by E. R. Mason
“Oh come on! Nobody’s an expert on time travel!” insisted Remy. “It’s supposed to be impossible.”
No one spoke.
Skyla continued, “According to T.R. Martin, if time travel were possible there would be a set of rules a person would have to abide by. One of those hard fast rules was that someone from the future must never meet or interfere with himself in the past. As I’ve tried to explain, the effects could be disastrous. That’s why I brought you here before things could get screwed up. There’s no chance of running into anyone you know here.”
“I really, really just want to go home,” said Remy.
“Will you flip a coin with Wednesday’s Remy to see who gets the bedroom, after you have explained all of this to your Aunt and Uncle?” asked Skyla.
There was a long, heavy pause.
Jax spoke. “Could you just run it all by me one more time? I’m having a little trouble with it.”
Skyla sipped her tea without taking her eyes off them. “The way I understand it is this; the three of us have a very clear set of memories of everything we said, did, and thought about yesterday. Outside this boat it is yesterday again and each of our counterparts are out there doing, saying, and thinking those same exact things we did on Wednesday. As we sit here in this boat, nothing in our memory of yesterday has changed because our counterparts are out there doing everything exactly the way we did. Were one of us to go and contact our counterpart from yesterday, the instant we did that our counterparts thoughts would change from what we remember. Instantly our own thoughts would be forced to change as well. We would have two sets of memories for the same time period. According to the Martin book, the effect of that on the mind would be devastating. He suggested it would disrupt the entire train of our memory and reasoning skills. He listed several very bad results including death from an aneurysm or stroke. Add to that our counterparts would probably then continue to make decisions and take actions completely different from what had been so even if we survived the mental shock, in our minds we would probably no longer be the same people we are now. Are you with me so far?”
“That freakin’ house did this to us, didn’t it? Just like I kept warning you guys,” exclaimed Remy. “But nooooo. You’re overreacting, Remy. You’re just being a jerk, Remy!”
“Nobody said that, Rem,” interrupted Jax.
“But you’re right, Remy,” answered Skyla. “I won’t lie to you. I believe the house did this to us.”
“How do you know so much again?” asked Jax.
Skyla couldn’t hide a flash of guilt. “I knew there was something strange about Demon House. I didn’t know what. I thought it might be supernatural. I needed to find out. I’m sorry.”
“So now we’re screwed, aren’t we? Shouldn’t we at least go tell someone?” complained Remy.
“We stay on this boat until time catches up with us,” said Skyla.
“But when will that be?” barked Remy.
Skyla remained patient. “When we arrived at Demon House it was Thursday morning, nine 9:00. When we left Demon House it was about 12:30 Wednesday. That’s when two sets of us first began to exist. If we stay here out of sight until after 9:00 tomorrow, we can resume our normal lives.”
Jax winced. “But won’t another three of us show up here at this boat again, just like we did?”
Skyla smiled sympathetically. “I really don’t think so. It’s the house that’s causing the problem, and the house that’s creating multiple people. As soon as our counterparts step outside the house, they’ll sync up and it will be just us again.”
Jax gave a look of distrust. “Where are you getting all this? How can you possibly know this stuff?”
Suddenly Remy jumped up, clamped his hand over his mouth, and raced into the bathroom banging the door behind him.
Jax winced. “Nerves. This happens with him sometimes.”
“Understandable,” replied Skyla. “All of this is enough to shake anybody.”
“You seem too cool and collected. Shouldn’t you be all stressed out and scared?”
“Oh, I’m pretty shook alright. I just hide it well. I’m just more afraid you guys might lose it, so I’d better keep it together, that’s all.”
“You know, we really should talk to somebody about this, either way.”
“Trust me, Jax. Bad idea. Who will you tell this story to? Who will believe you? How will you prove it? Take anyone to Demon House and you make the situation ten times worse. They’ll accuse you of doing drugs even while it’s happening to them! You’ll end up in mandatory therapy or something.”
“I may end up in therapy anyway. And, what about Demon House? The place is a nightmare. Maybe all those stories about people disappearing are true.”
“We can’t really worry about it until we get back to reality, you know?”
“Forget about Demon House? Well, that’s a switch for you.”
“So you’re finally starting to believe this is really happening then?”
“I am still waiting to wake up.”
“You know, I haven’t said this, and it may be way selfish, but I’m glad you’re here. So you see, I’m not so brave after all.”
“Well, you are stuck with me, at least until we get back to tomorrow.”
“I hope to be stuck with you longer than that.”
Suddenly Jax felt a strong exchange of affection with Skyla. And just as suddenly her face was a mere inches from his and she was not backing away. Purely by impulse he slowly began to lean in.
The bathroom door burst open and Remy tromped back in. Skyla stood, gathered cups and escaped to the galley.
Remy leaned over to look out a porthole window. “Boy, it’s funny how puking makes you hungry all over again.”
Skyla stood in the doorway. “We have plenty of canned goods in stores. I’ll make you guys something hot. There are two small staterooms forward, one on each side of the bow. You guys can pick one. I get the master stateroom all the way forward.”
Hot food seemed to calm Remy considerably. For a time, he seemed at last to be at a loss for words. Finally, with the last bite of food, he spoke. “You know guys, while I was in there on my knees praying to the toilet, something came to me. Remember when the car was stolen?”
Skyla and Jax kept chewing but listened.
“When I got home that day, my watch was 3 hours slow. What if we time-jumped that day too, and the car wasn’t stolen at all? What if it was 3 hours earlier and we just hadn’t arrived at Demon House yet?”
Skyla stopped chewing. “Wow! I should have thought of that. He’s right. There were cars going by on the main road when we were walking. We weren’t paying attention. One of them turned down the road toward Demon House. It might have been us on our way to Demon house! Oh that’s awful. If we had accidentally interacted with our other selves . . .”
“God, so this has already happened to us before,” said Jax wearily.
Remy stiffened. “And how about the trip before that one? My watch was one hour slow, and when we got back to the car the engine was still warm as though it had just been shut down.”
“But, if we had jumped back in time to when the car had just gotten there we would have bumped into ourselves going in, wouldn’t we?” countered Jax.
“Remy’s right again,” replied Skyla. “We left the house by a different exit to avoid the police officer. We returned to the car by a different route. We would have missed our other selves going in.”
Jax wiped his face in exasperation. “Gees, you guys are saying we have time jumped every single time we have gone out to Demon House.”
“It’s true,” replied Skyla. She stopped in thought for a moment then spoke half under her breath. “And the time jump has been longer every time.”
“We can’t return to that place, ever,” said Jax.
Remy continued, “And how about those weird photos of a room with different furniture. Were we seeing the room from a different time when there was different stuff in it?�
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“I’m going to start calling you Sherlock, Rem,” said Jax.
Remy became insistent. “So that’s it, then. We get back to our own time and forget about that place, never go there again, and never speak of it even!”
For the first time Jax disagreed. “Rem, we’re going to have to figure something out to do about that place. We can’t just let people get swallowed up by that house. It’s a danger to us all.”
Skyla secretly smiled but said nothing.
“But what the hell can we do? Nobody’s going to believe us.”
“We’ll wait like Sky said until we’re back in real time and then try to figure something out.”
Skyla interrupted the debate with a ploy she knew would work. “Remy, did you say you were hungry again?”
One hour later, adequately stuffed with clam chowder and crackers, the group settled into a tired, brain-drained silence.
Remy finally mumbled, “I guess I’ll go try out one of the staterooms. At least I still have Soldier’s Eye loaded on my laptop. I can distract my brain and pass out. Then when I wake up, like Jax says, maybe this bad dream will be over. Is there network access here?” Remy sipped his hot chocolate.
Skyla tried to sound sympathetic but her tone carried fear. “Remy, you must not go online. We can have no contact with Wednesday’s world. You can’t take a chance of someone you know seeing you on line and contacting you or your other self. You understand?”
Remy’s shoulders drooped and his head sagged. “Soldier’s Eye, the best possible therapy right there and I can’t use it. Sheeez. Well, that’s okay. I’ll just plug away at the code work I’m doing. Thanks for the chowder, though, Sky.”
Remy pushed himself up, made a half-salute to his friends and headed forward. He disappeared into the port forward cabin. The door snapped shut.
Jax leaned back beside Skyla on the sofa. He twisted around to face her. She was still eating crackers. “I think you did him in.”
“I have news for you, Superdude. We’re all done in.”
“Even you?”
“Especially me. I’m the one who’s supposed to stay cool about this whole affair.”
“Well, it is your fault pretty much.”
“You know why women mature so much quicker than men?” said Skyla slyly.
“I’m afraid to ask.”
“It’s to stop men from accidentally killing themselves during puberty.”
“Touché.”
“We’re going to be okay tomorrow.”
“Something giving you confidence?”
“Yes. When Remy reminded me we had actually time jumped before. Obviously we caught back up and were okay.”
“So we should be okay to sync back up with our own time tomorrow.”
“As long as nothing happens to change our counterparts in any way.”
“And then we can try to figure out what to do about Demon House.”
“I’m worried about that.”
“Any particular reason?”
“What we may need to do.”
“What’s that?”
“Let’s save it for tomorrow. You better get some sleep.”
Skyla rose to her feet. Jax stood and started to turn away but was stopped by Skyla’s hand on his arm. As he turned back to her, she leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek. “You can’t know how glad I am you’re here.” She broke away and began gathering up dishes. Jax stared with affection for a moment, then headed back to sleep away his fears.
The new Thursday morning went well. Staying below deck with the curtains drawn actually seemed to create a certain connection between the three refugees from time. Card games and television reruns filled in for boredom. Late in the afternoon, drained and relieved, Skyla dropped Remy off at home, then Jax. She headed back to her apartment to sort out the dilemma that awaited an answer. The agreement had been to regroup at the café in the morning and try to figure out what to do next.
Friday morning Jax awoke into a heavy stupor. Sunlight was streaming through the window. As his consciousness began to focus, he sat halfway up with a start and snatched the mobile phone from the nightstand. The phone had service. The date in the upper left hand corner said Friday. He hurriedly pushed himself the rest of the way up, scrambled around to find the TV remote and switched it on. The tiny screen reassured him that it was indeed Friday just as it should be. He sat back and breathed a sigh of relief.
It was 7:30. He would need to take his Mom to work in an hour if he wanted the car. The meeting with Skyla and Remy was set for 10:00. Jax heard the clink of dishes coming from downstairs. His Mom was already up. He pulled on jeans and a grey turtleneck sweater and headed downstairs.
She was seated at the table sipping tea and buttering toast. She smiled at the sight of her son and pushed a plate of toast his way. “My, my! Aren’t we up early. What’s the occasion?”
Jax checked the tea maker and found it loaded and ready. He poured a cup and took a seat facing her. “How were the tests?”
“We won’t get the results till next week, but the Doctor’s say they are pleased with my progress.”
“And you’re feeling okay, right?”
“Yes, I am, dear. The new medication seems to really help. You know there’s something in the paper this morning that might interest you.”
“A new job listing?”
“No. it’s about the robbery at the cathedral last week. The thieves stole the church’s petty cash box, and they took that two foot high cross that was in the arms of the life-sized Christ statue. The elders don’t care about the ten pounds of petty cash, but they want the cross back very badly. The thieves must not have been too smart. The cross was very old. It was made of horseshoe iron but it was covered in gold leaf. There was so little gold involved that it wasn’t really worth anything, but the dumb robbers must have thought the whole cross was made of gold.”
“Well, if you’re robbing a church, that’s pretty much proof you’re no genius.”
“Yes, Dear. So the church elders are offering a ten pound reward for the return of the cross, no questions asked. You’re so good at mysteries with your father’s memory and all, and you’ve got plenty of time on your hands while you look for work. I thought maybe you should see if you could track that stolen cross down. Wouldn’t that be great? You’d be a hero.”
Jax’s mind kept drifting away to thoughts of Demon House and the events of the past few days.
“Jax? Did you hear what I said?”
He looked up and finally focused on his mother. “Oh, yeah. Yeah, that’s an idea. I could go look into that.”
“It might be fun as long as you don’t tangle with any dangerous criminals. That’s off the table, right?”
Jax stared into oblivion.
“Jax? Is there something on your mind this morning? You are very distracted.”
“Oh no, Mom. I was just trying to imagine a starting point.”
“Well, you might try the janitor at the church. I read that he was the one who discovered the theft.”
“Okay. I’ll do that. I need to run upstairs to the bathroom before we leave.”
Jax left the table and trotted up the stairs in a daze. In the bathroom he began to brush his teeth in thoughtful stop and start motions. Every time he considered Demon House he stopped brushing and just stared. He decided the only thing he wanted in life right now was to meet with Skyla and Remy to figure out the curse that had befallen them.
Golden sunlight from the small window illuminated the bathroom. Jax dried his face with a towel, froze again in thought, then open the door to leave.
But, something had changed.
Stunned, Jax stared out the bathroom door at a completely dark house. There was no light from any of the windows, and no lights in the house were on.
Jax closed the door, pinched at his eyes, and shook his head. This couldn’t be happening. He looked back at the bathroom window. Sunlight was still beaming through. He opened the door once more. The ho
use remained completely dark.
With the door again shut, Jax leaned against it and rubbed his face. There could only be one explanation. Beyond the bathroom door was yet another time jump. The curse had somehow followed him home. But, to stay in the bathroom was to stay in the present. Jax went to the window, stood on the side of the tube and unlatched it. If he could climb out and drop to the ground, he would still be in the present. He hesitated for a moment. Was this really happening? Climbing out a bathroom window to avoid going back in time. It was insane.
Jax jumped down, went to the door and opened it again. The house was still pitch dark. He shut the door, swore under his breath, and climbed back to the window. With it unlatched he pulled upward.
The window would not budge. He gathered himself and yanked with all his might. The window would not open. Jax stepped down, wiped his hands on his sweater, and tried to understand. At the sink, he turned the water on full.
Nothing came out.
The bathroom had become some kind of transition point between the past and the present. He looked back at the sink for reassurance. Water from the tap had now appeared but seemed to be frozen in midair, halfway to the basin.
Another frantic attempt to open the window again failed. Break it. That was the only way to escape to the present. But what to break it with? There was nothing. The toilet tank cover. That would do it. Jax pulled off the toilet tank cover, climbed back onto the side of the bathtub and, balancing precariously, swung the tank cover at the window. It hit and bounced off. It did not make a sound. He climbed down and looked at the water from the faucet. It was now three-quarters of the way to the sink drain, but still frozen in time. This room was a time-trap.
The door was the only way. Jax pulled the door open to check again. It opened to the same dark house. There was nothing to do but step through. He tried but abruptly pulled back from a spike of fear. Was he alone this time? Or was this happening to Skyla and Remy, as well? What time period would he step into? There was no way to know. He would need to be careful. He could not risk running into himself or anyone else. He dared not take or change anything in the house. Those were the warnings Skyla had given. He would not be able to even take food from the fridge, or any of his clothes from the past. Everything would need to remain just as it was.