Chapter 9
Darin tossed and turned in bed all night and couldn’t sleep a wink. It wasn’t because of Tiffany’s snoring that kept him awake, as he was used to that sound. It was his discovery of Dr. Bowman’s time machine. Does really it work? He kept asking himself all night long while he tossed and turned in bed.
Tuesday morning arrived, and Darin was itching all day to get back to work.
After he rolled of bed and immediately had his morning coughing spell and cigarette, he made Tiffany her breakfast.
After she left for the A&P, he sat on the couch, smoking more Marlboro’s and thinking about last night.
That time finally arrived, and Darin got in his Impala and drove off to the university. And this time he was actually looking forward to getting to work. He actually raced his Impala a little down the streets to get there quicker.
He arrived and walked past the secret room. He headed off to the janitor’s office.
“Darin,” called out a voice.
Darin cringed and turned to his left. Standing at the doorway of the janitor’s office was Elmer.
Fuck. He said in his mind, as he hated dealing with him. “Yes sir,” he said while he walked over to the office.
“I need you to wax and buff all of the hallways tonight. I think you missed it last month,” he said.
“I waxed them last month.”
“Well, you did a fucking lousy job. In fact, you’ve been slipping during the past six months. Consider this your first official warning. There are other guys out there that would love to have this job,” said Elmer.
“Yes, sir.”
“Good,” said Elmer, then he walked away. “I’ll be back tonight to double-check the floors,” he added while he got closer to the freight elevator.
“Now, who the fuck wants a job cleaning out toilets?” he said then paused and thought about what he just said. “A fucking loser, that’s who wants this job,” he added then he thought that for a few seconds. “A loser like me,” he said while he glanced at the door to the time machine.
He went into the janitor’s office.
A little while later, he came out with another cart that contained a five-gallon bucked of liquid wax and a buffer.
He glanced to his left at the secret door while he pushed the cart. He stopped. “Fuck him,” he said then he rushed away from the cart. “We do all the work, and all he does is sit on his fat ass in his office reading magazines and taking a nap,” he said and was pissed but knew he had to put up with all his crap.
He went to the door and turned the doorknob. It was locked. “Guess I’ll have to do the floors instead,” he said then went back to the cart.
Darin pushed the cart to the freight elevator.
He pushed the cart inside it and went up to the fourth floor.
He started to wax the hallways of the fourth floor.
After he was done with waxing the hallway floors, Darin pushed that car back down the basement.
After he pushed the cleaning cart out of the janitor’s office, he tried to access the secret laboratory. The door was still locked, and he was disappointed while he pushed the car to the freight elevator.
Darin went the freight elevator to the fourth floor and commenced cleaning the restrooms.
He went down to the third floor and started with the Men’s Room.
“Fuck!” he cried out, and that echoed against the tiled floor and walls. He spotted that one of the toilets overflowed and there were crap and urine left all over the floor. “Fucking assholes!” he yelled out.
He started to clean up this disgusting mess. “We need to bring some mother’s here to clean up after their lazy ass kids,” he said while he grabbed his mop.
Meanwhile, down at the basement, Jimmy Newton and Dr. Bowman walked to the door of his secret laboratory. Jimmy was now sixty years old and planned on retiring from the high school next year.
“Are you sure it works?” said Jimmy while Dr. Bowman unlocked the door.
“We’ll just have to find out,” said Dr. Bowman with a wink then he opened up the door.
Dr. Bowman and Jimmy went inside the laboratory and went straight to the time machine room.
Jimmy looked at the Studebaker time machine. “I wondered what happened to that car. I remembered the day you bought it.”
“It was a month before I started teaching here at the university,” said Dr. Bowman and smiled. “She served me well for years, but now she has a better purpose.”
Jimmy walked around the machine. “I remembered when you first started talking about building a time machine during the winter of seventy-one,” he said then peeked inside the driver’s door window.
“I didn’t want to show you until I was done. I ran a short test two months ago, and it works,” said Dr. Bowman, proud of his contraption.
“And your main purpose?” said Jimmy walked, he walked around the machine.
“We could witness history and make the history books accurate,” Dr. Bowman said with a gleam in his eyes.
Jimmy looked at Dr. Bowman. His eyes lit up with an idea. “I would like to find out who really killed JFK.”
Dr. Bowman thought about his suggestion. “Well, we can take a trip and be there during that horrible day.”
“Maybe that might bring up clues,” said Jimmy and he looked anxious with going.
“Well,” said Dr. Bowman while he walked over to the machine and opened up the driver’s door. “Let’s go witness some history,” he said and motioned for Jimmy to get inside his machine.
Jimmy smiled and loved that idea. He rushed over and got in the machine.
He got inside and slid across the bench seat, sitting on the passenger side.
Dr. Bowman got in the machine and closed the door. He immediately started to configure the machine for their short adventure.
Upon the third floor, Jimmy just finished cleaning the Men’s Room from that disgusting mess.
He rolled his cart to the Ladies Room when he heard something strange. A weird humming sound was heard, and it sounded like it came from the bottom floors. He listened to the sound of something spinning at a fast rate. The building got quiet. Darin shrugged that strange sound off and pushed his cart into the Ladies Room.
He started to clean up their mess.
It now eleven-thirty that night and Darin finished his all of his janitorial tasks with cleaning the bathrooms and waxing the hallways. He had the halls shiny and figured that would keep Elmer off his back for a few more months.
He rolled his cart out of the freight elevator and down the basement.
When he got near the secret laboratory, he noticed that the door was left cracked opened. He figured that Dr. Bowman was either inside it or was gone and forgot about the door.
Darin couldn’t resist, so he walked away from the cart and headed over to the door.
He opened the door and stuck his head inside the room. “Dr. Bowman,” he called out. “Dr. Bowman,” he called out again. The place was quiet, so he figured that Dr. Bowman was in there and forgot to lock it again.
Darin stepped inside the laboratory, as he thought about that time machine.
He walked over to the desk and saw the notebook on the time machine. But this time there was a key on top of the notebook. Darin picked up the key, and it was the ignition key to a Studebaker. He smiled then looked over at the time machine room. He couldn’t resist.
Darin opened up the door to that room and stepped inside.
But this time, he could feel some heat coming from the Studebaker. He walked over to it and lightly touched the hood of the machine. It was warm. “He used it,” he said, and his curiosity peaked even higher.
Darin opened up the driver’s door and sat down inside the machine.
He stuck the key in the ignition and turned it to the “Start” position. Nothing happened. He saw the “Power” toggle switch. He debated in his mind if he should do it. His curiosity won out again, and he flipped that switch up.
The console lit up, and all of the other lights above the other toggle switches were lit up in red.
He glanced at the console, and he saw that the “Travel From Time” and saw the “November 26, 1963 date with 0430 time in the 3a display. Then he saw today’s date and the time from thirty minutes ago in the “Travel To Time” in the 3b display.
Darin stared at the Travel From Time display and couldn’t place the importance of that date.
He chickened out and flipped the “Power” toggle switch down, and the console was turned off. He was worried that Dr. Bowman would show up any second and he would be fired. So he turned the ignition key to the “Off” position and removed the key.
He got out of the machine and closed the driver’s door. Without thinking, he shoved the key into his left pants pocket.
He rushed out of the laboratory closing the door behind him.
After he secured his cleaning cart and locked the janitor’s office. He left the university and went home.
After Darin was at home and in bed for an hour. He couldn’t sleep, but it wasn’t because of Tiffany’s snoring. All he could think about was that time machine at the university. His eyes widened. He recalled why that date was so important. His eyes widened as he realized why that date was so important.
He jumped out of bed and ran into the living room.
Once he got there, he went to the bookcase and removed a history book on JFK.
He opened up the chapter on the assassination at Dallas. He looked at the pictures then his eyes widened in shock. He had to rub his eyes and do a double-take. In one of the images of people at the grassy knoll, he saw two familiar faces. Two faces he knew weren’t in that picture the last time he glanced at this book. In that picture on the grassy knoll were Jimmy Newton and Dr. Bowman. They looked just like what he saw them within the past few months. “It works. It fucking works,” he said.
“What works?” said Tiffany while she walked into the living room, yawning.
“Oh nothing,” I said, looking at the book.
Tiffany walked into the kitchen and grabbed the pack of Marlboro off the counter. She removed a cigarette, shoved it in her mouth and used the lighter. She coughed while she lit her cigarette.
She went off into the bathroom and took a piss while she smoked her middle of the night cigarette.
Darin stopped staring at that picture and placed the book back in the bookcase.
He went off to bed and tried to sleep. But he couldn’t and tossed and turned all night while Tiffany snored.