The Unlikely Time Traveller (7 page)

“If you’re going to have a party,” Robbie piped up, “I could do my magic card tricks.”

Ness pulled out the cards I had given her from her pocket. “Wondrous,” she said, “and I have a gift from Saul of such very cards.”

Robbie did a double-take. These were our gang’s cards, and hey-ho, I had given them away.

I jumped in quick. “Just a wee present,” I said, nudging him.

Robbie asked if he could borrow them.

“You may,” Ness said, handing them over. They were a pack that, now I thought about it, Robbie had actually bought in the first place.

Ness’s eyes flitted from me to Robbie, like she was trying to work us out. “Perhaps you boys are apprentice entertainers? They are famed for magic card tricks. Perhaps that is it?”

“Or wandering players?” Scosha had joined in.

“Nah,” Robbie said, shuffling like he was some card whizz, “we’re magic travellers, aren’t we, Saul?” He grinned at me and winked.

Even though part of me felt like punching him I found myself grinning back. Robbie was that sort of boy: annoying me one minute then he’d have me rolling around laughing the next. Maybe we
could
hang around
for this party. It might even be fun.

I stretched my legs out and leaned back on the bench. I knew how time travel worked. Two days in future time would only be minutes in our time. Time opens out like a door and lets you through, but the time you come from waits for you. If we stayed, Robbie could keep watch at the horse sanctuary while I dug about for the time-capsule tin. Would it still be there?

Robbie shuffled the cards. He looked at home in 2115. Even my homemade I-band made him look like a dude. Nobody was calling him names in the future.

I swallowed hard, thinking about the names I had planned on calling him.

Ness said, “You can help harvest the new potatoes. You do not mind to join? There is muckle work for the celebration feast.” She smiled at me and Robbie.

I could sense Robbie squirming. Probably the future didn’t sound so rosy now he was expected to help out.

“Well,” he hummed and coughed, “we…”

“We’d love to help,” I said, swinging round and winking at him. “Wouldn’t we, Robbie?”

“Sure,” he said, way too fast. He poked me in the ribs and we mucked about, him tickling me and me wrestling with him. People stared. I didn’t care. Suddenly it was like the old days, and I wouldn’t have been surprised to see Will and Agnes turn up. Agnes would go on about her gran for a bit and how busy the supermarket was, and Will would give us a demonstration of mowing the lawn, like it was a Porsche he was pushing and not a beat-up old lawnmower. Then we’d all sit about in the den and play cards.

I know I’d only been gone a few hours, but I missed them. And the den and everything.

I realised Robbie and I were going to stay in the
twenty-second century for a bit.

I felt goosebumps up my arm. There’s always that uneasy feeling with time travel.

You might never make it home.

Agnes

Gran was super-slow for some reason. “I’m getting old,” that’s what she kept saying, but she’s not completely ancient, she’s fine really. Still, we spent ages in the supermarket. We must have looked at everything twenty times. How does that happen, that when you are in a hurry everybody else goes really slow?

I’d received a strange text from Saul. One of his joke texts I bet. But now I couldn’t wait to rush to the den. “We’ve got the list right here, Gran,” is what I kept saying to her. I think she likes the supermarket. We don’t even buy that much, but she wants to see what other folk put in their baskets, plus she likes to check what offers are on. I was getting pretty impatient then felt bad, because, as I said, Gran likes the Saturday shopping and I didn’t want to spoil it for her. I just really wanted to get over to the den.

I fingered my gold ring. Maybe, maybe, the text was true. Maybe something actually was up and Saul had time travelled into the future. If he had, I needed to go and find him. I imagined singing the antique song down at the yew tree. I stood with Gran next to pots of yogurt and cream cheese, picturing myself in some glorious future. I wanted to get a top-up for my phone so
I could text Saul back. Gran said I had to choose between batteries for my torch or topping-up. I chose the top-up.

When I eventually managed to steer the trolley to the checkout, Gran had to have a really long friendly chat with the man. Then, just when I thought we had finished and were finally going to leave she suddenly gasped and said, “Chopped tomatoes! I forgot chopped tomatoes.” So we went through the whole vast shop again.

I wasn’t thinking much about chopped tomatoes and stuff on the list. I was thinking about Saul and Robbie and how they would already be at the den and how they were going to choose a place in the garden for us to camp out overnight. I told them it should be a spot with the best view, so not under a tree.

Robbie is definitely a stay-indoors kind of boy. I think he’s been trying to find excuses not to sleep out.

It was hard to text and carry shopping, but I managed.

I wrote:
You R Joking.
I thought the text had sent, but the next moment the words ‘Number unavailable’ flashed up on the screen. I got this weird shiver up my spine and walked faster, but Gran was sooooo slow! Then back at the caravan I had to help her put things away.

I tried to text Robbie. Same thing.
Number unavailable.

That wasn’t like Robbie. His phone was always available.

Something
was
up.

I needed to run to the den.

By the time I was free, I felt like a lion loosed from a cage. I pelted along the road, up the lane and over the stubble field.

I slowed down as I approached the wall that ran around the wild garden. I sniffed smoke in the air. I imagined Saul and Robbie with their phones turned off,
lazing about round a bonfire toasting marshmallows. I love bonfires. I felt this stab of jealousy, that I had been helping Gran all morning, and they had been horsing around in the garden, making a bonfire and having fun.

“Saul!” I shouted out, soon as I was through the hole in the hedge. “Robbie!” I did our gang’s three bird whistle sign.

They didn’t whistle back. Maybe they were hiding from me.

“Saul!” I shouted again.

Still no answer.

Then, even though it wasn’t true I shouted out, “Robbie! I’ve got a bumper packet of crisps!”

Still no answer.

I reached the bonfire. There was no one about; just a fire going, a glass globe swinging and flashing little rainbows. That’s when my heart skipped a beat.

Something
really
was up.

We were leaving the juice bar when the church bells rang out for two o’clock. They sounded seriously old-fashioned. “It is indeed muckle good to live in such a historic town,” Ness said, pointing in the direction of the church steeple.
“Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.”

I guessed she had just said something in French and wished Agnes was here to translate. But Ness, probably seeing me look confused, translated for me: “The more something changes, the more it stays the same.” I nodded like I knew what she meant. I wanted to tell her Peebles architecture actually didn’t look as historic as it used to. Though in other ways, with all these horses about, it looked even more historic. I still couldn’t get used to the cars, or lack of them. In the future it was as if old and new were side by side. I wanted to tell her we were time travellers, I just didn’t know how to come out with it.

Scosha bowed at us. “We meet in the fields before twilight,” she said, then ran off.

“It is cooler to work then,” Ness explained.

The three of us wandered down to the river’s edge. Robbie started skipping about and wanting me to wrestle him.

“The river is just the same, eh Saul?” he said, swinging a punch and speaking way too loudly.

I could see Ness frowning, trying to work out what he
meant. Would she believe it if I told her where we really came from?

“Shhh,” I hissed, ducking to avoid his punch. “Calm down.”

But he kept skipping around, landing punches in the air. “That swimming pool place is pretty ace, eh? Shame they didn’t sell chips. I could so take on a plate of chips right now.” Robbie couldn’t help himself. He couldn’t keep quiet. “Smothered with ketchup.” He punched the air again. “And salt.”

I smiled weakly at Ness, who was staring at Robbie.

“What is ‘chips’? And ‘ketchup’?”

“It’s yummy, that’s what,” Robbie said, licking his lips.

“This language,” Ness asked, looking bewildered, “is it a topic at your school? Is it part of the Bacca?”

“The what?” Now it was Robbie’s turn to look confused.

“You must take the Bacca,” Ness said, her eyes darting from Robbie to me.

“Um…” I started, but just at that moment we were startled by three swans flying low over our heads and landing with a loud splash next to us in the river. Robbie stopped punching the air. The three of us stared at the swans then stared at each other, and all at the same time we started to speak.

I said, “You know…”

And Ness said, “Where are…”

And Robbie said, “I want…”

And we all laughed.

In the pause that followed I jumped in fast, before I lost confidence. “Ness, um… me and Robbie, you know, we’re not normal travellers. I know it’s weird and pretty unbelievable, but actually we’re… um… time travellers.” I nodded, and smiled, trying to look normal. “So, hey,
you see we
are
magic travellers in a way.” I wittered on, even though Ness was gaping at me like I was an alien. “It really is true, no joke, we come from 2015. We live in Peebles too, but a hundred years ago!”

“He’s right,” Robbie said, nodding his head vigorously. “The teacher was talking about the future at school. And how our clothes would be made in Scotland, and how there might be no honey or bees, and Agnes and Saul reckoned you would have to be totally brave to go into the future.” Then he stood up tall. “So I did it. I…” he smacked his chest, beaming, “dough-ball Robbie, time travelled into the future.” He rolled back his shoulders and eyeballed me. “You have to be a total hero to do that.”

“You’re not a dough-ball,” I said, suddenly feeling sorry for him, “you’re just…”

“What?”

I shrugged. “Nuts.”

Ness was gaping at us.

I smiled wanly at her, and nodded. “Yeah, it’s… um… true. I know it seems unlikely, and a bit Doctor Who-ish and all…”

She looked even more confused.

I laughed, nervously.

“You need fire and water,” Robbie blurted out, like he was the big time-travelling expert.

“And gold and an antique song,” I added. “And you’ve got to…”

“Really want it,” Robbie chipped in. So he had heard. “Some people have long hair back in our time,” he went on, “but like, not
everybody
. More like hardly anybody. And not boys. And what’s with all the horses? Oh, and we don’t work in fields.”

I nudged him. “Some people do.”

Ness had a hand over her mouth. Her eyes were open wide. Gasping she took a step back.

“It’s ok,” I said, smiling and trying to look like an ordinary, friendly guy, “we’re fine. Honest. Robbie thought he would try and be a hero, so
I
…” I stared at him, “had to come and get him. Don’t look so freaked out. We’re not diseased.”

“I do not believe this,” Ness said, shaking her head and taking another step back. I hoped she wouldn’t step back into the river.

“It’s totally true,” Robbie said, proudly. Then he laughed. “Told you I could do magic tricks.”

I glared at him. “It isn’t a magic trick.” I swung round to Ness who had turned pale. “It’s actually alchemy,” I explained, “an ancient magical formula. Um… watch you don’t fall into the river.” She glanced back, saw the river behind her and sunk to her knees. Poor thing looked seriously alarmed. “I learnt it from a girl called Agatha Black,” I went on, “who came to us from 1812. I know this all sounds unlikely, and that’s what I thought when Agatha arrived. Honest. I didn’t believe it either. But it’s true.”

Ness glanced up at me, then over to Robbie. “I did question if perhaps you were such travellers,” she whispered. “It… it explains much.” She plucked up grass and twisted it around in her hands. I didn’t know if she was praying, or what. Not knowing what else to do I knelt down beside her. So did Robbie. Ness, her bottom lip trembling, gazed at us like we were ghosts.

Robbie raised his eyebrows at me. “What’s up with Ness?” he mouthed. She did look like she might faint. “It’s pretty easy to time travel, Ness,” he said to her, all gentle. “Don’t be spooked. Me and Saul are good guys. Maybe you could come back when we go. I can show you my
Playstation and my Dad will take you out in his BMW, and you could see the den.” He looked across at me. “Isn’t that right, Saul?”

“Um, yeah,” I mumbled.

Amazingly a bit of colour came back into her cheeks. She touched her I-band and managed a tiny smile. “My grandmother told me stories,” she said, her voice hushed, “of time travel and how there were people in Peebles who understood this mystery. I thought it was just a story. I loved these stories. Often I asked for them.” She studied us again, and slowly nodded her head, as if the mystery of me and Robbie finally fell into place: our voices, hair, clothes, general confusion. We weren’t entertainers. We weren’t players. We were time travellers. “Now I do see her stories were true,” Ness whispered. “You who have no I-bands, and speak so strange, are real travellers through time!”

“Yeah, we’re real all right,” Robbie said, slapping me on the back.

Ness rose to her feet.

“Wondrous,” she said, bowing to us, “and to arrive at the very time of the great celebration.” I kept smiling, trying to reassure her how normal we were. “I did ask the nature spirit for help to make my speech. So nervous was I. You see, last year I was to make a public speech and froze. No word would come. It was terror.” She gazed at me and slowly nodded. “Now here you are. Come to be my help.”

“But we can’t stay long,” I blurted out. “After the party we’ll nip off.”

“When you do go,” she said, “I have something for you to please return to the past.”

“Anyway,” Robbie said, brushing grass from his trousers, “coming here was all my idea – and because of a poem about a mouse. I mean, if it wasn’t for me and that
poem, we wouldn’t even be here.”

Ness turned her smile to Robbie, but next thing she tapped her sleeve and numbers glowed on the material. Robbie was right about intelligent clothing. “The horses need mash,” she said. “You have found each other. I… I do want to hear your stories of time past, and of mice and poems, but now I…”

“We’ll be fine,” I said, sounding way more confident than I felt. I could tell she needed to go to her old horses.

“Let us meet then at twilight,” she said, “in the community field.” She ran her finger over another sleeve, opening a pocket. From it she pulled out a strip of something that looked like chorizo. “Here is sustenance until the sundown,” and she placed the food in my hand. “Now is rest hour,” she said. “You will find Riverside Path beyond Aqua Park. Stray there for peace. Many fountains there you may drink from. Go stroll and snooze. Until later, time travellers who come in perfect time,” she said, bowing, “farewell.”

“Wow!” said Robbie, watching her tear up the park and disappear into one of the lanes that led to town. “That’s what I call rapid.” Then he came out with something that made me feel better. He scratched his chin, chewed his lip, and said, “Saul, is Ness a girl or a boy?”