Time Castaways #2

by Liesl Shurtliff

  “Corey had some bubble gum left over!” said Jia, holding up a pink pack of bubble gum. “Did you find any peanut butter? Matt, what’s wrong?”

  Matt didn’t answer Jia. He stumbled over to where Chuck and his dad were talking.

  “Hey, Matty, what you got there?” asked Chuck.

  Matt looked down at the photos he was holding, and back up at Chuck.

  “Uncle Charles?”

  Everyone fell silent. Chuck went rigid. His eyes flicked down to the photos in Matt’s hands.

  “Matt, what are you talking about?” said Mr. Hudson. He walked to Matt, who handed him the recipe card. Mr. Hudson glanced at the recipe, his brow knit in confusion. He turned the card over and saw the Polaroid and grew even more confused.

  “How did you get this?” said Mr. Hudson to Chuck. “Why do you have it?”

  Chuck let out a long breath. “Because it’s mine,” he said. “I’ve always had it, since the day it was taken. It’s the last picture we took together before I left.” Chuck took off his hat and his sunglasses. Mr. Hudson just stared at him, but Matt could see him twitching a little, the recognition in his eyes as he noticed the unmistakable characteristics—the hairline, the long, straight nose, the laughing gray eyes.

  “Charles . . . ,” said Mr. Hudson.

  “Hey, big brother,” said Chuck solemnly.

  “But . . . you . . . you can’t be Charles. You’re . . . too old. I’m older than you. Last I checked . . .”

  “Yeah, I know,” said Chuck. “Time travel can be a little tricky that way.”

  “Time travel . . . ?” said Mr. Hudson. “When did you . . . ? What happened?”

  Chuck glanced briefly at Mrs. Hudson. It must have meant something, because suddenly she gasped, covering her mouth. “No,” she said. “Oh no, he didn’t!”

  “I’m afraid he did,” said Chuck.

  “Who did what?” said Mr. Hudson, looking between his brother and his wife.

  “Sit down, brother,” said Chuck. “I’ll tell you everything, but I’m afraid you’re not going to like it very much.”

  Mr. Hudson slowly sat down in one of Blossom’s vinyl seats, his legs trembling a little. Chuck sat next to him. He ran his fingers through his hair in a way that was so much like Mr. Hudson, Matt wondered how he could ever have missed the connection.

  “It was at your wedding when it happened,” Chuck began. “Was it 1999? I was twenty-three and going nowhere. Mom kept bugging me to go to college, like you, but I was never as good and smart as you. I was the screwed-up younger brother.”

  “Word, yo,” said Corey, lifting up a hand.

  “Corey, be quiet,” said Mrs. Hudson. Corey looked at Matt and smiled, as though he’d just proven his point.

  “Anyway,” Chuck continued, “at your wedding I got a little tipsy. You probably wouldn’t remember that because you were busy celebrating with your beautiful bride, but I snuck a bottle of wine and I had a little too much, I guess. I went into the trees to be sick so Mom wouldn’t see, and then there was this man. He was dressed all in black, but kind of weird clothes, some of them sort of old-fashioned, but he had on red shoes.”

  “That’s Captain Vincent!” Corey shouted.

  “Shh!” said Ruby. “Let him talk.”

  “I thought he was part of the band or something. We started talking, and he asked if I was the lucky man of the hour and I said, ‘Sure am! I’m the luckiest son of a gun that ever was!’ And then everything went dark. I think I passed out, maybe. The next thing I knew, I was inside of some old ship, sailing in the middle of the ocean. And there was Dad.”

  “Dad!” Mr. Hudson interjected. “You saw our dad?”

  Chuck nodded.

  “Wait. I thought Grandpa Hudson died,” said Ruby.

  “We thought that too,” said Chuck. “We thought he’d died on a hiking expedition in Patagonia, but we never did find a body, and then here he was right before my eyes. He looked exactly the same as the last time I saw him. Hadn’t aged a single day. So I thought maybe I had died, too, and here I was seeing good old Dad again. He didn’t recognize me, of course. I told him who I was, and he didn’t believe me until I showed him the scar on my leg where I’d cut myself on the fence that one summer and had to get stitches.” Chuck pointed to a white line, just below his knee, that was about three inches long. “Anyway, there was a lot of confusion. I thought I had died. Dad thought it was all some elaborate joke. We demanded Captain Vincent explain what was going on, but all he would tell us was that he had to prevent catastrophic events from happening.”

  “He thought you were me,” said Mr. Hudson. “He was trying to keep Belamie and me from being together. He must have thought Dad was me, too, when he took him, and then when he realized he’d made a mistake he came to take me at the wedding so Belamie and I wouldn’t be together, only he took you instead.”

  “I pieced that together eventually,” said Chuck. “But it took a while. Boy, you sure did make him mad, taking his lady.”

  Matt looked over at his mom. She was covering her eyes and shaking her head, like she didn’t want to believe what she was hearing. “What did Vincent do with you then?” she asked.

  “He stuck us in a tiny boat and set us out in the water, then started to sail away.”

  “Ooh, you got discarded,” said Corey. “That happened to us too.”

  “How did you get away?” Ruby asked.

  “Dad told me to grab some oars, and we chased after the ship for a while, even started to gain some ground, but then the water started to bubble up around it. Then, inexplicably, a rope dropped down the side of the ship, and someone called down for us to grab hold. Dad told me to jump, to grab on to the rope, said he would be right behind me. He practically shoved me out of the boat. I caught the rope just before the ship disappeared and went for the worst ride of my entire life.” He shivered at the memory.

  Matt shivered, too, remembering the time he’d time-traveled that way, hanging from the Vermillion by a mere rope. He’d never been so utterly terrified in his life.

  “I let go of the rope,” said Chuck. “I probably shouldn’t have, but as soon as I saw a glimmer of light and land, I let go and went rolling. And then when I got my bearings, I realized I was in Tanzania! In 1975, a full year before I was even born! Forget death, I thought I’d gone plumb crazy.”

  “So what did you do?” Mr. Hudson asked.

  “I waited around for a while, hoping that ship might return, but it was gone, so I did what I had to do to survive. I got a job. Made my own way. I traveled the world as much as I could, hoping to find that ship, or Captain Vincent, or Dad, but it was all in vain. And then the time came when Dad was supposed to disappear, and I got a grand idea. I wondered if I could prevent all this from happening.”

  “Oh no,” said Ruby, covering her eyes with her hands.

  “Don’t worry, I wasn’t the reason Dad got abducted in the first place. I got my dates mixed up. I came home a full month after Captain Vincent had already taken Dad. You can imagine my frustration. I threw a bit of a temper tantrum and then Mom found me. She didn’t recognize me of course, but she must have seen the desperation in my face and took pity because she asked if there was anything she could do to help me. I realized in that moment what a good, kindhearted woman our mom is, and I felt bad for what a hard time I’d given her all my life. I knew she’d never believe who I was. I was only supposed to be six years old then. But I didn’t want to leave. I was home, and I had promised Dad I would look after you and Mom. We both worried Captain Vincent might come after you again, though we still didn’t know why.

  “I told Mom I was looking for work and asked her if she needed help on the farm, that I was good with plants and land and knew quite a bit about vineyards, which wasn’t true exactly, but I was willing to learn. Mom said that might work temporarily, until her husband returned. He had gone away and she wasn’t sure when he’d be back, but she could employ me until he did. Well, I knew he wouldn’t return, so I s
aid I’d stay until he got back. She asked where I was staying, and I said I mostly lived out of Blossom. Mom never did like Blossom, but she was the most valuable thing I owned. I’d worked for three years straight on the fishing docks to be able to afford her. Anyway, she said I could stay in the little guest cottage by the vineyard temporarily, and I’ve been staying there temporarily ever since. I worked in the vineyard, and I kept an eye on you and Mom, though I kept my distance. Once my younger self got a little too close, tried to talk to me, and that was weird. I think I caused an earthquake almost. I remember I’d always been a little bit scared of Chuck, the farm manager, as a kid. Weird to think I was scared of myself! It’s quite the trip. . . . Anyway, I thought everything was fine, nothing to worry about. And then you two were getting married. You were nice and invited me to the wedding and everything. Of course it was on the vineyard anyway, but I thought, hey now, here’s my chance to make things right for myself at least. I could keep that crazy Captain Vincent guy from abducting me. I could at least have a normal life, even if I couldn’t save Dad. So when the wedding came, I watched myself closely. Watched myself steal that bottle of wine and get a little too tipsy, and then I saw him.”

  “Vincent . . . ,” said Mrs. Hudson.

  “I marched right up to him and started shootin’ the breeze, told him I liked his shoes, and that buttered him right up, so I asked if he was a friend of the bride or groom. He said groom, but he hadn’t seen him yet, and could I point him in the right direction? And that’s when it hit me. Someone was going to lose their life that night, and I’ll be damned if it was going to be my big brother on the happiest day of his life while loser me was doing nothing more than puking in the trees. So I pointed to my younger self and said, “‘There’s the lucky man of the hour. Boy, she picked a real winner, didn’t she?’”

  “You sacrificed yourself?” said Mr. Hudson. “For me?”

  “I didn’t sacrifice anything,” said Chuck. “We both know I was a screw-up going nowhere. This way I actually got to go somewhere. Probably gave me a better life than I would have had if I’d stayed.”

  Matt couldn’t believe this. Chuck. His uncle Charles . . .

  “Why didn’t you tell us?” said Mr. Hudson. “At least Belamie and me. We would have understood.”

  Chuck shook his head. “You had enough to deal with. I didn’t want you to feel responsible in any way. You aren’t of course, but I didn’t want you to feel that way.”

  “I’m so sorry, Charles,” said Mrs. Hudson, her voice full of emotion. “But also thank you. Thank you for letting Matthew stay.”

  “Hey, I’ve never seen him happier than when he was with you. That’s not something you can just mess up without it sitting heavy on your conscience. I thought everything would be fine after that, that we’d all just go on with our new wacko-normal. I could accept that, go with the flow, you know? But then Mom told me about the kids getting abducted, and I knew it was happening again, that Captain Vincent still had it in for you. I told Mom, ‘Get those kids up here, away from the city and all those kidnappers. They’ll be safe here.’ And that’s just what she did, but I guess even that didn’t work.”

  Mrs. Hudson growled a little and ground her teeth. She looked livid. Mr. Hudson didn’t say anything. He still looked stunned.

  “So are you, like, our uncle?” Ruby asked.

  “I sure am. Your uncle Charles.”

  “But we’ve always known you as Chuck,” said Corey, “so can we call you Uncle Chuck?”

  “You bet.”

  “Wahoo!” said Corey, lifting his fist into the air. “I have an Uncle Chuck!”

  Chuck smiled and gave Corey a fist bump. “You look a lot like your dad, but I have to say you kind of remind me of me as a kid, doesn’t he, Matty?” He looked to Mr. Hudson, who nodded absentmindedly. “Now that’s a compliment in some ways, but in other ways it’s a warning. You behave yourself.”

  “Hey, I’m not stealing bottles of wine or anything,” said Corey.

  “Good boy,” said Chuck, then he turned to Ruby. “And you’re the spitting image of your mom, and I see you’re going to be just as fiery and will keep the whole world in line with a sword.”

  Ruby beamed and blushed.

  “And Matty Junior,” said Chuck, turning to Matt. “You’re quite the genius. I don’t think I’d ever have been reunited with my brother without you. I never felt too lonely. You were all my friends before, but now, because of you and your compass, I feel like I have a family again.”

  Matt reached for his compass, feeling overwhelmed. Everything that had happened to Chuck, to his family, all because of his compass. Because of him. Matt had been the one to make the compass in the first place. None of this would have happened without him.

  “What about Dad?” Mr. Hudson asked. “Do you have any idea where Vincent left him?”

  Chuck shook his head. “None whatsoever. Looked like we were in the middle of the ocean. Could have been a hundred years ago, or a thousand. I don’t know.”

  “We’ll find him,” said Mr. Hudson, clearly determined.

  “How?” Ruby asked. “We don’t have the map anymore.”

  “I’ll find a way,” said Mr. Hudson. “We didn’t need the map to find Mateo.”

  “Even if we could rescue him,” said Chuck, “you gotta think about the repercussions of that. It doesn’t fix things necessarily, and in some ways might make it worse.”

  “What do you mean?” said Mr. Hudson. “How could it be worse to get him back!”

  Chuck put up a hand as though to calm his brother. “Just think it through,” said Chuck. “If we got Dad back at the time he was taken, he would be younger than both of us, almost thirty years younger than me, his youngest son. And maybe we could live with that, but what about Mom? How would she handle having her husband come home, unchanged from the day he left, but she’s old enough to be his mother? How do you think that’s going to go over?”

  Mr. Hudson sank down a little. “We could rescue him and take him back to the date when he was taken. Then it will be like he was only missing for a day or so.”

  Mrs. Hudson shook her head. “You know it won’t work like that,” she said. “You’d most certainly cause a glitch.”

  “What if we rescue him but we make him wait?” said Ruby. “We find him when he was discarded, but explain everything that’s happened and tell him he has to wait for forty years until he can be reunited with Gaga?”

  “Yes!” said Mr. Hudson, pointing to Ruby, but speaking to Mrs. Hudson. “That’s a reasonable solution that wouldn’t cause a glitch!”

  “Yes, in theory,” said Mrs. Hudson, “but again, think through the repercussions, as Charles said. You expect your father to put his life on hold for forty years, knowing that his sons are being raised without him, his wife living her life without him?”

  “Why not?” said his dad. “Mom never got remarried. She never even went on a date after Dad left.”

  Mrs. Hudson shook her head. “But your father might act differently, and besides that, a lot can happen in forty years. Too much has already happened on our end. It would be impossible to thread the timelines back together without causing severe damage in one way or another.”

  They fell silent. Matt was still letting all of this settle in his mind. He was calculating all the possibilities, any solution, but he was coming up empty.

  Mr. Hudson rubbed his head, pulling his hair. “So that’s it? Vincent rips my family apart, steals my brother’s and my dad’s lives when they did nothing to deserve it, and there’s nothing we can do about it?”

  Mrs. Hudson put her hand on Mr. Hudson’s back and spoke softly. “Matthew, I’m so terribly sorry.”

  “There is something we can do,” said Matt, clutching his compass firmly in his hand. Everyone turned to him. He’d been waiting, allowing the idea to fully form in his brain, checking for any weak spots, any holes. If they were there he didn’t see them. “The Aeternum,” he said. “We are supposed to get the
Aeternum.”

  “What?” said his dad.

  “Mateo,” said his mom.

  “No, listen!” said Matt. “Don’t you see? The Aeternum is meant for us. For our family, to repair all the damage Vincent has done! That’s why I’m mentioned. Because I made the Obsidian Compass, and I can take us to Quine who has the Aeternum!”

  “But what about the sacrifice part?” said Corey. “What if one of us has to die or something?”

  Matt shivered a little, thinking about what Quine had said to him, but he wasn’t about to tell his family about that. “I think the sacrifices in our family have already been made,” said Matt. “Mom sacrificed her parents for the Aeternum, and Dad did too. And Chuck. We’ve all made sacrifices. As for that last line, where it says ‘We are on’ I think it’s saying we’re on the same side. We’re friends in the future! Or family, I don’t know. But somehow we’re connected, because at some point I must have given him my compass to give to Mom, and now he wants to give us his Aeternum so we can fix everything that got all messed up with all our time-traveling.” Matt’s mind was reeling. His whole being felt like it was on fire, telling him he was on the right path. Foremembering. This was what they were supposed to do. He just knew it. They would get the Aeternum. They’d go back in time and make it so Captain Vincent couldn’t abduct his grandpa or Uncle Chuck, or even them. They’d save his mom’s family. He’d fix everything so it was just as it should be.

  “I think Matt’s right,” said Corey, and Matt beamed at his brother.

  Ruby nodded, her expression serious. “Me too,” she said. “It makes sense.”

  “Oddly, I do too,” said his dad.

  “And I,” said Tui.

  “Me too,” said Annie.

  Mrs. Hudson looked at her husband like he was crazy. “You can’t be serious.”

  “Belamie, it makes sense,” said Mr. Hudson. “It’s like everything has been leading us to this moment. To Matt, and Quine, and the Aeternum, for the chance to fix things.”