A few minutes later Bethany managed to wake the others. Luckily no one was hurt. In the meantime Bethany looked around where they had landed. It seemed to be part of a beach. It was familiar yet strange at the same time. Bethany felt like she had seen this place before. She played with a sand dollar as she looked around. There was a long pier reaching out into the ocean. The pier seemed to be part of an extension of land leading up to a beautiful looking house. This house was also familiar to her. She couldn’t put her finger on it.
She jumped about a mile when Roark placed his hand on her shoulder. She looked at him with a small smile. She was starting to remember their strange trip. His face was the last thing she remembered seeing before it all went black. He seemed to be saying something to her, but she didn’t remember what he was trying to say. He had been mouthing words to her. She didn’t know what he said, perhaps she would never know.
"Where are we?" Bethany asked him.
"I don't know." Roark said. "Some beach somewhere. Its odd cause we were in the attic, then out here."
"Shouldn't the question be when are we?" Mercy asked. "This is a time gadget."
"She’s right." Davis said. "You said yourself that the gadget was imputing its own year. What’s the year?"
"Let's see. I wonder why we didn’t look at the display before we vanished." Roark said.
"I guess we had other things on our mind, like being scared out of our wits cause we didn’t know what was gonna happen." Bethany said.
"August 12, 1969..." He said reading the date. The display provided the exact date and time. "We have to be near home, this indicates we're in the same time zone."
"1969?" Mercy said. "None of us were here yet. I mean born."
"It's closer to my birth year than any of you guys." Roark said.
"What time is it?" Bethany asked.
"It must be around the time we left. According to this is almost eleven thirty." Roark said.
"Great." Mercy said.
"What do we do?" Davis asked.
"It's still dark." Roark said. "I suggest we go somewhere to hide out until the morning when we can figure out what to do, and where we are." He pointed out a house up ahead. "Maybe that house. It looks deserted."
Bethany looked at the house. It was familiar to her, it was one of the first things she saw.
She pointed. "Is that the house?"
"The house?" Mercy asked her.
"Yeah, it is." Roark said.
"What about the house?" Mercy asked again.
"A year or so ago a nasty storm knocked that house into the ocean." Bethany said. "We used to play in it."
"Here it looks almost brand new." Roark said.
"I still remember what it looks like, where all the rooms are." Bethany said. "It'd be a great place to crash."
"Wait a second, is it empty?" Davis asked.
"Good question." Mercy said. "There are some people who mind a bunch of haggard strangers squatting in their house."
"If I remember right, mom and dad said that the place was on the market forever but no one who ever bought it lived there very long.." Bethany said. "I can't be sure."
"We'll go look in the window." Roark said. "If it looks lived in, then we oughta go someplace else."
"Excuse me for asking a stupid question but why not go look for where our parents are?" Mercy said. "If its the year we think it is, then why not go back to Bethanys parents house. Don't forget, they all lived together at one time."
"That’s true." Bethany said.
"I don't think that’s a good idea." Davis said. The others looked at him. "Well imagine four complete strangers coming up to you claiming to be from the future? They'd have us in a padded room before lunch."
"He's right." Roark said. "Let's stick with the current plan." He’s said.
The others nodded and followed their faithful leader up to the house to look inside. Somewhere along the line Mercy muttered. "Who made him boss anyway?" Davis shrugged.
2001
After an hour of so of searching, the gang went back to the pad. Chea once again ventured into the attic. She brought Micky and Karen and Mike with her. The others stayed downstairs fixing breakfast. They figured after a little something to eat, they would go out again. With each passing minute, Chea thought she would never see her baby again.
"I was up here looking for the gadget." Chea said as they looked around. "But I couldn’t find it."
"Where did you last put it?" Micky asked.
"After Bethany and Davis found it, I put it on a shelf. When they went back downstairs, I put it back where it was originally."
"That’s a good idea. There’s no sense in putting it where you can't find it again." Karen agreed.
"So where is it hon?" Micky asked.
"In that box by the window." Chea said. "Where the 70's clothes are." She pointed.
Mike was closest to the box. He turned it over and sifted through the polyester clothing. "It's not there."
"You sure you didn’t move it again hon?" Karen asked.
"Please Karen! I don't have Alzheimers yet. I know where I put it." Chea said moving to where Mike was. She started shifting through the clothing. The others soon joined her at her side as clothing flew through the air, some flew into the stairway. It hit someone, as Brianna called up. "Someones bellbottoms just smacked me in the head!" After another minute or so, she gave up. "Its not here. Where would it go?"
Micky shook his head. He looked down. "What’s that?"
"What’s what?" Chea asked.
"The sparkly thing. Just underneath that green jumpsuit." He pointed.
"I don't know. I don't remember anything like this being in the box." She leaned over and moved the jumpsuit. She reached out with her left hand and picked up the sparkly thing that had caught everyones eye.
"Is that what I think it is?" Karen asked.
"It is." Chea said. "This is Bethanys bracelet. The one we gave her." She said. "You know what this means?"
"What?" Micky asked.
"It means that where ever the time gadget is, its got the kids." Chea said. "And I don't thinks she’s wearing clean underwear."
"That’s not good." Mike intoned.
"I know." Micky said. "Dirty underwear tends to ride up more."
"No, that the kids have the gadget. Where could they have gone?"
"I think I know how to find out." Karen said. "Come on, let's round up the troops."
Karen and the others bounded down the stairs. Chea and Micky slowly followed. She clutched her daughters bracelet in one hand.
"Don't worry baby." Micky said to her. "We'll find her. Everything will be all right."
"I hope so." Chea said quietly.
1969
The night passed quickly. Before Bethany knew it, she was awake in the abandoned house by the sea. A ray of sunlight broke through the curtainless window. It was what woke her up. She sat up and rubbed her eyes. It surprised her that she was able to sleep on the hard wood floor, but she was out like a light before she knew it. She stood and looked around. She walked through the house looking around. She recognized a lot of the rooms. The house was largely unfurnished, except for the kitchen which had a table in the middle of the room. Here is where she found Roark. He must have woke up before me, she decided. He was sitting on two milk crates he had found. He had the time gadget in his hand. He seemed to be looking it over.
"What’s up?" Bethany asked. Roark, clearly startled, jumped a mile.
"Don't do that!" He said.
"I'm sorry, but its not like I snuck up or anything." Bethany apologized. "How long have you been up?"
"A few minutes." Roark said. "Boy traveling through time takes a lot out of you. I slept like a baby even though I can't sleep in a strange place."
"Yeah, me too. Right now you can't get much stranger than this." Bethany said. "What are you working on?"
"I thought I could study this thing. I wish I knew who made it." He muttered.
"I don't think it was any of our folks. It seems professional made." Bethany said. "Or a mad scientist." She cackled. Roark looked at her. "Just a thought. We all have weird branches on our family trees."
Roark chuckled lightly. "That’s so true." He showed her the gadget. "I been trying to figure out how to input the year. But the problem is it seems to be some sort of complicated code. I'm sure if I took more math in school I would understand this, it would be easier."
"Can we make it work? To take us back home?" Bethany asked as Roark shut the gadget down.
"It will take some, pardon the pun, time to fix it. Plus it seems whatever energy its running on, its running out." Roark said. "I don't know what it runs on, but I think we could take it to some store to have them look at it." Roark proposed.
"Sounds good to me." Bethany said.
"What sounds good?" They heard. Mercy and Davis stood in the doorway.
"Roark says the gadget is running out of gas." Bethany explained. "He thinks we can take it to some hardware store or some electronics place to have it checked out."
"That does sound good." Davis agreed.
"But should we all go together?" Mercy said. "I think it would be a good idea to break into pairs."
Roark nodded. "We can take care of the gadget, but what would you do?"
"I for one am starving." Mercy said. "We could go get something to bring back here to eat later."
"Does anyone have any money?" Bethany asked.
Everyone searched their pockets. Roark had ten dollars, Bethany had two dollars, and both Davis and Mercy ended up empty handed.
"Hey, if I thought I was gonna eat in 1969, I would have brought something!" She protested.
"If this is all we have, its all we have." Roark said. "We gotta make it last though."
"Okay." Bethany said. "Let's go. It might take a while to find what we're looking for."
"She’s right." Davis said. "Our neighbor hood circa 2001 is a lot different than what’s out there now."
"We'll be careful." Mercy said. "We'll just put out bread crumbs or something."
"But what if birds eat the breadcrumbs?" Davis asked.
"We'll follow the birds." Mercy replied.
"Ah." Davis nodded.
Davis and Mercy split with Bethany and Roark as they left the house. After a walking a small distance they came up a row of familiar looking houses. Two of them was empty but the ones closest to Roark and Bethany were familiar.
"Is that what I think it is?" She asked.
"Yep." He said. "That’s your house." He pointed.
"Wow, it pretty much looks the same." She marveled.
"Yeah." He said. "It does." He looked at Bethany. "What are you thinking?"
"Part of me wants to go meet them." Bethany said. "See what they were like."
"Come on." He said. "You know that’s dangerous. There was something I remember from old Star Trek reruns."
"What?" Bethany said as they continued to walk.
"The Prime Directive." He said. "Basically said not to get involved with people in other times or you will mess up space time continuum." He said.
"Ohh." Bethany nodded as they slinked by the stairs leading to the beach. They hid behind a post. "Meaning they would screw up the future?"
"You got it." He said.
Bethany and Roark watched behind the post for a while. They saw what appeared to be Roarks folks and Bethanys folks. Davis's and Mercys folks were no where to be seen. They seemed to be playing an impromptu volley ball game.
"Where are they?" Karen said. "I thought they would be back by now."
"Ah relax babe." Micky said in a cuddle with Chea. "Let's just play the game."
"We could if you could separate yourselves for two seconds." Mike said.
"What would be the fun in that?" Chea asked.
"Wow." Bethany said. "They are really so in love here."
"I think they're still like that." Roark said. "Let's get out of here before we're seen."
Roark turned to go but tripped over a small post sticking out of the ground. He fell over the stake and crashed to the ground.
"UGGH!" He grunted.
"Roark!" Bethany said loudly, suddenly not caring who heard. "Are you all right?"
"Let's see." He paused for a minute while he sat up. "I'm still here."
"Great." Bethany sighed as she extended a hand.
"And we're not alone." Roark said looking past her.
Bethany took her hand back and turned around. A shadow fell on the duo. It was their folks, the younger versions, there looking at her.
"Hi, can we help you?" Bethany asked.
"That’s our question." Mike said. "Also, who are you and what are you doing here?"
Roark and Bethany looked at each other. What were they going to tell them?
