Further Into The Future!

Chapter 21

"I think I know a way we can disable the fogs inside the cement walls," I said to Jack later that night. I was sitting at their kitchen table reading a newspaper and Jack was pulling a beer out of their recently restocked fridge.

"Oh, really? I hope it's better than my plan," Jack said, twisting off the bottle cap and tossing it into a wastebasket. "Oh wait, I don't have a plan. We're using yours."

"Well, thanks," I said. "I thought I would have to convince you to use it, or that you would at least want to hear about it."

"You're a smart guy, Professor. I trust you."

"I need something for it, though," I said. "I need some materials so I can build something to disable the fogs."

"What kind of materials?" Jack asked. He slid slowly on his socks across the hardwood floor to the couch, where Susan was curled up watching a movie, with a bag of cinnamon popcorn. Her body was lit with blue, red, then green, then white light as the image on the wall changed. Loud rock music was blaring, which I tried to ignore.

"I need wires, some kind of speaker, and a battery."

"Well sure, we can get you all that stuff, easily," he said.

"The only problem is that I don't know how to build it with 21st-century materials. I can only make it with 20th-century wiring."

"Hmm," Jack said. He twirled around on his socks like a ballerina and lowered himself into the seat next to Susan. "I'm going to get Dan. He's the tech expert in this apartment."

He cupped his hand next to his mouth. "Dan! Get over here! The Professor needs your help!"

I heard some movement in the bedroom, and before long Dan wandered out, wearing baggy cotton clothes slightly more wrinkled than usual. He was yawning and rubbing his eyes.

"What's up, Professor?" he asked.

"Jack said to ask you about getting old 20th-century wiring so I can built a machine to subdue the fogs," I said.

I was embarrassed at having woken him up, but Dan didn't seem to mind. As usual, his shoulders were slumped and his eyebrows slightly raised good-naturedly.

He caressed his nearly bearded chin with his chubby hand. "Hmm, I'm thinking of the best place to buy something like that. I know there are places, but I can't remember where."

He snapped his fingers. "I know, we have some right in this apartment."

He walked past the table into the kitchen and got down on his hands and knees. He opened a cupboard next to the refrigerator and started rummaging through it, throwing pots and pans everywhere on the floor.

"I know it's here somewhere," he said.

"Dan, what the hell are you doing over there? We're trying to watch a movie!" Jack yelled. "Man, I haven't heard you make this much noise since the last Assumption Day Parade."

Susan whispered something to him. She was probably telling him to calm down.

"Damn, it isn't here," Dan said.

He closed the cupboard, leaving the pots scattered on the floor, and opened the adjacent one.

"Here it is!" he yelled immediately. When he stood up he was holding a black plastic telephone covered in dust.

"That's from the twentieth century?" I asked. It looked futuristic to me.

"Yeah, it's an antique telephone," Dan said. "They were popular as hell a few years ago but they're really lame these days. There was this Internet company that sold them really cheap. They sent you one from a random year between 1970 and 2010. This one is from 1997."

The phone was rectangular with rounded corners. There were grey, square buttons for all the numbers on a rotary, and many other buttons I didn't know the function of. The receiver was connected to its base by a long, curly cord. Next to the receiver was a grey screen, and next to that was written "PANASONIC" and "Caller ID!" in gold ink.

"Fascinating," I said as I turned it over in my hands. "But it was made almost fifty years after 1949. Will I be unfamiliar with the wiring?"

Dan shook his head. "Naw, I don't think electronics changed much between your time and 1997. It shouldn't be a problem. But if it is get me and I'll help you out."

"Fantastic. Thank you."

He ambled back to the bedroom while adjusting the elastic band of his shorts. The movie Jack and Susan were watching went through a particularly loud action sequence as he closed the door. I leaned so I could see what was on the screen; a man had jumped from the roof of one building to another on his motorcycle, a beautiful blonde woman holding on behind him.

I sat down at the kitchen table and laid the phone in front of me. There were no screws holding it together; I tried to pry apart the plastic with my hands, but it was held together strongly. I grabbed a knife from one of the drawers in the kitchen and wedged it in the crevice between the top and bottom half of the phone, and used it to pry them apart.

The plastic broke open abruptly. Part of the top broke off loudly and veered toward the wall like a Japanese kamikaze pilot.

"Jesus, what the hell are you guys doing in there?" Jack yelled.

"Be quiet, Jack, watch the movie," Susan said.

The inside of the telephone was delightfully familiar to me. The wires looked like they could have come from my time. The battery was slightly different than any I had seen but after looking it over I thought I could figure it out.

The only wholly unfamiliar object in the phone was a piece of green plastic with other little plateaus of plastic attached to it, and metal circuits connecting them all. I decided I would ask Dan about it later, detached it, and set it aside.

I pried apart the receiver the same way I did the base, and was relieved to find a recognizable speaker.

I snipped the wire off the speaker, pulled out the battery and its case, and cut off sections of wire. I set these next to each other on the table and drew the plans for my newest invention in my head.

"What are you making over there, Professor?" Susan asked.

"You'll see in two days," I replied.