Unwritten Books 3 - The Young City (19 page)

Rosemary eased Faith toward the river tunnel. In the dark, she reached out to use the brick wall as a guide. Then her fingers met open air and she toppled sideways with a shriek.

“Rosemary!” gasped Faith in a hoarse whisper. “Are you all right?”

“Yeah.” Rosemary rolled onto her back, rubbing her bruised elbows. In a faint phosphor glow, she could see
the bricks sweeping up around her in a small, thin tunnel. She patted the stone beneath her. “I’m on dry land. This branch has a branch and it’s dry.” Her fingers ran over a riser. She could barely make out the shapes ahead of her. “I think I’m at the base of a flight of stairs!”

“Stairs!” Faith rushed forward.

“Faith! Careful! There’s a step —,” but before she could finish, Faith tripped on the step, pitching forward and landing on top of Rosemary in a tangle of skirts and a clatter of lanterns.

When they disentangled themselves, Faith asked, “Are you hurt?”

“Just a little winded.” Rosemary rubbed her stomach. “Can you give me some light?”

Faith eased open the shutter on the lantern. The shaft of light blinded them. They brought it round and shone it up a flight of cement stairs, topping out six steps above them before a battered wooden door.

“Freedom!” Faith clambered up the steps. Rosemary was hot on her heels. They tried the knob. It was stiff, but it was not locked. After a minute of rattling, Rosemary put her shoulder to the door and shoved it open.

Sunlight blinded them. Not waiting to see where they were, they stumbled through, catching themselves on a low wall topped by a metal railing. Rosemary had just the presence of mind not to let the door slam. She eased it shut behind her. She noticed that, on this side, it looked new, with a fresh coat of green paint. They
leaned on the wall, blinking until their eyes adjusted to the light.

They were at the base of a small pit in the corner of a warehouse. Steps led up to a scuffed and dusty concrete floor that stretched to the distant brick walls. Near the ceiling, cracked windows — covered with green tarpaulin that glowed and snapped in the breeze like garbage bags — ran the length of the wall.

The floor was strewn with crates, some pristine, the rest broken into kindling. Footprints clambered throughout the dust, but the place echoed with emptiness. Somewhere a machine rumbled, shaking the floor and resonating in the women’s chests. Somewhere closer outside, a hammer hacked away at echoing stone. The air was musty, touched with sulphur, but after the stench of the sewer it smelled as fresh as a mountain breeze.

Faith set down the lantern and leaned her forehead against the railing surrounding the pit. “Thank God we are free of that horrible place.”

Rosemary stared around her at the wires that hung from the ceiling, ending in metal cowls: light sockets, empty and gaping. Machinery rumbled again. “Where are we?”

Faith looked up and around. “A warehouse. We may be in the factory district, south of Queen Street.” She pointed at the light growing behind the windows. “’Tis morning. The factories have begun to work.” To
prove her point, machinery rumbled again. The hammer hacked away, louder than ever.

“Morning.” Rosemary stared at the tarpaulin-covered windows. The sunlight shot brilliant beams through the swirling dust. “Were we really in there all night?”

Faith mounted the steps and strode onto the concrete floor. “We must not dally. We must fetch the constabulary and rescue Peter and Edmund.” She spotted the exit across the floor and started for it.

Rosemary climbed up the stairs more slowly. She looked at the windows again. “Something’s not right.”

“Rosemary! Come on!” Faith was halfway across the floor.

Rosemary started after her, then froze. She looked back, her frown deepening. Then her gaze rose to the ceiling. The wires. The metal cowls. With gaping light sockets.

Electric light sockets.

“Oh my God, Faith!”

Faith had crossed the warehouse floor. She reached for the door handle. Rosemary ran for her. “Faith! Wait!”

Faith opened the door.

Sound hit her like sunlight. Cars screamed. Dump trucks rumbled. A passing tractor-trailer sounded its horn. There were jackhammers, power shovels, a piledriver in the distance. Faith clapped her hands over her ears and staggered down the building steps. The door slammed behind her.

Rosemary burst out after her and saw Faith standing on asphalt, staring about, stunned. An oncoming cement truck blared at her to move. “Faith!”

Rosemary ran onto the road, grabbed Faith, and hauled her back onto the sidewalk. The cement truck rumbled past.

“What —,” Faith shouted like a man newly deaf. “What is this madness? What —”

“It’s okay!” Rosemary held her. “It’s all right.”

“All right? All right?” Faith stared at her. “How can this be all right? Where are we?”

Rosemary stared across the street at a forest of rising buildings. The CN Tower speared up beyond them. She took a deep breath. “I’m home.”

BETWEEN THE PRESENT AND THE PAST

“Phone, phone, come on, I know the phone’s been invented by now.” Rosemary charged along the sidewalk, ignoring the stares of passersby, who stepped off the sidewalk to let her pass.

Faith ran after her, darting around the people, stumbling amongst the sights and sounds. “Rosemary please, slow down! How can this be your home? What is this place?”

“Toronto!”

They reached an intersection. Faith caught Rosemary’s arm and pointed at the horseless carriages and the massive, rumbling streetcar. “This is not the city I live in!”

“I know.” Rosemary bounced on the balls of her feet, drinking in the sights and sounds and smells of the city. She wrinkled her nose at the exhaust fumes. The smells she could do without. “I mean, this is where
I
came from, before I met you. We’re in your future, and I have to call my parents.”

“Rosemary ....” There was a rising edge to Faith’s voice.

“Look,” Rosemary snapped. “How hard is it, really, to believe? Why do you think we talk so funny? Why did our clothes look so strange when you found us? Why else did we have so much trouble understanding the value of your money? Isn’t that the only explanation that makes sense?”

“But this is the stuff of Lewis Carroll!” Faith yelled. “Time travel? You cannot be serious!”

Rosemary gestured at a passing car. Across the street, passing youths whistled and jeered. Rosemary ignored them. Faith stared about, going pale.

Rosemary threw up her hands. “Think what you like. I have to phone home.” The light turned and she started across the intersection.

Faith ran after her. “A telephone? Why?”

Rosemary closed her eyes. “Because it’s been three months since I talked to my family. I don’t even know how long it’s been on this side of the portal. I have to tell them I’m all right. Now, either you help me find a phone, or stop asking me stupid questions!”

“Why would there be a phone out here?”

Rosemary growled in frustration.

“Well, I see a sign for one over there!” Faith squinted into the rising sun and pointed to a row of booths at the
side of a building. Rosemary strode for it, but Faith held back. “They do not look like telephones.”

Rosemary brushed past two businessmen who gaped at her and at Faith as they passed. One turned to the other with a shrug. “Carollers? Little early for Christmas.”

She squeezed her skirts inside the battered and scratched booth, not the least bothered by the smell. She closed the door on the chilly wind and took a deep breath in the sudden, relative silence. Then she picked up the receiver.

She stared at the coin slot a long moment, shocked at the high price of phone calls. Then she remembered she wasn’t dealing with 1880 quarters. Not that this meant much; she didn’t have any quarters, and she didn’t remember Theo’s phone number.

That meant her parents, whom she could call collect.

She flicked the cradle and jabbed at the numbers. Then she stopped, pressed the cradle, and stared at the LED screen as the time and date came up.

WELCOME TO BELL 08:35:15 11/15/08

November fifteenth. It had been late August when they’d helped Theo into his new apartment.

She hung up the phone and stood, her hand frozen halfway to her side. Then she reached for the phone,
hesitated again, and plucked it from its cradle. Another hesitation. Then she started to dial.

“Thank you for choosing Bell Canada,” chirped the automated attendant. “If this is a collect call, please press ‘1’ now.”

Rosemary pressed “1”. The tone blared in her ear.

“At the sound of the tone, please state your name.”
Beep!

“R-Rosemary,” she croaked. “Rosemary Watson!”

“Thank you,” said the computer voice. “Please stay on the line while I see if your party accepts the charges.”

A phone rang at the other end of the line. Rosemary clenched the cord. Finally, someone picked up. “Kate Watson.”

Rosemary gasped. “Mom!”

The automated attendant cut between them. “This is Bell Canada. You have a collect call from —”

Rosemary’s recorded voice said, “R-Rosemary. Rosemary Watson!”

“To accept the charges, please press —”

There was an emphatic beep. The attendant disappeared.

“Rosemary?” Her mother’s gasp was almost a scream. “Rosemary, is that you? Oh, thank God! Where are you?”

“Mom!” Rosemary gasped. Her eyes ran with tears and she cleared her nose with a sniff. “Mom, I’m in Toronto. I’ve missed you so much! I couldn’t call. I —”
“It’s okay.” Her mother’s voice shook with the effort to stay calm. “It’s okay, my darling one. It’s okay. But where did you go?”

“1884.”

“What?”

“We fell through a hole in Theo’s floor,” Rosemary sobbed. “We wandered through these tunnels and came out back in time!” She gulped. “We had no money, no food. A family took us in, but then we got in trouble. Some smugglers chased us into the sewers, and we came through this door and here we are, nearly three months later. I’ve been gone so long, and Peter’s in trouble and I’m scared. I’ve missed school, and you don’t believe a word I’m saying because it’s just too fantastic!”

“Shh, Rosemary, it’s okay. Shh.” Rosemary rocked to her mother’s words. “It’s okay, Rosemary, I believe you.”

Rosemary sniffed. “You do?”

“Of course I do. A mom knows these things. And it’s not like this is the first weird thing that’s happened to us.” Then her bravado cracked. “Oh, my darling, we searched those tunnels for weeks. The police said you were swept out to the lake. Theo was beside himself ....” She took a deep breath.

Tears welled up again. “I’m sorry, Mom! I’m so sorry!”

“Don’t you go blaming yourself!” her mother snapped. “You’re home now, and that’s all that matters. Get yourself to the nearest police station, right now, and call me. Theo
can pick you up; I’ll tell him everything. I’ll call Peter’s uncle, too. We’ll drive down immediately. We’ll have you both back in Clarksbury before you know it!”

Rosemary’s knuckles whitened on the phone. Her mother caught something in the silence. “Rosemary,” she asked after a moment. “Peter
is
with you, isn’t he?”

Rosemary looked up, and saw Faith, ragged, standing at the edge of the sidewalk with her arms wrapped around herself, flinching at the sound of a horn.

Then Rosemary caught the glint of her promise ring. She stared at it a long time. She didn’t hear her mother until she called her name twice.

“Mom.” She swallowed hard. “I’ve got to go back.”

Silence stretched again.

“These portals,” she continued, “they’re temporary. We tried to go back through the hole we fell into, but the portal wasn’t there. We never heard Theo calling us. This other portal could vanish at any moment. We were separated. Peter’s still in there. I can’t leave him.”

“Rosemary.” Her mother’s voice was tight. “There has to be some other way, the police —”

“— would call the doctors the moment I mentioned time travel,” Rosemary cut in.

“Theo, then. You can’t go back in alone —”

“Mom —”

“Rosemary, please, I have to see you! I have to know you’re all right. Surely you can wait —”

“How long did it take before Theo shouted after
us?” said Rosemary. “The portal must have vanished the moment we went through. We don’t have time. Mom, you know I’m right.”

There was more silence on the line. Then her mother whispered, “Yes.”

“There are other portals,” said Rosemary. “After I rescue Peter, I’ll find one.”

“Right!” Rosemary’s mother took a deep breath. “When you get back to now, go straight to Theo’s new address. They closed the apartments after the floor fell in, so he’s at the Rochelle residence, 350 Bloor Street West, apartment 11C. You got that?”

“Rochelle residence, 350 Bloor Street West, apartment 11C. Got it!”

“You go get Peter and bring him back safe, you hear?”

“I will,” said Rosemary. “I love you, Mom!”

“I love you too!” Her mother’s voice quivered, but she ploughed on. “We’ll wait for you, however long it takes. Come home soon.”

“Goodbye, Mom.” Rosemary hung up, then immediately grabbed back the receiver and held it for a long time. Then she shoved her way out the folding door and onto the street.

Faith turned, looking anxious, but at the sight of Rosemary’s face she stepped forward and opened her arms. Rosemary cried onto her shoulder, ignoring the looks of passersby.