Time Castaways #1

by Liesl Shurtliff

  A minute later they heard the train screeching on the tracks and saw the headlights glowing from a distance. When it came to a stop the three children boarded together and found seats at the end of the train car.

  “Churros, here I come,” said Corey.

  “If Mom grounds us for life because of this, I’m going to choke you with a churro,” said Ruby.

  “I didn’t make you come,” said Corey.

  “Oh right,” said Ruby. “Like we’re really going to let you go on a train all by yourself.”

  “Shh,” said Matt. “I’m trying to hear the train conductor tell us which stop is next.”

  The train conductor was saying something through the speakers, but it was intermittent with a lot of static feedback, so they couldn’t understand a word.

  “Relax,” said Corey. “It’s just a couple stops.”

  They went by several stops, but none were the station by their school, Matt was pretty sure. He took off his jacket. Even though the train was cool, he felt hot. With every stop, more and more passengers seemed to be getting off than on. Finally the last few passengers exited the train, and the three Hudson children were alone.

  Matt’s chest pounded, and he started to sweat. Something wasn’t right. He looked at the map that was on the wall and traced the stops they’d already hit. His heart plummeted to the bottom of his stomach.

  “You guys,” he said. “We’re on the wrong train.”

  “What do you mean?” squeaked Ruby. “We got on the six train! You said that was the right train!”

  “Yeah, but we’re supposed to be on the uptown train,” said Matt. “I’m pretty sure this is the downtown train.”

  There was a moment of silence as they all stared up at the map. Finally Ruby turned to Corey and punched him on the arm. “Corey!” she shouted. “You’re such an idiot!”

  “Why am I the idiot? You guys got on the train, same as me!”

  “You just had to break all the rules and drag us on a train just so you could have churros.”

  “Because I’m starving.”

  “Because you forgot your lunch!” said Ruby. “Did it ever occur to you that this is exactly the reason Mom doesn’t let us go on trains alone?”

  “It’s a mistake,” said Corey, gritting his teeth. “It’s not like we’re lost or anything.”

  “But now we’re for sure going to be late!”

  “Stop!” shouted Matt, wedging himself between Corey and Ruby, who looked ready to strangle one another. “This isn’t helping. We just need to get off at the next stop and get on the right train and go to school.”

  “I’m still getting churros,” said Corey.

  “No you’re not,” Matt said. “We’re going to school. Together.”

  “You can’t make me,” said Corey.

  “Yes, I can,” said Matt. “I’m the oldest.”

  “Blah, blah, blah, oldest!” said Corey. “You’re not even a year older than us and somehow that makes you think you’re in charge?”

  Matt gritted his teeth. “I’m in charge because I’m the oldest and the smartest!”

  Matt wished he could take the words back as soon as he’d said them. Ruby sucked in her breath, and Corey looked as though Matt had just slapped him across the face.

  There was some static feedback coming from the intercom and the train slowed. “I think the train’s about to stop,” Ruby said quietly. The lights in the train car flickered and then turned off completely. They came to a screechy halt.

  Matt tried to look out the train doors for a sign, but he couldn’t see any. “I think we’re at the end of the line,” said Matt. The doors opened.

  “Should we get off?” Ruby asked.

  “I don’t know,” said Corey bitterly. “Ask Matt, since he’s the smartest.”

  Matt winced, but he didn’t apologize or take it back. It wouldn’t fix anything. He didn’t really think he was smarter than Corey. Sure, math and science came easier for him, and he got better grades in school, but other things came easier for Corey, things that couldn’t be graded, like making friends and making people laugh. In those ways Corey was a genius, and Matt, a complete dunce, but he didn’t know how to say these things without sounding like he was just trying to do damage control.

  “We’ll have to get off here if we’re going to switch to the uptown train,” said Matt. They shuffled off the train, onto the platform, and as soon as they did the doors closed. The six train rattled off, curving around the tunnel until it disappeared, leaving the three Hudson children alone.

  Matt rubbed at his bracelet. It didn’t look like a regular subway stop. The walls were tiled in a herringbone pattern, and the ceilings were arched and ornately designed with green-and-white tile. Brass chandeliers hung from the ceilings, and there were big, beautiful skylights designed with geometric patterns. It looked like they’d stepped into a fancy ballroom rather than a subway station.

  “This is really pretty,” said Ruby. “What stop are we at?”

  “I don’t know,” said Matt. There weren’t any of the normal black-and-white signs with the different numbered or lettered circles to tell you where you were and show you which direction to go. There wasn’t another person in sight, and it was eerily quiet.

  “Oh, look!” Ruby said, pointing to the ceiling. Right in the center of one of the white-tiled arches were words formed with black tile.

  “City Hall,” said Corey. “That’s a regular station, isn’t it?”

  “I know what this is!” said Ruby. “We came here on a field trip in fourth grade. Remember, Corey? This is the old station that got closed about a hundred years ago.”

  Matt vaguely remembered his father showing him a map of the old subway routes. There were many train tracks and stations that were no longer in use.

  “I guess I remember,” said Corey. “But why did the train bring us to a closed station?”

  “I think we were supposed to get off before,” said Ruby. “It must come through here to switch tracks or something.”

  “Great. So we’re in an abandoned train station,” said Corey. “How do we get back now?”

  “We just need to find an exit,” said Matt. “There’ll be someone to help us.”

  They walked in one direction for a bit but didn’t find any stairs. Matt’s stomach started to knot up. He felt a headache coming on. He hoped he wasn’t about to have another seizure. This would be the worst possible time for that. Not that there was ever a good time.

  “Let’s go back the other direction,” said Ruby. “There has to be an exit somewhere.”

  So they went in the other direction, but before they got more than a few steps they saw a dull light creep up on the wall.

  Matt craned his neck to see down the tunnel. “I think a train’s coming!” he said.

  The light grew brighter every second until they could see glaring headlights coming down the tunnel. The train did not sound like a train. It was eerily quiet. Perhaps it was a very new train, Matt thought. But as it approached and slowed, it clearly did not look new. It looked like something that had risen from a swamp. Water dripped down the sides of the cars. Toward the bottom it had what looked like rotting leaves and barnacles growing on it, as though the train had been pulled from the bottom of the ocean. It even smelled a bit like the ocean, briny, fishy, with a faint aroma of . . .

  “It smells like peanut butter,” said Corey.

  The windows were so caked with grime it was impossible to see inside. A symbol was posted in the window, a bunch of white arrows crossed to make a star, with part of it in bold red to make a V.

  “Have either of you ever heard of a V line?” Ruby asked.

  “I think so,” said Matt. About a year ago Matt had memorized the subway lines and routes in an unsuccessful attempt to convince his parents that he should be allowed to ride transit on his own. He knew there was a V line, or at least there had been at some point, but if he remembered correctly he didn’t think it served this end of town, and he’
d never seen any subway line with a symbol quite like that. Maybe it was some new design or something.

  The doors creaked open. There were people inside, but the train was too dim to make out their faces.

  “We’d better get on before it leaves,” said Corey, stepping toward the train, but Ruby held him back.

  “But we don’t know where this train is headed,” said Ruby.

  “It’s going in the right direction,” said Corey.

  “Yeah, but what if it’s an express train? Maybe we should just call Mom.”

  “Are you crazy?” said Corey. “Do you want to be on a leash for the rest of your life?”

  Matt really did not want to call his mom. Even though this had all been Corey’s doing, Matt would get plenty of heat for not taking charge and putting a stop to it, and in this scenario it was going to be a fiery furnace. He pictured his mom at the museum, sharpening an old sword.

  “Let’s just get on,” said Matt. “It’s going in the right direction. We can ask another passenger for help if we need it.”

  Ruby sighed. “Fine. But I want it on record that I objected to this whole mess from the beginning.”

  “Noted,” said Matt.

  “Don’t worry. You’ll still be their favorite daughter,” said Corey.

  Ruby rolled her eyes.

  The Hudson children all boarded the train and the doors shut behind them. As the train began to move in the right direction a knot loosened in Matt’s stomach. Soon they’d be at school, a little late, but safe and sound, and hopefully their parents would be none the wiser.

  But that is not at all what happened.

  4

  Unusual Passengers

  8:24 a.m., April 26, 2019

  New York, New York . . . at least at first . . .

  The train smelled like tar and dirty socks and even stronger of peanut butter. Matt had ridden the subway enough to know that shouldn’t be too alarming. Get a bunch of people crowded together in a small space and all their smells could mix into a peculiar perfume, but this subway car wasn’t all that crowded. There were just five or six other people.

  A pale, towheaded little girl, maybe six or seven, was crouched on the floor, picking at a knotted rope. Matt looked around for a parent or grown-up with the girl, but the two people sitting nearest to her were children themselves—a boy and a girl about his own age. A grown man was standing at the far end of the car, but he was oddly dressed, like he had picked random pieces out of a costume bin. He wore leather chaps, a red cape, and, to Matt’s disgust, a Yankees cap. Definitely not trustworthy. He looked up at Matt and grinned. The light hit one of his teeth and it glared like a blinding camera flash. He started to amble toward the Hudson children as though he wanted to talk to them.

  “I think we got on the Weirdo Express,” whispered Corey.

  “I think we should get off,” said Ruby.

  Matt agreed. Next stop, they’d get off.

  As the strange man in the cape got closer, the three Hudsons backed up a little and promptly bumped into something behind them. They whirled around and were faced with another passenger, a man dressed in all black except for a pair of red Converse.

  “Oh, hello there!” the man said in a British accent. “Welcome aboard the Vermillion. We’re so glad you’ve decided to join us.”

  Matt looked around to see if he was maybe talking to someone else, but he was looking right at Matt. The man looked nice enough, and Matt didn’t get a crazy vibe from him like he did the guy in the cape and chaps. He was just about to ask him for help when a little white nose and whiskers suddenly poked out of the collar of the man’s shirt. A white rat crawled all the way out and perched on the man’s shoulder. Ruby gave a little squeak as the rat looked right at the Hudson children with red eyes that seemed far too intelligent for a rodent. It sent a little shiver up Matt’s spine. The rat hissed at them.

  “Now, now, Santiago, that’s not friendly. Smile at the children!”

  The rat obeyed the man, spreading his mouth to show his large front teeth in what looked more like a menacing grimace than a smile. The children all took a step back.

  “Please, sir,” said Matt. “Could you help us? We accidentally got on the wrong train and then we got on this train, and we’re hoping that it makes a stop near Eighty-Sixth or Ninety-Sixth maybe?”

  The man rubbed at his beard. “Eighty-Sixth . . . Eighty-Sixth . . . No, I don’t believe it is one of our stops.”

  “Okay . . . then could you tell us which stop is next, please? We have to get to school.”

  “School?” said the man, as though he’d never heard of such a thing. “I don’t believe we have a stop for School either.”

  Matt glanced at Ruby and Corey. Ruby shook her head, and Matt felt the warning signals go off in his brain. Something’s not right, he thought. If it were October, Matt would have thought this was some kind of Halloween prank. Maybe they were extending April Fools’ Day? Or was this one of those flash mobs?

  “So . . . where does this train stop next, exactly?” Matt asked.

  The man smiled. “You’ll see soon enough. I don’t want to spoil the surprise! I’d hold on tight if I were you. This ride could get a little bumpy.”

  The man pulled out a shiny black object attached to a gold chain from inside his shirtsleeve. It looked like a watch, but whatever it was, it seemed to frighten the other passengers. They all suddenly dove and scrambled to various places on the train. The man in the cape wrapped his arms and legs around the nearest pole, while the children crawled beneath the seats. Even the rat leaped from the man’s shoulder and wrapped its scaly tail around a post. It looked at the Hudson children expectantly.

  A voice crackled over the loudspeaker. “Prepare for a quantum time leap.”

  “What did he just say?” Corey asked.

  The knots in Matt’s stomach suddenly returned, twisting up in ever-tightening coils. “We need to get off,” said Matt. He looked around for an emergency pull, but didn’t see any.

  A train horn blew, but it seemed a little distant, like it was coming from somewhere up ahead. It blew again, louder this time.

  “There’s another train coming!” shouted Ruby. “We’re going to crash!”

  “Don’t worry,” said the captain cheerfully. “Vermillion knows what to do.”

  Matt closed his eyes and waited for impact, but it never came. The train picked up speed, faster and faster. It roared so loud Matt couldn’t even hear his own voice. He covered his ears. The whole train was vibrating violently, and then it lurched forward with such a jolt that the three Hudsons toppled over each other and landed hard on the floor.

  Ruby gasped. “The floor!” she said.

  “What the . . . what?” said Corey.

  Matt looked down. He could hardly believe his eyes. The floor appeared to be melting, morphing from the smooth worn floors of the subway car to cracked and rough wooden planks. A nail head poked at his hand. Matt looked up. All around him the train car was altering, growing, transforming. The walls expanded, and the windows shrank. Lacy curtains unfurled and crawled down the sides of the windows like fast-growing vines. The hard plastic benches of the subway swelled into plush chairs and tables with white tablecloths. The fluorescent lights on the ceiling contracted and then dropped, forming crystal chandeliers. A plush rug sprouted beneath him. It grew through the floor as though it were a carpet of grass pushing through dirt.

  Matt picked himself up, then helped Corey and Ruby, who had somehow gotten tangled in the rug. It seemed to have grown up and around Ruby’s wrists and ankles, as though it were trying to weave her into itself. Matt and Corey helped free her, and then Ruby yelped as the white rat leaped across their faces and landed on a little table. It pulled a match out of the table drawer with its tail, struck it against the wall, and began lighting lanterns and sconces, then the crystal chandeliers hanging from the ceiling, until the space was well lit once again. It was not at all like the train they had been in before. The subway car no
longer looked like a subway at all. Rather, it looked like a very old-fashioned train, but one for rich passengers. First class.

  “Whoa,” said Corey.

  The other passengers began to crawl out from beneath tables and chairs. The man dressed all in black stepped out of a corner and the rat leaped back onto his shoulder, his whiskers twitching in an eerily rhythmic fashion.

  Matt grasped for some reasoning behind the elaborate change.

  It’s a dream, thought Matt. That’s the only logical, scientifically sound explanation. I’ve had a seizure. I’ve passed out. . . .

  But he’d never had a dream when he passed out, and never had his dreams felt so real, so vivid. He could feel the sway of the train, the carpet beneath his feet. He still got a faint whiff of fish and peanut butter, but it was overpowered by the buttery aroma of pastries and coffee. You couldn’t smell in dreams.

  “I dare say the Vermillion quite fancies you three!” said the man in black. “She rarely goes to such lengths for the rest of us.”

  “Ver-who?” said Corey.

  A door opened behind them and a man in a plaid suit and fedora stepped out. “She’s all set, Cap’n,” said the man. “Almost there!”

  “Thank you, Wiley,” said the captain.

  “Hey!” said Corey. “You knocked me over this morning!”

  Matt’s memory clicked into place. It was the very same man who had nearly bulldozed Corey on their way to school and gave him a twenty-dollar bill as reparation. The man did not seem at all surprised to see the children there. He smiled broadly at them.

  “Good to see you again, my friend!” he said, tipping his hat, then stuck a wooden pipe in his mouth.