by Ken Johns
“What?” John glanced around the meadow. “Why?”
“This is going to sound strange, but it will be easier for Jess to explain it to you once she has spoken with the people in the carriage.” Chad pointed down the slope.
“That’s not happening.” John stepped in front of Jess. “She isn’t going anywhere near that carriage until I get some answers.”
“He said you’d say that.”
“Who?”
“Nothing,” Chad said under his breath. “How about this: you escort her to the carriage. Once she looks inside, she’ll tell you herself that she’s safe to enter.”
“Will everybody stop talking about me as though I’m not here?” Jess stepped around John and started walking toward the carriage. John hurried after her.
“Please wait here.” Chad left Margaret standing with Sandra and Mila and rushed after John.
Jess reached the carriage and waited for him. “Now what?”
“Just open the door and take a peek inside. Once your eyes have adjusted to the dark, take a good look at the occupants.”
John grabbed her elbow. “You don’t have to do this.”
“Dad. I’m a big girl.” She opened the door and stuck her head in. She whipped her head out and stared wide-eyed at John. Her mouth dropped open. She glanced up the slope toward Sandra and Mila and shoved her head back in through the door. “Holy shit!”
“What is it?” John took a step toward her.
Jess pulled her head out of the door to stop her dad. She put a hand on his chest. “I’ll be fine. I’ll see you in a minute.”
“I’ll be right here. You just have to shout, and I’m in the door.”
“It’s not like that. There is no danger in the carriage. Please go back up and keep Mom and Mila company. They’re probably getting a little freaked out.”
“They are?”
“Dad. Please.” Jess tilted her head to the side. John stood there a moment. “Go.” Jess crossed her arms and stood blocking the door.
“All right.” He walked back up the slope toward his family.
Chad handed Jess the MCV from his pocket. “Please give this to your other dad.” He nodded to the carriage. “He might need it.”
“Um, okay.” Jess accepted the sphere and climbed into the carriage.
Chad walked up the slope toward Margaret. He wasn’t quite sure what she might say, and he didn’t want to leave her alone with the new arrivals for long.
“Hi, baby.” Sandra reached out to Jess and took her hands. They were warm and strong, like her smile. Sandra squeezed them gently and tried to forget that this was the last time she would ever hold her daughter. She let her eyes study every curve of Jess’s beautiful face, every nuance of light in her hair. These memories had to last a lifetime, and she was starting to realize just how long that might be. Suddenly, she grabbed Jess into a hug. The tears flowed freely down her cheeks and dripped onto Jess’s shoulder, but she didn’t care. Her baby was in her arms again, and that was all that mattered. She wanted to hold her and squeeze her until they were one. She needed to imprint this moment on her soul.
“Will somebody please tell me what’s going on?” Jess said over Sandra’s shoulder.
“I’m sorry.” Sandra loosened her grip. “We’re here to say…” Her fingers flew to her lips as her throat tightened in a knot. If she said the word, it would become real. This moment would end, and she couldn’t bear the thought of it. She shook her head and squeezed her eyes shut. She just had to hold Jess for as long as she possibly could.
Mila held Jess’s gaze over Sandra’s shoulder. After a while, Sandra let her pull away.
“Hey, Jess.” Mila gave her a hug.
“Hey, Mi.” Jess released her and sat back. “What happened to your ear?”
“Oh, this is nothing.” Mila touched her missing lobe. “The trip doesn’t go all that well, especially for you. It pretty much goes tits up from the moment we arrive and ends with you dying.”
“What?” Jess’s eyes flipped to John and Sandra.
“Yup. In our timeline, you’re dead.” Mila raised her eyebrows for effect. “We had to watch you…” The image snuck up on her. She’d promised herself she’d keep it light, but the pain in her chest had other plans. She took a breath and choked it back. “So, through the magic of time travel, we’re here to send you home before that happens… and say goodbye.”
“Goodbye?” Jess glanced at Sandra and John. “You guys can’t come home?”
“What would we do with our other selves?” Mila smirked. “Keep them in the closet?”
“Okay, that’s enough.” Sandra put a hand on Mila’s knee. “Give her a minute to process it.”
John watched his daughter come to grips with what Mila had told her. She was a smart kid. She’d work it out.
She watched him too. He opened his arms, and she climbed in. He squeezed her hard. He didn’t want to lose it, but he could feel it in his throat like a grapefruit. “I… wanted,” he said, taking a deep breath and blowing it out slowly, “you to know… that I love you.”
“I love you too, Daddy.” Jess smiled and held his face.
That just about did him in. He took a quick breath to head off the lump in his throat and growled it out on the exhale. When he had reined in his voice, he said, “Now you go home and have an awesome life. Follow your heart and do all the things you can dream of. Just not time travel.” He paused. “Promise me!” he barked.
“I promise.” Her eyes were tearing up.
The grapefruit jumped back in his throat with a vengeance. “There’s something else I need to say, not to you but to Mila.” He looked into Mila’s eyes. “I’m sorry.”
The tears attacked him, and his chest heaved with sobs. “I’m so sorry… I couldn’t save Jess.” Through the blur of salt and fluid on his face, he managed to spit out, “You deserved to have her in your life.”
“Excuse me.” Mila tapped Jess on the shoulder and waited for her to lean out of John’s arms. Mila hugged John and then raised his tearstained face with both hands. “We couldn’t save her.” He took a beat to process it as he stared into her eyes. “You weren’t alone. We all failed. Together.”
He sniffed and smiled at her. “How did you get to be so smart?”
“I’m your daughter… and you’re my father.”
“You bet your ass you are.” He hugged her.
Mila couldn’t remember the last time he’d hugged her like that. She hugged him back.
“Wow.” Jess sniffed and wiped her nose on her sleeve. “I’ve never seen you guys get along like this. I kind of want to stay here with you.”
“No. This is my family.” Mila pointed up the hill. “Yours is out there.”
Jess pulled Mila into her arms and gave her a hug. “I love you.”
Mila patted Jess on the back and gently pushed her away, wiping a tear from her cheek. “Now you need to go before we all lose it and your family comes down the hill to see why there’s water pouring out of the carriage.”
Jess laughed as she backed out of the carriage. She paused at the door and mouthed, “Bye.”
When Mila could no longer hear Jess walking back up the slope, she opened the door a crack and peeked at their doppelgangers up the hill. “I have to look.”
Chad took his MCV out of his pocket and held it up. They all placed their hands on it.
“You should shut your eyes,” said Dad.
“Why?” Couldn’t he stop being a dad for one second? The sphere erupted in pure light. The inside of the carriage lit up as Mila fell away from the door, grasping at her face. “Shit! I forgot about that part.”
Her dad chuckled as she blinked helplessly.
The McLeods are back in the next Split-Second Time Travel Story, BACK IN TIME.
Read on for a preview.
If you enjoyed this book, please leave a review wherever you bought this book to help other readers discover the series!
Sneak Peek at Book 2 in the Split-se
cond Time Travel Series
April 5, 2018
Jess squeezed her eyes shut. The unbearable light bled away, and she felt the hard metal grate poke through her soft leather slippers. When she opened her eyes, Chad stood next to her in the SSTTC launch room.
Alone.
“Where are they?” Jess grabbed Chad by the shoulders and shook him. “Open your eyes. The light’s faded.”
“Hey, take it easy.” Chad opened his eyes.
“What happened? Where is the rest of my family?” Dread fell on her chest like an engine block.
Chad walked to the tinted glass door and slid it open. A wall of computer noise assaulted their ears and he had to yell above it. “Hey, Bob. Jess has some questions for you.”
Bob, the same guy who had launched her whole family twenty minutes before, stepped past Chad into the launch room. “Please come with me, Miss McLeod.” He stood to the side, eyes downcast, and held his arm out, indicating the door.
Jess watched Chad wander away between the rows of computer racks. To Bob she said, “You can call me Constable. And I’m not going anywhere until I get answers.”
“I can answer all of your questions if you’ll just step out of the launch room and follow me.”
“Where is my family?”
“Please.” Bob pointed at the door again.
Jess folded her arms across her chest. “I’m not moving.”
“We need the room, Bob.” A red-bearded man in chain mail filled the doorway behind Bob. He had a longbow and quiver of arrows across his back and a sword and dagger at his waist. He stepped into the tiny room, pulling his chain mail coif up over his head. “Let’s go, buddy.”
“Derek! I told you to stay in holding until I had the room prepped.” Bob darted his eyes between Jess and Derek.
Three more men dressed and armed like Derek edged their way around Bob and walked into the launch room. They took up positions around the MCV, and Derek began punching in a date on the touch-screen interface.
“Guys!” Bob looked like he was going to pop a vein. “You’re breaking protocol here.”
“You know how time sensitive these SR missions are.” Derek’s focus swiveled to Jess. “Just tell her the truth.”
“Somebody, tell me something.” Jess waited for Bob or Derek to address her directly.
“Will you leave the launch room if I tell you?” Derek asked her quietly.
“Don’t do it,” Bob said like a threatening parent. “This has to be contained.”
Jess ignored Bob and focused on Derek. “Absolutely.”
“The APR kicked in. My team got tagged for the SR mission. We’re going back to get the rest of your family. But the longer we stand around here talking about it, the farther away from the arrival point they’ll be.”
“You know you’re getting fired, right, Derek?” Bob pointed a bony finger at the larger man.
“Don’t threaten me, Bob,” Derek said calmly. “It won’t go well for you.”
“I want to come with you.” Jess took a step toward the group of men at the MCV.
“Rolly.” Derek nodded slightly to the guy with his back to Jess.
“No can do, sweetie.” Rolly put a hand on Jess’s shoulder and pushed her toward the door.
Jess grabbed his hand and whipped it behind him, driving his face into the door frame and pinning him in place. “Did you just call me sweetie?”
Derek laughed at his buddy struggling against Jess’s hold. “What is your name, ma’am?”
“Constable McLeod.” Jess glanced at Derek, keeping upward pressure on Rolly’s arm.
“Constable, I understand emotions are running high here. But right now, I have a job to do, and you’re not helping. In fact, you’re delaying me, and that’ll only make it more difficult for me to find your parents.”
Jess sighed. She needed to let the professionals do what they were trained to do. How many times had she given civilians the same speech? “You’re right.” She released Rolly and stepped from the room.
Rolly rubbed his shoulder and glared at her like he might retaliate. Jess met his gaze and took a half step back, bending slightly at the knees.
“Rolly!” Derek’s voice was like a whip. Rolly slumped at the shoulders and walked back to the MCV.
Bob stared in wonder. “Holy shit, Rolly. I’ve never seen a woman take you like that.”
Rolly flipped the bird at Bob without looking back.
“Bob.” Derek pointed. “Out.”
Bob exited the room and slid the door closed just in time to contain the light emissions. He stepped over to the console and checked the readouts. When the light died away, the men were gone.
“What does APR mean?” Jess still had questions, and Bob was going to answer them.
“I can’t tell you.” Bob turned from the console. “It’s proprietary.”
“Are you kidding me?”
“No, ma’am. You should never have heard those terms.”
“So give me the official version. What were you going to tell me if I had stepped from the room like you asked?”
“I can’t tell you anything. I would have taken you to the change room and given you your locker key so you could shower and change back into your own clothes. Then when you came out, one of our PR people would have met you and explained what we were doing about your family.”
PR people. Seriously? “Does this happen a lot?”
“No.” Bob shook his head.
“But Derek said he was tagged with this mission, and it didn’t look like it was his first time.”
Bob turned back to his console. “Derek and his team have some experience in survivor recovery missions.”
“So that’s what SR stands for?”
“No. Yes. Shit. That’s proprietary—you can’t repeat it.”
“Fine.” Jess took a breath. “You said it hadn’t happened before, and then you said Derek had some experience. Which is it?”
“It’s never happened before… on the Canterbury tour.”
“So this is Derek’s first mission in that time period.” That wasn’t good.
In an instant, Jess jammed her eyes shut. Her left breast screamed inside her dress. She clutched her chest.
“What’s the matter?”
“I don’t know.” Jess opened her eyes. Why was she clutching her chest? “That was weird.”
“Are you sure you’re all right?”
“I’m fine. How long until Derek gets back with my family?”
“Hard to say.”
“Bullshit.”
“It depends how quickly he finds them.” Bob looked away before meeting Jess’s eyes again. “There is no way to guess at that.”
“Wow.” Jess sighed. It wasn’t a shining moment for the SSTTC. First Rolly insulted her, and now Bob was flat-out lying to her. Not to mention fucking up their holiday. “Does your company train you in asshole behavior, or is it a prerequisite to get hired?”
Bob’s jaw dropped open. “I beg your pardon?”
Jess poked his chest. “A minute ago, you were talking about protocols, and now suddenly it’s guesswork? It’s time travel, Bob. You expect me to believe that Derek can’t punch in a predetermined return time, regardless of how long the mission takes?”
Bob looked at his watch. “I’m sorry. I can’t tell you. I’ll get fired.”
Jess rolled her eyes. “Jeez, Bob, grow a pair. I just want to know whether I should go get changed or wait here in the control room.”
“You have time to change. Afterwards you can wait in the cafeteria. I’ll send the PR guys to meet you there.” Bob grabbed a key hanging on a pegboard next to Jessica’s name and handed it to her.
He led her through the racks of computers to the hall. He even went so far as to point at the door with the sticker of a woman’s silhouette on it. “Right through there.”
“Dude, really?” Jess shook her head as she walked into the change room that she had used with her mom and sister less than half an hour be
fore.
Jess walked along the row of lockers looking for the one she’d used that morning. Inside her locker she found her jeans and hoodie along with her underwear and Nikes. She couldn’t wait to get into her own comfy clothes.
She stripped off the scratchy JumpGear dress. Something clunked when she dropped it down on the bench. She rummaged through the garment and found the MCV. Chad had given it to her in the meadow back in 1341. “Give this to your dad. He might need it,” Chad had said. Then she’d climbed into the carriage and met a devastated second version of her family. They’d said the second version of her was dead and they were going to have to stay in the past so she could come home with the version she’d arrived with.
She’d forgotten all about the MCV with the shock of it all. Could Chad blame her? That was a lot to take in. Now add to that, the version of her family she was traveling with had not arrived home with her, and the SSTTC had sent an SR team to find the devastated one. And why hadn’t Chad known that would happen? Shouldn’t the SSTTC have trained their guide to know the protocols for these situations? This wasn’t the first time, was it?
She needed to find Chad. She could give him back the MCV and get some answers.
But first the shower called to her.
About the Author
Ken Johns spent twenty-five years working in film and television postproduction. Now he writes commercial fiction from his home on the west coast of British Columbia. Visit Ken online at www.kenjohnsauthor.com for more information.
Acknowledgments
Thanks to my mentor, Eileen Cook, and my ongoing cohort at TWSO Speculative Fiction at SFU: Lisa Voisin, Nick Clewley, Cynthia Sharp, and Jocelyne Gregory. Your feedback on this journey is both inspirational and indispensable. To my first beta readers, Ken Hayward, Bill Hammond, Dave Jennings, Daryl Smith, and Greg Brown, your input was invaluable. To my publishing consultant, Crystal Stranaghan, and my editor, Amanda Bidnall, your expertise has saved me a million headaches.
And thank you to my family, Collette, Adelle, and Penny, for your infinite patience.