OMG, A CUL8R Time Travel Mystery (7 page)

Kelly’s heart did a little flip
-flop.  He was one of the hottest guys she’d ever met.  Both he and Scott were tall, probably right at six feet, but that’s where the resemblance ended.  Scott was blond with royal blue eyes and a wiry build.  Austin had crystal-clear blue eyes, startling in their contrast to his tanned skin and shaggy dark brown hair.  His jaw-line was strong and square and his lean, muscular body was that of an athlete.  He reminded Kelly of a young Ashton Kutcher.  She had no doubt, based on the way he looked and his poise, that Austin was very popular at school . . . and way out of her league.

“
Who won?” she managed to ask, hoping her voice didn’t reveal her sudden confusion.

“Us against these two newbie
s from Jacksonville.  They never did figure it out,” Scott said, laughing.

“Scott’s our strategy wizard.  He
can scope out any team we play within the first fifteen minutes and from then on, we’re always a step ahead.  Amazing.”

“W
e’ve had 146 wins in a row,” added Scott with no hint of boastfulness.

“
That’s impressive.  Did you tell Austin what we found yesterday?” Kelly asked.

“Not yet.  I wasn’t sure he’d believe me.
”

“I can see why
.  I’m not sure I believe you, and I saw it for myself.”

“What’d your
aunt say?” Scott asked.

“She’s okay with you borrowing it. 
I told her you were going to clean it up and get it working again.”

“
What did she say about Edison?”

“I didn’t
actually mention that . . . not yet.  Do you want to go over and get it?”

“It’s heavy
, so let’s take Lilly’s wagon over.”  He glanced at Lilly and sighed.  “On second thought, why don’t you and Austin go get it?  I’ll stay here with my sister.”

They got the wagon out of the garage, and
Austin pulled it along the sidewalk and up the driveway to her aunt’s house.

“I’ll
go through the front and open the garage door,” she offered, struck that she felt a little shy around him.  He nodded, and she quickly was inside and out the kitchen door where she pushed the button to raise the door.  There was an outdoor keypad on the garage, but she didn’t know the code yet.

As soon as the door almost cleared his height, Austin ducked under it and pulled the wagon inside.

“It’s the wooden box there.”  She and Scott had replaced the radio in the box last night before he left, so it was ready to go.

Austin carefully load
ed it on the wagon, not seeming to strain at all from the weight.  He waited outside while Kelly shut the garage and relocked the front door. “What is this thing anyway?” he asked as they walked back, the wagon trailing obediently behind.

“
Edison called it his Telephone to the Dead, but I call it the Spirit Radio.  It’s supposed to let you talk with people who have passed.”

Austin gave her a strange look. 
“Dead people?  Really dead?”

“Yep,” Kelly looked at him with one eye partially closed
against the glare of the sun.

“Well, that
creeps me out.”

Kelly
laughed, “Yeah, I thought the same thing.” Not that she believed they would ever actually be able to talk to someone who was dead.  They pulled the wagon through the side gate and across the lawn to Scott’s lab.

“Good
, you’re back.”  Scott had cleared a spot on the workbench, and Austin moved the box from the wagon to the floor.  “I built a better antenna, so we’re ready to try it out.”

Austin reached down and carefull
y lifted the old rusted radio out of its box and set it on the workbench. Scott connected the antenna, then plugged it into the outlet on the wall and turned it on.

“It’ll take a few minutes for the tubes to warm up.  Lilly, do you want to watch
Finding Nemo
?  I brought it out here in case you got bored.”

“Mom said I couldn’t watch any
movies until I keep my room clean for a week.”

“Tell you what. 
I won’t tell if you don’t tell.  Deal?”

“Deal.”

Scott took the disc and inserted it into the DVD player.  He turned on the TV and plugged in another set of headphones.  “Here, use these so we don’t bother you.”

Lilly
fitted them on her head and sat back in the lawn chair Scott had brought in for her.  The opening credits appeared on the screen, and she was immediately lost in the underwater world that would hold her captive for the next hour and a half.

Scott turned his attention back to the
Spirit Radio.  “I can add another speaker and maybe even another microphone if these don’t work, but I hate to alter it too much.”

Austin and Kelly hung back, both of them feeling pretty useless as Scott fussed over the machine.

“Scott says you lived pretty close to the beach in Texas.”

“It was about thirty or forty minutes away.
  Not nearly as close as we are here.  I went whenever I could.  I love to surf, even though the waves in Galveston are pretty pathetic.”

“Have you ever
paddle boarded?”

“No, never tried.”

“If you can surf, you can paddle board.  Scott won’t go with me because he’s allergic to the sun.”

“I’m not allergic,” Scott protested.  “I just don’t want to get sunburned.  It’s not healthy, you know.”

“Yeah, well, I love going to the beach,” Austin said, then turned those gorgeous blue eyes on Kelly.  “I’ve got an extra board.  I’ll show you how, if you want.”

“I’d really like that.  Thanks.”

“With football season coming in another month I need to get all my goofing-off stuff in now.  How about this afternoon?”

“
Sure.”  She turned to Scott.  “That is, if you don’t mind.”

“Mind?
  Why should I mind?  I’m stuck here, but that’s no reason you two have to be, too.”

“Cool,” Austin confirmed without hesitation.
  “After we get through here, I’ll run home and change and load up the boards.”

“You have your own car?”  Kelly was surprised.  Most of the kids she knew didn’t even have a license yet.

“His dad owns three car dealerships.  So, yes, he’s got his own car,” Scott stated.

“Truck, actually,” Austin corrected.

“You two done chatting now?” Scott asked, anxious to get their experiment started.

“Yes
sir,” Austin responded with a crisp salute.

“Okay,
I’ve tuned it back to where we heard all those voices yesterday.”

Kelly whispered to Austin,
“This is really weird. It’s like trying to listen to one TV show while sitting in a room of a hundred TVs.  I had a hard time focusing on a single voice yesterday.”

With Scott’s improved antenna,
the hissing, static and voices were clearer and more one sided conversations could be heard.  They huddled around Spirit Radio’s speaker as Scott slowly and carefully tuned the radio back and forth.  From the chaos of many people talking, a single female voice leaped out.

“
Help me . . . please, help me
.”

All three teenagers jumped back as if physically struck.

“Wow, that was really clear,” Scott said, trying not to appear to be shocked, even though he was.

“Did you hear that yesterday?” Austin asked.

“No, we didn’t hear any voices separately.  But that one was very distinct.”  Kelly was a little shaken by the urgency of the words.

They stared at the radio for a moment longer, then stepped closer.  Scott picked up the microphone and pressed the button.

“Hello.  Who is this?  Over.”

“Over?” Austin kidded
.  “This isn’t a cop show, 10-4.”

The girl
’s voice rose to the top of the conversations as she stated emphatically. “
It wasn’t me.
” Static and other’s voices drowned her out again.

“What does she mean?” Kelly wondered.

Scott asked, “Kelly, you try.  Maybe a girl’s voice will get through better.”

Kelly
took the mike from Scott, placed it close to her mouth, pushed the button and spoke slowly and clearly. “Do you need help?”

“
Yes . . . please help me
.” The girl’s voice was again swallowed up by the others.

Kelly’s eyes widened and she looked at the radio skeptically. 
“Is this some kind of joke?”

“Joke?
” Scott scoffed.  “Austin will tell you I don’t have a sense of humor.  Talk to her Kelly.  Try to get her to tell us more.”

“
He really doesn’t,” Austin told Kelly.  “He’s as funny as acne.”

“Great.”
She took a deep breath and pressed the microphone button again.  “This is Kelly.  Who are you?”

“
I didn’t kill myself.
” The girl’s voice faded behind another rush of men’s and women’s pleadings, accusations and conversations.  It was becoming harder to hear her through the ebb and flow of other voices.

“
Can’t you do something to keep her tuned in better?” Kelly asked.

“This is short wave.  The signals bounce off the ionosphere and solar storms
, even atmospheric moisture can make it unreliable.  Besides I don’t know how far these signals are travelling . . . or from where.”

Austin kept his distance.
  “This is really freaking me out.”

“
Aren’t you the high school’s quarterback?  Smart, strong, works well under pressure and all that?” Kelly commented with a smile.

“
Yeah, well all the guys I face on the field are alive.  She sounds so afraid . . . like she’s seeing her own ghost.”

“
Supposedly, she is a ghost.” Scott continued to adjust the antenna, trying to get better reception.

“We must be picking up radio stations or something,” Austin suggested.  “We can’t really be listening to dead people.  They’re
. . .
dead
.”  He was unable to wrap his mind around the possibility.

Again the chorus of voices pierced the air
, accompanied by static and crackling noises fading in and out.  They listened for several minutes before the same voice broke through again.

“
Kelly?  I didn’t do it.
”

Kelly almost dropped the microphone.  “She said my name.”

“It’s someone with a short wave,” Austin said, still not believing it could be paranormal.

“It’s on an unassigned frequency,” Scott explained as patiently as possible.  “No one uses it.”

“Well, someone is,” Austin insisted.

“Shhh . . .,” Kelly reprimanded them with a frown, and held the microphone up to her mouth. 
“I’m Kelly . . . who are you?”

“
Wendy, and I
. . .”   Again, the volume of the conversations smothered her words.

They all slid
even closer to the small speaker, trying to pick her voice out of the masses.  “Wendy?  Talk to me Wendy . . . please.” Kelly’s voice held a new urgency as the interaction had become more personal.

The voices continued to rumble out of
the small speaker and they listened almost desperately, hoping to hear Wendy’s voice again.  Kelly continued to call out for her, but after thirty minutes without further contact, they gave up.

“This is
really weird,” Austin declared.  “I don’t know whether to believe it or not.”

“It’s an amazing break through.”  Scott couldn’t contain his enthusiasm.  “Do you guys have any idea what we just did?”

“Not really.”  Kelly shook her head.  “It sounded like she was actually talking to us.”

“She was,” Scott assured her.  “You were doing what Edison tried for years to accomplish . . . talk to the dead.”

Kelly shivered.  “I need to get some fresh air.”

“Yeah
, we should try again later.  After sundown, reception should improve.”  Scott turned the Spirit Radio off.  “I want to save the tubes until I can locate replacements on-line.”

“Makes sense,” Austin sa
id, then turned to Kelly.  “I need to get away from here for a while to clear my head.  I’ll get the boards and pick you up in ten.”  He gave them a wave and trotted across the yard and into the house.

Kelly looked at Scott.  She felt like she was deserting him.  “Are you sure you don’t want to come with us?  We could take turns watching Lilly on the beach.”

“No, you two go on.  I’ve got an idea of how to improve the reception, and I want to see if I can hook up an external speaker without hurting the machine.”

“I’m hungry.  When are we going to eat lunch?”

They looked around to see that the end credits were rolling for her movie, and Lilly was standing next to Scott, waiting impatiently for him to pay attention to her.