The Unintentional Time Traveler (Time Guardians Book 1)

by Everett Maroon

  “Since why don’t you ever stop drinking soda pop? It’s terrible for you.”

  “You should try them when they still had cane sugar in them. Whole different experience.”

  She rolled her eyes at me.

  “So tell me the whole story of what happened after Dr. Dorfman sent you back from Aimée’s house.”

  I could deal with this new normal, I figured.

  EPILOGUE

  NATE RUNS INTO THE FIELD of flowers cackling with laughter and I rush off to catch him before he wanders into the patch of poison ivy near the little stream that gurgles by the end of the clearing. He’s strong as he squirms to get out of my hold.

  “Did he make a break for it?” asks Lucas, who is absentminded at best.

  I walk up to him with the fidgeting toddler and place the child in front of him. We parent in zones.

  “You know he did,” I say.

  The phone rings in the kitchen and I make eye contact with my spouse to make sure he’ll watch the little one while I dash off. I could feel like I spend my days hurrying to the phone or the child, but I’m too busy to think about it.

  “I’ve got him,” he says to the space I very recently occupied.

  I answer the call and the operator connects us. Date, time, location, quite brief description of what’s gone wrong, and we disconnect. I make my way to the root cellar, walking through the living room of our farm house as I study my notes. My mother looks up from her knitting. She makes and gives away a sweater a week and is happy to be done with tending to chickens and cows.

  “Another call?” she asks without taking her eyes off her stitches.

  “Yes, but I’ll be back soon.”

  “Don’t work yourself too hard,” she says. People spend a lot of time talking to me as I’m moving.

  “Promise,” I say as I descend the stairs.

  “Nineteen thirty-seven,” I whisper. I’m sitting in a plush burgundy chair, my favorite spot to focus before I leave. “October 7th. Harvey Koss, Hell’s Kitchen. Harvey.” He’s been pretending to go to a job every day that he hasn’t had in more than a year. I wonder what his face looks like, if I’ll be Harvey or someone he knows well. And before I can blink, I’m gone.

  I am Jacqueline Leigh Bishop Van Doren, and I can travel through time.

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