At lunch, as always, they sat together. Today, Julie appeased Sam by sitting in her normal seat. They had a relaxing conversation on topics ranging from how well Sam had done at dodgeball to what strange species of mold might be growing in Bridget’s locker (She had packed a lunch two weeks ago and never taken it home. The consensus opinion was that her salami sandwich would be a particularly appealing environment for mold). At the end of the day, Julie and Tim met in the lobby again.
“So, I texted Rose,” Julie stated, as they walked through the doors. “We’ll meet her at her place.”
“But you haven’t told her why we’re meeting yet?”
“Right. All she knows is that I want her to meet my friend Tim from school,” Julie confirmed.
“Yeah… It’s probably not the kind of thing you want to drop on someone in a text message, anyway,” said Tim. “What’s she like? Like is she generally pretty quirky?”
Julie laughed. “Yeah, I guess. It wouldn’t be any fun being her friend if not, would it?”
“Maybe she’ll just buy it, then, at least at first. There’s two of us who are saying it’s true, at least. Or were you planning another space-time field trip for us?”
“I think time travel will be tough to swallow, even for Rose. But I don’t want to do it again right now. My Mom almost saw us, and that definitely would have changed events. Maybe if we tell her where the stuff Hopkins buried for me is hidden, and dig it up with her? It’ll be pretty obvious the area hasn’t been dug up recently, so she’ll know it can’t have been us who put it there,” said Julie.
“Yeah, but she also knows time travel is impossible. It’s one of those things you have to see to believe. It would seem more likely that we were playing the long game and buried something a couple months ago. Depends how much she trusts you, I guess,” shrugged Tim. “But it should be enough to keep her on the hook. We’re probably going to need to go back at least once, but maybe with both the people we tell. Have you decided who the second one will be?”
“I was thinking about Billy,” responded Julie.
“Wait… Billy Connell? Our basketball team’s star player?” asked Tim, surprised.
“Yeah. He’s a good guy,” said Julie defensively. Tim imagined she must have picked up on his skepticism.
“Really? Seems like kind of a goofball to me,” Tim pressed, thinking about how Billy tended to behave in French class.
“Well, sure, sometimes… But he can be serious when he has to. I’ve seen it,” argued Julie.
“Maybe in your timeline,”
“Seriously, I talked to him today before school and during a break. He seems like the same person, and we were close in my timeline. Plus, it’s pretty clear we’re good friends in this timeline, too. Would the me in this timeline be friends with someone who wasn’t trustworthy?” she asked.
“Whatever,” said Tim, after a pause. “It’s your decision, anyway. I just hope you’re right, ‘cause this would be a pretty sucky thing to screw up on.”
“You’ll see,” insisted Julie.
They walked in silence.
“Sorry,” said Tim, after a little while.
“Don’t be. We’re both having weird weeks. Just trust me, though,” she said. In spite of the conciliatory words, her voice still sounded a bit hard.
They walked a little longer in silence.
“So what’s this war with Russia about, then?” asked Julie. “I mean, I saw it in the newspaper but… like I said, it wasn’t happening in the timeline I came from.”
“Right, okay,” said Tim, glad to be talking about politics, which was something he liked, rather than about Billy Connel, which was something he didn’t. “Here’s Geopolitics 101. After The Great War -- you said you guys had that in your timeline, too, right? 1914-1919? 1916-1919 for American involvement?”
“In ours it was over in 1917. But yeah, Teddy Roosevelt led it,” she said.
“Well, Teddy Roosevelt was president earlier for us,” said Tim. After thinking for a couple seconds he said, “1901-1909. Our president in the Great War was Charles E. Hughes. We contributed loads of troops and basically won the war. During the peace talks, we took Croatia and Bosnia from the Austro-Hungarians, to give us a territory on the Mediterranean Sea. That was the first real step toward an American Empire. I mean, sure, we’d taken the Philippines, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and stuff like that beforehand, but this is really what got us involved in Europe’s business for good.”
“We gained land in Europe from the Great War too, in my timeline,” noted Julie.
“So fast forward about a hundred years. We’ve gotten more territory around the world, including some that we acquired via Japan after they won them from European colonial powers. New Zealand, Vietnam, India, and Japan itself, of course, but we’ve also lost some territory, like Croatia and Bosnia, to the Russians. Now we’re at war with them over China and the Middle East. We’re allied with the French, but they’re more concerned with their African colonies. So, it’s mostly us against the Russians. The war’s basically fought overseas, but every once in a while a few missiles make it past the defense system. That’s when the red lights go off.”
“So that’s what they’re for?”
“Yeah. There’s at least one in every classroom, every home, every church, every business. Most places have alarms, too, but the red light is mandatory. Duck and cover if they blink red. Most of the times that works, unless it hits your building directly.”
“What kind of missiles?” asked Julie.
“Just regular missiles. They hit the ground, level the area, leave a crater. Far better to have the missile defense system shoot them down over the sea, although you’ve got to figure at some point the ocean’s going to get crowded. I’ve heard there are projects in the works to start reclaiming some of the metal. Probably to use it again to make more weapons,” said Tim.
“That’s a cheerful thought,” said Julie with an eye roll. “Anyway, we’re almost there. By the way: Her name’s Rose. You are under no circumstances, like… ever… to call her Rosie. She will slap you. It’s happened to me.”
“Good to know,” said Tim. They were nearing Julie’s house now.
“And speaking of names, she calls me July. She misread it off of a birthday party invitation I sent her when we were both, like, six, and it’s stuck. She wanted to know why July’s birthday party was in October. But anyway, don’t get confused: she knows who I am now, she just calls me by the wrong name,” Julie said, intentionally over explaining as if this were all very tricky.
“I think I’ve got it,” said Tim with a smile. “Although I’ll still call you Julie.”
She smiled. “Rose lives in that yellow one there.” And sure enough, when they reached that house and stopped in front of it, a pretty blonde girl walked out the front door to meet them.
She immediately shook Tim’s hand. “The famous Timothy, I presume,” she said. “July’s told me all about you. Tim is short for Timothy, right?”
“Er… Yeah.”
Rose smiled. “You guys want to come in? I’ve got some lemonade and chips, I think.”
“Okay, this is going to sound weird, but… we need to dig something up in my backyard. We can explain while we’re digging,” said Julie apologetically.
“That does sound weird, but in kind of a delightful way,” said Rose. “Maybe I should still bring the lemonade, it’s kind of warm out, so we could use the refreshment.”
Julie nodded, and Rose ran quickly back into the house.
“So we’re just kind of going for it, in terms of telling her?” asked Tim, who had assumed maybe he would meet her first and they could bring up the topic of time travel another day. After all, his testimony wouldn’t bear much weight on the same day they met.
“Might as well,” said Julie. “She’ll be skeptical, but she’ll stick around long enough to find out we’re telling the truth. I’ve been her best friend for, like, a decade.”
If Tim wanted to say anything el
se, he was saved the trouble by Rose coming back out of the house at that moment, carrying a big pitcher of lemonade and some paper cups.
Tim offered to carry the pitcher for her, and they made their way to Julie’s house.
“I cleared this with my parents last night. I said it was for a social studies project on archaeology. They think we’re looking for arrowheads, so they say anywhere within the fenced in back yard is okay. Luckily, that’s where our oak tree is,” explained Julie.
“So this isn’t for school, then?” asked Rose curiously.
“No,” said Julie hesitantly. Tim figured she was judging how much to say right away.
“So what are we looking for then?” she asked. “Oooh! I know! Is it buried treasure?”
“Not that either,” said Julie, as she opened the gate. There were already little trowels on the patio, and they put the lemonade and cups on a picnic table. “Do you want to listen to a story that’s going to sound super crazy?”
“Always!” Rose answered brightly.
“Okay, well, here goes,” said Julie, with a glance at Tim. “Go ahead and jump in if I forget something important.” But she didn’t. And to her credit, Rose listened to the whole story patiently, right up to the point where Julie finished by saying, “And so I figure whatever Hopkins buried should be right about… there.” She pointed to a patch of grass near the oak tree.
Rose thought about all this for a minute. She turned to Tim. “So you were with her when she time travelled in her room?”
“Yeah,” Tim nodded.
“And it actually happened? She’s not nuts?” asked Rose.
“Nope,” said Tim. “That is: It did actually happen, and she’s not nuts.”
“Well… If this is a prank, I don’t believe you yet. I want to see what’s buried first, and then maybe later I’ll touch this… magical medallion… and see what happens,” said Rose.
“Fair enough,” Julie agreed.
“I mean, I’m not gullible. Just hopeful. How cool would it be if this was actually true? Either way, it certainly beats your average Wednesday afternoon. But we’ve wasted enough time gabbing, yeah? We should be saving the world! So, let’s dig this sucker up,” Rose suggested.
Each of them grabbed a trowel and went to the spot where Hopkins’ message was meant to be buried.
“Well, the grass has certainly been here for awhile,” said Rose, as they struggled to dig through the grass’s network of roots. “And I’ve never noticed this area being dug up. I don’t think there’s ever been more than a month when I haven’t been back here, either.”
Julie nodded.
“I don’t know why Hopkins had to bury it though,” said Tim as he began to sweat from the exertion of breaking through grass, roots, and packed dirt.
“I thought about that,” Julie said. “But I figure if he put it in the house or something, somebody else would have found it before me and gotten rid of it.”
“Fair point,” agreed Tim.
It was a short time before Rose hit a piece of metal. The three were just beginning to excitedly dig faster to uncover the rest of it when Mikey came through the gate.
“Thought I heard people back here,” said Mikey. “Mom said they could help you dig even before they got home?”
“Yes, Mikey,” said Julie, with a heavy sigh.
Rose looked up from her digging and said, “I don’t know why she’s so hard on you, Mikey. I wish I had a little brother.”
Mikey considered this for a moment and then said, “Whatever. I’m going to go play some videogames.”
“That’s cool,” said Rose. She smiled at Tim as Mikey went into the house. “That kid thinks I’m ridiculous. I’m always nice to him and he doesn’t know what to do with it. He probably still thinks that girls have cooties.”
Tim nodded. “You’re an only child?” he asked.
“Yeah. Just me and my Mom,” she said.
“Come on…” Julie coaxed. “We can chat later… Let’s dig this thing out. I’m kind of curious what Hopkins has to say. Like you said, Rose, we are talking about potentially saving the world here.”
After finding the first bit of metal, it took another half hour to dig the rest of the tin box out of the ground. But when they finally did, they opened it and found a journal inside.
“Well, July, Timothy, this little adventure has already exceeded my expectations,” Rose registered cheerfully. “I didn’t think there’d be anything buried here at all.”
Julie opened the book to the first page.
The three gathered around it and began to read what it said.
Dear Julie and Friends,
The purpose of this journal is to give you a puzzle and the clues to solve it. When Julie visited me, I was setting right the timeline that had been altered by Lincoln’s survival.
As I suspected, no sooner had I gotten back than the Emperors of Time, my former colleagues on the Tempus project, figured out what I had done and began creating a new historical timeline that would get them back into power.
My problem is that I do not have the time to figure out what events they altered. You are now living in a timeline where Lincoln was assassinated, but other things have been changed.
This must be fixed, but I am rather occupied at the moment by trying to collect all the Domini Temporis. Once I collect all of them, I will be able to reprogram them to set the timeline back into its proper, unaltered state and get my colleagues back to being government scientists instead of the government itself.
This book holds brief remarks on history as it was before the Emperors of Time started meddling. From this, you should be able to determine where the timeline that you now inhabit diverges from the original and, hopefully, what caused the divergence. The book also contains an explanation about the Domini Temporis themselves, so you can understand a bit about the mechanism by which you must help restore time.
I want to meet everyone in person, so I can talk to you one last time before you begin, and a time jump should help convince any doubters among you. You need not find the divergence in timelines first, just re-bury the box with a slip of paper telling me when and where you will travel. I will meet you there.
In the meantime, good luck on your journeys. Hopefully, I can be of some help. Pick a place and time to come and meet me.
Until our timelines cross again,
-Steven Hopkins
Tim had only just finished up reading this letter when the rumble of a car on the Chapmans’ gravel driveway woke him from his concentration.
“Shoot, okay,” said Julie quickly. “I don’t want to talk about this in front of my parents.”
“No need for anyone to think we’re crazy,” agreed Tim.
“Yeah… and even my judgment about your sanity is still undecided,” registered Rose.
“Right… So we talk about this another time. Maybe group text tonight and get together tomorrow afternoon?” asked Julie.
“Good a plan as any,” opined Tim.
“Do you want to cover the hole back up?” Rose asked Julie.
“Tomorrow should be fine for that,” decided Julie.
“And then we can tell Hopkins when and where we’re going,” said Tim.
“Well,” said Rose. “This still beats a normal Wednesday afternoon, but I definitely think you guys might be nuts.”
“That’s okay,” said Julie. “Sometimes, so do I.”
Chapter 5
The Evening News
Tim wasn’t quite sure what it said about him as a person, but he continued to keep up with his homework that Wednesday night, even with the prospect of more time travel on the immediate horizon. Still, the historical puzzle that Hopkin’s letter advertised gave him an extra incentive to focus on his history homework.
It was for that reason that he was engrossed in reading his history textbook when his phone sounded a notification that he had gotten a text.
Julie: Hey, Tim, Rose. Any thoughts on where/ when we should meet Hopkins?
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Tim thought for a second, after which a number he didn’t recognized responded.
I still think you’re probably bananas. But if not, travel to any place/ time is fine by me.
Tim guessed the unrecognized number must be Rose’s, and programmed it into his phone for future reference.
I’ve got an idea, but it’s kind of bold. I think we should do something more impressive this time. Why travel through time at all if you’re only going back 16 years?
His phone buzzed again twice in rapid succession.
Rose: Agreed. Let’s be adventurous! :)
Julie: What do you have in mind?
Tim typed a little bit.
In terms of things close and interesting, the bridge over the Susquehanna River was burned in 1863 by Union Troops to prevent Confederate troops from coming into Lancaster County.
Tim waited for a moment before his phone buzzed again.
Julie: If it burned down, what’s our object from that time?
Tim had, of course, already thought about this.
Wright’s Ferry Mansion. Oldest building in Columbia, Pennsylvania, built in 1738 by James Wright, across the river from Wrightsville. It’s been restored, but if that’s a problem, there’s a cemetery from the 1720s nearby. Columbia’s ten miles up the highway from us.
By this point, Tim was so busy considering the possibility that he might get to see an actual part of the Civil War that this line of thinking had substantially outweighed any pretense of doing his homework. His phone buzzed again.
Julie: Sounds like it could work. I’ll figure out something to tell Billy to get him there with us. How does this Saturday morning sound?
Rose: Hey guys… This is all starting to get a little weird because you’re talking about this like you’re serious.
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