Our Story
When I was walking into Border’s I had the same feeling I had when, as a kid, my dad took me to Zigmunt Zelinsky’s giant house at Westmoreland Place. There was an indescribable energy that filled the house, my skin almost tingled with it. The house was a museum of strange and unusual artifacts. My favorite room was the magnificent conservatory on the third floor with glass windows on the ceilings paned in beautiful oak frames. Mosaics and paintings from places all around the world covered every wall. The house, so grand and huge, you could get yourself lost in it without even trying. There is a lot of irony in that statement about getting lost when I tell you that upstairs in the conservatory, old Zigmunt, or Professor Ziggy as I always remembered him, was putting together a time machine. Said he always wanted to get himself lost in some other time and place. He always talked about being born in the wrong century. Obsessed about it actually to the point that I began to wonder if he was not just a little crazy. His obsession eventually became dad’s obsession also. At first dad would spend evenings after work tinkering around with the contraption, but eventually he stayed hours into the night, coming home long after I went to bed. Dad and I drifted apart when I went to college out of the country. Mom had passed away when I was a child. Dad passed away when I was a senior in college and at Dad’s funeral, Ziggy and I exchanged pleasantries, promised to keep in touch, but didn’t. Oh, I sent him a Christmas card every year with my name signed at the bottom of whatever was already printed on the card. I suppose there was some resentment on my part, feeling that Ziggy took my father away to chase after some unreachable dream of traveling in time. I eventually moved back to St. Louis, but didn’t look Old Ziggy up. I just always imagined that he would be up in that conservatory till he drew his last breath trying unsuccessfully to get his time machine up and running.
Imagine my surprise when I returned home from work to find this note taped to my front door:
I have the most amazing news. It will change your life forever. Please meet me at Border’s on Brentwood at 10:00 tomorrow morning. I will be in the science fiction section. Until then, Ziggy
At 10:00 I stood in front of the door at Border’s. I thought back to the old house on Westmoreland and the conservatory. I got goose bumps. Something told me that what ever Ziggy had to tell me was connected to that time machine. The glass doors slid open …
