OMG, A CUL8R Time Travel Mystery (27 page)

“We’re checking out today,” Kelly said, her voice husky with sleep.  “Please come back later.”

The door was pulled shut and Kelly could hear the scene repeat itself in the boys’ room.

“Hey, Zoey.  We should get up.”  The bed had never felt so good, and she didn’t really want to wake up either, but she knew they had a lot to do today.  Suddenly, she bolted upright.  “Zoey, wake up.  We’re going home!”

Zoey moved under the covers, stretching and forcing herself awake.  She finally was able to throw her legs off the bed and to sit up.  “Do you want to go to the bathroom first?” she offered.

Kelly smiled at her.  “No, you go ahead.  You had a rough night.”

That, of course, was an understatement.  She and Zoey had stayed up for an hour after they’d gotten back to the room, too hyped up with adrenalin to be able to sleep.  They had talked about Wendy and school and boys.  There had been laughs and there had been tears.  Zoey needed to talk about her dangerous decision and the near deadly consequences.  Kelly wouldn’t say they had actually become friends . . . but at least they were no longer working against each other.

Zoey didn’t comment as she gathered her clothes and went to the bathroom.  While she was dressing, Kelly puttered around the room, packing all the things she wanted to take back with her in her
duffle bag, except for the clothes she was going to wear today . . . to go home.

It was amazing how anxious she was to get back to Aunt Jane’s house.  Even more strange was that when she thought
of home, it wasn’t the house in Friendswood, but her plain vanilla bedroom with a scarlet macaw outside her window.

Zoey finished in the bathroom and Kelly went in to take her turn.  When she got out, she found Austin and Scott in the room, sitting on the beds, their own bags packed and sitting on the floor by the door.

“How are those ribs?” Kelly asked Austin.

“
I can’t laugh and I can’t breathe . . . but I think I’ll survive.”

“That was the worse tackle I’ve ever seen,” Scott told him.

“Quarterbacks don’t tackle unless it’s a last resort.”

Zoey’s eyes filled with tears.  “I’m
glad
you did it.  The thought of that
creep
getting away with it makes me sick.”  She paused for a moment.  “He
won’t
get away with it, will he?”

“I hope not.  But we won’t know for sure until we get back and check the records,” Scott said.

“Maybe there will be something about it in the newspaper today,” Kelly suggested.

“We need to get moving.  We’
ve got a lot of errands to run before we can go back.”  Scott stood and picked up his backpack.

“I want to make sure Wendy is okay,” Zoey said.

“I agree totally.  We came this far and did way more than we ever would have imagined, so I’d like to know that she’s safe.”  Kelly tucked her night clothes and cosmetic bag into her duffle bag.  “I want to drop all these clothes we aren’t taking with us back at the Salvation Army.”

“Good idea,” Scott agreed.  “We need to
stop by the school.  I want to leave them a note telling them that Austin and Zoey’s dad lost his job, so they’re moving back to Texas, and that they should not bother forwarding any files.  I’m hoping they’ll just throw them away.”

“Mrs. Carter is pretty efficient, but hopefully, they’ll get lost in the
cabinet between now and 2013,” Austin spoke up.

“How are you feeling
?” Kelly asked Zoey.

“
I’ve got a
monster
headache.  I don’t know what he hit me with, but at least it’s not bleeding anymore.  How about you?”

“
I’m fine, just a few cuts and bruises.  Your wrists look better, but he left quite a mark when he slapped you,” Kelly said.

“Well, it didn’t help when
you
slapped me, too,” Zoey pointed out.

“Sorry about that, but you were getting hysterical.  I needed you to stay calm and to hurry.”

“Yeah, I probably deserved it.  I haven’t been the nicest kid on the block.”

Kelly suspected that was the closest she would get to an apology from Zoey, so she accepted it graciously.

“Let’s go.  I’m starving.” Austin tried to pull himself up off the bed but his ribs were clearly causing him some grief.  “Scott . . . let me ask you something.  Since there is like forty years or more between when I got hurt in last night’s game and when we get back home, will my ribs be healed?”

Scott considered his answer
for a moment.  “What we’ve done is travel through a wormhole in the time continuum, and we arrived on an alternate timeline. That means there are multiple co-existing
alternate histories
, so that when the traveler goes back in time or returns
, since our bodies are the same here and in 2013, we’ll carry whatever wounds and things that we currently have with us.”  Scott looked at everyone’s face to see if he had sold his explanation.

Austin smiled.  “You don’t have any idea
, do you?”

Scott hesitated, then shrugged.  “Not really.  This is all new to me, too. 
I can’t wait to see how you feel when we hit the beach.”

Zoey and Kelly laughed
, and they left the Super 8 Motel for the last time.

They stopped at
the coffee shop for a late breakfast.  Scott bought a newspaper.  As soon as they had placed their orders, they opened it and found the article on the bottom of the front page.  Kelly read it aloud.

“
Local Coach Charged with Kidnapping of Local Girl.  Andrew Decker, first-year coach at South Beach High School was arrested early this morning after police discovered a local teenager drugged and restrained in his home.  Her identity is not being revealed because she is a minor.  The fire department was called when Decker’s truck exploded . . .
”

“
What happened with that, by the way?” Kelly asked Austin. “We were expecting you to keep him distracted.  But he came back in the room and caught me.”

Austin
looked sheepish.  “I set the lawnmower on fire, but it just made a little boom and didn’t even catch on fire.  Decker looked out, but there was nothing to see, so he went back in.”

“Then how did the truck catch fire?”

“The gas had spilled and ran under the truck.  I lit a piece of paper and tossed it on the lawnmower, trying again to get it to burn and the whole thing blew up.”

“It almost knocked
me down,” Scott told him.

“Yeah, me, too.  Luckily, I had moved behind the palm tree so no one would see me, or I’d have been
flattened,” Austin said.  “I didn’t mean to blow it up.  No matter how bad a guy is, it’s not cool to torch his truck.”

“Harsh, but effective.  He sure
ran out of the house in a hurry,” Scott said.

“I hate to think what he would have done to me if you guys hadn’t been there.”  Zoey’s chin quivered at the memory of how close she had actually come to never leaving that house alive.

“Go on,” Scott encouraged Kelly to continue reading.

“
. . . and moved to the house.  They were able to extinguish the fire before it spread into the living areas or to any of the houses next door.  The young girl was taken to a local hospital for observation, then released to her parents.  The police found evidence of several other crimes, and an in-depth investigation will follow.  Decker is being held in the local jail without bail.
”

The waitress returned with their food a
nd everyone dug in.  The talk between them was more upbeat and light-hearted than since their adventure had begun.  It was such a relief to know that Wendy was alive and Decker was behind bars, that they were finally able to relax.

They dropped the clothes off at Salvation Army on their way to
the school.  It was closed, as expected, and Scott dropped the letter into the mail slot in the front door.  Then they all made the walk to Wendy’s house.  It was a typical warm October South Florida Saturday as they stood on the front porch.  Just as downtown, every house was decorated for Halloween with pumpkins on the porches and tissue paper ghosts hanging from the trees.  Zoey knocked on the door and then stepped back.  The door was open so she could see Wendy’s dad coming toward her.

“Well, hello
, Zoey . . . come on in,” Wendy’s dad said as he opened the front screen door to let them all enter into the living room.   “I was hoping you would come by today.”  To everyone’s horror, he covered his mouth and nearly broke down in tears. None of them had ever seen a grown man cry, and they didn’t know how to deal with it.  “I’m sorry . . . Wendy told me what you did last night, Zoey.  You were really brave to go with her.  If you hadn’t been there, he probably would have killed her, and we would never have known what happened to her.”  Her dad reached out and hugged Zoey.  “We were all wondering how you escaped.”

“I . . . managed to slip out when he wasn’t looking.  I couldn’t wake Wendy up, so I climbed out the window and called the police.”  Zoey struggled to explain,
hoping her confusion would be attributed to the trauma she had suffered.

“But ho
w did the truck catch on fire?”

All the kids exchanged looks, but no one spoke up.  It was vital that no one kn
ow they had been there or questions would be asked that they would rather not answer.  When the silence stretched into several seconds, Wendy’s dad shrugged.

“It really doesn’t matter.  All that I care about is that my daughter is okay.”

“Can we see her?” Zoey asked.

“Sure, she’s in her room.  Go
on back.”

Wendy’s door was cracked open an inch when Zoey knocked.
  They could see her lying on her bed, surrounded by record albums.  The melancholy sound of Marianne Faithful singing
As Tears Go By
played on her stereo.  As they listened, the song reached the end, then the arm reset and started over.  Apparently, it was her song of the moment.

“Come in,” Wendy said in a lifeless voice.

“Hey . . . how are you?” Zoey asked as she pushed the bedroom door open.

The sound of Zoey’s voice catapulted Wendy off her bed and she hit the floor running toward the door t
o greet them.  She grabbed Zoey in a big hug.

“You
saved my life last night.  I don’t know how to repay you . . . I really don’t.”

“
I’m just so glad it all turned out okay.  It could have been really bad . . . for both of us.”

“I can’t believe he turned out to be a psychopath.”  Wendy shook her head sadly.  “I thought I knew him.  I thought he loved me and we would have
had a future together.”

“So, now you’ll have a future with someone else . . . someone better,” Kelly spoke up.  Wendy had no idea how much of a blessing that was.  She didn’t know how close she had come to being a body under the pier.  People rarely get second chances to change a bad decision.

“I know.  I’m going to seriously consider the scholarships for several local colleges.  I’m thinking maybe the University of Miami or Florida State.  Mom doesn’t want me to go far from home.”

“That’s probably a good idea.  It’s
nice to have your family around,” Kelly agreed, realizing that she had barely had time to think about her own parents in the last few days.  The adventure had been sort of therapeutic for her, too.

“I’m actually pretty excited about it,” Wendy told them.  “I’m hoping to get on the cheer team.”

“Of course, you will,” Zoey said.  “I’ve never seen anyone with your moves.”

Wendy gave Austin a sideways look.  “And maybe we can finally go on a real date.”

“That would be awesome except we are going back home . . . to uh . . . Texas,” Austin said.

“Yeah, that’s why we dropped by.”  Kelly hurried to explain.  “You know I told you that our dads work for the same company?  Well, their jobs here got cancelled, and we’re all moving back . . . today.”

Wendy looked shocked.  “But I was hoping we would be able to hang out.”

“I know.  Me, too,” Zoey assured her. 
“You and I, together, could have ruled that school.”

Wendy laughed.  “Just remember that it’s possible to be nice
and
popular.”

“Really?”  Zoey seemed amazed at the possibility.  But Wendy had proven it was possible.  Zoey just couldn’t imagine how it
would work in her own world.

They all said their goodbyes and shared a round of hugs.  Wendy saved Zoey for last and gave her a long hug.  “Don’t
ever let someone in a position of authority take advantage of you again,” Zoey said.

“You either,” Wendy reminded her.  “You should cut if off with your history teacher before it goes too far.”

Kelly, Scott and Austin all turned to stare at Zoey who reddened under their focus.

“I will.  I realize now that it is inappropriate.  Besides, I’d rather date someone my own age or maybe a year or two older.”  She slid a meaningful glance at Austin who pretended not to notice.