The Time Stone (6 page)

“
That’s awful” commented
James.

“
It’s life” Tina shrugged
slowly pulling up her sleeves and shaking her head. “It sure is
super-hot in here.”

“
Yeah, I see you changed
attire since we last saw one another out on the street.” He hinted
at her sweat suit having replaced her scantily clothes.

“
Yeah, courtesy of the
CBPD,” she smirked adjusting her shackled wrists in the tight
compartment of her jail cell. “This is no different for me, dude.
I’m just tired of the bull crap. But…” she paused in midsentence
looking at James suddenly stop all motion and stare directly in
front of him as if in a trance.

“
Hmm” he suddenly froze as
he eyed the bars before him in still shock.

“
James, are you OK?” Tina
asked abruptly, but received no response.

James’ mind raced, swirling before his
vision. Lights of every color immersed into a spiraling vortex,
tunneling forward and hitting an empty darkness sending him back
against the wall in shock hitting his head.

“
Wow!” In a brief moment,
he saw several visions. One was a vision of a car hovering in
midair in a city he has never seen before and two passengers in the
car, Tina in the passenger seat and he in the driver seat, both
wearing unusual fluorescent and multi-colored clothing made up of a
shining metallic fabric, a green pentagon-shaped emerald in between
them shining brightly, like a precious stone. There was a
subsequent explosion and the car vaporized before his mind’s eye,
screaming and agony beyond imagination heard in the distance. He
could feel the heat from the burning inferno smoldering near him,
the smell of burnt ash and brimstone frizzling before him as he
sensed a shiver to his bones like someone walking on his
grave.

The sound of voices emanated into and
out of his cranium, “Why did we end up here?” … “An android!” …
“Sometimes you have to go your own way.” … “In the name of Justice,
I fight!” … “Knowledge is power.” … “The key to salvation
is….”…

He snapped back in shock and saw the
jail cell bars once again in front of him after having experienced
his mental trip through a massive void of thought and several
voices emanating almost at once.

“
That was freaking
amazing!” He spoke slowly.

“
What was? James, you
scared me. For a minute you were moving your lips without talking
and your eyes looked bugged out man.” Tina added fiercely looking
at him.

CHAPTER 15

“
Happy Summer Tidings to
all citizens of Chronix Bay both young and aged!” The traditional
mid-year greeting was shouted by Mayor Trump Wellington over the
series of microphones on the podium before him.

“
There you have it folks”
the familiar face of Sylvia Armstrong, anchor person for the
evening news covering the unveiling of the new breakthrough of
Temporo, Inc. in downtown Chronix Bay.

The Mayor continued: “Today was a good
day for all of us as we come together in joy and harmony to
celebrate the beautiful day as a symbol that all our citizens are
worth counting on. The beautiful forty-foot teleportation device
sits in the center of the city with fifteen yards of multi-colored
lights adorning it. We have also had an increase in law enforcement
officers due to the surplus budget this year and seventy-five
percent drop in crime rates as each of these brave men and women
have been pulling major overtime. Surely this is something that we
can all be thankful for on this summer day.”

The television screen flickered off
and on again. “Humph” uttered Trump Wellington under his breath as
he held his scotch on the rocks and stared into the LCD image
projected on his High Definition Television set in his office
showing the image of Sylvia Armstrong reporting the evening news
after his public speech. His eyes stared into the television set
like solid steel beacons as he drank from his glass in the desolate
evening. He observed her carefully as she continued with her
report.

“
And in other news, a
mysterious figure has been spotted throughout the city with the
apparent ability to vanish into thin air. Many spectators witnessed
the unusual sighting of a woman dressed in garb reflecting the
period of ancient Amazon tribes that appears without warning and
then vanishes in a brilliant array of white and yellow light. Many
called it a miracle or godly blessing while many call it
hallucinations on the part of the observers. For those who have
witnessed her, it is something that will not be forgotten as each
of the witnesses was someone whose life was in danger and was
rescued by this mysterious woman. She does not say that much but
appears during a dangerous situation and saves the person, then
vanishes as quickly as she came before she could be questioned. ‘In
the name of justice I fight’ were the last words mentioned by this
woman in the last encounter.

“
One example has been when
one old lady was going to be robbed by street thugs; this
mysterious woman appeared and thwarted their efforts. Conversely,
on another occasion, one young man was allegedly being stopped and
assaulted by officers of the Chronix Bay Police Department and this
mysterious woman appeared and subdued the officers. The authorities
with the Chronix Bay Police Department want to talk to this
mysterious woman as a person of interest. Members of the famed
organization No Pride Left Behind Movement, a not-for-profit
organization, have stated that this mysterious
woman is being named by their organization as Soteria after
the ancient Greek goddess of rescue, safety, and of deliverance and
preservation from harm. Based on their interpretation of the myth,
she is being claimed as a role model for all citizens to help one
another out when needed and not to let the law of man
or the police department stand in the way of
upholding justice in the truest sense of the word, togetherness and
working hard toward a positive end. This is Sylvia Armstrong,
Channel Nine news.”

CHAPTER 16

“
What the hell happened to
you when you passed out on me like that?” asked Tina.

“
I wish I could tell you.
I saw something that gave me a bad feeling that I can’t explain.
Have you ever seen things that you could not explain, Tina?” asked
James.

“
Like hallucinations and
stuff?” Tina asked.

“
Kind of but internal,
kind of in your mind like a dream but able to participate in
certain interactions of these remote environments. They were not
really the past or the future like anything I have ever seen
before, but actual goings on as if I was there. It smelled real,
sounded real, seemed real to the eyes, even felt real…lucid you
know?” His eyes seared through the bars and seemed to penetrate her
soul.

“
Deep, Man! That’s like
that lucid dreaming stuff. I read about stuff like that being very
common but not when you’re awake. What does this mean? You’re some
kind of psychic?”

“
Maybe I am losing my
mind.” He shrugged it off.

“
Well we shouldn’t rule
out anything… you know it’s weird… many religious believe in this
type of stuff. There is even a science about it… um parapsychology
or something.”

“
You sure know a lot about
this” James said with a curious brow.

“
Well ancient folklore
across the world is sort of a hobby of mine and I know that
psychics have been revered for centuries by many different
cultures, like the Haitian Voodoo priests, Native American Shaman,
and even modern fortune tellers on the streets of Superior City.”
She laughed to herself not realizing that James was mesmerized in
another trance having his mind’s eye focused on the bars and roof
adjoining their heads.

“
James… James…?” She
shouted at him but his mind remained fixated. “Oh great,” she
grimaced. “Give me a signal when you go out like that” she crossed
her arms pouting to herself.

James’ mind raced with the colors of
the spectrum as he gazed inward again seeing the courthouse above
them, the exterior, the rooms where they were sent for arraignment,
the booking areas, the holding cells, a lounge where guards played
poker and smoked cigars while cracking jokes of their latest
collars. He saw all of this in a single moment of time and realized
he was more than a conscious observer this time, he could willfully
manipulate things. He focused his mind on a stack of papers in the
corner of the desk of one of the guards and the papers fell to the
ground.

“
What the hell? Is there a
draft in here?” One of the guards asked his colleague
curiously.

“
How should I know?” The
other guard responded curiously but turned his attention back to
reading his newspaper without a second thought.

“
Oh well” the guard nodded
picking up the papers and dropping them on the desk.

James realized if it
worked with the papers why not with something heavier,
“
like the keys
”
he thought to himself. He focused on a set of keys hanging from a
ring on the guard’s belt slung to a coat rack in the outside
hallway. The keys slowly began to jingle and James feared they
would be heard. He focused his mind as if developing two invisible
hands one slowly grabbing the bundle of keys and squeezing them
together to avoid too much noise and the other hand unhooking them
from the belt and together both hands carrying them slowly through
the hallway down to the ring of cells and into his waiting lap.
With eager excitement in his inner spirit, he awoke suddenly in his
physical body.

“
Wow,
” he envisioned his verbal response in his mind grabbing the
keys and he smiled, staring at the end physical result of what he
had accomplished. He looked at Tina who had been staring at him
with a pale complexion and wide eyes, as if she had seen a
ghost.

“
What the hell was that?”
screamed Tina maniacally.

“
I don’t know” replied
James, “but I like it.” He glared at the keys and fiddled with
them, trying each one into the locks on his shackles until the
third one propped them open and set him free. He rose to his feet
and found the first one opened the door to his cell and he let
himself out. He sensed Tina moving about frantically.

“
Oh my God, you’re
freaking amazing. Hurry up and let me out.”

“
I don’t think so,
Tina.”

“
What do you mean, James?
You got to get me out of here.”

“
Why?” Asked James. “Why
should I do that? How do I know you don’t belong here? You said it
yourself you are involved in crimes all the time and you do what
you have to do.”

“
Like you? We are more the
same than you realize. We are old friends.”

“
We haven’t talked since
high school.” James looked at her impatiently.

“
Come on, I know you feel
it isn’t right to leave me here like this. What you have is a gift.
I can help you. I know about things like that, history,
metaphysics, science, and religious and cultural folklore. I know
multiple languages too. We can be good friends, more, I’ll have sex
with you…” she pleaded endlessly begging on her knees and trying to
rise up against the bars before her but the weight of her chains
combined with her own fears and anxiety kept her down to the
ground.

“
Now I know you’re
desperate.” He began to walk past her cell.

“
You need someone like me.
I will be with you. I’ll fight by your side. I will help you
understand who or what you are with your ability.”

”
I can manage on my
own.”

“
But can you manage out
there in a world that barely understands itself and won’t have
tolerance for those who are different like this.” She spoke
adamantly and crossed her arms as he looked curiously. “I know we
can work together to unravel this mystery. Two heads are better
than one and knowledge is the power. I have information that can
help us understand it, please.”

“
OK” he looked into her
deep brown eyes and saw fear but also the sincerity and the words
ran through her lips were as those in his head that he heard all
his life but never heeded “
knowledge is
power
”. Perhaps they did share a common
destiny as the twinkle in her eye matched his. “Hurry up, we don’t
have much time.” He tossed her the ring of keys and she smiled
frantically searching for the one to unlock her bindings and then
the jail cell door.

“
Excellent” she smiled at
the taste of freedom again.

“
Let’s go, we’re not out
of the woods yet.”

The two prisoners slowly made their
way up the stairwell where voices could be heard of guards talking
about a transfer to take place.

“
These two in lower cell
block D-F, Prescott and Timewalker, are going to be transferred to
Ratzinger’s State Penitentiary tomorrow morning at 0800 hours.” An
obese guard spoke with a mouthful of cheese puffs stuffing them
into his mouth.

“
Why tomorrow?” An upright
guard asked.

“
I don’t question orders
and neither do you.”

“
It just seems weird;
there is no pre-scheduled order as usual.”

“
I don’t care. Let’s get
some more cheese puffs.”