Fook (17 page)

“Jason, it’s one date, not marriage,” Derek
placed his hands on Jason’s shoulders to calm him.

“Okay, then how do you plan on accomplishing
this task? You must be just about out of time by now.”

“That’s the beauty of it. I have all the
time in the world,” he patted the case held firmly at Jason’s
side.

“That is pretty brilliant,” Jason
agreed.

“All I have to do is get a coat and, some
time in the future, come back to this very moment to make the
delivery and you’ve got yourself a date.”

“I don’t really want a bet to be the only
way that I can get a date,” Jason responded, defeated.

“Hey, take what you can get man; besides,
she’s hot, right?”

“She was pretty,” Jason agreed. “So what
does she get?”

“Huh?”

“The bet. What does she get if you fail?”
Jason asked.

“Oh, nothing big. I told her that I’d run
naked through The Belligerent...Lilly’s Café.”

“Lilly’s Café?” Jason questioned as he
turned to look back at the restaurant, forgetting that they’d
ducked into an alley around the corner.

“I know. I don’t know how I didn’t notice
either,” Derek acknowledged his friend’s shared confusion.

“Didn’t you already do that though?” Jason
questioned as he turned back to Derek.

“Once...maybe twice before.”

“And didn’t the owner call the cops?”

“No, the cops came when that girl smashed a
beer bottle over her boyfriend’s head for trying to trade her for
weed.”

Jason nodded as he recalled the memorable
night.

“The owner insisted on helping me get
dressed in the back room, if you know what I mean,” Derek’s grin
grew.

“Yeah, yeah. I remember. That’s why I can’t
order anything with potatoes anymore,” Jason scowled at the
memory.

“The Irish really
love
their
potatoes.”

“Okay, so you can’t lose the bet but I still
don’t think I want to go on that date,” Jason protested.

“Listen,” Derek’s grin faded as he once
again took hold of Jason’s shoulders. “You need this. Trust
me.”

“Well…—”

“—Good,” Derek took Jason’s hesitation as a
yes. “Now we need to find a replacement coat.” Grabbing Jason’s arm
again, he pulled him through the alley toward the opposite
street.

SEVENTEEN

“Grandma, I’m home!” Ty announced as he closed the
front door and turned to find the tiny living room littered with
boxes; the apartment’s contents haphazardly filled to the brim and
in some cases, spilling out onto the coffee table and floor.
“Grandma?”

“Back here, Ty.”

Rounding the corner, more boxes came into
view, partially blocking the hall to the bedrooms. Stepping over
the low cardboard wall and pushing the open closet door as far as
its scattered contents would allow, Ty made his way toward his
Grandmother’s bedroom.

“Grandma, what are you doing?” he questioned
as he entered the bedroom to the sight of his grandmother shoving
clothes into a large, black garbage bag.

“We’re going home,” she responded as she
dumped an arm full of clothes into the bag before heading back to
the dresser for another load.

“But what about my son?”

“You're going grab him tonight,” she
nonchalantly proclaimed, shoving another arm full of clothes into
the bag.

“Tonight? I don’t think we’re ready yet. I
mean, after the other night—”

“—Exactly,” Ushi stopped her frantic
packing. “There someone else out there with unknown interest in our
boy; someone who obviously wish harm. I been thinking about this
all day, Ty. We can’t rely on Nesbit’s to look out for him. We have
to act now before that monster comes back.” And with that forceful
declaration, she continued packing.

“I told you. He’s gone.”

“He be back. May not be today or tomorrow,
but give it enough time and he return. We need to act now before he
get chance.”

“Yes, but the police—”

“—I don’t care about police,” she
interrupted.

“Great, but they need to be considered.
They’ll probably be making frequent passes through the Nesbit’s
neighborhood, not to mention a likely quicker response to 911.”

“You will get in quick and you will get out
quick,” she paused again, this time placing her hands on her
grandson’s shoulders as she looked up at him. “It was blessing from
Lord that you were called to install alarm system. It was sign that
this meant to be. No calls to police because you can get in and out
before anybody even know you there.”

“She was right,” he thought. When he’d
installed the alarm system he’d programmed a backdoor pass code
that would silently disarm the entire system while still giving the
Nesbits the impression that their new, top of the line system was
still up and fully functional.

“You can do this, Ty,” Grandma Ushi
reaffirmed as she squeezed his shoulders. “By end of night our
family will be complete. Now pack. We must hurry.” And with that,
she went back to hurriedly shuffling about the room.

He still didn’t understand the sudden
urgency but he also didn’t understand why anyone would be after his
son, which admittedly made him uneasy. So, trusting his
grandmother’s always flawless judgment, he did as he was told and
added to the black, plastic suitcase.

*****

“I don’t know what you’re expecting to see on
there,” Jennifer sighed as she stood holding Oliver while Bill
rewound the security footage. “I mean the tree came through the
guest bedroom window and there’s no camera in there.”

Oliver stared at his mother as she spoke,
then turned to his father as if he too was waiting for a
response.

“I know. I just wanna make sure this thing
works,” Bill pleaded for patience as the four squiggly images dance
across each quadrant of the television.

“Oh, it works. Trust me. If you’d been here
you would have known,” her tone changed from impatience to
frustration.

Picking up on the change in his wife’s
inflection, Bill turned his attention from the screen to face his
wife and son. Oliver was nestled in his mother's arms with an
almost equally annoyed expression as if to second his mother’s
frustration. “I’m sorry that I wasn’t here,” Bill got to his feet,
loosely wrapping his arms around his wife and son. “I know you told
me to go to work and that you didn’t want us living our lives in
fear but I shouldn’t have listened. I should have stayed home to
look out for the both of you.”

“No,” Jennifer sighed as she leaned into her
husband’s shoulder. “I told you to go. I shouldn’t be mad.

Oliver, smooshed between them, didn’t know
what to think or who to concentrate on as his eyes darted from side
to side.

“I still should have been here.”

“I guess it wasn’t that bad,” Jennifer
commented in a much lighter tone. “The police did respond quickly
and the two workers were very apologetic about the situation and
had the window covered up in less than fifteen minutes."

“And they said that they’d have someone out
here tomorrow to fix the window?” Bill confirmed.

“First thing in the morning, they said.”

“See, then everything’s fine,” he loosened
his hug to look her in the eyes. “But I guess more importantly, are
you alright?”

“Aside from psychopaths and trees breaking
into our house, yeah, I guess I’m just peachy.”

Smiling, Bill returned to his seat, still
facing his wife and Oliver who could once again easily watch his
father from a comfortable distance. “So what did you do?”

“What?”

“When the alarm went off,” he clarified.
“You said you were giving Oliver a bath at the time but what did
you do when the alarm went off?”

“I really don’t remember,” she lied,
embarrassed to say that her natural reaction was to hide in a
closet. The only thing worse would have been if she and Oliver had
shimmied under the bed. “We went into the bedroom but the police
showed up so quickly, we couldn’t have been there long.”

Oliver looked up at his mother as if to say,
“just tell him that you hid me in the dirty clothes.”

Suddenly a loud siren filled the room,
though not as loud as it had been earlier that day. Bill turned to
see the cluster of videos now playing on the screen. The audio of
the triggered alarm echoed from the speakers before being quieted
to an almost inaudible muffle as he turned down the volume.

Startled by the sudden and frighteningly
familiar sound, Oliver let out a soft whimper.

“It’s alright,” Jennifer comforted her son,
preventing the whimper from becoming a full blown cry.

“Just went into the bedroom, huh?” Bill
smiled as the video showed his wife frantically darting from the
kitchen and into the master bedroom where she and Oliver
disappeared into the closet.

“I was scared, Bill,” she defended her
reaction. “You’d have done the same if you’d been home alone.” She
didn’t really believe that. Since she’d known Bill, she couldn’t
recall ever seeing him scared. Hell, he’d dove right in to protect
Oliver the night before, without thinking twice. If he had been
home he would’ve probably just gone and investigated the noise,
seen the tree and turned off the alarm.

“I wouldn’t have hidden in the closet,” Bill
laughed at his suggested cowardliness. “I would have hid under the
bed.”

Jennifer chuckled at the joke as she kept an
eye on the continuing footage. “Okay, I think it works. I don’t
think Oliver needs to relive the entire thing, she glanced down at
her son who was staring, fascinated by the array of images.

“Okay,” Bill agreed as he returned his
attention to the television, prepared to turn it off but not before
the closet door on camera four reopened to display his wife firmly
grasping one of his golf clubs. “Is that my nine iron?” he asked
with a grin.

“Actually, I think it was the six.”

“Wait a minute,” he hit rewind, taking the
footage back a few seconds to the moment his wife reemerged from
the impromptu safe room.

“I was scared so I grabbed the club,”
Jennifer continued to defend her actions. “Someone had to protect
our son.”

“Is that Oliver?” Bill leaned in toward the
screen.

“I left him in the closet for safety,”
Jennifer explained.

“It looks like you treated him like a pair
of dirty underwear,” Bill chuckled as he caught a glimpse of his
son partially buried in the clothes hamper.

Oliver turned to his mother as if expecting
an apology.

“They weren’t dirty,” Jennifer protested her
husband’s claim. “And they weren’t underwear,” she then offered
Oliver his own explanation. “There were only some shirts and a pair
of shorts in there. I had to keep him hidden,” she continued to
defend herself.

“I’m only joking with you,” Bill laughed as
he reached for her hand and pulled the two of them closer. “I’m
proud of you. You did everything you could to protect our son.” He
lightly brushed Oliver’s thick, dark hair with his finger tips.
“Everyone knows that Victoria’s Secret shorts are like an invisible
cloak for babies,” Bill smiled.

“Ass,” Jennifer playfully swatted at her
husband as Oliver smiled.

EIGHTEEN

“We’re going back tomorrow, right?” Derek asked as
he unlocked the door to the lab, flipping on the lights as he and
Jason entered with the briefcase and backpack full of wires.

“Well...I think we should really analyze the
data from this trip before we go running off on another so soon. We
don’t know what kind of stress might have been put on the core...or
any
of the components for that matter,” Jason voiced his
opinion as he returned the case to the securely locked cabinet.
“Such a dramatic test so soon was dangerous enough. We might not be
so lucky next time.”

“Lucky my ass,” Derek laughed, their
successful return having boosted not only his mood but his ego as
well. “We’re a couple of fucking geniuses. I’m still not sure how
the whole thing works, but it does. The god damned thing works and
we’re going to be fucking rich as hell!” he exclaimed.

“We’re not going to be rich as hell because
we’re not going to tell anyone about it, remember?” Jason reminded
his momentarily delusional friend as he locked the cabinet and made
his way over to the computer to review the data on the device’s
iPad. “Why are you so excited now? You seemed very nonchalant about
the whole thing when we successfully arrived back in 1991?”

“That’s because I fully expected us to die
trying to get home,” Derek, in the same nonchalant tone,
replied.

Jason turned from the computer shocked.
“That’s comforting.”

“Yes, but we didn’t,” Derek’s excitement
returned as he quickly made his way to the counter beside Jason,
pulling his attention away from the data being transferred from the
iPad. “Do you understand what we’ve just done?”

“Of course I understand,” Jason thought. He
was the one who’d come to Derek with the idea in the first
place.

“We’ve just traveled over two decades back
and forth through time. Now, yes it’s not an extraordinarily large
amount of time in the grand scheme of things, but our little five
minute jaunt the other night was impressive enough which means this
is amazing. I know we can’t tell anyone right now, but you have to
at least admit that this is the coolest fucking thing you’ve ever
seen, let alone had a part in creating."

“It was awesome,” Jason responded, his tone
nowhere near the level of Derek’s excitement.

“It was awesome,” Derek mocked. “Come on.
Admit it.”

“I agree.”

“No, like you mean it.”

Just wanting the distraction to end, Jason
turned his focus away from the computer, giving Derek his full
attention.

“Come on,” Derek urged. “Oh, wait!” Running
to the opposite counter, on which he’d sat the backpack, he
unzipped the front pocket and withdrew the Northeastern medical
coat that they’d picked up before returning home. “Just pretend I’m
your waitress,” he continued to pick on Jason for his outburst
earlier that day as he slung the coat over his right forearm.
“Now...go!”