Chapter 9

July, 1950

I thought of a good way to test my new armor. I generated the armor and TPed to Korea, to the battle line. I stood up and started walking across in front of the North Korean Army lines. They started shooting at me as soon as I showed up, and I felt a number of sharp blows as bullets hit my armor. Of course, nothing penetrated the armor and I TPed home. Dad really yelled at me when I told him what I had done; he ordered me never to do something so stupid again and never to tell Mother what I had done. He then admitted that my armor had passed a very tough test.

I had an even scarier (to me) test of the armor a few days later. I decided that I should make an effort to get used to the armor, so I started wearing it any time I was away from home. I had ridden my motor scooter down town and parked. As I got off the scooter, I saw a child run out into traffic, chasing a balloon. Without conscious thought, I raced out into the street after her. I saw a car coming toward her, too close to stop. Just as I wrapped her in my arms, the car's fender hit me and sent the both of us flying.

I landed in the street, still holding the girl. I discarded my armor and stood up. Her mother rushed up and I handed the girl to her. A traffic cop, who had seen the whole thing, ran up and asked where I was hurt. I said I was OK; the car had only brushed me as I had jumped. He looked very dubious, but could see that, except for some dirt, I was a good as new. He congratulated me on saving the girl, and a number of other people rushed up and did the same. The poor driver in the car that had struck me was in a state of shock, so I walked over and told him that the little girl and I were perfectly OK and he could relax.

A reporter and a photographer from the newspaper showed up and I told a slightly edited story and had my picture taken. Both the story and the picture wound up on the front page of that evening's paper. Neither Mother nor Dad were excited about the incident, because they both knew that I was habitually wearing my armor, now. However, they did congratulate me on saving the girl, but Dad asked me why I didn't just TK her out of the way of the car. He laughed when I told him that I never thought of it.

Gas was getting expensive, it was already up to 31.9 cents/gal., so I decided to retire the motor scooter and TP everywhere. I wanted to go to the pool that afternoon to look for any new scenery, so I used my POV to find a suitable jump termination point. As I was looking around, I saw three large highschool boys surrounding a boy who was much smaller and looked about 10 years old. I used my "mind reading" ability to find out what was going on.

The three older boys were "just having some fun" tormenting the smaller boy. This looked like the standard bully scenario, but I thought that I would have some fun, too. I set my armor in place and TPed to their location. I used my nerve impulse scrambling ability to fog their vision whenever they looked at me. I walked up to the group and said, in my most commanding voice, "I am The Vigilante and I have come to put a stop to this nonsense!"

I locked the three bullies in place, then I pushed one of the larger boys aside and said to the young boy, "You are going to be OK. You can leave now or you can stay and watch me deal with these bullies."

"I'll stay."

The three older boys were wearing swimming trunks; I stripped them and put their trunks in the top of the tallest nearby tree. I then flipped all three upside down and offered the young boy the opportunity to squeeze their balls. He jumped at the chance and the next few minutes were very painful for the three bullies. I stopped the boy's squeezing and made sure that there was no permanent damage. The young boy and I walked to the pool and he asked, "Are you going to just leave those guys like that?"

"No, watch this," I said as I TPed the three, still upside down, to the deepest part of the pool and dropped them in. I released the voluntary muscle lock as they fell and we watched them flounder as they entered the water. They were particularly ridiculous looking when they realized they were in the pool without any swim trunks. I finished them off by applying the electric jolt version of my bully curse. We laughed and I walked over to pay my pool entry fee.

I dove into the pool and suddenly realized that I had a serious problem with my armor! Water was pouring through the screen of my helmet and it would pour out when I put my head above the surface. I got rid of my helmet right away and looked to see what effect my other armor was having. It was filling with water and I would look like I was covered with a thick film of water as soon as I got out of the pool. I quickly ditched the rest of my armor and resolved not to wear it in the pool until I figured out a cure for the water problem.

So much for that for now! I came here for the scenery, not to fight battles while wearing armor. I swam to one side of the pool and grabbed hold. I planned on staying there while I looked around. I spotted an attractive girl on the other side of the pool and started to head that way when I saw another guy swim up to her. She gave him a quick kiss, so I quickly abandoned that line of pursuit. I looked around and saw some other girls who were pleasant to look at, but didn't spark any interest beyond looking. I sighed and decided that this just wasn't going to be my day.

The three erstwhile bullies were still in the pool as I left for home. I have no idea how long they stayed or what they did to get out, but I never saw any of them, again.

September, 1950

Highschool at last! Man, this place was big! We got a tour as part of freshman orientation, and we sure needed it. All of the freshman classrooms were grouped together, except for the gym, the music room, the study hall/library, and the lunchroom. I guessed that this was to cut down on harassment by upperclassmen; I wasn't worried—I'd have that fixed within a couple of weeks.

I had my electives all lined out for the next three years, so I didn't have any scheduling glitches. Once the orientation was over, we went on a walk-through of our class schedule. We had 10 minutes to find the right room and 10 minutes to meet the teacher and get any special instructions. The only special instructions I noted was that we were required to shower after gym! I agreed that, every thing considered, that was probably a good idea.

We were dismissed at noon for the rest of the day; tomorrow would be a regular school day and the juniors and seniors would also be at school. We were told to expect crowded halls, particularly around the lockers.

The next morning, I was met by a hulk at my locker who wanted to assess a 50 cent locker fee for the month. I started to reach for my change when I realized that this was some sort of scam! I did a quick mind scan and discovered that this was a regular racket run by a gang of seniors. Juniors were usually recruited during the year to become the gang the next year. I got a list of gang members and gave this thug-in-training the bully curse. I also refused to pay. He looked at me in a threatening manner, got a funny look on his face, and ran for the restroom. I doubt that he made it!

During the lunch break, I went into the office and asked if they knew about the locker scam. I was told that there was no such thing and I should not be a troublemaker! The clerk that told me this actually believed it, as proved by a mind scan. I shrugged my shoulders and walked out.

That evening, I discussed the subject of the locker scam with Dad, and he was surprised to hear of it. The highschool principal had a good reputation around town, so Dad doubted that he knew anything about it. Dad recommended that I handle it on my own as part of The Vigilante persona. I agreed and we changed the subject. Over the next few weeks, I tracked down every one of the seniors on the gang list and gave them the bully curse, both the gut and the electric jolt versions. The activities of this gang just disappeared. The other bullies, I treated as I encountered them.

I was still fascinated by the idea of parallel universes. I had the feeling that traveling in time was traveling vertically, so traveling horizontally should move me between universes. The advantage I had in learning to travel through time was I had already experienced time travel—everybody travels in time as he lives. Now, how could I travel "horizontally?" Maybe, I could move the first time the way I did in my first time travel. I would try to visualize a set of circumstances similar to the way I did that baseball game.

Hey, that would be easy. I would pick a close play in the game and imagine what would have happened if the umpire had ruled the player out, instead of safe, or vice versa. I used my perfect memory to review that game and found a crucial play which I thought would qualify as what I wanted.

There was a play in the eighth inning that was exactly what I was looking for. The visiting team was at bat and there was one out. The batter hit a hard line drive to left field and the man on second base tried to run to third (normally, a very bad idea). The left fielder threw the ball to the third baseman, who tried to tag out the baserunner. It was a very close play, but the umpire called the runner out. The man on first ran to second base during this play. There were now two out and a runner on second base. If the runner had not been tagged out at third, there would only be one out and two men on base. The next man to bat, walked, and the bases were loaded. The next batter hit a long fly ball to right field which was caught. If there had only been one out, the man on third would have scored and they would have tied the game. This would have put them in a very good position to win, instead of lose.