Joe Read online

  “Shoot.” Roy snapped his finger. “Joe’s prints on the explosive I thought might come up. Maybe.”

  “Maybe?”

  “Yes. I mean who would run a dead man’s prints.”

  “True.”

  “But I forgot about the keen ability people in this time have with investigating. You probably discovered the prints first, started looking for answers, and found the sandwich.”

  “Something like that.”

  “Please, have a seat.” Roy indicated to a chair as he sat on the end of the bed. “I would like to speak about all that occurred.”

  “Really? Cool.”

  “Yes. Cool. It is heavy on me. Because it was so difficult.”

  “I bet.”

  “No.” Roy shook his head. “More difficult than you would think. Cause this whole ‘Joe died’ wasn’t the way it was supposed to be.”

  Robbie tilted his head.

  Roy began his story, “We need to go back to the beginning of March.” He reached into the nightstand drawer and pulled out a flat black box about six inches long. “When I showed your father this.”

  Robbie took the box and listened to the story.

  “Hello, Joe.”

  Joe was seated behind his desk, and he raised his eyes when the office door opened. “Hello, Dean, since when did you stop knocking.”

  “Oh, many apologies.” Roy stepped back out and knocked.

  “Christ, come in.”

  “Thank you.” Roy stepped inside. “Hello, Joe.”

  “Again, hello, Dean. What’s up? I’m a busy man.”

  “Oh, yes, I know this.” Roy pulled up a chair. Then he stared.

  “What?”

  “It is an honor.”

  “Christ. Dean, are you drunk? Taking your own pills. What?”

  “I am not Dean.”

  “A-huh. You’re not.”

  “No.”

  “How long haven’t you been Dean?”

  “My whole life.”

  “Hold that thought.” Joe reached for his phone.

  “Who are you calling?”

  “Danny Hoi.”

  “Oh! I love him.”

  “Yeah.” Joe began to dial. “He has to check your chip.”

  “I don’t have a chip.”

  “Oh brother.”

  “Please don’t call Danny, Joe. I am not Dean. If I were where are my scars?”

  Joe peered closer. “Probably invented something.”

  “Never had them. Look at my hands. Are they worn?”

  “Ha! No. But Dean never did a hard day’s work. So …”

  “Joe. I am not Dean. I am from the future.”

  Joe shut the phone with a disbelieving voice. “I’ll hear you out. Go on.”

  “I have proof.”

  “This I gotta see.”

  Roy slid the box across the desk.

  Robbie looked at the small screen on the box. They showed images, pictures of New York City, slum like, half destroyed. People destitute. “I know there is a certain time point,” Robbie said. “When my father can announce he is alive.”

  “There is.”

  “You know that time point?”

  “I believe I do. I also believe that if we continue on the current path, with everyone assuming Joe has died, that we won’t see that future in your hands.”

  “Is this the proof? My father said you have proof of the point in time. That if need be you’ll bring it forward.”

  “No. I have a different disk for that. See, imagine if your histories John Kennedy wasn’t president. Imagine he was killed before the Cuban missile crisis. Imagine the man who was president took a different approach and the world was wiped out by nuclear weapons. If we knew John Kennedy would make a decision that would divert the disaster, and you as a time traveler went back and stopped his death, stopping the war, what proof would you secure to show him, during the Bay of Pigs controversy, that he indeed was on the right track.”

  “Wow, that’s a long question. JFK was under a lot of scrutiny during the Bay of Pigs. So, I would want to show him the future if he wasn’t president, and proof that despite what people were saying, his firm stance was the right move.”

  “Exactly.”

  Robbie shrugged. “If I was from the future I would have something on my possession that they didn’t have in the 60’s, and something that showed what the other president did.”

  “Exactly. I have that proof.”

  “So obviously, Frank has to make a decision that’s unpopular and one my dad wouldn’t make. And, when he does, you’ll pull forward the proof that if he hadn’t made that decision the world would turn to shit again.”

  “Yes.”

  “Can I see it?” Robbie asked.

  “No. I don’t want you to influence. If you know what is to occur, you may influence.”

  “But we have the ALS3, so that should help.”

  “It was up in running in time before.”

  Robbie looked at him curious. “The ALS3 isn’t the key.”

  “No. Leadership is.”

  “What did you tell my father?”

  “I told him a Great War was coming and to think tough on his decisions, because if he didn’t, those pictures would eventually occur.”

  “And he said what?”

  “I explained think tough. He acknowledged. Agreed to stay silent. And would make tough choices. I went back to the future. And nothing changed.”

  “What my father thought was tough, wasn’t tough enough?” Robbie asked.

  “No.”

  “Then you decided he had to die or at least look like he had to die.”

  “Yes. But things got screwed up,” Roy said. “I then went to November of this year. In the midst of everything. Got future Joe. Told him he was warned by me, and it was future Joe who agreed that he didn’t have it in him to make the decision needed. So, I grabbed him and took him back to March. I figured if Future Joe looked as bad as he did, present Joe would see the importance of what we had to do. Present Joe saw himself, and was man enough to realize that perhaps, humanely, he didn’t have it in him to make the right decision.”

  “Does my present father know what that decision is?”

  “No. He agreed to disappear. We all agreed that Frank would be the best.”

  “So,” Robbie said. “You guys set an explosion, put my dad in an invisa suit, and killed future Joe with the plan my dad stays hidden until that one event and decision.”

  “That’s correct.”

  “Got it.” Robbie nodded. “Easy enough.”

  “I thought so, too. But it went awry.”

  Robbie peered up. “How?”

  “Jason.”

  “Jason?”

  “Ok, maybe not all Jason. But he really screwed some of it up. Him and not thinking things through,” Roy explained. “See when I secured the future Joe, I also secured, in a sense, the death of Joe. Jason sent a message to himself. Warning of Joe’s murder. History showed it was a clear concise message.”

  “But that message came through jumbled.”

  “Ah,” Roy lifted a finger. “I have theory on that. I’ll get to it. But first. This one. As near as I could figure, he called in you and Frank. That was it. I had everything wired for sound so I could monitor what was happening.”

  “What happened?”

  “One word. Frank. What does Frank never fail to do? What was the one thing all of you were angry about?”

  “Saving the day.”

  “Exactly.” Roy said. “Everything was ready. Joe was in his office. It was March 21st.”

  “The day after Frank’s wedding?”

  “Yes.”

  “But he died before …”

  “Wait. Allow me to finish. Your father knew he was going to be gone a while, and wanted to really send out some nice emails to everyone he loved. Future Joe wanted to as well, so they both decided they would both write emails.”

  Robbie smiled.

  “What?”
>
  “The emails. Some were simple. Some were deep.”

  “Past Joe, future Joe. Anyhow, I was standing outside the office with Future Joe. He was in an invisible suit. We were laughing because Joe was getting bombarded with phone calls and was getting frustrated. I had set the timer, there wasn’t much time. And we had no idea whatsoever, Jason sent that message.”

  “Ok,” Joe spoke, his words being picked up by Roy. “Send him in.”

  Future Joe in the suit made his way into the office.

  Roy waited. It was a matter of time. He listened to the exchange of words between the Joes. And the door opened. Present Day Joe, wearing the suit, emerged and walked to Roy.

  “All set. Fifteen minutes.”

  They stayed and waited to make sure there were no problems. But at four minutes and counting, Future Joe got a phone call.

  “Robbie, what … in my office. Why?”

  Robbie paused Roy’s story. “I made a call to try to find my dad.”

  Roy nodded, then continued.

  “Why is Robbie calling, why do you sound so upset?” Roy asked.

  “I don’t know … Jesus Christ.”

  “What?”

  “Frank.”

  From over the hill, full speed, like only he could run, Frank raced toward the office.

  “Goddamn it he’s going in there.” Joe rushed to remove the suit.

  “Frank!” Roy called out.

  Frank was focused, he ran into the office.

  “Son of a bitch.” Stripped out of the suit, Joe ran with everything he had to the office.

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

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

  “Are you all right?” Frank asked.

  One minute.

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

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

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

  Boom.

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

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

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

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

  “What happened to you?”

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

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

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

  “So you began the mutilator attacks.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

  “Joe told me on the 19th.”

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

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

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

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

  “Changing the date.”

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

  “Making things more difficult.”

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

  “But the moment you set the explosive time …”

  “We didn’t.”

  Robbie looked at him curiously. “Then how.”

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

  “The radio.”

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

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

  “Exactly.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

  *****

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

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

  It made sense.

  So close to home.

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

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

  “No. Where did you find her?”

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

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

  “I know.”

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

  Frank shrieked out in revelation. “Uh!”

  “What?”

  “I got it.”

  “What?”

  “Man, I can be slow.”

  Ellen snickered. “What did you get?”

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

  “Womb? Like Alex’s says her ‘r’.”

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

  “I’m lost.”

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

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

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

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

  “No, what?”

  “You lost it.”

  “What?”

  “The Killer Fetus.”

  “Thankfully it only fucking kills dolls.”

  Ellen screamed.

  “What?”

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

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

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

  “Yes it is.”

  “Frank, look at this doll.”

  “Exactly. Obviously it only eats plastic.”

  “For now.”

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

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

  “No, we do not.”

  “Yes, we do.”

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

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

  “I do not. You lie.”