Emperors of Time

by Penn, James Wilson

  Tim sat down at it his computer and had them to a page about the 1916 election with just a few keystrokes.

  “That was fast,” commented Julie with a laugh.

  “Maybe it’s not the first time I’ve looked up the outcomes of old elections, okay?” confessed Tim with mock annoyance.

  “Hmm…” said Rose, as Tim scrolled to a chart of the popular vote totals from the different states. “Wow, look at that… Hughes only won Minnesota by 400 votes. He only lost New Hampshire by… geez… 46 votes…”

  “We’re not looking for states that Hughes just barely lost,” said Julie. “The Emperors must have changed it so he won. Minnesota might be a decent option.”

  “But it’s hard to believe they would have made it so he won by only 400 votes… Seems awfully close… What if there was a corrupt election official somewhere, it could ruin the whole plan, right?” asked Tim.

  “But, how do you get that many people to switch their votes? Pay off the voters? Pay off the official? Or what?” asked Billy.

  Rose turfed Tim out of his own desk chair and scrolled through the results herself while Tim looked on.

  “Well… In other news, California went to Hughes by about two thousand votes, Indiana by seven thousandish , Oregon by…. not quite seven thousand , West Virginia by…. three thousand or so, Delaware by... thirteen hundred give or take, South Dakota by five thousand , and Rhode Island by four thousand,” announced Rose.

  “How are we going to decide which was the Emperors’ doing?” asked Julie.

  “I don’t know, but if they were trying to find an election that was hard to track, they did a good job. This looks like it was a crazy election with or without the Emperors’ help,” said Rose.

  “Well, here’s an idea,” said Tim, kicking Rose back out of his computer chair. “I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t know much about the ins and outs of the 1916 election off the top of my head, but I bet the internet could give us something.” He typed the words, ‘1916 presidential election day’ into the search engine. “Okay, well, naturally the first few are just talking about the election itself, but…” He scrolled a bit. “Ah-ha. Here’s one. What about the 1916 San Francisco Election Day bombing?”

  “Oh, wow… Yeah… maybe…” said Julie.

  Tim clicked on the link and skimmed the page before announcing, “Oh, yeah, this kind of makes sense. One of Wilson’s biggest campaign points was that he kept us out of the Great War. America didn’t want to be involved, but we kept inching closer and closer because American businesses had a huge interest in the war. They needed a win for the Allies.”

  “And what does this have to do with the bombing?” asked Billy.

  “This was the second bombing in the same year in San Francisco. We’re talking suitcase bombs here, by the way, not missiles or anything. The first one was on Preparedness Day, June 22nd, just months before the election. Both were supposed to have been organized by people who were against the war,” said Tim.

  “So, they… set off a bomb in the name of peace?” asked Julie incredulously.

  Tim shrugged.

  “Could the Emperors of Time have coordinated both bombings?” asked Billy.

  “I doubt it,” posited Julie. “That’s changing events twice in one year, right? So unless they stuck around for several months, it would have been hard to be responsible for both.”

  “Right,” agreed Tim. “But look at this. The bombing took place right before polls opened in San Francisco. Although no comprehensible story made it onto the newsstands around the country before the polls closed, it dramatically affected the turnout in San Francisco and other parts of California. The turnout was especially lower among San Francisco women, whose husbands or fathers asked them to stay inside because of the chaos the bombing caused… San Francisco women had been big supporters for Wilson. A lot of people who did vote in San Francisco, according to stories they told reporters later anyway, voted for Hughes. They wanted to show they couldn’t be intimidated to stay out of the war. Suddenly, Wilson keeping us out of war was a liability, not a selling point.”

  “Well… this could be it then, right?” asked Rose, clearly excited at the idea that they had figured out the answer.

  “Well, sure, maybe…” agreed Julie. “But… I mean, how do we proceed? Do they know who set the bomb off at least? Maybe if we can stop them from doing it… Well, that would change things back, right? Do you think the Emperors stuck around to do it? They’d have been hard to find, since they could just jump back into their own time right after they did it.”

  “There’s nothing on this page about who set it off… It might have been safer to convince someone else to do it. The police must have been at least somewhat on the lookout for suitcase bombs at the time, given that there had been an attack so close before. Besides, didn’t you say that Hopkins freed Booth from some corrupt cops? That wouldn’t be the Emperors of Time. Maybe their style is just getting other people to do the dirty work for them,” Tim contemplated.

  The four of them sat in silence for a moment or two before Rose spoke up. “Well, I think we made a lot of progress for today, actually. We’ll have to dig a little deeper on the bomb thing, but we can’t just go back there looking like this anyway. We’re going to need period clothing, and something that can help us get back to San Francisco in 1916, right?”

  “Shoot… yeah. Whoever thought time travel would be so complicated?” Julie asked with a laugh. “But, no, seriously… we need to think about those things, yeah.”

  “Cool,” said Rose. “Well, what if tomorrow we took a little trip to my aunt and uncle’s antique shop, then?”

  The four teens agreed that this was a fair idea, and Billy, who had driven everyone over, offered the girls a ride home.

  “Rose, why don’t you go on ahead?” asked Julie. “Tim, we haven’t taken a walk together since Friday, and I’m starting to miss it. Would you walk me home? I want to talk to you for a bit.”

  Tim was not opposed to spending some time alone with Julie, but the logistics didn’t seem to work out. “And then I just walk right back home? That’s quite a hike.”

  Julie shrugged. “You could stay for dinner, if you wanted. Sunday’s lasagna night, so there’s that. Unless you’ve gotta have dinner with your family. That’s okay, of course.”

  “No, it’s fine,” said Tim. “Sure, let’s go.”

  A few minutes later, Julie and Tim were waving goodbye to Billy and Rose as they drove off in Billy’s car.

  At the first stop sign after Tim’s driveway, Julie turned to him. “So… what do you think about all this? You know… the time travel thing?”

  “Good you clarified, because if you hadn’t mentioned that you were talking about time travel, I might have thought you were talking about paved roads,” said Tim. He paused for a second. “So, what about it?”

  “Do you think we’re in too deep?” asked Julie flatly.

  Tim thought for a second. “Hopkins thinks we can do it,” he said. Then, he paused again and amended, “Well, he thinks you can do it.”

  “Exactly!” said Julie, clearly exasperated. “And don’t you think that’s weird? I mean, sure, I get good grades in math, but that’s probably the only way I’m above average. Plus, I tripped twice on the steps in school Friday. That’s right… twice… So it’s not like I’m particularly coordinated. I’m just saying, if you had to pick a group of four people to help you overthrow a futuristic world government, I’m just not sure why I make the list.”

  Tim raised his hands in a gesture of innocence. “I mean… Hopkins didn’t consult me. But he must have his reasons. He told us some of them already. You’re a direct ancestor of Russell-- and yes, that is crazy weird,” admitted Tim, responding to Julie’s facial expression when he mentioned her distant blood relationship with the conniving scientist. “And he said when you grow up you do some impressive things. Which means that you’re pretty impressive now. I mean, I’ve kind of always thought so, too, you know
? Besides, you were told to recruit people to go back in time with you, and you actually did! Two of us you didn’t even have to lie to. That’s got to count for something, right?”

  Julie smiled slightly. “I guess so… Maybe. Anyway, I guess we’ve got the job and now we just have to try to do it, right?”

  Tim nodded. “Sounds reasonable. But hey, speaking of unanswered questions, I have one that you can actually help with, if that makes you feel any better.”

  “Oh yeah?” asked Julie.

  “You still haven’t told me why you trusted me enough to have me be the first one you told about all this time travel stuff. I mean, sure, we sit together at lunch and when we have a class together we might chat sometimes. But that’s really all in this timeline. I always kind of assumed you just thought I was entertaining because I’m a little funny and socially awkward,” he stopped looking where he was walking to glance at Julie’s face and see her smile at his joke. “I mean, I know I’m good at history, and that came in handy, but Rose is good with that kind of thing, too… She showed that today, and I doubt it was any different in your own timeline. So I don’t understand why you picked me. I don’t mean I’m not flattered, it’s just weird.”

  Julie rolled her eyes and said, “Oh come on... I just found out that you know the names of all the presidents by heart. How’s that for weird?”

  Tim rolled his eyes, but otherwise pretended not to notice that she had evaded his question. He supposed she’d tell him when she was ready.

  “Mmhmm, yep, that’s weird,” admitted Tim. “But not half as weird as the fact that you just invited me over to your house for lasagna so I’d walk you home.”

  They spent a few more minutes of walking time exchanging barbs about who was weirder and why. They covered every topic from how weird Julie’s fascination with math was to the rather unique way that Tim walked. For a little while, at least, it distracted Tim from the tough question of how they would fix the timeline. Besides, Julie was fun to talk to, as always, and Tim was almost entirely sure she was being flirtatious.

  Then, only about a block away from Julie’s house, she said, “You want weird? How about this?” Then, she stopped walking, grabbed Tim, leaned in, and kissed him.

  Chapter 11

  The Antique Shop

  The problem with the kiss was Tim’s reaction to it. Or rather, there was no problem with the kiss at all. Tim enjoyed it quite thoroughly, but his reaction to it left a lot to be desired. He mostly didn’t react at all. Except for kissing her back, of course.

  It was just, the way she had talked about the kiss right before doing it, saying that it was going to be something weird. Well, what if it had all been a joke? After the kiss, he looked away awkwardly and immediately, because he was afraid that she would laugh at him or something.

  After a moment of awkward silence, Julie had just led him the rest of the way to her house, where they had some exceptionally delicious lasagna courtesy of Julie’s stepmother. After dinner, Julie drove Tim home. The evening was a pleasant one, with Julie and Tim laughing and talking like normal, except neither one of them brought up the kiss again.

  Now, one day later, Tim had basically no idea what to do. He had never kissed a girl before, nor had he really dated anyone. Tim was never particularly socially gifted, and he was kicking himself for that now.

  These were the things on Tim’s mind as he got ready to meet his friends at Rose’s aunt’s and uncle’s antique shop on Monday evening. The four teens had texted each other that day and arranged to meet at six. That was after most of the shop’s business was done for the day anyway, so Rose’s aunt and uncle would be able to spend more time helping them out.

  At around five-fifteen, Tim’s Dad got home. His mother would be working late, and he didn’t have a car of his own, so he ambushed his Dad straight out of the garage.

  “Can I get a ride over to the antique shop on 4th street? I’d walk, but it’s on the other side of town,” said Tim.

  Tim’s Dad cocked his head. “You’re into antiques, now?” he said with a mild tone of disapproval in his voice.

  Tim rolled his eyes. “No, I’m meeting friends there,” he clarified.

  Tim’s Dad thought about this for a moment. “Friends your age?” he asked suspiciously. “I never heard of teenagers hanging around antique shops.”

  “They’re the same friends I had over yesterday,” said Tim.

  “I’m starting to think you need cooler friends,” said Tim’s Dad, who was probably only partially joking.

  Tim groaned. “Oh, come on… One of them’s on the basketball team. Billy Connell.”

  “Oh,” said Tim’s Dad. “Yeah, okay… I thought I recognized him. And the girls aren’t bad looking, I guess. Fine… You could be doing worse. I’ll take you over there, but I have a hair appointment tonight, so can you bum a ride from one of them to get back here?” he asked.

  “Sure, thanks!” said Tim.

  Because his Dad’s appointment was at 6:00 as well, he ended up arriving at the antique shop at ten to six, when no one was there except for Rose and her aunt and uncle.

  Tim entered the shop and stood awkwardly beside the door.

  “You might as well come in and browse awhile,” said Rose, with a smile.

  Tim walked over and saw that Rose was browsing through a stack of old books. He picked up one by an author whose name he recognized and examined the dust jacket.

  “How’re you doing?” asked Tim.

  “All right,” said Rose. “I heard what happened with you and Julie, by the way.”

  Tim blushed immediately. “What?”

  “You know… when she kissed you and you ignored it. Or did you actually not realize it had happened?” asked Rose, narrowing her eyes.

  “No, of course I realized… I just…” Tim could think of no good way to finish that sentence, so he ended it there.

  Rose frowned. “So. You like her?”

  After a bit of hesitation, trying to decide if he should be honest, he said, “Well… yeah.”

  “I figured,” said Rose. “Well, if you want to pursue it, I’d move soon if I were you. She’s peeved that you blew her off, but you might still have a window.”

  Tim didn’t have a chance to respond before the bell tinkled and the door of the shop opened.

  Billy walked in, and said, “Hey guys, how ya doin’?”

  “Good,” said Rose. Tim silently prayed that she wouldn’t say anything about the conversation they’d just been having.

  “Cool. You guys find anything interesting yet?” asked Billy.

  “I was just looking to see if they had a copy of The Secret Garden. It’s one of my favorite books, but the cat peed on it the other day, so I threw it out,” complained Rose.

  “Good choice,” said Tim. “I mean, the choice to throw out your copy, not the cat’s choice to pee on it.”

  Rose rolled her eyes and said, “Thanks for clarifying.” At that same moment, Julie walked into the store.

  “Hey guys,” said Julie, walking over to them.

  Rose took Julie’s arrival as her cue to start the next phase of the plan, talking to her aunt and uncle.

  “Auntie Jane, Uncle Patrick,” she said in an unnecessarily loud voice considering that the six of them were the only six people in the shop. “I’d like you to meet my friends Billy and Tim. Of course, you’ve met July before.”

  Tim looked at Julie curiously, but saw from the look on her face that she had also met them in her timeline.

  “Nice to meet you both,” said Patrick, shaking their hands, as Jane smiled at them.

  “So, my friends are doing a project at school about San Francisco in 1916,” said Rose.

  Patrick grinned. “I think we get half of our yearly business from overambitious schoolchildren doing class projects.”

  “Not that we’re complaining, of course,” clarified Jane.

  “Can you help? Maybe some period clothing and something authentic to San Francisco at that time?”
asked Rose.

  “Well… That is kind of a specific request. We can do the period clothing, though. And we’ll see if we can find something from 1916 San Francisco,” said Jane.

  Tim’s heart sank. Period clothing was important, of course, but they really needed something that had been in San Francisco in 1916. Otherwise there was no way for them to get back there. The fact that Rose had a connection with people who owned an antique store had seemed like great luck. But if they couldn’t help them, they were back to maybe looking for items online. But who could tell if online vendors were telling the truth about where an item had come from? Maybe the next option would be flying out to San Francisco themselves and finding a building like Wright’s Ferry Mansion. But how were they going to afford four plane tickets across the country?

  Patrick was quiet for a moment, and said, “I might have an idea for the authentic San Francisco object. Let me find it and we can see if you like it. Jane, why don’t you show them the clothes, and I’ll see if I can’t fish it out for you.”

  “That’d be great!” said Rose.

  “Follow me, then,” said Jane. They walked over to a rack of clothes. “Is this for a skit? Just the three of you, then?”

  Julie spoke up. “Oh, no, ma’am, there’s four of us. We have another girl… About Rose’s size, actually.”

  “Hmm…” said Jane. “Let me see what I can find for you. I can let you borrow these for free, I think. They won’t sell anytime soon anyway, most likely.”

  “That’d be really great, thanks!” said Julie, enthusiastically. Billy and Tim nodded agreement.

  “Of course, it’d be easier to get you something from the 1920s. The flappers, you know. All the rage at the time, of course, and enough people today know about them to have a bit of demand for them,” Jane explained.

  “Hmmm… Yeah, but the project’s about the 1910s…” said Rose.