by Jeff Alt
Our clothes had transformed. I wore a straw hat with a wide brim, long wool pants, a cotton shirt, and boots. Papa Lewis and Dad wore much the same, except they both had on black top hats. Hug-a-Bug, Grandma, and Mom all wore colorful long sleeve, full length dresses with full, billowing skirts, and they had bonnets on their heads.
We stood in the middle of Browns Gap Road, taking everything in. I noticed a man and woman similar in age to Papa Lewis and Grandma standing with a boy about my age next to a horse-drawn wagon parked along the side of the road. The horse’s reins were wrapped around a fence post. The wagon was loaded with bags of corn-meal, baskets of berries, potatoes, and onions, and crates containing live chickens. The family appeared to be local farmers, but they looked strangely familiar.
The pounding of hooves suddenly shook the ground. I turned to look, and saw two endless columns of grey-uniformed soldiers on horseback thundering towards us. It’s not often you see Civil War soldiers from over 150 years ago approaching, and we stood transfixed.
“Get out of the road!” a voice hollered, and a hand clamped onto my shoulder and yanked me backwards. We all just made it off of Browns Gap Road seconds before the stream of soldiers and horses rushed by, leaving a cloud of dust in their wake. Picking myself up from the ground, I looked back to see who pulled me to safety. It was the same farm boy I had noticed before.
“Thanks for saving me!” I exhaled, still trying to catch my breath.
“Bubba Jones, they don’t have traffic lights and crosswalks yet! You need to give way to riders, especially soldiers! That was Stonewall Jackson and his officers that just rode by!” the farm boy exclaimed.
He knows my name...that’s why he and his folks look familiar. It’s Cousin Nick, Dolly, and Washington! I thought.
“Washington, is that you?” I asked the boy.
“Yes. Don’t make a scene. Act like you’re with us,” Washington whispered.
“Wow! Just when I think I’ve seen it all, I meet up with you guys in the middle of our time travel. This is awesome!” I said.
CHAPTER 7
THE CIPHER MASTER REVEALED
Cousin Nick lowered his voice so he wouldn’t be overheard by the soldiers. “We’ve been expecting you guys. It’s good to see you. But we have to act like we’re together and we’re supposed to be here, so no hugs or greetings. Walk with us over to our wagon. If anyone asks where you’re from, just say you’re staying with us in Charlottesville. Don’t mention anything about living in Ohio.”
We followed Cousin Nick, Dolly, and Washington back over to the wagon.
“What’s wrong with living in Ohio?” Hug-a-Bug asked.
“Ohio was part of the Union during the Civil War and you’re in the middle of a Confederate Army camp. They’ll think we’re spies,” Cousin Nick whispered.
“Yikes! What will they do if they think we’re spies? By the way, you guys are the ones acting like spies, sending us secret codes,” Hug-a-Bug replied.
“Keep it down! And you don’t want to find out what they do to spies. We figured meeting you back in time was the safest place, due to our national security assignment. We thought that if you went down the Doyles River Falls Trail, your Papa Lewis would remember our Brown Gap Road time-travel adventure years ago and you would time travel back to Stonewall’s camp, like Lewis and I did. Dolly, Washington, and I time traveled back just before you and it looks like our plan worked.”
Just then, two mounted soldiers split away from the group that had galloped past us moments ago and trotted over in our direction. I thought for sure they were suspicious of us.
“Let me do the talking and go along with whatever I say,” Cousin Nick hissed.
The men pulled up their horses next to the wagon.
“I reckon you’re looking to sell us some supplies,” a bearded soldier said, remaining on his horse as he examined the contents of the wagon.
“That’s right. We figured ya’ll could use some extra food,” Cousin Nick replied.
The other soldier dismounted and tied his horse to a nearby hitching post. He removed his leather riding gloves, opened one of his saddle bags, and pulled out a leather pouch stuffed with cash. Walking over to the wagon, he took inventory of all the supplies.
“Here’s $5.00 for everything. I hope that’s enough. I’ll have my men unload your wagon.”
“That will be just fine,” Cousin Nick replied.
We all stood by silently as the soldier walked over to a nearby row of tents and ordered some men to unload the wagon. I was nervous the whole time, thinking about what could happen if they suspected we were spies. Fortunately, they never asked us where we were from. After the wagon was unloaded, we all climbed up into the empty wagon bed. Cousin Nick and Papa Lewis climbed up into the buckboard seat and Cousin Nick took up the reigns and guided the wagon down Browns Gap Road.
We drove away, out of view of the camp. A few hundred yards down the road, we were stopped by soldiers at a perimeter checkpoint. They held rifles tipped with bayonets at the ready. Since we were leaving the Confederate camp rather than entering, we didn’t pose a threat, so they let us pass without asking any questions. Cousin Nick drove the wagon a good half mile down the road and then pulled up the horse. We were now way out of sight of the armed soldiers.
“That was scary. The whole time I was imagining what would happen if they suspected that we were spies,” I said.
“Imagine if the Union had known where Jackson’s army was camped. It could have changed the outcome of the battle or even the war. Imagine if scientists knew precisely when and how the fungus from Asia that wiped out the American chestnut trees would arrive in the U.S. They could have stopped it from killing millions of trees. These seem like some positive ways our time-travel ability could be used. But imagine if it was used by someone to find all the gold mines in the country. Imagine if it was used by someone to go back and give the Confederates better guns or more men to help them win. Imagine if you stopped the Asian fungus that killed the American chestnuts and then found out you actually cleared the way for another far more destructive fungus that took its place and wiped out even more species of trees. We should only use our time travel to learn about the past. We must never use it to change history,” Cousin Nick explained.
We fell silent, thinking about Cousin Nick’s words. I broke the silence with a question that had been on my mind.
“So, who is writing the coded messages, and why is our secret a matter of national security?” I asked.
Cousin Nick looked over at Washington. There was a long pause. Then Washington looked over at all of us.
“I’m the one writing the messages. Our time-travel secret is not a matter of national security, but something I’m working on here in the park is, and I’m not allowed to say what it is right now. Until my assignment is over, we can only meet in secret. Back in time is the safest way,” Washington said.
“How could you be working on a national security secret? You’re only a kid. And where did you learn how to write cipher codes?” I asked.
In the conversation that followed, Cousin Nick, Dolly, and Washington caught us up on what had been going on since we had last seen them, some time ago. When Washington was five years old, Cousin Nick held a work meeting in his home with some top secret colleagues. No one in the agency ever thought to worry about Washington overhearing them; he was only five, after all. Cousin Nick and Dolly were already a bit startled by Washington’s advanced reading level; he learned to read chapter books at the age of four, but that was nothing compared to what came next. While Cousin Nick was going over confidential information with his work colleagues, he had laid out encoded documents on the coffee table in the living room. Since the contents were written in cipher, no one in the meeting worried about Washington seeing them as he played with his little toy cars on the floor near the coffee table. No one became alarmed when Washington left the room and returned with a pen and paper, kneeled down at the coffee table, and began writing things down.
Cousin Nick and his colleagues were right there next to the coffee table and Washington was in full sight. According to a debriefing on their security breach after the incident, everyone assumed that a five-year-old with a pen and paper would either be drawing stick figures or attempting to write some basic kindergarten-level words. They continued on with their meeting. Meanwhile, Washington finished writing and then he left his note and pen on the coffee table next to the documents and went back to playing with his cars, zooming them around on the floor.
It wasn’t until the end of the meeting when one of Nick’s colleagues went to pick up the documents that it was discovered what Washington had done: he had decoded the secret messages embedded in the documents. This caused major panic within the top secret agency. It baffled everyone. How could a little kid decode their top secret messages? Cousin Nick was interrogated for days to make sure he wasn’t behind this. This made him nervous, because none of his colleagues knew about our family time-travel secret and this incident drew attention to his family. He was afraid they would question Washington, and Washington might reveal the secret. After the panic at the agency died down, they not only changed the way they handle encoded documents, they also realized that Washington’s talent with code breaking could help the agency. And that is how Washington became their youngest employee.
Cousin Nick and Dolly had Washington evaluated by several child experts. It was concluded that while Washington appeared to be an ordinary, typical five-year-old, he had extraordinary intelligence. He maxed out every IQ test with a perfect score. Cousin Washington was off -the- charts genius, well beyond some adults with PhDs. He could see patterns that most people could not. He could quickly think through difficult equations that he had never learned.
Nick and Dolly wanted Washington to grow up and experience all the things a normal kid does as much as possible, in spite of his extraordinary abilities. An arrangement was made with the agency so that Washington’s skills would only be used if it was a matter of national security. Washington attended school and played sports like the other kids his age. But, unlike most other kids, he was occasionally called in by the agency to decipher a code for them. He also learned about our family time-traveling ability and inherited the ability from his father, just as I had from Papa Lewis. Cousin Nick and Dolly took Washington into Shenandoah National Park nearly every week. Together, they explored every inch of the park, carrying out our family’s mission to protect and preserve our wildlands for future generations. Then, just days before our arrival to Shenandoah, Cousin Nick was notified that they needed to activate Washington. It was a matter of national security, and it had to do with Shenandoah National Park. It explained why Cousin Nick acted strangely with Papa Lewis when he tried to make arrangements to meet up with them.
Washington handed me a folded piece of paper similar to the note that was under our Jeep this morning.
“Here’s your next Shenandoah adventure. Put this in your pocket and it will be with you when you travel back to the present.”
“So you’re not going to go back with us? Bubba Jones and I were really looking forward to hanging out with you.” Hug-a-Bug said.
“I can’t until this project is finished. But we will meet up with you during our time-travel adventures. We can explore the park together that way. It will be fun.”
“How did you know we hiked on the A.T. yesterday?” I asked.
“We’re members of the PATC and friends with the trail crew that you met yesterday,” Washington answered.
“We should probably head back to the future now. We must travel back separately from you. We were riding on horseback along Browns Gap Road when we time traveled to Jackson’s camp, so we’ll remain with the horse and wagon. You will have to wait until we are a good distance away before you time travel back to the present,” Cousin Nick explained.
We said goodbye, gave hugs, and then Papa Lewis, Dad, Mom, Grandma, Hug-a-Bug, and I hopped down from the wagon. Cousin Nick grabbed the reins, shook them and said “Yaa,” and the horse trotted off down the road. We turned to go when suddenly there was a loud kaboom. Turning back, we saw the horse and wagon standing by the side of the road. No one was in the wagon - they had already left. We all huddled together, and I said, “Take us back to the present.”
CHAPTER 8
IF THESE ROCKS COULD TALK
Awarm gust of air struck us as we traveled back to the present. We all stood on Browns Gap Road in our modern clothing. Sweat still dripped down my forehead from our hike up from the waterfall, as if we had never left. This seemed unreal. Did we really just meet our Virginia family at a Civil War camp?! I reached into my pocket and felt a folded up piece of paper. I pulled it out and sure enough, it was the note Washington gave to me moments ago in Civil War time.
Everyone was eager to know what the note said, but our stomachs came first. Walking down and up a mountain and then time traveling to the Civil War sure did work up an appetite! When we arrived back at our camp, we broke out the cooler from the Jeep and assembled some deli sandwiches, carrots, chips, and lemonade for lunch. When everyone was done eating, I unfolded the note and placed it on the picnic table to see what Washington had in store for us.
Bubba Jones and Family, Use the same code that led you to Jackson’s camp to decipher this message. See you soon.
ZXISXOV OLZHP QEBK YIXZHOLZH
I unfolded the cipher and plain text decoder sheet from earlier and went through each group of letters.
This was the message I deciphered.
Plain: CALVARY ROCKS THEN BLACKROCK
Cipher: ZXISXOV OLZHP QEBK YIXZHOLZH
“Well, I know right where those are located. They are both in the South District. Both are short hikes with easy access from Skyline Drive. It will be best to drive to each trailhead and walk from there. Who’s in?” Papa Lewis asked.
Grandma, Mom, and Dad decided to stay back at camp together. Grandma was tuckered out after our waterfall hike, and Mom and Dad needed time to prepare our evening meal. Papa Lewis handed me the map. “I’ll drive, you navigate,” Papa Lewis said.
Hug-a-Bug, Papa Lewis, and I replenished the snacks and water in our packs, hopped in the Jeep, and drove out of the campground.
“We’re going to the Riprap parking area. We have to drive back towards the Rockfish Gap entrance where we entered the park to milepost ninety, along Skyline Drive. That’s the closest trailhead to Calvary Rocks. Each mile along Skyline Drive is marked by a cement post etched with the mileage in black. We have about ten miles to go,” Papa Lewis explained.
In minutes we had arrived at the Riprap parking area. We hoisted our packs onto our backs, grabbed our trekking poles, and away we went down the trail, Papa Lewis bringing up the rear. The walk was easy, and in no time we reached Calvary Rocks. Large gray boulders jutted up from the earth with countless vertical lines etched into them.
“Those are weird-looking rocks,” Hug-a-Bug commented.
“Those lines are trace fossils called Skolithos linearis. They were sand tubes left by worms that lived in beach sand in the ancient Iapetus Ocean, which predated the Atlantic Ocean,” Papa Lewis explained.
“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” I asked, looking at Hug-a-Bug.
“Uh-huh! Let’s go to the beach, Bubba Jones,” Hug-a-Bug said.
“It is estimated that the Iapetus Ocean existed 400 to 600 million years ago. To be safe, let’s go back to July 15th 500 million years ago,” Papa Lewis explained.
I clutched the family journal and said, “Take us back to July 15th 500 million years ago.”
A gust of hot air knocked us back. Everything went dark. Then I felt sand between my toes. I looked down and saw I was standing in shallow water. Our clothes had been replaced with bathing suits. A warm breeze ruffled my hair, and a gentle wave splashed against us.
“Hey guys, come on over and join us on the beach,” a familiar voice shouted.
We turned and looked over our shoulders. There sat Washington, Cousin Nick, a
nd Dolly on a sandy beach, basking in the sun. The three of us waded out of the water and onto the beach. Our valley view was now endless ocean.
“Lewis, I’m glad you remembered the time we visited this ancient beach. We’ve been taking Washington here since he was a toddler,” Cousin Nick said.
“Where are the worms that left those vertical fossils in Calvary Rock?” Hug-a-Bug asked.
“Those rocks were once beach sand. So the worms are buried underneath in the water,” Papa Lewis explained.
Papa Lewis, Cousin Nick, and Dolly sat in the sand and talked while Washington, Hug-a-Bug, and I ran down the beach and jumped into the ancient ocean. We swam and took turns burying each other in the sand as if we were at Virginia Beach on the Atlantic Ocean. We completely lost ourselves in the fun.
“See, I told you we would have fun. It’s a time-traveling vacation!” Washington said.
“This is unbelievable! We’re playing on a 500 million-year-old beach that no longer exists. Shouldn’t we be worried about dinosaurs?” Hug-a-Bug asked.
“No dinosaurs yet. Those came a few hundred million years later,” Washington said.
“I’m getting confused about what happened when. All of our time-travel episodes have been out of order, and I’m not that good at history to start with. It’s hard to keep track of when we are, much less what happened then. I mean when. I don’t even know what I mean!” Hug-a-Bug said.
“You should make a timeline, Hug-a-Bug. You can keep track of where you’ve been and place the events in order from oldest to most recent,” Washington suggested.
“That’s a great idea!” Hug-a-Bug responded enthusiastically.
“We should probably get going to Blackrock,” Washington said.
“Sounds like a plan,” I added.
We all walked over to where Papa Lewis, Cousin Nick, and Dolly sat on the beach. “Ready to move on?” Cousin Nick asked us. “Let’s go!” I stated.