Jack - The Stranger

“What’s with that Jack fellow? The dogs just can’t stop barking at him.” Frank sounded angry as he was the one to go out and feed both their Labradors, Willie and Chime. 

“He is new here Frank. It will take them time to get used to him.” Melissa responded while getting back into the kitchen. 

Somehow Frank was not convinced. In fact, he was the one who joked that he had no faith on his Labs in case of a robbery. They might be cuddling around the thief. They were just too friendly to be guard dogs yet here they were incessantly barking at their new neighbor. 

“Daddy let’s go out and feed Willie and Chime.” Sarah ran out even before Frank could follow. Sarah, Frank’s nine-year-old daughter was the one to name the Labradors. As the dogs saw Sarah, they just seemed to have forgotten barking and started yelping now; playful as usual. ‘All was well then’, Frank thought. He got a sense that he could see Jack’s silhouette at the window. Though he was least bothered to test his instincts.

“Anything on your asteroid search, honey?” Melissa asked once Frank and Sarah were back in.

“Nothing yet and I don’t think it was an asteroid or there would have been some evidence of it.” Frank had a near-miss-spiritual experience just a week ago. He was a stargazer from his childhood and as luck would have it, found a job with the Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona, his home State. The perks of working at the observatory were that he could star gaze at times; that is when the observatory could take a break from mapping the Cosmos, its new stated mission.

A week back during one such break, Frank was skimming the skies for something interesting and he saw an asteroid whizzing past. 

“That’s not possible. There’s no way an entire asteroid reached so close to Earth without we knowing it.” Frank spoke into his recorder as he was the only one on duty that night. He was confused with the readings, with his sight and more so, with the new realization that dawned on him. “This thing is on a crash-course with Earth. Damn it.” Frank reached his landline and dialed the Director’s number but his attempts were in vain and so he continued on his recorder while checking the coordinates of the expected crash site.

“Emergency, Emergency, this asteroid is whizzing towards Earth. At its dimensions, it would hardly disintegrate in the atmosphere. This could be catastrophic.” Just then the coordinates of the crash site were projected on his screen and he lost a beat. 

“Oh, God, it’s heading straight here.” He ran out to rush to his home which was about twenty miles from the observatory. Logic told him that it was a futile attempt. The asteroid would crash way before he even opened the door of his car. They were only eighty-five miles from the crash site. In cosmic terms, they were the crash site. For the asteroid’s dimensions, Frank figured out that it would create a crater of 300 miles diameter. Destruction would be spread at least 10 times that diameter. Then there was a blinding flash of light.

“Daddy, Mr. Jack gave me this ball,” Sarah jumped on Frank and brought him back to the present. 

“Hold on you are not supposed to take things from strangers,” Frank said.

“Its okay honey, Jack was here and gave it to her at our place.”

“Hmm… What kind of guy is he? Hardly comes out.” Frank asked.

“Meet him tomorrow and gauge for yourself,” Melissa said. 

“Very kind of you,” Frank’s sarcasm was evident but it did not bother Melissa. The asteroid that Frank thought was going to crash never crashed. He still did not stop once he reached his car and drove all the way home. The asteroid event did not happen. The next day he was the butt of all jokes at the office. His recording was still there and the logs saw him trace something in the sky. Only the logs or the computer saw nothing. He never quite figured how such a big asteroid was not seen by others and why the comps could not trace it.

“Tomorrow, did you say? What’s tomorrow?” Melissa’s response just sank in. 

“I have invited him for dinner., Melissa said. Frank did not mind that, especially, his mother’s principles of being kind to neighbors stayed with him. He also liked hosting neighbors, again his mother’s habit and some fond memories of the gifts that the neighbors brought. That night was more or less uneventful.

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“What’s this?” Frank asked while Sarah just turned and went back to her television program.

“That’s the ball that Mr. Jack gave,” she said.

“Interesting, feels a bit different to the touch. Why does it do this?” 

“I don’t know daddy.”

“Do what?” Melissa asked.

“Turns this side up, no matter where I throw or how I throw.”

“Must be some new technology. You know like all those lights inside the ball kind.” Melissa said and continued with her chores.

The dogs started barking again. “Come on more than a week and the dogs just can’t get to know him. What’s….” Frank just stopped in at the moment. Something cleared in his head.

“An asteroid which never crashed, a neighbor which the dog doesn’t get used to, mysterious as ever yet gives Sarah a ball,” Frank said quite loud for Melissa to hear.

“Whom are you talking to?” Melissa asked.

“No one. Honey when did Jack shift here?”

“About a week back. That’s all I remember. Why?”

“Nothing. Just… just that the dogs. They just can’t get to know him yet.” Frank said. 

“Really, Frank. Is that what’s bothering you?” 

“What else….,” Frank took the ball and went to his room without waiting to hear Melissa’s response. He was a bit concerned about Jack. What if he was not a human? He again threw the ball at the table and it came back to the same position. But for a small ink spot on it, it would have been difficult to notice this peculiar trait of the ball. Frank took it to his garage and got his saw out. Without wasting a second he got cutting the ball into two.

“What the heck?” The saw broke. It was unusual considering that the ball was soft and yet was not easy to cut it. It was soft when he touched it but grew kind of hard when the saw touched it. “What kind of a technology is this? Changing form based on touch.”

The Labs were barking once again and before he could go back in, there was a tap on his garage door. Frank was not sure who that would be. He opened and saw a tall man, nearly seven foot tall standing in front of him.

“Yes?” Frank asked.

“I am Jack,” came the reply.

“Oh, so that’s you.” Frank was a bit worried. He had reasons to believe that all was not well with Jack and here he was appearing every bit scary as he could be. Frank did not like the encounter. Something about Jack was disturbing and yet he was to host him that night. “Sarah told me that you gave her this ball.”

“And yet you want to cut it?” Jack responded. That startled Frank. How did Jack, possibly know? Frank did not know what to say. If he only had worries about Jack till then, now it reached nightmare levels. Frank was literally sweating.

“Mr. Frank, I am not a person who knows much of diplomacy while speaking and definitely not the one to beat around the bush. I wanted to have all this happen in a much more discrete manner but then again, now that you are getting concerned, I am afraid, I have to come to the point straight.” Jack took the ball from him. He just twisted it and there was a click. It collapsed into a smaller piece resembling a marble. He then put it back in his pocket.

“What was that?” 

“Something similar to a camera,” Jack said.

“Who are you?”

“Jack.”

“No, who are you?”

“Schreillizgon.” Jack said.

“What. How do you even repeat that?” 

“Doesn’t matter. You work for the observatory, Mr. Frank?”

“Yes."

“And a couple of weeks back you found a way to tap into dark matter, which is still unknown to your fellow humans.” 

“Yes, I still have to submit the report.”

“Well, that report is what I want.”

“Who are you? Why are you after the report?”

“Because your report is accurate and in five years from now, your military will develop a weapon to use against your enemy. Only thing is that it will end up destroying the Universe.”

“What.”

“You see Mr. Frank, the dark matter is connected to each other even while seemingly not appearing so. While you may think you have isolated it, it still is connected to other dark matter atoms. It is just not visible to you in light, infra-red and ultra-violet light ranges. So, now when you make a weapon out of it and explode…….”

“Oh, I get it,” Frank interrupted, “If it explodes then it is not just the bomb and the place where it explodes but every other atom connected to it but not visible to us.”

“Yes, and the entire Universe is filled with dark matter. It just won’t stop here. It will continue destroying your planet, our planet, and the Universe.”

“Oh, so you are what again? Your planet? How do you know about events five years from now?”

“I have come back in time from another dimension to stop the event. You will give me the report. Never ever mention it to anyone and you will deflect or destroy all your logs which led to the discovery.”

“Basically, send others on the wrong trail.”

“Precisely.”

“What if it happens in the future?”

“It may not. Even if it does – I hope that your race would have progressed by then to know that conflicts are futile and therefore, use the dark matter only for constructive purposes.”

“Good to see you having some hopes on humanity,” Frank said. “After giving you the reports, are you going to kill me?”

“What? No. We are not humans.” Jack stared at Frank. 

“So, do I see you at dinner today?” Frank was embarrassed and tried changing the topic at a lightning pace.

“Yes, I said so to Sarah and Melissa. I will be there. But I hope you can give me the report and destroy all evidence towards this discovery within a week.”

“No, it will be done in a day. Don’t worry.”

“Thank you, Mr. Frank. I will see you tonight.” Jack turned and walked towards his home. 

Frank figured out that it must have been some kind of vessel of Jack’s that he saw in the first place. The dogs barking was also obvious now. Frank could not believe that he could become the reason for a Universal catastrophe. But then again, it was not him. He was just a stargazer with a love for discovering the unseen and unknown. It was those war manufacturers who would have led to the destruction.

Besides he was also the one hosting a guest from another planet.

‘No sir, I am not bad. I am just a stargazer!’ Frank thought, and with a more settled feeling went back in.