My Stories

HHOW TIME TRAVELS
Keith Gledhill 2019

Chapter One

They approached the man with extremely high levels of anxiety, the level increasing as the distance between them diminished. At the point of meeting, the cordialities were observed and then the real estate agent finally handed over the front door key to their newly bought house. They had been searching for the last eighteen months for a place cheap enough to afford but not requiring a great deal of refurbishment. This property had ticked all of the boxes, even though it was said to be over 120 years old. The location was idyllic, a half a dozen metres to the beach, the nearest neighbour being half a kilometre away, and the local shopping centre just two kilometres back up the spit. Marney eagerly took the keys in her hand and raced Paul to the top of the front veranda steps and had entered the entry hallway just as Paul reached the front door. They both stood in the hallway and looked in awe at what they had purchased. It was a timber dwelling comprising four bedrooms, two living areas, separate dining room, Kitchen, Library and study. Every wall in the entrance had waist high mahogany wood that generated a rustic odour which added pleasantly to ambience of the house. Marney rushed from room to room like a 4 year old exploring her new school on day one. Every room she entered, Paul could hear her squeals of delight as he followed the path she had taken, and she was always at least two rooms ahead of him. Suddenly he heard a stifled squeal and then silence. He rushed into what had been the houses’ Library and saw that Marney had stopped in her tracks and was staring at the wall opposite the door. He approached her and asked what was wrong. She slowly turned to Paul and said “I absolutely love this house, but that wall has to go. It is hideous!” Paul looked at the wall and had to admit that it was indeed hideous. It had obviously been plastered over in a hurry by someone who had no idea what they were doing. The plaster was clumped in places and depressed in others, obviously not the job of a professional. He said “Right, I have to agree it is as rough as guts, so that thing is going to be job number one, I will start on it first thing in the morning.” After Marney had thoroughly examined every single one of the thirteen rooms, she rushed into Paul’s arms and they both dropped to the floor and christened the Kitchen in a way that it is not normally used for. They spent the rest of the morning and afternoon, placing all the groceries they had brought with them into the Butler’s Pantry. They started unpacking the myriad of boxes that the removalists had left in what was the lounge room. By the time the last box had been opened, and the contents moved to the appropriate places, the Sun was beginning to set. Paul suggested that they make up a sandwich and coffee and head to the beach to watch the sun set on the western horizon. It was a short walk to the beach and the crisp, golden sand crunched beneath their feet as they made their way towards the water. They soon saw that they were the only people on the beach, so they laid the towel they had brought from the house, stripped naked and ran to the water. After having christened the ocean in the same manner as the Kitchen, they exited the water and literally collapsed onto the towel amongst a tangle of naked arms and legs. They sat up on the towel and held on to each other as they thanked there lucky stars for such a great find, and watched the sun kiss the sea at the horizon. When it became dark and somewhat chillier they returned to the house and retired for the night.

Chapter Two

The next morning Marney awoke first and arose to prepare a hearty breakfast for them both. Paul groggily entered the Kitchen, having smelled the aroma of bacon and eggs. “Good morning, Princess of my castle”, to which Marney replied “Back at ya my Prince”. “What’s your plan for today?” she asked. “I am going to get stuck into that atrocious wall in the Library. It has got to go” he replied. “Do you need a hand with it?” “No, I will just do the preliminary demolition of the plaster today. Just to see what it is we are working with”. Paul finished his breakfast and sent Marney off to the local shops to finish populating the food cupboard and purchasing the essentials they would need for when the baby arrived in 6 months. The news of her pregnancy was the motivating factor in deciding to sell their city apartment and move down the Peninsula. The apartment in Docklands, whilst being extremely handy for work and play with the upwardly mobile professionals that comprised their neighbours, was way too small to bring a newborn baby to. They had sold it fairly quickly, receiving a record price for a two bedroom apartment and scoured the Mornington Peninsula for something nice and quiet and well away from the hustle and bustle of Melbourne City. Marneys’ mum had moved into a retirement village half a kilometre away from the new house when Marneys' father was killed in a freak car accident 5 years ago, so it would be good to have support nearby to help with the baby. Paul entered the Library after she had left and could not understand why somebody would go to the trouble of putting up a plaster wall and leaving it in such a state, it wasn’t even trowel finished and had been left just as it was slapped on. He started up the cordless hammer chisel and started chipping away at the top left hand corner. The plaster chips flew and a cloud of chalky dust filled the air as he frantically chiselled away at the wall. He methodically removed a 6-inch horizontal strip from left to right and began another strip 6-inches down. He continued in this vein for another half an hour, then stood back and admired his work. It was when he looked at what was behind the plaster he had removed, he realised it was actually timber. Mahogany timber to be precise. It ran from the ceiling at the top left across to the top right and extended down 12-inches. He saw that it was the top board of what appeared to be a very large bookcase. He grabbed the hammer chisel with new-found enthusiasm as he needed to see the rest of what was hidden behind the plaster. After two more hours of chiselling, he had completely uncovered a massive Mahogany Bookcase that completely filled the wall from wall-to-wall and floor-to-ceiling. It was a masterpiece of woodworking expertise and Paul could not comprehend why someone would cover it up, and also in such a shoddy fashion. The wooden edges of the bookcase were embossed in a gold leaf pattern that ran completely around the four edges. Each shelf contained leather bound books with gold embossing on the spines. As he stood there in awe of what he had uncovered, he heard the front door open. He ran into the hallway and grabbed Marney’s hand and led her into the Library. He stood her in the centre of the room and slowly turned her around to face the bookcase. “Oh my God, what is that?”

Chapter Three

They stood and stared at it for a good ten minutes, neither being able to form any words. The detail in the construction was so impressive. Every one of the twenty or so shelves was entirely full of the leather-bound hard-cover ancient books. They both slowly ventured towards the books and it wasn’t until they almost had their noses pressed against them they saw that each book had a year printed vertically on its spine. They both slowly looked up to the left-hand corner and saw that the first book on the top shelf had 0000 printed on it. They both slowly scanned left-to-right along the first shelf and noticed that each book had incrementing years stamped on them. The top row ending with 0100. They scanned down to the bottom right-hand corner and saw that the date on the last book was dated 2015. However there was enough room on the last shelf to accommodate another 25 books. “What do you suppose this is?” Marney pondered. “These must be very old and possibly quite valuable.” Paul said as he noticed some carving in the top board. He stood back to get a better look at it and saw the lettering said ‘THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD’. “Look at that” Paul said as he pointed up to the top board. “I’m gonna have a look at one” Marney reached for one of the books that had the year 1825 written on it, and began to slide the book out of the shelf. As she tried to withdraw the book she found that it was anchored to the bookcase at the bottom and the book swung down vertically towards her from the top. They were both surprised to see that weren’t actually books, just spines anchored at the bottom. As the “book” reached its maximum point there was a swooshing sound that appeared to come from all around. When Paul had finished looking around for the source of the sound, he found he was alone, Marney had completely disappeared, and the “book” was still hanging out where she had left it. He had no idea where she was and assumed she had somehow gone out of the room. He frantically searched through all the rooms of the house shouting out her name. He returned to the Library and began to become a little bit scared when he realised she was not there nor anywhere in the house. He approached the pulled-down book, and with some trepidation he placed his finger on the top of book she had tried and thought “the only thing I can do is replace the book. There is no way she could have left this room without me seeing her, this is ridiculous” He gathered his bravado and pushed the 1825 book back into its rightful place. As soon as it was homed the whooshing sound erupted again. Suddenly he heard a muffled cry from the corner of the room and turned to see Marney crouched in the corner with a fixed stare on her face. He rushed over her and stood her up and held her tight. They both left the Library and went into the Kitchen. He sat her down at the kitchen table and after a few minutes of consoling, Marney had recovered sufficiently to speak. “Paul, you are not going to believe this, but I actually went back to 1825”.

Chapter Four

“Don’t be stupid Marn, you can’t go back in time!” “I tell you I was there, this house hadn’t been built and I was on a vacant block. There was what appeared to be a fishing village about a five minute walk down the road, which I went to and spoke to a shopkeeper. He told me it was 1825. I looked down and found that the dress I was wearing here had changed into something else. He was just about to ask me about my Apple watch when I heard that whooshing sound and ended up back here”. They both sat quietly for another quarter of an hour, collecting their thoughts when Paul said “One of us needs to go back and check this all out. You’ve been once so I will go. You must have returned when I put the book back.” “No Paul, what if you don’t come back?” she wailed. “You came back when I replaced the book in the shelf” he reasoned. “All you need to do is wait for, let’s say half an hour, after I pull it out, then push it back and I will be returned.” He took his mobile phone out of his jacket pocket and removed his expensive, modern digital watch and placed them both on the kitchen table. He went up to their bedroom and removed his father’s old watch which was of the analogue type with actual hands on the face from the bedside table and placed it on his wrist. He instructed Marney to wait for one hour after he left, then replace the book. They both went into the Library, kissed one more time and Paul approached the bookcase and pulled on the book with 1825 on its spine. The last thing he heard in that room was Marney’s squeal and the whooshing sound. He stood in awe as the bookcase suddenly filled with plaster again. He saw and old man slapping on the plaster, then he blacked out. He awoke, laying on his side in an empty block of land, surrounded by bush. He noticed his father’s watch showed that only three minutes had passed. As he turned around he saw that the asphalt road that they had come down yesterday was now a dirt track that led off to what he realised was the village Marney had spoken about. He began walking towards it and soon found himself on the main street standing in front of the shop she had described. He opened the front door and heard the old fashioned ding bell go off. A rather tall, good looking man of about thirty or so entered from a curtained area and proceeded to stand at the counter. He greeted Paul with “G’ Day stranger, what brings you to Serenity Harbour?” “I am just down here looking for a quiet place to write my book, any recommendations?” he replied. “Yeah sure, old Ma Tenny has a place about five miles back up the main road towards Mt.Martha. She rents it out to holiday makers. She is usually empty this time of year” “What year is this?” asked Paul. “You are the second person today to ask me that. A young lady was in here before, and she had the strangest looking watch on her wrist. I have never seen one like it. I noticed because I collect ‘em. Anyway I turned around to show her the calendar on the wall, when I turned back round she had gone. Funny thing though I didn’t hear the bell ding on her way out, weird eh?” Paul looked down at his Dad’s watch and noticed he had only five more minutes before Marney returned the book. He had to make sure he was alone when she did it. “ I might head up to Ma Tenny’s place and check it out, thanks for your help pal” “No worries” came back the shop keeper. Paul rushed outside and started to walk quickly back up the main street. When he got to where the dirt road veered to the left slightly, he heard the whooshing sound again, and found himself at the place where he had landed an hour ago. He blacked out again and when he regained his senses, found himself back in the library of their house, looking at Marney sporting a huge smile. “See I told you didn’t I ?” she said. Paul began to speak like he had verbal vomiting “It was amazing Marn, exactly like you said. The shopkeeper was a not sure how you got out of his shop without dinging his bell” “Just think about what we could do with this bookcase” Paul exclaimed. “We could go back to 2014 and do something to stop Dads accident” Marney excitedly said. Paul replied “Which one of us should go?” “I will have to go, He had gone when I met you four years ago” she responded. “I suppose your right, he probably wouldn’t take any notice of a total stranger, but I think it would be better to leave it until tomorrow”.

Chapter Five

The following morning, at the Breakfast table, Paul pushed his now empty plate towards the centre of the table. They had just consumed a huge plate of Bacon and Eggs with toast that Marney had cooked while Paul was showering. He turned to her, seated diagonally opposite him, and started the planning. “One thing I don’t get about these books, is that, yes, they take you back to the year on the spline, but what dictates the time, date and place you arrive. There are 365 days in a year.” Marney sat in silence for a couple of minutes as she pondered his question, then replied “ Maybe you go back to the year you’ve selected, and the time and date is exactly the same as when you left” “You could have something there. We should conduct an experiment before you go back to 2013 and sort out your Dad. I will go back to 2015 and check the date and time. You stay here and after Ten Minutes push the book back.” They cleaned up the breakfast dishes and went into the library. Paul brought the chalk message board from the kitchen and wrote the current Day, Date, and Time on it. He approached the spine marked 2015 and turned around to look at the board. He needed to remember Thursday 23rd February 2018 at 9:45am. He looked at Marney and reminded her to shut the book at 9.55. They kissed and then he pulled at the spine and heard the whooshing sound before everything went black. When the light returned he was standing in the same room. He quickly went in search of a calendar and when he found one he saw that it was Thursday 23rd February 2015. He looked across to the Kitchen clock and saw the time was 9.46 am. He returned to the bookcase and noticed that the spline marked 1684 was out and a mechanism was attached to it. He bent over to take a closer look when, suddenly the mechanism started to move. He quickly hid behind the open door to the Library as the spine closed. The whooshing sound came again as the spine of the book returned to its proper place. He was shocked to see a youngish man standing in the Library looking somewhat agitated. The young man seemed in a rush and quickly ran out of the Library. Paul slowly wandered out from behind the door and before he could think any more on it, the whooshing sound came again. The light went black and he found himself back with Marney in 2018. They both returned to the Kitchen and sat at the table. After collecting his thoughts he turned to Marney and said “You were spot-on, it takes you back to the exact time and day it was here. But while I was there, 1684 was opened. There was also a mechanical device attached to it. I think the person who lived here before was alone and knew about the bookcase. He must have been by himself, hence the need for the device to replace the spine. We should really investigate who he was before we do any more with this bookcase”
 

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