The Time Stone (4 page)

“
You wanted to see me, Mr.
Staffnight?” Mildred looked at him with her usual tone that
indicated respect but an attitude that she was not at all amused by
his behavior.

“
Talking about fortunes
and empires, making money, and distress….” Broad uttered his famous
diatribe that all who knew him had grown accustomed to as he waved
his hand in the air melancholically.

“
Yeah, nice staff you got
here, Broad” uttered Denis Thoroughgood who passed

by the office glancing through the
open door.

Broad gave him a coy glance signaling
that he wanted to be alone.

“
We will discuss more
about the project soon, Denis” he responded with a sly
hint

of annoyance in his voice.

“
No problem.” Denis
responded with a smile as he popped his head into the

office, nodded quickly, and then just
as quickly took his leave from the large corner office closing the
door behind him.

Broad then took his seat at his desk
as Mildred sat in the chair before him with a pad and pen resting
in her lap. Broad was what most would consider a ladies’ man and
had his way with anyone he pleased. He stood six foot five inches
tall, square shouldered, tight round jaw, and jet black buzz
cut-type hair and slimming into a pro formal Armani suit, gilded
cufflinks, and bright orange power tie that epitomized the
perfection and massive wealth that he sought and claimed he
deserved. When he sat he exhibited the persona of the all-American
boy, a football quarterback and champion star athlete in high
school, who dated and married the homecoming queen, studied law,
politics, and high finance at the finest European schools, served
in the Marine Corps, and now was head of one of the top Fortune 100
companies in the world. But there was something else about the way
he carried himself that made him seem far more ominous as his long
arms curved in front of him like tendrils plotting and waiting
deviously for the kill. “We need to talk more about your future.
“

Mildred reluctantly smiled and sat
uneasy in her seat before her boss’ marble laden large oak
desk.

Broad lit and smoked one of his famous
Cuban cigars taken from his secret spot underneath a hardcover copy
of Machiavelli’s Prince in the middle right hand draw of his desk.
He looked at Mildred as he puffed his cigar. “You know why I called
you in here?”

“
No, Mr. Staffnight. I am
here…”she began.

“
Honey, please do me a
favor.” Broad interrupted her. “Will you call me Senor (accent)
Staffnight? That Latin side of you makes me all fired up.” Broad
mimicked a jungle cat’s roar jokingly as he displayed his hand out
like a claw. “I feel feisty too.”

Mildred began to rise to her feet. “I
don’t feel comfortable.”

“
Sit down!” Broad
commanded. “We are here today to start talking about fortunes and
empires, the true realities of making money, amidst the boldest
corporations of high finance in our market.”

Mildred rolled her eyes with a
nonchalant attitude displaying sarcasm but having a hidden fear of
him as well as she heard his typical diatribe before but was never
alone with him as she heard that he made his usual sexual advances
to the female staff.

“
Mildred,” Broad
continued. “Some say that there are some things in this world that
are too powerful to fully be understood by the human mind… but
given the right market anything is possible, even amid the chaos
and distress of innocence lost, madness revered, challenges
conquered, things lost, more gained.” His thoughts slipped away
from him as he gazed into empty space.

“
Sir?!” Mildred
interrupted.

“
Mildred,” Broad screamed
out. “I want you to prepare a letter to Mr. Lorn Kilner of Chronos
Enterprises and inform him that we are ready to participate in the
project that we discussed last week and that preparations are being
made to engage the relevant third party collectors who will bring
forth the necessary equipment.” He smirked as he watched Mildred,
carefully admiring her slim physique in a tight red, short dress,
her sleeves pushed up to her elbows and her long legs crossed in
front of her with her legal pad on her lap where she furiously took
copious notes. “Further inform him that we have devoted our full
attention to this matter and the success it will bring to both our
firms.”

“
Yes sir. Is there
anything else?”

“
Yes, get up and shake
that money maker for daddy,” he puffed his cigar proudly as Mildred
rose grumbling, hands on her hips, giving him a deathly glare but
then turned to leave without another word. Broad looked at her as
she walked away from him completely disdained by both his ego and
his tone.

CHAPTER 8

James walked down the streets amongst
the garbage-strewn sidewalks of his home community. He bore facial
stubble and lice-ridden short black curly hair, sun-tanned
complexion, and yellow teeth. The intense heat and sunlight made
him sweat profusely in the dying neighborhood around
him.

“
James… James Timewalker,
is that you?” A limousine approached appearing oddly out of place
in the decaying mess that became this tattered community. A man in
his thirties with a mustache and custom made suit popped his head
out of the window.

“
Hello, do I know you?”
said James as he stopped wondering who knew his name, specifically
someone wealthy enough to be in a limousine.

“
It’s me, James. Syrus
Bilderberger. We went to Chronix Bay High together. Wow you look …
different.” He said with a shy frown. “What happened?”

“
Life happened I guess.
The economy is rough and it’s tough to get work and boy do I need
some cash.”

“
I’m sorry, James. Let me
help you.” Syrus exited the limousine and reached into his back
pocket.

“
No, Syrus, I can’t take
your money.” James spoke modestly ashamed of his own sorry state of
affairs.

“
Actually, I was going to
give you something better than money.” He took out his wallet and
opened it, pulling out a business card.

“
Nothing is better than
money” laughed James but then stopped as he saw Syrus had a serious
look on his face. He handed James the business card taken out of
his breast pocket.

”
What’s this?” asked
James.

“
Possibly your future. You
see I run a Fortune 500 company in Superior City and we need some
good people for a special program we are starting aimed at
assisting disadvantaged members of society to get a better grasp on
life.”

“
They don’t want me. I’m a
junkie, I mean recovering junkie sort of by choice.”

“
We can help you get the
help you need. Just think about it and call me. Here,” he gave
James a quarter and then reentered his limousine and
smiled.

“
Thanks.”

“
It was good seeing you
again, James.” He waved as the limousine drove off leaving James
still alone and homeless.

James looked at the card and smiled.
“Temporo, Inc.… ‘Knowledge is power’. Hmm.” He pocketed the card
and continued on his way towards no place in particular.

CHAPTER 9

“
Lives in wealth and
poverty split in two but no longer.” Broad Staffnight spoke with a
revered voice rivaling any who he went up against. He stood on the
stage of the auditorium before a crowd of military and civilian
personnel ready to eagerly embrace the unveiling of a new
technological advancement by his company. He remembers practicing
the speech in his head a dozen or more times and thinking of what
he was working on was going to change civilization. He echoed the
words before the podium microphone as he did to the mirror in his
bedroom.

“
We are on the threshold
of a new era where the technology we dreamed of for centuries will
become a reality and the power our ancestors envisioned as the
scourge of their gods will help us turn myth into reality, legend
into truth, and hope will come to the world. Along with our
philanthropic endeavors to rid the scourge of homelessness from our
city streets within one generation, we will focus on producing new
innovations and technologies to challenge us and bring hope and
prosperity to mankind along the way. This technology behind me is
the key to the beginning of our journey into the next step of
mankind’s transgression into the new frontier of exploration.” He
gestured to the curtain behind him connected to a gilded string
hanging before him. “This will help us in many ways and be used for
the benefit of humanity and we at Temporo, Inc. will lead the way!
God speed on our journey with this new device that will be the
first of many more to come as our future depends on it!”

The crowd applauded and stood, eagerly
ready for their exposure to the promise of tomorrow, Broad pulled
the string and the curtain dropped, revealing a large pod with
circuitry and computers attached spanning almost the entire
auditorium. “There it is, the TI Matter Stream Generator, the
world’s first Teleportation Device.”

Broad grimaced as he
unveiled the device he had helped build and that he and others like
him dreamed of for so long. He then remembered the story he read as
a child by Herman Melville, about a sea captain obsessed with the
hunt of the great white whale and how he was often warned by his
superiors that
“a healthy obsession is one
thing but a crazed one would ultimately destroy you… how odd of me
to remember that now?”
He thought as the
crowd erupted into further applause and ovation to the glowing
smiles of the white coat scientists and dark suits on stage, some
bearing signs of a military background. Broad merely smiled and
rejoiced at the moment.

CHAPTER 10

James grew up in Chronix Bay and he
always had a run of bad luck in life. He never finished high school
and he never held a job for more than a month. His friends from his
youth had left for bigger and better things, including his
childhood sweetheart. He got involved with drugs and alcohol at a
young age and never recovered, falling behind in everything he did
until even his own mother had enough and he was left alone on the
streets with no money and no hope.

James spent his childhood racing up
and down the streets in his hometown of Chronix Bay, as he was
chasing pipe dreams and ice cream covered fantasies. He still spent
most of his adulthood doing just that, but often yearned for more.
He frequently faced the untenable dilemma of surrendering his hopes
and dreams, his goals for the future, to the relentless search for
the unknown. Having always been curious in wanting to pursue the
lure of riches and pleasures that accompanied the stereotypically
successful life, he was drawn to a life on the streets mainly
because of his personal failures that came to pass. Ironically, his
failures stemmed from his childlike curiosity. He tried to make
himself feel better by accepting his life and being grateful that
he was not confined to the golden cage of a typical corporate
office job but there were times when he was envious of those who
had attained such status. He was a disadvantaged and
poverty-stricken Latino youth and knew that others such as he faced
similar fates and remained ignorant of their potential. It was not
the first time that he wondered about this dilemma and it would not
be the last. He has survived for the past two years by the only
means he knew how: lying, cheating, and stealing. It was the grace
of good fortune that prevented his capture by the police or the
local criminal gangs. He sometimes wished he had heeded the
warnings of his late father to better himself. “Knowledge is power”
he always said, but James did not listen and thought it better to
enjoy life and the vices it brings. It is funny, he thought, that
now he was given the chance to better himself with those three
simple words on the business card he held in his pocket, “knowledge
is power”. Time passes like sand through the hourglass and the day
became night. James walked down the street breathing a sigh of
relief having avoided the local crime gang called the Night
Stalkers. He noticed the sidewalks were empty, with not a soul
around but one, an elderly Native American woman who was dressed in
a large shawl adorned with multicolored feathers. The wrinkles on
her faced displayed wisdom beyond years. She jingled a hand-made
necklace made of turquoise colored beads, bits of straw, and a
green pendant shaped like a pentagon at the end of it. She glanced
at him as he walked by.

“
The strength of the
spirituals is with you,” she said extending the pendant to him but
he avoided contact and kept walking.

“
Maybe later” he nodded
with a grimace as her voice echoed in the distances of his mind as
he continued walking by thinking, “
what a
nut case
.” He suddenly felt a shiver, as a
gust of unexplainable wind permeated the air around him. He turned
with a sudden jolt as he remained in awe to learn no one was there.
“What the heck…” He turned and kept walking.

James arrived at a rundown alleyway
near an apartment building in the center of downtown Chronix Bay.
He used to reside in the building but was evicted two weeks ago
because he couldn’t pay the rent. He has been staying in the
alleyway every night telling himself it was only temporary until he
found a job to get back on his feet. As the dusk began to roll over
the skies above, he decided to settle in for a good night’s sleep
at the location near his former home.