The Bronze Coin
It was three o'clock in the afternoon when Peter saw his brother for the second time that day. He had an hour left on his shift at the gas station and the beautiful day had just absolutely crawled by. There were only so many hours of shows about physics he could watch in one day...
This time his brother came around, he was dragging his old red wagon and accompanied by two friends. He grinned at them as they came in, hopeful of the distraction they may provide for the last minutes of his workday. The front bell dinged as the three youths dragged the wagon with them into the small convince store. The sight of three backpacks sitting upright in the wagon prompted his first question.
"What have you guys got there?" Peter Thompson asked.
The three glanced down at their last years' school backpacks sitting stuffed full in the wagon. All eyes then rested on Greg. The shaggy blond boy took the lead with his brother.
"We need some advice. Mizz Robinson over at the library told us we should turn this stuff over to the cops, but we wanted to know what you think first..."
Peter's eyes narrowed as he came around the counter and went for the bags.
"And you are the smartest guy I know that isn't an adult..."
The girl's backpack was unzipped first, revealing the most extraordinary thing. Peter paused and looked up at the kids and then peaked in the other two bags. They were full of a modern day pirate’s booty: jewelry, coins, velvet pouches full of cut stones, and tons of Canadian currency.
"What... Where did you get this?!"
"I know, there must be a thousand million dollars in there," the taller, dark skinned kid said. "It's money from Canada."
"I can see that," Peter said, flipping through a stack. "Like I said, where did all this come from?"
"We saw a man die today," the girl said. Peter thought she looked familiar and recognized her as a Donavan. Peter knew of her older sister, who was a year behind him in school. "He gave Greg a book with a map in it and it lead us to his buried treasure."
"A guy? What guy? Here in town?"
"Yeah, this morning at about ten. We were leaving the fairgrounds and this car hit him and just drove off. He was homeless or something. I don't now why with all this money..." Greg said.
"And the librarian told you to turn it in? Have you shown anyone else?" Peter asked.
"No, she just knew we found the map," Zach said. "We haven't shown anyone but you, yet."
"And I didn't tell the cops about the book when they came," Greg said, catching on to the line of questioning. He trusted his big brother, who could be a bit cocky, but who would never steal from his little brother.
"Then don't give it to the cops. If you do, you will never see it again. They will hang on to it forever, making sure it wasn't from a bank robbery or something."
Peter eyed a large bronze, tarnished coin on the top of one of the bag. He fished it out. "It looks like you have it pretty evenly distributed out. I say you guys hang on to it and don't tell anyone. Hide it somewhere yourselves and when you get older you can trade it for American cash. You could pay for your college with all that. I bet there is more like a hundred thousand between all these bags. Plus everything else..."
The three kids eyes lit up at hearing there was another option, one they rather liked now that it was said. They jumped on their bags, zipping them up so none else would see. Peter had one more thing to say.
"But, you guys are going to have to keep this a secret for it to work. If one of you gets discovered, they can't let on that anyone else has something like they do, or it will get taken away." Everyone nodded and he continued. "So, for my advice and silence, I'm taking this coin as payment."
"I'm okay with that, it was in my bag anyway," Greg said, taking the handle and leading it out of the store. The other two followed .
Peter could hear them scheming where it was that they would hide their part of the loot. They exited the store and Peter chuckled to himself hearing mention of a tree fort as a possible hiding place. Hopefully his brother would veto that dumb idea. He looked down at his coin.
He he made a good selection, he thought, looking at the foreign writing on the thick bit of metal. A woman's profile was on the front and an hourglass was on the back. The edges were worn and it was obviously old. It may be worth more than a stack of money that he was sure he could have gotten away with. At least it might make a good flipping coin. He would have to flip it ten times to make sure it was properly balanced and not biased to one decision over another...
At fifteen past three, on a Thursday in August, Peter Thompson, a gas station attendant from Grass Valley, flipped a Time Coin and disappeared from where he stood.
He was unaware he had stepped out of time until he was told. Upon reaching the zenith of its flipping motion, the coin froze in mid air and Peter found himself standing in a sphere of oily-white light. The service station was gone; the only thing that existed in his world was himself and the coin.
"What is this?" Peter was bewildered.
"You have activated this travel device," A sweet female voice said to the young man. "Please state where in time and or space you would like to go."
"Time or space?" The reality had not yet sunken in.
"Yes. This unit is limited to the planet earth, and a span of 4,500 years. Please state your destination."
Peter looked around the bubble he was in and said the first thing that came into his mind. "Take me back, now!"
Greg and his friends had walked across the pump area and headed back up the hill to the Thompson household, where no one would be home for at least another hour. They had plans to make and needed to get off the street with the backpacks full of money. He gave one last look at his brother and watched him flip the big coin into the air and catch it with his flipping hand. Peter stared off into space after the catch. Greg turned back with his friends. It was the last time he would see his brother until they were both old men.
Peters mind raced upon finding himself back where he was a moment before. A time machine? Well, not a machine exactly... A device? That is what it had said. He opened his palm and looked down at the thing he held in his hand. Peter Thompson wondered if he had just had a stroke, or something. His brother had just walked out of sight and so he flipped the coin again.
"You have activated this travel device," A sweet female voice said, once again. "Please state where in time and or space you would like to go."
"The first Super Bowl. The Packers win... But I can't remember what year," Peter said searching his mind for more specifics.
"January 15th, 1967," The voice spoke. "Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Los Angeles, California. United States, North America."
"Yeah," Peter said, amazed. "That's the one."
"The game begins at 1:15 Pacific Standard Time. Would you like an insertion suggestion?"
"Yes?"
"I can place you in an unused men's bathroom stall at two minutes forty seconds before the beginning of the game. Is this acceptable?" the voice said.
"Yes," Peter said firmly, pulse jumping and hands shaking.
"You will be placed in five seconds. Please remember the Hopper rules for device activations."
Peter furrowed his brow, but before he could ask, his white bubble of a surrounding was gone. He was left starting at a porcelain toilet on a concrete floor. He caught the coin as it fell.
Was he really at the very first Super Bowl? Peter had been a life long Packers fan and had watched re-runs of the first NFL championship on TV. But never had he even fathomed that he would find a time machine to take him back to see it. Time device! The coin was in his hand and it still looked innocuous enough. He jammed it into his pocket and ventured out of the stall.
He was still wearing his bowling style work shirt, and suddenly felt out of place in the bathroom full of men wearing clothes from 1967. To his relief, no one seemed to look at him any different. In fact a big man in front of him ushered him out of his stall muttering about how he was going to miss
kick-off.
The first Super Bowl! The largest smile grew on his face as he walked out of the men's bathroom at the LA Coliseum. Vince Lombardy...! Peter's mind jumped.
Peter went back into the stall, several hours later, and activated his device. He had no idea about the rules he was told to remember, but he figured it had to be something about not being seen. Or was it that he must use the same place out that he took in? Oh well, he was flying too high to care.
The game had been amazing. Even though he knew the outcome, he was still swept up in the moment. He had been so caught up, in fact, that he had not even thought about where he wanted to go next. He was sure as hell not going home! No time for that, he chuckled ironically to himself. He was back outside of time, and now he had to think.
Where to go? Anywhere!
And then it came to him. He had been watching the shows about the universe all day. The device had said he was restricted to this planet, unfortunately, but London was on this planet!
Stephen Hawking! On one of the episodes he had watched that day, the physicist had left an open invitation to time travelers from the future (obviously as no one from the past would know about the invitation) to meet on a specific date in London for a party. He remembered that they hung a banner and everything! But, as any reasonable person who had not discovered a time device would expect, no one showed. Well, he was about to blow that guys mind!
"I want to go to London, to Stephen Hawking's party for time travelers. It was sometime in 2009. Do you have the specifics on that one?"
"June 28th, 2009. Gonville and Caius College, Trinity Street, Cambridge, England. United Kingdom, Europe."
"Excellent!"
"The event in question occurs at 12:00 Universal Time, in a private banquet room. May I suggest an insertion point?"
"Go ahead," Peter smiled and nodded his head.
"The alley beside The Michael House Cafe, directly across the street from the building in question, three minutes, five seconds until twelve. Is this acceptable?"
"This coin is good! It is, take me there!"
"You will be placed in five seconds," the voice said.
No rule warning? Peter thought and was gone.
Fifty feet down the ally beside the cafe that was previously mentioned, Peter popped into existence and caught the falling coin. In front of him was a bustling outdoor sitting area, full of people. His eyes went wide and he hoped no one saw him, but they all had. Everyone was looking right at him. He heard and felt a strange noise behind him. Reflexively he turned to look.
A large figure in a black suit and the head of a reptile was on top of him before he could make another move. Inside a sudden iron grip, Peter, the foolish time traveler, was apprehended. The lizard-man disappeared out of existence, taking Peter with him.
The crowd sitting outside the cafe, turned right back on their natural activity, the moment the trap had succeeded. They had seen the apprehension they had known would occur, and had come to see. Stephen Hawking remained the only person at his party.