The Long Chron

by Adam Oster

  “What is going on here?” The Wizard screams, then, seeing me, screams an even louder, “You!”

  “Miss Chelle,” Noll says, holding up the barf bag. “He was holding dis.”

  “Thanks Noll,” I say, approaching him to take the bag off his hands. I retrieve the sphere from within. “Christopher, Christopher, Christopher,” I say as I round The Wizard. I pause in front of him, my eyes focused on the six pendants being worn around his neck.

  “Where have you taken me?” he asks.

  “Don’t you remember this, Christopher? Or should I say, Reprobus? Myrddin? The Creator, maybe? Just what the heck should I call you anyways?”

  “How dare you even speak to me, wench?”

  “So, you’re honestly saying you don’t remember the place where we first met?” I smirk as I wrap my fingers around one of the pendants, pulling just a little against his decrepit neck.

  The Wizard spits, hitting me just below the eye.

  “Oh, Christopher,” I frown. “That was a very poor choice.” I yank on the pendant, the chain around his neck breaking easily. I throw the now-freed sphere to Griff. “Heads up!”

  “You have no clue who you’re messing with,” The Wizard growls.

  “Oh, don’t I? I believe the true issue here is that you have no clue who you’re messing with.” I take a sphere from around his neck into each of my hands.

  “I know you,” he smirks evilly. “You’re that dumb girl I tricked into freeing me from this place, the one who just handed me the sphere that allowed me my freedom.”

  “Not only that,” I smile wider, pulling even more on the two spheres in my hands. I note his eyes widen. “I’m the one who’s about to take away that which you find most dear.” Another yank and I have two more of The Wizard’s shiny orbs in my control. I throw them both toward Tenney, who scrambles to pick them up after failing to catch either.

  “Taking these spheres from me does nothing, you know,” The Wizard continues. “I have many under my power.”

  “Yeah?” I ask, grabbing another two spheres. “And how many of them know that you’re back where you started? Back to the days when you were forced to hide in obscurity? Back before you were a man?” I rip the next two spheres from around his neck at the last word, not even looking as I throw them over my shoulder.

  “Do you honestly believe that they won’t be able to find me? I have my ways. I can make notes, puzzles, riddles. There are plenty of things I can craft to ensure my people—”

  “Would you care to know how I know this is your end?” I grin as I grab onto the final sphere.

  “Yes, girl, I have to say I’m quite interested in knowing how you know.”

  “Because, history knows you as a saint. You know what happens to saints, don’t you? They get killed for their faith. The fact that you don’t make it out of this time period is well-documented. In fact, some may even call it legendary.” I lean closer to him, whispering in his ear. “You’re gonna die, pal. And history’s going to believe you did it in honor of a great ruler, who just so happens to not be you.”

  I yank on the sphere, turn away from him, and enter the train without another word. Shortly after, I’m joined by Griff, Tenney, and Noll.

  The train door closes behind them and the familiar squeaking of the brakes sound as the train plunges forward. I take one final glance out the window and see The Wizard, no, not The Wizard, I see Christopher, standing there, all alone, with nothing but the remains of his filthy shack.

  Chapter 56

  I smile as the room darkens once we re-enter the tunnel.

  “What the hell just happened?” Griff asks.

  “More importantly,” the engineer asks. “Where are we headed?”

  “Back to Chelle Station, please.”

  “Okay,” Griff sighs, “now. What the hell just happened?”

  “I pulled an old style pick-in-a-poke,” I smile. “Except the pig was the old sphere, the one Christopher had just built, and the poke, well, the poke was a barf bag.”

  “I still don’t get it,” Griff frowns.

  “I set up the sphere to be just barely not activated. Even the slightest jostle would cause it to activate and send whoever jostled it back into the past, back to right after the first sphere was built.”

  “Ah,” Noll joins in, “and so Da Wizzer knocked it inta place when he looked in da bag. And you knew just where he wuz gonna be.”

  “Right,” I smile. “Like I said, a simple old pig-in-the-poke.”

  “I don’t know if there’s anything simple about any of this,” Griff groans. “But good job, kid.”

  The brakes squeak once again, noting our final arrival.

  “So, that means we’re done, right?” Griff asks. “We can go home again?”

  “I think so,” I smile. “I mean, it might be smart to set something up to make sure The Wizard is stuck back in time, like, you know, a simple Google search or something, but I think we’ve gotten it all closed out.”

  “Perfect,” Griff cheers as the train comes to a final stop. The door hisses and opens. “After you, kid,” he smiles.

  “Thank you, sir,” I say as I step down onto the platform. I look out upon the white tiled station walls, a feeling of accomplishment crossing my body, until I hear the voice of the one person I hoped to never hear from again.

  “You thought you could get rid of me that easily?” The Wizard says. I turn to my right and see him striding up to us angrily.

  “Noll!” I scream.

  Noll jumps out of the train, his eyes wide with fear for what he might find. He sees The Wizard striding confidently in our direction and blasts toward him.

  Happening so fast that I can barely make out the specifics, I notice The Wizard lift a hand just as Noll reaches him, and as he touches my brutish friend, Noll falls and convulses violently on the white-tiled floor.

  The Wizard grins, steps carelessly over Noll, and continues toward me.

  “Griff,” I say fearfully.

  “I’m here, kid,” he says, his voice shaking as well.

  “I’m here, too,” Tenney adds, sounding as though he’s barely keeping his feet rooted to the ground instead of running the other direction.

  “Chelle,” The Wizard sneers. “You thought you had me beaten, didn’t you?”

  “Um, yes?” I respond weakly.

  I should have known this would happen. Robo-Griff even warned us when he was talking about The Creator. He told us this would happen, didn’t he? We couldn’t have really stopped The Wizard because he had already set all this up before we had even started.

  The Wizard stops immediately before me, staring me down.

  “Look, bub,” Griff says, standing between me and The Wizard. “You’ll have to get through me first.”

  “Oh, that won’t be too difficult,” The Wizard says, snapping his fingers. Immediately, Griff goes limp, falling to the ground in front of me. I scream out in terror.

  “Griff!”

  Tenney runs without a noise. The Wizard snaps his fingers yet again, Tenney falls to the floor as well.

  I drop to my knees, tears streaming down my face.

  “Oh, crap, I’m sorry,” I hear coming from behind The Wizard, who has now frozen in place. “I’m so so sorry,” I see Griff appear from behind The Wizard, a worried look on his face as he comes to my side. “I thought it would be funny, I really didn’t think you’d—“

  “Get away from me,” I scream, pushing the robot away as I back further down the platform.

  “No, Chelle, you don’t understand,” he frowns. “It’s me, Griff.”

  “I’ve seen all this before,” I cry out. “What’d you do to the real Griff? Griff?” I scream, hoping my friend will move.

  The new Griff holds his hands up and stops advancing on me.

  “Chelle, I’m sorry, okay. I obviously wasn’t thinking when I came up with this. Hold on just a second and I can explain everything.”

  I stop, curious, but still not trusting a
nything.

  “Great, thanks. Okay, so, look, I’m just going to push a button here on my remote,” he says, nodding his head toward the device located in his left hand.

  I say nothing. I have no clue how to respond. Plus, it’s not like I have anything I can do in response to whatever he might want to do to me. At least a remote control seems less dangerous than rockets that shoot out of his chest. Finally, I nod.

  “Okay, perfect,” he says, making a grand gesture of pressing a single button on the black device. Almost instantly, Original-Griff rises to his feet, turns, and looks at me. He gives an awkward smile.

  “Griff?” I gasp in confusion.

  “Hey, kid,” he responds. “I’m sorry I’ve had to lie to you like this.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean, I’m a robot.”

  “No,” I exhale in fear. “No, it can’t be. You’re Griff, you’re, no, you’re—“

  “Don’t worry, kid,” Other-Griff says. “I sent him on the trip with you. It’s all part of the plan.”

  “What plan? I don’t understand.”

  “It’s me, Chelle, I promise. How can I prove it to you?”

  “By letting me out of here and never speaking with me again.”

  “How about this? You remember when I first found you, when you were sitting alone at that train station in Washington to get on that train and get away from your family?”

  “Of course I do.”

  “Right, so, there’s something I never told you about that moment. Something that might help make things make more sense.”

  “It had better be pretty damned good,” I say weakly.

  “I’m a time traveler.”

  “I know that,” I shout. “What do you think we’ve been doing this last week, or however the hell long we’ve been doing this for now?”

  “No, I mean, I’ve always been a time traveler. When I met you, well, I had already known you for a long time. In fact, you might say, I’ve known you all my life.”

  “Now you’re just talking stupid. You’re over twice my age.”

  “Age isn’t really all that important to a time traveler.”

  “What are you trying to say?”

  “I’m saying, I’m your son,” he pauses. “Mom.”

  I laugh, unable to come up with a verbal response.

  “I know. I’m not sure I would believe me either, but it’s true.”

  “Right, and who’s your father? The Wizard, I suppose?”

  “No, The Wizard was a real threat.”

  “So, you’re saying you saw this Wizard guy come out and start causing trouble and you just decided to go back in time and grab the fifteen year old version of your mom to help? Yeah, right.”

  “I didn’t know about The Wizard until you did. I brought you back for something completely different, something that, well, something else.”

  “Sure, okay, whatever. I still don’t think you’ve got any idea of how crazy this all sounds. And you still haven’t answered the question of who your dad is. Or maybe you’ll tell me that you’re also the dad and this is all one of those really weird time travel stories.”

  “No,” he retorts. “Of course not. Dad?” he says, looking at the train.

  The train door hisses as it opens and I can make out the silhouette of a large man through the fog. When he steps out, I find myself once again unable to respond.

  “Chelle,” the voice of Lance speaks. “Darlin’?”

  Chapter 57

  The man who steps out of the train is old, easily fifty years, yet underneath all those wrinkles and grey hair is the unmistakable face of the young stable boy I watched die at the hands of The Wizard centuries ago, or yesterday, I’m still not quite clear on how to differentiate that. Again, I find myself stepping backward in fear.

  “Rochelle, dear,” Old-Lance says, stepping toward me cautiously. “Gwen.”

  “You’re dead,” I gasp. “I watched you die.”

  “Unfortunately, my dear, it’s more true the other way around,” his says, his voice catching on the words.

  My eyes dart wildly from Griff to Other-Griff to Old-Lance. I feel the world spinning beneath me and finally my legs give out under me. I fall to the ground, instantly surrounded by a couple of Griffs and a man who died long ago.

  “Mom,” Other-Griff says softly, kneeling at my side.

  “Don’t call me that. I’m only fifteen. I’m no one’s mom, okay?”

  “Right, okay, um, Chelle,” Other-Griff corrects himself. “Are you okay?”

  “No,” I answer as I look into his eyes to find the truth.

  “Chelle, my dearie,” Old-Lance speaks as he helps me to my feet. “I know this is a hard thing to unnerstan’, but I promise you, Griff-y here issa tellin’ tha truth.”

  “How is that even possible?” I ask, clarity starting to come to my mind. “I watched you die.”

  “Yeah,” Other Griff states, “about that. You see, sending you back in time had its dangers, which we found out pretty quickly when The Wizard came about. Since it was going to be a little difficult to keep a close eye on you, I had inserted a few robotic bodyguards to fill out the city. The Lance Android was one of them.”

  “But,” I stammer, “but…I don’t even know how to make sense of any of this. What the hell was the point in sending me back in the first place?”

  “That’s a tad hard to explain, dearie,” Lance says.

  “Yeah?” I ask as I walk to a nearby bench and settle in to avoid falling for any further swoons.

  “Yeah. You see, M—Chelle,” Griff began. “You were the one who set all this up. So you could meet my wife.”

  “What?” I squint my eyes at him. “That’s just—why—I mean, why me? Why not the older version of me? You know, the version that’s old like Lance here?”

  “Well,” Other Griff shuffles his feet, “it’s a little—“

  “You died, dearie,” Old Lance answers. “Years ago. I can’t tell you more than that without muddying up the time stream.”

  “But—“ I stop myself. “But why me?”

  “Because you’re my mom,” Griff says, a tear holding out in the corner of his eye.

  “I get that. I’m just saying, why this version of me? Why not twenty year old me, or thirty year old me, or whatever.”

  “That’s hard to answer without giving away a lot about the life ahead of you, but let’s just say that it would be a tad more difficult locating where exactly you are within the time stream past this point.”

  “I don’t get it,” I frown. “Are you trying to say that I get lost in time?”

  “I’ve already said too much,” Griff frowns.

  “Wait,” I say after a brief silence. “You said I’m supposed to meet your wife. Why the hell were we in medieval England then?”

  Griff clears his throat before a smile reappears on his face, “Aggie,” he yells toward the train.

  The unmistakably large frame of the innkeeper appears in the train’s doorway. I stand in excitement as the woman, who still looks exactly like the one that served me my first beer, steps down onto the platform. “Agnes!” I scream, running toward her and wrapping my arms around her tightly.

  “Youda thunk her husban’ woulda git that sorta response,” I hear Lance say from behind me. I choose to ignore him. I turn to look back at Other Griff, before returning my attention to Agnes and releasing my grip on her.

  “Sorry, I suppose we have yet to officially meet,” I say, extending my hand to her. “I’m Chelle.”

  “Oi, we hav met, missy,” Agnes responds. “Ewe wus in ma inn, dontcha member?”

  “But you died. I mean, I didn’t see you dead, but—“ I turn and look accusingly at Other Griff.

  “Well, actually, we did change her out for a robot when we realized how dangerous The Wizard was, but before that happened, you did get to meet the real Agnes here. That was actually not too long after switching myself out for the metallic version as well.”

 
; “So, then, Geoffrey?” I ask, my heart skipping a beat. “He’s not dead either? Is he my other son or something? Maybe a long lost cousin?”

  Other Griff looks down at the floor, kicking the non-existent dirt. “Well,” he stalls. “You see, before Geoffrey was killed, we didn’t actually think The Wizard was capable of that type of thing. We actually thought he was rather harmless and, well, yeah. When we realized we were wrong, we were a little too late.”

  My heart falls to the floor, along with my jaw.

  “I mean, he’s not related or anything. He was just someone who happened to be really nice to you when you showed up.”

  “Oh,” is all I can respond with.

  “Look,” Other Griff cuts in. “It’s not like this was supposed to be anything more than a simple little excursion into the past, to see Agnes in her element. I didn’t know—“

  “I get it,” I say softly, returning to my bench.

  “Chelle, dearie,” Old Lance says yet again.

  “What?” I scream in response, not quite certain why I’m suddenly so angry.

  “Look, dear,” he stammers.

  “What?” I spit out again.

  “Well, y’see, you were the one who requested all of this. Requested that we let you meet your future daughter-in-law. Asked that we do it when you ran from your parents. You set this all up. You knew something the rest of us all didn’t, about The Wizard and everything,” he says, pausing again.

  “What do you want from me?” I scream again. “Spit it out already.”

  The group looks at me with wide eyes, staring speechless.

  I stand confidently and walk down the platform toward the glowing exit sign in the distance.

  “Chelle,” Old Lance yells after me. “It’s not what you think.”

  “No?” I yell, turning toward him angrily. “Then tell me, just what is it? I’ve spent the last two months learning how to scam from someone who’s now claiming to be my son, a time traveler with a girlfriend from the past. You tell me what that sounds like to you. Because to me it’s certainly starting to seem like an awful lot of hogwash. And I haven’t even gotten to the rocket-blasting robots, yet!”