“Well,” said David. “Sheila’s really lost it this time.”
“Apparently, she’s been talking to some homeless guy she passes on her way to work, and this guy’s sister, or sister-in-law or something, used to date a guy who claims to have worked for The Institute in the early 80s.”
Alan nodded distractedly. He had better things to do, but as usual wasn’t doing them.
“Yeah, and this guy, this ex-employee guy, told this sister – or sister-in-law, it doesn’t matter – that when the GM units were being piloted, they put a big one on top of the water tower in this podunk town called Doveland in Wisconsin. Obviously, all very hush-hush. Anyway, this big black box appeared on top of the water tower there and everyone’s TV reception started getting screwy, and they started getting episodes of TV shows that hadn’t even been made yet, or the news from tomorrow, that kind of thing. Everyone thought it was pretty weird but nobody did anything about it.”
“Anyway, fast forward ten years or so, it’s the early 90s, and apparently Institute techs go to check on Doveland, see how the experiment’s going, and it’s just not there anymore. I mean, the whole town is just…. vanished, y’know. And it’s not like they renamed it, or couldn’t find it or anything, the exact place on the map where Doveland, Wisconsin was supposed to be – it just wasn’t. Nor could it have ever been, as there was a forest right there with trees that were hundreds of years old. Nobody knew what happened to the people who may or may not have lived there, and The Institute never got their black box back. Crazy story, huh? That’s what you get for speaking to drunks on the street eh?”
Alan queasily took his wallet from his back pocket and pushed his drivers license across the table.