Time was passing. Soon the body of Luke Nelson would appear on, or at least near the spot he had just disappeared from a minute or two ago.
Ben’s imagination was running wild. “What would he body look like? What would the Earth two billion years ago do to Luke?” Ben kind of hoped that Luke’s body would at least be in one piece. The thought of a dismembered classmate, even one as unlikable and evil as Luke Nelson, made Ben cringe.
He had an urge to run because he in no way wanted to be in that room when Luke reappeared. But then, he also did not want to desert his friends: Mr. Carlyle with his mangled hand and Mary still shaking in shock from her encounter with Luke in the bushes and more recently, in the salon.
“I guess we just wait”, said a far calmer Mr. Carlyle as he glanced at the sequined, bright red clock on the mantle. “We will of course have to tell the authorities, if they’ll believe us. Red Nelson will wonder what happened to his son”.
Mr. Carlyle opened a cabinet, removing a strip of bandage to wrap his throbbing hand. “After the authorities, I guess it’s a trip to the hospital, or prison if Officer Vache will have me”, he laughed nervously.
Ben sat quietly in a corner of the salon, trying to stay as far away as possible from the spot where he thought Luke’s body would reappear. Mary sat on the couch, her knees pulled up off the floor and wrapped tightly by her arms.
Silently the seconds ticked by. “We’re dealing with a time machine but everything seems like eternity”, said Ben as he stared over the broken chairs and tables. He stood and giving the spot where Luke had last been a wide berth, he walked over and looked out the salon window.
Then it happened. Ben gasped and the idea that would change everything, time, life and if Luke was lucky, even death.
“Listen”, hurriedly spoke Ben, “We don’t have a lot of time before Luke’s body returns and I don’t know about you but I’m not exactly going to enjoy being here when it returns but I think I can…” Ben cut off in mid-sentence.
Without warning, what was once Luke Nelson, returned with a sickening plop on the floor. Red and bloated, swollen to a girth twice the size of the previous Luke, the shape just slumped in the center of the broken battered salon. Fluid seeping from the lifeless Luke puddled on the floor of Mr. Carlyle’s salon.
Mary fought back the urge to throw up at the site of what once was Luke. Ben though stared at the body, formulating his plan.
“Quick, find the stone”, yelled Ben to Mary and Mr. Carlyle and with that Ben started searching the shapeless pile of flesh that was once Luke. Holding his breath as long as possible, Ben poked and pulled at the lump that was once Luke Nelson.
Puzzled and more than a little bit grossed out, Mary remained on the couch, well back from the body of Luke. Mr. Carlyle, his hand now wrapped walked over to Ben and stood watching the whole affair.
Gaining composure, Mary said, “Why? How? Er… oh why not”, and she rose from the couch and with one hand covering her mouth and nose, she started searching for what once was Luke Nelson’s hands and the missing stone.
“Got it”, said Ben and he held the stone high to show the others. “Now Mary, Mr. Carlyle, how long ago would you say it was since Luke beat up Mary in the bushes outside the window? Fifteen minutes? Twenty?”
“At least twenty”, said a puzzled Mr. Carlyle and his face turned to a slight grin for then he realized what Ben was planning. He was planning to save Luke.
“Give me the stone Ben. I’ll do it”, said Mr. Carlyle, who was now tying together a make-shift sling for his broken hand.
“No”, said Ben, “Your hurt and Luke is strong, stronger than the both of us. But I will have the element of surprise. I think I can do this.”
“I don’t understand” cried Mary. “Luke’s dead”.
“In this time, Mary, he’s dead in this time”, explained Ben. “But we’ve got eternities to jump through to save, er… to stop him from doing this”. Ben gestured around the destroyed room, Luke’s body and Mr. Carlyle’s broken hand.
“I’ll jump back about twenty-five minutes and see if I can stop Luke before Mary returns from her little trip to the past”, said Ben with a growing confidence.
Mr. Carlyle started to smile just a little more. Ben Dover was growing before his very eyes, gaining a confidence not present in his manner even just a short time before.
“Follow me”, said Ben and he ran from the salon, through the front door to the bushes where Mary had landed when returning from her earlier trip through time. “OK, here’s the bushes where Mary landed. Guess I better go”, said Ben, who was now losing the confidence he had exhibited just minutes earlier.
“You should be there before Mary arrives and even though he’s bigger and meaner, catch Luke totally by surprise”, said Mr. Carlyle.
“Be careful, please”, said Mary who reached out, hugged Ben and gave him a little kiss. Somehow, Ben wished his first kiss would have been a little different and more than ever, he hoped he would survive so that his first kiss would not also be his last.
Rolling the stone over in his hand, Ben said with a shaky voice, “Twenty-five minutes back, ten minutes”. And he was gone.
# # #
Twenty-Five Minutes Ago
Ben arrived, almost silently, twenty-five minutes earlier and directly behind Luke Nelson who was crouching beneath the open salon window. Mary had not yet reappeared and Luke did not notice the appearance of Ben behind him.
Ben leapt on the back of Luke, tightly wrapping his arms about his throat. Pulling backward Ben held on for dear life with growing thoughts that this was perhaps not a good idea.
Luke stood and flailed at the face, head and hands of Ben still wrapped about his neck. Then tumbling backwards out of the bushes Luke landed on top of Ben, knocking the breath out him. Now lying alone on the ground with Luke free of his grip, Ben watched as Luke rose up and hovered over him. Repeatedly kicking and punching Ben, Luke was focused solely on hurting as badly as he could.
“Only ten minutes”, murmured Ben with great pain as he lay huddled in a ball protecting what he could from Luke’s vicious assault. “Soon I’ll be back. Hang on. Just hang on”. He was now very nearly knocked out from the ferocity of Luke’s attack.
Then suddenly and surprisingly, a spray of yellow filled the air and Luke’s assault stopped. His arms dropped to his side and he seemed to rise a little. Then he fell, almost silently, unconscious on the yellow cover grass, just next to Ben.
Ben, splattered in both his own blood and the color yellow, opened his eyes and looked up to see Mary, holding a can of bright yellow paint, its lid off and with a huge, dent in its side, a dent just about the size of Luke’s head.
Mary had returned from her trip to Tink Owens’ field, noticed Luke beating Ben and took matters, or should we say paint cans, into her own hands. Mary had saved him.
And then, for Ben everything went black.
# # #
The Present
“Alright”, thought Ben, he was back and laying just outside the bushes of Mr. Carlyle’s house. Still hurting and beaten, he lay there for a second wondering if he had saved Luke.
“Never really understood how all the ins, outs and cross current of time travel work, but I sure guess you did your job”, said a smiling Mr. Carlyle coming up to the prone Ben and flexing his now unbroken hand.
Rolling over, Ben saw the yellow paint covering the prone body of Luke Nelson. Not dead for sure but obviously still out from the force of Mary’s blow with the paint can.
“History has reset and realigned itself”, said Mr. Carlyle. “Salon’s just as it always has been, Luke’s still most likely his same old nasty self, but a little more brightly colored and we are all fine. Well most of us. I see you’ve got a few bumps and bruises”.
“I’ll take the stone now Ben” and Mr. Carlyle reached out his hand.
Ben was glad to get rid of the stone and he placed it gently in Mr. Carlyle’s hand.
“No disrespect, Mr. Carlyle said Ben rising to his feet, “but we are not fine. We have changed history, who knows how many times and in what ways. We see changes here but what about unseen, unknown changes elsewhere? Perhaps Luke was meant to die. Perhaps, your house was supposed to be broken up. A half hour ago Mary was in the bushes being punched by Luke. Now she’s the one who smacked him with a can of yellow paint. Perhaps you were never meant to chat with Jesus. Maybe,
Pausing for just a second, Ben continued, “Mr. Carlyle, we just don’t know how we have change things with our time travels”.
Stunned, Mr. Carlyle just stood silently in his front yard. Mary was now sitting on a small log. Luke was stirring, looking like he was trying to crawl away. And Ben, well Ben was now in tears. “We do not know what we did or what will change”, he sobbed.
Then suddenly, Ben knew the real time travel problem. The tales of Mr. Carlyle’s travels revealed the truth. Taken just one story at a time they were tales of great adventures and famous people but when linked together, the truth emerged, a terrible truth.
Ben saw and saw more clearly than either Mr. Carlyle or Mary.
"Mr. Carlyle", said Ben somberly, "We have changed the world and not in a good way".
__________
Next week:
Chapter 11 - We Traveled Three Times Today
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