Chapter 16
Monday morning arrived with a hint of rain.
Ernie and Louie woke up, crawled out of the tent, and had some coffee from the Coleman stove.
“Let’s head into Waterford early. We can go to Woolworths for our last breakfast in fifty-six,” Ernie said while he gulped down the rest of his coffee.
Louie’s stomach growled. “I guess I’m in agreement,” he said with a chuckle then gulped down the rest of his coffee.
Ernie and Louie stood up.
Louie looked at the tent. “Let’s pack. I want to head back to eighty-one as soon as your grandfather if finished with us,” he said.
Ernie nodded in agreement.
They spent the next fifteen minutes, packing everything away into the front of the time machine.
Louie drove his motorcycle back into Waterford with Ernie in the sidecar.
They spent ten minutes driving around the streets to take one last look at 1956 Waterford.
Then they parked in front of Woolworths and went inside.
Ernie looked anxious when he and Louie walked to the food counter.
But he got disappointed the second he saw another woman working the counter.
“Where’s Erica?” he said the second he and Louie sat at the counter.
“She took the day off,” the woman replied while she walked over to Ernie and Louie. “Would you like to order?” the woman asked while she had her pen and order form ready.
“French toast,” Ernie said and sounded disappointed.
The woman looked at Louie.
“Scrambled eggs and bacon,” he said.
The woman jotted down the orders, then headed back to the kitchen.
The Waterford Police Station was a small stand-alone building. It contained an office area with two desks and down the hallway; there were two jail cells, of which inside one of them housed Jesse.
Jesse sat and stewed in his jail cell.
Matt walked up to the cell bars and looked at Jesse.
“Let me go, dad. You can smooth out things with Erica. She’ll forgive me. I know she will,” Jesse said while he walked to the cell bars.
“I’m here, Matt,” Erica’s voice was heard coming from behind him.
Jesse pressed his face into the bars and craned his neck to see her. “Erica. We can forget about all this. I’ll be a loving husband. I swear,” he pleaded.
Erica saw Jesse’s face pressed into the cell bars. She touched her throat, which still hurt from his hands. She turned around and walked back toward the office area, that had two desks.
“Boy, you better do the right thing and confess the truth. I cannot and will not support any kinfolk that fools around on his wife, gets another woman pregnant, robs a bank, has his mistress get an abortion, and then tries to kill his wife. I will not support you in any way,” Matt said while he glared at his son.
Matt walked away from the jail cell.
Jesse walked over and sat down on his bed in the cell. He knew he would be spending many years in state prison.
Matt walked over his desk and opened up one of the drawers. He removed a Witness Statement form and pen. He motioned for Erica to sit down at his desk.
She sat down, and he handed her the form and pen.
“Jot down all that happened,” he told her.
Erica took the pen and started to jot down all that had happened to her yesterday.
Ernie and Louie finished their breakfast at Woolworths.
They left the store.
They got back on the motorcycle and headed over to the police station.
After Louie parked his motorcycle, he and Ernie and Louie walked the police station.
Inside the station, Erica was still filling out her witness statement. She glanced up and saw Ernie and Louie enter through the door. Her eyes lit up at the sight of Ernie, as there was something about him she liked. “Good morning,” she said.
Matt got up from the other desk where he had two other witness statements and pens waiting.
“You can come over here and write down all that you know and witnessed,” Matt told Ernie and Louie.
They walked over and sat down at the desk and started filling out their statements.
Ernie wrote down what he heard at the clearing, and how they followed Jesse and Beth to Emerson for the abortion. How he snapped some pictures and dropped the film off at that Woolworths. But he couldn’t jot down how he knew Jesse wanted to kill Erica. He just jotted down how he believed he interpreted Jesse’s comments at the clearing that he tried to get rid of Erica.
Louie wrote down about the trip to Emerson where they saw Jesse and Beth go into Doctor Sampson’s home for her abortion.
Matt walked over to a small credenza that had a coffee pot. He poured a cup of coffee and watched everybody fill out their statements while he sipped morning drink.
The door of the office opened.
Judge Buford Peabody entered the office.
He saw Erica and rushed over to her.
She stood up from the desk, and Judge Peabody gave her a hug. “I came home early after Matt called me,” he said then he looked at Ernie and Louie at the other desk. “Is this the young man?”
“Yes, daddy,” Erica replied.
Judge Peabody walked over to Ernie.
Ernie stood up when Judge Peabody approached him. He couldn’t believe he was seeing his other grandfather.
“I'm Buford Peabody. I want to thank you for saving my daughter's life and bringing forward that other information,” he said while he extended out his hand to Ernie.
Ernie shook the Judge’s hand.
Matt walked over and looked at the completed statements. He picked up Ernie’s statement and glanced through it.
“You took some pictures while up in Emerson?” he asked Ernie.
“Yes sir, but they won’t be delivered for a week,” Ernie replied.
“I’ll call Sheriff Bronson in Emerson. He can get a rush job on them,” Judge Peabody told Matt.
Matt nodded that he was good with that.
“Do you need us for the trial?” Ernie asked while he pondered if he needed to come back in time.
“Probably not. Jesse will be a man responsible for his actions. He'll plead guilty,” Matt replied and sounded confident.
Judge Peabody looked at Matt. “I stopped by Doc Bryant. He took her to the hospital in Emerson. Beth's doing better, but Doc Bryant believes she'll never be able to have children. I also contacted Sheriff Bronson over in Emerson about Doctor Sampson. He's going to conduct an investigation.”
Matt picked up all the statements.
“You're free to go and good luck up in Atlanta,” he told Ernie and Louie.
Erica walked over to Ernie and gave him a kiss on his cheek. “I was hoping you would make Waterford your home.”
“Maybe one day,” Ernie replied with a warm smile.
Louie nudged Ernie that it was time to head back home. “We better go.”
Ernie nodded while he looked at Erica, who gave Ernie a warm smile. He felt weird.
Ernie and Louie headed to the door.
Outside the police office, Ernie and Louie walked down the street.
“I do believe your mom was hitting on you,” Louie said while he patted Ernie on his shoulder.
“Nah! Just your typical southern hospitality,” he replied.
The jaywalked across the street and headed to the Frazier’s Hardware Store.
Ernie and Louie walked to the front door of the hardware store.
Then Ernie remembered something when Louie touched the doorknob. He reached in his pocket and removed the time machine ignition key. “Dad did take the key. He gave it back to me, as he was planning on stashing the bank robbery evidence in our machine to frame us,” he told Louie.
Louie looked at the key in Ernie’s hand. “You can keep it,” he said then opened up the door
Ernie and Louie went inside the store.
Donnie Frazier worked behind the counter. He saw Louie approach the counter with Ernie. “I have your key,” he said then reached under the counter and removed the ignition switch and a key stuck inside it.
Donnie turned the key from the “Off” position to the “Both” position and back to the “Off” position to show the key worked.
“Great,” Louie said while he reached for his wallet.
Donnie looked curious with the ignition switch in his hand. “What is this for?”
Ernie and Louie looked at each other.
“It’s the ignition switch for a Cessna one-fifty airplane,” Ernie said.
“You own an airplane?”
“Yeah, back in Columbus,” Louie replied.
“No me, I’m too afraid of heights to climb inside one of those contraptions,” Donnie said while he placed the switch on the counter. “That’ll be a dollar,” he told Louie.
Louie removed a dollar bill from his wallet.
A little while later, Louie and Ernie climbed back into the motorcycle. Louie kicked started his cycle and pulled out into the road.
Louie drove his motorcycle down Waterford Blvd, and they passed by the First National Savings and Loan.
Then they passed by a "Thank You For Visiting Waterford" road sign on the right.
Ernie turned around and took one last glimpse of 1956 Waterford while they went down the road.
Later that morning, Louie drove his motorcycle down the dirt road toward the clearing.
He pulled the motorcycle off the dirt road and drove through the woods and headed to the covered time machine.
Louie shut-off the engine when he got near the time machine.
He got off the motorcycle and looked at it and hated to depart with it. He walked over to the time machine and looked at the front end. He looked back at the Indian motorcycle while he scratched his chin while the gears in his mind started cranking.
Louie walked around the time machine.
“What are you doing?” Ernie asked.
“I can’t leave that Indian behind. I have to find a way to take it with me,” Louie replied while he looked at the time machine, and then he started removing the tarp.
Ernie helped with removing and folding the tarp.
Ten minutes had passed, and Louie had an idea. He used some rope and tied the Indian motorcycle to the front end of the time machine.
The sidecar was removed and stashed over by some bushes, twenty feet away.
Ernie looked at the motorcycle. “Will that work?”
Louie walked over to the left side of the time machine. “We'll find out,” he said while he opened up the left door.
Ernie rushed over to the right side of the time machine and got inside.
Ernie and Louie bucked their seat belts once they sat down inside the time machine.
“Let's go back to Sunday,” Ernie said.
Louie typed in July 12, 1981. He typed in 10:00 a.m.
He pressed enter, and the information displayed on the screen.
He pressed the green button.
The engine hummed louder.
The machine started to vibrate.
Louie and Ernie experience a little pain.
The vibration got severe and tossed Ernie and Louie around bumping into each other
Louie and Ernie look scared and had death grips on their seats.
Psychedelic colors filled the outside of the machine.
Louie and Ernie experienced extreme pain. They both screamed.
The psychedelic colors dissipated.
The pain subsided.
The vibration slowed down.
The machine was quiet except for the low hum of the engine.
Ernie and Louie looked out the windows and saw the basement of his house.
“Let's see what the future brings,” Louie said while he opened his door.
Ernie opened his door and looked anxious.
Ernie and Louie got out of the time machine.
Louie looked at the front of the machine and seemed happy when he saw that the Indian motorcycle was in one piece tied to the machine.
Louie starts untying his motorcycle.
Ernie helped.
Louie and Ernie pushed the motorcycle over to one side of the basement.
Ernie extended his hand. “Thanks for everything.”
Louie shook Ernie's hand.
“It was a blast,” he said while he looked at his time machine and couldn’t wait to experience some more adventures.
Ernie looked at his machine. “I think you should upgrade it so that you can drive it down the road. You know, drive out to New Mexico. Go pay Billy The Kid a visit. Or Arizona, and go pay Wyatt Earp a visit,” Ernie said.
Louie thought about his idea. “I like it, but that’ll take some more cash,” he said while he glanced at his machine.
“I’m going out to find mom,” Ernie said and headed to the stairs.
Louie stayed behind and stared at his time machine and thought about Ernie’s upgrade idea.
Ernie stopped at the stairs and saw Louie getting back inside the time machine. “What are you doing?”
“Going to do some research for investment purposes,” Louie replied with a grin. “I need some more retirement money and more cash for the upgrade,” he said then got inside the machine and closed the door.
Ernie rushed up the stairs.
When he got to the top of the stairs, he heard a humming sound.
He heard a vibration sound.
He saw the basement fill up with psychedelic colors.
The basement was suddenly quiet.
Ernie peeked back into the basement and saw that the spot where the time machine was sitting was now a bare sot.
Ernie went inside the house.
Ernie went outside Louie’s house from the front door.
He got curious then ran around the side of the house and headed to the backyard.
Ernie looked around the backyard and saw some large bushes.
He rushed over to the bushes.
On the other side of the bushes, he saw the rusted sidecar that once was attached to the Indian motorcycle.
“Unbelievable,” Ernie said while he stared at the sidecar he rode in back in 1956. Then he got curious and ran back to the front of the house.
Ernie ran to the front yard and saw his old Tercel in the driveway. “Yeah!” he cried out in joy at the sight of his old car, as he hated that Camaro he dad made him buy.
Ernie walked with a spring in his step over to his Toyota. He kissed the top of his car then opened the door and got inside.
Ernie knew life would be grand while he started up his car then backed down Louie’s driveway.
Ernie drove away down the street and was curious if Erica was still alive.