Many Moons

People Get Ready

By the time we got back to Faruk's house it was after midnight but there seemed to be more cars out on the road than there had been earlier in the day. They were reckless, like moths driven frantic by the light of the moon.

If Faruk was surprised to see my parents he didn't show it, and assisted my father and mother into the downstairs guest room as if he had been expecting them. He moved efficiently between the kitchen and the room down the hall, bringing a pitcher of water, plastic cups, tissues, and other sundries.

My father said "Thank you" so many times that finally Faruk took him aside and in his refined Indian-British accent said, "Please, sir, you are guests in my house."

My father, exhausted and overwhelmed, simply nodded and slumped into the chair next to the bed where my mother continued sleeping. She had only woken up twice during the drive over, to stare at the moon and to look around at us. She hadn't said a word, and went back to sleep both times.

"Some people were here. They took your things." He told me quietly when he closed the bedroom door.

"I figured." I said, nodding. "I'm sorry."

He shrugged and said, "I'm okay. They didn't take my things." He walked back into the kitchen to help Mona with the coffee she was making.

The garage wasn't as much of a mess as I would have expected after a ransacking by the federal government. The workbench was cleared of just about everything I had been working on recently and a few of my customer's games were missing, including Hungry, Hungry Hippo.

My bed was a mess but I couldn't remember if I had left it that way or not.

My tools were there. The metal racks of parts were mostly there. Curiously, they had left the biggest thing in the room. I laughed when I saw it, given the conversation we had over at Lanny's house.

Along the far wall a beige canvas drop cloth covered an eight foot tall, circular display. I moved a small, heavy box off the top of the tarp. Inside were a series of silver rings set in blue velvet-covered cardboard, stacked on top of one another in layers.

Something about the box seemed important, but I couldn't work out how a box full of rings could be relevant so I set it on a nearby shelf.

I pulled back the canvas to see that the device had been untouched. Maybe it had been too big for the FBI to move. Maybe it was because it looked like something out of the movie Stargate as imagined by Fisher Price.

What I had constructed was a large circular portal lined with oscillators, wave generators, baby monitors, speakers and soft Styrofoam.

I had designed it three years ago using hundreds of spares parts and for one specific reason. But it had never worked.

I started to think about how the metal frame could be re-purposed to hold a flywheel, which would be useful for creating electricity if we needed to, down the road.

Mona walked in with a full coffee mug.

"It might actually be cleaner in here, now." She said, inspecting the garage space.

"I can't believe they left this." I said, indicating the large display.

"Me either. What is it? I know you told me before but I can't remember."

"It makes portals." I said, smiling.

"Oh. Wait... what?"