OMG, A CUL8R Time Travel Mystery (28 page)

Wendy walked them to the front door.  “Wait, let me get my camera.  I want to take a picture of all of us.”

“Oh no . . . we really ha
ve to go,” Scott said as he hurried to walk outside.  Kelly and Austin followed.

Only Zoey stayed behind.  She pulled some Polaroids out of her pocket and handed them to Wendy.  “Here, I took these off the wall before I left.  I didn’t think you’d want your photos out there for everyone to see.  I ripped mine up and threw them away.”

Wendy looked down at the humiliating photos of her proudly posing in her bikini, then flipped through to the ones of her in her underwear, unconscious and tied to the chair.  Her eyes filled with tears.  “Thanks, but I think I’ll keep them.  I never want to forget how stupid I was.”

“No
t stupid, just eager to please.  Unfortunately, he was a monster, and he knew how to manipulate you.”

“I’m glad he won’t be able to do that to any other girls.”

“Well, you’re going to have to be strong and testify against him,” Zoey reminded her.  “He needs to be put away for a very long time.”

“It’ll be hard, but I will.”  Wendy gave her another hug.  “Will you write me?”

“I’m not really good at that sort of thing.  But you’ll love texting.”

“What’s texting?”

“Oh, it’s a way to send messages using your cell phone . . . I’ve heard . . . someday.”  Zoey realized she was saying too much, so she hurried out the door and gave Wendy a little wave.  “Take care.  Enjoy college.”

“What’s a cell phone?” Wendy called after her.

Zoey pretended not to hear her.  She joined the others on the sidewalk and they headed back to town.

“Guys, I know it’s a little out of the way, but could we walk past my grandma’s house?” Kelly asked.

“You can’t talk to her,” Scott cautioned.

“I know.  I won’t even knock on the door or anything,” Kelly promised.

Since it was only a short detour and they were a little ahead of schedule, they agreed and headed toward their neighborhood.

As could be expected, it looked very different.  Scott and Austin’s houses hadn’t been built.  In fact, Kelly’s great-grandparents’ house stood alone in a large field.  There was a split rail fence around about ten acres and a small barn in the back.  The front yard had a white picket fence across the front and the flower beds were filled with roses whose profuse blossoms scented the air.  The
outside of the house was wood instead of siding and was painted a pale yellow with white trim.  It looked almost exactly like it did today except for the color and the large yard.  A middle-aged lady was bent over one of the flowerbeds, her back to the street as she pulled weeds.

The four teenagers stopped at the gate.  Kelly kept her word and didn’t make any attempt to
make contact with the woman who was probably her great-grandmother.  Instead, she just stood and soaked it all in, trying to commit it to memory.

“Can I help you?”
came a voice behind them.

They whirled around and stared up at
an attractive young woman sitting on a huge, coal black horse.  Her bare, tanned legs gripped the horse’s glossy sides as she sat on him bareback.  The wind blew the horse’s thick mane and tail and tossed the girl’s long, straight, dark-brown hair around her face.

Kelly knew she was looking into the face of her grandmother Mary who was, at this moment, almost the same age as Kelly was.  It was like looking in the mirror.

“Oh, hi.  No, we were just walking by on our way to the beach and stopped to admire your house,” Kelly finally managed to say.  “It’s really beautiful.”

Mary glanced at the house, then back at them and smiled.  “Do you want to see inside?  I’m sure my mother wouldn’t mind.”

Kelly’s heart swelled in her chest with longing, but she knew she had to decline.  Already, she was crossing one of those invisible lines that Scott had warned about.  “No, we’re kind of in a hurry.”

Mary studied her for a moment.  “You look really familiar.”

Kelly smiled.  “Yeah, so do you.  Your horse is awesome.  I love horses.”

“Yeah, so do I,” Mary agreed
and patted his shiny neck. Her horse started to dance, impatient at standing still for so long, and Mary reined him around expertly. “Well, maybe we’ll meet again someday.”  

“I’m sure we will,” Kelly agreed ruefully. 

The girl smiled, then clicked her tongue and tightened her legs as her horse turned and galloped away.

“That was pretty cool,” Austin said.

“Kind of weird to see your own grandmother as a teenager,” Kelly admitted.

Reluctantly, she turned away and they continued t
heir walk to the beach.  They walked slowly and quietly, soaking in the area as it had looked in 1966 so they could appreciate the changes when they got back. 
If
they got back.  No one dared say it out loud, but they were all a little worried that the technology might not work so well in reverse.  Where would they end up?  And in what time period?

They stopped for ice cream cones at the stand across from the pier.  A tall, very attractive young man waited on them and flirted outrageously with Zoey.

“Do you go to school around here?” he asked.

“Sort of but not yet,” she answered vaguely.

“I come home every weekend from Florida State,” he told her.  “I’m in pre-med.”

“Awesome.  Too bad I won’t be around here for long.”

“Maybe I’ll see you around.  I’m Dan . . . Dan Denucci.  What’s your name?”

“Oh my God!” she exclaimed.

“That’s your name?”  Dan looked confused.

Scott, Austin and Kelly were watching the interchange with interest and great amusement.

“It’s Zoey,” Austin offered for her.

“That’s an unusual name.”  Dan nodded and smiled.  “I hope to see you again, Zoey.”

“Oh, you will,” Scott assured him.

They crossed Ester
o Street and walked down the beach.

“Zoey’s got a boyfriend,” Scott mocked.

“Yeah, and someday she can live under the pier with him.”  Austin laughed.

“Shut up, both of you,” Zoey demanded.  “He’s pre-med.  What on earth could have happened to him to cause him to be homeless in 2013?”

That sobered them all up.  No one had a clue, but they knew they would look at him a lot differently from now on.

There was a cool breeze off the Gulf today, so the beach was deserted.  Even though everything looked different than they were used to, it didn’t take them long to find the exact spot where they had arrived just days before.

“I’m so excited to get back to the real world.”  Zoey didn’t really understand the technology, so she wasn’t as concerned about the possibility of failure or malfunction as the others.  “Where do I stand?  Are there magic words or something?”

“It’s not a magic trick,” Kelly told her.  “Scott put an app on our phones that crosses currents or something.”  Kelly shrugged.  “Okay, I don’t really understand it either, but you’ll just have to stand in the middle and make sure we’re all touching when we push the buttons.”

Scott was wandering around the piles of sand that were too small to be called dunes.    “Can you guys help me look for Violet?”

Zoey looked at Kelly.  “Who’s Violet?”

“She was our test turtle to see if the time travel app worked . . .  which it did, but we couldn’t bring her back.  She’s out here somewhere.”  Kelly started looking around, pushing aside clumps of grass and pieces of driftwood that were big enough to hide the turtle.  “She belongs to Scott’s sister.”

“A turtle?  Why couldn’t we just buy one at the pet store?” Zoey asked, anxious to get the show on the road.

“She’s special.  Lilly glued purple jewels all over her shell,” Kelly explained.

Zoey realized this was going to delay their return, so she joined the others.  “How big is this turtle?  How far could she possibly go in a week?”

Scott considered that and did some quick mental calculations.  “I think we should search a little farther out.

They moved their search party a few more feet back.  When Kelly saw a dazzling reflection under a Coke bottle, she yelled, “Over here.  I think I found her.”  Sure enough, stopped by the barricade of the discarded green bottle, Violet was trying to find a way to climb over it.  Kelly picked her up.  “She seems to be none the worse for her trip.”

Scott was genuinely relieved.  He held out his hand and Kelly passed Violet over to him.

“Oh, she’s sort of pretty . . . for a reptile,” Zoey said.  “Now we can go, right?”

Scott put her in his pocket and made sure the Velcro on the flap was secure.  He took the three cell phones out of his backpack and powered them up.

“Okay . . . are
we ready?”  Scott asked.

They all nodded.
  He handed Kelly and Austin their phones.

“As soon as they boot up, we’ll
set the date and time.”  A few minutes passed.  “Everyone have the main screen showing?”

They turned their screen toward Scott.

“Okay . . . hit the settings widget and select calendar.”  Scott continued through the process, showing them how to select the proper settings and assured they all had the same exact date and time on the time travel app.

Austin, Kelly and Scott stood with their backs to each other and their cell phone
s in their hands.  Because of their backpacks, Zoey couldn’t stand behind them.  Instead, Scott positioned her in front of Austin so her arms were around his waist and his arms rested on her shoulders.  Austin wasn’t too thrilled about the arrangement, but Zoey was loving it.

Scott took control of their mission.
  “Press the
CUL8R
icon.  Now depress and hold the top icon.  Ready?”

Austin and Kelly both said
, “Yes.”

“Ok
ay, don’t let up, on my count press the lower icon. Ready?  Three . . . two . . . one.”

CHAPTER
NINETEEN

The sand and wind began to rotate clockwise around their feet forming a dust devil
that grew taller and taller until it towered over them.  They all shut their mouths and eyes as the sand swirled faster and more densely with every passing second.  The wind roared in their ears, then it all went silent as if even the sound was sucked into the wormhole.

This time Kelly forced herself not to scream.  She ducked her head and felt her long hair whipping against her skin.   She kept her fingers on the icons until s
he felt the sand give way under her feet, and she tumbled to the ground.  Someone was beneath her and someone else fell on top of her, but until the sand and wind slowed and then stopped, she had no idea who it was.

“
You guys okay?” Scott asked, getting up first.  He pulled Kelly up, then reached down to help Austin and Zoey.  They all stood and tried to clear the sand from their eyes and noses, eager to look around to see if they had succeeded.

“Hey
, you kids okay over there?”

They turned in unison and saw the
elderly Dan Denucci, standing nearby with his metal detector.  He was looking at them with concern.

“Sure,” Kelly said.
  “Just a little dusty.”

“That was weird . . .
that dirt devil just sprung up out of nowhere and you guys disappeared . . . for a minute.  I’ve never seen anything like it.  Well, I’m glad you’re okay.”  The man started to walk away, then paused.  “You kids look familiar.”  He shook his head.  “Oh, you probably hang out here at the beach all the time.”  He squinted at them again, then wandered down the beach, still searching for his pot of gold.

“That was
him
, wasn’t it?” Zoey asked.  “Oh my God!”

“That was odd,” Kelly said.
  “Poor man.”

“
But you know what that means?”  Scott was practically jumping up and down with excitement.

“We’re back!” Austin exclaimed.

“Just like we never left.  I knew it would work.”  Scott took off his backpack and shook the sand off.

“Yeah, right,” Austin said skeptically, but very proud of his friend.  They had just had the adventure of a lifetime, and they couldn’t tell anyone about it . . . ever.

Scott must have been reading his mind because he added, “Remember, this cannot be talked about outside of our circle.”  He pinned Zoey with his gaze.  “And that means you, too, Zoey.  We’re trusting you on this.”

“I can keep a secret,” she said, lifting her chin defiantly.  Normally, she would have added a derogatory name like nerd or dork, but somehow she didn’t feel comfortable with that any more.  Somewhere along the way, Scott had become a real person, and she liked him.  She had shared so much with these kids that all of her other relationships seemed so silly and shallow
.   It was no longer a question of whether or not she wanted to hang with them . . . now, it was up to them if they wanted to hang with her.  And somehow she suspected they didn’t.