CLIPPED_Another Time Travel Tale

by Angela R. Hart

  "I think me and the kitties are going to stay here and sleep it off for the rest of the day. You two should head back to the house and take a nap too, before Andrew, or Carson, or whoever the hell he wants to be today, gets back. I bet you a million bucks that he's going to remember our little trip to '95." she said, laughing. "He always had an exceptional childhood memory." said Aunt Callie. "Oh yes, he really does, he remembers everything." said Aunt Allie, heading toward the room. "I'll see you two after our snooze, okay?" "Okay, Auntie, love you, goodnight!" I said and closed her bedroom door.

  "Come on, I'm tired Auntie, let's go take a nap. I don't know how long Dad will be gone, but I have a feeling that he will be loud as hell when he comes back." I said, pulling Aunt Callie by the arm. I closed the door to Auntie's house and waved my Chip to lock it and then we hauled ass next door before the neighbors spotted us. Old Mr. Carter's daughter Megan lived across the street now, and I didn't know if she was as nosy as he was, but I didn't want her writing down any info about all of the look-a-likes into little notebooks for the police.

  We made it back inside and we both dragged ass to our separate bedrooms and threw blankets over the windows to make everything completely dark. "I might get Auntie Allie to install Blinders in here, since we are going to be living here for a while, I want to be able to sleep through the day without having the sun in my eyes, if I need to." I thought. Blinders worked like the Screens, with a snap, you could turn them on or off and they would darken all of the windows with a thick tint, they also kept the house much cooler during the hot Texas summers. "I'll ask her tomorrow, I'm sure Aunt Callie would like them too." I thought, as I dozed off into a deep sleep.

  A couple of hours later, I was awakened by none other than the newly named Carson Andrew Sawyer. "Wake up!" We need to talk, come on. Your Dad is in there waking up Callie right now. "UGH, DAD, GO!" I grumbled. "Come on, now. "UGH! FINE!" I kicked my legs over the bed and stumbled into the living room with my eyes closed. Aunt Callie was already in there, her eyes barely opened as well. She looked grumpy as hell. Dad was standing there too, and he looked extra mad. "What is your problem! Why are y'all being asses right now!" Callie yelled, obviously annoyed at the two of them for waking us up from our blissful and much needed naps.

  "You went to 1995! Without telling us! Why would you do that? We remembered! One minute we were sitting there talking to Alyssa and the next, all of these weird memories of Allie and Callie and Chloe started showing up in our heads that hadn't been there before." said Dad. "You two should have told us where or when you were going, what if something bad had happened, what if the past decided that it didn't want your asses there and blew you up or something! WHAT IF WE ALL DIED AGAIN!" said Carson, getting angrier by the minute. "Seriously, you don't have a response? Either of you?" said Dad, looking back and forth at both of us, giving us 'The Look". "Damn, he got good at 'The Look' in his old age." whispered Aunt Callie. I nodded. "Well, ANDREW, you're not my Dad or my keeper, so I don't have to respond, as for Chloe, she's a grown ass woman and she was just following me and Allie, so chill out, both of you." said Aunt Callie, still trying to wake up completely.

  I hated getting in trouble by my Dad, I'm almost 35 years old and I still get upset when he bitches at me, and now, I'm stuck between TWO of him, getting it in both ears. I felt terrible, and I wasn't even fully awake yet and that was making it worse. "I told you that they would remember, they remember EVERYTHING." said Aunt Callie. "UGH!" I grunted. "I'm sorry Dad, we had to go and get ID's." I explained. "What do you mean, go get ID's" said Carson. "Show them, Auntie, before they both explode." I said, as she got up and went to the safe.

  She came back out with our three new social security cards in hand. "We have to be able to move around town to find these assholes when they start the calls, and to do that, we all need to be Chipped. You can't do anything without a Chip, they're very important these days, so, me and Aunt Allie and Aunt Callie went and had her guy in the past make us legitimate social security cards, with our new names on it and our birthdays. NOW we can all legally go get Chipped and become Zoey, Carson and Callie." I explained, pushing back into the couch. "Now we can actually exist here." explained Aunt Callie.

  The Dads were starting to calm down. They had been really pissed and were both ticking badly. Now they were chilling out and those big, pulsating veins in their necks and foreheads had gone down. "We weren't trying to piss you off, we just wanted to get it done. At first we were going to do yours and Callie's in 1995, but then Callie realized that you both needed to be my age, so we did them all in 2023. Aunt Allie wanted to go see everybody in the past after that and so did we, so we popped over for a week and then we came back. We didn't want to make anybody mad or get anybody hurt." I said. "We didn't, sorry." said Aunt Callie.

  "Okay, you're both forgiven, but don't try anything like that again okay? We are all in this together now and we all need to know where we all are at all times. We can't be going and popping off to random dates and just disappearing or getting killed, okay?" said my Dad. "Okay, Dad." I said. "Okay, Andrew." said Aunt Callie. "Your new name is Carson Andrew Sawyer and your birthday is November 17, 2013." she said, handing the new social to her brother. "My birthday is in 2011, same day, so we have to help each other remember that." she explained. "I'm Zoey Mae Larson, born September 10, 2014, I have the same birthday as before, so I won't forget mine." I said, smiling.

  "We need to go down and get your ID's done first thing in the morning, then I can take you to Houston to get Chipped, there is a Chip Specialist there, not too far of a drive from here, that does it. You're going to be my nieces and nephew, and since the family resemblance is so strong, nobody will think twice or ask any questions." said my Dad. "You'll need to cover up your tattoos though brother, we would look pretty weird with the same ones, I will cover mine too, just so nobody notices that they match." he told Carson. "Good thinking, UNCLE ANDREW!" Carson said sarcastically. We all shook our heads at him, nodded, and went into our rooms to get dressed. "Time to get this party started." I thought, tugging on a pair of jeans.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  The DMV was only a few miles away from the house, so it didn't take long to get there. Before we got there, we ordered fingerprint film. It was expensive and illegal, but it would disguise our prints and alter them just enough so that our hands didn't match our Others. You just stuck the film over the palm of your hand and that's that. We all applied the film in the car and then made our way inside. We had to take our driving tests and then we could get our temporary clearance for the Chip. It was just as easy as the first time for me, I'd already done this before, but the DMV folks didn't know that. Amazingly, they didn't ask any questions about why three 30 somethings were running around without any type of ID. I was pretty sure that their job was boring as shit, so they just got people in and got them back out again.

  Callie and Carson had no problems passing their tests with flying colors. Cars hadn't changed much since 2023, only tech upgrades inside, and solar and electrical charging ports instead of gasoline, but other than that, they were about the same, so it was easy for the two of them to pass. When they asked which hand was my dominant one, I responded with my opposite hand, since I already had my previous Chloe Chip in my left hand. I had to sign my name all weird, but it was legible enough and Callie and Carson signed their Screens and we were finished with that part. Our social security cards passed through testing without a glitch, because they were real and the paper and ink was from the correct time period. We made sure we signed them with Aunt Callie's old timey pen, just in case. They scanned our hands in and nothing came up in the system. "Thank God, I wasn't entirely sure that it was going to work." I said to myself.

  Then, they just had to snap our 3D facial recognition into the system and we were all set. It didn't matter if I looked just like Chloe, I had minute differences on my face, seeing as how I was actually a year older than her, so she wouldn't come up as me and vice versa. We had very sophisticated f
acial recog in the 40's, nothing like that old stuff in the 20's. Everything was easy and quick and we got out of there in time for lunch. No big deal, but I still breathed a little easier when we got back to the car.

  "That was way easier than I thought it was going to be." said Callie. "I know, why was it so easy? I guess because our stuff was legit. I know that we were mad at you for going, but it really was a brilliant plan, so thanks and good job." said Carson. "He's right, that was ingenious. You can't fake the social security scanners, and we just did it. That was impressive." said Dad, nodding. "Thank you, boys." said Callie, bowing dramatically in her seat. "Off to H-Town then. It won't take long, its a quick outpatient procedure, but it has to be done by a Chip Specialist, because of the coding." said Dad. "Yeah, it's muy simple. Doesn't even hurt." I told them. "Sweet, that's good." said Callie.

  We made it to the doctor within 45 minutes and the line was short since it was the middle of a work day. We were in and out in 30 minutes. Nobody asked me which hand to put the Chip into because the DMV already sent the information along, so they just laser sliced, laser closed and ran the coder and I was finished. Dad and I waited in the waiting room for the other two to be finished. "This is all so weird, huh?" he said to me. "You got that right." I said. Ten minutes later they both came out amazed. "That was wild, how your skin just opened and closed like that! No blood or anything! Those laser scalpel thingies are fucking AWESOME!" said Carson, excitedly. "Come on, let's go home." said my Dad.

  It didn't take long to get to the house, luckily it was the middle of the day so we didn't get stuck in traffic. Dad dropped us off and then said that he needed to head home. We all said goodbye and thanked him for all of the help, and then made our way over to Aunt Allie's house. She didn't know about anything that we had done today because she had been sleeping the day away. "Poor Auntie was exhausted." I thought, sadly. Time traveling was tough on the old bird.

  "KNOCK! KNOCK!" I knocked really loud, so the cats would make a ruckus and wake her up. It was getting pretty late so she would've been waking up pretty soon anyway. We were still standing there waiting on her to get up when Chloe pulled up in the driveway. "Hey, what are y'all doing standing out here?" she said, walking up to the door to wait with us. "Auntie is still passed out, we're waiting on her to wake up and come to the door, I guess Boomer and Mila didn't go and knead on her this time. Can you call her for us? I lost my Handheld somewhere, it's probably in all of our crap over at the house." I said. She grabbed the Handheld and called, "Auntie, wakey, wakey, eggs and bacey! We're all outside waiting on your ass, get up." she said, and then hung up the call a minute later. "She's coming. She cursed me out a little bit." she said. "Awesome." said Callie, smiling.

  She finally got to the door and creaked it open to peep outside. I never understood why she did that when she could just check the feed on the Screen, but I guess she was just old school like that. "Well, hello entire family, come on in! Thanks for waking me up, I was sleeping really great." she said, jokingly. "Sorry Auntie! I pulled up and found all of these fools standing here staring at your door." said Chloe. "We have things to tell you, that's why we were standing here Aunt Allie, can we come in or what! We've been standing here forever!" I said, walking into the house. "Come on then!" she said, opening the door to let us all in.

  We told her what we did all day and she was just as shocked as we were that it all went as smoothly as it did. "I'm surprised that it really worked, I was on the fence about it all, to be honest. Congratulations, Callie on a well thought out plan!" she said, patting her on the back. We all clapped for Aunt Callie and she turned red. "Why thank you, Allie!" bowing dramatically again. "Well, show us then!" said Chloe, excited to hear about our little adventure. I pulled up the ID app on the Screen and waved my right hand in front of it and all of my information came up for Zoey Mae Larson. "That's freaking awesome." said Chloe, nodding in approval.

  "Your turn, Aunt Callie." she said, excitedly. I swiped mine away and she stood up and waved. Callie Ann Sawyer's information appeared. "That's me! Look!" she said, pulling her holograph out and twirling it for all of us to see. "Very cool, Auntie, your ass looks fantastic in those jeans." said Chloe. "Kiss ass." I mumbled to her, rolling my eyes. She rolled hers right back at me and stuck out her tongue. "Go ahead, Dad, your turn." I said, to Carson. We swiped away Aunt Callie and he waved himself onto the Screen. "Carson Andrew Sawyer. Very cool Dad, looking nice!" said Chloe. He pulled out his holograph and made sure it looked alright too. "That's one good lookin' dude right there." he said, twirling it around. "OH MY GOD, enough with the good lookin' dude shit already, man." said Aunt Callie, rolling her eyes at him, and we all laughed at that one.

  "Aunt Allie, we are going to need some of the money. Not a lot, but we will need cars to rent and shit, so that we can get around once the calls start. Could you beam us some from your fat ass bank account? I know you always said you were saving it all for a rainy day, but it's enough for a rainy lifetime." I said.

  "Of course, Lovebug. This is exactly what I have kept it for all of these years, in case we ever needed it, and it looks like it's time to use it. I'll beam a bunch into all three new accounts. Chloe already has a bunch, so we don't need to beam you more yet. You have to go to the bank and open the accounts today, before they close, but it shouldn't be a problem. When you come home, let me know and we will get you hooked up." she said. "You're right, we should have done that while we were out. Chloe, can you run us to the bank? Aunt Allie's bank is fine." I asked. "That's cool, come on, we will get it all done." she said, and we all walked out and took care of the business. It didn't take long and all three of us were coded into the banks Chip database. "All good, let's go." I said, and we went back to Auntie's house.

  "How much money do you actually have?" Carson asked Callie. She just smiled a knowing smile at him and turned her head. "You have no idea, Dad." I said, shaking my head. "Enough to last the whole family a few lifetimes." Callie said, smiling at him. "It won't hurt her to move it over to our accounts, I promise, it won't even make much of a difference." Callie told him. "Damn." he said, shaking his head. We got back into the house and Aunt Allie transferred an assload of money into all three of our new accounts. "That should do it, right?" she asked. "Holy shit, Auntie, that should be more than enough." I said. "Thank you, Allie." said Carson, very politely. "You're welcome, little brother. Anything for family." she said, smiling sweetly. She was a good and sweet old lady.

  We all went back to the house and went to bed, Chloe went home and said that she would be back tomorrow to visit. We were exhausted from all of the driving and shit. "Are you sure that you don't remember when the calls started, Lovebug?" asked Aunt Callie before we all went to bed. "No, I don't remember, I couldn't even tell you what season it was." I said. "Well, that's okay, we will be here and we will find out as soon as it happens, in the meantime, we need to find a reliable tracker or something. Do they have apps like that or something?" she asked. "Yeah, maybe, I'd have to ask around. I'll get back to you on that, okay?" I said. "Okay, sweet dreams." she said, and clicked off the light. "Night, Auntie, I love you, NIGHT, DAD, I LOVE YOU!" I hollered, just as I dozed off into a very deep sleep.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  Over the next few weeks, me and Aunt Allie did a lot of hunting and we finally found a tracker for the Screens that would actually work without being detected. It was expensive, but we had a lot of money and we needed something undetectable and untraceable. We loaded the app onto every Screen in each house, Aunt Allie's house, our house, Dad's house and Chloe's house. It cost us an arm and a leg, but once those assholes made the first call, we would be able to find where they called from. Even if they called any of the Handhelds, the Screens would auto-trace the call and load the information right away, we just had to upload all of the Handheld numbers into the app. After that, it was just a matter of finding a pattern and then locating those creeps and following them. She also got Blinders installed on the house too, not only for our benefi
t, but so that nobody would be able to see into the house either. She already had Blinders on hers, because of her sleeping schedule. My parents did too, so they would be alright, no peeping Tom's were going to be peeping the Harmons this year.

  I had never tracked anyone before, none of us had, but we did our best with the apps and everything. Dad knew some cops, so he nonchalantly asked them different questions about following people or tracking people, tracing Screen calls, Handheld calls, etc. One time he even went on a ride-along, just to see how it was all done. He lied and told his police friends that his nephew Carson was considering joining the force, so he wanted to see what it would be like for him. They believed him, he was always a proficient liar, unlike Aunt Allie. She couldn't lie to save her life, unless she practiced the lie a whole bunch of times, and even then, she still sucked at it.

  After Dad did the ride-along, he got the idea to send Carson along on one too. They both made sure to hide their matching tattoos and Carson lightened his hair and beard to a little bit brighter blonde so that he didn't look so identical to my Dad. It was weird, he really looked like Aunt Callie now, they could have been twins. Carson went on the ride-along and got firsthand knowledge of what they did too. It seemed to be very helpful to both men, so they were glad that they did it. Dad's police friends noticed the resemblance right away when me and Aunt Callie dropped him off. At least with us there, they could see his resemblance to us too and it wouldn't be so obvious. "Man, you Harmons all look just alike! It's really creepy." said one of them. "Yes, sir! It's all in the nose and the hair." Aunt Callie said laughing, as we sped off into the sunset.

  "I think they believed us, what about you?" she asked, as we drove back home. "Oh yeah, for sure, between the three of us and Dad, we really do all look creepily alike." I said. "Good, he should be fine then." she said, nodding. He came back all excited to tell us about all of his adventures riding around in the hood and shit. He did learn how to trail people and find people, so now he would just have to teach us what he learned. He said it would be no problem, so we all rented cars, so that we could each have a vehicle available whenever we needed it.