Last Chance

by Bradley Boals

  She hesitated for a moment and said, “That man standing by the library.”

  Matthew looked and saw the man. “Is that Keith Kellington?”

  Amanda asked, “Who’s Keith Kellington?”

  Matthew played it cool. “He’s just a guy that we know from Georgia. I’m sure that’s not him though; just someone who looks like him.” Matthew took Amanda by the hand and pulled her over to the side. “Why don’t you head on home and let your mom and dad know that I’ll be coming to dinner tonight. Since Mom’s here, she can give me a ride back home.”

  April heard what Matthew had said and added, “We should get back and check on Connor.” Amanda agreed and told April good-bye. She also checked one last time with Matthew to make sure he was coming to dinner.

  He replied, “Absolutely! I’ll be there around five.”

  Amanda walked off toward her truck, which was parked behind the line of downtown stores. Matthew and April watched to see what the man by the library did next. “He’s going to the parking lot.”

  April and Matthew made their way around the backside of the pharmacy and saw the man make his way toward Amanda’s truck. April told Matthew to stay behind the wall and left to cut off the man.

  She waved her arms around and yelled to the man, “Excuse me! Excuse me!”

  The man stopped his forward movement and turned to April. Obviously frustrated, the man asked her, “Yes, what do you want?”

  April kept a good distance and said, “I’m sorry to bother you sir, but I just know that we’ve met before.” April wanted to distract the man and determine his name. She described a man that she had met a few years ago in Georgia that helped her with her groceries.

  “You were so nice to me and I never got the chance to properly thank you for your help.”

  He replied, “I believe you are mistaken, ma’am. I’ve never been to Georgia.”

  April continued the charade. “Of course you have, Steve. Don’t you remember the Quick Stop on Highway 70?” Amanda’s truck pulled out of the parking lot and the man threw down a piece of paper in disgust.

  He moved within inches of April and said, “Look, lady, my name is not Steve, it’s Keith, and I’ve never met you before.”

  Matthew kept a close eye on what was happening and prepared himself to jump in if the man made any threatening moves toward his mother. He saw the man walk away, and April made her way back to the wall behind the pharmacy. “What happened? Do you know who it is?”

  April shook her head. “Yeah, it’s Keith Kellington.”

  Matthew walked around in a circle and asked, “Has he followed us into the past?”

  Matthew paced around and April grabbed him by the arm. “This isn’t the Keith Kellington that we met back home. I think this is the Keith Kellington from 1984, who doesn’t have a clue we exist.”

  Matthew held his Hathmec and said, “Wow, he looks the same two hundred years later. This thing really works.”

  April gave the signal to head back to the car. “Let’s get home and check on Connor. You’ve got a date to get ready for.”

  Matthew asked, “What do you think Keith’s doin’ here?” April assumed that he must be a part of Evan’s team that took the charm from Amanda.

  Matthew got into the car and reasoned, “Something must have changed; we still have six days before the charm’s taken.”

  April started the car and said, “Maybe she didn’t go to this parade the first time.”

  “What should we do?”

  April replied, “We just have to be careful.”

  Matthew and his mother returned to their home to find that Connor had been busy. He had placed the remaining contents of the gadget bag on the living room floor. “What are you doing? I told you not to mess with that stuff until I had a chance to go through it.”

  Connor, a smug look on his face answered, “Since Matthew’s busy with my girl, I thought I would go ahead and see what other goodies Walter sent with us.”

  April picked up what looked like a roll of duct tape and questioned its use. Connor took the roll of tape and peeled a small piece from it and placed it on the couch.

  Matthew looked at the tape, unimpressed, and asked, “So that’s it?” Connor sat down on the couch and placed his hand on the tape.

  “Where did he go?” asked April. She and Matthew could no longer see Connor, but they could hear him.

  “It’s called camotape. I blend in to the couch as long as I touch the tape.” Connor removed his hand from the tape and he reappeared.

  Matthew took the roll and expressed his excitement. “This could really come in handy.”

  April looked at the piece on the couch. “I don’t know; it seems a little weird to me.”

  Matthew noticed a pair of sunglasses lying on the coffee table and put them on. He could no longer see anything in front of him, only his bedroom. Connor jumped up and ran into the bedroom. “Can you see me?”

  Matthew replied, “Yeah, I can see and hear you.” Connor came back into the living room and removed the glasses from Matthew’s face.

  “They’re called mirror glasses. All you have to do is look at something, like the clock in our room, and tap the lens.”

  April asked, “Then what do you do?”

  “You put the glasses on and you can see and hear everything that can be seen or heard from that object.” Connor tapped the lens again and gave the glasses back to Matthew. Matthew placed the glasses back on his face and he could see normally through them.

  April had an idea. “Matthew, you need to take these to the Currys’ house and set them.”

  Matthew replied, “Yeah, that’s a good idea; we may need to know what’s going on there after I leave.”

  “Hold the phone. You’re going over to Amanda’s tonight?”

  Matthew smirked and moved away from his brother. “Yeah, I’ve got a little date with one Amanda Curry tonight.”

  Connor shoved Matthew against the wall. “So I get the girl interested and now you swoop in and get to spend all the time with her?”

  April got between the two boys and reminded them both of why they were there. “We’re not here to get a girlfriend, boys; we’re here to complete a very important task.” She handed the glasses back to Matthew and said, “I don’t care who gets the charm from her. Right now, it looks like Matthew has the best chance.”

  Connor turned and made his way back into his bedroom and mumbled to himself, “I’m the best Chance.”

  April saw a folder lying on the table that read, “For April Only.” April recognized the folder as the same one that she had seen before going through the tunnel. Walter didn’t want her to read it until she arrived in the past. She had almost forgotten about it.

  “Connor, where did you find this folder?”

  “I found it under the bed. It must have fallen out of one of the bags when we first got here.” He went on to proclaim his innocence before it was questioned. “I didn’t open it up. I figured it was special woman instructions or something.”

  April opened the folder with Matthew standing behind her. He tried to get a peek. “You go on and get ready for your date. I need to see what this is.” Matthew agreed and made his way to join Connor in their room.

  She found one piece of paper and an old newspaper clipping. She spent the next twenty minutes reading and then rereading the handwritten letter from Walter Wainright. The last line on the paper said to destroy the page when complete, so April took it out back and threw it into the garbage can that leaned against the back of the home. She kept the newspaper clipping and placed it into her jacket pocket.

  April mulled around the home for a few hours and looked back through all of the instructions that were sent along from Walter. Matthew emerged from his room around 4:30 p.m. and asked what she was doing. “I’m just making sure that we didn’t miss anything that
Walter needed us to do.”

  Matthew was surprised by the response and replied, “You’ve been over his instructions and notes a hundred times. We know what we have to do.”

  April looked to her son and said, “Do you?”

  Matthew pulled the fake attribute charm from his pocket and said, “We need to get Amanda to hand over her charm, of her own free will. We give her this one in its place to give Evan Elliott or whomever he sends to get it.”

  April said, “Go on.”

  “We get back to the tunnel, Amanda goes on with her life, and Evan Elliott is none the wiser.”

  April had a somber look on her face and asked Matthew if he was ready to head to the Currys’ home. Connor stayed behind, still upset with how things had gone with Amanda. He spent most of the night playing with the camotape and the memory boots. In fact, he had a lot of fun out back walking between trees. He was levitating between the limbs.

  April dropped off Matthew just before five at the home of the Curry family. Their home was twenty minutes out of town and isolated from any neighbors. It took Matthew and his mother only ten minutes to drive there, since they lived out of town as well.

  Large oak and Bradford pear trees dotted the front and back yards of the two-story home. “Look at the columns of this place, Matthew.” The driveway was a long winding stretch in itself. By the time the Chances made it to the front door, it was as if they had been on a backwoods adventure.

  April asked her son, “Do you want me to walk up with you?”

  Matthew replied, “Of course not! Are you crazy? It’s bad enough that you brought me here. I’m supposed to be sixteen, remember?” Matthew opened the door to the car and started to get out. “I should have driven here myself.”

  April passed Matthew a ten-dollar bill and, with a smile on her face, said, “Take this to pay for the movie tonight, and if we have time before we head back to Georgia, I’ll teach you to drive.”

  Matthew walked up to the big green door at the front of the house and rang the bell. He waited for just a few moments before the door flew open. He looked down to see a boy, no more than eight or nine, staring back at him. Matthew wanted to break the silence and said, “Hello, my name is Matthew.”

  The boy continued to stare at him until he blurted out, “Amanda, your boyfriend’s here!” Matthew tried to explain that he was not Amanda’s boyfriend, but the young boy slipped away and paid no further attention to him.

  “Come on in, son; you can take a seat at the table.” The dining room looked as if it had been pulled from a magazine spread of country furnishings. Matthew saw a very nicely dressed gentleman, blue suit, without the jacket, but still wearing a tie. “I’m Amanda’s father, Steve. You can call me Mr. Curry.” Matthew reached out his hand to shake Mr. Curry’s, but the gesture was not returned. “From the announcement, I could hear that you have met Amanda’s little brother, Steven Jr.”

  Matthew replied, “Yes, sir,” as he took a seat at the table.

  As soon as Matthew sat down, he saw Amanda and her mother coming from the kitchen with several plates of food. “Hey, I see you met my father. This is my mother, Laura.”

  Matthew began to tell her that it was nice to meet her, but Mr. Curry stepped in before he could and said, “You can call her Mrs. Curry.”

  Matthew grinned and said, “Well, it’s very nice to meet all of you.” Steven Jr. came careening into the dining room, and Matthew added, “Even Steven Jr.”

  It was a feast of spaghetti, meatballs, salad, and breadsticks. Mr. Curry said a quick blessing before they started eating and then the interrogation of Matthew began. Amanda’s parents asked every question imaginable to Matthew from where were you born to what type of soda do you drink. Matthew did a great job answering their questions without hesitation, even though he made up the majority of the answers.

  After fifteen minutes of getting grilled, Matthew attempted to change the subject. “So, Mr. Curry, what do you do for a living?”

  Mr. Curry said that most of the boys Amanda invited to dinner never asked anything about her parents, so this was a pleasant surprise. “I’m in real estate, my boy. How do you think I was able to get such a great piece of land here?”

  Mrs. Curry interrupted. “Don’t let him fool you; he is very good at what he does, but this land has been in his family for over a hundred years. He can thank his great-great-grandfather for this land.”

  Mr. Curry explained that his family had lived in the area for several generations. The home itself had been built back in the mid-1800s. “We just keep updating it and adding to it.” He looked at Steven Jr. and said, “Who knows, maybe one day this little guy will be living with his family here.” Amanda rolled her eyes and asked if Matthew was full.

  “I am completely full,” replied Matthew. It was still an hour before the movie was set to begin, so Mr. and Mrs. Curry asked Matthew if he would like to come into the living room. Matthew agreed but helped Amanda clean up some of the plates on the table first.

  While Amanda was alone with Matthew, she told him, “You’re doing great; just don’t let them see you sweat.”

  Before he went into the living room, he asked where the bathroom was and Mrs. Curry pointed him in the right direction. As Matthew made his way down the hall, he noticed a large mirror that pointed directly into the living room. The rest of the family couldn’t see Matthew or what he was about to do. Matthew grabbed the sunglasses from his pocket and put them on. He looked up to the mirror and tapped one the lenses, linking the mirror and glasses together.

  He took off the glasses and saw Steven Jr. staring at him from the side stairs. “What are you doing?” asked the young boy.

  Matthew knew that Steven Jr. saw him with his glasses so he made up the most logical story at the time. “I saw that mirror up there and wanted to see how cool I look in my new sunglasses.”

  Steven Jr. shrugged his shoulders and said, “Teenagers are weird.”

  Matthew arrived in the living room and turned his attention to the one thing he needed most. “Mr. Curry, I couldn’t help but notice that lovely necklace and charm Amanda’s wearing; was that a gift from you?”

  Mr. Curry, proud of his own accomplishments, couldn’t take all of the credit for Amanda’s necklace. “Well, Matthew, I did in a roundabout kind of way. You see, there is a very interesting story that goes along with that particular stone.”

  Mrs. Curry set the stage. “That particular stone has been in the Curry family for well over 150 years. There is a sort of legend that goes along with it.”

  Mrs. Curry went on to explain that the stone had been given to one of Steve’s relatives way back in the early 1800s by a drifter. It seemed that this relative of Steve’s had helped this drifter with some sort of debt that he owed and the drifter told him that he would give him this stone as payment on that debt.

  Mr. Curry continued, “The real interesting thing about the stone was that no one had ever been able to determine exactly what it was. Was it some type of jade or discolored quartz? No one really knows, but it’s been a family heirloom ever since.”

  Mrs. Curry held her cup of coffee and added, “Steven gave it to me on our honeymoon, and Amanda had her eyes on it from the first day she could talk. Her grandmother wanted us to give it to her then, but we decided to give it to her on her sixteenth birthday. She knows that it has to come back to Steven Jr. someday, to make sure it stays with the Curry family name.”

  Mr. Curry elaborated on the drifter. “There’s some legends or tall tales about this drifter. People had accused him of being some sort of magician or prophet.”

  He explained that there had been stories of this man saving people from illness and protecting other people from all sorts of bad dealings during that time. “To make a long story short, people in my family think the stone has some magical traits.” He looked to his daughter and said, “I was hoping it would magically get
my daughter through Chemistry, but no luck so far.”

  Amanda stood up at that comment and said, “Enough stories; we’re going to be late for the movie.”

  Matthew stood and made his way to the door. He thanked Mrs. Curry for dinner and for everyone having him in their home. Amanda walked out the front door and Matthew followed.

  Mr. Curry hollered to Matthew, “You make sure nothing happens to my little girl.”

  Matthew shook his head and promised that he’d watch over her. At that, they climbed into Mrs. Curry’s car and they were off.

  The young couple reached the theater and Matthew paid for them both to see the movie. During the scary parts of the picture, Matthew was enthralled that Amanda would reach down and grab his hand; at one point, she buried her head into his shoulder. Matthew came out of the theater thinking that horror movies were the best thing ever invented.

  Matthew and Amanda decided to take a walk on the downtown sidewalk before heading back home. “Maybe we could go get some ice cream at the Snack Shack.”

  Amanda was trying to find ways to keep the night going, and Matthew had no issues staying out as long as she wanted. The more time they spent together, the better the odds were of getting the charm. Matthew enjoyed the time with her. She wasn’t just a pretty face, although it was easy to get hypnotized by it.

  “I really want to help people someday. Maybe I’ll become a doctor or someone who can help kids.”

  Matthew replied, somewhat sarcastically, “It sounds like you’ll have to do better in Chemistry to work that doctor angle.”

  The two laughed, and Amanda asked Matthew an unexpected question. “Are you and your brother for real?”

  Before Matthew could answer, he noticed three men walking toward them. Matthew also noticed that he and Amanda had walked to an area that was isolated from the rest of the downtown. He recognized one of the men as Keith Kellington and he started to panic. Amanda asked if he was OK.

  Keith made the first move. “Little Amanda Curry. It’s been so long.”