Chapter Twenty-Four
“We did it!” Jayden yelled, and Lindsey and Ellen hugged me.
“I hope you have a good explanation for what you did,” Ellen said.
I didn’t answer. I was mesmerized with Franny and Dan. He collapsed onto the grass, and she whipped off her bandana to wrap around his arm. He laughed and told her not to worry. I watched them, trying to soak in every movement, every word.
Ellen pulled me aside, speaking fast and low. “Karen sent a message for you—you can’t tell your parents who you are. Too much knowledge is risky in time travel.”
The airy excitement that filled my lungs leaked away, replaced with a heaviness in the pit of my stomach. I wanted to shout “Mom and Dad—it’s me Stella!” but instead my voice choked, and I barely whispered, “Thanks for saving me.”
“Glad to,” Franny said. “A couple of my trackers lit up, and we came to help.”
“Trackers?”
“The key chain you’re wearing.”
Ellen brought out her key chain, and I felt for the cord at my neck. The tracker was still warm.
“Karen figured out the code in Dan’s notebook,” Ellen said. “The dig site was the time portal, and Dan recorded an entry for today.”
“Did Mr. Parker know?” I asked.
“No. He was busy sorting out Sarah and the others. But Jayden started running, and we followed. We never would’ve made contact if Lindsey hadn’t reached out to Dan’s mind.”
“An impressive bit of thought transference,” he said. “We found each other, and with your tracker, it was easy to find you.”
“But why in the world did you give the Pandora Device to Dr. Card?” Ellen demanded.
I looked at Dan, and the warmth of his smile gave me confidence. “I found my gift—I can see possibilities, and I saw the way to stop him.”
The color was coming back to Dan’s face. “I programmed the machine so it will only go forward a day at a time.” He chuckled. “It will take Dr. Card a while to figure out how to override it, and in the meantime, we know where the present-day version of the Pandora Device is hidden. We’re going to retrieve it so we can take it back to our own time and destroy it. Permanently. Dr. Card will find himself without a time machine.”
“Are you sure it will work?” Ellen asked.
“Yes—it’s the nature of Stella’s gift to see the possibilities.”
“Which brought us here?” she asked. She shot me a warning look, reminding me not to give away my identity.
“It’s the easiest way to get the device,” I said. “It’s in Franny’s old house. Follow me.”
We crept up the stairs as quietly as we could, but when we reached the landing Grandma called from her bedroom. “Who’s there?”
I whispered to the others to wait for me, and I walked into her room.
“Stella,” she cried, clasping my hands.
She looked weak, and a sudden fear clutched my heart. “Are you all right?”
“Of course,” she said. “But I’ve had the strangest dreams. You were coming for the White Whale because the Englishman said it wasn’t safe.”
“Who…” I began, but Grandma caught her breath. I followed her gaze and saw Franny standing in the doorway.
“Franny, is that you?” She dropped back against her pillows, closing her eyes. Her face turned deathly white. “I’m still dreaming,” she murmured.
Franny stood frozen, but Dan pulled her away. “We need to work quickly,” he said, motioning to me.
I squeezed Grandma’s hand and followed.
We took the stairs two at a time, Franny muttering to Dan, who seemed to be arguing. I only caught the words “too dangerous.”
The White Whale lay on my bookcase, and I scooped it up and gave it to Dan.
“Thanks,” he said. He studied my face as though searching for something. “I suspect there are more connections here than we guessed.” Then he held up a hand. “But don’t tell us—we don’t want to mess up the future.”
Franny grabbed me by the shoulders and hugged me fiercely. “I wish we had more time,” she said.
I clung to her for a moment.
“I’ll see you again someday,” she whispered.
I forced back a sob. For me, this was the last time. In my future, I would never see her again.
“You did the right thing, Stella.” The gentleness in his voice soaked through my skin and down to my bones. He brushed my hand, and a dozen pictures flashed before my eyes. “All good possibilities,” he said.
My mother let go of me and took his hand. He pushed a button on the White Whale. Thunder rumbled and lightning flashed.
They were gone.
The energy drained from my legs. I stumbled, and Lindsey caught me. “We need to get you back to camp,” she said.
“I’ve got to check on Grandma first.”
I didn’t mean for her to see me, but she must have been watching the doorway. “Stella, this is for you. In my dream I’m supposed to give it to you.”
It was a clipping from the newspaper with the headline “New Technology Saves Lives” and underneath a photo of young Buckeye with his arm around his little brother. Behind them stood a familiar figure.
I sank onto the bed, and Grandma held my hand while I read the caption: “Bruce Jaeger with his brother and Uncle ‘Buckeye,’ who donated the bone marrow that saved his life.”
“He made it back,” I murmured.
Grandma patted the paper. “It’s the Englishman. Friend of your parents. He died in the crash with them.”
I kissed her cheek. “You should rest.”
“I know,” she said, smiling. “I’ve been having the most wonderful dreams.” She lay back and closed her eyes.
Lindsey used thought transference to contact Mr. Parker, and he rode with the bus that came to pick us up. He burst through the door and shook our hands enthusiastically. “You four gave me quite a scare,” he said. “But I’m glad you’re safe.”
We took turns telling him everything that happened. The worry lines in his forehead relaxed when he heard that Franny and Dan went back to destroy the machine. I gave him Grandma’s newspaper clipping, too.
“Buckeye did the right thing in the end,” he said. “He planted the Pandora Device where we would find it.”
“What about the Human Project?” Jayden asked.
“Thanks to Melvin and Calvin, we traced the location, and our agents raided the lab. They seized the equipment, but Dr. Card and his people escaped.”
In my mind, I saw Dr. Card again, stabbing my father, and I cringed.
Mr. Parker must have seen the panic on my face. “He can’t do much without his lab, and the authorities are pursuing him now.” He fixed us with his unblinking stare. “Which reminds me, they’ve asked us to keep the details of Dr. Card and the Human Project a secret. That means we won’t be able to say anything about this at camp.”
I thought of Ivan lighting his fingers on fire and cackling over our discovery of the time machine. “Does the rest of our group know?”
“They do. Even Ivan.” I wondered if he’d read my mind.
The bus shot through Simmons Tunnel, but the craziness of the ride was lost on me. I felt as though I’d left part of myself behind. Buckeye and my parents were in the past now.
As we emerged from the tunnel, Ellen slipped into the seat beside me. “I thought you might want to have this,” she said. It was the cloth case from the Pandora Device, more grimy than I remembered it. “I found it near the front door, and there’s something inside for you.”
I pulled out the stapled pages of Bradbury’s short story. Written across the top in blue pen was a simple message. “Thank you, Stella.”
Ellen smiled, and I realized we were now friends.
Chapter Twenty-Five
The next morning Mr. Parker invited me to his office. Aunt Winnie was already there, sitting in her wheel chair.
“Aunt Winnie tells me you’ve found your gift,” he
said.
I blushed. “I used to worry my invitation here was a mistake, but after all that’s happened, I realize I don’t need a special gift to help.”
“That lesson is a gift in itself.”
I looked at him, and his image wobbled. I was embarrassed that I always seemed on the brink of passing out.
“That double-vision is part of your gift,” he said.
I’d forgotten that Mr. Parker could read minds. “It doesn’t feel like a gift.”
“It’s only a symptom. When your vision goes double, it’s because two strands of reality are splitting in front of you. You’re seeing the possibilities, like you did in Dr. Card’s lab. I knew you had this gift the first time I met you—the way you saw possibilities in going to camp, and then possibilities in your friends when you wanted them to come.”
I tried to take in his words, but it didn’t make sense. “What good is a gift that makes you black-out all the time?”
“Your gift is immature,” he said. “But if you train it, you’ll see more and more clearly, and the black-outs will recede over time.”
I turned to Aunt Winnie. “That’s why you told me to close my eyes when I got dizzy and concentrate on what I was seeing…”
She nodded, her eyes glowing with hidden laughter. “And when you did, you probably knew what to do.” She tapped my arm. “Meet me at my cabin tomorrow for your first craft class.”
“You’re my teacher?”
“I told you this gift was rare, didn’t I? I haven’t had a camper to teach since your father was here.” She pulled an envelope from her pocket. “He gave me this shortly after you were born. He knew you’d come one day, and he wanted you to have this when you discovered your gift.”
I held the envelope and studied the precise letters that spelled my name—the handwriting of a scientist. I would save it until I could be alone.
While the others attended classes, I walked down to the lake, empty now. I sat in one of the green canoes that lay on the shore and looked out at the sparkling waters ringed with pine trees and blue sky. I opened the envelope and read:
Dear Stella,
If you get this letter, it means that your mother and I are no longer with you. We are doing everything we can to stay safe for your sake, but there are some possibilities we cannot avoid.
We have loved you from the moment you were born, and we hope you will always remember this. As I write, you are learning to sit up and have even said a few syllables, which your mother assures me are “Daddy.”
We’re sorry this message could not be delivered to you earlier, but we could not risk the Pandora Device being found. We have written other letters that will be delivered at the right times. For now, we want you to know that we are very proud of you. Congratulations on finding your gift. As you develop your abilities, use them to seek what is true and right.
Love,
Daddy and Mom
Chapter Twenty-Six
The last week of camp was blissfully uneventful, unless you count the cream pie levitating contest—in which everyone came out so sticky we had to swim in the lake—or the pig calling competition—who knew pigs were so smart? My favorite was board game night. Every team had someone who could read hidden writing. Freddy was on our team, and we won twenty points for Hawthorne House, partly because Jayden was an incredible strategist.
Midweek we cleaned up Aunt Winnie’s house as a service project. We swept up broken pots and brought her new jars full of wild flowers, and she sat in her wheelchair, directing the work. While I was putting books back on the shelves, I found an old album of photographs from the years my parents were at camp. Cecily sat with Aunt Winnie and me as we pored over the pictures.
“Look, it’s my mother,” she said. “Aunt Winnie, did you know someone named Sibby?”
“I did,” she said, adjusting her glasses. “But in those days we called her Hepzibah.”
Cecily’s eyes widened. “She wasn’t the one…”
“Yes, she was,” Aunt Winnie said with a laugh. “And my, oh my, she was a character.”
Cecily peered closer at the picture of the girl called Hepzibah. “I knew my mother was old-fashioned, but I didn’t know she was really old-fashioned.”
“Here’s another one you’ve met,” Aunt Winnie said. “He came with Hepzibah because his mother was hanged as a witch. Ethan Card.”
My breath caught in my throat. I looked at Aunt Winnie, and she nodded slowly. I knew she meant for me to understand something, but my memories of Dr. Card were still too painful.
Sarah and the other practitioners from the lab stayed for the week to give seminars on their areas of expertise. Cliff could control fire, and Ivan learned so much from him that by the end of the week he could start the campfire while he was a hundred yards away, splashing in the lake. Sarah taught oil painting, and Melvin and Calvin revolutionized the robotics teams. But Harold’s seminar was on fishing. “Fishing is always a surprise,” he told me. “And that’s worth all the effort.”
Though Eugene took the dowsing class back to the dig site three more times, they didn’t find any further artifacts, except for a tattered old bandana, stained brown. I thought of my parents’ last trip, and I knew where it came from.
On the last night we celebrated with a huge bonfire. Mr. Parker awarded a silver trophy to the Fellows for winning the most points, and the Thornes came in second.
“Thornes!” yelled Ivan, lighting all ten fingers on fire.
“Thornes,” we echoed.
“Just wait till next year,” Eugene growled.
The thought of next summer made saying good-bye a little easier.
Back at the dorm I packed everything up. My picture frame was still empty from the prank the first night, but now I had a memory of my parents that was even better. I tucked the letter from my dad in the frame, and felt for my mother’s key chain around my neck. It was nice to remember there was a tracking device inside that had led her to me.
I had made a dozen new key chains, and I put them in a brown bag so they would be ready the next day.
At breakfast I gave them to everyone at our table. Ellen blushed when I handed her one. “I’m sorry I don’t have anything for you,” she said.
“That’s okay. It’s just a memento.”
“So it doesn’t have a tracker like your mom’s key chain?” Jayden asked.
“Memory is a kind of tracker,” Lindsey said, twirling my gift from her finger as though it was one of her dream catchers.
Karen frowned. “I have something for you, too.” She passed me a white envelope with my name in block letters.
“Those warning letters—they were from you?”
“I’m sorry—Mr. Parker asked me to keep you safe and prevent you from stirring up interest in your parents. I guess I overdid it.”
I opened the envelope and pulled out the old photograph of Franny and Dan.
“The prank was you, too?”
I felt bad I’d suspected Joanne that first night, but then I looked in her direction. She was leading her group in a game to torment Ivan by levitating his suitcase out of his reach. Karen followed my gaze, and the suitcase flipped upside down, the handle thumping Joanne’s head.
She screamed and scanned the room to find who did it, but Karen was already looking at her plate, her whole concentration focused on cutting her piece of sausage.
After breakfast everyone exchanged contact information so we could keep in touch. Ivan had only his address to give us. “We don’t have electricity where I live,” he said, “or phones.”
“Will you come next year?” I asked.
His face broke into a grin. “Of course, and I’ll bring the rest of my team.”
Mr. Parker walked with me to the bus. “Stella, I want to thank you for what you did. I guess you understand now why we didn’t want you to learn about your parents. There was too much at stake if Dr. Card got hold of the Pandora Device.”
I nodded. “Like the story Hawthorne wrote. All
the evils of the world set free.”
He gave me one of his lopsided smiles. “Do you know the ending of that story about Pandora’s Box? After all the evil came out, there was one more creature left in the box—Hope.”
The door snapped shut, and the bus creaked down the driveway. I waved to Mr. Parker until we turned onto the dirt road and the trees closed in around us. We passed beneath the log arch, and the camp sign grew smaller and smaller as we drove toward the railway tunnel.
Lindsey’s mother met the bus and offered to take everyone home. I should have been suspicious when she pulled onto our street and dozens of people filled our yard. Miss Charlotte was passing out glasses of lemonade, and Lindsey’s father was standing over a grill. Ellen’s parents and some neighbors clustered around a collection of Grandma’s old tables, arranging plates of cupcakes, carrot sticks and potato chips.
As we got out of the car, everyone clapped and shouted “Welcome home,” and Grandma stretched out her arms for a hug. “Home at last,” she said.
Lindsey’s little sister Peggy tugged on my hand. She had lost her two front teeth since I last saw her, and her words came out in a whistle. “We want you to see your house.”
Grandma took my other hand. “Everyone’s been helping.”
Only then did I notice the front porch. It had a fresh coat of white paint, and the sagging bits were standing straighter. “Daddy got the neighbors to help,” Peggy said.
Grandma’s step seemed lighter, and she giggled. “I missed you so much, I dreamed about you one day,” she said. “Your mother, too. When I woke up, I realized I’d let the house overflow with stuff.”
I stepped in the doorway and breathed in the smell of lemon. I’d never seen the floor shine like this, and the opening to the library glowed with light. I peeked into the room—the piles of newspapers were gone! Grandma hugged herself, a smile spreading across her face. “Miss Charlotte found a library that wanted to archive those old newspapers. And Lindsey’s mother arranged for a thrift store to pick up the other stuff. Come and see.”
The Pandora Device (Camp Hawthorne Book 1) Page 13
