A Time Traveler's Theory of Relativity

by Nicole Valentine

  “Most of us can only go backward and return. Billie, bless her heart, can’t even manage that anymore, except by accident. But your gran and your mother could go forward in time. Though each time they did it, it took its toll.” Her lips trembled and her face contorted in sadness for a second before she regained composure with an impatient shake of her head.

  She made a sharp turn, and Finn caught the stutter-step of her movements again. She seemed to be rebuffering in reality. It was the oddest thing to watch. He turned to catch Gabi’s face and he could tell that she was seeing it, too.

  “Aunt Ev, how come you’re moving like that? Like an old filmstrip missing frames?”

  Gabi scowled at him for giving up their new secret. The truth was Finn felt safe in revealing it because Gabi had witnessed it as well.

  “Ahhh.” Aunt Ev smiled over her shoulder. “That’s because I’m doubling too close to my Initial. An Initial is the version of ourselves that belongs in the time period we’re in. When we Travel back, or double, in close proximity to our Initial, we can appear sort of funny. And, well, I’m an old lady”—she raised a mocking eyebrow at Gabi—“not as good at this as I once was.”

  Gabi looked away, and Finn thought if it wasn’t so dark out he’d see her blush.

  Aunt Ev nodded at Finn. “Good observation. If I’m right about you, Finn, you’ll start noticing a whole lot more soon enough.”

  He felt a leap of something akin to hope, only to be replaced with the familiar sinking in the pit of his stomach. “There’s nothing special about me. Gran said boys don’t Travel.”

  “But there might be other things you can offer. We don’t really know about you yet, Finn. Do we? That’s what this meeting is about. Hurry up, now. It’s already started. We’ll sneak in and hide in the choir loft.”

  The choir loft? They were going to the church? Apparently his family’s secret time-traveling society was meeting like an after-school youth group.

  “What happens if someone sees us?” Gabi asked.

  “Well, you’re not supposed to be there. Doc and his cronies don’t want Finn finding out about our Traveling for several more years.” She glanced back at them over a long nubby gray scarf that was wrapped many times around her neck. “If they see you, they’ll know I’ve broken the rules. If they see you”—she pointed a fat gloved finger at Gabi—“well, you don’t want to know.”

  Don’t trust anyone. The words were still in Finn’s pocket.

  “Why is Doc involved? He’s not part of our family.” The more Finn thought about Doc, the more it felt like he had no reason to be anywhere.

  “ISTA is more than our family. This town has been keeping our secret for generations. There’s a trusted circle of those closest to us.”

  If Aunt Ev trusted Doc, then Finn would have to watch her closely. He certainly couldn’t share Gran’s note with her now.

  “Won’t they notice you missing?” Finn asked as he struggled to keep pace with her.

  For the first time, Aunt Ev looked genuinely amused. “I’m already there, m’boy. You really haven’t got the hang of this yet, have you?”

  “No,” he said. “I definitely haven’t.”

  Chapter 12

  They stayed close to the backyards and sparse strips of woods that stood between the small houses. All the houses in the center of town were painted the same, white with green shutters. In the moonlight they faded to gray and black. It wasn’t often that Finn saw Dorset in the middle of the night, and for the first time he was struck by the beauty of the pale marble sidewalks crisscrossing the green, which would now be more aptly named “the black” in the moonlight. The grass appeared all the darker surrounded by the bright shimmer of the marble, stretching before him like a lunar mirror.

  “It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” said Aunt Ev, watching him closely.

  “I never noticed how the marble looks at night. It glows.”

  “Every inch of it is Dorset marble, that is. That whole mountain is filled with it,” Aunt Ev said proudly.

  “We learned about it in school,” Gabi said.

  “You learned nothing, girl!” Aunt Ev’s temper flashed again. “They told you what? How the business of gutting that mountain created our town? You learned about economics. You learned about rock. It’s not rock. Did you know marble has veins? That it breathes? That it’s made of minerals that also live inside you? You kids, you think of that mountain like it’s a big dead thing in the distance. You use that old quarry as a swimming pool, forgetting what it really is. It’s more than a hole in the ground. It’s a scar !”

  Finn shuddered at the word. He didn’t need to be told that. It was the biggest scar his family had.

  Aunt Ev seemed to realize what she was saying and to whom. Her voice immediately softened. “Mountains have roots, you know. You can’t go digging up roots and expect everything to continue on the same.”

  “The marble has something to do with Travelers?” Gabi’s interest was piqued and no flash of temper could scare her off. Finn knew that tone of voice. It was the same one she got when she talked about unexplained phenomena, when she was inventing the fantastic middle ground between what was known and what wasn’t. Now it looked like she had found an ally in Aunt Ev. Finn felt outnumbered.

  “I believe it’s what allows us to Travel. Once we leave Dorset, no one in our family has been able to Travel at all. It also keeps us grounded. It’s what ties us to the time we’re born in.” She reached into the many folds of her jackets and pulled out a small, smooth white stone. “We all carry a grounding stone with us. This is how we stay where we need to be.”

  “But it’s just a rock!” Finn was still having a hard time accepting the absurdity of it all.

  Aunt Ev rose up on him like a viper. She came up so close to him that he could see the broken red blood vessels against the whites of her eyes.

  “Just a rock? If I poured a handful of sand into your palm you’d probably say it was just sand, wouldn’t you?”

  “Yes. Yes, I would.”

  “Fool! Without sand and a well-timed bolt of lightning, you wouldn’t have glass. Without glass, no telescopes, no microscopes, none of your computers! You can trace each grain back to the original exploded star it came from. Everything your precious science relies on rests on a pile of sand.”

  Finn’s instinct was to note that it was far more complicated than that, that it was really about the mineral silica. But something else was nagging at him, pulling at the back of his brain.

  Aunt Ev leaned in and whispered right into his ear. “You need to start thinking bigger and further back than your silly books. Much further back.”

  Much. Further. Back.

  He had the momentary sensation of being connected to everything and everyone. A universe inside of his brain was suddenly switched on, and then just as quickly, it was summarily shut down. It was like he was on the verge of understanding a mathematic formula only to have someone pull it away. He couldn’t hold on to the thought.

  Aunt Ev eyed him warily for a moment and then grew sheepish. “I’m sorry. I’m told I get a bit combative when my ideas are challenged. I find I hold on to my best ideas when I’m in a state of agitation. Makes me terrible company though. Here.” Aunt Ev grabbed his hand, turned it, and placed her grounding stone firmly in his palm. It felt cold and smooth, and he curled his fingers around it instinctively. “You take it. I know you’re not a Traveler, but maybe it will bring you luck.”

  “Don’t you need it?”

  “I have more. You take that one. No arguments now.”

  The stone began to feel warm against his skin. Almost like it had a pulse.

  Finn turned to look at Dorset Peak and was surprised to not be able to make out its full outline in the night sky. He knew it was there though, like always. What Aunt Ev was saying would certainly explain why the family had stayed in Dorset for so many generations.

  He thought about telling her about the tree. He knew it should stay a secret, but at the
same time he needed to find out what Aunt Ev knew.

  He decided to approach the topic carefully. “Is there such a thing as a time portal? Like, for people who aren’t born with the ability to Travel?” Finn was surprised to hear how desperate and leading he sounded. He didn’t dare look at Gabi, but he felt her watching him, worried he was about to give up the secret.

  “A portal? You’ve seen too many movies. There is no way for non-Travelers to Travel. No time machines, no doorways in the space-time continuum. This is a genetic gift. A skill we’re born with and then hone over time.” She straightened her spine, making Finn think she was about to brag about her accomplishments. The next words out of her mouth proved him wrong.

  “Your mother is the best, you know. She can go whenever she wishes, without so much as a blip. She was a pro from when she was your age. Each generation gets better at it, each mother surpassed by her own daughter.”

  The word daughter hit Finn like a slap. He could see it in Aunt Ev’s eyes, what he saw in everyone’s eyes: Mom, Dad, Gran. The deep sorrow for what ended with Faith, and the disappointment in what was left behind.

  Him.

  Aunt Ev led Finn and Gabi around to the back of the local church. Pausing at the back door, she pulled back her gloves to expose a device on her wrist. It was black and shiny gold. The face was hugely clunky, with a digital window and many buttons. Maybe there was some sort of scientific equipment involved in Traveling after all! Finn leaned in eagerly and noticed it had what looked like an old calculator under the liquid crystal.

  “Picked it up last week in 1982 along with a pair of fuschia leg warmers. Nicked them to be honest.” She rotated her wrist to get the full view of the watch. “Handy little thing, quite accurate. The eighties weren’t all fluff.” She pulled her glove back over the giant watch and gave each of them a stern look. “Now come on. There’s a lot you can learn here tonight. Don’t make a sound, and follow me when I walk. Halt when I do. Duck when I do. Watch my every move. Be my shadow. Got it?”

  They both nodded and followed her into the church.

  Chapter 13

  Aunt Ev brought them past the back offices, through an old wooden door with a pointed top. They stood in silence while Aunt Ev consulted her retro megawatch once more. She counted to twelve under her breath and then opened the heavy wooden door to the large main room. Finn rushed to follow her and was shocked to find the building brightly lit and full of noise.

  The main room was packed with people arguing and trying to talk over each other. Finn, Gabi, and Aunt Ev were now in plain view—only no one was looking at them. Aunt Ev strode in like she was invisible. Not knowing what else to do, Finn and Gabi followed as closely as they could. After taking a few strides, Aunt Ev crouched behind a row of battered maroon folding chairs. Finn and Gabi did the same.

  Finn heard a familiar woman’s voice rise louder than the rest: “We shouldn’t be doing this without Will. It can wait till he’s back!” This was followed by the quick staccato of angry heel clicks coming right toward them. Finn was sure they were about to be discovered. He shot Aunt Ev a look of panic. She gave him and Gabi a placid smile.

  The clicking heels belonged to Aunt Billie. She came right up to their row. The laces of her gray boots were only a foot away from Finn’s own toes. He hadn’t seen her in almost a year, since Gran’s big Thanksgiving dinner. She and Aunt Ev had argued and it hadn’t ended well, even with Gran doing her best to calm them down. He was shocked at how much frailer Aunt Billie looked. He looked away quickly so she wouldn’t feel his eyes on her. All she had to do was glance down and she would see them hiding there.

  Only she didn’t. Her eyes remained focused on the front of the room.

  “You’re all fools!” she snapped. “You have no idea what you’re messing with!” As the crowd continued to argue, she spun on the noisy heels and stormed out of the building. Finn turned to Aunt Evelyn to silently communicate his astonishment, but she was already crawling across the room on all fours. He and Gabi had to rush to catch up.

  She stopped at the stairs to the choir loft, stood up nonchalantly, and brushed the dust off her coat and skirt. Finn’s neck was practically on a swivel. He kept checking to see if anyone in the room was looking their way. Gabi’s hand gripped his forearm. She was just as nervous, but the attendees were still in a heated argument. Aunt Evelyn checked her watch again and waved them up the small wooden stairs. Finn let Gabi go first, then began climbing as quietly as he could. Aunt Ev followed him closely.

  Another voice he knew echoed through the church. “I am standing by this motion. I think we should bring Finn into this!”

  Finn stopped short in the middle of the staircase at the sound of his name. It was Aunt Ev’s voice coming from across the room. It seemed impossible, with Aunt Ev also standing right below him on the stairs, but there she was in the middle of the crowd. She was arguing with the others—about him. Only now the other version of her was also prodding him with a gloved fist to keep him climbing up the narrow staircase.

  As he looked out over the pews he realized that the Aunt Ev in the meeting looked strange. She had a shimmer around her, like the haze that comes off a hot road in the heat of summer. The air around her was wavy. No one else appeared to notice. Finn wanted to ask Gabi if she saw it too, but that question would have to wait. Aunt Ev was pushing him from behind.

  It was a great vantage point. There had to be at least thirty people below them. He knew every one of them, too. Mrs. Henreatty, the front desk clerk at the Inn, was in a heated side discussion with the mail carrier, Mr. Booth. Mr. Wells, the town manager, shook his head disapprovingly and Mrs. Allen, the head of the Dorset Historical Society, chimed in sternly with, “This has historically been up to the immediate family!”

  “Well, the boy has no immediate family to speak for him now, does he? I say it’s time we intervene.” It was the shimmery Aunt Ev who responded so adamantly.

  The Aunt Ev behind him on the stairs gave him a shove that nearly brought him to his knees. It also brought him to his senses, enough to duck low and keep moving. Gabi was already crouched and watching at the end of the loft. He settled in close to her. They still had to be quiet, but at least up here they were well hidden.

  Aunt Ev silently closed the floor hatch over the staircase. Finn looked around for the nearest way out. Aside from the stairs, the loft had two doors on either side. He hoped they were both exits and not closets. He’d never been up to the choir loft before. The only time he even went to church was when Gran dragged him. His parents’ idea of worship was a quiet hike or a picnic.

  Mr. Wells spoke above the fray: “How do we know Beth hasn’t taken care of this already?”

  Several voices chimed in.

  “We don’t.”

  “You’re right!”

  “Wouldn’t Finn show up here at the meeting if she had?” Mrs. Henreatty asked.

  Mr. Wells said, “I say we wait till Doc returns with James. They’ll decide.” He folded his arms and stretched his legs out in front of him, crossing one ankle over the other as if this punctuated all arguments.

  Finn’s mouth twisted. Doc was only pretending to find Dad. He wondered if anyone here actually knew that.

  The shimmery Aunt Ev opened her mouth as if to say something, then thought better of it. She paced back and forth, then looked up at the choir loft. Finn swore she smiled at him.

  “That’s when I got the idea to bring you here,” the Aunt Ev next to him whispered. “I’m simply ravishing when I’m full of a good plan, aren’t I?” She poked her head up and gave a small wave to herself down below. The whole thing made Finn feel rather queasy.

  Shimmery Aunt Ev turned back to the group. “I think we should plan it, then. We haven’t practiced an initiation in ages. We should go over the syllabus.”

  Finn leaned forward. This was why Aunt Ev brought him here. He was going to get all his family’s secrets at once.

  “What’s the point, Evelyn? He can’t Travel, he�
��s a boy!” Mr. Wells was now sitting up, with his fancy boots pulled in under his chair.

  “Well, it couldn’t hurt!” Several people began muttering to each other.

  “Doc said we should wait until he’s eighteen. That was the plan, or have you forgotten?” It was Mr. Wells again.

  “But that was before everything happened!” said Mrs. Wells. “He’ll have to be told now. He could become a valuable asset, just like James.”

  “Joan . . .” He silenced his wife with only her first name. She folded her hands in her lap and lowered her head. Finn grimaced. If Mom or Gran were here, they would’ve been furious to see Mrs. Wells being treated like that.

  “It’s all so sad,” sighed Ms. Alister, the woman who had cut his hair since he was a baby. “We thought we’d be doing this with Faith right around now.”

  Out of the corner of his eye, Finn saw Gabi’s head turn his way, but he refused to meet her gaze. He pushed his fist into his stomach and pressed hard, willing the tightness to go away.

  The group below was silent and thoughtful for a few seconds. Finn knew that somber pause all too well.

  Shimmery Aunt Ev resumed, “I think Beth and Liz would want us to do this.” There was a brief silence and Finn noted a lot of heads bobbing up and down. Even Mr. Wells was silenced by the mention of Finn’s mother and grandmother.

  No one else in the room noticed that Aunt Ev was radiating a weird energy. Finn couldn’t tell whether it was invisible to them or if they were just used to it.

  “We will need to welcome him soon, and we may as well practice.” The shimmery Aunt Ev was once again all business.

  Mr. Abernathy, Dorset’s only lawyer, chimed in. “I think this is all a waste of time, but if you want to go over the syllabus, I suppose we can put it up to a vote. I move to refer the motion to committee—”

  “Oh for goodness sake,” said shimmery Aunt Ev, “let’s not start with that Rules of Order hogwash! Those in favor, raise your hands.”

  “Ev, you could at least move to suspend rules!” Mr. Abernathy was obviously upset with this lack of ceremony.