“Hey, let’s party out by the old dump,” Roger said. Roger was always the leader of the group, and we would do anything he wanted, or at least to a point.
My name is Zach Brillow, and sometimes I do some really stupid things, like follow Roger. He likes to party and do stupid things, but he is the big guy on campus, and I like to keep guys like him close. I’m what you would call a nerd. I hate that word just because I’m smart and not social; people like to think I walk around with a pocket protector and broken glasses. Ok, the broken glasses are real, but who wears a pocket protector?
The rest of the group threw their fists into the air and jumped on the Roger bandwagon, and we headed out to the south side of town. We pulled down a small dirt road to where they had put a chain across the fence with a sign that said ‘No Trespassers.’ Did they really think a sign on a chain between two posts was really going to keep people out? I suppose no one said you had to be smart to be a city official.
Billy grabbed the cooler with Roger and jumped the fence. I watched as Sally got out of the car; damn, she was pretty. I had a crush on her since the fourth grade. She pulled the small bag of pot out and waved at me to follow her.
“Can you hold this while I go over the fence, Zach?” she asked with a smile.
I was like a deer in headlights. I was never really good around girls. I usually got tongue-twisted and just fumbled through my words, so I was able to mumble, “Sure.”
Brian and Jamie followed behind us, carrying the bag full of snacks. We caught up to Billy and Roger just down the road and saw them staring at something on the road. When we got up to them, they looked at each other, and Roger asked, “What is it?” but I knew exactly what it was.
I bent down to pick it up and said, “I haven’t seen one of these in a while. My grandpa used to have one.”
They all stared at me, and finally Billy shoved me and said, “Ok nerd, what the fuck is it?”
I wanted to shove him back, but I knew I was never going to push around a 6’4″ two-hundred-plus guy, so I said, “It’s a transistor radio.”
They all shook their heads until Sally said, “Oh yeah, I saw one of these on the internet. Kids used to carry them in their pockets and listen to music on regular radio stations…cool.”
I turned the radio, and when I looked at the back, something looked different, and there was a sticker on the back that said, ‘Don’t turn it on.’ I thought that was kind of strange and wanted to heed the warning, though I wasn’t sure why, but Roger grabbed it from me. I tried to grab it back, but he held it above my head. He looked at the note and laughed, “What is it, a bomb?”
He pushed me down to the ground and turned the switch to the on position, and with a click, there was a loud rumble. We began to look around. There were flashes appearing around us, and everything seemed to be blurring in all directions. I tried to reach for the device but felt the strangest sensation.
I felt as though my limbs were being stretched to their limit, and I was growing taller. All I could think of was Bruce Banner and the Incredible Hulk. I all of a sudden passed out to the ground.
When I woke up, I struggled to the ground and noticed everyone was missing except for Sally, who was lying on the ground. I ran to her and saw she was still breathing, thank God. I shook her softly, and she woke up.
“Hey, Zach, what happened?”
I looked around and said, “I’m not sure, and I’m not sure where everyone else is.”
She looked at me befuddled and said, “Who else?”
I explained to her about coming out here with Billy, Rodger, and Jamie. She looked at me and said, “Who?”
I picked her up off the ground and heard a person walking up the dirt road. It was an older man with gray hair. He looked disheveled and confused until he saw us; then he started to run as well as an older man was expected to. When he finally reached us, he was out of breath and bent over. “Give me just a second.”
When he finally seemed to recover, he said, “Have you seen a little black box lying around?”
I looked around on the ground and found it. I handed it to him, and he thanked me, but he became concerned and asked if we had pushed any buttons on it. Sally and I looked at each other, and I said, “Yeah, one of the guys we were with turned it on and…”
He stopped me and shook his head and said, “No one was supposed to find this, especially some pesky teenagers.” He looked at me and shook his head.
He started to walk away, and I asked him if everything was ok. He turned back around, and I noticed the pocket protector and broken glasses, and he said, “No, everything is just fine.”
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