Time Lifts the Light

"Excuse you! It has calcium in it. That's healthy."
"Yeah, it's got calcium-"
"And vitamin D!"
"Okay, yeah, D.B. But that doesn't mean you should eat ice cream for breakfast."
"Hah! I'm going to assume you're joking."
"You think that, then."
"Cruel, cruel joke..." he muttered, feeling around in his pockets.

We were sitting in an I-HOP, both our plates littered with the crumbly remains of pancakes drenched in syrup. D.B. was just finishing up his second bowl of strawberry ice cream.

I laid out a ten dollar bill on top of the check, covering my portion of the meal. D.B. was still fishing in his pockets for his wallet. He was muttering to himself and slapping the sides of his pants, searching.

"Hang on, hang on," he said under his breath. "Here we go!"

He slapped his black leather wallet on the table, along with a few silver half-dollars, a bus token, a Canadian penny, and his pocket watch. He dug two fives out and put them on top of my ten.

"That should cover the tip," he said.

He absentmindedly clicked open the golden pocket watch and took a breath, as if to tell me something important. Instead, he let the breath out in a quick, gasping huff and choked on the soupy remnants of his ice cream.

"We've gotta go!" he sputtered. "Now, now, now!"
"What? D.B., we have to wait for - "
"No!" he cried, leaping up from the table and grabbing my hand. "We put the money on the table, Indy, let's go!"
"D.B.!"
"We put the money on the table, I-HOP people!" he shouted in the direction of the kitchens. "We're late!"

I was yanked up out of my seat. D.B. pulled me by my waist toward the front door. We were in his car in a matter of seconds, pealing out of the parking lot and into the street.

"We were supposed to get Kim and Mikey twenty minutes ago!" he shouted.
"I'm sitting right next to you, Daniel. You don't have to scream."
"Ahhhhh!" he yelled deliberately in my ear.
I sighed. "Does it really matter? Its okay to be a little late."
He scowled. "Yeah..."
"Okay," I instructed. "So are we going to calm down now?"
"Yeah..." he muttered, resigned.
"Good. No more ice cream."
"Yeah, okay," he grumbled. "It's probably for the best."

Ten minutes later, we had pulled up in front of Mikey's apartment building. He was already waiting at the gate, his arms filled with a giant basket. He narrowed his eyes and began shouting, even though we couldn't hear him. He stomped over to the car, still yelling.

"...been waiting out here for forty-five minutes! And this dumb basket is getting heavy and now I'm all sweaty!"
"Hi, Mikey," D.B. and I chorused guiltily.
"Just wait until Kim gets ahold of you two! Canoodling around town instead of picking us up for Magnolia Park! Shame on you!"
"We weren't canoodling, Mike," I reassured him. "We just got breakfast."
"Hmph."

We pulled up in front of Kim's prim, white two-story just a few minutes later. D.B. honked the horn, and the curtains twitched. Kim's face appeared in the window, then disappeared. She opened the front door and raced down the steps.

"Just wait..." Mikey muttered evilly under his breath.

Kim popped the back door open and slid in next to Mikey.

"Guys!" she squealed excitedly. "Hey, Indy. 'Sup D.B.?"
"Kimmy," D.B. nodded.
"Hi, Kim," I said.

Mikey was staring at her in open-mouthed horror.

"Hey, babe," she greeted him, pinching his nose between her thumb and forefinger. "What? What's wrong?"
"Kim..." he choked out, sounding strangled.
"What?" she asked, letting go of his nose and pecking him on the lips. "What's wrong with you?"
"Aren't you... Aren't you going to get mad?"
"About what?"
"D.B. and Indigo were late!"
"So?" she snapped, smacking his shoulder. "Don't be so uptight."

D.B. pressed a knuckle to his teeth to keep from laughing. Mikey huffed and turned towards the window, pouting. He immediately brightened, though, when he saw the large wooden sign marking Magnolia Park. It was old and weather-beaten, the white flowers painted on the sign almost completely faded away.

Mikey began bouncing. He grabbed the basket his mom had made him pack and a high-pitched whine escaped his throat. He reminded me of a very excited, impatient dog.

"Calm down, loser," D.B. snorted, turning into the parking lot.
"What's in the bag, Mikey?" I asked.
"Sandwiches. A blanket. A frisbee."
"Mike's mom doesn't know that D.B.'s a time traveler," Kim told me, rolling her eyes. "Honestly, we don't go to Magnolia Park to throw around a frisbee."

D.B. touched the gas a little too hard at those words. The car lurched forward, Kim yelped, and Mikey let out a yell, his arms shooting out to keep the basket from falling off his lap and onto the floor. When D.B. slammed on the brakes, my seat belt bit into my chest. I winced as D.B. whorled around in the driver's seat to look at Kim.

"Drive like a sane human being, D.B.!" she cried, clutching her heart and ignoring his heated stare. "Not like an animal! Jesus, what is your problem?"

He stayed silent, still glaring at her. She blinked, apparently realizing a mistake she made. Mikey sensed the tension and looked quizzically at D.B., his eyebrows disappearing into his bangs. But D.B. wasn't looking at him. He was still glaring at Kim, his narrowed eyes alight with warning.

"Sorry," she muttered, scowling and coolly meeting his gaze.
D.B. didn't look away.
"She said she's sorry, Daniel," Mikey interjected, wrapping a protective arm around Kim and looking serious. "Just park, okay?"

D.B. turned around a muttered something that sounded like, "Yeah, whatever, sorry."

He parked unevenly in a space cramped between a mini-van and a shiny black truck. When we got out of his car, spirits seemed to be lowered. Kim was scowling heavily at Mikey's basket, which was clutched awkwardly in Mikey's long arms. D.B. kicked at the ground, uncomfortably shuffling the toe of his sneakers into the black asphalt.

"Let's - Let's go, I guess," I proposed.

Magnolia Park was a wide expanse of beautiful green, green grass. People ran around the large rubber track, wearing headphones and tiny nylon shorts. Others were playing catch with kids or dogs, flying kites, or lying out on a blanket; reading. It reminded me of a smaller version of Central Park, from when our family had gone to New York City last summer with my dad on his business trip.

Off to the far right, a metal playground gleamed in the bright sun. Children were screaming and chasing each other down the slide. A boy had fallen off the monkey-bars and his mother had stooped to comfort him and stop his high-pitched wailing.

We started walking. There seemed to be no particular spot on the green lawn they frequented... And Mikey, despite his excitement at coming to Magnolia Park, seemed to be lost and disoriented. I got the feeling that he'd never been here in his life.

We opened the basket and spread the blanket across the ground. The sandwiches were gone within the first half hour, and still, the air was thick with heat and tension. I suggested getting Sno-Cones, but everyone just sighed. D.B. checked out, leaning back and turning his head to stare at the clear sky. Boredom escalated to the point where Kim took out the frisbee. I choked back a gasp, thinking that she meant to actually throw it. But, instead, she thunked Mikey on the head with it half-heartedly.

"Thanks, baby," he mumbled, plucking blades of grass and dumping them in a haphazard pile in her lap.
"No problem."

I finally worked up enough courage to let out a convincing huff.

"When is somebody going to tell me what's going on?" I demanded.

D.B. shifted uncomfortably.

"I mean, we were having a good time in the car," I protested. "Mikey was excited to come here, everyone was in a great mood! What happened?"

"I chickened out, that's what happened."

I turned to stare at D.B., who was glaring moodily at his outstretched feet. He was getting sweaty in his long-sleeved shirt, threadbare as it was. He was fidgeting with the collar, as if we wanted to take it off.

He sighed and licked his lips, then stared at the ground for a while so that he could stall a little longer.

"I usually... We - That is, we usually come here... To Magnolia Park... To, uh..." He cleared his throat. "Well, we come here so that Kim and Mikey don't have to lie to their parents... They, uh, don't know..."

I was beginning to get the gist of what he was saying.

"I mean, we like it here. It's nice... and whatever. But we don't stay here. Oh God, I'm messing everything up. Kim, can you please talk for me? As it happens, I'm not very eloquent today."
"Sure thing," Kim piped up. She crossed her legs and gave me a matter-of-fact look. "On the weekends, instead of going to the Mall or the movies or to football games, Mikey and I tell our parents that we're going to Magnolia Park with D.B. Then, D.B comes and picks us up and we come here. We don't stop to sit, we don't stop for Sno-Cones. We go immediately behind that big tree over there..." Kim pointed her finger to a large oak in the distance. "... And D.B. takes us time traveling."

I had been expecting as much.

"Whenever you travel, you continue to stand in the same spot. You move through time, but not through space," Mikey added, surprising everyone with a small helpful bit of insight. "D.B.'s been caught inside buildings, in the middle of streets, inside strangers' houses..."
"Not fun, I might add," D.B. interjected darkly.
"But Magnolia Park was built in 1915," Mikey continued. "It's a staple. That's why we always come here to travel. We pretty much have the entire 20th century at our fingertips."

"And..." I dared to shoot a quick look at D.B. "You guys were going to bring me here to..."
"We thought you might like to try it out," Kim muttered.

D.B. squinted up into the sun, pretending like we weren't staring at him; waiting for him to say something. He finally grunted and tried to look at each of us in turn, but found that he could only stand to make eye contact for a fraction of a second.

"I don't think I'm ready to take three people yet," he admitted begrudgingly. "Taking Mikey and Kim is hard enough."
"You could just try?" Mikey offered.
"No. I - I changed my mind. I don't want to risk it."
"What do you-"
"You can't have forgotten the time where I almost let go of you in the warp."
"Oh," Kim remembered, her eyes wide. "Yeah... That..."
"I nearly lost it half-way through the fifties."

I suddenly wrinkled my nose in disgust.

"D.B.," I barked. "Stop looking like your soul got run over."
His spine straightened abruptly.
"I don't care about time traveling." I threw a handful of grass at his head. "That's not why I'm your friend."
Mikey leaned his head on Kim's shoulder.
"That's not why I'm friends with you two, either," I said to the both of them. "I... I mean, it's nice that you told me about - it. But if D.B. really feels like he isn't ready to... Then, I'm perfectly okay!"

There was an awkward silence where I could glimpse the corners of D.B.'s mouth twitching upwards. Kim was grinning softly and Mikey stuck his tongue out at me.

I took a deep breath and nudged Mikey with my foot.

"Let's get out of here."

-_-_-_-_-

"He's just not confident."

I gasped, my heart fluttering for a second. I whorled around to see Kim behind me.

We were back in the parking lot of the - surprisingly boring - Magnolia Park. The echoes of laughter and screams from the playground still sounded off in the distance.

"What?"
"D.B.," she clarified. "He's a little scared."

D.B. and Mikey were walking up ahead of us, talking animatedly about superhero fights.

"Batman can't even do anything, Mikey. He has no real superpowers."
"But his name is so much cooler-"
"Names won't help him when The Thing is pounding him into guano."
"But he can - !"
"End of discussion!" D.B. interrupted with an air of finality. "Okay. Storm or Catwoman?"

I turned back to Kim.

"Why would he be scared?"
She fixed me with an odd sort of look. "He gets like this. He seems really confident but, despite all of that, he's still freaked out by what he can do."
I paused. "So he's-"
"Afraid?" Kim offered, then shrugged. "Give him - uh - time. It took three years for him to take Mikey and I through... Well. You know."
"He doesn't trust me," I commented.
"No!" Kim protested a little too quickly. "He's - He'll come around. I promise."

But I knew she was lying. Sharing his secret with me was easy enough. That was just an exchange of words and explanations. Sharing his ability was something different - binding almost.

The interior of D.B.'s car was sweltering. Mikey wasn't making things any better by screaming things like "I'm meeeeelting!" and pretending that his head was on fire. The sun had soaked into the vinyl seats, stinging the back of my legs as I slid into the passenger's seat.

D.B. took us all home.