Evadeen Brickwood - Children of the Moon

“Well, sort of.”

“What’s wrong with trying?”

“Oh, I don’t know. For one thing, we have to present the project in about three weeks. And it’s only…time travel! Crazy idea. We would need benchmark figures... then more information on existing devices...!”

“But I know we can do it. If we attach the vacuum-battery to the time portal finder, I figured out last year.” He started paging through the book again.

“You figured out what?” Katherine was stunned.

And that’s how Trevor told her about the lecture he had attended when he was nine.

One of Professor Barber’s students spoke on aspects of the space-time continuum. Trevor had sat next to physics students for two long hours, eagerly scribbling down notes. He had read up on it the university library and built a timeportal-finder.

“What, and you never thought of telling me this?”

“Yes well, I thought you were gonna laugh. And I only tried it once,” Trevor said. “And to be honest, I was scared of the flickering vortex. Well, I was nine.”

“But that’s still important... a flickering vortex, really?”

“Never showed anyone. The project on pyramids around the world seemed safer. Did you know that some are supposed to be buried under tons of sand in the Gobi Desert? I can’t believe that a 150 meter tall pyramid was found at the bottom of the Sargasso Sea, though.”

Katherine vaguely remembered his history project last year. “Trevor, you are changing the subject.”

“Let’s make a copy of this.” He picked up the heavy book and carried it to the copy machine.

The thought of entering the space-time continuum and maybe never getting out again, sent a shiver down Katherine’s spine. The thought of time travel was thrilling - and scary all at once.

Trevor didn’t cease to amaze her. He had actually developed a time machine! What exactly was a time-portal-finder? Her head was spinning with all the new facts.

Time travel... what if it really was possible?

“Are you kidding? How far are you then, seriously?”

Chryséis had just been told about the project and the possibility of a trip through space and time. She was intrigued by the idea. “Time travel with a vacuum battery - come on, really?”

“I honestly think it’s possible. I haven’t tested it properly, but the device has been in the works for a while now,” Trevor said as if he had never talked about anything else. Chryséis was still not convinced.

“A time-portal-finder?”

“Yes. It detects irregular electromagnetic fields like time warps. They indicate a weakness in the space-time continuum, like a time portal, you know…”

“Right, of course.”

“Seriously. We could even generate a vortex with the vacuum battery. The batteries I’ve used before were far too weak for that,” Trevor said, keeping his cool. “I can test it after dark. Then we’ll know more.”

Faint croaking came from the far end of the pond. They sat under the birch trees by the pond with their feet in the water. The water was still too cold and they soon went back to sit on the bench in the rose garden. It gave Chryséis time to think.

“Wow. That’s some project. You really think it can work – this vortex?”

“Yes.”

“Well, then let’s get going. I’m in.” Chryséis’s mind was already abuzz with all the possibilities. Maybe she would shake the hand of Socrates one fine day or meet Napoleon. Okay maybe not Napoleon. Not such a nice guy.

“What about your assignment on black holes?” Katherine asked. “Aren’t you terribly busy with that?”

“What, and let you have all the fun? I’m nearly done with it anyway. The planetarium in town agreed to lend me a video for the presentation,” Chryséis explained. ”I’m just waiting for some info from Texas on the musical note that black holes emit. The typing is easy.”

She thought for a moment. “So yes, count me in. I can’t pass up time travel for black holes.”

After dark, Trevor slipped out into the school garden. That wasn’t allowed, but he couldn’t waste time with unimportant details. The trials weren’t successful at first. Closer to the buildings, there was absolutely nothing. Maybe it was the interference that went along with electrical appliances and power lines.

Then closer to the golf course, he finally detected a modest shimmer. Just like before. But Trevor was not afraid this time. If this was a warp in the space-time continuum - a real time portal - then he had to know for sure. He moved even closer to the golf course and tried again.

Trevor pointed the device here and there and then at a random spot between a bench and an azalea bush. This time, the weak flicker turned into a respectable vortex. That was it! Without a second thought, Trevor jumped into the whirlpool.

But what was that? Trevor’s eyes became wide with horror.

It couldn’t have taken a minute and he landed again on his backside in front of the bench. The impact was cushioned by the thick lawn, but Trevor was stunned. He had seen something awful on the other side.

Big and covered in shiny green and golden scales... or maybe feathers... there had been steam. Had he seen long teeth? Then the thing had moved. Just a shiver that went through the scales. Just a slight wave.

Trevor didn’t wait to find out what the ‘thing’ was. He had pressed the reverse button and the vortex had swallowed him up again. Then he sat on the soft lawn. He was safe!

Alas, he didn’t hear Natasha Manning open her window on the first floor.

“Mr. Huxley, I expected more of you. Wandering about the school grounds at this hour. What were you thinking?” Matron waved her arms in exasperation.

“I’m sorry ma’am. I needed some fresh air to think.”

The white lie rolled easily off his tongue.

Like Walt, the janitor, Matron had a big heart for children. They often didn’t know how to handle their own cleverness. Too clever for their own good. But rules were rules. If she made exceptions, there’d be chaos in no time.

“You know the rules, Mr. Huxley,” the matron sighed and Trevor nodded.

For the next three days he had to sweep the back veranda and the path to the golf course after dinner and before dark. Much to Holly’s and Natasha’s delight: oh yes, the scholarship-boy had been put in his place.

“Hey, Huxley! Were you sleepwalking or did you meet someone special on the golf course?” Natasha guffawed and winked at Chryséis.

A few fifth-graders skulked close by, grinning broadly. A rare scandal!

Natasha was a carbon copy of Holly Benson. Although her hair was lighter than Holly’s, it was permed into identical ringlets. She shook her curls and even talked like Holly.

Chryséis was fuming. Well, you just wait she thought hotly and shot furious looks at the girl. You just wait.

General attention shifted away from Trevor’s misdeed when two other boys threw a baseball through one of the kitchen windows that afternoon. They were sentenced to cleaning the swimming pool for a week. It was Matron’s favorite punishment for rowdy kids.

At last, they could discuss Trevor’s adventure. Everything had ground to a halt after Natasha had ratted him out to Matron. They had to be careful, though. Holly was capable of sabotaging everything, if she found out about the nightly experiment.

“And you are sure you saw scales?”

They sat in the common room on the second floor, keeping an eye on the door. Everybody else was still downstairs in the dining room. Chryséis demanded to hear the story for the umpteenth time, although it made her spine feel all chilly in delicious horror.

“I’m not sure. It was so dark. Could have been feathers or something.” Trevor felt tired. The more he thought about it, the less he could remember. Maybe it had all just been a dream. But he still remembered turning round and round inside the vortex. No dream then.