Dancing in the sunshine…«
Baljeet covered his ears. He was sitting in the right backseat of the Van Stomm family’s car - Buford’s mother, Biffany, had agreed on driving them to… well, wherever the bully’s father lived. As it turned out, she really enjoyed listening to the radio while driving, which was nothing Baljeet would have normally minded. Biffany Van Stomm, however, had turned the volume up so high that even the most uplifting song became nearly unbearable.
The Indian boy had attempted to ask her about lowering the volume, but his good manners and need for security prevented him from yelling at her or putting a hand on her shoulder. She was already driving on the very edge of the speed limit - what if trying to get her attention was so unexpected for her that she caused an accident? Baljeet thought of wildly drawing attention to himself in the rear view mirror; however, Biffany was so distracted by the song, he doubted she would notice anything.
All he could do was somehow endure this nearly deafening music. Baljeet was certain that even from a scientific point of view, it was very close to being dangerous for his ears.
Or he could ask Buford for help.
The bully was sitting on the left backseat, staring outside, and seemingly not caring at all about the music. Baljeet could still not believe what he had seen minutes ago: how was it possible that Buford, out of all people, was this skilled at programming? Something was fishy about that - and it was not Buford’s goldfish.
»Buford?«, Baljeet asked in his usual volume, and, as expected, the bully did not react at all. The Indian boy sighed and took the risk of poking him - which led to Buford instinctively swinging a fist at his nerd. Luckily, Baljeet managed to dodge this move, putting his hands on his ears again in the hope of his friend understanding what that meant.
»Mom!«, Buford exclaimed, in a voice not much louder than usual.
To Baljeet’s surprise, Biffany heard her son, and replied without lowering the music’s volume, »Yes, honey, what is it?«
Baljeet flinched. Buford’s mother had a naturally loud voice that made him do that every time she spoke, and she did not even have to raise her voice to be understood in the car. Then, Biffany spotted Baljeet with his covered ears, looked from him to the radio and back again, and grinned like she just had an epiphany. When she finally turned down the volume, Baljeet sighed so loudly and intensely that it must have sounded like he had just discovered heaven - or, at least, the corner of it where all his scientific heroes had ended up. He uncovered his ears… and quickly put his hands back on them.
Baljeet had not believed there was anything louder than the car radio, but he was mistaken.
»Get out of my way!«, Biffany yelled , followed by several words Baljeet would never dare to say and the honking of her car. She drove past some other cars, definitely being over the speed limit, and around narrow curves before coming to a halt so abruptly that the Indian boy almost vomited.
»We’re there!«, Biffany exclaimed in a comparatively low volume, seemingly unbothered by everything that had just happened. »Make sure to greet the guys from me!«
»Sure thing, Mom!«, Buford replied, getting out of the car. Baljeet followed him, watching him wave to Biffany before she put her foot on the speed pedal and drove away to unnaturally loud music.
»You okay, nerd?« Buford seemed to have seen the still a little sick look on his friend’s face.
Baljeet nodded, not wanting to be made fun of. »Your mother has an… interesting driving style.«
»Far more exciting than dinner bell’s rollercoaster, I know«, the bully grinned before following the sidewalk leading away from the road.
Baljeet sighed - he would never truly understand this boy. He hurried after Buford, whose steps were naturally bigger than Baljeet’s, and gulped when he saw where his friend was taking him.
They were walking towards two not very welcoming-looking buildings: Danville’s central police station on the left, and on the right… the city’s prison.
Please go left, please go left, please go left… , he repeated in his head, anxiously watching Buford.
He turned right.
Baljeet stopped walking and just stared at the brick building in front of him. Nobody had ever mentioned anything about Buford’s father at all, and now he realized why. And in retrospect, this explained so much: Buford’s attitude regarding violence, his unnaturally huge knowledge about prisons… His father must have been here for years , Baljeet realized, and could only wonder, What in the name of science did he do?
»What?«, Buford growled. He had noticed his friend’s genuinely shocked expression.
»Buford…«, Baljeet stammered, »I did not know -«
» Of course you didn’t!«, the bully almost yelled at him. »Nobody was ever supposed to know!«
»What… what did he do?«
»He’s not a killer if you’re thinking that!« Buford was definitely yelling now. »You’re thinking that, I know you are!«
That had indeed been Baljeet’s first thought. But seeing Buford like this, he felt bad for making that assumption.
»I promise I will not tell anybody«, the Indian boy attempted to tell his best friend. »Please, Buford, calm down, I did not want to -«
»Shut up«, Buford interrupted him - but at least he was not yelling anymore. At this point, he was just… sad. The bully was terrible at concealing his emotions, and combined with their usual incredibly high intensity, it was no surprise that a lot of people avoided him or, in the case of teachers, called him ‘problematic’.
But even though Baljeet knew him better than anyone else, he had no idea how to comfort the bully. So he did what Buford told him and kept quiet. Which was usually the most useful solution anyway: Baljeet remembered that Buford was most likely going to fill the resulting silence with rambling.
Which was exactly what he did.
»He’s not a bad guy, alright? He’s the best dad ever, but does anyone care about that? No! All they care about is that he hacked into all of Earth’s satellites to scan the whole planet for some harmless experiment - so what? No big deal! But some idiots blackmailed him, and now he’s stuck in there forever, because nobody’s listening to him or Mom or me !« By now, Buford was sobbing, and Baljeet did not resist when his friend hugged him. »But you believe me, don’t you?«
»Of course«, Baljeet replied, completely taken aback by this story. Buford had never been this intimate, and there was nothing he could have said to cheer him up. Luckily, Buford did that for him.
»Good«, the bully nodded, shoving Baljeet away and grinning as he did that. He acted like this short moment had never happened and headed straight for the prison.
Baljeet followed him, not even bewildered. He had stopped questioning Buford’s sudden mood changes long ago.
When Baljeet and Buford entered the prison’s entrance hall, they were the only people there - other than an apathetic receptionist being completely preoccupied with her smartphone. Buford walked up to her, demonstratively putting his hands down on the table with a thud.
»Buford Van Stomm«, he declared. »I’m here to see my dad.«
The receptionist did not even look up. »Mh-hm.« Baljeet supposed she was already familiar with Buford visiting his father. »I’ll let him know to be in the visiting room.« The woman was still staring at her phone, making no attempt of doing anything else.
»Come on, nerd«, Buford announced, turning back to Baljeet. »There’s nothing more to see here.«
Then, the bully walked into the left hallway, even though…
»Buford, this sign says the visiting room is in the other direction!«
»I know«, the boy shrugged.
»Then why -«
»Buford hungry.« Common room , Baljeet read on the sign pointing left. Mensa . And that settled it. All one could do when Buford wanted to eat something was giving up with a sigh.
But when they reached that very place, Baljeet found himself gulping again. The room was looking like one would expect a common room to be like, with some tables, chairs, and couches, pictures of things that most likely would not be causing aggression hanging on the wall, and a couple of other objects for the prisoners to spend their time with. He also noticed several surveillance cameras and security staff even more apathetic than the receptionist. And, of course, the snack bar.
But none of these things were the reason for the boy’s sudden fear. The room was full of brawny men, some of which were more than twice as tall as Baljeet. Several of them had tattoos and/or piercings or were covered in scars - and while the Indian boy was still standing at the entrance, Buford confidently walked up to one of the groups.
»Guys, look who’s here!«, one of the men shouted.
»Isn’t that Bernie’s kid?«
»Yeah, what’re you doing here, Bufe? Aren’t you, like, only visiting once a month?«
Once again, Baljeet could not believe what he was seeing. They all acted as if they were Buford’s friends, and the bully himself really seemed to get along great with them. Well , thatalso explains a lot of things .
»It’s an emergency«, Buford explained after greeting the group, causing some of the men to laugh.
»But of course, the first thing he does is getting some snacks - hey, who’s that?«
And suddenly, all eyes were on Baljeet.
»That’s Baljeet, my nerd«, Buford boasted, as if that was some kind of special achievement.
»Your dad’s going to appreciate that«, an especially tattooed man put in. »He'll be glad to have better company than us.«
»Hey, look, I think he’s scared of us«, a bald and broad-shouldered man with a hook for one hand spoke up, walking towards Baljeet. The boy knew he was right and shot a quick glance to the guards when the bald man approached him. He, too, was several heads taller than Baljeet, and with every step, he got more and more intimidating. »Are you scared, kid? Do you think we’re bad guys trying to kill you?«
You look like that, at least , Baljeet thought, not daring to speak up. He just knew it was definitely visible how terrified he was.
»Well, kid, let me tell you something«, the bald man stated, so close to Baljeet by now that the boy was able to smell his not so odorant breath. Baljeet tried to look past the tall man, but everyone he saw was nothing but curious and amused - including Buford. He gulped again, awaiting the man’s words.
But they were not quite what he had expected.
»I had a dream, once.«
And when Buford pulled out his trusty concertina, Baljeet found himself in the middle of a song.
»I'm malicious, mean and scary
My sneer could curdle dairy
And violence-wise, my hands are not the cleanest
But despite my evil look
And my temper and my hook
I've always yearned to be a concert pianist«
The man sat down at the piano that more or less coincidentally stood in the room, and Baljeet had to admit that he was quite good at playing it.
»Can't you see me on the stage performin' Mozart,
Ticklin' the ivories 'til they gleam?
Yep, I'd rather be called deadly
For my killer show tune medley.
Thank you, 'cause way down deep inside I've got a
dream.«
»He's got a dream, he's got a dream« , the other prisoners were singing along.
»See, I ain't as cruel and vicious as I seem.
Though I do like breaking femurs,
You can count me with the dreamers.
Like everybody else, I've got a dream.«
The man with the many tattoos took over now, introducing some of the other people in the room.
»Tor would like to quit and be a florist,
Gunther does interior design,
Ulf is into mime, Attila's cupcakes are sublime,
Bruiser knits, Killer sews, Fang does little puppet
shows,
And Vladimir collects ceramic unicorns.«
»What about you?«, he asked, turning to Baljeet.
»I am sorry, me?« What was the man talking about?
»What's your dream?«
Baljeet realized what the man was hinting at.
»No, no, I apologize. I… I will not sing!« With Phineas and Ferb, or even Buford, that was no big deal, but alone, in front of these still quite intimidating men?
But these men did not seem to be happy with his reply, raising their fists - and Baljeet realized he had no other choice.
»I have dreams like you, yes, really,
But they are more scholarly.
An A+ in every class is what I need.
All my friends say I am smart,
My intellect sets me apart,
And in no time, I will be Doctor Baljeet.«
The men cheered, and the boy was more than relieved they seemed to be pleased with his spontaneous singing. His eyes turned to Buford, who was standing on a table by now. Of course, his friend also wanted to take a verse.
»I've got a dream, I've got a dream.
An endless supply of some good ice cream
To eat with my awesome dad
Outside this idiotic shack.
To get him out of here, yeah, that’s my dream!«
Once again, the men cheered, and Baljeet watched everyone but himself continue singing. He still felt awkward in this room, surrounded by all these men who must be in prison for a reason, after all. Yet they all seemed to have a lot of fun, and he doubted anyone would be paying any attention to him in the first place - but Baljeet was mistaken about the last part, because now, some of the men picked him up with ease, wanting him to be a part of the song again.
»He's got a dream, he's got a dream,
They've got a dream, we've got a dream,
So our differences ain't really that extreme.
We're one big team.
Call us brutal, sick, sadistic,
And grotesquely optimistic,
'Cause way down deep inside, we've got a dream.«
After this, they put him back down, but still repeated the verse »I’ve got a dream« . Baljeet sighed. Had Buford completely forgotten about their mission? He was still busy with the song, and the Indian boy realized he would have to go on alone for now. So he followed the sign leading to the visiting room, walking past a guard who was watching the musical number with his still unmoved stare - but just like everyone else, he paid no attention to the small boy hurrying away.
Walking through the hallway without a sign of Buford following him, Baljeet became more and more frustrated. For all he knew, Phineas and Ferb were either dead because of the space-time continuum’s reaction to the malfunctioning teleporter, or trapped in a world beyond this planet - and all Buford could think of was singing and eating! The bully really got on his nerves sometimes. And what kind of prison was this anyway? He had expected it to be a lot more... well, strict. But the staff was probably used to such events by now and adjusted accordingly – after all, Danville was widely known for its spontaneous musical numbers. How good for the prisoners.
Eventually, Baljeet arrived in a room that was completely empty save for several tables and chairs for the prisoners and their visitors to sit on. There were also more guards than in the common room, supervising the conversations, most likely. The boy looked around, but the only people vaguely looking like they could be Buford’s father were either already talking to somebody or too intimidating for Baljeet to approach.
Suddenly, he heard footsteps behind himself and turned his head, only to find Buford walking over to him with a half-eaten sandwich in his hands.
»Really, Buford?« First you are making us lose time by spontaneously causing a musical number, and then you have the nerve to buy food. Impressive.
»I told you I was hungry«, the bully argued, stuffing the remaining half of the sandwich into his mouth and swallowing the entire thing. »Now, why are you still standing here? Come on!« He headed straight to a table occupied by a small, glasses-wearing man with dark brown hair, a mustache, and the remains of a shaved beard. The man wore a black-and-blue sweater vest and a light blue shirt and was most likely a visitor, considering how he really did not fit into this place.
But Buford confidently approached him with a wide grin on his face. »Dad!«
Even after everything that had happened today, this was still the turn of events Baljeet had definitely expected the least. How could this be Buford’s father?
The man had stood up from his seat to be hugged by his son. »Buford! What a surprise to see you - hey, champ, careful, you don’t want me to choke, do you?«
»Sorry, Dad«, Buford laughed, loosening his grip on his father.
The man chuckled, which made his mustache wobble in a funny way. »It’s no big deal, champ. In fact, it’s great to see how you are getting stronger every time! Something you got from your mother.«
That made Baljeet realize something. It was only logical that this man, whose only similarities to Buford were hair color and being, in this case, at least a little chubby, was his father. After all, the bully had gotten most of his traits - voice, nose, body shape, and almost everything else - from Biffany, who basically looked like a female adult version of her son.
Then, the man’s eyes rested on Baljeet. »Is that boy with you?«
»Oh, yeah!«, Buford nodded. »Dad, that’s my nerd, Baljeet.«
»Greetings… Mr. Van Stomm?«, the Indian boy spoke up, offering a hand. At least he was much less intimidated by Buford’s father than by just about everyone else in this building.
»Greetings to you as well, Baljeet. And my name is Bernard, but feel free to call me Bernie!« The man gladly shook his hand - much less forcefully than Buford, the boy noticed with relief.
»We are here because we need your help, Mr. … Bernie«, Baljeet explained as they sat down before Buford could start talking about something unimportant. »You see…«
And then he told him everything that had happened.
»Buford, you used my code?« Bernard was surprised and even slightly shocked and upset about that. »I told you not to do that, you know what can happen if someone finds out.«
So the planet-scanning code from earlier had actually been that of Buford’s father, and not the bully's own creation. Baljeet felt relieved about that: he had been unable to stand the thought of Buford actually being this kind of intelligent. For whatever reason, his friend had merely learned the code his father had written. The reason Bernard was here, Baljeet remembered.
»It was an emergency!«, Buford defended himself.
And for once, Baljeet agreed with him: »We really need to find our friends, Bernard. Please, you have to help us!«
»Of course I will«, the man nodded. »What were their names again?«
Is that important? , Baljeet wondered, but told him anyway.
Buford’s father scratched his chin thoughtfully. »Phineas… that’s Linda’s son, no?«
»Yes«, Baljeet confirmed, and then verbally wondered how that could possibly matter to the situation.
»Don’t question my dad«, Buford warned him, but Bernard shook his head.
»He has every right to ask that, Buford. You see«, he said to both of them, »The very machine you described had already been there once before.«
»Yeah, in the beginning of summer«, Buford agreed. »They told me about that earlier today.«
That was new to Baljeet. »You were with Phineas and Ferb today already?«
»Well, duh. But I thought teleporters are lame, so I left and went to your house instead.«
»Either way«, Bernard interrupted them. »I actually mean the one from ten years ago.«
»Dinner bell’s mom is into building things too? Wait until Candace hears about that!«, Buford grinned, but his father shook his head again.
»Not her - Josh. Her first husband.« Baljeet and Buford exchanged surprised looks. »He and I built things in that backyard many times - including this teleporter he never came out of again. One of the reasons I delved deeper into programming«, he added, sighing. »I never had the courage to go after him, so without Josh, I expanded my knowledge of hacking and wrote a program able to scan Earth for a specific person... when it did not find the person I was looking for, I knew she had gone after him… but before I was able to do anything, well... several people mistook my research for evil.«
»Where did that teleporter lead?«, Baljeet asked, not wanting Buford to think about his father’s last comment too much.
Bernard shrugged as if his answer was nothing spectacular. »A parallel dimension.«
»Huh?«, Buford asked, not able to picture that at all - as usual, Baljeet was all too well aware. How often had he been trying to describe things to him?
Luckily, his father was able to help out this time. »A world identical to ours, but in a different time frame. So, everything is like it is here, but most likely in a different setting - not to mention that you, me, and everyone else also exists in that world with the exact same DNA, but we could be completely different people there, with other names and everything!«
Baljeet smiled. Bernard was talking so excitedly about science that it was not at all far-fetched to imagine hour-long discussions about quantum physics and the meaning of life from a scientific point of view…
»But there are fixed points in time?«, the boy asked out of curiosity.
»Yes«, Bernard nodded, and it was easy to see how he was just as happy about finding an intellectually equal conversation partner. »Everything ensuring that every individual and object existing in our world exists there as well.«
Buford seemed to be grasping that concept too. »So that world’s Me is also the kid of that world’s You and that world’s Biff?«
»Of course«, Bernard agreed, then changed the topic. »Josh traveling into a whole other dimension must have caused a small rift in the space-time continuum, considering the law of energy conservation and said energy being unevenly distributed among the two dimensions. One person’s travel was not enough to actually affect any of the two worlds, however - well, unless someone opened another portal, wherever its destination, in the exact same spot. I suppose this rift was too much to process for your teleporter’s programming, which is why it crashed, but it is basically ninety-nine percent certain that your friends are now in the same place as Josh.« He lowered his voice so the guards would not be able to hear him. »Buford, the code for entering this dimension should still be in one of my folders on the laptop. Use it to follow your friends and bring them back - and Josh as well, if he is still out there.«
»Will do, Dad«, Buford smiled. »See you in half a month?«
»As always«, his father nodded. »I’ll be here.«
»Aaand there we go!«, Buford exclaimed. That seemed to be his catchphrase whenever one of his codes was functioning properly: the portal in front of them was looking stable, at least.
»And I really can’t come with you?«, Candace asked. »They’re my brothers, you know.«
»Just like your mom’s the one that’ll stop us from ever getting back here if she makes this thing disappear«, Buford argued. Again, Baljeet had to admit that he had a good point.
»Fine«, Candace sighed. »I’ll do my best - but make it quick, alright?«
»Yeah, yeah«, Buford nodded, suddenly grabbed Baljeet, and, along with himself, pulled him directly into the portal.