Chea and her mom, Heidi sat inside one of the restaurants that managed to stay standing after the massive earthquake. Since their reunion, the two needed some time to catch up. Karen sat next to Chea, who was in absolute glee to see her again. There was one thing
Livvie, however, did not understand about what was going on.
"I must say I'm baffled!" Livvie said. "How can ones mother look the almost the same age as her daughter."
"Must seem very confusing." Peter said.
"It confounds one to say the least." She replied.
"I guess we oughta tell her the truth. She'll find out eventually anyway." Mike said. Karen nodded.
"We're not from around here." Karen said.
"I surmised that much." Livvie said."Though most residents dont really know their way around here either."
"When we mean not around here, we really mean not from here." Micky said. Chea put the time gadget on the table. "We've from the not too distant future, so to speak."
"What?"
"We're time travelers." Chea said. "We came here in some kind of weird accident."
"But with this we're able to go from different times and places." Peter said.
"That said, it still doesnt explain how they just met." Livvie said.
"Thats a good question." Chea said. "I remember back just before I met Karen, that you were going to Uncle Jessups place, and never came back."
"Thats true." Heidi said. "Let me explain, but lets go somewhere private."
The others agreed and left the restaurant.
1968
Brianna couldnt get the scene from the cemetary oout of her mind. Seeing the names on those gravestones was a weird experience to say the least. But what could she do? She was in the present with only the emergency time gadget, and she was a little hesistant to use that. She finally decided to go to the library. They might have some info to help her. Maybe she could find out what had happened to her friends in the past.
After about half an hour of searching through old newspapers and pictures she found one. It looked familiar to her, one of the few pictures remaining from the time after "great quake". As she looked closer at it she knew what it from from. It was near one of the old hospitals. It was different though, she had once seen the picture in high school. But now the picture was definately not the same.
"Here's Mike, Karen, and Peter helping some woman with a hurt arm." Brianna thought while she looked through the files. A lot of poeple died in this disaster. She was so glad her friends were not among them. But now she had to help bring them back. In order to do that, she was gonna have to risk using the emergency time gadget.
"It's the only way." She said. She might get stuck in the effort, but she decided she could take a chance.
"All for one, one for all." She thought as she dropped the pictures off at the front desk. Now she only had to hurry to get to them in time.
1906
The gang hadnt made it very far before they decided it
was best to go back to the restaurant. Their table had
remained empty since they left.
"Where I went they day I disapeared, was to your Uncle
Jessups house. He wanted me to see this great new project he was working. The time gadget, I suppose. He had a fancier name for it. Anyway he wanted me to be the first test subject. I agreed. We picked a year out of the hat and set it in the timer." She took a breath. "Thats where it went wrong. He had warned me that there were quite a few bugs left, but he needed this test trial to see where they were so he could fix them.
He wished me luck and kissed me goodbye." She looked at Chea. "I only thought I would spend a few minutes here. When I got here it was just after the turn of the century. I even looked right for the period with some clothes Jessup found in the attic." She stood up and did a little modeling. "Pretty neat huh?"
"Yeah." Livvie said. "It is the fashion now."
"A few minutes became a few days. After a while I had to find a place to live. I got a job." She said. "Though that kind of thing is frowned on in this period, but I had to eat." She shrugged. She sighed a deep sigh. "A little over a year ago I gave up hope of ever being found." She brightened as she looked at the gang. "But now I can go back! With you guys. I can't wait to tell Jessup all about this. He's going to be so happy!"
Chea looked down at the floor.
Karen went to her and patted her on the back.
"She doesn't know." Chea quietly said.
"Don't know what?" Heidi asked.
"Ms Thomas, Uncle Jessup is dead." Karen said.
"What?" Heidi asked. "You gotta be kidding."
"It's true." Chea wiped her eyes.
"How? When? Why?" Heidi said as she too started to cry.
"It's been a little over 6 months." Mike said.
"When Jessup left with his device, he went to his favorite western show." Chea said. "He was gunned down in a showdown episode.
"Bonanza." Heidi said. "I knew that show would be the death of him." She stopped and looked around. "Sorry, little joke. Bout that big." She held up her hand.
"We came back here to this time in some sort of accident." Peter said. "It was New Years Eve 1968."
"New Years?" Heidi said. "That reminds me of something."
"What?" Chea asked.
"Wheres that gadget?" Heidi asked. Micky handed it to her. She took a small tool out of her pocket and popped
the back open.
"How come I never thought of that?" Micky asked.
"Cause you didn't know my brother like I did." Heidi said. "This is a screw free design. That means there is not a single screw holding it together. There are certain points it will open and not disturb the inner workings." She looked for a minute. Micky watched.
"I found it." Micky pointed.
"I can't see." Everyone gathered around.
"Back up guys." Mike said. "They need the light."
Micky pointed out the part. "Here, what does this say?"
"Hmm, warranty ran out on this part Jan 1, 2000." Heidi said. "But look at this. According to this, this is made out of some old computer parts. We had a computer."
"I was wondering where that went. I was on level 39 on Tetris!" Chea said. They looked at her. "What? It really burned my ass!"
"The computer wasn't y2k ready." Heidi said.
"Y2k? Whats that?" Davy said. "It sounds like an english derby race."
"In the nineties, there was a big to-do about getting your computer ready for 2000. On a computer,a computer had a calendar. The y2k glitch would make the calendar inable to computer the year 2000, and basically sends it back to 1901. All heck would break loose." Karen said.
"Ah, ok and huh?" Micky said. Chea looked at him, but she had the feeling Micky really did understand.
"We need a new part for this." Micky said.
"Thats gonna be hard to get." Mike said. "Remember where
we are."
"Will it still work?" Chea asked.
"It has enough for one person." Karen said taking the gadget. "We can send one person for the emergency time gadget. Let Brianna know we're ok."
"In that case I should go." Davy said. "After all she's my girlfriend, and Peter is tending to Livvie." He said while Peter helped make a splint for Livvies arm. "I'd
rather not split anyone up."
"Are you sure?" Chea asked.
"Positive." Davy said. "If we can't send one person, then we'll know how much trouble we're really in."
The group walked to the back alley, so no one would anything strange going on. Course compared to the quake, a man vanishing into thin air wouldnt look so weird.
Davy got into position. "Wish me luck."
"Good luck!" They cried.
"Break a leg!" Peter called. Livvie looked at him. "Just in case the first one don't work."
Karen aimed the gadget at him. "Here goes nothing." She
said as she put the numbers into the gadget. She pressed the big read button. A light surrounded him, and with a flash he was gone.
"Godspeed young David." Livvie said softly. "Godspeed."
