Chapter 10

"Do you know what E = mc ² is, Mr. Bongiovi?" Mrs. Ferguson had led them to an empty table on the lawn of the nursing home.

"It has something to do with Einstein, right?" Jon asked, taking a seat that she was motioning to, ignoring an uncomfortable vibration in his leg.

"Yes, yes, it is his equation for mass-energy equivalence. He was a smart man. Yes, a very smart man." She was folding the blanket that covered her legs. "He was most famous for that, but he also published a lot of other equations, he did. One of them was the equation for his theory of general relativity."

"How is that different?"

"Well, young man, the first is his theory on how mass is associated with energy, but general relativity encompasses gravitational time dilation where time travels at different rates according to the gravitational pull of a certain region, you see."

"Uh huh, I see." Jon actually had no idea what she was talking about.

He was also getting distracted by the annoying vibration centering around his upper thigh. He fidgeted as it started getting dangerously close to his groin, and stopped only when he saw Mrs. Ferguson eyeing him suspiciously.

"Well, there is also the theory that his equation is the basis for warped time space which causes wormholes."

"I know what wormholes are!" Jon jumped up from his chair, excited to finally hear a word he understood. This had also stopped the vibrations that were beginning to worry him.

Mrs. Ferguson studied him through her thick glasses. "You do, do you? Well, that is quite a surprise, quite a surprise." She picked up her blanket, again. "Young man, would you be a dear and help me fold this thing?"

He took the perfectly folded blanket and re-folded it rather haphazardly and gave it back to her.

"No, no, no! Look at it. It is not aligned correctly. The corners are all mismatched and the central design is not in the right place. Oh dear, oh dear, I shall have to do it all over again, all over again. Oh dear."

"Mrs. Ferguson?" Jon was watching her meticulously folding the blanket. The vibrations had started, again, making him fidget, again.

"Hmmm? Yes, young man?"

"About the wormholes?"

"What about them?"

"You were saying how they make time travel possible."

"Was I? Oh yes, yes, yes. But I think Albert was missing a key ingredient in his equation, I do." She looked down at her blanket and sighed, "physicists are so devoid of human emotions, don't you think, young man? So devoid."

"What is the human emo...."

"There you are! I was beginning to worry when you didn't come back to your room, mother."

Jon looked up to see an elderly woman approaching them.

"I hope mother was not bending your ear, young man. Are you a former student of hers?"

"Yes, she was going to tell about wormh..."

"Look, Clarissa, see how perfectly this nice young man folded my blanket for me? Why is it that you can never take the time to do that for me? Never take the time."

"My name is Janet, mother. I think it's time for you to get some rest." She released the brakes on the wheelchair and turned it around.

"But..."

"I'm sorry, young man. Mother needs her rest. Perhaps you can come back tomorrow when she is more...'rested'."

And with that, Janet wheeled her mother back into the nursing home.

Jon got up to go as the weird sensation started again. This phenomenon freaked him and he ran home at top speed.

*****

Jon burst through the front door, with a panicked look on his face. "Rich! I think I'm dematerializing or something!"

He found Richie in the kitchen with the phone to his ear. He put the phone down as soon as he saw Jon. "Where the hell were you? I thought you were in some kind of trouble."

"I am! Something's happening, Rich. I was talking to Mrs. Ferguson and my leg started vibrating. When I sat down, it moved up close to...well, you know, and it went on and off all the time I was there. What's happening to me, Rich?"

His eyes were wild with fear.

Richie crossed his arms and glared at him. "Do you feel it now?"

"No, I think it stopped. Why would it stop now?"

"Because I hung up the phone, you idiot. Where did you put the cell phone I gave you?"

Jon stared at him for a few seconds before pulling out the phone from his front pocket.

Richie snatched it from him. 'It's on vibrate."

*****

Jon was in his walk-in closet opening drawers and shuffling through its contents. Not finding what he was looking for, he moved on from one drawer to the next. He then went over to the chest of drawers in the bedroom when Dot walked in.

"What are you looking for?"

"Do you remember someone giving me a St. Christopher a long time ago?"

"No, not really, but you do get a lot of gifts, Jon."

"Yeah, but this one was special. It came with a letter and some sort of weird writing on another piece of paper. I need to see it."

"Why?"

"I.....I don't know. I just thought about it after all these years and now I want to see it. I can't seem to find it anywhere."

"Who was it from?"

"I can't remember. I don't remember much about it, actually. Just that it was special."

"Well, it'll probably turn up when you're not looking for it."

"Yeah, I guess."

*****

"Rich, I need to go see Mrs. Ferguson again, tomorrow."

"Why? I thought you couldn't stand the old biddy."

"Yeah, well it's different after you talked to her." Jon pondered over how much to tell Richie. "She seems to know a lot about time travel. She might be able to help me go back."

Richie stared at his friend, "do you remember how she was at the store? She thought she was still in Jersey. What information could she possibly give you? She's not all there, Jon."

"I know. She seems to have this thing about folding stuff neatly and she can't even remember her own daughter's name. But she's not like that all the time, not when she's talking about Einstein and shit."

Seeing how serious Jon was and determining that there would be no harm in going, Richie nodded, "alright, we'll go tomorrow. Where does she live?"

"In the nursing home near that park where the people are riding their lawnmowers."

*****

"Steph, can you call the kids to dinner, please?"

The children came to the table one by one as Dot and Jon brought out the dishes.

"Where's Romeo?"

Stephanie shrugged. "He was in the family room folding paper. I told him to come to dinner, but he just kept on folding."

"Folding paper?" Sighing, Jon headed off to get his son.



Romeo stared at the piece of paper. He had folded and refolded it several times and still was not satisfied. His tiny hands smoothed out the creased page and he looked at the writing on it. He didn't understand any of it, but somehow he knew it was important. Yes, yes, very important.