River: Ghosts Of Our Fathers Part 21

"Fine, and you?"

"Fine, fine. Any trouble sleeping last night?"

"No, no trouble there. The ghosts have been gone for months, Dad."

"Heard from Jason lately?"

"As a matter of fact, I have," Steven said. "He and I are getting together for a dinner this weekend. Why don't you join us?"

"Sure, no problem, sounds like fun. So...everything's fine?"

"As far as I know. Why? Is something wrong?"

"No, nothing," Roy said. "Sounds like everything's good. Talk to you later."

"Goodbye, Dad."

Roy hung up the phone. Next he tried Eliza.

"h.e.l.lo, Eliza? It's Roy."

"Well, Roy!" she said. "How good to hear your voice, it's been so long. How have you been? All busy practicing being handsome, I expect."

Eliza, Roy thought. So easy to like.

"Well, I guess it has been a while," he said. "How long has it been, exactly, since we saw each other last?"

"Three months?" Eliza said. "Something like that, at Pete and Sarah's. When are you gonna come down for a visit and bring that son of yours?"

"Soon, Eliza, soon," Roy said. "Hey, I need a favor. I'm wondering if you would point me in the right direction with something."

"Sure, what is it?"

"Well, I'm in need of some advice from someone who knows a lot about time, time-related things, that type of stuff."

"I've got just the person," Eliza said. "His name is Daniel and he lives in Spokane. He's a friend of mine. Knows more about time than anyone I know."

"Perfect," Roy said, "would you mind referring me to him? I'd like to talk to him about something I've discovered, see if he has any insight on it."

"Sure, why don't I give him a call right now, and then you call him in half an hour?"

"Sounds good, what's his number?"

Roy jotted down the number Eliza gave him, thanked her and a.s.sured her he'd plan a visit soon, and hung up. Then he waited forty-five minutes for good measure and called Daniel to invite him over to Seattle. He had somewhere he wanted to take him.

"I can't say I'm comfortable with this," Daniel said as Roy led him down the dark hallway of the church. "It's bad enough breaking and entering, but a church? This seems wrong."

"Trust me," Roy said, "you'll think you've hit the lottery when I show you what's down here."

Roy led him to the door with the padlock. Roy removed a pair of bolt cutters from his bag and clipped the padlock off.

"I hope you're right," Daniel said. "We could get into a lot of trouble for this."

"No, not really," Roy said. "We're not going to take anything, and even if we get caught, I know the owner."

They twisted their way through the bas.e.m.e.nt of the church, Roy shining his flashlight ahead of them. They stopped at a pile of boxes near the back of the bas.e.m.e.nt. Roy pointed his flashlight at the corner of the room, casting enough ambient light to illuminate the boxes.

"This is what you wanted to show me? What we broke in here for?" Daniel asked.

"Wait," Roy said. "Just wait. Sam?"

Roy stared at the gaps between the boxes where light didn't penetrate. "Sam? Are you in there? It's me, Roy. Do you remember me?"

A pale face appeared in one of the gaps. Daniel gasped when he saw it. He gasped again when he saw the face change age, from a young man to a toddler.

"Yes," the boy said. "I remember. The garage. Sean and Garth."

"I brought you something," Roy said. "Do you remember these?"

Roy opened his hand, holding the wooden matchbox and the envelope of powder.

"Yes," the boy said. "I remember. I gave those to Davy."

"I thought you should have them back," Roy said, "since Davy never used them. They were yours. And I wanted to thank you for what you did back then. You saved my father's life."

"Davy was your father," the boy said, changing from a toddler to a six year old. "I remember. He let you get old."

"Sam, there's someone I'd like you to meet," Roy said, backing up and extending his arm to Daniel. "His name is Daniel. He knows a lot about time."

"h.e.l.lo, Daniel," the boy said. "Pleased to meet you."

"h.e.l.lo, Sam," Daniel said.

"Sam wants to be younger," Roy said. "It's all he wants, more than anything else. He's found a way to become younger for a few seconds at a time, but it doesn't last."

"Why do you want to be younger?" Daniel asked Sam.

"So my mother will love me," the boy said. "She wants a baby, not a boy. Can you help me?"

"You've found a way to become younger already, I see," Daniel said.

"Yes," Sam said. "Martha's friends helped me. Look."

Sam rapidly changed from a small infant to a ten year old, morphing through all ages in between.

"But I can't stay anything but ten for very long."

"You just need a stabilizer," Daniel said. "If you use the stabilizer when you're the age you want to be, it'll stick."

"How do I get a stabilizer?" the boy asked.

"I have several at home," Daniel said. "I'll give you one."

"Oh, would you? That would be so kind of you, I would be so grateful."

"Sure, I'll bring it to you the next time I visit here."

"How soon will that be?"

"Well, I do live a ways away. It takes me a day to drive home and another to drive back."

"Would it help if I gave you these?" the boy said, and the pale arm extended from the pile, holding two objects. Daniel took them from the open palm and the arm retreated back inside the pile.

"Wow," Daniel said. "These are magnificent! But you don't have to give me these, I'll bring you the stabilizer regardless."

"If you do, I'll become a baby again, and my mother will take me away. I want you to have all of my collection. Martha's friends gave me lots of things like those. You can have them all, because if I'm a baby, I won't need them anymore."

Daniel turned to look at Roy.

"Told you," Roy said.

"I'll bring you back the stabilizer," Daniel said. "Right away. And thank you, Sam."

"Oh, thank you, you don't know how happy I am now. Please hurry back as soon as you can."

The boy's face faded, and Roy grabbed Daniel by the shoulder.

"Show me what he gave you," Roy said. Daniel held the items up for Roy to see.

"Good. When you get access to the rest of his stuff, do not and I mean do not open a carved box about yea big," he held his hand up to ill.u.s.trate the size. "And keep an eye on the rest of that stuff. That box is dangerous, and the other items might be too."

"I'll be careful," Daniel said. "But you can't imagine what a find this is. I collect rare time objects, you know."

"Yes, I know," Roy said.

"This looks like it might be a chronosphere. I've never seen one before, in person."

"Come on, let's get out of here."

Roy drove Daniel back to his car so he could return to Spokane with his prizes. The drive from Marysville to Seattle would take an hour, and Roy realized it would be filled with Daniel's enthusiastic thanks and observations about Sam and the items he might possess. Daniel knew a long list of rare time-related items, many of which he'd only read or heard about, and he imagined them all potentially being in Sam's pile. He was like a kid who'd just been taken to Disneyland, and he wanted to go back.

Roy listened to Daniel for a while, then began to tune out, nodding enough to keep Daniel thinking he was listening, but not really paying attention to what he was saying. He'd just returned from a timeline that was now gone, with Frank's return and Daniel's death obliterated. None of those things happened in the timeline he was now partic.i.p.ating in, and he was a little unsure if everything he remembered from birth onward had actually happened in this new timeline. It appeared they had, but there should be tiny differences. Everyone still answered the same phone numbers, buildings were still in the same places, and relationships seemed the same. Steven still had a son named Jason.

Now that Jason's unfortunate exposure to the River was also gone, Roy felt Steven had a new chance to present things to Jason correctly, so he could understand the power and responsibility having "the gift" entailed. He'd waited way too long to present it to Steven, and he felt Steven needed to speak to Jason about it soon, to give him a chance to learn about it at a younger age.

Steven had been right. Leaving things unresolved may have seemed like a good idea at the time, but his encounter with Frank reminded him that sometimes evil had to be stamped out completely, not left to return. If there was any hope of getting Steven to talk to Jason sooner rather than later, Roy would need to find a way to resolve these problems from the past.

Problems from the past, Roy thought. You don't often get a chance to go back and correct problems from the past. You usually have to live with the consequences of the present moment, which could be cruel and unforgiving. I was lucky. I got to correct this one, he thought. I need to correct others as soon as I can. He felt like a man who'd lived through a near-death experience and was being given a second chance to live his life differently.

Daniel was still talking, and Roy would normally be annoyed, but he wasn't. He was happy to hear Daniel's voice, pleased that the plan worked. The alternative would have been much worse for everyone, including himself. Daniel talking his ear off in his car meant they won, they pulled it off. And Roy now had an opportunity to set some things right.

My time will come soon, Roy thought. It was always out there, the frustrating thoughts about what would happen when his time was up and he was forced to move on. He tried not to think about them, tried not to be scared by them, but the thoughts came with more regularity these days than they did in the past, now that Steven was aware of his gift and was using it. I need to accelerate things, he thought. Can't waste time.

Daniel was going on about something "on a molecular level." Roy smiled and nodded, continuing to feign interest. Why not start now? he thought. The present moment is all I've got. Why not live it to the fullest?

He stopped thinking about the future and returned to the discussion of time objects, time dilation, and spatial symmetry. Daniel was brilliant, and Roy was determined to learn something from him, to make this hour-long car ride count.

After all, wasn't that the point? To make the present moment count?.

He leaned back in the seat and listened.

Michael Richan lives in Seattle, Washington.

Visit www.michaelrichan.com.

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By the author:.

The Bank of the River.

A Haunting in Oregon.

Ghosts of Our Fathers.