“Can someone please tell me what just happened?” Zac frowned as he stared at each of us in turn. “What…what happened? The light and that man…I thought you said your dad was gone?”
I swallowed hard and smiled. “I guess there are a few things we should explain to you.”
On the outside, I was calm, but inside I was freaking out. Zac was going to think we were crazy people who had just transported him to another world or something else just as weird. He was going to run out the front door and tell everyone at school I was the weirdest person he’d ever met. He’d never talk to me again. All my hard work getting Jade to be unlikable and making myself stand out, would be for nothing. I’d be right back where I started.
I was frantically trying to think of the right way to explain when Oliver began talking. “We found our grandpa’s old time machine in the attic. I got it working, and we’ve used it a couple of times. This last time, it went off by accident and somehow transported us back about thirteen years and a few months…back to when our dad was still here. Then, we came back to the present.”
My jaw dropped, and Kate’s face displayed a look of utter surprise and worry as she glanced at Zac. I held my breath, waiting for him to get up and leave in disgust, but instead, he found his feet and joined Oliver at the workbench.
“Time Travel! This is incredible! Everything your grandpa studied, this is what it was all for? This is what he was working on?”
“Yes.”
Zac pointed to the other machine. “And you think this thing we got at the antique store is another time machine?”
“Something like that. I was trying to take it apart to see how it was made so I could compare the two. But our grandpa’s machine from the attic suddenly turned itself on somehow. And then, well, you know the rest.”
Zac scratched his jaw in astonishment. “It took us back in time!”
I glanced at Kate. She frowned, just as confused as I was. Everything happening here was a mystery that neither of us understood. I waited for Zac to say this was all too much, that he was leaving us to our crazy inventions and going home. But instead, he went from looking horribly confused to grinning at Oliver and asking question after question about the machine and how it worked. Kate and I hung back. The two boys ignored us, but for the moment, that was fine by me. I needed to get out of the basement and clear my head.
“Let’s go upstairs,” I said to Kate.
“Good idea,” she smiled. “We’ll leave the nerds on their own for a while.”
I nodded in agreement at her comment as we headed up to the kitchen. Glancing at the clock, I wondered when Mom would be back. The thought of her catching Oliver and Zac in the basement, followed by all her questions about what they were up to, ones I did not know how I would answer, began to worry me more than anything. I got out two glasses and filled them with water from the fridge door, then handed one to Kate.
“So, that little trip was unexpected,” she mused with a grin.
“That’s one word for it.” I sipped my water thoughtfully. “We saw my dad; we actually met him in the flesh…I can’t believe it. I keep thinking this is all a dream.”
“It’s not, Holly. Trust me, it happened. You met your father.” She drummed her fingers on the counter. “It’s crazy though, how did he even know who you guys were? How was that possible? He found a bunch of kids in his basement. Why would he even suspect that two of them were his kids and that you’d come from the future?”
“After what we did with Jade and everything we’ve seen so far, I’m wondering if there’s anything that’s not possible.” I glanced absently around the kitchen and suddenly realized that the walls were a different color. “How long has my kitchen been blue?”
“Huh?”
We stared around the space that before had been painted a light shade of yellow, but was now blue. My mom wasn’t a big fan of blue, but now the kitchen was painted blue. “Oliver!” I bellowed. “Oliver, get up here!”
“It’s just paint,” Kate was saying. At the same time, however, all I could think about was Dad’s warning about messing with time travel and that staying in the past too long could cause things to change or go wrong.
“What?” Oliver asked as he and Zac ran into the kitchen.
I spread my arms wide, motioning to the walls. “Well?”
“Holly, what are you going on about…oh no!!”
“Exactly! What have we done, Oliver? What did we change?”
“What’s wrong?” Zac looked around him. “I don’t get it.”
“The kitchen walls have changed color since we were here last.” Oliver scratched his head as he spun around in a slow circle. “Huh, that’s really weird.”
“Is it bad weird or good weird?” I reached out to gingerly feel the wall, not sure why I was scared to touch it. But seeing the blue paint made my gut twinge with worry that we were messing with things we shouldn’t be.
“I’m not sure, but it’s just paint, right?” Oliver said, although even he couldn’t hide his concern.
“Yeah, I guess so.” I sighed, my stomach clenching in a tight knot as I tried to convince myself that it was just a color and wasn’t important.
The four of us stood in silence in the kitchen for a long few minutes before my head whipped around at the sound of a car. Mom was home. I heard the car door slam. Zac and Oliver grabbed a seat and sat at the kitchen bench. Kate and I started laughing for no reason at all except to make it look like we’d been sitting there the whole time. It didn’t take long for Mom to appear at the door.
“So kids, how was the movie?” she asked brightly.
“Pretty good,” I announced, “but Batman is still better.”
“Of course,” Mom grinned. Zac and Oliver rolled their eyes. “I take it the boys don’t agree?”
“Nope, not even close.” Zac checked his phone and stood. “I have to get going. Thanks for having me over, Holly. I’ll see you at school?”
“Yeah, definitely!” I smiled happily at his words. Then, realizing everyone had turned to stare at my enthusiastic response, my cheeks began to burn.
Zac said goodbye before hurrying to the front door. I wanted him to stay so we could talk more about what he’d seen plus I was enjoying having him around. But Kate was the next to realize how late in the afternoon it was and decided that she needed to get going too.
After they’d both left, Mom turned to us with a smile, “So, today was fun?”
“Yeah, the movie was good. And we swung by the antique store afterward,” Oliver said, then immediately cringed. I nudged his foot with my own, unable to believe that he’d mentioned our visit to the antique store. He widened his eyes at me.
“Oh yeah?” Mom looked at him with interest. “Find anything cool?”
“Oh, just some beat up old machine that Oliver’s going to waste his time tinkering with,” I replied quickly. Then, deciding I had to ask or I would die of curiosity, I added, “Hey Mom…”
“Hmm?”
“When did you paint the kitchen blue?”
It was Oliver’s turn to stomp on my foot, and I winced as I waited for Mom to answer.
“I painted it blue years ago; you know that.”
“Oh that’s right,” I lied. “But I thought you always preferred yellow?”
She set the stack of mail that she’d been flipping through down on the benchtop. “Are you feeling okay? You know blue is my favorite color, it has been since after I had your brother. Are you saying I need to update my paintwork?” She nibbled her lip as she looked around the kitchen. “I guess it’s been a few years. I should probably give it a freshening up.”
“Yeah, maybe.” I nodded, glancing hesitantly towards Oliver.
He immediately motioned towards the basement, indicating for me to follow. “I’m going to get back to what I was doing.”
“Ok hon,” Mom smiled at him.
“I’ll come too,” I added and headed after him.
Mom nodded without looking up, and
we darted downstairs, away from the new blue kitchen and a Mom who now liked blue instead of yellow.
But all I could think was…what have we done?
Chapter 2
I watched Oliver pace around the basement, mumbling under his breath. “So?” I said, fear building inside me.
“So what?” he asked without stopping his pacing.
“So what are we going to do to fix this?”
“We can’t just fix it, Holly. Our dad saw us. Our actual dad saw us and met us. He talked to us!”
“Yeah, but why did that change things here? Mom now has a new favorite color, and she said she painted the kitchen blue years ago. How can that be?”
“I have no idea!” Oliver sighed as he continued to pace.
“Plus, he already knew who we were,” I reminded Oliver, still in awe of hearing our Dad say our names.
Right then, I wished more than anything we could have taken our father from that time zone to our own so that we could have him with us. But when I gave the idea some more thought, I blanched. Sinking onto a nearby stool, I realized what that would have meant.
If we’d been careless and grabbed hold of Dad as we returned to our own time, we would have completely changed the past. Oliver was already born then, so he would still be here. But I hadn’t been born yet. So I would probably have faded away to nothing, and now I wouldn’t exist.
“Holly? Are you okay?” Oliver frowned. “You look like you’re going to throw up.” He shoved a trashcan towards me in case I needed it.
I rolled my eyes at him. “I’m not going to throw up in the trash!”
I crossed my arms over my chest and nudged the bucket back towards him. I wasn’t sure how I felt. Everything was too confusing right now. In the time zone we’d just been to, Dad was living happily with Mom, and they had baby Oliver, but I hadn’t been born yet. So how did he know he was going to disappear from our lives? And how did he know who we both were? I wanted to close my eyes and pretend it was all a dream, but at the same time, I couldn’t have been happier that we’d seen him, face to face.
“Do you think anything else has changed?” I asked Oliver quietly. “Apart from the color of the kitchen walls, I mean?”
Oliver leaned against the workbench beside me. “I don’t know, but we won’t find out by hiding in the basement. Tomorrow, we’ll do some more poking around and see if we notice anything. But until then, we shouldn’t freak out about it. And no more using the machine for a little while. I’m not even sure what set it off this afternoon. That was weird!”
If Oliver didn’t know, then I certainly had no answers for him. He was the tech genius, and I was just the tag-along sister. Realizing none of my questions were going to be answered, I decided to head upstairs. I wanted to chat with Kate and Zac to make sure they were both okay after our sudden trip to the past. At least Kate had time traveled before. But for Zac, it was his first time, and I was sure he had questions. I also wanted to be certain he wouldn’t tell anyone about what had happened.
Mom was busy in her office, humming loudly to herself when I passed by her door and headed up to my room. Closing the door firmly behind me, I picked up my laptop and logged onto the instant messenger a lot of us at school used when talking to each other. Technically, we did have a history project that we were supposed to be working on, so if Mom asked why I was hiding away in my room, I could use that as an excuse.
I logged in and was not surprised to see Kate there already. I had no chance to click on her name before a message appeared on my screen…
Hey, that was insane today! Are you and Oliver okay? We left kinda fast.
We’re okay. I typed back. I just wanted to check on you!
This last trip into the past had left me feeling pretty nauseous. That hadn’t happened after the previous trips we’d trialed. I hadn’t wanted to tell Oliver, but this time, my head felt almost scrambled, and my stomach was still rolling around like it was on a roller coaster ride.
I mentioned to Kate that we wouldn’t be using the machine for a while; not until Oliver could figure out what had gone wrong. We didn’t want anything unexpected to happen again. She sent back a pouty face, but when I told her she could still come over and bug Oliver, she sent a smiley.
I laughed as I scrolled through my list of friends. Zac was new to the list, and I smiled to see him online, too. My phone started ringing, and I picked it up, answering it without looking at who the caller was. “Hello?”
“Hey, Holly,” Zac said just as I sent my message to him.
“Hi! I just messaged you!” A fluttery sensation filled my stomach as I pictured his smiling face in my head.
“Ha Ha, it just came through! I can’t believe you messaged me, just as I rang your phone. But…how are you? I thought I’d give you a call because today was pretty uh…crazy, huh?”
“Crazy is one word for it!” I replied. “Are you sure you’re ok with what you saw?”
“Part of me still can’t believe it’s real,” he exclaimed. “We actually went back in time! Man…that’s crazy! I can’t think of any other word for it! I mean…who else can say they’ve gone back in time? It’s like finding myself in the middle of a sci-fi novel, or something.”
“Yeah, that’s how we felt the first time we tried it,” I agreed. “But um…I do have to ask…you know you can’t tell anyone about this, right? I mean…no one at all!”
“That’s okay, Holly. You don’t have to worry about that. I won’t be telling anyone, I promise!”
I let out the breath I’d been holding.
“Today was the most fun I’ve had in a long time,” he added. “I wanted you to know that too. And I’m not just talking about traveling back in time and meeting your dad. That was super cool. But I really enjoyed the rest of the day as well…it was fun hanging out with you!”
I smiled, tugging on a strand of my hair, while at the same time, butterflies did a crazy dance in my stomach. “I had fun, too, Zac. Do you want to hang out again sometime?” I asked shyly.
“Sure!”
“Sammy can always tag along. She’s so cute. And it was so much fun today…the date thing, not just the time travel…not that today was a date, though. I mean, we were all just hanging out and everything,” I was rambling and wanted to kick myself for letting my mouth run away from me.
He laughed through the line, and I breathed a sigh of relief when he replied. “I kinda liked today being a date for us. And Sammy had a great time with you guys. She kept asking me about you when I got back home.”
He was so easy to talk to, and the butterflies in my stomach settled a little as we chatted about normal things…the movie and then the idea of hanging out on the following weekend. At some point, the conversation turned to our history project and what we needed to do to get it finished. It felt natural talking to Zac; I couldn’t believe I’d allowed someone like Jade to stand in my way for so long.
Technically, I’d managed to get her back for the way she used to treat me. But when I thought of what I did to her by messing up her history presentation, I couldn’t help feeling guilty. What if by changing that day in class, other things had changed as well? She still appeared to be on the bad side of our history teacher, even though she’d always been her favorite student before. And although Zac said he had never really liked her that much, what if I’d changed things that should have happened between them? Not that I wanted Zac to end up with Jade, but I couldn’t stop thinking about the blue kitchen downstairs and how one tiny event could start a chain reaction and change other things that followed.
That afternoon when we visited Dad, we’d only been in the past for a couple of minutes. Regardless, we’d somehow gone back and made things different…permanently. I was about to admit all of this to Zac when he interrupted me and prevented me from blurting out the truth. “Hey, my parents are calling me for dinner.”
I looked at the time, and then I heard Mom calling to me as well. “I didn’t realize we were talking for quite so lo
ng,” I replied. “Sorry.”
“Why are you apologizing? I don’t mind. Talking to you is fun,” he said, and I smiled even more. “I’ll text you tomorrow. And you don’t have to worry about me. I won’t say a word to anyone about you know what.”
“Thanks, Zac…it’s really important that we keep it secret. And maybe if we use the time machine again, you could come with us?”
“Definitely! I’m always up for an adventure with you guys. Bye Holly.”
My heart gave another flutter as I said goodbye and hung up. Zac was so cool, and my crush was now bigger than ever. I told Kate on messenger that I was going to eat dinner, and that we could keep chatting later on. Even through her reply, I could feel her rolling her eyes at having to wait. Maybe later we’d talk about her crush, too. I knew she was more interested in Oliver than she was letting on. Smiling at the thought of my best friend crushing over my brother, I logged out, shut down my laptop and rushed downstairs.
With each step, I wondered if I’d notice any other unusual changes. And if so, what they could be.
Chapter 3
Much to my relief, we managed to get through to Sunday without any other obvious differences showing up. After all the excitement the day before, I looked forward to chilling out in front of the television. Sunday was a day when we would often all laze around watching movies. But as soon as Oliver woke up, he disappeared into the basement. And apart from resurfacing to make himself a sandwich for lunch, he had not shown his face all day. Mid-afternoon came and went, and Mom began to stare worriedly at the basement door.
“Your brother’s up to something,” she murmured. “Will you please go and check on him?”
“Why me?” I asked, completely engrossed in the movie on the TV screen.
She paused the movie. “Please go and make sure he hasn’t electrocuted himself or something. Then I’ll let you decide where we’re going out to eat tonight?”
Time Traveler - Books 1, 2, 3 & 4: Books for Girls aged 9-12 Page 16
