Chapter 9 — Soccer Dad
Rick awoke to bouncing and shaking. Two giggling girls were using his bed as a trampoline. Abby screamed at first, but soon joined in the effort to force him from the bed. He grabbed Jessica with one arm and Christy with the other, pulled them down on the bed, and proceeded to relentlessly tickle them into oblivion. Abby jumped on his back and they grappled and fought for two minutes before Anna, hearing the commotion from the kitchen, finally came in and beckoned them to the breakfast table. The smell helped.
Before leaving his room, he could already taste the muffins, but when he turned toward the dining room, a wonderful buffet was laid out: a heap of scrambled eggs, plate full of sausage, bacon and ham, a pile of french toast, a stack of toast, muffins of many different flavors in a basket, jelly, butter, syrup and a tray of assorted fruits, as well as three different types of potatoes (hash browns, chunks and fried slices).
Rick put his arms around Abby from behind, embracing her and whispering in her ear, “I think they’re trying to tell us something.”
“What?”
“I think they like you being here?”
“I thought you said they often fix breakfast...”
“They do,” he pointed in amazement, “but not like this! Look at it. I’ll bet every utensil is in a precisely measured spot.”
Abby put her finger to her chin, facetiously saying, “It is quite an unusual display for young American girls…”
“Quite a peculiar species, eh?” he joked back.
She laughed playfully, “I didn’t mean to analyze them like cavemen—”
“Sometimes I feel like that would be the most appropriate analogy. They certainly act like cavemen sometimes. Let’s eat and enjoy it now though, while it lasts. Savor it while we can. One day they may get their wish and you’ll become the evil stepmother they always wanted to have so they can hate you,” he jabbed, hinting a bit much.
“Yes, definitely,” she said, ignoring half of his statement.
As they approached the table, Alex and Jessica jumped up and politely pulled out their chairs as if they were royalty. Anna then delicately poured the appropriate drinks and reclaimed her seat. Kaylie and Christy each rose next and placed a napkin in Rick and Abby’s laps before returning to their seats. Alex stood next, reaching for some food to dish out for them.
“Wait!” Rick yelled, giggling and smiling broadly. “What is going on, Alex?”
Alex feigned shock, “Why, I was only going to serve your breakfast to you, sir! What would you desire on your plate this morning?” she answered with a straight face, and then bowed for dramatic effect, awaiting his reply.
“What’s next? Is someone going to chew our food for us as well?” he asked.
Anna raised her hand as if she were in class and giggled, “Um, that’s my job!”
Christy snickered and added, “I’m supposed to wipe your mouth.”
“OK, why are you doing this today?”
“Because we love you,” came at him in five-part harmony, as if rehearsed.
“Riiight! You sure it’s not because Abby’s here?”
“No,” Jessica blurted. “Well, I mean we’re glad she’s here, and wish she was here every day, but that’s not why we did it. We did it—”
“Because we love you!” Anna interrupted, as if to hide something.
“OK, Rick isn’t dumb and he knows you girls better than you know yourselves, so just tell him what you want and let’s eat!” Rick said, undeniably blunt.
“Well,” Kaylie started as Rick motioned for everyone to pass the food around, “we’ve been up since 7:30, and we were downstairs, and we found the maps and read your messages — eggs please! — and um, well, we wanted you to take us there after breakfast—”
Rick sighed, “Sorry, we can’t, we have places to go today, but we will go afterwards, at least to see the cave.”
Everyone whined and moaned.
“What we need to do first is get equipment together—”
“Cave?” Anna’s eyebrows shot up to her hairline. “I’m not going in no cave.”
“Yes cave. That’s why we can’t go this morning. It would take entirely too long and we have a track meet at noon and soccer at 4:00. Please don’t be disappointed and don’t think you failed this morning — this breakfast is totally incredible!”
“Yes, amazing!” Abby added with a full mouth. “You didn’t even tell me you found it, Rick,” she scolded him.
“Why don’t we just drop Anna off at the track, she doesn’t want to go to the cave anyway!” Alex suggested.
Anna shot a very menacing look her way.
“No,” Rick waved her off. “We will all go to the track meet and the game, no question about it. You girls don’t work so hard at these sports for us to not be there to support you.”
“OK,” a resigned Kaylie asked, “so what do we need to do then?”
“And tell us about the caves...” Christy added.
They went through the rest of the meal intently listening to his explanation of all he had learned the night before as well as all he intended to find out today, then went through a list of things they required for their anticipated cave adventure.
The girls bubbled with excitement, gladly taking assignments to prepare them for the trip, even Anna was gallantly awaiting the opportunity to battle huge bats, which she was certain dwelled within the evil cave.
It was 10:30 when they finished cleaning up breakfast. Rick reminded each of the girls of their role in spelunking preparation and they darted off to acquire the necessary equipment while he took Abby downstairs to show her the information.
Urged by Abby, Rick decided to call the Taylor Foundation to see what they could learn about the property.
“Hello?” was the peculiar response.
“Um, hi, is this the Taylor Foundation?”
“Oh, yes of course, sorry,” the man sounded as if he had been sleeping, which he had.
“I’m sorry, I must have been given the wrong number; is there another number I should call instead of your home phone?”
“Oh, no,” said the venerable voice on the other end, “this is the only, yes, the only number to call. Are you calling about the property? I certainly hope not, because it’s not for sale and never will be. It’s imperative that you accept that and do not trouble me about it further. I have grown weary and impatient with your people calling me time and time again. Understand that it’s not for sale, at any price, period!”
Rick held out the phone and stared at it as if it had grown arms and slapped him. He finally said to the old man, “What do you mean? Someone is pressuring you to sell the land? But why? It’s not worth a lot…”
“Exactly! It’s a hillside — that’s what I tell them. They offer millions; I say no; they offer more. It’s unnerving. Same man most of the time — fellow senior citizen, like myself, although he seems to have a bit more lilt in his voice than I — for the last twenty years or more... Why am I telling you this? I don’t know. Speak up, boy, what do you want?”
Rick quickly thought of the best story, “Well, I’m doing a study and—”
“Telemarketer?” the man shot back.
“Oh no! An academic study. I received information that your foundation is over two hundred years old and I wish to learn about it. It’s one of the oldest in the area. I’d like to learn about its history — who set it up, who runs it and... why?”
“I see. Of course. I don’t see why that could be a problem. Well, hmm... where to start?”
“The beginning, preferably?” Rick prompted, feeling as if he had to nudge the man’s brain into gear.
“Of course! Well, Helen Taylor started the Foundation in 1785; it was written into her will, naming the terms and the person who would control it as well as four others, always maintaining at least five people to take charge and replace their name with a new one. It was her late husband, John’s wish. It’s really an endowment, you know. It was started with ten milli
on dollars, and always growing with inflation. The executor keeps the interest after a certain percentage is funneled back into it. It’s over two billion dollars now.”
“Wow, what’s the…”
“The purpose? Well, the only purpose I know of is to keep from selling the land! The land is worthless, you see, estimated two years ago at a $35,000 hunk of hillside with no access right of way. Must’ve been special to the poor old sod!”
“Yes, it must have...”
“Well, I’m the thirteenth executor and we have all been ordered to maintain a log of our transactions and report earnings and such each year as well as inquiries. The damnedest thing is, someone has been trying to buy the worthless lot the entire time, for hundreds of times the value.”
There was a long pause. “Do you know who?” Rick asked.
“Who? No, can’t say that I do; don’t care either. If I sell the land, the endowment goes to charity and I lose my job. You know how much interest there is on two billion dollars? They offered me four million to sell the land a while back. I laughed!”
“Can’t say I blame you. Seems foolish to even attempt to buy you out. Do you mind if we check out the property?” Rick asked as nicely as possible.
“You planning on buying it?”
“Of course not. I’m not foolish!” Rick answered quickly.
“Well sure, then. I’ve seen no rules about trespassing. It’s fully insured, too. I see no reason why not. It’s as if Mrs. Taylor wanted someone to explore it someday…”
Rick was elated, “Do I need to contact you or get a letter stating permis—”
“Contact? Why, no, just walk right on up to it. I hear the caves are fairly interesting and completely stable; otherwise, it’s just a steep hillside. No minerals have ever been found in the caves or anything. I’ve always speculated that it was just special to the couple because they got their first jollies there or something.”
“Is there a fence or anything?”
“Fence? Why, I don’t know. No, I suppose not, or there would be some upkeep on it. No, there must not be anything but weeds around it. Worthless hunk of land, it is.”
Anna came down the stairs and told Rick it was 11:10, and she needed to be at the track soon.
He held his hand over the receiver and said, “Put your stuff in the van and tell Kaylie to load hers too and everyone else pack the cave gear. We’ll be up in a minute!”
He turned back to the phone, “Well, Mr…?”
“Johnson, Edsel Johnson!”
“Johnson, I thank you so much for your time. You have been most helpful. I hope to check the place out today, it’s all so intriguing to me!”
“I’m glad I could help, and glad you weren’t trying to buy the blasted thing,”
Rick chuckled. “Goodbye, Mr. Johnson, thanks again for your time!”
“No problem. Good-bye.”
Rick hung up and smiled at Abby.
“Intrigue, surrounded by mystery, wrapped in an enigma…” she said.
“Yeah… Yeah, definitely,” he replied distractedly. “Well, we have a track meet to go to; let’s move it!”
They gathered the girls and their things, piled into the minivan and left for the school.
On the way, Alex took out the ‘UC’ as they now called the Chronicler, and started to play with it.
“Honey,” Rick said, “I don’t want you using that thing at the meet or anywhere in public for that matter.”
“Why?” she asked.
“It’s dangerous enough to have knowledge of the future, but even more dangerous to have actual technology. We have to keep this a complete secret. There are seven people who know about it already; that’s probably seven too many. There’s some reason why Taylor thought it should be destroyed. Do you understand?”
“Yeah, I guess so. Can I stay in the van and play with it?”
“It’s not a toy, Alex.”
“I know, Dad. The windows are tinted, someone would just think I’m watching a DVD or playing a video game or something...”
“OK, but you will keep the doors locked and keep it out of sight completely. And use your cell phone to let me know if you’re getting out so I can watch you.”
“Oh Dad,” she whined.
He turned and glared at her.
“OK, OK!”
“Can I stay, too?” Kaylie asked.
“Me too?” chimed Christy.
“Yeah. Same rules apply to you, too. Nobody opens a door or even a window without me watching. Got it?”
“Can we have the keys to run the air?” Alex asked.
Alex giggled, “Like we would want to be seen cruising around in this hunk of junk!” She rolled her eyes for effect.
Rick pulled into the parking lot minutes later and easily found a spot where he could watch the van just to be safe. Rick had always been a little over-protective of the girls — he readily admitted to it — but the girls were all used to it, and he hoped they actually appreciated his total devotion to their safety.
Rick took the extra key with its own key ring, one he had made just for this purpose — the girls often wanted to stay in the van and watch a movie or something while he went in to shop or they were stranded at a hopelessly boring event. He left the van running, cracked the sunroof barely a quarter-inch and joined Abby, Anna and Jessica after reminding the girls of the rules and closing the doors, checking each lock personally.
Jessica pulled Rick and Abby to a place she claimed would give them the best view of Anna’s events. Sure enough, they were near the finish line for all of her running events and only 25 yards away from the high jump pit.
Rick sat down with Abby and Jessica bracketing him. They sat silently for a minute, waiting for the events to start. Jessica was already bored.
“OK, this is fun. How about we go get some hot dogs and drinks and candy?” Rick asked, seeing her boredom.
“Sounds good to me!” his daughter answered instantly.
“I’ll stay and watch the stuff,” Abby offered.
Rick pulled out his phone. “I’ll see what the girls want on the way. Let’s go Jess; we don’t want to miss any of the excitement.”
Jessica rolled her eyes.
Rick dialed Alex.
“Uh, hello Dad?” she answered, perturbed that he was already checking up on her.
“What are those boys doing getting in my van?” he accused angrily.
“What! There’s no—”
“Don’t give me that, I saw three boys go around the other side of the van and disappear just now. Was that really your plan? Is that why you wanted to stay?”
“Dad! I—”
He burst into laughter, “I’m joking honey! Sheesh! What would you girls like from the concession stand?” he asked.
“Uh…” she was still shaken from the joke, “we just ate like a couple hours ago...”
“So you don’t want anything? Drinks? Candy?”
Alex asked the other girls, eventually giving him a list of drinks, candy, and nachos for Kaylie. They were already in line to order when he hung up. They placed their order and walked over to the van to give the girls their food.
Kaylie slid the door open when they arrived, excited. “OHMYGOD! Rick, you have to see some of this stuff, we just watched an entire herd of dinosaurs! It was—”
“Shhhhh!”
She instantly lowered her voice, but continued, “So neat! And cavemen and—”
Christy butted in, “You should have seen some of these creatures Rick. A lot of them had fur! We’ve always assumed all the dinosaurs had scales, but half of them had fur. Some of them were soooo cute!”
“Cavemen were stupid, Dad,” Alex chimed in next.
“Yeah,” Kaylie continued, “we saw one smash his own hand with a rock, and then he showed another guy what he did by smashing his hand again! S—T—U—PID!”
“Must have been one of your ancestors,” Jessica commented with a giggle.
“That’s really cool, kids, but
keep your voices down and promise me you won’t look at any future ones, OK?”
They nodded agreement.
He then considered something else, “Also, a lot of things in the past may be violent or cruel… I want you to promise to stop any of them that are, OK? Like if they start killing each other or get eaten by a giant lizard or something—”
“OK, Dad, but we already watched a bunch of cavemen beat each other up, but it was almost funny, like watching wrestling and the Three Stooges combined!”
“That’s what I don’t want you to see. I wish the thing had some kind of parental control—”
“It does. I mean there are options to hide certain content or skip or black out scenes. It’s all in the instructions but I haven’t tried any of it yet.”
“Here, let me look,” he said.
She handed it over and he found the options. He quickly checked the options to filter out and censor vulgarity, violence and sexual content, and then handed it back.
Alex rolled her eyes, “I’m not that immature, Dad.”
“You girls be careful with that thing, you hear me? There are still things that are dangerous to watch. I’ll call you in a while. Call me or write down anything you think is important as well, OK?”
They all agreed. Rick closed the door with a slightly uneasy feeling of what they could still see, but decided to trust them a bit more. He and Jessica strolled back through the crowd and sat back down beside Abby. Anna had joined her.
“I don’t have an event until 12:45. Coach said to join my family if I wanted until then!”
“That’s cool. You want some of my drink and hot dog?” Rick offered.
“A little — a bite or two. I might get sick if I eat too close to a race.”
“What’s your first event?” Abby asked.
“A 200 meter relay. Then I got the 100 relay, high jump, 200, then the 100 is last. The high jump and the 200 are at the same time.”
“How do you do them both then?” Jessica asked curiously.
“I have to either finish the high jump before the 200 or ask to do it after. Coach said it won’t be a problem.”
“I hope not. It’ll be nice to see five blue ribbons today,” Rick said while chomping on a hot dog.
“You think I can win all five, Uncle Ricky?”
“Coach says you can.”
“I’m just a freshman...”
“And taller and stronger and faster than everyone else on the team,” Jessica interjected.
“Don’t get cocky on us or anything though,” Rick warned, shaking his fist at her.
“Whatcha gonna do, beat me up, Uncle Ricky?”
“If I have to humble you, I will, little buttercup!”
“Don’t call me that!” she protested.
“Dish it out, but can’t take it, eh, buttercup?”
“You’re lucky I have food in my hands or I’d kick your butt!” she threatened hollowly.
“You’re lucky I paid for it or I’d get it all over you while I kick your butt,” he stuck his tongue out and shook his head like a bratty child.
Anna laughed, “Stop! You’re embarrassing me!”
“Good! You need it! Hah.”
Abby said with a sly smile on her face. “You sure you’re not their brother instead of their father?”
“Why, thank you for the compliment,” Rick said happily. “I didn’t realize I looked so young!”
“You don’t, you just act like it,” Jessica told him.
“Ouch!”
“It’s OK, Dad, we love when you’re silly!” she added.
“And immature,” said Anna.
“Look for more cavemen, I’m fascinated by evolution!” Christy said.
“I want to see something from the Roman Empire. We do have that assignment to do, remember?” Kaylie argued.
“Those dinosaurs are so incredible, though!” Alex cried.
“One more, then we get to pick some,” Christy agreed.
“OK, I’ve picked enough, you go ahead and do some,” Alex said as she handed over the UC.
Christy checked through the previews of several entries between 200,000 BC and 50,000 BC, and stopped at one around 80,000 BC. “Hey, these guys look a lot less ugly. They don’t look so hairy either. They’ve got on those weird shiny coats like Dr. Taylor had on,” she observed; the other girls closed in. Christy selected and played the file.
The men on the display were all wearing the same metallic-looking fabric they had seen the doctor wear in his lab, and were all milling about as if preparing for something significant. The majority of workers stopped and focused suddenly on a single point. Christy tried to zoom in on it, but couldn’t tell exactly what was going on. Conversations abruptly stopped as all the workers focused on a count-down timer that suddenly appeared clearly in the distance. A monotone voice could now be heard, “…six, five, four, three, two, one.”
In a flash of brilliance, accompanied by a rumble that shook the display, came a dart trailing fire into the sky.
“A missile?” Kaylie asked in shock.
“Looks that way, but why?” Alex questioned
They stared as the roar died and voices could once again be heard, “—like a success. If my calculations are right,” a brown-haired man with an enlarged nose stated, “it should impact after the planet passes Mars.”
“Perfect, do you think it will really alter the course enough?” asked another man.
“We spent eighteen months calculating to the nearest millimeter; it should impact Earth on May 30, 75,252 at 4:15 AM, to be precise,” the first man answered, entirely too satisfied with the prospect.
“And you’re sure nobody will detect it?”
“Of course not, its next orbit around the sun will be in the third millennium BC, then the 76th. Nobody has the technology to detect it until it’s upon them because it will enter the second orbit and approach Earth hiding in the shadow of Mars!”
“What’s the predicted damage?”
“Total. It’s roughly half the size of the moon and at the speed it will be traveling, that’s more than enough for our experiment.”
Christy was dumbfounded. “Experiment? They call destroying Earth an experiment? How could… Why? I mean…”
The voice continued for thirty minutes as the two men discussed speeds, forces, orbital changes and even chemical reactions as the silver-suited crews proceeded to sweep the area of any trace of their existence.
“We gotta tell Dad about this!” Alex finally declared and grabbed her phone.
“Didn’t that guy look familiar to you?” Kaylie asked no one in particular.
Anna was thirty yards from the finish line when Rick’s phone rang. He pulled it out and hit the button to answer but continued to watch the race. Anna was ahead by three yards, they had been even at the start of the straight stretch, but now she was pulling away handily. She increased the lead to five yards as she crossed the line, her other teammates were on the way, cutting across the field to help her celebrate. Rick, Abby and Jessica were all cheering when Rick realized he had turned on his phone and put it to his head. “Hello?” he finally managed to say.
“It’s about time Dad! What’s going on there?”
“Anna just won the 4x200 relay! Sorry, what’s going on there?”
“You have to see this Dad,” Alex insisted.
“What honey? Anna has another race in ten minutes, can’t you just explain it?”
“Well, I guess so, but it’s really important that you see it, too.”
“How important?” he asked, knowing the girls tended to put false weight on things in their lives.
“End-of-the-world-as-we-know-it important.”
“I warned you not to watch anything in the future,” he reminded her.
“We weren’t. Remember the video we saw where Taylor went to the future and the Earth was a cinder? Well, we were watching an entry from 80,000 BC and we saw what caused it!” Alex explained what she had seen in the video over th
e next few minutes while Anna was getting ready for the 4x100 relay.
Rick interrupted, “Honey, that’s definitely amazing, but Anna is about to run again. Just write down the entry for me. I do want to see it for myself but I can’t do anything about it now, can I? You’d kill me if I ran off during one of your races, wouldn’t you?”
“No, I guess you can’t do anything about it now, and yes, I would kill you,” she admitted, although definitely sounding defeated. “I guess it can wait, we have all the time in the world if this stuff is real, right?”
“Are you girls gonna stay in the van all day or are you gonna join us anytime soon?”
“We’re way too interested in this right now. Call when Anna’s gonna do her last event so I can watch, OK?”
“OK, will do. Be careful with that thing, Alex. I’m serious.”
“What was that about?” Abby whispered in his ear.
“Wait until Anna’s race is over…”
A few seconds later, the gun sounded for the start of the relay. Rick watched as the first three girls got a slight lead in the first three legs, then Anna’s turn came up and she simply trotted away to grab the baton and left the second place girl in her wake from there, coasting to victory. Jessica continued to cheer for her cousin as Rick and Abby sat back down to continue their conversation.
“I’m kind of worried...” Rick started.
“About?”
“Well, Alex just called and told me about an ‘experiment’ they watched in 80,000 BC to alter a planet’s course to collide with Earth seventy thousand years from now. We already witnessed the aftermath of that, I think, and I’m not too sure that kind of thing is really within the kids’ ability to cope. It hit them hard; I wonder what else they might witness on that thing?”
Abby studied him for a few seconds, “Rick, that’s why you’re such a great father and I’m never going to be a mother. You seem to like to worry, I don’t. Personally, I think they’re extremely mature. Well, at least Alex and Kaylie. But I may be naive in such matters. You know them far better than anyone, so you’re the best person to make that decision. So, do you think they can handle it?”
Rick pondered a minute, “Yeah, I guess they can, but I don’t think they should watch it happen. And I don’t think they could handle too much knowledge of the future either.”
“You already laid out rules for that, Rick, and those girls rarely ever break your rules. I don’t think you need to worry.”
“Says Ms. Oblivious...”
“Shush.”
“I can’t not worry,” he admitted, betraying the fact that it was a burden to him, regardless of whether he liked it or not.
“Maybe not, but remember what you said about your own childhood? Your mother let you take your own chances and learn from your mistakes. She admitted that it was often painful to watch you get hurt or screw something up, but it was best for you—”
“But girls are so much more affected by emotional trauma—” he argued.
“Don’t give me that,” Abby said indignantly. “They only are if you shield them and don’t allow them to experience any. Look at me; you’re a hundred times more emotional than I am!”
“Riiight… that’s why you can’t commit to a relationship,” he smirked.
She bowed her head but maintained a sly grin, “OK, you got me there, but I can handle the end of the world… and I think they can too, if you let them. You don’t give them enough credit for their maturity.”
Rick pondered a moment as he watched another race begin, “Yeah, you’re probably right.” He leveled a gaze and wicked grin at her, “Maybe there’s hope for you being a mother yet!”
She ignored the implication, “You know, you let them watch some rated R movies...”
“Yeah, some, I admit, but only after I’ve watched them and made sure there’s nothing I find harmful. I believe movie censors are a bit extreme sometimes and there are some really important messages in the ones I allow them to see—”
“Maybe you should do that with the videos — watch them first?” she suggested.
“I like that idea.” He thought a moment, then reached into his pocket and grabbed the phone, dialed Alex and put it to his ear. “Time to go,” he said as soon as she answered.
“OK Dad, we’re coming,” she easily agreed.
He watched them get out and walk to where he sat with Abby and Jessica.
“Where is she?” Alex asked after several minutes.
“High jump,” Jessica answered.
“I thought her last event was the 100,” Kaylie stated.
“It is,” Rick replied, “but I thought you girls should do something besides sit in the van all day.”
“Dad! We were just starting to learn about the Romans and Gauls and stuff!”
“Yeah, but it was mostly the stuffy upper class,” Christy said. “All they did was plot and scheme against each other, just like the rich today. We need to see how the real people lived.”
“It was still cool! We got to see a real gladiator fight in the arena and a chariot race,” Kaylie recalled excitedly.
“Gladiators? That’s what I’m worried about, girls! Some things like that may be a bit too gory or violent for you,” Rick worried.
“Oh please, Dad. The chariot race was more violent than the gladiators!”
“Really?”
“Yeah, really! They actually tried to kill each other, unlike the warriors!” Kaylie explained.
“Kaylie found some peasants being killed for stealing, but we skipped that before it happened. We didn’t want to see that, but the races were really exciting and cool!” Christy told him.
“The dinosaurs and cavemen were really the coolest though. You should see how huge some of those things were! And Dr. Taylor almost got squashed by this one — its toe was like the size of my whole body! That’s when we learned about the necklaces, they can tell if you’re in danger! His started to beep and flash and Taylor explained as he was moving that it was a ten-second warning. Once he moved out of the way, it stopped and that huge foot slammed down right where he had been standing. We also found that it will automatically return you if it senses you are about to be killed within two seconds, but he said it isn’t one hundred percent foolproof. Like if you get shot, it can only tell if you will be killed instantly from that wound. You can also talk to each other — it took a while to figure it out. It looked like he was talking to himself because it transmits the sound directly to your brain or something. He kept saying ‘Red, where are you?’ and stuff, then we found a recording of the same time with someone using the red necklace and he was answering by saying ‘gold’ first for the gold necklace. The instructions said nothing about these features. I wonder what else they do?” Alex finally paused long enough to take a breath and see Rick’s reaction.
“I intend to find out everything we can about that; just be patient honey. I don’t want you getting too worked up over all this stuff.”
“It will be so cool going back in time though…”
“Shh!” He quickly silenced her with a hand over her mouth. “Remember what I said about keeping it a secret.”
“Sorry, Dad, I just—”
“And what makes you think I would let you go back in time?”
“Daaaad!” she protested.
Kaylie leaned over and whispered with concern, “Us too? You won’t let any of us?”
“I don’t know yet, honey. We’re not talking about a circus or amusement park here; we’re talking about something closer to running with the bulls. I want to know everything about it before I even consider it… and we don’t even know if it actually exists.”
“Then you best be studying fast!” Christy demanded hotly.
Rick raised an eyebrow at her, letting her know she didn’t make the rules. She sunk back down a bit.
“We will find it, today,” Kaylie confidently promised.
“We’ll talk about it later, when we know what we’re talking about,” Rick ende
d the conversation. They knew not to push any further.
The extended family focused on Anna, who was starting the high jump. She and another girl each had to go early because they were entered in other events. Anna easily won with only one jump at 5’4”, and then went to prepare for her final event, the 100 meter dash. She was visibly nervous and kept looking up at her supporters for confidence. She eventually settled in at the starting line and stretched her long legs out before fitting them snugly into the starting blocks, as everyone held their breath for her.
The gun went off and Anna seemed to hesitate for an eternity, coming up at least a full tenth of a second later than the other girls. Rick’s breath caught in his throat; he knew how much this race meant to her — it was definitely her favorite.
Anna quickly recovered and turned on her speed, pulling up to fourth place after just forty meters and passing third place just ten meters later. As she gained top speed, she cruised by second and first, and lunged to the finish a full stride ahead of her competition, stomping to a halt fifteen meters later.
Overwhelmed with her own accomplishment, Anna instantly turned and fled the track, leaping the fence at full speed — making the coach consider her for the 110 meter hurdles race — and two-stepped the stairs up the bleachers, diving into the waiting arms of Rick.
“I did it, Dad! I did it!” she shouted, oblivious to all the eyes on her, tears streaming down her face.
“Don’t you mean Uncle Ricky?” he teased her, squeezing her tightly.
She backed up enough to look him in the face and give him a silly look, then buried her face in his shoulder and bawled some more.
“Dad,” she said again, defiantly.
“I hate to break up all the drama,” Jessica said sarcastically, “but it was only a meet, Anna, not the Olympics!”
“Yeah, but it’s high school and I’m just a freshman,” Anna spat back.
“Let her celebrate, brat!” Alex said.
“We’re all proud of you, honey,” Rick said, kicking Jessica in the back of the leg.
She grunted, “Fine! I’ll go get the Gatorade bucket!” she teased.
“Does this mean we win?” Christy asked, confused.
Anna wiped her face all over Rick’s shirt and cleared her throat, “Well, that puts us up by three points and there are only two events left. One is long jump and we should win all three places in that, so we basically can’t lose now.”
“Cool!” Christy was now excited for some strange reason.
“Then let’s go to the soccer field,” Kaylie decided suddenly, “since it’s over now.”
“We have to wait until the meet is over and someone…” he squeezed Anna, “wins the most valuable athlete trophy.”
“Omigosh! I could win that?”
“Did anyone else win five events today?” he asked.
“Umm, I think I’m the only one entered in five events. Wow!”
“The game starts in an hour; I have to be there in thirty minutes…” Kaylie notified him.
“If we’re not done in twenty minutes, we’ll talk Abby into taking you—”
“Yeah, I can take you. No problem,” Abby offered.
“Why can’t I just go by myself? Or even with Alex or Christy?”
“Because I’m responsible for you.”
“That’s not fair — it’s just across the street!” Kaylie argued.
“You know my rules.”
“Yeah, but why can’t I walk across the street alone?”
“It’s not just a street — it’s a major highway—”
“You’re paranoid,” she accused.
Rick grinned, “If you were hit by a car you’d wish I’d been paranoid.”
“I’m thirteen!”
He feigned shock and realization, “Wow! You’re a grown woman then, huh? You could easily dodge a speeding vehicle. I must be stupid!”
“No,” she sighed, “you’re not stupid, just over-protective.”
“I care, that’s all.”
“You should be glad,” Abby commented.
She lowered her head, “Sorry, I am glad you care. Thank you!”
They stood to watch the last two events end. Anna’s team won both of them and the coach motioned for the team to join him at the finish line. Anna reunited with the team as Abby took Kaylie and Christy to the soccer field.
The trophy presentation lasted longer than anticipated. At 4:30, Anna was called for the sixth and final time, to receive the ‘Most Valuable’ trophy. She hoisted it proudly over her head as Rick snapped several pictures to go along with the ones Jessica had taken during the meet.
Rick and the girls finally arrived at the field close to 5:00; the game was already at half-time so they stayed in the van a few minutes so Anna could change clothes. Alex insisted he watch the video of the missile launch. Anna was watching over the back seat when she suddenly piped up, “What is old man Anderson doing there?”
“Old man who?” Rick asked.
She leaned over the back of the seat to point, “There!”
Rick backed up the video and paused it; Anna had finished changing and came out from behind the seat. “That guy,” she indicated by touching his big nose, “Mr. Anderson, seventh grade history teacher. You all know him.”
“This guy is a lot younger though — I don’t know. Alex?” he opened the door and showed her.
“That does look like him! Kaylie said he looked familiar earlier, but he’s got to be like eighty or something now. We always joke that he’s been around since the beginning of time.”
“Well, I have a hard time believing that’s him. This guy’s name is Ferdinand Bergamiser, and he was trapped in 1756 with Taylor. He’d be over 250 years old now, it’s gotta be a coincidence,” Rick decided.
“Yeah, it could be his descendant or something,” Anna said
“Ancestor, you mean,” he corrected.
“Yeah, it’s weird seeing a younger person who could be older than old man Anderson.”
“OK, girls, let’s go find Abby and Christy. They’re probably wondering where we are.”
They found Abby and Christy sitting on the sidelines on a blanket and joined them. Rick asked how the game was going.
“They’re winning four to two! Kay has two goals,” Christy cheerfully announced.
“Who’s hungry?” an anxious Abby asked. “I’ve been waiting forever for you guys to show up so I could go get something to eat.”
After taking orders, she sped off to the concession stand with Christy and Jessica trailing behind.
The second half was underway when they returned with refreshments. “Kay scored another goal, her third. It’s five to two now!” Alex updated them as they reclaimed their spots on the blanket.
“The coach moved her to defense so some of the other girls could get some experience up front,” Anna said.
Just then, Kaylie stepped in and stole the ball, running halfway up the field with it until she found a teammate ahead and lobbed the ball out in front of the girl, who caught up and quickly poked it between the opposing goalie’s legs — six to two.
“She could score if she was the goalie!” Rick proclaimed in amazement.
The other team didn’t even get a shot at the goal for the remainder of the game. Kaylie’s team put in two more past a dejected and frustrated goalkeeper and went on to win eight to two.
“Go see what Kaylie would like to eat,” Rick instructed Anna so she could get it before the concession stand closed.
She shortly returned with two hot dogs, a bag of chips, two orders of fries, a candy bar, and a large drink.
Alex laughed as she pulled out the fries, “I guess she was hungry?”
“Well, one of the fries is for me, but she asked for four hot dogs and two fries — this is all they had left. She’s going to be mad!”
“What a pig!” Alex commented.
Kaylie finally joined them after shaking hands with the other team. She griped all the way to the van about onl
y having two hot dogs.