8

  Brad

  Susie, Cody, Christian and I gathered outside the lake at a little past sunset.

  “You got the watches?” Cody asked me.

  I reached into my pocket and pulled out two electric stop watches, “Hey, this is just like that scene in Back to The Future. You know, the first time the send the DeLorean. What exactly are we looking for again?” I asked.

  “Time Dilation,” Christian said.

  “That’s a made-up word,” Susie rolled her eyes.

  “Well, what would you call it?” Christian asked, “From my own experience, time works different in that world, I’ll take the watch in, when I come out, we’ll compare the amount of time that passed and then figure out exactly how time over there works,” he said.

  “You said it felt like just over a week when you were over their last weekend,” Susie said, “If a week is roughly two and a half days here, can’t you just multiply it out?” she asked.

  “I thought about that, but we don’t know if the amount of time that passes over there is liner, like you suggested, or if it’s exponential, like more time there means even more time here, like one hour here could be just an hour and a half there, but ten hours could be an entire day, if that makes sense,” Christian said.

  “It’s funny, we actually found a real-world application for pre-calculus,” I said.

  “This is the furthest thing from a real-world application that I could possibly imagine,” Susie said, looking over her shoulder as the sun finished crossing the horizon as the moon was making its way to the center of the sky. “Are you sure no one is coming?” she said as she started to pace back and forth, worried.

  “Why do you think every party worth its salt comes here, this farm is abandoned, the soil has been dead for years,” Cody said, “The Freeman family has been trying to sell it for a while, this place is likely going to be a strip mall in a few years,” Cody said as I tossed him a watch. He tossed it back to me, “No, I’m going in too,” he said.

  “What?” Christian asked as I tossed him his watch.

  “Yeah, I want to see this place again too,” Cody said, “Who knows how many times we’ll have a chance to go there,” he smiled. Cody later confided in me that he went with Christian to make sure he didn’t get distracted by some other adventure or some such nonsense and leave us hanging there for longer than the hour we agreed too, at least an hour over there.

  The plan was simple, first Cody and Christian would enter the world and allow an hour to pass. Then they would come out and we would compare the amount of time different between his watch and ours. Then we would repeat the experiment with them leaving for two hours. Using the two points of data we would use all that knowledge that Ms. Raymond had been trying to drill into our brains to determine if passage of time happened, as Christian said, on a linear rate, or at an exponential one.

  “If Christian is right about the time dilation-”

  “Not a real word,” Susie said, interrupting Cody.

  “About the time difference,” he said, shrugging Susie off, “We get this down, that means we can figure out how much time we can spend in this world without it affecting our lives here,” Cody said.

  “Wait, what do you mean how much time we can spend in that world? Why would we ever want to go back, why are we even here?” Susie asked.

  “Show her the coin” Cody said.

  Christian nodded, reached into his pocket, “We go to that world, and we can get these,” he handed the coin to Susie.

  Susie turned it around in her hand, inspecting it, “What is this supposed to be, it’s a coin, what’s the big deal,” she said.

  “Do you feel how heavy it is?” Christian asked, “This is gold. It’s solid gold, and they’re everywhere in that world. You’re holding about two thousand dollars cash right now, and I have eight of these after just a week in that world,” he said.

  Susie turned to Cody, “No, no, no,” she said.

  “Susie, it’s pretty alluring, you have to admit,” Cody said.

  “You’re saying we should dive into this crazy world just to…just to make money?” she asked, “How would you even sell these things,” she said, “These markings aren’t exactly an eagle or the statue of liberty, they’re not even the twin towers,” she handed the coin back to Christian.

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  “I’m working on that,” Christian said, “I’ve even looked into getting a smelter, they’re not that expensive, apparently there’s a whole hobbyist community about gold coins,” he shrugged, “Also, gold is gold, and there’s a lot of gold to be made, and I think if we head into this world, do some odd jobs, have some fun, we can make a lot of gold, think of college,” Christian said.

  Susie was always the most reluctant about heading into the other world. Christian was able to make arguments to all of us eventually, even Susie. A well thought out explanation, coupled with the straight up fun we had, along with the promise and delivered reward of gold, even Susie came around eventually.

  “Okay, so let’s get this done,” she rolled her eyes, “I don’t even know why I’m here,” Susie said, taking a seat on a stump by the edge of the lake, “Go on and do your little experiment,” she crossed her arms and huffed, “You said those coins are worth two grand,” she said, not wanting to admit how interested she was in the idea of making that kind of money.

  “Two grand is market price, they’re all about an ounce, of course selling them may take a little more effort, like I said I’ve been working on the logistics of it,” Christian said, “But yeah, the rough value of a coin is about two thousand dollars,” Christian said as he took a deep breath and turned to the lake. His eyes locked on it. I could tell right then and there that he wanted nothing more than to jump in that lake and, maybe, never come back. It was a good thing that Cody was going with him. It was a good thing that we went with him on most of his adventures Somewhere Else. Cody told me that Christian needed us with him, needed people to keep him grounded, keep him from getting too wrapped up in that world. Cody could see early on that there was always a reason to worry about Christian going native.

  Cody came up to Christian and put a hand on his shoulder, “All right buddy, remember that this is for science,” he said, “We spend an hour, then we spend two hours, no adventures, don’t want to be too far from the lake, unless you know of any other gateways?” he looked to Christian, “You don’t know about any other gateways, do you?” he asked.

  “No, just the lake,” Christian said, “It’s only about a fifteen-minute walk to the closest village, I could show you around, show you what the people in that world are like. They’re really great, and they love meeting newcomers,” he smiled.

  I watched Cody debate for a second, “Okay, I guess we’ll need something to do to pass the time,” he nodded, “We just go to the village, but don’t think we’re going to take a job, just show me around. I figure it probably is a good idea that we start to learn more about this world,” he turned to Susie, “Just going to say hi to the locals,” he said trying to preemptively address her concerns, “Just saying hi, we’ll be back in an hour, hell, less than an hour if what Christian says about the time difference is true, you guys going to be okay here? It shouldn’t be that long,” he said.

  Susie stood up, “I’m giving you guys an hour, if what Christian says is true, you’ll be here in less than an hour, so after an hour you’re on your own,” she said.

  “Less than an hour, I swear, that’s how time works over there, right Christian?” Cody turned to him and asked.

  “I mean, that’s how it worked for me, I would say I was there probably a week, and it was day when I entered, but I entered during the day here, and the first time we went in it was night here, but day there, so the timing is probably way off between the two worlds,” he said.

  Susie took a deep breath, “I still don’t think this is a good idea, I don’t think we should ever go back there again,” Susie said, “We should just write this off, never return, it sounds dangerous,” she said.

  “You haven’t seen what I’ve seen of that world, this place is amazing,” Christian said, “I can’t imagine ever wanting to be somewhere else, trust me, this place is great, and it’s safe,” he said, “I’ve spent time in this world, trust me, Susie, it’s not a dangerous place, it’s a fairy tale,” he said.

  “What?” she asked.

  “It’s a fairy tale, it’s a world that makes sense, a world that doesn’t judge you, that accepts you,” Christian looked down for a moment, and then collected himself, smiling a nervous smile, “And after all, just think of the gold,” he said, laughing nervously.

  We had all learned eventually, that gold was the furthest thing from Christian’s mind when it came to reasons to go to that world. I’ll let Cody fill you in about what he was shown in that second trip, it’s better he explains it, he was there.

  “Okay, see you in less than an hour,” Cody said, tapping Christian’s shoulder, “Let’s get it done man,” he said.

  “Yeah, yeah, less than an hour,” Christian said as he turned from Cody and put his eyes on the lake, “I’m ready, are you?” he asked.

  “Yeah, I’m ready, hit the watch as we jump in,” Cody turned to me, “These are waterproof right?” he asked.

  “They’re Sportsguards, high quality, can work in the rain, my dad has like seven of these,” I said, I turned to Susie, “It’ll be less than an hour, I’m sure,” I told her.

  “You two better be right, because if an hour passes, and I’ll know if an hour passes, I’m gone I’m done and I’m never coming back,” Susie walked up to Cody and put two fingers to his chest, “You better come back, you hear me,” she said.

  Susie and Cody always carried that will they/wont they tension. I had known Cody was interested in Susie since the beginning of Sophomore year. He came up to me one day telling me about that bombshell redhead in his homeroom class. Of course, there were other girls, and he confided in me that Susie somewhat intimidated him. It’s not like she was Heather Ross or Clarissa Tommen, it’s not like she was the kind of girl that would intimidate any guy at school, but Cody always said she was different. He always thought it would take a lot of effort, and a lot of luck on his part to have a chance with her. Unfortunately, or fortunately for him, all the time trying to get to know Susie had led them to becoming close friends. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying Cody was a victim of the friendzone, no one’s a victim of the friendzone, that’s just an excuse guys with an even worse disposition and social skills then Christian blame their lack of aptitude with women with. Cody had dated a few other girls as the years passed. In my opinion more than a few of them even more attractive than Susie though he never had anything serious with one of them. But he always had a thing for Susie, leave it to adventures in another world to be the thing that finally brought the two of them together. That happened later though, right now I’m just standing at the edge of a lake, watching my best friend and that weird kid from my history class jump into a lake and fall through a portal to an alternate dimension. I got to say, that’s one hell of a Friday night. As soon as they broke water, I jammed my thumb on the stopwatch and, along with Susie, waited with bated breath for their return.