Chapter 17

There’s No Place Like Home

As luck would have it, the twins landed back in the future on the soft queen-sized mattresses in room 1147 of the Fairmont Palliser Hotel.

Their return to modern day happened in a split second and, in the blink of an eye, Uncle Bob saw his beat-up looking nephew appear with a terrified look on his face. Roxy shouted, “Ray it’s okay! We’re back in the 21st century. Snap out of it!”

The twins explained to their uncle how a mean old bull, named Hurricane, had given Ray a black eye and sore ribs. The relief of being back together made everyone hungry, and they called the hotel’s room service and ordered up three cheeseburger meals, three delicious banana splits with extra whipped cream, and a succulent Alberta grade A sirloin steak for Jasper. While the twins waited for their “welcome home” feast, Ray wrapped a bag of ice in a towel and applied it to his ribs to ease the pain and reduce the swelling.

Over dinner, and throughout the drive back to Drumheller the next morning, the twins took turns sharing every last detail of their amazing Alberta time travel adventure with their favourite uncle. Bob was thrilled that they’d had such a terrific time. But he had to admit that he was more than a little jealous that he had not gone with them. 

Bob dropped the twins and Jasper off at their home around 5:00 pm. Their parents greeted them and wanted to hear all about their trip. The twins decided to come clean and tell their parents the whole story, starting with Uncle Bob’s discovery of the magical dinosaur eggs, right up to the hair-raising bull ride.

Roxy and Family Day Ray with Uncle Bob. Happy to be home!

Needless to say, their parents were dumbfounded and thought their twins must have had way too much sun exposure on their trip and were suffering from heatstroke as result!

“We can prove it happened,” the twins said, almost in unison. Then they dashed off to the One-Hour Photo store on Main Street to get their three rolls of film developed before it closed.

By the time they got back to the house, their parents were just sitting down to dinner. Too excited to eat, the twins opened the envelope of photos, but their sense of anticipation quickly turned to bitter disappointment when they realized that the time travel had somehow affected the film. Not a single one of the pictures in the envelope had turned out!

The next day, just as the twins were beginning to accept that they would never be able to convince their parents that their trip had actually occurred, someone knocked loudly on the front door. The twins’ mother answered, and there was Peter, the overweight postman, holding a small package in his hand. It was addressed to Ray Drumheller. The postman explained how it had mysteriously appeared at the post office overnight and was postmarked September 5, 1912. Puzzled, she returned to the kitchen table and gave the package to her son.

Ray carefully opened it. To everybody’s surprise and shock, the box contained a beautiful, solid gold belt buckle, and on it was engraved “1912 Calgary Stampede Bull Riding Champion.” Underneath the buckle was a new, crisp Dominion of Canada $500 bill, printed in 1911. A note, written by Guy Weadick, congratulated Ray on his terrific ride on Hurricane, one of the meanest bulls in the land.

Roxy then remembered that in her pink shirt pocket was the crumpled title of the Calgary residential lot that a representative from the H. M. Splane Company had given her. She handed the title to her mother who, in turn, called her good friend, Tanya Eklund, a top-selling realtor in Calgary. After telling Tanya exactly what the legal description of the lot was, there was a moment of silence while Tanya checked the city of Calgary assessment website. This was followed by the twin’s mother turning white as a ghost and fainting with disbelief and shock.

While Ray and his father helped revive her mother, Roxy picked up the phone and got the unbelievable news from Tanya. The lot, which overlooked the Elbow River in Elbow Park, and had cost $900 in 1912, was now assessed at over two million dollars!

The whole family, Jasper included, celebrated until way past midnight. They toasted Alberta’s amazing history, Guy Weadick for starting the Calgary Stampede, and the twins’ great-great-grandmother, Leah McCoy, who had lived happily ever after—after all!