Seeds of Time (23 page)

“And now I believe there is a telephone call for you, Darrell. You can take it right there.” He gestured at a telephone on the desk. “And if you two could join me in here, we can have a little discussion.”

Brodie and Kate stepped into the inner office. Mr. Gill closed the door behind them. Darrell picked up the phone.

After Darrell's brief conversation with her mother to set up a time for the next day's pick-up, she turned away from Mrs. Follett's desk to look for Brodie and Kate, but the door to the inner office was open.

“They must have left to do their packing,” she muttered to herself. She wandered outside, not able to face anyone in her present, bleak state of mind. She glanced down at the concrete slab in the garden, thinking with some surprise that she hadn't done her morning endurance test for more than half the summer.

“I guess I forgot,” she muttered out loud. “Or maybe I just don't need to prove anything to myself anymore.”

Darrell walked over to the arbutus tree in the garden and opened her now tattered notebook. She looked at the question she had written in bold letters after the return from her first journey.

If somehow I am able to travel through time,

Could I go back to when I was ten and prevent the accident?

What if that was really what this whole summer had been about? What if she could somehow change things so that she once again had two strong legs and a father who loved her? Darrell's mouth formed a grim line. She started down the winding path to the beach, determined to find the answer, once and for all.

Darrell strode down the beach with the wind swirling her brown hair as a late summer storm blew down through the fjord. She stopped in surprise to see Delaney lying on the sand, looking out over the stormy water. She followed his gaze and noticed with a start that the shattered driftwood log that had been his shelter had been drawn back out to sea by the waves. The salt spray stung her eyes, but Darrell sat down beside Delaney to watch the log drift away. She picked up a stick and traced patterns in the wet sand. The tide was going out, and because of the white-peaked waves that crashed against the shore, she could soon barely see the log, bobbing distantly among the whitecaps of the bay.

Darrell looked down and saw she had sketched the outline of a fishing boat on the sand. It looked a little like the boat that belonged to Conrad Kennedy's
father. She and Delaney had walked back down to the beach after Conrad and his father had been taken away and watched a police tugboat haul the boat off the sand and chug down the fjord toward Vancouver with the small fishing vessel in tow. She had smiled as it shrank away to a tiny dot on the horizon, thinking of another small boat that had borne a cargo not of smuggled goods but of hope, in the form of two strong men who had fought the sea and won.

Darrell kicked sand over the outline and shook her head, thinking about Luke and Conrad, and the choices they had made for and because of their families. She stood up and threw the stick for Delaney. He chased it down and shook it violently, snapping it in two. Job done, he trotted back up the beach to Darrell.

The log was gone. Darrell and Delaney wandered down toward the cave and slipped through the crevice in the rock wall. Inside, she switched on her flashlight right away since the grey day meant very little light crept through the crack in the rocky roof. She wasn't worried about meeting anyone. Kate and Brodie must both be up in their rooms, packing their bags to return home for the few short days before school began again in the city. And of course Conrad Kennedy was gone for good.

And if he's not gone for good, at least he's gone for now
, she thought.

After the now familiar walk to the rear of the cave, she trained the beam of her flashlight on the images on the wall. They were blackened and smudged, and it was hard to see the shapes they once took. The oak tree, the sword, the mask. Just the three symbols, nothing more. She put her hand up to touch them. Was there a trace of warmth under her fingers?

She swallowed and reached into her pocket to pull out a piece of red chalk. Holding the flashlight in her left hand she began to draw. She quickly sketched two figures, standing hand in hand beside a motorbike with a flat tire. Her fingers were shaking, so the sketch was not one of her best. She placed a trembling hand on the drawing, tucked the flashlight under her arm, and reached down to pat Delaney.

Her head began to spin and her heart leapt in her chest. She felt dizzy and staggered, and her hand slipped off Delaney's head. Her flashlight fell and she turned quickly, bumping her head sharply against an outcropping of rock. She slid to the ground, eyes open in the dark, and felt Delaney sit beside her and rest his head on her knee.

She reached her hand out, felt for the flashlight, and leaned her head back against the wall. The tears that she never let anyone see welled up in her eyes.

“I thought I could go back just one last time, Delaney. To stop him from getting on that motorcycle.
To make it run out of gas. To hide his helmet so we couldn't ride. Anything, just to somehow change what happened that day.” She sniffed and wiped at her eyes slowly. “I guess some things just can't be changed.” She stood up and turned, miserable, to head back to the school.

As she turned, a glimmer caught the corner of her eye. She looked up suddenly and nearly jumped out of her skin. Professor Myrtle Tooth stood in front of her.

“Hello, Darrell.” The calm voice echoed in the cavern that surrounded them.

“Professor Tooth! You nearly scared me to death. How did you know about this cave?”

Professor Tooth smiled. “This has been a favourite spot of mine for many years. I'm pleased that you have been able to enjoy the use of it this summer, too.” She paused, and her clear, green eyes looked directly into Darrell's. “I thought it was time we had a little conversation, and this is a good place to do it. Shall we make our way forward to the cave entrance?” She reached up and touched one of the dark smudges on the wall with a smile and then turned on her heel and headed for the entrance.

Darrell followed the principal, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand, her melancholy mood replaced by puzzlement. They walked to the entrance of the cave, Professor Tooth setting a brisk pace in the dark. The light
of Darrell's flash showed the principal was wearing walking shorts and sturdy boots, and she sat comfortably down on the sand near the entrance. Delaney plopped down beside her and placed his head on her knee. She patted him fondly.

“His tree-stump shelter just got pulled off the beach by the tide,” said Darrell, feeling unaccountably sad.

Professor Myrtle Tooth's eyes pierced through the gloom of the cave. “Time passes,” she said quietly. “And sad things happen. But life does find a way of marching on.”

Darrell looked at her, puzzled. “What did you want to talk to me about, Professor Tooth?”

The principal smiled. “Did you have a good summer here, Darrell?”

Darrell nodded. “I'm very sorry it's over,” she said, sadly.

“Darrell, one thing you should have learned this summer is that things are not always as they appear.”

“Well,” said Darrell slowly, “I did learn that. But how did you know ...?”

Professor Tooth laughed. “You would be surprised what can be learned by running an — unusual — school such as this one.” She paused. “I have some news for you, Darrell, although I am not completely sure what you will think of it.”

Darrell waited.

“Our school has been granted a small accredited extension. We will be accepting a few new students in the fall.”

Darrell looked surprised. “Accepting new students...? You mean you'll run classes like any normal school?”

Professor Tooth shook her head with a smile. “You, of all people Darrell, should know that Eagle Glen is not like any
normal
school. But yes, we will continue to operate as an Alternative School.”

“The Eagle Glen Alternative School.” Darrell turned the words over on her tongue. “I kind of like the sound of that,” she said. “And it sure beats the sound of my old school.”

Professor Tooth stood up. “I thought it might. I believe your friends Kate and Brodie may have already been given the news.” She stepped to the entrance of the cave.

“I am considering a new class,” she added, with the trace of a smile, “on the history of life during the Renaissance. Michelangelo, da Vinci, Shakespeare, Christopher Wren. Such an interesting era.” Her smile broadened, and her eyes gleamed in the light of the flash. “If you will forgive me a slight misquotation,
there are many more seeds of time yet to be sown
, Darrell. And now,” she clicked off her flashlight, “it is time for me to move away from spelunking and toward a bit of paperwork.” She turned to leave.

“Professor Tooth?”

“Yes, my dear?”

“Do you remember that lesson where you asked us what we would change from the past if we could?” Darrell cleared her throat. “Do you think it
is
possible to change things that have happened in the past? To make things turn out better, somehow? Or to stop something terrible from happening?”

Myrtle Tooth's eyes glinted in the light from Darrell's flash, but her expression was sad. “I know that terrible things happen in this world every day, Darrell. And I know that some people have the will to keep the bad from overpowering the good. In that way, they bring about change. But I couldn't tell you how it happens, or why. It just does.” She paused and smiled. “When you know the right people.”

She turned and slid through the crevice and out of the cave.

Darrell stared out the cave opening for a long time after Professor Tooth had walked away. Her thoughts were in a jumble. How much did Professor Tooth know about this cave and what had happened here? The way she had touched the blackened glyph, as if she knew just where it could be found on the cave wall ...

A slow, strange smile began to spread across her face. She looked at Delaney.

“My mother is going to be so surprised that I want to come back here to go to school in the fall that she won't even notice if I bring home a dog.” She ruffled his fur fondly. “I've got a friend, Norton, that I think you might like to meet, Delaney.” She paused and picked up her things.

“Come on, boy. Let's go home.” Darrell smiled her best Mona Lisa smile and, rubbing the bump on her head, followed Delaney's gently wagging tail out onto the beach.