Friday already! Beenie is spending a day or two with one of my friends so it will just be the boys and I. I sense a night of video games or night fishing and maybe a trip to the range coming up. We all need to make sure the bear guns are doing what they're supposed to be as well as making sure we can all still hit a target after not shooting during the long winter months. Ah..Chris, my visual thinking and writing instructor that gave me the assignment still had it on file! So, without any further ado, the short story based around a visual of a reel to reel tape player sitting on a floor.

I had first met Chuck Abernathy at the park.  It was a simple coincidence, or so I thought at the time. I had a rough week at work and was just sitting, staring out at the ducks on the pond when he wandered over and asked if I wanted to play a game of chess.  I decided to humor him and play. He seemed harmless enough. I figured he was somewhere between 50 and 500. He was one of those guys, you know?  We sat down at one of the tables and started playing. He was friendly enough and we started chatting about this and that. The guy was a wizard at chess! He must have beaten me 15 or 20 times that night. The hours flew by as we played. It seemed like Chuck knew something about everything. He never would tell me what he did, though. He would make some vague references about being an inventor. I met him again the next day, and the next. Soon the summer had flown by and we’d played all the way into October.


One cold day I hunkered down into my jacket against the chill as I walked to the park for our daily game. He wasn’t there, though. There was a note on the table that all the regulars had come to know as ‘ours’. I picked it up and read it. All that was on it was an address and one line scrawled below it. “Come as soon as you can. It’s very important. –Chuck” I whistled softly at the address, it was in the richest part of town. I had no idea that my buddy Chuck was that wealthy. I figured he was just a normal guy like me, if a bit eccentric. I had to see what this was about, so I grabbed a cab and headed over to Chuck’s house.


When I got to his place there was another sign on the door.


“Martin, come on in, it’s not locked- Chuck”
 

I started to wonder about this guy. I thought we were friends, but clearly I didn’t know the first thing about him. This whole thing was weird. I followed more signs and ended up in a den. In there I saw another sign with an arrow, this one pointing down at the floor where there was an old tape recorder. I slowly reached down and hit play. I kneeled down, closer to the recorder.  His voice came through loud and clear.


“Martin, Thanks for coming. First of all I wanted to tell you how much I’ve enjoyed our time together in the park these last months. I haven’t had that much fun in a long time!  I’ve spent this time getting to know you for a reason. I needed to make sure you were really the good guy you seemed to be. The chess games, the conversations, it was all a way to make sure that you were really the type of person I first judged you to be. I can’t be too careful, there are many people who would quite literally kill for what I’m about to tell you. Remember the conversations we had about there being something more to life than what is right in front of us? Well, we were absolutely right and I finally found it.  Let me take things one step at time, though. First, this house and my finances are yours now.. It’s all been properly willed to you. I have no use for them any longer since I won’t be returning to this time and place for any length of time.”


I chuckled, shaking my head. This HAD to be a joke. I knew Chuck had an odd sense of humor, but this was over the top! I decided to go along, though, and listen to the rest of the tape.


“I know, you think this is some elaborate joke, but it isn’t.” His slightly raspy voice continued. “During my lifetime I’ve made many useful inventions. The patents have earned me quite a sum of money which I am now giving to you. The more important thing by far, though, is the invention that I’ve told no one about before. Martin, I’ve found a way to slip between the very veils of time and space! I know, you think I’m a crazy old man. I expected that. Pause this tape and walk over to the bookshelf. Look in the fourth book on the left, top shelf.  Look up Leviticus 10, verse 17.”
I reached down, my hands trembling slightly, and paused the machine. This whole thing was crazy! I considered for a moment standing up, walking out of the house and walking away from this whole thing forever. Finally, though I decided that Chuck had been a good enough friend over these last few months that he deserved at least one act of blind faith. I stood and walked over to the bookshelf, taking down an ancient bible. I turned to the passage like he told me to and read;  “And the Lord came before Emmanuel and he said ‘Hello, Martin! Do you believe me now?’


I nearly dropped the book I was holding. The words were swimming in front of my eyes. I blinked and looked again. The same aged ink as the rest of the book, but it was clearly NOT the verse I expected to read. Finally I set the book down. I had to hear what was on the rest of that tape! Well, suffice it to say, it was incredible stuff. It turns out Chuck has had a lot of friends over the years. He hung out with da Vinci for a while, Nikolai Tesla later and that’s just a couple of them. He pops in occasionally for a quick game of chess and to check on things here. I FINALLY figured out why he was so good at chess. It turns out he invented the damn game!



Until next time,, I hope you have a wonderful life!