Out of Time (13 page)

“Shoes?”

“Oh yea. I need those.” Sasha giggled
lightly.

“Calm down dear.” Helen chuckled back. “You
won’t even remember this when it’s all over. It’ll be one giant
blur.”

Mandy rushed in the room and caught her
breath. “All clear. Come on Sasha.”

“I’m coming. Bouquet?” Sasha asked Mandy, who
as the maid of honor, was in charge of it. Mandy handed it over.
“Thanks. Where is the wedding planner anyway? Isn’t she supposed to
be doing this?”

“Sasha,
stop worrying
and come on!”
Mandy said, pulling her best friend out of the door and into the
narthex. Sasha could hear organic music emanating from the
sanctuary. Mandy entered the sanctuary first to take her place up
near the altar across from the men. The organ music stopped and the
sound of a march began to play. Sasha could hear the sound of
rustling from the people standing up. She was ready for all eyes to
be on her.

She started to tear and then sniffle as the
doors opened. As she walked forward, the lights went out. “Who
turned those out?” she wondered. She looked around but couldn’t see
anything. Nothing was going to ruin her wedding. Not even an
electrical malfunction. Maybe she should have had a daytime
wedding.

Suddenly the sound of a match being struck
echoed throughout the room. Light appeared and Sasha breathed a
sigh of relief, whispering, “Oh thank goodness. Nothing is going to
stop my wedding from —”

“From?” Sasha heard a man say. She recognized
the voice. She had heard it before over a year ago. It couldn’t
be.

“What the hell are you doing here?” Sasha
exclaimed.

“I could ask you the same thing. You’ve only
been gone a few minutes. However, it was just long enough for my
candles to burn out. Luckily, some appeared in the closet. I took
them out and then turned around to light them and there you were.”
Mankus said plainly to her, extinguishing the match with a flick of
his hand.

“A few minutes? I’ve been gone a few
years
!”

“Really?” Mankus raised an eyebrow in
intrigue.

“Well, maybe just one and a day or so.” Sasha
said, realizing she might have exaggerated a little in the heat of
the moment.

“Where did you go, or rather,
when
?”
Mankus wondered, as his curiosity peaked.

“I started in my past, then future, then
about eight years from...” Sasha said, losing her train of thought
as Mankus interrupted her.

“You are the same age as when you first got
here.” the man noted. Sasha looked down, only to find herself back
in the school clothes she had worn the day she first entered the
attic and opened the closet door. It was as if she had only been
sleeping and this was all a bad dream.

“So eight years from ‘now’?” Sasha asked.

“You need to find your time.” Mankus told
her. Sasha was still lost in time.

“Why am I here though?”

Mankus tried to explain. “I would assume the
continuum was trying to set you back straight.” Sasha looked at
him, obviously puzzled, and he explained further, “Space-time. I’ve
heard it referred to on a show called
Star Trek
, although I
obviously haven’t ever seen it. I haven’t a television in here.
Even if I had one, I doubt it would work.”

“Okay. So what is this ‘space-time’, then?”
Sasha inquired.

“It’s a little easier to explain how this
house
is here.” Mankus told her. She urged to him on. “There
are four dimensions. Three are space and one is time. Space can
move around time, but time doesn’t move. This house is like a
portal, connecting space with time. You can move into different
times, but only through space.”

“So the space-time bends around the house?”
Sasha wondered, trying to visually imagine the space-time house in
her mind.

“Essentially.”

“That sounds like a tesseract.” Sasha said
excitedly. Mankus only looked at her with a confused expression
blanketing his youthful face. Sasha wondered how long he had been
in the house. It didn’t seem like it could be decades, but he spoke
differently. She knew from the age and degradation of the house it
had to have been at least eighty years. “Oh, that wasn’t written
yet.” she realized. “
A Wrinkle in Time
. It’s a story that
was written in the 1960s. It’s about some kids that go into a
haunted house and...I don’t suppose...” Sasha trailed off. Was this
very house the one referenced in the book?

“What?” Mankus wondered.

“Ever met a Madeline here?” Sasha asked as
Mankus eyes lit up.

“Once.” he said. “I called her Maddie. She
was on a camping trip with her family and stumbled in here. I
suppose she found her way out.”

“That is seriously nuts.” Sasha shook her
head in disbelief. “You met
the
Madeline L’Engle.”

“So she wrote another book then?” Mankus
wondered, referencing the first book Madeline had published,
The
Small Rain
.

“Yes, and supposedly the ideas were inspired
by that very trip. The tesseract is what she called the bend of
space.” Sasha explained.

“Interesting.” Mankus rubbed his chin, which,
as Sasha noticed, was still just as stubby from the last time she
had seen him. Minutes, indeed. “I knew she was a writer. She had
talked to me about something she published a few years before.”

“She wrote a
lot
more books after
that.”

“How is she doing?” Mankus wondered, as if
Sasha knew her personally.

“She’s...uh...” Sasha stammered, before
blurting out, “She’s dead.”

“How did she die?” he asked tentatively.

“Just old age.” she smiled. Nothing
traumatic. “She was in a nursing home. She had a good, long
life.”

“That’s nice.” he muttered.

“Mankus, I hate to cut this short, but I need
to get back home — to my own time. I need help. I need to find
my
door.”

“The door to the attic?” Mankus asked her.
Sasha was almost surprised that he remembered before realizing of
course he would. It had only been minutes. This time travel
adjustment took a while to get used to.

“I have to stop my mother from killing
herself.”

“Why would she do that?” Mankus almost jumped
back in surprise.

“My dad died and I guess she thought — thinks
— I’m dead. She was worried about it because of Betsy. Her
disappearance was — is — pretty recent.” Sasha kept correcting
herself, realizing the events were no longer in her past, but
present.

“Follow me.” Mankus told her, grasping her
hand in the dim light.

“I don’t even know where we are anyway.”
Sasha conceded as he led her through the house. They walked through
the rooms, the floors creaking with every step. Mankus led up her
up a flight of stairs until he stopped at a landing. “Hey, that’s
the door!”

“Are you sure?” he asked her tentatively. She
nodded. There weren’t any other doors where they were and she knew
the look of the door. Crackled paint and all. “Hurry, before it
closes.”

“I will.” Sasha said, running down to meet
him. She grasped the knob and opened it up. It was dark on the
other side. She probably should have waited, but she didn’t want to
take the chance. This door
felt
right. She knew all too well
how accurate her instincts could be. Sasha began to feel around as
the door closed. She muttered to herself in the process as she hit
a desk. “Phew! Back in the school. Man it’s dark in here. Only the
dim light from the moon coming in. I’d better get home.”

Suddenly Sasha heard noises. There was static
on the air of the night. She could hear mutterings. “Hello? Is
someone there?” she called out, instantly remembering that was what
she first said when she entered Mankus’ house.

“This is unit 219, I have a 10-48A.” a man
said after she heard a beep and static.

“Standby 219.” a voice replied back.

“Hello? I can hear you.” Sasha called out
louder.

“Who are you?” the man said, entering the
room. Sasha could make out a police officer’s uniform. He must have
been on his radio before.

“I’m Sasha Midleton. Who are you?” Sasha
asked.

“Sergeant Corvey.” the officer responded,
flipping the switch to light the room. He paused briefly, his mind
processing his thoughts. “You’re the girl who has been
missing.”

“Yea, but I need to go home
right
now
.” Sasha demanded. She knew she didn’t have much time before
her mom would kill herself.

“We need to take you in for questioning.”
Sergeant Corvey said apologetically.

“What did I do?” Sasha asked, as if she was
going to be interrogated for some crime he may have thought she
committed.

The officer chuckled. “You’ve been gone for
two weeks. We just need to ask you some questions about where
you’ve been. It’s a debriefing of sorts.”

“I’ve been
here
the whole time.” Sasha
said to him.

“In the attic?” the officer wondered. Sasha
gulped, realizing the chain of events that could occur should she
ever tell them about her experiences.

“Um...no. I mean the school. I must have
bumped my head or something because I can’t remember much of
anything. I didn’t want to leave because I felt safe. Amnesia. I
remember everything now. I need to go home.” Sasha told him, trying
to make her story sound believable.

“Come with me, young lady.” the police
officer told her, motioning her forward. Sasha’s gut wrenched. She
felt like her heart was being pulled out of her chest with every
step. This man was putting himself between her and the life of her
mother. She stopped, halfway to the door.

“I can’t. I need go home. Listen, let me just
call my mother, all right? I need to tell her I’m safe.” Sasha told
him. The police officer looked her over, probably gauging whether
she was going to run out.

“We’ll call her when we get to the station.”
he told her, adding it was standard procedure.

“I can’t wait that long.” she responded,
breaking down into a puddle of soppy tears. “She’s got to know I’m
okay. Seriously, sir. You
have
to let her know.”

“Calm down.” he told her, reaching for his
radio. Sasha didn’t notice.

“I can’t calm down. Listen, my mom needs me
right now.”

“Dispatch, can you get Mrs. Midleton on the
phone and let her know we found her daughter?” he asked into the
radio after the sniffles of Sasha. Static sounded as he removed his
finger from the transmit button.

“Confirmed Unit 219. Standby.” a voice
crackled back. Sasha’s face immediately smoothed and a wash of
relief flooded over her.

“Better?” the officer asked, adjusting the
squelch on the radio so it wasn’t as loud.

“Thanks.” Sasha nodded back. “I’m sorry for
yelling.”

“I think I remember you.” Sergeant Corvey
said, his forehead crinkling in thought. Sasha looked confused.
“About five years ago. You skipped school.”

“Oh yea, that.” Sasha said, remembering what
happened only a few years ago in her newly planted memories.

“Then you said you didn’t...” the officer
paused, trying to recall her exact words. “You didn’t
remember.”

“Yea, that was me. Kids, you know...we do
weird things.” Sasha chuckled, but the sergeant didn’t seem to
think it was amusing.

“Maybe you should get checked out in the
hospital instead. Do you have blackouts frequently?” Corvey
wondered, trying to think of any questions that would help figure
out what could cause Sasha’s forgetfulness. Epilepsy was always a
possibility and could easily be undiagnosed in youth.

“Can you find out about my mom first?” Sasha
asked tentatively. Corvey fumbled back to his radio and signaled
out.

“Dispatch, were you able to locate Ms.
Midleton?”

The voice on the other end responded with,
“She’s been notified and will be at the station.”

“Affirmative.” the office said, removing his
finger once again from transmitting. He confronted Sasha. “See?
It’s fine.”

“Thanks. I didn’t want to be a pain.” she
told him, and the officer shook his head.

“You
really
should get checked out.”
he told her. Her moodiness and odd behavior could be due to head
trauma.

“Can’t you like, tell my mom or something?”
Sasha asked. She didn’t want to go to the hospital with the
officer.

“Should be fine.” Corvey muttered. “Come on,
I’ll take you over to her.”

“Thanks I guess.” Sasha told him as he led
her out of the room. He followed her closely as they made their way
through the darkened hallways and stairwells of the school, but he
had his flashlight turned on to light up the way a bit.