He sent me back a thumbs up and said that while Mom was out with her friends the following day, we’d see what else we could get it to do.
When I got off the computer to read for a bit before going to sleep, all I could think about was sending Jade back in time, laughing as she got stuck in the Middle Ages. Or worse, the sixties. She had ranted one whole month about hippies and their lack of fashion sense. Yeah, I’d send her back there and make her suffer in super wide bell-bottom flared pants and horrible tie-dyed prints.
Then I’d have Zac all to myself. The thought kept me smiling until I finally drifted off to sleep.
Chapter 5
Saturday morning rolled around, and instead of sleeping in like I usually did, I bolted downstairs the second I heard Mom leave. It was her day to go shopping, hang out with some of her friends, and essentially have a thinking day as she called it. As soon as Oliver and I were old enough, she’d started having these days and left us at home all alone. We didn’t mind. Mom worked her butt off during the week, sometimes well into the evening. As well as that, she took care of my brother and I. If she wanted a day all to herself, that was just fine by us.
And for the day ahead, it suited us perfectly.
Oliver was already in the kitchen when I reached it, scoffing down a bowl of cereal. I made myself the same, wanting to eat before Kate showed up. He eyed me funnily but didn’t say anything until the doorbell rang.
“Are you expecting someone today, Holly?” he asked, an annoyed expression on his face.
“It’s just Kate,” I told him and ran through the house to get the door. “I had to let her know!”
“You said it was our secret,” he argued as he followed me and stopped me from opening the door. “We can’t let anyone in on this!”
“We said we wouldn’t tell Mom,” I corrected. “And Kate won’t tell anyone else.”
“How do you know?”
I rolled my eyes. “Because it’s Kate and we’ve been friends for like our entire lives.” I tried shoving him out of the way, but he leaned on the door harder. “Come on, Oliver. Please? Trust your baby sister.”
“I trust you; I don’t exactly trust your friend who likes to do a lot of talking.”
“She won’t tell a soul. I promise.”
He didn’t look convinced but stepped aside so I could open the door anyway. I grinned to see Kate bouncing on the front porch. “Hey!” I smiled at her. “Sorry. We were having a discussion.”
“About me?” She glanced from me to Oliver. “Did I do something wrong?”
“No,” I said, the same time my brother said, “Not yet.”
Kate frowned. “Should I go?”
“No, he's just paranoid. Stay, please, we have a lot to tell you.”
“I still don’t think this is a good idea,” Oliver murmured. “She could tell someone, and then it’ll all be ruined. Do you want that to happen?”
I looked at Kate and raised my eyebrows, making a face to indicate what she needed to do. She stepped up to Oliver and cleared her throat as she held up her hand. “I swear that I will not tell a soul about whatever you two are going to tell me or show me, or whatever this is. Holly wasn’t very specific last night,” she added, grinning at Oliver and giving him a quick wink.
Oliver’s cheeks flushed, and I stifled a laugh. My brother’s behavior around girls was always fun to watch. He shoved his hands shyly into his pockets and looked like he was ready to bolt, just to get away from Kate’s wide smile and shining eyes.
“Please? I’m good at keeping secrets, honest. Ask Holly. I haven’t told anyone about her crush on Zac,” Kate said in a rush.
“Kate!” I gasped in alarm as she clapped a hand over her mouth.
“Well, that’s reassuring,” Oliver said dryly.
“Oh come on, this is bigger than my crush,” I said and gave him the best puppy dog stare I could, while Kate did the same. “I’ll never ask you for anything ever again. Just let her see it, please? Pretty, pretty please?”
He shoved his hands into his pockets as he tried to decide, hesitating for a moment before nodding.
“But if she says anything and gets us in trouble, I’m blaming you,” he said, pointing a warning finger in my direction.
“I won’t! Thanks, Oliver!” Kate said, and he mumbled something under his breath as he headed in the direction of the basement.
“Alright, spill!” Kate demanded. “What are you two up to?”
“I might not have been completely honest with you about my family tree project,” I confessed, pausing in my spot. I had something a bit more important to share with Kate before I mentioned the time machine.
I called out to Oliver and told him we’d be down in the basement shortly then turned back to the kitchen to finish eating my breakfast. Starting from the beginning, I told Kate about my adventure in the attic when I was searching for something of my grandpa’s. I’d always told her that our dad wasn’t part of our lives. But she never asked any questions about him, and I never gave her any specific details. Now things had changed, and I decided I was going to tell her everything.
“When Oliver was two,” I began, “Mom said that our dad left the house to run some errands and he just never came back.”
“What? I didn’t realize that’s what happened all those years ago. All I knew was that she wouldn’t tell you about him,” Kate said soothingly. “I’m really sorry, Holly.”
“It’s ok. Mom doesn’t talk about him ever, and we still don’t know what happened to him. When we were given the family tree project about our families and all, I hoped she would tell me more, but she refused. So I went hunting for answers.” I pulled out the photograph that I’d kept in my back pocket all week and showed it to her. “That’s him, that’s my dad.”
Kate smiled at our family photo. “Your parents look so happy. And now I can see where Oliver gets his looks. He looks nothing like you or your mom.”
I had to agree. “I found the photo in the attic, tucked away in a box with a bunch of other things that I think were his, my dad’s I mean. There’s so many pictures of him smiling with Mom and us. They’re all hidden away in that box. I just don’t understand why he would walk out on us like that.”
Tears burned in my eyes and I hastily wiped them away before I started crying and couldn’t stop. It always hurt, knowing he had left us, but it hurt even more now that I knew how perfect our family appeared to have been. Were we not enough for him? Was it me? Or Oliver? Mom only ever told me once that our dad had loved us. She mentioned it one single time. After that, she refused to talk about him up, ever.
“Anyway,” I said when I could talk again without worrying about breaking down, “when I found these pictures, I found something else, too.”
“Clues about your dad?”
“No, there was nothing except the pictures and some old clothes. But, I did find something that belonged to our grandpa.”
“The scientist?”
I nodded as I carefully tucked the photograph in my pocket again. “There was this metal box buried with all the other stuff. It was locked, and at first, I hoped there might be something about Dad in it. So I asked Oliver to help me break into it, but Kate…oh man, you won’t believe what we found in that box!”
“Well, where is it?”
“Downstairs.” I quickly took Kate’s hand, and we hurried towards the basement door. When we reached the bottom of the steps, we saw Oliver maneuvering the metal box into position. But he hadn’t opened it up yet.
I turned to Kate, “I’m not exactly sure I can tell you what it is.”
Kate huffed. “You’re killing me here.”
“I know, I know, but trust me, it’s worth every second you have to wait.”
I nodded to Oliver and with one more worried frown at Kate, he opened the box and slid the side panel away. Kate moved closer and bit her lip as she looked at the wires and the device inside. Oliver flipped it on. At least this time it didn’t spark, but it glowed blue aga
in, and the whirring filled the basement. The pulsing seemed stronger this time around, too. Whatever Oliver had done to it, seemed to have made it run more smoothly or something.
“Uh, what is it? Some weird vacuum cleaner in a box?” she teased.
“Watch carefully,” Oliver said, reaching for an empty plastic container that had been sitting on a nearby shelf. He positioned it exactly where my textbook had been before the book was zapped into the past forever.
I pulled Kate back a safe distance, practically dancing in place with excitement to see if the device would do the same thing with the plastic container. Part of me said that my brother and I were both crazy and nothing had actually happened the night before; that somehow we dreamed about it, and my textbook was still in the house somewhere.
But the machine had to work again. I wasn’t ready to see the most awesome find of our lives fail after only one chance to try it out. Oliver adjusted the dials and knobs once more, and I wondered where he was sending the plastic container. I figured he would tell us before the show started. Kate opened her mouth, probably to start asking a billion questions. But I held up my hand.
“Patience, you’ll see,” I promised.
“I think you’re both nuts,” she whispered.
I laughed. “You know…we just might be.”
“Alright girls, get ready to watch this old container disappear from our timeline and go back in time an hour,” Oliver said and flipped the second switch.
“Wait, what did he just say?” Kate asked as Oliver forced us back a bit further. “Holly, what did he say?”
“Watch, or you’ll miss it!” I urged her with a nudge of my elbow.
Just as it had previously, the blue glow from the machine increased tenfold, and all of the small objects around it suddenly lifted into the air, vibrating the same as before. Kate gasped and grabbed my arm hard, tugging on it as if I couldn’t already see what was happening. I felt her pulse racing just as fast as mine was, as the beam of light shot out of the end of the device and surrounded the plastic container. Kate’s mouth dropped open in awe. I’m sure mine was doing the same even though I’d witnessed this event once before. Now that I knew what was happening, I was even more amazed to watch it all take place.
The whirring intensified with each passing second and the light burned so brightly, we all had to cover our eyes. The air around the container vibrated with the force of the device, and this time, I felt the tremor through the ground at my feet.
Then, just when I didn’t think the light could get any brighter, there was a loud pop.
“Holly! What’s happening?” Kate yelled, panicking. I pointed at the place the container had been as the light dimmed and the whirring engine of the device slowed down.
Oliver whooped and leaped into the air. “Oh man! Did you see that? Definitely not a fluke!”
I high-fived him. I was just as thrilled as he was to see it had worked again. We’d done it, or rather…he had done it. Kate took a few steps towards the table and lifted her hand to point. I knew exactly how she felt, but this time, for some reason, a weird nagging started in my gut. A shiver raced down my spine, and I crinkled my nose at it, confused.
I should be excited.
So why was I suddenly a little bit afraid of what we’d discovered?
“The container,” Kate finally managed to gasp. “The container is gone!”
Chapter 6
Kate rushed over to where the plastic container had been just moments before. She moved her hand over the spot, then smiled as if she finally understood everything. She bent down, looking around underneath the table, then walked behind it, searching.
“Uh, Kate, what are you doing?” Oliver asked.
“It’s a magic trick, right?” she said, her voice muffled as she bent down even lower, swiping her arm under the workbench as if the missing item would be down there somewhere.
I frowned. “Kate, it wasn’t a trick.”
“Sure it wasn’t. You two actually sent something back in time an hour.” She laughed and rolled her eyes as though she’d caught us out trying to trick her.
Oliver and I exchanged a look. “We really did. Seriously!” He gave her a convincing stare, but Kate was back by our sides shaking her head.
“I don’t do magic tricks,” Oliver added. “I deal with facts and science, and the fact is the blue plastic container that was sitting on this bench a few moments ago, is gone. Poof, back in time one hour. We’re never going to see it again.”
She laughed like we were playing a prank on her and I wasn’t sure how to convince her that this was real. Then again, if I saw what she’d just seen, I wouldn’t think it was real either. She continued to laugh, and Oliver’s cheeks reddened in annoyance. But she wouldn’t stop, so I took her by the arm and dragged her upstairs.
“We’re going to go hang out in my room,” I told my brother.
“She has to believe it’s real!” he replied angrily. “This is the discovery of the century. Not some stupid joke!”
“We’ll talk about it later,” I insisted, and with Kate still shaking with the giggles, we bounded up the two flights of stairs to my bedroom and shut the door. “You could’ve just played along to make him feel better,” I scolded her and frowned.
“I’m sorry,” she said, wiping a tear from her eye as she plopped onto my bed. “But time travel? Come on, that’s movie stuff.”
“Maybe, or maybe he’s onto something. That metal box with the weird device inside, I found it mixed in with all my grandpa’s other things, and Dad’s. It’s weird that Mom would have an invention like that just lying around and not realize it.”
“A time machine,” Kate repeated blandly. “Holly, have you guys been watching too many science fiction movies? Are you sure you and your brother didn’t dream this all up somehow?”
I sat down in my desk chair and propped my feet on the bed. “Yes, I’m sure!”
“Well, I guess strange things happen around here when Oliver is involved,” she teased.
I giggled at her comment. “Yeah, like a time machine existing and working.”
We laughed together for a few minutes; then I began to wonder if Oliver had discovered anything else.
“We found all my grandpa’s old notes,” I explained in a more serious tone. “He wrote down something about having to lock the machine away because someone was trying to take it from him. And he had a partner, someone who he referred to as T.”
“You sound like you fell into some science mystery novel,” Kate mused. “At least you can’t say you had a boring weekend.”
Absently I nodded, my mind racing back over what Oliver and I had learned and I debated on going back downstairs to keep an eye on him. I hoped he wasn’t going to do something stupid like fiddle around with that machine by himself. What if it blew up on him? Or worse? What if, despite what Kate said about it all being a trick, what if he accidentally sent himself somewhere he shouldn’t go?
A horrible thought started in my mind, and no matter what I did, I couldn’t shake the image from my head.
Kate frowned at me. “Holly?”
“Uh, what?”
“Your face is going to get stuck like that if you’re not careful!” She tossed one of my pillows at me. “What are you thinking about so hard?”
Should I tell her? Since finding the pictures of Dad, the few details I knew surrounding the day he’d disappeared kept replaying over and over in my head, like Jade’s obnoxious squeal of laughter.
But should I confide in Kate? I loved her. She was my best friend, and I was beginning to worry she’d think I was weird. The ideas running around in my mind didn’t make sense and made me sound crazy. I was already a ten on the nerd scale. I wasn’t sure I wanted to start making headway on the insane person scale, as well.
“Spill. What’s on your mind?” Kate urged again.
“It’s just really strange, I guess,” I started slowly. “My dad disappeared so suddenly, and then years later I find this t
hing in the attic. I can’t help wondering if what happened to him had something to do with that metal box.”
Kate pursed her lips, and I was sure she was about to tell me I was going too far.
“Think about it logically,” she said, raising her eyebrows as if to prove a point. “If your dad disappeared because of that time-machine, and I’m not saying that it really is a time machine, but if it is, how would it have taken him away? You said it yourself; your grandpa died before your brother was born and your dad didn’t vanish until after you were born. Your grandpa was no longer around then, so how could he have used his machine to make your dad disappear?”
I opened my mouth to tell her how it could still be possible, then closed it.
“It’s impossible, Holly.” She shook her head at me. “I think you can let go of the theory that your dad was thrown back in time by that box in your basement.”
I sighed. “It was a bit out there, huh?”
She held up her thumb and forefinger a couple of inches apart as if I was only slightly off. But she meant that I was way off.
We grinned at each other. “Do you have to stay at home all day?” she asked, abruptly changing the subject.
Yes, was what I wanted to say. I was convinced that Oliver and I were onto something. I felt an urgent need to go back downstairs and keep going through Grandpa’s notes, maybe even get that large cardboard box out of the attic and see if there were any other helpful notes in there that might give us some clues. But Kate still thought all this was a neat trick, and I could tell she was anxious to do something fun.
Rather than making her suffer and hang around the house while Oliver and I continued searching for clues, I gave in. “I could call Mom. What do you want to do?”
“I think you and your brother need to get out of this house,” she suggested. “Let’s go get some ice cream from the shop. It’ll be fun!”
Time Traveler - Books 1, 2, 3 & 4: Books for Girls aged 9-12 Page 5