Across the Years ( Camren )

A new Job

He then leaned in and gave me a very suspicious look. "Stephen Hawking didn't send you didn't he? He's always spying on me."

I searched my mind for who that was and came up empty. "Who's Stephen Hawking?"

"What's your name?"

"It's Lauren. Lauren Jauregui .

He then smiled and extended his hand. "Well Lauren. You're hired. The pay is 300 pounds every two weeks. The working conditions are messy, I may call you at odd time's and have you do odd things. But thanks to an arrangement, meals are included. Courtesy of the Chinese restaurant two doors down. We have an arrangement. There are two rules at present."

"What are they?"

The door in the back has a hallway. "You will find the bathrooms there. But at the end of the hallway is another door. There is some very dangerous equipment in there. Until I say so, you must stay out. Second rule is that you must not discuss what you see or do here. Deal?"

I'm going to regret this. "Sure." I said as I shook his hand.

He handed me a wad of pound notes. "Great. Your first task is to get me a new socket wrench. Since my last one melted. When you come back, I need you to search through the boxes in the room and find something for me."

"What's that?"

"A book called, Linear equations of Particle physics by D. Schneider."

It was then I realized that there were no less than 20 boxes of books all stacked around the room. "One socket wrench coming up."

He said goodbye and I headed out. I used my phone to find a hardware store nearby and started to walk. About half way into my 20 minute walk to the hardware store, I suddenly realized something. This part of London is where Jack the Ripper once stalked his victims.

"So cool. I must find time to see the murder sites."

I returned about an hour after I left, with a new socket wrench in hand. Sikowitz wasn't in the bathrooms or the front room so I knocked on the door in the back.

It suddenly opened an inch and a eye appeared in the gap. "Were you followed? Perhaps by an older looking gentleman in a wheel chair. He doesn't move and speaks in a mechanical voice."

Lauren slowly shook her head and held out the wrench. "No. I have your wrench, though."

The door opened slightly. Sikowitz then reached out and snatched the wrench. "Thank you. Let me know when you find the book." With that he slammed the door shut.

I spent the next two hours looking for the book he was searching for. He had boxes of electronic parts, technical papers, and science books. Though I noticed that most of the books related to physics and several of them seemed to have something to do with wormholes.

I had heard that wormholes were supposed to be little holes in space that would take you from point a to point b, allowing you to bypass millions of miles in normal space. That was pretty much all I knew. I eventually found the book and gave it to Sikowitz. He spent almost the entire time in his lab, only occasionally coming out to see how I was doing. I would occasionally hear him, making noise in the back room and once or twice the lights dimmed as I heard a loud humming sound.

He then had me do some data entry. He had a whole notebook of numbers and had me enter them in an excel spread sheet. I finished about 7:30 in the evening. He gave me some Chinese food and sent me home, asking me to return in two days.

I could have asked him about his experiments, but figured with his paranoia he'd wouldn't tell me squat. As I rode the subway home, I found my mind falling into the past. Letting my thoughts once again return to Camila.

A long dead woman who's face, haunt's me. The more I saw that face, the more I had to know her. So when I arrived home, I sat in bed and read the first of her journals. I felt this thrill to know that I would finally get to know this mysterious beauty.

March 3rd, 1862

Today is my birthday. I turn 12 today. I'm so excited. Mother and father, for my present, bought me a journal to write in. They must have heard me talking about how Grace Parkington had one and that I wanted one too. I want one so I can write about my exciting adventures. My friend Dinah and I went walking by the river in the park. I saw a swan with its babies swimming behind it. I love the park. It's my favorite place.

The first entry wasn't too exciting, but from the number of books, I can tell that Camila managed to keep up with her journals. I expected them to get more exciting as time went on.

I soon discovered that there were a few gaps in the entries. Camila wouldn't write every single day, but did frequently. There was couple of spaces between books. I'd guessed that some of the journals were missing. By the end of the first night, I managed to make it through her 14th, year and learned quite a bit about her.

Her name was Karla Camila Cabello. She was born in London, England on March 3rd, 1850. She was the oldest daughter of Major Alejandro Cabello of the British Army and his Spanish wife, Sinuhe Cabello. Alejandro Cabello was born into a family of minor nobility, whose fortunes had long since faded. With little left to his estate, Alejandro's father managed to scrape up enough to buy him a commission as a Lieutenant in the 24th Regiment of foot. I had to look it up online, but learned that in the British army it was commonplace for wealthy families to have purchased officer's commissions for their son's.

From what I read, Alejandro served in India and was decorated for bravery in the Second Anglo-Sikh war in India in the 1840's. Alejandro from what I learned actually turned out to be an excellent officer who earned the respect of his men and his superiors. It was in India he met and fell in love with Sinuhe Cabello, the daughter of prosperous Spanish merchant.

In 1850 they had their first child, a daughter named Karla. However I learned that for reasons not quite stated, that she was rarely ever referred to by her full name. She's always called simply Camila. In 1861, Alejandro Transferred to a regiment stationed in London, where Sofia was born.

Alejandro served in the British army for 3 more years before retiring at the rank of Major. Afterward he settled in the nearby town of Herford where he opened and Inn and tavern as well as being a merchant. Camila stated that her mother wanted to settle down and not be dragged all over the earth like her father had done with her. As a merchant's daughter, Camila's mother lived in several parts of the globe.

He soon became a respected member of the community and with his military and family background was accepted as a peer of the more upper class families of the area, the Hansen's and the Mahone's. Things passed normally until Camila's mother died of Cholera in 1863. Camila was greatly saddened by her mother's loss.

But beyond the basic facts of Camila's parents, I learned that Camila was a bright and happy person, who thought frequently of others. She loved spending her time in the park, riding her horse when she could and loved to sing. Though singing in the church choir was her only outlet for that. Her sister Sofi was a bit more and self-centered and picked on Camila from time to time.

Camila's best friend was Dinah Jane Hansen, the daughter of a wealthy family in town. Apparently her siblings almost always referred to her as Dinah so the label stuck.

I noticed something odd as I read. While Sofi came of age, her interest in music became quite clear. Camila's interest in boys however, seemed to be lacking. I'd noticed one other thing. When she described women, she usually was more descriptive than with males. The details seemed to be lacking with men, as if she really didn't pay much attention to them.

It got my mind thinking and wondering, if we had more in common than I originally thought. But I quickly cautioned myself not to read too much into the ramblings of 14 year old.

But ramblings aside, I felt myself being pulled in deeper and deeper.