Chapter Ten — Entangled
“Two-thousand-twenty!” Finn exclaimed.
As the group stood staring at the screen in astonishment, the words Touch Screen to Begin History Video scrolled across the monitor.
Frankie lightly placed his forefinger on the screen, and the travelers slowly lowered themselves to sit on the benches in the alcove. All remained silent throughout the three-minute informational video—even Chuck who had never remained silent during a film or television show in his life.
After the video ended, they sat unmoving for several more minutes. When Maggie finally got up, the others stayed put, not so much as turning their heads to see where she was going.
With much more composure than the others, she walked up to the information counter and simply asked the attendant, “Excuse me, do you have a newspaper?”
“You mean like a paper one?” the fellow at the counter replied.
“Yes, like a paper one.”
“Funny you should ask. We actually do. The boss keeps the subscription out of nostalgia. Tourists get a kick out of seeing a real newspaper.”
She held out her hands as he reached below the counter to produce the paper and hand it off to her as if it were a curious species of reptile.
“Thank you, I’ll return it in a moment.” She walked back to the group and sat on the bench next to Finn. “Gather round.” They all huddled together. “As you can see, plain as day, the date is Saturday, February 29, 2020.”
“Saliolum?” Frankie whispered.
“So we didn’t so much travel through space, we traveled through time?” Finn posited.
Frankie stroked his chin in thought. “No … that can’t be … Can it?”
“Evidently so.” Maggie quickly leafed through the paper then folded it closed. “And it’s my belief there is only one place to go to get the answers we need to find a way home.”
“You mean we’re going to the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics at Langley?” Chuck gushed.
“Uh no. We’re going to the library.”
Chuck and Frankie both groaned.
“Thank you,” Maggie said to the attendant as she handed back the newspaper. She then pulled the map from her lunchbox and placed it on the counter. “Now can you help us get to the nearest public library, please?”
The attendant made quick work of explaining how to get to the library that was only half a mile away. “It doesn’t open until ten and will only take you about nine to twelve minutes to get there, so you have plenty of time.”
“Many thanks, you’ve been a tremendous help,” Maggie said to the attendant. She then turned to the others. “Shall we?”
* * *
They took their time as they strolled, remarking on what had been located in certain spots when they first arrived at the port in their own time of 1953. Chuck would pinch himself now and again and yelp each time.
“What on Earth is all the pinching about?” Maggie asked.
“Just checking to make sure I’m not dreaming.”
“Well, if you are, we all are,” Finn remarked.
They arrived at the entrance to the library a few minutes before opening time.
“This is a library?” Finn said. “Looks more like a … like a …”
“Like a prison,” Maggie remarked.
What sounded like an argument escalating caught their attention, and they turned to regard an elderly husband and wife both riding mobility scooters that had somehow become entangled.
Finn jogged over to be of assistance. “Need a hand?” he called out.
“Oh yes, thank you,” the woman said. “We were racing and … well, he cheated, and now here we are.”
The elderly man guffawed. “Cheated! You tried to run me off the road.”
“Oh don’t be so dramatic. Besides, it was the sidewalk.”
“Boy, you two have really got yourselves stuck. I’m going to have to … Just a second.” Finn tipped the woman’s scooter off the ground, pulled it to the side, and lowered it back down to the ground, having disengaged it from the gentleman’s scooter. “That should do the trick.”
“It certainly did! Thank you, young man. That was most kind of you.”
“My pleasure.”
The woman leaned forward to get a better look at him. “Say, have I seen you somewhere before?”
Finn grinned. “You may recognize me from my films.”
“Oh, you’re an actor?”
“So they say.”
“Yes, that must be it.”
A librarian unlocked the front door and invited those outside to come in.
Finn jogged to the door to hold it open for the couple.
“He’s in the movies,” the old woman whispered loudly to her husband.
“Yes, thought he looked familiar.”
Once the couple was inside, the time travelers trudged in as well. They clustered around a table in the front of the library where talking was allowed and tried to come up with a game plan. The elderly couple were seated nearby, and when the man got his scooter stuck in a corner and was unable to turn, Finn jumped up to turn the scooter in the right direction.
“Our Knaight in Platen armor,” the woman cheered.
Just then a gang of tween hoodlums entered the library, behaving disruptively and loudly, knocking books off of stands and putting people ill at ease.
“I hate kids like that,” Chuck grumbled.
“Father taught us never to hate anyone,” Maggie said. “That gives me an idea. I’ll be right back.”
As she strode up to the front desk, the others put their heads together.
“So how do we start researching time travel?” Finn said.
Frankie scratched his head. “Beats me.”
“Maybe we start by looking up H. G. Wells’ The Time Machine?” Finn offered.
“How about The Shadow Out of Time by H.P. Lovecraft?” Frankie replied. “That’s always a good one.”
“Would either of those mean I have to read?” Chuck asked.
“Yes,” both replied.
Chuck sat back in his chair and folded his arms. “Then I’m out.”
“If only we could …” Finn grabbed the sides of his head as if it might explode. “Holy mother of Pegasus. We’ve been going about this all wrong, Frankie!”
“Tell, tell!”
“We just need to get to the Ocademy. Someone there is sure to know how to get us back. Some Aetherean.”
“Ha! We’ve got about as good a chance of figuring out time travel as we do figuring out how to get to Omni. You know portal locations aren’t public knowledge. No way this place would have anything that could help us.”
“You guys are giving me a headache,” Chuck said, then laid his arms and head on the table and closed his eyes. “I’m taking a nap.”
Maggie returned with dragging steps, wiping a tear from her cheek.
“What’s happened, Margaret?” Finn asked tenderly.
“I asked the clerk where the microfiche was so I could look up what’s become of Mother and Father. Apparently microfiche is no longer used. They don’t even have card catalogs.”
“I understand,” Finn said. “Change can be distressing.”
“It’s not that. The clerk pulled out a small device called an Eye Phone and looked up the obituaries of Mother and Father. According to the records, our mother had passed at the sanitarium months before we were shipped off, but no one told us. And Father perished in the war, serving his country.”
Chuck slowly lifted his head off the table. “We really are orphans?”
“I’m afraid so. Although Father would still be alive in our time for another two years. But he never came home from the war.”
“So when we get back home, we have nothing to get back to,” Chuck whispered.
“Looks that way.”
Betsy started sniveling.
“She understands what you’re saying?” Frankie asked in amazement.
“I think she understands the tone of our voices and senses we’re sad.” Maggie held out her arms to Frankie, and he handed Betsy to her sister.
The deafening sound of a fire alarm caused everyone to clap their hands to their ears, including Betsy.
“Everybody, please evacuate,” the clerk at the front desk called out. “In an orderly fashion, mind you.”
“Those junior-high jerks pulled the alarm, whaddaya wanna bet,” Chuck said.
“How can you be so sure, Chuck?” Finn asked.
“Like recognizes like,” Maggie said in a matter-of-fact tone. “You fellows make any headway?”
“None,” Frankie said. “Welcome to our new home sweet home.”
As they herded toward the exit, the elderly woman sped up in pursuit of Finn. “Oh young man. Young man!”
He stopped and turned to offer her a sad smile. “Yes, ma’am? Anything else I can help you with?”
She crinkled up her nose in a grin. “It is we who can help you! We heard you speaking and … We’re Ignin validata, you see.”
“What?!” Frankie shouted, stopped in his tracks by the comment. He then lowered his voice to a near whisper. “You two went to the Ocademy … and were in Ignis?”
“We most certainly were!” she said.
“Our daughter went there too,” the man added.
“Perhaps we should continue this conversation once we get outside,” the woman remarked as they made their way out to the sidewalk. “Anyone hungry?”
All raised their hands.
“Excellent! You ever have a po’ boy sandwich?”
All shook their head no.
“Even better! You’re going to love them. There’s a spot just half a mile from here. They should be open by now. Follow us!”
With that, she zoomed away, her husband hot on her back wheels. “I’ll race you, dolcezza!”
The kids had to jog to keep up with the couple and were nearly winded by the time they arrived at the eatery.
Just as they were about to enter, Frankie grabbed Finn’s arm hard. “Look up,” he whispered.
Finn turned his gaze to the sign over the door. It depicted a skull with crossed bread baguettes and a fleur de lis.
Frankie’s voice nearly cracked with emotion. “This may very well be the greatest restaurant on the planet. I love two-thousand-twenty!”
Once the couple finished fussing over the kids and everyone had ordered, the woman got down to the business at hand. “Now then, I take it you’re from the past? My guess is somewhere in the 1950s.”
“Yes, ma’am,” said Finn. “Nineteen-fifty-three to be exact.”
She giggled and wiggled in her seat. “I knew it! Perhaps you’re acquainted with our daughter. Oh what was the name she went by at that age?”
“You’re sparking up the wrong kindling asking me, dolcezza,” her husband said. “I can hardly remember your name!”
“True. Young man, by any chance is there a precocious girl in her early teens in Ignis?”
Frankie chuckled. “Ha! Dozens, ma’am. That sums up most of them, especially in my Frond.”
Chuck looked at Maggie blankly. “Do you have any idea what they’re talking about?”
“No, but I get the feeling it has something to do with getting us home.”
“It does at that!” the woman said.
“But I’m not so sure I wanna go home,” Chuck said. “What would we be going home to?”
All were silent for a moment, until the food arrived, brightening the mood.
Frankie and Finn and the couple prattled all at the same time, comparing stories and references about a place called the Academy of Omniosophical Arts & Sciences.
“I know it must sound crazy to people who don’t know about it,” Finn commented to the kids, “but it’s an interdimensional school. Frankie and I are both students there.”
“If you’d told me about it yesterday, I would’ve thought you were off your rocker,” Chuck said. “But after traveling like a hundred years to the future—”
“Sixty-Seven,” Maggie interjected.
“—I’m ready to believe anything,” Chuck concluded.
“Bardlbus will know what to do,” the woman said. “We need to get you kids to a portal.”
“A portal?” Maggie whispered.
“That’s how you access the school,” Frankie said. “It’s in its own dimension.”
Maggie waggled her head and pinched her forearm. “Now I understand what all the pinching was about, Charles.”
Once they’d dined and got back outside, the couple took off on their scooters again. “Follow us, kids. The nearest portal is at the St. Louis Cemetery, Number One. We’ll have to hoof it if we’re going to make the tour on time.”
“Tour?” Finn asked.
“They don’t allow the public in unless they’re part of the tour, which is fantastic as it helps keep the portal secure.”
“Don’t want people just stumbling through the portal, now do we,” her husband added with a chuckle.
“Or disturbing the resting places of the departed.”
“Ready to visit another dimension, kids?” Finn asked.
Maggie and Chuck pinched each other.