We didn’t live that far from our small town center, and Mom usually allowed me to go there with Kate, as long as Oliver went with us. I doubted he’d agree to that today, but it was worth a shot. I told Kate I’d call Mom and hurried downstairs to call her from the phone in the kitchen.
She answered on the first ring. “Everything ok at home?” she asked.
“Yeah, we’re fine, Mom. Kate came over, and we wondered if we could go get ice cream in town.”
“Did you ask your brother if he would go with you?”
I bit my lip and sighed. “I don’t think Oliver wants to, but it’s such a nice day, and we won’t be gone long. Please, Mom?”
I heard her mumble something, probably to her girlfriends, and then came back on the line. “You’re to take your cell phone with you, and you’re only allowed to go to the ice cream store and come straight back. I want you to text me when you get there and text me when you’re walking home. OK?”
“Really?” I asked, not believing she was saying yes.
“Really. But I don’t want you gone all day, only an hour or so, alright? And make sure your brother knows where you’re going.”
“Love you, Mom!”
“Love you too, honey. Remember. Text me when you get there.”
I promised I would then put down the phone and hurried back upstairs to tell Kate we were free to go. “I just have to tell Oliver. Wait for me by the front door.”
She bounded excitedly down the stairs behind me, and I hurried down one more flight to the basement. I heard tools tapping and Oliver grumbling as he sat hunched over the workbench. I jumped when I saw a bright blue flash of light.
“Oliver!”
“What do you want?” he asked, moving even closer to the machine.
“Look, just because Kate thinks it’s a trick, it doesn’t mean I do,” I said sincerely. “I know it works, but she’s more skeptical, you know? And I do want to find out how Grandpa made this machine and I also want to know about his partner. It’s all very cool. You know that. Don’t worry about Kate.”
He rubbed a hand over his face and offered me an apologetic smile. “Yeah, ok.”
“Well, Mom said Kate, and I could go into town to get ice cream. Want to come with us?”
He tapped his fingers loudly on the table, and I waited for him to say no, but to my surprise, he nodded. “Why not? I could use a break. All of Grandpa’s notes are giving me a headache. His handwriting is tiny; I can barely read it.”
“Perfect, let’s go then.”
He set aside his tools and carefully turned off the machine then covered the metal box before pushing it towards the back of the workbench. He followed me upstairs and went to grab his jacket. When Kate realized he was coming too, she smiled wider. I didn’t want to ask, but I had a feeling she might think my brother was cute. And that would start a whole other conversation I wasn’t sure I wanted to have. I slipped into my jacket, and with my cell phone and keys in my hands, we left the house behind and headed into town.
The March air was chilly, and the sun hadn’t popped out from behind the clouds yet to warm up the day. I shoved my hands deeper into my pockets and debated getting hot chocolate instead of ice cream once we reached the store. We talked about school, well mostly Kate and I talked about school and the people in our classes. At the same time, Oliver rolled his eyes and made some aggravated sound about how much we worried about the popular kids.
“You know, when you get older, you’re not going to want to waste your time on all that stuff,” he said as we turned down another street and the ice creamery sign appeared.
“Yeah, but we still have one more year before high school,” Kate argued.
“And we have to deal with these people for that year,” I added, kicking a pebble on the sidewalk. “Stupid Jade.”
Oliver nudged me with his elbow. “What did I say about not caring about that girl?”
“She can’t help it,” Kate said, even though I was shaking my head, trying to get her to stop. “They’re crushing on the same boy.”
“That Zac guy?” Oliver looked at me, and I knew he was going to tell me what he told me every time he found out I had a crush on someone. “You do know you’re only twelve, right?”
Kate interrupted him. “But he’s the best looking boy in our class, and I think on some level, he’s crushing on Holly, too.”
Oliver raised his eyebrows at that. “Really?” I saw the big brother protective glint in his eyes and wished Kate hadn’t said anything.
“He’s very smart,” I said defensively. “He was also very interested in Grandpa’s work until Jade made fun of me about it.”
“People who aren’t smart will always make fun of people who are,” Oliver said, as we reached the ice cream store. “It makes them feel better about themselves. And if Zac has a crush on you, then he’ll eventually stop hanging out with girls like Jade.”
Oliver held open the door, and I followed Kate inside, while at the same time typing a quick message to Mom to let her know we’d arrived. But then, an unexpected gasp from Kate caused me to freeze in my spot. Whipping around, I looked to see what had caught her attention.
I heard the sound of her dreaded laughter, before catching sight of the person I never wanted to see outside of school. But there she was, Jade Nielsen, sitting in the corner booth with two of her friends, plus a couple of boys from our class.
And Zac.
All I could do was stare as he watched her eat her ice cream. She giggled loudly, covering her mouth with a hand, her nails painted bright pink and her outfit as pretty as always. I wanted to hide, to disappear. I’d grabbed my old fleece jacket before heading out the door of our house because it was warm and comfy, not because it looked good on me. I also hadn’t bothered to spend much time fixing my hair. I’d raced out of bed and got dressed quickly, too excited to see the time machine work again to worry about how I looked. I wanted to turn around and walk right out the door again, but Kate grabbed my arm and pulled me towards the counter. Oliver moved to block the group from my view, directing us forwards to get our ice cream.
When it was our turn to order, I wasn’t even sure what I wanted anymore. Oliver ended up choosing for me and decided on a large waffle cone with scoops of chocolate chip and milk chocolate. I thanked him as he handed over the money to pay.
“Don’t let it bother you so much,” he whispered. “Jade’s not worth it. And Zac’s not either if he wants to hang out with girls like her.”
I nodded, but I wasn’t convinced. I wanted it to be me with Zac in the booth, eating ice cream together and laughing. I wondered what they even talked about. Zac was a top student in our science and math classes and Jade, well, she was on the student council and was in charge of all the decorating for functions. I didn’t want to say she was stupid, because she was manipulatively smart. But she wasn’t book-smart.
We sat at a table by the front of the shop near the windows to wait for our orders to be ready. I tried not to focus on the sound of Jade’s laughter sounding loudly from the other side of the store. Kate and Oliver talked about random things, and I attempted to join in, but every time Jade laughed, I wanted to throw something at her.
Finally, our order came up, and Kate jumped up to grab it.
“See? Now you’ve got ice cream, and we can eat it on our way home,” Oliver said.
“So much for a fun outing,” I mumbled, as Kate came back with our ice orders and handed me mine. Usually, my mouth would be watering at the sight of the huge waffle cone. But right then, it was the last thing I felt like eating.
I took it from her and thanked her as I stood up to follow Oliver out the door.
“Holly, hey.”
I paused, wishing I hadn’t heard Zac’s voice behind me. Slowly, I turned around, hoping my hair didn’t look as messy as I’d previously thought. Running a hand quickly over the top of my head, to smooth back any frizzy, loose strands, I smiled shyly. “Oh, hey. I didn’t know you were in here,” I li
ed.
“Yeah, just hanging out with some friends. What are you guys up to?”
I felt Oliver’s glare from behind me. “Just grabbing some ice cream. Kate and I have been working on a project with my brother, and we needed a break.” I looked past Zac to see Jade shooting me daggers with her eyes. I smiled for real this time and turned back to see Zac grinning.
“You know, I was hoping to talk to you about all that stuff your grandpa studied,” he said.
“You seemed pretty interested,” I replied, excited to have a chance to talk to him. But before I could ask if he wanted to join us for a walk back to my place, or to the park close by, Jade got up from their table and moved towards us.
“Oh! Holly, I didn’t realize you were here!” she said brightly. “I would’ve asked you to join us, but looks like you’re busy hanging out with your brother.” She said it in that mocking tone as if I should be embarrassed to be seen in public with my older brother.
“Yeah, so?” I snapped. “Some people get along with their siblings.”
“Yeah,” Zac said with a grin, surprising us both. “I go into town with my little sister all the time.”
Inwardly, I laughed with delight, watching Jade try to recover from her horrible joke, but she failed to find words. Zac gave me his attention again, and I thought my ice cream would melt in my hands because I was blushing so badly all over.
“So ah, maybe if you’re not busy later this weekend, we can hang out or something?” he asked.
“Yeah, that would be cool,” I agreed. “I think we follow each other on Instagram. You can message me there if you want?”
I heard Kate giggle beside and I nudged her discreetly with my elbow. My heart pounded loudly, and I was surprised no one else in the shop heard it.
Zac pulled out his cell and asked for my phone number. I recited it to him, and he texted me right away. “There, now you’ve got my number,” he said with a grin. “Text me tomorrow. Promise?”
I bobbed my head. “I will.”
He said hi to Kate and even introduced himself to my brother briefly before he and his friends left the shop leaving a slack-jawed Jade looking like she wanted to strangle me. I took a big bite of my ice cream and ate it, turned my back on her, and the three of us left her and her gaggle of friends behind.
Kate thankfully waited until we were far enough away from any other pedestrians before she let out a whoop of excitement and jumped up and down like a maniac. While at the same time, Oliver texted Mom for us to tell her we were on our way back to the house.
“Oh man! You should’ve seen yourself! See? I told you! I so told you!” Kate blurted.
“Yeah, I get it,” I said through my laughter.
“Are you happy now?” Oliver asked. I caught the way he looked at Kate like she was borderline for the nut house.
My cheeks warmed impossibly more, and I ate my ice cream, unable to stop grinning. “Yeah, I think I am.”
“Good, because there’s something else I want to show you guys today.”
“With the time machine thingy?” Kate asked warily. “You know, seeing the same trick twice isn’t always exciting.”
“What if it isn’t the same trick?”
I stopped walking and looked my brother dead in the eye. I didn’t like that look on his face or the way he was beginning to walk faster to get ahead of me. “Oliver, what are you planning to do?” I asked, rushing to catch up. “Oliver?”
“I have an idea, and I want to test it out. We still have a few hours until Mom gets home.”
“What are you going to do?” Kate’s tone was still teasing.
She really thought Oliver was practicing some sort of magician’s trick and not actually tampering with things I was pretty sure he didn’t fully understand. He was smart, but those notes came from our grandpa who was pretty much a genius. I hadn’t worried too much when my brother was using the machine to make an old plastic container disappear, but the way he was avoiding me had my gut sinking to the ground.
“Oliver, you’re not going to do what I think you’re going to do, are you?” I whispered.
He shrugged. “Why not? We won’t know how well it works until we test all theories.”
“No, you’re not going to do this!”
“What’s he going to do?” Kate asked, hurrying after him. “Oliver?”
He refused to answer and tossed his empty ice cream cup in a nearby trash can before continuing quickly towards our house. I couldn’t eat the rest of mine because my stomach had begun to churn so badly. Even my obsession with Zac had been pushed aside with the worry of what my brother was planning to do.
“Oliver, you can’t do this. What if something goes wrong? What if you get hurt…or worse?” I added, thinking of what had happened to Dad. Regardless of what Kate had said about it being impossible, part of me still felt my father’s disappearance was tied to the machine we’d found.
“Nothing bad is going to happen to me, at least I don’t think it will.”
“Oliver, that’s not encouraging!” I shook my head, but it was to no avail.
Racing along behind him, I followed him down the pavement that led to our front door. He pulled his key from his pocket, unlocked the door and darted inside, quickly disappearing out of sight. I could hear his feet thumping down the basement stairs as I turned and beckoned for Kate to hurry.
When she finally reached the front door, she trailed behind me, down the steps to the basement. “What’s going on? Why are you guys in such a rush?”
“He’s going to use that machine on himself!”
Kate stopped dead in her tracks, looking more confused than ever. “So he’s going to do the trick again and this time, make himself disappear? He’ll come right back though, won’t he?”
“It’s real,” I told her, needing her to understand. “Oliver didn’t just make that plastic container disappear. He sent it back in time. We’ll never see it again.” I approached Oliver, my pulse racing as I watched him hastily pull the machine into view. “And if you do this to yourself, Oliver, you might not come back!”
He arranged the box on the table, so it faced outwards this time, messing with the dials and knobs as if he hadn’t even heard me.
“Oliver!” I gasped, trying to stop him. “I’ll tell Mom!”
He turned around with a pleading look in his eyes. “No, don’t, please.”
“Then why are you doing this?”
He turned back to the box, messed with the knobs some more and shrugged. “Because. I want to be something great, just like Grandpa was. All I do is sit down here all day long messing around with things. But can you imagine what people would think of me if I could get this time-machine working? A time machine started by our grandpa and finished by his grandson!”
When he faced me, I saw the emotion in his eyes. I’d never realized how hard it must have been for my brother to grow up without a dad; maybe even harder than it had been for me.
“Dad was gone before I ever had a chance to show him what I could do,” Oliver said, his voice insistent. “And Grandpa died before I was born. If I can get the machine to work though …maybe he’ll know that his grandson did something great.”
I should have still said no. I should have grabbed my cell from my pocket and called Mom. But I didn’t do either. Instead, I nodded, and taking Kate’s hand, I dragged her back towards the bottom of the stairs and out of the line of the machine’s rays.
“Holly?” Kate glanced at me with wide eyes, and then looked towards my brother. “What’s going on?”
“Hopefully we’re going to watch my brother perform another trick,” I told her. “But this time, this time you’ll believe us.”
Chapter 7
Rather than leaving the machine on the table, Oliver picked it up in his hands and faced us. I wanted to close my eyes when he reached for the switch that he’d maneuvered the last two times.
“Here I go,” he mumbled as he flipped the switch and the machine hummed to life
once more.
The lights flickered, and objects around the basement hovered in the air. Kate and I grabbed hold of the railing, trying to keep our feet on the ground. The vibration was stronger this time, much stronger. Blue light crackled from the machine and surrounded Oliver. I thought I heard him yell in pain or panic; I wasn’t sure which, but I could barely make him out because of the blinding light.
“Oliver!” I called, but there was no reply.
Time seemed to stand still in front of me as a strong wind whipped up around the room, lifting even more objects into the air. It was a struggle to remain on my feet, and I gripped tighter to the railing. The room blurred. Everything was out of focus, and all I could see of Oliver was a hazy figure within the chaos that rushed around him.
“Oliver!” I screamed once more. “Oliver, answer me!”
But my words were whipped away, and I stared at Kate, taking in the horror and fear that filled her features. I clenched my teeth as I grabbed a firmer hold of the railing. Then with no warning whatsoever, an audible pop sounded.
It was a noise that was becoming increasingly familiar, but this time, along with that popping sound, it wasn’t my history book or a useless plastic container that disappeared before us. This time, it was my brother.
Oliver and the machine had vanished into thin air. The objects that were just a second earlier, hovering around us, fell to the floor. Kate and I stumbled over each other, rushing to the spot where Oliver had stood just a moment ago.
“Where did he go?” Kate spun in a circle then paced frantically around the room. “Holly? Answer me!”
My hand lifted to my mouth; then I felt my lips drop open as I realized what had happened. “He did it. He really did it. Oh my gosh!”
I paused for a moment to take it all in. “Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh!” Stunned and in shock, I repeated the words over and over and over.
“What did he do? Where’s he gone?” Kate was back in front of me, holding my shoulders and giving me a hard shake. “Holly!”
Time Traveler - Books 1, 2, 3 & 4: Books for Girls aged 9-12 Page 6