Black to the Past

Chapter 26

The next day Jalen was confused to find himself alone in eighth period. He'd done so much research and wanted to share what he knew with the group. In particular, he wanted to impress Meredith. She'd pulled together a lot of research so he wanted to show her he could too. What he'd found to be of the utmost interest was how Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. became a preacher in the first place. But he couldn't share anything with the group gone!
    Mrs. Hansen came back to where he sat. She sat in the seat next to him.
    "This is between you and me, Jalen. Your friends are all together. There was a terrible accident last night. They are all okay, but they were at the ER last night. Halle's mom is very ill. Her little brothers are too. Wilson and Meredith will be back at school tomorrow. Halle may not return until Friday, or Monday even. Can you handle the research needed for your group?"
    "Yes, I've got a lot already. I'll work on more," Jalen reassured his teacher. "Thanks for telling me."
    Mrs. Hansen patted him on the shoulder as she moved on to get information from the rest of the class to see how they were holding up with their projects.
    Jalen sent a text to Meredith:
    -You okay - Jalen
    -Tired. But okay. Back at the hospital with Halle - Meredith
    -Should I come up after school? - Jalen
    -Probably not. Her grandparents and father are here now. Her aunts and uncles are on their way - Meredith
    -Okay. You coming back to school tomorrow - Jalen
    -Yeah- Meredith
    -okay - Jalen

    He didn't know what else to add. He'd love to be able to tell her he missed her. He wanted to just be with her. See her. But now wasn't the time for that. The best he could do was get the research together and put together their concept idea which was actually Wilson's. He'd text him to see if that was okay for him to do.
    -Wilson, I need to put together our concept for tomorrow. Are we moving forward with the time machine concept?- Jalen
    -Yeah, we might as well. We don't have time to think of anything else-Wilson
    -I did research and guess what? It's possible - Wilson
    -What?!- Jalen
    -I'll explain tomorrow - Wilson

    Jalen couldn't wrap his mind around what it was Wilson was saying. Time-travel, possible? How could that be? There were tablets available for the kids to use for research. Jalen went and grabbed one and started researching. He couldn't find anything concrete. A bunch of ideas, yes, but nothing concrete. He and Michael had been working in Engineering and Robotics since middle school. He needed to talk to Michael to see what it was they had missed that Wilson had found.
    He texted Michael to meet him after school in the school library where Robotics often met.

    After class he rushed down to the library. Michael was there as expected.
    "Man you've got to read this," Jalen said, showing him the text from Wilson.
    "What?!"
    "I know right. How could he have found something that makes it possible that we've never found before?"
    "I don't know. But all I can think of is maybe he's read a theory that makes it possible. Do you know how many people over the decades have tried unsuccessfully to build a time machine," Michael asked.
    "Of course, I do! You know the government has to be working on it all the time," Jalen responded.
    "I could barely sleep thinking about the professor claiming to have a real life time travel machine," Michael confided in Jalen.
    "He didn't say it was a machine though. He just said time travel was possible and that he'd done it before. What if it's not a machine at all? What if we've been thinking about it all wrong. We think of it as a car or machine because of movies and t.v. shows. But what if it's really something else?"
    "Like what," Michael wanted to know.
    "I don't know, bro. But I know I've got to find out what he's talking about."
    "It's risky. But I'm with you," Michael agreed. "Even if you go with Einstein's theory of relativity that the past, present, and future are all right here at the same time; how do you switch back and forth in time?"
    "What if it's more about GPS and space. What if it's that simple?"
    "Do you think satellite has anything to do with it?"
    "I do. Remember when we tried to position a speaker and bounce sound off that satellite. Remember how it rose in the air for three seconds before settling back down. Maybe that's the same concept!"
    "That was crazy exciting. If our teacher hadn't thought we were doing some kind of voodoo we could have continued our research," Michael recalled.
    "Yeah, we should have never stopped," Jalen told him.
    "I know, but we can't have that kind of equipment at home," Michael reminded him.
    "True," Jalen agreed.
    It was times like this that Jalen really remembered why he and Michael were best friends. But best friends was all he wanted to be. He could feel that Michael wanted more but that wasn't what Jalen felt.
    Michael was staring intently at Jalen wondering what it was that Jalen was thinking of at that moment but he didn't want to push. They were back to their old selves and maybe if that's all they could have then he shouldn't try to seek more.
    "So what are you thinking?"
    "I'm definitely going to meet with him on Friday. You too, right," Jalen asked Michael to make sure they were 100% on the same page.
    "Def," Michael agreed.
    Jalen shook his head. 'Def' was something Brooke would have said. Michael oftened picked up lingo from her and copied it. Just one of the many differences they'd experienced since starting high school. But times like this Jalen remembered what they had in common that kept them friends. He wouldn't want to be going through this experience without Mike and was glad Meredith had included him now.

After going home, Jalen was still having a hard time believing that Wilson had researched it and time travel was possible? How could Wilson have found something that he himself had missed after all these years? How he'd longed to create something that could take him back in time. If I could go back, he thought while lying in his XL twin sized bed, I'd change my father's future. I'd set him up for life! Jalen fantasized that he lived on the other side of town with the kids who had money. He'd have a car, a big house, maybe even a pool! He'd have a personal shopper put together his designer clothes. He'd have it all.
    Jalen fell asleep with these thoughts on his mind.