Five minutes later, I found myself knocking on Greg’s front door. I was trying to keep my cool, but I wanted to see his father; I wanted to know if the experiment could be reserved.
As I stood there, waiting, I squeezed my eyes and fists closed and took a deep breath. Anger had gotten the upper hand. I had been prepared to yell a piece of my mind at the first person who opened the door, but God shot me with the arrow of consciousness.
From somewhere in the house, I could hear the creaking floorboards moaning towards me, and heavy, dragging footsteps providing the beat for their dismal symphony. “Lord,” I quickly whispered. “Thy will be done…give me the strength against sin. Lead me not into temptation but deliver me from evil, in me…and in others.”
“Morning Jenifer, what brings you down here?” Dr. Jarred asked, greeting me with a brisk nod.
“I just wanted to ask you something,” I looked straight into his grey, drooping eyes.
“Fire ahead.” He leaned on the doorframe with a sigh, as if to say, I don’t have time for this kind of thing, kid.
“Did you preform that experiment?” I asked him, suddenly emboldened.
Dr. Jarred stared at me. “I don’t know what you mean.” He gave a smile riddled with annoyingly fake charm.
“Greg told me about it,” I said, doing my best to keep a calm and polite tone. “The time collecting one.”
“Oh yes,” he nodded slowly. “I have tried it three times, but all the tries failed, I imagine.” His eyes searched my face rapidly, as if he was desperate to read something therein.
I shivered. “But you don’t know for sure?”
“Well, the chemical reaction I’m trying to patent for that specific job seems to have backfired,” he said, shifting the milk bottles to his hip. “Very scientific stuff,” he cleared his throat. “All about moving this particle fast enough to travel—anyway, why do you care?”
“Do you know,” I said slowly, ignoring his rudeness, “that two children have come out of the past?”
“Greg’s told me about the two children you took in,” he replied, looking slightly mystified. “They’re not from the past…are they?”
My heart was flaming, but God gave me strength, and composedly I told him. “They are from the past, Dr. Jarred, but they’re in the hospital right now, fading, I would guess.”
“That is very saddening indeed,” Greg’s father rubbed his stubble thoughtfully. He continued to stand there, scratching his chin till I was almost batty.
I channeled all my energy into staring a hole into him.
“Can’t you reserve it? Send them back?”
“I could…” he looked me in the eye. “But I’d hate to mess with the scientific process. You see, Jen, it would be beneficial to know what happens so I can prevent this in the future.”
They are not animals! I almost shouted but caught myself. “They are people—we can’t just let them die!”
He surveyed me up and down, his lips pursing for a moment before twisting his thin fingers over the tarnished door handle and beginning to go back inside.
“Wait!” I put out a hand so that he’d have to turn and listen. He did so reluctantly. I knew he didn’t want to reverse it, but there was one question I still needed answered. “What kind of things can you bring out of the past, besides humans?”
“Oh,” he raised an eyebrow. “Any kind of animal, microbial, or virus…I’m extending my range to inanimate objects as well, but for now I can only capture certain aspects of them—”
“If a virus was to come back, what form would it take?” I pressed.
“It could take any shape it wanted to. I attempted to bring back the bubonic plague in my last run of the experiment, after the two children. I don’t think that worked.” He smiled strangely and closed the door.
I had a terrible feeling welling up inside me. I needed to get back home; I needed to find Greg—he might know how to do the counter reaction. He might not want to, but he was my last hope.
In a frenzied panic, I dashed from the broken porch steps, jumped the gate without thinking twice, and crashed smack into someone standing on the road. Someone who’d obviously been watching me from afar, and now, their hand closed around my wrist.
Photo Credit:
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