Telekinesis: Museum
Here's that bit of action I was promising you. :)
~*~
Like he promised, James drove up bright and early at eight. Randall barely had time to throw on a new t-shirt and scrounge up some old jeans and brush his teeth before running out the door.
"God, I hate you," Randall grumbled, taking care not to hit his head as he got into the car. James loved this car, god knew why. It sat way too low on the ground, and the suspension sucked. Bumper cars were more comfortable.
"So you've said before," said James, cheerfully.
"So, where are we going, again? Buttfuck in the middle of nowhere? Sheep-r-us county? Can we even find this place on a map, or is it that tiny?"
James laughed. "It's not so bad. Just think of it as a road trip."
Randall groaned. "Not helping."
"You know, a miniature road trip."
"Man, as much as I love you, I don't think I even want to go on a miniature road trip with you."
"Too late. You're already in the car. You're coming."
"Oh no! Help! I'm being kidnapped! Dude, keep your fucking eyes on the road."
James, still snickering, obediently looked back at the road. "What, worried I'll run over a cow?"
"A tree, more like."
"Relax, I've never crashed this car once."
"That would reassure me more if I didn't know you owned five cars, and at least one of them is in the garage right now," Randall snapped back.
"Uh, that wasn't my fault. My dad left it running and forgot to put on the parking break. It, uh, rolled down the hill into a... tree."
"Great. Your cars like to run into trees all by themselves. That's awesome. Are you even fucking watching where you're going? Where the hell is the road?"
"We're almost here, don't worry."
Randall looked over suspiciously. "You're just saying that because we're lost, aren't you?"
"Dude, I'm serious," James insisted, with one of his sheepish smiles which meant they were totally lost.
Except for once, James wasn't lying. They pulled up to the smallest, tackiest building Randall had ever seen. It sure didn't look like a museum. An outhouse, maybe.
Even though they were joking around just a moment earlier, James' face had taken on that terribly set, serious expression that he had whenever he talked about aliens. Great. This was going to be a whole lot of fun.
"Come on," said James, and slammed the car door.
Randall sighed, and got out.
An old woman was minding the counter. She looked like someone's grandmother, and not altogether there. She looked around spacily before fixing her eyes on James.
Fine with Randall. He was perfectly happy not to talk with whatever cracked up lunatic who volunteered to work at a place like this.
Words could not describe this pile of shit. Really.
The old woman had creaked her way over to James. Randall listened in as he examined a life-sized replicate of a Dalek, the only interesting thing in the room. "We don't get many visitors here."
"I only found out about this place through the internet," said James. "I'm Jim. Jim Yamamoto."
"Lucy Babbage. So, what brings you to our museum?"
"Well, I've always been interested in aliens," said James, with a laugh that made it sound like it was a hobby, and not an obsession. "I was wondering if you could tell me anything about them."
"Take a look over there. That's the most interesting thing we've collected, so far."
"Who collected all this stuff?" James asked. Randall looked over surreptitiously and watched James walk over to an orb-like thing sitting on a pedestal.
"That orb," said Lucy, "was brought to me a couple of months ago by a young man. It was found in a crater, amidst broken fragments of metal that seem to be alien. The fragments were sent to labs to be tested; there weren't many of them. The orb was the only thing that survived."
"Have you - do you know its purpose?"
"No, but I've observed it over many nights. When the stars are especially bright, it swirls with an inky substance. Perhaps it is a measuring device, to tell the aliens when they should fly their ships."
"As for the rest of it, it's mostly tourist-trap junk," said Lucy. "But the large telescope came from the first person to have seen a UFO. Reginald Babbage; he was my grandfather. And the small telescope was donated by someone who was abducted by an alien. She had been watching the stars one night, and suddenly something snatched her right off the ground. She was found three years later, with no memory of the years that had gone by."
"Yes," said James, "I've read about that, and other abductions as well. Is there anyone else who was abducted for that long?"
"No, not that we know of. But there are many things we don't know."
"You said he only brought one orb. Where did this other one come from?"
Lucy smiled. Randall realised he had been watching them this whole time and hastily turned away to study the Dalek. If James thought he was even the slightest bit interested, he would really be in trouble. "My mother found that one, when she was a girl. But unlike the other, this one does not change."
"Is it broken?"
"Possibly this one does something that we, as mere humans, cannot be aware of. Judging from the circumstances the second one was retrieved from, I think we can assume that they're fairly indestructible. Of course, I'm still studying them. Here, give me your number and I'll call you if I learn anything new. If you're still interested, of course."
"Yes, of course I am!" said James. "Thank you so much. I really would like to know more. Thank you, Ms. Babbage."
"Please, call me Lucy."
After exchanging a number of long-winded pleasantries along these lines, Randall felt James' presence behind him and turned.
"Ready?"
"Yeah."
"Great, let's get out of here."
"Thanks for coming with me," said James, as they walked back out into the late summer sun. "It really means a lot to me."
"Yeah," said Randall, with a grin. "I know."
~*~