Chapter 17



Well, of course, I lost my court case. The judge wondered why someone would fight an obviously lost cause. Well, there are reasons, but I was not going to go into them... not with this judge.

I 'time dived' a month into my past, and hired a discrete investigative company at a cost of several thousand dollars, to follow the officer around, and to observe and to shoot independent radar of all the vehicles that particular officer cited.

I then went back to my own time, and received the video evidence that had been collected. It showed a lot of damning evidence, indeed. The officer had claimed in court to have calibrated his radar system on a specific date, yet the video evidence showed to the contrary. At the time he and his cruiser were supposed to be doing the calibration, he was in a Pondarosa Steak House, having a free steak dinner.

We also had him on tape pre-writing several tickets, and wait for a car to come by. Then he would fill in the registration and who would pay the fine. Nice racket if you can get it. Apparently he had been doing this for some time.

I then sent the tape, anonymously, to the State Attorney Generals office in California, another copy to the office of the FBI, and a couple more to high profile television news shows. The furor that resulted was gratifying, to say the least.

---

"I understand why you did it, but you were taking an unnecessary chance!" Courtney yelled at me, when I told her I was the source for the tape that was being shown on TV.

"I took precautions. I hired them with cash, and what was discovered was something that anyone, ANYONE with a video camera, could have discovered. No, I made damn sure that I was unassailable. You notice my car is only one of a number that is represented in this piece and that all the license numbers are blanked out.

"Look, it is a time honored tradition to screw people with out of state plates, and zap them with hefty fines, but it is time to change that. We are not the state's food source, but they seem to think we are. If I can expose obvious cheating or theft by the system, then I will do it. It's despicable," I said seriously.

"All I am saying is, run these little things by me, first. I might have an idea or a way to get something accomplished in a way you might not think about," Courtney said, and then blew at stray hair that had the audacity to fall from her carefully arranged hair-do. She was so cute when she did that.

It was not surprising when I received a check from the state of California for court costs, and the fine; but they had even included my attorney's fee. Ha! Victory was sweet, and I felt I had accomplished something.

Still, so far, the judge had apparently gotten away with his portion, and I was sure he was involved with it, too. Oh well, one thing at a time.

I concentrated on finding and reconditioning several older cars. I found another Dusenberg, and this one I was going to keep for myself! It was in much better condition. It just needed a new generator, and a couple of other items. I 'time dived' to the past, not as far as the time of the great car, but to when there were still in the junkyards. That's what they were called back then, not the 'politically correct': automotive salvage yards. Shit, but I was getting very annoyed with the constant 'political correctness' police, trying to enforce their own agenda down my throat.

I got the car running like a top. St. Louis, city and county, could see me driving it from time to time. There was no way I was NOT going to drive this beauty. It was an engineering marvel, and I so appreciated the thought and time that had gone into the creation of this masterpiece of 'heaven on wheels'.

Winter of 2001 was nice and cozy with Courtney. She enjoyed the snow. We had several snowball fights, and built a snowman. It stood in our front yard for an amazing amount of time, welcoming all who showed up.

She also had ideas on how to finish one of the rooms I had left unfinished. It was actually a good idea. We worked well together as I fell deeper in love with this girl from England. She was such a joy with her bubbly personality, and her bit of mischievousness, too. She loved playing little jokes on me. It would not surprise me to find out she had contrived some little surprise. So much for that much vaunted 'British reserve'.

We were sipping hot chocolate one evening, watching the snow come down, when she asked a question that gave me pause for thought.

"How come the future you was able to bring through something he had placed in the 'between' for storage, but you can't bring anything through that he placed into storage?"

Now, this was a very good question.

"It has to do with my perception of the time line I am in. I need a connection to the item placed in the 'between'. While my future self had no problems with hauling out what he had placed in the 'between'; I can't do the same, because I have not lived the time he has accumulated, nor did I place the items in the 'between' as of yet. It would be like trying to grasp nothing, for me. My brain has not yet registered the items or lived the time, as my future self did.

"Also, I am not so sure that the this time line is still unaffected by his coming to the past and placing the car, the items it had in it, and this computer at my disposal. The computer has noticed enough of a discrepancy to suggest the possibility of an alternate time line developing because of his actions. This is something we just won't know for sure," I finished musingly.

"Oh, bother. I am sure if you pay attention to what you are doing, you won't hurt us. The problem is getting you to pay attention to the little details. That's where I come in. I will keep you on the right path," Courtney informed me.

Just then, there was a crash and the lights went out. A moment later, the generator kicked in, and we had power again. I sighed.

"Guess I should go out and check, to see the damage. Obviously something took a line down," I said, moving my arm out from under Courtney.

"Do be careful. I would be very angry if you got electrocuted. I have plans for you," Courtney said, and curled up in the place I had just left.

"You're not coming with me?" I asked curiously.

"Are you crazy? It's cold out there! Mother did not raise a fool. It's a man's job to go out and do; it is my job to direct. Go; seek out the damage. Return and give me a report. There's a good chap," Courtney said with a wave of her hand.

I yanked her off the couch, dumped her unceremoniously onto the floor and ran out laughing. She was a nut, but she was my little nut.

---

The New Year came and went. I was keeping a low profile, but was getting spooked by the government's spying abilities on the general public, which they were granting themselves. It was a recipe for disaster if you asked me.

The security that was instituted at airports was ridiculous. The idea of checking every person to make sure they weren't carrying a bomb or a thermal nuclear device in their pants pocket was ridiculous, to say the least! It also annoyed me in two other ways. It canceled my innocent until proven guilty guarantee that I had in the Constitution, and the Bill of rights. It also insulted the individual being searched.

There was no way the millions of travelers that went through the airports were terrorists or hijackers. Come on, did they actually think it reasonable to search all people for that possible one guy getting ready to board a plan with an assault kit? That was carrying reasonable search and seizure laws on the books overboard. They had to know the vast majority of fliers were innocent travelers. But it did upset big brother to counter a person's rights, and people were blinding letting the government get away with that! It was not reasonable to assume all were guilty, and that's the only way they could actually justify their actions. I was so glad I could teleport. At least I didn't have to go through that phony excuse for security that the government was perpetrating on the people.

With my computer, I was able to monitor what the government was actually doing with people's phone accounts and records, bank accounts, taxes, you name it, they got into it, 'searching for terrorists'... any excuse or 'port in the storm', hmmm?

For example, the NSA had computers that were monitoring every single email going out of the country as well as phone calls. No, they did not have the manpower to listen or read them all, but their computers could.

For example, I picked several random emails that they had looked at. They had been flagged by agency's computers, because of certain words in the emails. One had the word explosive in it. It turned out to be a woman describing her orgasm to her friend overseas. But a human had to read this, because the computer flagged it. That was just an example of what our tax dollars were funding. It was the total invasion of our privacy, due to 'possible' terrorist activity. Uh huh. And the moon really is made of green cheese, too.

Another example, was an email describing the Fourth of July show a man's company was ordering. Another obvious terrorist. I mean, who would celebrate freedom in America, now? Come on! Obviously they were really terrorists, right? It was only March after all, and still months away from the Fourth of July!

But this was 'big brother' in action. All were deemed guilty until proven innocent by an agent 'of the government, for the government, and by the government' to misquote the saying. All this, despite our Constitution. Everything flagged was: 'a potential terrorist communiqué'. This, literally, ran into the hundreds of thousands of flags a day. Guess the government had strict criteria of what met the 'possible' terrorist's level.

In all honesty, I could sort of understand why they were reacting as they did. All governments were run by humans; and living, breathing beings, moved to protect themselves. Governments had greater protections at their disposal than the average citizen, and that's the way they liked it. A government stepping over the line did not want to have the citizens rise up in anger, which was why laws were on the books to prevent citizens from doing just that. Can't have the average citizen rise up in anger when the government is squashing rights...

Another thing I had noticed recently, was call in talk shows. Courtney was addicted to them. She was listening to one station constantly, then flipping to another one, just two stations total. She pointed out an inconsistency to me, which gave me chills when I thought about it.

Supposedly law-abiding citizens were more and more showing by their double standards, how thin the veneer of civilized behavior is becoming. More and more people were voicing the hope that certain people caught doing specific crimes got attacked sexually in prison. HUH?

This only demonstrated to me that the only difference between the criminal who did the crime, and the citizen voicing his or her outrage by suggesting they hope the criminal gets attacked; was that the criminal got caught doing something. The so-called law-abiding citizen was a coward, hiding behind a phone, hoping a crime would be committed.

What was different between the two? One got caught doing the crime, and the other had not been caught doing anything, as of yet. If you ask me, someone who expressed that type of outrage was just as guilty as the person doing the crime. He or she was stating their honest opinion, in the hopes of a crime being committed. Despicable behavior.

Why is it despicable? Because we are a country of laws, and once the state convicted a person, they became that person's guardian. Citizens were advocating illegal actions on those talk shows, in the hopes of appeasing their baser instincts. We could not fall to such vigilantism, or we were no better than the criminal.

Don't like the law? Change it. I have no problems with people who are charged with specific crimes being executed for them. Just be sure they did those crimes before you enact vengeance.

Already lots of people were being exonerated and released from prison, who were in prison for crimes they had not done. DNA has a way of doing that. Be a shame to kill someone, and then discover that the person had not done it. A respectable number of DEATH ROW inmates appear to be NOT GUILTY of the crime they had been committed or found guilty for. Go figure. This is what comes from 'vigilante justice', or a 'rush to judgment'. Nothing like circumstantial evidence to convict someone, eh?

Courtney was very vocal on the subject, but she never called any of the shows. She pointed out inconsistencies to me, and then roasted me verbally, for their stupidity! Like, it was my fault, or something?

---

Not all was doom or gloom. In the summer of 2002, I took her to Six Flags. She loved it! She liked camping and roughing it, too. We spent as much time camping, as we desired. I had control of time, after all.

One of her favorite spots was the Circle B Ranch down in Eminence, Missouri. We rented a cabin there, and did some canoe trips. All in all, a very nice little camping trip.

I also took her farther back in time, and we camped out under the stars in my tent. We had a great time, a couple hundred years in the past. Best thing about that was: no other campers.

Edited by TeNderLoin

Chapter 18