Time Trapped (27 page)

January 6, 1968, 10:26
A.M.

Boston, Massachusetts

T
his is the place,” I say as we climb the porch steps of 55 Derne Street.

I'm about to open the door, when the feeling of having forgotten something hits me. But for the life of me, I don't know what that is.

Someone's coming to the door. I do a quick mental calculation. By my count, I've only been away, skating, for about two 1968 hours, so Jim and Diane shouldn't be worried. But what if by chance they decided to surprise me and went to the Charles to try and find me?

As the door opens, I remember what I had forgotten: my skates! And my own jacket. Well, one thing's for sure: I'm not going back to 2061 to fetch them.

“Hey, Caleb,” Jim says. “Did you have a good skate?”

“Yeah. It was great,” I say. “Jim, these are my friends Abbie and Dmitri. If it's okay, I'd like to invite them in for lunch.”

“You can't,” says Zach, poking his head out the door. “Because we're not having lunch, Caleb. We're having brunch! Hey, what happened to your hand?” He points to my bandaged wrist.

“Oh, it's nothing. I just had to have a little operation on my wrist to remove my time travel patch so we could use it to power the time machine that brought us here in time for brunch.”

Everyone laughs, including me.

“Well, come on in, everyone,” says Jim, opening the door wide.

“Caleb,” says Zach in a voice loud enough for everyone to hear, “we've got a surprise for you.”

“You do?” I say.

“Uh-huh,” Zach says, nodding. “You havta guess.”

“Okay, let's see. Is it bigger than a breadbox?”

“Yes.” Zach giggles.

“Smaller than the Empire State Building?”

“Of course, silly.” He laughs.

“Is it a pony?” I say.

“No. But you're close . . . it's alive. I mean she's alive.”

“A puppy?” That's really my best guess.

He shakes his head.

“Pussycat?”

“Nope.”

“I give up, Zach. What is it?”

“Not what, silly. A
who.
Your cousin came while you were skating.”

I stand stock-still and look at him. My cousin?

Abbie looks confused, but Dmitri is smiling. He knows something.

Footsteps on the stairs.

I hold my breath and look up.

My jaw falls open. For a moment I think I am seeing a mirage. But this is not the Barrens. This is Zach's house in Boston. And the person standing in front of me is no hallucination.

“Nice place you got here, Jack,” Razor says.

January 6, 1968, 10:30
A.M.

Boston, Massachusetts

I
can't believe it. I reach out toward Razor, and she takes a step back.

“Hey, don't get all lovey-dovey on me. Save that for her,” she says, pointing to Abbie.

My cheeks feel like they're burning.

I glance from Razor to Abbie and then look at Dmitri.

He shrugs, smiles and says, “Phoebe helped me with the coordinates. You know, she can be quite delightful if you treat her right. She also provided the street address and names of the members of your adopted family so I was able to relay this information to Razor immediately prior to her ‘departure.'”

“C'mon, Caleb,” says Zach, “and your cousin and your friends and Mom and Daddy. I'm hungry for brunch. Daddy made pancakes. And he makes the best pancakes in the world.”

We all sit down around the kitchen table. It's a tight squeeze, but somehow we manage it. Diane heaps pancakes on our plates.

“Caleb, guess where we're going after brunch,” Zach says in between bites.

“I don't know, Zach,” I say. “Where are we going?”

“Daddy is going to take all of us to see the snow sculptures!”

“Really?”

“Yeah, really,” Zach says. “He says there's a snow tiger and a snow castle and a—”

“And a snow subway car from the future,” I add.

Zach looks at me with his eyebrows raised. “Cool!”

“Very,” I agree, slathering my pancakes with maple syrup.

As I raise the fork to my mouth, Abbie is watching. She's looking at me in a way that I'm sure is going to make me turn fire truck red. But somehow I'm not embarrassed.

My fork dives down again, snags a piece of pancake and brings it home.

RICHARD UNGAR
has always been captivated by the idea of traveling through time and was inspired to write his first novel,
Time Snatchers
, by an image in Chris Van Allsburg's picture book
The Mysteries
of Harris Burdick
. Called “Another Place, Another Time,” the scene shows children riding a sail-propelled sidecar along a railway track that seems to go on forever.

A lawyer by profession, Richard was born in Montreal and lives in Toronto with his wife and two sons. He is the author-illustrator of the award-winning picture book
Even Higher
and the acclaimed Rachel series.

www.richard-ungar.com

facebook.com/TimeSnatchers

Twitter: @TimeSnatchers

CREDITS

Excerpt from “In the Highlands,” Robert Louis Stevenson,
The Complete Poems of Robert Louis Stevenson
, Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1923.

Excerpt from
Mother Shipton: A Collection of the Earliest Editions of Her Prophecies
, George Mann Books, 1978, United Kingdom.

Excerpt from “Scots Wa Ha'e Wi' Wallace Bled,” a song with lyrics by Robert Burns,
The Lyric Gems of Scotland: A collection of Scottish songs, original and selected, with music.
First series. John Cameron, Glasgow, ca. 1874.

Further reading on historical topics from the story:

Cannan, Fergus.
Scottish Arms and Armour.
Oxford, England: Shire Publishers, 2009.

Fleischman, Sid.
Escape! The Story of the Great Houdini.
New York: Greenwillow Books, 2006.

Hamilton, Ian.
Stone of Destiny: The True Story.
Edinburgh: Birlinn Ltd., 2008.

O'Connor, Jane.
The Emperor's Silent Army: Terracotta Warriors of Ancient China.
New York: Viking Children's Books, 2002.

Randi, James, and Bert Randolph Sugar.
Houdini, His Life and Art.
New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1976.

AUTHOR'S NOTE

Time Trapped
is a work of fiction, but as with
Time Snatchers,
there is a historical basis for many of the events mentioned in this book (e.g., Houdini's thrilling escape, bound and chained, from a sealed crate plunged into the East River; the Christmas 1950 heist by students of the Stone of Destiny from Westminster Abbey). I have been as accurate as possible with information about events and historical figures, though some details have been imagined to suit the storytelling.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Sincere thanks go to my editor, Susan Kochan, for her patience and also for challenging me to write my best; to my agents, Josh Adams and Quinlan Lee, who knew I would write a sequel to
Time Snatchers
even before I did; for readers of
Time Snatchers
who wrote to me, encouraging me to write a sequel; to Highland Explorer Tours and in particular their guide Chris, who taught me about Scotland and its proud people and history during my wonderful visit there in July 2012; to Scott Morrison of An Comunn Gàidhealach Ameireaganach (
American Scottish Gaelic Society
) for his help with Scottish Gaelic words and phrases; to Danylo Korbabicz, president of SUSK: Ukrainian Canadian Students' Union, for help with Ukrainian words and phrases; to my “Mandarin Translation Team”; to Nancy Rousseau for correcting my French; to my copy editors, Ana Deboo and Cindy Howle, for their great attention to detail; to Owen Richardson for another fabulous cover illustration; to Annie Ericsson for
Time Trapped
's excellent interior design; and to Dayna, Rafi and Simon for continued love and support.