Only a Matter of Time

Only A Matter of Time

A short story by Eben Wagner

Dedicated to the Marina Restaurant in Brattleboro, Vermont for providing the best hamburgers I have ever tasted.

Maple Leaf Writing Project

Brattleboro, VT

2017

“Grayson….Grayson, wake up,” my mom said as she shook me awake. “It’s almost lunch time, and you haven’t even eaten breakfast.”

I groaned, and rolled out of my blankets. I walked down the stairs to see a pile of hot steaming pancakes.

My mom loved cooking, especially for me, and if it made Mom happy, it made me happy. When my dad went missing she became unhappy, and she always believed that he wasn’t the bad person people said he was. She also sometimes wondered whether my dad was who he said.

I opened the fridge to get some milk when a paper on the fridge fell to the floor. I picked up the piece of paper to examine it. It looked to be my was my old Christmas list, and one item had not been crossed off.

The last few weeks I had been contemplating what I should get with all the money I’d saved up. A drone would be the perfect item. The closest place I could get one was the mall, but it was a long drive to get there.

“Mom could we go to the mall?” I asked.

“It’s pretty early, but I guess we could.”

I sat down on the couch and tried to turn on my phone, but it was dead. Weird. I knew I charged it the prior night. I looked at my watch but that wasn’t working either. Maybe a cell tower had been destroyed in last week’s storm. That didn’t explain why my watch wasn’t working though.

My mom, and I were walking out to the car when she stopped.

“Huh,” she said. “My phone isn’t working.”

“Yeah. I thought it might be a cell tower.”

I hopped in the car, and plugged in my phone, but that didn’t work either. Mom climbed in the driver’s seat, and started the engine.

************

“Where do you want to go?” my mom asked after the drive.

“I’m going to search for a drone. We could meet back here at 2:30.”

“Okay, sounds good,” Mom answered.

I walked into BenchMark Depot to find a drone. You can find anything at BenchMark Depot. You can find things from flooring tiles, to pocket sized electric guitars. I remember when I was very young my dad worked here. Back in 2014 it was a science lab, until the government figured out that the company had stolen a time machine! Afterwards everyone involved was locked up for 30 years, including my dad. Two and a half years later, it still wasn’t found. They even tore down and rebuilt the whole building to find it. Only weeks after that, my dad went missing from federal prison. The building went on the market. BenchMark Depot bought it, and became a giant company.

I found a build it yourself drone. Perfect. I picked it up and walked to the checkout aisle. No one was at the desk. I looked over at the rest of the checkout aisles. No one at any of them! I looked around more and saw that there was no one in the store at all…...not even a customer. I went to look for the store clerk, but instead I found a patrol officer.

“Sir? Do you know why no one is in the checkout aisles?” I asked.

“Actually, this sto-”

“No one’s there because this store is under renovation.” An unknown voice interrupted. A big man walked in with thick orange hair, and a green vest littered with military badges.

“How did you get in here?” he asked.

“I was just looking to buy this drone.”

“Well too bad, you ain’t gettin’ it,” he replied rudely.

“Could I at least use the bathroom before I leave?” I asked.

“Fine, but do it in a jiffy.” He pulled out his phone, but like mine it seemed to be nonfunctional.

I ran into the bathroom. This was the best drone I was going to find, and not only weren’t they going to let me buy it, but they were also going to kick me out of the store? I kicked the vending machine in anger. The shock caused one of the buttons to fall off, revealing a green switch that glowed in the dim light.

Just then there was loud banging on the door.

“Hey what’s going on in there?!”

“What do I have to lose?” I flipped the switch. The floor fell out from under me, and I shot into a long blue tunnel. I spiraled farther down. The tunnel opened up into a large slide. Over the edge I saw a giant cavern. The floor was covered with workers in bright green uniforms, and yellow hard hats. I looked down the remaining stretch of slide that still awaited me, and realized that the ride was almost over.

I slid to the bottom of the slide and hit the hardwood floor of a large auditorium. I got up, dazed. I looked up and saw a group of people staring at me. They were crowded around a peculiar machine that looked like it had come from the future.

Two guards pushed through the crowd. Before I could run, they grabbed my arms, handcuffed me, and brought me through a pair of doors. They dropped me onto a big red couch, and walked out. The room was dimly lit with candles. The wall was covered in elaborate math equations and theories. Suddenly a desk chair at the front of the room spun around to reveal a short boy in a yellow t-shirt. He had orange hair, like the man in the green vest. He was sucking on a lollipop, and in the process was making disgusting sloshy noises with his mouth.

“Who are you?” he asked. He looked to be about my age.

“Where am I?” I asked, completely ignoring his question.

“Um...no where. This is just...well….fine it’s a secret lab, but no one can know I told you that.”

“So I accidentally stumbled upon an underground lab, that’s building a time machine?”

“Pretty much.”

“What does BenchMark Depot have to do with it?”

“I don’t know much about this place. My dad works here so he just brings me along.”

“Has he told you anything about what’s going on here?”

“He has mentioned a little bit about the last time he worked on something like this. My dad actually finished and tested a time machine before this one.”

“Why is he building a new one then?”

“Well, a couple months after he built it, it was stolen. Back in 2014, people were accusing him of stealing it, and not building it himself. He says that none of it is true, and that the government just didn’t want him getting a hold of a time machine because they’re very dangerous.”

This information got me thinking about my dad. Could he have had something to do with this?

The government must have taken the time machine from the testing lab, and covered up their tracks by blaming the whole thing on the people who created it, like my dad.

“Well, thanks for the information, but I have to get out of here. Could you free my hands?” I asked

“Sorry, I can’t. If those guards handcuffed you, there must have been a reason.”

“Oh come on, don’t you think something fishy is going on in this place?”

“Well….I guess I could uncuff you. I’ve been wanting to explore this place for a while. My dad only lets me go into a few specific rooms, but I guess a little exploration couldn’t hurt.” He looked through his dad's desk and found a small silver key. He freed my hands, and helped me up.

We started to explore the long, winding halls of the building. It almost seemed as if the underground part of the building was bigger than the actual store above. The walls around us were metallic, and looked like nothing I’d ever seen before.

“Wow,” the boy exclaimed. “This place is much cooler than I thought.” He finished off his lollipop, and started to chew on the stick instead.

Ahead of us was a black wall covered in glowing hexagons. The hexagons were clear enough to see through, but the shining green light was too bright so we had to avert our eyes.

A sign above them said “Radioactive Materials. Handle with Thick Protection.”

“That doesn’t sound very good,” I thought.

At our feet there was a triangle shaped hole, the same bright green color as the glowing hexagons.

Just then we heard yelling coming from the other side of the hall. We looked behind us to see two guard rushing towards us. We had nowhere to go. We were trapped. I looked around for any escape route, but there was none. There was only one thing I could do now. I looked over at the hexagons.

I punched through the hexagonal glass, and grabbed a glowing object on the inside. My hand immediately started to burn as if it was in a boiling pot of water. I looked down and saw that the object was the same triangle shape as the hole in the floor. I quickly slid it into place, and watched as a green wall started to materialize in front of us. The guards ran straight into the wall, and fell onto the floor unconscious.

“What just happened?” the boy asked, dumbfounded.

“Honestly? I don’t know.”

“While we have the chance...I’m Grayson?

“I’m Jonas.”

“Well, Jonas. Do you know a way out?”

“Nope…. I’ve never seen this part of the building.”

He tossed his lollipop stick at the green wall. It caught fire, and rolled across the floor.

“Well I guess we know how we aren’t getting out,” I said.

“Can you take that triangle back out of the floor?” Jonas asked.

“Last time I picked it up it burned my hand, so I don’t want to try it again.”

While we were looking for an escape route, a man in a yellow hazmat suit turned the corner, and started to come toward us. To our surprise he walked straight through the green wall, and crushed the green triangle in the floor causing the wall to disintegrate. He grabbed us by our collars, and dragged us back down the hall. He brought us to a metal door. He typed the code 813287 into a keypad. The door swung open, revealing a dark room with a short woman tied to a chair, and a cloth bag on her head concealing her identity. We were pushed into two other chairs on the other side of the room, with our hands tied behind our backs.

The man pulled off his yellow mask to reveal his true identity. It was the same man I had seen in BenchMark Depot with the green military jacket, and the orange spiky hair.

“Father,” Jonas said.

“Hello son,” he replied “First thing’s first, I want to know everything that happened since you two snuck down here.”

“And why should I tell you?” I asked

“Because if you don’t I might have to hurt someone you really care about.” He pulled the bag off the person sitting across from us. I looked up, and to my horror I saw my mother tied up with her mouth taped shut.

“Let her go!” I shouted.

“I’ll let her go when you tell me why you’re down here.”

I looked over at Jonas, and we agreed to walk him through everything that happened. Afterwards he didn’t seem too surprised at all.

“Let me just clarify,” the man said “We may have stolen that time machine, but it was also stolen from us. The person that stole it is named Jase Corso.”

I didn’t know who to believe, but I had to get out of this horrid place. I felt the back of the chair to see if anything was sticking out that I could use to cut the ropes. I finally found a loose nail. I grabbed it, and started to wiggle it out, while Jonas’s father continued his story.

“We’ve been looking for Jase ever since. The only way we can catch him now is by building another time machine, and pursuing him through time.”

I was almost all the way through the rope, and started to rip through the last piece.

“I’m sorry,” Jonas’s father said “I’ve been very rude. Would you like to say hello?” He turned to my mom, and pulled the tape off her mouth.

‘This is my chance.’ I thought. I got up, ran to the door handle, and tried to pry it open, but it was locked from the outside. Jonas’s father turned around, surprised I had escaped. He tried to grab me, but I dodged his fists. When I got a chance I pulled his feet out from under him. He hit his head on the corner of the wooden chair, and fell to the floor unconscious. I got up to untie everyone else’s hands.

“You better have a very good explanation for this when we get home.” My mother said, angrily.

We rushed over to the door. I noticed that there was a keypad on the inside as well. I typed in the same code that I had seen Jonas’s father input: 813287. The door swung open, and we walked through the winding halls of the building. We tried to find any way out, but everywhere we went seemed to lead to a dead end. We found the same room I fell into when I entered the underground lab. I looked to my left to see two armed guard walking toward us.

“Who are they?” my mother exclaimed.

“I’m not sure, but they don’t look friendly,” I replied. Behind us more guards were coming our way. The only other escape route was to our right, but guards were coming from that direction too. We were surrounded with no way out. I looked straight ahead, and saw the time machine on the stage. This must be the time machine they were re-building.

“C’mon,” I said “It’s our only chance.”

We ran over to the machine.

“Wait,” Jonas said. “I can’t go. My father may have done some bad things, but he’s still my father, and I can’t leave him. I must stay.”

“Do what you must,” I said. “I hope we meet again. It was very nice knowing you.”

I opened the door, and we jumped into the ship. The complicated controls confused me, but luckily there was a manual on one of the seats. I caught on quickly, and soon we had the machine up, and running. There was banging on the door indicating the guards had arrived. I set a course for ten minutes in the future. Which wouldn’t be very long, but it would at least get us out of the building.

“Fasten your seatbelt.” I said “It’s going to be a bumpy ride.”

All of a sudden a loud buzzing noise started ringing out. The computer screens started blinking with a message that said: Error. Timeline navigation system failure. The ship started to shake, and we blasted off into the unknown.

************

I woke up to the smell of burning. I looked up to see the control panel on the time machine smoking. I ran over to the fried controls, frantically trying to put out the flames, but it was too late. The screen was flickering, and appeared to be nonfunctional. I pushed the door open. I looked outside to find myself on top of a very tall building in New York. I ran back inside to wake my mom.

“Did the time machine work?” my mom asked.

“You tell me.” She walked outside, and pointed to the Twin Towers.

“How are we here?” my mom asked. I wanted to explain it to her, but I couldn’t because there was no good explanation.

“All I know is we somehow got all the way back to the year 2001. Even the Twin Towers are still here.”