Alec's Dream

by Dave Birchbauer

  “I’m bored.” Sofie stared out the window, her chin in her hands.

  “I wish I was.” Jessie tried focusing on her algebra book. “I hate story problems.”

  “Too bad you can’t see them in colors.” Sofie regretted saying it as she saw the hurt look on Jessie’s face. “Oh, sorry, I didn’t mean to be mean.”

  “That’s OK. I wish I could. Anyway, I don’t think any more studying is going to make a difference.” Jessie closed her book exposing a folded square of paper. She picked it up and examined it a moment before stuffing it in her pocket.

  “Is that a note?” Sofie turned to her. “A boy?”

  Jessie guiltily looked back and shook her head. “No.”

  “Can I see it?”

  “No.”

  “Why not?” Sofie reached for the note partially sticking out from Jessie’s pocket.

  Jessie stood and backed away. “It’s nothing.”

  “C’mon Jess, we never keep anything from each other. What’s the deal?”

  Jessie hesitated then reached in her pocket. “Here.” She handed it over. “I found it in my backpack… right where my school ID was supposed to be. I found it when Eugene gave it back to me. Remember… before I fell into that storage room.”

  Sofie read the note then crunched her face. “You wrote this?”

  “No… I don’t think so.”

  “It’s not Eugene… it’s Olivia?” Sofie read the note out loud. “It looks like your handwriting.”

  “I’m sure I didn’t… unless I’m going nuts.” Jessie slowly shook her head.

  “Well… after that helicopter episode…I kind of wonder.”

  “Hey!”

  “OK… you are nuts… but not NUTS.” Sofie tried comforting her. “So who do you think wrote this?”

  “I think it could have been Eugene.”

  “I thought we agreed he didn’t have anything to do with that storage room thing.” Sofie shuddered.

  “But he is… kinda artistic. He could have forged my handwriting. And it was where my school ID was supposed to be.”

  “So you think he stole your ID from your backpack then put a note in its place saying he didn’t do it… then blame Olivia.” Sofie said as Jessie vigorously nodded her head. “If you believe that… then you are nuts.”

  “Well I didn’t write it.” Jessie then eyed her friend as though she had another idea.

  “I didn’t!” Sofie snapped back.

  “Well who did? And why?”

  “A joke… maybe your dad?”

  “Naw… that’s not his style… he’s more into hand buzzers and ‘pull-my-finger-pens’.”

  “Maybe you did write it and can’t remember… were you sleep-walking?”

  “You DO think I’m nuts!”

  “Sorry, I don’t think you are.” Sofie returned to the window and rested her chin in her hands. “I’m sure someone was just playing a joke.”

  Jessie joined her staring out the window. They had commandeered one of the empty offices on the third floor near their dad’s offices; moving there after being kicked out of their lab.

  “Maybe we can help Eugene make more of those bug lights.” Sofie looked up hopefully.

  “I don’t think there’s any more left... We could ask.” Jessie moaned.

  “I guess not. We’ve done so many bug lights I’m getting sick of them. Besides, they’re even starting to creep me out.” Sofie gave a little shudder. “I wonder where that helicopter ended up. Maybe we could fix it or something.” She mused.

  Jessie fidgeted staring out at the pond.

  Sofie looked at her. “You know?”

  Jessie didn’t answer avoiding Sofie’s stare.

  “Jessie!” Sofie gave her a shove.

  “What?”

  “You know? What aren’t you telling me?”

  Jessie tried to not look into Sofie’s eyes. “I, I can’t say.” She responded after looking.

  “You’ve got to tell me... if... if you tell me, I’ll help you with your word problems. I can guarantee a B.”

  The bribe interested Jessie. “You can’t guarantee.”

  “Yup, I can. I’ve been watching. You make the same mistake every time.”

  “Really? What is it?” She had been doing OK in algebra last year with her dad’s help. But this year, with the company taking so much of his time… well… if she could show him she could take care of things herself, he might ease up on her a little… and stop treating her and Sofie like trouble making kids.

  Sofie waited for Jessie’s answer.

  Jessie hesitated before answering. “My dad told me. But you have to promise, I mean really promise not to tell anyone... especially your dad.”

  “Sure, I promise.” Sofie agreed.

  “Maybe I shouldn’t…” Jessie began then sat down behind the old oak desk and pushed aside her algebra book.

  Sofie sat on the other side expectantly folding her hands in front of her.

  “The helicopter blew up.”

  Sofie furrowed her brows. “What do you mean ‘blew up’? A big ‘blow up’ or a small ‘blow up’? I don’t remember hearing anything blow up.”

  “Neither did anyone else. It was a reverse explosion. It didn’t make any noise.” Jessie replied.

  “A what?”

  “My dad said he saw a large burning ball appear out of nowhere. It shrank down to a small dot... and then... just disappeared.”

  “Did he ask how you got a gravity inductor?” Sofie asked.

  “I just told him we found it in the engineering lab… in the bin where they put all the broken parts and stuff. I told him that there was a big bump on it.”

  “Do you think that it was because it was broken?” Sofie asked.

  “He doesn’t know. He thinks it could of but it doesn’t generate any electricity where it could blow up, nowhere near what the blanket can.” Jessie covered her mouth. “Oops” She and her dad spent a lot of time talking the previous night. Not just about how the helicopter could have blown up, but also about his new discoveries like how the gravity blanket can produce a large amount of electricity along with some of his other ideas. She felt like she let her dad down by making a mess of the helicopter. Not just because it blew up, but because her ideas were so... well... so small, compared to his.

  “Nowhere near? How much electricity?”

  “It can generate a whole bunch more than anybody thought.” Jessie said. “And I, uh, wasn’t supposed to tell you that.”

  “Wow. Don’t worry. I won’t say anything.” Sofie said. “So what does he think might have happened?”

  “There’s no way the blanket could have blown up. Even if it did it would just have melted or something.”

  “Nothing?” Sofie hesitated a little. “Where could it have gone?”

  “He doesn’t know. Dad locked up the rest of the gravity inductors. He’s afraid that it might have been caused by some combination of the blanket and the inductor.”

  “What do you think?” Sofie asked.

  “I’ve got a bad feeling…” Jessie started.

  “You mean the storeroom?” Sofie concluded. “Did you tell your dad about it?”

  “Yea... it just... Hey... there he is!” She pointed outside where Jessie’s dad was nosing around in the long grass near the pond.

  “Let’s see what’s up.” Jessie said forgetting about her homework.

  “Hi dad, what-you-doin?” Jessie said startling her Alec. He was now on his hands and knees feeling around in the grass.

  “Huh?” he stood trying to wipe the grass stains from his Dockers. “I was just… ah...” He looked as Sofie.

  “Don’t worry, she knows.” Jessie said before realizing she wasn’t supposed to tell.

  Alec began to glare at her then shrugged as his features softened. “Yea… I just wanted to find out what happened. You guys want to help?”

  “Sure!” Jessie and Sofie said together as they scattered searching through the
grass and even into the woods behind them.

  Two hours later Alec stood, after twice crawling around the pond. The girls had grown bored with the search and were trying to skip stones over the ponds surface. “I know what I saw. There has to be some kind of wreckage, not even a piece of plastic.”

  Jessie and Sofie gave up on the stones and walked over to him. “Maybe it fell in the pond?”

  “Most of the parts would have floated to shore, I checked and double checked.” Alec then looked at Jessie as for the first time. “Jess, just what was it you did? I mean to be able to lift that water.”

  “Oh, just a bubble.”

  “A bubble? How did you even know what the gravity inductor did?”

  “Uh… you know… you know how I can see electrical stuff in colors?”

  “Yes?”

  “Well, when I imagined the inductor in a circuit board everything went crazy. Then I… just kind of knew.”

  Alec looked fondly at his daughter. “So just what does this bubble do?”

  “It’s a bubble of gravity… it’s like a big balloon. It holds gravity inside it.”

  “So how did you make it?” Alec scratched his head. “What kind of circuit.”

  This time it was Jessie’s turn to scratch her head. “Uh… I don’t know what kind of circuit… I just made something to… well… blow a bubble, like blowing a bubble of bubblegum.”

  Alec stood straight then stared at Jessie with unfocused eyes. “Dad? Are you OK?” Jessie asked.

  “What’s wrong with him?” Sofie waved her hand in front of his eyes.

  “I’ve seen this look before.” Jessie stepped back. “Just wait....”

  “Jess! That’s it!” Alec now refocused on her. “I need you, follow me.” He jogged back to the building. Jessie never saw her dad jog before and they had to run to keep up.

  They trailed him through corridors and stairs to his personal lab on the second floor. But instead of entering, he continued down the hall until reaching a plain looking unmarked door. Jessie had been to her dad’s lab hundreds of times and never paid any attention to this door before. There were so many unused rooms in this building. Pulling a key from his pocket he unlocked it and walked in without looking back.

  Jessie halted in the doorway and looked back at Sofie wondering if they should follow. “What are you waiting for... go.” Sofie gave her a push. Jessie held her place, feeling not quite sure they should enter.

  “Maybe we should wait out here… ” Jessie didn’t finish her thought as Sofie put more force into her shove. She tumbled into the room with Sofie almost falling on top. Her dad was already rummaging in an open closet on the back wall. It was a large room, larger than she expected. There were no windows, just the closet door on the back wall where the windows should have been. Work benches flanked the closet door. The side walls were covered with upright standing bins filled with bolts of cloth. Jessie counted 5 different types of cloth; black, gray, dull silver, shiny silver, and a semi-transparent one; 16 bins in all, 8 on each side of the room. The bolts were about 4 feet in length, just big enough to fit in the machine standing in the room’s center. It looked like an old lever operated sheet metal roller, not that Jessie would know what one of those looked like. It was five feet long resting on a waist high four legged metal stand.

  “Dad, what is this room?” Jessie asked curiously.

  He looked over his shoulder with a look of surprise. “Oh, I, ah, didn’t realize…” he trailed off.

  “This is where you make the gravity blankets!” Sofie walked past the bins, touching each bolt of material as she went by.

  Jessie looked around, astonished. She never thought that the blankets were made here. She also didn’t expect such a low tech operation.

  “Girls, it’s very important that you keep this a secret. Only a handful of us know about this.” Alec pulled a stool out from the back bench and sat down.

  “Who all knows about this?” Sofie asked.

  “Your dad, myself and some other people, like your moms.”

  “Does Eugene know?” Jessie asked.

  “He helped build this. We converted an old sheet metal roller... he’s rather good with his hands. Why?”

  “I don’t know…” Jessie said trailing off.

  “Oh…” Alec remembered her suspicions about the storage room incident. “You see, he’s been very trustworthy and knows a lot of our secrets. He’s never let us down. That’s why I found it hard to believe he could be causing trouble. I couldn’t tell you about this.”

  “How come there are so many different bins.” Sofie asked. “I know for a fact that you only need 5 sheets to make the gravity blanket.”

  Alec turned his attention to her and gave an appreciative look. “Your dad orders 16 different materials from a dozen or so manufacturers. Only he knows which ones are real and which ones are fakes… as decoys. He alone keeps the bins stocked and leaves instructions on which ones to use. The blankets are made at night.”

  Jessie looked at Sofie who was deep in thought. Her dad sat silently staring at them... both of them, waiting for a response. Somehow she had a feeling like she should be figuring something out. Instead she felt like she was flunking a test.

  After a time, Alec made to get up when Sofie finally asked. “Mr. McCoughe? Which of the manufacturers know how to make the real blanket material?” Her expression made Jessie think she figured something out.

  Alec grinned. “You’re just like your dad.” Jessie noticed that his green tinge was starting to fade. “I’m not sure. Only your dad knows.”

  “I don’t get it.” Jessie said. Sofie looked at her like a patient mother.

  “You see, we don’t want anyone else to figure out how to make the gravity blankets. So we make a bunch of different materials that look like the real stuff along with the real stuff. So if anyone tried to steal these rolls to make their own gravity blanket, there’s a good chance it won’t work.”

  “What if they’re lucky and they get the right material and it does work?” Jessie asked. Alec watched, fascinated at Sofie’s understanding of the situation.

  “Well, you see, the next time they steal more rolls, there’s a better chance that they won’t get the right ones.” Sofie smiled cleverly. “They need to be able to replicate the gravity blanket in order to steal it. If they’re only able to build it once, they wouldn’t have much to sell.”

  Jessie nodded, not fully understanding; her mind just not devious enough.

  Alec turned and scooped up his pile of items he collected and headed for the door with the girls following close behind.

  It didn’t take long for Alec to settle into his work. Jessie, not needing any prompting, joined in and soon both were immersed on a couple of half complete circuit boards. Sofie sat quietly and watched fascinated at their unspoken synchronization.

  “It’s time to go.” Clay entered the lab an hour later. Sofie stood and stretched in relief.

  To Jessie’s surprise, she had immediately sensed his entrance. She took note of how her awareness of her surroundings had increased lately while she was intent on her work. Unlike her dad who was still absorbed on the circuits in front of him.

  Clay smiled knowingly at Alec and pulled out his phone. A few minutes later he put a hand on Alec’s shoulder and gave it a shake. “Alec, buddy, I called Jodi. Jessie’s got to go home, you just keep working.” Alec lifted his head and slowly focused on him.

  Jessie stood and stretched remembering all the times Clay had taken care of things when her dad worked on his new inventions.

  “Sure.” Alec responded. Turning to Jessie he said. “You’ve got to go home kid.”

  She wanted to resist, but thought better of it and turned off her soldering iron. Giving her dad a concerned look, she told him. “Dad, don’t even try to solder this; it’s way too hard for you.” She pointed to a small chip on the board with only 3 of its 14 pins soldered.

  Alec gave her a look of defiance that soon so
ftened as the truth of what she said hit home. “You’re right.” he replied a little deflated. “I just want to finish up with these sketches and make sure we have all the parts. You go ahead with Clay. Tell your mom I’ll be home soon.”

  Before she could respond, Alec was already lost in his work. She hugged his shoulders and quietly followed Clay and Sofie to the parking lot lost in thought about her dad’s new invention.