CLIPPED: Another Time Travel Tale (The Harmon Family Adventure Series Book 2)

by Angela R. Hart

  "What in the HELL are you hollering about now, Matt!" said Granny as she made her way into the living room. She stopped in the middle of the doorway with her jaw on the floor. "NO WAY!" she screamed. "WHAT! ALLIE! IS THAT YOU! You're so OLD!" she yelled, running over to give her a hug. "Hi, Mama!" she cried, hugging her tightly. They were a mess, and it was really sweet to see. I actually teared up a little bit, seeing Aunt Allie cry over her parents, it warmed my heart and broke it at the same time. I glanced over at Aunt Callie and noticed that she was a little misty-eyed too.

  "Why are you here?" asked Granny. "I just came for a visit, I'm part of the plan, but we don't want to get into specifics today, I just wanted to come see the two of you again." said Aunt Allie. "I am waiting on some mail to get to the house, and then we are going to take Allie back to her time." Aunt Callie explained. "I am Aunt Callie again, by the way." she said, laughing. "AWW, good ol' Aunt Callie!" said Granny happily. "I miss Aunt Callie, all the time." said PawPaw. "We had some good times, didn't we, girls?" said Granny to both of them. Aunt Allie and Aunt Callie both smiled and said yes, and then they got to reminiscing on the past. I sat back and watched and listened. It was a nice day, and I was glad that we were getting started with all of this. I hoped that once we got back to 2044, that we would be able to figure out our next steps in finding the assholes that were going to do this to us. I had faith in both Aunties, they were smart and they were brave and I wasn't as afraid having them around.

  We stayed at PawPaw and Granny's until the sun went down, and then we finally all made our way back to the house. We had to tell Aunt Allie about making the ID's here. "Allie, I don't know why we didn't think of this, but I already e-mailed that guy for 3 ID's. He can do all three of ours with no problem from this time, we need to be Chloe's age in 2044, not your age. I'm dumb." said Aunt Callie. "You're right, good thinking." said Aunt Allie.

  "We can still go visit everyone in the past though, if you want to, once we get the mail in, then once we have our visit, we can pop back to 2044 and nobody will know that we even left." said Aunt Callie. "Okay, sounds good to me. Let's go and stay for a couple of days and then we can head back." said Aunt Allie. "VACATION!" I yelled, and they both stood up and screamed, "HEY, GIRL, HEY! and shook their asses. "OH MY GOD, STOP!" I screamed, and laughed, and then stood up to shake mine too. We were the weirdest family on the planet.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  The three social security cards came in the mail exactly one week later. Aunt Callie said that she was going to hold onto all three of them until we got back to 2044, that way we didn't accidentally lose one. She went and locked them up in her safe next to the links and the clip, that way, we could just grab everything and go, once we returned from the 90's. We decided on 1995. It was two years after the incident happened and it wouldn't mess anything up if we showed up then.

  Aunt Allie remembered to put the meds in her pocket before we left 2044, so we didn't have to wait 30 minutes for pills to kick in. We all went and changed into our 90's apparel and then came back out to look over each other. Aunt Allie wore something a little less young at least, she was in her 60's and she didn't want people to notice that she was dressed weird. Me and Aunt Callie both had on the 'Trusty Aunt Callie Flannels' as she liked to call them. "We look hot!" I said, nodding in approval. "Your PawPaw and Granny are going to shit themselves." said Aunt Callie. "Did everybody drop their meds?" said Aunt Allie. "Yep." we replied.

  This time around, we decided on a different tactic. The old neighbors still lived in this house in the 90's, so today we were going to sneak into Granny and PawPaw's backyard and use Auntie's old shed bedroom. They still kept it up and clean. Riley and Chloe liked to spend the night in there sometimes, so it was fully furnished and still decorated. We always called it our 'Clubhouse' when we were little. It would be the perfect place to resurface in 1995. The gate to the backyard was on the side of this house and Granny and PawPaw never opened the curtains in the living room unless they were looking at something outside, which they rarely did, so we would be able to get back there without them seeing us. They would want to know where we were going if they saw us crawling into that shed.

  We gathered up our belongings and I went to get the links and clip out of the safe. I left the ID's because we wouldn't need them until we went back to 2044. I grabbed my journal out of my bag and wrote down today's date, April 6, 2023, and checked the clock. It was 11:05 AM. I wrote the time down too, that way we would know what time to return here to pick up the ID's and head back to 2044. Finally, we all made our way through Auntie's backyard, through the gate, and into PawPaw's backyard. The shed was still standing tall. I was excited to get to go to a time that I wasn't alive yet, it was going to be so cool to see everything way back when!

  We creaked open the door to the shed and all sat down on the bed. Both Aunties looked all around at everything with huge smiles on their faces. "Good memories in this place!" said Aunt Callie. "You got that right, I miss this place! Remember when Dad bought it for us? That was such a good day!" said Aunt Allie. "Sure was! Best birthday ever!" said Aunt Callie. "What time should we set the clip to, Aunties?" I asked. I had no idea when they would want to show up. "Go ahead and set it to January 1st at 7:00 AM." said Aunt Callie. "Yeah, that's perfect. Every year, we would go home on December 31st and reappear the next morning and walk inside the back door, I think they'll love that if we do it again. Callie can go in first, to prepare them for guests. Surprises are so fun." said Aunt Allie, smiling.

  "Okay, I have the clip all set, go ahead and set the links, Chloe Bear." I turned the 'BACK' link counterclockwise until 1995 appeared. I showed them and they both nodded. "Do you have the presents for everyone?" Aunt Allie asked Aunt Callie. "Sure do, got them in my bag." Aunt Callie said, patting her bag. "Okay then, let's do this. VACATION!" said Aunt Allie. "VACATION!" we repeated, as we linked arms and poofed away to 1995.

  We landed in a heap in the middle of the bed in the shed. It was a little dusty but not too bad. It had technically only been 2 years since the Aunties lived here, and I was sure that Little Allie and Little Andrew always played in there after she left. We bounced a couple of times, and then all three of us stood up to brush all of the dust off of our clothes. I looked around at the shed bedroom. It was so different. The walls were painted the same light blue that Auntie painted everything and the bedding was different. There was an old brown typewriter sitting on the desk and then I noticed a little laptop computer sitting there too. "They had laptops in 1995?" I asked the Aunties. They both looked at it and started to laugh. "No, baby, but we brought our laptop from 2018 or 2019 here and when we got sent back, we couldn't really bring it with us, since we were impaled by a tree or whatever." Aunt Callie said. "Ohhh, okay, that makes sense. This is cool, I like your room!" I told them. "It's good to be back." said Aunt Allie, smiling and looking around at everything.

  "Oh my God, Allie, I just realized, they don't even know that we are alive!" said Aunt Callie. "Oh my God, you're right! Remember when we got sent home to 2020 and Mom and Dad drove all the way back home from their trip to make sure that we made it okay? They didn't know that we were alive that whole time! They're going to be really surprised when they see you walk through that door." said Aunt Allie. "Well, it'll be a good day for them then, huh?" Aunt Callie said. "Yep!" I said back. "Maybe I shouldn't just walk in. I think we should go to the front and I'll knock, I don't want to scare them if they think we have been dead this whole time." said Aunt Callie. "Good idea, me and Chloe can wait on the side and listen for our cue." said Aunt Allie.

  Aunt Callie creaked open the door of the shed to make sure that she couldn't see anybody in the kitchen before we all made our way through the backyard toward the gate. Nobody was there and we all crept quietly until we reached the driveway. Everything looked so weird! PawPaw had a different truck and Granny had a maroon grandma looking sedan sitting in the driveway. "That was my first car." said Aunt Allie, pointing to the maroon car. "WOW. That's interes
ting, Auntie, umm, fancy!" I said. It was really old ladyish, but it was a long time ago. "Okay guys, I'm going in. I'm nervous, I hope I don't get gassy." Aunt Callie said, laughing at her own joke. Aunt Allie laughed too, she knew all too well about the nervous gas. I just shook my head at the two of them. "Go on then, Auntie, do it." I said, urging her on.

  Me and Aunt Allie stood by the bricks where nobody could see us and I heard. "KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK!" I was nervous for her, it was going to be so weird meeting them young. Finally, the front door opened and I heard PawPaw scream, "OH MY GOD! YOU'RE ALIVE! THANK GOD! LISSA! GET IN HERE! NOW!" Then I heard kids running for the door and they were screaming and crying for Aunt Callie. "Wow! They really did love y'all!" I whispered to Aunt Allie, who was tearing up behind me. She was a really emotional old woman, and cried at the drop of a hat. "Hi Matt! Hi Kids!" Then Granny came to the door and screamed. "Hi Lissa!" said Auntie. "OH MY GOD! YOU'RE HERE! YOU'RE HERE! THANK GOD! IT WORKED!" Granny screamed. "Y'all, I brought some people with me today, can they come in?" she said, before they got too emotional.

  "What? Brought people? But how? Who?" said PawPaw. "Come on, y'all." she said to us, and we both walked out from behind the bricks. "Matt, Lissa, Kids, I would like you to meet, Allie and Chloe. Chloe is your granddaughter, and Allie is, well, she's me and Allie, just older." she told them. They were stunned, all four of them just stood at the door with wide eyes. Finally, PawPaw tried to fix his face and said, "Come in, everybody, come in." and opened the door to us all.

  We walked into the house and it still smelled the same as it always did. Auntie said that they got it rebuilt after the lightning strike, so this was a new house, not the exact same one that they lived in before 1993. It was the same house that was there in my time though, and it was really weird being in a brand new version of the same house. I looked all around, and it looked about the same, just with older decor and old electronics. "Hi Matt, Hi Lissa, Hi Kids." said Aunt Allie, nervously. "I swear, it's me, I'm just from way in the future. Remember how I told you about the time traveling? Well, I am from 2044, many years from now, but I'm still me, I swear." she told the kids, who were staring at her like she was the weirdest thing they had ever seen. "They'll warm up to you soon." said Lissa, staring at her strangely.

  They both turned to look at me after that, and I felt really awkward and didn't know what to say. "Umm, hi! It's nice to meet you, I'm Chloe, Chloe Harmon." I said to them both. "Nice to meet you Chloe, when are you from?" Matt said, getting excited about all of the Harmons being in one room. "I'm from 2045." I replied. "WOW." Matt and Lissa said, they couldn't even imagine that far in the future. "Are there flying cars and robots?" asked Andrew. I started to laugh, because that was my tiny little Dad asking me that. He was so little, like 9 years old! "Well, yes, actually we do have flying cars and robots." I said, looking down to talk to him. "WOAH, COOL!" he said, and then walked off to sit down with his Teddy. I looked at Little Allie, but she didn't have anything to say. "She's real shy." explained Aunt Callie. I couldn't even imagine Aunt Allie ever being shy. "I missed you guys!" she said to everyone. "We missed you too, Aunt Callie, we are glad you're alive!" whispered little Allie while she hugged her waist.

  "So, if you are our granddaughter Chloe, which one of these two kids right here is your parent? Allie or Andrew?" asked Matt. "Andrew is my Dad." I answered. "No, I'm not. That's gross. You're old enough to be my Mom." said Andrew, in a smart ass tone. "You are, sorry dude, one day, you will be my Dad, get over it." I explained. He didn't have anything to say, just looked at me angrily. "Baby douche-bag." I whispered to the Aunties. They both busted out laughing at the same time and I smiled.

  Matt asked how we were all able to travel together and we explained the clip once again. The kids wanted to touch it but we wouldn't let them, and we asked Matt to lock them up until it was time for us to head back. He went and did that right away, he knew that part was important. I wondered what was going through poor Little Allie's head. She couldn't be understanding very well about these two ladies both being her, it was a lot to try and comprehend at her age. I knew that she would grow up to be okay though, so that was good. They asked us why we were here and did something happen, but we all swore that everything was fine and that we were all just taking a short vacation from our lives. "We needed a break for a little bit, before we went back to real lives, and what better than a family vacation to relieve some stress, right?" said Aunt Callie.

  "We missed you guys and we wanted to come and see you before we went back to the 40's." said Aunt Allie. "Well that's great, we are glad to have you and we are glad to know that you survived that night. What an awful night that was, huh?" said Lissa. "Damn right it was awful, luckily, we don't remember much about it." said Aunt Callie, Aunt Allie nodding along beside her.

  Aunt Allie leaned over and asked Aunt Callie for the presents and she handed them all out to everyone. "We got y'all something." said Aunt Allie. "We know that you lost the last ones in the fire that night, so we bought you 4 more Kindles." said Aunt Callie. The kids brightened up after that and Matt and Lissa were really excited too. "Wow! Thanks guys! I really missed this thing!" said Lissa, taking the purple one and browsing through it. Matt took his yellow one and the kids took their blue and green ones. They were super excited. "I missed all of these books, Aunt Callie, thank you!" said Allie, giving her and Other Allie a huge hug. "Thanks everybody! I missed the games and the comic books!" said Andrew, playing around on some game that we loaded before we left. It was really cute, watching them, they were a happy family and I was glad that the Aunties were able to save them from their awful fate.

  We stayed for a week. We told the kids that we were going to have to go after a week because we had to get home to our other families, and they were really sad, but they understood. Matt and Lissa were very cool to hang out with as young people. They were funny and liked to have a good time. We ate and talked and everybody got to know each other. It was the best vacation of my life.

  That week passed by faster than I ever thought possible, and it was about time to head back to our horrible task that we had ahead of us. We all said goodbye to everyone and hugged and kissed and cried our way back out to the shed. I was going to miss them all, they were great, the Aunties were right about that. We all lined up in the shed, Aunt Callie had the links and clip in her pocket, and we rushed to set the date to 11:10 AM, April 6, 2023. We had to get back to get the ID's and then we were leaving to go directly back to 2044. It was sad to go, but we all sat down on the bed with the family in the yard waving goodbye to us, and we linked arms and I clicked us away, back to the future, once again.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  We landed in a heap once again. It had to just be because there were so many of us traveling at one time. We all shook it off and managed to get up out of the bed and grab all of our shit. Aunt Callie peeked outside the shed door once more, just to make sure that the curtains were still closed, and they were and we all made our way toward the front yard. We dropped our bags at the side of the house and Aunt Callie put the clip and links in her pocket and we all made our way to the front door. We had to tell PawPaw and Granny goodbye before we headed back to 2044. They didn't know that me and Aunt Callie were going to stay in the future, but Aunt Allie had to say goodbye too.

  I knocked on the door and then we all made our way inside. "DAD, MOM!" hollered Aunt Callie. PawPaw came into the room and said, "What the hell are you yelling for Allie, what's wrong." Then he stopped for a second with a strange looked on his face and his eyes went wide. "YOU! and YOU!" pointing to Aunt Allie and me. "What?" I said. He was being extra strange. "You went to 1995 with Callie!" he said, all excited. "Yes, Dad, we just got back! Like, just this minute." Callie said, shaking her head. "I remember both of you!" he said happily. "Good PawPaw, I'm glad!" I said.

  "We are about to leave Dad. Chloe and Allie are about to take me back home. I just wanted tell the two of you goodbye before I headed out." said Aunt Allie. "LISSA, GET IN HERE!" he
hollered. "Really Dad, why can't you just go get her! Just once!" Aunt Callie said, laughing. "What now, Matt, oh, hello ladies." said Granny. "They say that they're taking Allie back home to 2044, she has come to tell us goodbye." PawPaw said sadly. "I'll miss you both, very much. I'm glad I got to see you twice, now and in the past. It was great seeing you and I enjoyed our week together in 1995 too." she said, starting to tear up. "I love you both very much. Always remember that, okay?" she said, hugging them both tightly. "We love you too, Allie Bear." Granny told her. "We will miss you. Have a wonderful life, Allie." PawPaw said.

  "And the two of you, be careful taking her back. We love you both, too." said Granny, hugging us too. "Love you too, Granny." I said. "We will see you in a little bit when we come back, okay?" said Aunt Callie. "Okay Allie Bear." said PawPaw. After the goodbyes we grabbed our bags and made our way back to Auntie's house to pick up the ID's out of the safe. It was time to return and get started on our perilous journey. I prayed that it wouldn't be too difficult. We all linked arms, once more, sitting on the spare room bed and Aunt Callie set the date to January 2nd and I set the year, and we attached and poofed back to 2044, 5 minutes after we left that morning. Hopefully, nobody noticed that we even went anywhere. My life was getting stranger and stranger by the hour.

  We all landed back in the spare bedroom, thankfully, without being in a giant pile of limbs this time around. We all grabbed our bags and immediately made our way through the house. I was thoroughly exhausted from the many trips and I was ready to take a nice, long nap. "I have a headache, I think that I need to take a nap, are y'all as tired as I am?" I asked the Aunties. "Oh, I might be more tired than you are, Lovebug, but I had a wonderful time, it was so good to see my parents again!" said Aunt Allie.