by Jason Ayres
“I’ve never heard of that”, said Josh.
“It’s extremely small. Think about the size of an atom in terms of matter. Well a planck is that small in terms of time. If you measured it in seconds, it would be a zero followed by a decimal point and about 43 more zeros and a one on the end. You’d have to double that an enormous amount of times to get to the point where you were on Monday. It would probably be hundreds of times. We could work it out on a spreadsheet if we needed to”.
“So it could have been there for years then?” asked Josh.
“It might well have been there since the beginning of time”, answered Peter. “After all, that railway tunnel has only been open a few weeks. Before then it might have been buried under the earth. And if we go back to the time before the earth was created it may have just been floating around in space somewhere. Of course this is all completely theoretical”.
“OK”, said Josh. “Well, let’s assume all of that is true. What are the future implications?”
“Well, I think it will keep doubling and doubling until the end of time itself”, he said. “It could be bad news for a lot of people in the future. If you think this whole business with Kaylee disappearing for two days is traumatic, imagine what it will be like for someone who gets transported forward in time a hundred years or more. When they emerge all their family and friends will be dead and they’ll be living in an alien world. It’s as if someone from 1918 turned up here now. Imagine what the modern world would look like to them”.
Peter’s mention of Kaylee reminded Josh of the immediate problem. “Speaking of Kaylee, if everything we have worked out is true, she should reappear some time tomorrow evening. I think we need to make some plans for her return”.
“Agreed”, said Peter. “I suggest we go and take another look at the tunnel after school. Perhaps we can come up with an idea”.
The door opened and the first of Peter’s Year 9 pupils started coming in for their afternoon class. Peter hurriedly wiped the various calculations they’d done off the white-board whilst Josh headed back to the canteen to see if anyone had heard any more about Charlie’s arrest.
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At the police station Charlie had explained everything to Hannah in detail. When he got to the events of Monday evening, she explained her own strange experience, and they fitted the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle together.
There was no doubt in Hannah’s mind that Charlie must be telling the truth. He’d categorically stated that before she’d come along Josh had been in the Time Bubble for exactly 22 ½ minutes. He suggested that she must have been in there for 45 minutes and she thought back to the conversation in Kent’s office when her watch and phone were slow.
It all added up. The whole thing seemed unbelievable, and she toyed with the idea it could be some enormous and elaborate hoax, but couldn’t see any way they could have done it. She decided to give him the benefit of the doubt.
The problem was what they were going to do now. Kent was hell-bent on proving that Kaylee had been abducted and had Charlie squarely in his sights as his prime suspect. Attempting to explain the truth to Kent would be a complete waste of time: he would never believe it.
She also didn’t like the way he was chasing personal glory over this case with scant regard for Kaylee’s welfare. Of course, if Charlie was telling the truth, then Kaylee was safe and sound and there was nothing to worry about. Perhaps she should just let him carry on with it and make a fool of himself.
She’d made up her mind she would help, and the first thing she needed to do was to get Charlie out of the station.
“Charlie, I’m going to go and call your mother and get her to come down here and collect you” she said.
“Will D.I. Kent let me go?” asked Charlie.
“I will do my utmost to persuade him”, said Hannah. “He has got no real reason to keep you here, and once we’ve got a written statement from your mother confirming where you were last night, he won’t have a leg to stand on”.
“Thank-you”, replied Charlie, gratefully. He felt so much better now that he had an adult on his side. If Josh had managed to persuade Mr Grant of the truth as well, it would be even better. Everything was going to be OK.
“Hang in there”, said Hannah, “I’ll be back soon”.
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In the canteen a small crowd had gathered around a large TV screen on the wall at the end of the room. This screen had been installed a couple of years ago by the headmaster who felt that it would be educational.
Unfortunately the students took very little notice of it. Had it been tuned to one of the music or sports channels they might have taken more interest, but it was tuned constantly to a rolling 24-hour news channel. The volume was turned down and the subtitles on. Educational in current affairs and news this may have been, but it wasn’t much good if nobody ever watched it.
Today it was different, though. Everyone was glued to the screen. “Turn the volume up”, Josh heard someone shout as he entered the room. As he got closer he realised what all the fuss was about.
The TV was showing the entrance to the tunnel with the “Police Do Not Cross” tape still across it. Along the bottom of the screen a rolling banner read “MISSING GIRL MYSTERY DEEPENS”.
Quite a crowd of journalists and cameramen had gathered outside and Josh could see well-known roving reporter Seema Mistry interviewing a large, middle-aged man.
The TV was too high on the wall for anyone to reach, but one of the students was pointing his mobile phone at it. Through clever use of an app, he managed to gain control of the TV and turn up the volume.
Kent’s words filtered into the room. “Yes, we do have to consider the possibility that she may have been abducted”.
“And is it true that you have arrested someone in connection with her disappearance?” probed Seema.
“That’ll be Charlie!” shouted out Dan, who was right at the front of the massed group.
“We have someone helping us with our enquiries”, replied Kent, not wanting to give too much away. “But I should stress this is an ongoing investigation and any member of the public who can shed any further light on the situation should come forward”.
The report cut to two faces Josh recognised: Kaylee’s parents. Her mother was crying as her father spoke into the camera.
“Please, I beg of you, anyone out there, if you have our daughter, please let her go”, said Phil, clearly struggling to hold back the tears himself.
This was awful. Josh couldn’t bear to watch any more of it. It didn’t feel like much compensation but at least they’d have her back tomorrow.
The news report rolled on, but Josh turned away. He realised it was unlikely that he and Peter would be able to get anywhere near the tunnel that evening, so they’d have to come up with a Plan B.
His phone vibrated in his pocket as he headed out of the canteen. He took it out to find he had a text message from Lauren.
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Lauren had been at home since lunchtime. She could not face hearing any more of the horrible rumours going around about Kaylee at school and besides, she was exhausted. She’d been up all night searching for Kaylee and hadn’t had much sleep.
She managed an hour or two in bed, but she was restless, waking up every few minutes in a cold sweat. She was having the most horrible dreams about Kaylee, picturing her bloody, battered body dumped callously in some ditch somewhere, her abandoned bicycle still beside her.
When she awoke with a start she tried to dismiss these thoughts as illogical. Why would her bike have been there? It had been found in the tunnel, not by a ditch.
There was something about the bike that was significant; it seemed central to all of her dreams but she couldn’t put her finger on it.
Resigning herself to a lack of sleep, she flicked on the TV in her bedroom and began watching the rolling news coverage. That was when she had decided to get Josh to come round to keep
her company.
She also wanted to find out if he knew any more about what had happened to Charlie since she’d seen the police frogmarch him out of the school.
She couldn’t believe for a moment that Charlie could have done anything to Kaylee, despite what Dan and the others were saying. She considered herself a good judge of character, and the warnings she had given Charlie earlier in the week had been said purely in jest.
But she also knew there was more to this than met the eye and if anyone knew the truth, Josh would.
Josh went straight round to Lauren’s as soon as he got her message. He knew she’d be full of questions about Charlie and he had decided that, rather than try and fabricate something, he would tell Lauren about the Time Bubble.
Quite how he was going to convince her, he was not sure, but he’d work that out as he went along. He knew that it wasn’t going to be as easy as telling Mr Grant. If he handled it wrong and Lauren reacted badly, he could make the whole situation a lot worse.
He paused outside her front door, took a deep breath and pressed the bell.
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Kent’s relief at getting away from Seema and the other journalists and back to the station was short-lived. Seema had a well-deserved reputation for asking hard-hitting questions and had given him a right grilling live on air. He hoped he’d handled it OK and he hadn’t come across as some sort of idiot.
Entering the main reception of the police station, he saw a woman about his age giving Adrian on the desk the third degree.
“And I’m telling you he was with me all evening”, she was saying. “You even came round last night and got us out of bed. Now I want you to let him go”.
“What’s going on here?” demanded Kent.
“This is Mrs Adams, sir. She is Charlie’s mother. She wants to make a statement confirming his whereabouts last night”.
“Does she now?” asked Kent. “Do you know where P.C. Benson is?”
“She’s in the back, sir”, Adrian replied.
Kent lifted the hatch leading behind the desk and strode towards the door behind where Adrian was sitting.
“Just a minute!” protested Sarah, annoyed that Kent had completely ignored her.
“Just a moment, madam”, replied Kent, shutting the door behind him. Hannah was waiting for him.
“We have to let him go, boss”, she said straightaway. “We’ve got nothing on him whatsoever and besides, I don’t think he did it”.
She knew he hadn’t done it, but she couldn’t tell Kent why.
Kent was annoyed, but knew the odds were stacked against him. If he didn’t let Charlie go he’d have his mother and Hannah on his case for the rest of the day. “Fine”, he said, admitting defeat. “But I want it in writing from his mother that he was at home last night before he goes”.
“I’ll deal with it boss”, said Hannah, relieved. “And there is one other thing”.
“There always is with you”, he said. “What is it now?”
“I’ve been on duty for nearly 24 hours, boss. I’d really like to go home and get some rest”.
What was the matter with people these days? Kent mused. He could remember times with the Met when they’d done 48-hour stake-outs at the drop of a hat. There was none of this quoting health and safety regulations at the boss if you didn’t fancy it in those days. He didn’t have the strength for an argument, though.
“Get the statement, release the boy and you can go” he said.
“Thanks, boss”, she replied.
Kent went back to his own office and wondered what to do next. He was rapidly running out of ideas.
Hannah went back to the interview room to give Charlie the good news. Of course, if the girl really had been missing she wouldn’t have dreamed of asking to go home, she would be out there looking for her. But now she was feeling confident Kaylee had come to no harm, she just wanted to get away and rest.
Before she let Charlie out she gave him her card with her mobile phone number on it and asked him to call her that evening. If Kaylee was going to emerge from the Time Bubble the following evening then they needed to work out how to handle it.
With Josh and Peter having reached the same conclusion the next logical step was to get everybody together and work out a plan of action.
Chapter Fifteen – 25th October 2018 (8.00pm)
It was 8.00pm in the evening and the five people who knew about the Time Bubble were holding an impromptu council of war in J’s Diner.
Seated around a circular table were Lauren, Josh, Charlie, Peter and Hannah. Of the five of them, only Lauren remained sceptical about the whole thing, but she’d agreed to come along to hear what the others had to say.
During her conversation with Josh in her bedroom, she finally clicked about why she’d kept dreaming about Kaylee’s bike. As they were going over the events of the previous evening in great detail, her eyes had alighted on an empty plaster wrapper on her bedside table.
Suddenly she remembered the blood on the handlebars and made the connection. Of course, Kaylee had cut her hand, and Lauren had put a plaster on it for her. That must have been where the blood had come from. Somehow, with all the worry of Kaylee’s disappearance, this had slipped her mind.
At least it explained the blood, which meant Kaylee probably hadn’t been abducted, especially if the tale Josh had told was true. He had seemed very convincing, but she still found it difficult to believe.
Josh promised her that everything was going to be alright and that, according to his calculations, Kaylee would reappear about 9pm the following evening. It seemed that there was nothing more they could do that night so they’d agreed to sleep on it and Josh had gone home.
But then, at about 7pm, she got an excited text from him asking her to meet him and the others at J’s.
Not long after Josh had got back from Lauren’s he’d got a call from Charlie to let him know the police had released him. He headed straight round to Charlie’s house and they’d talked for a couple of hours. They agreed that the best thing to do was to get everybody together to discuss what to do next.
Peter had been expecting to hear from Josh straight after school but having spent so much time at Charlie’s, it was after 7pm when Josh rang him.
When he explained the situation, Peter was more than happy to meet up with the others. He had spent the afternoon thinking about his own situation and had come up with an idea he wanted to put to the others.
Hannah had gone straight to bed when she got home from the station and after a couple of hours sleep felt a little more human again.
She awoke to find a text from Charlie asking her to meet that evening. She didn’t need any persuading. She was finding this whole thing quite exciting and wondered where it all might lead to.
Lauren’s mother was completely against her going out, especially with the whole town speculating over what had happened to Kaylee. She only relented when Lauren rang Josh and asked him to come and pick her up. When they left her house Josh was under strict instructions not to leave her alone under any circumstances.
If Lauren’s mother wasn’t happy about her going out, Sarah was even more reluctant to allow Charlie to go out. She wanted him where she could keep an eye on him, but he was determined to go and she couldn’t really stop him. He assured her he was just going to meet Josh and that he would be home no later than 10pm.
And so the five of them found themselves sitting together in J’s Diner: three students, an off-duty policewoman and a teacher.
Both Hannah and Peter were slightly uncomfortable with the situation as it might look a little odd if the wrong person saw them, especially with Kaylee still missing. With this in mind they had asked for the round table which was around a corner at the back of the room, well out of sight of the windows.
After two rounds of milkshakes and a full recap of what had occurred to date, any lingering doubts that any of them might have been harbouring had disappeared. The fact that a policewoman had
described her own 45-minute jaunt through the Time Bubble had given the whole thing the stamp of authenticity it needed.
With the doubts out of the way, discussion now turned to the more practical matter of how they were going to handle Kaylee’s reappearance.
“When we walked down into town earlier, the tunnel was still taped off and there were a lot of reporters hanging around” said Josh.
“Hopefully that won’t be a problem tomorrow”, replied Hannah. “Kaylee’s bike has been taken away from the tunnel now and the whole area has been searched top to bottom. There is no reason whatsoever for a police presence to be maintained there”.
“That’s good”, said Charlie, “but we still have the question of what we are going to do when Kaylee reappears. How are we going to explain to everyone where she has been for the past two days?”
“Not only that, how do we explain it to her?” asked Lauren. “As I understand it, she knows nothing about this”.
“No – and she won’t know she’s been anywhere when she comes out, either”, said Hannah. “I know I didn’t. When you are in there, no time passes from your own perspective”.
“If we are all waiting for her on the other side then she’ll know”, said Charlie. “We will seem to appear from nowhere”.
“Amnesia!” suggested Josh, suddenly. “We just say she fell off her bike, bumped her head and lost her memory for a couple of days”.
“So where is she supposed to have been for those couple of days?” asked Hannah.
“Oh, I don’t know, just wandering aimlessly in a dazed state”, suggested Josh.
“Don’t you think it a little odd that whilst she was wandering around in this dazed state nobody saw her? Not to mention the fact that the combined forces of the Oxfordshire, Northants and Warwickshire Police were unable to find her? It doesn’t reflect very well on us, you know”, said Hannah.