RJE's Friends of Junior

The End of the Third Experiment...

2012-01-31T11:43:00.000-08:00

Greetings.

So, last Thursday saw Jim Hale's adventure come to a close. I hope that you enjoyed following it as much as I enjoyed creating it. But now that's it done, I've come to have to make some decisions about what I'd like to do with this blog.

From a fiction point of view, it hasn't exactly been bringing in the hits like I had hoped. And frankly, it's sort of a challenge to generate the material for an on-going page at a time novel. Then, there's also the whole scroll-y nature of this blog set up. Apparently, we've reached an age where scrolling has become too wearisome.

Oh don't worry, I get it. With a story of any length, it's hard to keep track of your place in a story if you have to leave and come back. Let's face it, if anything, Twitter has proven to us that the internet is all about the short format.

Anyhow. I'm considering taking this blog in a different directions...if I don't just shut it down entirely.

For the time being, I'll leave the current stories up and intact for anyone who still needs to catch up. But all my future fiction efforts will be put over here on Jottify! (Click the word...or this Word.) I'm just getting warmed up over there, but have found that I get a lot more eyeballs and comments on my work in a more community setting.

See you soon. Cheers.

215.

2012-01-26T08:09:00.000-08:00

The hug that Georgie gave me when I walked into the officesurprised me.

“Did we win the sweepstakes?” I asked.

She slapped me playfully. “Where have you been?”

“Do you really want to know?” I said with a laugh. “Wasn’t it confusing enough for what littleyou saw?”

“You’re probably right,” she said. “Some other time.”

“Sure,” I said. “If I ever figure it out, I’ll tell youfirst. So what would you say to somelunch?”

“I’ll grab my coat.”

“I just gotta take care of one thing on the way.”

Georgie was confused again when I bought two sets offlowers. One, I gave to her. The other Itook with us.

Hayworth did me the favor of telling me where Ted and I’sshared former love had been buried. And though I had nothing but phantomglimpses to remind me of her, I figured I should pay my respects, if not forthe love I’d had for, then for the sacrifice she’d had to make.

Georgie was confused when I pulled into the cemetery, andseeing the headstone didn’t clear things up for her.

I put the flowers in front of the marker, and when I stood,Georgie locked her arm around mine.

“Who was she, Jim?”

“That’s the sad thing, Georgie-girl. I don’t know anymore. All I know is that without her, we wouldn’tstill be here.”

I made a point of dropping by at least once a year afterthat to pay some respects to the girl…the girl in Room 13.

214.

2012-01-24T07:56:00.000-08:00

Everything, as far as I knew, had been returned to normal.

Sonny explained that some things had happened out of orderfrom what I had experienced. Mickeydidn’t know that Hayworth could jump around without the car. So he had thought we were trapped in thewarehouse, but the weird flicker I had seen had been Hayworth jumping toanother time, and coming right back.

He’d gone to warn another version of himself about what Itold him about Mickey having read my mind to get the plans for themachine. So when we kidnapped him, andput him in the trunk, that had been the one thing that had changed thepresent…future…wherever we were.

I never saw Mickey again. And neither Sonny nor Hayworth ever told me what they’d done with him.

The long and short of the rest of how it all works out goessomething like this. Mickey did develophis own time machine based on what he got out of me. Like Hayworth later figured out, he shrunk itdown to suit-size. He and Haggartay combined it with the light array in orderto inspire awe in whoever would see them when they traveled. And they had used that to return to the pastto prey on the UFO cult that Trish had gotten duped into joining.

They tried to take me out of the game, to keep me fromkilling Ted in the past (trust me, none of this makes any linear senseanymore), because he was going to take out Hayworth in one timeline, if Ididn’t. Hayworth, through means notexplained to me, caught wind of this and had to jump through multiple timelinehoops to make sure everything happened the way it was supposed to.

Apparently, it had now. I killed Ted. And everyone andeverything else had been returned to where it was supposed to.

Trish and I sort of made up, and she went back to disbandthe cultists.

She hinted that she might want to see about joining forcesagain. Not as husband and wife, ofcourse. But since I seemedindestructible, and time spent by herself had led to all this silliness. She said she’d keep in touch. I was curious to see what would happen there.

As for Haggartay, he must’ve taken his mind control helmet,and escaped somewhere into the future or past. I couldn’t say. No one could tellme. And for the time being, I haven’theard from him.

So, for the moment, there was only one thing I could see thatI needed to make peace with. That was myonly priority, until the next case came in.

213.

2012-01-19T08:04:00.000-08:00

Then, the lights went out.

“Don’t shoot for Christ’s sake,” I hissed at Trish as Igrabbed her arm. I gave her an initialtug. Then it suddenly felt like she wasdragging me. When I noticed that she wasstumbling too much to be moving that quick, I realized that Sonny must’vegrabbed the other arm.

“Down and across,” Sonny said. “We’ve got no time to waste.”

That’s when I hit something that tumbled over and took mewith it. I knew exactly what or ratherwho it was. I scrambled as fast I couldto get away from him.

“Hale!” Ted shouted and I could feel his weak hands grabbingfor me, but I shimmied away as quick as I could.

“What about Ted?” I yelled after Sonny.

“Hurry! Leave him! Youhave to leave him!”

I took him at his word and hustled to the door leaving Tedcursing in the darkness. I saw the lightoutside as Sonny and Trish filled the frame. It was a good time and place to get one’s self shot, but no shots cameout. But then, I didn’t know what hadhappened to Mickey, and Ted was still floundering around to his feet in thedark. So no one got shot on the way outthe door, least of all, yours truly.

I loped across the street after them, and not until I at thedoor of the fancy space age car did I realize where I was and what time itwas.

“Hale, what’s wrong?” Sonny asked. “We’ve got to go?”

Trish followed with, “Jim, what are you doing?”

Sure enough, there I was.

I mean, I was there at the car. But I was also there, walking up to the warehouse. I could see all the forlorn anger andfrustration on my face. I knew what hadhappened now, and I knew what was about to happen.

I also now understood why Ted had been in such a weirdticked off state when I went in and shot him: I had just knocked him over andleft him flailing in the dark. By now,he’d have found a lightswitch, he’d be searching for a weapon, and he’d beready to start killing.

I wanted to shout to myself to be careful, but a hand frominside the car, yanked me down and into a seat.

212.

2012-01-17T07:52:00.000-08:00

“Get ready, Hale,” Hayworth said. “The light’s are about togo out.”

“What? What’s hedoing? Trish! Shoot them!”

I was going to ask Hayworth what I was supposed to begetting ready for, but I was splitting my attention between Trish, the raygun,and Ted who was getting his arms under him to get off the floor.

“Say, Mickey!” said the costumed weirdo who opened his mouthfor the first time. This drew Trish’s attention away from Hayworth and myself. “I was wondering …”

“You’ll have to grab her and get out of here,” Hayworth saidto me as quietly as he could. “The three of you take the car.”

“What do you want meddling worm?” the booming voice askedout of the still swirling lights.

“Awww, why do you say that?” Sonny yelled.

“Who is this guy, Jim?” Trish asked without taking her eyesor aim off of Sonny.

“Just some weirdo I picked up,” I said and took a few steptoward her.

To Sonny, the booming voice said, “You tried to thwart myplans at Tribuline, but look at me now.”

A strange laughter filled the room. It had a metallic, tinny quality that kept itfrom being evil as much as it was irritating. All of us looked as though someone was sanding down our fillings withtin foil.

“Who the hell are you people? And what the hell is that?”

I knew that voice, and I was felt a small stream of icewater go down my spine. I took a fewmore steps toward Trish, but she didn’t seem all that interested in shootinganyone anymore. So, I looked back.

Ted had made it up to a knee, but his head was still downand both arms were holding him up.

“I swear,” Ted said through gritted teeth. “As soon as everything stops spinning, I’mgonna grind every one of you into paste.”

The annoying laughter stopped.

Sonny looked out again into the source of the light andsaid, “Say Mickey…how’d you ever get out of that trunk?”

The lights were still on, but had stopped moving.

“Grab her, Hale! Andrun! There’s not much time!”

211.

2012-01-12T08:00:00.000-08:00

Hayworth turned and looked at me with that “wha?!?” look onhis face. For just a moment, I sawsomething strange. At first, I thoughtmaybe Trish had suddenly shot Hayworth with the raygun (that’s what I had seenin her hand, by the way). Hayworth just kindaflickered where he was standing, like his image had blinked in and out.

Maybe it was just the light, I thought. Because whenHayworth flickered back in, his expression had changed to a smug smile and hislimbs weren’t entirely in the same place.

But just then, my attention went to Trish. She had the raygun raised and was closing inon us.

“Trish,” I said. “Doll. Sweetheart. Poopsie.”

The idiotic cooing of names had exactly the effect Iwanted. It got Trish’s and they raygun’sattention on me and away from Hayworth.

“This guy’s not from the future,” I said. “He’s from thehere and now.”

“Jim, darling,” she answered. “Other than make a completecock-up of things, what could you possibly know about what was going on?”

“You’re right. I don’t entirely know what’s going on…”

“That’s saying the least of it,” came the booming voiceinside the lights.

“There,” I said pointing into the confused sparkles. “Wouldsomeone from the future need to throw out silly insults?”

She thought it over for a second.

“How’re we doing on time, Doc?” I asked Hayworth. I had edged closer to him as I talked toTrish.

“We’re perfectly on schedule,” he said with a smile.

“On schedule for what?” Trish asked. The booming voice of Mickey echoed it.

I looked over to the Sonny. He was just standing there looking vaguely bemused, like he was in onsomething. He looked way to casual for alife and death situation.

“Let me guess,” I said. “There’s been something else you forgot to tell me.”

Then, a groan came from the floor behind me. Ted Mortigan was waking up.

210.

2012-01-10T08:18:00.000-08:00

“What do you plan to do with us?” Hayworth asked.

“Since you’re meddling seems endless,” the voice said andpaused. Since I couldn’t see who wastalking, I couldn’t tell you if it was a thoughtful pause or one for dramaticeffect. It worked either way. When it pipped back up, the voice said, “Wewill destroy you all here in the past.”

“But that will change our futures. That will affect THE future,” Hayworth said.

“Do you really believe yourself so significant?” the voicereplied with a bit of a laugh.

I don’t know what it is, but I caught something in the tone.

Hayworth had already launched into a tirade about preservingthe sanctity of the timeline. I tried totune him out while I focused on the tone of that voice and who it could’vebeen. The final puzzle piece that fellinto place was when the voice didn’t argue back against Hayworth, and yet Icould hear the pauses, halts and stops as though it were waiting to.

For the first time in this whole crazy ordeal, somethingfinally clicked. It didn’t all makesense, but at least I felt like I had come to a conclusion all my own.

“Hey, doc?” I said

“Not now, Hale,” he answered, waving me off. “This is important. I have to make this circus tent understandthat we have to preserve events in order to not disrupt the flow of time.”

Hayworth turned back to make his next run of arguments.

“Enough!” boomed the voice. “I no longer care to listen to your arguments.”

“This is no mere waste of time!” Hayworth yelled back.“You’re from the future! How can you not see that?”

“Trish, dear, please,” the voice said. “End this. It’s forthe best.”

Hayworth took a few more steps forward, and continued toyell. My eyes and attention, however,went to my ex-wife.

Through the lights, I caught a glimpse of what wascoming. It confirmed what I alreadythought.

“Doc!” I yelled after Hayworth. “You’re wasting your breath. It’s Mickey! The All powerful wizard is just Mickey.”

209.

2012-01-05T08:07:00.000-08:00

Little circles of light played off of Sonny’s face. They reflected off his goggles and into myeyes. It didn’t so much blind me asbecome somewhat hypnotic. Only Hayworthwas out of the line of light-based fire. A quick glance at his face said that he wasn’t happy.

“Go on in, Sonny,” Hayworth said. “They won’t hurt us.”

Sonny swung up open the door the rest of the way and walkedin.

“You’d better bring him along, Hale,” Hayworth said to me,then held the door while I drug Ted past him and into the light.

The door closed behind Hayworth once he came in, and I couldbarely see a thing. The light seemed tobe coming from everywhere, but that might have just been because it wasmoving. It came in small circles and inlines that slowly played over every surface, as though whatever was putting thebeams out there was using them to read every article in the room likeBraille.

You could kinda duck and dodge it, but as soon as you triedopening your eyes all the way, another bright one would catch you, eitherdirectly or indirectly. Hayworth had anarm throw up to shield his eyes. Sonny’sgoggles must’ve filtered enough that he didn’t need to block it out, though hestill kept his head down. And lucky meof course, I had to use both arms to lug this big gangster along, so I wasgetting blinded on all sides.

I was having no more of it, and Ted was already prettybunged up. So, I pretended to stumbleover his foot, and let him fall to ground. I sort of eased him down, but I’ll admit it was a pretty half-assedattempt. Something in me was wageringwhether his head would make that coconut bonking sound when he hit thewarehouse floor.

“Very, very mature, Jim.”

I heard Trish’s voice, looked up, and saw her emerge fromthe rings of shining lights.

I grinned like a kid caught trying to sneak something by onthe sly, “Never could pull one past you, eh?”

She smiled back at me with the look of a sister who’s nowrelishing the moment before she busts you, but she never replied.

“Why have you brought us here, Doctor Hayworth?” came abooming voice out of the bright lights.

“Brought you here?” Hayworth said and stepped out in frontof all of us. “I came here to seal the holes in time that you seemed willing tolet slide.”

“We exist outside of time,” the voice said. “We see all. We would have recognized the danger had there been any. Now, this meddling will be brought to aclose.”

208.

2012-01-03T07:46:00.000-08:00

Hayworth parked where I had parked before.

“Wait a minute. Wait a minute,” I said. “Aren’t I just gonnashow up here with Georgie and Shorty in the next few minutes.”

“Not anymore,” Hayworth said. “Every time we fix the past,it ripples back out making things the way they should be. I can’t explain everything that’s changedfrom here on out.”

He and Sonny popped out of the car. I was still stuck in place trying to work itall out as they came around to drag Ted out of the car. Once they had Ted out, Hayworth checked hiswatch again.

“We’ve got to hurry,” he said. “Hale will be here in a few minutes.”

“But I’m here now,” I said as I got out of the car. Imanaged to perturb Hayworth again, which was fun. But, in the circumstances, it also made mefeel a little bad.

The two of them hustled on with Ted. I followed after them, not having any betteridea what to do. As we crossed thestreet to Ted’s warehouse, I got a chill up my spine as I looked in thedirection that I knew I’d soon be coming. But, there wasn’t any sign of me yet.

Sonny and Hayworth hauled Ted up the steps to the door. To my surprise, Hayworth pulled out a ring ofkeys and began going through them. Sonny, while waiting, reached a hand out and tried the knob.

The door opened.

It would seem that no one was comfortable with that as weall shared a look at one another.

“Take him,” Sonny said and foisted Ted over to Hayworth whoimmediately passed him over to me. I hadto admit that I wasn’t entirely comfortable with it. For one, I, like most sane people, was afraidof the guy no matter how human he looked. Two, I had to admit that I felt alittle sorry for him. After all, we were bringing him to his own death, even ifthat killer was going to be me.

So I grit my teeth and did my best to shoulder the big lug.

Sonny pulled something looked like Mickey’s raygun out thebig belt he had around his waist that had all sorts of gizmos in it. He nodded to Hayworth, and then eased openthe door just enough for him to slip inside.

But that little bit was still enough for us to see thatsomething strange was happening inside.

207.

2011-12-29T08:42:00.000-08:00

I had learned to know the sensation pretty well. Hayworth had hit the big button and we wereheaded to some other point in time. Thenthe blur was gone and there was a quick lurch as the wheels of the car bit intothe pavement of another time.

I sat up and caught a glance of myself in the rearviewmirror. I looked like the fairies hadsprinkled a pound of pixie dust on me. Taking another look at Sonny and I saw that he looked the same. There were a few small slits criss-crossingthe parts of his cheeks and chin that his goggles and mask didn’t cover. In the tiny red streams, I could seeiridescent sparkles.

Hayworth said something to Sonny who turned back around tome.

“Sorry,” he said from a mile away and under water. “Your ears…back…No protect…sound gun.”

I just nodded and leaned back in the back seat. I gave Ted a once over. He was still out. Hayworth must’ve dragged him to the car whileSonny and I were falling down the wall. I felt anger rising up in my throat, something like what I felt when Ithought back to killing him.

But with some memories gone and others being faulty, thefeeling had a kind of hollow ring to it.

I still hated him with every fire in my being. I still wanted him dead again. But I just couldn’t feel it with whateverpassionate hostility that had gotten me to kill him in the first place.

The girl in Room 13. What had we really meant to oneanother? Why had a I cared so deeply?

If anything, the rage that had killed Ted was not beingreplaced by an even deeper hatred for the people who messed up my memory. And it was getting hard to focus thathostility toward a bunch of blinking lights in the woods. If anything, Trish was becoming the primaryfocus of this new found hostility. Notthat my hostility for her needed anything new.

To take my mind off of it, I looked out the window. We were back near Ted’s warehouse, the one Ihad killed him in once upon a time. Ifelt like I should say something.

“I didn’t show up here the last time I was here,” I said,and felt a little stupid trying to express myself in time travel terms with multiple me’s.

“But you will be this time,” Hayworth said. “In that past, Ted hadn’t killed thegirl….but now he has.”

206.

2011-12-27T07:59:00.000-08:00

“Cut the rope, Hale,” Sonny said, and to my surprise, he wasactually climbing back up the rope.

Then I heard them, a muddle of voices.

Once I got the knife under my own ass and against the ropeto start sawing, I risked a glance up. Sure enough, Sonny was going back toward the window. Then I saw the heads that had popped out tolook at us.

In an instance, I felt two strange sensations.

Sonny had something in his hands pointed at the peepingpolice heads up above us. I felt the rope suddenly go semi-slack as my earscouldn’t hear a thing. It was like myears had popped while taking off on the airplane, but they never unpopped. They were just stuck in that murky quiet. Hands were covering the ears of the headsstill peeping out of the windows.

Then Sonny let go of the rope. He came sailing down at me, but it seemed soslow in the quiet.

Ass-first, he hit me in the chest, and my already abradedhands couldn’t hold on anymore. I let goof the line, and it was a good thing I did. Closely following Sonny was a rain of glass from the windows above us.

Before I had a second to wonder where Ted was, we’d alreadypast the end of the rope on the way down. That semi-slack feeling I had felt go into the rope must’ve been when Icut him loose without realizing it. Itlooked like I’d get to land on him after all.

At least, that’s what I thought on the way down, but I waswrong.

Ted wasn’t under me when I hit. There was some trash in the alleyway, somekind of textiles, that cushioned the blow on one side. On the other, Sonny flopped down hard onme. I started to wriggle free by hespread himself out to keep me covered.

Then the glass rained down on us, and I realized he wascovering me with this get up like an umbrella. I was terrified that he was being sliced to pieces, when I saw that whatwas landing around me was tiny. Sonnystill had one arm pointed to the sky, I could see just a bit of it from beyondhis head.

Before it even registered, he’d rolled off of me, and I waslooking at the sky. The heads of thecops were gone from the window frame. Apair of hands grabbed me under the armpits and began to drag me off the pile ofgarbage.

I blinked a few times, and I was in the car. When I was able to breathe and to move again,I realized that I was laying on top of Ted who was also slumped over in theback. Over the front seat, Sonny turnedaround from the passenger side. He gaveme a thumbs up just before everything blurred and smeared.

205.

2011-12-22T08:06:00.000-08:00

My hands burned, but thankfully were pretty numb. I gave the rope a couple of tugs, and theknot tying it to the spindle seemed to be pretty strong. If it did break, I was hoping that the goodLord would smile on me, and at least let me land on Ted. It might screw things up for the past, but itwasn’t like he wouldn’t deserve it.

I slid out of the window on my belly, and took a hold of therope once more.

I eased myself down as quickly as I could, in the hopes thatI’d be down before the pain told my hands that they couldn’t hold on anymore.

“Hale, you’ve got to hurry,” Hayworth yelled over tome. I glanced over to see him comingdown the ladder at top speed.

Then I felt the rope move more than just with Ted’s normalswing down below. I looked up to see the ass end of the costumed weirdo. He was coming down fast.

“Great idea, gumshoe,” he shouted down to me.

“Glad you like it,” I said, but was too tired to come upwith a witty retort. “We’re gonna come up a little short though.”

From what I could gauge, Ted was still dangling about ten totwelve feet off the ground. I was nearlydown to him now, and trying to be real careful not to put my fee through thesecond story window as I went by.

“Have you got a knife?” Sonny yelled down.

“Yeah,” I said. Itwas the stick knife, but it had a sharp enough blade to go through thisrope. In fact, it’d probably go throughit like a stick of stringy butter. “Lemme see if I can get it.”

My one hand holding myself up didn’t care for that toomuch. I think the only thing that savedme was that every tendon in every knuckle of my fingers was snapped closearound that rope. My fingers weresweaty, dirty and a little bit bloody, and splitting my concentration betweenholding on and searching for the knife wasn’t helping me in the fight againstgravity.

Finally, I had the hilt, and I drew it out of my coat.

I never took my eyes off of the knife, held against the ropeas I slid down the last few feet to Ted. He was babbling and gurgling about something and I wondered how muchlonger he’d be out. Maybe a good dropwould be enough to keep him docile for another few minutes.

Then I heard an expletive from the man on the rope above me.

204.

2011-12-20T08:33:00.000-08:00

I heard another muffled boom and a few scattered shotsfollowed by some yelling. Sonny wasstill at work on them. I hoped it didn’tget him killed. But, I really didn’thave the luxury of worrying about him.

I wanted to yell to Hayworth to see if he could teleport Tedout of here, or something crazy like that. I figured he already would have if he’d been able, and yelling mightjust call the cops further down the block.

For a brief moment, I saw the doctor still perched on theladder keeping an eye on the roof and the car.

I looked back in the room at the machinery. All I needed was some rope.

My mind was racing around thinking all kinds of stupidthoughts. This time travel thing hadreally put the zap on my head. I startedthinking in loops that maybe Hayworth knew what was going to happen and hadleft some for me on some other trip through. Or that if I bungled it this time, he’d come back by to do nexttime. Or that maybe he’d just magicallyappear in front of me and hand a coil over, while the other him still satoutside as the lookout. This whole thingseemed like it should be a whole helluva lot easier with the ability to jumparound through time.

But right about the time that it occurred to me that allthat would probably cause more problems and open more holes than it was worth,I spotted a machine that had a rope coiled up on a spindle.

It was all I needed.

I grabbed it and spun the length out to Ted, and had itaround him, under his armpits in an instant. I looked back at the spindle and could tell it wouldn’t be enough to gethim all the way down, but it’d get him low enough that he probably wouldn’t beall that damaged when he dropped the rest of the way.

Now, I tipped him over onto his side, and gave his legs apush out the open window.

While the rest of him started picking up momentum in a slow,lazy roll out the window, I got the rope in both hands. It would’ve been a good time to have gloves,but I wasn’t about to go searching for a pair. The rope was a little greasy,but it had enough dust for me to keep grip.

Finally, Ted reached the tipping point, and I had to give alittle nudge to send him out into the open breeze.

Gravity took him in a second, and the rope tore into mypalms. The spindle cranked and squeakedwith the added weight, and it took all I could do with a pair of raw hands tokeep him from rocketing straight to the pavement. Then, I ran out of rope and the spindle cameto a jarring stop.

I didn’t bother to look how far down I’d been able to gethim. It was high time that I got thehell out of the building.

203.

2011-12-15T07:27:00.000-08:00

Picking Ted up off the ground was not easy. He was bigger than I was, and there wasn’t awhole lot of time. Sonny, the costumedweirdo, in solving one problem had created another. And I was beginning to think that by time Igot Ted into a fireman’s carry, the cops’d be right on top of me.

Unlike with Mulligan, I actually wished that Denny was onthe other side of the door that I pushed open rather than the flight of stairsthat was there.

I had to wiggle around to get both me and Ted through thedoors. Then I started the marc up thestairs when I realized, there was no way in hell I was gonna be able to get Teddown the ladder without throwing him down and hoping for the best.

I didn’t know what was supposed to happen in the past tosolve all our problems. I assumed wewere gonna leave Ted for the enraged me of the past to shoot again. But to be honest, I don’t know that evenblinded with fury whether I’d be able to shoot a guy who was little more thanbruises and broken bones.

I needed something faster.

I turned back around to the fourth floor of thisbuilding. There were windows on the farside that faced the alley that Hayworth would be looking out for. I just had to get Ted from the fourth storyto the first.

I heard a boom down below. Sonny must’ve done something. Ididn’t hear anymore marching feet coming up the stairs. A few shots sounded off. I heard a rumble of feet scatter out. I could smell something in the thin trails ofsmoke that were already coming from the other stairwell door.

Whatever it was, was already making my eyes water. I couldn’t keep standing here.

The roof way was out. The windows across from me. Industrial building.

I just started running through the machinery toward thewindows. Ted was getting heavier withevery step. And the arm I was holding onto was getting slippery with blood from the shot I’d given him earlier. I didn’t know if I could get him back off theground again so I focused everything on not letting him drop.

My eyes scanned the machines around me for anything ofuse. The stuff must’ve been shut off fora long time. Most of it had collecteddust. In some places, the dust bunnieslooked like wool where they’d collected on oiled parts. There were cables connected things, but Ididn’t know if I could get them loose with Ted across my shoulders.

I got to the window and put Ted down on the sill, propped upin a seated position. I cranked open anangry, rusted window and looked down. There was the car, only three more floors below us.

202.

2011-12-13T07:35:00.000-08:00

“Hayworth and the car,” Ted grunted. “You think you’retaking me back, dontcha?”

“You can either go back to where you belong like a good boy,or you can die here. There ain’t a whole lot of time to decide,” I said.

Ted started coming at me again. He was getting too close to shoot tomiss. If I pulled the trigger again, I’dhave to put him down. Hayworth said thathe had to go back alive. I could scrapwith him, and hope to win. But there wasjust as good of odds that he would win, and then use my own gun to shoot me.

Then, he stopped coming at me. His eyes and shoulders sort of scrunchedup. Then his irises dialed up to the topof his eyes like he was trying to figure out how much of a tip he owed me. A second later, he went down like a towerunder controlled demolition and just folded to the floor.

I knew what had happened to him. I’d seen in with Mulligan. It was the costumed weirdo.

“Thanks, Sonny,” I said, and made sure to say his name niceand slow.

I heard the doorway Ted had come out of latch shut. He must’ve pushed it open quietly andtranq’ed him from there. A moment later,he pushed the door open, and walked through.

“How did you know?” he asked.

“You’re the security guard that went missing. I went looking for you a while back.”

“Mickey found out too, so I had to go undercover. Geez, I would have never thought keeping asecret identity would be this tough.”

“You need to move to a bigger city,” I said.

“But there’s plenty of work right here at home,” he said andwe both laughed.

Then, we heard a door slam, and there were feet marching upthe stairs.

“It’s the cops, Hale,” Sonny said. “There’s no more thugs left shootingdownstairs.

“Then we gotta get out of here quick,” I said and thenlooked at Ted. “He ain’t gonna make thateasy.”

Sonny thought fast, “You pick him up and I’ll take care ofthe cops.”

I told him where Hayworth had parked the car for him to comeand meet us.

“Guess, I’ll see you in the future,” he said and headed backinto the stairwell.

201.

2011-12-08T08:27:00.000-08:00

So, I did what came natural.

“Hey, Sparky,” I whispered.

When he looked at me, I used my split second to set my footfor emasculate. As soon as he started tobend over as though all this guts were imploding at once, I chopped him on theback of the neck with my gun. On thefloor, I kicked him as hard as I could in the ribs. It didn’t necessarily knock him out oranything, but it was pretty well guaranteed that he wouldn’t be getting up forat least ten minutes.

I kicked his gun as hard out of his hand as I could, whilekeeping my leveled at the door. I wasn’tlooking forward to this reunion, so I was perfectly ready for my gun to sendout the initial hello and goodbye.

“Hurry up, or I’m leaving you for the meat truck,” Ted saidwith head turned back to whoever was coming up behind him.

“I think you had better just leave them behind,” Isaid. It didn’t make sense to stayquiet, he’d know I was there soon enough.

“Hale,” Ted said and looked like he was going to bust uplaughing. “Of all the…I’d have thoughtyou would’ve stayed disappeared in the past. It was the only thing keeping you safe from me.”

He kept coming toward me with the door closing behind him.

So, I shot him.

We were close enough that it couldn’t have done much morethan take a chunk of meat out of his arm and leave a bit of a scorch mark. He froze in place gripping the newperforation in his upper arm.

“Ted? Ted? You all right up there?” the guy on the otherside shouted out.

I noticed that shooting had stopped. The police were probably in thebuilding. I told Ted as much.

“They’re in here, and that means your guys are dead. And each minute that goes by without themgetting shot at, they’re gonna get bolder and start coming up here faster,” andthen I lied, “And I’m content to just sit here and let them catch you. I got nothing better to do than answerquestions.”

Ted smiled, “I guess you don’t, what with your place andyour office burnt down.”

I could tell he was lying, so I wasn’t gonna let it distractme, “Or, you can come with me. I gotHayworth and the car waiting outside.”

200.

2011-12-06T07:55:00.000-08:00

“Hardly,” was all Hayworth replied. He didn’t take the bait like I had hoped.

“Then why don’t you just stay here? It’ll be a good vantagepoint for both seeing me coming back and keeping an eye on the car.”

“I’m sure Sonny’ll give you a hand,” he said.

I’d reached the top of the ladder and looked down onhim. Once again, Doctor Hayworth had achink in his snug suit of sureness. He’dsaid too much and he knew it. I didn’tlet on that I knew he meant the costumed weirdo, or that he’d solved one of themysteries for me.

“I hope somebody does,” I said starting the balancing actacross the I-beam from one roof to the next and toward the sound of whizzingbullets.

From my vantage point, I could see the cop cars in thestreets. The bulls were parked for cover,but were outgunned by whoever was in the building below me. The building was about five stories tall.Chance were that only a junior mob guy or two was on the first floor in directline of fire. A couple more on thesecond floor, and Ted was probably holed up on the third floor since the fourthwould probably be too hard an angle to shoot from without dangling out of thewindow.

That gave me hope for at least being able to sneak inside.

I put my first foot down on the roof of the other buildingand took a moment to start breathing again. Then I hoofed it over to service entrance. There was a lock on the door. I hated to doit because of the waste of ammo, but I shot it off. I wasn’t worried about the sound, it wasn’tlike anyone would notice.

I hopped down the long set of steps to the fourth floor andgingerly opened the door. The shootingcanceled out my being able to hear anyone creeping around. The floor was darkexcept the dull light that streamed in through soot covered windows. Machinery of some sort filled the floor, butno people.

I had to leave the cover of the stairwell to find the onethat would take me down the third floor.

Just as I eased up to it, the door started opening on it’sown. I came to a freezing stop along thewall.

“It’s clear, Ted,” the hood said without reallylooking. If he had, he’d have seen me asI was only a few inches from being able to touch him.

He came the rest of the way through the door, and I couldhear more footsteps on the stairs behind him. I had to think quick. He’d see me in a split second, but another gunshotwould alert Ted and whoever else was coming up those stairs.

199.

2011-12-01T08:23:00.000-08:00

“But when we dropped Georgie and Shorty off, you said thateverything was cool. You said that Ted’s gang had been stopped,” I said.

“They will be,” Hayworth answered with a very Errol Flynnsmile, “but that doesn’t mean we get to skip the part where we take care ofit.”

I had to admit, it was a boost to my confidence. “Alright,”I said. “What do we do?”

“We have to get Ted into the car,” he said. “That’s the onlyway I can transport us all back at once.”

“How many guys are we facing? Assuming we can slip past the cops,” I asked.

“I’m not sure. I was never able to get inside to check…untilafter they killed him. By then it’s toolate. Mulligan tried to get in first tohide it, but he gets stopped. Once thecops see that they killed a man who was already assumed dead…well, the rippleeffect is terrible. It doesn’t turn outwell for Mulligan…or for you.”

“Sounds like a decent incentive, but we’re gonna need help,”I said. “What about the freak in thefunny suit? Why can’t he help?”

“He already has, he tracked Ted and led us here.”

“So is he here some place?”

“Only one way to find out,” Hayworth said with a look thatsaid we need to get a move on. Then he confirmed, “We have to get moving. Thecops are going to start moving in soon.”

I looked around. There was some scaffolding type stuff that connected the buildingsaround here, from the top. I figured it’d be easier to traipse aroundundetected up top than anywhere from the ground. Besides, I wasn’t partial to taking any straybullets.

“How about the roof?” I said and gestured to a serviceladder. It’d take some maneuvering butwe could climb over the tin box that sealed off the first few rungs to keep outintruders and vagrants.

“Fine, as far as I know.”

I pushed over a dumpster. We climbed up on it and then hit the ladder.

“I should tell you know,” Hayworth said as we headed up thehandful of stories to the top. “I can only accompany you so far. One of us hasto make sure the car isn’t found and that it’s prepared to aid in our escape.”

“Sounds like you’re chickening out to me,” I said.

198.

2011-11-29T08:11:00.000-08:00

The gun in my shoulder holster was loaded. I was sure of that much. One of my other pockets contained a shortstick knife for extra-close encounters. And I was trying to think of how I could inconspicuously check anotherpocket for a set of brass knuckles I’d taken off of one of the local kidsbefore he’d brained one of the other local kids.

Then I realized, it could be a bit of a test if I just didit out in the open.

I shifted around in my seat to search all my pockets. Hayworth paid me no mind. He dialed up the new time, checked his watch,and split his eye between the speedometer and the road. By the time he hit the button, I pretty muchknew that I no longer had the knuckles on me.

When you’re hurtling through time, your voice makes a funnysound if you talk.

“Where to now, Doc? Gonna take me back to when my mom died just to cheer me up?” I said andit sounded like I was talking into a fan that was being struck by lightning.

When the world and everything else came back into focus, Icould hear the sounds of a gunfight. Iknew we weren’t going to mom’s funeral. She was more of a classy dueling sort of gal.

“I assume you know more about these things than I do, Hale,”he said and pulled into an alley. Wewere back in one of those dirty parts of town. The street, the walls, the sky, everything looked grey.

“Where are we?”

“The cops are laying siege to one of Ted’s hideouts.”

“And how and why are they doing that?”

“Partly, the answer is Mulligan,” Hayworth said. “But he hasn’t told them who their chasing.”

“But I thought Trish and her lights took care of him.”

“They’re trying to get rid of Ted, and think that anythingwill do. I thought I’d already shownthat they can be wrong before.”

“Who the hell are they then?”

“They’re from the future….they’re…” Hayworth waved me off.“We have to take care of this now.”

“We have to take care of whatnow? Can’t you try to make some goddam sense?”

“We have to capture Ted before he’s killed in this time andtake him back to when you killed him…to make sure that you kill him.”

197.

2011-11-24T08:08:00.000-08:00

“You know I wouldn’t let that happen,” said the other JimHale.

The minute the words came out of his mouth, I knew how thisstory was going to end. It wasn’tbecause my memory had come back. It wasn’t even that I had to put two and twotogether out of what Hayworth told me and what he was showing me.

Ted Mortigan did find out. He probably found out from Mulligan who I probably didn’t realize hadbeen on Ted’s leash. Ted killed her, andthat why I shot him. It was a vengeancekilling, but luckily Ted was dirty enough that I was able to get away with it.

“Hale?” Hayworth whispered as I sank back down beside him.

My heart was already sinking below my stomach and would hitthe bottom fast. I didn’t need these memories back. Whatever was going to happen here was sad.

“Let’s go,” I said under my breath.

We slinked back away from the building under the billowingcurtains and the return of the soft, pretty music.

“There’s nothing we can do to save her, is there?” I said.

“I had to bring her back to this point,” he said. “Trust me, Hale, it took no pleasure inreplacing her in the apartment just moments after the original her was spiritedoff to the present.”

“Guess you have to take solace in the fact that her memorywas wiped, so she didn’t know what was coming,” I said.

“Regrettably so,” he said. “She was meant to die in thistime, and so she had to.”

“I still don’t understand what she was doing with Trish’screw,” I said.

Hayworth sighed, “We don’t have enough time for me toexplain it. Mickey convinced me to bringher to the present to placate Ted. Yourex-wife’s group then nabbed her from Ted for two reasons. One, the lights told them to as part of theexperiment, and two, they were hoping to get some leverage over Ted. It didn’t work because Ted already knew whatwe didn’t: that she didn’t love him, she loved you.”

“So why hasn’t Ted come down on me with both feet? Why all the sneaking around? That’s not his style.”

Hayworth didn’t answer me. He didn’t answer me so clearly that I noticed it. He simply walked to the driver’s side of thecar and got in. And now I was forced towonder whether I’d be the passenger, both literally and figuratively, on theway to my own doom.

196.

2011-11-22T07:57:00.000-08:00

Lovey-dovey Jim Hale skipped up the walk, but gave a quicklook around before pressing the buzzer. The door had a mechanical lock that clicked open for him, and he steppedin.

“That’s it, Doc?” I said. “That’s what you brought me allthis way to show me? Me?”

Once again, I’d broken those solid handsome features. Helooked cross, “Of course not. Come on.”

We hunched down and walked along underneath the line ofwindows. About halfway down, one windowwas open. Music played inside. Music Iknew I had heard before, and not on the radio. The curtains blew out a little bit, and I could smell just a hint ofperfume, or incense, or maybe even a couple of candles.

I was dying to peek up inside, but Hayworth kept a stiffhand on my shoulder. I could hear my ownvoice, as well as the voice of a girl. The voice of the girl in Room 13. But, I couldn’t understand what eitherof them was saying.

Finally Hayworth let me go, and I eased up far enough to seein.

There she was, with her back to me. She wore some sort of lacey robe thing thatlet you see just enough of her and her unmentionables underneath. Sure, it made her look like a mobster’s girl,but that didn’t mean she didn’t look like a girl that anyone would be a damnedfool not to want. On the other side of her head was the other me, connected toher at the lips.

“And that’s the good news?” she said.

“No,” other me replied. “The good news is that we’ve gotenough to get him out of your hair forever.”

“But not yet, Jim,” she said and gave a little shiver. “He’s still out there on the loose. He’s already called once. I know he’ll come by here.”

Other me gathered her up in his arms, and said, “I’m sorry,babe, but you’re going to have to go along until the rest of the game playsthrough. You know how the cops are. Mulligan’s gonna have to have his guys redoevery step of the legwork I already did for him.”

The record on the player had ended and it was stuck skippingon that final loop.

She pulled out of the other me’s arms and I had to duck downout of view. She went to stop the record’s spinning, and stopped there.

“I went to you, Jim, so that I wouldn’t have to deal withthem,” she said. “You know cops. They’ll make so much noise and stir things upso much that Ted’ll kill me within the week.”