Chapter 112: Preparations

Wednesday, July 3, 1985

We met for breakfast around eight, then left the hotel at ten. Two hours later or so we stopped for lunch at a restaurant in Madison.

The scenery was lovely as always, but my thoughts were far away, focused on what Angie and I had talked about. After lunch, back in the car (and thus away from Mom and Dad), Angie decided to kick things off.

“So,” Angie said. “This is ... um. Steve and I have been pondering something. Something kinda big. Not about us, but ... it involves us, obviously.”

I nodded, and said, “This is something big, and I think ... something everyone has to agree upon.”

“Ohhhhkay,” Jas said.

“It’s ... broadly speaking, I suppose, and depending on how you use the word ‘disaster,’ there’s going to be a disaster in about six months or so.”

I could see Angie nodding in the rearview mirror.

“Do we want to know?” Jas said.

“That depends. Do you? Not that many people will die, but...” I said. Then I hesitated, and finally said, “Okay. The thing is: it’s a really big deal, and it’s completely preventable. People are out there, right now, trying to stop it from happening, but — if this universe is like mine...”

“And mine, and Laura’s,” Angie said.

“They’ll fail, and a bunch of people will die horribly, and publicly, for no reason at all.”

“How do we stop it?” Paige said.

“That’s the thing. I can’t pretend to be some brainiac expert who’s figured it out. The brainiac experts who designed the stuff that’ll go wrong already know there’s a problem, and they’re trying in vain to get anyone to listen. That leaves either misdirection or honesty.”

“Misdirection how?” Angie said.

“Bomb threat. Pick a pay phone in the middle of nowhere, call, tell them there are bombs. Not so early they can do a thorough search, not so late they can’t stop.”

“Maybe a bunch of pay phones,” Angie said.

“Depends. We don’t want them to think it’s a coordinated hoax, but ... yeah. Maybe. Maybe also call the press. If the media is reporting bomb threats, it’ll be easier to wait.”

“Makes sense,” Jas said. “I’m not sure how we could get caught at that, but I can also see it not working, maybe. And if they decide it’s a hoax...”

“That’s where I can help. The other option, basically, is limited honesty. I know a bunch of things that no one could know about what’s going to happen. Put together, knowing all of those things should hopefully make my claim of disaster sound far more likely. That and, of course, I hold a card saying, ‘Look, if this happens anyway after you’ve been told all of this, you are the guy to blame, period, end of subject.’”

“Emotional blackmail, pretty much,” Paige said. “I approve!”

Angie chuckled, and said, “Dangerous, though. If they catch you at that...”

“I’m well aware,” I said. “It’s high stakes. If I just make one phone call, or send one letter, it should be nigh impossible for them to catch me. I know enough about 1985 forensic science to avoid getting busted. One, though, might not get anywhere. The best case for a single contact is to get the right guy on the phone and, if he doesn’t hang up, just run over him with things until he has to listen.”

“And, if he doesn’t?” Jas said.

“Bomb threat!” Paige said. “I’ve always wanted to call in a bomb threat for a righteous cause!”

“You just want to call one in,” Angie said.

“Well, yeah, but I wouldn’t because that would be bad,” Paige said, sticking out her tongue. “But, if it would be good...”

“Bombs away!” Jas said.

“Exactly!” Paige said.

“Is there a timetable?” Jas said. “Why are we talking about this now?”

Angie took that one, saying, “One of the major milestones is coming up. We’ve got a week or two, maybe, before one key piece of information only Steve and me, and likely Laura, know becomes widely available. Lose that, and Steve’s gotta come up with some more obscure stuff.”

“I probably could,” I said, “but yeah. That one’s the big one.”

“Laura’s in on this?” Jas said.

“She hasn’t committed,” I said. “Really, she’s waiting for us. She has no one who’ll be affected if this blows up. Well, her parents, but ... that’s different. She’s put the ball in our court.”

“So...” Angie said. “How risk-tolerant are we?”

“I ... would say go for it,” Jas said, after a few seconds. “Mostly because I think it will hurt the two of you if we don’t.”

“That’s where I was,” Paige said. “It’s obvious you care, and if you’re not doing good when you know how and when to do good, that hurts.”

With that, we at least had a tentative decision. Six months from now, perhaps, we’d either have the worst rocket launch in US history or a boring delay and a routine launch.

I had no idea of what the ripples might be, but there would unquestionably be a lot of them. Still ... do nothing and accept the disaster, knowing how history would go, or take a step into the unknown and try to avert it?

The future might be in our hands.

We made it to Stevens Point around three. Early enough to visit Grandma in her care facility, which was the plan for today. Tomorrow would be the Fourth of July family reunion.

When we got to Grandma’s room, we had a surprise in the form of Uncle Tim. He greeted us all, then stepped out into the hall with Mom and Dad while we tried to carry on a conversation with Grandma.

It was ... okay. She knew who we were, mostly, though she twice confused Jas with being one of my cousin Dean’s girlfriends and once confused Paige with being one of Uncle Ryan’s children. The second was worse: Uncle Ryan had two boys, no girls.

Still, it was pleasant. She had been following our successes in school and college and had lots of praise for us. When she did know who Paige was, she knew Paige was Angie’s girlfriend and seemed perfectly happy about that.

I had a suspicion someone else was not happy, given Tim’s need to talk to Mom and Dad.

After a bit, Mom and Dad came in. Mom sat down with her mother to talk, while Dad whisked the rest of us outside.

Tim came right to the point. Sighing deeply, he said, “Helen ... is ... she’s in a state. She read about the two of you...”

He looked at Angie and Paige, who were holding hands.

“ ... quite a while ago, and ... I haven’t known what to expect. She obviously read the article, but she hadn’t spoken a word about it in nearly a year. I tried to bring up the subject, but she shot me down every time.”

Angie and Paige both nodded.

When no one seemed ready to go on, I said, “So, where are we now?”

Tim sighed again.

“Helen told me — this morning! — that she would not have ‘that girl’ in her house, in her yard, or on her driveway. It took me some time to figure it out, but that’s you...”

He nodded to Paige.

Angie started to say something, but Tim waved his hand.

“Before you say it, I know you would never go along with that, and I’m not asking you to. In fact...”

He sighed again, then said, “It gets worse.”

Angie blinked.

“Helen ... has ... what she thinks is a solution. It’s ... well. She’s declared the family reunion to be ‘family only.’ No one who’s not engaged or married.”

I saw something in Angie’s eyes and was pretty sure what it was. It wouldn’t be for this year — she wouldn’t propose over this, I was pretty sure — but next year Aunt Helen might be playing with fire.

That, or we might not come to Stevens Point at all. There were some reasonable alternatives to that which preserved the family reunion, though they would be complicated with Grandma’s more limited ability to travel.

Tim, meanwhile, paused, shook his head, and said, “Just ... I’m not asking you to stay away, okay?”

Angie hesitated, then said, “You don’t want to directly say it’s fine if we stay away? Am I hearing you correctly?”

He nodded slowly.

“It’s both of you. Or all four of you, I mean. I know too much about both of you, Angie and Steve, to think either of you would compromise on this.”

I nodded, not saying anything.

“Honestly, I’m not sure my sister will put up with this either,” he continued. “Or you, Sam. And ... heck, if it were my children, I don’t know that I could, either.”

Dad just nodded, quietly.

“I’m sorry,” Tim said. “If I’d known even a day or two ago...”

“I’m not sure it would have changed anything,” I said. “We would still have wanted to visit Grandma, which puts us in town, which...”

“I know,” he said. “Look. I respect my religion, and ... it’s tough. It is. But this isn’t the way. I love you. You’re my family, and that’s what I’m called upon to do. My wife ... she ... she can be a believer in ‘tough love’ sometimes, and ... oh, heck.”

Angie nodded, then said, quietly, “Uncle Tim, we don’t want to get between you and your wife. That’s not love, either. And I respect you not trying to get between me and my future wife.”

Tim’s cheeks colored a tiny bit at that.

“If it was my house, and someone in the family who couldn’t accept my beliefs was coming, I’m not sure what I would do,” Angie said. “It is her house. Apologies, Uncle Tim, but we know whose house it is, when it comes down to it.”

He chuckled a bit, weakly.

“I imagine you do,” he said.

“That said,” Angie said, her voice firmer, “My other uncle and aunt, and my cousins, including at least one second cousin I’ve never met, will be there, I believe.”

Tim nodded slowly.

“That big field across the road isn’t yours, is it?” she said.

He bit his lip. After a few seconds, he nodded, slowly.

“It’s Blake McGivney’s. He hasn’t farmed the part near our house in years. That’s why we can drive the tractor around over there.”

“So, if people wanted to come talk to us...” Angie said.

He got a pained look.

“I...” he said, then sighed. “It ... might work.”

Angie’s voice softened, just a bit, as she said, “I don’t want to get between you two. If you don’t want us parked over there, tell me, Uncle Tim. Mom and Dad will figure out a way to let Uncle Ryan and Aunt Colleen know where we’re staying, and the hotel has plenty of places to sit and talk.”

Tim paused for what felt like a very long time. Finally, he said, “I’m not going to ask you to do any particular thing.”

“That ... seems fair.”

Dad said, “Thank you, Tim. I know this was hard.”

“It’s been coming for years,” Tim said, sighing. “Honestly, if it wasn’t this, you would just get the deep freeze because of your career choices. I love my wife deeply, but ... I also love my sister very much, and ... well, she gave me an earful a few minutes ago.”

Angie and I looked at each other. It took a lot to get Mom to give anyone but her kids ‘an earful.’ Honestly, even for us, nothing we’d gotten in our entire lives in this universe counted, unless maybe it was something Mom said about Max when I wasn’t a party to the conversation.

“We appreciate it, Uncle Tim,” Angie said. “If we’re causing too much of a scene, we’ll go back to the motel. I want to see my cousins, though, and their baby, and my other aunts and uncles, and ... you know.”

“I do know,” he said. “And I’m sorry. I really am.”

“We all are,” I said.

“I should go,” Tim said. “Helen will ... if I get back quickly, she might think I missed you here. Maybe not, but ... maybe.”

Dad shook hands with Tim. I did, too, and Angie, Paige, and Jas all hugged him. Dad went in to talk to Grandma so Mom could hug her brother, too.

Ang and I exchanged a few looks. I was pretty sure what she meant, but we would see.

Angie confirmed my suspicions just after we left the nursing home.

“God, big brother, we dodged a huge bullet when Max turned out to be irredeemable,” she said, sighing.

“I was thinking something like that,” I said.

“Thank God for rational wives,” Paige said, giggling.