The Family Genes Part II

[Mikado14]

The Family Genes II

©1980 & 2015 Hickory Ridge all rights reserved



The young man rode in the back seat of an old Chevy. He stared out the window as he watched the fields go by and seeing open fields where from his reference in time, there were new houses.

His Uncle, Granpa and Mom just rode along without saying a word. Rory was apprehensive about saying anything out of fear of making what paradox there was even worse.

Buck turned the Chevy into the local Motel and pulled up to room 9. Rory looked at the number on the door and thought that was how old Dane was. A nine year old little girl.

They all got out of the car and Buck opened the door and they entered. Inside there was a refrigerator, a big old looking montrosity. Buck went over and opened the door.

"I have some pop, lunchmeat, bread and a few other things I picked up at the A&P in town."

Kathy looked inside and said, "I hope we won't be here that long to need all of that." and Rory's answer was, "I wouldn't bet on that Mom."

There was a table with two chairs, Buck and Granpa sat down, Rory and his Mom sat on the beds.

"So Rory, looks like you built that time machine." said Granpa. Rory looked at his Granpa and said, "Yep, looks that way."

"Can I ask a question?" asked Granpa.

"Yes, I went back and saved you from under the tractor already. So in a manner, we have already met. Confusing to explain it differently, Granpa."

"Guess I need to thank you for that."

"No, you don't need to but someday, a brash young man is going to call you crazy for leaving a dent in a tractor, just ignore him, okay?" and Granpa smiled and said, "Ok, I'll ignore the brash young man and just put it to him being a young know-it-all."

Rory answered, "I wish I did know-it-all cause I have no idea how to get out of this at the moment."

"But Rory, I may not be as confused as you think. I may not have a bunch of letters after my name but I learn quick, you came from me." Rory just sat on the bed.

Kathy hung her head down and Buck got up and went over to her and sat next to her. "It's okay Kath, you did what you thought you needed to do, you did what any Mother if given the opportunity would do."

Granpa spoke up, "Tell me what exactly is going on."

Kathy answered, "Well, from my time, Dane was hit by a car and killed." Granpa said, "Go on" and Kathy continued, "I just wanted to go back and be with her but at the last moment,.... I couldn't do it."

Rory interjected, "Mom, do you always carry a frisbee in your bag?" She looked at her son.

"A frisbee?" asked Buck. "Yeah, a frisbee." answered Rory. "You planned it Mom, you planned it all along."

"No Rory, I thought...." and she paused, "you gave me the idea when you were throwing the frisbee with girl and I put it in my handbag but I changed my mind but....I thought I would and then when we got there I wasn't going to do it but then at the last minute, I..., I...., don't know what came over me."

Buck looked at his nephew, "She reacted out of instinct, she saw her daughter in trouble and she acted out of pure instinct, she was absent of malice. She reacted as any Mother would have."

Rory calmed down after a few minutes of silence. He turned and hugged his Mom, "I'm sorry, and in some way, I am glad you did it. I don't know how it would have been to watch it happen."

"Okay, " said Granpa," go on and tell me more so I can grab a handle on this. Remember, I am the one who is going back to the farm and I suspect, from all of this, that is where you are going to have to go to get out of this mess."

"Well, normally that wouldn't be the case but J is not quite up to speed on the computational end of it. So, it is easier to just modify my computations to account for the forward movement of time keeping the point in space constant."

"Whose J?" asked Buck."He is about the only friend I have and he helped build the machine and I was angry at him for no good reason the other day and I never said I was sorry."

He continued, "We met in college and the reality of all this, I can't tell you for there is no reality. I don't want a paradox, not that we don't have one now but I don't want to exacerbate it."

He looked at his Uncle and after a moment, "I know too much about you, Uncle Buck. How do I interact without slipping? What Bet.....," and he paused, "What a friend calls spoilers, we just have to be real careful even if you keep quiet, you can't know any information of what is to come cause it could change the way you are thinking right here, right now and you may make a decision that you didn't do before but then, Dane would be dead."

Rory's Mom started rubbing his shoulders, "It's okay, we need time to think. Let's eat something." and she stood up and rummaged through the fridge and brought the food out.

"Okay," said Granpa, "I will run interference back at the farm. We need to set up a schedule for you to see this J fellow. How often will he be checking in?"

"I would guess that he will be at least checking in every half-hour at the longest and he probably knows by now that we aren't there and is maybe even getting a bit nervous about it."

Granpa turned to Buck, "Okay son, get me back to the meadow and then we will come back. Rory, write out a note for him and I will wait in the meadow for that portal to open. Will it look like it did back in '38?"

"Yes, it should look just like it. J will probably send girl through to meet you. Just tie the note to her collar, she will get back to him through the portal, just tell her to go get J and she should jump through."

"Okay, we will be back, let's go Buck." as he rose and went out the door, Buck was right behind him.



Jay, Betty, Dane and John sat in the shop. Jay and Betty were getting ready to reopen the portal. John went out to check on the tractor running at PTO speed. He climbed up on it and looked at the temperature guage, checked the oil pressure and climbed back down. As he walked around the front to go to the back and check the generator, he patted the front of the tractor, "Keep going girl, I need you to get this job done. You gotta bring her home." He walked behind and looked at the PTO shaft to make sure it was running true. Next, he went to the generator and checked the oil caps and felt the bearing housings. He patted the side of the generator and he thought about Kathy. He walked over to the side of the rear wheel and sat down on the ground and leaned up against it and he cried.

Dane sat and watched Jay and Betty coming up with a progressive set of frequencies that advanced the portal in ten minute increments.

"Okay,"said Jay, "if we take the last two place holders and decrease by a factor of 13, "he paused to look at Betty, "what a number, how much luckier could we be? Anyway, that will give us about the ten minute jump we want."

Betty looked over the calculations and nodded her head, "How in the hell did Rory ever figure this out? Poincare and Lorentz would have loved to meet him along with a few others."

"Dane, go out and see what is taking Dad so long." Dane got up from the stool and went out the door followed by girl.

She walked over to the big John Deere and saw her dad sitting on the ground next to the rear wheel. Girl went over and layed next to John and he instinctively started to pet her. Dane sat down next to her Dad. She could see some moistness on his cheeks.

"I'm worried too Daddy." He raised his head and looked off toward the two tall pine trees that stood a good 30 feet tall. "You know sweetheart, your Grandmother planted those trees on the day I was born. She went out to plant them, dug the holes, got down and patted them in. After she did the second one, she stood up and that is when her water broke. Your Granpa gave her hell for that, or so he said. She used to always say that she planted them and they would live as long as I lived. We started life together."

He turned and looked at his daughter, as he continued to stroke girl by his side.

"It's going to be okay, Daddy, Jay will get this figured out and I am sure Rory is working on the problem too."

He looked at girl, "Well, we have girl here and we do know one thing, she will go to Rory and I guess, without her, we wouldn't have a way to talk to your Mom and Rory."

They both stood up and they walked back into the shop with girl leading the way. John said to Dane, "Look at her, it's like she knows what she has to do. Almost like she can't wait to jump through that damn portal."

Dane and John came through the door. "Tractor is good to go, Jay."

"Okay Dad." He was still busy entering the frequencies and got the waveform generators up. He began charging the banks and he heard the distinctive deepening of the tone of the tractor.

"Betty, I am not going to let you go through again for the moment, we will just let Venus do the courier obligations for the moment, remember, you had a slight headache. I can't afford to lose you."

John spoke up, "I'll go." Jay didn't even look at his father-in-law. "No Dad, not yet, maybe later when I have a handle on this." John sat down and hung his head. Dane came over and put her arm around his shoulder. "It's okay Daddy, I want to go too."

Jay hollered out, "Building the charge." The large capacitor banks began to shimmer and Jay balanced out the frequency, "Standing wave is stable....Charge is up....get ready.....5, 4, 3, 2, 1, engaging the bank!"

Girl sat in her bed watching the others.

The tractor deepened and the smell of ozone permeated the shop, the shards went to the center and pulled back and revealed the meadow with no one there.

"They aren't there!" exclaimed John.

Jay hollered in excitement at Betty, "Get ready for a reset, I don't want to lose the charge." He disengaged the bank from the portal but kept them in a state of charge. He and Betty double teamed the equipment and re-entered the next set of coordinates. It took them 5 minutes but they were soon ready.

"Charge is maintaining,..... standing wave is stable,....... get ready in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, engaging the bank!"

The tractor deepened and the ozone was strong and the portal opened and still, just the meadow appeared.

"Shutting down the portal. Betty, let's jump to 30 minute increments." Betty immediately recalculated for the additional time, she was done in 3 minutes flat. John went out to check the tractor, Dane went with him but girl just sat in her bed and watched the portal.

Jay entered the next set of coordinate frequencies and began to set up the waveform generators and with Betty's help they were ready in a minute.
"I'm getting used to this Jay", Betty exclaimed as Dane and John stepped through the door.

"Jay, the generator bearings are getting warm, we can't do this much longer or we will have to move on to one of the other three."

"Okay Dad," with that, Jay was looking at the banks and the shimmer looked normal. He looked to Betty who finished the waveform inputs and he began to balance them for null.

"Betty, we need to slow down, we can do one maybe two after this one but the generator needs to cool down and we don't want to stress the banks too much."

"Okay"

Jay sat at his console and glanced at girl. She was just sitting in her bed contentedly chewing on a piece of rawhide. She usually would be at the portal but not since they started. He wondered, does she have an idea who is on the other side of the portal? Can she sense who is there? He began to think that it wasn't going to happen on this one.

"Powering down", hollered Jay which commanded looks from John, Dane and Betty. All he could say was, "look at girl" as she just laid in her bed watching them watch her.

Betty commented, "The stone ain't skipping, is it?"

"I think she can sense what is on the other side of the portal before we open it. I don't know how. Let's reset for another 30 minutes." said Jay.

Betty and Jay began to reset for another thirty minute jump. It wasn't long until they were resetting the waveform generators and the standing wave was being set up in the portal.

Girl went to the portal. Jay hollered out so all could hear over the din, "This is it, she got up and is at the portal." he paused as he was looking at his console, "Charge is up,...... standing wave is stable,....... get ready in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, engaging the bank!

The ozone was getting heavy in the shop, the portal opened to reveal the meadow and standing there was a man.

Dane hollered, "It's Granpa!" Jay hollered,"Go to Granpa, Girl!" and girl jumped through the portal. Jay powered down the waveform generators and kept the charge to build on the banks.

"Betty, get ready for the five minute return." They both reentered the new set of coodinates from the list and were ready in two minutes. Betty couldn't help but say, "two minutes to go five forward," Jay smiled at her, "Boy, this time travel takes some getting used to."

"Okay, get ready to build," after a minute went by, "Standing wave is stable, Standby........... building the charge in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, engaging the bank!"

It was almost getting unbearable in the shop from the smell of ozone but no one was noticing, it was to the point that no one was paying too much attention to even the tractor running. Everyone was intent on watching the portal where there was the meadow with a man and a dog looking at the portal. They both began to walk toward it.


Buck and Granpa were crossing the covered bridge and he spoke to his son, "Buck, just drop me off. I don't want to chance anyone seeing your car. Park on the other side of the bridge and when I'm done, I'll walk to you and we can go back."

"Okay Pop."

Buck pulled up to where they were earlier and Granpa jumped out. Buck backed up and turned around and went toward the bridge. Granpa climbed the slope to the meadow and sat down and waited. After fifteen minutes went by, he heard a noise like low thunder and looked toward where he heard it and a small black dot appeared. He heard a high pitched sound that reduced as the circle opened wider. A big round black spot appeared in a shiny ring lined with bright shards that pulled back and then nothing. It appeared as if reality was erased within the circle. Abruptly, a dog jumped through and he stooped down to greet her.

"I remember you" and girl jumped up at Granpa as he rubbed both sides of her neck with his hands as she lavished his face with her tongue.

"Okay, let's see what you have on your collar." Granpa removed the letter and quickly attached the letter from Rory to her collar. After it was done, girl kept nosing his pocket.

"Is that what you want?" and he reached in and pulled out a treat for her. "Across all this time and you remember me having these in my pocket for you." He walked back to the side of the meadow at the fence line so as to not be too visible and he and girl just sat there. She layed along side of him with her head on his leg as he stroked it. He heard a dog bark and looked toward the house and saw Rory outside at the house, about 100 yards away. Dane was there too and it looked like Rory and girl were teasing her.

"You remember doing that? Strange, here I am sitting with you and I can see you over at the house. Two of you in the same time."

He sat there just taking in the nice weather and thought about his grandson and daughter in law and how this was going to pan out.

With the sound of the portal opening, girl was up and ready. He kneeled by her, said his goodbye and walked with her to the portal. When it opened, girl went to jump through and at the last minute, he jumped through with her.



Jay watched Granpa and girl walking toward the portal, he glanced down at his console and was keeping an eye on the temperature reading of the equipment until he heard Dane.

"Granpa!", he looked up to see him coming through the portal with girl. As he stepped through he stopped and looked around at the surroundings. Dane came over and stood in front of him with John right behind her.

Jay looked at Betty and all he could say was, "Looks like it is hitting the fan."

Jay walked over to Granpa and said, "Hi, I'm Jay and I helped build this with your Grandson and ....what the hell do you think you are doing coming through the portal?"

Granpa eyed up Jay and turned to Dane, "You turned out to be a beautiful young lady, do I have any great grandchildren?" Jay interrupted and said, "Hold on there, we can't tell you a thing, you could go back and create a change in our future or a paradox at some point, I think we have enough going on now as it is."

"Did you go back to a field yet and save me?" Jay stared at the man and said, "Yes". Do you remember anything about it? Any paradox?" With that said, John chimed in.

"He kept his mouth shut Jay. Hi Pop. Your looking pretty young." He eyed up his son and said, "About the age you are right now I would say." And they both smiled at each other, always competing with each other for they were so much alike.

"Pop, why did you come through?"

"Because someone has to do it. We can't rely on girl here but I have an idea but first, I guess you want to read the note on the dog's collar."

John reached down and removed the note and handed it to Jay. He took it and unfolded it.


J,
I'm assuming that you are probably overworking yourself trying to run it all in making the jump. You have all the time in the world to come up with a plan. I am at a loss as to how to overcome this paradox and can only wonder at how things have changed.

Buck and Granpa showed up and we are at the Motel on the way into town. I suppose we are going to hole up here and stay out of time and keep a lid on the paradox becoming worse.
Granpa is going to be the contact and will shuttle notes via girl. That should not cause too much attention since he lives at the farm. We both know we can trust him, he never spoke about the tractor and neither did Buck so, I am going to assume that our odds are pretty good in trusting him and Buck.

Tell Dad that Mom is okay, upset a little but content. In some way, I think she doesn't care about what happens to herself, all she is focused on is that Dane is okay and alive.

If you increment the calculations as you have been doing, you will be able to keep jumping forward. I would say that is the safest way to do it. It may be possible to send my calculator, slide rule and my lab book back with girl and I could give you new coordinates so that you are not opening in the meadow but it may be best to just do what your doing and set up a schedule with Granpa.

I guess in some way, I don't have too long to wait. No matter how long it takes you, you can come tomorrow and get Mom and I.

J, I am beginning to regret ever building the damn thing but then, Dane would still be dead. Remember that talk we had at the dam a few weeks ago before we sent Buck forward? I just wanted to say thanks and about my jumping on you about finding a nice girl and having kids, I'm sorry, your the best friend I ever had and I have faith in you, always did, even if I never said it, guess I just did.

V



Jay looked up, "I can't wait to find out why he signs his note with V." Dane looked at her husband and laughed, "Really? You haven't figured it out after the last note he sent?"

"No, not really.", replied Betty. Dane turned to Betty and said, "My husband, he can figure all this out and he just don't get the simple things." Betty smiled and replied, "Well Dane, explain it to me, I'm lost."

She looked at her husband. "Why do I call you Jay?" He replied, "Because it would be too confusing to call me Rory with both of us around so you call me by my middle name and......" he began to chuckle.

Dane turned to Betty, "I think it just sunk in".

"Okay, " said Betty, "let me in on it."

Dane walked over to her husband and put her arms around his neck. "I don't want to call him Rory cause I would feel like I was with my brother so I call him by his middle name. V is something from High School, all Rory's friends called him that from our last name, Viaggio."

Everyone had a good laugh, respite from the stress of the day and then the reality of the situation slowly sunk back in.

John turned to his dad, "Well Pop, want to tell us your idea?"

"I think you should start putting together family albums with pictures, papers, whatever you can put together quickly and I will take them back and start showing Kathy and Rory. Sort of like educating them on what to expect. If they already know, maybe it would be easier for them to adapt."

Jay turned to Dane and John, "My god,..... could it be that simple?"

Dane turned to Granpa and put her arms around his neck and kissed him on his cheek, "I love you Granpa!" and she turned to leave for the house, "Come on Daddy, let's get the albums." and the two made a hasty exit with girl in hot pursuit.

Jay turned to Granpa, "Why don't you have a seat."

"Nah, I want to see what it looks like outside." Jay looked at him, "Do you really think that is a good idea?"

"Why not, I know what to talk about and I know what not to talk about." Jay turned and walked toward the shop door, "let's go" and the two walked out to a nice Sunday evening sunset.

"Looks the same" and he went over to the shed where his old tractor was. He ran his hand over the hood where there was a dent.

"You know Jay, Rory said that I will be rebuilding and restoring this tractor."

He continued to keep his hand on the dent, "Rory put that in on the day he saved me. It was the only thing I had to remind me of what happened that day. I couldn't talk about it. Only Buck and I knew the real truth. It was a piece of reality for me to know it really happened, something I could touch." He turned and looked at Jay, "Rory apologized for calling me foolish or crazy or something for not removing it. Told me to ignore him. You know how hard it was to know that this young man would help get this tractor off of me someday which was in his future but was in my past? That he was the reason, the person that put the dent in the hood?"

"I guess it was pretty hard."

"In the end, not really, but at times it is tough. Buck explained what might happen. I can't hurt my family. I can't hurt my grandson. When it comes to family, you just do it, no matter."

Their conversation was broken by Dane and John, with girl leading the duo, coming back from the farmhouse.

"I got a bunch of albums. You ready to go back?" asked Dane. "Whenever your ready to send me."

"I'm going" said John.

"We need you here, Daddy." Jay turned to his wife, "Sweetheart, he's right. He needs to go back. Who else is going to explain the photos. I can't. You can't, what about Rose and Clara?"

Granpa jumped in, "Whose Rose and Clara?" Dane smiled, "They are your great grand daughters."

Jay looked at his wife, "and yet another paradox may happen now." Granpa looked at Jay and all he said was, "family....grand son-in-law....family."

Betty spoke up, "He's right Jay, he's the only one who can go back. You have girl and you have Granpa that can communicate messages and certainly Granpa can't explain what you have there in the albums. To him, Dane is a little girl."

Jay threw his hands up, "Come on," and as he walked, "might has well make a mess of all time and space."

They all walked to the shop except John who went to check on the tractor and the generator. When Granpa saw him turn to go, he followed.

"Son, you will have to stay with your wife and son at the motel. Are you going to be alright?"

He looked at his Dad as a younger man and his answer was but a few words, "You would do the same if it were Mom." He smiled at his son, "Let's go take you to your wife."

John checked the bearings on the generator and the gauges on the tractor. He refilled the oil cups on the generator. When he was done he headed back to the shop with his Dad alongside, "Nice tractor John. Did you buy it or did I?" He answered, "Both of us but it took some twisting of your arm."

Granpa replied, "Well I probably couldn't tell you that we would need it to run a time machine so I had to make it look hard."

"Like every other decision we ever made......right?"

"Yep" as the old man answered in a smile. They entered the shop and Jay was done setting up for the jump. "Where you two been?"

"Checking the generator, I filled the cups. The bearings are warm."

Dane came over to her Dad. She put her arms around him and hugged him. "Please be careful Daddy and tell Mom I love her. Let her know that Rose was asking for her."

"I will, love you too." Jay came over to his Father-in-law, shook his hand. "Dad, I'll get you all back." He looked at him and then put his arms around him in a hug, "I'll get you all back."

"I know you will.....I know you will, son."

"Let's goooooo" hollered Betty impatiently.

"Not you girl. Dane, make sure girl doesn't go through the portal. Granpa, Dad, get infront of the portal and when I say go, walk through."

Jay set up the waveform generators and started the charge on the banks. He was ready before the banks were since all he had to do was to advance the coordinates slightly.

"Granpa, your set to get back ten minutes after you left." He nodded his head and just stared at the portal.

"Well Dad, looks like I get to go back in time."

"yep....but I got to go forward."

"Standing wave is stable, building the charge....get ready in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, engaging the bank!"

Granpa stood there and watched what his grandson had built. He imagined that Rory stood here and did the same thing when he came back to that field in 1938. He looked to the banks and saw them shimmer like heat waves on a hot road. Smelled the ozone, which reminded him of the smell during a thunderstorm when lightning was striking all around. He heard that nice new tractor working hard under the load and he knew from the language it spoke that it was content in it's job and that served to give him confidence. His thoughts were broken by Jay.

"Go!"



Buck was sitting in his car and listening to the radio. He couldn't imagine what it would be like to travel in time. He thought to himself how one day, he was going to know. Sometime in his future, he was coming back to leave a note.

His thoughts were broken by the passenger door opening and Granpa flipping the seat forward so that John could get in the back seat.

"John! What are you doing here?" exclaimed Buck. John fired back, "Damn! Look who the older brother is now?"

"Just drive Buck,..... back to the motel." Buck started the car and began to drive. Granpa continued, "I have an idea of what may help. John came back to help with it. We brought along a bunch of papers and pictures and we are going to educate them on the time they came from."

Buck corrected him, "You mean the time they need to go back to."

"Whatever, but John will have to stay with them so no more paradoxes can be made. Just you and me Buck. After we drop off John, you gotta get me back to the farm."

The drive was quiet. Buck pulled up to room number 9 and they all exited. Granpa put his hand up to John. "Wait here son, let me tell them you are here."

He opened the door and he and Buck went in and closed the door behind them.

"Well?" asked Rory as Kathy looked on.

"I sort of came up with a plan of my own." Rory looked at his Grandfather, "Okay, fill me in."

"I went through the portal."

"WHAT? What the hell is going on?...Everyone doing whatever they want?"

"Listen son, I'm here. I think I know a bit about what has happened. I live everyday of my life not telling a soul about you. I remember the day you were born. I am watching you grow up everyday. I know that one day, you will meet me in a field as a young man, where I already met you over 20 years ago and everyday I see the boy growing into that man and I haven't told a soul. I may tell a story now and then but that's not the same. So, you gonna listen to me?"

Rory looked at his Mom and then sat down, "Okay....why not."

"I brought some things for you both to look at. You need to know what happened and how it is in the future. I know some but you need to know a lot."

He walked over to the door and as he opened it, "It was too much for me to carry so I got some help." In walked John.

Kathy ran up to him and threw her arms around him and started to cry. "I'm sorry hon.....I'm sorry but you have to know....I had to do it."

John held his wife and all he could say was, "I'm glad you did. You know what it was like to live without Dane. I know what it is to live with her and that is all I want to know."

Granpa motioned for Buck and Rory to leave the room and give his Mom and Dad a moment.

The three of them stood outside and just looked around.

"Nice shop you have Rory." said Granpa.

"Yeah, took a good deal of money to build it all". Buck asked him, "Where did you get the funding from?"

Rory looked at his Uncle...."spoilers....but you keep doing whatever your doing to that young boy back at the farm." The door opened and John said, "Come on in." Kathy was wiping her face and walking toward the bathroom. John looked at Rory, "well son, I suppose there are a good deal of things you have no idea of but I want you to know that the tractor with your Granpa....that happened. Also, you know that thing about jumping ahead 30 years? Did you do that where you came from?"

Rory motioned for his Dad to get closer and he whispered, "You mean taking Buck forward to meet Betty and him staying there?" John nodded his head. " Okay..yeah, we did it."

"So, some things are the same, that's good." replied John.

Kathy came out of the bathroom and asked, "I want to know about Dane."

John looked at her and opened the album and pulled out her High School picture and handed it to her, "That's our daughter".

Kathy took the photo and sat on the bed, tears started to stream down her cheeks. "MY.....she is so beautiful." John handed her another photo. "And these grandma......are your grand daughters." Rory went around the bed to look over his Mom's shoulder. He asked, "What are their names?"

"Rose is the oldest and the youngest is Clara." Rory said, "That was grandmom's name and her mother's name."

"Yep, that was Dane's idea." said John.

Oh, and here is a family photo and he handed it to Kathy. There in the picture was John and Kathy sitting in the middle, Rose was on John's lap and Clara on Kathy's lap with Dane standing in the middle behind John and Kathy with Rory on one side of her and Jay on the other.

"What is J doing in the photo?" and his Mom answered, "for being so bright you sure are slow, couldn't you see J in Rose?"

"Yep, Jay is married to your sister."

"You mean he is part of the family?" and John said, "yeah, and he is holding down the fort." After a pause John said, "and he said your forgiven for what ever it was you did in the other timeline."

Granpa stood up from sitting at the table, "Come on Buck, take me home. John, I'll call you later, I have Jay's schedule written down so, I'll get back to you. I don't want to hear too much of this."
Granpa and Buck left and it wasn't long until they were pulling in at the farm. Granpa got out and told Buck he would call. He heard the tractors running at the silo and walked over to it. He saw Rory running the chuck wagon feeding the blower.

"You handle that well.", and Rory looked at Granpa and smiled. He thought to himself how he just left him except he was 20 years older and here he was, doing his part on the farm. He thought to himself how he went back with his Mom and saved his little sister. He thought about how he came back and saved him and then he thought how he couldn't be any prouder of his grandson. Family was all he thought.



Kathy, John and Rory sat in the motel and looked at photos and different ephermera stuffed into the different albums. Kathy asked John if he was hungry and he replied that it wasn't too long ago that they had Sunday dinner.

"What did you have?" asked Kathy. "Well, Dane made a big dinner and I cooked steaks on the grill. We had some company over."

"Who?" asked Kathy. "Betty, the girl that worked with Buck. Remember that young girl he talked about from time to time?" Rory heard his Dad and his ears pricked up. "She went through the portal first. She came back and said you didn't know her but we did meet her at a picnic. Remember the christening?...sorry, how could you, " John shook his head,"..This is going to take some getting used to but we had a picnic when Clara was christened and Buck invited some of his co-workers and Betty was one of them. You and I met her but she didn't stay too long. I don't believe she met Jay or Dane. They were too busy keeping Rose busy and well, whatever. I think Betty didn't stay because she is sweet on Buck and he too but there was such an age difference."

Kathy smiled and looked at Rory not knowing if she could say anything.

"It's okay Mom, Pop is aware of sending Buck forward and Betty being there. It is the current Uncle Buck and Granpa that have no idea of that. We can talk about it here but not in front of them."
"I think I will just keep quiet as much as possible, I have done enough." John put his arm around his wife, "I'm glad you did what you did, I wouldn't know and don't want to know, what it would be like without Dane and the grandkids."

"I am looking forward to finding out" as Kathy looked at her husband with a full smile.

"Well, your looking at the newest Uncle in the family...at least from where I come from." as Rory stood up and put his chest out and the three of them laughed, whether it be stress or just family bonding, it was cathartic.

Kathy continued to flip through the photos, commenting and asking questions. Her and Rory saw photos of Dane in the 4 H club and at the fair, photos of herself at holidays, School photos, holidays at dinner, Christmas, many of them including Jay and the girls and of course, Rory as well. Every special occasion one could think of, there was a photo.

"You know", Rory pondered,"..how strange it is, to see yourself in pictures but you have no clue about it. Almost like looking at a doppelganger."

Kathy blurted out, "I want to meet her, can she come through?" John replied, "I think it is a bit early. Better to have Jay come through but then, who is going to run the machine?"



Jay turned to Dane and Betty, "I'm whooped. Too much adrenaline."

"I need to check on the girls, they have been over there for about an hour and probably have gotten into everything." Dane went through the door and toward the farmhouse, "come on girl." and the two left.

"Well, this has been an experience." Betty exclaimed. Jay was busy shutting down the waveform generators and told Betty, "You might as well come with me to shut down the tractor and generator so you learn how to do it." and she followed him out the door.

They walked around to where the tractor was and he showed her how to disengage the PTO by reducing the throttle to slow it down and then pulling the lever to disconnect. He told her to let it run at idle for a few minutes to cool the turbo down and then the shut off knob to cut the fuel to the engine and turn the key. He also added that if you forget to turn the key, it would drain the battery. Betty took it all in and with every thing Jay said, she responded with an "Okay".

They climbed off the tractor and walked around front. Jay sat down on the front axle and Betty sat on the other side of the front axle with the two of them seperated by the tractor front end.
Betty looked to the stars, "So tell me about Buck. Did he tell you why he wanted to go ahead in time?"

"Yeah, he did mention it."

"I suppose your not going to tell me how it turned out"

"No, I didn't plan on it." Betty exhaled and after a few moments, "You know" and she paused, "I have strong feelings for Buck. He is the only man I ever met who was.....void of any pretense. But there is that age difference and I never wanted to make a fool of myself. What happened to his first marriage?"

"From what I was told, it just didn't work. She didn't get along with the family, hated coming to the farm, expected Buck to give her everything she wanted, you know, she wanted to be pampered with money or the things that money could buy. She was...materialistic. The marriage didn't last too long, maybe two years or so. They split things up and just went their seperate ways. I think, she already had someone else in the wings, don't know and I don't really care."

"Would you answer two questions with a simple yes and no?"

"That depends, I'll try, I owe you that much."

"Do we reach the stars?"

"Yes", answered Jay.

"Do Buck and I meet in the future?" He turned and looked at her. He thought to himself that she must really care....and all he said was, "Yes, but you know that from the paper I showed you with your handwriting."

Their conversation was broken by Dane, "JAY! Come quick!"

Jay and Betty broke into a mad dash for the farmhouse. When they arrived, Dane handed him a note, "It was on the table when I was cleaning up the dinnner dishes." She handed it to him as they went into the kitchen where there was light to read the note.


Hi kiddos, and you too Betty,

I suppose by now John has went back and he is filling in Kathy and Rory on how the timeline changed. It is a good start but there is going to be a need to do a bit more.

Dane, your going to have to get a babysitter for the girls for next Saturday. Get ahold of your Aunt and ask her to take the girls over on Friday night and tell her you will pick them up on Sunday afternoon.

Jay, check the first bank of capacitors this week, you will find a problem, not telling you what it is but correct it and it will eliminate an issue that will only delay us. You will have plenty of time to get it done. What I have planned, needs to happen, from my pespective of the timeline. You'll find out on Saturday, just be ready to go around noon.

Dane, get together more things to show your Mom and Rory and pack them up so that they are easy to carry.

Betty, you be here at noon.

Well, that is about it, and Dane, you make those baked beans just like your Mom, they were good and so were the rolls.

Buck


Jay looked up at Dane, "Did you ask the girls if anyone was here?" Dane hollered, "Girls, come out here to the kitchen."

A tired little girl came out of the living room. "Yes Mommy?" replied Rose.

"Where is Clara?" asked Dane, "I think she is fallin' asleep on the couch."

Jay asked, "Sweetheart, was anyone here and visited?"

"Yep"
"Okay, who was here?" Jay inquired.

"It was Uncle Buck an a lady. They come in and sat down wit me and Clara, we went out to the table and we had nilla pudding."

Dane interrupted, "I didn't make any, I didn't have time." She went to the trash basket and looked inside. She pulled out a container that was empty. As she looked at it, she made a loud noise and turned to show it to Jay and Betty. As she held it out she said, "The printing shows a copyright of 2001."

Jay grabbed the container and Betty looked over his shoulder and to their amazement they read it themselves.

"Rose, who was the lady that was with Uncle Buck?" asked Jay. "I dunno, she was nice. Her and Uncle Buck ate ... we had puddin'."

"I know that honey but did she give a name?" and all Rose said was, "Nope".

"Looks like Buck is running around in time. What is that conniving old man up to?" Jay quipped. Betty spoke up, "I don't know but I would bet he does and all we can do is go along with it and probably from his perch, we already have. I'm beat, I have work in the morning, if you need me," she went to the side board and picked up paper and pen, "Here is my direct line at work. Call me if you need anything or any more notes appear. See you both on Saturday."

"If you want, come early and we can have breakfast." Dane offered. "I really don't eat breakfast but thanks for the offer." replied Betty.

"If you want," interjected Jay, "come around 11 and we will have an early lunch. I would bet we won't be eating anytime too soon."

"Deal, see you then, g'nite." as she turned and left the farmhouse.

Jay looked at his wife and said, "I have to go and check the barn, not like Dad can do it. Come on girl, want to go out?"

"I'll put the girls to bed." and Dane turned to go into the living room.

Jay said, "I also have to lock the shop."

As he went out the back door, he heard the Corvette going up the road with loud side pipes and as he listened to Betty shifting the gears on a dark night, he was reminded of rolling thunder off in the distance.



The week was long in coming to the weekend. Jay and Dane commented on how lonely it felt without the others. Rose and Clara continually asked after Mom Mom and Pop and at times they even asked about Uncle Rory.

Rose found it unusual that girl was here and not with Uncle Rory. Dane commented to Jay one night, as they laid in bed, at how observant kids were and how some things just didn't get past them. They ended the night comforting each other in their arms, exhausted from taking care of the farm and working on the machine.

During the week, Jay disassembled the first bank and found a connection that was getting lose from thermal expansion and contraction. It would have made it difficult to establish a stable portal opening. After he was done repairing it, he wondered, did Buck create a paradox in telling me about it?

His thoughts haunted him. It was a good diversion as he reassembled the bank.

In less than twenty four hours, it would be Saturday. As he sat at his console contemplating the changing of history, he wondered, how much a paradox wasn't a paradox? He thought about going back and seeing himself, that is a strong paradox but what about a little bit of knowledge, second hand, which only speeded up an outcome? Would it be the same in the end? How does the universe handle that? Maybe not even a whisper in a crowd is all he could come up with.

Saturday morning finally came. Jay arose from a restless slumber. He dressed and went to do the barn chores accompanied by girl. When he came back to the farmhouse, he found Dane in the kitchen.
"Betty should be here in about 90 minutes, just want some coffee and a sweet roll to hold you over?"

"How could I refuse that offer...I smelled them all the way over at the barn." Jay promptly sat down and Dane poured him a cup of coffee and then served him a roll on a plate.

"A plate and not a paper one? What's the occasion?"

"I just wanted to make it special. You have been working hard all week in the shop. You have been doing all the farm work and getting done late. All you have had time for was to eat, sleep and take a shower."

Jay looked up at Dane and she leaned over and kissed him on the cheek as he was chewing on the sweet roll. She got girls breakfast together and put it on the floor for her to eat which she wasted no time in cleaning the bowl.

Dane sat down at the table and fixed her coffee. "Jay?"

"Yes, dear?"

"What do you think is going to happen?" He took a sip of his coffee to help wash down the roll, "I don't know but I have a feeling he is going to show up, afterall, he has showed up...what has it been...twice? That we know of? Where else has he been or ....when?"

"I am only thinking of how he was here, in the house, while we were over in the shop. How did we miss him when Daddy and I came over for the photos?"

"Dane, maybe he was already here and gone by then."

"I didn't think of it that way." as she drank some more of her coffee. Jay added, "When we first went over, we were there for at least 45 minutes to an hour before Granpa came through, it could have been then."


Betty showed up on time and came over to the farmhouse and knocked. Dane hollered from the kitchen, "You don't have to knock!" and Betty came in and was greeted by girl. She got down on one knee and played with her and girl played back.

"Anymore notes or visitations?"

Dane answered as Jay came down from upstairs, "No, none that we know of."

"Hi Betty"

"Hi Jay" and she stood up from playing with girl.

"Are you all set to see what Buck has planned?" said Jay as Betty sat down at the table, "I have learned from working with him for the past 5 years that you never predict what he is going to do. He is what some refer to as an abstract random personality."

Dane laughed, "Oh boy do I remember growing up with him, he was so unpredictable except when it came time to eat. I could predict what he would eat, he has his favorites."

"Like your Mom's baked beans?" Betty questioned. Dane continued, "Well, I didn't have any leftovers on Sunday night so I am guessing he finished them off along with the rolls."

Dane pulled a good size roast from the fridge and put it on the table along with plates, condiments, her mom's homemade pickles and a pitcher of iced tea. As she began carving the roast, "Jay, would you get the kaiser rolls out of the bread box? Now Betty, how do you like your roast?"

"I'll take a slice of the middle there where it is medium." Dane sliced a nice portion and put it on her plate. She continued to slice for Jay and herself and then sat down.

"I suppose you took the kids to your Aunt's?"

"Dane and I drove them there last night. We have to go and get them tomorrow afternoon."

"Did you find a problem in the bank as Buck intimated?"

"Yep, I found a thermal connection and repaired it. Took me a little over a day to disassemble and go over everything but as Murphy says, it is always the last connection you check. And then it was another day to get it back together."

"He was right." Betty mused, "...advice from the future."

The lunch continued with chit chat that revolved around her work, Jay's work and she even talked about the FTL system and how it was going. She prefaced it by saying that since it was based upon his and Rory's work what would be the harm but she was sure to invoke the privacy clause with her new found crew.

Dane had finished and cleaned up the dishes being sure that girl got a little. When she was done, the trio, with girl in the lead, went over to the shop. Each carrying everything they could think of that could help in bringing Mom and Rory up to speed in regards to their timeline.

They entered the shop and put the boxes of stuff down. Jay went out to start the tractor and warm it up while Betty began to get the waveform generators up and running. Jay came back into the shop and busied himself with preparations while Dane just sat with girl on the floor next to her bed.

"Well, he better show up soon, it is a bit after 12 or else we are going..." and a familiar voice from the door way said, " or else your going to do what?"
Dane jumped up, "Uncle Buck!" and she ran over to hug him.

"Hi Jay, Hi Betty" and then stepping through the doorway came a woman. Betty looked at her and collapsed onto a stool.

"I suppose you don't need any introductions" offered Buck.

All Betty could say was, "It looks like I aged fairly well."

And the lady in the doorway replied, "Yes....WE ....aged fairly well."


....to be continued