Chapter 11

I was lying on my back, in the middle of my back yard. I was surrounded by foot high grass, and other mid-western flora that had grown up and died, during the past year or two. It had cushioned my fall off of the decking. My one true love, the very pregnant Sandy, had rushed to me in my unannounced arrival home.

The impact had pulled her over as well, and she was lying on top of me. I had cushioned her fall, but one of her knees had landed right between my legs. Fortunately, the knee was just below my favorite area, and had missed everything but my left thigh.

The impact had knocked me senseless for just a few moments, and I could still hear a ringing. I was feeling dizzy. But I knew who I was, and where I was, so it couldn’t be too bad.

“Oh, TJ! How did you get here? Are you ok?” Sandy asked me, as she realized just what had happened.

I tried to mumble a response, but got a deep forceful kiss, instead.

“Oh, sweetheart, are you ok? I landed right on top of you. I was so surprised!”

“Head hurts,” I mumbled, badly.

“Oh, sweetheart! Don’t move, ok? I’m going to call the ambulance. I don’t want you moving, at all,” she told me.

I was starting to feel pain now, my thigh was throbbing, as was an ankle. My head was killing me, and the ringing continued. I was worried about a concussion, and I was worried about Sandy.

She pulled her cell phone from the chain around her neck, and dialed 911. I smiled realizing she was using the present I had bought her, just before she left. Worried about her being alone, I bought her a tiny cell phone. I also bought her a necklace to hang it on, so it was never far away.

Sandy tried to get up, but winced, halfway there. She settled back down, and explained to the operator what had happened. She gave the address, and then pulled my eyelids back, to make sure I was conscious.

“Ow, stop that,” I managed to say, with a little more clarity.

“Yes, Sir. He’s conscious. Yes, he hit his head pretty bad. No, he hasn’t moved. I landed on top of him, and I haven’t moved to let him up,” she said.

Her part of the conversation, was the only part I could hear.

“Sandy, you don’t have to tell him all that,” I told her, feeling ever more pain, and embarrassment.

She scooted back some, and leaned against the porch. The tight feeling in my chest vanished as she lifted off of me. Looking down, I could see a frying pan, that was still clutched in her hand.

She kept watching me, nodding, and giving directions on how to come to the back the house. She told how to go through the gate, to the back yard. Then she hung up.

“Love, what’s the purpose of the frying pan?” I asked her.

“I didn’t know who you were. So I grabbed something for protection, before opening the door.”

‘That’s my girl, ‘ I thought.

“Thank God you recognized me. I’d hate for you to have to tell our little girl, why she doesn’t have a daddy,” I said, smiling at her.

I tried to lift up, now that her weight was off of me, but she pushed me back down.

“TJ, remember who’s holding the frying pan. You are going to stay right there, until the ambulance gets here, and they say it’s ok to move you.”

I did as I was told, even when my cell phone began to ring. Sandy, seeing I was being an obedient boy, reached into my jacket and pulled it out.

“Hello?” she said, flipping it open, to answer.

She turned the volume up on the phone, and leaned over me, so I could hear.

“This is Lieutenant Sanders. I’m monitoring the Vortex, via satellite. Is Dr. Calin alright?”

“He took a nasty spill, but I think he’ll be ok. I’ve called for an ambulance, and help should be arriving soon,” she told him.

“Very well. We saw the accident, and were concerned. Dr. Calin is a very important asset to us. I have been directed to inform you, that to protect security, Dr. Calin will need to be under the supervision of the military police while in the hospital.”

“Are you sending guard goons through the Vortex?” Sandy asked.

“No. You have been under surveillance as well, for your own safety. We are directing them to come ‘round to the back of the house, and then to travel to the hospital with you.”

Sandy’s eyes hardened for a moment. Then she glanced upward, into the black night sky that glittered with a thousand stars. She gave the sky a hard grimace, and flipped it ‘the bird’.

Hanging up the phone, she asked if I had heard the conversation. I nodded, just as three men, dressed in casual clothes, walked around the corner of the house.

“You guys keep him from moving. You have my authorization to push him back down, if he tries to get up. I don’t have enough clothes on, to go to the hospital, so I’m going in to change,” Sandy told my new bodyguards, taking charge of the situation.

They stiffened at the tone of command that she projected, and took positions around me. Only one stood watching over me. The other two faced outward, as if looking for imminent danger.

The ambulance arrived before Sandy came back. But she was dressed, and even had makeup on, before I was loaded and carted off to the hospital. She rode with one of the guards in their car, while two of them accompanied me in the ambulance. One rode in back, the other up front.

The hospital was a blur of activity. I was quickly brought in, checked out, and deposited in a private room. My guards (all three of them, now back together) took turns watching over me, as did Sandy. The conclusion in the end, was that I had a mild concussion. There was not much else wrong with me; other than a very large, and very yellow-purple bruise, on my inner right thigh.

What I had planned as a surprise visit, had become a surprise injury. Sandy slept in a second bed, that she had ordered into the hospital room. I slept in mine. I was hoping that she would find a double hospital bed somewhere; but the doctors told her that I needed to sleep, without chance of being jostled, during the night.

The next day I felt much better, and Sandy looked beautiful. She had managed to get fresh clothes, and a shower. A big bag of our favorite donuts, with coffee, was waiting by the time I woke.

She explained that she had woken up early, and started giving the guards orders. They had whispered her commands into little microphones. Other security team members started popping up, with everything she had demanded.

I smiled at her, as she explained everything that had happened while I had been out. Apparently word had gotten out to ‘Homeland Security’ about an imminent terrorist attack. They had used a Vortex, to drop a thousand troops around an American Embassy, in Africa.

CNN had gotten news of, and had managed to get video from a helicopter, of the Vortex. They also recorded the troops rushing out of it. Just as they were about to set down the helicopter, and start asking questions; a large bus, filled with explosives, came barreling down the street.

It came within a few hundred feet, when the Vortex moved in front of it, and swallowed it up.

Sandy flicked on the news, while she was telling the story, and they again replayed the film. The people onsite explained that they didn’t yet know what had happened. They said that the video was not edited in any way, and everything that they had just shown, they had been eyewitnesses to.

I was floored, to say the least. But, most of all, I wondered where those poor bastards had been sent by the Vortex.

I watched, as various scientist were brought on to try to explain what had happened. They made wild theories about a black hole being used to create time space tunnels, and other outlandish science fiction garbage.

I started to ridicule them, but Sandy shushed me. She told me just to sit back, and watch quietly. We watched, as the day’s events began to unfold. A full Senate went into a closed session, to discuss the ‘tremendous events’ that had occurred. All the while, rumors of the President having vanished from the White House, circulated as well.

Reporters mobbed the Senate building, but were held back by the security forces there. They eventually went away when they were told, late that night, that no elected officials remained in the building. They were told that the Senators had exited another way.

One reporter started asking questions even before the man finished his speech.

“Sir, does this have anything to do with the ‘magic tunnel’? Were they meeting today to discuss further recalls of discharged military troops? We are getting reports of massive worldwide troop movements, is there a war coming?”

The security officer looked at him oddly, and asked him, “What do I look like? A snoop, or a blabbermouth?”

That shut the reporter up, but everybody else tried asking the same question, a different way. The security officer simply walked away from them, back into the Senate building.

Amazingly, that shut all the reporters up.

I went to sleep again that night, feeling much better. The doctors said that I could be released the following day. Sandy still hadn’t found a double bed; but did manage to get the two singles tied together, so we could sleep next to each other.

The next day was filled with more activity, as news reports of massive troop movements around the world were being reported. No one knew how they were getting around. The news was also filled with reports of terrorist leaders, all over the world, being captured or shot. Criminals, too, were being rounded up by the police. Interpol was reporting that 42 of it’s 50 most wanted criminals, had been captured.

The news guys had nothing but speculation. They kept telling people that they didn’t really know anything definite, just a few facts that had been confirmed. They repeated these to the point of nausea. And all the while, they reported ever stranger rumors, about different world events.

I was glad, finally, to be out of the hospital. I was away from the news media. Sandy politely used headphones (as she listened to the news, over the radio), while we were driven back to my house.

I had not had the chance to check my voicemail while in the hospital. So I took the time do so, as soon as I walked in the house. Again, I was floored by the messages.

I had one message from Bruce, telling me that he hoped I got well soon. He had gotten his machine (which he now called ‘the beast’) to work. That was good enough news, as it was.

I had several messages from my local state Representatives, and my local Congressman. All wanted to wish me well. And they all wanted me to meet with them, as soon as I was able. I jotted down the phone numbers they all left, and moved on to the next message.

It was CNN, wanting to get my opinion on the strange wormhole occurrence. I cringed at first, thinking that they were on to me as its creator. One of my bodyguards explained that they had left a man here at the house, to guard it. He had reported the call. CNN was just looking up everybody who might know something about spatial anomalies, and might be able to shed light on what had happened.

I asked him if they had returned the call. They explained that they had called back (pretending to be a message service) to notify CNN that I was out of the country, on vacation. They had said I would be back in two weeks time.

I thanked him, but wondered how CNN would treat me if they ever found out the truth. I would hate to become a media pariah, if they decided not forgive the government for its small indiscretions.

Feeling exhausted, I erased the messages. I flipped the ringer switch on the phone, to “off”. Then I headed upstairs for bed, and soon found myself deep asleep.

I awoke late that evening, with my beautiful love wrapped around me. As I stirred, she woke as well. Before she could become fully awake, I kissed her. She smiled, as she opened her eyes.

“You remember your promises, don’t you?” she asked me.

“Of course. I’ll always try to remember to wake you with a kiss. What time is it?”