“There!” I shouted. It was perfect. A tiny little hut called The Hot Dog Show. Right on Ventura, plenty of ways to see out.
“See any of that alloy?” Ellen asked as Ellis abruptly pulled into the left turn lane.
“Please just watch the road,” I begged.
“Nope,” Ellis said, answering his sister. “No weird gold metal trim.”
It was settled, then. I wanted to eat there – anywhere, really – but there because the marquee said Chicago Style Vienna Beef and Duck Fat Fries. I knew the one but not the other. Ma made roasted duck sometimes, though, and it was good.
“Just about closing, kids,” a very overweight and very Polish guy said as we walked in. “But come on in. Sit anywhere you like. Big fella, watch the till if I’m in the back.”
We all laughed. He was one of those naturally funny grups. Someone’s favorite uncle, for sure. And I didn’t have to ask, but I did.
“From Chicago?” I asked.
“You bet,” he said. “Cortez Street. You’re Skokie, right?” I must’ve gasped or something.
“How did you know? Most people think I’m Mexican.”
“The chosen people,” he said, as if that explained everything. “Now, look, you guys have to have fries cause you’re getting a special deal: a whole batch for the price of one.” He grinned. ‘Cause now I’m closed.” The Cool Owner walked over to the end of the tiny little hot dog shack and turned the sign over.
“They’ve never had a real hot dog,” I said.
“Okay, start on these,” Cool Owner said, reaching behind and grabbing a basket of red hot fries from the fryer. He shook, salted, and dumped a massive load of unpeeled fries on a platter. “So I know what you want. What do you think they can handle?”
“The whole deal,” I said.
“You sure?” Cool Owner said. The twins didn’t exactly present the image of adventurous eaters. But I nodded. I wanted to see how Ellen would react to neon green relish.
We almost finished the impossibly good duck fat fries when our dogs arrived. Cool Owner brought not three, but six. If Ellen and Ellis were in any way surprised by hot dogs with a pickle wedge and a slice of tomato, I didn’t see it. They devoured what the world considered a very odd sandwich.
They didn’t even ask about the celery salt. Me, I wasn’t wild about that part but it wasn’t like I could do anything but go full whammy. I had to know how long Cool Owner had lived in L.A. but the three of us had business.
“Okay,” I said. “I usually notice these things, but I guess I hadn’t done too much walking around until, uh, yesterday.” My outrage over The Munsters, which still had not been explained, seemed like a long time ago. “But the blinds, I mean, the part of the blinds that faces outward, they’re all over the place. And usually people don’t all use the same blinds unless it’s one of those, what d’you call it, planned neighborhoods.”
“HOAs,” Ellen said knowledgeably. Cool Owner was in the back, and she leaned forward. “We have to try to think of every place we’ve seen this stuff. I think…my best guess is it’s a simple IFF system.”
“What does that mean?” I asked. Ellis was nodding.
“Identify: Friend or Foe,” he said. “A system that can be as simple as a flag on a ship. It tells people who you are.”
“Or who you’re pretending to be,” Ellen sounded a bit annoyed that Ellis actually knew something. “You’ll have to trust me on this…you’ve already seen that the tuner has…” she looked again toward the back…“rudimentary brainwave analysis properties. This alloy, which I’m now certain includes europium and neodymium, is almost certainly sensitive to intense thoughts.”
“Uh, intense thoughts?” I repeated.
“I’m oversimplifying because whoever made the alloy would adjust it to whatever he was trying to pick up. But given all the circumstances, it’s most likely a danger warning system.”
“I agree,” I said. “Which means – sorry – your mom is in this up to her neck.” Ellis frowned but Ellen nodded a little.
“Oh, she must know someone’s keeping an eye on us. She talks to Grandpa Schultz all the time.” I thought of the kindly old man’s picture in their den. “You can’t give her too much credit, though,” Ellen added. “She relies totally on him. And the whole thing smells like one of his high-tech projects. The kind he used to protect himself from the Nazis and the Communists. They depended on him.”
“So you’re saying she knows there’s something out there watching out for her kids, but she doesn’t know what it is?” I said, considering.
“Do you think that’s likely?” Ellis asked. His voice was quiet, but there was a lot riding on my answer. They knew by now that I would almost certainly know if their parents were lying.
“Yeah,” I said. “She knows something but not the details. Sorry, sport, but no one’s that good an actress. Your mom is not…I mean, she is an incredible mother, but…”
“She’s dumb,” Ellis said. “I know.” I didn’t like where the mood was heading and I cut it off.
“Listen, we have to be all business here,” I said. “We have to assume people in the neighborhood, like the perv across the street, are actually working with Grandpa Schultz to keep an eye on you. The lady with the pink car is one of them.” Ellen nodded again.
“So they know right where we are,” Ellen said. “They’re not worried or they’d pick us up in a heartbeat.”
“Yeah,” I said. “Everyone was desperate for us to get over our misunderstanding. Now we’re all having a nice dinner together, they’re not going to mess with it. Everyone’s happy.”
Cool Owner emerged from the back.
“You kids still hungry?” I gave Ellen a warning look, but it was a waste of time.
“I could put away one or two more,” she said.
“Attagirl! Kids’re still growing, need to eat,” he said. “Just so happens I’m boiling a few more. And I’m such a gapa, I made another batch of fries. They’ll be on the house.” He paused. “They’ll be ready in a few minutes. You mind if I ask you something?”
We really didn’t mind at all. You didn’t meet too many guys like him.
“I wasn’t listening in, it’s really noisy in there. But I got an ear for the word Nazi,” he said. “Won’t bore you but anyone my age from the Old Country, we seen a lot.”
“I’m sure,” Ellis said. “I read a lot about history.”
“Good for you,” the grup said. “You can learn everything from history. Now you’re all very smart, I can tell that, too. I got a question that may be right up your alley. It’s about computers.”
We automatically looked at Ellen. But Cool Owner continued to talk to all three of us.
“You guys are lucky to be growing up now. I heard they’re gonna fix it so all computers can talk to each other. And then everyone will be able to say anything at all they want to say,” he said. “I mean, read anything people write, talk about anything at all.”
Ellen nodded cautiously. “Well, that’s the talk, yes. There are some obstacles. But, yeah, I’m sure they’ll get it.”
The man shook his head. “Amazing. My wife, lost her to pneumonia,” the three Catholics crossed themselves unconsciously, “she said I could always see the bad in anything. Always looked for the negative.”
“What concerns you?” I asked, hoping we’d get right to the point.
“Well…it’s probably not realistic. But, I wonder, if all that information is out there, and everyone talks all the time, what will happen to the newspapers?”
That seemed to come out of nowhere.
“Why would there be a problem with newspapers?” Ellis asked.
“It’s just a thing I have, I guess. I’ve seen two countries with state-run press, right? The truth is whatever they say it is,” he said.
“We have a free press here,” Ellis said.
“And right now,” Ellen said, “sending messages is one thing, but there’s nothing like the ability to store large amounts of data that you’d need. Or access it simply. That’s way ahead of us now.”
“I see,” Cool Owner said. “But, like you said, seems like lthey always figure things out.” Ellen nodded. “So, you know, the free press. And truth. When I came to this country, I figured America would have known all about the Holocaust. And everything Hitler did to the Polish people. Know what I found out?”
“Um, what?” I asked.
“Even the greatest paper in this country, the Gray Lady, said nothing about Jews being killed. And Jews ownthat paper. I asked anyone I could find, and they told me back then the country was anti-Semitic. They didn’t want to call special attention to the Jewish people. I never understood it. Never will.” Ellis nodded.
“It’s true that the U.S. turned a blind eye to it,” Ellis said. “There were political and economic concerns.”
“And what do you make of that, big fella?”
“Cowardice,” Ellis said. Just that one word.
“You’re a special kid,” Cool Owner said. “Never lose that, okay?” Cool Owner looked ten years older for a second. Then he smiled again. “Hey, the Jews finally got their own country, right? So maybe people were a little smarter than me. They did all right in the end.”
“It is never acceptable to sacrifice innocent people to gain something greater,” Ellis said. Wow. This was a different Ellis…special, like the guy said.
Cool Owner nodded. “You’re wiser than I am. Look, I’m gonna burn the fires. Better go.”
That had been interesting…and it was nice to see Ellis having some confidence. He sure knew more than I did. But we had to get back to business. When the food arrived, we ate.
Ellen inhaled her food and then started, finally, telling me about the tuner. I swear, I almost lost my shit. What she was telling me…it was impossible. I’d already figured out on my own that she grab old TV shows and stuff. Right? And it was amazing enough to realize that she could do it with touch and thought. How cool was that? I mean, there was nothing like it. Even in Star Trek. Ellen was a massive, gifted genius
But...the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, was so much bigger. This one week in my life, I’d been hit by a tornado followed by a hurricane. Now a volcano was erupting.
Ellen was telling the truth. Not “as she saw it.” The literal truth.
“Excuse me,” I said. My eyes were tearing up and I didn’t want them to see. If they did, I suppose there might be a hundred reasons why. I grabbed a paper napkin and pretended I was blowing my nose. Meantime, the idiots were squabbling over Ellen being a pig.
They were just so totally, utterly innocent. No clue at all. This Grandpa Schultz, or whatever he was, had been a monster. They, the two of them, a perfect athlete and an uber genius, did not just happen out of the blue. But they never questioned. Not even Ellen, who should’ve known something was weird. Their complete faith in being some version of normal had to be Mrs. Foster’s greatest accomplishment.
I got myself under control and silenced their fight. Ellen came up with a good plan.
“I’m calling the alloy AurNydE.” Aurineed is what it sounded like. “Since it’s all over the place at Carnaval Midway, that’s where we’ll go to buy time.” That totally confused me. Ellis, too.
“That’s stupid,” he said. “That’s the last place we should go.”
“Really? There’s thousands of people there. They’re used to seeing us there, the IFF system doesn’t go off. And aren’t you forgetting there’s none in the steam tunnels?”
What a gapa I was. She was right. Perfect idea.
“You are brilliant,” I said.
“Well, of course.” She was also smart enough to bring some cash. I only had fifteen bucks.
“Thanks, kids,” Cool Owner. “You come back anytime.”
“Thanks, man,” I said. “I love this place. How long have you been here?”
“Since 1962,” he said. He smiled. “I got out with my wife and my skin and considered myself lucky.”
We marched out and piled into the pink car. This time I was in the front with Ellis.
“That was the best place ever,” Ellis said. “What’s wrong?”
“What’s wrong is you’re looking at me instead of the road,” I said. “Hey, why are we turning around?”
“We need to pick up the tuner,” Ellis said.
“Why?” I said.
“Really?” Ellen said. “I can’t leave it for someone else to fuck with.”
“Besides,” Ellis said, looking at me again. I physically pointed his face back at the road.
“Besides,” Ellen said. “You need to really believe. I’m not sure you do.”
I nodded. I believed it, but Ellen was right. I needed to see it. I mean, Cool Owner was worried about people talking to each other with computers? He had no clue.
Ellen’s tuner could find memories. Memories, all memories, people living and dead, were stored somewhere. Just like the TV shows. Ellen said something I did not understand about a liquid core and a solid core. It didn’t matter. She was tuning into memories.
Moral issues? Ellen Foster was bringing people back and sticking them somewhere she called electron space. And some shadowy people with huge resources had their hands on her technology.
So, naturally, we were off to Carnaval Midway. Tra-la-la.