Jimmy Ran across the Yard and Plunged...

Thousand+ Words for Dec 19, 2025

Jimmy ran across the yard and plunged into the woods that started past where his father stopped mowing. Their house was on the edge of the subdivision, and the undeveloped dozen or so acres that separated their subdivision from the next one was a constant source of entertainment for the two boys, brothers, who lived at that address.

“Wait for me!” Bobby called as he ran after his faster older brother. Bobby plunged into the woods and ran along the pathway between the brush and trees that Jimmy, Bobby, and the other neighborhood boys had worn.

But Jimmy was already well ahead of him, on his way to the central clearing.

In the spacecraft above the woods, unseen and unsuspected, the two boys, one running after the other, were blue dots on a grid screen. They moved on the screen as two of the spacecraft’s occupants watched. “Thirty,” the One of them said. It said the word in its own language, of course; the strange sound hung in the air for several seconds until the material with which the inside of the ship was lined absorbed it, converted it, and transferred its energy back to the ship’s power reserves.

“Thirty-one, I think” the Other of them said.

They referred to the number of times the boys had come to the central clearing during the several weeks that the ship had been hovering there, above it, monitoring. It remained undetected through an unconventional transferring of time—the precise mechanism involved Planck times and the still undetected and unsuspected-by-Man intervals in between.

“It’s time,” the One said.

“Yes. It’s time,” the Other agreed

The two of them manipulated several dials and switches and controls on the odd panel before which they stood.

Jimmy was in the clearing now, and he stopped running. A few moments and Bobby was there too, panting. The boys stood silently and still as they registered the form in the middle of the clearing. It was collection of bones, a skeleton, its parts bleached white from years exposed on the surface of a moon that orbited the planet where the ancient, planet-bound members of the One and the Other’s race had been born and had grown and developed. They eventually left their poisoned planet, taking residence on the several moons that circled it.

The bones had lain exposed to the system’s star for an uncharted and unknowable period of a single interval between one of the Multiverse’s Planck times and the next. And now they were in the clearing.

“What’s that?” Bobby asked.

“It’s bones,” Jimmy answered, peering at them.

“Bones of what?”

“I dunno.”

Despite a small library of animal books and an precocious interest in science fiction, Jimmy could not have known or imagined the animal whose living tissue had once draped these bones. It had been a ramah, a large semi-sentient pouched mammal that had once been bred and raised for the One and the Other’s race to ride; they were the horses of ancient Velpa. Nobody rode ramahi anymore though—in fact, the species did not even exist any longer.

“It’s a dinosaur!” Bobby said as he lunged forward to touch it.

“No!” Jimmy said, but it was too late. As Bobby approached and kneeled down, a blue shaft of light winked, and then Bobby was gone.

“Hey!” Jimmy said, looking around. He drew closer to the pile of bones, looking up and down, around and around, and then, looking up again, he noticed the bottom of the ship floating there, only yards above him. The ship became more visible as Jimmy’s personal time began to phase out of the local synchronization and find a new center in the space between the Planck times.

At the same time, Jimmy’s view of his surroundings faded. He was being separated from the ticks and tocks of his own time, just as his brother had been.

From Jimmy’s point of view, his brother’s removal had taken only an instant. But the perception was different from this end, from the point of view of the person being removed. ”What is this?” Jimmy said to a fading world.

Above, in the ship, the One and the Other stood in front of a glassy panel and observed the boy sitting on a bench inside a small room. He’d been on the ship for what seemed to him to be hours now. He had screamed and cried himself out and now simply sat, head hanging, silently, breathing in and out. “When will the other one come?” the Other asked in their strange language. The walls absorbed the sounds after many moments.

“Soon,” the One responded. "We must wait for the return from the Council." When Bobby had been brought onboard the ship, a signal had been sent to the Council to inform that the first boy was aboard and to request permission to bring the other boy aboard. The signal progressed on its long journey to headquarters, traveling at 40 times the local speed of light, but only between the Planck times for this particular Universe. In due time, the Council received the signal, processed it, answered, and then the answer made its way to the One and the Other as they waited. The answer was received and the One and the Other responded.

As they stood there, the other boy materialized in the cell. His brother looked up, face streaked, and he stood up. “There you are,” Jimmy said. He looked around. ”Where are we?”

The One and the Other turned and walked away, leaving the two brothers to get used to their new cage. A manipulation of controls and the ship continued on its long voyage.