Time After Time

The school bell rang for the end of the day. Miss Hobbes, who had been glancing at Kate for the last couple of hours, shuffled over and cleared her throat.

“I’m afraid the library is closing now. If you intend to take out that book, you will need your library card.”

“This isn’t a library book. It belongs to Hermes, he gave it to me.”

“I beg to differ,” said the librarian, reaching for the book. “I saw your teacher take it from the stacks. If you’ll let me take a look.”

Kate grabbed the volume and rushed for the door.

“Come back here,” shouted Miss Hobbes. She lost her timidity when anyone violated the sanctity of the library. “I know your name young lady, and I’ll be speaking to your form tutor first thing in the morning.”

At the bottom of the stairs, she pushed open the door to the schoolyard.

“Kate!” Tom shouted. He was a few hundred yards away, leaving the playing fields with Pete.

She hurried in the opposite direction, towards the main gates. Crowds of her classmates were climbing aboard a bus. One of them was a girl clutching a copy of Carl Sagan’s Cosmos. Kate ducked behind a bush. As the buses left for their various destinations around town, the sound of voices died away.

Kate set off at a sprint. From what Hermes had said, he would not be returning home. She needed to get back to the cottage and let Tom know. They would have to rescue Sophie themselves.

Kate’s leg seized up with cramp. She collapsed to the floor, clutching at her calf in agony. The frenetic activity of the past few days, the almost continual running, had taken its toll. She massaged her leg until the tightness eased. It was difficult to walk but she managed to hobble. Moving helped, and the pain eased.

Even at the best of times, walking all the way across town would be tiring. By the time she arrived, she was weak with exhaustion. At least there were a couple of hours before they needed to be at the Plantations.

Kate checked nobody was watching before she pushed her way through the brambles. As soon as she entered the garden, she knew something was wrong. The door to the cottage was wide open, and as she stepped into the living room, there was no sign of Tom. The cottage was silent and empty. She wondered whether Tom had decided to leave early. Why would he do that? Hermes had told them to wait for his return. Tom would not have gone looking for Pete; it was too much of a risk.

Now they were all missing. She was the last one,

Kate returned to the living room, and collapsed on the sofa. Tiredness swept over her body. The clocks ticked and a cool breeze blew in from the garden. She closed her eyes.