Infinite Time: Time Travel Adventure (14 page)

“Where are we?”

I go to the windows to get a better look. We’re fairly high up, but I think I sort of recognize the street far below us. It looks vaguely familiar. And I can see the river not far in the distance.

“Scarlet? Where are we?”

She moves up beside me and looks out over the city, but she doesn’t answer.

I turn into the room and look around. It’s a nice room. A little narrow, but decorated nicely with a couch and matching club chair. There’s a television that’s so thin I can’t believe it actually works. And there’re other gadgets I don’t really understand. But they apparently still believe in displaying pictures in the future. There are a couple of framed pictures on a low table behind the couch. I pick one up and have another of those surreal moments as I recognize myself. Only it’s a future me. I don’t have even a hint of facial hair in this picture, but my face and my shoulders are fuller, my arms almost muscular. And there’s a girl in the picture with me. She’s petite, a beautiful Asian girl.

“Who is this?” I ask Scarlet.

Almost at that same moment, we hear the sound of a toilet flushing somewhere deep in the apartment. I turn around, facing the source of the sound.

“We’re not alone?”

“No. It’s the girl from the photo.”

“She’s here?”

“She’ll be here in just a second.”

I put the picture down carefully and quickly reach up to smooth the hair on the top of my head. Before I can make any real difference, however, a beautiful petite woman walks into the room. She’s dressed casually in a pair of jeans and a white blouse. The colors seem to make her tawny skin glow. And her eyes… I could lose myself in those eyes for hours and hours, I think.

There’s something familiar about her. Something about the way she holds herself, maybe. Or maybe it’s something about those amazing eyes.

“Tora?”

The woman pauses, her eyes moving slowly over me. I can’t quite read her expression, but she doesn’t seem displeased to see me.

But then her eyes fall on Scarlet.

She marches over to the windows. Even though there is anger and tension in every inch of her slight body, she respectfully bows to Scarlet. Scarlet does the same. Then Tora speaks, a rush of Japanese words rushing over Scarlet. Scarlet just smiles even though I get the distinct impression that what Tora had to say was not kind.

“I couldn’t help myself,” Scarlet says with amusement dancing in her eyes.

“You know he doesn’t like it,” Tora responds in perfect, unaccented English. When did she learn English? Less than five minutes ago she didn’t know English, but that was five minutes in time-traveling time. How long has it really been since I saw her?

Scarlet just shrugs.

Tora turns to me and her expression softens. “How are you, Parker?”

“Confused.”

She smiles softly. “I’m sure you are.” She crosses to me, but moves around me to pick up the picture I’d been holding just a moment ago. “Time travel can be very disorienting.”

“That’s me in the picture,” I say.

“Yes.” She studies my face for a second. “How old are you? Fifteen?”

“Sixteen,” I say, pulling myself up to my full height.

“You found me again. And we now live together. Here,” she says, gesturing around herself. “We will be very happy.”

I blush. I’ve never had a girlfriend. I’ve dreamt of that moment when a girl would look at me with something other than disgust on her face. Every night, in my fantasies, that girl is Clara. She will see through all the crap Travis and his friends have done and she will see me for the guy I am. And that could still happen. But it’s kind of nice to realize that someday I will have a girlfriend that’s even hotter than Clara.

Tora smiles as she watches the color burn on my cheeks. Then she touches my face, her fingers cool against my jaw, and reaches up to offer me a soft, gentle kiss on the lips.

On. The. Lips.

A thrill washes through me that is like nothing I’ve ever felt before. And to think, someday I’ll have the right to as many of these kisses as I want!

Tora smiles as she steps away.

What a day! I’ve gone from this kid that preferred to stay away from others, hiding in my room, to going on a full-blown adventure, and I have two girls that like me!

“You should go,” she says, her words clearly meant for Scarlet even though she’s still looking at me, “before he gets home.”

I hadn’t thought about that. My present self was here somewhere, running around the city, unaware that his past self was standing in his living room, kissing his girlfriend.

“What happens if we run into each other?”

“Nothing,” Scarlet says.

“But—”

“He’ll be angry,” Tora says. “He doesn’t like it when Scarlet brings you into the future.”

“But why? Could it cause some sort of paradox, like in the old movies?”

Scarlet laughs. Tora just touches my arm lightly.

“As long as you are aware you can time travel,” she explains. “If you didn’t know, then it might mess with your head a little. But that’s it.”

Scarlet comes over. “But we should go,” she admits. “Wouldn’t want to watch Parker have one of his meltdowns.”

“Meltdowns…?”

But before I can finish my question, Scarlet grabs my hands and the apartment sort of melts around us. We’re back in my bedroom before I can say goodbye to Tora or… I’d wanted to ask for another of those sweet, spine-tingling kisses.

I can only console myself with the knowledge that she is my future.

“I still don’t understand,” I say even before Scarlet lets go of my hands. “How does all this work?”

“I told you, I’ll come back when you get out of school and explain it.”

“How can you leave me? I have too many questions. Who gives us the assignments? And how do they know what changes will benefit the future and which won’t?”

“I don’t have time now, Parker,” she says, a little coldly. “But I will be back.”

“How do I know that?”

She shrugs. “You just have to trust me.”
Trust her.

She shakes her head. “You ask too many questions. You’re just going to have to be patient.”

And then she closes her eyes and disappears, leaving a faint ripple behind her.

I stand there a minute, staring at the place where she had been. It was all so unbelievable.

The whole thing runs through my mind like a movie on fast forward. Waking up in Tokyo. Running first into Tora, then Scarlet. Clint and Hector. Gumi and his gang. Mr. Oshiro and his wife.

“Don’t trust Scarlet.”
Kimi’s last words for me echo inside my brain.

There’s nothing I can do about that now. I have something more important to do: save my dad.

Those words keep playing in my mind like a song on repeat.

Save Dad. Save Dad. Save Dad. Save Dad…

And I know I can. I might be the only one who can.

I close my eyes and….

Infinite Time, started off as a bedtime story I told my daughter, Callie. The characters grew each night, Callie named the characters Parkers, Scarlets and Douglas.

I hope you had as much fun reading the story as me and Callie had creating it. If not, it’s my own fault for taking writing tips from a seven-year-old!

We’re working on the second book, where Parker’s and Scarlet’s adventures carry on. I would love to hear your thoughts about the book, and would really appreciate a short review.

hope you enjoyed the book, and if you have a spare moment, I would really appreciate a short review on the page where you bought the book.

www.amazon.com/infinitetime

www.goodreads.com/InfiniteTime

Thank you.

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