The Unlikely Time Traveller (15 page)

Ness stepped down off the stage and her mother hugged her. Her dad and Scosha were next in line, then lots of other people crowded up to congratulate her. I managed to squeeze through and tap her on the arm. “You were great,” I said. Then bending in close whispered, “We’re going to go now.”

Ness, flushed and radiant, nodded. “Thank you for saving my speech,” she said. “I will meet you shortly by the tree. My task here for this night is done.”

I steered Robbie and Agnes through the crowd. As we slipped past Ness’s mum I noticed how she caught Agnes’s eye, and smiled like she had met a long-lost friend. Or more than a friend. For a second their eyes locked, then Danya bowed low.

“Is she…” I started to ask Agnes, but we got caught up in the crowds of people.

At the door of the hall we paused to get our bearings. Agnes looked glowing. She leant towards me and whispered, “Perhaps she is.”

“Come on,” said Robbie, suddenly impatient to get home. So we set out along the dark High Street with my torch, Robbie’s phone, and now a rising moon to see by.

“I went all the way in the dark,” Robbie said as we hurried up a lane. “It was well creepy, but I did it. Then,” he went on
as we ran past tall glass buildings, “when I got to the house the horses were making a right racket. That freaked me out too, but I still went in and fumbled about for candles.”

“Heroic,” I said.

“Yeah, really brave,” Agnes said, “so now sleeping out by the den to watch the Northern Lights will be easy for you Robbie, eh?”

“Easy-peasy,” he said, panting. By now we were hurrying around the moonlit field. I imagined all the vegetables under the earth. And how we would go back to a stubble field.

“Lemon-squeezy,” we all sang back, like we used to when we were kids.

“Honest, I didn’t think it would take so much electricity,” Robbie said. “I mean, it’s only a phone. When the lights dimmed I didn’t know what was happening. I thought it was like, a game.”

“Yeah, some game. A hundred-year-old phone probably zaps loads of electricity. How did you do it anyway?” I asked him, as we approached the gates of the garden.

“There was this cradle thing in a wee room. I just tried it out. Next thing my phone charged in about two seconds flat. From dead to fully charged. Pow!” He snapped his fingers. “Just like that! Pretty awesome.”

I remembered the round lights in the hall flickering out and crashing to the ground and people screaming and the man on stage trying to speak into his tiny mike and nothing happening and the panic on Ness’s face. “Yeah,” I said, “it was.”

We approached the garden quietly so as not to disturb the horses in the stable. I looked over my shoulder for Ness. She was a fast runner. She should get up here soon. “You taking one last look at the future?”
Agnes asked me.

“I’m looking for Ness. She’s going to hold a flame-torch for us. The horses panic with fire, so she’s going to see us off, health and safety style, then plunge the torch into a barrel of water.”

“That’s kind of her. Wasn’t she beautiful?”

“Yeah, and I used to think she was a boy.” So far the horses hadn’t stirred.

“When I was younger,” Agnes said, “lots of people thought I was a boy too.”

“It’s easy to get things wrong,” Robbie whispered. He should know, Getting Things Wrong Expert, but I didn’t say anything. Maybe things would feel different for him now. I nudged him and grinned. He just shrugged and grinned back. Then he said, “You going home in that weird outfit, Saul?” and laughed like he’d just noticed my party clothes.

“Nah, maybe not,” I said, and quickly took the costume off.

Then all three of us stood by the garden entrance, gazing back over the moonlit field. “The Aqua Park,” Robbie whispered, his voice sounding, I thought, a bit choked up, “is the most amazing place ever. Shame you missed it, Agnes.”

“I think I saw it,” she whispered back. “You mean where the swimming pool is back in our time?”

Robbie nodded vigorously. “It’s got like this diving board high as the London Eye.”

“That’s where I found Robbie the first time,” I told her. We crept into the garden.

“The den isn’t there any more,” Agnes whispered. “There’s no trace of us.”

I remembered the stone, used as a doorstop in Ness’s
house. I was going to tell them about it, but just then I saw a figure running towards us. “Here’s Ness,” I said. She still had her long dress on, with the silver train flowing out behind, and the garland of flowers in her hair. “I am here,” she said, not even out of breath.

“What’s happening at the party, Ness?” Robbie asked her.

“They are now eating cake by candle glow,” she said. “It was easy to slip out unnoticed. And besides, my part is played.” Her eyes fell on Agnes and they smiled at each other. It was pretty strange to see how alike they were.

“So, Ness,” I said, “your name is short for Agnes. That’s…” I looked at Agnes then back at Ness, “a coincidence.”

“Are you two related?” Robbie said, and laughed like it was a joke.

But the two Agneses looked at each other and laughed softly, like it wasn’t at all.

“You know, Agnes,” said Robbie, “you can get to Edinburgh in, wait for it… ten minutes!”

“Really?”

Robbie and me nodded. So did Ness. I could see she was proud of 2115.

There was something magical about the four of us hanging out in the moonlight in the garden and whispering. It was like we all wanted this moment to last forever, but I also knew it was time to go. “So,” I whispered to Ness, “if I could get that glass swan thing from your house that would be great. And we need water.”

“Just a cup is fine,” said Robbie, time-travel expert.

“Will a barrel do?” Ness whispered back. “I do need the barrel to extinguish the flame-torch. We have a barrel of water for the horses by the stables. If we are silent I can secure it with a lid and together we can roll the barrel over.”

So while the others brought the barrel of water, I ran up to the house to fetch the glass swan, and I put the costume in a cupboard. That’s when I saw the things from our time capsule: the photos, coins, even locks of our hair and the small glass bottle of petrol. They were all lined up on a wooden shelf by Ness’s bed. I didn’t have time to stand and stare. I ran back with the glass swan and hung it from a branch of the tree.

Robbie, me and Agnes stood by the yew trunk. We were almost ready. “We need fire, Ness,” I said, but she didn’t move. I glanced uneasily up at the moon. It was big and silvery, but would it give enough light to make flashing rainbows? I had never time travelled at night. I had never time travelled with two other people either. I tried to push away all the doubts. For time travel to work, you have to really want it. Feeling positive is an essential ingredient.

“I will bring the flame-torch,” Ness said, snapping out of her dream. She walked back towards the stables.

Agnes pressed her ringed finger into the gnarled bark.

I drew out Robbie’s mum’s gold bracelet. “I’ve got a gold chain,” I said.

“Double gold,” Agnes said. “Double power.”

I told Robbie to put his hand over Agnes’s hand, and to focus on 2015 and going home. “I wonder if Will is at the den yet,” he said. “He is so not going to believe this.”

I saw the orange glow of the torch before I saw her. The flames leapt into the dark. There was Ness, the Lass of Fortune, looking powerful, ancient, modern and beautiful all at once. Her dress trailed the ground. She held the torch high. “Thank you for writing to the future,” she said. “Dear travellers, I will miss you.”

I reached up and pushed the glass bird, so its wings opened out and in. It worked! The glass caught the light
of moon and fire, throwing out rainbows that mingled with the swirling smoke from the torch.

“Thanks for everything, Ness.” With a lump in my throat I reached over and swirled the water in the barrel. “I’ll miss you too, and the future.”

“But you are going there,” Ness said, sounding calm and strong. “Every day we are heading there. All of us!”

“Yeah, I see what you mean,” Robbie said. “Bye Ness. I’m really sorry for messing up your ceremony. I didn’t mean to.” He whipped out the pack of cards and gave them to her. “I didn’t even get to do my magic.”

“Oh, but you did, dear Robbie. You did,” she said, setting the cards on the ground. I took off the I-band and handed it to her, then I pressed the gold chain to the tree.

“Goodbye Agnes,” Agnes said. “Fortune to you, beautiful lass.”

“Goodbye Ness,” I said.

In the distance a horse whinnied. The moonlight stroked the roof of the stables, and the tinted glass house, and the neat garden and the branches of the yew tree, and the glass bird. Small rainbows glinted. Soft goodbyes echoed around the tree, then Agnes sang the antique song. The same song I had sung. “
Should auld acquaintance be forgot
…
and never brought to mind
…” I’m sure Ness joined in. The twenty-second century was fading. The ground under my feet wobbled.

I felt Robbie pull my hoodie, then heard him whisper, “I’m sorry, Saul.”

“It’s ok,” I whispered back. My voice sounded far away. The song swirled around us. “For auld lang syne…”

The moonlight quivered. A wolf howled. The future vanished and everything went black.

I was getting used to it, that feeling of being turned upside down and flung around, like in a wild Strip the Willow dance. This time it didn’t feel so awful. I lay under the yew tree, just a bit dizzy. Blinking, I saw pale sunlight stream through the green branches. The moonlight had gone.

We did it. That was my first thought.

“We did it,” I heard Agnes mumble.

Robbie groaned. Maybe all the time-travel sickness was in him. “I’m gonna be sick,” he moaned. “Help!”

I rolled away from him quick. Then I froze. I blinked again and gasped.

Agnes saw her at the same time.

We both said, “Ness!”

“You did forget something.” Ness lay on the ground under the tree smiling across at us. Her turqouise dress billowed about her and her garland of flowers lay on the grass.

I rubbed my eyes. I sat up. I couldn’t believe it. “How… but… Ness!”

“You came with us?” Agnes gasped, now by Ness’s side. “How wonderful! You are in our time now. How did you manage it? You don’t have gold.”

Robbie was still moaning about how he was going to die. But I wasn’t looking at him. I was staring at Ness,
completely stunned. She had followed us back!

“Welcome to history,” I said, when I’d recovered enough to speak. Suddenly I felt ashamed of the wild overgrown garden and wished me and Robbie had actually done a bit of weeding on Saturday mornings instead of mucking about climbing trees and playing cards.

Ness was sitting up now, her wide eyes taking in her new surroundings – or changed surroundings more like. She patted her throat. Agnes and I gaped as Ness unclasped a chain from around her neck. “Gold I do have,” she said, then handed the chain to Agnes. “This is what I wanted you to take back to the past. In my sadness at your parting I did forget. Pa found it in a curio store. He was told that a strange traveller left it there and said it rightly belonged to a different time. I did research regarding the inscription and do believe this was once yours, Agnes. I am muckle heart-glad to return it to your keeping.”

All this time Agnes was gazing incredulously at the fine chain Ness had just dropped into her palm. I felt a lump in my throat: it was the golden necklace that had belonged to Agnes’s mother – and that Agnes had sold when we time travelled to 1914 – all for a few buns! She had often gone on about how stupid that was, even though we were starving at the time. It was the only memento she’d had from her mother. And now, here it was – returned. “Your mother’s…” I began, but Agnes just nodded, hugged Ness, and burst into tears.

Which seemed like a good time to see how poor Robbie was doing. “I can’t walk,” he moaned. “I’m shaking like crazy.”

“You’ll be fine,” I assured him. “We’re back home… and guess what Robbie?”

He groaned again. “What?”

“We’ve got a visitor.”

Ness stayed in 2015 for three hours. Even though I told her how time opens out like a fan, and that when you time travel you don’t lose time in your own century, she didn’t look convinced. She was excited to be in the past but said she must not stay long. Robbie recovered and even Will arrived. We were all sitting together under the yew tree, tossing twigs into the fire to keep it going. It wasn’t as warm as the future.

Robbie flicked through his phone – which was, amazingly, still charged. And now it was working he wanted to show it off to Ness too. He snapped a photo of her sitting by the bonfire. “Check out technology!” he said.

But Ness just smiled, like a wee photo of her was no big deal. She said she didn’t mind about phones and photos and cars. What she wanted to see was the den and the river and the swimming pool and the High Street, and perhaps she’d eat a speciality from our time.

“Like pizza?” Robbie said. “Or,” he winked at me, “a deep-fried Mars Bar?”

It was great to show Ness around. Especially with her looking so spectacular. Because it was a bit chilly, she flicked up the long train that flowed down the back of her dress, brought it forward and slipped her arms through
holes. So her dress turned into a sleeveless coat. I felt a bit ragged with my ripped T-shirt, but Robbie said he would buy me a new one.

We started off by snooping around the crumbled old mansion house. “This is where the stables are going to be,” I told her, trying to remember. “And over here,” I said, pointing to a broken step and a piece of barbed wire, “is where your house is going to be.” Then back by the yew tree I showed her the Astroturf patch. Under it, we knew, lay the time-capsule tin, but it was hard to truly believe that, when I’d just been looking at all the contents on Ness’s shelf.

She loved our den and said maybe she and Scosha could build a little one out of wood. Scosha, she told us, was skilled at woodwork. She couldn’t believe her eyes when she saw the stone that said
SAUL’S
OUR GANG.

She said she would forever treasure that magical stone. The state of the community veg growing field shocked her a little. Agnes said maybe we could start things off by weeding a corner of the field and planting a few carrots – to make things easier for the future. Ness said that would be muckle help, to start fighting the weeds now. Robbie, unbelievably, said he would be really happy to grow a few carrots!

Then we ran into town. Ness was still a fast runner, even with a long coat on. But I was worried about the cars, and Agnes kept telling her to stay on the pavement, and Will had to tell her all about the green man and the red man at the crossing.

For the food speciality, Will bought Ness a bar of chocolate. She could only manage one piece and gave the rest to us, but assured us it was “Muckle excellent.”

We ran along the riverside. Ness said it was very
lovely. She bowed at everyone she met and people took photos of her, probably imagining she was a famous actress. Robbie pointed out short-haired people.

They must have been scratching their heads afterwards, wondering why the pictures disappeared, because when Ness went back to the future, that’s what happened. Robbie took loads of photos of Ness but three hours later they were all gone! And the snap he took of the harvest celebration didn’t survive the time travel.

Those three whirlwind hours with Ness passed too quickly. I wanted her to stay with us for ages. I could imagine her joining our gang, but after she had gone Robbie said it would have been a bit weird to have two Agneses. “And you said it doesn’t work like that. You said…”

Agnes finished his sentence: “…we’ve got our own lives to live.”

“That’s true,” I said.

But it didn’t mean you didn’t miss people.

After Ness had gone the four of us hung about in the den, playing on our phones and munching on crisps. But mostly we kept talking about Ness, and the future, and the Aqua Park, and how weird it was that she had turned up in our time to give Agnes her mum’s necklace back, and how Robbie thought maybe she really wanted a wee adventure too. Ness had told us how she suddenly remembered the chain and wanted to take it off, but she was holding the flame-torch and couldn’t. As soon as she saw us vanishing she had plunged the flame-torch into the barrel of water then reached out and touched Agnes’s vanishing arm. Next thing, she said, everything
went black.

We sat in the den, hoping that Ness made it home ok, and wondering how the horses were doing. Will had heard about the future so much from me and Robbie, and a bit from Agnes, that he said he felt he had been there. We told Will all about the old horse sanctuary and he liked that idea. But when we tried to convince Will that there really were flying wheelchairs he didn’t believe us. Agnes, who I don’t think had actually seen any, looked pretty doubtful too.

“High-speed train, yeah,” Will said. “That makes sense. Wolves even. Immunity bands, I get that. Intelligent clothing, and a disc thing like a sat nav. But flying wheelchairs?” He laughed. “No way!”