Time Leap (24 page)

“
Sure, no
problem,” he replied. Then, when Peng and Niki were out of earshot,
he added, “It’s just a little strange being here with my mom. It
makes me feel like a little boy again. You know, Chinese mothers do
everything for their children, and in some ways it holds them back.
It can make you very spoiled too. I’m so glad I spent four years in
America – it helped me to grow up and be independent.”

“
Are you
looking forward to tomorrow – you still want to do it,
right?”

“
Sure, glad to
help you guys. I don’t know exactly what you want me to do, but
it’ll be fun. Everyone knows the stories about the tomb of Qin Shi
Huang and the curse…”

“
Sorry, did
you say
‘the curse’
?” I interrupted.

“
Yeah… didn’t
you know?”

I certainly did not know,
and I needed to speak to my Chinese wife urgently.

“
How about
this one?” she said, placing a false black beard across my face
before I had time to speak. I removed it quickly.

“
There’s
something rather more important we need to talk about just
now.”

“
Okay, go
ahead…”

“
In private.”
We walked to the far end of the large room, out of earshot of the
others. “You didn’t tell me about the curse.”

“
Curse? What
curse? What are you talking about Joe?”

“
The curse on
Emperor Qin’s tomb!”

“
Oh, that one.
Well, you didn’t seem too worried about the crossbows, arrows, or
rivers of mercury, so I didn’t think you’d be bothered about a
little curse.”

“
How
little?”

“
According to
legend, the Emperor placed a powerful curse on anyone who dares to
invade his final resting place.”

“
And?”

“
And whoever
opens the tomb, their country’s regime will fall. Can I go back to
what I was doing now?”

This was both shocking
and interesting. I’d heard about the curses of Egyptian Pharaohs
(mostly by watching my Indiana Jones boxed–set), but never heard of
one connected with a Chinese Emperor. I don’t really believe in
curses, to be honest, but I like to have all the information up
front. So what was on my mind was this: if the curse is true, whose
regime will fall if all three of us enter the tomb? Britain’s or
China’s… or maybe both?

***

Thirty–Five

Aunt Peng did us proud. I
would never recognise myself in the outfit she’d put together for
me. Niki also looked great, as did Magic, though he was not at all
keen on the false beard. “It’s so your friends don’t recognise you
in the photographs,” I explained. We’d soon have to tell him
something a little more difficult to accept: time travel. But that
could wait.

Our plan was to take our
costumes to the site of the Mausoleum and change there. My make–up,
however, really needed to be applied in advance. This was done by
Aunt Peng that Sunday morning, before taking a taxi to the tomb.
Our taxi driver gave me some strange looks, I can tell
you.

Once we were at the
Mausoleum, we found a quiet shaded area and changed into our period
costumes. The tomb is situated in what is mainly countryside, so it
wasn’t difficult to find somewhere secluded. Magic was now
concerned about two things: what his role would be in this
‘enactment of history’; and how many others would be taking part in
the show. It was time to come clean.

Dark clouds in the
distance were heading our way, and we could hear the sound of
thunder getting closer. It probably wasn’t the best time to stand
under a big tree.

“
Magic,” I
said, “do you believe in time travel?”

“
Time travel!”
He thought about it for a moment, and then replied, “I think it may
be possible one day. Perhaps we’ll invent it in China,” he
smiled.

“
That day
might have come sooner than you think,” I said. “When was the last
time it snowed in Xi’an?”

“
Oh, last
winter – when I was home during the Spring Festival. We had a lot
of snow at the end of January.”

“
I’d like to
see that – wouldn’t you Nik?” She nodded, grabbing one of Magic’s
arms, whilst I took the other, changing the date on my phone at the
same time. The next thing we knew we were standing under the same
tree in a winter wonderland. Deep snow was everywhere, and we
stayed for about a minute before quickly jumping back to the
present.

“
Wah! What
was
that?
” Magic
managed to say.

“
Time travel,”
Nik said matter–of–factly, “get used to it.” She picked up our bag
of clothes and I helped her to hide it behind some
trees.

“
Let’s go,” I
said, to a speechless Magic.

Niki and I walked towards
the tomb, with Magic in tow. Fortunately, there were not a huge
number of visitors that day – probably due to the threat of stormy
weather – but still around fifty people were walking up and down
the steps leading to the top of the tomb. From a distance, you
could possibly mistake the tomb for a naturally formed hill. It
was, after all, in the middle of countryside, and covered from top
to bottom with trees. But up close and personal, it became obvious
that this was very much man–made. As we walked, Niki talked to
Magic in Chinese, explaining how we had discovered the gift of time
travel, and stressing the importance of not telling a soul about
it.

“
So, where are
we going now?” Magic asked.

“
We’re going
back to 209 BC,” I said. “We had to tell you we were just
play–acting, but we really are going there.”

“
Cool!”

“
Does that
date mean anything to you Magic?” I asked.

“
I remember at
school we had to read a book called
Shiji
by the Chinese writer Sima
Qian. In English, the book is called ‘Records of the Grand
Historian’. The book definitely talked about Qin Shi Huang and an
uprising against the Qin government. I’m pretty sure that was
around 209 BC. Qin Shi Huang had recently died at that time, and
people wanted changes in the laws.”

We reached the beginning
of the pyramid earth–mound and stopped. There were walk–ways around
it, so we took a left turn and stopped at a quiet corner. No–one
else was nearby.

“
Okay Magic,
it’s time for the great leap backwards!”

“
Meaning?”

“
Time leap. We
all have to be in physical contact to travel at the same time – so
take Niki’s arm and we’ll get you there in a flash.” I should have
said ‘bang’. I changed the dated to 1
^st
November, 209 BC and got the
shock of my life. For a moment we were in free fall, landing on
what appeared to be soft soil with a bump. We must have dropped
about five metres.

“
Shit!” I
exclaimed. It was very damp down there. “Are you both
okay?”

“
I think I’ve
broken my ankle!” Niki groaned.

“
Oh great,” I
sighed. “Let me see.” It was dark down there and difficult to see
anything. Niki couldn’t move her foot without great pain. “How
about you Magic?”

“
I’m
okay.”

“
You two go
on, I’ll wait here,” Nik said; but I couldn’t have that.

“
No no, we’ll
go back to the present and try again.” I was thinking that if we
returned to our own time, Niki’s ankle would miraculously return to
what it was before we jumped. I had no proof of this – just
speculation.

“
Have you seen
my phone Magic? I dropped it when we hit the ground.”

“
You can use
mine,” he replied.

“
Thanks – but
unless it’s got a time travel app, I don’t think it’s going to
help,” I said.

“
It’s got a
torch,” he replied.

“
Ah, now
you’re talking.”

With the light, I could
see Nik and her ankle clearly. I didn’t know if it was broken or
not, but it was very swollen and looked painful. I needed to get us
back to the present as soon as possible, but without the phone we
were a bit stuck – to say the least. I looked around using the
light and noticed we seemed to be in a newly formed corridor. The
walls were made of brick, but the floor was damp earth. In some
places, there were small pools of water. Worst case scenario: my
phone could be in one of those.

“
We’ve got to
find the phone,” I said to Magic. “I don’t want to be here for the
next two thousand years.”

“
I’ll call
it,” said Magic.

“
Unless China
mobile, GPS or Wi–Fi were around in 209 BC, I don’t think you’ve
got much chance of doing that,” I replied.

“
Do you have
an app that helps you to find your phone?” He asked. “You just have
to whistle or snap your fingers and it plays a sound to let you
know it’s there.”

“
Hey, great
idea! No I don’t.” It really was a good idea, and definitely one we
should use – if we ever get the phone back.

We continued searching
for my mobile using the lights on both Magic’s and Niki’s phones.
These were consuming battery power quickly, and we were running out
of time. Suddenly Magic called me.

“
Joe – over
here!” He’d found the phone stuck in the mud about three metres
from where Niki was sitting. A black phone with a black case wasn’t
the easiest thing to find down there.

“
Brilliant!” I
cleaned the phone as best as I could with my clothes and tried to
switch it on… without success. I tried a few times, but no use. I
sighed deeply. “Ok, let’s go to plan B.”

“
What’s plan B
Joe?” Magic asked.

“
There’s no
plan B,” replied Niki, “we have to make one up.”

“
We really
should get Niki to a hospital,” Magic said sincerely. He still
hadn’t grasped the fact that we’d travelled two thousand two
hundred years back in time. And why should he? Apart from falling
down a hole, we had no evidence that we were now stuck in a
previous civilisation. But evidence was on its way.”

No doubt having heard our
voices, a man looking like a guard appeared from the corridor.
There was no chance to get away – not with Niki’s broken ankle – so
we just had to try to bluff our way out of there. The man was squat
and short and looked strong. He spoke to us in a gruff tone. I
certainly couldn’t understand a word, though his speech did sound
like Chinese. Nik didn’t seem to understand what he was saying
either, but Magic got it. Later he told us the man’s language
sounded very similar to the local Xi’an dialect he’d learned at
home. He replied to the guard in the same tongue. The man didn’t
understand at first, but Magic repeated himself slowly, which
seemed to work. They conversed for a while, and then the guard
looked carefully at Niki’s ankle, and then disappeared. He returned
a few minutes later with what looked like a wooden stretcher. I
took one end whilst Magic took the other. “What did you say to
him?” Niki whispered to Magic.

“
I told him
there had been uprisings against the government in our village. We
are strong supporters of the Qin government, and had been attacked…
that’s how your ankle was broken. We managed to escape with our
lives, and are seeking sanctuary here. He seemed to buy that. He’s
taking us to a place that will be more comfortable to rest. There
is a Physician there who can treat your injury. Apparently, they
get many injuries on the building site.”

“
And death, I
would think,” I added.

As we were walking, the
corridor suddenly opened into a huge courtyard, and I could barely
stifle my amazement. This was what I had come to see! It was like a
small city, with a huge Palace at one end, and large ornate
buildings around the other sides of a rectangular plaza. According
to archaeologists, the Imperial underground Palace is about the
size of fifteen football pitches! It was an amazing sight.
Constructed of stone, it had four towers – each with gold inlays
and beautifully decorated windows. The style had many similarities
with what I had seen in Ancient Egypt, and I wondered if the two
civilisations had a common root. Certainly, they shared the same
belief of an afterlife and the importance of the Emperor or Pharaoh
taking his treasures, wives and servants into the next life. I
really wanted to explore, but we had to go where we were directed.
As we crossed the square, we could now see the sun as it streamed
down from a semi–cloudy sky. I was then aware of a wall surrounding
the city, which must have been around four metres high. No doubt
that the edge of this wall was where we fell earlier. We proceeded
through a narrow lane between two of the buildings surrounding the
square, which led to other buildings. The guard took us into one of
these.

“
How’s the
ankle?” I asked Nik.

“
I’d forgotten
about it when we saw that amazing palace,” she replied, “but it’s
still painful.”

We were brought into a
room which smelled of herbs and other strange odours. Dried plants
and things I couldn’t recognise hung from the ceiling – not
dissimilar to some of the Chinese medicine shops I’d seen and
smelled in London and Shanghai. Magic had been chatting with the
guard on way to what appeared to be the Physician’s room. As soon
as we were all inside, the guard called out and another man in
different dress appeared from a door to one side. He seemed very
surprised to see us, and questioned the guard. Magic told me the
Physician asked who we were and why we were there. The Physician
was clearly not as sympathetic to our cause as the guard, but
agreed to help. After gently feeling her ankle, he said something
to the guard and went back to the room he came from. Whilst he was
away, Magic told Niki in modern day Mandarin that the ankle was
very badly sprained, but not broken. The guard was listening to
them, and asked Magic what language this was. He told the guard we
were from the West Provinces, and I was a Muslim. The guard nodded
in understanding. The Physician returned a couple of minutes later
with a long piece of cloth, and a pottery container. He soaked the
cloth in some sort of liquid inside the pot, and wrung it dry. He
then quickly tied this very tightly around Nik’s ankle. She cried
out in pain for a moment. The Physician told her not to walk on the
ankle for ten days and not to wash the leg until then. Whilst the
Physician was attending to Niki, the guard left the room and
returned with a pole that could be used as a crutch. Magic thanked
him for all his help.