‘The same, bro. You got a theory?’
‘2100’s not a leap year. The maths can’t fit. But midnight today . . .’
We listen to Big Ben’s theory about leap days and leap seconds. Leap seconds are usually added to the end of a year if things have got out of synch. But as this is an out-of-synch that should have been a leap year, anything could happen.
‘If you leap the nanosecond after midnight tonight, leap power gets stronger.’
‘You think we should leap then?’ I say.
‘Impossible is nothing,’ says GMT.
MC2 is nodding his head. ‘The glitch might unstitch in the pitch.’
We sit in the dark for what seems like hours, find the Big Dipper and the North Star because even though Le Temps is a real criminal he DOES know about time and the weather. Big Ben works it out mathematically. We hold hands again just before midnight, say goodbye to Big Ben and this time it works.
The journey back in time begins.
Chapter 22:00
INFINITES
MC2, GMT, Kwesi, Noon and I leap back to The Round, 2048, just in time for breakfast because we’re starving, tether Ewe to a tree and walk down to The Beanstalk. Big Ben does a good job in Fiona this time. I think Fiona helped with the supercharge. She doesn’t look any more squeezed than she did in 2100. He’s parked her where she usually is. Seconds later, Season’s outside. She doesn’t look at any of us, goes straight to Fiona, inspecting all the dents and taking photos of them on her Chronophone.
It’s strange seeing the centre filled with people again, everyone at breakfast sitting in their rows, munching on red muffins, white rolls, yellow bananas. Ama’s sitting with Eve near the food counters. She looks up when we walk in, gasps and runs over faster than leaping.
‘Kwesi!’
Ama cries. She’s crying because she’s happy and sad at the same time but I think she’ll be OK because she hasn’t seen Kwesi for years and now he’s here.
Millennia comes over to us. I’m scared she might kill me in front of everybody because I destroyed a CENTURY of work. She looks like she’s having a fight with her face. Her wrinkles are deeper than when we arrived a few days ago.
‘Welcome back, Time Travellers. Please eat. You are just in time for an early graduation.’
Big Ben immediately goes to the counter and loads up his plate. That boy eats from morning to night. No wonder he’s growing faster than bamboo. I’m glad he’s gone to get food because Season just came back into The Beanstalk. She doesn’t say a word. Just looks at us, which is worse because we don’t know whether she’s Power Surging or doing Anger Management. Her face is red and scrunched up like a fist. I wish she would say something because if she doesn’t she might hit Big Ben and it’ll be Armageddon.
Graduation is horrid. Everyone’s upset because we’ve only been here half a week. We’re supposed to graduate on Saturday morning and it’s only Wednesday. Big Ben and Season are late because he was giving her Ewe as a present to make her face go back to normal. As Season takes her chair on stage, next to MC2, Millennia humiliates Big Ben in front of the whole hall.
‘Is the most famous clock in the world, Big Ben, as bad as you at keeping time?’
When people go up to the stage to get their Leap Permits, they refuse to shake hands with Millennia. At the very end of the ceremony, she clears her throat like grown-ups do when they’re going to say something important.
‘Due to the unfortunate circumstances surrounding our trusted colleague, Mr T, Leap 2048 will terminate after lunch today.’
Martin Aston swears and Maria says her mum’s going to ask for a total refund, which is better than swearing in Portuguese. But I don’t get upset because I know that we just had graduation and after graduation you have to go home. We’re told to pack our clothes and vacate the centre by 2 p.m. Millennia waits until it’s quiet before she speaks again.
‘I founded this centre in the 2000 millennium when I CREATED the Time Squad. Our objective: to FIGHT CRIME ACROSS TIME. We have been fighting crime for 48 years. During that time, much has been achieved that I am proud of. But,’ she gives me the cat’s-eye for three long seconds and I look away, ‘the time has come for me to retire, to make way for other visions. I will NOT be idle.’
MC2 and Season raise their eyebrows so high they get lost in their hair. Millennia didn’t tell them. Does that mean they have to run the centre themselves until they get a new boss? Or is the Time Squad totally finished? What’s Millennia going to do, now she’s not managing the centre? Is she going to spend a whole century taking revenge?
GMT, Big Ben and I are speaking in whispers in case someone’s outside the Common Room listening. GMT wanted to talk to us, alone. I’m tired now. Everything’s happened so fast. Again, I’m confused. If it’s 2048, has this really happened yet or is it still going to happen? She’s saying something about Millennia being upset because Le Temps was her favourite colleague who helped her develop the centre; then something about the Predictive and I pay more attention. That it might have been sent by an infinite number of possible other individuals with an infinite number of reasons. SOS L could have an infinite number of interpretations. I can see Big Ben likes this because he starts listing all the possibilities till I’m scared he’ll go on forever.
But I like GMT talking about infinity because it’s my favourite mathematical symbol, a figure 8 lying on its side: . Something without a beginning or end. I used to doodle the sign in primary school until I got into trouble because I wouldn’t stop. Real infinity’s scary, though. I like to know when things start and stop. But I’m getting better at coping with things I can’t see.
GMT’s obsessed with time. She may not look at her watch 24 hours a day any more, but she keeps on about what you do in the present changing the future.
‘That text, Elle. If you rewrite the future, it can mean different things. Might not even happen at all. Save Pete LMS, save the planet!’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Be his buddy.’
‘He’s a bully!’
‘Who’s gonna be punished. OK, you don’t have to befriend him, you got friends already. He likes you. Maybe if you were nice to him, he might . . .’ She shrugs her shoulders. ‘You might be able to prevent all this.’
‘He’s not God. He didn’t invent global warming.’
‘Maybe not. But one small act could change the world. Ever heard of the Butterfly Effect?’
Big Ben knows the answer. We all wait to hear what he has to say. But at that moment MC2 appears out of nowhere.
‘Leaps,’ he blinks, ‘what happened in the hall, forget it. You ain’t graduated yet. You and Big Ben just got promoted.’
‘To the Time Squad?’ I say. How can we help run the Time Squad when we’re only 3-leap? That’s too young, even in the future.
‘No. The Infinites. Time Squad’s past tense. You freeze-framed Le Temps. We need your skills.’
‘I can’t because I’m only 3-leap and I’m not allowed to have a tattoo until I’m 4-leap and I can’t live in the future because Grandma wouldn’t have anyone to make her pepper soup when her leg is paining her.’
‘No probs, sis. You got the symbol anyways. Carved two more in The Round. Symbolising you and Big Ben. You get the tat when you level up.’
I open my mouth to a capital O. That explains the two extra signs on the trees. He predicted we’d become Infinites before the Predictive! He’s still talking.
‘You got no choice. Millennia’s speech . . .’ He shakes his head. ‘You faced the Predictive. Now you gotta face down Millennia.’ He pauses. ‘An’ your man leapt 52 years in a race car.’ He disappears, appears on the same spot. ‘You don’t have to LIVE here, just leap, Leaps.
‘Infinites need numbers. We gotta stop the eco-crimes. ROOT FOR THE FUTURE. When Leaps kept vanishing an’ I came to your school, I was head-hunting.’
‘Is our headteacher a criminal too?’
‘No, sis. Head-hunting’s recruitment. I ne
eded kids who took no spit, Leaps scorin’ high on the PPF.’ He looks at me and Big Ben. ‘You two just passed initiation.’
Big Ben scrunches up his forehead. ‘Is it like a ROAD for the future?’
‘I meant R O O T, but ya know what? It could be R O U T E as well. Maestro, Ben!’ He looks at his watch. ‘Meet you at The Round. In five.’
Kwesi, Noon, Ama and Eve are already there. You need eight people for the ceremony, to make the infinity sign. Kwesi looks at no one in particular, making shapes with his hands.
‘Kwesi says choose a letter or the letter will choose you,’ says MC2. ‘He means an initial, like the Time Squad. I’m E, GMT is G, Kwesi’s K. It’s better you choose one yourself. Gives it more grav.’
I look at Big Ben. He’s obviously going to go for B. But I can’t be E for Elle. That letter’s already taken. Then I have an idea.
‘Could I be L?’ I say. ‘Cos it’s a homophone of Elle?’
MC2 looks pleased. ‘Maestro! And it’ll remind Leaps you brought down Le Temps with SOS L. You’ll go down in PPF.’
‘And I’m B for Ben,’ says Big Ben, and MC2 gives him a high-five.
Then the eight of us hold hands to form the infinity sign, in silence, according to tradition. I’m desperate to ask lots of questions but know it will spoil the ceremony and Ama will roll her eyes anticlockwise and we’ll have to start all over again. I’m glad Ama’s at the ceremony, though, because she likes Leaplings when she’s not angry with us. She’s an honorary Leapling, like Bob Beamon.
After the ceremony, Kwesi draws an imaginary infinity sign on our left hands, over and over, till it feels like it will never go away. GMT smiles.
‘You and Big Ben are Level 1 Infinites. You passed the first test. Initiation.’
Big Ben says, ‘Are there infinite tests?’
and I say, ‘What’s the second test?’
at exactly the same time.
‘There’s four in all: Initiate, Intermediate and Infinite. Me, Kwesi and MC are Infinites. You don’t know what it is till it happens.’
‘That’s only three,’ says Big Ben.
GMT looks at Kwesi, Kwesi looks at MC2, MC2 looks at GMT like they’re passing the baton in a permanent relay.
‘Only one person’s ever passed the fourth. And lived,’ she says.
‘Who’s that?’ I say, but I think I know.
‘Infinity.’
That name again. Who is it? Who is it?
‘Where’s Infinity?’
‘Anywhere and everywhere,’ says MC2, popping up all over the place so quickly I think there’s ten of him. GMT gives him the bull’s-eye and he stops.
‘We ain’t met her. She just kinda gives orders. We obey.’
Kwesi and GMT nod their heads. I do what-big-eyes. How can you take orders from someone you never met? And how do they know Infinity’s a woman if they never met her? I meant to ask him WHO’S Infinity but I think he answered my question.
I look around at my circle of friends. This is the happiest I’ve ever been in three leap years. At 2 p.m. I won’t say goodbye. I’ll say au revoir, which means until I see you again. I know the criminal Le Temps said it to Millennia, but I’ll say it for a good reason. I might not see Ama as easily, though, because she’s an Annual. She can’t leap back to 2020 to see me. This makes me sad.
‘I don’t want to go home. I may never see you again.’
‘Don’t count on that, sis,’ she says, giving me her gap-toothed grin. ‘I can’t leap but you can. Track me down through MC2 or Kwesi.’
I think about Annuals not being able to leap. ‘Will Le Temps get ad infinitum?’ I say.
Kwesi looks at me and signs: ‘The sentence will equal the crime.’ He pauses until everyone is looking at him, then moves his hands like he’s conducting an orchestra. MC2 translates.
‘Not ad infinitum cos he didn’t kill no one. But he’ll be locked up at least a decade. Course, if he reforms in 2020, he might not turn criminal in ’48. The future needs the past to become itself.’
‘Kwesi’s right,’ says GMT. ‘Only you and Big Ben can reverse this. Save Pete LMS, no missing Leaps, no stolen DNA, no sheap!’
‘I can’t be nice to Pete LMS,’ I say. ‘He’s a monster. Anyway, Big Ben will fight him!’
‘No, I won’t,’ says Big Ben immediately.
‘I could stop calling him Pete LMS, I suppose.’
I think it through. If he’s not called Pete LMS, he can’t become Le Temps because he can’t make the anagram and think he’s so special. If he doesn’t become Le Temps, he won’t be able to buy the land for the centre and put Leapling DNA into sheep and sell sheap to those who can afford it.
‘What WILL you call him?’ says Big Ben. ‘And will you call me B from now on?’
‘No,’ I say. ‘I’ll call you Ben. Or Big Ben. BB for short, I guess.’
‘Elle.’ There’s a long pause. His face is bright pink and his voice sounds deeper than usual, like a man’s. ‘Sorry I said boys are stronger than girls. I’m scared you’d be sick in 2100. I didn’t like you to leap on your own.’
‘That’s OK. I forgive you!’
‘Am I your boyfriend?’
‘No. You’re my boy friend. My best friend.’
I hold out my hand and he takes it. I squeeze it and smile.
Big Ben smiles back.
Chapter 23:00
3-LEAP
Grandma’s waiting outside the front door when Mrs C Eckler drops me off at 10:30 a.m. There are two bags of shopping at her feet, bulging with food. While I was away, she managed to go shopping on her own! She looks like she’s aged 20 years; she can hardly lift her hand to put the key in the door.
‘Elle Bíbi-Imbelé. Welcome back! God has given you safe journey.’
She hugs me very tight and sings her welcome song. I’m happy to see Grandma again and glad she didn’t stay at the bottom of the stairs for hours.
I have to take the bags upstairs in two trips because they’re so heavy. Flour, sugar, eggs in one bag. Yams, beans flour, chicken and fish in the other. It’s strange to see chicken again, having spent all week eating vegan food. I didn’t eat anything Le Temps cooked. But Le Temps seems a long way away and a long time ago, even though he’s in the future. Grandma sometimes buys chicken for Sunday dinner or if we have guests.
‘Na special occasion. You have come of age.’
When Grandma cooks, she cooks for the whole village, even though she left Nigeria years ago, rarely goes back and we don’t socialise with the other tenants. Who does she think will eat all this food? No one in church knows it’s my birthday. Maybe she’ll invite them round tomorrow after the service. She’s always pretended my birthday’s on the 1st of March. But I hope she doesn’t invite them. There’ll be too many people speaking at the same time and I’ll get a headache. But it’s nice Grandma’s acknowledging I’ve come of age at 3-leap, that 12 is an important age for Leaplings, like 13 is for Annuals.
We’re going to cook chicken, fried fish, moi-moi, jellof rice and fried yam. We would have made pepper soup but Grandma already made some so I had something to eat as soon as I got back. I feel funny about eating the fish, so don’t put any in my bowl. I have three chunks of yam, though. I’ve missed having yam every day. I wonder what happened to the rest of the yams in 2048. Maybe Season made soup with them.
We’re also going to make birthday cake. It will be cake with eggs, not the vegan cake Season made, but I won’t refuse it or Grandma will be sad. She walked all the way to the shops to buy food and carried it all the way home, though her legs were paining her.
Grandma lays all the food out on the table. She’ll make the cake because it’s my birthday and the cake is her gift. I’ll help her with the savouries. She gives me instructions. But I know how to cook and she knows I know. She just likes to talk. Maybe she missed me those few hours I was away from 2020. She doesn’t seem surprised I came home early. If Leap 2048 had gone to plan and Le Temps hadn’t tried to kill me and got a
rrested, I would have got home after 3 p.m. But Mrs C Eckler decided because the trip was unexpectedly cut short we all deserved more time at home to celebrate 3-leap with our families.
I hear knocking on the downstairs door but ignore it. We’re not expecting anyone and my fingers are covered with onion juice. I’ve chopped the onions fine fine so they break down more easily in the blender with some water. Grandma even got some white tomatoes so the stew will remain white. I’ve never seen white tomatoes before. She must have ordered them specially. That was a kind thing to do. We can use the same stew for the jellof rice and moi-moi.
Someone’s knocking again, more persistently this time, like it’s the postman and he’s got a parcel that’s too big to fit through the letterbox. Grandma looks at me.
‘Elle, answer the door!’
I’m cross because I have to wash my hands and I haven’t finished chopping the onions but I do what Grandma says. I never disobey her. I trudge down the stairs and have to sort out all the latches before I open the door because we had a break-in a month ago and the thieves stole some stuff from downstairs. They never stole anything from our flat. We don’t own anything they would want to steal.
It’s Big Ben!
‘You didn’t text,’ I say.
Big Ben’s only visited our flat twice and both times he texted before he arrived. He shrugs his shoulders.
‘Left my phone at home. Haven’t been home yet.’
Big Ben follows me up the stairs. Our flat door is already open.
‘You are welcome!’
Grandma gives Big Ben a big hug and a huge bowl of pepper soup. He eats it in two minutes without coughing and asks for more. Maybe he’s a Nigerian in disguise.
‘Make tea for this your boyfriend!’
‘Grandma, he’s not my boyfriend.’
Grandma smiles as if she hasn’t heard me and continues to blend the onions, singing as she does. It’s a bit noisy but we can cope with the noise. I can hear knocking on the door, AGAIN. I can’t remember the last time it was so busy. I check my phone for the time and realise there’s several texts, all from 2048.
The Infinite Page 17
