by J. Y. Harris
CHAPTER NINE
It was daylight.
Bright sun filtered through the trees.
Brad and Kristen blinked as they stood there, and looked around. Suddenly, there was no sign of the fog, behind them or anywhere else.
The dull hum of traffic was still audible in the distance, as well as the sound of a car door closing somewhere behind them.
The parking lot.
If they went back that way, they should find their car.
Right?
Brad reached into his bag and brought out his cellphone, flipping it on and thumbing a button.
“GPS! It knows where we are.”
Kristen checked her phone too.
“No messages,” she said, frowning. “That seems odd.”
“And why is it light? Did the fog somehow transport us through the night and into the next day?”
“I don’t know. But I find it hard to believe that nobody’s left us any messages.”
“I agree,” Brad said. “Let’s call mom and dad and tell them we’re back. I’ll bet they—”
Kristen grabbed his arm. “Someone’s coming!” she whispered. “From up ahead.”
“Why are you whispering?” her brother asked. “It’s not like it’s gonna be a British soldier and we have anything to hide.”
No sooner had he said the words than they both saw it through the trees: a red coat advancing toward them.
Brad gasped. It couldn’t be. They were back, they were home, in their own time. The sound of traffic confirmed that.
They were back… weren’t they?
They heard a rustling behind them, and, turning, Brad saw someone approaching from the way he and Kristen had just come. He saw someone wearing buckskins and a brown coat and a slouch hat.
Jacob? Could Jacob had done what Brad had explicitly told him not to do, and followed them into the fog?
And the British soldier… he was advancing quickly; he would reach them first. Before Brad could react further, before he could grab Kristen’s hand and run, the soldier was upon them.
The young man—tall, thin, dark hair, with black, narrow-rimmed glasses—nodded a greeting to the Everhearts and continued past them.
Meanwhile, the other person, the non-soldier, was coming up from behind.
Redcoat murmured a greeting and Buckskin returned it politely. Then Buckskin approached Brad and his sister.
“There you are,” he said. “I wondered what had happened to you.”
He looked at them from beneath the brim of his hat, and Brad’s heart sank.
Jacob!
Kristen looked dismayed and confused too. “How did you—.” She shook her head. “What are you doing here?”
The young man looked pointedly at her and then at Brad. “What am I doing here? The same thing you are, you idiots. Extra credit in history class and the community service requirement, remember?”
He reached up and pulled off his hat, ruffling his hair as he did so.
Kristen and Brad looked at each other, comprehension flooding through them.
“Eric!” Brad said.
“Uh, yeah,” Eric replied, and it came out with the clear implication of ‘duh!’ “It’s me, in the flesh, you twits. What’s up with you two? Why are you acting so weird?”
Brad shook his head as if to say ‘if you only knew!’
“Sorry, dude,” he said, as they continued walking. “We’ve had a rough day.”
“Already? It’s only eight o’clock. You can’t have been up that long.”
Kristen gave a snort. “You wouldn’t think so, would you? And yet, it feels like we’ve already had a very full day.”
Eric shook his head. “You look like it, too. Your dress is torn, at the bottom there, and you both look like you’ve been in a war.”
He didn’t see Kris and Brad exchange smiles.
“Hey, Eric,” Kristen asked, “your family… they’ve lived in the area since colonial times, right?”
“Yeah, since the 1720s, I believe. My grandfather used to talk about our family moving to this area about then.”
“And they owned a tavern?”
He looked at her. “So the story goes. Why? How do you know about that?”
Kris shrugged. “Just a little tidbit I picked up in some research.”
“Research? What are you researching? And why?”
“Oh, just learning a little more about the Battle of White Marsh. Or rather, what led up to it.”
Eric laughed as they walked down the dirt path. “There was a war going on, and two armies faced off against each other, right in this very spot. That’s what led up to it.”
“Do you have any idea if your ancestors fought in the war? Or played any part in it at all?”
Eric frowned as he thought about it. Kristen had already thought he was cute: dark hair, blue eyes framed by dark lashes, great cheekbones. She felt that Jacob had been equally good-looking, although his hair had been lighter, more dirty-blond than anything.
But she could see some of Jacob in Eric.
In answer to her question, he said, “I don’t know that I’ve ever heard of my ancestors fighting in the war. They may have, though. But they definitely owned the tavern at that time.”
Brad turned to look at his classmate. “Even if they weren’t soldiers, that doesn’t mean they weren’t involved in the war,” he said. “I mean, think about it: what better way to serve your country than to operate a tavern, where people congregate and stop in as they travel from one place to another. It’d be a great way to gather information.”
Eric stopped.
“Wait,” he said, and the others stopped too. “Are you saying… are you implying that my great-great-however-many-greats-grandfather… could have been a spy?”
“Not really a spy,” said Kristen. “Just—er, well—in the intelligence business. For our side, of course,” she added hastily.
Eric looked from one sibling to the other.
“Cool!” he said. “I could totally see that happening.”
The three continued walking, but Kristen dropped back next to Brad.
“Listen, when we get home later, think you could show me some of the info you got on Rebecca’s mom?”
“Lydia Darragh? Sure, but there isn’t much. Her story is anecdotal and was never able to be completely verified.”
“That’s okay; just whatever you were able to find.” She didn’t say it out loud, but Kristen knew that, if it was out there, Brad would have found it in his research, and anything he hadn’t found probably wasn’t worth knowing.
“What are you going to do with the information?” he asked.
“I thought I’d put it in my report for the community service requirement. It’s a great story, and we know it’s true, so maybe more people should know about it.”
“Y’know, I wonder…” Brad said.
“What?”
“I wonder if maybe there is something out there about Jacob’s family. You know, the tavern, the intelligence-gathering, and the role his family played in the war.”
“I would think there’d have to be something… somewhere.”
He shook his head. “I don’t know. I researched the whole thing pretty thoroughly—everything that led to the Battle of White Marsh. I think I would have noticed or remembered something that mentioned the name Tyson.”
“Maybe it was never made public. Maybe it was kept in the family. Who knows, maybe Eric’s family has something about it—old letters or a journal or something.”
“Could be.”
“Or—” Kristen said as a thought struck her, “what about Major Clark? I bet there’s a record of him somewhere. I mean, he was a military man, after all.”
“You’re right, I bet there is. Good thinking.” He put out his hand for a fist bump.
“You know, it’s funny,” Kristen said. “Everybody thinks that where they live is so boring: nothing going on, nothing ever ha
ppens, that sort of thing. But even if you live in a small town, chances are there’s a lot more interesting stuff and history than you realize, and all you have to do is look for it.”
“Yeah, I guess that’s a lesson learned. And you know, that may have been the whole point of this… adventure. Otherwise, why us? Why were we sent—today, the day of a battle re-enactment—back to the exact point at which the scales were tipped in the favor of the Continentals?”
When she raised her eyebrows, he continued. “You said it yourself to Jacob: if Rebecca hadn’t delivered her message, it would have been more of an attack than a battle, and the Americans would probably have lost. The heavy defeat, the oncoming winter, the soldiers not being paid… our army would have been demoralized, there would have been desertions by the dozen, and who knows what consequences there would have been.”
“Instead, Washington was made aware of details of the attack, and kicked some redcoat butt.”
“Right. Even small victories can have major repercussions. So the question remains: why us, and why today?”
Kristen shrugged. “Maybe this story needs telling.”
“May be. Maybe there are a lot of stories of small actions that have big consequences. And maybe those stories need to be told, too.”
“But the next question is: if someone tells one of these stories, will anyone believe it? After all, it’s just a ‘story;’ there is no actual proof.”
It was Brad’s turn to shrug. “Well, maybe it all depends on how the story is told. A community service report, a research paper—who knows, maybe even a novel.”
Kristen smiled. “Yeah, I hear that. Mom has always said she learned more from historical novels than she ever did in history class.”
“And there’s plenty of it out there. As you said a minute ago: whether it’s history in general, or the history of some small town, or an obscure battle… all you have to do is look for it, and chances are, you’ll find something pretty darned cool.”
Kristen’s cell phone rang, and she reached into her backpack to answer it, once again looking forward to the “normal” Saturday activities that she so recently had been lamenting.
In a similar frame of mind, Brad called out to his friend.
“Yo, Eric! Wait up….”
The End
Author’s Note:
I hope you enjoyed Timekeepers: A Revolutionary Tale. It was fun to write—and fun to read about the history surrounding these events.
The Battle of White Marsh was real. It wasn’t a big battle, but it was important nonetheless. However, as an author I took a minor liberty in the timeline. This book places the battle in the autumn, when the actual event took place in December, 1777. I know, most of December technically is in autumn, but I didn’t want to use the ‘real’ date as that would have the two teenagers roaming around the Pennsylvania forest in one of the coldest months of the year.
The story of Lydia Darragh (Darrow) is also real. As told here, it’s not well documented and not officially confirmed, but the tale exists. Once again, I took a few liberties for the sake of good storytelling, but the basis of the “spy” story is true.
If you enjoyed A Revolutionary Tale, you might also enjoy more of the Everhearts’ Timekeepers adventures. In Civil Disturbance, Brad and Kristen find themselves flung back to the nineteenth century, at the tail end of one monumental event and at the cusp of another… and this time, they each travel back in time separately. Additionally, in Good as Gold, the siblings have a hand in events relating to the first gold discovered in North America.
Timekeepers: A Revolutionary Tale – set during the American Revolution
Timekeepers: Civil Disturbance – takes place at the tail end of the Civil War
Timekeepers: Good as Gold – early 1800s, when gold was first discovered
I’d love to have your opinions of the Timekeepers books… please take a moment to leave a review on the site where you purchased the book. Or, feel free to e-mail me at [email protected], or visit the J.Y. Harris Books page on Facebook.
Thanks for letting me tell my story. Keep reading!
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