Time-Travel Duo

by James Paddock

  Steven raised his eyebrows.

  “It’s a real treat. You’ll love it.”

  By the time they had finish their shopping and Steven was steering his rental through the entrance to Grizzly Ranch, Annie had the problem solved. She’d wait until her father had gone asleep and then she’d sneak out and call her grandfather on the satphone; tell him to hang loose until her dad flew home. He was only planning on spending a week. Still, Annie feared that her grandfather had paid her a visit while she was gone and now had his Yukon parked at her cabin. Unlikely, but the way things were going, too damned possible. For that reason Annie kept a sharp eye beyond the pond, past the lodge, toward her cabin, frantically trying to come up with a plan if the Yukon was there. Maybe she’d just jump out and run into the woods.

  When her cabin came into view, the Yukon wasn’t there as she feared; instead there sat a red car, a very nice looking, red car. The only person she knew around here was Patrick and even his parents didn’t drive anything like that. Something solid flopped over in the pit of her stomach as they passed by the lodge, and she didn’t know why.

  Steven pulled up perpendicular to hers and the red car. “Who’s that?” Steven asked.

  “I don’t know.” The dryness in Annie’s mouth suddenly returned. She got out, looked at her cabin door and then at the car; a Chrysler 300. She looked toward the river, past Mary and Richard’s cabin and then felt the hairs on the nap of her neck start a little dance. Hoping that what she was sensing was only a figment of her imagination, she turned around. Her heart sank. Coming from around the front of the lodge were two people, two older people, two older people who looked very much like Aunt Gracy and Uncle Henry.

  “Oh God!”

  Chapter 59

  June 15, 2007

  Annie’s mind raced for a solution, yet she did not have a full handle on the problem. She had just talked to Aunt Gracy yesterday, but she foolishly brought up the time travel project. Obviously, somehow, Aunt Gracy put two and two together—I should have known better; what was I thinking?—and dropped everything they were doing to come here, thinking she had gotten herself in trouble. Dad, on the other hand, knew nothing and that’s how it should stay.

  In a flash it came to her. She bolted past her dad, down the dirt drive, threw her arms around her Aunt Gracy and in a low, fast voice said to both of them, “Don’t say anything to dad about my phone call. He knows nothing and would go ballistic. He’s just here for a week and then he’s going home.”

  “Then my suspicions were correct,” Gracy said.

  Annie’s mouth opened and closed like a fish gulping for water.

  “I don’t like it,” Henry said. “Secrecy inside the family and whatever the hell it is you’re up to.”

  “Please, please don’t tell him.”

  “We don’t know enough at this point to say anything. So I guess we’ll wait until you’ve given us a full briefing, which I’m sure you will . . . right?”

  The door was wide open and Annie knew there was no way to shut it now. The only thing she could do was keep her father from stumbling through it. She nodded. “Yes. I’ll tell you everything.”

  Uncle Henry squeezed Annie’s arm and then patted her on the shoulder. “Good.”

  “Thank you,” Annie said to them both.

  “Don’t go thanking us yet, young lady. From the sound of it you’ve got a lot of explaining to do. I can’t wait to hear it.”

  “Steven! How the hell are you?” Uncle Henry bellowed and strode forward, hand extended.

  Annie introduced her family to Ruth and Chuck—her dad from Massachusetts and aunt and uncle from Florida. She dispensed with titles, doctor, congresswoman and senator, not wanting to get into all that. “A mini surprise family reunion,” she’d explained. The cabins were all full and the attendance at the campfire the highest she’d seen. They didn’t stay long, at least she and Gracy didn’t. Gracy grabbed her hand and said, “Let’s go for a walk.”

  Annie groaned inside knowing the questions were about to come. At least it was just Aunt Gracy. Uncle Henry had a tendency to get a little overbearing. She stood and followed her aunt into the darkness beyond the campfire, leaving the men to listen to the stories.

  Once around the lodge and strolling beside the pond, frogs and crickets dominated the night. Annie would have liked it to stay that way, but . . .

  “So start talking, Annie,” Gracy said.

  Annie looked up at the stars and pulled her fingers through her hair. “I don’t know where to start.”

  “Let’s start with your phone call. You asked what happened with the equipment after it was dismantled and what the new by-laws said. What prompted you to call and ask me those questions? Don’t tell me you’re thinking of trying to resurrect that crazy project?”

  Annie slowly shook her head. “No.” The word got caught in her throat and she had to repeat it.

  “Thank God for that. You worried us four years ago when you started doing all your research. We were relieved when you gave it up.”

  “But you were part of Broad Horizons twenty years ago when its sole purpose was funding the project.”

  “And there were many board meetings that degraded into shouting matches. Everyone on the board was where they were for one and only one reason; because your mother traveled back and provided stock market insight. We all knew that, but none of us wanted that wealth at the price of her death.”

  “What were the arguments about then?”

  “The arguments were usually about whether it was a pure accident that she stepped into that time machine, or whether it was preordained? In November of 1943, when Admiral Harris, my dear father, had arranged for her to meet with Robert Oppenheimer, she told the admiral that she felt that that meeting was the entire reason she had been sent back in time.”

  “But we don’t know for sure, do we?” Annie said.

  “No. The only person she spoke to after that meeting was your great-grandfather and she didn’t share any of it with him. As far as we know, Robert Oppenheimer never penned a record of the meeting.”

  “Wasn’t the admiral at the meeting, though?”

  “And General Groves, but something strange happened which my father was never able to explain. Your mother started shouting that she was wrong, that she had made a mistake, and that everyone had to leave right away, had to get Oppenheimer out of there. And then at the last second, out of earshot of everyone else, she had a private conversation with Oppenheimer. The last words she spoke to my father left him with the impression that Oppenheimer understood who or what she was, and that she had left him with the assurance that he was on the right track.”

  “So it sounds like she insured that history continued as written.”

  “Or something else happened the first time around and she changed it,” Gracy added.

  “I don’t think so,” Annie said. “That’s the one thing that doesn’t make sense.”

  They walked a few paces.

  “True. Now tell me what has prompted this all to come up again.”

  Annie turned completely around, gazing into the dark to be sure that no one had followed them or could overhear their conversation. When she came face to face with her aunt again the words started tumbling out as if she feared they would get stuck, “You asked if I was trying to resurrect the project. I wasn’t lying when I said I wasn’t because it has already been resurrected. I was the first to take a trip through the wormhole last night, or this morning depending on how you look at it, that is if you don’t count a couple of hamsters and a satphone. I didn’t even know about it until yesterday morning, or maybe the night before, at least that it was here. I knew that it existed ten days ago after the satphone came but I told him no. But now it’s here and I’ve seen it and it works and I need to do it. I’m sorry Aunt Gracy. I shouldn’t have called you. I was confused. Didn’t think.”

  “You told who no?”

  “Ah . . . ah . . .”

  “Who brought this back
to life, Annie? It was your grandfather, wasn’t it?”

  Annie didn’t respond.

  “After your call yesterday I contacted all the board members, discovered your father’s plan to surprise you today.”

  “You already knew he was coming? You didn’t tell him about my call, did you, or the board?”

  “I may be old but I’m not crazy. I did figure out what was going on, though.”

  “From my phone call?”

  “Of the board members your grandfather was the only one I couldn’t account for. Apparently he had suddenly decided to take a vacation and was out of touch for most of the summer. And the person I talked to said that he and Doctor Grae took off together.”

  “And you knew Grae was involved twenty years ago.”

  “I was there, Annie. Of course I knew. I then took the liberty to check up on some of the other original team members. It seems Doctor Bradshaw, who is also a professor at MIT, has taken an unplanned vacation as well. That’s three. Who else is in this?”

  Annie looked at the ground. “Just a grad student. Charles Walshe.”

  “Never heard of him. Who else?”

  “That’s it.”

  “Only four of them?”

  “Five,” Annie corrected.

  Gracy looked at her.

  “Me. I’m the fifth.”

  “Didn’t you say you didn’t know anything about it until a few days ago?”

  “I said I didn’t know it was here until a few days ago. I knew it was up and running last week when Grandfather sent me the satphone. I knew they were working on something before I left Cambridge because they tried to recruit me. I turned them down. I had no idea at the time that it actually existed. I thought they were only playing with the concept. I told them it was stupid and to stop it.”

  “And now you’re part of it.”

  They had strolled to the far end of the pond where lights from the lodge reflected across the water. There was no denying that she was part of it. Her agenda was a growing fire in her gut, flames licking at her heart. “Yes.”

  “Where is it?”

  Annie took in a deep breath and blew it out. She started to point and say, “Just a bit up river,” and stopped herself. “Not too far away,” she said instead, pointing roughly southwest then had to put her hand at her side to keep from rubbing her ear. She wasn’t sure why she lied, maybe a reluctance at showing all her cards.

  There was a long silence before Gracy said anything. “I’m struggling to figure this out, Annie, to understand it. They built this thing in Cambridge and then hauled it all the way out here? How?”

  “It’s in a trailer.”

  “Trailer?”

  “Big truck trailer. Eighteen wheeler type.”

  “Why here?”

  “It is where I am.”

  Something splashed in the water. The resulting ripple made the lights dance for a few seconds. When it had smoothed again, Gracy said, “They brought it to you? Why did they want you so badly that they’d haul this monstrosity across the country? Didn’t you already tell them no?”

  “I told them no last month and again when Grandfather sent me the satphone a week and a half ago.”

  “You mentioned this satphone before. What do you mean, he sent it to you?”

  “He . . . teleported it to me.”

  Gracy grabbed Annie’s arm. “He what?”

  “Teleported. They can displace time and distance. Set time to zero and you have teleportation.”

  “Holly molly, Annie! That’s . . .”

  “Crazy. Yes, I know.”

  “Crazy’s a mild word for it. Insane would be a tad closer, or demented, irrational, maniacal, mad . . . genius!”

  “Of course it’s genius. So?”

  “Teleportation has real world applications. Time travel, however, is stupid and downright dangerous. That needs to end, now!”

  Annie just looked at her.

  “Holly molly!” They both continued to stare at the water. “Okay. Let’s put that aside. Back to my previous question. Why did they need you so badly that they’d pack it into a trailer and bring it to you.”

  “They didn’t pack it in the trailer. That’s where they built it to begin with.”

  Gracy held up her hand. “Fine. Fine. I don’t care how it got in the trailer. Why you?”

  “I already have most of the knowledge and they know I can be trusted.”

  “You’re leaving something out. Why else?”

  “Because I’m small enough, Aunt Gracy. I’m the traveler.” Annie hoped Aunt Gracy would leave it at that, but she didn’t.

  “To where are they wanting you to travel?”

  Annie pulled her jacket tighter. “It’s getting colder.”

  “They’re not thinking of you going back to your mother in 1943, are they?”

  “No.”

  “Then, where?”

  Annie sucked in a lungful of cool, night air, wished again that she had not called her Aunt Gracy, and then said, “To Boston, September 10, 2001.” She blew out the remaining air.

  It took a few seconds for Gracy to register the date. “The day before 9/11? They want you to stop it?”

  “Yes.”

  Chapter 60

  June 15, 2007

  “My Lord!” Gracy said. “That’s crazy.”

  “I know.”

  “Is that what made you change your mind?”

  “No. We’ve pretty much discussed it to death and determined that the risks are too high. I think the 9/11 scenario has been shelved.”

  “Thank God for that. But you are still on board with this thing, aren’t you? Why? What’s the other agenda?”

  Annie understood why Aunt Gracy had been a popular and hated congresswoman. She had the perseverance of a bloodhound. She had heard the stories about how Gracy had tracked Annie’s great-grandfather, Constantin von Frick—he became Nathaniel Samuelson Frick who operated as a German spy in 1943 under the name Nathaniel Bronson in Charleston, South Carolina—through Europe, then to south of Chicago in the early 70’s to find him serving as a reputable and respected Illinois county sheriff. This was of course a private search that stayed inside the family.

  “It’s important to no one but me.”

  “Bullshit, Elizabeth Annabelle! You turn that machine on and it’s important to all of us. In the shadow of your dying mother we all vowed to guide you and protect you and if that means protecting you from yourself, then we damned well will. You tell me what your other agenda is or I’ll call an emergency board meeting and spill this all over hell. I’ll bet I could have them all here by lunchtime tomorrow. You know I can.”

  Annie dropped her head and nodded. “I can’t . . .” She sniffled and choked, wiped at tears that started running down her face. “I can’t live like this, Aunt Gracy.”

  “Like what?”

  Annie could only sob.

  “Suck it up and spit it out! Like what?”

  And then once again, she got the words out, punctuated with more and more sobs. “I told Tony I hoped he got killed.”

  As with Mary, Annie completely broke down, crying uncontrollably. Unlike with Mary, Gracy didn’t join her. She only held her hand and waited. When finally Annie took a deep breath and dragged the sleeve of her jacket across her face several times, Gracy said, “So, what is it you plan on doing about it?”

  “Go to the night before he actually deployed, at Camp Lejeune.” She sniffled and wiped her nose on her sleeve again. “I have to apologize for my words. If I don’t take them back I’ll never have a life.”

  “We all have words we’ve said or things we’ve done that we regret for the rest of our lives. Such as the time I called a congressman from California a homophobic bigot when my microphone was still on.”

  Annie allowed a small grin.

  “We learn to bear it and move on.”

  “Most people don’t have a choice, Aunt Gracy. I do. I can change things.”

  “Why aren’t you considering t
rying to stop him from getting killed?”

  “I’ve thought of it, believe me. It would be changing history and I don’t think it can be done.”

  “Why do you think you could change your words, then?”

  “It’s different.”

  “How’s it different?”

  “Well . . .” Annie finished wiping her face with the palm of her hand as she thought. “I wouldn’t actually be changing history. My words will have still been said, but in a way, I’d be taking them back. I’d do it in the middle of the night so that the chance of interaction with someone else is minimal. It’d be a quick in and out; a few hours. All he would see is his wife showing up to apologize and say goodbye properly. He’ll be happier. I’ll be less unhappy and may have the potential to become happy again someday.”

  “You’ll get there and you won’t be able to let him go. You’ll do something stupid and you won’t be able to leave.”

  “I won’t do anything stupid. Anyway, I won’t have any choice in it. The Marines will say it’s time and that will be that. Grandfather will bring me back.”

  “How will he know when it is time?”

  “I’ll signal him.”

  “You could do that?”

  “I’d carry something about the size of a pager. Grandfather calls it a seeker.” Annie went on to tell her aunt about how they tested it with the hamsters, and how she traveled back twelve hours herself, and how matter cannot exist twice at the same time. Gracy asked a lot of questions, but Annie couldn’t tell if she was warming up to the whole thing or not. It only took several minutes after Annie had finished before she found out.

  “We have to shut it down,” Gracy said.

  Annie just looked at her.

  “Don’t give me that look, young lady. My word is final and I can guarantee Henry will stand with me on it.”

  Annie bowed her head again. “I wish you wouldn’t.”

  “I don’t care what you wish. We can do it quietly in the morning. Your father and the rest of the board don’t have to know a thing. We’ll come by and pick you up at 8:00, tell your father we’re just going for a bit of a drive and you can take us to this trailer. If I get any grief I’ll call in the board members and that includes your father.”