Time-Twister

Time-Twister

Mavis leaned on her broom and looked over her cleaning cart to Marla. “Do you know what time it is?”

Marla glanced at her watch and said, “Quarter of four.”

“I hate cleaning Dr. Hammer’s lab,” Mavis said, “ever since that fire.”

“What fire?” Marla asked.

“That’s right. You weren’t here when that occurred. He had a Bunsen burner lit up and his cat knocked it over. It burnt half his lab and scared the university that they would lose the building. But did they do anything? No, they love Dr. Hammer because he goes on the news. The university gets publicity and they like that.”

Marla mopped the tile on the hallway from side to side. “What’s that man go on the news for?” she asked.

“He’s a total nut, but he talks most seriously, and they eat it up.” She shook her head and unlocked the door to the lab. 

“What’s he talk about?” Marla asked.

“Time travel. Can you believe that? He says you can go back in time and change things. If I said that, they’d lock me up in the boobie hatch. But if he says it, they put him on the news and write articles and books about him.” 

Marla spun in a circle, her mop overhead. “Man, if could go back in time, I would do some things to LeRoy for his running around. You wouldn’t be able to run around when I finished with him.”

“Some things you shouldn’t tamper with,” Mavis said. “People have warned about bad things that happen with time travel.” She stepped into the lab and looked from side to side. “Same old story. He lets his cat run free in the lab and leave its hairs everywhere.” She checked the floor of the entire lab. “No poop on the floor this time, thank God. That cat is using the box, for a change.”

“This place has more wires and tubes and doodads than I’ve seen anywhere else,” Marla said.

Mavis opened the refrigerator.

“What are you doing?” Marla asked. “Cleaning ladies don’t open fridges.”

“I do,” Mavis said. “He leaves pop for us.” She took out a can and tossed it to Marla. “Don’t open it right away, or it’ll spray your face.”

Dr. Hammer opened a back door in the lab and came in. “Have you seen Schrödinger?” he asked. 

“That ding-dong cat of yours?” Mavis asked. “Did he knock over a Bunsen burner again?”

“No,” said the physicist, “he inspires me every day. He has equations stuck in his whiskers.” He winked at both of them. “I haven’t met you before,” he said to Marla. “I'm Dr. Hammer.”

“I’m Marla.”

“I heard what you said, Mavis,” he said. “that some things shouldn’t be tampered with.”

“I didn’t know you could hear us,” she said.

“It’s all right. I’m in strange territory. People get scared of strange territory. My dad died when I was young. He had heart disease and we had no idea. So if I could go back and see him again, I would warn him to care for his heart. That’s what motivated me to study time travel.”

Mavis ran a wet rag up and down a counter and rinsed the rag in the sink. “Can you take me back to see my son, Doctor? Michael died when he was ten. A car ran him over while he was in a crosswalk in the Bronx. The driver was on meth.”

“I wish I could,” said Dr. Hammer. “Progress has been slow. Write down the intersection, date, and time of the accident. Who knows? Some day I may achieve that.”

She wrote down the information and gave it to him.

“I use rotating lasers and mirrors to twist space-time. I’m close to a breakthrough. Your story about your son gives me a goal. I only need more energy, which I may receive tonight.”

“You’re dedicated, Doctor,” Mavis said.

“My wife left me, and my kids don’t talk to me,” he said. “I became so engrossed in the project, I hardly came home and talked to them. I attended my kids’ high school graduations and went right back to the lab. I didn’t stay for the cake and ice cream. So here I am, day and night. Other than this, I don’t have much to live for.”

The two cleaning ladies finished their work and left. He locked the door behind them. That night, he ran equations and projections on his computers. He checked coordinates and energy levels. At night the energy usage was low throughout the campus, which meant he could draw more energy into his experiment. He lined up his lasers, turned them on so they reflected from mirrors, which created a gravitational field. He was about to step in the middle of this set-up when he heard a knock at the door.

He checked his watch. It was after midnight.

“Who could want in here at this time of night?” he asked himself.

He put on his suit jacket, adjusted his tie, and opened the door.

Two tall men stood in the hallway, dressed identically in dark suits with dark ties and white shirts. They had pale skin and dark eyes. One said robotically, “May we come in?”

“Are you from the national grant center?” Dr. Hammer asked. “I’ve been waiting for your response.”

The first man pushed Dr. Hammer aside and stepped into the lab. “What?” asked Dr. Hammer. “I didn’t invite you in. It’s after midnight.”

The second man stood by the first man. They stared at the scientist. The first spoke again. “You must not tell anyone.”

Dr. Hammer said, “Lots of people know about my research. What are you talking about?”

The second man nodded toward the lasers and mirrors. “Don’t tell anyone,” he said. 

“Gentlemen, I don’t mean to be rude,” Dr. Hammer said, but I’m about to start an important experiment. You haven’t identified yourselves. You’ll have to leave.” He stared back at the strange men. Suddenly he could not move. He could not blink or walk or wiggle his nose. He could not think. He continued to stare ahead. 

The two men went to the door. One turned and said, “Don’t tell anyone,” and opened the door. Dr. Hammer heard their footsteps as the two men disappeared down the hallway.

After a period of time that felt like an hour to him, the spell or whatever it was, lifted. He rubbed his eyes to make sure he had not dreamt the whole episode. “They didn’t say not to do it,” he told himself. “They said not to tell anyone.”

He calibrated the lasers and mirrors for the fifth time, stood in the middle of the set-up, and flicked a switch. A loud hum covered the room, and electric lights flashed. At the last second, Schrödinger scampered in by Dr. Hammer. “No, you can’t come!” he yelled the cat, but it was too late. Both of them had jumped back in time to the Bronx. They stood at a busy intersection. Schrödinger, scared, ran into the street. Dr. Hammer chased him. A car skidded and missed the cat but struck Dr. Hammer with its full force. His head struck the pavement and he bled. 

A young man came to help him and cradled the scientist’s head in his hands. “You’ll be all right,” he told him.

Dr. Hammer said, “No. This is the end. What’s your name, son?”

“Michael,” the boy said. “That car would’ve hit me. Instead, it hit you.”

“Michael,” said Dr. Hammer as sirens sounded in the distance.

“Yes?”

“Save my cat.”

Michael said, “I’ll try to find it.”

“One more thing,” said Dr. Hammer, who struggled to breathe. “One more–” He looked up. Two men in black suits, wearing dark ties and white shirts, wearing sunglasses appeared before him. They folded their arms and stared at him.

“Time travel,” he said, and died before he could say more.

Mavis and Marla took a rest break by their cleaning carts in a hallway. Mavis said, “Nobody has seen Dr. Hammer all week.”

“What about his cat?” asked Marla.

“Nobody has seen that cat, either,” said Mavis.

“I have good news,” Marla said. “Fantastic news.”

“What?”

“My son came home last night.”

“You said he was dead. Killed in a car accident.”

“He was, or I thought he was. He came over, dressed in a suit and tie like a professor. Said he needed to see me. And do you know what he brought with him?”

“I don’t know.”

“A cat. This cat looked like Dr. Hammer’s cat, except older, like 15 years older, with cuts, scrapes, and missing teeth.”

“That ornery cat was always a fighter.”

“My son’s alive!”

“I don’t know about this. So where was he all this time?”

“He went to school for years and became a physics, or, I mean, a physicist. You call him a doctor now.”

“I’ll be . . ..”

“He says he knows what happened to Dr. Hammer but he can’t tell anybody.”

“Why not?”

“He says he was threatened. Had to keep it locked away in his mind.”

“This is weird. Should we call the cops?”

“No. He said you shouldn’t tamper with some things, or you can shift dimensions. People may die in one timeline and live in another. He talked like that all night and I didn’t understand him.”

“This is beyond me, too.”

“He asked me to keep the cat for a while. I said all right. But my landlord said I can’t have pets. Don’t tell anyone.”

***

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