Chapter 13
The panic stayed with me as my body exploded with the disorientation that inevitably comes from the return trip. We had been seen disappearing. That was definitely a major violation of the rules. Noah hadn't seen, his back was to the window when we left. I just had to keep quiet about it and not mention to anyone that we had been seen. We had been in the time of the Salem witch trials, a few months prior a woman had escaped a burning. To the standard observer of the time it would just seem like another act of witchcraft. Nothing to worry about, I tried to convince myself as I panted in the grassy field. I could keep quiet. I forced myself onto my hands and knees to look around for Noah. He was sitting on a patch of dirt and staring straight ahead with a look of shock and terror on his face. I tried to follow his gaze but all I could see in front of him were trees.
Trees. No white room. No bright lights. No mats. No one to take my sphere away and ask me what day it was. We hadn't made it back. Another wave of panic struck me as I tried to focus. We had traveled, that was certain. Then where were we? What time period was this? I crawled over and sat next to him then grabbed his arm to shake him out of his daze.
He looked at me, his expression unchanged as he spoke. "What have you done?"
"I tried to take us back. I don't know what happened! Where are we?" The panic had not passed and I looked around wildly.
"The more relevant question is when are we," he said. "The where doesn't matter." He leaned over and grabbed his sphere from where it had rolled after he dropped it. He flipped the top open and gasped. "Addy!" He showed me the inside. The light was glowing again.
I almost laughed with relief. The other sphere was a few feet away. I grabbed it and checked it as well, just to be sure. The light was still glowing on mine.
I looked around again and shivered as a breeze came through the trees. There were patches of light snow cover. It was definitely winter. At least I could determine that if nothing else. The disorientation was passing for me. I grabbed hold of a nearby tree and stood up. Noah still sat on the ground. He'd been gone for several months, I expected it to take him longer to recover. I looked around to try and find the nearest break in the trees, but one was not readily apparent. "Noah we need to figure out what year it is." As the words came out of my mouth I heard a clopping sound off to our right. I crouched in some brush near the tree I had been leaning on and looked towards the sound. I caught glimpses of a man driving a horse drawn carriage through the woods. "We must be near a road," I said to Noah under my breath. I watched the direction the driver went and turned back to Noah. "Are you ok?"
He was still sitting on the ground but nodded to me. "Yes, it's passing."
"Think you can walk?"
"Don't have much choice do I?" He grabbed a nearby tree and hoisted himself up. I walked over and put an arm around his waist to help keep him steady and he threw an arm around my shoulders. "Alright, let's go." We walked over to where the carriage had passed us. It was a dirt road, poorly maintained. We couldn't see a break in the woods in either direction. "What was in his carriage? Did you see?"
"No, it was closed." I looked back behind us one last time before turning back to follow the man. I gave Noah a bit of a shove and said, "Come on. Let's go this way." He didn't protest. We had no clues which way would lead us to civilization faster. "We could just try the spheres again."
"I don't think that's a good idea until we know what happened." He let my shoulders go and slowly walked on his own. "For all we know we're in the right time and that guy was just out for a nice ride through the woods."
I somehow doubted that and sensed that Noah didn't believe it either, but it would do no good to argue with him on the matter. We heard another horse coming toward us and clambered into the brush again to hide. This time it was a man with an open cart, carrying baskets of bread. He had on full length pants and workman's boots that came up to his mid-calf. His coat was cinched shut so we couldn't see his shirt but his it was definitely looser than the one Noah was wearing. I looked down at his breeches and hose, wondering how we would get him to fit in. "Well at least we know it's the future. We're going to look out of place." We stood back up now that the man had passed. "So is he delivering bread to the people in the countryside or going to town to sell it?" I asked.
"A baker would work in town. I saw he’s delivering bread to people out of town. Let's keep going," he said. We walked for another half hour before we could see the trees starting to clear out ahead of us. We moved back into the brush to approach the end of the road. We wouldn't try to wander out for a few more hours, until it got dark.
From our hiding place in the brush we could see a handful of brick and wooden buildings. We caught glimpses of a grassy area with trees in between the buildings and could see the top of a brick and wood tower that looked like an official building. Possibly a courthouse or town hall. A lot of people were walking about or riding horses. The men were in suits and hats and the women were in corseted dresses with bustles and long fitted overcoats. That meant we were both going to look out of place. "This town is small. Everyone's likely to know everyone's business. This could be difficult."
"I have an idea." Noah said and started to walk away. I followed him as he walked away from the town and back towards the road. "We'll wait for another solo traveler to come down the road. I'll knock him out and steal his clothes."
"You're going to beat up a local? Brilliant. What happens when he comes to and tells the local authorities that he's been attacked on the road by a man who stole his clothes?"
"You have a better idea?"
I thought for a minute. We were trained to blend in. Our clothes made that a little difficult but perhaps we could be from out of the country. "How's your French accent?" I asked him.
"Terrible. I'm not pretending to be French."
"It's not like these people will be smart enough to know."
"Why don't we just wait till tonight when everyone's asleep and break into one of those official looking buildings. They've probably got newspapers or paperwork from the day with a date on it."
I frowned at the idea of waiting around for several hours. It was winter and the sun was low in the sky but it would be a while before people started going to bed. "I guess that's the safest bet at this point." I shivered in the wind again. "But once it's dark I say we find someplace a little warmer. There should be stables somewhere, if people are still riding horses."
Noah looked down at his clothes and realized he was even less protected from the elements than me. He wasn't wearing his coat when I had grabbed him and activated the sphere. "Agreed."
"Gas street lamps," I noticed. "Still no electricity. By the clothes I'd guess we're still not in the 1900s." Costume construction was one of the reasons I got this job, Jim had told me. While training to be a librarian I was allowed to apprentice in the costume creation unit. A driving desire to learn everything I could and a love for the theatre had given me an abundance of knowledge about the technical aspects of stagecraft and a gift for accents. It was something I had listed on my resume merely as a lark, along with bagpiping and scuba certification. When they told me to include all my interests, no matter how irrelevant they seemed, I didn't think it was possible my theatre experience would be useful. But having been working with the lab for a few years now I could easily see how even things like scuba certification could come in handy. It was part of the reason why I wanted to learn how to sail. I loved being on or in the water and I knew there were plenty of missions in the suggested projects list that would involve bodies of water.
"You sure?"
"There was a huge shift in fashion at the turn of the century. Full length pants, I think started in the 19th century, but I can't remember exactly when. So 19th century."
"So now we wait."
I put my arm around him to try to help keep him warm. "Now we wait."
"I'm glad it was you who showed up in 1692."
"I convinced them you wouldn't trust anyone else."
He laughed once quietly. "You're probably right. Anyone else I might have beaten up and stolen their clothes."
I returned the laugh. "I'd hope you'd at least have the sense to use their sphere." My stomach growled. "I should've let you take down the bread man. I'm starving."
"Come on." He took my hand and led me through the brush at the end of the woods. It was getting darker. The sun would set soon. "Which of us do you think is less conspicuous?" he asked.
I raised my hand.
"Ok,” he said. “Sneak up to the back of that house and grab us some food."
It was my turn to laugh again. "Oh yeah, that won't attract attention at all."
He sounded resigned. "Fine then, I'll do it."
Before I could stop him he had dashed out of the tree line and was hiding in the shadows of a house on the edge of the town. He paused for a moment then disappeared behind a small mound near the back of the house. I couldn't see what he was doing, but no one was stirring in the house that I could tell. There were no candles lit inside. A few minutes later he came back with a lumpy bundle in a burlap sac and a mischievous look on his face.
"Where did you go?"
"When I got to the side of the house I saw they had a root cellar in the back. Here." He spread the blanket out on the ground.
In the fading light I could see some sort of cured meat, a head of cabbage and some carrots. "Raw cabbage?" I poked it and watched it roll onto its opposite side.
"If I knew you were going to be picky I would've been more insistent that you go."
I sat down on the edge of the blanket with him and decided to be quietly thankful. "You're insane."
"You're welcome." We ate in silence and watched as the street lamps were lit and people started lighting candles and their own lamps in the homes and businesses. We finished the food and wrapped the burlap sac around ourselves to keep warm for the next few hours. We decided to skirt around the edge of town towards the official looking building with the tower that we had seen on our arrival. Our hope was that we'd find something in one of the buildings on the edge of town, since going in towards the tall building would require navigating the streets and passing through a small part of the town. Then there was the matter of actually getting into the building.
We snuck back up to the side of the house with the root cellar. There were no lights on inside but I was afraid someone might still be in there and tugged on Noah’s coat to keep him moving. He acquiesced and we moved on to the next building. It looked like some sort of merchant's shop. A light on inside cast the shadow of someone moving around but it was too dim for us to see anything inside. We kept moving from building to building, trying to see anything inside without being noticed. Finally on the north end of town there were two small brick buildings that we would have to navigate between to get to our target. Both were dark but we passed between them as surreptitiously as possible.
We emerged at the back of the official looking building. There was a entrance through double doors and a placard told us it was indeed the city hall. The doors were locked, but not very solid. "Kick it in, count of 3?" I suggested.
"Agreed." He counted to three on his fingers and the two of us kicked at the door knobs. With a rather loud whack the doors split open and banged against the inside walls. We froze and listened to the sounds of the town, but could only hear the distant laughter of a few night owls in the pub on the other side of the grassy circle. "Come on," he whispered.
There was a narrow hall lined with more doors. We tried the first one. It was unlocked but it was just an empty room with a table and some chairs. The one directly across the hall was the same. The next room down from that was locked, which we took as a good sign. Noah grabbed the handle and slammed the left side of his body into the door. The latch splintered the wood of the door frame. A small amount of light spilled in from the street lamps through the window. It was enough to see a desk with a stack of papers. I rushed over, grabbed the sheet off the top and took it to the window to see it better. "Georgetown, Delaware, Civic Court. February the 2nd, 1882." 1882. I swore under my breath. Noah joined me by the window to see for himself.
"Drop that and place your hands on your heads."
I dropped the paper and turned, startled. In the doorway behind us a man in a black suit was pointing a gun at us while another man at his side held a lantern. I placed my hands on my head and nudged Noah to do the same. "Who are you?"
I put on my best accent. "We are French visitors."
I heard Noah groan slightly. "Oui," was all he could manage.
"What are you doing here, sneaking around in this office?"
"Our papers, sir. The clerk threatened to keep them from us."
"Why would he do that?"
"He wanted favors from me, sir."
The man looked like he might believe it. "That sounds like something you should take up with the mayor. I'm not saying I believe your tale just yet. You'll have to come with me while I check out your story." He motioned with the gun. We followed the man with the lantern out and the man with the gun followed behind. "Staying in the town inn?"
"Oui, sir." I prayed that he would take us to jail before checking at the inn. And that Noah wouldn't try to do anything stupid like steal the gun from him. I'm sure he could, but it was not likely to keep us from attracting even more attention.
He led us to a cell in another part of the court house. "You just sit tight while I go find the clerk and have a chat with him." He left us with a lantern.
Noah turned to me as soon as the two men were out of sight. "1882, do you know what this means?"
"What?" The date had no special meaning to me. I couldn't think of a single thing that happened in 1882 that could be of significance.
"It's exactly between 1692 and 2073." He looked around at the cell. "We need to get out of here."
"Two foreigners disappear from a prison? That's hardly blending in."
"Just be glad we're not back in 1692. They would've burned you by now." He sighed. "We'd be forgotten. They'll shore up their defenses. This is hardly a high security prison, I could break this window open easily. They're probably counting that you'd have to steal a horse to get anywhere in short order. Then they'd have you for horse theft as well." He had pulled out his sphere as he was talking.
"Ok then, we leave." I pulled out my sphere and opened it. "But what happens now? The sphere was supposed to take us back to 2073, we only went half way. But will it still be programmed for 2073? They always just take it away, I've never thought to ask if it resets after use or anything. What if it reset to some default after we traveled the first time?"
"That doesn't make any sense. Why would the destination change unless they specifically make it change?"
I looked back down at the glowing red light. "I don't know. They said they would readjust yours so you didn't come back at the same time as your future self. Somehow they can do that. Maybe they gave something to the scout and he fiddled with your sphere when you weren't looking."
"So it sounds like they need to be actively involved in changing the destination time."
"Then how did we end up back here?"
"Well this may sound rather simplistic, but we're halfway there.” Noah paced slowly as he tried to work it out. “The sphere is meant for one person and it tried to take two of us. Perhaps we halved its power."
"That does sound simplistic, but also reasonable. So if we tried both of us again on my sphere that should take us home."
"I'm not so sure." He started pacing again. "From the sphere's point of view, it's trying to take us from here back to our present day. I don't think it's an absolute thing, I think it must be relative to our current timeline."
"So," I tried to follow his logic. "You think if both of us try to go back on one sphere again, we'll merely get sent halfway again?"
"1970s."
"Ugh. No thanks."
"I think we got lucky with our last trip anyway. If this is Georgetown, we probably arrived rig
ht on the spot where the return chamber will be built. Imagine what else could be built in the spot in the meantime. In the 1970s. What if we end up in the middle of a furnace?"
"But your sphere is working again. Or at least, the light is on again. We can both go back now with our own spheres."
"Yeah." He looked at it with distrust. "What if they don't want me back. What if they're sending me somewhere else? We'd both be gone and you'd never know."
"And I thought I was paranoid.” I held my hand out. “Then take my sphere. Go back. Convince them that if you don't come back within an hour I'm taking the sphere no matter where it goes. They won't let me do that if it's not back to our time period." I heard the unmistakable sound of a door opening and footsteps heading our way.
The Sphere: A Journey In Time Page 12