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

by Angela R. Hart

  "Victor Mendoza, he works for the AVSPU." said The Scot, blood dripping down his forehead. "What in the hell is the AVSPU?" asked Callie. "Auditory and Visualization Scientific Programming Unit." said Ugly Don. "They use us to find things, or people. They didn't tell us any details, just gave us that book and said to find the people in it because they had something that they shouldn't. Some cufflinks. I didn't even know what cufflinks were, until I saw that drawing in that book." said The Scot. He seemed woozy after getting whacked in the head. "Moron." I said. "Idiot." said Chloe.

  "Who did this belong to?" asked Carson, still flipping through it. "There's no name in here. Only our names, going back a few generations." he said. "I don't know who it belonged to, someone found it and they had it at the AVSPU. They gave it to us to try to find who wrote it, but they said to watch those people that were written in it because they had the stolen cufflinks. We had to get them back, no matter what." said Ugly Don. "So you just decided to kill my Auntie and my Dad?" said Chloe. "What good would that do?" I said. "We didn't mean to, we were just trying to run them off the road, but look, they're here and fine." he said, nodding to Callie and Carson. "They're not fine, dumbasses." said Chloe, getting mad again.

  We tried to get more information out of them, but that was all that they had. They didn't know anything, they were just hired thugs, and they were both really stupid too. "We will be leaving now, don't worry, as soon as we are out of here, we will be calling the police. They have you on the road Snaps killing two people, running them off of the road. You'll both be going to jail for a while." said Callie. "Killing two people! We didn't kill nobody! You're fucking standing right here in front of us!" screamed The Scot. Callie and Carson looked at each other and smiled. "That's what you think." said Callie, winking. "Bye fuckers, thanks for the journal." said Carson. Me and Chloe flipped them both off and we walked out of the cabin, closing the door back. "Assholes." said Callie, angrily.

  "Call the cops anonymously, on the untraceable Handheld. Say that you saw two men run a car off of the road and then speed off and that you saw them turn in here. Give them the address and then hang up." said Carson. "Okay. Let's go home." I said. Chloe made the call and then hung up. "It's done." Carson drove us back to the house. It was time for me to reset again, at least we had the journal now and we had the information. I was going to take the journal with me and then bring it back to go over when I returned to the 7th.

  We pulled into the driveway and went inside. I grabbed the links from my pockets and stuck the journal into the back of my pants, carefully, since it was so ancient. "Okay, I'll be returning to the 7th. I'll show the feed to everybody and we will go through the journal. This was a big step in the right direction. I'll see you." I said, as I switched the links to 2045 and smashed them together, disappearing from my family once again.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

  "Here we go again." I thought as I landed. I pulled the journal out of the back of my pants and browsed through some of the pages. In the snaps that we had previously taken of our mystery man, we had seen the letter 'R' on the front of it, right next to his hand, but looking at it now, there was nothing there. "I guess it got too old and disappeared." I thought to myself. I flipped through the pages, and saw a very nice and very detailed drawing of the links on one of the pages. "Auntie can draw really well, just like that." I thought. I flipped some more and saw another drawing, this one, of the clip.

  There were a lot of notes, notes explaining how to use the cufflinks, kind of like what PawPaw had written down in his journal with the bad handwriting. It also had notes under the drawing of the clip, showing how to use it. I flipped through some more and noticed some other drawings, but they were incomplete, at least, there weren't any notes with them. There were two matching rings, some earrings or maybe other cufflinks, I couldn't tell, they looked too similar, and a necklace. "I wonder if it's a set? Where could the rest of these things be?" I wondered. The rest of the notes just had dates and times, some other names that I didn't recognize and finally, toward the end, I saw the page that had our family's names on it. "So weird." I said out loud, shaking my head. I closed the journal and replaced it in the back of my pants.

  I stood up and snapped on the Screen to check the good ol' news feed once again. "Authorities say that they received an anonymous tip about the driver and passenger of the suspected vehicle. The two men, Donald Eugene Sturvis and Ian McTavish were found and arrested, shortly after the call was made. Both men had been tied up in the cabin and police have no suspects as to who could have made the anonymous tip. The deceased were identified as Allie Harmon and brother Andrew Harmon. No further details have been released at this time." the anchorwoman said. I flipped the screen off. "At least they got arrested, we did something right that time, but now I have to reset it again." I thought, as I slipped the clip and links on and reset the date and time again. "Time to go." I thought, as I clicked the 'BACK' link and headed back to update my family once again.

  I landed on the couch and quickly hauled ass next door, we needed to get this show on the road, I had information this time, and I had the journal. They were going to be thrilled. I walked inside, screaming, "HELLO!" "CHLOE! IN HERE!" screamed Aunt Allie. I turned the corner and went to sit down. "Not Chloe, Zoey." I said. "Here we go again." I thought. "What do you mean, Zoey, where are Callie and Carson?" I explained the whole situation again, sitting there scratching Boomer's head, and then Dad called Chloe home.

  "Come on, they'll be here at 10:00. I won't be with them, I don't know why, we just don't double." I said. Aunt Allie just looked at me like I was nuts and said, "Whatever, Lovebug." I didn't tell them about the journal yet, I wanted it to be a surprise, but I did tell them that I was here again on another reset. "I'll tell you everything whenever the whole family gets here, I have all of the feeds saved." I said.

  Chloe arrived and questioned me. Callie and Carson landed and bounced, looked around, questioned me, I explained again, and then finally we all sat down. I had accumulated a lot of feeds throughout all of the resets and they wanted to see everything. I resigned myself to a long day of re-living my terrible past with them. I started with the first accident in the bayou, Chloe screamed, Auntie and Dad stared fearfully, and then I moved on to the explosion. Chloe screamed again, she was always screaming, and Auntie and Dad just continued staring. They were scared to death, I could tell. "It's okay, it's always something different every time. But we are still at it. We will finish this, somehow." I said to them, not sure how to actually save them.

  I moved on to the next feed, of the second car accident, I warned Auntie that it was awful, and she puffed her chest out bravely and said, "I can take it, play it, Lovebug." We made it through the whole thing, but I saw Auntie wince when she saw her limp body flying through the windshield after the car plowed into the tree. "OOH, shit, that sucks." said Dad. "Got that right, brother." said Carson, mesmerized by all of the horror. Callie just sat there shaking her head and Chloe had her eyes closed, at least she wasn't screaming this time. "Here's where it gets interesting." I said, pointing to the Screen.

  They watched the feed closely as we got to the cabin where Ugly Don and The Scot were. "Oh my God, we actually caught them?" said Callie. "Oh yeah, just watch." They saw us all hiding in the shadows and they saw Carson and Callie with their guns in hand. "Dude, we look fucking badass. Bad boys, bad boys, whatcha gonna do when they come for you." sang Carson, nudging Callie with his elbow. "Shut up, but yeah, we kind of do." she said, with a smirk. Carson kicked in the door, and everybody was on edge waiting to see what was going to happen next. "It's like watching an action movie, but it really happened." I thought.

  Everybody laughed when they saw the two assholes tied up. "I can't believe they actually managed to do that to those huge ass men." said Auntie, chuckling. "Right? Assholes." said Dad. They laughed again at me and Chloe's little hellos to them, and Dad said, "Aren't you two some little twin beasties! Nice spit, Chloe! Dad is proud." We both shook our he
ads and smiled. They watched the rest of our interrogation in silence, and then everybody gasped when they saw the journal. "NO WAY!" screamed Carson. "WE GOT IT!" screamed Callie. I proceeded to remove the journal from the back of my pants and I gently placed it on the coffee table. Everybody stared at it and then clapped. I paused the feed so they could chat.

  "Why didn't you just start out with that?" said Aunt Allie, reaching for it. "I don't know, I like surprises." I said, shrugging. "The AVSPU? That's who they work for? That's some high-up shit! Maximum security clearance, like the government." said Dad. "So, the cufflinks came from there? That doesn't make sense." said Auntie. "I know, I have no idea, and they never mentioned the clip either." I explained. "The theft, if that's true, must have just happened, like, maybe last year? If the links and clip came from there, technically they could have been stolen at any time in the last 20 years or so." I said.

  "I mean, if they invented them, they could have been stolen 100 years from now and they just found out about it and knew where our family was." said Dad. "If someone found that journal last year, they could've told someone at the AVSPU about it and they could have sent someone to any time to find us and locate the stolen items." said Carson. "I don't know, time is weird like that, the person that stole them could be from any time." said Callie.

  "Well, whoever wrote this old journal knew about everything, and look, there are other pictures in it, of different items, the clip, earrings, a necklace, the links." I said, as I flipped through the pages and showed them. "This looks like something I could have drawn." said Callie, looking closer. "It really does." said Allie. "I thought the same thing when I first saw it, but that's not y'alls handwriting." I said. Nobody recognized the old-style script. "Who knows, we don't have to worry about those two morons though, we know where they are if we need to do something about them. Now, we need to find this mystery man and find out who he is and why he is here in this time." said Dad. "Right. And we need to save your lives for good." I said. "Yes, that is important too." said Auntie Allie.

  "Y'all did a great job this last time, but now I have a feeling that the past is going to be real pissed. I bet it's cooking up something serious for us this time around." said Callie. "Oh, I'm sure it is." said Aunt Allie. "I have no idea how to find the mystery man, he's only appeared twice. I think that we just need to wait and see, he will appear again." I said. "Yeah, that sounds right." said Chloe, she was still being kind of quiet after witnessing all of those deaths. "It's going to be alright, Twin." I said, and she nodded. "Okay, Twin." she said, but I didn't think that she believed me at all.

  We combed through the journal for the next two days, looking for anything and everything to figure out who it could have belonged to and what time period they actually came from. Nothing stood out to anyone and nobody knew any of the other names either. None of the dates written down seemed significant to anyone, except our birthdays. "I have no idea. Not a damn clue." said Aunt Allie. "Me either. This is just strange." said Callie. "Allie, draw a picture of the links, I want to see if it looks the same when you draw it, I'll do it too, in the other room, it's just a theory. Chloe, give us two pieces of paper out of your journal and go find two pens. I think there are some in the master closet." she said. "Okay?"

  They each went into a bedroom with their paper and pens and drew a picture of the links. They brought them back into the living room once they finished and set them down on the table, next to the intricate drawing that was done in the journal. All three of us gasped at the same time. "Oh my God, look Allie." Callie said, looking closer at the journal. "They're identical, all three of them. Even the shadows look the same." said Auntie, peering more closely into the journal. "Holy shit. Does that mean what I think it means?" I asked. "I think one of us drew these pictures in here!" said Callie. "I think you're absolutely right. We need to tell everyone what we've discovered." said Aunt Allie.

  Dad was the only one that was out of the house at the moment, so we went and woke Carson up from his nap and I grabbed Chloe out of her room and we made a Screen call to Dad. He was at home with Mom, he wanted to spend some time with her before the big day. "We've discovered something about the journal." said Callie.

  "Allie and I did a test, we each drew a picture of the links, in separate rooms, without seeing each others, when we brought our pictures out and placed them next to the journal, all three were almost identical, even the shadows." she explained. "No shit?" said Dad on the Screen, and Callie and Auntie held all three pictures up for him to see. "Woah." said Carson. "So, one of you drew them, in that old journal?" asked Dad. "Seems that way, now I really want to know who this person is, but this is proof that one of us will find out eventually." said Auntie. "That's wild." said Carson. "I know, right?" I said. "Good job Harmons, keep up the good work." said Dad, gesturing away the call. We all giggled at 'Harmons' again. "Dad's a dork." I said to Chloe, and she said, "Oh yes."

  "I guess our mystery man will find one of you eventually, that's good, right?" I asked. "Yes, that's good, I don't think he is here to harm us, I think he wants our help." said Aunt Allie. "I think I agree." said Callie. "Well, let's hope we can get through this day tomorrow, then maybe we will have a chance to find out what this poor time traveler needs." I said, and everybody nodded.

  CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR

  Once again, nobody slept the night before. We all decided to stay in the house together, nobody was going next door, nobody was going for a drive or anything. We were just going to sit and wait for the 'Bastard of the Past' to rear it's ugly head. If Ugly Don and The Scot showed up, we could chill them out. We knew everything about their mission now, so they wouldn't be any trouble to us either.

  I had a horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach all day. I knew that it was about to be a terrible night, I could feel it in my gut. I was pretty sure that I was really and truly going to get the nervous gas today. Chloe was scared to death, she always was on the big day. Both Aunties actually did get the nervous gas and we all yelled at them to cut it out and take some gas meds before the methane killed us all. That made them laugh, but they both went and took the gas meds anyway.

  "Thank you Lord!" said Carson, when they got up and went for the medicine cabinet. I thought one of them was bad enough, but two of them, I don't think I'll breathe right for a month. My mouth was open, damnit!" he yelled at them. "Sorry!" they both said, as they came back into the living room. Dad just laughed at it all, he and Carson were both starting to tick. I knew that meant that they were way more nervous than they were letting on.

  In the middle of the day, it started to pour down rain. It wasn't a little bit of rain either, it was a shit-ton of rain, a deluge. "This never happened before, it was always a really nice day, every time, no rain whatsoever, even the next few days, nothing." I explained. They all looked worried. "No rain at all?" said Aunt Allie. "No, not shit, that's why that grass in the backyard caught on fire so quickly, it was pretty dry." I said. "That's right." said Dad. "Turn on the Screen and flick to the Weather App, we need to know what's going on." I said, very nervous.

  Carson got up and switched on the Screen and flicked a few times until he got to the Weather App. "Hurricane Carson is now a Category 4 hurricane and moving toward the Gulf Coast of Texas at unprecedented speeds. There is no time for evacuation, if you are somewhere safe, hunker down, if you are not, get to high ground and find shelter immediately." the weatherman said. "Did that mother fucker just say Hurricane Carson?" said Carson. "Oh yeah, the past has jokes." said Callie. "Unbelievable. A fucking hurricane, a big one, coming here right now, named Carson." said Carson, still shaking his head.

  "We will be okay, we've been through hurricanes before, and tornados and lightning and everything else. It's going to be okay, we have plenty of supplies thanks to Allie the Doomsday Prepper over there. It's all good." said Callie. Allie rolled her eyes and said, "We have to be prepared for anything." "I know, Auntie. Good job." I said. Chloe sat back in the couch looking even more scared than before. We alway
s HATED hurricanes with a passion, we had a huge phobia. "It'll be okay, Chloe." "Okay, Twin." she said back.

  Carson went to get all of the lanterns from the garage. "We aren't lighting candles, that's how we would burn this house down today. Just the lanterns and the flashlights. That should be sufficient." said Aunt Allie, pointing him toward the supplies out there. "It's early for a hurricane here, usually they come later in the season." said Chloe. "Yeah, but Auntie and Dad don't die later in the season, they die today. The past brewed up something massive for us this time." I said. "Right." she said, looking more scared. "Sorry." I said.

  We got all of the lanterns where they needed to go and then sat down to watch the Weather App some more, at least until the power went out. "We might have enough solar stored up to get by for a while, but I have a feeling that it wouldn't last long." said Dad. "You're right, but we could always try it for a while. "Hurricane Carson continuing to build strength and momentum through the warm gulf waters...should reach land by nightfall..." said the weatherman. "Ugh." said Chloe. "Well you knew it would reach land by nightfall." I said to her. She nodded and sat back with her arms crossed.

  The rain started banging on the roof, I didn't think I'd ever heard it rain like that in my whole life. The sky was almost pitch black and the wind was picking up faster and faster. I could see the big, giant oak tree in the backyard behind Auntie's shed, blowing sideways. "The wind is getting really strong." I said. Auntie and Callie both nodded, they looked really frightened. "Aunties?" I said. "We don't like wind storms." they both said, simultaneously. "Right, of course you don't." I said, forgetting for a moment about their tornado experiences.