You Can Call Me Al (3 page)

“Not looking forward to going to camp this
year?”

Johnny eyes got as big as saucers. Al was
suddenly sitting next to him.

“Al!”

“Shhhhh, keep your voice down or the other
children will think you are talking to yourself again.”

“What are you doing here?” Johnny whispered
incredulously.

“I have something to show you later,” Al
replied.

“Show me what? The last time I saw you, you
were at our last softball game. You were standing in the outfield,
but then you vanished again.”

“Yes, I was watching the game and nudging
the ball in your direction so you could get some hits and make some
key plays.”

“I thought something a little strange was
going on, how could you do that?”

“Telekinesis, Johnny.”

“Tele- what?”

“Never mind that for now, I really can’t
describe what I have to show you. You will have to see it for
yourself. Wait till everyone is asleep tonight at the camp, and
then sneak out, I will meet you behind your cabin.”

“Why should I? Who are you anyway?”

“Here, take this and I will see you tonight;
after that, all your questions will be answered.”

Al handed Johnny what appeared to be a hand
watch. It looked like an old time piece that his Grandfather used
to carry in his vest pocket.

“There is a button on top of this watch
piece. Don’t press it under any circumstances, disastrous things
could result. Just put it in your pocket and I will see you
later.”

Johnny glanced down at the timepiece. It
looked like a regular face of a watch, with a small hand and a
large hand and numbers around its circular face. It indicated that
the time was 9:30.
“That makes sense,”
Johnny thought.
“We boarded the bus at 9 am and we have been on the road for
about a half of an hour.”

Johnny looked up, but once again Al was
gone.

“
I wish he would quit doing that,”
Johnny thought apprehensively. He was starting to get scared;
glancing at the timepiece again he decided to slip it into his
pocket as instructed.

As the bus traveled on, Johnny’s curiosity
got the best of him. He took out the timepiece and looked at it
eagerly.
“It is only something that keeps time,”
he thought.
The button on top of the watch was glowing with a green radiance.
Johnny pressed the button and then released it. The button popped
back up, but this time it was glowing red.

Suddenly the bus became as quiet as a tomb.
All the kids were motionless; they had stopped talking in
mid-sentence, the bus started to go off of the road and onto the
shoulder, it started to shake under the uneven surface.

Johnny was panic stricken: “Oh my God, what
have I done?”

The bus driver was also motionless, like he
was frozen in time. Johnny, with extreme anguish, hoped that he
could alleviate this situation by pressing the button on the time
piece again: as he did so, it popped back up, glowing green
again.

The conversation resumed on the bus as if
nothing had happened; the bus driver had to turn his wheel quickly
however to avoid going into a ditch on the side of the road. The
bus bounced irregularly then the driver was able to return it into
the highway.

“Hey!” one of the kids sitting up front
yelled. “This bus driver doesn’t want us to fall asleep.”

There was some nervous laughter.

The timepiece seemed to speed up for a
moment before establishing its normal recording of time.

Johnny put the hand watch back in his pocket
once again.
“I am not going to mess with this thing again,”
he thought fearfully.

They arrived at the camp area, cabins were
assigned, and then Johnny helped put up a volleyball net. They were
given a box lunch, one of the camp counselors then took them on a
hike along a nature trail. Later they built a bonfire when it
started to grow dark. A cauldron of chili was cooking on a gas
grill. After dinner they told stories by the fire, then retired to
their respective cabins for the night. Johnny was assigned to a
cabin with three other boys, they told jokes and laughed for a
while before drifting off to sleep.

Johnny tossed and turned. The events that
occurred when that man named ‘Al’ was around kept replaying in his
mind.

After a while and against his better
judgment, he finally got up quietly, turned on his flashlight, put
on his shorts, tee shirt, and sneakers. The timepiece that Al had
given him was in his left pocket, he softly left the cabin and
precariously went around to the rear of the little building
carrying his flashlight in front of him.

Johnny waved his flashlight around and saw
nothing but a group of trees in the distance behind his cabin, and
heard the rustling of a small creek.

“You don’t follow directions very well do
you?”

Johnny jumped like he had been bitten by a
snake, he whirled his flashlight around towards the sound of the
voice.

“You!” he shouted.

“Keep your voice down, Johnny, must I always
tell you that? Do you want to wake up everybody at this campsite?”
Al scolded him.

“Please tell me what you want or just leave
me alone,” Johnny whined.

“I told you that I had something important
to show you, but you need to be able to listen and obey essential
instructions. I told you not to press that button on the timepiece
I gave you, now didn’t I?”

“Well if you didn’t want me to fool with it,
why did you give it to me in the first place?”

“To see if you could follow instructions,
Johnny, didn’t I just make that obvious?”

“Well you can have the damn’ thing back if
you want: and I really don’t care what you have to show me, you are
giving me the creeps.” Johnny took the timepiece out of his pocket
and looked at it nervously.

“As you wish, Johnny, give me back the
timepiece and I will bother you no more. I will leave and you will
never see me again.”

Johnny hesitated, not knowing what to do. He
didn’t trust this man who called himself ‘Al’ but he felt that he
would be missing out on something, perhaps something a lot more
interesting than this camp would have to offer.

“Okay, what do you want to show me?” he said
weakly. “Does it have something to do with this timepiece you gave
me?” Johnny gazed upon it again in the palm of his hand. “It
frightened me to death.”

“Put it back in your pocket and I will tell
you about it later. Now watch, I am going to open a portal to
another realm.”

“Another what?”

“Just watch, Johnny; and extinguish that
light.”

Johnny switched his flash light off; he put
the timepiece back in this left pocket and his flashlight in his
right. He could always run away and yell for help if he got too
scared.

Al produced a small cone shaped object from
somewhere on his person. He depressed a button on its narrow end
and directed the wide end out and away from the rear of the cabin.
A thin jagged edged red circular outline appeared six feet away. It
was about eight feet in diameter. The air inside its boundary
seemed to shimmer and then turned into bright shifting patterns of
colors, orange, yellow, and blue. Johnny felt like he was looking
into a kaleidoscope.

“Is that the portal you mentioned?” he said,
surprised. “Yes it is, Johnny. We are going to enter this portal.
There is someone who wants to speak with you. This is the only way
we can get to him.”

“Just who is this person that wants to speak
with me?” Johnny said uneasily.

“Your father, Johnny,” Al replied
quietly.

“My Father?” Johnny was stunned. “I never
knew my father; my Mom told me he left right after I was born.”

“He has always checked up on you, Johnny,
without you knowing it, of course. He had to wait until you were
older before he could reveal himself to you. That was necessary so
you would be able to better understand what and who he is,” Al
explained.

“You talk like he is some kind of alien or
something: are you a friend of his?”

“Yes, in a way, Johnny; and no, he is not an
alien, just a little different than most fathers.”

“What makes you think that I would want to
speak with him? He abandoned me and my Mom for all these years. A
good father never would have done that,” Johnny said defiantly.

“Once you talk with him, I think you will
have a better understanding of why he had to act the way he did,”
Al answered consolingly.

“I don’t understand what is going on, and I
really don’t want to go in there,” Johnny said as he pointed
towards the portal. “Why should I trust you, anyway?”

“I trusted you with the timepiece, didn’t I,
Johnny?”

Before Johnny could reply Al held up his
hand, motioning Johnny to be silent.

“Johnny, I can’t stay here all night trying
to convince you to come with me. I certainly don’t want you to do
anything that is against your will. Now, sooner or later someone is
going to wake up and hear us talking and come back here to see what
is going on. When that happens, the deal is off, we must go now if
we are going to go at all, or you can go back to bed and forever
live in doubt of what could have been,” Al continued.

Johnny felt like there was a lump in his
throat. He swallowed hard and said worriedly “How long will we be
gone? If I’m not back here in the morning, the camp counselors are
going to think I ran away, and then I am going to be in big
trouble.”

“For every day that passes where we will be
going, only one minute of time will have passed here. I will get
you back before anyone realizes you were gone.”

Johnny was dumbfounded, not knowing what to
say to that.

“Are we going or not?” Al persisted.

“Will it hurt when we walk through that
thing?” Johnny said, casting a fearful eye at the portal.

“Not physically, Johnny, you might feel a
little mental anguish thinking your senses are playing tricks on
you, but it will pass.”

“Okay, let’s go before I change my mind,”
Johnny said, trying unsuccessfully to keep the quiver out of his
voice.

“Here,” Al said, extending his hand. “Hold
my hand tightly.”

Johnny hesitantly grabbed a hold of Al’s
hand. It was warm and seemed to vibrate ever so gently.

“Listen very carefully, Johnny; it is
imperative that you follow my instructions to the letter. The place
we are entering will not be our final destination; it will just be
an initial staging area before we complete our journey. You are
going to see some strange beings, don’t stare, yell out, or try to
talk with them in anyway. They will leave you alone unless you try
to interrelate with them, so don’t!”

Johnny nodded and tried to gather up as much
courage as he could. Al then walked him up to the portal and pulled
him through.

…

Johnny felt a flush of hot air and was
temporarily blinded by the bright lights of the portal’s entrance.
He felt dizzy and dazed for several seconds before becoming aware
of his new surroundings.

They were standing in what looked like a
large concourse of an international airport. The floor was dark
gray and was of a substance which felt slightly rubbery in nature.
Light colored gray walls of the concourse’s surrounding structure
extended up and converged into an arched vaulted ceiling which was
spotted with skylights. There the similarity to anything Johnny had
ever experienced in his life, ended.

Milling around in the area were creatures
who looked liked they were from someone’s drug induced
hallucination. There was a group of several humanlike entities
ranging from seven to twelve feet tall off to their right. They
were clustered together, making wild gestures at each other. They
were all clothed in full length robes colored with a checkerboard
pattern of black and dark orange. A group of eight small humanlike
beings about two feet tall, dressed in some type of animal skins,
were purposefully marching to their left. They all had beards
extending down to their midriffs. (Miniature Dwarves? Or
Gnomes?)

Two Siamese cats twice as big as a Great
Dane were passing right in front of them. Somewhat further away was
a large praying mantis-looking species; it was slowing stalking
around as if looking for something or somebody. Behind it was an
elongated man-shaped form which was almost two dimensional. When it
turned a certain way it was almost invisible. It had a translucent
glow about it and its flat internal (organs?) could be vaguely
discerned within. It was conversing with some type of mechanical
construct (a robot?)

Al gave the robot a cold hard stare.

Al didn’t have to worry about Johnny
interacting with any of these entities. He was petrified with fear
as he tightened his grip on Al’s hand.

Along the walls of the concourse were
pictures about nine feet wide and twelve feet long, spaced about
three feet apart with the bottom side about one foot off of the
floor. After a more thorough investigation Johnny realized they
weren’t pictures at all. They were “Windows” depicting other lands
beyond.

One window exposed a landscape of a sparse
rangeland of tumbleweeds and scrub brush, another just showed a
floating bed of molten bubbling lava. A third was a desert scene of
blowing red sand and another portrayed what looked like a quaint
town square with a fountain in the middle flanked by two statues
which looked liked they were carved from marble. One that was of
particular interest showed the skyline of a city with buildings of
sharp pointed roofs and minarets.

Nearby was a window of a well manicured
countryside with green rolling hills.

The two Siamese cats which had walked by
them, stopped at this window. They studied it for a moment, and
then in typical feline fashion they crouched and wiggled their
backsides and jumped through. The view rippled for a moment before
regaining solidarity. It was if they had jumped through a sheet of
crystal clear water. The two catlike creatures scampered over the
grassy knolls as they receded into the background of the
window.