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Chapter One

June 20, 2014


The Day Of

"State your name for the camera."

"Josh, I don't think that's--"

"This is groundbreaking research! State your damn name, Court."

The camera makes a slight whirling noise and I know he's zooming in obnoxiously on me. "Courtney Standiford."

"State your age."

"I will n--"

"DUDE!"

"I'm 34 years old."

"Birthday."

I give Josh the dirtiest look I can. I already feel ridiculous. I'm dressed like it's....

"Birthday," he repeats. His look is deadpan serious. His glasses are getting fogged up from his sighs.

"August 1, 1979."

"Blood type."

"I don't know! I'm to nervous to remember!"

He laughs then and the tension I'm feeling lessens. Not by a lot, but I'm still grateful for that tiny increment of relaxment.

"I think everything's ready."

Kal steps out and the tension rises again. She's twelve years older than I am and a million times smarter than I'll ever be. This whole thing had been my idea two years ago, but without her it would never be at the point it is now. She looks at me now like a mother about to send her child off to kindergarten.

The kind of kindergarten where the kindergartener might never come back alive.

"Ready, Court?"

It was a loaded question. Here we are, the three of us, standing in front of something that would have given Doc from Back to the Future a raging hard on and I can't talk. I'm speechless. I've got on a ridiculous bright tank top, matte lipstick, and a skirt that I could not have gotten away with in high school. I look like a freakin' Spice Girl.

"I'm ready."

For a minute, I'm sure the words came from another person with a similar voice. Then Kal smiles.

I'm ready. I guess.

Josh springs into action. He's at the panel in a milisecond and my pulse picks up. The entire thing looks like a vertical MRI machine. The panel's more impressive than anything I've ever seen: a touch screen with a great array of LED lights that flash different colors depending on the action. It isn't like we needed it to do that, but as sci-fi fans we felt like doing a basic gray keyboard would have been blasphemous.

"Date?" Josh asks. I don't know why he asks. He knows. It's all we've talked about for the last six weeks.

"February 20, 1998," Kal and I say in unison. The date is burned into our brains.

"Location?" Josh asks. Kal looks like she wants to smack him. She's wringing her hands and jiggling so bad that I'm sure the screwdriver is going to fall out of her pocket. She glances at me. I know she knows. She knows I know. She's stepping back. She's letting me lead. I lick my lips.

"Lake Buena Vista, Florida," I say.

Josh nods. I turn my head and scan the room. My eyes stop at the mirror.

I'm wearing my hair in a messy bun. My hair is a combination of light brown and summer honey-kissed blonde. The earrings I'm wearing are ridiculously colorful and match my tank top way too perfectly. CK One perfume, long ago demoted from its reign as perfume queen, radiates from my pulse points.

"I still say we should do something like the 1800's," Josh says. "Don't you want to see the Civil War?"

"No, she doesn't," Kal says for me. "We're starting small. It's a little more than a decade and a half. If that works..."

"If this works then we'll send you to the Civil War," I say. My joke falls flat since my voice is shaking. Josh gives me a gentle smile. If it wasn't for the Urkel glasses he might even be cute.

Did I really think that? Now I know my nerves are irrepibly damaged.

"Your money," Kal says, the first true panic showing through. Silently, I hand her my wallet, a plain black thing that no one could say was popular in any particular decade. I watched her fan through the bills, each one no older than 1997. She repeated the process with the coins. Satisfied, she handed the wallet back to me.

"Your ID." This time it's Josh's turn. I slide the fake ID out of my wallet. We're not sure how my appearance will work in a time with a younger version of me around, albeit in a different geographic location. Either way, a fake name and birthdate just seems safer. Josh glances at the plastic and smiles. He flicks it back to me with ease. "Okay, step in. Kal will take you the rest of the way. I'll take notes."

I felt like I had just passed the biggest exam of my life. Clumsily, I take one wobbly step forward. I hear a couple sounds indicating the various sound and video devices of the iPads being activated. We placed a big strip of gray tape in front of the machine three days ago. Once I cross the tape I'll be in position. My toe barely touches the tape. I pause.

"Today," Kal says, her voice unnaturally loud. "Courtney Standiford will become the first metaphysicist ever to break the mystery of the space-time continuum. Voyage 001-2014 is hereafter logged as February 20, 1998, Lake Buena Vista, Florida. Courtney, on behalf of all watching, we wish you a safe trip."

I can't see her, but I know she's smiling.

I step over the line.

It happens fast. I don't think Kal can take it any longer. She presses the button.

And I am gone.