Time Machine

2025-07-29

Circle Mall. May 1979.

“SKEEEEE-BALLLLL!” Late screamed like a marauding Viking as he charged all the way down the hallway that fed into the mall.

“Should we tell him he doesn’t have any quarters?” Stephen asked Jerk. Stephen seemed quiet on the way over.

Jerk let out a small snort. “He’ll figure it out.” Late bounded around the corner into the mall’s main gallery and went out of sight.

“I want to thank you, Buddy,” Stephen said. “When they held Kevin back a year, I was worried about him.”

“Miss Gilchrist didn’t like him,” Jerk said. “Tiny made sure we both ended up in Mrs. Lyons’s class.”

“How do you know that?” Stephen asked.

“I’ve heard him talk.” Tiny had lots of conversations in front of Jerk that he probably shouldn’t have had. “I was just glad Kevin didn’t want me to do his homework.”

“I have to sit him down at the kitchen table as soon as he gets home, but he does it,” Stephen said. “I tape his favorite cartoons so he can watch them after.”

“Oh, Tiny gave you a VBT200 too?”

Stephen nodded.

Jerk wasn’t sure where they had all come from, besides Japan, like the boxes said. Tiny had given away six by Jerk’s count, and he still had five more.

“I have Battle of the Planets on tapes,” he said. “You might like that.” Tiny had found them for him during one of his trips to “Providence,” where the receipts Jerk saw all had New York City sales tax listed.

“Ahhhh!” Late came around the corner, running toward them.

“Told you he’d figure it out,” Jerk said. He almost smirked.

Late skidded to a stop in front of Stephen. “Emergency! I need quarters!”

“I’ve only got a twenty, and I’m not giving it to you, Kev,” Stephen said, ruffling Late’s hair. “You can wait two minutes so I can get quarters from Davey.”

As near as little Jerk could tell, Davey and Stephen were best friends. They really liked each other. Jerk saw them holding hands one time when he slept over at the Earlys’ house. Late and he had tried to stay up to watch SNL, hoping for a Father Guido Sarducci sketch.

It was less than two minutes, but for Late it was an eternity.

“C’mon!” Late tugged on Stephen’s hand. The sign above the arcade entrance said Time Machine. “Skee-Ball!”

The front of the arcade was dominated by the newest arcade games. Behind those were the pinball machines and redemption counter, and in the far back were the Skee-Ball and coin-pusher games.

Stephen looked up as they reached the entrance, eyes scanning for Davey. “Hey–” He stared at Davey, standing next to the display case of redemption prizes. “Davey, what the hell?”

“Hey, Steph,” Davey said. The left side of his face was bruised and swollen. “I was hoping you wouldn’t come today.”

Davey’s swollen lip was scabbed over, and his eye was nearly shut. Jerk touched his own face reflexively.

Not even Spinks looked that bad after beating Ali. Tiny had watched that a few times on tape.

“Boys,” Davey said. He looked at Late and Jerk. “Buddy, Space Invaders is still broken.”

Jerk groaned. It was his favorite. He always got the high score when he played.

“I’ll help Kevin get tickets,” Jerk said. Late was saving up for a shortwave radio. Four thousand tickets, and he only needed a hundred and fifty more.

Jerk was saving them in a fake book he’d found at a used bookstore. It looked like a copy of Dickens’s A Tale Of Two Cities. He wanted to have secret hiding places for things the way Tiny did.

Stephen stopped and pulled out his wallet. “I need quarters for Kev and Buddy.”

Stephen handed Davey a twenty.

“Normal split?” Davey asked.

“Just a five in quarters for the boys. I don’t want to play anymore,” Stephen said. Davey handed Stephen back five in quarters and three five-dollar bills.

“Davey, can we talk?”

“Back by the Skee-Ball. I can watch the place from there.” Davey walked back.

“Buddy, can you split the quarters?” Stephen asked, dumping five dollars in quarters into Jerk’s hands, which nearly overflowed.

“Sure, Stevie,” Jerk said, looking at Stephen. Stephen’s eyes were wet.

Jerk had noticed that some people could cry but not shed tears. Stephen was one. Little Jerk knew not to cry, because once he started he didn’t know how to stop.

Jerk counted out ten quarters for Late and put them in his left pocket. When he counted the rest for himself, he had ten too, and put them in his right.

Sometimes the belt change dispensers at Time Machine slipped out extra quarters. He always returned them, and the attendants eventually stopped giving him odd looks when he did.

Stephen and Davey were standing by the door to the back room, where they kept the big-ticket prizes under lock and key. The display case boxes of those were empty.

Jerk gave Late a quarter, and they set up at their usual machines, two and four. When Jerk played alone he liked three. It was the only respectable prime number of the four, though four was two, the first prime, raised to the power of itself, which he thought was cool.

Jerk had been chewing on his thumb. He hadn’t even realized it until he could taste blood. He pulled his thumb out and looked at it. It wasn’t too bad. Skee-Ball would keep his hands busy for a few minutes.

Jerk tried not to listen, but machine four was next to where the door went to the back. He was bad at Skee-Ball, but he liked feeling like he was contributing to Late’s shortwave.

“–leaving me here, in Ilium?” Stephen asked. His eyes were more than wet.

Davey murmured something, then added “I thought my dad was going to kill me.”

“Three hundred and fifty points!” Late cheered his own skill. Jerk gave him another quarter, and went back to his game. One hundred points. , Stephen had said something. The parts of Davey’s face that weren’t bruised were white.

“Don’t talk like that. I’ll visit you on leave,” Davey said. He didn’t sound convinced.

Stephen was shaking now. “No, you won’t.” He started pushing past Davey to leave. “I won’t let you.”

“Steph, I love you!” Davey said, loud enough that even Late’s arm hesitated mid-swing as he turned his head. A boy had come in and was playing the Nugent pinball machine. He either didn’t hear or didn’t care.

Davey seemed embarrassed. Jerk and Late looked at each other and went back to playing Skee-Ball.

“Steph, I swear.” Davey grabbed Stephen’s arm.

Stephen’s voice was hollow. “I don’t care what you swear anymore.” He pulled his arm out of Davey’s hand.

“Boys, I’ll be next door at Woolworth’s,” Stephen said as he stalked out of the arcade.

“Steph, wait!” Davey said, chasing after him.

Davey came back after a minute and stood behind the redemption counter, staring out the entrance. When Jerk and Late left, he didn’t say a word.

#ComingOfAgeLate #FoundFamily #GriefAndHealing #Hypervigilance #InnocenceAndItsEnd #Jerk #Late #LoveAndAbandonment #MutualSurvival #StephenEarly #TraumaBonding #WitchLore #arc-five