Chapter 1: The Mystery Begins

Nate knew, of course, that it couldn't succeed. The machine that was now in front of him was an implausible, improbable, absolutely mad, absurd perversion of any rational scientific concept. It was full of knobs and dials, switches and lights. It even possessed a speaker. There was no visible power source and there were no instructions. It was quite possibly the most jumbled and confused looking invention that Nate had ever gazed upon. Besides that, it almost certainly would not work.
There was no sane reason for Nate to turn the device on, turn it around or do anything else with it for that matter. Oh, sure, Jim had very likely been the one who sent it to him. Big deal! Nobody even knew where Jim was right now. No one had any contact with Jim since last Friday night. He seemed to have disappeared without leaving the slightest indication of where he might have gone. Now it was Monday morning and Nate had still not heard a word from his friend.
What disturbed Nate most was that he had no idea how Jim had gotten this machine into his apartment. It hurt Nate's head to even consider that question. The doors and the windows had all been properly closed and locked. Nate had made certain of that detail repeatedly before he had gone to bed for the night. There was no way that anyone could have gotten into his apartment. That was all the more reason for Nate to have nothing to do with this weird collection of buttons and knobs; this renegade from a science fair.
The present situation was crazy enough on its own. There was no reason for Nate to go out of his mind as well. Jim, on the other hand, had quite clearly taken leave of his senses. Jim and Nate had been supposed to go out Friday evening, like they had done on every Friday for over two years. Not only did Jim not show up at Nate’s apartment, he had not even bothered to call Nate. Furthermore, when Nate tried to call Jim’s residence, there was no answer and there was no message. This was totally unlike Jim Grottenbottom. No, there was something definitely wrong. So far, the only the possibility that made sense to Nate was that Jim had lost his mind. It just wasn’t like Jim to vanish without a trace. He wasn’t neat enough to do that. He was bound to leave behind some crumbs or something.
The police whom Nate had contacted also seemed to be acting a little bizarre. They didn't really give the impression that they wanted to talk to Nate about Jim’s disappearance. They said that it was very likely that he had gone off to visit relatives, or possibly that Jim might have run away with “some sweet little thing” that he had met somewhere.
Nate assured them that Jim had no relatives. Not on this planet at least. Unfortunately, his comment seemed to only make the situation worse with the local constables. They were soon talking with Nate about the existence of flying saucers and possibility of there being other dimensions. They even suggested that perhaps Nate could do with a bit of a long vacation himself.
“Ah, come on. I didn’t really mean anything by that off the planet stuff,” said Nate.
Nate was trying his best to humor them. They humored him back. For some reason they asked Nate about his father and how well the two of them had gotten along. Nate had not even known Jim's father! If he had ever met the man, Nate assumed that he would have gotten along just fine with him.
Nothing that Nate could say appeared to make any difference to the policemen. No matter what he tried to explain to them, things simply went farther downhill. He was starting to wish that he had never contacted the legal authorities at all. At one point, the taller policeman asked Nate if Mr. Grottenbottom had meandered off many times in the past.
“Do you think that he may have simply wandered away?” asked Nate. “That would be a relief actually. I was afraid that something dreadful might have happened to him. But no, Jim never wanders away. He might be a few hours late or forget your birthday, but he doesn’t wander away.”
“You have to realize that Jim was the scientific type. He might have always been a little bit odd to be sure. Still, over all Jim was a down to earth scientifically oriented person. There is no way that he would have gone off without saying a word to anyone.” Nate realized that he was already talking about Jim in the past tense.
“Well then, Mr. Hortinbey, have you considered asking the neighbors? Have you tried talking to any of Mr. Grottenbottom's other friends or associates?”
The police had gotten him with that question. Nate couldn't think of anyone whom Jim had ever mentioned. He never said anything about any other friends or relatives. He had never even mentioned associates. Nate realized that he didn't even know for certain where Jim was employed or what type of work he did. It was strange, now that Nate thought about it; there was quite a lot that he had not known about James Grottenbottom.
Oh, there was no question that Nate knew the location of Jim's favorite restaurant. He knew what they both thought was the best type of white wine or red wine to drink with this dish or that. Nate was quite positive about the kind of music that Jim liked.
On all of the important things in their lives Nate and Jim had shared their knowledge and their opinions. They had simply never gotten around to discussing more incidental things like where they were employed and what sort of work they did.