“He’s your son.”
Belamie gasped and reached out. Tui caught her.
“Captain,” said Tui. “What is it? Are you ill?”
“No, no, I’m fine. I just . . . I will miss Annie.”
“Poor Bonbon,” said Vince, putting an arm around her. “You have such a large heart. Let’s get you out of this godforsaken place. Shall we head back to Chicago?” He gently tugged at the chain around her neck. Belamie jerked away and placed her hand over the compass. Vince held his hands in the air, his brow knit in confusion. A hush fell among the crew. They were all looking at her like she was a wild animal.
“Excuse me,” she said, stepping away from Vincent, her crew. “I just need a moment to . . . relieve myself. Go get ready for travel. I’ll be there in a moment.”
She walked until she found a thick copse of shrubs that would adequately cover her. She glanced over her shoulder to make sure all the crew had gone back inside the Vermillion. They had.
Quickly, Belamie pulled out her compass. She’d come to a decision. She needed answers, and she couldn’t wait for the answers to come to her. She had to know. She began to turn the dials. When she’d made the final click of the outer dial, she was sucked into a void of space and time, and the next thing she knew she was rolling on hard cement spotted with old gum and littered with garbage. Feet tripped over her.
A man cursed at her after he’d kicked her in the gut. A woman threatened to sue her for almost running over her baby. A few people stopped and asked if she was all right and helped her up. Yes, she was in New York, the city that contained the best and worst of humanity.
She brushed herself off, apologized profusely to her victims, thanked those who had helped, and turned down a street.
And there he was. The man from the theater and the convenience store. His hair was a little windblown, his face flushed, as though he’d been running. His glasses were slightly crooked on his nose, and he was wearing the Mets shirt. The same one she was wearing.
He caught sight of her and smiled. Belamie’s heart skipped a beat or two. Her knees were a little wobbly as she walked toward him.
“Nice shirt,” he said.
“I heard it was the latest fashion and jumped on board.”
The man’s eyes danced with amusement. “Join me for a cup of coffee?”
Belamie accepted his offer.
9
Driver’s Ed
June 2, 2019
Hudson River Valley, New York
Stealing their father’s map turned out to be much simpler than Matt had anticipated. At breakfast the next morning Ruby asked Mr. Hudson to tell her more about what he studied in college, because she was interested in possibly studying the same thing. Mr. Hudson was thrilled. He went on and on about how ancient trade routes shaped the modern world. He got so animated while talking about the Silk Road and its effects on Asia that he knocked over his mug of coffee. The coffee spilled all down Mrs. Hudson’s very white blouse, while the mug fell to the tile floor with a crash.
Beautiful, Matt thought. He couldn’t have planned it better himself.
Mr. Hudson looked down at the mess with his arms still out in a dramatic gesture. “I got a little carried away, didn’t I?”
“Just a little,” said Mrs. Hudson, blotting her blouse with her napkin.
“Kids, why don’t you go outside until we get this all cleaned up?” said Gaga. “I don’t want you getting cut from any of the broken pieces.”
All three children stood up from the table and moved to go outside. Corey walked behind Mr. Hudson just as he took a couple of steps back. He knocked into Corey.
“Sorry, bud,” said Mr. Hudson.
“No prob, Dad,” said Corey, slipping his hands behind his back. Ruby then came up close behind Corey.
“Oh, Ruby, don’t go too far!” called Mr. Hudson. “We still need to discuss Middle Eastern trade. That’s where things get really exciting!”
Ruby gave him a thumbs-up. “Looking forward to it.”
Mr. Hudson gave his daughter a big grin and a double thumbs-up.
Once they were outside, all three kids ran through the vineyard to the other end and into the empty field where Chuck’s old VW bus sat like a giant’s forgotten toy gone rusty in the rain. The side door of the bus was slightly ajar, and inside Matt could see a little table and benches. He looked all around for Chuck but didn’t see him anywhere.
“Let’s go in here,” said Matt, opening up the door. “I don’t think Chuck will mind.”
They all scrambled inside and sat at the table. The seats were white vinyl with orange lining, a little dingy and worn. A few places were patched with duct tape. Little curtains with blue flowers hung in the windows.
“This is pretty cool,” said Corey, opening up the little cupboards across from the table. “Hey, there are snacks in here!” He pulled out some granola bars and cheese crackers.
“Corey, we just had breakfast,” said Ruby. “And we’ve got more important things to think about besides food.”
Corey grumbled as he put back the snacks and shut the cupboards.
“You got it, didn’t you?” said Matt.
Ruby pulled out a thick, folded-up piece of parchment from her back pocket and set it on the table.
“Good thing Dad is such a nerd,” said Corey. “That was crazy easy.”
“He’s just passionate about his work,” said Ruby.
“That’s just a nice way of saying he’s a nerd.”
“What’s wrong with nerds?” said Matt.
“Nothing, I love nerds,” said Corey. “I’m related to quite a few.”
Matt looked back toward the house. They were too far away to see through the kitchen windows, but it was only a matter of time before they came looking for them. It was only a matter of time before their dad noticed the map was missing. Matt was guessing he looked at it at least once an hour. He pulled the flowered curtains shut and sat down next to Corey at the table, with Ruby on the other side.
Ruby unfolded the map slowly. Matt had never paid too much attention to this map. It had hung on their dining room wall for as long as he could remember, a permanent fixture that you barely noticed, like the living room rug, or the kitchen faucet. Matt had often seen his dad stare at the map, and even trace his finger over some of the markings, but he’d never thought anything of it. Why should he? His dad was an expert cartographer. He had dozens of maps and thought each one was something special. How could Matt have guessed that the one hanging above the table where he ate dinner every night was actually a magical map that showed the location of a time-traveling ship that his own mother used to captain? To Matt it had just been something he used to help learn geography—his countries, states, and capitals. But now, looking at it, that seemed completely ridiculous. This map was clearly something more than just a piece of paper with lines and markings. It almost hummed with a current of energy. The lines of the map shimmered and faded in and out, as though they could disappear or shift position. There were markings all over the map, little compass stars of varying shades dotting both land and water.
“Do you think Quine made this map?” Ruby asked.
“That’s a logical assumption,” said Matt, “seeing as it shows the location of the Vermillion.”
“The compass, you mean,” said Corey. “It would follow the compass, wouldn’t it?”
“Yes, I guess that’s true,” said Matt. “One usually follows the other.”
“I wonder how Dad got this,” Ruby said. “He never did tell us.”
“Maybe Quine gave it to him,” said Matt. “He gave the compass to Mom, remember?”
“I wonder why, though,” said Ruby, “like what’s in it for him?”
“I don’t know,” said Matt. He had plenty of questions about the mysterious Marius Quine, but he couldn’t focus on him right now. He was concentrating on the map, studying all the little compass symbols. There were several in varying shades and brightness, all piled up on top of one
another, but Matt couldn’t see how his dad gleaned so much information from them. How did he know the date the Vermillion landed, and in relation to their own timeline? It seemed impossible to figure out.
Ruby put her finger over one of the compass symbols in New York, then gasped as markings appeared above it. She snatched back her finger, and the markings went away. She put her finger back over the little compass star and the markings appeared again. It gave a coordinate and a date.
Forty degrees north, seventy-three degrees west; April 26, 2019 . . .
“That’s when we came home from the Vermillion,” Ruby said. The marking was still quite dark and defined. She traced her finger over some of the other markings, and more coordinates and dates appeared, some that Matt didn’t quite understand, like they were on a different calendar system.
“It looks like the brightness of the marking correlates to how recently the Vermillion traveled according to our timeline,” said Matt, tracing his own finger over some of the markings. He found the time they went to Paris, August 21, 1911, when they’d stolen the Mona Lisa from the Louvre. Shortly after they’d returned home from the Vermillion, Matt had looked up the Mona Lisa to see if it was still missing. They had never returned it when he was on the Vermillion, but according to all the articles he found, the painting had been recovered in 1913, just as Jia had said. Vincenzo Peruggia was caught with the painting and admitted to stealing it and everything, with no accomplices. No story of anyone else stealing it. Somehow it had been returned to Peruggia before he was caught with it.
Matt moved his finger to other markings. Sometimes the land lines shifted, moving inward from the sea, or expanding outward, and sometimes country lines shifted or disappeared.
“Why is it doing that?” Corey asked. “Why are some of the lines changing?”
“Land changes over time, I’m guessing,” said Ruby, brushing her fingers over the maps so the lines rippled like an animation reel. “There are some ancient cities that sank below water in earthquakes, and then of course wars and politics change land lines.”
“Plus, continental drift,” said Matt.
Matt found another marking that stood out to him. It was on an island just off the coast of northern Siberia. The marking was quite bright, just as bright as the marking in New York, possibly brighter, as though the Vermillion had traveled there quite recently. Matt’s heart skipped a beat. He remembered the conversation they’d overheard through the vent, how his parents had said the Vermillion was in Siberia, possibly discarding old crew . . .
“Look at this one,” he said, pointing. When he tapped his finger over the marking, a coordinate popped up, followed by more numerals and symbols that Matt wasn’t sure he understood at first, but Ruby did.
“Thirty twenty-one BC!” shrieked Ruby.
“Whoa,” said Corey. “That’s, like, five thousand years ago.”
“We can’t travel that far!” said Ruby.
“But what if Jia is there?” said Matt. “This is exactly the kind of time and place Captain Vincent would discard someone who betrayed him, and look at the marking. It looks like he traveled there right after New York.”
“But, Matt, your time sickness,” said Ruby. “I doubt it’s safe for any of us to travel that far back in time, but especially not you.”
“She’s right, bro,” said Corey. “Remember how sick you got the first few times we traveled?”
“And that was only a century,” said Ruby. “This is five thousand years!”
“I’ll be fine,” said Matt, even though his stomach did make a sudden lurch at the thought. “This isn’t my first time traveling. I did get used to it eventually, and we can travel back gradually, so it’s not such a shock. We have time for that, and I’ll pack plenty of food.”
“Yes, food,” said Corey. “We’d better make a grocery run. Get plenty of Cheetos and Oreos and other medicine.”
“How are we going to do that?” said Ruby. “Grandma always has groceries delivered. It’s not like we can walk to the store. We’re just going to have to take whatever we can get from the pantry.”
Somewhere in the distance a door snapped shut. Matt crawled to the window and peered through the curtains. Both their parents were out on the porch. Matt couldn’t hear what they were saying, but they looked upset. Their mom was looking all around, shielding her eyes from the sun.
Ruby and Corey came up beside him. “I think they figured out the map is missing,” said Ruby.
“And they’re looking for us,” said Corey.
“We’d better show ourselves,” said Ruby. “We don’t want them to suspect we took it.” Ruby moved to the table and started to fold up the map.
“Wait!” said Matt. “We need to write down those coordinates and the date, just in case.” He pulled his notebook out of the back pocket of his pants. He’d started to carry it with him everywhere, but he suddenly realized he didn’t have a pen.
“Either of you have something to write with?” Matt asked.
“Yeah, sure,” said Corey, feeling in his pockets. “Oh wait . . . I forgot. I’m not a super nerd.”
Matt shook his head. He could hear his parents calling for them now. “I’ll just put the coordinates in my compass.” He pulled out his compass and started to put in the coordinates for the island.
“Matt, be careful,” said Ruby.
“I won’t turn the other dials, I’m just entering the location. I won’t go anywhere unless I turn all the dials.” He peered through the curtains and saw his parents walking in their direction.
“We should go,” said Ruby. “We shouldn’t be caught hiding inside Chuck’s bus. They’ll think we . . .”
The bus’s engine suddenly roared to life.
“What the . . . !” shouted Corey.
They all looked to the driver’s seat, but there was no one there, and no keys in the ignition. Matt looked down at his compass.
“Oh . . . my . . . ,” said Ruby.
“Matthew! The kids!” Mrs. Hudson shouted.
Matt looked out the window to see his parents sprinting toward them.
“Kids! Get out of the bus!” shouted Mr. Hudson, running to keep up with Mrs. Hudson.
“Busted,” said Corey.
“Never mind them!” said Ruby. “Matt, the compass! Turn the other dials!”
“But . . . ,” said Matt, now suddenly unsure. “We’re not ready!”
“We’ll never get a chance if we wait!” said Ruby. “It’s now or never. Turn the other dials!”
Matt was so flustered he fumbled the compass and dropped it between the seats. “Argh!” he shouted, and glanced out the window.
Their parents were halfway across the vineyard now. His mom was running as though her life depended on it.
“Don’t worry. I’ll buy us some time,” said Corey. He jumped into the driver’s seat.
“Corey, this car is a stick shift!” said Ruby. “And you don’t have a driver’s license!”
“Don’t worry! I learned how to drive stick at the arcade. It’s not that hard.” He jammed the stick forward and pressed his feet on the pedals. The bus roared, screeched, and lurched forward. Matt was slammed back into one of the seats and then thrown forward all the way to the front of the vehicle, so he crashed into the radio, which turned on and started shuffling through stations.
The compass was sliding around on the floor. There was the unmistakable crunch of Corey driving over one of the grapevines.
“Corey! Watch where you’re going!” shouted Ruby. She was holding on to the front passenger seat and hit her head on the ceiling as they bumped along.
“I’m sorry,” said Corey, “but this beast does not have power steering!”
“Stop! You all get out right now! Right this instant!” Mrs. Hudson shouted. Matt could see them in the rearview mirror, chasing after the bus.
Matt suddenly felt unsure about the current situation. “Maybe we should stop,” he said. “Maybe we should talk this through.”
&nbs
p; “No way. Do you want to be g-grounded for-e-ever?” Corey said as they bounced on the grassy lawn, the bus tilting on its side.
Ruby fell back into one of the benches. “He’s right, Matt, get the compass!”
Matt’s mind raced. They were right. If they stopped, that was it. They might never get another chance. He thought of Jia, all alone on an island five thousand years ago. He couldn’t do that to her. He’d never forgive himself.
Matt got down on the floor and searched. He heard it sliding around and finally caught it in his hand. “I got it!”
His heart was pounding, his fingers sweaty, but he held tight to the compass. “I need to see the coordinates again, and the date!” he shouted. Ruby moved to the table and held down the map. Matt found the marking and put his finger on it, so the numerals popped up. The bus swerved and bounced wildly, so he lost his balance. He righted himself, got to the map again, and found the date. But he wasn’t sure how to enter it. He’d never traveled in the BC era, and he wasn’t sure what all the numbers meant. He heard a thump on the back of the bus. Matt looked up to see Mrs. Hudson running behind the bus, looking straight at Mateo through the rear window wearing what Matt could only describe as her you-are-in-the-worst-trouble-of-your-life expression. “STOP THIS CAR RIGHT NOW!” she bellowed, pounding on the window.
“We’ve got to try,” said Matt. He started to turn the other dials, doing his best to guess where they should go. This could be a real disaster, he thought, but he had to take the risk. Matt made the last turn of the outer dial. Either this worked, or they were grounded for life. Maybe both.
The bus started to make a strange, grinding noise, like it was shifting into a gear it didn’t know existed. There was a big thud on top of the bus.
“I think it’s working!” said Ruby.
Matt looked out the rear window. He didn’t see either of his parents.
I’m sorry, he said in his heart.
And then it happened.
There was an explosion of light. The bus shot forward, accelerating to what felt like a thousand miles per second. Matt felt as though he’d been flipped inside out and upside down. The bus touched ground, bounced, and swerved. They were careening along a path with lots of people. Men in suits, boys in suspenders, women and girls in dresses and hats. They almost ran over a man with a bunch of balloons, and then they were headed toward a big red-and-white-striped tent.
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