"Alright, Chloe, how do you do it?" she asked. "I do the links and you do the clip. You set the clip to the time and date that we are going to go to. Let's say, July 9th at 11:30 PM. I think that we were all in the parking garage by 11:00, so nobody will be at the house at 11:30. Then, you put the clip on your shirt, and I'll set the date on the 'FORWARD' link to 2045 and attach them, after that, you hold onto my arm and I'll click. Then, we should both pop away at the same time, at least, that was what happened when me and Riley tried it." I explained. I was super nervous. I had only traveled with another person that one time, and I was praying that it was going to work properly. "What if it doesn't work and me and Aunt Allie aren't able to leave together after all? How would I stop the shooting by myself?" I thought, suddenly very anxious.
I took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. Auntie always did the same thing when she was feeling stressed out and it seemed to help. I glanced over at her and she was doing just that. "Okay, Auntie, set the date and time." I said. She hurriedly set it and then showed it to me to make sure that it was set properly. I nodded and set the year on the links and then firmly attached them to the button holes of my shirt. "Ready?" I asked. "Ready, do it." she said. I closed my eyes and raised my right arm. "CLICK!" We both disappeared from the room, like we were never even there.
CHAPTER SIX
We both landed on the bed in a jumble of arms and legs. I didn't know how we got all messed up like that, but we had to take a minute and untangle ourselves. "UGH!" We both yowled and gagged, as the nausea hit both of us like a bus. We finally managed to get ourselves unraveled, without vomiting, and we sat there on the bed for a moment to catch our breath and waited for the last of it to pass. "I did not miss that feeling one bit!" Auntie groaned. "Ugh, shit, I feel awful." I said, grasping my stomach and gagging again.
Aunt Allie felt better before I did, so she unhooked her arm from mine and quickly stuck the clip into her front pocket. That was a good idea, so that it wouldn't get accidentally lost if anything happened. Her journal warned about the time travel sickness and neither of us wanted to ever experience that. PawPaw Matt said that it was the WORST. I removed the links from my shirt and gave them to her to put into her pocket, alongside the clip. "We might as well keep them together for now, Aunt Allie." I said. She nodded and tucked them away too.
I watched her as she took in the spare bedroom. It really did almost look exactly the same, except in her time, the walls were painted white and in my time the walls are painted light blue. Auntie always liked light blue, she said it soothed her soul or something. It was nice enough. "So, this is it, huh? Smells the same, looks pretty similar. I don't have a TV in here? That doesn't seem much like me." she asked, looking all around. "Oh sure, Auntie, they just aren't called TV's in my time and they aren't anything like what you have. Watch." I explained. "SCREEN!" I said, loudly, to activate the sensor. I waved my hand toward the floor and the sensor interpreted the gesture. The Smart Screen on the wall unrolled silently, it was only a millimeter thick, completely transparent and took up the whole wall. I then, snapped my fingers and it turned on. The video appeared with blinding clarity. I made a 'come here' gesture and the entirety of the scene immediately leapt out of the Screen and into complete holographic 3D, totally surrounding us.
"H..O..L..Y.. SHITBALLS!" she yelled excitedly, as she spun around to take in every single bit of the scene around the room. It filled the entire front of the little bedroom. She was so entranced that I had to tap her shoulder and call her name twice to get her to snap out of it. "Aunt Allie, the cats. Come on! Let's make sure that they're alright, then you can play with the toys!" I said, as I made my way out of the bedroom.
Of course, as soon as I opened the door, all 5 of them were standing there looking impatient and meowing for their Mommy. "Hi there, guys!" she squeaked, in the loudest, squealiest voice ever. Aunt Allie was always the cat whisperer. They looked at her confused for a moment, but then they finally came up and rubbed on her legs. I was pretty sure that they could recognize her scent, even if she didn't look quite right. "What are their names? Do you even know?" she asked me, smiling from ear to ear. "Yeah! From left to right, that's Mila, then Mollie, then Boomer right there, that's Jamie and that's Max." I said, pointing from one to another as I named them off. "Well, I doubt I will remember that right away, but HI EVERYBODY!" she hollered again, picking them up and giving them hugs and nuzzles. They ate it up, of course, they always did love their Mom, even if it was a different Mom today.
I made my way into the laundry room to see what it looked like. That's where Aunt Allie kept the cat food and cat boxes, in both times. If they had been in the house for a while by themselves, there would be a lot of poo, but I went in there and the cat boxes looked really good and the room was very clean. That meant that they were fine and hadn't been alone much at all. The big cat feeder and water bowls that Auntie kept on the opposite side of the room were also full. Boomer was a picky eater and only ate wet food off of his little plates that she kept on the counter, and his plate of food was only half eaten. "Thank God. They're okay for now." I said to myself. Auntie followed me into the room shortly after.
"Well, everything looks freshly done, right? Smells that way, huh?" she asked, checking out the scene. "Yeah, everything looks good. We should call your friend Kat and see if she can help out while you're 'out of town' or something. We can just lie and say that me and you are taking a trip and that we aren't sure when we are returning. She is the friend that lives the closest. She's just right over in the next neighborhood." I explained. "Kat, what's her last name?" she asked. "Leandros, her husband's name is Josh." I answered. "OH MY GOD! She's still my friend? I've known her for YEARS! Since we were like, 18 and 21 or so." she said, excitedly. "Oh yeah, you're still friends, you two have always helped with each other's cats over the years. She always comes over to watch shows with your Other. Y'all are obsessed with good dramas, it's all y'all talk about." I said. "HA! That sounds about right. Well, how do we call her?" she asked.
"Come on, I'll show you. Since you don't have Other Auntie's Handheld, we will have to use the Screen. It works the same way as our Handhelds do, the only problem is, you look way younger than your Other, sit down, let me do your hair like hers really quick. "Whenever we call, just tell Kat that you got a new filter. She will believe it with no questions, and she shouldn't wonder about your younger face after that." I said, as she sat down and I started getting her hair into the ol' Auntie bun. She had much longer hair than the older version of herself. "Aunt Allie never wore her hair down, she always said that it made her neck too hot and she didn't like all of the sweating." I explained, as I put the finishing touches on the bun. "Sounds like me." she said. "Okay, Auntie, that's as close as we are going to get. At least you still dye your hair the same color when you're in your 60's." I said.
"Here we go. My voice is set in the voice recognition, so I can call her from here for you. Stand right there." I said, pointing to a spot right in front of the coffee table." She obeyed and went to take her place. I could hear her stomach starting to bubble and I knew that she was nervous. I hoped that she wasn't going to start the sweating and the mumbling and the gas. "That would be awful." I thought to myself. "You're fine, Auntie. Ready?" I asked. "I guess." she said, inhaling and exhaling sharply a few times. She sounded like she was about to give birth.
"SCREEN!" I said, loudly, and gestured my hand toward the floor to lower it completely. The Smart Screen quickly and silently appeared on the living room wall. "Okay, Auntie. Did you see what I did in the bedroom to turn it on? She raised her hands and snapped her fingers and glowing light suddenly filled the dark room. "Bad ass." she mumbled. "Okay, Auntie, I'm about to do it, are you ready now?" I asked. "Yes, shit, Chloe, just do it already so I can get it over with!" she snapped. She was definitely nervous or she wouldn't be being such a bitch. "CALL KAT LEANDROS!" I said. The waiting music began and I told her to gesture to holographic 3D. She did it perfectly and the lights suddenly sur
rounded her.
After a minute, Kat was standing in the middle of the living room, well, a holographic version of Kat. "Allie! Hey Cat Lady! Long time no see! You look AWESOME! What have you done?" Kat asked. Aunt Allie glanced at me and I nodded her along. She looked at Kat and said, "Oh, I just got a new filter, it's pretty sweet." Kat nodded and said, "Oh okay, that's neat, I'll need to find a good one soon! So what's up?" she asked. "I need a favor, Kat, me and Chloe have to go out of town and we aren't sure how long that we are going to be gone. Do you think that you could swing by and check on the cats once a day and make sure that they are okay while we are away? I can pay you, no problem." she said, glancing at me. I nodded, we could pay. She was doing well and didn't seem nervous at all. I could tell that she was though, but Kat wouldn't be able to tell over the Screen.
"Oh yeah, that's no problem, I'm just right down the road, after all. Sure thing, I still have your key. I'll take care of everything, don't you worry, okay? You just ring whenever you two get back, how's that?" Kat said. "Sounds wonderful, Kat, I really appreciate it. It's great to see you! We have to go now, Chloe has something to do before we leave. Thank you again!" she said. "You're welcome, talk to you later, Allie!" she said, as she gestured toward her own Screen to end the call.
"Is that it?" Aunt Allie whispered to me. "You're good, Auntie, you did really well, I could barely even tell that you were about to get all gassy." I said, laughing. She laughed really hard at that and then told me to shut up. I got up and pushed the holographic 3D back in, snapped to turn the Screen off, and then gestured toward the ceiling to roll it away. "That is the coolest shit ever! I NEED this in 2023! Oh my God!" she howled. She was way too excited about it. "Where did the sound come from?" she asked. "There are tiny holes in the corners of the walls, do you see?" I pointed toward them, they were almost invisible to the naked eye. "Those are speakers, they pulse and vibrate and it bounces off of the walls into the bones of your ears and jawbone. I think that the vibration in the bones is what creates the sound, but I'm not an audio scientist or anything, they make way more money than could ever make." I explained. I didn't know EXACTLY how they worked, but that was pretty much it. "I need all of this! That's freaking insane! How in the HELL do they come up with this shit?" she hollered again, and I laughed my ass off. She was too funny, PawPaw was the same way when it came to electronic stuff. "It must be genetic." I thought to myself, shaking my head and smiling.
We decided that we might as well stay the night. It was late, after all and we didn't have anywhere that we needed to be. It made me sad being in Other Auntie's house without her and I knew that she and Dad were dead somewhere out there, though. I made myself stop thinking about it because it would only make me upset, and we decided that we would sleep. Tomorrow morning we would bounce back to 2023. If the cops found dead Auntie and Dad, they were going to come sniffing around, and we couldn't have them stumbling on this young version of Auntie. She didn't have a Chip or any type of ID so we wouldn't have any answers for them and that would be really suspicious.
We both curled up and went to bed in our separate rooms. Auntie let all of the kitties come with her, so she could talk to them and make them happy. I think she felt sorry for them because their Mama was gone and they didn't even know it. We were going to figure out a plan though, and we were going to get it fixed, we just had to. I fell asleep trying to figure out what we were going to do, but I had no ideas. It was a restless sleep and I kept having nightmares about their dead bodies lying on top of each other in that garage. I hoped that we could figure out a plan soon because there was no other option for me, I wasn't a hero, I was just Chloe Harmon.
The next morning, we woke up before the sun came up. We wanted to be gone before Kat came over to check on the cats. We weren't sure what time she was actually going to come, but Auntie said that she would probably turn up before she went to work, if she even worked still. We got dressed quickly and Auntie grabbed the clip from her pocket as we made our way back into the spare bedroom. "Do I have to set the date on the clip if we are returning? Or do I just need to be wearing it?" she asked. "Set the date Auntie. If I click the links, it'll return me to my time that I originally left and you won't go anywhere, we will have to set the 'BACK' link to return to your time." I explained. "Okay, got it." she said as she rushed to set the date to March 20th at 9:50 PM, that way we would show up a few minutes after we originally left her house. I set the 'BACK' link to 2023 and we both double-checked to make sure that everything was correct, it was.
We grasped arms again and both of us took a bunch of breaths in preparation of that sudden nauseating hook through the belly. I wasn't ready to be sick again, but we had to get out of there as quickly as possible, before we were spotted. I looked at her and asked her if she was ready to go home. "Yep, let's do this again. Go on, Chloe, hit it." she said. I lifted my left arm, clicked, and we dissolved, once again, into the infinite nothingness of time and space.
CHAPTER SEVEN
We crash landed in another pile of legs and body parts in the middle of my bed in the spare bedroom. I'm over 6 feet tall and Aunt Allie is 5'10" so that is a hell of a lot of legs to unwind. Aunt Allie moaned and groaned and gagged a bunch of times while trying to wiggle free, but all of the movement just made me even sicker. I couldn't hold it back anymore and I spewed all over the floor on the side of the bed that I was on. "SORRY AUNTIE!" I said, still gagging and spitting. That shit was rancid. I hated getting sick.
Aunt Allie managed to get out of the bed and run out of the room. She said if she had to sit in there with me yacking then she was going to puke too, so she rushed out and stumbled to the couch to sit down and close her eyes. I closed mine right there and finally, the spinning chilled out and I could function again. I made my way into the kitchen to get the cleaning spray and the paper towels. "Ugh, freaking disgusting." I said to myself as I started to clean. I would definitely make sure that we took the medicine next time, I didn't want to ever feel like that again and I was sure that Aunt Allie didn't either. She was right though, she really was an old pro. She got over it all way faster than I did. I guess that I just needed more practice, and I was sure that I would be getting it fairly soon.
Finally, after everything was cleaned up, we went and locked up the links and clip in the safe and then we both plopped down on the couch to talk. We had both slept all night in 2045, although I didn't sleep as well as she did, but since we were rested, it looked like we were going to be up all night in 2023. It was 10:15 PM and normally I would be getting ready to bed. "Chloe, go into my bedroom and pick out one of those empty journals off of the shelf. We need to start a new one for this new adventure of ours and we need to make sure that we write down all of our dates and times. This journal will be yours and we can keep up with it together, okay? Any of them will be fine, I've had them for years and I will never use them all." she explained. I nodded and said, "Okay, I'll be right back." and made my way into her room.
She really did have a shit-ton of journals. I wondered for a moment why she had so many, but she was just one of those people who liked to keep a bunch of everything, just in case. She had something in every size and every color. "Hmm, what color do I want?" I said to myself. I finally decided on the big blue one with the nice pattern. Aunt Allie's journal was purple and I didn't want to pick another purple one and confuse everything. We barely ever used paper anymore in my time, but we did learn to write with our hands in school even though the Handheld Screens were so much easier. I made my way back into the living room and sat down. She grabbed a pen out of the side pocket of her backpack and handed it to me. "You do the honors, Lovebug. It's all yours." she said.
I thought for a moment, staring at the pen (it had been a long time since I had used one) and then started to write. I wrote down what happened with the shooting in 2045 and I wrote down the date and time that I showed up in 2023. I also wrote down how old I was now and the date and time that we just left and returned back to. Everything looked okay to me
and I handed it to her for her to look over. "Looks good, love. Make sure that you always keep up with those dates and times. It was a life-saver for me in the past. I always chose dates that I could easily remember when I left my original time, that way, when I had to re-tell the kids my story, I didn't have to think about the date and I could just say a specific one, like my birthday or PawPaw's birthday or whatever. It helped, but this is your story so you're going to need to do what you think is best, okay?" she explained.
"Sounds good, Aunt Allie. That is a good idea, leaving on a particular day, it would make it a lot easier to remember and not mess anything up. Kind of like how I showed up on your 40th birthday because it was a date that I remembered from being a child." I said. She looked over at it and nodded. "Thank God you have me and Andrew's good handwriting. You should see your PawPaw's journal, it's the worst, you can barely make out what it says." she said, smiling. "I'll show it to you soon, you'll die!" she joked.
"The first time that I saw it, I couldn't even figure out what it said, I had to have my friend RoRo come over and try to help me decipher it. I think she forgot about it though, because she never said anything to me about it again. Thank goodness, because we don't need anyone knowing about our little links and shit, even if they are our good friends. I think keeping them a family secret is best, what about you?" she asked. "Yeah, obviously, I don't want anybody else getting hurt over these things. We won't tell anyone but family. I never did, and I still can't figure out how those men knew about them. What do you think we should do?" I asked.
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