Mayhem in a PillChapter 58 Hiccups are Unexpected
- 3 years ago
- 16
- 0
From the man-made lake behind the imposing home, the sounds of the raucous party were easy to hear even before exiting the minivan.
“I guess we came to the right place,” Tim snickered. George smiled and motioned for help retrieving their purchases as well as the overnight bags from the rear hatch.
“Welcome, friends, welcome!” Jose, Uncle Justin’s right-hand man, approached the two, who looked shocked to see the man they had just left a few minutes earlier.
“Hang on. You didn’t pass us. How’d you get here before us?” George questioned.
Jose waved off the question like there was no reason to wonder. “Oh, I have my ways. Please, let’s get you guys all situated and then join the fun!”
The three men grabbed the beer and their overnight bags and entered the majestic foyer of the house on a lake. Both George and Tim quickly found themselves distracted by a group of half-naked college-aged women chasing after each other. They were all screaming in glee, avoiding being tagged and running around a pool table.
“You two know your rooms. They are already set up for you,” Jose explained as the ten-second head starts for the next tagged person had expired, and nubile flesh exploded in different directions. All three were smiling widely at the infectious fun. “Hurry back up and grab a beer before they are all gone!” Jose quickly picked up the extra cases of beer the two others were holding and quickly strutted toward the backyard entrance in perfect beat with the pulsating music.
George and Tim took a moment to watch the older man effortlessly handle the six cases of beer and strut toward the backyard. The two looked at each other in amusement and quickly moved to put away their overnight bags and get back to the party.
That complete, they exited onto the backyard patio and paused for a moment to take in the view. About a hundred partiers filled nearly every square foot of open space surrounding Uncle Justin’s manufactured lake. The vast majority of revelers were college-aged, but a few others seemed a couple of years older. George then noticed several of the girls, those still wearing some kind of top, were sporting t-shirts emblazoned with an Austin-area strip club logo. Several other shirt logos represented several sororities from the Austin-area colleges. Nearly every patio seat and chaise lounge were occupied by a nubile woman soaking in the prevalent sunlight in their barely-there attire.
Along the edge of the deck overlooking Uncle Justin’s manufactured lake, several girls were dancing to a bass-heavy club hit while simultaneously attempting to avoid streams of water fired at them from the lake. Several men were floating on the lake in multi-colored rubber inner tubes while armed with expansive, complicated water-spurting rifles. The streams produced by these weapons could each easily remove any of the multi-colored streamers strategically attached to each girl’s body.
The race to extract the streamers was a fierce competition. Apparently, the rules were rather lax because a couple of the guys ditched their tubes, scrambled onto the edge of the deck, and began ripping off streamers from each of the girls. However, they did ham-string themselves by using only his teeth.
Rather quickly, a winner celebrated his win by throwing one nubile young woman over his shoulder and jumping feet-first back into the lake. When they came up for air, the two were now nude and deep into getting to know each other a little better. They slowly made their way off toward one of the many privacy alcoves bordering the lake. It was a little surprising they were able to find an empty one. None of the party-goers were particularly shy.
Several couples appeared throughout the lake, patio, and beach entrance areas interspersed among the plethora of nude, female flesh. It was not difficult to miss a few more daring couples thoroughly enjoying each other and the bright and warm sun overhead. Several groupings were doing the no-pants dance in beat with the heavily bass-filled club music popular with the younger members of the crowd.
There were several women off to the side, in the bright sunlight, working on full-body tans. Many more were lying prone on beach towels. However, the most eye-catching area featured several scantily-clad women lathering themselves and each other with gallons of suntan oil.
Floating in a few different spots on the lake were small islands that were big enough for three people to comfortably use the built-in stripper poles. Undeniably, these girls were not new to the use of the poles, either.
Tim nudged George to get his attention then pointed off to the side of the entrance. Burly workers were unloading dozens of cases and a couple of kegs off of a Shiner beer truck. They weren’t moving fast, but they undoubtedly were enjoying the sights!
The backyard patio area met the lake’s edge with a sand beach entrance. Several topless women were playing an unorganized yet raucous game of something akin to volleyball in the shallow beach entrance of the lake.
Off to one side, the deepest part of the lake, stood the diving platform. Behind it, at the platform’s base, was a large dance floor surrounded by speakers and club lighting. The lighting was off since the strong sunlight would dampen their effects. A young man in his early 20s feverishly worked over the soundboard and mixed current club hits with older choices in a DJ booth built into the bottom of the diving platform. The partiers enjoyed his efforts.
“Yes! Welcome, friends, to my home! I’m glad you all could come out today for a little bit of a good time!” At first, it was challenging to find the amplified voice’s source, but then he made his presence known to all. Uncle Justin was in his standard uniform consisting of a festive Hawaiian shirt, blue jean shorts, and leather sandals. He served as the ever-vigilant emcee high above the lake on the diving platform.
“Well, how about this great music from DJ Stiff-E on the ones and twos! Let’s have a round of applause for him!” Uncle Justin was cheering and waving his hands above his head like a crazy person. The fellow partiers were eating it all up, and the sense of fun was easy to catch.
“Holy shit! Well, it’s about time y’all got here!” Uncle Justin pointed down to Tim and George, who had just received a couple of beer bottles from Jose. “Ladies and gentlemen! The true festivities can now begin with the arrival of our judges! So, ladies, if you are going to compete, make your way to the dance floor right now! You two stay there. I’ll be right down!” Uncle Justin passed the microphone off to the DJ behind him on the diving platform. A quick couple of steps and Uncle Justin jumped out toward the deeper end of the lake. The cheers all around highlighted everyone’s approval of his form of a cannonball. Just splashed, the girls on the floating dance islands didn’t even miss a step.
Uncle Justin launched out of the water like a dolphin performing at SeaWorld. He quickly swam up and out of the lake, utilizing the beach entrance. “Welcome! Welcome! I’m glad you guys could make it out for the weekend. I had a few friends stop by, and we decided to make a party out of it. I hope y’all don’t mind.” Both Tim and George shook an answer of no, but neither could wipe the giant smiles off their faces.
Uncle Justin leaned in toward the two, whispering, “Don’t worry, they ain’t here all night; just a little party then, afterwards, we can get together and go over some stuff.” Uncle Justin backed up, and the volume in his voice picked up again. “Well, come on, guys! We need to go over the rules of the twerking competition before the more self-doubting girls decide to bow out of the competition. No one wants that now, do they?”
An hour later, Uncle Justin’s impromptu twerking competition turned into a nude diving competition, and several men joined in the fun. The best was a couple who hugged each other and jumped off the platform together. The splash they made together was epic, and they indeed won the main prize. Uncle Justin gave them a thousand-dollar gift certificate good for any of his websites. They showed great appreciation for the award.
Eventually, hunger began, and Jose, Uncle Justin’s right-hand man, took his spot as the grill master, churning out everything from hamburgers to steaks to lobster tails. Thus, the party morphed into a celebration for the workers of Uncle Justin’s websites. Several of the new guests looked like they did not get out very often. Others looked like they had not ever see much nude, female flesh that was not on a screen.
One of the funnier moments was Uncle Justin catching one of his programmers watching something on his phone while two women were massaging themselves right beside him. He didn’t notice the girls until Uncle Justin pulled the phone out of his hands and physically turned the poor guy’s face to see the lotion ooze its way between the thighs of a rather busty blonde.
Uncle Justin, Tim, and George were all seated at the main outdoor table, with their lunch served by Jose. Tim could not hold his curiosity any longer. “Okay, Jose, how in the hell did you beat us here from Walmart? I mean, we left the parking lot and didn’t even see you pass us by when we turned down the entrance road. No one passed us. How’d you beat us here?”
Jose had just served Uncle Justin his second helping of surf and turf and sat down to enjoy his own. The security expert’s initial uneasiness toward the new friends quickly dissolved into genuine happiness with a warm, smiling, and welcoming face as he responded, “Well, I know the back ways to get here from Walmart. I don’t much like any traffic, and it is a private road.” The road is mostly covered by trees, and it pretty much backs up to the rear loading docks of the Walmart. I have access to the back door, and I always do my shopping in and out through the back, so I have a much straighter shot here than through the winding entrance road.”
“You can’t find the road unless you know it’s there,” Jose explained, “and you do need a four-by-four to use it anyway. It’s not paved.”
“I own the land the Walmart is sitting on. We have a standing deal with them to keep the area clear so we can come in and out whenever we like,” Uncle Justin added. He grabbed the opened bag of corn chips off the table and shoved a handful into his mouth. Tim figured it was the same bag that Jose had started munching on in the Walmart. “It wasn’t on their leased land, so they didn’t much care, and since then, the manager and I have become good friends. He was already a member of several of my emergency preparation websites.”
Uncle Justin shoved some more chips in his mouth, and without finishing his chewing, he continued, “Good guy. He gave us a key and put us on the electronic logs, so we can come and go through the back like we’re employees.”
He smiled and bent over for an ice cooler sitting beside him. Then he pulled out two bottles of Shiner Bock and slid one over to Jose.
The debauchery of the day began to wind down well after the sun went down for the day. Eventually, people simply started tiring from a full day of non-stop fun in the sun. Interested couples formed groups under the patio’s protection from the sun and any spying eyes. Their rather explicit gang bangs likely also led to worn-out adults.
It turned out Uncle Justin had standing deals to bring in girls for eye candy and have a good time. The girls from the strip clubs and sororities took the day as an excuse for sunlight and an effortless payday. If they created side deals with any of Uncle Justin’s guests, that was totally between the two parties. Uncle Justin just advised the transactions be made inside or under the shade as a precaution.
A Greyhound bus pulled up to the main entrance, and the girls all had re-donned the clothes they wore when they arrived. The majority of Uncle Justin’s guests also made their way to their cars. Tim smiled to himself when he noticed the vast majority of those vehicles were luxury SUVs riding much lower than expected. He turned to Jose and pointed to the convoy of SUVs pulling out of the monstrous underground garage heading out of the compound and asked, “Why are those SUVs riding so low?”
Jose looked at what Tim pointed to and answered, “Bulletproofing.”
Without saying anything, Jose read Tim’s physical response and nodded an added affirmation. George heard the question and shook his head at the thought but drowned any further questions in his latest bottle.
“Do you do these parties very often?” George queried aloud, motioning to the remaining partiers at the table.
“Well, this one just sort of popped up. I usually do these once a month or so just as a way for my employees to wind down. I started them because I realized I was losing many employees because of the stress. I’m not the easiest guy to work for, you know,” was Uncle Justin’s reply.
The afternoon’s libations affected Jose, and he couldn’t stop his snicker. That set off the rest of the table, but Uncle Justin just smiled, reclined in his seat, and put his feet up on the table like he was on cloud nine.
A few moments later, a final convoy of SUVs pulled out of the garage and made their way down the entrance road. A change in atmosphere was almost palpable as the remaining group grabbed their places at the table. Uncle Justin toned down his attitude from the afternoon and filled it in with an authoritative air.
“Okay. I think everyone throughout the day has had a chance to meet both George and Tim here, right?” The others at the table aimed smiles and waves at the two.
“Fellas. These are the people behind the websites and their ulterior uses.” Uncle Justin stood up from his seat and began pacing behind the others. “Martin Ortiz here is a top-of-the-line programmer and responsible for the majority of the security behind my sites. He also runs the unit of programmers who work on our other projects. There is no need to go over them here, but I suggest you guys get together and talk shop about what you guys can do. I have a feeling together you guys can help each other in thousands of ways we haven’t even thought of yet.”
The older Hispanic man wore what appeared to be a replica of Uncle Justin’s Hawaiian shirt, blue jean shorts, and leather sandals. His dark brown eyes were a striking contrast to his more salt than pepper hair. “Martin is an encryption expert, and his work is the basis for many inferior anti-virus programs on the market. He saved the good stuff for the programs we only use with our friends. He wrote the programs we are now using in our PCs.”
He continued to the next person – a much younger man in his early twenties but looking even more youthful. “This is Brett Mason. He is another programmer here, and his specialty is actually web design. That may not seem like much, but he is absolutely the fastest in the game I’ve ever seen, and we have yet to find a mistake or flaw in any of his designed sites. He is more in the front of our in-house businesses. I mean, look at this pale face. He just oozes programmer who doesn’t ever see the sun.”
Uncle Justin pushed the brim of Brett’s Texas Rangers baseball cap down to his nose like a brother annoying his younger sibling. “He also happens to be an incredible hacker.” The young man seemed to glow at the praise from his boss.
Uncle Justin continued around the table and stopped between a couple who had not taken their hands off each other since Tim and George arrived, as far as Tim and George had seen.
“Next, guys, we have Gloria and Fred Upton. These two wonderful people are the heart and soul of the sales force for my companies. These guys have an address book that every salesman in the world would kill to get their hands on. Gloria and Fred know everyone, or at the very least, they know someone who knows. These two can sell air conditioning to Eskimos dancing on the north pole. For the behind-the-scenes-work we do, they also seem to know where all the bodies are buried. So if there is something we need to know, they’ll know who to talk to.” The two looked up to Uncle Justin like they were in love with him. The praise from Uncle Justin seemed to have the same effect on them as it did for Brett. George decided that was something important to remember for later.
Uncle Justin moved to the final person at the table. If you weren’t looking right at him, you’d forget he was in the room. He was the blandest person George had ever seen. Everything about him screamed “boring.”
“This is Frank Diaz. At least, that is what he has asked us to call him,” Uncle Justin explained. The brown-haired, brown-eyed, thirty-something man nodded slightly at his introduction. “Frank does not seem to exist in the eyes of the government. At least, none of the people I know have ever been able to find anything on him.”
Uncle Justin smiled and put both hands on Frank’s shoulders. “But damn, if Frank can’t figure out how to navigate through the miles of red tape our great government is built upon -- not only our government but also the vast majority of governments around the world. He is a good guy to have in your pocket.”
Uncle Justin walked back to his seat and pulled the chair out but did not sit down. “Tim,” he challenged, “could you demonstrate a little bit of what makes you a bit different?” He pulled out a knife from a hidden sheath underneath his Hawaiian shirt and stabbed it into the table in front of Tim.
Tim looked to George, who nodded his approval, then he stood up and pulled the lamp in the middle of the table closer to him. He noticed several others standing up to get a better look at the demonstration. It seemed everyone at the table had a good idea of what made Tim different from everyone else, but they needed a demonstration.
Tim flattened his hand onto the table and carefully sliced across the meat of his hand, making a deep cut and producing a good amount of blood after the initial incision. There was an audible sigh of shock from both the Upton couple and Bret, the young hacker. The group sounded enthralled when, at first, the blood seemed to pool around the hand then eventually disappear from the slice. Finally, after a few moments, the incision itself appeared to be fading.
“Holy shit, it’s like it’s stitching itself back together. If I hadn’t have seen it myself, I wouldn’t believe it,” Fred Upton exclaimed as he sat back down next to his wife. She nodded her head in agreement, and her face showed complete astonishment.
“I’ve heard about the lab where you two work and even heard a few rumors about the stuff being done there, but I’ve not heard thing one about you or any true time travel experiments going on down there,” Frank admitted and took a deep swig from a newly-opened bottle of beer.
“I’ve heard plenty about you, George. Your name is held in high regard among the security people for the government. There is not much coming out from your domain, though.” Frank said and finished off his bottle. “You do good work. Tight ship. I’m glad to meet ya,” Frank disclosed while opening another bottle. The others around the table let go of a deep breath they probably didn’t realize they were holding. Frank blushed as he sat down and looked around the table of the others.
Uncle Justin explained, “Frank wasn’t sure he wanted to meet either of you since he could not get much information on either of you. I guess we all half-thought Frank would lose his shirt.”
“Awe, come on, guys. I’m not that bad,” he said as he finished off a second bottle in as many minutes. He then reached for a third, and while twisting off the top of the bottle, he looked up as if a thought had just crossed his mind. “Am I?” The laughs around the table were genuine, and the smiles were also helpful in getting past an initially awkward moment.
After a good hour of answering some very pointed and intelligent questions, Tim decided to put the group on point. “So, do I pass the test?”
“Sorry about that, guys,” Uncle Justin apologized. “It’s just if we are going to find a way to get you where you are supposed to go, well, we are gonna need some help. I trust every person in this room, and the number of others I trust who are not in this room is smaller than those actually here.”
Uncle Justin was about to take a drink from a bottle of beer when something hit his memory. “Wait a sec,” he said, looking around the room. “Where’s Mikey?”
Everyone looked around, assuming he was somewhere in the room, but gradually everyone realized they had not seen the hide nor hair of him or Dr. Thompson. The two usually arrived and left together since they lived closer to each other than anyone else.
“I haven’t heard from him in a few weeks, now that I think about it,” Tim admitted. “I figured he’d be here with Doc Thompson, but I haven’t heard from him, either.”
Uncle Justin glanced at his right-hand man, and the man picked up a tablet, adjusted headphones over one ear, and concentrated on the screen. After a moment, Jose looked to his boss and shook his head negatively, then immediately went back to his tablet. This time he stood from the table and made his way to a desktop in the corner. Uncle Justin quickly followed.
“So, Tim, have you taken a chance to look yourself up and see where you are in this world?” Frank challenged, trying to change the focus at the table away from the two in the corner.
“Yeah, but nothing came up. I’ve tried old addresses and everything, but nothing checks out. The old places are there and everything, it’s just that the people who live there are different than I remember. the only one from my past I’ve found was George here, and that’s really it.”
“Are there any other changes you’ve noticed since you’ve been here? Have you seen any opportunities to make some changes in your life or, more to the point, your situation?” Fred asked, earning an elbow to the stomach from his wife. “What?! Just a question! I mean, he’s got to earn a living. No sucking off George’s teet forever now, can he?” The laughs from the group were once again sincere.
“Damn, man,” Frank Robinson fumed as he slammed his right hand and forearm on the roof of the Ford Explorer. “Why the fuck did you do that, man?” Tim was about to slide into the passenger seat but stopped himself and stood back up to look at the driver and captain of the defensive side of the school’s varsity football team. “What are you talking about? I got a map to the real party right here,” Tim answered, a bit confused by his friends’ change in attitude. “Dude, never. Never. Never....
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We couldn't tell how closely they had been watching Tink's house or even if they were so we didn't head straight there. I'm sure it would have been safe enough but I didn't want to take even the small chance of getting into a firefight. Besides I had no desire to see Cynthia right then and Tink didn't want to go back home just yet. Tink did call her to briefly say she was okay and would be home soon. Luckily I had to only hear half of that conversation. "I'm fine, Mom," Tink said...
- Daniel- Okay, I knew the Xanadu was big but until you look down at it from a few thousand meters you can't really know just how fucking big it really is! Sure I know the specs and you can look them up yourself if you want to: 1,450 meters in length, 524 meters wide, displaces about 180,000 tonnes and carries up to 20,000 passengers with a crew of almost 3,000. That's not a ship, it's a small floating island! We got a good look at it as we flew out to meet it on the shuttle. Of course...
-Sumalee- I was happier than I probably should have been when Daniel walked into my lounge again the next day and sat down at the bar. I could not tell you exactly why I was happy he had returned but I was. I mean ... looking at him through unbiased eyes he is not particularly handsome, other than in an everyman, rugged sort of way. But he was nice and listened, laughed at my silly jokes and seemed to be enjoying talking to me for a reason other than just a ploy to separate me from my...
-Sumalee- It was still dark when I woke up that first night although I could see a little in the dimness from the small amount of moonlight shining in through the window. I rubbed my cheek on the warm surface I was sprawled on and smiled when I was rewarded by the scratchy roughness of Daniel's chest hairs. I hadn't moved a centimeter from where I had fallen asleep and neither had he. I was still face down on his chest as he lay on his back. He was not snoring but I could hear and feel the...
-Mr. Black- "Do you have the vest made up?" Black asked as Green frowned at him. "Yeah, sort of," Green replied. Before Black could ask the obvious question he continued. "The gel is setting up and will be ready at the same time everything else is. It'll go off; no problem. No, the problem is the detonator; actually the remote activator for the detonator. This wasn't exactly in the mission plans so we didn't bring that kind of equipment with us. I was able to adapt an old raghead...
-Sumalee- To say it had been an interesting evening would be an understatement. The relationship Daniel has with his team would make for a lifetime study by any clinical psychologist. We met two more of them that night: the brothers Stanley and Samuel. Their reaction to Lidia and myself was fascinating. It was almost like they had known us as long as Michelle, Brian and Nathan; almost like they had shared memories. As I said, fascinating, exciting and just a little intimidating. Not that...
A Man of Wealth and Taste Raymond Murphy had trouble keeping the smile off his face. His son Tim was going on and on about how cool it was being on the sidelines for the varsity football win against the Clark Cougars. The first half of football featured an unsure Roosevelt team going up against a Clark team who, though good, was not up to their usual standards and was going to have a down year. Roosevelt was not expected to make the playoffs. “I’m telling you, Dad, Frank Robinson looked...
Leonard Huffnagle was having a lot of trouble looking for dirt on Tim Murphy from San Antonio Roosevelt High School. The only tangible thing he was able to confirm was that Tim had gifted the Trojan iPad, given by Coach Andrew Thomas of IMG Academy, to his little sister, Carmen. IMG was known for recruiting the best high school football players from across the country and giving them highly specialized coaching to better prepare them for college football. Kids graduating from IMG often...
Rodney Valentine’s throat was sore from his screaming. His knuckles were scratched and bruised from pounding on that poor, unsuspecting asshole who didn’t know any better. Rodney was especially pissed because no one could figure out why he was so pissed off in the first place. Valentine and his posse of teammates arrived at the house party a little bit later than everyone else, as usual. It was an unwritten rule that the host of the party would have the game highlights from that weekend’s...
Tim, Troy, Rob, Frank, and Jeff were quiet most of the way on the drive to the address included with their multi-colored cards found in their lockers after the beating the Rough Riders had given to the Johnson Jaguars. The five young men crammed into Jeff’s GTO were mostly quiet, daydreaming about the story Troy had told them. “I think I know what this is. You guys feel like having an experience?” Troy asked with a strange, tilted smile. “My dad told me a story that he said I could never...
A Messy Situation Once Tim Murphy closed his bedroom door and turned on the bedroom lamp, he blew a quick kiss to his one-and-only Cindy, taped up on the wall, and collapsed on the bed with the biggest smile of his life. Tim was quietly reliving what had happened to him after the game. When he laughed to himself, he realized he didn’t even think about the game when the great time he had that night ran through his mind. The quiet knock on the bedroom door alerted him to the here and now. The...
Tim Murphy and the nanites in his body had already written the two reports – one for his English class and the other for his US History class. It was just a matter of typing and formatting the report in the proper sets. All in all, the two assignments only took a few minutes to type, save, and email to their respective teachers. When he sent his English paper, he had a flash of remembrance of his short relationship with his English teacher, Julianne Holmes, considered one of the hot teachers...
The week of practice started with a few announcements from Big John on Monday morning. Big John had canceled morning practice with a sign written on the giant dry erase board along the long wall in the locker room. He didn’t cancel all practice, but it would be just no helmets or pads. That meant a full hour of lifting weights rather than working out on the practice fields in full pads – a day off for sure. Before practice would have typically begun, the Roosevelt football teams met in the...
Going into downtown San Antonio for evening dinner was rare for the Murphy family. Of course, they went out to dinner occasionally but not very far from their neighborhood. Raymond had ordered the women in his life to a day of indulgence at their favorite beauty spa to get pampered and eventually have their makeup done. While the womenfolk were enjoying their day of pampering, the men folk went to fill a glaring hole in the younger Murphy man’s life: the lack of a nice suit. Tim had never...
As they did so often, the Murphy family sang along with the music on the radio. The Murphy parents both enjoyed all genres and encouraged their children to listen to all types of music. Juanita had her favorites and listened to them with the specialized music channels through the cable provider. She preferred the popular hits from the 1980s and 1990s, while Raymond also preferred that and rock music from the 1970s. The patriarch of the family steered into a parking lot nearby the...
The next day was moving day. I've heard how being out on tour with an entertainer can seem a little like riding a tornado without a safety belt but you couldn't tell that by me. I've heard how some tours play twenty cities in twenty days but that isn't how things are done in Ireland. Time seems less important and venues aren't always open when you want them to be. We were doing 25 shows in three months and that included a two-week break in the middle to "relax." Not exactly an arduous...
The next few weeks were just plain work. It probably seems like touring with a popular band would be great fun and endless adventure but mostly it was a lot like combat: endless hours of boredom interrupted by moments of shear terror. Well, terror is probably a bit of an overstatement, maybe agitation and concern would be more appropriate. Anytime the girls were heading into a large crowd there was a concern; happily we hadn't had anything like the clusterfuck we'd seen in Clonakilty but...
I opened the front door and peeked around; it looked like the coast was clear. I slipped in and quickly walked over to the stairs, but just as I got to them a loud, deep voice stopped me in my tracks. "Philip! What are you doing home so early?" "Oh, hi, Grandma -- I mean, Maude. Uh, they let us out..." "What happened to you?" My grandmother was tall and when she walked, her long housecoat billowed out behind her like some superhero's cape. She stood right over me, her gray hair...
Feb 12, 2011 10:24 Am You were supposed to have checked out of the hotel by 11 am. The bags were packed but you had needs that must be tended to before leaving. A long flight awaited you at the airport and knowing you couldn't stand to be this horny all the way home you decided to take matters into your own hands one more time before leaving. I had been given the key to your room from the hotel manger. This was a room that was scheduled for remodeling and my contracting firm was putting in a...
A by product of time travel that no one knew about was the momentary blindness and nausea brought on from the rapid assault to your senses immediately after travel. But for some reason only on your return. When he re-materialized in the time travel chamber, Tim Murphy needed to shield his eyes from the suddenly ultra bright lights. He also needed to make a concerted effort to control his nausea. Nausea controlled and his sensitivity to light diminishing, Tim decided it was time to see how...
The drive to the hospital was uneventful and easy enough. Tim’s mother, Juanita, parked the family SUV in a General’s parking spot, right outside the front entrance to the emergency room. Tim’s father, Raymond, who was standing just inside the ER doors, knew from the frantic sound of his wife’s voice on the phone that she would not obey the parking rules and would take the first available space she found. Raymond quickly reached the SUV before Juanita could turn off the engine. He stuck his...
Summer two-a-day practices are a rite of passage for the Texas high school football player. The players arrived at their new high school, two weeks before the start of the new school year. Sure, they were only going to the football locker room, the football practice fields and also the weight room; but the psychological advantage of being able to GO to high school, earlier, was a definite positive feeling for the young soon to be high schooler. Freshmen did not have their own cars ... yet....
To say Tim was excited, would be a major understatement. “It was sooo cool, Mom,” Tim was almost jumping up and down in the front seat of the SUV while his mother was driving them home. “I was sitting there reading, and the librarian came up to me. I didn’t even hear her, as I was paying attention to what I was reading. She actually scared me when she touched my shoulder to get my attention. Standing with her was Coach Barrett, her husband. He’d come all the way to the library to just meet...
The lights turned on in the cell at half past six, every morning since Tim got back from his trip to the past. About a week after returning from the past, his nanites confirmed his hypothesis that no one he had met, yet, had any nanites of their own. Tim theorized to himself the interrogators did not have any nanite improvements since they constantly made mistakes in their questioning and also in their answers to his questions. Oh, they answered the questions as he believed they would but...
A good hundred or so young men full of testosterone and desperate to show they were not afraid, were indeed afraid. Afraid of not fitting in. Afraid of being shown they were not good enough to make it on the freshman football team. Afraid they were good enough to make it on the freshman football team. Afraid of the high school girls. Afraid of the high school guys. Afraid of the work their new teachers were preparing to pile on them. Afraid they would not be able to finish the work their new...
With the day’s drama complete after finishing with their equipment, they began leaving the locker area to try and enjoy their final day of relaxation before the two-a-days started. Tim and his friends crossed a very busy Walzem Road, right in front of the high school. Walzem Road’s three lanes headed northeast and three lanes going southwest were divided by a median island running the length of the high school. Once beyond the high school, the divider island changed into a turning lane....
The tacos were just great. Tim was still not doing anything to jeopardize the loss of the twice-a-week breakfast tacos treats. George was still bringing in the savory, artery-clogging breakfast tacos from everyone's favorite family restaurant. In fact, George was now adding an extra taco, since he understood the body's instant response once it smelled one of Yolanda's tacos. Whether breakfast tacos dripping in the grease of the Mexican sausage and fluffy egg combination, or the...
First day of school for both Murphy kids saw a return of a family tradition: Mom fixed a full breakfast for everyone. Pancakes, bacon, sausage, eggs, fruits and all kinds of baked goods. She generally cooks for the family, then the mothers from the neighborhood carpool come and enjoy a wonderful meal at their own pace. There were usually a few empty bottles of wine in the trash when the kids returned home from the first day of school. Rumor has it the same carpoolers also got together toward...
“Hey, Joe, what do you mean the freshmen offense knows fourteen plays already? I thought Big John only wanted the freshmen to concentrate on getting in shape, until at least the first scrimmage,” Kevin Krebsback, the JV and Varsity defensive backs coach asked, once the freshmen left the coaches office for second period. “It’s exactly what I said it was, Kevin,” Coach Alvarez said. As he sat back down at his desk, he saw he had everyone’s attention, including Coach Barrett. The freshman...
"I know you guys are keeping the pain receptors turned off during my questioning, but are there any problems with maintaining the status quo? I ask because I am starting to feel some of the pain," Tim whispered to himself while he held a pillow over his own face in a mock effort to fall asleep. "All efforts to minimize, and even counteract, the effects of the enhanced interrogation techniques are within their limits, and all nanites are performing at optimum levels. If you are, in fact,...
"So, how was the first day for you?" Tim's father, Raymond, was sitting on the desk chair while his son was finishing his first journal entry for his honors U.S. History class. "It was pretty good, Dad. You were right about the girls. Everywhere I went, I started seeing more and more girls looking at me and then looking away if I made eye contact with them. I'm not used to the attention, but so far it isn't bad." Raymond was practically bursting with pride. His son who, just a...
The newly-instituted procedure of sleep deprivation was annoying at worst because the nanites in his system could effectively turn off the pupils of Tim Murphy’s eyes and keep the lights from waking him. The same could be done for his hearing. The nanites would disable his hearing so any loud or annoying auditory stimuli would eventually be deemed ineffective. At the moment, Tim was quietly reveling in this private joke. The guards were pumping loud and annoying sounds, usually called music,...
Losing their first game of the season was bad. But when Head Varsity Coach John Fontana pulled his truck into his driveway, his wife was waiting outside for him. She had received several calls from various school officials, wanting to know what was Big John going to do about the brewing controversy. She told everyone her husband was not yet home, as he usually went to dinner with the other coaches after a big loss. When the teams won, he would tell his coaches to go home and be with their...