History Rewritten

Clayton Westar had his character flaws just like everyone. He fussed every time he was forced to fall back or spring forward. Tonight was no exception. Some would say that he was flawed because he talked to his dog. Others said worse things about Clay, so he became a loner. Clay was not politically correct with his thoughts or speech. That flaw kept him at odds with people, so he resigned from civilization and moved to where he could be alone.

Clay sat down on the edge of his bed and moved the clock forward one hour to 11:11 PM. ‘I hope old Ben is happy. I’ll never forgive him for making little kids stand out in the dark waiting on a school bus.’ Clay went through the motions twice a year, despite his objections. He flipped out the light and settled in for the night.

Clay’s home was located on a hill top in Tennessee. The Richard Russel Scenic Highway was a few miles from his front yard, but the beauty of his place was the view from the backyard. Clay had cleared many trees away to give him that view. He could sit on his deck and watch deer and other animals in the valley below him. There was not a house or road to be seen from his beautiful backyard. The fact there was no towns nearby didn’t bother him at all. He grew his own food and stayed to himself except an occasional trip to the nearest city.

Sometime during the night Clay woke with an urgent need for the bathroom. Out of habit, he looked to see what time it was, but the illuminated dial on the clock was dark. So was all the night lights scattered throughout his home. One advantage to living alone is the occupant always knows where everything is located. Clay felt his way over to the computer desk and grabbed a flashlight from the shelf. With the aid of that light, he made a trip to the bathroom, then to the living room. No lights anywhere worked. That puzzled Clay because he generated his own power and it was an extremely reliable power source.

He turned the switch to his inverter off then back on. Nothing! It was dead. He turned on a volt meter laying near by. It to was dead! He turned off the main switch to the unit and stood their in disbelief. Clay had witnessed many strange events in his life, but nothing like this. He went to his refrigerator and it was off as well, so he grabbed a bottle of moonshine and poured a drink. He was at the beginning stages of realization; something big just took place. Many wild thoughts flashed into his mind. Was it an EMP, natural or man-made. Were we at war? All kinds of theories were analyzed while he sipped on his drink.

After he finished several drinks and no answers revealed themselves, he returned to his work bench. Still in disbelief his baby failed somehow, he turned on the main switch. It took less than a minute for the inverter to start it’s fan and light up. Within a few more seconds the lights started shinning in the house. That just caused Clay to ask himself more questions which he did not have answers for. Many would stop with the answer of the transformer tripping an overload protector, then reset itself. Clay was the type of nuisance to ask what caused the overload. He’s not connected to any grid and his equipment is well grounded.

Clay booted up his computer. He needed the correct time so he could reset the clock beside his bed. The computer performed a cold start and took forever to come to full life. Well, to a computer it was a lifetime, but in reality about a minute was used. Everyone should know; when you are in a hurry, time slows in portion to your rushed attitude.

Finally, it lite up to reveal 02:22 AM.

“Cisco did you do this?” The dog just moved his head up and down against Clay’s leg.

Clay was lost. He had no idea what happened. Clayton Westar was just a little scared by this time. There was also a red X over the icon for the internet ‘Maybe another drink is needed.’ He wanted answers, but there were none to be found until sunrise or so he thought.

After pouring another drink, he walked out onto his back deck. He dropped his drink without even realizing it.

“Cisco, tell me it ain’t so. Do you see the same thing I see? That wasn’t there this afternoon.” Clay was looking at a full blown city with skyscrapers; some kind of air traffic or at least he assumed the multiple colored light were aircraft and trouble. A thought hit him, so he rushed to the front door only to find no truck.

“Cisco, somebody has stolen our truck.” He pulled his phone out and got a funny sound from it with the message ‘NO SERVICE’ staring at him. He almost bounced it off the nearest wall, but something stopped him just in time to save the phone. It had other useful features he would need, so it was spared instant destruction. The dog was licking up a spot of blood and Clay then noticed it was from his right foot. A piece of broken glass did the damage. Clay didn’t know what emotion should go first, anger, fear, curiosity, or pain. He felt no pain from the cut. His adrenaline level was extremely high.

With foot bandaged and propped up on the next chair, Clay calmed down and tried to think. Surely, something was in front of him if he could just pull it out of that fog. He started this campaign with his device. Could it have caused anything like this? The same answer kept popping up. NO!!! Even if some scalar waves escaped the shielding...no not even then. Then he asked himself just what was this event, which occurred in the middle of his night. What could possibly take his truck and put a city where only 5 hours before there was a green valley.

It slowly hit Clay like a frying pan leaving a headache. His house moved somewhere else. His truck is still probably sitting in his front yard and that herd of deer was still wondering around down there. He was somewhat satisfied with the theory. At least all parameters fit the situation. He needed an answer to the next question. How did it happen? He didn’t have near enough information to even begin answering that question. He moved on. Where or when was he? From the looks of the city, he guessed it was the future and the house stood on the same dirt as before. Clay had switched to coffee by now and upon pouring another cup, he saw the glow of sunrise gaining ground. That sight and the knowledge that went with it lifted his spirits and gave him a certain amount of renewed confidence.

He hopped back over to the table and put his brain back in gear. Some exploring would be in order, but the cut foot forced a delay with that task. He couldn’t even peddle a bike until the foot healed. Clay resigned to learn what he could from his deck. The phone he almost destroyed has a good camera with plenty of zoom capability. A pair of binoculars would help. Clay reached across the table and pulled a writing pad and pen to him. On the first blank page he wrote LOG, day 1. Another of Clay’s faults was a meticulous personality. He was the right person to be involved in this affair. Clay would record everything that happens.

He was about to pour another cup of coffee when heard something outside. Cisco heard it also and gave a low growl to let Clay know of the visitor. He walked on his heel to the front door. A large vehicle of those aircraft had just landed in his yard. The pilot had some type papers in his hand, but what got Clay’s attention was all the kids pouring out of this craft.

“Who are you and what are you doing here. This is a restricted site.”

“Restricted from who. I own this place. You don’t” He should have bitten his tongue, but another fault jumped up and bit him somewhere else. Clay retreated; determined to learn; he must watch his mouth.

“I’m sorry, but it’s been an exciting morning. My name is Clay Westar and you are?” Clay saw many hands cover little mouths and many more smiles.

“I am Doctor Crone of the Cascadia Institute, Archaeology Department and these children are my students.”

“Why are you here Dr. Crone.”

“Why, to visit this historical site. Sir, why are you here and calling yourself by that name?”

“I live here and Clay is my name. Well, it’s Clayton J. Westar, but I never use my full name, friends just call me Clay.” The look on the man’s face told Clay he wasn’t believed. He reached for his wallet and pulled out his driver license.

“Here. Look at this.” The Doctor looked as did one student.

“Sir, forgive me, but the document puts you at one hundred, fifty three years old.” Several of those preteen girls giggled and looked away when Clay made eye contact.

“Have you been here before today?”

“Yes, many times. I teach a new class every cycle and schedule one field trip for each.”

“Please come with me?” He followed Clay along with the entire group of girls. For them it was history in the making and wild horses couldn’t pull them away.

“Does my house look the same to you.” Clay sat down at his dining table and propped up his foot again. The entire group entered, but those young ladies kept their hands in their pockets, so to speak. The more they looked, the more awe struck they became. Shortly the doctor appeared and sat down across from Clay.

“My apologies sir. Do you have any idea how this happened?”

“I went to sleep last night and woke up here.” The girls were being more brave and curious. They wanted to touch Clay and many of them felt his arm or shoulder. “Just where am I anyway? No, wrong question. What is the date?”

“It’s March 20, 2222”

“Will I be able to go back to my time?”

“I can’t honestly answer that question. It’s out of my field of study.” The conservation continued for many minutes. The doctor answered all to which he knew the answer, but didn’t speculate.

“Mr. Westar will you allow an interview with some of my colleagues? They may answer more of you questions and probably ask many of their own.”

“Sure. What do I have to loose. Maybe one of them can put me back when I belong.”

“Sir, I would not expect a way backwards in time to be forthcoming any time soon. I don’t want you to think you are being held hostage, but you are rather valuable to us with all your knowledge about history. We don’t want any harm to befall you. You will be well cared for on all levels if you will cooperate.”

“Cooperate how? What do you want from me?” Clay was biting hard to hold back his tongue.

“We just want the truth about history. You see, the big asteroid of 2029 destroyed our archived historical data. You can help replace that data with hard facts instead of theories, which is all we have currently.”

“I can’t believe all that data was destroyed. What happened? Are you allowed to tell me?”

“The US Gov. had many years to prepare for the Rock, but waited much to long to divert it, so they sent many nuclear warheads to intercept it and turned one projectile into thousands. Earth was bombarded for over 48 hours with the debris they created. We lost everything during that rain of terror. Will you help us Mr. Westar?”

“Look I’m in some pain now. I've had to much tossed at me and it isn’t even lunch time yet.

Let me sleep on this. You can bring back some friends tomorrow and I’ll talk to them. OK?”

“Excellent! Will eight be satisfactory?” Clay just nodded. He needed some alone time to find any little traps something like may hold. It was cereal and coffee that day. He was determined to stay off that foot so it would heal quickly.

He was up early. His animals were all complaining about the lack of care from the previous day. Clay suffered the pain and went out to care for his chickens and rabbits. He turned the calf loose to be with her mother. The garden could wait. After the chores were completed he migrated to his front porch with a cup of coffee in hand.

Within a few minutes, Clay saw an aircraft approaching. He watched it intently. It made no sound or kicked up any dust as it landed. The four pods assumed a horizontal posture and retracted halfway into the body. Clay greeted Dr. Crone.

“Hello Doctor. I see you are punctual.” Clay saw many people emerge from the craft. Two were wearing all white. Most were wearing some type of business attire. It wasn’t suits and ties, though.

“Mr. Westar, will you allow these people to treat your wounded foot?” Clay motioned for them to approach.

“Go ahead if you think you can help it.” A briefcase turned into a wheelchair.

“Please sit down here. Let us help you.” A doctor and his nurse gently helped Clay into the wheelchair. The doctor went into the house still carrying another case. Chrystal, the nurse opened the screen door and waited.

“Oh, I forgot. Just think about moving and where you want to go. The chair will follow your thoughts to that destination.” As if by magic the chair moved toward the open door. The doctor didn’t hesitate and placed a shield around Clay’s leg, then a purple light surrounded his foot. He wanted to pull back, but Chrystal spoke softly and held his hand to calm him.

“Relax. It’s just ultraviolet light with a sonic pulse.” She looked at the doctor.

“It locked. He’s at 7.4316 Hertz.” He directed his next statement at Clay.

“ This will only take a minute and you will be good as new.”

The group introduced themselves and immediately bombarded Clay with questions. Everyone was polite and didn’t rush Clay for his answers. A meal was served and he made a pig of himself. Clay learned they could send him back if he really wanted to go, but some danger existed. No guarantee could be given when he would end up. They could miss his time period by many years. Alexander Grist, physics department let it slip that Clay was thought to be the inventor of all the technology they currently use. Clay bit his tongue again and changed his mind 180 degrees.

“You have made progress since I left my past. What other surprises do you have in store for me. I have decided to stay here and help restore the past, but I’ll need some help” They agreed without hesitation.

Why go back to being alone and despised. Clay got good vibes from these people. It showed in their voices and their actions. Here, he is a celebrity. It wasn’t a difficult choice after meeting these people and listening to them almost beg him to stay.