Joe (6 page)

“Dad, just making sure you’re all right,” Frank said out of breath,

“Frank.” Future Joe stood. “Get out of here.”

“Are you all right?” Frank asked.

One minute.

“Frank!” Future Joe blasted. “Get out.”

The door blasted open and Present Joe raced in. “Frank, get out. Get out now.” He reached for him.

Frank looked at Both Joe’s. “What’s going on?”

Boom.

Robbie blinked slowly. “Hence Fort knowing about Frank dying.”

“Yes. Yes. When I came back through to fix it, he followed me to Beginnings.”

“Wow, how fucked up did things get over that one?”

“Bad.” Roy whistled. “See, Hal became President. Hal is much like your father, so much so they made the exact same decision. Of course many leaders said they would have. What made it worse was, when I returned, I had no lab, nothing. Only the HG Wells. Thank goodness I secured the proof ahead of time.”

“What happened to you?”

“My mistake. See, my fingerprints were found on the explosive. So, Dean was pegged as the murderer. Without Frank to be his biggest ally, he was found guilty and someone murdered him. They believe it was Johnny Slagel.”

Robbie exhaled. “So you had so much to fix.”

“Oh, yes. I then went back in time. I knew of Dean’s chip. I knew they could track him, so I had to do something silly to make them want to track Dean. I could handle my fingerprint situation by having Joe build the bomb. But I couldn’t fix if someone saw me.”

“So you began the mutilator attacks.”

“Yes, and it worked. They started tracking Dean. I had to get him and Henry in one night to pull that off. It was tough.”

“Ok.” Robbie held up his hand. “If my Dad, or both died in that explosion, how did you fix it?”

“Only one way. I had to go back to the day I brought Future Joe back with me. See, when I originally went back with Future Joe it was the 19
th
. History never told me about Frank’s wedding, so Future Joe and myself had to wait out in the trailer for two days. I distinctly remember a meeting the three of us had at the trailer.”

“Wait. Wait.” Robbie stopped him. “Jason’s message?”

“Ah, yes. The trip that got me stuck. Had I not made that trip, I would have been able to return. See. I went to the day Jason got the message. I couldn’t find when or where he sent himself that message to stop him, so the only thing I could do was jam it in present day.”

“How did you find out when he sent it?”

“Joe told me on the 19
th
.”

“So you went back to the 19
th
, left the 19
th
, went to the day he sent that message, then returned to the 19
th
.”

“And don’t forget my other self was there and had to use his HG Wells to leave and go back to the future. Too many trips in one time frame. It jammed.”

“Ok, so you got rid of the other ‘you’.”

“Yes.” Roy nodded. “And then hard decision had to be made.”

“Changing the date.”

“Yes. But I still didn’t know how that would affect Jason’s message to himself. I jammed it. So the moment we changed our plan, it could change his message. And the fact that I jammed it changed everything. Because at that point Jason brought in help. Once they deciphered that Joe was going to die they put a guard on him.”

“Making things more difficult.”

“So, hating to do so, just in case the message came though as a March 21
st
death, we moved it up to Frank’s wedding day. That night at rehearsal Joe told Andrea to make sure that the wedding took place. He knew if Frank got married it would help everyone's mind.”

“But the moment you set the explosive time …”

“We didn’t.”

Robbie looked at him curiously. “Then how.”

“Joe built it. Set a timer, yes. But we knew your phone call was the indication that the message was solved and Frank was on his way.”

“The radio.”

“After I removed Darrell safely from the room, present Joe in the suit and myself stood outside the door. When we saw Frank, we radioed Joe and walked away. Joe pressed the button ensuring Frank wouldn’t run in.”

“Which explains how Jenny’s field trip caught you on video calmly walking away.”

“Exactly.”

“Wow.” Robbie sat back. “That told a lot.”

“Now, hopefully, Frank will make the right decision. And the future will be bright.”

“I can tell you this, Roy.” Robbie hands folded leaned in toward him. “Your HG Wells wasn’t jammed. I accidentally got it restarted when I found it. A while back, Hal, Frank, and myself went to the future and it was bleak. I repeated that trip. Everything is on track. We may have a lot to go through, still, and things may change. So far, so good, things are bright.”

“Oh, thank goodness.” Roy closed his eyes. “That is such a relief. Such a burden lifted. I want to dance a jig.”

“Go ahead. Yeah, all that trouble,” Robbie said. “Now you know it may have worked for the future.”

“Oh no. I’m not elated about that. I’m glad the future appears bright. But, like you said, things could still change.” Roy smiled. “I’m happy my machine works.”

*****

Her legs said it all... Mangled from the knees down. Her feet, or rather what was left of them, were mere pointed stumps. The bite marks, chew marks were more than obvious. Her hair, a huge chunk of it, led Frank to her discovery. Most of her hair was still intact except for the portion on the left side of her face. Her right arm was twisted and broken, three fingers were gone from her left hand. Her face sported scratches and her wide eyed look gave her an appearance that she was oblivious to what had occurred. She never saw it coming.

Finding her body was a shock to Frank. He didn’t recognize her at first, she was new. He shook his head when he bent down to her. “Who did this to you?” He asked out loud. Still holding the clump of hair in his fingers, he gently lifted her body. When he did. When he stared at the destruction of her feminine form, answers started to come to him. What happened, who did it, and how.

It made sense.

So close to home.

Ellen’s voice, in her approach from behind, snapped him from his stare of the missing fingers. “What happened to Alex’s new Barbie Doll?”

“I don’t know. It’s fucked up.” Frank lifted the doll. “You didn’t see this doll like this before?”

“No. Where did you find her?”

“Behind the couch. Well, I saw her hair on the edge and then I saw her legs.”

“What’s left of them?” Ellen took the doll. “Sad. Alex is going to be upset.”

“I know.”

“I mean, she was just playing with her in the dining room.”

Frank shrieked out in revelation. “Uh!”

“What?”

“I got it.”

“What?”

“Man, I can be slow.”

Ellen snickered. “What did you get?”

“Robbie…” Frank started to laugh. “He said Dining womb.”

“Womb? Like Alex’s says her ‘r’.”

“No, dining womb. Get it. Not dining room. Dining womb.”

“I’m lost.”

“No, it was lost and now it’s almost found.”

“Frank?” Ellen questioned. “What are you talking about?”

“I lost something that may have done this. It means it may be close.”

Ellen laughed. “Frank, what did you lose? A lawn mower? Miniature Killer Baby …” She gasped out. “No.”

“No, what?”

“You lost it.”

“What?”

“The Killer Fetus.”

“Thankfully it only fucking kills dolls.”

Ellen screamed.

“What?”

“Please don’t tell me you lost it in the house.”

“Actually in the... Dining...” Frank snickered. “Womb.”

Ellen smacked him. “That’s not funny.”

“Yes it is.”

“Frank, look at this doll.”

“Exactly. Obviously it only eats plastic.”

“For now.”

“El, seriously, with all the miniature people we have, if it was still here, don’t you think it would have gnawed on one of them.” Frank raised his eyebrows.

“You’re an ass. We have to put out a community alert.”

“No, we do not.”

“Yes, we do.”

“El, we’ll get a fucking panic if we do. You know the people of Beginnings. One Killer Fetus and they see this thing, they’ll say alien invasion.”

“That’s you, Frank. You start most of the rumors.”

“I do not. You lie.”

Ellen folded her arms and stared at him.

“Ok, sometimes I do. But this … Harry, he’s fine. We just need to find him. Maybe he went back to the Killer Baby region.”

“If he did. We’ll never know,” Ellen said. “They all look alike.”

“Not him. He looks different.”

“You can tell them apart?”

“I can when they have a collar on.”

After staring for a moment, Ellen inhaled. “Ok, let’s check the house first, anyhow.”

“Sounds good.”

“I’ll start with the bedroom, you start here.” Ellen instructed, and then headed immediately down the hall. She shook her head at Frank’s calling of ‘Here Harry’, and knocked on the door of the first room. “Alex?” she called out as she opened the door. “You ok?”

Alex quickly turned around from her seat on the floor. “Yes, mommy, fine. Playing with my dolls.”

“Ok. Just checking.” Ellen smiled at her daughter; pulled the door closed, told Frank that the room was clean and moved to the next.

Alex stared at the closed door and listened to the sound of her mother’s footsteps. She grabbed her Brunette Barbie and moved it closer, then on her hands and knees reached under her bed. “Come on.” She called in a soft voice. “It’s ok.”

When pulled back her arm and smiled. “You weren’t scared were you?” She stared at the creature in her hand, the Killer Fetus called Harry. She had on him a green doll evening dress and a wide hat. “You hat is falling off.”

His little jaw nipped out to her. She giggled, and flicked him. He twitched his head. Bracing him between her bony knees, Alex grabbed the tape and secured the hat on his head. “Better, “she said. “So pretty.” She gave him a pat and he purred. Another snicker of enjoyment and Alex lifted her Barbie. “Now where were we?”

Harry opened his mouth.

“No biting.” Alex hit playfully hit him with the Barbie doll, then proceeded, holding both dolls, to engage them in rival Barbie doll conversation.

Alexandra’s little hand clasped tightly to Ellen’s while her book bag, nearly as wide as she was, slapped against her thigh.

She paused in the street watching the truck pull up.

“Let’s go,” Ellen told her.

“Yes,” Billy added from behind. “Let’s rush to get this astounding education.”

“Billy.” Ellen scolded. “Alex, come on honey.”

“I’m watching Uncle Henry. He went on a pick up run again this morning.”

“How do you know?” Ellen asked.

“He was arguing with Frank before you got up. He said he didn’t want to go. He gave me this book bag.”

“And it’s very nice.”

“Please do not lie to the child,” Billy added.

Again, Ellen looked back at Billy.

“It’s show and tell today Mommy,” Alex said.

Ellen faced Billy. “Did you bring something to show and tell?”

“Please. Anything I have is way over the head of the students.”

Ellen rolled her eyes, and then smiled at Alex as they approached the steps to the school. “And you brought something right?”

“Yep. I brought my new toy.”

Ellen cringed. Visually, in her mind, all she could see was the twisted, broken wreckage of that Barbie. “Alex, sweetie, it might scare the kids.”

“No, Mommy, they’ll love my toy.”

“Ok.” Ellen crouched down beside her. “If it doesn’t go over very well, don’t be upset.”

Alex shook her head. “I won’t. Promise.”

“Good.” Ellen kissed her, stood, and then bent down to Billy. “You two have a great day.” She backed up, smiled once more and turned.

Billy stood on the stairs with his sister. He gave an ‘up’ motion of his chin. “So what the heck did you bring? That broken Barbie doll?”

“No.”

“But you said your new toy”

“Yes. Wanna see.”

“Sure.” Billy shrugged.

Alex lifted the flap on her book bag. Billy peeked inside. He nodded nonchalantly and spoke in nearly the same manner. “Hmm. That may be a good one. Make sure you give Miss Jenny a good look.”

“Ok, I will.”

“And I can’t wait to see her face.” Billy reached for the door. “This is gonna be a good day after all.”

*****

From the moment he had faked his death, Joe lived a different life. No longer was he ‘Joe’ the man everyone went to. He was Joe, deceased, in hiding. Living in that extra trailer wasn’t bad. Nor was walking around in the invisa suit. Joe actually enjoyed that. He could walk around Beginnings, eavesdrop when a door was open long enough, and be a part. He just couldn’t talk. He even figured a way to get a latte.

Jenny Matoose went into the bakery every day at lunch time, always, always she held the door open to holler across the street, that was when Joe slipped in. Jenny also ordered her latte, and then peeked at the baked good, distracting Gemma, that was how Joe stole the latte.

Typical mentality of Beginnings, they never questioning anything unusual.

Of course that wasn’t the complete case.

Joe was visiting History quite often until Danny changed the password.

Locked out.

He supposed he’d have that.

But now things were different. Even though pretty much everyone believed he was dead, there were those who knew otherwise.

Now Joe had company other than the clone.

Not that the clone was bad company, he became enjoyable when Joe found out how gullible he was.

But that only lasted so long then Joe got bored.

The nights were the loneliest.

He’d wander town in the suit, watching everyone at the Social Hall, going in and absorbing the atmosphere.

Once and a while he’d find fun out of switching up the karaoke line up. But again, you could only have so much fun alone.

Now he had Jason.

He stayed at Jason’s place, it was safe, they drank all night like old times, and Joe didn’t have a single gripe about the hangover.

He actually welcomed it.

Now he was about to welcome something else.

A time trip.

Not that he needed any more convincing, but the drunken discussion about how time trips would pass time for Joe. He for an adventure.

Jason told him to think about where he wanted to go and when.

Joe just had to figure out the details.

So many to choose from, he didn’t know where to start. One thing was for sure, Joe was going to take a trip back in time to when life wasn’t necessarily simpler, but it was at its best. Back to when his boys were young.

*****

Roy was buzzing about the lab, he not only had his work, but he had that special request work to do for Frank in regards to the secret child.

But that posed a problem.

In the future, they really never dealt with things called tumors. Roy had heard of them, but they weren’t medical problems. Perhaps someone had cured them somewhere along the line, but the truth was there were other things. Other things were more life threatening.

So Roy had to research tumors extensively. He had the knowledge, but like the knowledge of what was a postage stamp, Roy tucked it away as something he would never need.

“Morning, Dean.” Andrea said brightly.

“Oh, good morning Sunshine.”

She smiled and giggled. “Do you have Hap’s sugar results done?”

“No, I do not. I am sorry. Almost.”

“Really? You are usually so proficient.” Andrea sifted through the stack of folders.

“I know. I was working on something for Frank. I will get to it now. This was just bothersome.”

“Can I help you?”

“No. He asked it to be a secret.”

“Hmm.” Andrea folded her arms. “Really, Dean, I know your history with Frank. There should be no secrets in this lab. They have gotten you in trouble before as you know.”

“I didn’t know that. I will keep that in mind.”

“Is it a health problem?”

“Yes. I cannot tell you anymore. Because Frank doesn’t want anyone to know he has … he has …”

“He has what, Dean?” Andrea stepped forward.

“I can’t.”

“Dean?”

“I cannot.”

“Dean, you found Jesus. Jesus would be happy.”

“Fine. I cannot tell you because Frank is keeping it a secret that he has a child in Beginnings. No one is to know.”

Andrea gasped. “He has a child. One of his and Ellen’s?”

“No, Ellen is not the mother. She doesn’t even know.”

“Sweet Jesus.”

“Yes.”

Melissa called from the door, “Dean. I need you in exam room two.”

“Yes. Be right there.” Roy grabbed a lab jacket. “I will speak to you later.”

“Oh, you better believe it.”

After Roy left, Andrea stood by the counter. Her fingers tapping on the counter as she spoke out loud. “Frank has an illegitimate child.” She gasped out. “Bastard.”

*****

“Oh, yeah,” Frank grinned holding the ventriloquist dummy. “This is fuckin’ cool.” Like a kid at Christmas, Frank basked in the dummy. Its hair was lifelike, face sculptured. But the dummy looked small in his large arms.

Henry didn’t look amused. In fact, he pouted. “I can’t believe I wasted an entire morning going into a warehouse that was supposed to have explosives and it ended up being a flea market storage.”

“Yeah, but the stuff is cool. We can put it in the warehouse and the Bowman businesses can have a field day.”

“Swell.”

“Is he great or what?”

“Swell.”

Frank positioned the dummy on his arm. “Look his eyes and mouth work.”

“Great,” Henry said less than enthused.

“I’ll call him Bob.” Frank changed his voice some. “Hey, Henry, how are you?”

“Frank …”

“My name is Bob.” Frank laughed. “Whoa, I’m good at this.”

“I can see your lips move Frank.”

“No you can’t.”

“Yes, I can.”

“Look again,” Once more, Frank maneuvered the dummy. His mouth was twisted and distorted as he tried to keep it still while talking. “Hi Henry.”

“Moving.”

“Fuck.”

“Not moving, that word slips out of you.”

“Maybe I should have him swear more.”

“That works.”

“Look here comes Jenny.” Frank made ‘Bob’s’ head turn to him, and he laughed. “Look at Bob, Henry he’s looking for Jenny.”

Bob peered around. “Oh, man, Jenny sucks.”

Frank laughed.

“Oh my God,” Henry closed his eyes briefly. “But you do kind of have a knack for moving him.”

“It’s realistic huh?”

Henry tilted his head. “You do it good. You just need to work on the mouth thing.”

“Here comes Jenny. Man, she looks pissed.”

“Don’t make Bob talk to her, then Frank, she’ll get even madder.”

“Frank,” Jenny said in a scolding tone, arms folded.

Bob peeked down from Frank’s arms and straight into Jenny’s eyes.

Jenny looked at the dummy. “Why is that thing in my face?”

“Thing?” Bob retorted. “Thing. She called me a thing Frank.”

“I heard.”

“Frank.” Jenny huffed out. “I can …”

“What do you need toots?” Bob asked. “Gotta go through me to get to the big guy.”

“Frank, I can see your lips move, you’re not fooling me.” Jenny raised her eyebrows.

Frank turned his head into his shoulder hiding his mouth. “No you can’t.”

“Frank!”

At first he answered as Bob, ‘What!” then Frank cleared his throat. “Yes.”

Jenny opened her mouth to speak. “Can you please put that away? I need to speak to you.”

“He’s my friend, he stays. He may be my new advisor.”

“I find it annoying, especially now.”

Henry interjected. “You know, Jenny, you’re not being very nice.”

“Oh, and this dummy doesn’t annoy you?” she asked.

“Since he irks you, he doesn’t annoy me anymore. Thanks, Bob.”

“You’re welcome,” Bob said.

Jenny growled. “Fine. Be childish. Frank, at the hospital they said they are waiting on you to speak to Jimmy before they release him. Can you go do that?”

“On my way now.”

“And can you be a leader and have a town meeting?”

“Why?”

“The brain flu. We need an antidote and an update.”

“Talk to Roy.”

“Who?” Jenny questioned.

“Who's Roy?” Henry followed up.

“Roy?” Frank asked. “What are you talking about?”

Jenny said, “You told me to talk to Roy.”

“No I didn’t.”

“Yes you did.”

“You did, Frank.” Henry added.

“I did?” Frank looked at Bob. “Did I say Roy?”

“No, I did,” Bob replied.

“Fuckin Bob.” Frank shook his head. “Sorry.”

With a smug look, Jenny tightened her arms go her body. “You of all people have no right to joke around today since the jig is up for you buster.” She poked him in the chest.

“What the fuck are you talking about?”

“You know and when El finds out and knows then with Ellen’s support I’m moving for your impeachment.”

“For what? I didn’t start the brain flu.”

“Sometimes I wonder.” Jenny spun hard and walked briskly toward the school.

“She wants to impeach me over the brain flu?”

“Don’t worry about it, Frank,” Henry said. “She’s just upset about something.”

“To blame me for a virus.”

“Maybe it’s something else.”

“Man, and people call me retarded.” He looked at Bob. “Ready to go, Bob?”

“Yeah, let’s get out of here.”

“See ya Henry.” Frank gave a nod and walked off with the dummy.

“They sometimes have reason to call you that Frank.” Henry mumbled, then after watching Frank talk with the dummy all the way to the clinic, he went back to the truck.

*****

So dramatic, Andrea closed her eyes as she stood with Melissa in the lab. “Sweet Jesus, was Jenny upset or what?”

“I think she was mad because Ellen is her best friend.”

“And Richie, he walked in at the right time.” Andrea said. “Was it me or did he seem to enjoy hearing it.”

“Shocked, like us all. I’m glad he’s the one breaking the news to Ellen.”

“How many children did we have at the clinic yesterday?” Andrea asked.

“Tons, it was immunization day.”

“So any of them could be Frank’s illegitimate child.” Andrea shook her head. “Why hide it? And who is the mother? Which woman around here would sleep with Frank behind Ellen’s back?”