Chapter 1
Twenty-one years had passed, and life moved on.
When Brenda moved Kent to Cambridge in fifty-eight, her dad Robert Coleman, the Dean of the Physics Department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), was able to help land her a job as a secretary on campus.
Brenda was now forty-nine years old and never remarried. She felt Henry would always be her true love and didn’t want another man. Besides she always thought that the wife of an executed murderer wouldn’t make her attractive to any loving and caring man. She was actually fearful of attracting the lousy element.
As far as Kent life, he remained a quiet and withdrawn kid with a few acquaintances. He also didn’t date girls during high school. He figured he wouldn’t want the son of a murderer as a boyfriend. So he shied away from the beauties in his school. But he sure did like this one girl named Kelly who had long silky blonde hair down to the top of her butt. But she didn’t know Kent existed, as she was more interested in the football players.
He kept his hair long to the shoulders, and it was now more of a dirty dishwater color.
After Kent graduated from high school by the skin of his teeth, his grandfather Robert came to the rescue and landed Kent a job as a janitor at MIT.
One of the physics professors at MIT that took a liking to Kent over the past years was seventy-eight year old Linus Bernstein. He was Kent’s only friend. Linus’ specialty at MIT was quantum physics, and when he wasn’t teaching, he was busy in his laboratory working on experiments he concocted. Willard had worked at MIT for the past fifty-four years and was definitely an old fixture on campus.
Since he was a scientist, he also conducted experiments in his barn on his property. He’s been doing this since he repurchased the place in nineteen forty. And of course, Linus looked the part of the kooky scientist with snow-white hair that shot out all over the place since he rarely used a comb.
Kent learned so much about physics from the oddball Linus. But it was this project that Linus told Kent when Kent first started his job as a janitor at MIT that had him curious. Linus called it “His extremely unique project” but would never go into detail about it. “One day, I’ll tell you more about it. One day. I promise,” Linus often told Kent, and that piqued his curiosity.
It was now Saturday, the seventeenth day of October in nineteen eighty-one. This day was Kent’s thirtieth birthday, but he wasn’t excited about turning this age. His daddy was thirty years old when he was executed by the State of Georgia back in nineteen sixty. And his daddy was executed the day after his ninth birthday.
Kent left his apartment in Cambridge and arrived at his mom’s house at four-thirty that Saturday afternoon. She had called him last night to tell him that everybody would be over at her home at five.
It was now five in the evening. All the guests had arrived and that included his grandparents, Uncle Fred, Aunt Betty, and Linus.
After dinner, it was time for Kent to open his presents in the living room.
Kent opened three wrapped boxes from his mom, and she got him three new stylish shirts. “You have to look sharp for dates with a nice girl,” she said after he opened the presents and gave him a wink.
“Thank you, mom,” said Kent, and he gave her a kiss on the cheek. But he trembled inside at the thought of getting the courage to ask a girl out for a date.
Kent opened a present from Uncle Fred and Aunt Betty. It was another stylish shirt. “Thank you, Uncle Fred and Aunt Betty,” he said and gave Aunt Betty a kiss on her cheek and shook Uncle Fred’s hand.
“Another outfit for the young ladies,” said Uncle Fred and gave Kent a wink.
Kent got a little red with embarrassment over everybody’s suggestions of him dating a girl.
“Here’s a present from Grandpa Elmer and Grandma Gale,” said Brenda while she handed Kent another wrapped present.
He opened it up, and it was a sweater for those cold winters in Boston. “I’ll send them a thank you card,” he said.
“Here’s my present,” said Linus while he handed Kent a wrapped gift.
Kent unwrapped Linus’ gift. It was a copy of H.G. Wells The Time Machine book. “I loved reading that book when I was a lad. It made me become fascinated with time travel,” said Linus while Kent flipped through the pages.
“I love time travel stories,” said Kent. “Thank you, Linus. I can’t wait to read it.”
“I remember seeing that movie, The Time Machine, at the theater when it came out in sixty,” said Linus then cringed a little knowing that was a lousy year for Brenda and Kent. “I also remember when you were a lad, and we would watch that Time Tunnel TV show on Friday nights back in sixty-six,” said Linus.
Kent had to think about that for a few seconds. His eyes soon lit up. “I remember that show. I couldn’t wait until the next Friday night to arrive for another episode.” Kent glanced at the cover. “Thank you, Linus.”
“Time travel, the only way to go,” said Linus with a hint of a smirk on his face.
“Again, thank you all for my birthday presents. They’re great,” said Kent.
“Let’s go to the dining room for some cake,” said Agnes.
Everybody left the living room and headed to the dining room for some birthday cake, Agnes baked.
After the cake, everybody retired back to the living room for some coffee and idle chat.
It was now eight that evening, and everybody started to leave.
Kent walked Linus to the front door.
Linus glance around to make sure nobody was within earshot of them. “I need you to come to my place tomorrow.”
“Why?”
“There’s that extremely unique project you need to see,” said Linus and he looked like he was trying to be discreet. “You really need to see it.”
“Extremely unique project. What’s this extremely unique project?” said Kent with a hint of interest.
“Don’t you remember me telling you about that years ago?”
Kent thought about his question for a few seconds. His eyes widened a little. “Ah, yes, I do recall you saying something about that years ago.”
“Good, you really have to see it in person to believe it,” said Linus and gave Kent an excited smile.
“Believe it?” “I don’t understand.”
“Come over at ten tomorrow morning, and it’ll all make sense,” said Linus then he winked at Kent, opened the door and left the house.
Kent closed the front door and didn’t think anything was weird with Linus as he often acted like this. This incredibly unique project probably was something really minor like a mouse being able to drive a model car. But he was still curious.
Kent went into the den to watch television from the Lazy Boy chair. He decided to spend Saturday and Sunday nights with his mom. After all, going back to his lonely apartment on a Saturday night was something he dreaded.
It was now ten that night and Kent’s mom retired to her bedroom, so he decided to watch Fantasy Island on the television.
He was thirty minutes into the show when he started thinking about his daddy. He sure missed him.
Thinking about is daddy sent Kent into the closet of the den and removed his mom’s old family photo album.
Kent was a little nervous about opening up the album when he sat back down in the Lazy Boy chair.
He hesitated for a few seconds but finally decided to open up the album.
The first picture he saw was one of Henry, Brenda, and his Henry’s buddy Grant Bowers who had two drop-dead gorgeous ladies by his side. Henry and Grant were in their Army Military Police Khaki uniforms at a bar outside Fort Devens in Massachusetts during the summer of nineteen forty-nine. They both had the rank of Sergeant at the time. Henry and Brenda had been dating for six months when this picture was taken.
The next picture was Henry and Brenda’s wedding picture taken on November eighth in nineteen fifty.
There was another wedding photo that showed Henry, Brenda, both of his grandparents, Uncle Fred and Aunt Betty and forty-eight year old Linus. Linus’ suit had a bow time, and pants that were high waters made him look like a geek back in the early fifties. And of course, his hair was all over the place from not using a comb.
The next picture was of Kent when he was six months old with Henry and Brenda, two gleaming proud parents. Kent wished he could remember that day in April nineteen fifty-two, but he was way too young. He stared at the page of a couple of other pictures when he was younger than two years old.
He flipped the page.
He smiled at the sight of another picture of Kent when he was five years old. He stood by Henry next to Henry’s nineteen fifty-three Ford police squad car.
Henry was a police officer with the city of Warner Robins, Georgia and wore his police officer’s uniform. Kent even wore a kid’s police officer uniform. “I remember that day,” said Kent with a warm smile. When Kent was a lad, he was always proud of his daddy being a police officer. He wanted to become a police officer but that all changed in nineteen fifty-seven. That was after his father was sentenced to die.
The next picture was at Christmas 1955, and it showed Kent with a Zorro official guitar for kids.
The next picture was taken in the summer of fifty-six. It showed six-year-old Kent and Henry sitting in the living room.
Henry played his nineteen fifty-five J-45 sunburst Gibson Acoustic guitar while Kent played his Zorro official guitar. “I wished I stayed with the guitar,” said Kent while he flipped the page. Playing the guitar wasn’t the same for young Kent after his daddy was executed.
Brenda took the next picture from the kitchen window. It showed Henry and Kent tossing a baseball back and forth in the backyard.
The next page showed Henry with his best buddy Grant Bowers taken in May nineteen fifty-seven. Henry and Grant wore softball uniforms and were standing on a baseball field with two fellow players Chuck Chambers, Andy Malone, and Phillip Smith. In the background was a nineteen fifty-seven Ford T-Bird in the background parked next to a nineteen fifty-one Chevrolet Bel-Air.
Kent smiled at the sight of that picture. He remembered that Bel-Air as being their family car. And of course, he remembered getting a ride in Grant’s T-Bird one day with the top removed.
The rest of the six photos in the album were of Kent growing up with his mom but without his daddy.
Kent put the photo album away back in the closet and spotted retired to his old bedroom.
Once Kent got in bed, he couldn’t sleep. So he got out of bed and headed to his closet and opened it.
Kent reached up on the top shelf and removed a book. It was a book titled The Exploration of Mars and it was a Christmas present from Linus back in nineteen fifty-six.
I loved this book. Recalled Kent while he headed back to his bed with the book. When Kent read this book as a kid, he always wanted to travel in space.
He got back in bed and started reading his old book.
After he read a few pages, he closed his eyes. “I wished I worked for NASA,” he quietly said while he placed his book on the bedside table and started to drift off to sleep.