s3.e10

Before Door

           With Lex on babysitting duty for two kids that were getting to sleep anyway, all of the other adults plus Jace showed up at King Arcade’s staff parking lot at the rear of the park. Arthur had borrowed his dad’s pickup truck after catching up with his old man for just a few minutes, and the pantry door, covered with a tarp, was in its cargo bed.

           “The park, after dark…” Colin said as he helped Arthur unload the time travel-enabled slab from the vehicle. “It’s so quiet. Like, this isn’t how I remember it at all.”

           “Wes had a word for that feeling,” Sadie replied, hands in her pockets as she and Lucy looked around the worn, cracked parking area. “I think it was… kenopsia? A place you only know as full of people, but then you see it empty? He was a thinker. Always had some way to describe emotions, experiences, some memory of the past…”

           “Don’t say ‘was,’ Sadie,” Lucy urged her. “If this is really real, we’ll save him. If it’s a joke, we’ll find him and maybe beat him up a bit. Either way, it’ll be over soon.”

           “Come on,” Arthur said, handing off his half of the door to Jared. “This way.”

           He used an old key to unlock an older door under a warm sodium vapor lamp, and led the group into a cold, utilitarian concrete hallway with flickering fluorescents. After passing by the break room, some lockers, and a costume change corner, they stepped out into the zone behind the park’s fake and real stores and restaurants, filled with work areas and utility sheds; the same place that Jace had briefly seen years ago when Arthur’s pop had let them into the park for laser tag tournament strategizing.

           “Are we almost there?” Jared huffed, shuffling as he barely kept the door balanced with Colin. “This thing is heavy, and I don’t think we want to drop it.”

           “My dad’s workshop is just up here, on the right,” Arthur promised.

           He opened a padlock, pulled up some roller shutters, and turned on the lights to reveal his dad’s office. Oil stains were spattered on the concrete floor and the rusted shelves were full of hardware, screw and nail tins, and junk from decades of repair and maintenance. Halloween decorations for the park’s “Scaretastic Nights” seasonal event covered another wall.  The newest thing was the 2020 calendar hanging on the wall, with unironic pictures of classic computers, perfect for an eternal nerd like Arthur’s father.

           “The place is like a time capsule for the park,” Jared observed as he and Colin brought the door towards the bulky machine table in the center. “When’s he retiring?”

           “I keep telling him to,” Arthur said with a sigh. “He’s getting way too old for this kind of work, and his usable space in here gets smaller every year. The room’s become another dumping ground. Oh—place the door so the back is face-down. We don’t want anything falling through it. Last thing my dad needs is memories of tools falling into his workshop from the future. Even if they are the same ones he used in the 90s.”

           “I don’t think it works that way,” Jace reminded. “Time and space, remember? I went to Wes’ house after being pushed through the door at the apartment.”

           “Right… Anyway, I might do a coffee run and pull an all-nighter out here.”

           The two haulers plonked the door onto the metal surface, and after he closed the shutter and shut everyone inside, Arthur secured the red door between a pair of massive clamps. With space limited in the workshop, the adults struggled to find a place to sit or stand. Millie ended up cross-legged on a workbench, while Sadie and Lucy got the luxury of using the two rickety stools available. Jace, antsy as he was, paced about instead and took in the sights of the place, which was itself almost as nostalgic as Wes could get.

           He found a corner of the room with a desk and a tabletop magnifier-lamp, where a box full of tech tools for delicate work waited to be used. It looked like it was Mr. Teller’s favorite spot, as it was where he had pictures of his kids, pinned to a corkboard. Not seeing it at first, Jace suddenly noticed an element of the desk. And it reminded him of something Wes had once mentioned: a visualization of warm reminiscence.

           There was an exposed, incandescent lightbulb hanging over a dusty CD player, giving off a steady iridescent glow that cast a halo in his eye. It was right there and real, as if Wes had pulled the concept straight from this tiny nook of the universe.

           “Arthur…” Jace murmured and turned to him. “This light is, um…”

           “Hm?” He looked up from the pile of tools he was gathering on the workbench by Millie. “Oh, the bulb? Yeah, you don’t see those very often anymore. It’s getting hard just to buy the things. But, Dad has them in bulk and still swears by their light—at least for, I dunno, special places. Guess Wes isn’t the only one stuck in the past, right?”

           That quip got a snort from Millie, who spoke up, “Arty, you got such a dry sense of humor by high school. Actually, you’re dry all around. Not much nonsense.”

           “Yeah, well, Wes always said middle school was the toughest on him, but for me, it was high school. Had a lot of fights with Ash, messed up in some classes, got really cynical and thought everything was crap and nothing was ever original…”

           “I remember all that,” Colin said as he and Arthur started feeling around the door’s edges for anything they could pry open. “Then Wes got all worried that you were turning into Charlie, right? I mean, Wes got a little edgy around then, too, but you…”

           “I know. But he listened, and I opened up to him. I hadn’t really thought that he could be a ‘helper’ like that.” Arthur eyed Jace. “Maybe he picked that up from you, bud. He helped me get past those years, but my sense of humor changed from it.”

           “You and Ash get along now, right?” Jace said, glancing at her photo. “I might as well ask since I didn’t get to see how it went… How’d middle school go for you two?”

           “We did resolve our differences and enjoy our shared interests together. But then she went up and changed all over again in high school. Now? We get along all right. Try to call each other once a month. My niece thinks I’m a ‘genius.’ I get homesick, but I love my job. Now, come on… There has to be some sort of way to get into this door.”

           “You looking for a USB port or something?” Jared wondered.

           “Maybe, yeah. You’d think there would be a way to interface with it.”

           “Everyone, I should tell you something I already brought up with my mom and aunt,” Jace said. “If we actually do all go back to 1996 together, there are a few things you need to know. That version of Wes… came from a timeline where he never got married, or had kids. There’s a teenage version of Warren back then, but he got stranded from another timeline because… of some reason we don’t know about yet.”

           All eyes fell on him as he revealed the new information, and the gang processed it in different ways. Jared seemed surprised, while Colin looked a little sad.

           “He always did seem like he could shut out the world if he wanted,” Arthur said.

           “It’s all true,” Millie added. “And I don’t think it would be a good idea to reveal any of this to Wes when we go save him. Me and Jace talked it over, and we’re pretty sure it would be better if they both finished their big adventure in the past, and Wes came back to a few big surprises. If he knows, this new present could disappear again.”

           Arthur took a break from examining the door, stood up straight, and thought for a moment. “Maybe it would be better if I didn’t say this, but… What are the odds that he might try to stop his family from happening if he did find out?”

           “Arthur, that is a terrible thing to say!” Sadie exclaimed.

           “I know, I know. But it’s food for thought. Didn’t he panic when he found out you two had a kid on the way the first time? Guy’s always trying to hang onto pieces of his childhood, and I’m sure he believed becoming a parent meant the last vestiges of it were disappearing, or some poetic crap like that. Jason—er, Jace, do you know how it happened that he and Sadie never got together? It’s hard to imagine them otherwise.”

           Jace eyed his aunt a little nervously, then shook his head and replied, “I’m… still working on that. One thing I can tell you, though, is that he went to prom with Celeste.”

           Jared was the one that snorted this time. “Yeah, that I can see happening.” After a few quiet moments of everyone watching Colin and Arthur running their fingers all over the door, he then asked, “Jace, if we actually do go back in the past, what are we saving Wes from, exactly? Are we up against some big bad here?”

           “Y-yeah… A cyborg time cop with a metal exoskeleton and a laser rifle.”

           “Jesus. So, literally, a terminator. Any of you guys packing? Arty, did you bring something government issued? I mean, we could load up, but permits take time.”

           “I don’t have a gun,” Arthur groaned. “Besides, if you know Terminator, you know our puny modern weaponry isn’t going to be a match against one. Give me time, and maybe I can come up with a few things that would give us a better chance.”

           “Like… an EMP bomb?” Jace replied, remembering a past topical conversation.

           “Yes, exactly. I’m sure with just some duct tape and… Whoa, hold on…” Arthur stopped at one of the door’s corners, and dug his fingernails into the edge. “We might have something here. Colin, could you pass a flat head?”

           Colin gave him the screwdriver, and everyone got a little excited and moved in closer, trying not to block Arthur’s light as he pried at something well hidden.

           It took some effort, but Arthur was able to force open the cover for an embedded control port of some kind, in the lower left corner edge of the door. He used his phone’s light to look inside, and illuminated three LEDs; two blinking yellows and a solid red. Although there was no lettering to tell the gang what they indicated.

           Arthur pointed out the rest of the elements, “That looks like a power switch… Gonna leave that in the ‘on’ position. I never shut anything down unless I need to.”

           “You have a fear of tech not coming back on, huh?” Colin replied.

           “A rational one. That’s an old serial port, hopefully to interface with it. But that’s a USB port. It’s white inside, so I’m thinking… 1.0? What year’s that, Colin?”

           “Oh, uh, 1996. So most likely, this thing was finished sometime between ’96 and ’98. Jace, you met André Corathine, right? Why did he make this door, exactly?”

           Jace tried to summarize a refresher, “To give the Wes he knew, lost somewhere in time, a way home. But his memory was going by 1995. I’m surprised he managed to finish it at all. I just wonder how he got a delivery set up for it, decades later.”

           “So complicated… Okay.” Arthur picked up his laptop bag and took out his thin portable computer along with a USB cable. “Let’s see what we can do.”

           Jared studied the computer and asked, “So, is that some kind of high-tech…”

           “No, Jared. It’s not a $10,000 government ultrabook that can connect to spy satellites, or whatever you’re thinking. But I can emulate an older OS if I have to.”

           Arthur took a deep breath and tried to connect his machine to the door—but he didn’t seem to be making progress with the cord itself, and everyone got nervous.

           “It’s not working, is it?” Jared fretted. “Arty, now what? What are we gonna—”

           “Relax,” Arthur mumbled. “I’m just doing the USB-A dance, same as always. I swear… it doesn’t matter which way you flip the cable, it goes in when it wants to…

           He finally got it inserted, and got to work trying to identify the hardware that ran the time portal. Everyone else nerded out a bit, offering their theories or things to try—all the adults were fluent in computing, to varying degrees. Arthur filtered out the chit-chat as he tapped away at his keyboard, but didn’t really get anywhere for the first half hour; it was like his computer was hooked up to nothing at all, a USB cord to nowhere.

           Running out of options, he looked through his files and opened up a sandbox for a much older operation system, Windows 98, hoping to have better luck with it.

           “Oh, cool,” Colin said as the classic cloudy wallpaper loaded, covered by dozens of icons, most of them shortcuts for games. “Arty, that brings me way back, man.”

           “It should.” He smirked. “I dug out all my old hard drives a few years ago and imaged the computers I grew up with. I still have Starcraft and Half-Life on this bad boy.”

           “Now there’s a freaking time capsule,” Jared remarked. “Hold on. You probably have a folder on there full of embarrassing photos of us as teenagers, don’t you?”

           “Sure do. Let’s see if an OS from the era does better.” Arthur got back to trying to figure out a way to handshake with the door’s hardware. “Even if I get ‘in,’ I’ll need to make something that will let us see what’s onboard, adjust settings…”

           “Well, I’m something of a programmer myself,” Jared reminded him.

           “You offering to stay here all night?” Arthur asked him. “Because I’m finally picking up some hardware. Identifies as ‘Time Lab Door 1.0’. But it’s just a start.”

           “I can stay,” Colin volunteered. “I haven’t worked in code too much since college, but I’m sure I’d be able to help you come up with something.”

           “I got my laptop in my car,” Jared added. “Hey, I can even connect to our work servers if we need some extra compiling power. Heh… This is actually getting exciting.”

           Jace, looking up at some vanity license plates from a variety of states nailed above the roller shutter, and thinking about that time Wes told him all about the things on their road trip, snapped back to attention when he heard his mom speak up.

           “Then I think we should get Jace to bed,” Lucy said. “It’s getting late for him.”

           “Right… And Lex needs to get home,” Sadie replied and rolled the shutter back up, letting in a quiet night’s breeze. “Thanks, you guys. I still think all of this is crazy, but I’m feeling… slightly more hopeful than I was when we arrived.”

           “Jace, thanks for being a good friend to us, all the way back then. And watching out for your uncle now,” Colin got out. “You’re a brave, smart kid.”

           Jace blushed, and then yawned, signaling that he was agreeable to getting to sleep.

           “Millie, are you heading out with us?” Sadie asked her.

           Sitting on the workbench again, Millie glanced at the guys, then answered, “Nah, I think I’ll hang around here a while. I wanna see the three work together, you know?”

           “Good luck, everyone…” Jace said, and exchanged waves with the adults.

           “Get some rest, buddy,” Arthur told him. “You’ve done enough for today.”

           A day passed and then another, with little word from those working on the door. Feeling bad for their friend whose uncle was now obviously missing, Jace’s gang came over to hang out. But with a lot on his mind, he was content just watching Austin, Chad, Jamie, and Laurie play a twelve-race round of Mario Kart 8, still a favorite of theirs after all these years, the title originally coming out way back in 2014. As the four competed fiercely, Emiko and Toby, waiting for their turns, chilled out with their phones on Jace’s futon—a gift from his uncle, who had once used it as his office bed.

           Jace divided his time between staring up at the ceiling and thinking worried thoughts that were stressing him out, and catching the results of each race. As usual, Laurie was dominating most of them, with Larry Koopa as her favored racer.

           “Come on, Laurie…” Chad moaned. “Do you always have to get first place?”

           “Guys, I keep telling you, it’s also a rhythm game,” she explained. “You aren’t power-sliding enough, or getting boosts from every jump. All those blue shells you want so much are only gonna save your butts if you use them right before I win again.”

           “Jace, you want in on this? I need a break,” Jamie offered. “Six races to go.”

           “Hm?” he mumbled and sat up on his bed. “Nah, that’s okay… Emmy or Toby can lose to her. I’m glad you’re all here, but I’m… not really in the mood for games.”

           “Busy, Jamie,” Emiko said, tapping away at her screen. “With very important internet things. So many emojis. You will have to keep getting crushed a little longer.”

           There was a light tapping at the room’s open doorway, and everyone turned to see Colin, a big grin on his face. The reaction was actually a little surprising to Jace—some memories of Colin’s visits were coming back to him, but he had no idea that the whole gang knew the guy and must have always looked forward to when he was in town.

           “Colin-senpai!” Emiko left behind her very important phone and came up to greet him properly, as the others sent him waves. “I was wondering when you would drop by! Jace said you left Japan early just to help find Wes…”

           “Hi, Em,” Colin replied, and caught a glimpse of the paused Mario Kart screen. “Yes, and I’ve been working hard with Jared and Arthur. But you know I sometimes fly across the ocean just to gossip with ya in Japanese and annoy the others.”

           Emiko bit her lip, and unable to help herself, exclaimed after a bubbly laugh, “Baka Chad-san. Kare wa mada jōyatō de nete imasu.”

           Colin snickered and replied, “Wes-sama wa mada sōda to omoimasu.”

           “H-hey! I heard my name in there, Em!” Chad said and pointed at her accusingly. “And I watch anime! I know what baka means. That’s not fair. D-don’t do that!”

           “Colin! Take over for me?” Jamie offered up his controller. “Laurie’s taking it way too seriously again today. I don’t need this kind of stress in my life.”

           “Ah, sorry, Jamie. Maybe later. I’m only dropping by for a few minutes today.”

           “How… are you guys working hard, exactly?” Laurie asked. “I don’t mean in a ‘I think you’re just sitting around doing nothing’ way. I’m actually curious.”

           “Oh, you know, it’s just a group effort planning type of… thing. Hey, Jace, can I talk to you for a minute in private? We have a few questions we need cleared up.”

           “Y-yeah, sure,” Jace said and got out of bed.

           He followed Colin, and noticed the raised eyebrow Laurie gave him on the way before going back to racing. Meanwhile, Toby hadn’t even looked up from his phone.

           They went out to the living room, where Lucy, Jared, and Arthur were waiting. Notably, Sadie wasn’t there yet—but was coming over shortly with Warren and Sally. Maybe this was going to be about something they wanted to keep from her.

           “What’s… What’s up, guys?” Jace asked, feeling put on the spot once again.

           “We’re just trying to get a better picture of what you and Wes did, exactly, back during your time trip,” Jared explained. “Because we had plenty of time to talk about the past while we were watching Arthur get nowhere with the door, over and over.”

           Jace tried to summarize things. “Well… He had this whole plan to make me love the 90s at first. But then it turned out that he wanted me to keep an eye on you guys and get close, so I could change how the laser tag tournament went. Um… We stayed in The Flamingo at first, the old condo where Millie lived? Then we moved to that cottage in Desert Tree at the start of 1996. I think you all saw it a little, but we never had a sleep over there. The place is still around, too. An old couple lives there now.”

           “Mm-hm,” Lucy nodded, “and what about this road trip you both took?”

           “Uncle Wes wanted to get out of town, because this thing called the Time Daemon was stalking us with its eyes that come out of… like, portals? But they just kept following us anyway. Until Warren got us into the cottage and stopped it from finding us with, I dunno, jammers of some kind. Warren was supposed to keep us safe, but…”

           “That’s mostly why we wanted to talk to you without your aunt here,” Lucy said. “This alternate Warren, that helped a version of Wes who… never knew him…  What’s he like? We’re kind of worried what will happen if we go back and meet him.”

           “We both came from timelines that don’t exist anymore, and he never told me that we were cousins. But, looking back, I know he wanted to tell me the truth. He even made Wes cook him Greek food, because… he missed his mom’s cooking.”

           The adults glanced at one another, with Lucy frowning and looking forlorn.

           “Poor kid,” she sighed. “All because his dad probably did something selfish in the world he knew. Jace, when you see him again, get the truth about what happened.”

           “I’ll try. I’m still getting used to the idea that there are multiple timelines.”

           “Did Wes also get you to help all of our old classmates?” Colin wondered.

           “Not really. That was more my idea—to do some good in the meantime, while waiting for the big events to come around. He mostly just wanted me to help make his own life better. It sounds selfish, but he was just concerned with keeping history mostly intact for everyone else. And the thing is, while he’s better off now, he must have more improving to do, because I think he’s still heading down the same path that led the other, older Wes to go out and help build a time machine in the first place.”

           “Talk about a head trip,” Jared moaned while rubbing his. “All because he never learned how to grow up a little. Was there anything else major that you guys ‘fixed?’”

           Jace looked over at Arthur and, hesitantly, answered, “Actually, there was one big thing. In the timeline we came from… Arthur, in that world, Ash had a bad car accident in high school… You disappeared after that, even more than you do now…”

           Arthur leaned forward on the couch to contemplate what he had just heard, and replied, “Those notes that were creeping her out in fifth grade… She never forgot what they warned about. She did stay home on the date they told her not to drive, and nothing happened. Man.” He closed his eyes. “If Wes… really did keep her safe like that…”

           As he thought further about it, Lucy put a hand on his shoulder and asked Jace, “What do you think will happen when we save Wes? Will any of this have happened?”

           Jace shook his head. “Not sure. Maybe you’ll vanish right away, and we’ll finish our trip in the past without ever knowing things got bad. Like how that other version of Millie from the earthquake universe had gone through years of ‘living in a dream.’”

           “Whatever happens, Jace, you’ll need to convince him to come home when the time comes,” Lucy told him. “But it may not be easy. He puts the past, not just his own, on a rose-tinted pedestal. Whenever there’s a school event, and it was us, Sadie, you and your cousin—it’s like he never wants to leave the old place again. When Sally gets into middle school and he no longer has any reason to visit Desert Tree Elementary…”

           “Well, Sadie will still be teaching,” Jared chimed. “I’m sure he’ll still participate in stuff when he can. But, yeah, we see your point, Luce. He has an unhealthy obsession.”

           “He kind of sounded like he was ready to leave last I saw him,” Jace mentioned.

           “Maybe he is, if he’s changed any,” Colin replied. “But I’d have doubts when it comes to the moment he’s actually about to step back through that door. Ya know, he takes me to all the old haunts when I visit, shares stories I completely forgot. I know I’m just piling onto the evidence that he’s got uber-nostalgia, but it’s worth a mention.”

           Everyone watched Sadie pull up into the driveway, and then Warren and Sally get out of the back of her car. Before they came in, Jace had one more question of his own.

           “Are you guys really starting to believe all of this, then?”

           “Arty showed us the device settings that he managed to access,” Colin answered. “It’s crazy, the amount of fine tuning needed in the hardware and door… well, operating system. It’s full of options for various quantum settings and six-dimensional mathematic manifolds. Point is, it gets into science we’ve never even heard of. The code looks like it was stuck together with digital duct tape, but when you go through it for hours, you start to realize that André was really on top of what he was trying to do.”

           “I wish you’d let the adults handle this, though,” Lucy said worryingly. “But I know you’d never let us go by ourselves. Still, Jace, when we’re back in the past, I need you to let us be in charge, and you do whatever we tell you. From what you’ve told us, this time cop guy sounds really dangerous. But we have plans on how to stop him.”

           Jace wanted to talk about all of the brave things he had already done, but kept quiet as to not make his mom worry more than she already did. Lucy went to the front door to let in her sister-in-law, niece, and nephew—who was still quite sullen. But it wasn’t like Sadie and Sally were smiling, either. After all the hellos were passed around, Sadie joined the adults in a planning session while Sally watched something on her iPad and Warren, his hands stuffed in his pockets, looked at Jace and sighed.

           In the backyard, Jace and Warren sat on the two swings on the seldom-used set, attached to a wooden play fort that had been Jace’s birthday present from his dad when he turned five. They swayed back and forth lazily, with Warren hesitant to talk.

           “Wouldn’t you rather be in there, playing games with the others?” Warren asked, looking towards Jace’s bedroom window after they heard Chad loudly complain again, probably because he just lost another race to Laurie. “I’m not very… fun right now.”

           “Warren, I keep telling you to not keep things to yourself. You can talk to me.”

           “It’s just…” Warren groaned. “Look how upset my dad’s made everyone. It feels like it’s my fault somehow, that I should be the one who feels bad or something…”

           “He just made some sort of stupid mistake. It has nothing to do with—”

           “I know, Jace. I know. I’m just saying, whenever he makes Mom or Sally upset, I feel like I’m the one who’s guilty somehow. I… I dunno, I can’t really explain it.”

           “Maybe it’s because he doesn’t really take responsibility for his mistakes. But you don’t have to beat yourself up for the stupid things he does or says. He thinks about the past too much and doesn’t… consider enough what he has right now.”

           Warren turned on his swing and stared at his cousin. “Wow. I mean, if that’s what it is, look what it’s led to. All the adults are making up some plan to find him. They must be so angry at my dad right now, making them waste all this time on him.”

           “No, it’s not like that at all. They’re his childhood friends. They’re worried about him and want to help. Maybe they’re a little annoyed, but I wouldn’t call it mad. Well—I bet your mom’s kind of angry. But that’s because they’re married and she doesn’t like what it’s doing to you two. Just don’t blame yourself for any of it.”

           Warren let out another long sigh, and then left the swing to stand and look at Jace. “You always used to get mad, or scared when you got upset. I’m not very brave or anything, but I was always there for you. Now it feels like everything’s reversed.”

           “You’re braver than you know,” Jace tried to assure his cousin. “I think you’d do anything for your family, cuz. I wish I could tell you just what you’re capable of.”

           Warren tried to give him a confident smile, but his lip quivered and he sniffled before replying, “I don’t want to go to middle school without my dad around, Jace…”

           By this point for Jace, middle school felt like a mythical end point that always felt just out of reach. But he would gladly go into that unknown with Warren at his side.

           With the next morning came the big day, when all the adults would be going back in time to snap some sense into one of their own—and save his life, too. With Sally and Warren at Lex’s house, Jace found himself sitting on his living room couch with Millie, the two of them taking a break from what had already been a hectic last few hours. The tricky part so far had been getting the door into an apartment where Wes did not live, at least not in this timeline. Millie, drinking an iced latte, asked him how it went.

           “We got really lucky,” Jace answered. “The apartment is empty right now, so we only had to deal with getting the door open—and getting our door in without anyone seeing and asking questions. Oh, and… Arthur can lockpick. He’s really good at it.”

           “Arthur’s pretty amazing all around,” Millie replied.

           “Yeah, yeah. Stop simping on him. If you’re coming with us, you need to keep your head straight, Mill. Don’t try to get him to notice you or whatever.”

           “I… I don’t know what you’re talking about, Jace…” She sipped nervously and looked away, but then glared at him. “And stop talking to me like we’re both still kids!”

           “Anyway. Jared and Colin got the door up the outside stairs without dropping it. And Lucy and Sadie made sure no one saw us. Some residents stepped outside, but my mom and aunt distracted them by saying they were lost and needed directions.”

           “It’s cute that they’re all working together again. But I feel like this is something we should be arming up, and suiting up, uh… to do. It could get really dangerous.”

           “I get that, but I really don’t think there’s much that can keep us safe from a robot cop with tech from centuries in the future. If we do our plan—if we take him by surprise, shock him, and get Wes out of there—it’ll be enough. And if it gets bad, we can find Warren. His sword’s the only thing that seems to hurt those guys.”

           After Lucy and Sadie walked by, both of them talking to one of the others on their phones, Millie piped, “Now’s probably the time to tell you about those last three. I can’t really delay any longer, as much as it sucks to talk about.”

           “You mean… Wright, Willa, and December? Is it really that bad?”

           Millie shrugged. “I’ve known them since we were little, and I’m an empathetic person, believe it or not. That’s why I never gossiped, even if I spied. I didn’t want to hurt feelings, no matter how creepy everyone said I was. I don’t like seeing them fail.”

           “All right, I guess I can see that. Give me the bad news.”

           “Wright took some extreme dares in high school and broke both his legs. It’s better than losing an eye, sure, but he didn’t really learn any lessons from this, either. The damage took him out of the ‘business,’ so he instead just focused on gambling to always seek out that next thrill. I looked him up, and he’s a C-tier performer in Las Vegas. I think showing up in cheap casinos when there’s no one else available, like when the B-tiers call out sick. I think he’s some kind of daredevil… I dunno, ‘pain clown,’ I’d call it. I have no idea what you can say to fix that. Guy’s just wired differently. And if I had to guess? He probably blows most of his earnings in those same casinos.”

           “Geez. I didn’t expect things to get that bad for him. There has to be some way to scare him straight early, something I haven’t thought of… Is Willa any better?”

           “She almost made it. She calmed down a little, married a minor fashion magnate in Seattle, and lived the high life. For one year. You can see the meltdown on her Twitter feed. One month, she’s living it up, and the next, he divorces her, she loses just about everything, and she’s begging him to take her back. She just gets so desperate to hang onto someone, that she scares them all off. Now she’s been hit with a restraining order, and her newest tweet reads, ‘guess I’m moving back home to my parents’ house, sad face’. I think it’s just a pattern of bad luck with some kids.”

           “All because I didn’t give them enough advice? This is ridiculous.”

           “I get why you’d say that. December, though—she’s a special case. This memory probably hasn’t hit you yet, or maybe you never would’ve found out because why would you care about local politics, but she actually ran for mayor. Briefly. She dropped out a few weeks ago, nowhere near the elections. It’s sad, because she really cares about Royal Valley and had so many good ideas, but it all fell apart quickly. Now a typical sleazeball will probably win. I interviewed her just before she called it quits, and… I could tell she wasn’t happy. She had no confidence, even while surrounded by campaign staff that really respected her. But, in her case, I think I have a hunch on what’s happening.”

           “Mayor?” Jace exclaimed, and thought it over. “Man. She was going places.”

           “Yes. Unfortunately, she’s probably being brought down by imposter syndrome. She believes that she hasn’t actually earned any of the recognition she gets. Valedictorian of her high school, Straus Academy, and she feels that way. The concept was still fairly new in 1996, so she probably wouldn’t have heard of it, or gotten help.”

           “That can happen?”

           “Absolutely. And I don’t think others telling her she’s earned everything she strived for is going to help too much. Maybe if she at least had a name for what she felt back then, she could take steps to get help or work things out, earlier on.”

           “Good to know. I hope that would give her a better chance. And I’ll try to come up with some way to ‘save’ Wright and Willa, too. If there’s still time…”

           Jared pulled up in his car out on the driveway—the sign that it was time to head out, the others ready and waiting for them. Lucy emerged from the kitchen, wearing her boots and a worried expression for Jace that she couldn’t help but have as a mom.

           “Don’t worry, Luce,” Millie told her after she and Jace got off the couch. “Your kid knows what he’s doing. He’s grown up since you last saw him.”

           “You keep saying things like that,” she sighed. “But all of this is still so bizarre.”

           Outside, Lucy got in the front passenger seat as Jared talked to the guys on the phone, asking them if there was anything else the team might need. Millie opened the back door for Jace, when Laurie suddenly came up on her bike and slammed her brakes.

           “Oh, uh… Hi, Laurie,” Jace greeted her. “Sorry, can’t really hang out right now.”

           She looked up at Millie, and then Jared, who looked nervous on his phone call.

           “Is something strange going on with Wes?” she asked from her bike. “I mean, I get that the whole thing is strange, but it’s like… I dunno… You and the adults are being secretive, and not really treating the whole thing like a missing person case. I didn’t want to say anything and act all nosy, but are the police even involved?”

           Millie shrugged and quipped, “Yeah, you could say that.”

           Laurie frowned. “Jace, like I said, you can talk to me. I kinda wish you would.”

           Getting antsy, he replied, “I’m sorry, Lor. I will when we get back from this place we gotta go to, okay? You know I don’t like keeping secrets.”

           “Well… All right. I don’t want to get in your way or anything. Just be careful and take care of yourself, whatever it is you’re doing. Okay?”

           Jace gave her a nod, and she rode off, with a look of concern matching Lucy’s.

           “That girl’s always been pretty insightful,” Millie noted. “Kinda like I was.”

           “Yeah.” Jace looked at her. “I hope history doesn’t repeat itself.”

           Jace, dressed in his new clothes from 1996 again, realized that two important elements were missing. He headed back to the front door, using his key to open it.

           “Hey, where you going? You can’t get cold feet now,” Millie shouted after him.

           “I’m just grabbing a couple things. Be right back.”

           He ran into his bedroom, where he grabbed the cheap little finger puppet good luck charm that had been with him for many months now, and shoved it into his pocket. Somehow, he had also forgotten to put on his blue hoodie, as well. He couldn’t return to the past without his signature style. His friends might not even recognize him.

           He opened his closet, and in a rush to get back out to the car, dropped his jacket when he grabbed for it. When he kneeled down to pick it back up, he noticed something scrawled on the baseboard near the closet door, which he had never seen before. He lit it up with his phone light and ran a finger across the writing, immortalized by a Sharpie.

           “Felicity McAllister Lived Here…” he murmured to himself.

           Standing up, he looked around his room as he put on his jacket. Someday in the future, it would be another kid’s childhood lair. Upon thinking about this, he felt like he had touched on one of Wes’ ongoing thought processes. Nostalgia wasn’t just about longing for the past; it could be a state of mind where one also worried about the now moments that would one day be lost, too. Wes lived anywhere but in the present.

           Jared parked at the apartment, and he, Lucy, Millie, and Jace joined Sadie, Arthur, and Colin up in what was Wes’ lonely home in another universe. They were welcomed at the door by Colin, who cracked it open and did a shushing gesture.

           “Keep it quiet,” he whispered. “People around here are getting suspicious.”

           They stepped inside, with Millie quickly noticing that the unit’s door knob was completely broken, and wouldn’t lock after she closed it.

           “Jace. I thought you said Arthur lockpicked it.”

           “He did,” he replied, and got a strange look from Colin. “I mean… right?”

           “Arthur doesn’t know how to do that,” Colin said. “He tried, but then he gave up and jammed a screwdriver into it and tore it apart. You were there, Jace. What do you think professional lockpicking looks like? Haven’t you seen it in a movie?”

           Jace shrugged. “Hey, I just know that he got it open in about thirty seconds.”

           “Oh. I’m suddenly not as impressed,” Millie said. “We have to make this fast, especially if anyone can just open the door now. Where we headed?”

           “Kitchen,” Colin replied. “Come on, it’s all set up. Arthur just needs a time.”

           While walking over, Lucy looked around the place and groaned. “I can’t believe Wes let himself live here. Couldn’t he afford a better apartment in this other universe?”

           Jace explained, “He could. He made money. But he just… didn’t care.”

           Arthur had his laptop on the counter of the spartan kitchen, which was hooked up to the door’s ports via lengthy USB cord. Sadie was waiting nervously by the fridge, arms crossed as she grumbled and judged the peeling paint and every scuff mark.

           “What’s on your mind, Sadie?” Millie asked. “Come on, let it out before we go.”

           She angrily answered, “How could Wes give up and live here, in this place, alone? Even if things were different in the world he knows, when we went to college together, we… still would’ve gotten closer—realized we had become a good match.”

           Jace shook his head and replied, “What happened to Ash… changed everything.” He glanced over at Arthur, who looked at him and quietly went back to his laptop. “Her, and certain other, um, decisions he made. It all tilted him too much in another direction. If it makes any difference, I think one of his regrets was not trying harder just to be happy. Something I realized recently, was that he used your birthday as a combination on…”

           Sadie perked up a little and asked, “On… what?”

           “Well… The metal case that he used to store his iPad and… pistol.”

           “Pistol? So, what, his other version is packing heat, too?”

           “He probably used the numbers on other things, as well. Point is, he was thinking of you. You weren’t married, either, but maybe he still thought it was ‘too late.’”

           “What did you see in him, anyway?” Millie asked. “I mean, just for the record.”

           After a breath, Sadie replied, “When he’s good with who he is, and shows the confidence we grew up around, he’s witty, funny, and full of anecdotes about our shared past. His nostalgia can be a burden sometimes, but it’s really amazing, the stories that he remembers. He’s like a walking photo album. And… he knows how to tell a story. The script alone for the last game he made, Everyday Kid… It actually made me cry.”

           “Brian’s pixel art on that was beautiful, too,” Jared added. “The way he made a modern neighborhood look like a realistic-fantasy playground, every NPC unique…”

           “Guys, we’re ready,” Arthur said. “I just sent a ping through the door that got detected on the other side.” He pointed to a radio receiver taped to the wall. “Nothing physical goes through before us, right, Jace? But the test signal I broadcasted got logged on my computer before I sent it, as planned. Spooky actions, as Einstein would say.”

           “Oh, man… Okaaay…” Jared breathed. “This is really happening. Where are the defenses we made, Arty? Because I’m not fist-fighting a terminator on the other side.”

           Arthur opened up the kitchen cupboards to reveal the ordnance he had stashed away earlier. There were two kinds of grenades, or bombs; enough for everyone.

           “Grab a pair, guys,” Arthur said. “A little something we’ve been working on. We made as many as we could, given the time. We got sticky bombs with sharp ends and magnets for direct contact on our cyborg, made with 4-volt batteries. The bigger ones are grenades you lob, made with 6-volts; more power to make up for a wider area of indirect effect. They’ll both deliver a big electrical burst that should at least stun him.”

           “Just so we’re clear, we are going after an officer of… some kind of law here, right?” Lucy questioned. “Are we going to get into trouble for this?”

           “He’s gone rogue,” Jace assured his mom. “I don’t think he’ll get backup.”

           As everybody grabbed some EMP firecrackers, Arthur opened up another cupboard and handed out some heavy poles made of solid metal.

           “And these… are shower rods from Lowe’s,” he mumbled. “I figured we needed something to use as a weapon. Better than nothing, right? But, remember, guys—the real plan is just to save Wes, get him somewhere safe, and… see what happens next.”

           He fully opened the pantry door, and propped it in place so everyone could see the inner door in the kitchen light. With a sharp exhale, he got back on his laptop.

           “Okay, Jace. I accessed the door’s logs and got a date and time for when you used it last. June 28^th, 1996… How far back should we go, on the other side?”

           Jace thought a moment. “I was with Wes when we came to the apartment to check on the door. When I go back, my older self will disappear. But we still want him to open his front door, or at least be close by… So… Two minutes before the last use?”

           “That could be cutting it close,” Jared replied.

           “We just need to take the cyborg by surprise.”

           Arthur nodded, and tapped a few keys to set an arrival time on the other side.

           “All right, then. Expect action as soon as you go in,” Arthur cautioned. “I looked into it, and there seems to be a safety feature that adds a couple seconds each time someone goes through in quick succession, so we don’t all bunch up by appearing at the exact same moment. In theory. Just… get clear of the door.”

           They all watched Arthur go up to it, and without hesitating, stick his entire arm right through it. Sadie let out a gasp as it disappeared. He pulled it back a moment later.

           “Jace…” he murmured. “This has all been something else. But somehow, I knew it would work after I spent that first night poring over the code that makes this thing function. Think of the potential for good a time machine could do, in the right hands.”

           “Fiction’s done enough to tell us that the danger is far greater,” Millie stated.

           “I know. That’s obvious. That’s why, after we save Wes, we destroy it. Jace, if we don’t remember to do it, you have to. Don’t let it tempt him to do all this again, or leave it around for someone else to stumble on. Promise us.”

           He was somewhat reluctant to do so, but Jace nodded.

           “Right…” Arthur huffed, and held his shower curtain bar like a sword at his side. “Wes. I can’t believe what you’re making us do. But, we’re doing it anyway.”

           With that, he passed through the door and disappeared. Colin went in next, closing his eyes and jumping, trying not to think too much about it.

           “Finally. I can be a time traveler, too,” Millie said, and went in with a small grin.

           “Ah… Okay.” Jared muttered and stuck his arm into the solid air that pretended to be the back of a red door. “G-guys, I don’t know… I’m no coward, but, I mean…”

           “Just go,” Sadie grumbled and shoved him through. Once it was just herself with Lucy and Jace, she asked her sister-in-law, “Luce, before we do this, are we really sure that we’re not going to tell Wes about… anything? We’re going to keep him thinking he’s from a world where he’s a childless bachelor in a rut? It just seems… cruel.”

           “I know, Sadie. But I don’t think it’s right to make him feel any more guilt about his selfishness, at least before he comes home to a new reality. Jace is right—he has to finish this weird journey of his first. Self-discovery and all that. So… yeah, you’re going to pretend that you’re another of his old friends, here to help. But nothing more.”

           “All right. Fine. And I’ll try to control my emotions. But I can’t promise I won’t let something slip. Focus on saving him…” She took a deep breath. “Just… focus.”

           After Sadie went back to 1996, Lucy turned to her kid and put her hands on his shoulders. “Jace, you’ll have to tell me all about your adventures. Part of me is strangely glad that you two have been spending time together. It’s… important.”

           “… See you on the other side, Mom.”

           He didn’t grimace at all when she gave his forehead a kiss, and he watched his heavily-armed, brother-saving mother disappear from an imperfect version of 2020.

           He was about to join her, when he heard a sudden, “Psst… Jace!”

           He looked to his left and was surprised, yet not shocked, to see Laurie partially hiding behind the kitchen door frame, in an obvious eavesdropping pose.

           “Laurie! What are you doing here? How… how much did you see?”

           “Just about everything,” she kept whispering, as she took off her bike helmet and approached. She studied the pantry door upon stepping into the kitchen, and looked at Jace with an expression of total confusion. “Unreal. I ride all the way down here, and sneak in just in time to see the adults go into the pantry, and talking about time travel, and they’re not even here, and… Jace, just, what the heck? This is freaking me out.”

           “You always gotta get involved in everything, don’t you?” Jace let out a sigh, and then stuck his arm through the door for her to see, which turned her eyes into saucers.

           “Okay… So what is wrong with this door? Isn’t this the same one that was in your kitchen? I knew you were keeping secrets, but… w-what is any of this about?”

           He got it out quick, “My dumb uncle is sick with nostalgia and took me back to 1995 using this time machine door an inventor made to get a different Wes home. We saw his childhood friends and fixed some things that were bad.”

           She stared at him, and blinked. “You’re… you’re serious…”

           He reached into his pocket, took out the fantasy character card of himself and showed it off, explaining, “I forgot to use this to help convince the adults about this whole thing. You know Brian, one of my uncle’s work buddies? He made me as RPG pixel art at the end of our class together. See, those small words say ‘Ms. Porter’s ’96’. I did fifth grade all over again, and it wasn’t even all that different. Look, I’m sorry, I’m just telling you all this so I don’t feel bad about running off and saying nothing to you instead. Well… that, and I don’t want you following me back in time. Wes ran into some trouble, and it’s very dangerous on the other side, so please don’t go in.”

           She handed the card back, shuffled over to the door, and studied it up close, murmuring, “Back in time… You saw Desert Tree in the 90s? Our parents, as kids?”

           He nodded. “Yeah. Sleepovers, video game nights, a lot of pizza, all the old Nicktoons… The whole tour. I even went to Camp Morning Dew. And the whole no social media thing was good for me. But now there’s something we have to do for Wes. And you have to stay here—I don’t want something bad to happen to you.”

           She still showed some obvious disbelief, so Jace took out his phone and flicked through the handful of pictures he had taken with it during the trip.

           Swiping through them, Laurie replied, “This is real… isn’t it? I guess it explains why you were your old self one day, and the next… taller, more confident, more level-headed… And here I thought all the wellness tips I gave you were paying off.” She stared at the picture of Jace and Wes on Castle Hill and against the backdrop of the city a moment longer before returning the phone. “All right, buddy. I won’t get in the way of whatever it is you have to…” she inhaled, “… finish in the… past. But don’t you dare stay back there. You’re the heart of our friend circle. I mean that.”

           Trying not to get emotional, Jace sniffled and responded, “I almost did lose all of you, once. I’m not going to let it happen again. Thanks for believing in me, Laurie.”

           She exhaled, rolled her eyes, and clicked her tongue. “Yeah, still not a hugger. But, hey,” she gave Jace a fist bump, stronger from her side, “good luck, anyway. I’m sorry about being nosy, bossy, and annoying sometimes. We all have our little flaws.”

           “I’m not sure if anyone will remember any of this when we come back, but we’ll hang out, us and the gang, like old times. I’m not the kid I used to be.”

           “I see that…” Laurie said, giving Jace a timid wave as he stuck a leg in the door.

           With a deep breath, he went on through to the other side, going back in time as easily as stepping into another room. He appeared just behind his mom and Sadie, with all of the adults in a kitchen that was just as empty, but now had dated appliances. They hadn’t noticed his delay, since to them, he appeared only seconds after they all arrived.

           “You can look around in amazement later, guys,” Jace said and grasped his stick-on grenade. “We need to take that time cop by surprise. I think he was hiding over…”

           He noticed the adults all turn towards the other kitchen doorway, which led into the back of the hallway near the bedroom. The cyborg had heard and found them first.

           “T-that’s…” Millie stammered. “Oh, man. It’s all coming back.”

           Jace knew that adults couldn’t always be relied upon, and right now, they were all frozen in place, staring at the large, imposing figure of a machine-man enforcer. The cop stared emotionlessly right back, spending a moment wondering how six adults had come out of nowhere and taken him by surprise. But Jace wasn’t about to let history repeat.

           The instant that the cop flicked the safety on his laser rifle, Jace found his nerve and ran headlong across the kitchen tile, letting out an angry shout as he slammed the sticky bomb into his side, the sharp nail at the end of it finding a gap in the tough metal exoskeleton, breaching the synthetic fiber skin and latching in place with the aid of powerful neodymium magnets. The cop slapped Jace away and tried to pull it out, but even with his enhanced strength, he couldn’t detach the bomb before it went off.

           The lights flickered as the battery loudly exploded and a waft of ozone hit the air. The cyborg convulsed and leaned forward, with sparks and smoke shooting out of his joints. Yet it wasn’t enough to topple him, or shut him down completely.

           Inspired by Jace’s bravery—and seeing their opening—Arthur, Colin, and Sadie all charged in and stuck their stickies near where Jace’s remained implanted. They all went off, one after the next, sending the robotic officer into a spasm as angry electricity hissed from across his jolted mass. The red glow in his eyes faded to black, and all of his artificial muscles locked up. He became as stiff as a board and fell backward as heavy, dead weight. With a loud, satisfying thump, he hit the kitchen tile, cracking it.

           “Is that it?” Jared exclaimed. “Did… did we kill him? Man. He was scary.”

           “You okay?” Lucy asked, rubbing the red spot on Jace’s cheek.

           “Yeah, Mom… I’m fine…” he tried to assure her as he took big breaths.

           “The gun!” Jared exclaimed. Needing to be useful, he ran over, grabbed the laser rifle, and started bashing it against the metal door of the fridge. “He’s gonna get back up, just watch,” he said, exerting himself as he broke the rifle. “Risk reduction, right here!”

           “He looks pretty out of it to me,” Colin said, observing the inactive cyborg cop.

           Millie remarked, “At least Arty’s bombs work. If he gets up, we zap him again.”

           The front door suddenly creaked open, and they all turned to see Wes coming in.

           “Jace!” he shouted towards the outside stairs. “I dunno where you went, but I’m going in now. Don’t get close to any of the locals. You know some of them… like to…”

           He trailed off upon looking into his apartment, and seeing that his adult friends, and the nephew that had just seemingly teleported inside, were staring back at him from his kitchen. He turned wide-eyed, looked confused, and mumbled to himself.

           Sadie seemed ready to shout out to him, but not knowing how best to react, she instead restrained herself. Lucy, on the other hand, ran right over and gave him a hug.

           “Wes!” she blurted out. She punched his shoulder hard, and then went back to hugging as he also struggled to formulate a response. “You freaking smooth-brain! What were you thinking, kidnapping Jace and dragging him on another nostalgia trip?!”

           “L-Lucy, I… Why? How? How are you here? What’s happening?”

           “Hey, Wes,” Millie greeted him, arms crossed as she leaned against the kitchen entrance frame. “Your nephew just saved your life. He brought us in from 2020.”

           “Saved my… What? All I did was come up here to check on… um, something.”

           “We know about the door, dude,” Jared said. “Obviously. Jace told us everything.”

           “You know what, J? Now isn’t the time for snark,” Wes snapped. “I have no idea what’s going on, and my boss is the last guy I want to see in the past, pestering me.”

           “I’m not your…” Jared paused, and glanced at Jace. He gave off a subtle smirk and got into it, “Yeah, that’s right. You thought you could, uh… miss work, huh? That I wouldn’t find you, wherever you ran off to? You need to come in, and… sort papers.”

           “Ha, freakin’, ha. Can someone tell me what’s going on? You saved my life?”

           “Yeah, from the big guy in the kitchen,” Colin replied. “See for yourself.”

           Wes let out a grunt and walked past everyone to peek into the room, but quickly pulled back, giving his friends a bemused look. “What guy? It’s empty.”

           The gang looked at one another and rushed back in, to see no sign of the cyborg captain other than the cracked kitchen tile. He had vanished without a trace.

           “There was a time cop right there.” Jared pointed to the floor. “We—well, some of us—took him out with battery bombs. We should’ve heard him stomping around.”

           “He must’ve time traveled,” Jace said and rubbed his forehead. “But, to when?”

           “Not to prevent this from happening, apparently,” Millie replied. “Hm…”

           “Wes,” Sadie got out, and everyone anxiously turned to her. “I, um…”

           “Hey… Said’,” Wes sighed, still looking uncomfortable about this turn of events.

           Trying to avoid eye contact, she smiled feebly and asked, “… You okay?”