Free BackTrek by Kelvin Kelley

inaudible.
Silence filled the room, until Phillips spoke up again. “We’re at
magnitude point zero two and falling.” Ted slowly walked over to
the window and looked into inner lab. The machine still spun at a
blinding speed, and all around the opening in the center, blue arcs
of electricity sparked. He stared in disbelief as he suddenly saw a
figure materialize on the other side of the opening, and walk down
the far side of the ramp. Ted watched as the man turned to look
back into the portal. He could clearly see the face now. The man he
saw, was himself.

Chapter 13
     
     
    “Brandon! Get in there and wash your face.”
Tracey yelled out of her bedroom door. She stepped over to the
bureau, and began to brush her hair in the large mirror.
    “I did, mom.” He said, as he ran into her
room. He grinned from ear to ear, as smudges of dirt tried to hide
in his dimples.
    “I didn’t ask you if you’d already washed it,
now did I?”
    “No, mam. But I-”
    “No buts, mister. Get in there and wash your
face.” His smile disappeared, and slowly he let his head hang down.
He turned and walked towards the door.
    “Bella didn’t wash her face!” He said as he
disappeared into the hallway. Tracey exhaled in exasperation.
    “Bella! Come here young lady!” Tracey said as
she sat the brush aside and picked up her jeans from the where she
had laid them on the bed. She stepped into her jeans, and pulled
them up. “Bella Marie!”
    “What?” Bella called from down the hall.
    “Did you wash your face?”
    “No, mam.”
    “Well get in there and get it washed.” Tracey
tucked her shirt in, and reached for her belt.
    “It’s not dirty.” Bella called back.
    “I didn’t ask you if it was dirty, now did
I?”
    “But-”
    “Wash it!”
    “Yes, mam.” Every day it was the same thing.
Tracey couldn’t understand why it was so hard for them to do what
they had been told to do. But she knew if she took just a moment
and thought back twenty-five or so years, she would remember
exactly how it had been when she was growing up. The only problem
was that she never seemed to have a spare moment to think back to
yesterday, much less reminisce about events that were twenty-five
years old.
    “Mommy!” Bella called out. “I can’t.
Brandon’s in the bathroom.”
    “Brandon! Let your sister in the
bathroom.”
    “The door’s open.” He yelled back.
    “But he’s in there.” Bella replied.
    “You can share the sink. Now get in there and
get that face washed.” She grabbed her shoes from the closet.
    “Mommy! Brandon won’t let me have the
washcloth!” Bella called from down the hallway.
    “It’s dirty, Mom! I just washed my face with
it.” He countered innocently.
    “Give her the washcloth, Brandon!” Tracey
demanded.
    “But, Mom-”
    “Now, mister!”
    “Yes, mam.” Another disaster narrowly
averted. Being a mother was more like negotiating for world peace,
she thought. But instead of the demise of the entire world at
stake, one person’s sanity hung in the balance, and more and more
Tracey felt that her’s hung on the wrong side of the fence. She
sighed as she sat down on the bed to put on her shoes and glanced
at the picture that sat on the nightstand. Her heart sank as the
image brought her back to the present, and the fact that Jack
wasn’t there. It was a picture that she had taken two years ago
when they had vacationed in Florida. Jack had decided to build a
giant sand castle, and the kids had provided a lot of help for the
first ten minutes, until they got bored with the actual work
involved, and had decided to amuse themselves in other ways. Jack
had labored for hours, as he piled bucket after bucket of wet sand
onto the giant mound. When he had finally been satisfied with the
chest high height, he had begun to intently sculpt the mound into a
monstrous castle. She had taken the photo as he focused on
carefully creating the details of a stairway. His gaze was intent.
His jaw set. His blue eyes