Chapter 4

Author’s note:[ and ] delineate mind-to-mind dialog.

A few days after I had given the rings to my family and explained their options and obligations, I was waked up by an urgent call from Ring. Dad had gotten up early and headed in to work to clear up some paperwork that he had let slide. He was stopped at a traffic light when a man ran up to the car and tried to open the door.

The man was on the passenger side of the car, and he yelled for Dad to unlock the door. All of the windows were closed all of the way because Dad was running the air conditioner (A/C). Dad shook his head no, and that was when the man pulled a gun and pointed it at Dad through the closed window. By this time, the light had turned green, but Dad had not noticed—he was concentrating on that gun pointed at his head.

When Dad didn’t move, the fool with the gun fired through the window glass at Dad. Of course, the window shattered and sprayed glass shards everywhere. The bullet hit Dad in the side of the head, but did not penetrate because of the body armor he was wearing that had been supplied by his ring.

Multiman (me) arrived in full uniform having been transported to the car by Ring. I didn’t give any thought to what I was doing. I simply grabbed the attacker by the scruff of the neck and took off. It was obvious that the attacker had murder on his mind from the moment he approached Dad’s car. I flew out of town to the airport and dropped the man from about 500 feet onto an unused runway. I wanted him to hit the pavement so that his body would be smashed beyond recognition.

Meanwhile, I had Dad’s ring repair the broken window and dispose of the broken glass. I had the ring tell Dad to continue on to work and that I would talk to him later. That he did, and I contacted him by means of the rings after he reached his office. I told him what I had done with the attacker, but, before he could say anything, I explained my reason. [Dad, you know how the courts are going easy on carjackers. Well, he tried to kill you, so I didn’t want him to get away with just a slap on the wrist. I dropped him from 500 feet onto a concrete runway to make sure that he would not give anybody else any trouble. A person like that was too dangerous to allow him to escape retribution.]

[Okay, Sam, I agree with you. Thank you for taking care of the situation. I’ll see you at dinner.]

Oh, well, now that I was awake and up, I figured that I might as well have breakfast. Mom was already there and getting ready to fix her breakfast. She was going to have a full breakfast, so she had gotten out the necessary pots and skillet. I said, “Mom, let me do breakfast. You have done it for us for so many years that I would like to do it for you. Please sit down at the table and let me demonstrate what your ring can do for you.”

“Well, okay, but I wasn’t sure that a breakfast prepared by magic would taste like what I was used to.”

While she was in the process of sitting down at the table, I called for a cup of coffee for her fixed the way she liked it. I couldn’t help laughing a little bit when she jumped back at the appearance of the blue light. A moment later, a cup of coffee was on the table in front of her. “Mom, try the coffee. See if you like it.”

She took a sip of the coffee, which already had the cream and sugar stirred in, and I was amazed at the change in her expression. “Oh, my Lord, Sam, that is the best cup of coffee I ever tasted! Just that has convinced me that I will like the breakfast you fix.”

I ordered her a western omelet with toast and butter. Mom was old fashioned when it came to the amount of fats that she consumed at breakfast. Her ring had said that her body was in good shape and not adversely affected by the fat. That was good enough for us, so I didn’t argue with her.

She dove into the breakfast with a will, and consumed it much faster than I expected. When she finished, I asked if she’d had enough to eat, and she assured me that she had. “Sam, the food was wonderful! Okay, I have cooked my last breakfast, this is too good and too easy to do anything else.” By the way, I had eaten the same breakfast.

“Okay, Mom, now will you let your ring fix dinner from now on. All you have to do is to tell it what you want and when you want it. It will be ready with your menu and at the time you specify. Or, you could just tell your ring that you will call for the food when you are ready for it. You saw how fast it delivered our breakfasts, so you know how quick the service can be.”

“All right, I’ll give it a try tonight. I sure hope it works as well as breakfast did. I’ll also try for a lunch at work the same way. I’ll just have to order something that can go in a paper bag so I don’t let the other girls see how I got what I was eating.”

“How are you getting to work this morning?”

“I figured that I would walk to the bus stop and take that in to work.”

“Say, instead, let’s have your ring produce a car for you. What kind of car do you want?”

“I don’t know, you pick one out for me. Make it blue.”

“Okay, you now have a blue Ford waiting for you in the driveway. If you don’t like it, we can always replace it with a different car. I don’t want to make it a Cadillac or a Lincoln or something like that so that we will not suddenly look like we have come into a lot of money. I hope that’s fine with you.”

“Sure, Honey. I’ll be happy with anything. This will be my first car of my own. Thank you so very much.”

“I’m glad to do it, Mom. You are the best!”

As soon a Mom left for work, Susan and Billy came stumbling into the kitchen looking for Mom and breakfast. “You’re too late, guys. Mom has left for work. You can fix your own breakfast by using your ring. Let me show you how. Sit down at the table and tell your rings what you want. You’ll be surprised at how fast your food will show up.”

They sat at the table and gave it a try. They both giggled when the food showed up nearly as quickly as they asked for it. Both ate, and I said, “Now tell your rings to clean up after you.” Again, they giggled when the plates and utensils disappeared. Both agreed that they would no longer ask Mom to fix their breakfasts.

They left for their summer activities, and I started trying to think of ways that I could speed up my investigation. I was talking to Ring about the investigation when I mentioned that it sure would be easier to do the grunt work if I had been able to see the murder.

[That never occurred to me. I can show you that event anytime you ask. You just can’t do anything to make any changes in what happened. It is already frozen in the space-time matrix and can’t be changed. However, just looking won’t change anything back then.]

[Hey, that is a great idea. Show me what happened.]

Ring did not reply. Instead, there appeared a large screen against one wall of the kitchen. The screen was large enough to show everything in its normal size. I could ask for an enlargement if I needed it. There was also sound accompanying the action.

The first thing I saw was two men and a woman coming down the basement stairs. Ring identified the people as Eunice Jones, Albert Hoover, and John Silverstone. All three came down the stairs talking about trivial matters not related to anything I was interested in. The lights were on, so there was no problem in seeing everything that went on.

Jones directed the two men toward the center of the basement, and that was when the conversation changed. Hoover said, “John, why the hell did you start skimming our profits from the coke sales?”

“I don’t know what you are talking about, dammit.”

Hoover said, “Yeah, then why has our income dropped so much in the last two months. Hell, I would have loaned you the money if you had asked. I talked to your bookie, and he said that you did owe him over $200,000, but you have been paying it off at exactly the same rate as our profits have dropped off. That was really stupid of you. Now that we know that we can’t trust you, we’ll have to get rid of you.”