CLIPPED_Another Time Travel Tale

by Angela R. Hart

  Dad and Carson just walked around checking and re-checking everything, trying to make sure that they were prepared for when the lights went out. I knew that Dad and Auntie were really scared, but this time, I think we were all scared. Hurricanes were the worst. I hated them and even considered moving away a few times because of them. "Why are you doing this to us?" I yelled in my head, to the evil past.

  "The cats!" screamed Auntie. "Somebody has to bring them here. They aren't staying there by themselves during a damn hurricane. No way, I couldn't handle it." she cried. "Okay Allie! Me, Carson and Chloe will go get them!" said Callie. "Yeah, it's okay, we will get them, they can stay in my room, Auntie." said Chloe. "We'll be right back." said Carson, and they all got up, threw on hoodies and ran next door.

  "I hope they're okay!" said Allie. "I couldn't leave them there by themselves!" she cried. I sat down and hugged her. "I know Auntie, it's okay, they'll be right back with them." I hoped that they actually would be right back with them, it was raining really hard and those cats were going to get drenched. About 5 minutes later the front door burst open and everybody came running inside. Carson had Mila and Max, Callie had Jamie and Mollie, and of course, Chloe had Boomer. The poor cats were soaked, so Auntie jumped up to grab towels and give them all sugars. "Come on, put them in Chloe's room." she said, pulling some dry towels out of the bathroom cabinet. "It's okay, my loves, Mommy's here, my sweet babies." she said, in the squeaky kitty mom voice. It calmed them down and they were less mad about being all wet.

  She went off to take care of them and snuggle with them, Callie went too. Cats always helped them feel better, they both told me that all the time. I knew that Callie was missing her kitties, being gone this long, but she was okay and she liked having Auntie's kitties to snuggle with. I realized that if I did finish this horrible reset and actually saved my Auntie and my Dad, that Callie and Carson would be going away, back to 2023. I would miss them terribly. I'd gotten to think of them as two different people and it would make me sad once they weren't around anymore. I bet that was how Callie and Auntie felt when they were alone too, before they saved their parents and brother. "Must've been awful for them." I thought, sadly.

  The rain got even worse and finally night fell. The wind was screeching and howling through the yard, I could hear it through the windows. The vinyl siding on the house was squeaking with the force of the wind. "Scary." I thought. I looked out the window, but all I could see was water everywhere, rain and puddles, the backyard was starting to look like a lake. My ears started to pop because the air pressure outside was starting to change. "Not good." I thought, as I fake-yawned to make them pop back. The power clicked off a little after 10:00 PM and the force of the storm strengthened exponentially after that. "It's time." I thought.

  We all went around and clicked on the lanterns. We decided not to mess with the solar panels today, it was just too much to worry about with a beast superstorm growing outside. The wind was deafening. "Get away from the window, everybody!" screamed Callie over the rising din. We all got away. "That tree limb that impaled me, came from that big tree back there, and during the other tornado, it shattered that window." she said. "Okay." Aunt Allie was hiding in the room with all of the cats, she refused to leave them, but that was okay, I understood, as long as she was okay.

  The house almost sounded like it was groaning through the force of the high winds. All of our ears kept popping, I could tell because everybody kept opening their mouths wide and then closing them back. Then came the hail, it was pelting the window with the loudest "PLINK! PLINK! PLINK!" I'd ever heard. It was the biggest hail I had ever seen. The wind screamed again, and we backed up even further from the window. I could barely make out the yard, but I could tell that it was completely flooded. Suddenly, a huge limb off of the tree smashed into the window, making the most horrible sound ever, but it didn't break. Auntie had installed windows that could withstand a lot of force. "Thank God." I said. Callie came back into the room and was standing there watching it all, white as a ghost. "ALLIE ARE YOU ALRIGHT!" she screamed. "YES!" Auntie screamed from the other room.

  Suddenly, a tree fell onto the roof where we were standing in the living room, ripping a hole straight through the ceiling. Rain started pouring into the house. Everybody screamed at the top of their lungs. Carson ran and grabbed two tarps out of the garage to throw onto the floor. I didn't know what the point of it was, but it made him feel better. "Maybe we can hang it up there." he said, looking up at the huge gash. "No, don't bother." I screamed.

  The thunder started to roar and bang through the darkness of the house, louder than ever now that we had our own personal skylight. Allie came running out of the room and screamed. She heard the noise in the other room and now she was even more frightened. "It's okay, you can stay in there." I said. She nodded and went back in the room. "Poor Auntie is scared to death. I hope that isn't what kills her." I thought. Callie was just about as scared as she was. "Poor Callie." I thought. This must be the worst thing ever for them.

  Lightning blazed across the sky, flashing and lighting up our darkened living room. We heard a noise in the distance, but it was so loud that we didn't really comprehend. "BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!" It sounded like the front door, but it couldn't be, there was a freaking hurricane outside. "BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!" "IS SOMEONE AT THE DOOR!" I screamed over the thunder. "WHAT?" screamed Carson. "THE DOOR!" I screamed, and I splashed and slid my way to the front door. It sounded like somebody banging on it. I pulled open the door, and it almost smashed into the wall with the force of the wind.

  A man was standing there, in a hooded yellow raincoat. He was tall and I couldn't see his face. "Don't you know there's a HURRICANE OUT HERE!" I screamed at the man. He pulled his hood down and I almost fell back. It was the mystery man. "CHLOE HARMON! CAN I COME INSIDE! IT'S LIFE OR DEATH!" he screamed. I didn't know what to do, but the rain was pelting my face so I said, "I GUESS! COME IN!" and he slipped and slid into the house.

  "WE HAVE COMPANY!" I screamed to the family. "GO GET AUNTIE!" I yelled and Carson ran off to get her. The rain and wind lightened up after I closed the door to where we could hear each other again. "Who are you?" I asked the man. He was tall, and handsome. He had dark brown hair, that was soaking wet at the moment and blue eyes. "There's no time for that now, I need your Aunt and you Dad to put these on!" he yelled, and held out his hand. Two rings glistened and glimmered in the darkness. They looked just like the links and the clip. "Where did you get those? What are those?" I asked. "NO TIME! LATER!" he yelled, so I took them and walked over to Dad and Auntie. "The weird guy says to put these on now." I said, and slipped one onto each of their hands.

  As soon as they were on, they glimmered and shone, like magic, and the rain started to slow and the thunder stopped pounding. "What the fuck!" screamed Carson, looking up at the sky. Callie walked toward the window and saw that the wind was starting to settle immediately, now the tree was only slightly swaying in a light breeze. The clouds started to roll away, until they finally dissipated into nothing, and the stars started to wink and shine in the clear night sky. "WOAH! What the fuck?" screamed Carson. "Sir, what the hell are these rings? Did they just stop a hurricane?" I asked. "Why have you been following us?" Chloe asked.

  "You'll both be fine now, the past won't harm you if you always wear those. If you travel into a different time, you won't get ill if you stay too long. They were made to stop the effects of the time traveling." he explained. We all stared at the rings in wonder. "Where did you get them?" I asked. "I have two sets, I always made sure that I had a spare set just in case." he explained. "Chloe, you may return your younger Aunt and Father to their original time, then you may reset your timeline and we can speak. We will all be here when you return." he said.

  I looked at Callie and Carson, and they were just as dumbfounded as I was. "Are y'all ready?" I asked them. "Well, if they're going to be okay, I'd like to see my kitties again." said Callie. "And I'd like to see my children and wife again." said
Carson. "I miss my little girls." he said, sadly. "We will grab our stuff and then we can go." Callie said, looking at the mystery man nervously. "Come help us really quick, Zoey." Callie said.

  I got up and went into the room, and Callie was packing things away, including the Screen. "I'm taking the Screen back to my time, we should be able to get it to work then, right?" she asked. "Sure, the sensor plugs in the same way as everything else." I said. "We will be able to talk once we are gone, and we can keep in touch, and you can tell me what in the hell is up with that guy. He's odd, and he talks really properly." Callie said. I nodded in agreement. "I wonder who he is?" I said, so confused. "Who knows, just be careful. I'm bringing mine and Carson's Contacts and ElectroFluid back too, it should work for a long time, right?" she asked. "Oh yeah, at least 50 years or more." I explained. She nodded and hugged me tight. "I love you, Lovebug." she said. "I love you too, Auntie." I said.

  Carson came in shortly after and Callie explained about the Screen. "I think I can figure out how to get it hooked up to our old internet and then we can access the app and talk to everybody still. If not, I'm sure that I know a guy." she explained, and he nodded. He leaned over and hugged me too. "I love you, Chloe Bear, I'll miss you being grown up, but I can't wait to see my little girl again." he said. "I know, I love you." I said. "I love you too." he replied, and we got up and sat on the bed. "Are there any meds in here?" I asked. "In the closet." said Callie.

  I got up and we all dropped our meds and waited the requisite five minutes for them to work. I pulled the clip and the links out of my pocket and set them to April 6, 2023 at 11:15 AM, while they went to tell everybody else goodbye. I checked my Handheld and it was no 1:35 AM, July the 10th. "It's over!" I thought, happily. Nobody died, that mystery man just saved their lives. "Thank God." I thought, sighing deeply and petting Mila.

  Callie and Carson came back into the room and sat down on the bed with their bags around them. "Did the weird man say anything? What's he doing?" I asked. "He's just sitting there, he says that he won't explain anything until you return." Callie said. "He's fucking weird, but he looks really familiar to me. I hate that! When you can't place where you know someone from." said Carson. "You're right, he looks familiar to me too, I have no idea though." said Callie. "Okay, the date is set, I had it memorized, just in case we needed to make a quick getaway." I explained, and they linked arms with me. "I love you both!" I said, as I clicked the 'BACK' link and sent us back to 2023. I would miss them most of all.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

  We didn't even think about where we were when we left the house and we landed with a "THUNK" and a bounce right onto PawPaw and Granny's bed. "Oh shit, we are at PawPaw and Granny's!" I whispered. "It's okay, we can sneak out the window, they don't go into the bedroom much during the day." said Callie. Carson got up and peeped around the chest of drawers to make sure that they couldn't see the room, and he quietly closed the door.

  "Okay, open the window, there's some azaleas right outside the window, but you should be able to get around them and into the yard." said Callie. "Okay." I leaned down and pulled the window open as quietly as I could. Luckily it only made a teensy squeak and I got it open all the way and crawled out into the flower bed. Carson passed the bags outside and I took them, and then I saw Callie come head first out of the window too, she crawled through the dirt and stood up, dusting off her pants. Carson came next, also face first and almost got stuck in the bush, but he made it out and then gently eased the window closed.

  We all dusted the dirt off of ourselves and grabbed our bags and went through the front door. "Granny! PawPaw!" I yelled, and PawPaw came walking out of the kitchen. "Morning adult Granddaughter." said PawPaw. "Morning, adult children!" he said to Callie and Carson. "Morning Dad." said Carson. "Want some breakfast? It's a little late in the day for it, but I'm always up for some scrambled eggs and sausage." he said. "Sure, I'm starved." I replied. "Us too." Granny walked into the room and said, "Good morning, children." We responded and brought our bags into the room to sit down. "Why in the world do you have those bags?" she asked.

  Everybody looked at each other and then I said, "We just got back from the future." PawPaw leaned out of the kitchen and hollered, "GREAT SCOTT!" and Callie and Carson shook their heads and laughed, but I didn't get it. PawPaw was an oddball. "Auntie and Dad are safe. There was a man, he showed up with these weird rings that stopped a hurricane." I said, talking way too fast. "Umm, what in the hell are you saying?" said Granny. "Some weird guy saved everybody's life, I don't know who he is, but I have to go back to find out. I am here to say goodbye." I said to them. "You're leaving?" said PawPaw. "Yes, it's time for me to get back to real life." I explained. "I'll miss you all though, and I love you all very much." I said, starting to cry. PawPaw and Granny both gave me a hug. "We love you too, Chloe Bear." said PawPaw.

  "I'm just going to leave from right here, so that I can return to the same spot that I just left. It should be a day after the hurricane." I said. They all nodded and Carson and Callie gave me one last hug. "We will find a way to make sure we can get the Screen to work and we will talk to you soon. We love you very much." said Callie. "I'll miss you." said Carson, hugging me tight. "I love you both and I'll miss you both too. I'll see you soon." I said. "LOVE YOU GRANNY AND PAWPAW!" I yelled, as I slid on the clip and then struck the links together, popping back into my own time, hopefully for the very last time. I was tired of time traveling.

  I landed badly and ended up flat on my ass in the middle of the living room floor. I looked all around, but the house was silent, nobody was there and I got scared. I looked up at the giant hole in the ceiling and saw that there was a tarp nailed up over it. "Well, someone had to put up that tarp, it wasn't up there when I left, it was on the floor." I mumbled. Suddenly, that man came running from one of the rooms and I screamed. "OH SHIT! You scared me half to death, dude!" I yelled at him. "Apologies, you've returned! Splendid! We were not sure when you were going to be returning exactly, you never informed your family of the date and time and they could not locate your journal." he explained. "Why are you here dude, where is my family?" I asked, annoyed that I still didn't know who in the hell this random was in my house.

  "Your father is at home with your mother and your Auntie is next door with her cats. I have never cared for cats much, but that's neither here nor there." he said. "You talk weird." I said. "So do you." he replied, smiling. "I'm going to get my Auntie and I'm going to call Dad and get him to come back." I said, and I ran away from the weird guy in my house. "What the fuck?" I said out loud once I got outside.

  I walked through the yard, just like every other day and walked into Auntie's house. "AUNTIE!" I yelled. "IN HERE, CHLOE!" she screamed, and I walked into the living room. She was sitting on the couch with the kitties, a cup of tea in her hand. "Want some tea, Lovebug?" I started to cry. She was here, she was really here and not dead somewhere! It was finally over. I ran to her and gave her a huge hug, tears in my eyes. "It's okay, Chloe Bear, we're alright! Everybody is fine!" she said, rubbing my back until I calmed down. I finally chilled out and she went into the kitchen to make me some tea.

  "I'm going to call Dad and tell him that I'm back, okay? And by the way, why is that weird random man in my house by himself?" I asked. She laughed and said, "He's okay, Lovebug, but he refused to tell us anything until you came back. He didn't have anywhere to go, so we let him stay there to watch for your return. We weren't sure of the exact time that you were going to be back." she explained. "Okay, Auntie, whatever you say." I said, sipping my tea until I calmed down completely. "I'll call your Dad." she said, and gestured through her Contacts until she got him. "He's on his way back, he'll be here in about 15 minutes." she said. "Okay, let's go back over there, I'm very curious about this dude." I said, and we got up and made our way back to the other house.

  Me and Auntie walked in and saw the man sitting there on the couch. "Welcome back, Harmons." said the random guy, and I started laughing maniacally. He looke
d at me funny and I just said, "Nothing, sorry, don't mind me. Are you going to tell us who you are, dude?" I asked. "In time, dear Chloe." he said. "He talks really weird!" I whispered to Auntie. "I know!" she replied, looking at him strangely. "There's something familiar about you, I can't place it though." she said to him, and he just looked at her and smiled a knowing smile.

  Dad came into the house 15 minutes later on the dot and I ran to hug him, I was thrilled to see him. The random traveler stood up from the couch to shake his hand. "Welcome back, Andrew." he said. "Umm, thanks fella." he said, shaking his hand and staring at him. "So, are we going to get this show on the road?" I asked. "Why did those rings stop the hurricane?" I had a ton of questions. "Because they were made for time travelers, they stop all of the ill-effects of the traveling, including the sickness that invades the body if you are away from your time for an extended period of time." he said matter of factly. We all looked at him confused, and I got up to go to my room to bring the journal back.

  "Does this belong to you, sir?" I asked, setting it down on the coffee table. He glanced at it and then picked it up to flip through it. "It is mine, wherever did you get this? I have mine here, and it does not have nearly as many notations in it." he said, as he pulled it from the back of his pants. It must've been hidden under the raincoat whenever he showed up during the hurricane. "We found it, some men were tailing us and they had it, they said that they got it from their boss at the AVSPU." said Dad. "Do you know what the AVSPU is, sir?" asked Auntie. "Indeed I do, that is why I am here, in this time." he said. "How did you even get here to this time, sir?" I asked. "We saw something that looked like the cufflinks on you in the cemetary." Dad said. The man smiled and reached into his pocket, pulling something out.

  We all leaned forward, curious to know what he had. Was it more links? Were there multiples like how he said that he had two sets of rings? I noticed his left hand had one of the rings glimmering around his ring finger. "Hmm." I thought. He gently placed the items on the coffee table for us to see. The first, was a necklace, shaped similarly to the tie clip, and made of the same material. The other items, were a pair of earrings, shaped identically to the links, same size and everything. "WOAH! What are they!" I asked, picking them up to check them out.