by Amelia Rey
“What is wrong with her?” asked Mary.
“Nothing. She’ll be OK,” Cornelius said as he tried to calm her down. “It’s OK, Katherine. I’m right here with you.”
She hugged Cornelius. “Everything felt so real.”
“What felt real?”Elisabeth asked. “Wait—don’t say anything just yet.”She asked Mary to leave the room.
“Now, tell me what’s going on.”
“All right, we will tell you, but first you need to tell us everything you know about this house,” said Cornelius.
“This house has been in my family for over one hundred years,” said Elisabeth. “My great-grandfather purchased it from a woman who disappeared right after selling the house to him. One of the woman’s servants, who was the nanny of the woman’s son, continued to work for my great-grandparents. She told my great-grandmother, Anne, that the poor woman lost her mind after the sudden disappearance of her only son.”
“That’s all I will tell you for the moment. I have a friend who also lived here all her life. If you are who I suspect you are, I will take you to her because I know that she would be able to help you. But first, tell me what this is all about.”
Cornelius and Danielle both smiled.
“Please, don’t take what I’m about to say as disrespectful,” said Cornelius, “but I honestly doubt that you can possibly suspect who we really are.”
Elisabeth was becoming a little anxious. “Please, stop beating around the bush! And tell me already,” she said in a firm tone.
“All right, Elisabeth. What we are about to tell you might sound crazy, but please give us the benefit of the doubt,” said Danielle. “We believe we are from the mid-1800s, and we need to find our way back to that time.”
Elisabeth was surprised but not shocked. She rolled her wheelchair toward Danielle. “Please, don’t go any further,” she said.
“I warned you that it would sound crazy,” said Danielle.
“No, that doesn’t sound crazy at all,” said Elisabeth. “As I told you before, I already had a suspicion of who you were. But let’s not get into it now. Please come with me to my friend Ruth’s house. She will tell you everything you need to know. She’s the one you should be talking to.”
Cornelius approached Elisabeth. “I suspect that your friend Ruth is not the only one to know the truth to our origins. You know the truth, too. I beg you. Please, tell us!”
Danielle too begged Elisabeth to tell them what she knew. “We have been tormented with visions we don’t understand for the past ten years. Please, help us. Don’t make us wait any longer.”
Elisabeth was touched by Danielle’s plea. “You poor child. You must be so scared. I can’t even imagine what you’re both going through. But don’t be scared. I will help you both. I can’t tell you all I know because it is not my truth to tell. Ruth will answer all your questions. She is somehow connected to your origins.”
Cornelius and Katherine both begged her to tell them something, but Elisabeth did not budge.
Danielle and Cornelius did not hesitate to accompany Elisabeth to Ruth’s house. On the way there, Cornelius asked Danielle, “Wasn’t Ruth the name of Jonathan Miller’s wife?”
“Yes, I believe it was,” she replied.
Chapter 9
When they arrived at Ruth’s house, Danielle stared apprehensively at the captivating two-story Victorian house with wood siding. The house had a wraparound porch, and it was painted a deep green shade with soft gray around the edges. It was surrounded by maple trees. It was no doubt the same house from her visions at the cemetery.
Once inside the house, Danielle was in shock as she stared at the paintings that hung at the center of the staircase. One of them was the painting of herself that she had seen in her vision at the cemetery. The other painting was of the man and the woman who stood at the center of the staircase in her vision, and one was of the young boy who called her “auntie.” There was one painting that she did not recognize of a young man who resembled the young boy.
Elisabeth introduced them. “This is my best friend, Ruth.”To Ruth, she said, “This is Cornelius and Katherine. I believe you have been waiting for them all your life.”Cornelius and Danielle did not understand what Elisabeth meant by that. They just looked at each other in amazement.
Ruth looked at them in disbelief and with tears in her eyes. She said, “I cannot even begin to comprehend the role that destiny plays in our lives.” Then she hugged them and said, “I’m so glad you found each other.”
“How is it that you know about us?” Danielle asked.
“I’ve known about the two of you all my life,” she said. “My great-grandfather was Reverend Nathaniel Miller. He was an alchemist, and he invented a time machine.” That is how you both got here. He kept a diary, and he wrote everything about his invention and the people who dared to travel through time by it. He also wrote about Cornelius being his half brother. That makes you my great-granduncle, Cornelius,” she added. They all laughed.
“That diary was passed down to my grandfather, Jonathan Miller, who passed it down to my father, who finally passed it down to me. I was beginning to believe that everything was just a fairy tale.”
“What can you tell us?” Cornelius asked.
“Well, I can tell you why neither one of you can remember anything about your life before.”
“Why can’t we remember our life the 1800s?” he asked.
“You did not protect the part of your brain that controls your memory. My great-grandfather discovered that a few years after you were both gone.”
“Mrs. Ruth, is there a way to go back to our time?” Danielle asked.
“Yes, the instructions are written down in the diary. But there is something missing.”
“What is missing?” Danielle asked.
“The time machine itself. Well, the original one, actually, because the second time machine was destroyed by my great-grandfather along with all the time traveling information he had. The only one that survived was the one Cornelius traveled through. Cornelius was the only one who knew where it was, but he never came back to Nathaniel.”
“Why did Nathaniel create a second time machine?” Cornelius asked.
“You brought the original one with you to return to the year 1839.”
“I don’t remember where it is,” Cornelius said.
“That means we will remain stuck in the 1990s,” Danielle said. “I don’t understand why Nathaniel had to destroy the second time machine; he had to know that by doing so, he ruined our only chance to go back.”
“My great-grandfather was afraid that if it fell into the wrong hands, the future could be altered, and irreparable damage could be caused. He did not want to be responsible for any negative changes in the future. When my great-grandfather saw that you and Cornelius never made it back, he analyzed his theory to understand what went wrong.
“That is when he discovered that in order for the memory to remain intact during time traveling, the part of the brain that controls the memory had to be protected. He then realized that the reason you both had never returned was because you had no memory of the life you left behind. He immediately started to build a new time machine. But this time, he also built a brain protector. It took him five years to finish it, and when he did, he tested it on himself.”
“Do you mean he traveled through time?” Cornelius asked.
“He did indeed. He tested the device himself,” Ruth replied. “He first traveled to the year 1980 to try and find you both, but unfortunately, he had no luck. After looking for more than a month, he went back to his time. He also travelled to this year but had no luck, and once again returned to his time. But not before investigating whether or not he had any descendants.
“When he found out that I existed, he did not approach me because he feared he might scare me. He instead decided to travel to 1895 to visit his son Jonathan Miller and then to 1910 to visit his grandson Timothy Miller, my father.
“My father t
old me he was very excited when he saw his grandfather because when he died, he was only a child. But all through his life, he had heard so many great things about him. Great-grandfather Nathaniel told my father, Timothy, about my existence in the future, and he asked him to make sure I knew about his invention so that I, too, would be on the lookout for Cornelius and Katherine in the future.
“He also said that once he got back to his time, he would destroy the time machine and every piece of evidence related to it except for his diary, where he wrote everything that happened since the time machine was invented.
“He wrote instructions for your return. He asked my father to keep the house in the family because he would leave the diary and three brain protectors for their return.”
Danielle was curious about why Nathaniel decided to leave three brain protectors. “Who was the third brain protector for?”
“He knew you were expecting when you left,” Ruth said. “By the way, what did you have?”
Danielle remained quiet for a moment. She did not know if she should tell them that her daughter died a few hours after she was born. “I had a beautiful baby girl, but she died a few hours after being born. I named her Annabelle.”
“I’m so sorry for your loss,” said Ruth. “You named her after your mother?”
“I believe that unknowingly, I did name her after my mother.”
“There is something else you both need to know,” Ruth said, “especially Cornelius.”
Cornelius became worried. “What do I need to know?”
“Your mother, Elmirah, is also here in 1990.”
“How did that happen? I thought you said Nathaniel destroyed the time machine.”
“He did, but she got a hold of it before Nathaniel got the chance to get rid of it. When you and Katherine disappeared without leaving any trace, your mother got very suspicious, so she started to investigate. Everything led to my great-grandfather Nathaniel.
“At first, she thought that, because of the lie she told about Katherine and Nathaniel, you went to confront him, and he had killed you. When Nathaniel saw how devastated she was by your disappearance, he felt the need to tell her the truth to ease her pain. Even after all the bad things she had done, she was also a mother suffering for what she believed to be the loss of her only son.
“After learning the truth, she cried, and Nathaniel went to get her a glass of water and left her in the room by herself. She went into his study, and there she saw the device Nathaniel had spoken of. She immediately took advantage of the opportunity, and somehow, she managed to turn the device on. She already knew the year into which Cornelius had traveled, and she entered it into the device.
“Elmirah did not know about the brain protector or that she needed to take the device with her to return to her time. When Nathaniel returned to the room where he had left Elmirah, he noticed that she had used the time machine and had sent herself into the future. He was angry with himself because if he had destroyed the device as soon as he came back from visiting my father, Timothy, in the year 1910, none of this would have happened.
“My great-grandmother, Sarah, told him that if he wanted to live a life without further regrets, he needed to destroy the device immediately. That very night, Nathaniel and Sarah destroyed the time machine.
“Nathaniel had two arriving locations in the memory of the second machine: his house and Elmirah’s house. He did not know at the moment that Elmirah had sold her house.”
A sudden nostalgia for a mother he did not even remember permeated Cornelius’s heart. “Where is my mother now?”
“She is the librarian you met today,” Elisabeth said.
“Have you told her anything about her past?” he asked.
“No, we did not think it would be fair to her since she would never be able to go back. And besides, she is very happy here. She adapted well to our time.”
“Cornelius and Katherine, you both need to focus on finding the time machine. That is, if you really want to go back to your time,” Ruth said.
“We do want to go back,” Cornelius said, “but where do we start looking for the machine?”
“Oh, well, Nathaniel’s diary states that you brought it over with you,” Ruth replied.
“Yes, but I don’t remember anything except that ten years ago I was found in a park wearing funny clothing. When the police officer asked me who I was, all I remembered was my name, Cornelius Montgomery.”
“I don’t remember where or how I arrived here, either,” said Danielle. “But I think I know someone who might.”
“Is that someone the imposter you call your husband?” Cornelius asked.
“Shane definitely knows something, but I know he is not going to tell me. He told me a bunch of lies; he even lied about my name.”
“Then whom else are you referring to?”
“Officer Zack,” said Danielle.
“Officer Zackary Jones?” Cornelius knew that name. He was the officer who found him when he crossed the time barrier ten years ago.
“I don’t know his last name,” said Danielle, “but he told me about this woman who he found roaming in the park ten years ago. He said the only thing she remembered about her life was her name, which happened to be Katherine. I remember that when he first saw me, he was surprised to see me. When I asked him about it later that day, he said that I looked a lot like that young woman. Now I understand why my husband was so nervous when he mentioned he brought that woman to his clinic.”
“I know that we need to focus on finding the time machine,” Danielle said, “but today has been a very busy day for all of us, and I am exhausted. Maybe it would be better if Cornelius and I went home to rest. Tomorrow our minds will be much clearer, and we will be able to focus on finding it.”
They all agreed with Danielle about being exhausted and needing rest, but Ruth thought that it would be better if they spent the night at her house.
Danielle politely declined Ruth’s offer. She wanted to be home when Shane called to say goodnight. Shane was in the habit of calling her every night when he was out of town. Danielle did not want to raise any suspicion.
They said their good-byes, and Cornelius accompanied Danielle to her house. He left her at her door and said goodnight. Cornelius was in a hurry to get to his apartment because he suddenly remembered that his girlfriend, Sabrina, was waiting for him there.
Chapter 10
When Cornelius arrived at his apartment, the first thing he noticed was a suitcase in the center of the living room.
Sabrina came out of the bedroom. She looked like she had been crying all night. “I was worried sick about you,” she said. “I thought something bad had happened to you. I even called all nearby hospitals. Where have you been?”
“I’m sorry that I worried you so much, and I’m very sorry, but I won’t be able to tell you where I was. My life is very complicated right now. And my future is very uncertain. I don’t want to drag you into my problems.”
She looked at him with anger and said, “If what you wanted was to break up with me, all you needed to do was say so. There was no need to put me through this anguish and humiliation.” She picked up her suitcase and left.
Cornelius was upset about breaking up with Sabrina because even though he knew he did not love her the way she loved him, he really cared for her. Cornelius took a shower and went straight to bed. The next morning when he got up, he called Danielle and asked her if they could meet at his house. From there, they would go to Ruth’s house.
When Danielle arrived at Cornelius’s home, he was already waiting for her outside. When he was about to get into Danielle’s car, Sabrina pulled over in her car. She was furious when she saw Danielle, and she yelled at Cornelius, “Is that woman the reason you broke up with me?”
Cornelius tried to calm her down, but Sabrina was not listening to anything he had to say.
She became even more furious and hit him with her handbag.
Danielle got out of her car and tried to reason
with her, but that only made things worse.
Sabrina took off her shoe and started banging on Danielle’s car window with it. When Danielle tried to stop her, she pushed her away. Danielle fell to the ground and hit the back of her head on the edge of a cement brick on the ground.
“What have you done?” Cornelius screamed at Sabrina. As he lifted Danielle’s head, he saw blood. Cornelius got down on his knees and held Danielle’s body in his arms. He checked her pulse, and she was dead. Sabrina stood there in terror, staring at Danielle’s dead body. Cornelius’s neighbor saw what had happened through his window and immediately called the police.
When the police arrived, Sabrina was pacing back and forth with her hand on top of her head as if she had lost her mind. Cornelius was holding Danielle’s body tightly against his as he cried. The officer handcuffed Sabrina and put her inside the car. The neighbor told the police everything he had seen and heard.
The police asked Cornelius if there was someone they could call to be with him. He gave them Ruth Miller’s number, and then he gave the police his statement and went inside his house because he didn’t want to see the ambulance take Danielle’s body away.
Ruth and Elisabeth rushed to Cornelius’s house. They were devastated when they heard of Danielle’s death.
Ruth tried to console Cornelius as he cried. “Everything will be all right,” she said. “I know that this might not be the right moment to talk about your return to your time, but under the circumstances, it is the only chance you and Katherine have.”
“You cannot seriously think that in spite of all that’s happened I can still go back. I know I loved Katherine, and even though I have no memories of that love, I can feel it deep in my soul. But she’s dead now! Why would I want to go back without her?”
“You can’t give up the idea of going back to your time. You don’t belong in our time. It’s unnatural. And I’m sure that deep inside you know it, too; besides, you have to think about your daughter, Annabelle.”