Fook by Brian Drinkwater Page B

confirmed the time
at the top of the screen.
    “My watch is off by twenty seconds. Give me
a second."
    Fiddling with the small buttons on the side
of the cheap timepiece, Jason synchronized the time with that
displayed on the iPad’s screen.
    Suddenly, a quiet rustling noise drew their
attention to the tower of boxes along the opposite wall.
    “What was that?” Derek questioned.
    “I don’ know.”
    They continued to stare at the motionless
cardboard tower.
    “Go check it out,” Derek waved Jason toward
the noise.
    “Me? Why don’t you go?” Jason retorted.
    Before Derek had a chance to answer however,
a large rat emerged from behind the boxes and began chewing on the
cardboard, apparently unfazed by his guests.
    Letting out a sigh, they both returned their
attention to the task at hand.
    “Okay, here,” Jason spoke as he handed Derek
two, small silver orbs, connected by a pair of thin wires that ran
from the briefcase and tied in at the machine’s core.
    Squeezing the small silver balls in each of
his hands he watched as Jason withdrew two more silver orbs, also
loosely squeezing them in each hand.
    “You ready for this?” Jason questioned.
    Derek just stared nervously. Before that
moment he’d seriously doubted the likeliness of success but now,
standing beside his determined and confident friend he began to
question his previous doubt. Jason wasn’t an idiot. He wasn’t a fan
of sci-fi. He didn’t believe in the supernatural and he didn’t
attempt anything unless he was one-hundred percent certain that it
would work. As impossible as the thought of time travel was, maybe
Jason really had found a way to make it work.
    “Take a step back,” Jason instructed as he
and Derek moved one large step away from the machine.
    “Quivering jello, right?” Derek joked, this
time a result of nerves as opposed to humor.
    “Here we go,” Jason announced as he slowly
depressed the small red button on the tiny orb in his right
hand.
    Closing his eyes, Derek waited for a swoosh
of wind or a loud electrical snap as the machine activated, linking
them to their recent past but no such noise came. No wind whipped
through the dungeon like space and no electrical disturbance licked
at the moist basement air. After a moment of confused panic, Derek
slowly opened his right eye to check on their situation. Fear
limiting his ability to fully see through the tightly squinted slit
between his eye lids, he could only, faintly, make out a blurred
image of his equally confused roommate holding what he assumed was
the orb up to his face as he repeatedly pressed the button.
    “Did it work?” Derek nervously
questioned.
    “I don’t know. I...,” Jason’s answer trailed
off as he continued to examine the small metal ball in his
hand.
    Feeling more at ease, Derek relinquished
some of the strain on his eyes, though continued to keep them shut.
“Oh well. It was a good first try. Maybe it just needs a few more
adjustments,” he attempted to comfort his roommate, now confident
that he’d been correct. Time travel was a sci-fi fantasy just as
he’d thought. There was no way that two M.I.T. students with a few
sophisticated electrical components, an iPad and some electricity
could manage to accomplish what millions had dreamt of for
centuries. Slowly he began to open his eyes. “I mean, we’ll just go
back to the drawing board and...Jason...why are you naked?” he
questioned, wondering not only why his roommate had decided to
strip down but also, how he’d managed to do so in such a short time
and with such stealth.
    Seemingly surprised, Jason glanced down at
his body, confirming the validity of Derek’s question. Honestly, he
didn’t have a good answer but looking up he did have a question of
his own. “Where are your clothes?”
    Derek too, glanced down at his nude body.
“What the fuck?”
    Just then a pair of voices echoed from the
hall, causing them to both forget their nudity as they returned
their attention to the