Emperors of Time (11 page)

Julie rolled her
eyes and said, “Oh come on... I just found out that you know the names of all
the presidents by heart.  How’s that for weird?”

Tim rolled his
eyes, but otherwise pretended not to notice that she had evaded his
question.  He supposed she’d tell him when she was ready.

“Mmhmm, yep,
that’s weird,” admitted Tim.  “But not half as weird as the fact that you
just invited me over to your house for lasagna so I’d walk you home.”

They spent a few
more minutes of walking time exchanging barbs about who was weirder and
why.  They covered every topic from how weird Julie’s fascination with
math was to the rather unique way that Tim walked.  For a little while, at
least, it distracted Tim from the tough question of how they would fix the
timeline.  Besides, Julie was fun to talk to, as always, and Tim was
almost entirely sure she was being flirtatious.

Then, only about
a block away from Julie’s house, she said, “You want weird?  How about
this?”  Then, she stopped walking, grabbed Tim, leaned in, and kissed
him. 

The problem with
the kiss was Tim’s reaction to it.  Or rather, there was no problem with
the kiss at all.  Tim enjoyed it quite thoroughly, but his reaction to it
left a lot to be desired.  He mostly didn’t react at all.  Except for
kissing her back, of course.

It was just, the
way she had talked about the kiss right before doing it, saying that it was
going to be something weird.  Well, what if it had all been a joke? 
After the kiss, he looked away awkwardly and immediately, because he was afraid
that she would laugh at him or something. 

After a moment
of awkward silence, Julie had just led him the rest of the way to her house,
where they had some exceptionally delicious lasagna courtesy of Julie’s
stepmother.  After dinner, Julie drove Tim home.  The evening was a
pleasant one, with Julie and Tim laughing and talking like normal, except neither
one of them brought up the kiss again. 

Now, one day
later, Tim had basically no idea what to do.  He had never kissed a girl
before, nor had he really dated anyone.  Tim was never particularly
socially gifted, and he was kicking himself for that now.

These were the
things on Tim’s mind as he got ready to meet his friends at Rose’s aunt’s and
uncle’s antique shop on Monday evening.  The four teens had texted each
other that day and arranged to meet at six.  That was after most of the
shop’s business was done for the day anyway, so Rose’s aunt and uncle would be
able to spend more time helping them out.

At around
five-fifteen, Tim’s Dad got home.  His mother would be working late, and
he didn’t have a car of his own, so he ambushed his Dad straight out of the
garage. 

“Can I get a
ride over to the antique shop on 4th street?  I’d walk, but it’s on the
other side of town,” said Tim.

Tim’s Dad cocked
his head.  “You’re into antiques, now?” he said with a mild tone of
disapproval in his voice.

Tim rolled his
eyes.  “No, I’m meeting friends there,” he clarified.

Tim’s Dad
thought about this for a moment.  “Friends your age?” he asked
suspiciously.  “I never heard of teenagers hanging around antique shops.”

“They’re the
same friends I had over yesterday,” said Tim.

“I’m starting to
think you need cooler friends,” said Tim’s Dad, who was probably only partially
joking.

Tim
groaned.  “Oh, come on…  One of them’s on the basketball team. 
Billy Connell.”

“Oh,” said Tim’s
Dad.  “Yeah, okay…  I thought I recognized him.  And the girls
aren’t bad looking, I guess.  Fine…  You could be doing worse. 
I’ll take you over there, but I have a hair appointment tonight, so can you bum
a ride from one of them to get back here?” he asked.

“Sure, thanks!” said
Tim.

Because his
Dad’s appointment was at 6:00 as well, he ended up arriving at the antique shop
at ten to six, when no one was there except for Rose and her aunt and uncle.

Tim entered the
shop and stood awkwardly beside the door. 

“You might as
well come in and browse awhile,” said Rose, with a smile.

Tim walked over
and saw that Rose was browsing through a stack of old books.  He picked up
one by an author whose name he recognized and examined the dust jacket.

“How’re you
doing?” asked Tim.

“All right,”
said Rose.  “I heard what happened with you and Julie, by the way.”

Tim blushed
immediately.  “What?”

“You know… 
when she kissed you and you ignored it.  Or did you actually not realize
it had happened?” asked Rose, narrowing her eyes.

“No, of course I
realized…  I just…”  Tim could think of no good way to finish that
sentence, so he ended it there. 

Rose
frowned.  “So.  You like her?”

After a bit of
hesitation, trying to decide if he should be honest, he said, “Well… 
yeah.”  

“I figured,”
said Rose.  “Well, if you want to pursue it, I’d move soon if I were
you.  She’s peeved that you blew her off, but you might still have a
window.”

Tim didn’t have
a chance to respond before the bell tinkled and the door of the shop
opened. 

Billy walked in,
and said, “Hey guys, how ya doin’?”

“Good,” said
Rose.  Tim silently prayed that she wouldn’t say anything about the
conversation they’d just been having.

“Cool.  You
guys find anything interesting yet?” asked Billy.

“I was just
looking to see if they had a copy of
The Secret Garden
.  It’s one
of my favorite books, but the cat peed on it the other day, so I threw it out,”
complained Rose.

“Good choice,”
said Tim.  “I mean, the choice to throw out your copy, not the cat’s
choice to pee on it.”

Rose rolled her
eyes and said, “Thanks for clarifying.”  At that same moment, Julie walked
into the store.

“Hey guys,” said
Julie, walking over to them.

Rose took
Julie’s arrival as her cue to start the next phase of the plan, talking to her
aunt and uncle. 

“Auntie Jane, Uncle
Patrick,” she said in an unnecessarily loud voice considering that the six of
them were the only six people in the shop.  “I’d like you to meet my
friends Billy and Tim.  Of course, you’ve met July before.”

Tim looked at
Julie curiously, but saw from the look on her face that she had also met them
in her timeline. 

“Nice to meet
you both,” said Patrick, shaking their hands, as Jane smiled at them. 

“So, my friends
are doing a project at school about San Francisco in 1916,” said Rose.

Patrick grinned. 
“I think we get half of our yearly business from overambitious schoolchildren
doing class projects.”

“Not that we’re
complaining, of course,” clarified Jane.

“Can you
help?  Maybe some period clothing and something authentic to San Francisco
at that time?” asked Rose.

“Well… 
That is kind of a specific request.  We can do the period clothing,
though.  And we’ll see if we can find something from 1916 San Francisco,”
said Jane.

Tim’s heart
sank.  Period clothing was important, of course, but they really needed
something that had been in San Francisco in 1916.  Otherwise there was no
way for them to get back there.  The fact that Rose had a connection with
people who owned an antique store had seemed like great luck.  But if they
couldn’t help them, they were back to maybe looking for items online.  But
who could tell if online vendors were telling the truth about where an item had
come from?  Maybe the next option would be flying out to San Francisco
themselves and finding a building like Wright’s Ferry Mansion.  But how
were they going to afford four plane tickets across the country?

Patrick was
quiet for a moment, and said, “I might have an idea for the authentic San
Francisco object.  Let me find it and we can see if you like it. 
Jane, why don’t you show them the clothes, and I’ll see if I can’t fish it out
for you.”

“That’d be
great!” said Rose.

“Follow me,
then,” said Jane.  They walked over to a rack of clothes.  “Is this
for a skit?  Just the three of you, then?”

Julie spoke
up.  “Oh, no, ma’am, there’s four of us.  We have another girl… 
About Rose’s size, actually.”

“Hmm…” said
Jane.  “Let me see what I can find for you.  I can let you borrow
these for free, I think.  They won’t sell anytime soon anyway, most
likely.”

“That’d be
really great, thanks!” said Julie, enthusiastically.  Billy and Tim nodded
agreement. 

“Of course, it’d
be easier to get you something from the 1920s.  The flappers, you
know.  All the rage at the time, of course, and enough people today know
about them to have a bit of demand for them,” Jane explained. 

“Hmmm… 
Yeah, but the project’s about the 1910s…” said Rose.

“Of
course.  Yeah, I’m not trying to sell you on it or anything…  
We can sell the flapper stuff, no problem.  The question is what I have
from the mid 1910s…”  Jane said.  “Oooh…  here, this could be
something…  Yes, look at the buttons!” said Jane.

“That is pretty
awesome,” admired Rose, as they looked at the outfit Jane was showing
them.  It consisted of a white blouse, a long black skirt, and a gray wool
jacket with large golden, round buttons on one side.  It was rather plain,
but nice, Tim supposed.  Even though he didn’t know too much about early
20th century clothing, he figured the fact that it looked really old-fashioned
to him was promising.

“You’ll need a
hat, of course” said Jane.  “But let’s find you another skirt and top
first.  Oooh, what about this one?”  This was another black skirt,
white top combination, but the black and white plaid jacket that went with it
was longer. 

“Do you think it
would fit me all right?” asked Julie.

“Well, of
course, it might run you a little bit large, because you’re not quite
eighteen…  But, you said that Rose was about the same size as the other
girl?  I could let you try them on if you like.  Should we outfit the
guys first?”

In ten minutes,
they had found clothing for the guys and hats for the girls.  The clothes
for the guys looked a lot like the sort of fancy suits that would not be out of
place at prom.  The hats for the girls’ outfits, however, were clearly out
of a different time period.  The one that went with Julie’s outfit was
black with a short, stiff brim.  It had a bow made out of red and gold
ribbon.  The other, for Rose’s outfit, had a rim that was a bit floppier,
and was white and fuzzy.

There were no
changing rooms in the antique store, since clothing was only a small part of
their business, but Jane took them into the back to their offices.  The
girls changed in one room while Tim and Billy changed in another.

The room Tim and
Billy were in had stacks of papers that looked like receipts piled on a desk,
and an old calculator with a spot for a roll of paper to keep track of the work
you did.  Billy laid his small pile of clothes on the chair, Tim set his
on the desk, and each of them set about changing into their suits. 

“The girls
always seem to get the more exciting clothes for these little adventures of
ours, don’t they?” asked Billy, as he began to pull on his new 1910s pants.

“That’s fair, I
guess, because they usually seem to be more excited about clothes, don’t they?”
asked Tim.

“Still, just
once I think we should go back to a time when men’s clothing was really
outlandish and weird, although…  I’m not sure I can think of any time in
American history that was like that…” said Billy.

“If we went back
to the 18th century, we could probably justify wearing wigs,” registered
Tim.  “Although I’m pretty sure that we are only visiting times when the
Emperors of Time changed things first from now on.”

“Hmm…  Do
you think they’d take requests?” asked Billy.

“If they did,
I’d probably just ask them to stop changing the timeline, so we didn’t have to
chase them around fixing it,” Tim countered.

Billy
laughed.  “Fair point, I guess.”

By then, the
boys had finished changing.  Tim supposed it made sense that the amount of
excitement the outfit caused would determine the amount of time it took to
change into it.  He came up with this theory when it was several minutes
after he and Billy had come out of the office and the girls were still
ensconced in their own makeshift changing room. 

The girls were a
bit giggly when they came out of the changing room, fully costumed in their
1916 garb. 

“You look nice,
Rose,” said Billy in a tone of apparent sincerity.  Then, he added as a polite
afterthought, “You, too Julie.”

“Yeah, you do,
Julie!” agreed Tim.  “Er…  both of you, I mean.”

It was hard for
Tim to put his finger on why the clothes looked so good on them.  They
certainly weren’t the type of clothes that the girls at school would wear if
they wanted to look good.  If nothing else, they certainly covered them up
more, from the high top button on their blouse to the skirt that reached almost
to the floor.  Even the upper parts of their hands were covered by the
roomy jackets.  But somehow, they just looked really well put together in
a way that was quite attractive.  Especially on Julie.

“You guys, too,”
said Rose.

“Yes,” agreed
Julie with a smile.  “So we can pull off 1916?”

“I think so,”
opined Jane. 

At this moment,
Patrick came back down from the upstairs room where he had been hunting for an
object from San Francisco in 1916.  He was carrying a small stack of
newspapers in one hand.

“A little hobby
of mine,” said Patrick with a smile.  “They don’t often sell, but I have a
lot of old newspapers up there.  Sometimes I like to read one and imagine
that I’m opening the newspaper and reading the stories for the first time as
morning news.  Of course, most people wanting to look at newspapers from
these times would just go to the local library and get the microfilm, or maybe
search the internet, these days.  But to me it’s not the same. 
Anyway, enough rambling from me.  I’ve got a few issues of the
San
Francisco Chronicle
from that year, if you want to pick one or two that you
like.  You can even keep a couple if you want.  Like I said, they
don’t sell.”

“No, and he’s
got far too many up there as it is,” said his wife with an affectionate
eye-roll. 

Tim feared that
newspapers would be a tricky prospect when it came to using them for the sort
of time travel the Domini allowed.  While they were convenient in that
almost all copies of the San Francisco Chronicle would have been distributed in
or around San Francisco, they also had a ridiculously short shelf-life. 
If they wanted to go to the specific day that a newspaper was printed, then it
could get them to when and where they wanted to go.  But if they tried to
use it to get somewhere even a week after it was printed, the newspaper would
likely be in a landfill already.  If they touched it and tried to go back
to a certain time, they might well end up under a pile of garbage in a dump
some unknown distance from San Francisco itself.