Time Camp Episode 1: Family Time

by John Huegel

  Time Camp

  Episode 1: Family Time

  By John Huegel

  BOOK ONE: BUSINESS TRIP

  Chapter 1: Chopping Wood

  It was cold and gray outside, and a steady wind was blowing from the West. Andy Watson was not in a good mood, and he let it show. He and his dad Tom were outside chopping wood while his twin sister and Mom were inside, playing video games, texting and staying WARM! All he wanted was to go inside and relax.

  “Dad, do we have to do this?” Andy moaned, as he carried a bundle of kindling over to the porch. He knew the answer but had to let it out.

  “Well, you were the one who wanted a roaring fire every night,” replied Tom. “You gotta chop it son, or it won’t burn right.”

  “Well, Brad has a gas fireplace in their house, and so does Zack. Why do we have to burn wood?” whined Andy, as he slogged across the snow-covered back yard.

  “Because we have a real fireplace that burns real wood. This is how it was done for all of history. Isn’t that exciting, to think that what we are doing has been done for thousands, maybe millions of years?” responded his dad, as he grunted with an armload of split wood.

  Andy replied, “Yeah, real exciting. My feet are freezing and my nose is running. How much longer?”

  “Just another few minutes. Come on, help me split some kindling so we have some good thin wood for starting.”

  Andy sighed and picked up the old family hatchet. It had been in the family for several generations, and had chopped many seasons’ kindling wood. Both he and his dad were pretty good at shaving kindling off of split logs.

  As Andy and his father worked, he wondered about how many logs had been split over the ages. His dad’s comment about history got him thinking about how many dads and sons had labored in the snow to provide wood, not just for a toasty living room, but to heat houses and cook food. It seemed so old-fashioned, but it gave him a place in history. At 12 years of age, Andy was already starting to think at times like an adult, and at others like a kid. Blonde and strong, he had not yet reached his full height, but he was growing quickly.

  “CRAP!” bellowed Tom, as he jumped up and grabbed his left hand.

  “What happened?” cried Andy. He could see a few spatters of red on the white snow. He didn’t like where this was going.

  “My mind wandered and I let the hatchet skip off the stick. I cut my hand”, replied Tom.

  “Is it bad?”asked Andy as he came around to see his dad’s hand.

  “Not worthy of stitches. A couple of butterflies and I’ll be good as new”, replied Tom as he headed for the back door.

  Andy called out, “I’ll finish here and be in as soon as I fill the box, dad. You get mom to patch you up,” but Tom was already inside the back porch before he was finished talking. The adrenalin rush from his dad’s accident had him warm and moving quickly. In just a few minutes, he was done and heading indoors. Darkness soon came, and a light midwinter snowfall began to swirl under the outdoor lights.

  Chapter 2: A quiet dinner

  Jenna Watson helped clean up her dad’s cut left hand and put a clean bandage on it. Shortly afterward, her twin brother Andy came in, and they talked about the accident and school stuff and some of her friends, whom Andy had started paying some attention to lately.

  Jenna was blonde like her brother, and was a slender, quiet girl. Active in cheerleading, she was starting to make new friends at her school. She liked helping around the house, and was starting to become more interested in art, especially drawing and fashion.

  The house was quiet tonight, as the twins’ older sister Laura was away, staying at a friend’s house. That suited Jenna just fine. She loved her sister dearly, but being two years younger kept her in Laura’s shadow. Sometimes, she just enjoyed the quiet time.

  Over a dinner of pizza and salad, Jenna, Andy, Tom and his wife Liz chatted about many things: Andy’s basketball, Jenna’s cheerleading, their schoolwork, and the parents’ upcoming business trip.

  This would be Liz and Tom’s first trip together in many years. They were both psychologists, though they worked for different agencies. This year, the national convention for psychologists was being held in Buffalo, New York, just a short drive from their home in Erie, Pennsylvania. Given that they were traveling together, they were able to get the approval from both companies to allow them to go to the convention and share expenses. After finalizing the details and re-arranging schedules, they were ready for a bit of a break…just the two of them for a whole week!

  The kids were not very happy to see their parents leave. The kids’ Grandma Jean was coming into town to stay with them. She would stay quite busy with the kids as each of them had a full agenda of after school sports and club activities, and she would need to pick them up and drive them around. Since Tom and Liz would be gone for nearly a week, it was important to plan every hour of every day to keep the kids on schedule.

  As the evening drew to an end, Andy played his video games, Jenna texted and messaged online, and Tom and Liz relaxed with the dogs and finished their last minute packing.

  Chapter 3: Missing Mom and Dad

  Sunday’s weather dawned no better than the previous evening. A continuing gray, dull, cold and snowy day awaited them as Laura arrived home from her sleepover, followed shortly by Grandma Jean. Laura was tall, slender and strong, and very determined to succeed at anything she tried to do. Her long brown hair and green eyes set her apart from her fair-haired younger brother and sister.

  Tom and his wife loaded the car, gave final instructions to the kids and Tom’s mother, and shuffled off to Buffalo.

  As they drove, they chatted about the seminar schedule and the list of activities planned for the convention. Time passed quickly for them, and soon they were in Buffalo. They found the hotel and convention center, and parked and registered at the hotel. Once they found their room and unloaded their luggage, they went back down to the lobby and over to the convention hall, where a welcome reception was just getting started.

  Back in Erie, the week went by slowly for the Watson kids. Andy had basketball practice and lots of homework, and Jenna had cheerleading and even more homework. Laura was equally busy, and all three kids missed their parents terribly. Grandma Jean was nice to have around, but the family was very close and they didn’t feel right when Tom and Liz were not around. Plus, Grandma Jean got tired a lot, and didn’t give the kids the kind of attention that they received from Mom and Dad.

  On Thursday night at around ten PM, Jenna jumped out of bed and ran to Grandma Jean who was still up watching television.

  “What’s the matter, sweetie?” asked Grandma Jean.

  “I had this feeling that Mom and Dad are gone. But then it just went away!” sobbed Jenna. She was clearly upset.

  “I think you just miss your parents a lot, Jenna.” replied Jean. “You’ll see them tomorrow, I’m sure of it.”

  “I hope so. It was like… like they disappeared!” Jenna said.

  “Well, it was just a bad dream, honey. Why don’t you have a glass of water and try to get some sleep.”

  “OK, I guess it was kind of silly”, replied Jenna as she climbed the stairs to her bedroom. But she still had a strange feeling about what she had just experienced, and it took her many minutes to relax and fall back to sleep.

  Chapter 4: Home Again!

  By Friday evening, the kids were very excited with the impending return of their parents. When their minivan rolled up, the kids and dogs ran to the car to meet them.

  As Tom and Liz burst from the car, the kids ran up and made a big group hug around them. Liz was smiling and crying, and Tom was a little teary-eyed as well. The dogs were yapping and Grandma
Jean was watching from the porch, with a smile.

  Andy noticed his mom’s tears and joked, “Mom, you must really love us to be so worked up!”

  Liz commented, “Well kids, it’s been a long time since I’ve seen you!” She exchanged a glance to Tom, who returned the eye contact with a knowing grin.

  Laura piped in, “What do you mean? It’s been only five days!”

  Tom quickly interjected, “Well, it just seemed like it was a lot longer than that, I suppose.”

  They decided to go out to get chicken wings for dinner. Grandma Jean yawned, and mentioned that she had to get back to her cats, after which she packed herself back into her car to go home. After a quick thank you, goodbye and hugs all around, Grandma Jean drove off and the Watsons headed out for dinner.

  Chapter 5: Things Noticed

  Over dinner, the Watsons caught up with everyone’s activities. Andy, being the most vocal of the twins, jumped into the conversation first. He proudly announced his recent grades and his basketball game on Wednesday, where he scored 8 points. Jenna quietly described her new stunts in cheerleading and some interesting activities in her student council. Laura kept the chatter going, talking about her Model U.N. meeting, her volleyball practice and the game she played on Thursday. They pestered their parents for details on their trip, and tried to understand the meaning of the seminars and workshops that they attended. They brightened to the discussion of the food, parties and the convention floor, where all of the many vendors showed off new products and services.

  Laura mentioned one comment that changed the mood of the dinner. “You know the collage I’m doing on world history? I chose the Fall of the Berlin Wall and was working on it this week. The strangest thing happened, though. I downloaded some pictures of the wall being torn down, and I’d swear there was a person in one of the pictures who looked just like you, Mom!”

  “That’s ridiculous!” snapped Liz. Everyone just stared at her. She said “I’m sorry Laura. I didn’t mean to shout at you. It’s just that it would be impossible for me to have been there. That was what, 20 years ago? We were in college then, and would have been in our twenties.”

  “It was November 9, 1989. I remember the date, because it’s the same date as Ashlyn’s birthday,” replied Laura, somewhat defensively.

  “Ahh, November 9th, 1989. We weren’t even married then.” replied Laura’s father, trying to smooth over the incident.

  “Well, it looked exactly like you, Mom,” replied Laura.

  “I’d like to see it when we get home,” commented Liz.

  “Yeah, sure,” replied Laura. But her expression showed that she was hurt and confused by her mother’s outburst.

  Andy, sensing some stress, said, “Hey Dad, how’s that axe-wound doing?”, and he lifted his dad’s hand. His mouth fell open as he looked at his father’s hand. There was no scar! “What – what happened to your scar?” asked Andy.

  “I must be a quick healer,” muttered Tom as he pulled his hand back and glanced at his wife. “Is everyone done? We should get the check and head home before it gets too late.”

  The kids exchanged a puzzled look. Sensing dinner conversation was over, they put on their coats and headed for the van.

  Chapter 6: A Strange Discussion

  Back home, the kids met in Jenna’s room, the neatest of the three kids.

  “Something really weird is going on with Mom and Dad,” said Laura. “They were really jumpy at dinner.”

  “Yeah,” said Andy. “I have no way to explain how Dad healed up so fast. Jenna, you saw his cut. It was massive!”

  Jenna replied, “I know. I didn’t tell you two but I had a really funny feeling Thursday night. I think something strange happened to them, and they are keeping it from us.”

  “What do you think it might be? Did they get in some kind of trouble in Buffalo?” asked Laura.

  “I don’t know, but it’s not fair for them to treat us like this. We’re a family!” stated Andy.

  “Well, let’s see if things change tomorrow. They did just get home, after all,” Laura said. “Let’s give them a day, and if they don’t pull out of it, I say we call a Family Meeting, like they used to do to us.”

  “That sounds fair,” said Jenna, and the other two went to their own rooms.

  Downstairs, Tom and Liz were unpacking and putting away their suitcases.

  “Liz, I feel really weird about this”.

  “Me too, honey. It’s like we’re holding out on them.”

  “We were gone so long. Two months is too long to be away from the kids,” replied Tom.

  Liz replied, “They are too smart. How could we ever explain the scar to Andy? And the picture! What are the odds that Laura would pick this one week to look back at that one event? “

  “Well, Lana told us it would be hard, and we’d have to make one decision for all of us.”

  “We have all of the time we need, she assured us of that,” said Liz. “But I don’t think we should take a lot of time to decide. The kids know something is up, and I don’t like how I react when we have to cover something up. I say we get this out in the open. We’ll just have to trust the kids to deal with this in confidence.”

  “I agree completely. Sunday morning, we have a family meeting”, replied Tom, as they got ready for bed.

  Chapter 7: Family Meeting

  Saturday was busy as usual, with shopping, the kids at sports and lots of running around. Liz and Tom were a bit reserved and nervous about their upcoming meeting. They told the kids not to make plans for Sunday as they had a special activity planned. There was a bit of grumbling, but no outright fireworks. In fact, the kids were relieved that they would have a chance to talk to their parents about the strange things going on.

  Sunday morning, after everyone was up, they cooked a big breakfast and everyone ate their fill. As they were cleaning up, Laura asked the question. “So what’s the big deal? What can be so important that we have a family meeting?”

  Their mom answered, “It’s going to take a while, and we need your complete attention, so phones off and get comfortable.”

  So everyone took a cozy seat in the living room and Tom and Liz sat down with fresh coffee. “We need to ask one thing before we start. You must never discuss this with anyone outside of this house, unless we tell you that the person is OK to talk to about this,” started Tom.

  Andy was first to chime in. “We kind of figured out something was up, but you’re kind of freaking us out with this cloak and dagger stuff, Dad.”

  “Yeah,” replied Jenna, “Did you guys get in some kind of trouble in Buffalo?”

  “Well, after we’re done, you’ll know why we’re having this meeting,” replied Tom, a bit annoyed.

  After a few awkward glances around the room, Liz began, “This is going to sound totally strange, but please keep an open mind and let us finish before you interrupt us”.

  “You see, you might think we were gone five days last week. But we were really gone about two months.”

  “What?” hollered Laura. “That’s not possible!” The twins just looked at each other with strange faces.

  Dad replied, “We’re going to tell you the whole story from our perspective.”

  Chapter 8: The Story

  Tom explained.

  “We got to the convention hall Sunday night. There were a bunch of people there at the cocktail party we told you about. One lady was a bit of a strange bird, but she introduced herself to us as Lana and started talking to us like she knew us. I thought I had seen her in Erie a while ago, but she brushed off the question when I asked her.

  During the whole week, we’d run into her at least once a day or more, and she’d manage to catch us at meals, and ask lots of questions about us, about our whole family. We asked her where she was from, but we didn’t get anything more than that she was from Canada. I guess that kind of explained her accent, or so we thought. We also noticed some strange tattoos on her wrists and around her ears, but we didn’t want
to embarrass her by bringing it up.

  It wasn’t until Thursday that things got strange. She asked us to join her for lunch. During the meal, she asked us if we were interested in some really experimental, confidential research. We were curious, and she invited us to join her at a research facility in downtown Buffalo that night. We were a bit nervous about it, but we decided to go with her.

  We met her outside the convention center. She had a car with a driver, which impressed us. We climbed into the limo and he drove us all off downtown and then north near Niagara Falls. Now we’re pretty familiar with Buffalo, but he took us to some warehouse area over near Tonawanda on a side street we’d never seen. The warehouse was medium sized, and looked pretty much like all of the others nearby: single story, a few windows, some truck bays and a front office with the light still on.