Accidents in Time: Time Without Motion

By John H Plumb

This is the story about Mickey Manco. He tried to fix his generator bearings and by accident discovers a different reality. This zone as he calls it leads him into becoming a thief and murder. He ended up on the FBI’s most wanted list.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Nov 21, 2019
• ISBN: 9781796073645

John H Plumb

The author spent nine years in the Navy as a nuclear component welder, owned several large industrial flooring companies, was a goldsmith, owned three jewelry stores and was VP of a Gold Company. He was even very successful selling vacuums door to door. He has been retired three times.

Book preview

CHAPTER 1

Genesis

M y name is Mickey Manco. You, being a level-headed person, may not want to believe what I’m about to tell you. Looking back at it now, I sometimes find it hard to believe it myself. I’m just your average run-of-the-mill person—nothing special about me.

I woke up one chilly Sunday morning in April just before dawn. I stared at the clock on my nightstand: it read five thirty. I knew I’d never get back to sleep. With bones groaning, I got up and limped over and got ready to take a shower. My leg was aching as it often did in cold weather. The warm shower helped tremendously. As the heat of the shower wore off, I then donned my usual attire for a cold day: jeans and a black T-shirt with a pocket. With little speed, I made my way to the kitchen to make myself some coffee and fix myself a fried egg with toast.

Little did I know that I would start down a road that would lead to something that would change my life and the lives of others forever. I would lead them down a dark path that would end in death for some. For others, it would change them for decades to come. My daily routines would now be impossible to maintain.

I was raised by normal parents. My father worked at a very large grocery store chain named Albertsons. The store was like a mini Walmart; it had a little of everything. He was the manager of the store here in Benton—been so for as long as I could remember. My father made a good living. Like most postwar wives, my mom worked as well. She worked at the telephone company doing God only knows what. But both had great retirement plans. My father retired first at the age of sixty-two, and my mother a year later at the same age. They moved to Tampa, Florida, because I believe it is the law that old people must move to Florida.

My father plays golf, and my mom does a lot of reading and knitting scarves for me. Once a week, she will play shuffleboard with the gals around their street. I go to see them as often as I could, perhaps once a year. They have a bigger house now in Florida than they did in Benton where they raised me. They both are living the good life, and they deserve it. They’re both tanned, and they have cocktails at 2:00 p.m. each day with their new friends.

When I call them, usually once a week, they would have to tell me all the latest gossip around their little gated community. Dad’s newest toy had been an RV. They were going to see America. That was short-lived because he had a heart attack up in Maine. He needed a triple bypass. When he was well enough to travel, I flew up to drive them back home to Tampa. The RV became mine. I did not want it, but it is hard to say no to my father. He taught me to be honest, faithful, and to work hard, and good things would happen. After hearing what I’m about to tell you, tell me if you believe it’s true.

Getting back to my story. I’m here to tell you that prior to them leaving Benton, Arkansas, I did my four years in the navy serving my country. That is where I learned my trade of welding and compounding metals. Which now makes me wish I had been an electrician. First, because I would be able to walk without a limp. About a year ago, a large half-an-inch-thick plate of steel fell on my left leg. It was up against the wall, and I tried to retrieve a smaller plate of steel that was behind it and I leaned it too far forward, and down it came. I lay there for about three hours in pain before I was discovered by my friend John who just happened to stop by. The fire and rescue team came and got me out from underneath it. The hospital did their best to fix my shattered left leg; however, it still left me with a limp. I was in surgery for five and a half hours while they tried to put the shattered pieces back together.

Second, if I had become an electrician, my life would be spared the evil that is to come. Most all the trouble was of my own making.

When I got out of the navy, my parents moved to Tampa. They gave me the house without a mortgage. The first thing I did was to take out a first mortgage to buy all the tools that I needed to start up my new welding business.

I went on and got an associate’s degree in business from a junior college here in Benton. Doing it all at night while I established my business, it took me four years to graduate. I maintained a B average. At the time, I was planning on going on to get a four-year degree. Then we were all on break from class, and one time, I overheard a few guys talking about how much money they were going to make after they got a bachelor’s degree. They were bragging about $47,000 a year. Well, hell, I was already making $85,000 as a welder in my backyard. I never went back to school.

I started down this road of destruction on that chilly Sunday morning when I tried to invent a new type of bearing. I had been repairing my old generator for what seemed to be the thousandth time. Mind you, I had enough money to buy a new one; but I’m not the type to throw things out. I believe that there is enough crap in our landfills. I also believe we should maintain what we have and not be a part of such a disposable world.

While I was looking at the need for a new bearing, suddenly, out of the blue, a revolutionary idea came to me. Would it not be a far-reaching and an exciting invention if bearings could be magnetized? Just like the new monorails. The trains that float on magnetized rails and do not touch the rail.

One ring of the bearing could be charged positive and the other negative. With this concept applied to bearings, there would be no need for the steel ball bearings. Therefore, no wear factor. These magnetic bearings would last forever!

I could make a fortune and be famous all at the same time. Manco bearings! Has a nice ring to it, does it not? Up until then, all my talents have been wasted just casting metal and welding different types in my backyard. Now I was on to something big.

In the navy, I was certified to weld thirty-two base metals in all positions. Working out of my garage, I had no need for such talents. Like most people, I wanted more out of life. I’m not altogether sure what I wanted, but it was more than working out of my backyard. Perhaps a larger manufacturing company with many employees. In a large building that I owned.

Being in what seemed to be a manic state, I jumped right in, not wasting any time to think it through. I set out to make two highly charged rings that could fit inside of each other. That was my Sunday, and it was the beginning of my troubles and where my adventure begins. Life as I knew it would never be the same again.

Working on the project all day into the evening hours, I soon learned that in order to make this type of rings, I needed to compound a different type of metal. I needed to start with a compound of metal that did not yet exist. This was not new to me because I have done this type of metal working most of my life for a living.

It took a lot of work, but I started compounding different metals together. I had begun doing this type of work when I was in the navy on a repair ship.

The ship was the USS Bushnell (AS-15)—a submarine tender. We called it the Burning Bush because of all the fires we had on board. I accidentally started a few myself. Also, it was called Building 15 because it never went anywhere. At the time, I worked in the welding shop repairing the pig boats that were tied up next to us. We called them pig boats because the submarines smelled so bad. The reason they smelled was the fact that the crew could not take regular showers because of the shortage of water on board. When they were under way, the AC did not work well, so there was a lot of sweat to go around. The odor never went away.

The only good thing about being stationed on the Burning Bush was that we were docked in Key West, Florida, and that’s where I met my wife-to-be.

She was in a bikini on the west beach of Key West the first time I saw her. Like always, it was hot and humid that day. I was used to it; she was not. When I saw her, I was instantly in love with her. It was a case of love at first sight.

She had long light brown hair and had a great figure. Her breasts were on the small side, which was one of the things I liked about her. I was not into large beasty breasts.

Normally, I would have combed the beaches looking for my next conquest. But not this day. She was lying down soaking up the sun. I sat down next to her and struck up a conversion. Her name was Sarah. There was a not-so-pretty girl on the other side of Sarah.

After a lot of small talk about the weather and what I did for a living, I found out she sold real estate. After about forty-five minutes of chitchat,