Time After Time

Tom blinked. He felt like he had shoved his finger into a power socket. He sat up. It was late afternoon. Pete stirred nearby. Kate was getting to her feet, brushing herself off.

“We’re through,” said Pete. “But where are we? When are we?”

They looked around for clues.

“The woods are much thicker, so it must be after the planting in the nineteenth century,” said Kate.

They lifted Pete back to his feet and set off through the woods. Within a few minutes, they arrived at the main path. Pete pushed the others away and prostrated himself on the floor, kissing the tarmac.

“Now I know how the Pope felt at Gatwick. Old Karol and I don’t usually see eye-to-eye, but solid man-made tarmac can be more beautiful than a rainbow. Are rainbows supposed to be beautiful? You don’t get rainbows without rain. There’s always a downside with nature. Pave the lot of it. I could go and live in London. Anywhere, as long as I don’t have to sleep in rancid puddles of mud ever again. New York or Paris would be nice. Yes, Paris, I’ll live in a garret. Wear a long coat and polar neck jumpers, dye my hair blonde and smoke menthol cigarettes out of a holder. Where do you buy smoking jackets? Do they have them in Debenhams? Do they have a Debenhams in Paris?”

“He’s lost it,” Kate said to Tom. “Could be the blow to the head, or a side effect of the portal.”

Pete set off at a run along the path. He disappeared around a corner. Tom and Kate ran after him. As they rounded the bend, the Plantation gates loomed into view. Pete was hugging the lodge, pressing his face against the crumbling stone. A car drove past in the direction of town.

“It looks like we’re home,” said Kate.

“I am going to have a last look for Sophie before I go home,” said Tom.

“Hermes could help. He did say she was ok.”

“I can’t go home without checking once more.”

“I know. You go on. I’ll make sure Pete gets back ok.”

Tom watched as his friends passed through the gates.

Wandering through the woods Tom felt more alone than ever before. Nothing would be the same again. Sophie called him a nerd, she annoyed him, and they fought, but she was all he had left of his mum. How could he go home without her? It was his fault.

Drifting on autopilot, he arrived at the edge of the clearing where he practiced his archery. He stepped onto a fallen trunk.