by E. R. Mason
Skyla and Jax stood dumbfound for a moment. Two of the children began to wrestle. Suddenly Skyla remembered the keys she had found. She slapped her hip pocket, dug down and pulled them out.
The teacher was ecstatic. “Oh bless you! We have looked everywhere. It seems like we kept getting turned around in here for some reason. Thank you, thank you so much.”
Speechless, Skyla held out the keys, but as her hand passed through the open doorway, it seemed to tingle with electricity. At the same time she noticed the keys in her hand were now shiny and new.
Mrs. Roberts snatched them up and gave an exaggerated sigh of relief. She started to leave but turned back to them with a worried stare. “Have you heard anything about how bad it was? I’m almost afraid to drive back and see but the parents must be beside themselves with worry.”
Still dazed and speechless, Skyla and Jax shook their heads.
“Well thank you so much again for letting us use your home. Come children. Everyone to the bus, please.”
The noisy entourage stampeded down the hall to the nearest door and disappeared outside. It was then Jax realized the light from the hall was daylight shining through the curtains in the door. He looked at Skyla, shaking his head. “Did that really just happen?”
Skyla rubbed her eyes with one hand. “I’m afraid so.”
“And what was all that about bombing?”
“I’m not sure.”
“Sirens? Like air raid sirens? Were we just looking back at wartime?”
“You may be right.”
Jax pulled his mobile phone from his back pocket. He stared down at it and hurriedly pushed keys. “I still have a signal. Man, the date is still right. We’re still just a week behind. We didn’t jump.”
“We’ve had less than an hours sleep. We need more. Will you be able to get back to sleep now so we can hurry up and get down there?”
“I’ll just pretend this was all a dream.”
Jax leaned out into the corridor and looked in both directions to see if the ghosts had actually left. The hallway was empty.
At their sleeping bags, they pushed even closer together and climbed in. Skyla held to one of Jax’s forearms and smiled at him. “I guess nothing will surprise you after this.”
“Oh my God! I just realized something!”
“What now?”
“The Somerset Academy! I used to ride past it every day on my way to school. There’s no academy there now. It was bombed out in World War II. There’s a playground and plaque there now dedicated to a teacher and her students who were killed in the bombing. The rumor was that nothing was ever found of any of them. The building was totally annihilated.”
Skyla thought for a moment. “You’re thinking they weren’t at the academy at all. They were here on a field trip.”
Jax sat up abruptly and looked down at her. “They’ve been trapped here in time looking for their keys for this many years? Is that possible? They kept getting reset back in time and didn’t know it. Can it possibly be?”
“It’s possible. It may be that during their time period the pulses were shorter and there were more of them. They could have been stuck in a loop of some kind. I don’t really know, but I do know they’ve got their keys now and are heading back.”
“Heading back to whose time?”
“Did you see the keys when I handed them to her? They were shiny, like new. They were still in their own time period on the other side of that door.”
“So they’re heading back to the school. The bombing was over she said. They won’t be lost after all.”
“Yes. We may have changed something. And since you rode past that park every day, and read that plaque, things may be different there. It may change your memory, your brain pattern. That’s why we were trying so hard to be careful not to affect the outside world.”
“Oh crap! What can we do?”
“Not a thing. I shouldn’t have given her the keys. I screwed up.”
“And leave those kids wandering in a time loop forever? How could you do that?”
“It caught me off guard. I was so shocked by it. If anything like that happens again I’ll stop and think before I act. It was stupid.”
“So will I become brain dead or something now maybe?”
“One thing at a time. Maybe your memory will change, or maybe you’ll have two sets of memories. Maybe nothing will happen at all. I will know because I’m with you here outside of time. I’ll just be keeping a close eye on you.”
Jax laid back and put one hand behind his head. Skyla squiggled closer and rested an arm across his chest. For a second he seemed to feel that somehow everything would turn out okay. He closed his eyes and quickly fell back into a deep sleep.
Jax awoke on a bare, hardwood floor. He sat up abruptly and looked around. His sleeping bag was gone. Skyla was gone. Remy was gone. There was not one piece of evidence that either of them had ever been there.
He climbed to his feet and searched the room more thoroughly, hoping they had packed everything up while he slept.
There was nothing. He wiped one hand across his mouth, then slapped his pocket for his mobile phone. Furiously he drew it out and stared down at it.
No signal. The thing seemed to be having digital fits.
It was still dark outside. In desperation he raced down to the basement and to the well room. The ropes and other gear were gone. Returning upstairs, a quick look proved the mobile phone still haywire. He went to the front door and peered outside. His flashlight was gone, but a bright full moon glowed in the sky. He hurried outside but around behind the barn, the rental car was not there. Jax began to face the truth. They would never have left him. Everything in the house was covered by dust again. They were gone, the car was gone, and the gear was gone, all because they had not yet arrived.
A flush of loneliness fell upon him. This had to be another jump, and in this case, he and his friends had not ended up together. The others were somewhere else, or some time else, or both.
What to do now? No car. Not enough money to call a taxi even if the mobile was working. He had his mother’s credit card but according to Skyla it would be very dangerous to use that. Two choices; wait around until daylight, or head out.
Waiting around was not something Jax was good at. He turned in a slow circle for one more scan in the moonlight, then headed down the drive. It was a long walk just to the main road. He began a series of trotting, then walking, then trotting some more. There were sounds coming from the shadows along the way, the rustling of bushes sometimes followed by animal noise. Behind him, the silhouette of the Demon House faded away. There was an odd satisfaction to that. The cool, damp night air began to settle on his bare arms. The larger rocks in the gravel roadway made walking and running awkward and uncomfortable. The place seemed so barren, a person could die here and probably not be found for weeks or longer.
Thirty minutes of walking and sprints brought him to the main road. He headed in the direction of home knowing the trip was far too long to make on foot. Telephone lines stretched out ahead fading into the moonlit distance. Jax pulled out his mobile phone as he walked, but stopped abruptly when it indicated service. He hammered at the calendar function and cursed when it appeared.
One month. He had been thrown back in time a full month. A rush of despair came over him. There was no way he’d be able to wait out the time jump now. At the rate the jumps were happening there was sure to be another before the month was up. His only hope was Skyla, and now she was gone too. How far back had she been thrown and where had she ended up? Everything they had done down in the well was now undone.
There was only one thing left, the meeting place. He had to get to the Leigh Library building and wait and hope his friends made it there. Then at least he wouldn’t be so totally alone.
The silhouette of a rundown building formed in the distance. It was an old gas station that didn’t pump gas anymore but car repairs were still done there. Jax picked up his pace. Maybe there was a p
hone there he could use to try a call to Skyla or Remy. He did not dare use his mobile, but the way things were going he might soon need to break that rule. Past the rusting gas pumps, the shop windows were painted over with a dirty olive green but there were enough large scratches in it that Jax could just see well enough inside. A small nightlight was plugged into the far wall casting streaks of white light.
There was no phone to be seen. Jax backed away, looked around and headed behind the building. There he spotted a very old and beat-up pickup truck painted mostly in undercoat. It did not appear drivable although the tires seemed so good they looked out of place. Jax forced the driver’s door open to creaking so loud it would have attracted anyone nearby had there been anyone. The one piece truck seat had holes in the material where springs showed through. In desperation, Jax felt under the driver’s seat.
There were keys! With one more look around, he climbed in, found the correct key and paused to say a small prayer. He twisted the ignition and to his shock the engine turned over rapidly and started a second later. The truck rattled and shook but a brief grinding of gears proved it was drivable. With the engine running, he hopped out and went behind. No license plate. That didn’t matter all that much since technically he was stealing this truck anyway. He found the headlight switch, wondered if they worked, then decided not to use them yet. As slowly as possibly he pulled out around the building, stopping to see if any people or headlights were coming to investigate. Continuing onto the road, the old truck struggled to gain speed he tried the lights. They came on in high beam.
Cruise speed was limited. There was a lot of shaking and rattling. Getting to the library building was paramount, but back roads would be the only way to go. Even so, the threat of being pulled over would be a danger all the way. He could abandon the vehicle somewhere nearby and if no one was waiting at the library, he could walk to Skyla’s boat and spend the night there if it wasn’t occupied by an older Skyla.
Jax made it to the outskirts of the city and began carefully choosing back streets. His own home was far off the chosen path but there was the temptation to drive by just to look. Good sense won out. There was already too much danger of being spotted by police. No sense in taking any more time than necessary in such a conspicuous truck.
Almost in response to his fears, Jax turned up a connecting street and met oncoming headlights. This couldn’t be police. It was the first car he would pass. But as the vehicle drew closer, his worst fear was realized. It was indeed a police car with two officers inside. Jax tried to look casual as they went by. He turned right at the first cutoff. As he made the turn, in his rear view the police car had come to a stop and the backup lights flashed on. They were coming after him.
Two more left turns put him behind a cathedral, a place he knew well. There were two or three parking spots within trees and landscaping where he could watch alongside the building for any police in pursuit. He swung quickly around and positioned himself to see, then killed the noisy engine. The world became a shadowy, silent place.
Ten seconds later the police car cruised slowly by out front. They were looking. From his position behind, Jax watched them go by then sunk down in his seat. As much as he wanted to get to the library building, time would need to be spent here to be sure the police had given up.
He waited in darkness for an hour. From his position he could see the street that ran behind the temple and also a portion of the main drag that ran in front of it. As he watched, a dark car pulled over and parked on the back street as though waiting for someone. At the same time, there was some type of odd activity happening alongside the church. A small bathroom window had opened part way and items were being dropped out onto the ground. One looked very much like a cash box followed by the unmistakable shape of a large cross.
Sitting up for a better view, he watched intently as a pair of legs emerged through the small window, struggling to fit through. With great difficulty a hulky figure dropped to the ground and hurriedly gathered up the spoils. Jax sunk back down to avoid being seen. The thief struggled to hold his treasures and run, but it was impossible. He kept dropping things and stopping to gather them up. One item, a large golden cross, seemed too heavy to carry but the burglar was determined. He ended up loping his way past Jax to reach the waiting car. His clothes were dark and as he passed by Jax got just enough of a look to recognize him. There was no mistaking the face. It was Dexter the bully.
At the car, hurried negotiations were taking place. Money and contraband were being exchanged, but there was some kind of problem with the cross. The buyers in the car did not seem to want it. After a brief argument, the car windows went up and the car pulled away. The off-balance thief was left stuffing money in his pockets while trying to balance the heavy cross over one arm. He looked around nervously and trotted back the way he had come, toward Jax. Jax sunk down further in his seat.
There was a drainage grate not far from where Jax had parked. Fighting with the heavy cross, the robber went to it, placed the cross on the ground, and fought with the heavy drain cover. It finally clanked open and the thief tipped it up and over. He picked up the cross, stared down into the hole and dropped it in, pausing to watch it fall before wrestling the cover back into place. Without a second thought, Dexter disappeared into the foliage bordering the parking lot.
Jax suddenly realized he was sitting in a stolen vehicle in the parking lot of a church that had just been robbed. He twisted around and looked in every direction. There was no sign of any other traffic. He turned the key and brought the rickety truck to life, ground the gears again and held his breath as he pulled out onto the road. A quick glance at his mobile phone showed 4:30 P.M.
Heading for the library building there was now a little more traffic on the roads, not that it made his clunker look any less conspicuous. Twenty more minutes of side road travel and he was set up to drive by the building for a look. He pulled out onto the main road and drove slowly past the front of the library. The red brick building provided a number of good places to wait, and the front entrance alcove also could be used by anyone wishing to be noticed.
There was no one. Jax’s heart sunk. But, they had agreed to meet here at 12 noon, so finding one of them now had actually been too much to hope for. It was time to get clear of the stolen car and find a place to hole up. Parking was behind the building. It was a big parking lot with commuter cars already there. It was as good a place as any to leave a stolen truck. Jax pulled in between two other cars, shut down and shoved the keys back under the seat.
The marina was only a couple of streets away. Jax rubbed off the cold morning air and headed there as sunrise began to light a world of days gone by. He made his way along the sidewalk, past closed businesses, a few just beginning to open up. Thirst and hunger were now rearing their ugly head. If there was no one at the boat, he would use the hidden key to get in, get warm, and find something to eat. The wrong people might show up, but that was a chance he’d have to take.
The smell of salt air grew stronger as he neared the River Thames. There was an uneven coolness and warming of the air. Fog rose around the street drains from the evening’s moisture. As the big inlet came in to view, he turned left and walked along the shops to find the best vantage point for the marina.
With the marina in sight, a spike of hope filled Jax’s mind. Skyla’s boat was there and it looked unoccupied. The curtains were all drawn, but there were no lights on and no sign of movement of the boat against the pier. He’d need to get closer.
With a nervous look around, he headed down the steep sidewalk toward the businesses along the shore. Outside the marina, a last check showed the place all clear. The parking attendant was not yet on duty. He hurried through the walk-in gate to the pier, nearly slipping and falling while boarding. At the door to the galley, he kneeled and peered through the small window.
No one in sight.
The key was there behind a section of trim paneling. He unlatched the door and stepped down the short ladder
.
“Skyla?”
No answer. A quick inspection showed he was alone. Without another thought he wrapped a blanket around himself, foraged through the galley cabinets and came out with powdered eggs and tea. There were frozen English muffins in the freezer. With gas burners on and burning, he began to create the smell of food cooking. For the first time he could relax just a bit, enough at least to begin feeling guilty about taking someone’s truck and abandoning it. Next came the realization he had not wiped his fingerprints off the steering wheel or keys. As fear began to rise, he turned and jumped back. A was face staring through the window in the door.
Chapter 9
The nearly-cooked eggs went flying as Jax backed into a cabinet only to realize the face staring at him was Skyla’s. His panic was now replaced by concern that this might be a Skyla from the past.
The door opened. She stepped down and shut it behind her. She looked Jax over carefully. “You have to be him. There’s no other possible explanation.”
“Him who?” Jax held the frying pan in one hand, tipped and almost spilling.
“We were sleeping at Demon House. We got thrown back about a month. Does that make sense to you?”
“Thank God.”
“Quite a mess you’ve made here, dear boy. At least the tea’s not spilled.”
“I haven’t quite been myself, thank you.”
“Took a chance coming in the boat like this, didn’t you?”
“My stomach decided the risk was worth it.”
“How’d you get here?”