TIME & TIED: AWARENESS

ARC 1.2 - Of Her Peers

PART 10b: TIME DOUBT 2

"Sorry about that," Carrie mumbled.

"Yes, well... I suppose I was speaking without considering the implications," Frank responded, dabbing at his face with the ice filled handkerchief. He'd just come back downstairs after spending fifteen minutes getting his nose to stop bleeding.

"Damn right," Carrie fired back. "You not only implied that I could be behind my mother's disappearance, but that having her around would be worse than how things are now. That's... that's appalling!" There was a brief pause, after which Frank saw her start to twirl some hair in her fingers. "Though, ah, I do hope this won't affect your decision of whether or not to help me time travel. I... I’m realizing now that I have some impulse control issues where my mama is concerned...”

She still wanted his help. Frank prodded his nose experimentally. Truth be known? He still wanted to help her. He wondered what that said about his psyche.

“Yes, well, I have always been willing to do more with this time travel stuff - I wouldn’t have spent time coin collecting if I didn’t,” Frank said. “But Carrie, please tell me that you understand that there ARE issues to consider before simply tripping into the past? I mean, we’ve been stranded once already. I don't think we want that to happen again, do we?"

Carrie shuddered visibly. "True, we don't want that." She frowned in thought. "All right then. How about this. If YOU agree to keep an open mind about the possibility of fixing things with my mother... I'LL agree to back off a bit until we know more about what we're dealing with. Since my theory implies that I might not remember waiting a few extra weeks anyway.”

"I guess that's reasonable," Frank consented, sinking into a chair and tossing the handkerchief aside. “Thank you. I’m glad we've got that of the way.” He looked over at the lab counter. “Which brings us to the question of the time machine itself.

“I think it's safe to assume that this technology comes from the future. Which either means it was sent back here for some reason, or... well, or there's a person from the future running around in our present looking for their time machine. Now, I never saw anyone suspicious lurking around the ravine this last week, when it supposedly turned up. I don't suppose you ever ran across anyone other than me down in there, did you Carrie?" Frank cleared his throat. "Carrie?"

"What? Oh, sorry...." The blonde girl shook her head. "You’ve reminded me of something. From back when we were trapped in the woods. That nickel I used in the machine, it was given to me by a strange man. A strange man who seemed to know that it was exactly what we needed. As if he knew why we were stranded there."

Frank sat bolt upright in his chair. "What? Did this person mention the time machine?"

Carrie shook her head. "Not specifically. Not directly. All he said was..." She paused, brow furrowing as she tried to recall. "He gave me the nickel, then said, 'It's yours now. Do what you will with it. Just guard it. Don't let anyone take it away from you.'"

"Don't let anyone take the nickel away from you?" Frank wondered.

"The guy might not have had all his marbles," Carrie admitted. "The two others he was with didn't seem to think highly of him... though again, they didn't seem to know him very well either. Maybe this ‘Shady’ guy thought they'd take the money away from me?"

Frank frowned. "Guard it. Don't let anyone take it away from you," he repeated. He found his eyes being drawn back towards the table. “Could he have been referring to the time machine itself?"

Carrie followed Frank's gaze to the enigmatic black box. "I don't know. But I’m not the type to lock that time machine up somewhere safe and forget about it! If he wants someone to 'guard' the thing, surely I'm not tops on his list.”

Frank rubbed his forehead. "We’re also speaking of events that happened two years ago. Yet you only found the machine this past week. The only way this makes sense is if he knew back then that he'd be leaving it somewhere for you to find in the future."

“But if he knew two years ago that I would get it, why not give it to me back THEN?" Carrie pointed out, apparently irritated.

The two teenagers stared at each other in puzzlement. "I'm getting the impression that there's something bigger than we realize going on here," Frank remarked.

"You could be right," Carrie admitted uneasily. "Frank, have you told anyone else about the existence of this machine yet?"

“No. I figured no one would believe me until the proof turned up. Or that if they did believe me, they would want to get involved, and I didn’t want to deal with that either."

Carrie nodded. "Then let's keep the machine's existence to ourselves. At least for now."

Frank nodded. "I'll go along with that."

"Good." There was a moment of silence. "Then perhaps I'll leave it with you to conduct any necessary tests. However... before that, there is one last thing which I feel I must do."

"What's that?"

"Try to keep myself from traveling back to Friday."

Frank blinked, standing back up. "Pardon?"

Carrie passed a hand in front of her eyes. "Frank, on Friday I got so caught up in my need for changing things that I yanked down on the school fire alarm and messed with your chemistry lab. Even though no one was hurt, that was WAY out of line. Even for me. I have to at least make an attempt to undo it, or I’ll never be able to live with myself.”

She took in a deep breath. “I figure the easiest fix is for me to stop myself from traveling back in the first place. After all, if you'd been a little more convincing this morning, maybe I wouldn't be in this situation,” she pointed out.

Frank ignored her attempt to shift blame. Instead, he considered a couple of different replies, based on what he already knew from that morning. He settled for saying, "Carrie, you must realize that you won't succeed."

"I admit that after our discussion, the point sounds almost moot, in that if works, we may not know that it did. But damn it, I have to try. The machine is set for today, I still have one current coin with me... all I can hope is that I somehow randomly travel back to a lot earlier in the morning.” She half smiled. “Maybe it will even erase me hitting you.”

"Carrie..." Frank began again, before stopping himself. Would he invoke a time paradox by telling her that he'd already witnessed her failure? "Be careful," he concluded.

Carrie nodded. "Actually, I haven't encountered any location problems when traveling by myself. I've ended up near the ravine out back of my house every single time. Though on the off chance something unexpected happens, I'll take your apple to eat, okay?" Carrie dropped her coin into the time machine, then grabbed the piece of fruit off the lab table.

"Talk to you later then?" Frank remarked.

"No, hopefully earlier," Carrie retorted. One pull of the lever later, and in a flash of light, she'd vanished yet again.

Frank shook his head as he went to get the hidden time machine - the one left behind when Carrie had arrived from the trip for which she’d only now departed. Some aspects of this time travel stuff really would take some getting used to... but hopefully there would be some answers in the device. He now had all evening with which to examine it.

For instance, it was curious that all of Carrie's solo time jumps were taking place in town. That had to be more than coincidence. Could it have been his presence that caused the greater distance?

In fact, Carrie had said she'd always been ending up near her house... except for that last trip. So she had departed from his house twice today with two different arrival points. Had there been any difference between the two trips? He'd noticed both had been with quarters, so it wasn't that. Something she was carrying, perhaps? No difference came to mind there either, except for that apple.

Frank leaned against the table. The apple. Where exactly had it come from? He didn't keep fruit down here. No, Carrie had dropped it off in the morning, after time traveling, then picked it up before leaving on that very same trip. ... What?

Had she switched it for another apple somewhere outside the house in between? MUST be. The alternative was spontaneous creation from thin air! Yet by Carrie's perspective, she had only minutes between when she picked up the apple, sprinted back here, and dropped it off. But then... what was its origin?

On second thought, maybe he could use a break before examining the machine. His head was starting to hurt.

***

Frank was still puzzling over the problem some time later when the home phone rang. Being closest to a receiver, he picked up. "Hello?" he said absently.

A male-sounding, yet strangely flat voice spoke to him. "Frank home?" it inquired.

"Speaking. Who is this?"

There was a pause before the emotionless response. "Julie suspects."

Frank froze. "Pardon?"

Another pause. "Julie suspects. About your time machine."

Frank gripped the phone a little harder. "Who is this? Carrie, is that you?"

Again a pause, and the monotonic male voice concluded, "Take precautions. Watch your back."

"But who are you? What precautions? What's going on?" Frank asked.

The caller had already hung up.