30
It was the right time to take a break. Jimmy was drained, Noel was bored, and Phyllis felt that Chester Carr needed to hear about the information they had gathered from Jim's trance. Phyllis headed over to Candice Carr's house next door to do just that. Noel went with her to see what Sherry was up to. While Jimmy left the house at the same time, he took a slightly different direction and wound up heading toward the home of his girl friend, Linda Kaye Reeves. Linda lived over about a block from Jimmy's home so it was no problem getting there in a hurry.
He realized that with all that went on the previous night, he failed to even phone her. I hope she isn't angry, he thought. We were going to go to a holomovie and maybe get a bite to eat afterward. Now, I get to tell her I was held up by an alien mind probe! That oughtta get me out of trouble! Yeah, right!
As he neared the Reeves home, he saw that Linda Kaye was outside, working weeds out of the yard. She glanced up towards him as one particularly stubborn clump of crabgrass finally released its hold on the Earth. But as quick as she noticed Jimmy, she returned her concentration to her task as if he was any other passerby. Jim tried to put on his best smile, but could mange no better than a sheepish grin.
"Hi, Sweet Thing!" he said as he approached her, "Looks like your folks have you a little busy, huh?"
The temperature in Fort Worth that day was approximately seventy-five degrees Fahrenheit, but it may as well have been seventy-five below from the reception Jimmy got from Linda. She did not even acknowledge his presence, but instead turned to another grouping of wild plants. While he expected a cold reception, he didn't expect it to be quite that frigid.
"Sorry I didn't make our date last night. I... uh... heh-heh! I had a kind of... situation... uhm... develop..."
This time Linda Kaye squinted up at the boy for two seconds, then continued her landscaping tasks. "What kind of 'situation' developed?" she said, obviously unswayed by it all.
"Well, that's kind of... difficult to explain."
"Try me." She was now at least dividing her attention between the weeds and Jim.
"When I came home from school, my mother was scared by a green light in the attic. She sent me up there and the green light was coming from this green crystal in an old rolltop desk we have up there and it turned into some kind of beam that knocked me silly. I was actually unconscious for awhile." Linda stopped her work and stared at this person she referred to as her "boy friend" as he continued to squirm. "And it sorta… talked to me, you know, sending all kinds of weird history and information about the planet Krypton into my brain - maybe too much... That's probably why I blacked out. And there was this journal, see, and a big bottle with an air hose attached, and..."
"STOP!" said the girl with a wave of her hand. "James Olsen Kent, I have heard some stories in my still young existence, but I don't think I want to hear any more of this one. How could you do that? You just frivolously skip our Friday night out, you don't even call me, and then you come up with a story to cover your slightly overweight hiney that makes as much sense as a fairy tale... NO! Check that! A fairy tale makes more sense. At least it has a moral to it. And then, to top it off, you bring your mother into it! Have you no shame at all?"
"Overweight...?"
"Ohhhh! Honestly!"
"Aw, Linda. Don't you think I know how stupid this whole thing sounds? I wouldn't even try to use this as an excuse if it weren't true! And once we started reading the journal..."
"Hold it! Just how long were you allegedly out?"
Uh-oh! he thought. I know where this is going. "Uh... a few minutes?"
"A few minutes!" she bellowed. "And you still didn't call?"
"It... just kind of cascaded from one thing to the next. After I woke up, we read some stuff in the journal of Clark Kent about how he fell in love with a mermaid, then we heard about the earthquakes and Noel found a link to them in the journal..."
"Now it's a full circle," said Linda under her breath. "Now even his sister is involved. Look, Jim. If you had just stuck with the earthquake stuff, I would've understood. Everybody has friends and family in those cities that were hit. But this story... And you involve your mother and sister in it... And, hey! You never even like to talk about your great-grandpa any other time. Why do you invoke his name now? Just to squirm out of trouble with me?"
"If you ask me, I think he does it just to get attention!"
Nuts! It's Moe! Is it too late to hate my life? "Come on, Moe. This is a private conversation between my girlfriend and me."
"Doesn't look private to me. You two are both outside with all of nature to listen in. I'm part of nature, too, ain't I?"
Un-natural is how you always pop up at the worst times!
Moe continued, "As for her being your girlfriend, you might want to check with her on that one, nerd. I think she may be ready to dump ya after that pathetic story."
Silence as both the boys peered at the girl for her reply. Finally, she spoke up. "Jimmy has always been honest with me about everything in the past, and I don't think I'm ready to throw it all away on one mistake in judgment..."
"Phhhhish..." came the sound of dis-believe from Moe.
Thank you! thought Jim.
"But... "she went on, looking straight at Jim, "...if you ever try to make up another cock and bull story like that one again..."
"Yeah!" said Moe.
"And by the way, he's right, Moe. This is none of your business!"
"Awww, whattayou see in him, anyway? He's such a wimp!"
"There's a lot more there to him than there will ever be in you, Moe. Now if you don't mind, I'd appreciate it if you would just leave, now. We'd like to work out our problems alone, okay?"
"As a matter of fact, I do mind. I don't like getting told what to do by anybody! And for sure not by a wimpy nerd or his so-called 'girlfriend' who wouldn't know a real man if she saw one!"
Now Jimmy was mad! "Hey, you can pick on me all you want, but don't ever talk to my girl that way!"
"Phhhishhh! 'Your girl' huh? I told you, Kent. I don't let anybody tell me what to do!" Moe unleashed a right fist square in the gut of James Olsen Kent. Yesterday's sucker punch left him out of breath for a good ten minutes. But today...
"OW! OW! OW! My HAND! What did you do, Kent? Put a piece of steel under your clothes or something? Ouch, oooh... I think it may be broken..." Moe gave Jimmy a look that was simultaneously a look of puzzlement and one of warning, then he turned around and scampered away, presumably to attend to his aching paw.
Jimmy couldn't believe what had happened, himself. After watching his main nemesis walk away, he looked down at his stomach. He hadn't even felt more than a tap when Moe hit him. Then he looked at Linda, who was staring at him like he had two heads.
"Uhm... You said something about a crystal?" she finally inquired.
The mood at the Carr's household had changed dramatically since Chester had been found alive and well. Candace was back to being her bright, cheery self again, and Sherry was in good spirits as well. She and Noel went up to her room to do adolescent girl things, which was basically to talk about boys, makeup, boys, music, and more boys.
Phyllis, meanwhile, was carrying on her mission to contact Chester. Candace put the call through.
"Chess, this is Phyllis. How's it going?"
"It's been a slow go, Phyll. Have you heard from the cosmic cowboy, yet?"
"No, and I'm a little worried about it. He made it sound like he was in some kind of trouble. He told me not to worry and that usually just makes me worry all the more!"
"Well, as long as I've known the son of a buck, he's always given me impression that he knows how to handle himself. I wouldn't worry."
"Chester, what did I just say to you about that?"
"Oops! Seriously, Phyll, he's gonna be fine. But I have a feeling you didn't call me about that, did you?
"No, I didn't. I have a little more information that I hope will help you... I'm a little surprised that you're even considering listening to me. The last time I called, you stopped short of calling me crazy."
"Well, I learned a little something yesterday, Phyllis. You can't turn your back on any information when digging into the unknown, no matter how far-fetched it seems. Turned out you were right about Cairo, and the watch is unofficially on for Sydney."
"What do you mean, 'unofficial?' I thought since..."
"Publicly, we have to take the stance that nothing is eminent. Otherwise we could have a panic problem that could be as detrimental as the quakes have been. But privately, we've got teams close by, ready to go in when and if it happens."
"I noticed that the casualty rate in Cairo was lower than the other sites and that teams arrived there quickly. You must've told someone about it. Did you have any problems with the head of your project?"
"A little. Let's just say that he was as skeptical as I was. But ultimately it was his decision to have the people in place there. I won't pretend I understand how you knew - how that journal written two centuries ago could predict it, but I owe you an apology for blowing you off when you called."
"Not really. I think any sane person would have had the same reaction. But like I said, I have something else you may need."
"Okay, I'll listen right nice this time, ma'am. 'Sides, I'm pretty happy right now, we've had a kind of breakthrough in our research."
"That's just what I wanted to talk to you about. In your investigation, have come across some soil or element that emits a kind of purple glow to it?"
Chester was silent for a moment. It was the second time in two days that his next door neighbor had surprised him with outrageous information. Only this time, he couldn't dispute her findings. He had the mysterious element in his lab.
"Phyllis, don't tell me your journal had that information..."
"Okay, I won't, because it doesn't. But please don't ask me where it did come from, Chess, because I don't think you would believe it."
"Oh, I believe it. We have the purple stuff and it seems to have some strange properties. And I know we didn't release that data to the public. What is it you know about it?"
"It shrinks the soil that it touches, which may be why the earthquakes have happened..."
"Yes, we already figured that one out. But is there any more to it?"
"I'm afraid so. This element spreads through the soil as it does its work, like a tree taking root. I don't have any inkling how deep it could go, but this happened on the planet Krypton years ago."
"Krypton!"
"Yes, the planet of my children's heritage. This thing is all tied into it because of a crime of unparalleled proportions centuries back. I don't have any hard evidence of it, but you know what the ultimate fate of Krypton was, and it isn't too much of a stretch to assume..."
"That Earth could suffer the same fate as Krypton."
"Yes." Phyllis paused for a moment, not so much for effect as for the fact that she hadn't really realized the connection herself until she voiced it to Chester. "I'm... still investigating this, Chess. There may actually be no more than what you've found, but we'll keep digging - no pun intended - until we have the whole story. That's assuming there is a whole story to be known."
"Thanks, Phyllis. I promise I'll keep an open mind on this one this time."
"Do you need to talk to Candace again?"
"No... No, she'll probably want to kill me for this, but in view of what you've told me, I think I'd better get back to work right away. Just tell her I love her and I'll call her back at the usual time tonight. See ya later, Phyll, and thanks again."
Once Phyllis finished her call and gave Candace the message from Chester, she thought about her son and how he had been affected by the strange glow of the green crystal. She was worried for her son, but she also had the feeling that much more was at stake. The entire world may be in peril, she thought, and Jimmy may be its best chance for survival.