Time Castaways #2

by Liesl Shurtliff

  Chuck started laughing. “It’s 2019, ya goof! I really had you there for a minute, didn’t I?”

  Matt heaved a sigh of relief. “Yeah, you did.”

  “Hey, I still got that putter. You want it?”

  “Uh . . . ,” said Matt.

  “Mateo! Mateo!” Matt jumped and turned around. Someone was shouting his name. It was his mother. She sounded hysterical.

  “Sounds like you’re in trouble, kiddo,” said Chuck. “Better run.”

  “Yeah, see you later.”

  Matt raced across the vineyard. His mother’s voice got louder as he neared the house. “Mateo! You come out of hiding right this instant!”

  “Calm down, Belamie, it’s only a game,” said Gaga.

  “What kind of game of hide-and-seek is this?! We’ve been searching for an hour!”

  An hour! He’d miscalculated the time he’d left. He’d have some explaining to do.

  “It’s a big house,” said Corey. “Lots of places to hide. That’s what makes it fun.”

  “Did you search the basement?” Mr. Hudson asked. “He’s often in the basement, and there are lots of places to hide down there.”

  “He’s not there,” said Ruby. “I made a thorough search.”

  “That’s it. I’m calling the police,” said Mrs. Hudson.

  “Belamie,” said his dad.

  “Matthew, something is not right.”

  “I’m here!” Matt shouted as he ran. “I’m right here!” He stuffed his compass back inside his pocket.

  “I hear him!” said Ruby. “He’s outside.”

  “Outside!” said Gaga. “Isn’t that cheating?”

  A thunder of footsteps sounded in the house and the whole family burst out of the front door as Matt ran up the porch steps.

  “I’m here,” he said. “It’s okay. I’m here.”

  Everyone froze as they saw Matt. His mother had her cell phone out, ready to dial 911.

  “There you are!” said Ruby, giving Matt a hard look. “We told you to come out! Didn’t you hear us?”

  Mrs. Hudson looked Matt up and down. “Why are you all wet?”

  “I . . . uh . . . fell in the pond. It was dark, and I wasn’t looking where I was going. Sorry.” Matt tried to smile, but his teeth chattered. He started to shiver, even though it was warm and humid outside.

  Mrs. Hudson put down her phone and slumped into the rattan chair on the porch. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and spoke in a slow, tired voice. “Go get changed into dry clothes, Mateo. Then we’ll have cake.”

  “Okay, sure. Sorry.” Matt hurried inside the house, keeping his eyes to the floor. Gaga sniffed as he passed. “Amazing,” she said. “As soon as they become teenagers they start to smell like something that’s crawled between the walls and died.”

  “I never smelled that way,” said Mr. Hudson.

  “Oh please, you still smell that way,” said Gaga.

  Matt went to his room, his shoes squelching with every footstep. He peeled off his wet clothes, then put on dry ones. It was difficult because he was shaking so much, whether from cold or the shock and excitement of all that had just happened, he couldn’t tell. He suddenly remembered his compass and pulled it out of his wet clothes. It wasn’t hot anymore. It looked like just a lump of metal with dirt and peanut butter stuck in the grooves.

  But it worked. It worked! He’d time-traveled! He’d gone to the Vermillion!

  Matt trembled as his mind raced with all the possibilities. He was no longer trapped. He could go back and get the compass from Captain Vincent. He could rescue Jia. He could fix everything now.

  There was a soft tap on the door. “Mateo? Are you all right?” It was his mom.

  “Fine!” Matt said, stuffing his compass back in his pocket. “Be right there.”

  His mission would have to wait until after cake. He couldn’t leave right now anyway. He would have to talk to Corey and Ruby. He was certain they knew something to do with time travel had happened. They’d covered for him by saying he was hiding, but they would expect answers.

  The second round of “Happy Birthday” was not as jovial as the first. They did not turn out the lights, and Matt’s parents didn’t let him out of their sight for a second. His dad kept a hand on Matt’s shoulder almost the entire night, and his mom kept looking at him with a furrowed brow, as though she were trying to put together the pieces of a puzzle. Matt tried to act natural, but he was jittery with nerves and excitement. He kept reaching for his compass to make sure it was there. He was sure his parents suspected something had happened, especially his mom. Of course she did. She’d seen him in her past, after all. And Annie had told her he was her son. She knew he would be her son before he’d ever been born, and she knew he would time-travel to her past. Why did she never tell him any of this?

  After they’d finished cake, and Matt had opened a few presents (a new baseball bat, a book about famous inventors in history), Ruby brushed up against Matt and whispered, “What happened?”

  “Later,” he said.

  Corey brushed up on his other side. “Did your compass . . .”

  “Not now,” Matt said between gritted teeth. “Wait until we’re alone.”

  But alone was a long way off. Mr. Hudson brought out a stack of games and said they were going to play every single one. They’d play all night if that’s what it took! And he wasn’t joking, apparently. Gaga dropped off at about ten o’clock, after a long game of Trivial Pursuit.

  “Yeah, we should probably get to bed too,” said Matt, eyeing Corey and Ruby.

  “Oh yeah,” said Corey, giving an exaggerated fake yawn. “I’m pretty tired.”

  “Oh no you don’t,” said Mr. Hudson. “We said we’d get through all the games! This is a family mission, and we shall fulfill it! Or are you guys a bunch of quitters?”

  Matt exchanged looks with Corey. He was starting to think there was more to this than just getting through a bunch of games.

  They played until well after midnight. It was only when Corey started to fall asleep while rolling dice for Yahtzee that Mrs. Hudson said enough was enough.

  Finally, Matt thought, but it wasn’t as though that gave them an opportunity to talk. Both Mr. and Mrs. Hudson supervised the kids to bed, watched them brush their teeth, and tucked them in like they were toddlers. Mrs. Hudson sat on Matt’s bed and brushed her fingers through his hair.

  “Happy birthday, chéri.”

  “Thanks,” he said.

  “Are you sure you’re feeling all right?”

  “Yep. Feeling great.”

  “Is there anything you want to talk about? Anything you want to tell me?”

  Matt tried not to squirm beneath her gaze that seemed to be reading all his thoughts. There was part of him that wanted to open up, tell her what had just happened, show her the compass, ask his mom what he should do. But there was another part of him that felt she didn’t deserve his honesty. She hadn’t been honest with him. She’d never told him that she’d met him in her past, that she knew he would time-travel. Why would she keep these things from him? Whatever her reasons, it altered things for him. He wasn’t sure how, but he felt just a little different toward his mom.

  “No, I’m good,” said Matt. “Just tired.”

  Mrs. Hudson looked at him with a searching gaze. Matt yawned and tried to make his eyes look heavy. “Good night, Mom. Love you.”

  This seemed to appease her more than anything else. “I love you, too, chéri.” She kissed his forehead, and she and his dad left the room, leaving the door open and the hall light on.

  Matt listened to his parents retreat down the hallway. He counted to one hundred and then he flipped off his blankets and slipped out of bed. Ruby and Corey both sat up in their own beds at the same time.

  Matt put his fingers to his lips. He clicked on his bedside lamp, then went to the door and silently shut it. He pointed to the vent. Very quietly all three children tiptoed over and crouched down to listen. It took a few min
utes for their parents to start talking, but just as Matt was thinking they weren’t going to talk in their room, he heard their voices.

  “. . . something happened,” he heard his mother say.

  “I checked the map,” said his dad. “Vince was never here. He’s still in Chicago, 1893.”

  “There’s something going on, Matthew. I know Mateo’s not telling me the truth. I could see it in his eyes.”

  “Belamie, he’s home. He’s safe. Everything’s okay.”

  “He was missing for nearly an hour!” said Mrs. Hudson. “Do you really think he stayed hidden in a game of hide-and-seek for an hour?”

  “Well, our kids can be pretty competitive,” said Mr. Hudson with a bit of a chuckle.

  “Don’t joke, please, Matthew. I’m not in the mood.”

  “I’m sorry. But look, it’s past his birthday. The kids are in bed asleep. Vincent isn’t anywhere near us. We don’t need to worry anymore.”

  “Then why do I have this feeling?” said his mom, her voice starting to quaver.

  “It’s just adrenaline release,” said Mr. Hudson. “You’ve been so worried these past weeks, for years, actually. So have I, but it’s over. You said Vincent couldn’t travel past Matt’s birthday, and here we are past Matt’s birthday, so what are you worried will happen?”

  “I don’t know! That’s just it. I have no idea what will happen, but I know it isn’t over, and I don’t know what to do! I don’t know where to look or run or hide, and I don’t know how to protect the kids. If something happens to them, I don’t think I can bear it. And you . . . if something happens to you . . .” She broke down into sobs. The kids all looked at each other. Matt couldn’t recall ever seeing or hearing his mother cry in his whole life. She always seemed so strong, confident, unbreakable, but lately she was always on the verge of tears, ever since they’d come back from the Vermillion.

  Their parents didn’t talk anymore, at least not about anything of importance. Matt could hear his dad murmuring soft words of comfort, his mom shuddering through her sobs. Ruby closed the vent. Corey took some books off the shelf, plus an extra blanket, and covered it up to block sound going in or out. Matt padded over to his bed, and Corey and Ruby followed him over. All three huddled together on top of the blankets.

  “So?” whispered Ruby. “What happened? You scared us half to death you know.”

  “We were afraid Captain Vincent had kidnapped you,” said Corey. “Mom was going berserk.”

  “Yeah,” said Matt. “Thanks for covering for me, though it sounds like she didn’t totally buy it.”

  “Of course she didn’t,” said Corey, “but what can she do about it, force you to tell her the truth?”

  “So what is the truth?” Ruby asked. “Does it have something to do with your compass?”

  Matt reached in the pocket of his pajamas and pulled out his compass, grimy and sticky with dirt and peanut butter.

  “It worked,” said Matt. “I mean, it works. I traveled.” Saying it out loud sent a tingly shiver down his whole body.

  Corey and Ruby stared at the compass for a few seconds, both with their mouths agape, and then Corey nearly shouted, “No freaking way!”

  “Shh! Quiet, Corey! We don’t want Mom and Dad to come check on us again.”

  Corey lowered his voice to barely a whisper. “Sorry. No freaking way. That’s amazing.”

  “How did you figure it out?” Ruby asked.

  “I didn’t,” said Matt. “Not directly anyway. It was my birthday cake, and also seeing myself in the vineyard. That made no sense until today.”

  “Hold up,” said Corey. “You saw yourself? And you didn’t tell us?”

  Matt hardly knew where to begin or how to put this experience into words. It was like trying to translate a bizarre, discordant dream in a language he barely knew. He started with the tale of how a month ago he saw himself in the vineyard and how that was what inspired him to build the compass in the first place. He knew his future self must have found a way to time-travel. Instead of waiting around for it to happen, he decided to make it happen.

  “Why didn’t you tell us any of this?” Ruby asked.

  “I’m sorry,” said Matt. “But I wasn’t sure about any of it, and I thought you would have thought I was crazy.”

  “Bro,” said Corey. “Aren’t we past crazy now? After what we’ve all been through, nothing could ever sound crazy to us.”

  Ruby sniffed the air a little. “Why do I smell . . . ?” She bent down and sniffed the compass. A huge grin split across her face. “It smells like peanut butter, just like the Vermillion!”

  “Yeah,” said Matt. “Would you be surprised if I told you that peanut butter is the magic ingredient that makes the compass work?”

  “You’re joking!” Corey pounded the bed and tipped back his head in silent laughter. “I take it back. That is crazy. And awesome.”

  “So your compass didn’t work,” said Ruby, “and then you put peanut butter on it and it worked.”

  Matt nodded. “Remember the frosting from my birthday cake? It was peanut butter frosting. When Corey knocked me over—”

  “Yeah, sorry about that,” Corey interrupted.

  “—I fell in the cake, and then I got some of the frosting in the compass, and that’s when I disappeared.”

  “Well, it sort of makes sense, doesn’t it?” said Ruby. “I mean, Jia always used peanut butter to fix the Vermillion, didn’t she?”

  “I always knew peanut butter was magical,” said Corey.

  “Okay,” said Ruby. Matt could almost see the wheels turning in her brain, the connectors trying to put it all together. He knew the feeling well. “Okay, so you built a time-traveling compass, and you time-traveled. Where did you go? What happened?”

  “And how long were you gone?” Corey asked. “Did you see Captain Vincent or Jia or anyone? Brocco or Wiley?”

  Ruby hit Corey. “Don’t ask so many questions at a time. He can’t answer them all at once.”

  Matt shook his head. “I’ll just start from the beginning. Or at least from when I disappeared, okay?”

  “Okay,” Corey and Ruby said together, and they were quiet, mostly, as he told them all that had happened.

  He told them how he landed in Chicago and how he came on board the Vermillion well before they’d boarded it the first time, before Jia’s time, even. He told them about Annie, how she almost shot him, and then how he saw their mom as Captain Bonnaire, and how she was with Vincent.

  “Did you see them kiss?” said Corey, his face twisting in disgust.

  Matt shook his head vigorously. “No, but almost, and it was weird.” He still had the picture of his mom and Vincent in his head, standing so close. He wanted to erase it. Shake it off.

  “I heard them talking about some stuff, though,” said Matt. “Stuff that sounded important. They were talking about something called the Aeternum. I’m not sure what it is, exactly, but it sounded important. It sounded like they’d been searching for it for a long time, and they were going to look for it in Chicago. I think it might be the thing that Captain Vincent is looking for.”

  “Is that the ‘powerful thing’ Mom mentioned?” Corey made little quotation marks with his fingers.

  “Maybe,” said Matt.

  “So what is it?” Ruby asked. “Did they describe it at all?”

  Matt shook his head. “Not really. Vincent kept talking about being the best, and Mom said something about living forever, or being together forever, but I don’t really know if that was just an expression or what. You know, like she was trying to be . . . romantic.”

  Corey made a gagging sound. “Gross. Yuck. I don’t wanna know. But this Atter-noon thing . . .”

  “Aeternum,” said Matt. “A-tear-noom.”

  “Right. Whatever. It makes you like the Hulk or something? Or Captain America?”

  “This isn’t like one of your stupid comics, Corey,” said Ruby.

  Corey held up a hand to Ruby’s face. “First
of all, my comics are not stupid. Second of all, this is exactly like a comic, duh. We traveled through space and time on a transforming ship full of pirates. Our mom used to be one of those pirates and can somehow sword fight like freaking Zorro. Matt’s compass is like an amulet with magical peanut butter powers. So tell me, sis, why wouldn’t there be some magical thingy that makes you live forever?” Corey said this all with great pomp and authority. Ruby rolled her eyes and turned back to Matt.

  “So is that it?” said Ruby. “Did anything else happen?”

  “Well . . . ,” said Matt. “It’s possible that maybe some of the crew, including Mom, may have seen me?”

  Ruby gasped. “They saw you? Mom saw you?”

  Matt nodded. “She almost killed me. Good thing she used a gun instead of her sword, or she might have.”

  Ruby put her hands over her eyes as though she were imagining the whole dramatic episode.

  “That’s awesome,” said Corey. “Do you think Mom knows now who she saw then? I mean, do you think she looks at you now and thinks, Holy bleep, I almost killed my own son?”

  “I don’t know,” said Matt. “I got away before they could question me too much. It was a long time ago for Mom, I think, probably twenty years ago, and I don’t think Captain Vincent—or I guess just Vincent. He wasn’t captain then. I don’t think he saw me at all, at least not my face too much. He was holding me.”

  “How did you get away?” Ruby asked, her hands now resting on her cheeks.

  “That’s the weird thing,” said Matt. “I mean, it’s all weird, but when Mom came toward me, my compass suddenly grew hot. It happened to hers, too, I’m guessing. I think they were reacting to each other. Anyway, Vincent got all concerned for Mom and let me go. That’s when I jumped ship and traveled back here. And that’s it.”

  Silence fell between them. Corey and Ruby just stared at the compass for a while, like they were still trying to process everything.

  “So now what?” said Corey. “I mean, we have a compass. We can time-travel, or Matt can at least. So what do we do?”

  Matt had been thinking about this all evening, ever since he’d gotten home. He’d gone from feeling completely trapped to suddenly having too many possibilities. What to do, when, and how?