The Unlikely Time Traveller (3 page)

For a few seconds I stood frozen to the spot. I didn’t know what to do. Out of the corner of my eye I saw something glint in the grass. Shaking all over I bent down and scooped it up. It was a gold chain bracelet. This was Robbie’s mum’s, I was sure about that. I’d seen her wearing it. Robbie must have borrowed it. But why had he dropped it? Gold was a really important part of time travel and without it he would never get back.

I glanced over my shoulder. I was completely alone in our wild garden. I thought of Agnes, laughing in some shop with her gran, humming and hawing over which biscuits to buy. It might be an hour before she got here. I so wished she would turn up now! I thought of Will, pushing a lawnmower back and forward. There wasn’t time to go and get them. And every minute I stayed here could mean another hour for Robbie, who, knowing him, was probably in serious future trouble.

My heart raced. There was nothing for it; I had to go after him. I had to time travel a hundred years into the future, find Robbie and bring him back.

I kicked some dry leaves onto the fire. They crackled and flames leapt up. I pushed the glass globe. Rainbows flashed and swirled in the rising smoke. The earth and water were in place. Air wafted. Fire burned. I couldn’t
believe I was actually going to do this. Maybe I should take something with me? But what? I looked wildly about. Then dashed back up to the den, flung the door open and scanned the place. I grabbed a torch and our pack of cards, don’t ask me why. My phone was in my pocket. I pulled it out, my fingers all thumbs. I didn’t want to freak Agnes out, but she was my time-travel buddy. She needed to know. I managed to text her:

But most of the time her phone wasn’t topped up. She might never get my text, so I wrote it on a scrap of paper too and wedged the note under the bowl of peanuts so it would be the first thing she’d see when she came into the den. Then I stuffed a few peanuts in the pocket of my hoodie next to what was left of the toffee, and bolted back down to the fire.

I pressed the gold chain against the bark of the yew tree and thought about 2115. Wherever Robbie is, I murmured, that’s where I want to go. I focused hard. I knew for time travel to work, you have to really want it. I tried to forget all the reasons why I really didn’t want it, and instead thought about getting Robbie back. I thought about what a good pal he was: how we had been best pals since primary three, how he could be a great laugh sometimes. I murmured his name over and over. Then I started to sing an old song, the one everyone sings at Hogmanay. The words come from Robert Burns, who wrote the mouse poem about the future; if Robbie had been inspired by our talk in class, maybe Robert Burns would help me get to wherever he’d gone.

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,

and never brought tae mind,

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,

For the sake o’ auld lang syne…

My head started spinning. My hand felt hot. My whole body started shaking. I gripped the gold and tried to keep singing but my voice was trembling…
For auld lang syne, my Jo…

The ground didn’t feel solid, more like mud. I thought I was going to fall over. The misty rainbows grew brighter. I felt a buzzing in my ears. It got louder and louder. My hand shook. I fought to keep hold of the gold chain. I focused on one hundred years in the future. The world under my feet wobbled but I kept singing. I had to find Robbie.
For auld… lang… syne…

Then everything went dark. The tree felt like it was falling over. The ground seemed to swallow me up. And I screamed.

Something was buzzing. I thought it was the alarm on my phone. I thought I was in bed, with a splitting headache. I didn’t want to go to school. What day was it? I couldn’t move and the buzzing got louder. Something bleeped in my pocket.
We’ll tak a cup of kindness yet
… Weird words spun round my brain. Someone was hammering at the door. The buzzing turned fuzzy, then screechy. Then it sounded like horses neighing. And stamping. I still couldn’t get my eyes to open.
For auld lang syne…
It was the old song. That was the weirdness in my brain.

Then I remembered – I had time travelled into the future! This wasn’t my bed under me. It felt like grass. The hammering noise got louder. Maybe I’d landed in a wild stampede. Or maybe I was lying on the grass in the middle of some major horse race? The Grand National? What a din. I was going to get trampled to death. But I couldn’t move. What was I doing here? I tried to reach into my whirring brain and it came back to me: Robbie! The crazy fool was somewhere a hundred years in the future. I’d gone after him. Terrific.

“Tinder,” I heard a voice call out, “stay calm. Now Tara, hush, and be the ear to my speech. Dear citizens…”

Who was that? I had company but still couldn’t get up. Dazed, I wondered if I ever would. I always knew time
travel was dangerous. You never know what situation you’ll land in. And you don’t land at your best. Right now I felt like I’d never walk again, or talk. I would just lie like a zombie. That daft thought, weirdly, made me feel better. A groggy laugh pushed past my lips. Wait till I see Agnes, I thought, then I’ll tell her she was wrong. There
is
a zombie in the future, (if this is the future!) and he’s called Saul Martin! Not all that funny but it cheered me up.

Next thing I heard this gross chomping noise, right next to me, then I felt these rubbery wet things on the back of my hand. I screamed, or tried to, but a mangled whimper came out. I forced my eyes open, and found myself face to face with an old grey horse that was trying to bite me. I pulled my hand away. It rolled back its head and whinnied, then it stamped the ground.

“Tinder, no!” the same voice yelled. But the horse kept stamping, and neighing loudly. It looked well disturbed. And it wasn’t the only one. Further down I spotted six or seven other horses, shaking their shaggy manes and pounding the ground. The horse near me bared its huge yellow teeth. I lay stock still, my heart pounding. If I didn’t move, the horse might think I was dead. If I didn’t move, the guy might not discover me. I hadn’t spotted him yet but he was somewhere nearby, chanting away.

“Tinder, hush, and Tara, still now, so I may rehearse my speech:
Dear citizens. We who live… Um
… Tinder! What under the sun is the matter? It is terror enough I must make this muckle speech, and now you, acting startled. Hush!”

Next thing the mad horse lunged at me. Quick as a flash I rolled away from it. I kept rolling, partly because I didn’t trust my legs, partly to confuse the horse.

Someone was running towards me. Some guy with long hair. The mumbling and shouting one. Now he was
just shouting. And waving his arms about.

“Senseless hare-brain,” he yelled. “Fear in me enough to make this dreaded speech, now you spy on me, and make disturbance. Go!” I grabbed at some stone statue thing and hoisted myself to my feet. My legs felt like jelly.

Wildly I looked about. This was the garden! Tidied up and full of startled horses, but I knew it was our garden. I was under the yew tree. Right where I’d been when I left the twenty-first century. If I had. I staggered to the wide gnarled trunk and propped myself against it. The guy with the long hair was striding down the garden, and seemed seriously upset. Was he going to beat me up?

Maybe he was, but lucky for me he changed his mind. He glared at me, shook his head, then strode off to calm the main group of snorting, stamping horses.

With my heart still banging like mad I pressed up against the yew tree. Something rustled under my foot. No way! I had just stepped on a Mars Bar wrapper! If there’s one thing Robbie loves it’s Mars Bars. Was this just coincidence or had Robbie been here? If Robbie had been through a time-travel shift like I just had, the first thing he’d reach for was a snack. Shakily I snatched up the wrapper. I heard the bleep from my pocket again. I couldn’t believe a text had reached me in the future. If this was the future? It seemed quite horsey, and there were no flashy spacecraft about.

I fumbled for my phone, pulled it out and saw a text from Agnes.
You R Joking!
Then the screen went blank and the phone went dead. I stabbed at it with my finger but nothing happened. I wanted to call her.
No!
I wanted to yell.
I am deadly serious!
But my link to home had just died on me.

I slipped the useless phone back in my pocket, groaned, then realised I was gazing at the carved initials AB on the bark of the yew tree. I gasped, thinking of Agatha Black from 1812 – the first time traveller – and I felt better. If Agatha could time travel into the future, so could I. My legs stopped trembling.

The guy was further down the garden now, patting the horses on their noses. They were getting calmer. Maybe he’d forgotten about me. I hoped so. I needed to get out of here, find Robbie and get us both home. The fuzzy feeling in my head was clearing. The old song had faded. I started to think of all the words I would call Robbie when I found him. Wally! Nit! Nut case! Prat!

And what had that long-haired guy called me – senseless hare-brain? Ha! It wasn’t me that was senseless. It wasn’t me that was a hare-brain! The more I thought about Robbie, the more annoyed I got. He didn’t know the first thing about time travel. What a reckless fool. He could get us both killed. I thought I was ranting inside my head. Toad. Fool. Moron. But I must have been blabbing. Loudly. “Ninny! Wally! Numpty! Prat! Nutcase idiotic goat!”

“What kind of play is this?” said the guy. “Running like a clown. Screeching. You are, it is true, a big idiotic
goat.” I was behind the yew tree and couldn’t see him, but it sounded like he was heading my way. “You did already make a great commotion this morn. Now you dare return. A senseless hare-brain. It is already pain for me to make the great speech. I rehearse and you spoil it all. You make fear for the old horses. In the name of starlight and sun, what are you doing?”

He had the weirdest accent. I couldn’t understand everything but he sounded well hacked off. What did he mean about ‘dare return’?

“Is this some sport?” he went on. “First I was in the stable mixing mash when I thought thunder had struck. Then I was practising the dreaded speech. Fool! Do you want to kill the aged horses? Do you wish to make of me utter fear?”

What was he going on about? Then I wondered – had Robbie been here, like me? Had Robbie freaked out the horses by suddenly appearing from the past, and now this guy thought I was Robbie again, back to freak them out a second time? I could see how that would annoy him. Not that I could understand his words all that well. He rolled his Rs like a revving motorbike.

“The horses are old. Sudden movement upsets them. And what is
numpty
?”

I kept quiet. My heart raced so loud I was sure he could hear it.

The guy peered round the tree and glared at me. “So! Now I set eyes on you.”

“Hello,” I whispered, gaping at him. He reminded me of a hunter in some film. His cheeks were flushed. His dark eyes flashed. “Sorry,” I muttered, “I didn’t mean… um… I’m sorry.” He was taller than me, but still just a boy. He had his hands on his hips, like he was ready for
a fight. He had long dark hair, broad shoulders and a strong jaw, set in that jutting-out, annoyed kind of way. His long hair was braided or in dreadlocks and he had a headband thing on. I just kept staring at him. I didn’t know what to do, or say.

“And
prat
,” he said, with his husky voice. “What is prat? Why do you return? Perhaps you seek work here?”

I shook my head. I knew it was rude to stare, but I couldn’t help it. He had on this cool-looking onesie thing, with pockets everywhere and a hipster belt with stuff hooked on, knives and rope and metal things like torches. And the band around his head looked like the kind that tennis players wear, except this one was green and had little silvery studs in it. “Also,” he went on, “what is
wally
?”

Words had been pouring out of me, but now I couldn’t speak. I could only gape at this person who was staring at me and still looked pretty upset. But he didn’t look like he was about to punch me. That was a relief. “The horses here are past years of service, but they are not goats, or toads. Perhaps you are ill?”

I hadn’t moved.

“Perhaps you did take the contaminated water?” His anger seemed to be cooling off and now he was looking concerned. “You did spoil my practising speech.” I felt embarrassed, cause somebody about the same age as me had just given me a row. I rustled the Mars Bar wrapper in my pocket, thinking maybe this guy had seen which way Robbie went.

He knitted his eyebrows together and frowned. “It is better you never return to this place,” he said, “horse disturber.”

In other situations this could have been funny.

“Actually…” I coughed, spluttered, and recovered my
voice. “Sorry about the horses, really, I didn’t mean… I mean I’m looking for a friend. I… um… lost him. Maybe you saw…” I was going to describe Robbie when suddenly this futuristic boy in front of me screamed and took a quick step back.

“You have no I-band!”

I shrugged. What else could I do?

“You have lost your Immunity band,” he said, like it was the worst possible thing in the world. Then he said it again, louder, like I was deaf. He took another step back, as though he might catch a terrible infection from me.

I tried to smile, and to not look diseased or like a terrorist. “I… um… lost it,” I lied and shrugged again. “Look, I don’t come from around here, I mean, not really. I’m a traveller.”

“That I worked out.” He looked at my clothes. I had on a skateboarding T-shirt, a red hoodie and black trousers. I had thought I looked pretty cool, but suddenly, next to this ultra-hip-looking guy from the future, I felt old-fashioned.

“I just want to find my friend,” I mumbled pathetically. I looked around, as though Robbie might suddenly appear from behind a tree. “He’s also a… a traveller. Maybe you saw him?”

“The one you call numpty and fool? The same? These are words for friend?”

I nodded. Now
I
felt a fool. “Robbie,” I muttered. “That’s his name. We were… um… playing tig.” It sounded pretty lame but I couldn’t think of anything else. “And, um… I’ve got to find him, and catch him.”

It occurred to me that this future boy might actually help me. I smiled at him.

He didn’t smile back. “You need to catch this friend?”

“Yeah.”

The boy kept his distance but bowed towards me, like I had seen people on TV bow before they kick someone in judo.

“My name is Ness,” he said, staring at me with his dark blue eyes.

“I’m Saul,” I said and, because I was trying to fit in, I did what he did, and bowed.