The Navigators (34 page)

Nothing moved for a moment.

Melissa stood up, her hand and knees scraped and bloody from the asphalt. She ran to her mother. “Oh, no, no, no, no!”

Mrs. Mills stirred on the tall grass, moaning and writhing in pain.

In the headlights, Melissa gazed into the eyes of her young mother. The oncoming darkness helped hide Melissa’s twenty-two-year-old face.

She leaned over Mrs. Mills, not daring to move her. “Mom! Mom. Are you okay? Where are you hurt?”

Her mother tried to look up. “Who…” Blood appeared at the corner of her mouth.

Melissa stifled a gasp. “Mom, it’s me. Melissa.”

Mrs. Mills tried to talk again. “I… don’t understand.” She gasped for air. “My Missy… is a little girl. Please… Get an ambulance.” She whimpered from the pain.

I stood helpless as the tragedy unfolded before me.

Melissa was in tears. “Mom, it’s me.”

Mrs. Mills blinked. “Why… are you calling me that?”

“Mom, please.” Melissa took her mother’s hand.

Mrs. Mills shook her head, but just barely. She swallowed, holding back the pain. “My husband…” She gasped, looking into the sky. “I have a little girl... Please… tell my daughter...” She swallowed again. More blood appeared on her mouth.

“Mom, it’s me, Melissa. I- I came here to save you. Please, don’t go.” She glanced around “The ambulance is on the way. Hang on.”

I saw a light come on at a nearby house. “Keep talking to her.”

Melissa stroked her mother’s hand. “Mom, it’s me… it’s Melissa. Try to hold on.”
She looked into the pained face of her dying mother. “Close your eyes. Just listen. It’s Melissa. I’m here, mom.”

“Missy?”

“Shh. Close your eyes.” She stroked the hand. “I’m so sorry, Mom. I’m so sorry. It’s my fault.”

Mrs. Mills reached out, touching her daughter’s face. “Missy?”

Melissa choked back the tears. “I’m here, Mom.”

A faint smile appeared on Mrs. Mills’ lips. “Oh, Missy. My Missy girl… I love you, baby.” She touched her daughter’s arms. “A thousand…”

Pain consumed her, causing her to twist on the grass. She squeezed her eyes shut, whimpering.

“Mom, you – you’ve had a shock.” Melissa began to sob. She stroked her mother’s hair. “There, there, it’ll be all right.” She swallowed. “Mom, I’m sorry. I know it doesn’t make sense to you. I thought I could save you.”

“Save…me?”

“I was wrong.” Melissa leaned over her mother, gently pressing her face to her mother’s. “Please, just hang on a little while longer. The ambulance will be here soon. Stay with me. You’ll be home soon with me and dad.”

Mrs. Mills mustered the strength to shake her head. Her voice was faint. “It’s my time. Life had other plans.”

“Please mom, stay. Hold on. The ambulance- ” She sobbed. “The ambulance will be here soon.”

It was no longer convincing. Mrs. Mills summoned her strength to smile as she looked up at her daughter. “Missy. My Missy girl…” She reached out and took her daughter’s hand, whispering again. “A thousand…”

Then the hand released. She was gone.

Melissa buried her head into her mother’s hands, sobbing uncontrollably.

In the distance, the machine began to whir.

I stood, afraid to move and afraid to stay. Finally, I ran to the machine, searching desperately for a way to stop it, to give us more time. “Melissa! We have to go!”

The noise grew louder. I knew she would not leave her mother’s side.

I sat down at the controls, unsure of what to do. I wanted to push a button and stop the machine from leaving. I wanted to give her more time. “Melissa, you have to come now! There’s no way to stop the machine. It will leave without you.” I scanned the dials looking for answers. “It’s going to leave. You’ll be trapped!”

Melissa screamed at me over her shoulder. “It’s my fault! I killed her!” Tears streamed down her face.

I twisted the dials frantically as the noise grew louder. “Melissa, we have to leave now!”

Melissa lifted herself and ran toward me. When she reached me, she stopped and put her hands on the machine’s frame. She said words I couldn’t hear, staring back at the car and the woman in the grass. The tears continued to roll down her face.

I reached up and grabbed her, pulling her limp, sobbing body into the machine.

Then there was a brilliant flash.

I sat there, hugging her, letting her cry, letting her vent her pain. She was inconsolable.

The bright sunlight nearly blinded me as I looked out from the time machine. I closed my eyes, letting my friend bury her face into my shoulder as I rubbed her back. “Shhh. It wasn’t your fault. It wasn’t your fault.”

She finally looked up at me. “Peeky, it was. I caused it all. That car swerved to avoid me. That’s why it hit her. She might have survived if I hadn’t been there.”

I shook my head. “No. You’re wrong. Before we ever went, she was… she was already gone. She passed away when you were a child. Remember?”

Tears welled in her eyes. “Yes, but… Maybe…”

“Shh. Don’t think that way. It had already happened. You
know
that.”

She lowered her head. “I wish I’d never gone. I should have left everything alone. And she wanted to tell me something. ‘A thousand.’ What did she mean?”

As much as I wanted to help, to ease her pain, I could only shake my head. “I don’t know.”

She sighed. “I’ll never know.”

Slowly, the noise of the waves drifted to us. Seagulls squealed in the distance.

Melissa glanced around “What, what is this? Where are we?”

I lifted her off my lap and helped her onto the warm sand. “We wrote down two destinations.” I gazed over at a handsome man and his beautiful wife watching their young daughter make a castle in the sand. “This was the other one.”

Melissa’s hands flew to her mouth. She stood, jaw open, looking at her family on the day she had described as the happiest in her life.

She turned to me. “What did you do?”

“I changed the destination.”

She sniffled. “You won’t have a trip now.”

I shrugged. “I don’t need a trip. I need a friend.”

She hugged me. “Oh, Peeky.”

I wrapped my arms around her, happy to push back the bad memory I’d just help put into her head, temporarily replacing it with this beautiful one. “Hey, you’re wasting time. I don’t know how long we have here.” I looked at her. “Your mother loved you. And right now, just over there, she can show you how much.”

Melissa held the frame of the machine with one hand and touched the other to her face. “What should I do?”

“Watch. Enjoy. Remember this moment, not the other one.” I nudged her. “Go on, get closer. But not too close.”

Melissa smiled, taking a step toward them. Her mother was alive and happy again. I knew it wouldn’t quell her pain, but at least for a few minutes it might let her forget. How could it not?

She had been right. Using the machine was a mistake. I understood that now. We weren’t able to control things or change them. It was foolish to think we could.

Melissa stood there, watching her young beautiful mother play with her twelve-year-old self. She saw her father, sitting in a beach chair nearby, enjoying his daughter and wife building a sand castle.

The little girl held up a shell.

Her mom leaned over, explaining about how each grain of sand has a story to tell. The twelve-year-old Melissa didn’t seem very interested.

Dread shot through me. Had I caused her best memory to be taken from her? Had she remembered it wrong? I looked in horror at Melissa’s face.

But she was smiling.

Beaming
.

She seemed filled with joy at the sight of her family. They were happy, healthy, young and alive.

Mrs. Mills said something to young Melissa.

Twenty-two-year-old Melissa leaned forward. “What did she say?”

Twelve-year-old Melissa leaned forward. “What did you say?”

Mrs. Mills said it again, louder, grabbing her daughter and squeezing her in a massive bear hug. “If I held you in my arms for a thousand years, it still wouldn’t be enough.”

The little girl squealed with delight. “How many?”

Her mother rocked her back and forth in her arms. “A thousand!”

Melissa gazed at me. This time, her eyes were filled with tears of joy.

A thousand.

“I know this won’t make everything right between us, but-”

She put her hand over my mouth. “You did fine.”

She sniffled, taking the scene in.

The machine began its whirring again. Melissa slowly moved to sit on my lap. She covered her ears and squinted her eyes, watching as long as she could, savoring the images before they disappeared.

Then she turned to me. The noise was already too loud to hear, but she mouthed the words. “Thank you.”

Then there was a brilliant flash.

Chapter Thirty-Seven

F
lorida Mining and Minerals, site number 32 was dark and quiet. The little hill looked out over the pond, waiting in the warm night air.

Melissa and I stood there, our hands on each side of the machine.

It hardly made a splash when it dropped into the water.

Some bubbles made their way to the surface for a few seconds, then the ripples faded from view and the pond was still again.

In some ways, it was as though the machine had never existed.

But it had existed. And its existence had changed things in ways that could never be repaired.

I peered at Melissa as she drove us back to Tampa. “Just like a ten-year-old trying to sneak out with the family station wagon, right?”

“Right. Nothing good could ever come of it.”

“Can you forgive me? For making you-”

“Peeky, you hurt me a lot this morning and you put me through hell tonight. That’s going to take a while to get over.” She turned to me and smiled. “But you also gave me the greatest gift anyone has ever given me, and that means a lot.” She stared at the road. “So let’s give everything some time.”

I nodded. “I don’t have a lot of time left. I have an appointment with your father in a few hours.”

“Yeah, I know. I’ll drive you.” She sniffled. “We’ll get donuts.”

“Don’t start crying again. You’ll make me cry.”

“I think I’m cried out for one night.” She sighed. “How about we listen to some music for a change?”

She turned on the radio. We drove the rest of the way without speaking much, digesting what had happened over the past few hours. We made a few quick stops along the way. One for gas, one for my suitcase.

And one for Barry.

He smiled as we pulled up in front of the hospital. “You didn’t think I’d let you leave without saying goodbye, did you?”

The hospital had given him a new pair of crutches to go with his new cast. He balanced uneasily on them.

“You still can’t use those things,” I said.

“Bah.” He chucked them into the truck bed next to my suitcase. “It’s easier getting around without them.”

“Hey, you use those until you’re back to 100%.” Melissa frowned. “Doctor’s orders.”

She climbed into the truck.

Barry nudged me. “She’s really getting into that whole bossing people around thing, isn’t she?”

“Yeah.”

“Kinda hot, huh?”

“Yeah.”

We climbed into the truck.

Mr. Mills was waiting outside his office when we walked up. He was smiling, too.

Melissa kissed him. “You’re in a good mood this morning.” A wry smile crept over her face. “Where’s Janice?”

“At the hotel. Get your mind out of the gutter.” He straightened his suit jacket. “I got some good overnight polls, that’s what I’m smiling about.”

She winked. “Uh huh.”

“I’d ask how your night went, but I don’t think I want to know. You two look a mess.” He glanced at Barry. “At least one of you got cleaned up.”

A few uniformed officers stepped up to Mr. Mills. “Peeky, these are customs officials. They’ll be taking over from here.” He stepped back. “If you’d like to take a moment to say your goodbyes, now would be the time.”

I looked at my friends. “There isn’t enough time to say I’m sorry as many times as I want to, but – I’m sorry. For everything.”

Barry nodded. “Peeky, you did some really shitty things. But you did some really great things, too. You helped open my eyes.” He gazed at Melissa. “I can’t be unhappy about that.”

He put his hand out. I shook it.

Melissa looked at me. “I’ll never forget what you did.”

I stared at my shoes. “Please try.”

“You know what I mean.” She reached out and hugged me. “You’re my friend. I’ll miss you.”

“There’s a saying. ‘If you know a man’s story, you have heard his confession.’”

She squeezed me tighter. “Okay, then. We know each other’s stories pretty good now. That’s what makes us friends.”

“Peeky, I hate to see this happen to you.” Mr. Mills patted me on the shoulder. “It’s time to go. But who knows, in six months, maybe a well-placed letter from the new mayor of Tampa will go a long way to helping you come back. Between that and a job waiting for you here, who knows? Chin up, okay?”

“Okay, sir. Thank you.”

Melissa looked at her father. “What was that all about? What job?”

“Oh, I’ve had Troy and some staff members doing some digging. This whole business about requiring people to turn over their fossil finds to the state, it’s a bunch of hogwash. It’s practically communism.” He stroked his chin. “I was thinking it ought to be more like the shipwreck laws, where the person who digs the goodies up gets to keep them, and the state gets a share. That’s more fair. It would give people an incentive to go out and spend resources finding these things.” A big grin crept over his face. “That could sprout a whole new industry for our fine state. Just the thing a new Governor wants.”

Melissa smirked. “You mean mayor.”

“Give me time.” He straightened his jacket again. “Anyway, Troy made some calls. The legislature would look kindly on revising the state statute. So our office is creating a new wing to create private dig sites around the state.” He winked at her. “What do you think? I’ll need some smart people to head it up. Any interest?”

Melissa’s jaw dropped. “Are you offering me a job running a new department at the law firm? I’m no lawyer.”

He waved a hand. “Lawyers, we have. Smart young diggers, we’ll need. Will you do it? The person in charge will have to find good people to run dig sites all over the place. I can’t do that and be mayor, too.”

“I just might be interested.” She turned to Barry. “What do you think? Want a job?”

He looked at her. “So, I’d be…
under
you?”

She tilted her head and grinned. “I guess so, yes.”

Mr. Mills cleared his throat. “Okay, let’s keep this rated G, people.”

Barry smiled. “Sounds very interesting. I’ll think about it.”

“Come on! It would give us a chance to do
what
we love, with
who
we—you know—who we know can do the job.”

“I said I’ll think about it. Maybe we should have a meeting to discuss it further.”

She took his arm. “Maybe we should. My place or yours?”

“Yours. Mine burned down, remember?”

Mr. Mills cleared his throat again. “Well if you’re going to have a meeting like
that
, I just have one thing to ask. Melissa, do you have a- ”

“Daddy!”

“- umbrella? It looks like rain.”

“Let’s go return Mandy’s truck before he changes his mind.”

“Mandy’s truck? Where’s my BMW?”

She slipped her arm into Barry’s and started walking. “Goodbye, Daddy. I mean
boss
.”

“Okay, sounds like you’ve accepted the job. Here’s a new cell phone.” He tossed it to her. “Business calls only.” He turned to me. “See that, Peeky? Get things straightened out and come back as soon as you can. Here’s my card. You call me and we’ll help arrange everything. Maybe you’ll be back in less than six months.”

“Thank you, sir. I don’t know what to say.”

“Say the truth.” He wagged his finger at me. “From now on. It’ll be a job requirement.”

“Deal.”

* * * * *

In his office, Mr. Mills took out a cell phone and dialed it. Melissa answered on the other end.

“So, Missy, did you dump it?”

“Just like you said to, in the pond.”

He bristled. “I said a swamp. Doesn’t matter, it’s gone now.”

“What will you do about the lawsuits?”

“Oh, I’ll handle it. It’s hard to sue over something that doesn’t even exist. For all they know this was all an elaborate hoax by some rowdy graduate students.”

“Sounds good to me.” She sighed. “Dad, there’s something I’ve been needing to ask you.”

“Fire away.”

“Well, if you could go back in time and change things, would you?”

“It doesn't really matter, honey. We can't.”

“But what if we could? What if I was able to go back in time… and save Mom?”

“But sweetheart, you couldn't. As painful as it is for me to say this, the night your mother passed away was the night she was supposed to. I’ve thought about a million things I could have done differently, blaming myself that I didn’t go jogging with her. That’s not how it works. It's just the plan of life. A big part of me will always wish it would have turned out some other way, but life… had other plans.”

Melissa held back her tears. “But I had a time machine. I did go back. What if I went back in time and I caused it—her death?”

“I think you're misunderstanding me. You can't cause it just like you can’t uncause it. Things happened a certain way. Going back and trying to interfere with them might add a new variable, but it could never change the outcome.” He sat back in his chair. “Sometimes I think you science types get everything backwards. You have to understand that there is something greater than yourself at work in life. Have a little faith.”

“Faith.” She sighed again. “In God? Sometimes I don’t know if God even exists.”

“It’s the not knowing that requires faith. But I know God exists—because I have you. Nothing will ever convince me that your beautiful face and energetic spirit are some sort of grand accident. I look at you and I see something divine was at work. I just can't explain it.”

“I guess I don't understand.”

“If it was easy to understand, philosophers wouldn't still be debating the first questions two thousand years later. Did you have to know everything about that machine in order to use it? No, you went on faith. Give yourself some credit.”

“Okay, I’ll try. Thanks, Daddy.”

“Bye bye, sweetie.”

* * * * *

Findlay sat alone in his apartment waiting as the phone number he dialed connected.

“Findlay. How’s it hanging?”

“Just great. Looks like I’m going to jail.”

“Whoa, you broke your cherry? Welcome to the party, pal.”

“Yeah, you could have reminded me that all you MIT assholes went to jail after you got busted in your Vegas card counting scheme.”

“Hey, caveat emptor, motherfucker.
Buyer
beware. Besides, it was practically common knowledge. So what’s up? Why are you calling me now?”

“Well, come to find out, your tracker never really did its thing. I mean, I peeled off the tape and stuck it onto the bottom of the time machine, but my computer never did receive a signal.”

“You found the time machine, didn’t you?”

“Not because of you. The tracker never transmitted.”

“What do you want, a refund? Because there’s no refunds on illegal shit, fuckface. Run a diagnostics test. Maybe it’ll sync up with the tracker.”

“I shut my computer down already. I have to pack everything up. I’m going to fucking jail. My arraignment’s in two days.”

“Yeah, they move fast on that hacker shit. Hope you have a good lawyer. Wait, you said you peeled off the tape?”

“That’s right.”

“
One
piece of tape?”

“Right. Peeled it off and stuck the tracker on the underside of the time machine.”

“You didn’t do it right. There were
two
pieces of tape to remove.”

“What do you mean?”

“One to make it stick, and the other to uncover and activate the tracker’s transmitter. No wonder it never pinged your computer. You left it covered. It never activated.”

“So what happens now?”

“Nothing. It won’t transmit while that thing’s on there. I mean, it might fall off in a year, or if it got wet enough the tape might come off or something. The paper tape would break down in the elements, but if it gets wet, the device is going to corrode pretty quickly, too. That stuff isn’t made to last forever.”

“Fuck!”

“Calm down. Maybe it’ll get wet.”

“Yeah, maybe.” He hung up the phone. “Asshole.”

* * * * *

At the bottom of a pond at Florida Mining and Minerals site number 32, stuck to the underside of the time machine, was a paper-covered tracking device.

The spillway waters were notoriously corrosive. They soaked through the tape and into the device in a few hours.

Before the minerals ruined the sensor completely, they dissolved the paper enough to send a ping out.

To Findlay’s computer.

Which he had just shut down.

THE END

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