THE NEXT MONTH flew by for Alex. Between rehearsals, working at the store, tutoring, and driving lessons, the days ran into one another in an endless stream. The girl she had seen in the rearview mirror hadn’t made another appearance and for that Alex was grateful. She had too much on her plate and couldn’t deal with a trip back through time right now.
“I can’t believe they will be here tomorrow! Has it really been a month already?” Jenn asked while they ate lunch outside.
The weather would soon be turning cold so Alex cherished these moments in the warmth of the sun.
“I know, right?”
“And you meant it when you said I could come with you?”
“For the hundredth time, yes. You can come with me.”
“Do you think they’ll mind if I take notes? For the book?”
“I don’t know. I guess not.”
“Well, I have to write all this down. I’m telling you, Alex, there’s money to be made. People love time travel stuff.”
“Let’s get through high school before you turn us into famous authors, okay?”
Jenn sighed. “If we are rich and famous, we won’t need high school.”
“I plan on finishing. And going to college.”
“Seriously? Even if we make millions in book sales and movies, you’ll still go to college?”
“Of course! Why wouldn’t I?”
Jenn looked at Alex like she had grown a second head. “You wouldn’t need to, that’s the point.”
“Running a famous museum has been a dream of mine since I was a kid. Nothing will change that.”
Jenn shrugged. “Suit yourself. I will spend my days traveling the world and hanging out with famous people.”
The two finished their lunch and headed back to class. Simon, Paul, and Amy had gone back in earlier, leaving the two girls alone to discuss the impending visit by Sean and Gavin. Alex couldn’t focus on her class work. Even her acting was suffering. She flubbed through well enough so that she didn’t ruin every rehearsal but she wished she could force her nerves to slow down and get back to normal.
After her last class, she headed to the restroom before going to the tutoring session. For some of the students, the tutoring was paying off. They had passed their first exams of the semester and gained a little confidence in their ability to do something other than run, or throw a ball.
As for the others, Alex wanted to wash her hands of them. They refused to listen to her study tips, never participated in the quiz sessions, didn’t do the note cards. Rather than spend her time trying to reach them, Alex focused her time on those students who were trying to do better.
She stared at her reflection in the mirror while she put on lip gloss. Suddenly, her reflection shifted to that of the tired woman she had seen in the rearview mirror of the Blazer.
The woman was dressed in a nurse’s uniform. It looked old to Alex. She had blonde hair and the same bright blue eyes Alex remembered from the last visit. Her uniform was buttoned to the top and closed with a pin that had a red cross in the middle. The woman’s eyes widened and her mouth moved quickly as she backed away, crossing herself in Catholic fashion.
Alex shook her head and the image shifted back to that of her own face. She turned and leaned against the counter, trying to figure out what was happening. In the past, when the reflection changed, she had been drawn to touch the mirror. With this woman, it was different. Alex remained in complete control of herself.
What is happening?
Rather than worry about it, she pushed the oddity to the back of her mind. Sean and Gavin would be here tomorrow and she would ask them about this. She grabbed her phone out of her back pocket and hurriedly sent a text to Jenn. Alex rushed off to the tutoring classroom, flushing a little when she saw she was the only one who hadn’t yet arrived.
She tried to push the distractions aside so she could focus on helping the students for their next round of exams, but her mind kept returning to the nurse. The uniform looked familiar and Alex wanted to get her hands on a computer so she could look up pictures of old nurse uniforms.
Alex rushed to meet Jenn when the class was over so they could head over to rehearsals. She wondered how she was going to remember any lines with the strange woman’s face taking up every spare inch of space in her brain.
“I can’t believe you saw her again!” Jenn said breathlessly as they walked to the university.
“I know! I hope Gavin and Sean can tell me why this time is so different. No weird vibes or anything. The normalness is freaking me out.”
“Only you could say something like that and have it totally make sense.”
The pair walked into the theater, feeling out of place on the college campus. They felt so small and young, like everyone knew they didn’t belong.
“Is it just me or are college guys super hot?”
Alex rolled her eyes. “You have a boyfriend, remember?”
“Doesn’t mean I can’t look.”
“It actually sorta does.”
“Well, what about you? You’re “Little Miss Single.” You should go for an older guy.”
“No, thank you. I’m good being by myself,” Alex said sharply.
“Why the attitude?”
Alex sighed. “Sorry. I’m just touchy about the subject.”
“You didn’t used to be.”
“It’s this thing with my mom and Bruce.” Alex put as much acid into her voice as she could when she said his name.
“I still don’t see what the big deal is. Your mom’s a big girl and your dad left a long time ago, Alex. Maybe you should give the guy a chance.”
“Mom and I don’t need a man around. What’s the point? So he can drink and be a jerk and leave us?” Alex was surprised to hear the hitch in her voice.
“Alex, not every guy is like that.”
“Yeah, well you never know for sure, do you? Why take the chance? I’d rather be single and have my heart intact than trust it with someone who can break it.”
Jenn reached out and gripped Alex’s elbow in sympathy. “You’ll change your mind someday.”
“Doubt it.”
Any further talk was interrupted as Ms. Ashton walked onto the stage in a flurry of drama. She called the students to the stage to do the second act of Rehearsal for Murder. Alex groaned. She was in the second act which meant she had to somehow remember her lines despite her turmoil of emotions.
The afternoon passed quickly. Alex was amazed at how well she did. Her lines had somehow flowed as naturally as breathing. She relaxed and let herself get lost in the character she played. It was much the same as traveling back in time. Her spirit took over the body of another girl and she got to be a different person for a short time, though with real danger involved. On stage, the biggest danger was forgetting your lines or tripping over place markers.
She was even able to ignore Drake. Her gut barely twisted when she had to interact with him on stage, and when he kissed his new girlfriend, she didn’t really care.
There was a strange car in the driveway when she got home. She said good-bye to Jenn, wishing she could ask her friend to hang out but she knew her mom wouldn’t be happy about an unannounced guest. The last thing she wanted to do was be in the same house with Bruce.
Alex walked quickly to her room and almost made it when her mom yelled at her from the kitchen. She turned and walked back down the hallway.
“You’re on your own for dinner tonight. There’s some soup and cheese and bread to make a grilled cheese sandwich.”
Alex gaped at her mom. She was wearing some of the new clothing from the store and had obviously spent the afternoon curling her hair. Her face was radiant as she walked Bruce to the front door. Alex followed them and peered through the front window. Bruce opened the passenger door to his car then closed it gently after her mom climbed gracefully inside.
As she fixed herself a simple dinner, Alex wondered why her mom had left her behind. She was relieved that she wouldn’t be forced to endure an uncomfortable dinner trying to make small talk with a man she didn’t care anything about, and yet being left behind didn’t make her feel any better.
She didn’t have any homework so she sat down to watch some TV, wondering if Sean and Gavin were in town yet or if they would arrive later tonight. They had her cell number and said they would text when they arrived at their hotel, regardless of the hour. Alex checked that her phone was on vibrate. It was against the rules for her to have her phone on at night so the last thing she needed was to have it ring in the wee hours of the morning. It would be difficult to explain to her mom the necessity of having the phone on to receive a text from two strange men.
She checked her phone every few minutes despite the fact there was no vibration indicating an incoming text or phone call. The pair hadn’t been able to give her an estimated time of arrival since they were driving from Denver rather than flying. They planned to meet during Alex’s lunch hour. She was terrified she would get caught. That someone who knew her or her mom would see her out with Jenn and two older men and tell on her. She would be grounded for sure.
Alex knew she had to risk it. She couldn’t do this on her own. Jenn was a good friend but Alex needed someone who had her same gift of time travel, someone who knew more than she did about how it all worked. The evil Traveler was up to something and Alex needed help to figure out what it was.
***
Drifter smiled grimly as the reflection in the mirror changed back to that of his own smooth face. Part of him loved this little bit of rebellion against his Master. Drifter didn’t think he could stay away from time travel even if he wanted to. It was in his blood. He understood the danger of what he did. Mark watched him like a hawk, waiting to catch him in another one of his “episodes”. He couldn’t allow that to happen and yet he couldn’t stop himself from checking in on the man whose body he would soon be taking over.
He sighed and rolled out of bed. While he would rebel in this small way, he would also follow Master’s orders to the letter. Drifter sat down at his computer and typed in the URL that he had memorized. He had been doing that more lately. Anything he could commit to memory, he did. The mission depended on him being able to memorize something more complicated than a website address.
Drifter grabbed his notepad from the hidden compartment in his desk. He hated to have physical evidence of his mission but the only way to know for certain that he had memorized the research article was to write it out. He switched to a blank sheet and wrote what he remembered from the article. He got most of the way through the introduction before needing to look at the paper again. He read the three paragraphs he couldn’t remember and tried again from the beginning, the only sound in the silent room was that of his pencil scratching on the paper.