Chapter 6: Annie Hattie
(At Twin Pines Mall Parking Lot, night…)
Time: 1:15 am
Location: Twin Pines Mall
The lit entrance sign, depicting two Pine trees in a row with "Twin Pines Mall" in lettering below (along with a digital clock at 1:15 changes to 1:16 am) to pick up Little Carrie on her skateboard with another walk girl, headphones, iPhone, iPhone's electric charger & the video camera. Little Carrie skateboards around a corner of the mall and sees.
Little Carrie iPhone down a pocket and took headphones down and saw. An oversized step-van with a drop down tailgate like a ramp all by itself on the vast, sodium vapor lit parking lot. It's beat up, and has a letter on the side, "Dr. A. Hattie Enterprises - 24 hour scientific service." Little Carrie took her skateboard up and walked down the hall.
A large dog sits patiently beside it. The animal has a battery operated digital clock attached to its collar. There are a few boxes, some equipment and a suitcase nearby. Betty turned Little Carrie's skateboard over to the truck and the dog.
"Betty! Hey, Betty, where's the doctor? Huh?" Little Carrie asked in concern.
Little Carrie knelt and pet Betty was whimpering.
There was a machine humming.
We hear an engine rev up, the truck engine?
There was a gate unlocking.
The rear truck doors suddenly open with tons of steam and a sleek stainless steel. Little Carrie stood up, and Betty looked at something. And time machine: DeLorean drives down the drop down gate, onto the parking lot. It's been modified with coils and some wicked looking units on the rear engine.
As Little Carrie stares at it in amazement.
The DeLorean pulls up to her and stops. The gull wing driver's door opens and out steps the doctor woman: Annie Hattie, 45.
Annie's clad in white radiation suit, hood off. Her hair is blonde and long, her eyes are full of life and energy.
"Annie!" Little Carrie replied.
Annie turns to Little Carrie.
"Carrie! You made it!" Annie replied, with a surprise.
"Yeah." Little Carrie replied, happily.
"Welcome to my latest experiment. This is the big one, the one I've been waiting for all my life." Annie replied.
Little Carrie ogles the vehicle.
"Well, it's a DeLorean…" Little Carrie replied.
"Bear with me, Carrie. All your questions will be answered." Annie replied.
Little Carrie and Annie walked and stood.
"Annie, is that a DEVO suit?" Little Carrie asked in concern.
"Never mind that now." Annie replied, as she turned to the DeLorean. "Not now." she replied, turning to Little Carrie.
"All right. I'm ready." Little Carrie replied, as she raised the camera.
As Annie clears her throat and addresses the camera.
"Good evening. I'm Dr. Annie Hattie. I'm standing on the parking lot of Twins Pines Mall. It's Saturday morning, October 26 2030, 1:18 a.m., and this is temporal experiment number one." Annie replied, as she looked at her watch at 1:18am.
Little Carrie looked at her watch at 1:18am.
"Come on, Betty. Hey, hey, girl, get in there. That a girl! In you go." Annie replied.
Betty obediently jumps in the DeLorean.
"Sit down. Put your seat belt on. That's it." Annie replied.
Betty sits in the driver's seat. Annie buckles her in with the shoulder harness.
"Whoa, whoa. Whoa. Okay." Little Carrie replied, as she moved and knelt down.
"Please note that Betty's clock is in precise synchronization with my control watch." Annie replied.
Annie holds up a digital watch next to Betty's clock indeed, the two are in dead sync to 1:18 changes to 1:19.
"Got it?" Annie asked in concern.
"Right. Check, Annie." Little Carrie replied.
"Good." Annie replied.
Annie reaches in and starts the ignition.
"Have a good trip, Betty. Watch your head." Annie replied.
The DeLorean engine roars to Life. Annie turns on the headlights and lowers the gull wing door, sealing Betty in.
She steps back and picks up a remote control unit, similar to one for a radio controlled toy car. There are buttons labeled "Accelerator" and "Brake", a joystick, and an L.E.D. digital readout labeled "Miles Per Hour".
"You got that thing hooked up to the car?" Little Carrie asked in concern.
There was a machine humming.
"Watch this." Annie replied.
"Yeah. Okay. Got it." Little Carrie replied, as she raised the camera.
Annie flicks the power switch on and, using the accelerator button and joystick for steering, sends the DeLorean down to the far, far end of the parking lot.
"Jesus!" Little Carrie called.
The DeLorean turns to the parking lot.
Little Carrie turns the camera to Annie at the controls.
"Not me! The car! The car!" Annie called.
Little Carrie turns back. The DeLorean is turned around from the other end of the lot. Annie pulls Little Carrie along so that they're in the car's path.
"If my calculations are correct, when this baby hits 88 miles per hour you're going to see some serious shit." Annie replied.
Annie takes a deep breath, then pushes the accelerator button. The DeLorean revs in place, shifting gears automatically. The L.E.D. the speedometer passes 30. The stainless steel vehicle zooms faster...past 40…
Little Carrie slowly moved. Annie turns her head to Little Carrie pushes and turns her head to her. Annie looked down and up at Little Carrie and moved and stayed. Little Carrie is getting it all on tape. Annie watches intently. The speedometer climbs past 60.
In the car, Betty remains calmly in the driver's seat. Gauges and instrument lights mounted behind him begin flashing. Holding the accelerator button down, Annie flicks the switch and the car takes off. The DeLorean keeps accelerating, approaching Little Carrie and Annie. The coils mounted around the car begin glowing. Little Carrie moved…
"Watch this. Watch this." Annie replied, as she pulled Little Carrie.
The meter passes 75. Betty still has the car. The speedometer hits 85...86...87...88…
Betty looked at the white lights. The automobile is suddenly engulfed by a blinding blue and white glow... Little Carrie and Annie were shocked.
Then, BLAM! It's gone, a trail of fire left in its wake.
Little Carrie and Annie are hit by a sharp blast of air. Little Carrie blinks in disbelief: it's as if the car never existed. Annie laughs.
"What did I tell you? 88 MILES PER HOUR!" Annie replied, happily.
Little Carrie was shocked and looked. Only the License Plate is left behind, a vanity plate: "OUTATIME."
Annie looked down at her watch at 1:20am.
"The temporal displacement occurred exactly 1:20 a.m. And zero seconds!" Annie replied, as she took the notes.
Little Carrie looked down and got Outatime, it was hot.
"JESUS CHRIST!" Little Carrie yelled, as she dropped Outatime on the ground. "Jesus Christ, Annie! You disintegrated Betty!"
"Calm down, Carrie." Annie replied, as she took down notes. "I didn't disintegrate anything. The molecular structure of both Betty and the car are completely intact."
Annie wrote the notes.
"Then where the hell are they?" Little Carrie asked in concern.
"The appropriate question is, "When the hell are they?" You see, Betty has just become the world's first time traveler." Annie replied, as she walked. Little Carrie turns to Annie. "I sent him into the future." she replied, her points at something.
Little Carrie walked and paused.
"One minute into the future, to be exact." Annie replied, as she still wrote the notes and walked. "At precisely 1:21 a.m. and zero seconds, we shall catch up with him and the time machine." she replied.
Annie turns around and looks up at Little Carrie turns around to her.
"Wait a minute. Wait a minute, Annie." Little Carrie replied.
Little Carrie walked and paused to Annie still wrote the notes.
"Are you telling me that you built a time machine out of a DeLorean?" Little Carrie asked in concern, as she turned her head to something.
"The way I see it, if you're going to build a time machine into a car, why not do it with some style? Besides, the stainless-steel construction made the flux dispersal…" Annie replied.
Annie looked at her watch beeps and turned her head.
"LOOK OUT!" Annie called, as she pulled Little Carrie's back.
DeLorean arrived. There were tires screeching. The DeLorean turned around and paused. The remote control beeps. Little Carrie and Annie exchanged looks. The DeLorean was frozen. Little Carrie and Annie walked slowly…
Annie was shocked when the car wheels locked up and the DeLorean came to a screeching halt, smoke pouring off the body.
Annie turns to Little Carrie and turns to DeLorean. There was a time machine creaking. As Little Carrie and Annie rush over to the car. Annie walks, doesn't see, and approaches cautiously and reaches for the door handle. She touches it and recoils in pain. As Annie gasps.
"What? Is it hot?" Little Carrie asked in concern.
"It's cold. Damn cold." Annie replied.
Annie's foot the gull wing raises the driver's side door: there sits Betty, none the worse for wear. Annie laughed.
"Betty, you little devil!" Annie replied, with a surprise.
There was a clock beeping.
As Little Carrie was shocked. As Annie again compares her watch with Betty's. Betty's reads 1:20 change to 1:21 and Annie's is 1:21 change to 1:22.
"Betty's clock is exactly one minute behind mine and still ticking!" Annie replied.
Betty out of the DeLorean.
"She's all right." Little Carrie replied, as she turned Betty barking and into the truck.
"She's fine. And he's completely unaware that anything happened." Annie replied, as Little Carrie turned to Annie. "As far as she's concerned, the trip was instantaneous. That's why her watch is exactly one minute behind mine. She skipped over that minute to instantly arrive at this moment in time." she replied.
Little Carrie turns her head to Betty.
"Come here. I'll show you how it works." Annie replied.
"All right." Little Carrie replied.
Little Carrie is still a bit skeptical, uneasy. Annie waves her over, like a kid who wants to show off a new toy. Little Carrie approaches cautiously. Annie into the DeLorean.
"First, you turn the time circuits on." Annie replied.
Annie flips the labeled switch. An array of indicator lights go on inside to the time circuits.
Suddenly, there was a machine powering up.
Month, day, year, hour and min to Oct, 26, 2030 and 01:21 to 01:22 to 01:20.
There was a machine whirs.
"This readout tells you where you're going. This one tells you where you are. This one tells you where you were." Annie replied.
The three readouts are respectively labeled Destination time, Present time, and Last time departed.
"You input your destination time on this keypad. Say you want to see the signing of the Declaration of Independence." Annie replied.
Annie punches 7-4-1776. The Destination time readout red lights up with the date.
The Destination time, "July 04 1776".
"Or witness the birth of Christ." Annie replied, as she punches in 12-25-0000.
The Destination time, "December 25 0000".
"Here's a red-letter date in the history of science. June 17th, 2013." Annie replied, as she punches in 6-17-2013.
The Destination time, "June 17 2013".
Annie pauses, realizing something- as if something suddenly makes sense to her.
"Yes, of course. June 17th, 2013." Annie replied, with a smile.
Little Carrie down the camera.
"What? I don't get it. What happened?" Little Carrie asked in concern.
As Annie looked up and laughed.
"That was the day I invented time travel. I remember it vividly. I was standing on the edge of my toilet, hanging a clock. The porcelain was wet. I slipped, hit my head on the edge of the sink, and when I came to, I had a revelation, a vision, a picture in my head, a picture of this." Annie explained.
Annie turns and points to a particular centerpiece unit mounted inside the DeLorean.
"This is what makes time travel possible. The flux capacitor." Annie replied.
Little Carrie aims the video camera and gets it on tape.
"Flux capacitor?" Little Carrie asked in concern.
"It's taken me almost 17 years and my entire family fortune to realize the vision of that day. My God, has it been that long?" Annie asked in concern.
Little Carrie smiled.
"Things have certainly changed around here." Annie replied, as she got out of the DeLorean and stood up. "I remember when this was all farmland as far as the eye could see." she replied.
As Annie walked.
"Old man Peabody owned all of this. He had this crazy idea about breeding pine trees." Annie replied.
Little Carrie on the camera to DeLorean. Annie walked.
"This is heavy-duty, Annie. This is great. Does it run on regular unleaded gasoline?" Little Carrie asked in concern.
Annie turns around to Little Carrie.
"Unfortunately, no. It requires something with a little more kick. Plutonium." Annie replied.
"Plutonium." Little Carrie replied, as she lowered the camera. "Wait a minute. Are you telling me that this sucker is nuclear?"
Annie paused and walked.
"Hey, hey, hey! Keep rolling. Keep rolling there." Annie replied.
Little Carrie raises the camera.
"No, no, no, this sucker's electrical, but I need a nuclear reaction to generate the 1.21 gigawatts of electricity I need." Annie replied.
"Annie, you don't just walk into a store and buy plutonium." Little Carrie replied, as she lowered the camera.
As Annie turned and walked away…
"Did you rip that off?" Little Carrie asked in concern.
Annie paused, walked, and went mad.
"Of course. From a group of Libyan nationalists. They wanted me to build them a bomb, so I took their plutonium and, in turn, gave them a shoddy bomb casing full of used pinball machine parts. Come on. Let's get you a radiation suit." Annie explained.
"Jesus!" Little Carrie replied, as she lowered the camera, shocked, and turned to DeLorean.
"We must prepare to reload." Annie replied.
As Little Carrie turns to Annie.
To Be Concluded…