by Kat, Bob
She took another nice long bath, more to give herself time to think through all the possibilities and probabilities of the next few days. As much as she admired Scott’s intelligence and the creativity of his inventions, she honestly didn’t believe in time travel. She wasn’t confident enough in her friendship with him to tell him the truth. Rather, she decided to let it all play out, and when they didn’t “travel”, then that would be the end of it. But on the outside chance that it could happen, she wanted to be sure and take clean underwear.
TUESDAY
KELLY WAS UP before Nico arrived. She was already in the pool when the large, colorful bird flew across the yard and perched on the back of one of the deck chairs and watched her. Kelly swam to the edge of the pool and rested her folded arms on the rock ledge that circled the pool.
She whistled just like she had when she had called Scarlett, and Nico cocked his head, listening. When she stopped, he ruffled his feathers and, with perfect pitch, repeated her whistle, note for note.
“So, you’d rather whistle than talk,” she spoke aloud, more to herself than to him. For the next half hour, she whistled every tune she could think of until her mouth went dry. Nico didn’t like them all, but when he heard one that struck his fancy, he would copy her whistle perfectly. Finally, tiring of the game, he gave her a farewell squawk and flew off.
She finished her laps, showered and dressed for the day. She opened the garage doors and was digging through the box of clothes when Scott and Austin arrived. They got a good laugh at most of the vivid colors, wild patterns and styles, but she found a couple of dresses and several blouses and skirts, none of which she looked forward to wearing because she really hated anything with a skirt. They looked through the yearbooks and decided the boys could get by with button-down shirts and plain t-shirts. They would wear jeans, since, other than style, they were relatively ageless.
Kelly made a pile of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and they sat around the pool, finalizing their plans. The day flew by, and late in the afternoon the boys left to go to their houses for dinner and to get their things. Kelly made one of her favorite dishes, chicken and rice and had it and a salad ready when her aunt got home from work.
“This is just like my mother used to make,” Jane said as she cleaned her plate. “I can’t remember when I last had chicken and rice.”
Kelly beamed under the praise. She shooed her aunt off to her study and cleaned the kitchen and loaded the dishwasher. With an exaggerated yawn, she told her aunt that she was turning in early. Her aunt told her a distracted goodnight.
The house was quiet when Kelly slipped out the front door a couple of hours later, carefully locking it behind her. Luckily, her aunt usually went to bed early during the week and slept soundly. Austin’s truck was parked across the street. He was sitting in it, waiting impatiently for her and Scott. She heard the click of Scott’s gate and looked over to see him sneaking out from his backyard. They met in front of her house and crossed the street silently together. No one said anything as they loaded their bags in the backseat and quietly shut their doors. Even the ride to the beach was quiet. Austin didn’t even have the radio turned on.
Austin parked in the empty lot, and they got their bags out. Scott’s backpack was bulging. Austin’s was only about half full. Kelly’s duffle bag was stuffed her personal items and the old clothes they had discovered but not very heavy. She looped the strap around her neck and arm as they made their way with military precision to the deserted beach. Scott pulled out his cell phone and Kelly and Austin followed suit. Scott was so serious that Kelly struggled to keep her face expressionless. The last thing she wanted to do was to laugh out loud at the ridiculousness of their situation. She passed a surreptitious glance at Austin and saw that he, too, was biting back a grin.
“First, you need to hold down the star key and the pound key at the same time for at least five seconds.”
Kelly looked down at her phone curiously. “Why?”
“We need to download the satellite coordinates for this location so when we come back, we all come back to this spot.” Scott held out his own phone. “Ready, set, hold them down. One . . . two . . . three . . . four . . . five.”
They all pushed the star and pound keys and waited.
Scott held up his phone to demonstrate. “You should have the coordinates up on the screen.”
Kelly and Austin both nodded.
“Okay. Remember the process we followed in our test?” Scott checked for a visual confirmation. Satisfied, he none the less reviewed what they needed to do tonight. “Press the CUL8R app icon.” Scott verified they had each done the first step. “There are two icons in the center of the screen. You have to press and hold both icons at the same time, and we all have to do it together . . . for safety reasons. Ready?”
“Ready,” Kelly said.
“Ready,” Austin echoed.
We’ll stand facing outward with our shoulders touching and with our arms extended in front of us. Got it?” Again Scott verified they were with him on the procedure. “We have to be touching. That’s very important. If there’s a break in the connection, it won’t work.”
Kelly and Austin nodded. They were both getting a little bored with the pre-flight checklist.
“With the screens facing upward, press the top icon and then on my count, we’ll all push the bottom one . . . okay?”
“I got it,” Kelly said.
“Ready to go,” Austin confirmed.
“Okay . . . and guys,” Scott said, “thanks. You’re good friends . . . best of luck.”
Kelly wasn’t reassured by the word “luck”, but it was too late to back out now.
Austin, Kelly and Scott positioned themselves so that their backs were toward the center and their shoulders touched, forming the actual triangle. They held their phones out. With the precision of NASA’s Mission Control, Scott started the countdown.
“Okay. Press the top icon. I’ll count down from three. Ready?”
Austin and Kelly both said, “Yeah.”
Three . . . two . . .one.”
They all pressed and held the bottom icon.
Suddenly, out of the darkness of the night, a voice said, “Austin? Is that you? Oh my God . . . what are you doing here so late?”
“Zoey? Holy crap! Go away,” Austin ordered her as the sand and wind began to rotate clockwise around their feet.
“You guys are standing in a dust devil.” Zoey spoke louder as the sound increased.
“Seriously, you’ve got to leave . . . now,” Austin demanded frantically.
“Okay. Let’s get out of this wind and go for ice cream,” Zoey said as the wind and sand swirled faster, and it became harder to see the three standing inside the now darkened funnel. “Come with me,” Zoey yelled louder, trying to be heard over the roar. She reached out and grabbed Austin’s arm, trying to get his attention and pull him out of the dust storm.
Kelly and Scott were unaware of the conversation between Austin and Zoey. They continued to hold their arms out, pressing their icons and bracing themselves for the tumult.
The sand swirled faster. Kelly squeezed her eyes closed and ducked her head like she had before. Being in the middle of the dust devil was even noisier and more violent than being on the outside. She tried not to, but she knew by the sudden blast of sand in her mouth that she had opened it and, even though the sound had been absorbed into the roar of the wind, she must have involuntarily screamed. She couldn’t hear the others or even feel if they were still beside her. All she was aware of was the pressure pounding against her eardrums like a pulse and the burning sting of the fine beach sand against her skin. She tried to keep standing, but when the sand gave beneath her, she dropped to her knees. Someone fell against her, and she tumbled the rest of the way to the sand. Someone else collapsed on top of her, almost knocking the breath out of her. Finally, just as it had before, the wind stilled and the sand hung suspended in mid-air for several seconds before it fell straight to t
he ground.
Her ears were ringing and yet the silence was deafening.
“Kelly, are you okay?” Scott asked, his voice sounding muffled and far away. But he must have been on top of her because she felt one of the bodies push away from her.
She couldn’t answer because her face was still pressed into the sand. The other body moved off her, and she sat up, sputtering sand out of her mouth and snorting it out of her nose.
“That was intense,” she said, trying to wipe the layer of sand off her face. She blinked several times and carefully opened her eyes.
“I’ve got sand in places sand should never be,” Austin explained, spitting out sand.
“So do I. What were you thinking to stand in the middle of that tornado?” a female voice that definitely wasn’t Kelly’s, said petulantly.
Kelly and Scott looked around and saw that Austin was sitting on the sand with Zoey on his lap.
“Holy crap!” Scott exclaimed. “What are you doing here?”
CHAPTER TWELVE
“It’s my beach too, nerd,” Zoey said tartly as she stood up and brushed the sand off her shorts and bikini top.
Austin also stood and reached down to help Kelly up from the ground. “You okay?”
“Sure, just a little rattled.” She took his hand and let him pull her to her feet.
“I’m fine, too. Thanks for asking,” Zoey responded as she tried to tidy her tangled hair.
Scott dusted himself off and shook the sand off his backpack. “Oh no!”
“What?” Kelly asked.
“Let me see your cell phones,” Scott said as he took first Kelly’s, then Austin’s and looked at their screens. “Next time we have to put these in baggies or those tough cases . . . the sand etched the plastic. I can hardly see what it says.”
“We can go to the mall tomorrow,” Austin said. “But right now, I’m going home to clean up.”
Zoey was still trying to shake the sand out of her hair and clothes. “Well, you guys are no fun at all. I’m going home and taking a long, hot bubble bath.” With a toss of her long blond hair, she tried to make a graceful exit, but the deep, drifted sand made it difficult to move without looking like a plow horse.
The other three followed her. She stopped so abruptly that they all nearly ran into her.
“Where the heck is my car?” she asked.
“Where the heck is the parking lot?” Austin stood behind her and looked around for his truck.
All the concrete that had made up the sidewalks and boardwalk along the beach was gone. It was all sand, from the beach to the street with only an asphalt path leading to the Fishing Pier. An elderly man wearing a long-sleeved flannel shirt and overalls who was carrying a tackle box and three long fishing poles was just leaving the pier and heading toward the street. Zoey saw him first and stalked over to stand directly in front of him. With her hands on her hips, she practically yelled at him. “Where’s my car?”
“Your car’s missing, lady?” the man asked.
“No . . . I just made it up. Yes, it’s missing. It was right there.” Zoey pointed to the empty sand.
“How long ago was that?”
“Ten minutes . . . max.” Zoey looked at Austin and waved her hands in the air. “They towed my car. Can you believe that?”
“No one towed your car, lady. I’ve been fishing out here all day long, and there were no cars getting towed. What did your car look like?”
“It’s a 2010 Mini, white with pink stripes and a white convertible roof. I want to file a police report.”
“2010? Mini?”
“Are you deaf? Yes, a 2010 Mini Cooper. My parents got it for me for my sixteenth birthday.”
“Have you kids been drinking?”
“No way,” Austin said.
“Holy crap . . . what year is it?” Scott asked.
“You kids need to go home and go to bed.” The old man shook his head and frowned his disapproval. “You’ve all got school tomorrow. You better get out of here before the cops come by and take you in. Your parents won’t be too happy to get that phone call.” He started walking toward Estero Boulevard. “2010 Mini Cooper. Very funny. Trying to make me believe they don’t know it’s 1966.”
Stunned, Zoey, Austin and Kelly turned to Scott for an answer.
“Epic. We did it!” A broad smile stretched across his face, and he did a very uncharacteristic fist pump. But it was clear he was as surprised as everyone else.
“We actually travelled?” Kelly looked around them. “Everything’s different.”
“Neptune Palace is gone,” Austin muttered, referring to the huge souvenir shop that was shaped like an undersea reef, complete with giant concrete seahorses and fiberglass seaweed. It was where tourists went to buy boogie boards, swimsuits, t-shirts and beachy knickknacks. In its place was a tacky shell shop advertising a sale on shark’s teeth necklaces.
“And Citrola’s Pizza,” Kelly added looking at the bait shack that was next to the Fishing Pier. Even that was different, made out of old, weathered wood and about half as long as the current fishing pier.
“Will someone tell me what’s going on?” Zoey screeched.
The other three turned and looked at her as if they had forgotten she was there. But now that they remembered, it was obvious they were speechless.
“What’s happening?” Zoey stomped her foot.
Scott thought for a minute then said, “First, shut your cell phones off so we can save the batteries.”
“Not me,” Zoey protested. “I’ve got to call my parents to come get me right now.”
“Go ahead,” Scott challenged.
Zoey took her cell phone out of the pocket of her shorts and flipped through to contacts. She found “home” and punched the key, then held the phone to her ear. After several seconds, she pulled it down and looked at the screen. “Stupid phone. There’s no signal.” She held her phone out and moved it around, trying to find the elusive signal.
“That’s because there’s not one.” Scott informed her.
“Of course there is. I make calls from this beach all the time.” She continued walking in circles, trying to get bars on her phone. The screen remained blank.
“You made calls in 2013. This is 1966.” Scott watched for her response.
“1966? Yeah, right.”
“You heard the man.”
“Whatever! He probably misunderstood the question.”
“Then where’s your car? And the parking lot? And the sidewalk? And the shops and restaurants?”
For the first time, Zoey really paid attention to her surroundings. Her eyes narrowed as she tried to find any of the familiar landmarks that had been there only an hour ago. “I don’t know. Maybe that tornado blew us down the beach.” With head held high, she stalked toward the street. She looked both ways, hesitated, then turned right and started walking away.
Kelly, Austin and Scott exchanged confused looks.
“We can’t let her go. She’s got to stay with us,” Kelly said.
“Yeah, she’ll die out there on her own,” Austin added. “Or someone will kill her to shut her up.”
“She’s not supposed to be here,” Scott grumbled. “She’s not part of the plan.”
“Maybe not, but she’s here. And we’re responsible for her,” Kelly stated without enthusiasm.
Scott considered the options for a moment, then nodded. “Yeah, we’ve got to go after her. Somehow we’ve got to explain what has happened without her totally freaking out.”
“I don’t know about her, but I’m feeling a little weirded out myself,” Austin admitted. “Are we really in 1966?”
Scott smiled again. “It appears we are.”
“Holy crap!”
A man staggered out of the darkness and approached Zoey. He tried to wrap his arm around her shoulders, and she tried to step away, but he held onto her.
“Help!” she yelled.
Austin had already crossed half the distance toward her. He hit the man i
n a running tackle that took them both down. Straddling the other guy, he pinned his arms. “The lady said ‘no’. That means you need to leave her alone.”
“Okay, man. I was just asking.” The guy’s voice was muffled by being face down in the sand.
Kelly and Scott arrived just as Austin stood up and the man scrambled to his feet and hurried away.
“Are you okay, Zoey?” Kelly asked.
Zoey shivered. “I didn’t see him until he had his arms all over me. He reeked.”
Scott shook his head, not looking forward to trying to explain everything to Zoey. The beach area wasn’t as clean or well-developed as it was in 2013. There was only a string of low-wattage bulbs along the pier. The few shops were closed, and there were very few street lights. It didn’t feel quite safe, and Scott was anxious to get to a more populated and brightly lit part of town. “Why don’t we head someplace where we can all sit and talk.”
“I could use something to drink.” Kelly coughed. “I think I swallowed half the beach.”
Zoey had been badly frightened by the stranger, so she quietly tagged along as they headed up the main street toward the more commercial area.
“Where the McDonald’s?” she asked as they passed the corner where it should be. Instead, the entire block was two and three-story office buildings. There were Halloween decorations everywhere with pumpkins and cut-outs of black cats and ghosts in every window.
“We’ll tell you all about it when we stop,” Austin assured her.
“Look at the cool clothes,” Kelly exclaimed as she passed a small clothing store with mannequins dressed in color-blocked mini-dresses. “They look just like Grandma’s.”
A bright red Mustang drove by, its young, male occupants obviously eyeing Zoey and Kelly.
Man, that’s awesome,” Austin said. “Mint condition . . . signal flare red . . . that was my favorite color that year. My uncle has a ‘66 pony just like that.”