Time and Technicalities (Timewalkers Book 1)

by RP Halliway

“Dreams randomly tell the future?” Silas asked. This was new information he hadn’t considered.

  “Oh, definitely,” Brenda answered, stretching her core left and right in the chair. “I don’t study dreams, and have no inkling to, but dreams seem to be mostly a way for the brain to recharge, and at some point that recharging hits on something that seems at first glance to be a psychic episode.”

  “Such as?” Evie asked.

  “Suppose you, a young girl, are studying in college. At some point, you dream you oversleep and miss a class,” Brenda said. “Odds are, at some point in your future that will probably happen. Or you, as a young fertile woman, dream of a husband and children. Those are very common dreams for men and women—it is practically part of our DNA. Many dreams have enough ambiguity to appear prophetic. In fact, most dreams contain people who are generic, without specific features.”

  “Except for my dream?” Silas interjected, returning to the dream of Evie’s face.

  “We are getting to that,” Brenda said, putting up a finger to silence him with a smile. “Most dreams, not all dreams. In fact, there are a few dreamers who consistently see very vivid details, such as facial features and other distinguishing features. But that still doesn’t mean it is a psychic event.” She stood up and took the teacup from Silas. Evie drank the last gulp of the tea and handed the cup to Brenda. Brenda placed all three cups into the sink, and emptied the tea leaves from the fourth cup.

  Then she turned to face them, “Question. Are you a couple?”

  Both Silas and Evie turned bright red. And neither was sure who should answer first.

  Silas took a deep breath. “We only just met online a week ago, and in person yesterday. We haven’t even talked about dating. Why?”

  “Just wondering” Brenda replied with a relaxing smile. She sat back down, with a small grunt again, and adjusted her hair covering.

  Evie started to feel like Brenda was getting ready to perform a psychic reading on the couple. As the silence was about to get uncomfortable, the trio heard the front door open and rapid footsteps echo in the hall.

  “Hi, Mademoiselle Ranier Brenda!” a small voice called out before the accompanying figure appeared in the doorway.

  “Hello, young Esmeralda!” Brenda answered, not bothering to get up.

  The footsteps echoed down the hallway for two more seconds before a figure appeared in the doorway of the kitchen.

  “Who are you?” Esmeralda said to Evie and Silas, surprised by the strangers seated at the table. She stepped in and stood at Evie’s right shoulder. The young girl with long dark hair that framed a light complexion smiled brightly, showing several gaps where adult teeth were presently growing in.

  “I’m Evie,” Evie said, smiling back at the young girl.

  The young girl’s face scrunched up, as if she were trying to figure out some complex mathematical problem. After a few seconds the bright smile returned and she jumped quickly to position herself behind Silas’ right shoulder.

  “And who are you?” Esmeralda asked, resting her chin casually on his shoulder.

  “I’m Silas,” Silas answered, feeling the pointy chin dig into his shoulder. “Good to meet you, Esmeralda.”

  “You too!” Esmeralda said, not moving from her position on his shoulder.

  “Esmeralda,” Brenda said, “These two have had dreams.”

  “Ooohh,” Esmeralda uttered in the same way a pre-teen would respond to watching a kiss. “Good dreams?”

  “Just a face to start with,” Silas answered, “looking for an artifact.” He filled the young girl in on the dreams.

  Esmeralda stepped back, removing her chin from Silas’ shoulder. After a short pause, Esmeralda put one hand on Evie’s shoulder and one on Silas’ shoulder. She stayed in that pose for several long moments, or at least it felt that way to Silas.

  “It’s okay,” Esmeralda said, after the long silence. She dropped her hands from their shoulders and took a step back behind them.

  “Okay?” Evie asked.

  “Yes,” Esmeralda answered, casually. “There isn’t any danger.”

  “What would be dangerous?” Silas asked the young girl, not sure what the information meant.

  “Perhaps it would be good to know about Esmeralda,” Brenda said, interrupting.

  “That might help,” Silas said. He was definitely wondering who this young girl was.

  “Esmeralda, or Maddie, is another psychic,” Brenda said, motioning for Esmeralda to leave Silas and Evie alone and move to the stool in the corner of the kitchen.

  “Like you?” Evie asked.

  “Different but similar,” Brenda said. “Maddie can connect with events. And connect at will.”

  “Most of the time!” Maddie corrected the older woman.

  “Yes,” Brenda amended. “Most of the time. I noticed this when I first met Maddie.”

  “Brenda and I met at a psychic convention,” Maddie said, happily engaging in the conversation.

  “Yes, we did,” Brenda said, laughing at the interruption. “A convention that brought together mostly fakes, but some true seekers. Lots of peddling of wares and such.”

  “Such a scam,” Maddie added, shaking her head even as her face showed amusement.

  “And what happened there?” Brenda pressed Maddie, leading the young girl into the story.

  Maddie grew quiet, suddenly not feeling excited to talk.

  “She saw a man fall down,” Brenda answered in Maddie’s stead. “You were what? Four or five?”

  “I was five,” Maddie answered soberly, a look of sadness covering her small face.

  “The man happened to fall a few feet from me, and I didn’t really take note of much else, until this girl’s voice hit my ears. ‘That isn’t supposed to happen!’ she said,” Brenda continued, switching her gaze from Silas and Evie to Maddie.

  “The fall wasn’t supposed to happen?” Evie asked.

  “Yes,” Maddie answered quietly, from the corner.

  “Why?” Evie asked.

  “I’m sure you’ve heard of Déjà Vu?” Brenda asked Evie and Silas.

  “I’ve heard of it,” Evie answered. “I don’t think I could give a clear definition of it though, because I don’t think I’ve ever experienced it.”

  “Me neither,” Silas said.

  “Déjà Vu is the feeling that the events in the present have happened before,” Brenda said. “Sort of like a repeat. Many who experience it describe the feelings from light to very intense, and from brief to lasting several seconds.”

  “I have that!” Maddie jumped in.

  “You have Déjà Vu?” Evie smiled at the very curious young girl.

  “In a way,” Maddie said, slowly returning to her exuberant self. “I get the feeling that things either happen the right way, or sometimes the wrong way.”

  “Like the man falling?” Evie asked.

  “Yeah. He wasn’t supposed to fall. He was with his grandkids, and was supposed to have a happy day. He fell and hurt his leg. He limped the rest of the day.”

  “How would you know that?” Silas asked, not sure how the young girl could know what the man’s day should hold.

  “I’m Déjà Vu,” Maddie replied with a big grin.

  “Then you met him again?” Brenda questioned Maddie.

  Maddie’s face took on a look between fear and discomfort.

  “Go ahead,” Brenda said. “It isn’t that bad, dearie.”

  “I saw the man like two days later,” Maddie began, looking down. “He wasn’t limping, so that was good.”

  “Seems good,” Evie said.

  “Then I checked him,” Maddie said, lips tightening with eyes closed. “He was fine in a lot of ‘universes’ I guess, but then I saw it! Normally the people I look at don’t know I am there, but this one, he was totally black, no eye
s even! And he turned and looked right at me!”

  “Maddie was only five, remember,” Brenda said.

  “I got scared and started to cry,” Maddie admitted, almost tearing up again.

  “Maddie’s mom says she was so scared that she wet herself,” Brenda explained.

  “Like three drops!” Maddie protested, her face a bright red along with her eyes.

  “It’s okay, dearie,” Brenda reassured her.

  “The dark shape was the old man?” Evie asked Maddie.

  “I don’t know.” Maddie sat up straight and wiped a small tear. “I didn’t hang around to know more. All I know is that the shape turned to look directly at me, with no eyes.”

  “And that was Déjà Vu?” Silas asked.

  “Most probably,” Brenda said. “A collective of present events in multiple universes.”

  “What was the black figure?” Evie asked.

  “We don’t know for sure,” Brenda answered. “That was a very unsettling event.”

  “The only time I’ve ever seen it,” Maddie added.

  “Did you talk with Roger about this?” Silas asked.

  “Roger has explained his theory of the multiverse to you?” Brenda asked.

  “Yes, but I admit I’m still very confused by it,” Silas said. “How everyone can be alive in all those cylinders.”

  “He explained the probability ‘hills’ as he likes to call them?” Brenda asked.

  “Yes,” Silas and Evie said in unison.

  “Maddie is an exceptionally gifted child, and has the ability to ‘see’ the current hill, as it were—or at least that is the best explanation Roger and I could come up with. Probably more like ‘feel’ the present,” Brenda said. “Sort of like constantly living in Déjà Vu, and being able to compare the present to a feeling of what is supposed to be the present. All of the possible ‘presents’ are close enough that Maddie can sense what is supposed to happen by how often each feeling of being ‘right’ happens.”

  As Brenda spoke of Maddie’s ability, Maddie’s mood brightened, almost back to how she was when she first walked into the kitchen.

  “Roger knows of Maddie?” Evie asked, very curious at the seemingly well connected group in the area.

  “Oh, yes,” Brenda answered with a big laugh. “Roger knows a lot of people in the fringe cultures. Roger attends almost every psychic convention that I do.”

  “Me too!” Maddie added with a big grin, the small gaps in her teeth making Silas smile.

  “Roger was very interested in hearing about this dark figure of Maddie’s,” Brenda said. “And we tried to figure out what it meant.”

  “Any answers?” Silas asked. Not that he thought there would be any. So far, in the last two days, there hadn’t been “answers” about anything. Only more questions, and impossible to understand theories.

  “We aren’t dealing with a realm that has any answers,” Brenda said. “The best we can do is come up with plausible situations that make sense. And Roger seems to have come up with a reasonable theory.”

  “I see dead people,” Maddie joked in a practiced creepy voice, shocking Silas and Evie.

  “That’s not the full theory,” Brenda said, laughing at the girl’s antics. “But it does come close. Roger thinks that the dark figure was from a universe where the man had died.”

  “Based on what?” Silas asked.

  “Since Maddie started out with Déjà Vu of the man not getting hurt,” Brenda started, “It would seem that getting hurt prevented the man from some activity later—an activity where he would be hurt worse.”

  “That seems like a stretch,” Evie said.

  “Everything relating to these powers is a stretch,” Brenda said, spreading her arms wide. “There is no way to figure out what or how these powers work, so every explanation is a wild theory. You have seen the children in Andrews’ lab, and any theory trying to explain that behavior would also be a stretch.”

  Evie tried to piece together the bits of information. “So if the man had died in the universe Maddie connected to, that would be a quite far away universe, wouldn’t it? I mean, it would be a significant distance from the one where he is now alive.”

  “Most likely,” Brenda said. “And we will probably never know how many universes out Maddie can see.”

  “Or if things can float between universes,” Maddie added. “When I see a different universe, I only just watch stuff. This time, the black figure actually turned to look at me. He knew I was there. That was the scariest part.”

  “If he had no eyes, how did you know he looked at you?” Silas asked.

  “I could tell.” Maddie’s voice held no doubt. “Even without eyes, I felt him stare directly at me.”

  Chills rippled through Evie’s body. She knew without a doubt that the young girl was telling the truth. But what did it all mean?

  “The man was dead in that universe?” Silas asked.

  “That’s the best explanation,” Brenda answered. “Could have been recent enough that there wasn’t a ‘reset’ yet, or carrying away to heaven, or whatever, just an empty track on the playing record.”

  “Is that what you see?” Evie asked Brenda. “Ghosts and dead people?”

  “No. Not exactly,” Brenda answered. “I can connect to a ‘life spiral’—as Roger would call it—with some people, and get images of certain times of their lives—their past. I think every psychic’s ability is different, with no two being the same.”

  “That’s why I love to go to the conventions!” Maddie said, giving Evie a big smile.

  Chapter 13

  Silas shifted his gaze between Brenda and Maddie. “It seems like conventions are something that would be more for fakes.”

  “True,” Brenda said. “Most of the attendees have no psychic abilities. But I go to see what the ‘state of the art’ has moved to. While fakers can get away with a lot at the conventions, there is some serious—albeit definitely off base—science that does try to explain things.”

  “And there are some real psychics!” Maddie added.

  “Of course,” Brenda said. “If anyone actually had psychic powers and wasn’t sure where to find others, that would be the place to go. Imagine you are an outcast, and all you know is that this ability is in you. Nobody you ever talk to can relate, and they all think—and call—you a liar. A convention is where you would go to belong. When abilities manifest themselves, there is usually a very strong feeling of abandonment. Those with psychic abilities often feel confused and out of place.”

  “I bet it gets lonely sometimes,” Evie said.

  “Very much so,” Brenda said, “everyone desires to belong, in some way, to something, whatever that is.”

  “Do psychics openly advertise their abilities?” Silas asked, “That seems like something that people would want to avoid.”

  “Except the fakers!” Maddie said, smiling at Silas.

  Brenda nodded to Maddie. “Exactly. Except the fakers.”

  “So if these conventions have a bunch of fakes, how do those with real psychic abilities find each other then?” Silas asked.

  “Usually by saying ‘hi,’” Brenda said. “Seriously, I think there is an invisible connection between all these psychic abilities. Except for Maddie. I picked up on her strange outburst.”

  “But then we said ‘hi!’” Maddie said, smiling at her addition.

  “That we did,” Brenda said. “And then we discussed Maddie’s ability.”

  “Déjà Vu?” Evie asked as the story circled around.

  “Right,” Brenda said. “Maddie can tell if the present is as it should be.”

  “And sometimes things end up being way off,” Maddie said with a shake of her head.

  “Can you see the future?” Silas asked. If she could know how things were supposed to be, then maybe she knew what would h
appen.

  “No silly!” Maddie said, laughing at Silas’ question.

  “Roger and I came to the conclusion that Maddie can sense the present and immediate past, across many different, universes,” Brenda explained. “If any of these varied universes—the dark figure seems to indicate she can reach pretty far—ends up being radically different, Maddie can sense it. Or if the current situation seems to be dramatically different, Maddie can feel that too.”

  “Why did you say we’re safe?” Silas asked Maddie.

  Maddie shook her widely at Silas. “I didn’t say you were safe. I said there wasn’t any danger.”

  “What is the difference?” Evie asked, not sure what to make of the distinction.

  “If you were in danger, I could probably feel that,” Maddie said casually, as if she had answered this question many times before. “But I can’t say for sure that you are safe. There are always things that I can’t see.”

  “Maddie, are these two supposed to be together?” Brenda asked, changing the subject, with a sly smile. “You know, like a couple?”

  Maddie grinned and swung her legs rapidly in front of herself. “Yes! It totally feels like it.”

  “There you go,” Brenda said, laughing at Maddie. “Guess it is settled.”

  Evie knew she was probably bright red. Her only consolation was that Silas’ face was completely red also.

  “What is your gift?” Silas asked Brenda, trying to change the awkward subject. “If Maddie can sense Déjà Vu, what do you get?”

  Brenda took a deep breath and shook her head. “Roger and I have gone over this, in incredible detail some times, and determined that I have the ability to connect to a close multiverse set.”

  “Close multiverse set?” Evie repeated. “Like not as far as Maddie can see?”

  “Right!” Brenda said. “If Maddie can see the entire ‘hill’, or several close hills, of this probability present—meaning probably millions and millions of different universes, but only at this moment in time—I can connect with maybe twenty universes, not just the present, but also the past in some cases.”

  “What about when you sensed about Roger being in the wrong place?” Silas asked. “Wasn’t that a future message?”