Time Travel Institute (Cold Curtain)

The Inauguration Blizzard of 2105, part 1

"A lot of people like snow. I find it to be an unnecessary freezing of water."—Carl Reiner

"Why did Dr. Kappel say it was possible?" Alexander, picking the last of the peas for the Tuesday afternoon farmer's market, asked Benjamin over the phone. "He never talked about time travel before."

"He's probably not serious about believing it," Benjamin said. "What if people start paying attention and somebody notices that you've been taking care of Ella and Daisy by yourself while your mom is sick?"

"Nobody would mind, would they? She is at home most of the time, Ella and Daisy have clean clothes, eat regularly, and I teach them when Mom can't. Heck, Ella even wears shoes when she doesn't have to. Daisy keeps her glasses clean. It's not like they are abandoned."

"But remember all the trouble Chloe had trying to get custody of me, and she's my aunt eleven years older than me," Benjamin said. "You're their brother and only seven years older than them and a minor."

"Aunt Nadia is our guardian. If somebody said we needed a healthy adult, she could come here."

The harvester Alexander built beeped that it had found all the ripe strawberries. He moved it to the blueberries. Ella and Daisy picked green beans.

"We should find out how far into the past it's safe to go," Alexander said. "Where do you want to go?"

"The 2105 inaugural," Benjamin said.

January 20, 2105

It took a month to prepare. Benjamin intended to stay just one day, long enough to watch Steve Warszawski's inauguration. At six o'clock in the morning, he managed to push his way about a hundred feet into the crowd, which started at the United States Capitol and ended at the Lincoln Memorial. He squeezed in near the Washington Monument.

"Who's idea was it to have the inauguration in the coldest part of winter outside?" a lady asked nobody in particular.

"The Twentieth Amendment," Benjamin said.

"The what?"

"The first section of the Twentieth Amendment of the Constitution says, 'The terms of the President and Vice President shall end at noon on the 20th day of January, and the terms of Senators and Representatives at noon on the 3rd day of January, of the years in which such terms would have ended if this article had not been ratified; and the terms of their successors shall then begin. The Congress shall assemble at least once in every year, and such meeting shall begin at noon on the 3rd day of January, unless they shall by law appoint a different day. If, at the time fixed for the beginning of the term of the President, the President elect shall have died, the Vice President elect shall become President. If a President shall not have been chosen before the time fixed for the beginning of his term, or if the President elect shall have failed to qualify, then the Vice President elect shall act as President until a President shall have qualified; and the Congress may by law provide for the case wherein neither a President elect nor a Vice President elect shall have qualified, declaring who shall then act as President, or the manner in which one who is to act shall be selected, and such person shall act accordingly until a President or Vice President shall have qualified. The Congress may by law provide for the case of the death of any of the persons from whom the House of Representatives may choose a President whenever the right of choice shall have devolved upon them, and for the case of the death of any of the persons from whom the Senate may choose a Vice President whenever the right of choice shall have devolved upon them. Sections 1 and 2 shall take effect on the 15th day of October following the ratification of this article. This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States within seven years from the date of its submission.'" Benjamin memorized the entire Constitution one summer when his library card was blocked with over-due book fines. "It was ratified on January 23rd, 1933."

The lady gave him a look that clearly said, Where were you spawned from?and turned around.

Don't ask a question if you don't want to know the answer, lady, Benjamin thought.

Benjamin had not eaten since July 26, 2147, or, forty-two years, six months, five days, and five hours in the future. He wondered if technically, he had not yet eaten, and the thought only made him feel hungrier, but he decided to save his sandwich for later. It was one of Ella's peanut butter and grape jelly sandwiches, which she always made with the proper peanut butter-to-jelly-to-bread ratio. She made her own peanut butter, bread, and jelly. Daisy's sandwiches came close to the proper ratio, and Alexander often forgot one ingredient or another because he had his head in one invention or another. Mrs. Watts made good sandwiches, like every mother, Though she cut sandwiches into triangles for anybody aged nineteen or younger, she smashed the sandwiches. She often cut apples into slices out of habit, too.

As sleet began to fall, Benjamin put on his hat, and pulled his scarf over his mouth and nose. Even though he was born in Fort Wayne Indiana and moved to Georgia when he was eight, he handled the cold like a Southerner-as in, he couldn't handle the cold. Slowly, the temperature dropped and the sleet turned to heavy snow. Salt trucks passed. Like every seventh North American winter, the winter of 2104-2105 was a hard one. A wind with a chill of -20 suddenly shrieked down the Mall, making Benjamin feel like somebody hit him in the chest with a sledgehammer. He wondered if his eyeballs could freeze. The wind came in gusts, but within half an hour, the temperature dropped from thirty-one degrees to fifteen degrees. Some people shoved their way out of the crowd to go home, which let Benjamin shuffle forward a few feet. The snow coated Benjamin's clothes and the small gap left between his hat and scarf to see through kept filling. Benjamin shook his head to clear the snow. Alexander should invent windshield wipers for a situation like this. He looked at his watch. Three hours left to wait for the inauguration. If he waited, the sandwich might freeze, and so he e ate it, though too late to avoid eating a frozen sandwich. It ruined the excellent texture.

By eleven o'clock, hundreds of people left. Snow blotted out the Capitol, already having blotted out Washington Monument, Smithsonian buildings, National Gallery of Art, Hirschhorn Museum, National Museum of the American Indian, and everything else the vacinity. Benjamin knew the temperature was -3 degrees. Nobody had expected a blizzard to hit. It suddenly occurred to Benjamin that he knew everything about the inauguration, and nothing about how to get back to the portal in a blizzard, which would last for two days, but the portal would only be open from 1:25 to 1:30 PM that afternoon on Thomas Jefferson's left foot at the Jefferson Memorial. Benjamin merely needed to sit on the foot at that time and the portal would shunt him forward in time to the present.

July 26, 2147

You know what I just realized? Alexander thought. No. What? That Benjamin will probably get lost in the blizzard. When the Washington Channel or Potomac River thaws, his body will surface. Unless it doesn't because it wasn't supposed to happen. The news would say something about a corpse found in a river. What if he was never found? What if he is lying at the bottom of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge right now? Nobody in a big city is going to notice that teenaged boy without a family went missing. Then you just have to get him back before the blizzard. I can't. The blizzard started ten minutes ago. I can't change that he was there. If he wasn't supposed to be there, he would be here. Don't tell anybody. They might worry. What are you going to do? No idea. I wish Benjamin was here so I could ask him.

(Photo is of Benjamin.)