STUCK IN TIME (Stuck (time-travel adventure stories)) Read online

  'Uncle Archie!' she cried. But Archie was in too much of a hurry and didn't hear her as he clattered back down the stairs. So Lucy went back to the kitchen, cut another piece of cake (as James had eaten the one that she had cut previously), and went back downstairs to the office. This time the office door wasn't locked. However, when she knocked and then looked inside, she found to her surprise that the office was empty. She was certain Uncle Archie hadn't gone outside, she would have heard the heavy oak door slamming shut, and she could see that he was not in the museum. Once again, she returned to the kitchen carrying a piece of cake, only this time she was even more perplexed.

  The following day, after breakfast, when Archie bounded down the stairs to the office, Lucy rushed to the bay window from where she knew she could see the front door. After a few moments, she was reassured that Archie had not left the house, so she rushed downstairs through the museum to the office. She wasn't quite sure what she would say when she saw Archie but thought she could ask him something about secret codes. Again Lucy was disappointed. The office door was locked. This time she hammered on it, but there was no answer from Uncle Archie.

  'We need to have a meeting,' announced Lucy to Robert & James, 'Please come with me to the garden,'

  'But we're watching the television,' complained Robert.

  'You're always watching the television,' retorted Lucy, 'This is important.'

  Five minutes later, Robert and James were seated on the garden bench. The expressions on their faces clearly indicated that they would rather be somewhere else.

  Lucy checked over her shoulder for anyone eavesdropping, thereby adding to the sense of mystery.

  'Something strange is going on,' she whispered, 'It's about Uncle Archie. 'Have you wondered where he goes when he's not with us?'

  'He goes to his office,' replied James, 'He told us he had lots of work to do.'

  'Well, that's what I thought,' said Lucy, and she described what had happened when she tried to give him a piece of cake.

  'Maybe he has to go out sometimes,' said Robert.

  'I thought of that too, but you can see the front door from the seat in the window upstairs, and I've never seen him leave the house, and look!' (she gestured to the back door.) 'It's all overgrown by the back door because the gardener has a broken leg; that door hasn't been opened for months!'

  'I don't know,' said James, 'Maybe there is a secret tunnel.'

  'Yes, that could be it.' said Lucy.' Another thing, though, have you noticed something strange about Uncle Archie's beard? Sometimes it's quite long and bushy, and sometimes it's shorter and neater.'

  'Well, he probably trims it then,' replied Robert.

  'But it can be short in the morning, then long in the evening. Surely a beard can't grow that fast?' said Lucy.

  "Do you think it's a false beard?' asked Robert.

  'Surely it would be the same length all the time if it was false. Anyway, it doesn't look false,' said James.

  'There's another thing, and I have only just thought of this,' said Lucy, 'Look at the windows.' The children looked up. The back was less majestic than the front of the house, being built in red brick rather than in stone, but the house still retained that elegant sense of symmetry common to all Georgian houses. 'See, there's the museum window, with all the kites hanging in the window, and there, next to it, is where the office is.'

  'Yes. So?'

  'But don't you remember, there isn't a window in the office, it's quite a small room. So which room is that window in?' said Lucy, pointing to the window on the left-hand side. Although it was a ground floor window at the back of the house, the windows were quite high up. Too high to see into and, in any case, the interior was obscured by close-fitting wooden shutters.

  'Let's go exploring tomorrow,' said Robert, 'You know Lucy, you are right; it's all very odd.'

  Little were the children to know, but the following day things were going to get even stranger.

  CHAPTER TWO

  James didn't sleep well that night. He woke up in the middle of the night feeling hot and thirsty. He quietly tiptoed along the hallway to the kitchen to get a drink of orange juice from the fridge. He didn't bother turning the light on because he could see from the light of the fridge. He noticed as he reached in to get the carton of juice that his hand looked even paler than usual, almost transparent, but he put it down to a combination of tiredness and the poor light. He stumbled back to bed and was soon asleep, only to wake up again an hour later. He was thankful that he was not sharing a room with Robert, as he would have disturbed his brother's sleep. This time, James decided to turn on the light and read for a little. He reached over for his copy of Under Milk Wood; maybe he could do something useful and learn his part for the school play. As he clasped the tatty school book, he gave a gasp and almost dropped it. His hand was definitely transparent. Not completely clear, he could see a kind of mist-coloured shape where his hand was, but he could also see right through it so that he could read the title of the play beneath.

  James sat back to gather his thoughts.

  'Am I dead? Is this what happens when you die? No, I'm holding a book,' James threw it up in the air and caught it.

  'Surely I couldn't do that if I had died. Maybe I'm a ghost or a poltergeist! But I don't believe in ghosts. How could I be something that I don't believe in? I know; I'm asleep. All this is just a dream. If I pinch myself, I will wake up.'

  James pinched himself as hard as he could.

  'Ow! Well, I'm sure I'm not a ghost. I don't think you can hurt a ghost by pinching it, but I'm not sure how to prove to myself that this isn't a dream, even though my arm really hurts.'

  James had a mixture of emotions, he was worried about his condition, but increasingly he was getting more curious and excited. He jumped up and went over to the mirror to see if his whole body was affected. It was; he could barely see himself in the reflection. Not only that, he was wearing pyjamas, and they, too, were transparent. He took his pyjama top off and placed it on the bed, and gradually, over a period of two or three minutes, it returned to its normal colour.

  'Interesting, very interesting,' he said out loud. Then he reached for his favourite T-shirt, put it on, and watched in the mirror as the colour slowly drained away from it.

  'Zat iz very interesting!' he said, using one of the funny voices that would invariably make his friends laugh in class. Then he had a thought. 'Talking! Surely that could prove something. He picked up his mobile phone and then paused whilst he wondered who he could telephone at this time of the night.

  'I know.' He reached for his jeans because he remembered there was a leaflet for a nearby 24-hour pizza place in the pocket.

  'Georgio's Pizzas,' said a weary voice over the phone.

  'Hello, can you hear me?'

  'Yes, mate, it's a phone, you speak, and I listen.'

  'You are sure you can hear me?'

  'Look, do you want a Pizza or not? '

  'Well, I'm not really hungry.' The line went quiet as Giorgio hung up. Clearly, he wasn't in the mood for a chat!

  James went back to the mirror. To his amazement, he was now completely invisible! He rushed into Robert's room.

  'Robert, wake up, look at me, I'm invisible,' then he giggled, 'No, you can't look at me because I am invisible.'

  'What time is it?' groaned Robert.

  'I don't know, maybe five o'clock.'

  'Go away, James. I'm not in the mood.' It was never easy to wake Robert.

  'But Robert…'

  'Go away!'

  James retreated. He doubted if Robert had even opened his eyes. He was buzzing with excitement, though. He had to do something. He could have some fun! James dashed back into his room and threw on some warm clothes, pausing in front of the mirror to watch them disappear. In the hallway, he noticed that Uncle Archie's door was slightly ajar. He slowly pushed it open and peered around it. To his surprise, he saw that the room was empty. The bed hadn't been slept in. He decided to investigate further a
nd went down the stairs to see if Archie was in his office. The door was locked. James knocked; he wasn't surprised when there was no answer because he would have expected to see the light shining beneath the door if Uncle Archie had been there.

  James bounded back up the stairs and grabbed the big bunch of keys from the back of the kitchen door. He scrawled a note on an old envelope:

  'Gone out, back later, James' and left it on the kitchen table. He had money in his pocket. He considered going back for his phone then remembered the battery was almost dead. Now he felt ready for adventure and leapt down the steps two at a time. He unlocked the big oak front door, locked it behind him, posted the keys back through the letterbox in case anyone else needed them, and stepped out into the road. Dawn was breaking, the birds were starting to sing, and James was starting the most remarkable day of his life so far.

  There were very few people up; it was still early. Occasionally, there was a light on in someone's house. He could hear the sound of a car passing by a few streets away, but the road he was walking along was quiet. Then suddenly, the silence was broken by the sound of the milkman, who drove around the corner, parked his milk float, then sprinted up the steps of the houses, leaving bottles of milk and collecting the empties. James suffered a moment of nerves; he still didn't believe that he was invisible, so he stopped in front of the milk float and smiled at the milkman. Surely he would see him, but no, the milkman walked past him missing him by a few inches as he clattered the empty milk bottles into a crate, climbed into his van and moved on up the road. James had to jump out of the way of the milk float as it passed, confirming not only that he was invisible, but also it served as a warning that he had better be careful when he crossed the road!

  At the end of the road, he had a choice, either he could turn right and walk down to the City Centre, with its historic University buildings and quaint shops, or he could turn left and walk to the modern shopping mall. James decided to visit the shopping mall. On his way, he passed Georgio's Pizza parlour and noticed a glum-looking young man reading a newspaper at the counter. Surely this was the same person James had spoken to earlier. He couldn't resist pushing open the door. The man looked up, presuming the wind had blown the door open, then, because he couldn't be bothered to get up and close it, he returned to his newspaper.

  'Are you sure you can hear me?' whispered James.

  'You again,' snarled the man, jumping over to the telephone; he presumed he had left it on 'speaker phone'. He frowned with puzzlement when he picked the phone up, heard the dialling tone, and realised no one was on the other end. He didn't even notice the door close as James, suppressing a giggle, slipped out of the shop.

  James had to wait a while before the shopping mall opened as it was still early, but eventually, a security guard arrived with a big bunch of keys and unlocked the entrance. James followed one of the shop assistants into the mall, taking care not to bump into her as they negotiated their way through the revolving door. After wandering from shop to shop, James came to the conclusion that, as he didn't particularly like going shopping when he was visible, it wasn't any more enjoyable when he was invisible. He thought it would be fun to play some tricks. There was a shop assistant hanging clothes on a rack, making sure that all the colours were coordinated so, when James was sure no one could see, he mixed up the colours. But it wasn't fun at all; it just seemed cruel. All he was doing was creating extra work for someone. James knew he had a reputation for being a joker, but he realised then that he needed an audience. Then, to his horror, he remembered that there would be security cameras in the store. What if the cameras had caught the clothes mysteriously moving about on film? James rushed out towards the entrance of the shop.

  The shop was getting quite busy now. There were two young men out shopping with their girlfriends on the route to the entrance. They weren't together; in fact, Jak and Wayne hadn't even noticed each other, as they were standing back-to-back a few feet apart, but both were feeling fed up at being dragged out to go shopping early in the morning. James tried to slip between them, but, at that moment, each stepped back slightly, and James tumbled into both of them.

  'Oy! Watch it,' said Jak.

  'You watch it, you clumsy oaf,' replied Wayne.

  'Who are you calling a clumsy oaf?'

  'What's going on?' shouted one of the girls.

  'It's 'im. He kicked me.'

  'No I didn't; you knocked into me!'

  Luckily, there was a security guard close by who rushed over and managed to calm the two men down before the situation escalated. James carefully picked himself up and crept out of the store. He needed time to think things through, so he found himself a seat in an area of the shopping mall that was a little less crowded and sat down to ponder his future.

  'Maybe I am a Superhero,' he thought. In the comic books, the ability to become invisible would be an advantage. He would notice evil deeds being carried out and be able to step in unnoticed to save the day. As he watched the crowds of shoppers bustling backwards and forwards, he realised there were two major flaws in this idea. Firstly, there didn't seem to be anything unusual happening before his eyes. What were the chances of seeing a crime or being able to rescue someone in distress every time he went out? Secondly, he didn't think he felt brave enough to deal with a criminal anyway!

  However, thinking about Superheroes did start him thinking about Good and Evil. In the wrong hands, the power to become invisible could be catastrophic for mankind. James had set out with the idea of playing a few tricks, but what if an invisible man was truly set on causing serious mischief? Perhaps an invisible man might have started out as a good person and then become embittered. James' love of drama began to take over as he envisaged the scenario of a cruel, twisted man, unloved by a society that couldn't see him, a society that felt threatened by him, a man who turned to crime in order to avenge himself. James shuddered and resolved that he shouldn't abuse his 'powers'. He had to remain on the side of 'Good.'

  For a long while, James sat and watched the shoppers. Occasionally he had to jump out of his seat when someone else came to sit on it and so sat on the floor close by. It was mildly interesting listening to people's conversations. If he were a playwright, he could be writing conversations down to use in his plays. Actually, he couldn't write them down because his pencil and paper would be invisible, and he wouldn't be able to see what he was writing. He would have to record them. Then again, the conversations were all quite ordinary, just the kind of things you might hear on a bus. 'You know Shirley. I think I liked the shoes that we saw in the first shop the best.'

  'I agree Gladys, I always say you can't beat quality, and they were quality.'

  'You do always say that Shirley, quality you say, you can't beat quality, and they were quality! Bit pricey, though, but you have to pay for quality.'

  'Do you want to try them on again?'

  'No, don't think I can afford them, fancy a cup of coffee and a cake?'

  As the two shoppers headed off in search of refreshment, James came to the conclusion that he was feeling hungry. After all, it was almost lunchtime now, and he hadn't had any breakfast. This presented a new problem. Where was he going to get some food from?

  'I know,' he thought, 'there is a vending machine on the next floor down.'

  It took longer to get there than he imagined because he didn't dare to travel on the escalator. It was too busy, so he had to weave his way across to the staircase in the centre of the mall. Finally, he stood before the vending machine. It was a sophisticated machine that would give change and accept notes too. James reached for his wallet and realised that, of course, he couldn't see what was in it. He only had a few coins and, although he could work out what they were by their size and weight, they did not total enough to buy anything. He would have to use a note. There was a diagram on the vending machine to illustrate which way up to feed the money into the slot. James would have to take a guess; there were four possible options. Checking there was no one around, Jame
s fed the money into the slot and felt the note slide between his fingers and enter the machine. He heard a whir as he waited to press the buttons to make his selection, but then disaster. He must have fed the money in the wrong way, and the noise he heard was the sound of the machine spitting out the reject note. He hadn't noticed it at first because, of course, the note was invisible, but then, just as the note regained its colour and was clearly on show hanging from the slot, a group of young teenagers raced around the corner.

  'Hey, look at that! That's mine!'

  'I saw it first.'

  'Come on, let's split it,' and grabbing the note, they ran off laughing and joking about their good fortune. Crestfallen, James retreated. He had another note, but he didn't dare risk losing it. Even if he had managed to select something, what if someone had heard it falling into the tray? He might have lost it then anyway! James could smell food; around the corner was the Food Hall, a square where shoppers could select food from various different counters around the outside, then sit at any of the tables in the centre. There were pizzas, burgers, sandwiches, Chinese food, Mexican food, Indian food. By now, James felt ravenous. He was determined that he wouldn't be dishonest, but what about the food that people had left on their plates? That was only going to go to waste, and lots of people seemed to order much more than they could possibly eat. He circled the hall and saw one couple deep in conversation. In front of them were the remains of a plate of sandwiches, but one of them hadn't been touched. The couple got up to leave, and James slipped over to the table. He had thought of a strategy. He gently raised the sandwich slightly from the plate and, making sure the people employed to clear the tables were not nearby, he simply waited for it to disappear. He couldn't attract attention by having food flying through the air as he whisked it away from the tables. In this way, he managed to eat two sandwiches and a piece of cake before pausing and thinking, 'So it has come to this! I am having to scavenge to survive! I think it's time to go back to the Museum.'