Chapter 7

Sunday morning I got up and double checked Dad was gone. Once I knew the way was clear, I headed up to the attic to retrieve my manual.

It greeted me ‘hello Sam’ as I dug into the wood that held the glass in place. I wasn’t worried about damaging it, as Hiram hadn’t been able to even scratch it. With the frame removed, I pried it out, holding it in my hands.

The greeting shifted, ‘better get this cleaned up’

I chuckled, thinking about how this was an instruction manual, and it was instructing me to perform manual labor.

I put the pieces of wood in my school bag, and carried them and the ladder down, with the manual also in my backpack. I wasn’t going to make multiple trips, just too many stairs. I put the ladder away, the wood in the trash can outside, and brought my school backpack to the kitchen island.

I sat on the stool and sipped on my coffee as I stared at this mystery I had uncovered.

‘until you bond, I’m only allowed to answer three questions a day.’

I sat back, and contemplated what questions to ask.

“Where is the Orb of Reality?”

A large number 1 appeared.

‘Hidden, buried in a mine shaft 97.4 miles north by northwest’

A map appeared with a big X

‘I will direct you when it’s time’

Then the screen went blank, going to see thru again.

“That’s too fast,” I told it, pulling out my phone and turning the video recorder on, “Show the answer again.”

It repeated, and I recorded it. I had been careful not to make it a request that could possibly be considered another question.

“What does the Orb do?”

A large number 2 appeared, the answer that followed was a myriad of moving images.

A tailless dinosaur man with a brass hand reached into a screen and pulled out a hunk of meat it began to eat.

Another one shifted the brass hand into a shield that protected him from an explosion, then it shifted to a sword that cut another dinosaur dude in half.

A scene showing Hiram reaching into a book with his brass hand, specifically Treasure Island, and pulling out a large gold coin.

Another scene of Hiram with a fuzzy dark circle, he grabbed it with his brass hand and pulled it larger, then stepped thru to somewhere else. His hand then grabbed the edge of the dark circle and pulled to the center, until it became a tiny speck that disappeared.

A scene of Hiram in the woods as the brass hand extended into full dinosaur man claws with six fingers, as it swiped bloodily across the back of a running woman. The scenes ended as she collapsed, ragged and broken.

‘it breaks reality’

The words faded away.

I stopped the recording. I sat for a minute, before I got up and got a fresh cup of coffee. The images had disturbed me. Sure, The Suicide Squad had been bloodier, but that wasn’t real. I had an idea that if I searched for a bizarre animal attack on a young woman in the late 1950’s near Princeton I’d discover what Hiram was so sorry about.

I sat and looked at the instruction manual. I got up and went to the kitchen junk drawer to get a tape measure. It was about 10.75 x 16.75 x .5 inches thick. It’s diagonal was just shy of 20 inches. The edges and corners were slightly rounded, there were no sharp edges or corners on the device.

I put the tape measure away, and set the manual on the counter vertically. I could see thru it clearly, there was no distortion in the glass.

“What do you do?”

A large number 3 appeared, and I turned to look at the clear transparent manual from the back side. From both directions it was showing the number 3, and neither of them were backwards.

‘I train you, then I show everything, everywhere, everywhen’

Images started displaying, I recognized a statue of the dinosaur people in a ruined and ice filled city, creatures from the deep ocean swam across the screen. Creatures beyond description floated across a purple sky, a Mars rover trundled across a red desert filled with grey rocks. A young man about my age tied to a bed, while an old woman with floppy tits bounced on him. Beautiful Betty driving down the road in her UPS truck. My Dad, bent over some gauges as he writes something down. The Vice President sitting on a toilet, grunting. Me, watching myself. My Mom walking down a street.

‘you must see reality to break it’

“Show me my Mom again!” I shouted.

‘That is not your Mom’

The glass went clear, and I stopped my recording. I played it back, pausing briefly at the Vice President. He really is too old to be forcing himself like that, he’s going to get an aneurysm or something. I hit play, that was clearly me, and the woman that followed. That was Mom. I’d know that smile, that walk, even that dress.

“This is my Mom!”

‘That woman didn’t get cancer’

‘That is not your Mom’

I grabbed the instruction manual and threw it across the room. It hardly made a sound as it bounced off the wall, and landed on the wood floor.

I stood over it, “Show me my Mom!”

‘until you bond I can only answer three questions each day’

I stomped onto glass, to no effect as it again went clear.

I grabbed the glass and carried it upstairs, where I released the secret door in my bedroom, and threw it up the stairs. I slammed the secret door shut, and sat at my computer.

I hit the upload button to send the first video to my Google cloud storage. It took only a few seconds, then I pulled it up on my laptop. Comparing the video of the map, and using the directions and distance provided I located the approximate location of the Orb. It was in the foothills just outside Millville. Google helpfully showed me that it was 1 hour 47 minutes by car.