Destiny's Reunion

[Mikado14]

This particular story was published in the fall of 1978 in the Temple Quarterly Lit.


Destiny's Reunion
©1978 & 2014 Hickory Ridge all rights reserved

There have been many persons driven to obsession. What fuels the obsession is different for every individual, but in some situations, it can be to find answers to an unknown and sometimes, the obsession is the fertilizer for creative genius which then opens paths into new territories.

He grabbed ahold of the door knob and felt the cold metal touch of it as he tightened his grip, turned and pushed the door open. How many times has he done this he wondered as he stepped through the doorway. His nostrils were immediately filled with the scent of ozone, oil, metal turnings and the heat that comes from electronic equipment in operation. A disembodied voice called out startling him into turning abruptly.

"Hi V!" as he responded with a short "Hi". "

"Well today is the big day. Couldn't sleep a wink. Tossed and turned all night long doing mental check lists.", as he paused and asked, "How about you? .....Nervous?". With that said, V's thoughts drifted back to when they first met.

It was his first day at College. He was carrying his bags and books to his dorm room. Mom and Dad were there and were filling the role as bell hops carrying essentials that he would need. After walking two flights of stairs, he recalled walking through the door of his room. With his Mom and Dad flanking him on either side, they all watched this hyper-energetic fellow who was unpacking and putting his clothes in a bureau all at the same time eating a sandwich partially hanging and stuffed into his mouth. When he noticed the trio standing in the doorway, he turned and said "Hi" through a mouthful of sandwich. He introduced himself and immediately there was a problem, they had the same first name. After discussing the situation, the solution was easy. The hyper-energetic fellow would go by J, after his middle initial. The young man accompanied by his Mom and Dad would go by his nickname from High School which was the letter of his last name, Viaggio. One would be J and the other would be V.

Coming back to reality, V responded, "Yeah J...a long time coming". He paused to reflect for a moment, "and a good deal of work and money". With that, the door to the shop opened and V's Mom entered with a tray of coffee and donuts into the shop.

"Well boys, thought you might want a bit of something to munch on before your big moment", as she sat the tray on the nearest horizontal, clean, surface she could find. J wasted no time in finding his way to the tray and as he was devouring his first donut, which he crammed into his mouth, he fervently stirred his coffee. This caused V to comment, "leave a bit of that sugar, will ya?". V's Mom was quick to add "oh yes, don't take it all, V," as she frowned when she used that name for she never did care using the initial of their last name, "has had a sweet tooth since he was a young boy. Should have never left him know where the sugar bowl was". V just gave his mom a smile as he carried a cup of coffee and walked around prepping the machine. With every flip of a switch, a new sound or hum would fill the air.

"Well young man, Freida started dropping eggs in the yard so I asked your Father to pick up a few. I am going to make a cake to celebrate your work. We can have it after supper."

"Mom, aren't you being a bit premature?" replied V, as his Mom turned toward him, "No, I just know you and what the two of you are capable of. Call it a Mother's intuition. All I hope for is that the shop is still here at the end of the day." This prompted J and V to start laughing, nervously, but a laugh none the less.

J waited until V's mom walked out the door, "Whose Freida?".

"She is that big white goose that doesn't like you". And the only words J could muster was "oh, that one." After a pause J responded, "Wait a minute, goose eggs? In a cake?".
"They actually make a better cake. Remember the birthday cake Mom made for you last year?"

"Yeah," as he paused, "well, okay, at least that goose is good for something." And with that the two of them continued working and preparing for their first full run of the equipment.


V was busy at his drafting table feverishly finishing his calculations. He was going back and forth between slide rule and his TI SR10. J was busy tying up all the connections and cables between the different equipment and making the necessary settings and adjustments as V was calling out. After a while, J said, "Well, it's time to start up the big one" and with that, V handed J a series of coordinates and then went outside and fired up his Dad's new John Deere that he had connected to a large generator, a three phase 100KW that his Uncle got for him from Army surplus. As he walked away from the tractor to the shop, he looked at the house and saw his Mom wave to him, he gave a mechanical wave in return.

V entered the shop and saw J balancing the load and charging the large bank of capacitors. As V approached him he turned and said "Are you sure you want to do this?"

"Yes, I have to change what happened. I have to save her." J looked at his friend and stared deep into his eyes. He saw the determination and the pain of loss and the anxiety that loss was having on his friend. "Okay V, we both worked for this and I am with you all the way".

They both took up their positions. J started the build up for discharge which created a distinct hum and there were times he would swear that when they tested the output device, he could see the coils and the capacitors move with a shimmer.

V stood at the portal opening and waited. He heard his Dad's tractor working hard outside the building and struggling to create the power necessary for the portal. He found his mind redoing the calculations, and second guessing himself and his thoughts were broken by J calling out the countdown.

"5, 4, 3, 2, 1...engaging the bank", with that, a large crack was heard and a dark hole appeared for a moment and V briefly saw a woods and then it disappeared.

"J, we need to change the discharge rate, it only opened for a moment" as J was throwing the necessary switches to change the rate as the bank was building back up and the tractor was rumbling hard to keep up, he set up for the second set of coordinates.

J called out the count again and engaged the bank, with a large crack again, the dark hole appeared and this time he saw the boy at the rampart of the covered bridge and though it lasted a brief moment longer, it disappeared.

"J, increase the discharge from the bank a bit more." J began the charge cycle again along with the next set of coordinates and within a short while he called out the count. As the dark hole appeared in the portal, V briefly saw the boy and his dog on the road below the ridge but the image didn't stay.

"J we need to increase the level of discharge, it isn't holding" and J promptly complied and increased the amount of charge to the bank and reset the coordinates. He called out the count again and this time, V was ready. He positioned himself at the portal and waited. It was an eternity it seemed. He heard the whine of the generator and the struggling tractor to keep up with the demand. He noticed the flourescent lighting tubes starting to swirl and knew the power drain was bringing the line voltage down and he wondered what the power company would say and then he was brought back to reality as he heard J counting down and hollering over the din, "engaging the bank".

When it engaged, a black spot appeard and for a brief moment he saw the dam with a boy and dog and then as if a lightning bolt was released from the heavens, a discharge occurred and it struck the dam and the portal closed. The last image he saw was the boy and dog being thrown back from the blast.

V stood in disbelief, he thought to himself, "but that's not what happened." He just caused a discharge on the dam and might possibly have harmed the boy and the dog. He felt anger at himself swelling within but he also knew what he had to do.

J looked at V and as he slowly turned he asked if he should recharge. He looked at his old college roommate and said "No, I have to recalculate". He walked to his table and immediately started his calculations. This time, he had to. He knew what had to be done. It was as if the discharge created the knowledge he needed. He was going about it wrong, the imbalance between the two dimensions needed to be brought together in harmony. He wasn't considering the state of charge on the other side of the portal. J left the room and went over to the farmhouse.



After an hour went by, J walked back into the shop and V was just finishing up. "Okay, this is what we need to do". J listened as V outlined the plan to recalibrate and adjust for a higher voltage for the electrostatic discharge that would open the portal. They needed to balance the frequency of where they were to where they were going and create and keep a standing wave between the two points in time. They needed to create the standing wave before the discharge that would open the portal. This would be accomplished between the departure and the destination portals that stood 3 feet apart and made up the complete portal.

V handed the coordinates from his computations to J. As J began the task of calibrating the equipment, V went out to increase the RPM's of the tractor. He increased the tractor to red line and the surplus generators main bearings were protesting. He checked the oil caps on the mains and made sure they were full, he felt the generator looking for hot spots but it was uniform and as if it were a cognizant being he said, "I need you to hold together for just a little longer girl...just a little bit".

As he walked back to the door of the shop he saw his Mom coming towards him. He entered the shop with his Mom not too far behind him.

"J, we have been doing this wrong. The discharge needs to be slower and we need to increase the voltage. I increased the tractor's rpm, we should have a higher voltage, as much as we are going to get". J responded, " I can see that, I am almost done the calibration, give me about two minutes and you better hope your Dad's new tractor doesn't give up the ghost."

V continued, "Once the standing wave is established, we will use a bit of brute force to open the portal with the higher voltage. After the portal opens and I go through, I need you to power down and then reopen the portal." He handed J a second piece of paper. "Here are the changes for the coordinates for the reopening. It should make it about 90 seconds or so on the other side for it to open but don't rush yourself. I don't care if it takes you an hour. Double check the equipment and make sure the generator is not over heating. If you have to, power down and wait for it to cool down. Just use the second set of coodinates. J responded and repeated,"Okay, as soon as your through, I will shut down and check the equipment and the generator. I will reset the coordinates and open the portal. Remember to get back to the portal in time, I don't know how long it will stay and I can't do another set of coordinates, that is your job. I don't want to lose you and I don't want to have to explain this to your Mom" as he turned and winked at her.

"You will do fine. You have all the time you need."

V went over to the output device and was looking at the bank of capacitors and coils. He thought about the years of study he did. The countless grants he obtained. He looked at the two giant stainless steel rings with coils and thought about it's resemblance to a giant donut garnished with bright copper coils wrapped around it and spaced apart like the numbers on a clock. They stood ten feet tall and were partially sunk into the floor of the shop. His thoughts then drifted to a day as a child and how it started out as nothing more than to go fishing and then he was brought back to reality with J shouting out the count.

V turned and looked at his Mom and said, "It's okay Mom, I am going to fix something I just did that happened a long time ago". She looked at him with a question on her face, a touch of perplexity but her eyes expressed the love that only a Mom could have as she looked at her son knowing that she trusted him to do the right thing.

"Standing wave is established and stable...engaging the bank in 3, 2, 1,", shouted J. The flourescent lights began their swirling dance and the tractor could be heard protesting the load. The smell of ozone permeated the shop as J watched the hair on his arms standing straight up as he stared at the portal with V in front of it with his hair standing straight.

V watched as the dark spot appeared and he saw a young boy and dog lying down on a dam with the dog on top of the boy. J and V's Mom watched as he stepped through the opening and walked towards the dam. With that, the portal closed. V's Mom turned to J and asked, "Was that Rory....my Rory on the Dam with his dog?" J just looked at her not knowing what to say.

V walked up to the boy who was lying on the dam. The boy had rolled out from under the dog and was alongside her. His shadow covered the boy and dog as he stooped down and the dog licked his hand.

"Been a long time Venus, how you been Girl?", with that, the boy asked, "Who are you?"

"I am a friend. I knew you were going to have a problem so I came to help you."

Girl tried to get up but couldn't. The stranger slowly picked her up and cradled her in his arms as she laid her head against his chest.

Rory protested, "You can't take my dog!"

"Don't worry, she needs help and I am going to give it to her. You want her to get well, don't you?"

"Of course I do. That is a stupid question."

"Well, you don't worry about it. She will be fine and you will see her someday again. I promise."

"Who are you? What do I tell my parents?"

"Just tell them she ran away after some animal."

"They won't believe that. They know how protective she is."

"I told you, don't worry, you will see her again, in time, just be patient."

V turned as a hole appeared, it looked as if someone took an eraser and erased reality and as he walked toward the hole, Girl licked his cheek and he said, "I have waited for this day for a long time Girl." He then stepped through the hole.


J checked the equipment and ensured that the generator was not over heating and the equipment as well. He cut the generator into the capacitor banks and began setting up to open the portal. V's Mom just sat on a stool patiently watching J at work. She asked him where Rory went. All J said was to fix something that happened a long time ago and that she needed to trust him and Rory. J sat down at his console and began calibrating the frequencies for the portal. He called out to Rory's Mom all he was doing and told her to watch the portal. He established a stable standing wave and engaged the bank as the two watched the portal open.

They both saw Rory on the dam and watched as he turned from the boy and started walking toward the portal with his dog in his arms. They saw the dam with the boy standing on it and screaming at Rory even though they couldn't hear him through the portal. Rory's mom stood there and saw her son, as a boy on the dam and as a young man walking toward the portal and tears began to stream down her face as she raised her hands to cover her mouth. As Rory stepped through the portal and into the shop, he saw his Mom staring in wide eyed amazement mixed with bewilderment through watery eyes.

"Rory?.... How?.... Is that Venus?" and all he said was, "yes, it is and she needs a vet. I'll explain later."

J came over to V and petted the dog that was cradled in his arms and said, "Hi Girl, pleased to meet you. I've heard so much about you and couldn't wait to meet ya." J looked at his friend and said, "You did it.", as he continued to stroke Girls head, Rory said, "No J, we did it." With that, Rory turned to his Mom and said, "Let's go."

As his Mom drove the old Chrysler station wagon, he sat and held his girl after 20 years. As he petted her and looked into her butter cream eyes he thought about his obsession to save her and to change what happened along with the realization, it was his actions that created the events, so very long ago, that day on the dam.

He petted Girls head as she wagged her tail.

Obsession can be fueled by many things. Sometimes, what appears to others as obsession is nothing more than love, or perhaps loyalty. The love a boy had for his dog and the loyalty he had to her. Sometimes, that is the force that leads to new roads and the creativity needed to construct them.

[Mikado14]

In case no one is aware, this is a sequel to another story I wrote. While I was writing the first one, I came up with the idea that the story begged for another one but from the perspective of the Watcher. That is what gave me the ending to the Watcher. I suppose that wouldn't be a sequel as much as a parallel story line. I have always been fascinated with time travel my entire life and as others, I am sure, have wondered if those events that create our impetus to follow a path are truly our own creations but what if, the paths we choose are due to an act we did in the future that affected our past?

I am sure this is an idea that has been explored in other works of literature but then there are so many variations of the topic that are still being written. Well, this was my variation of the subject from 1978. I remember when the editor sent it back with the corrections he wanted. He wrote a separate note saying how it didn't dawn on him that it was a continuation from a previous story until he read about that "damn" dam.

Mikado

[re-rose]

I like the way you inhabit your characters, Mikado. Excellent plot twist on a dog and his boy love story!

rose

[Mikado14]

I like the way you inhabit your characters, Mikado. Excellent plot twist on a dog and his boy love story!

rose

Thank You, yours is the one compliment I respect the most that I have ever received.

The dog's name is from my own dog at the time. Her name was Venus and I called her Hot Dog, a long story how that came to be. She was the first dog I ever called my own. She went every where with me to the point that everyone was worried that she wouldn't learn to walk for I carried her as a pup (fear of here being a puppy and running off). She was my shadow. I could walk anywhere with her and she would stay by my side and she never left even once or twice being enticed by another dog, she would always stay by my side. It was the bond we had that was the story behind the story.

I lost her to cancer in a matter of three days. I was devastated. It was a pain I never experienced before. It took two years until I got another dog, her name was Lady and I called her girl as I did my other girl. I rescued her from a pound when she was about 10 months old. To this day, I swear, she was Venus reincarnated. I never had to train her, she just knew.

I miss them both, very much.

Again, thanks...

Mikado

PS: I find it easier to write in the first person as an extension of myself....but then you know me a bit and you just gave it away! I feel one can put more realism into a story when they use personal experience of the everyday things. The John Deere Tractor mentioned was something from the farm as an example. The TI SR10 was the calculator I had in college and loved it, simple and fast. The capacitor bank was something I was building at the time for my experiments with the discs, it was the jumping with the surge of this capacitors that steered me into the path I chose at that time.

[LuisP]

Been busy, lately... that time of year to all those who prey on other peoples loose change.

Anyways,
Saw a movie a couple days ago which seems rather apt to mention here, inside this story of yours Mikado. If you sail the Net as a pirate, it will be easy to check. Brilliant job by Ethan Hawke and Sarah Snook.


Name of "Predestination".


Very scary....time travel wise.
Do we really want to mess with this stuff ?

[Mikado14]

Interesting Luis. "Predestination", never heard of the film so I looked it up.....ahhhhhhh...."All you Zombies" by Heinlein. He did several "time travel" stories and the Temporal Corps.

Does a paradox occur and if it does, will it change the time line or will a new timeline be created to null out the paradox? Are time paradoxes even possible? Would the universe allow it?

What if the only way the universe allows time travel is under certain conditions? ...and that is another story I wrote many moons ago. Maybe I will put that one up.

To answer your question, "do we really want to mess with that?".....I don't know, perhaps it is a question that no man can answer. But what if, it was possible to create and perform a physical time travel whereas the body you are in can be transported back in time? Ask yourself if you were offered the trip, would you go to a place or time of your choice?

Forget about going back to see the pyramids, how about something personal? Like going back to see a relative, like your grandfather, when he was a young man or a child? Or to see him get married? ...or...if he passed at a young age, alone due to an accident...would you want to go back to be with him? to take a photo and show him how his children grew up and carried on?....would you hold his hand while he passed? would you tell him...that he was loved and will be continued to be loved?

I hope I didn't cross a line with that example.

Mikado

[LuisP]

You didn’t cross any line, Mikado. Quite the opposite, in fact. For I think I understand where you come from with what you wrote. So, Thanks, even, really.

Yes, the movie is based on a Heinlein’s short story, something which I only became familiar with after viewing it and found very interesting for my, literarily speaking, eclectic father, is a huge fan of both him and Isaac Asimov. Some of the first “serious” books that I read in English were lent from him and, go figure, of both these authors. Never came across this one, though, and its title is bizarre for “zombies” drives me immediately into present day horrendous diarrhea of unwatchable “Z” movies and TV series, but the movie has not a thing to do about that stupid subject.

It is a Sci-Fi film, but it is about that subject as much as “The Thin Red Line” is about war. If strictly on subject, I would mention “Inception” or “Gravity” regarding the former and “Das Boot” or “Apocalypse Now” regarding the latter.
Predestination, as Heinlein’s story was aptly named and adapted into film, I found a simply fascinating movie. Very thought provoking. You could almost say shakespeareanly freudian in its human drama, if that's not too much of a mouthful to say.

Driven by the time travel thing, the paradox(es) it exploits and force one to think to the point, maybe, of forcing one to make a Choice, once that thinking is done.

I found your “story” incredibly, well - shall I say, suited - to the underlying theme of the movie.

You ought to watch it, I think. Because, yes, I would - on first thought – give anything to be able and go back to some situations (my Grandfather’s being one, among others) but after second and third thoughts, I concluded I would not. Want to, I mean.

I am no scientist. Perhaps parallel “futures” can be enabled if ever such a traveling is possible, but then again, perhaps not. And if not, a very strange kind of Horror can be set loose by such a possibility.

As someone already pointed out, “God doesn’t play dice”, and I, for one, would not sit at a table with a Game set with such odds.
Because I’m in theological awe of Him ? No, not that, for I truly believe we are not here to breed, wither and die, generation after unending generations, just for His Adoration and Rapture until Deliverance, but that a Meaning exists and a Will set us on this course for everything around us speaks loudly of a Unifying intent far beyond Dice and Chance … and precisely because not even “Him” dared deprive us of Free Will and of its Consequences, for the better and the worse of that condition.

Meaning, you reap what you sow plus what you are willing or unwilling to harvest, and that’s exactly how it should be !

On penalty of everything being possible, and therefore nothing having meaning.
Which would be a particular definition of Hell, as some call it, or of Unconsciousness, as others prefer to.

Just my $0.02.

[re-rose]

I like the way you inhabit your characters, Mikado. Excellent plot twist on a dog and his boy love story!

rose

Thank You, yours is the one compliment I respect the most that I have ever received.

Mikado

It is sincerely meant. Crafting a good story and telling it well is not an easy task.

PS: I feel one can put more realism into a story when they use personal experience of the everyday things.

But almost all fiction writers know that Zone when the characters seem to write themselves. At that point, I think it is a question as to who or what is using whom...I believe that Stephen King also views the act of writing as taking dictation from the future. Did you just mention that elsewhere?

rose