Aldo need to escape to another world without me. Just remember, Danny, I will always love you.”
“… and I will always love you, too – Jessica Hart – my one and only sweetheart,” said a devastated Danny.
Aldo took the phone from Danny’s hand. He said, “Jessica, before we leave via my communication chamber I will send you a key to my lab. It will arrive to your residence’s mail box in an unmarked envelope with no letter of any kind in it. Traveling down the wormhole tunnel to another world is very dangerous – you could easily die, but if jail is your only other alternative, it’s worth a try. If you decide to use my communication chamber to attempt inter-dimensional travel, just remember to adjust both the frequency dial and energy level to ‘maximum’ – even if the needle indicates you are in the danger zone. Once maximum power is achieved, you mustn’t waste any time at all. Just dive head first into the tunnel. That’s what my friend, David Dawson, did some time ago. That’s also what Danny and I need to do within the hour. I wish you the best of luck with the police.”
“… and I wish you and Danny a safe trip back to the other world.”
The moment the phone call ended Aldo told Danny, “OK – we better not waste a minute. The police will soon be putting out an A.P.B. on us, and they already know what kind of car I’m driving. I’ll quickly dig up Jessica’s mailing address from her online bank statement and prepare her envelope. We need to get going. When the authorities fail to find me at this address, I’m sure it won’t be much longer before the cops come looking for us at the university campus, so let’s hurry.”
Meanwhile, back at the hotel room, a completely devastated Jessica broke down and cried uncontrollably. She yearned to join Danny and Aldo on their journey to another universe, but she knew that wasn’t possible given the circumstances.
She wiped away her tears in the sleeve of her robe while she pondered, “I can’t believe that the man I really fell in love with is the nicer, alter-ego of my two-timing, cheating, lying husband, and now he’s going permanently back to another world. Life can be so unfair. Somehow, someway, I need to get some other great physicist to help figure out how to send me over to Danny’s other universe. There’s nothing of any interest in this dimension to make me want to stay.”
About thirty minutes later, Aldo parked his Toyota in the university’s main parking garage. They hurried on foot over to the lab. As soon as Aldo un-locked the door to his private lab, he wrapped up the key and stuffed it into a prepaid, metered envelope from the University of Washington with Jessica Donaldson’s name and address on it. Just as Aldo sealed up the envelope, they heard several police sirens approaching from afar.
“They’re already hot on our trail,” said Aldo. “While I prepare our communication chamber, I need you to run down a floor to the Physics Department office. You’ll see a free-standing, US Postal Box just outside the door. Toss in the envelope, and hurry back up here. The sirens sound like they are closing in on us.”
Aldo turned on the switches to the controls, and pushed the levers to maximum power. While the electro-magnetic coils were powering up, Aldo quickly tossed stacks of his research notes into a metal trash bin and doused them with lighter fluid. There was a big flash of fire when he set a match to it. Within a minute, the contraption had reached maximum magnetic power, and Aldo was relieved to see the swirling lights of the wormhole tunnel forming at the back of the communication chamber.
Aldo stirred the burning pile of notes to eliminate others from gaining easy access to his years of research, but he noticed that a bunch of smoke was beginning to gather in the ceiling, close to the fire sprinklers. He wondered, “Gee, where the hell is Danny? The cops are zeroing in on us, and I’m sure the fire department will be alerted as soon as the sprinkler system kicks in.”
Meanwhile, Danny ran downstairs to the office as Aldo had instructed him. He still had a slight limp due to lingering soreness from the bullet wound. Danny panicked when there was no US Postal Box where Aldo told him to go. He managed to ask the first person he saw, “Where’s the US Postal Box? It’s supposed to be right here.”
The lady said, “They just removed the postal collection box a couple of days ago. The Postal Service apparently didn’t get enough mail deposited in it to justify keeping it around, but you can find another one right inside the HUB.”
A frantic Danny asked, “What’s a HUB? – and where is it located?”
“It’s the ‘Student Union Building’. It’s just north of us. They have a US Postal Box right next to the restaurant section.”
A limping Danny ran as fast as he could. After asking yet another stranger for directions, he finally found it, and crammed the envelope into the box. As he ran back to the physics lab, he saw several Seattle Police cars converging on the Physics Building…
Aldo had wrapped some string around the control panel’s power cords. The strings led inside the open communication chamber door. His intention was to cut off the power to the unit right after Danny and he were safely inside the mouth of the tunnel.
A policeman spotted Danny running up a stairway. He yelled, “Freeze,” but Danny kept on going. Just as the cop drew out his gun, his vision was blurred by a sudden blast of water from the fire sprinklers. The loud fire alarm jangled as all the hallway sprinklers began to spray, one by one. Just as Danny entered the lab Aldo shouted, “Thank God you’re here. OK, now climb on the chair in the chamber and jump into the tunnel, I’ll be right behind you.”
Aldo watched Danny leap head-first into the wormhole tunnel, and in an instant, he was whisked away at warp speed. Aldo thought, “That’s very reminiscent of how David Dawson disappeared.”
Suddenly, through the ruckus caused by the gushing sprinklers, Aldo heard the police crashing through the laboratory door. Aldo climbed into the tunnel legs first, and then he yanked on the strings to disengage the power. Aldo watched as the wormhole tunnel seemed to detach itself from the communication chamber, and instantaneously, Aldo’s body sped through the swirling lights of the wormhole tunnel at a breath-taking, dizzying speed…
16
Although Aldo began his journey down the wormhole tunnel less than five seconds after Danny, they were separated by vast distances as they zipped along the path towards the central vortex at warp speed. Time ceased to exist as they shot towards the black hole. As Danny reached the crossroads between dimensions, he shot out through the end of the tunnel and landed with a thud. He found himself back in the familiar, spherical room with swirling lights. Before Danny had a chance to get up, Aldo landed right in his lap.
&nbs
p; Aldo was completely flabbergasted by the intoxicating trip through the wormhole tunnel. He was sweating profusely and completely out of breath, but as soon as he saw that he had ended up in Danny’s lap, he began to laugh out loud…
“Ha, ha, ha. By golly, Danny, we’re still alive. Gee, that was way more thrilling than any ride at Disneyland.”
Before Danny could even answer, they were approached by the elderly guardian. He looked at Danny and said, “You look rather familiar.”
“Yeah, I accidentally passed by here less than two weeks ago. I was the crippled guy in a wheelchair who disobeyed your order to return down the same tunnel I came from.”
“Two weeks? Two years? Two centuries? – it’s all the same to me. Time does not exist in a black hole,” explained the guardian. “Oh, now I remember – you were the defiant young man who was exuberant over regaining your ability to walk. I’m sorry, but I had you confused with somebody else. You look different now that you’re growing a beard.”
Aldo asked the guardian, “By any chance, did you see a young man who closely resembles this guy? If you spoke to him, he probably told you his name is ‘David Dawson’.
“Hmm… David Dawson sounds very familiar to me,” said the guardian as he touched his chin. “Oh, yes – it’s coming back to me now. Yes, I definitely met a young fellow who resembles this guy, and I recall that his name is David Dawson. So, are you his friend?”
“Yes, he most definitely was my friend – or should I say, ‘is my friend’? Do you know what happened to him?”
“No, but I would venture to say that most likely he ended up freezing to death at either the Earth’s magnetic north-pole or at its south-pole. That seems to be the most common outcome for travelers who pass through.”
Aldo paused for a moment, since he knew the guardian was correct. Aldo was reminded that the sad truth is that the most likely exit point from the wormhole tunnel would be at some geographic location with a strong, magnetic field. He decided to change the subject, since he knew that Danny and he would soon be facing the same challenge…
Ions Of Luck Page 12
