Chapter 14

[Saturday, June 21st, 1986]

I awoke to the sounds of our next-door neighbors pulling their truck out of the driveway. Damn-it, I forgot about them. I wondered if I could help them out. Let’s find out. I jumped into the tunnel.

If the time between sections were roughly two seconds, then that would be 30 sections per minute. 300 sections would be ten minutes. I started moving quickly, but still slow enough to count individual sections. I stopped somewhere after 500 sections. And tried to enter the scene. It was harder to do as there were no details to focus on.

Eventually, I started feeling the sensation, and I focused on that. It intensified, and I felt myself being pulled into my body.

I awoke to the sounds of our next-door neighbors pulling their truck out of the driveway. Well, I guess that answers that question. I sat up and turned off the alarm before it had a chance to start buzzing.

When I’m in the tunnel, I don’t seem to have a body, but I also don’t seem to have any of the body’s requirements. I’ve never been hot, cold, hungry, or tired. I guess it makes sense that when I jumped into my body when it was asleep, I just stayed asleep. That is good to know.

I went through my wardrobe, such as it was, and found a decent oxford shirt that fit well enough if I rolled up the sleeves. My nicest pair of jeans were dirty and really needed to be washed before I wore them. I should have thought of that last night. Well, why not ... I jumped into the tunnel.

I moved back through the tunnel until just as I finished climbing the stairs up into my room before going to bed. Focusing on the scene, I quickly found myself in my body again.

[Friday, June 20th, 1986]

I grabbed my entire laundry hamper and headed back down to the basement. I quickly got a load of darks, including the pair of jeans that I wanted to wear in the morning, started in the washer. There was a load of whites in the dryer that someone had forgotten about. I grabbed a tea towel that was in there and got a corner of it wet from the water filling the washing machine. I wrung it out real well and then started the dryer going again after cleaning the vent screen. That should get rid of any wrinkles in the load.

I waited about 20 minutes, then unloaded the dryer and brought it all up to the kitchen to fold. I wondered why we never set up a folding table down there. There was plenty of room for it. I’ll add that to a project list for myself. I got all the whites folded and left them in neat piles on the table for people to grab later. I put away the towels from the kitchen. Heading back down to the basement, I found the washer almost done, so I just waited for it to finish.

A couple of minutes later, I moved the finished clothes into the dryer with a sheet of Bounce and started it up on its longest cycle. Then headed up to bed. I set the alarm for 6:30 to see if I could save the neighbors mailbox and maybe their weekend.

[Saturday, June 21st, 1986]

I woke to the alarm clock at 6:30 am. Coffee, I needed coffee. I threw on a pair of Gym shorts, an old Ellis Tech t-shirt, and a dirty looking but comfortable old pair of sneakers. I made my way down to the kitchen and started the kettle going on the stove. After digging through the cabinet and finding the instant coffee, I got a cup ready and waited on the kettle.

I watched the clock, and it looked like I had plenty of time. It seemed like they hit the mailbox right before 7:00 am, and I had about 10 minutes still. Finally, the kettle started whistling, and I poured my cup. It was good enough to call it coffee, but that’s about as far as I would go. I headed out to the front steps through the door we rarely use and took a seat.

When I heard the truck heading out of the driveway, I made my way over there and stood pretty near their mailbox. I waved to Mr. Connor as he pulled out and took another sip of coffee. He said, “Good morning John. It looks like a beautiful day shaping up.”

I told him, “It sure does, probably going to be a hot one though. Where are you guys headed with your new toys?”

He told me, “We’re going to spend the weekend at Gardner Lake. There is a mini-family reunion there this year. I haven’t seen half of them in at least ten years. I’ve been looking forward to it for months.”

I told him to have a great time and to be careful. I also said that I would spot for him from this side if his wife would take the other. We got it done without incident this time, and I waved them off. I smiled and took another sip of lousy coffee, feeling pretty good about myself this morning.

I grabbed a clean face cloth from the bathroom and made it damp, then went back downstairs and threw it in with the clothes to freshen them as I started the dryer again.

I let the clothes fluff for a little over 10 minutes before getting impatient and pulled them all out. I folded them all on the kitchen table, hanging the face cloth that was still slightly damp over a towel rack in the bathroom. I took my clothes up to my room, grabbed what I wanted to wear today, and headed for the shower.

After showering and getting dressed, I headed back upstairs. I remembered seeing a little black spray bottle of Drakkar Noir cologne in my shaving kit. It was my favorite scent, long ago, when I still cared about such things. I was cautious about keeping it light. I applied very little to one wrist from several inches away. I then rubbed them together and further rubbed each wrist to a side of my neck. We would be enclosed in a car with the A/C on quite a lot today. I didn’t want to overdo it.

I updated the board saying I was going to be out with friends all day. Looking at the time, it was about 10 minutes before 8:00 am, and I decided to go ahead and head her way. I was still worried about overdoing the cologne, so I opened the window and drove slowly. Hopefully, it would let me and the car air out a bit. There was never anyone behind me, so it worked just fine.

I parked in the driveway at Kim’s house and headed up the steps to her door. Kim opened it after I rang the bell and invited me inside. We went into the kitchen and found her parents at the table drinking coffee. I said, “Hi, Mr. and Mrs. Murphy.”

Mr. Murphy said, “Hi, John. Please call us Sean and Claire. We’re not so big on formality around here. Though I hear you are planning to cross state lines with my little girl. Perhaps I should be worried.”

I shook my head and told him, “Nah, I checked. The APB is only for the local cops. I doubt the staties will even care. We should be able to make it to Canada before the Feds get involved.”

Kim and Claire both started laughing and Sean joined in after a minute. Both women made comments about the look on Sean’s face at the time. He said, “Okay, I guess I deserved that.”

I said, “We’re going to ‘Old Sturbridge Village’ for the day. It is not very far into Massachusets. I’m planning to have her back before dinner time. If you guys would be more comfortable, we can take Kim’s car, and I can play navigator instead. I wouldn’t mind.”

Sean said, “No, that isn’t necessary. I was only joking about playing the overprotective parent. We trust Kim to know what’s best for herself. I know she is looking forward to the trip today, so you two should just go have fun and not worry about us.”

Kim said, “Okay, I love you both. We’re heading out, and I’ll see you guys for dinner.”

As we left, I told Kim, “I was serious. I don’t mind taking your car if it will make you feel safer. We should at least see how I fit in your passenger seat anyway.”

Kim said, “We can do that if you like.”

We headed to the garage, and I found fitting into the VW Rabbit surprisingly comfortable for me. I had reached my top height by this time in my life. I was 6’ 1.75” tall. I went ahead and claimed to be 6’2”, and nobody ever came after me with a tape measure.

After some discussion, we decided to take mine. It was a bit roomier, and would probably be the overall most comfortable option. Kim made sure to apologize to the Rabbit for leaving her behind today. I promised we’d take her out on the next one.

As we got settled in my car, I pointed out the road atlas and showed Kim the route I wanted to take. We’d be taking I-395 to CT-12 to CT-131. After crossing the state-line, CT-131 would turn into MA-131, taking us to the village. Signs should get us the rest of the way.

I started the car, and we began our trip. I told Kim, “Okay, Road Rules: The co-pilot will be the navigator. I think that’s a given. In compensation, they navigator gets overall control of the music. However, the driver maintains volume override and generous veto powers for individual songs. Sound good?”

She said, “I can work with that.”

I said, “There are some tapes in the glove box. I think ‘Bat out of Hell’ is in the tape deck right now. Remember, with great power comes great responsibility.”

She told me, “Aye Aye, Captain. You can count on me.”

As I settled into high gear on the highway, Kim began digging into the tape collection stashed in the glove box. After a few snarky comments about some of my more odd collection choices, she noticed the lottery tickets. I saw the puzzled look on her face as she saw so many similar numbers on the tickets. Kim held them up and raised an eyebrow in question.

I said, “That’s an interesting topic. I had a dream a few nights ago about winning the lottery. When I woke up, the numbers stayed with me, so I wrote them down. The weird thing was that there were seven numbers. They stuck in my head very clearly. I’m positive I remembered them right. I probably didn’t even need to write them down.”