Megan and Her Shrink Ray Gun

Chapter 10: Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Scrapper asked Megan and Shelly to stay after class to look over the rough drafts of their essays. When all of the other students were gone, he addressed them.

“Let’s not play games with each other,” Scrapper began. “I know you have a device I want, and you know I know. The sooner you give it back, the sooner I can restore the mind of your real teacher with my memory suppressor and return to my own century.”

What would you do with that technology?” Megan asked. “Would you make the world a better place?”

“In my era,” Scrapper replied, “we’re not concerned with the world, we’re in the process of colonizing the galaxy! By the way, where is the shrink ray gun?”

“A friend has it for safe keeping!” Megan replied. She was hoping Scrapper wouldn’t look in her backpack and find it.

Meanwhile, Margaret had left work early to pick Megan up from school. She drove to the junior high school to check on her daughter’s attendance. She entered the office and the receptionist called Scrapper to the office. Shelly grabbed a flash drive from Scrapper’s satchel when he left the classroom, and stuck it in her bra.

While Margaret waited for Scrapper, a much older man who worked in the office tried to ask her out to dinner. He was about a generation older than Margaret, but still thought of himself as a player.

Margaret replied, “I don’t mean to be rude, but I don’t date people who were present at the signing of the Magna Carta.”

He persisted, mentioning various restaurants in the area he could take her to. Scrapper arrived.

“Mr. Scrapper and I are dating. But lotsa luck!”

Margaret turned her attention to Scrapper. “I’m going to take Megan to a warehouse store to buy a lot of ice cream for Friday night. I’m also getting about a dozen two liters of root beer. So are we still on for Friday night?”

“Yes, I’d like to learn more about you!” Scrapper replied.

Megan met up with her mom with her two books in the backpack, and they went to a supermarket to get the root beer. Afterwards, they drove to the warehouse store, where they bought ice cream for Friday night. They had to get their receipt checked and Megan’s backpack checked at the door. Margaret mentioned that they aren’t thieves.

The woman checked Megan’s backpack and saw the shrink ray and the two books Scrapper had given her.

“What is this?” The woman asked, indicating the shrink ray gun.

“It’s a toy shrink ray gun,” said Megan.

“I doubt a 13 year old girl is a thief,” said Margaret.

“There was a crime ring operating at this store,” the door checker explained, “where a cashier and door checker allowed a woman to take expensive items she hadn’t paid for.“

Margaret and Megan exited the store with their grocery cart full of groceries.

“Mom,” said Megan, “I’m embarrassed because that woman is Paisley Pryor’s mom, and Paisley is the most popular girl at my junior high school. Her brother is Sammy Pryor, the cutest boy in school.”

“Does Sammy have any prior convictions for being cute?” Margaret asked.

The joke went over Megan’s head.

“Who gave you the toy shrink ray gun?” Margaret asked.

“Shelly’s brother,” Megan replied.

“A shrink ray gun seems more like something a boy would have,” Margaret replied. “I remember a show when I was young about people traveling through time with a brass device that looked like a pocket watch, and I think a replica of that would be cooler than a shrink ray gun.”

After they returned home, Megan helped put the root beer in the spare fridge and the numerous gallons of ice cream in the spare freezer in the garage.

Later that afternoon, Megan was at Shelly’s that afternoon and showed her the schematics for a transtator on her laptop, which was on the flash drive she took from Scrapper. She took screenshots of all the schematics and promised to return the flash drive at school the next day.

“You’re good at science and math, can you figure out what this thing does?” Shelly asked Megan.

After looking through the various schematics, Megan said, “It looks like some kind of dimensional inverter. It amplifies power, so a 9 volt battery could power an entire city for a week!”

Shelly printed out the schematics on her printer.

“How are the bank robbers doing?” Megan asked.

“They won’t come out of their getaway car,” said Shelly, “and since they’re immortal, they don’t need food, water or to use the bathroom, so they can stay in there indefinitely. I think they’re freaked out!”

Megan smiled. “It’s hard to feel sorry for them. I’m still a little shook up from the robbery yesterday, those bank workers are probably going to need therapy!”

To Be Continued!