Grandpa's Journal (5 page)

7/1/1863

Oh god. OH GOD!

I don’t want to die. Not here not now!!

Mom. Dad. If you ever read this then I’m sorry for everything I’ve ever done. What happened to the car was my fault. Those dents were completely me, not the 5 year old I blamed it on. I lied about my Math final. There’s so much I have to tell you.

Calm down.

I’ll be fine.

I just need to get it all out. Maybe it’ll all make sense??

We just need to get to the time machine.

I heard the shots go off before I saw the smoke. It started in the morning and I heard men screaming in agony.

Jack and I ran through Gettysburg, as bullets whizzed by my head. If they hadn’t it sure sounded like it!

Grandpa was nowhere in sight and I had to abandon the time machine. Jack, the guy from before, kept with me and made sure I could get my head down. I fired from the rifle he gave me but I had no idea how to reload it!

The bodies, the blood, I can’t…I just can’t.

This isn’t what I signed up for!!

The day started with a fun card game with Jack and the next second the men were yelling to take up arms.

This is hell. This has to be.

I followed Jack’s example and I clumsily reloaded but by the time I had it ready, the Union had already retreated farther than Jack and I would have liked.

There were so many creepy pauses in the combat as they waited for smoke to clear or men to reload.

I have never been more scared in my life as Confederate soldiers leveled their rifles at us and told us we were now prisoners of war.

Then their heads….exploded. I don’t want to describe that.

I think Jack threw up.

One of them walked up to us, the grey uniform melted away revealing a bald, hairless man with blueish lips. His skin tight black jumpsuit flowed with him rather then move with him. He walked as if he was in water.

When he leveled his arm toward us, he pinched his thumb and index finger together.

Jack and I fired our guns but we either missed or it bounced right off.

Jack was gone before I knew it. The only reason I didn’t get hit was Grandpa had tackled me down. He hurt himself but we somehow ducked into a house just to hear the wooden door splinter behind us.

Why did Jack have to die? All he wanted was to see his brother again, maybe return to the family farm, have a few kids. He was a simple man and he was a true friend. I miss him. So much. All he’ll be is a name in the history books. Nothing more. No life story or the way he smiled.

I don’t even think Jack was his real name! Everyone just called him that.

Grandpa and I are held up in a farm house, trying to rest. He’s out of breath still. I think the heat is getting to him. Jack would know how to cheer us up.

7/3/1863

Grandpa isn’t doing too well. Got hit by a stray bullet, through his kidney, and hasn’t woken up. The Doctor’s here have been jabbing at the wound for over an hour now and I think it’s only made it worse.

I couldn’t watch. Who could watch something like that?

Grandpa was only awake for a short period of time before he passed out. Those screams. I’ll never forget them. I never want to hear them again. The Doctor’s couldn’t get the bullet out, so they just wrapped it up and moved on to the next patient.

Kip is dead.

I killed him.

Once it was dark enough Grandpa got us to a watering hole, and we drank from it just as some Confederate Soldiers were coming up to fill their canteens. I expected a fight but they were actually very kind.

By my ‘accent’ they could tell I was from the North but they didn’t much mind. They shared their rations with us and talked of better times. Some of them didn’t even want tomorrow to come.

Some of them were talking about a hum. I have no idea what they were talking about but Grandpa seemed to. “Drives you nuts doesn’t it?” he asked them.

“Yea, it gets into yer head.” One agreed with the rest completely clueless about it.

When we went our separate ways I asked Grandpa about this. He only said. “There are things out there we shouldn’t be metaling with. Cause it tends to come back to test our resolve.” He shuttered but still managed to sound hopeful. It was weird.

I don’t know what happened next. I think we fell asleep at some point cause the next thing I knew guns were firing all around us.

It was late in the day. Don’t know how I slept that long but I did see some people at a picnic watching from a hill. That was weird. “Ignore them.” Grandpa waved to them and we went on our way.

We creeped into town, Confederate soldiers moving around but not really noticing us. I think we might have been heading toward the Time Machine but we didn’t get far.

A woman in a white jumpsuit plowed into us, just as the stone walls burst to pebbles in flashes of pounding death. Grandpa could get up, did he brake something? I don’t know.

The woman held out a modern sawed off shotgun and fired back over the wall but was met with her weapon flying apart with the stones, pieces of it everywhere.

“That’s not going to work.” She turned to me and smiled. “Is it, love?”

Her suit scrapped the air and covered her body in a grey uniform. “We’re being flanked!!” she yelled to the other soldiers.

The Confederates in the area all formed up around us and fired at our attacker.

“Kip.” Grandpa growled as I helped him up but he just couldn’t stand right. “He found me. I don’t know how but he found me. Jason we can’t stay here.”

“We have him. Look.”

“No. You don’t understand. He’s not hu-.” Several soldiers blasted away. There was so much blood and limps. I don’t know how we got out of there.

The woman was still in uniform as she helped me carry Grandpa to the edge of town.

Kip was there waiting for us. How he got in front of us I’ll never know. Both his fingers snapped, the ground around us exploding. The woman fired her rifle once, and then charged him with the bayonet.

He broke it in half with his bare hands an she struggled with him. He would have won if not for a series of loud shots puncturing his suit more times than I could count. He fell and didn’t get up. I should have stabbed him right then. I should have known something wasn’t right. 

When I turned toward the shots I saw Grandpa. I think. He was younger. Much younger. He was also in a tuxedo for some reason. He waved to Grandpa and I and then jumped behind a chimney.

“Marla.” Grandpa moaned. That’s when I knew.

“Are you-?” I wanted to ask the woman if she was my Grandma but she held a finger to my lips to silence me.

“I’m not part of HIS timeline Jason.” She kissed me on the forehead and held my cheek. “Good luck. This is the only freebee you’ll get. For now.”

I got Grandpa back to the Time Machine on my own. It was long and grueling. It was so humid and sticky, we had to rest in the shade several times. It didn’t help Grandpa was not in the best shape either.

All the while a war was being wagged around us. I saw several men fall, on both sides, only once did a soldier take notice of us but he was killed right afterwards by on coming gunfire.

I never want to come back here again.

Kip was behind us, he grabbed me and tossed me several feet away. He was still bloody from all the shots he took but he was dead set on Grandpa an bashed his head off the time machine’s door!

I think I swore or yelled something. Cause all I saw was red and the next second Kip and I are struggling on the Time Machine controls. My head ached, and I had cuts all down my arms. The Machine bleeped to life and the next second we’re flying through the sky. Gravity working against me.

I think I blacked out.

The sky was so cool and tasted like iron. Grandpa pulled me back into the machine and hugged me. Kip screamed as he plummeted past us. Grandpa’s hands were all bloody and bruised. “You alright?” he called over the rushing wind.

Feeling the weightlessness of falling all I could do was cry in fear, I mean who wouldn’t?

The timer on the controls clicked and we reappeared on the battle field. “That explains Peru.” Grandpa laughed. He just laughed and laughed and laughed. He was sore and in pain but he just kept laughing.

Cannons sounded around us, as Confederate soldiers charged form the trees roaring into battle. The Union fired back but were close to overwhelmed. “Oh. I forgot to fix that.” Grandpa yelped.

WE WERE IN THE MIDDLE OF PICKETT’S CHARGE!!!

Bullets were practically puncturing through the walls of the Time Machine!

We both ducked down and got to work as death exploded around us. I held whatever Grandpa handed me and he just started ripping wires. Sparks flew as something dented the console

“Got it!” Grandpa announced proudly as the Time Machine flashed and the world reappeared sideways, making us tumble out onto the field.

When Grandpa stood from disorientation that’s when his face went white as a sheet and flopped on the ground.

Smoke filled the field as the last shots of battle sounded. I didn’t care. I pulled him to safety and the Doctor’s tended to him.

There’s something wet on my cheeks.

Am I crying?

Edo Period Day 1

Hanako. Yukio.

Yukio doesn’t like me.

The moment Grandpa and I set foot on his temple grounds, he scoffed at me for allowing Grandpa to bleed all over the path.

Hanako, (she helped me spell her Father and her names for me) his daughter, stood at his side as he ate from his bowl of rice. “Bring him here.” He commanded.

Grandpa groaned but still managed to wave at Yukio. “Long time.”

“It has.”

After setting him inside he practically ordered Hanako to kick me out!

When Grandpa awoke, he held a switch under the dashboard and the Time machine popped into a rice field at the bottle of the hill. Several workers screamed at our sudden appearance and ran. They were shouting in another language.

“Welcome to the simpler time of the Edo Period in Japan.” Grandpa coughed, directing me up a dusty path. “I have a friend who owes me one.” Was all he said.

Had I known it would lead here I would have never come.

I sat outside the temple longer than I cared to count until Hanako returned to fetch me. She hasn’t said a word to me once. Instead she directed me to help clean the temple wooden floors, especially where dirt and blood was dripped all over by Grandpa and I.

It must have took me hours to finish and yet Hanako had finished her side of the Temple, swept all the paths around the grounds, polished the shrine itself, and somehow cook a meal for all of us.

It was then I was brought before Yukio. His meal was in front of him and he scowled at me. He must have been doing this for some time before I realized he wanted me on the cushion across from him. Just as I got on my knees he spoke to me in perfect English. “Your Grandpa is well. Take soleus in that.”

“Thank you. Thank you so much.” I think I bowed, it seemed like it was appropriate but only seemed to scowl more.

“Do not thank me. We are not friends. I did what was right. That is all.”

“Well he did say you owed him. That’s something I guess.”

“You presume too much.” Hanako helped him to his feet. Shakely, he was directed to another room. “He has been repaid ten times over for bringing back my precious flower. I have only done what is right. Eat. When he awakens, leave and never return.”

The food that sat there was cold and most likely had been sitting out for some time. It was the most delicious meal I’ve had in a long LONG time.

When I finished Hanako returned to retrieve the bowl. “Can I see him, Miss?” I asked her, grabbing her arm. I didn’t mean to but I just had to know.

“My name is Hanako.” She smiled at me. “Please follow me and I’ll take you to him.”

She spelled her and her Father’s names for me as she took me down a hallway.

Grandpa was out cold but he was breathing. He was wrapped in bandages, and lots of red stains all over him but he was and is alive.

When I thanked her, Hanako was already gone.

Edo Period??? Day 4

Somethings not right. Am I even in Japan????

Yesterday I sat with Grandpa all day. It was sunny and we had a great view of the valley and flowers. It was boring but at least I was there for him. Hanako came to bring me food but that’s when the weird started.