A slow smile spread across his face.
"What are you talking about? No they didn't.In 1950 the world's greatest leaders decided it was time to start preparing for the war to end all wars. They prepared their military above, and below the surface, they began to build. In 1961, they began the selection process. All across our glorious nation, they chose the best and brightest, filling the city with the ideal human race.The bunker had only been sealed for 13 weeks when the bombs dropped in 1962, completely destroying our beautiful country," he rattled off as if reciting from a book. He shook his head at meand smiled again. "There's no way it could have happened like you say."
I stood and wiped my oily hands on my jeans. "Well it did. Your bunker lied to you. Maybe that was another one of the experiments and have you guyssurvive living forever in that time period."
"Idon't believe you. That makes no sense."
"None of your life makessense to me, just like mine doesn't make sense to you. AllI know is that the bombs were dropped November 23rd, 2010."
Callahan continued to shake his head. He paced around my junkyard, scratching his head. "I don't understand. If they dropped in 2010, then how can you be here breathing in the air?"
I squinted, unsure of what he meant.
"Callahan, what year do you think it is?"
"2024." His voice came out so soft I wasn't even sure I'd heard it.
Oh Jesus Christ.
"What year is it?"
I wasn't sure I wanted to tell him now. Would he go into a panic and lose his mind? He repeated the question.
"Callahan, it's 2333."
Callahan stood still as a statue, his eyes glossing over as he took in this information. The bunker had lied to them about so many things, and this was just the cherry on top.
"We missed 50 years of history, of media, of movies and music and books and--" He threw his hands up to the sky and cried out in anguish. "Those bastards!"
I walked to him and put my arm over his shoulder. "Well, pal. It's fine now because I'm going to catch you up on all you missed. Starting with music. I'm going to show you Guns N Roses."
I turned on my radio and Atlas Adam's voice came through loud and crisp.
"Hey all you dusty cats and kittens, your favorite wasteland DJ is back in the studio again to play all the tunes. We've got a few songs from the 80's, the 70's, and then we're gonna finish off the hour with the best song to ever be recorded, ‘Mr. Brightside’."
The drums started for Van Halen's ‘Too Hot For Teacher’. Callahan stood there, bewildered as he listened to the music. I danced around a bit, having more fun than I should have at his expense. I played air guitar and headbanged as I sang along to the song. Eventually, his face relaxed and his shoulders joined him. I smacked his back playfully.
"Now, how about we file off the serial numbers on that ride of yours and tear down that suit for parts?"
We spent the second half of the day listening to music and doing just as I'd suggested. We took off all identification from the 4-wheeler and ripped apart his radiation suit. It had a few interesting things inside, but mostly we did it so that if someone went digging around in the junkyard, a whole suit wouldn't be found.
Having just discovered every single thing about his life was a lie, I allowed him to ask questions about what he'd missed. In exchange he answered more of mine about Eleanor and the bunker. I told him about music, books, historic events.
"There's not a whole lot I'm familiar with as far as history goes. Watergate, uh... Stonewall?" I scratched my head, trying to think of other important things. We were never formally taught in schools. We relied on random books we could find and word of mouth.
"What was Stonewall?" he asked.
I grinned. That was the one I knew the most about.
"Stonewall was a riot. It's where I got my name from. They tried to call me Stonewall, but it didn't catch on. The Stonewall riots were the beginning of the gay rights movement. Policeraided the Stonewall inn and they fought back," I told him proudly. While of course, I hadn't been there, my brothers and sisters and other queer ancestors had and while they may not have realized it at the time, they did something amazing.
"And that's the part of history you chose to remember?" Callahan looked at me funny. "Why?"
"Because it's my history," I laughed. "Or did you not have the word gay in 1962?" I teased him.
"No, we do, but... why you?"
I stared at him, my hand on my hip, and laughed. "I'm gayer than shit. Is that a problem?"
