SHOESTRINGS--NO TIME
FOR DINOSAURS
BY
John Benjamin Sciarra
Chapter One
Kyle, Teresa and Sonja sat quietly in the laboratory lounge. Kyle, feeling fidgety, plopped his legs across the coffee table, accidentally spilling a can of Coke.
“Will you be careful!” said Teresa. She turned to Sonja and added, “You should be glad you don’t have a brother.”
“I’m bored. When’s Dad coming back?”
Teresa and Sonja grabbed a handful of tissue and sopped up the soda.
“He said he’d only be a few minutes.”
“That was a half hour ago,” said Kyle with a sigh. “Let’s go find him.”
“My dad said we should wait here,” said Sonja.
Kyle got up and went to the door. “There’s no one in the lab. Where did they go?”
“Maybe upstairs,” said Teresa. “Sonja’s right. We should just wait.”
A younger sister telling her older brother what to do was just asking for trouble. Kyle pushed the door open and went out.
“Kyle!” yelled Teresa. She rolled her eyes and ran after him with Sonja following close behind. Kyle had already entered the lab. Teresa tried the door, but it was locked.
“How did he get in?” asked Sonja.
“You have to know Kyle.”
Teresa banged on the door but Kyle just made a face at her. She banged harder until finally Kyle let them in.
“Okay, how did you know the security code?”
“Dad pushed the buttons when he and Dr. Bashan went in. I saw which ones he pushed.”
Teresa shook her head and rolled her eyes. “Be careful around my brother, Sonja. He’ll get you into trouble pretty fast.”
“I don’t see our dads,” said Kyle. “Let’s look in the other lab.”
“But there's a 'No Admittance' sign on the door,” said Sonja. “You can read, can’t you?”
Kyle ignored the younger girls. He was 14 and both of them were 12. They were like little babies to him. He pushed on the door, but it was locked.
The girls giggled. “Ha, ha. You can’t get in that one. There’s a scanner on it that checks your finger prints.”
The two girls walked around the lab leaving Kyle to ponder his problem.
“Isn’t there an elevator here?” asked Sonja.
“Yeah, I think there is.”
Teresa and Sonja found the elevator at the end of a long corridor. Sonja pressed the call button. A keypad on the side lit up. It said; “Enter code now.”
“Great,” said Teresa. “Looks like a dead end. Let’s grab Kyle and get out of here before he gets us in trouble.”
The girls looked around in awe at all of the computers and tubes filled with thick green liquid that seemed to glow. Small, spiraled hoses ran the length of the large laboratory. Their curiosity sidetracked them. As they looked in wonder at all the equipment and experiments, they just stood there gawking.
***
Kyle remembered something he saw on TV once, a show where crime scene investigators lifted fingerprints from a latex glove. He wondered if his father or someone else used gloves in their work. It wouldn’t hurt to look, he thought. Kyle hoped the cleaning people hadn’t emptied the garbage yet.
He looked around the lab. There was nothing in the first can but a bag. It was the same with the second. In the third, however, there was a single glove at the bottom stuck in the fold of the bag.
Kyle took the glove out and carefully turned it inside out. He then pulled the glove on his own hand being careful not to touch the tips. It slipped on easily.
Kyle put his gloved hand against the reader and pressed the access button. The reader flashed green and read, “Authorized.” Kyle turned the handle and went in.
***
Teresa and Sonja continued looking around the lab, but there was no sign of Kyle.
“Your brother must be very smart,” said Sonja.
“That’s not what Dad says. He does terrible in school. My dad grounded him for a month when he brought home four ‘F’s’ and a ‘D’ on his report card.”
Sonja was surprised. “How could he figure out how to get into the lab like that?”
Teresa was about to answer when all of the computers suddenly came on at once. The liquid in the tubes began to move and glowed bright green.
“What’s happening?” asked Sonja.
Teresa looked shocked. "It must be Kyle!"
Chapter Two
They ran to the locked door and began pounding on it. "Kyle, are you in there?" they shouted. A sign blinked above the lab that read: “Activation in Progress.”
“Oh my god,” said Teresa. “What has he done?”
There was a loud clicking sound and the girls backed away from the door. It slowly swung open. The door was thick like a bank vault door, at least a foot thick.
Kyle’s head appeared around the corner. His eyes were wide with excitement.
“You guys have to see this!”
“Kyle, you shouldn’t be in there. Get out before Dad finds out.”
"Okay, okay, but you have to see this first!" Kyle responded as he pulled Sonja into the lab. "Come on, Teresa."
Concerned about being left alone, Teresa jumped through the door as it started to close. The girls' mouths dropped open when they saw a dome-topped cylinder encased in glowing green fluid.
“Oh my god!” exclaimed Teresa. “What is it?”
“I don’t know,” said Kyle.
“How did you turn it on?” asked Sonja as she touched the liquid. She noticed it wasn’t actually enclosed in anything. It was just...there. A ripple shimmered through the liquid and it moved counter-clockwise. Sonja pulled her hand back frightened.
“Turn what on?” asked Kyle.
“All the computers. They came on all at once and the fluid started to move through the tubes.”
“I didn’t touch anything,” he said as he put his hands on the gel surrounding the fluid. “Feel it. It’s…cool to the touch. Like…cold Jell-O. Maybe you should taste it, Teresa. Maybe it’s a giant lime Jell-O mold.”
Teresa didn’t respond. She and Sonja were too busy feeling the gel. They were fascinated how it appeared to respond to their touch and shimmered and moved.
As Kyle was exploring the gel he noticed that the air smelled familiar. He thought it smelled like the air after a thunderstorm. As he continued to explore with his hands, he suddenly felt the gel part. It actually opened up to let his hand through.
Teresa and Sonja watched in horror as Kyle disappeared into the cylinder.
“Kyle!” screamed Teresa. “Kyle!”
Kyle emerged two seconds later.
“Now that was weird! If you think it’s strange out here, you should take a look from the inside. There’s some kind of camera setup. It’s really something. Come on. Take a look.”
Kyle disappeared back into the capsule. The girls could just barely make out a shadowy figure inside waving at them.
Sonja pushed her hand into the fluid to test it and found herself inside with Kyle. He was inspecting a camera seated on a tripod in the middle. The capsule wasn’t very large, maybe four feet in diameter.
“What is this?” asked Sonja.
“That’s what I’m trying to figure out. It looks like our dads are trying to videotape something, but I have no clue what they’re doing.”
Teresa popped through the opening. “I'm not staying outside by myself. It's getting noisy out there.”
Kyle suddenly looked concerned. “What do you mean, noisy?”
“It sounded like...music, but not like a song or anything.”
“What did it sound like?”
“Like a hundred violins playing all at once. It was kind of pretty, but getting louder.”
Kyle looked deep in thought for a moment. Then it dawned on him what it might be. “Harmonics.”
“What?” asked Sonja
“We have to get out of here...now!”
Kyle squeezed past Teresa and went to put his hand through the fluid door, but it didn’t part like before. Now it felt solid.
“Uh oh.”
A look of panic flashed across both the girls’ faces as the wall began to move. Slowly at first. Then it began to pick up speed. They could hear the music now. It was like the sound of a hundred violins in perfect harmony.
***
“Okay, Paul, ready for launch. Is the camera set to auto?”
“Yes, David. I set it myself. Launch sequence initiated. Harmonics set to 50%.”
“Once we launch, we better get back and check on the children. If I know my son, he won’t sit still for long. Thanks for letting me know the capsule returned. It was gone, what...twenty days, right?”
“Correct, Dr. David. You really think the image is a dinosaur?”
“Either that, or a zoo with very strange animals. It was hard to tell through the gel. Something was there, that’s for sure. There’s no way to tell how far back it went. It could be anytime. Any time, but not any place. The capsule can’t move. It should be right where it is now, but it emerged somewhere in time.”
“Essentially correct. I guess we’ll never know until we send a human. But we don’t know...we just don’t know if they’ll survive.”
“Let’s go check on the kids. The capsule should be gone by now. Shut the sequence down.”
“Sequence off. Okay, let's go.”
Chapter THREE
Three frightened children watched as the fluid began to spin faster and faster. The music rose in volume and pitch. Kyle yelled above the noise, “Cover your ears and close your eyes!”
The girls did as the older and wiser Kyle suggested. No matter how hard they squeezed their ears though, the sound got through.
It kept climbing and climbing until they didn’t think they could take it any longer. The walls were spinning faster and faster. The green gel shimmered and evaporated into what appeared to be water. It turned light blue and then all of the colors of the rainbow. The colors pulsated up and down. Then everything stopped.
Kyle opened his eyes. The walls were solid again and semi-transparent green. A strange light flashed outside and he thought he heard the distant sound of thunder. The girls were still standing there with their eyes squeezed tight and their fingers stuck in their ears. Kyle tapped Teresa on the shoulder and she slowly took her hands away and opened her eyes. Her teeth were clacking and she was shaking. She reached over and tapped Sonja’s shoulder.
“Are we still alive?” asked Sonja.
Teresa asked, “Where are we?”
“More like, when,” answered Kyle far too calmly.
“When?” asked Teresa.
“I think we just went back in time.”
A noise inside the capsule caused them all to jump. Then the camera came on and began to pivot slowly. Teresa jumped in front of it.
“Dad? Help! We’re here! Can you see us?” she yelled into the camera.
Kyle chided, “Why do you always have to ham it up whenever there’s a camera around?”
“Stop fooling around, Kyle. We’re stuck in here and all you can do is make fun of me.”
“Sorry,” he said as he turned to Sonja. “It’s an addiction, you know. I’ve been to counseling, but I just can’t seem to give it up.”
Sonja couldn’t help but giggle.
“Will you two get serious? Maybe our dads can see us. Dad, help!” Teresa had turned back toward the camera. “We’re in here with Kyle. It’s his fault. You should ground him...”
“For what? A million years? We could be hundreds—even thousands of years in the future...or the past.”
“Don’t say that, Kyle. Stop all this nonsense about time traveling. You’re just trying to scare me. There’s no such thing and you know it.”
Kyle looked at Sonja. “What kind of scientist is your father?"
"He's a quantum physics theorist. I’m not sure what that means, though.”
“I read some books on that. When I heard the sound of the violins and looked at all the fluid starting to move, I thought we might be in some kind of a time machine.”
Teresa asked, “What does the music have to do with time machines? That’s so stupid!”
“Not really, dummy. Scientists think that inside every little particle in the universe there’s a little thread of electricity. These…strings…at least I think that’s what they’re called, are supposed to vibrate like music. Everyone knows that.”
“Not everyone,” said Sonja. She was clearly becoming infatuated with Kyle’s knowledge. “I don’t think very many adults know what string theory is.”
“You mean you know what my dumb brother is talking about?”
“I heard my father talk about it to my mother. She is a physicist, too. But she doesn’t agree with my dad. They have arguments all the time. My mom thinks Einstein’s theory is correct and my dad keeps trying to convince her that you need both theories. I don’t understand much about it. But Kyle may be right.”
“What? We’ve gone back in time? Are you serious?” Teresa started yelling into the camera again. “Dad, help! We’re stuck in here! Get us out!”
“Shhhh,” whispered Kyle. “Listen.”
In the background they could hear a heavy thumping and feel it through the bottom of the capsule.
“Is that…thunder?” asked Teresa.
“That’s not thunder,” said Kyle with a look of fear for the first time that day.
***
Dr. Donavan and Dr. Bashan ran around the lab frantically trying to find the children. When they had gone to the lounge, there was no sign of them. They searched the halls and ran to the cars. They ran back into the building and looked all over the lab. Now they were both standing in front of the empty space where the capsule had been. A shimmering shadow remained in the space, a consequence of the time distortion left by the capsule. It was what allowed it to return and was completely random when it happened. They could send it, but they couldn’t bring it back.
“They could not have gone in the capsule. It is impossible!”
Dr. Donavan, however, knew his son all too well. He had gotten in trouble getting into places he shouldn’t have. Despite Kyle’s grades, Dr. Donavan knew his son had great potential. He just had no idea how to channel all that energy and curiosity. He looked around the floor and found a glove.
“Oh my god, they are in the capsule!”
“What? How could that be? That’s impossible.” Despite his protestations, Dr. Bashan was white as a ghost.
“This glove. It’s inside out.”
“So?”
“I’m guessing Kyle used it to gain access to the capsule. How on earth he got the girls to follow…” As he looked down near the distortion, he too looked pale. There on the floor was half a shoestring. He recognized it as Teresa’s. It was bright pink. The odd thing about it was that only half of the string was visible, while the other half disappeared into the distortion field. Dr. Donovan reached down and tried to pull on it, but it wouldn’t budge. It was almost as if it wasn’t there. He stood back up and looked over at Dr. Bashan. “How long was the capsule gone the last time?”
“Twenty days. What are we going to do?”
“Let’s not panic.”
“Not panic? My wife is going to panic. That means I must panic. We must find a way to get them back.”
“How? We have no control over it. When the harmonics slow down enough, the capsule will slip back. We haven’t a clue how long that’s going to take. We don’t even know where it is.”
“Let's go back and see the tape again. Maybe it will give us more ideas about what it is we saw.”
Chapter FOUR
Kyle squinted through the green gel to get a better look. The thumping sound was so close it caused the capsule to literally jump. Teresa continued her monologue with the camera hoping that somehow her dad might be able to see her. She couldn’t have known it at the time, but it would help.
The thumping stopped. Whatever was out there was standing next to the capsule. All Kyle could see was an immense shadowy blob that appeared to be hovering over the capsule. All became very quiet. Even Teresa stopped talking and listened; her eyes were wide open with fear. Sonja moved next to Kyle. He stepped away.
A rumble of thunder trembled through the ground and the gel shimmered. Then a flash of lightning illuminated the shadow. Kyle gulped as he got a clear look at what was outside. The girls saw the look in Kyle’s eyes and that was enough to scare them. They screamed.
***
Dr. Donavan sat at the computer and watched as the numbers scrolled across the screen. He was trying desperately to pinpoint how similar the harmonics were to the previous trip. He hoped that by doing so he’d be able to calculate when the capsule would come back in time
Time, he thought. We don’t even know what it is and here we are messing around with it. Dr. Donavan wasn’t even sure if they had gone anywhere. Maybe they had simply phased out of existence and back in—kind of like Star Trek’s transporter. The camera had come back in one piece, but compared to a human, a camera was a fairly simple thing.
The numbers stopped scrolling and a figure came up on the screen. It had to be wrong.
***
Dr. Bashan was trying to improve the picture on the film from the camera. There was something there and it appeared to be moving. He thought it was some kind of animal, but nothing came to mind. He rewound the tape and tried adjusting the picture again. It looked to him like the head of an animal. It was only there for a second. He rewound more slowly until the picture froze on the image. Then he adjusted the contrast a little at a time.
Dr. Donavan peeked over his shoulder and the film shuddered.
“Oops. Sorry. I just wanted to see if you were making any progress.”
“I have an image I’m trying to bring into focus. How are you doing with the calculations?”
“Not very well. I’m getting weird numbers. It doesn’t make any sense.”
“Why? When do the numbers indicate the capsule will return?”
Suddenly the picture focused. They stared at it in disbelief.
Dr. Donavan gulped. “Fifty or sixty years from now.”