Time Traveler - Books 1, 2, 3 & 4: Books for Girls aged 9-12

by Katrina Kahler

  “Do you remember everything we went through with Kate and the machine…and Dad. Do you remember Dad? You have to remember!” I tugged on his arm, desperate for him to understand what I was talking about, but his eyes narrowed, and he sat up, pushing away from me.

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Dad…we found him, remember? We met him, and you look just like him, and you act just like him. And he was helping us, said he was so proud of us.” I searched his eyes for any sign of recognition, but he only glared at me. “Please, Oliver you have to remember!”

  “What’s wrong with you, huh? You think it’s funny to sit there and act like you know our father? Seriously, Holly, just go back to bed and stop talking about someone you don’t even know.”

  “Oliver! You have to remember!” I yelled, grabbing his shoulders and shaking him hard.

  “Go away!”

  “What’s going on?” Mom snapped from the hallway, flipping on Oliver’s bedroom light and blinding us both. Oliver grabbed his pillow to cover his face as I blinked against the harsh light.

  “Holly? Do you know what time it is? We all have to be up early in the morning. And you’re not well. Get back in bed.” She shuffled over in her slippers and planted her hand on my forehead.

  “I’m fine, Mom,” I argued.

  “No, you’re burning up. Get back into bed, right now. I’ll bring you some medicine.”

  “I can’t!” I pushed her hand away. “Oliver,” I tugged on the comforter again. “You have to remember! Just think about it, please! The machine and us going back in time! And Dad, we met Dad!” I repeated, hoping something would trigger his mind to realize that this was all a lie.

  Mom froze and her eyes filled with what looked like confusion at my words. “What did you just say?”

  I swallowed hard, not sure I should go on. But I had no choice, not if we were going to figure out what had gone wrong. “We found the time machine. And we found Dad. We figured out what happened all those years ago,” I rambled on excitedly even as they both glared at me. “This isn’t where we’re supposed to be! And it’s not ho we’re supposed to be! You don’t remember. But I do! Our science teacher, Thaddeus Banes, he’s at my school, and he did this! He messed everything up!”

  Mom shook her head, and Oliver began to look worried as though I really was a crazy person and had lost all sanity.

  “I found the machine in the attic, and you fixed it.” I stared at Oliver.

  “What machine? And how did I fix it?”

  “You’re a nerd, Oliver, you’re a computer nerd, and you invent stuff just like Grandpa and Dad,” I told him, willing him to remember. “You got the machine working again, and we…we went back in time. We did all this stuff and this, this is all messed up now!”

  “Enough!” Mom yelled so loudly I jumped. “Enough of this right now, young lady. You are to go back to your room, and I do not want to hear another word from you until morning. Do you understand?”

  “But Mom—”

  “Go back to bed. Now! You’re grounded, do you hear me? You cannot run around saying that you met your father, the man who left us all when you were a baby!” Her face was red, and she was furious as she guided me out of Oliver’s room and back to my own. “I want you in that bed, and I want you to go back to sleep. You are not to say one more word about any of this nonsense, do you understand?”

  “It’s true though!” I argued. “Please, listen to me for five seconds! We can fix this; we can, we can get Dad back. But you have to remember! You both do!”

  Mom threw her arms up with a yell of aggravation, and I clamped my lips shut. “Holly, please stop, alright? You were dreaming, that’s all. You did not meet your dad, and you are not going to fix anything!”

  Angry tears welled in my eyes as I crossed my arms, my mind racing with how I could convince her that this was all real and that our present situation was not real. “Please, Mom, why would I lie about this? Why?”

  “Obviously you want attention because you’re clearly not getting enough already!”

  I couldn’t hold my tears back any longer. They streamed down my cheeks. I had nothing more to say. Mom wasn’t going to believe me unless I had proof. The hurt in her eyes had me mentally kicking myself for acting so rashly. I backed into my room and closed the door just as she wiped at her own eyes and marched back to her bedroom, slamming the door hard enough to shake the walls. I sank to the floor behind my door and held my face in my hands.

  I was awake, really awake to what was going on here. But I had to find a way to convince Oliver and Kate that the machine was real. If only I could find it, then that would do it. They’d have to believe me then.

  I climbed into bed and spent the next hour making a plan for the following day. One way or another, I swore to myself, I would make everything right, make it all the way it was supposed to be.

  If we were ever going to get our real lives back, I had to find a way. I just had to!

  Chapter 5

  When I woke up, I heard Oliver and Mom moving around. But I didn’t want to get up and face them. Eventually, there was a light knock at my door.

  “Holly? You awake?” Mom asked as she opened the door a crack.

  I kept my eyes closed and pretended to be asleep as her steps moved closer to my bed. She sat down alongside me and pressed her hand against my forehead, smoothing back my hair. For a second, I almost gave in. But there was nothing I could say to her yet that would make up for what I’d said. I’d been wrong to jump all over her and Oliver like that. For them, Dad had been gone for years, and they were hurt and upset by my outburst.

  But they had no idea how close Dad really was.

  She bent down and kissed my forehead. I kept my eyes closed and waited until her steps retreated and she closed the door. As soon as she was gone, I sat up and spotted a note on my bedside table. I scanned it quickly.

  She would be leaving soon. And with Oliver at school all day, it was the chance I’d hoped for. I threw my covers off all the way so I could hurry and get dressed.

  As soon as I heard them both walk out the front door, I stepped into the hallway. I planned to dig through the house and see what I could find. Something had to be left behind from our multiple times bouncing from one year to the next. I was not going to give up until I had done a thorough search.

  Because I’d found the original machine in the attic, I decided to start there. Tugging on the rope for the ladder, I pulled it down so I could climb up into the dusty darkness. The attic was filled with more stuff than I remembered and I planted my hands on my hips, wondering where to start.

  Figuring I would do what I had done last time, I started on the right side of the attic, and one by one, opened every single box. By the time I’d worked through most of them, I was annoyed and frustrated.

  “Nothing! There’s nothing up here,” I ranted as I shoved another useless box to the side.

  Only two more remained, but after I opened them and dug through some old clothes of Oliver’s and then a heavy box filled with books, I gave up, glaring at the dust floating in front of my face. Growing more and more frantic, I hurried down the ladder and did something I never thought I would do.

  I went into Mom’s room and tore it apart. Somewhere, she had to have the pictures of Dad from before he disappeared. I was going to drag them out into the light so she could see them. Maybe they would help jog her memory. But after going through every inch of her closet, and her dresser, her room was in a shambles, and I was no closer to finding anything I needed at all. I moved onto Oliver’s room, followed by my own, and then the hall closet, giving each of them the same treatment. But there was nothing packed away anywhere!

  I decided there was nothing left to do but go through every inch of the house. I left no closet or cabinet, or drawer unchecked. I was desperate, desperate to find the answers I needed. And I was determined that we were not going to be stuck in this messed up timeline.

  ***

  I worked
my way through the basement, finally reaching the last stack of boxes and old suitcases in the far back corner. When the front door opened, I heard footsteps on the floor above but didn’t stop my search until Mom’s yell exploded.

  “Holly! What did you do to the house!”

  I cringed as she stomped around on the floor above me.

  “Holly! Where are you? Holly, you’d better answer me right this second, or you will be grounded forever!”

  I decided it would be better to head upstairs than to give her a chance to find me in the basement surrounded by another mess. Slowly, I made my way up and saw her standing amongst the mayhem that was now our living room, shaking her head, her eyes bulging.

  “Hey, Mom,” I said lightly, as she turned around to stare at me like I’d gone insane. “I uh, I didn’t think you’d be home so early.”

  “What…what is going on?” she asked quietly. She used her quiet Mom voice, the one I was well aware of. It meant that no matter what I said, there would be no way to explain the situation and it would be impossible not to end up grounded for life. “Is the whole house like this?”

  I scratched my cheek and tried to shake my head, “I was looking for something.”

  She took in a deep breath. “Looking for something?” she repeated.

  “Yeah, I think I misplaced it, and it’s really important.”

  “And you decided to destroy the entire house trying to find it?”

  I nodded. “Yeah, but don’t worry, I’ll put everything back. I promise.”

  Mom hung her head and dropped her purse on the couch. “Holly, please tell me this has nothing to do with what happened last night?”

  “Well, no…” I started to say, but she groaned, throwing her head back. “Just wait, Mom, hear me out. Please!”

  “No, not another word. I don’t want to hear any more about your dream or what you think is real or not real! You have destroyed this entire house! What were you hoping to find?”

  “Proof,” I said before I could stop myself.

  “Proof of what?”

  I mumbled my answer. But she couldn’t hear it and ordered me to repeat it. “Proof that what happened in my dreams is real, that they’re not dreams.” She stalked away from me and into the kitchen. I followed along behind her. “I know it sounds crazy, but I’m telling you the truth! There is a time machine. Oliver and I used it to go back. We found Dad!”

  “No, you didn’t!” She planted her hands on the counter as she stared me down. “None of this is real, and you need to stop talking about it, right now. I’m worried about you, Holly, can’t you see that? You’re going through an episode of some kind, and if you don’t get it under control, I’m taking you to a therapist.”

  “A therapist, really? You’d rather believe that I’m crazy rather than the fact that I’ve found Dad?”

  “You didn’t find him, alright! None of us did!” she yelled back.

  “But we did. If you give me a chance to find the proof, I’ll show you; I’ll get you both to remember!”

  “No, we’re finished. You are not to talk about this again. Tomorrow, you’re going back to school, and then you are coming straight home every day for the rest of the semester. Then, you’re grounded for the entire summer and until Christmas for all I care!” She was breathing heavily as she finished, but I wasn’t going to stick around. I couldn’t. I started moving back toward the front door. “Holly, what are you doing?”

  “It’s okay, Mom, I’m going to make this right. You just have to trust me.”

  I grabbed my cell phone off the coffee table, and while she was still yelling for me to come back and clean up the house, I took off out the front door, running as fast as I could as I headed to the park. School would be over in a few minutes, and I texted Kate as soon as I reached a park bench, out of breath with a cramp in my side. I asked her to meet me on her way home. I was just hoping she’d remember what we’d all been through. She mentioned having dreams the other night, too and there was a chance she’d dreamed about the way Oliver was supposed to be, not this weird rocker guy who didn’t know how to make a time machine work.

  I paced around the bench, unable to sit still while I waited for her. I half expected Mom to come after me, but I texted to tell her I was in the park and would be home soon. She didn’t text me back, and I didn’t bug her again, figuring she needed time to cool off.

  “Holly!” I heard Kate yell and turned around to see her waving her arm over her head as she raced towards me. “I got your text, what’s going on? I thought you were still sick?”

  “No, I’m fine, but listen, the dream you had the other night, what was it about?”

  She tugged on her backpack straps as she eyed me with a frown. “The dream I had about your brother?”

  “Yeah, was there anything else going on in that dream? Anything you can remember?”

  “No, we were just hanging out. It wasn’t that big of a deal. Is this really why you asked me to meet you here?”

  “Yes and no.” I puffed out my cheeks as I debated my next move. “Look, I need you to hear me out, alright? Can you do that?”

  “Sure, I guess,” she said sounding uncertain.

  I took a deep breath before launching into the story of what had happened since finding the time machine in the attic. I had to give her credit. She sat there on that bench and listened to every word without interrupting me even once. When I reached the part about finding the town empty and our parents gone, she glanced around worriedly as if everyone would disappear while I was talking. But as I came to the end of the tale, I saw the skepticism on her face begin to fade and in its place was confusion as well as something else I couldn’t place.

  “And that’s how we got here,” I finished finally. “We were trying to reset everything we’d done. But Thaddeus grabbed at the machine, and it malfunctioned.”

  “And now we’re stuck in some alternate time warp thing?”

  “Yes!”

  “And how is it that only you remember?” she asked quietly.

  “I don’t know. Yesterday, something made me remember…I was dreaming, but then I started seeing how we used to be.” I plopped down beside her, holding my head. It had started to ache again, and there was a throbbing in my temples. “I’m not really like this…I’m not a mean person,” I told her. “Neither of us are.”

  “We’re not mean,” she argued until I stared at her pointedly and she had to admit that we really were pretty horrible.

  “In the present time zone that we’re supposed to be in, Jade’s the bully, not us. And Zac and I…we’re kinda dating.” I smiled as I looked around the park picturing his smiling face and the day I’d met him in this very spot.

  “We had our first date here actually.”

  “Sounds nice,” she said, but I could tell I was losing her.

  “And you and Oliver like each other,” I added. “I know you kind of like each other now, but in our real time zone, you really like each other.”

  She stared silently back at me. I sighed. “None of this sounds familiar? None of what I told you?”

  “I want to say yes,” Kate told me, patting me on the shoulder, “but no, nothing.”

  I held my face in my hands, feeling ready to cry all over again. There had to be a way to get her to remember. “I’m not about to give up. Not now.” I pushed off the bench and started towards Main Street.

  “Holly? What are you going to do?”

  “I don’t know yet, but I’ve got to do something…” I trailed off and sat back down quickly, trying to hide behind Kate when I spotted a familiar face across the park from us. He sat on a bench and appeared innocent enough, feeding the birds, but the hair on the back of my neck stood on end. He shouldn’t be there.

  “Are you hiding from Mr. Banes?”

  “I’m telling you, he’s the one behind all of this,” I whispered. “Look, I have to go. I’ll text you soon, and when I do, please make sure you text back. Okay?”

  She started t
o answer, but I didn’t give her a chance before I was on the move again, hurrying through the park and doing my best to keep out of sight of Thaddeus. He didn’t seem to notice me, and I made it out of the park without him so much as turning around.

  I shoved my hands into my jeans pockets and traipsed down the sidewalk. My cell vibrated a few times, but it was just Mom telling me I needed to be home for dinner. I texted her back saying that I would. But I knew that depended on what happened next.

  I turned the corner, heading towards the one last hope I had when I ran right into Zac.

  “Oh, sorry,” I mumbled, locking eyes with him.

  “Holly,” he said, but there was nothing nice about his tone. He didn’t even stop to chat. Instead, he stepped around me and kept on walking.

  “Hey, uh Zac?” I called out, unable to stop myself.

  He stopped but didn’t turn around.

  “Listen, I’m…I’m sorry for how I’ve been acting,” I said quickly, “but I promise I’m going to make things right.”

  That made him turn and his brow wrinkled. “How are you going to do that?”

  “Just…you just have to trust me,” I said lamely. “I have to go, but I’ll see you again soon, and next time, next time everything will be better. I swear it.” I whipped back around and ran the rest of the way to the antique store. Stepping cautiously inside, I heard the bell jingle loudly overhead. “Hello?” I called out.

  I heard a gruff voice muttering loudly along with shuffling footsteps. The second the older version of Dad came out of the office, he looked down at me and then pointed to a sign by the door. “Can’t you read? No kids allowed.”

  “What if it’s your own kid?” I asked.

  For one second, I thought I had him, but then he barked a laugh, and my shoulders sagged. “I have no kids, now beat it.”