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  “Maybe we should wait a while?” I suggest.

  “No!” Gramps exclaims emphatically. “You must go on as planned. I still have friends, attorneys and at least one contact at the patent office, who can help us if that’s what you choose to have me do.”

  “I don’t have any problem with that,” Jen replies.

  “Aren’t there some sort of age restrictions?” I ask.

  “Nope,” Gramps says. “That’s one of the good things about it. You don’t even have to have your parents’ consent so your secret is still safe in that regard.”

  “Cool,” Jared smiles.

  “What about the money? How much does it cost?” Jen wants to know. “I only have a little saved up.”

  “I’m sure we can all chip in to cover it, Jen,” Jared assures her.

  “That would make you all investors in her invention. That’s a good plan, assuming Jennifer is willing to split any earnings. Of course, you’d all be responsible for any future financial needs for bringing the invention to fruition, too,” Gramps explains.

  “I have no problem with sharing,” Jen adds.

  “There’s a question about timing though,” Gramps cautions. “Corporations have snoops watching patent filings. If we file too soon, we could have some trouble. I figure, since you’re planning a demonstration flight during the parade, we have the papers ready, and as soon as the flight concludes, make the actual application.”

  “That sounds like it would work,” Jared agrees.

  “There is one more consideration.” Gramps continues. We look at him blankly. “Jared and Tyler got this ball rolling with the initial discovery. Jennifer has been the primary developer of the containment field.”

  “Tyler’s been helping me,” she asserts. Gramps looks pleased with the admission.

  “And I understand Kylie’s been putting together the software and helping Willie, who’s been constructing the demonstration vehicle.”

  “That’s true. It’s been a team effort,” Jennifer concurs.

  Gramps smiles. “Then it should be easy to determine shares in the venture.”

  “Equal shares, of course,” Jennifer offers, without debate.

  “Sure, why not?” Jared agrees, sidling up next to her. “What’s a billion between friends?” he jokes.

  “Two hundred million or so,” Gramps calculates. We react with stunned silence.

  “Okay then,” Gramps lightheartedly concludes, motioning us towards the door. “That gives you all a great deal to think about. Let me know how you want me to proceed. I’m happy to assist.”

  Jared stops short. “Wait,” he says, looking at Gramps. “What do you want out of this?”

  Gramps looks at him and sighs heavily. “Mostly the satisfaction of beating the system,” he says. “And a place to spend the rest of my days, short as they may be, in peace.” Then he waves Jared out the door after the rest of us. “Whatever you think it’s worth, my boy.” Then he closes the door, leaving us outside.

  We walk across the drive, exuberant from the meeting. Jared and Jennifer get in the car and leave, feebly waving goodbye. Kylie and I head back up to sit on the porch swing, side by side. Around 10:30, her dad shows up, and after he thanks my mom and dad, we all say goodnight.

  Dinner Meeting

  By Friday, the work in the tunnel is finished. It’s a good feeling. The mixture of sweat and cold water soaking our clothes and skin, though a nice contrast to the summer heat, has become less than comfortable.

  There has been little talk about what Gramps had suggested the previous weekend, but I imagine the others are thinking about it just as much as I am. There are so many possibilities with having that kind of money, and so much potential for bringing the world a new and better way of traveling and transporting things.

  During the week, my nights had been full of daydreams before falling asleep. My night dreams had simply been strange. In both, I am inventing new means of transportation designed around the new technology, and new cities around the new transportation. There were fanciful ideas and there were practical, more plausible thoughts. But my favorite idea was just to develop an easier way to reach orbit.

  Using gravity against itself offers a lot of advantages over rocket based systems. It eliminates the need to pack a lot of fuel to push a vehicle into space, so the external and solid rocket boosters are immediately obsolete. The issues of heat and reentry cooling might be eliminated, though I can’t guess how the new technology will respond further away from Earth where the strength of gravity is less. Simple conjecture leads me to think the G-bits might be even more efficient, or at least equally efficient, because the gravitational pull they have to overcome should still be equal to the lift they should be able to produce from it.

  That causes me to think back to the last week of school when Jennifer had asked Mr. Venturi about warp drives. I wonder if she has started to think of them as a real possibility now. I wonder if she has thought of gravity’s potential to move through space at the speed of light, since gravitons travel at the speed of light as well. And then, with a little additional energy, maybe faster than light? Truly the stuff of dreams. And movies.

  As we’re tearing down the scaffold at the end of our last day in the tunnel, I look down the long maglev track and realize that its use will end with the G-bits. I look over at the covered splanes; marvels of technology. Just like my hy-ped, their time is literally over. It makes me a little sad.

  “I’d be happy to see those birds fly again,” Uncle Earl says, as we finish storing the last of the scaffolding sections. It seems like a long time ago that we had set it up. I grin, remembering the joke Jared played on me with the sled that first day.

  “I’d like to see that too, Uncle,” I agree, partly because I really would. “So does Jared’s dad have anything for you to do now that this cleanup job is done?”

  “He’s having me work with the contractors in here starting next week. I get to show ’em where everything is stored, and make sure they have what they need to get the job done.” He doesn’t sound too enthusiastic. Then he looks at me. “I’d rather help you and your friends construct that saucer.”

  “Well, I’m sure we could use the help,” I encourage him. “In fact, you’ve already helped. We’re going to use a modified version of your top idea instead of landing gear, you know. The single point will be a lot easier and take less time to construct than any mechanical legs would.”

  He beams a bashful look, pleased to hear about the decision. It makes me feel like wanting to share a portion of whatever money I might make to help my uncle with his life. He really is a good man.

  “Gentlemen,” Jared says, as he looks around for wayward equipment, “I believe we are done. Let’s get out of here!” We walk energetically towards the exit, glad this part of the summer is over. Jared flips the lights off one last time, locks the door to the electrical room, and we head down the corridor to the stairs.

  Outside, the afternoon is almost over and Elf City is pretty quiet. Gramps has been letting me use his truck to drive to work. I climb in to head home.

  “We’re having pizza for dinner tonight. You want to join us?” Jared asks me.

  “We?”

  “Yeah, Jennifer, Kylie, and I,” he says, suggestively adding, “Dad’s down in Las Cruces again, so we’re on our own for dinner.”

  “Uh huh,” I reply suspiciously. “So you need someone to keep little sister out of your way?”

  “Hey! Like you’d mind?”

  “What happened to that protective brother who didn’t even want me looking at his baby sister three months ago?”

  “I’ll still break your legs if you don’t treat her good!”

  Uncle Earl, who clears his throat to interrupt, mutters “kids” in a disgusted tone. We’ve forgotten about him, or maybe we’ve gotten used to his being around. “I’ll see you boys later,” he says quietly, turning to walk down to the drive.

  “Later Uncle!” I call after him.

 
“See ya, Earl,” Jared adds. Then he turns to me. “So what do you think?”

  “About what?”

  “About dinner!”

  “My mom’s making my favorite tonight,” I tease, not really knowing what she has planned for dinner.

  “Aw, c’mon.” He is getting perturbed, which is good enough for me.

  “Well, I guess. What time?”

  “Jennifer’s bringing it with when she gets off at 7:00, so a little after that.”

  “Anybody else coming?”

  “Nope. Should be just the four of us,” he says. Then, as an obvious hint, “and then just the two of us.”

  “Oh really? What are the girls going to do then?” I’m quickly rewarded with an annoyed look on his face. He must be thinking I’m some kind of idiot, but then realizes I’m playing him for a change, and grins.

  “See you at 7:00 then,” he concludes and slams the truck door.

  When I get home, I check the Hy-Gens before getting cleaned up. When it’s time to go, I have to assure Mom several times that Jared is going to be there and that everything will be okay. She seems a little apprehensive because she knows Jennifer will be there too. And Kylie, of course. “We’re not babies,” I tell her defensively.

  “I know,” she replies anxiously. “Nevertheless, babies are what I worry about.” She looks directly at me. I know she is about to launch into her responsibility and respect speech.

  “Mom,” I say preemptively, “we’ve had enough talks. It’s time for trust. Besides, Jared’s dad is supposed to be home by nine. What can happen before then?”

  “A lot!”

  “Well, it won’t!” I know I sound irate in my attempt to convince her and end the discussion. She stares at me looking angry and hurt at the same time. “Sorry Mom,” I quickly and quietly add. “Nothing’s going to happen.”

  “Okay dear,” she says, quietly acquiescing. Then waving me towards the door, “Have a good time.”

  Relieved our ‘talk’ is over, I quickly exit through the screen door. Out of the corner of my eye I spot Gramps rocking on the porch. I stop and look at him suspiciously, knowing he will add something if he feels the need. He is grinning, so I know he has over-heard at least some of what Mom and I just said to each other. He raises his right hand with the index finger crookedly pointing towards the porch roof to help make his point. “Bottom line,” he states with an authoritative tone, “it’s your life to screw up.” I probably look irritated, staring back at him. “You taking the truck?” he asks.

  “If it’s okay,” I say, not wanting to seem presumptuous.

  “Sure. Go ahead. And have fun.” Then he waves me off.

  I get into the truck and head down the drive. By the time I get out to the road, I’ve calmed down from all the adult supervision. I ponder all the words I heard in the last five minutes, and with some resignation, feel Gramps’ simple statement is truest; it is my life to screw up. But why would I want to do that?

  I pull into Jared’s a couple of minutes later. Jennifer’s scooter is there. As I walk past it, I wonder how she carried the pizza. I step through the kitchen door and see my answer as the three of them are sliding the cheese and other ingredients back onto the crust. It looks bad, but still smells good.

  “Hey, Ty. We just got started,” Jennifer greets me. Kylie adds a hello. Jared has just stuffed his mouth full and only waves as I sit down to join them.

  “Looks like it was a rough delivery,” I say, joining the fray.

  “Still tastes good,” Jared confirms between bites. “There’s soda in the fridge.”

  “Thanks. I think I’d better get busy here before it’s too late.”

  “Yeah, you better,” Jared warns, taking another piece.

  We chew ravenously for the next few minutes until the pizza is almost gone and our hunger banished. Jared tells Jen how happy he is to be done working in the tunnel. He also has to tell about the first day, again, and how he had tricked me on the sled. “Hey! How was I to know what to expect?” I defend myself, getting up for a soda. “Anybody else?” I ask, but there are no takers.

  “Tyler?” Kylie asks quietly. “Remember last week when we were talking about cosmic phenomena on the way to your house?”

  “Uh huh,” I acknowledge while sweeping a little more cheese with a nice chunk of sausage into my mouth.

  “Well, I was wondering. Do you think we’re creating a mini black hole with those G-bits? I mean, they’re pulling gravity in and then spitting it back out, amplified a little bit. Do you think it could get out of control?” Jared snickers a little, but Kylie is serious. I hadn’t thought about it. But before I can answer, Jen speaks up.

  “There’s no mass in what we’re doing Kylie. Black holes have unbelievable quantities of mass doing their thing. We’re only displacing a small degree of gravitational wave. The amplification process only causes more gravity to be collected and dispersed at the other end of the process before it resumes its normal path.”

  “Do you think it could be redirected before it goes normal?” Kylie asks. Jared and I continue nibbling at the remaining pizza, listening.

  “I wondered the same thing myself,” Jennifer continues. “I suppose the surrounding gravitational field could give some resistance, giving the redirected, amplified gravitons something to push against resulting in forward momentum.”

  “Do you think the amplification could ever become great enough to cause the materials of a vehicle to get absorbed?”

  “That would require a lot of energy,” Jen answers, “a lot more than we can generate.”

  “I suppose,” Kylie concedes, almost sounding disappointed. “It does make for a funny picture though, doesn’t it? Picture the saucer with its containment tubes pulling itself inside out.” They laugh together at the image.

  “You two are ridiculous,” Jared announces, before they can continue on. Then he gets up and clears his dishes to the sink. Jennifer follows him, leaving Kylie and me at the table. Kylie reaches for the last piece of pizza, teasing me with it for a second before biting into it.

  “I thought it was an interesting question,” I say while waiting for Kylie to finish.

  “Well, you two can go on discussing it. We’re going to watch a little HD.” As Jared says this, he takes Jen’s hand and they disappear into the living room, leaving Kylie and me alone.

  “So, what do you think?” she asks me.

  “I think they’re free to screw up their own lives,” I respond, echoing Gramps’ warning to me. Kylie looks at me questioningly, then, with a glance towards the living room, seems to understand.

  “Not them,” she says, “about the bits and what they can do.”

  “I think Jen’s probably right. She’s smart about these things. Smarter than most, anyway. But I say we’ll need to do experiments to find out. And I hope we all do them together. Actually, I can’t imagine not doing them together if we do the patent and other business stuff that Gramps recommended.”

  “Yeah, that would be fun.”

  “Fun, sure, but a lot of work, too. I think his biggest hope is that we can retain some sort of control over any development.”

  “Well, we’ll see what happens.” She gets up and clears our plates, rinsing them and the others before sliding them into the dishwasher. I fold the pizza box to stuff it in the trash. I have spent enough time here in past years to know where. I end up standing next to Kylie by the sink. The volume of the movie masks any noise that might come from the living room.

  Kylie nudges against me. “Want to go sit outside?”

  “Sure,” I answer. Grabbing my can of soda, I follow her out the door.

  It’s still light out. A warm breeze is blowing. It’s going to be a nice night. Some clouds are coming up from the southwest, heralding the possibility of a shower, which is always a welcome relief in mid-July. Kylie walks down a few steps, then sits on the floor of the porch. I sit next to her. Her mood grows melancholy.

  “What’s up?” I ask gently.
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  “Jared thinks the reason Dad is spending so much time in Las Cruces is that he’s got a girlfriend,” she says.

  It catches me off guard. “Why does he think that?”

  “Well, a couple of times, some lady has called, and Jared or I will answer, and she asks for Dad.”

  “Could it be some business with the launch facility?”

  “Maybe, but then I overheard him late one night and it didn’t sound like business. He was laughing and, well, he just sounded happy.”

  “That’s a good thing, isn’t it?”

  “I don’t know,” she replies. “I suppose…” she hesitates, “it’s just…” she stops. “I just miss Mom.” She leans against my shoulder, slipping her arm through mine pulling me a little closer. I can feel her body jerk with muffled sobs, her fragrant hair soft against my cheek as I tip my head over to comfort her.

  “My Grams always thought there was a lot more to life than what we just see here and now,” I say softly.

  Kylie slowly sits up straight, takes a deep breath followed by a long sigh. “We never talked much about that stuff in my family. It was always science and business, and what’s going on in the world.” Her words sound empty as she talks. She gets up and walks slowly, aimlessly away. I follow. “What do you think?” she asks a minute later, walking and picking at some dirt under a fingernail.

  I take a couple jumps to catch up to her and match her step as we turn up the drive in the direction of the hangars. “I don’t know. Mom and Dad have never pushed any spiritual beliefs on me. I guess I’d like to believe there is something else; that when we’re gone from here there’s some other place to go to. I know I’d miss Mom and Dad. And Gramps, too. It would be nice if we could all be together again, somewhere.”

  She takes my hand and squeezes it, smiling at the idea. “Yes, it would.” A warm feeling flows through me.

  We walk on through the fading light, lost in thought. Five minutes later, the sandy-hued, brick office building comes into view. It is usually quiet at the hangars at night. The little guard window built on the road side of the building has solitary watch over the entrance. Soon a human guard will fill the void, but for now a video camera keeps track of things coming and going.