ASPEN- Chapter Eight

Chapter Eight-C
After about a week of deliberating, debating, and thinking Inspector Woods and I decided that we should go to the site of Aspen's disappearance and sort of scope it out. We had packed his car full of food and clothes. We were prepared for an elongated study of the fourth dimension.
"I am so intrigued by this opportunity to discover one of the points that the fourth dimension touches in this three dimensional world," he said while driving us out there.
"Okay well don't get your hopes up. I'm not so sure I want to be there when it opens up or whatever it does. I don't really want to get chucked into another time or worse. The only reason I'm doing this is because it's going towards finding Aspen," all I could think was that this guy was a huge weirdo. I mean I could understand his talk, it wasn't that hard, but gosh what a dork.
"What do we do if we get... you know pulled into the fourth dimension?" I asked.
"Go along for the ride."
"You were the one that said that there were so many dangers and effects of the fourth dimension that could possibly KILL us!" he nodded eagerly, "So why are you so enthused to test them out. I'm pretty sure no one's insurance covers time travel."
"Because the chance of us catching that instantaneous rip in that dimension is one out of a zillion. It seems to me that it should be quite impossible that your friend ended up doing so, especially on accident."
"Alright. Still if Aspen found that one in a zillion chance that means that even though it is highly improbable, it is still possible for us to find it too. What is our game plan for that one in another zillion?"
"Well if we die, we do not really need a game plan, I think that is one of the few situations in which all you can do is go along for the ride. If we don't, we find out what time we are in, where we are, and if Aspen landed there."
"Good plan. And, dude, really? Take off the weird spy glasses. They make you look like a bug," I said once we pulled up to the cabin. He pulled them off of his face quickly and tossed them in the back seat. He looked hurt.
"Nice place," he said, shutting his door.
"Thanks. Now do you want to see this portal thing or not?"
"Yes please, where was she about?" I walked over to the edge of the trees and looked in. Then I backed up to where I had been standing when she disappeared. I again walked towards the woods and walked in about fifteen feet.
"Right here," I said. He walked to the spot. And sat there for a second frowning at the ground where I had pointed.
"Why such a random location?"
"Nothing in nature is random. There must be a reason it is here."
"Good thinking. Now we can discover why here or we can test the portal, and possibly find out if it is still active."
"I go with the second."
"I also. Now let's begin," we decided that we would place something on the spot, but have it be big enough so that if my estimate of the spot was off we would still be in the neighborhood. We agreed on a tarp he had in his trunk. We staked it to the ground. Then we would stay at the cabin and look every once in a while to see if it was still there. It sounds really simple and kind of stupid, but hey it worked. After about a week the tarp was gone.
That day at breakfast we talked about what to do, "We can either put something else there and see if it goes too, or we can go there ourselves and see where we end up," I suggested.
"I say we time travel," he said sipping some coffee.
"Well, what if a bear just took it or something, though. I mean couldn't that be a possibility?"
"I suppose so, but I checked the area and there were no signs of animal intrusion. I don't think animals had anything to do with it," he said.
"Oh, well you can start putting up the tent out there, and remember once we're out there, there is no coming back. We need to stay near the spot because we still don't know how big it is exactly, so stock up on food and stuff."
"Okay, I think I will have to go shopping for more food then," he said as he stood up, pushed his chair in, dumped the rest of his coffee down the sink, grabbed his keys and walked out the door.
I had been thinking about what he was really like. I had discovered that his first name was Jack. He was weird, nerdy, dorky, and completely not cool, but... well there was something more than that. Don't get me wrong, I didn't start liking him or something. But he was brave at heart. With that much time on our hands, we talked a lot. He had said that he figured he would never get married, he hardly ever had any relationships, because of his work he explained, and those he did have were short and never worked out. He said he didn't mind, since all he had ever wanted to do was be an inspector and solve cases. So he figured he had all he needed or wanted. I could tell that he wanted more from life, but he didn't know who could give it to him. I had started to feel kind of bad for the guy. But the main thing on my mind was finding Aspen. I cared about her more than this new guy even if he was a sad dude.