Excerpt from Chapter 5

2009-10-12T20:08:00.000-07:00

Dr. Serendipity Brown, Sherman Conrad, Dr. Wendell Howe and Dr. Henry Darrel have all traveled back in time to 1897 Paris to save another Temporal Anthropologist, Dr. Tobias Leach--at least that's the plan. They are currently trying to track down Leach's Time Machine which would be the only other time machine besides theirs in the area, right? By the way, this event would take place in 2655 and 2660 by Wendell's Base Time.

Sherman went around, opened up the cab and climbed into the driver’s seat. Serendipity, Wendell, then Henry all climbed in and scrunched together. “We are all just gonna have to get friendly. So we can give Sherman a little elbow room." Henry turned sideways. "Pretend you like Serendipity, Wendell.”

Wendell put his arm around Serendipity and pulled her close.

“Well, this is nice.” Serendipity snuggled up to him. “Would be even nicer if I was between you and Henry.”

Wendell raised his eyebrow, but Henry just laughed. “Poor Wendell, you gotta put up with two Westerners now.”

Wendell managed to pull out his computer and let Henry hold it since he had his hands full. Henry watched the arrow on the screen and gave directions to Sherman. They drove along the river, passing more tiny farms and crossing several narrow canals. They came to a bridge and crossed the river into the town, the skyline dominated by a tall Gothic cathedral.

Wendell looked about puzzled at the buildings. “There is something vaguely familiar about this place, but it doesn’t seem like Paris. Must be a neighborhood I’ve never been in.”

“The arrow is pointing to the right,” Henry said.

They continued a short ways until Henry called out, “Whoa! The arrow just did a flip flop. I’d say we just passed Leach's time machine. Better park, Sherman.”

They got out. The huge gothic cathedral was now in front of them. Serendipity scanned her memory. “Is that the Cathedral of Norte Dame?”

Wendell studied the structure. “Something is definitely not right. May I see my computer, Henry?”

“Sure, buddy.” He handed it over. Henry pulled out his pocket watch and stared at it. Sherman remembered Agent 8 had once commented that Henry had his pocket computer concealed in his pocket watch. “Jumping Jehoshaphat!” Henry said, then grinned up at Sherman. “That’s the cue to turn her on. Okay, show me a picture Cathedral Norte Dame from the back.” Henry frowned. “Looks like it, but not quite, like something is wrong.”

Wendell was however trotting off toward a small nearby park. The other three followed after him. They at last came to a equestrian statue on a tall pedestal amid the trees. Wendell frowned. “This statue--I’ve seen it before. The Institute disguised my time machine as it once. It’s a statue of Joan of Arc on a horse. I guessed they figured that while it might attract attention, no Frenchman would think of touching it. I wonder if the French will notice it keeps getting moved from city to city.” Wendell looked down again at his open Bible. “I still can’t pick up Leach. We have his time machine. I wonder if he left for another town. I suppose the Enforcers have better tracking equipment than a pocket computer. Maybe if I get this pointed in the right direction I might be able to pick him up.” Wendell walked around the granite pedestal. “Excuse me. I mean, pardonnez-moi, monsieur,” Wendell voice said.

“Oh, I say, English are we?” a familiar voice asked.

Sherman came around the pedestal to see Wendell’s mouth hanging open. There stood a man with a mustache and spectacles, also with his mouth open, who looked like Wendell’s twin. He pulled off the glasses and stuffed them in his pocket, then pulled out a small black Bible exactly like Wendell’s. They both clicked their tongues. “DNA scan,” they said together. They both looked down at the Bibles, then up at each other. “Oh bloody hell,” they both groaned in unison.

Sherman blinked at the two of them. “Uh, Wendell?”

“Yes?” they both turned to Sherman.

“Never mind, I think you just answered my question.”

“What the hell?” Serendipity came around the corner of the statue. “Why does this guy look like Wendell?”

Wendell sighed. “Because it is me.”

The mustached Wendell shook his head. “This isn’t possible. The Institute makes sure this sort of thing can’t happen. They make sure we never cross our own paths.”

The clean shaven Wendell nodded. “The Institute also makes sure we don’t cross paths with another Time Traveler, unless we are working with them. Why would they send Tobias to Paris in this time frame when they knew I would already be here years ago base time?”

“Paris? This is Amiens.”

Their Wendell slapped his forehead. “Of course, that’s why the Cathedral Norte Dame looks odd. It’s the wrong Norte Dame!”

“What?” Serendipity came over to her Wendell. “What do you mean wrong one?”

“France has countless Gothic Cathedrals named Norte Dame: Paris, Amiens, Reims, Bayeux, Chartres to name a few. This is Cathedrale Norte Dame d’Amiens. It’s actually the tallest Gothic church and the largest cathedral in France.”

“Yes,” the Other Wendell looked over at her, “But the Norte Dame in Paris gets all the attention, just because it’s in Paris.”

Serendipity gave both of them a look of disbelief. “You’re beside yourself, and you’re still spouting history trivia?”

The two Wendells looked at each other again. Their Wendell nodded, “Yes, it’s all coming back. Five years ago the Universite de Picardie Jules Verne here in Amiens asked me to do a study of the city. A lot of it was destroyed in World War I and II and all they had were a few black and white photos. They wanted me to take color photos and video of the devastated area. They also asked me to record Jules Verne on video. He died in 1915 before movies with sound. He’s a member of the Amiens city council now.”

“I got him to autograph my copy of Around the World in Eighty Days,” the younger Wendell looked excited.

“Yes, and the Enforcers will have a fit when they see the copyright date on that edition.”

“Well, Grams gave it to me. That particular book was special.”

“I know,” their Wendell said patiently.

“So, you are from my future?” The former Wendell suddenly looked distressed. “My word, where’s my mustache? Did you shave that? Do you know how long it took me to grow that?”

“Yes, I do.”

“And who do you have with you? Oh, hello Henry. I’m so glad we got to work together again. I must say, I will look forward to that.”

Henry gave a weak wave but looked lost for words.

The earlier Wendell stepped forward to Sherman and Serendipity. “I don’t believe we have ever met.”

The later Wendell made the introductions. “Dr. Howe, I am very pleased to introduce myself to Dr. Serendipity Brown and her assistant Mr. Sherman Conrad.”

“Very pleased to make your acquaintance.” The earlier Wendell shook their hands. “You seem awfully young, Mr. Corad. Is the Institute allowing a student program in the future? So how do you like Time Travel?”

“S’okay. A little weird sometimes--like now.”

Wendell nodded at him, then stopped and looked stunned. “I say, did you say Serendipity Brown? She’s not the Serendipity Brown, is she? Is she in the Program now?”

“Nope.” Serendipity got closer to him. “You are going to become my Time Travel Consultant. Hmm, never did get a chance to kiss you with that mustache.” Serendipity grabbed him, a kissed the stunned Englishman.

The younger Wendell managed to pull back. “Madam please! We just met!”

The later Wendell pulled her away. “Serendipity, if you don’t mind, you don’t know me that well, yet.”

“Yet?” The earlier version’s eyes got big. “Me and Serendipity Brown?”

Serendipity grabbed both their arms. “Whoa, two Wendells! The possibilities are endless.”

They both jerked back their arms and cried in unison. “Dr. Brown!”

“If you don’t mind,” the later Wendell said, “I really don’t want a menage a trois with myself.”

“Wait a minute,” his earlier self protested. “I can’t have a relationship with someone from a different time period. That is strictly against the rules. The Enforcers would see to it I never time travel again, if they don’t erase me outright.”

“You are outside their jurisdiction now,” the later Wendell explained. “You no longer work with the Institute anymore. You work for someone else, old boy.”

“Dear heavens, I’ve gone AWOL?” the younger Wendell looked horrified. “The Enforcers will hunt me down.”

“Yes they did, but they’ve left you alone. They have decided that you are fulfilling a greater destiny.”

“Greater destiny?”

“You are traveling in time with Serendipity Brown now.”

The earlier Wendell’s eyes got huge. “That’s not possible.”

“It is. And it was meant to be.”

“It is? But why me? I’m just a boring history scholar.” The former Wendell looked overwhelmed.

“Don’t worry,” Serendipity smiled at him. “You’ll do fine. You save me from being stranded in the 1850‘s.”

“Enforcers would not like that, me saving someone in the past.”

“That’s why you ran away with me to begin with. The Enforcers are cool with that now.”

“But what are you doing here?”

The later Wendell turned and looked at Serendipity, “Yes, what are we doing here? We are supposed to be in Paris. Why did we land outside Amiens? I’ll bet those little farms were the Hortillonnages.”

“Horta-what?”

“Hortillonnages,” the earlier Wendell explained. “The local swamps were drained into canals and turned into farm plots. Dates back to the Roman Period.”

The later Wendell poked a few buttons on the screen of his computer. “My word, it would appear you have the longitude spot on, Dr. Brown, but the latitude is incorrect. Well, this is a major cock up. What is going to happen when my former self is interrogated by the Enforcers? You can’t take this version of me with you, or I won’t be there for you when you really need me. Not to mention it would be far too confusing. Yet if the Enforcers find out they will ground me for good before we even meet the first time and I won’t be there for you.”

“That is a sticky wicket.” The younger Wendell nodded.

The later Wendell turned and faced himself. “I’m afraid, old boy, there is only one solution. I will have to make you forget this meeting ever took place.”

“I suppose you are right. But how do you propose we do that? The Theta Wave Strobe in our pocket watch isn’t strong enough to get around an Enforcer interrogation.”

“No, but a Compliance Disk would be.”

“Compliance Disk?” The former Wendell looked frightened. “Where in the world did I get one of those and why would I have one?”

“Got it from a Temporal Zoologist. They call it something else. We’ll just slap this on the back of your neck and make you forget any of this took place.”

“Do you even know what you are doing?”

“You’ll have to trust me.”

The earlier Wendell studied the later Wendell. “Well, I’ve always tried to be honest with myself. If I can’t trust me, who can I trust? Besides if it made me a vegetable then you wouldn’t be standing here, would you?”

“Good man! Didn’t know I was so brave.”

“Wait a minute,” Serendipity came over to the former Wendell. “Before you do that, I want to do something.” She grabbed his lapels and pulled him closer. This time she gave the younger Wendell a longer kiss. This time he didn’t pull away. In fact he leaned forward a bit as Serendipity stepped back. Serendipity patted his cheek. “Until we meet again.”

“I say, I will be looking forward to that. Well, at least I would if I wasn’t going to have to forget all this.” The former Wendell looked a little disappointed.

Wendell pulled the disk out of his pocket and handed it to Henry. “Here, if you will do the honors.”

Henry grimaced as he reluctantly slapped it on the back of the earlier version of his friend. The younger Wendell gave an involuntary yelp through clenched teeth. Serendipity held his hand, looking sympathetic.

The later Wendell cleared his throat. “All right, Dr. Howe, you will close your eyes and count to one hundred very slowly, after I remove the disk. You will then open your eyes and remember nothing of this meeting. However, I will leave you with one subliminal message. When you run into Serendipity Brown in the future you will do all in your power to help her, because you love her very much.”

“Yes, I will forget everything, but I will help.” The former Wendell closed his eyes and nodded.

Their Wendell nodded at Henry. He pushed the button in the middle of the Compliance Disk and it popped off into his hand.

“One…two…three…” the younger Wendell began counting.

The later Wendell then started walking away and motioned for the others to follow. He then broke into a run, returning to the Time Mobile. “All right, Sherman, drive us behind a building. And Dr. Brown, please get the coordinates right this time. If I hated myself, we would be in real trouble now.”

The Fairhaven Home for Wayward Time Travelers

Excerpt from Chapter 5