The Wells Bequest (20 page)

Jaya's Brilliant Idea

W
hen I got to the repository on Tuesday, Ms. Callender sent me and Jaya down to Stack 5. It was a quiet day. I wished I had lots of call slips to run. I didn't know what to say to Jaya. Why did I feel so awkward? Shouldn't capturing a time machine and traveling back to 1895 with a girl make you feel more comfortable with her, not less?

A call slip arrived. I took as long as I could to run it. As I was wrapping up a jigsaw to send to the Main Exam Room, the stack door opened and a boy ran in. He looked about seven or eight years old.

“Sister Jaya!” he yelled.

“Brother Dre!” Jaya yelled back. “What are you doing here? Did you come with Marc?”

“Yeah, he's upstairs with Doc. Read me a story?” He handed her a book.

“I thought you had a sister, not a brother,” I said, puzzled. The kid looked African American, not Indian.

“I don't have a brother yet, but I will. This is Andre, Anjali's boyfriend's baby brother.”

“Baby yourself!” said Andre indignantly. To me, he said, “Hi. Who are you?”

“That's Leo,” said Jaya. “He's a new page.”

Andre grinned at me. “Hi, Leo. Can you get Jaya to read to me?”

“Can't you read to yourself? Or is the book too hard?” asked Jaya.

“Of course I can!” He sounded outraged. “But it's way more fun when
you
read it. You make all the stories more exciting.”

I knew what the kid meant.

Jaya looked at the book. “What is this, Poe again? Boy, Andre, you love the scary stuff, don't you!”

He nodded gleefully. “Read ‘The Tell-Tale Heart.'”

“I'm sick of that one,” said Jaya. “How about ‘The Purloined Letter'?”

A pneum thumped into the basket. I pulled out a sheaf of call slips. “A snarling iron, a cow's tongue, a beak iron, a riffler, a bastard file, and a burnisher,” I read. “What the quark is all this stuff?”

Jaya laughed. “Those are all silversmiths' tools. They should all be close together.”

I went off down the stack to look for them. When I got back, Jaya jumped up, calling out, “I'm brilliant! I'm a genius!” She handed me the book. “Here, Leo, finish reading Andre the story. I have to go check something.”

The story was about a detective looking for a missing letter. The villain had hidden it in plain sight—in a rack of other letters. Andre wasn't impressed. “That wasn't scary at
all.
I like ‘The Pit and the Pendulum' way better. Read that one next,” he told me.

“The Pit and the Pendulum” was much more exciting. I'd just gotten to the part where the red-hot walls of the torture chamber were threatening to crush the hero and throw him into the pit when Jaya burst back into the room holding a transparent rod. It looked very familiar.

“Look, Leo! I think this is
it
!”

“
It
what?”

“The missing quartz rod! From the full-size Wells time machine!”

“But where did you find it?”

“In the geology collection, with all the other mineral samples. Call number X S&M 549.68 U556,” she said, reading from a call slip.

“That
is
brilliant! How do you think it got there?”

“Someone must have hidden it in plain sight, like the letter in the Poe story.”

“But who?”

“I don't know—maybe you or me, in the past or the future. Or both. I'm going to run downstairs and see if it fits.”

“Wait! I'll come with you!”

“No, somebody has to stay here in case we get call slips,” she said, and ran off. So much for her newly restored patience.

I hadn't even gotten to the end of the Poe story when she came back. Her hair was a mess and there were circles under her eyes.

“Jaya! What happened to you?” I gasped.

“Nothing—I just went back to the 1880s and had a little chat with Mark Twain about time travel.”

“Without me? How could you do that!”

“I'm sorry. But I was always going to go alone—he never mentioned having met
you
before. Did you know the ladies wore bustles back then?”

“What are bustles?” asked Andre.

“They're these cage things ladies wore under their dresses, strapped to the back of their underwear, like fake rear ends. Very uncomfortable.”

Andre laughed. “I bet you look awesome with a fake rear end stuck on your underwear, Jaya!”

“Jaya!” I said. “You can't go time traveling without me! It's not safe! And who's going to save you if Simon tries to shoot you with a death ray?”

“Simon doesn't exist anymore, remember?” said Jaya. “We need to talk about that. I've been feeling terrible about what happened to Simon. I really think we need to fix it.”

But I was only half listening because suddenly I understood what had been nagging at the back of my brain all this time.
I
was the one who had changed the past and saved Jaya from Simon One. Not Simon Two—he
was
unable to change the past! It was me. And I knew how I'd done it—or rather, how I was going to do it!

“Your turn to keep an eye on the stack,” I said. “There's something I need to do.”

I Save the Life of the Most Awesome Girl in the Universe

I
ran upstairs to Doc's office to save Jaya's life back in Tesla's lab. I had to stop in the stacks on my way to pick up a few items I needed for the job: a GPS, a microphone, and a clock.

Balancing them in my arms, I knocked on the head repositorian's door.

“What is it, Leo? Come in, come in.” Dr. Rust cleared an armful of priceless objects off the spare chair and gestured for me to sit down. The other chair was occupied by a grown-up version of Andre. He looked a little older than my brother, Dmitri.

“Oh, sorry—you're busy. I can come back later,” I said. After all, 1895 would still be there in half an hour.

“No, you stay. I've got to go anyway,” said Andre's brother.

“Take care, Marc. Love to Anjali,” said Doc. Marc shut the door behind him.

Doc turned to me. “Now, Leo, what can I do for you?”

“Do you still have that thing you gave me to use when I took the test with the clock and the radio—the conceptual coupler? Can I borrow it for a sec?”

“Sure.” Doc opened a drawer and took it out. “Do you want to check it out on your card? If so, I'll need a deposit.”

“You mean like how Jaya gave you her patience?”

“Yes, your patience would do. Patience, sense of direction, ability to dance—something like that.”

“I only need the coupler for a few minutes. What if I just use it here—would that be okay?”

“Help yourself.” Dr. Rust handed me the conceptual coupler.

With my multi-utility tool, I attached the coupler to the clock, the GPS, and the mic. Doc watched me with interest.

I tightened the connections, plugged everything in, wound the clock, switched on the power, and located Tesla's lab in space. Then I spun time backward to the evening when Jaya and I had fought with Simon and Tesla's lab burned down. I switched the mic to
amplify,
turning it into a speaker.

The room filled with the sounds of the fight. I heard death rays hiss, lightning fizz and snap, and men curse. I heard my own grunt of pain when Mr. Smith knocked me out.

The bangs and hisses and static seemed to go on and on. How long had I been out cold?

“Drop it, Jaya! Drop it!”
Simon's voice came thin and crackly through the device. There! That was what he'd said just before he jumped on her.

I pushed the button that switched the mic to
speak
and shouted, “Jaya, watch out!”

Silence.

What had happened? Had I lost the connection? Oh, right—the mic was still on
speak.

I let the talk button go. More crashes.

I pressed the talk button and shouted, “Help her, Leo! She's over by the window! Quick, Leo! Go help her!”

I switched back to
amplify
and we listened. More shouts and crashes. That must be the sound of me tearing Simon off Jaya. Through all the noise, I heard Jaya's voice—she was still alive.
It worked!
I thought.
I just saved Jaya!

“Fascinating,” said Dr. Rust. “I wonder why you were able to access that scene? In this timeline, Simon never existed. Why should he exist in the past?”

“He shouldn't,” I said, “but he does. That's the beauty of the Wells time machine. Paradoxes don't bother it.”

“Everybody get out! It's going to explode!”
yelled Mark Twain thinly through the microphone.

“That can't be Tesla yelling. Is it Mark Twain?” asked Dr. Rust.

I nodded.

“I always wondered what his voice sounded like,” said Doc. “You can tell he's from Missouri.”

More curses from the loudspeaker as Past Me grabbed the time machine and everyone scrambled for the door. I switched off the mic hastily. “Well, that's it. If we're still listening when the hydrogen explodes, we'll probably blow out our eardrums. Thanks for the coupler.” I disassembled my machine and handed it back.

Out in the corridor I heard Present Jaya calling, “Where are you, Leo? The shift's over!”

“My pleasure,” said Doc. “I take it your mission succeeded?”

“Seems that way. Jaya survived.” I got up to go to her.

“Hang on a second, Leo. I think you've earned this.” Dr. Rust opened a drawer and took out a folding multi-utility tool. “Keep it safe and use it carefully.”

“Thanks! What does it do?”

It had a zillion tools folded into its case, which was made of some silvery metal I didn't recognize. I unfolded one. It looked like a screwdriver with a fractal end. I unfolded a teeny-tiny telescope, then a sort of curving scissors. Then a little hand the size of my thumbnail, complete with a thumbnail of its own. When I levered the hand away from the handle, it flexed and shook itself as if being folded up had given it a cramp.

“Careful. That one's willful,” said Doc.

The tiny hand snapped its fingers at us.

“This is a fantastic tool! What is it?”

Doc smiled. “Oh, sorry, didn't I say? It's a key to the Wells Bequest.”

• • •

“There you are! I was looking for you. What were you doing in there?” asked Jaya as I emerged from Dr. Rust's office.

“Oh, just saving your life and earning my Wells Bequest key.” I felt jubilant. I wanted to celebrate. I'd saved Jaya! I'd almost lost her, but I'd saved her instead! I wanted to fold her in my arms and hug her forever.

But I still didn't know if she liked me that way.

“You're kidding! Congratulations!” She punched me hard on the shoulder.

“Thanks, and yet ouch.”

She was standing so close. What was wrong with me? I'd driven the
Terror
through sea and air. I'd ridden a time machine across more than a century, battled a villain with death rays, run the wrong way in a burning lab with hydrogen tanks about to explode—but I couldn't seem to kiss the girl I loved.

Even though she'd already kissed me first.

“Are you done for the day?” I asked.

“I just have to put the time machine back in the Wells Bequest oversizes,” said Jaya. “I left it in the main room.”

“Good. I'll go down with you,” I said. “I want to see it.”

• • •

One of the devices on the silvery multi-utility tool was a little skeleton key that fit into a keyhole in the Wells Bequest door. “I didn't notice this keyhole before,” I said. “Was it always here?”

“Not sure. I don't think I've seen it before either,” said Jaya.

“Hey, didn't Ms. Minnian use a remote control to open the Wells Bequest? Why is my key different?”

“All the Special Collection keys are different. They fit the users,” said Jaya. “I like yours.”

The time machine stood in the middle of the room. It was missing its crystal rod.

“Here,” said Jaya, taking the rod out of her backpack and handing it to me. “Want to take her for a spin before I put her away? I got to visit Mark Twain—you should get a solo trip too.”

“Sure! Thanks.” I fitted the rod into its slot, using the hand tool on my Wells Bequest key to tighten the gaskets. It grasped them with its tiny fingers and twisted. “We should probably put the rod back in the geology section when we're done,” I said. “It's been safe there for decades.”

“That's the plan,” said Jaya. “I guess we should tell Doc too.”

Now that the quartz rod was in place, a metal bar on the machine started twinkling. I folded up my tool and climbed into the saddle. “Well, here goes,” I said.

“Have a good trip! Come back soon!”

I braced myself and pushed the lever to the past.

• • •

The saddle was more comfortable than the one on the mini demo model, and the action was much smoother. Best of all, the full-size machine had a sort of dashboard with time and speed indicators, which made it easier to figure out where I was—I mean when.

That was good because the basement repository room gave almost no clues. The lights blurred on and off, and ghostly figures hopped around occasionally, retrieving objects or reshelving them with a flick of light. But mostly, nothing happened. I felt the familiar wrongness of traveling backward in time. The room and everything in it stayed still, waiting. Everything was motionless except me.

After a few minutes of darkness, the lights snicked on and a few figures danced backward around a familiar object—the shrink ray—before vanishing.

I glanced at the controls. I had gone back a few years. That was probably far enough. I pulled the
PAST
lever to
stop
and pressed the other lever, starting us back to the present.

The time machine hung motionless for a moment, then slowly started accelerating into the future. As it did, I glimpsed the guy I'd just met—Marc, Andre's brother, only younger—with another guy and a girl. The three of them looked around my age. The other guy was using the shrink ray on Marc and the girl. They writhed, shrinking down to the size of soda cans.

I reached out to stop the machine, curious to see what would happen next, but my momentum swept me on too fast. Before I could catch it, the moment was gone.
Oh well,
I thought. The now-familiar sensation of hurtling hope waterfalled me forward, back to the present. Back to Jaya!

Back to Jaya—and what? Just friends?

I eyed the controls. Almost there . . . just another few ticks . . .

As I pulled the lever back to stop the machine, I saw I had gone a little too far—a minute or two forward into the future. I saw myself standing a few feet away. Future Me had his arms around Jaya.

He was kissing her.

He was kissing her!

That meant
I
was about to kiss her!

And far more important—
she was kissing him back!

As if he'd read my mind, Future Me opened his eyes. Without breaking the kiss, he looked straight at me and flapped his hand at me, waving me off.

I just barely nudged the
PAST
lever and waited for my shadowy future self to disappear. The instant he did, I halted the machine. I was back in the present, in the Wells Bequest the moment after I'd left.

I sprang off, ran over to Jaya, threw my arms around her, and kissed her.

And to my endless, delighted disbelief—even though I knew she was going to—she kissed me back.