The Door Into Time

by Kathleen Pennell

  Chapter 18

  Suddenly, they heard the sound of men’s voices drawing nearer.

  Reece and Sean instinctively clamped their mouths shut. As usual, the Professor was muttering rather loudly to himself and the children ran to his side. “They’ll hear you,” Sean whispered.

  The Professor gave a short loud laugh. “My dear boy, the second we arrived I activated the sound phase cancellation which surrounds the outside.”

  “Phase cancellation,” Reece murmured. She searched the control panel until she found it then pointed to it. I saw it when James, uh, I saw it earlier.”

  The Professor looked down at the children, but all he saw was the tops of their heads. “I see,” he commented, understanding far more than the children realized. “Do you know what it means?”

  The tops of both heads shook.

  “All right, well sound emits waves that look rather like ocean waves only sound waves are invisible.” When the children nodded their heads, he continued. “All that needs to be done is to emit waves that cancel out all our noise so no one on the outside can hear sound we make on the inside.” When heads didn’t nod, he sighed and thought for a few seconds.

  Then Sean’s hand shot up.

  “My dear boy, this is not the school room. If you wish to say something, simply say it.”

  Sean leaned forward and actually placed his hand on the Professor’s arm. “Is it like those headphones people wear when they cut the grass to block out the loud noise?”

  Once again, the Professor looked down at Sean. He lifted his eyebrows then turned back to the panel. “Something like that only it surrounds the entire surface of this machine. Of course, we can hear them; they just can’t hear us.”

  Reece turned in the direction of the door. “But, they can still see us. Is the door locked?”

  “Doesn’t matter a bit. I’ve activated the screen.”

  “What screen?” they both asked.

  The Professor expelled his usual disgusted sigh, but the children were getting used to it by now. “What do you think? The invisibility screen! I explained that to you when you first got here! Weren’t you listening?”

  “Yes, but,” Reece began then turned to Sean. “That’s why we didn’t see the walls until we got inside.”

  “Of course that’s why! Had I remembered to close the sliding door, you would not have seen the opening and have wandered in.”

  “So those men won’t be able to see the outside of this. . .whatever this is?” asked Reece.

  “My dear girl, that is precisely what invisible means.” The Professor walked over to the closed door and pressed a button. Suddenly, the door became transparent, and they could see everything on the outside.

  The children gasped and drew back, but though the men looked directly at them as they walked past, they didn’t see them. They watched for several minutes, and finally, the men shook their heads, turned around and walked back in the direction of the village.

  The Professor rubbed his hands together purposefully but avoided their eyes all together. “Now, to get you home.” He walked to the control panel and spread his fingers apart as he held his hands over the many blinking lights. He reached for different areas of the panel, but drew back. At last, he made his decision and changed the setting on twelve controls then pushed a large red button to the side of the panel. He had held his breath while making the selections now he allowed it to escape through his teeth in a sort of whistling sound. “That should do it.” He stood back for a few seconds and looked at the ceiling, then walked to the freezer door. “Tea time,” he said. “I’m infernally peckish. How about you?” he called over his shoulder.

  Reece craned her neck waiting for him to open the door. No way would she eat anything off his dirty luncheon dishes. “No, thank you,” she said politely. “We’ll eat when we get home.”

  “Mama made cookies. We’ll eat those.”

  “Cookies again,” he sighed. “It may be a little while before we get there. You must be absolutely starving, so you may as well have tea.”

  Reece was about to refuse again, but Sean was hungry. “All right. Thanks.”

  The Professor nodded his head in approval then pressed several buttons to the side of the small door. He stood whistling out of tune for a moment before opening the door then reached inside and drew out a completely different teapot from the one he’d shoved in there after lunch. On top of that, there were now three sets of cups and saucers and plates. And they were a different color, too. He set these down on the table placing one set of dishes on his side and the other two settings on the other.

  While the professor walked back to the freezer, Reece nudged Sean and mouthed the words, “Where did the dirty dishes go? And where did he get the extra teacups and saucers?”

  Sean thought a second, shrugged his shoulders then turned towards the Professor to see how this whole thing was going to play out.

  The Professor returned with a heaping plate of round biscuit like pieces of cake. “Scones,” he announced proudly. His eyes widened lovingly as he stared at them for a few seconds then placed three heaping teaspoons of tea leaves into the teapot before adding boiling water. He swished the teapot around a few times while he launched into the second verse of his tuneless song. The Professor cleared his throat as he assumed the role of host signaling for them to sit opposite him at the table. “Now, you’ve never had the pleasure of drinking tea.”

  “Uh, no,” said Sean.

  “Well, then in addition to milk, you’ll probably want, hm, sugar.”

  The children made no comment. They just hoped they didn’t hate it.

  The Professor added milk to all three cups, added sugar to Reece and Sean’s teacups then poured tea from the teapot. He placed a scone on each of the three plates and sat down.

  The Professor stirred his tea cup, so the children picked up their spoons and stirred theirs. He sipped his tea then took a surprisingly small bite of his scone closing his eyes in delight.

  The children slowly lifted the cup to their lips and stared at the contents. Finally, they took a mini sip. Wasn’t so bad. They picked up a scone then looked up in surprise.

  “It’s warm!” said Reece then asked the unbelievable. “How could these scones be warm when you just took them out of the freezer?”

  The Professor lifted his eyebrows as he stared at her.

  Reece pointed to the wall. “I thought that was a freezer because your ice cream was in there, but these scones are warm. Did you microwave them somehow?”

  “Freezer? Microwaves? Heavens, no, ancient history, my dear girl,” he said then added. “Positively ruin the flavor that way. Came fresh not two minutes ago.” The children’s stare forced him to continue. “Didn’t you see me order them?”

  “No, we didn’t hear you talk to anybody,” said Sean softly. “So, how did you order this stuff?”

  “No, no, I didn’t talk to anybody,” said the professor then turned around in his seat. “You see those buttons beside that small door?” When he turned back and they nodded their heads he continued. “Well, my. . .” before he continued, he searched the floor looking for ANNA.

  ANNA had moved on the other side of the cot and presently only a single light shone. It blinked on and off very slowly as if. . .as if she were asleep.

  The Professor seemed relieved, but still kept his voice to a whisper and leaned across the table. “My assistant at the lab has my coordinates, and whenever I need fresh supplies, I have specific controls at the panel that allow me to reorder what I need and she sends it to that box.” He glanced at ANNA quickly then added in an even lower voice. “We have to exercise extreme caution lest we offend certain, uhm, persons. A bit jealous, you see, about the other. . .one at the lab.” When the children started to turn their heads in ANNA’s direction, the Professor harrumphed softly and shook his head. “Wouldn’t do that just at the moment. We might be faking it.”

  This was a lot to absorb in a short period of time.
ANNA had the sneaky capacity to fake being asleep, and the Professor could order fresh food that magically appeared behind a small door. Maybe it was more mumbo jumbo, yet you couldn’t really eat mumbo jumbo.

  “But, what happened to those dirty dishes from lunch?” asked Reece.

  “No time for that sort of thing. Always send them back.”

  The children’s minds were overloaded with information. They wanted to ask more questions, but didn’t understand enough to even know what to ask, so they nipped off a corner of their scone. Hm, pretty good, actually. Silently, they sipped and nipped and puzzled until everything was consumed.

  Then Reece asked doubtfully. “But, if you can get fresh food, why do you have all those granola bars in the bin?”

  “Granola bars?” The Professor‘s eyes twinkled as he looked back and forth between the children, but they had dropped their eyes. “Well, that’s a very astute question. I need those for my little research trips when I’m going to be away for a day or two. Couldn’t possibly trust the local food.”

  Sean stared at the small door then leaned towards the Professor and whispered. “But, couldn’t you just give your, um,” he began then checked to see if ANNA was still asleep. “Couldn’t you just give your you know who at the lab your new coordinates when you’re away from here on research trips?”

  The Professor opened his mouth then closed it. His knees began to jostle up and down till they positively hit the bottom of the table. “Of course! How could I have been so stupid? It will change everything! All I’d need to do is rig up a remote devise that will. . .” He muttered on in his own little world for a few seconds then took a deep breath and looked at their empty teacups and plates. “Did you enjoy tea?”

  Sean’s entire face had slowly stretched into a grin as he stared at the small door, and it took him a second to readjust his focus. “It was really good.”

  Reece smiled at her brother before turning. “Yes, it was a lot better than. . . I mean it was really good, thanks.” Reece tapped her fingers lightly on the tabletop. “Well, this was. . .very nice. But, we were wondering if you would open the door, so we can leave?”

  The Professor’s eyes began to sweep the floor as though he were desperately looking for something. “It will open on its own when we get there,” he said very softly.

  An uncomfortable silence fell for the next moment until the door slid open.

  The children stood and Reece took hold of Bear’s collar. “Thanks, again for the tea.”

  “And scones,” Sean added.

  Now, all three appeared to have lost something on the floor. The children weren’t sure why they didn’t bolt for the door, but at last Sean said. “Well, good-bye.”

  “Thanks for. . .thanks for bringing us back,” said Reece.

  The Professor glanced up and nodded once.

  The children and Bear stepped through the door, and it slid shut behind them.