Time Escape

Chapter Four

"Okay, just tell me what's going on!" I had to stand up from the couch and looked at her questioningly. At this rate, I was about to lose my temper and this rarely happened in front of Emily. But I just couldn't help it. I couldn't keep pretending everything was normal around here. She looked up at me, confused.
"What? What should I tell you? I don't know what you're talking about," she stuttered.
"I'm sorry," I sighed, sinking back into my seat and realizing how irrational I was being. "It's just that... err... I don't know how to explain it to you..." Desperate because of this frustrating situation, I threw my hands in the air.
"Just tell me," she said patiently, maybe too patiently. "I'm your sister, remember? You can tell me anything." I didn't know why I felt like cringing when she reminded me that she was my sister. Apparently, I would learn the reason soon.
"Right... Promise not to laugh at me...," I gave in. Maybe it was really best to be completely honest.
"I won't," she promised, looking at me expectantly.
"It's just that it's all so weird since Saturday! First, Dad calls... which is weird anyway. Then he tells me about David getting into trouble – weird as well – and Mom not worrying about it... Is this a gigantic joke you all are playing on me??" I kept on waving around my hands while I was talking. "And then, you come over here, spontaneously – okay, I have to admit, that's not really unusual for you – but, you come over here and I feel as if you know something you don't want to tell me... I, I... What am I supposed to make of this?" I asked her, exasperated. I was so confused, I couldn't think clearly anymore. The only thought in my head was 'I just want to know what's going on. Please, tell me if this is a joke.'
Emily watched me, as I fell onto the couch. I had stood up and walked about without even noticing it. I was so agitated; I had to get rid of all that energy, that anger building up inside of me. And this fear that took hold of me at the same time... I almost felt nauseous due to these mixed feelings.
"Hey," she reached out to touch my arm, "calm down. Shall I get you a cup of tea? Then I'm going to tell you everything..." she paused. "You're right. There's something I was hiding from you. And I guess it was a wrong thing to do. Wait a minute." My eyes followed her vanishing into the kitchen and coming back with my favorite mug filled with sweat tea, then putting it onto the coffee table right in front of me. She appeared so calm, so peaceful. Just the way I wanted to be at that moment. Somehow, her being so patient with me made me relax slowly. I took a sip of tea from my mug and watched her pulling over a chair and sitting down in front of me instead of returning to her place on the couch.
"Hm," she said pensively, "tricky thing to do."
"What?" I asked weakly. At that moment, my flustered state had gotten me too exhausted to form proper sentences.
"Laura, I promise you: Everything that I'm going to tell you now is true. I'm not kidding, do you understand? This is serious, I'm not joking, even though this'll sound really weird to you." I looked at her, clueless. On the one hand, her words made me enormously curious about what she was going to tell me. On the other hand, I was slightly scared. She didn't sound as if she wanted to make fun of me though. So, I just nodded and prepared myself for the worst.
"Ready?" she wanted to assure herself. Still unable to speak, I nodded once more. "Well then... As I said, this'll sound weird and even unrealistic to you..." she inhaled deeply, before revealing her secret; the one secret that made my whole world change within the blink of an eye.

"You are what??" I shrieked because I couldn't believe my own ears. I was about to laugh, when I remembered that I promised her not to. It was just so ridiculous. But at the same time, it was really frightening.
"Laura, you heard me. I'm...," she forced herself to repeat what she had told me, "I'm really from the future. And no, this is not a science-fiction movie you got yourself into."
"But why... How?" I wasn't even able to put my confused thoughts into words.
"Believe me," she snorted, "if I wanted to tell you the whole story, it would take me ages to do so. Also, it wouldn't do you any good either. You wouldn't understand half of the facts anyway." My expression must've been very obvious because she answered the question in my thoughts.
"My time journey won't do you any harm. I would lie, if I said the whole thing wasn't dangerous. But I can assure you, you won't get hurt at all. There are no crazy tornados appearing in your room and trying to catch you like in those old science-fiction movies. Calm down." She even mentioned scenarios I didn't think of before. And what did she mean by 'old' science-fiction movies? Then I realized, 'oh right, she's from the future'.
When I finally found my voice again, I asked carefully, "How many years are we, like, apart?"
"You mean: how many years I traveled back?" she rephrased my question.
"Um, yeah."
"That would be five years," she answered calmly. I already got used to her tranquility. In fact, it was good for my nerves. This whole worrying earlier had got me really exhausted. I couldn't completely grasp what she said yet. I wasn't sure whether I was dreaming or whether it was reality. I felt like a squeezed orange...
"So, you're twenty-nine?" I wanted all these questions in my head to be answered.
She let out a giggle before replying, "Yes, Laura, I'm twenty-nine."
"You don't look like it..." I said curiously.
"What do you intend to tell me with that?" she smirked. "Twenty-nine isn't old, if that's what you mean."
"No, I didn't want to..." Now I felt somewhat ashamed for what I had said.
"It's okay. Calm down. I can imagine what shock it must be to you that time journeys are really possible. That's why I actually tried to save you from this revelation and from this heart attack you must've nearly had. You okay?" she asked, when I didn't say anything anymore. "You want another cup of tea? Or a cup of coffee? What can I do to make you feel better?"
"No, thanks, it's okay. It's just a lot of information which I have to digest first... the future...," I trailed off, I was speechless. And then it hit me! This was the reason why I felt she was different somehow. She wasn't the Emily I knew from the present. She was more grown-up. And she probably knew all about David being so weird at that moment because she went through this once before. This was why she knew much more about me than I did and why she hadn't really seemed surprised about me having called David the previous day. She had probably just tried to have me believe she had no idea. The reason why I felt as if she was enacting a part in a play, was that she was indeed acting the part of her younger self. It was all so confusing, but my mind became clearer, as my questions got answered; answered by the simple yet unrealistic fact that she was from the future.
"And why did you get on this... this journey?" I wondered, swallowing several times because my throat had gotten dry. "I guess it must've happened something really serious, if you have to make this difficult journey."
"You understand that I'm not supposed to tell you too much about the future, right? I can only tell you the most important things, I'm afraid," she said.
"Why?" I didn't want to accept this answer, stubborn as I was.
"Laura, just think. It would influence your future too much. Anyway, I guess you might go crazy, if you knew everything that's going to happen. But you're still able to change everything anyway... That's just the reason I'm not allowed to tell you all the details."
"Err... okay. Then tell me what you're allowed to," I begged. I somehow needed information. I felt like a sponge taking in every single drop of water I could. Otherwise, I'd feel very empty and left alone. Weird comparison, I know, but that was just the way I felt at that moment.
"Mh, let's see," future Emily finally said. "The thing that's happened is serious, indeed. And it has to do with our family. I'm not sure how much I can tell you..." I looked at her while she was thinking about what she was going to reveal to me. She appeared so familiar to me and yet, she wasn't the Emily I'd known all my life... It was a crazy thing to think about. Then something else came to my mind. But Emily was still speaking. "...maybe it wouldn't be bad for you to know that this situation with David that began a few days ago takes an important part in that deal..."
"Wait a moment," I interrupted her.
"What?" she looked at me, suddenly alert.
"What if the real Emily... err, sorry... I mean, what if the present Emily finds out about you? Wouldn't that be really weird for her?" I questioned. She was surprised. She didn't seem to have thought of this before.
"You're right... how about I pretend to be you in that case?" she suggested.
"And you think that'll work? What if she runs into both of us at the same time?" I wasn't used to keeping a secret from my sister and it didn't feel right either. And what made me so sure this wasn't a joke at all? Why was I so sure that my family wasn't having a laugh at me? I guess it must've been her behavior. I could see she wasn't the Emily from the present. Still, everything about the situation was hard to believe.
"My so to say 'past' me should be in Spain right now," she remembered. "So actually, we shouldn't have anything to worry about."
"Can I call her?" I urged.
"Why would you want to do that?" she asked me suspiciously.
"I don't know... just to make sure she isn't near us? Or maybe I could ask her about what she knows about the David situation right now?"
Emily began to laugh. When I looked at her, obviously confused, she said, "Oh, I'm sorry. You were serious? I was just laughing because, hey, here I am; knowing about everything I went through the past years, and nonetheless, you want to call the version of me that knows less..." She had a point, I had to admit. But I felt uneasy doing nothing about it at all. Then she went on...
"But if it makes you feel better to talk to the present me, then go ahead!"
"You won't be mad at me, if I do?" I asked cautiously.
"Why should I? I guess it's confusing enough for you to hear about such a freaky thing like time journeys. Why shouldn't you call her? Go ahead. In the meantime, I'm going to figure out what we're going to do next." She didn't appear to be angry. So, I thought calling 'my' Emily wouldn't do any harm.

I went into the hall, picked up the phone and slowly dialed Emi's number. All I heard through the phone was: "This is Emily Gartner. I'm afraid you haven't reached me at the right time. Please leave a message after the signal." Right, I'm so dumb when I'm nervous... 'Future Emily' just told me a minute ago that 'Present Emily' was in Spain at the time and what am I doing? I go ahead and dial Emi's number in London. All that was left for me to do was ringing her on her cell phone.
"Emily Gartner. How may I help you?" When I heard my sister's voice on the phone, I was so relieved. I was nearly not able to speak.
When I managed to collect myself, I answered, "Oh hi Emi! I'm so glad I caught you on the phone. This is Laura."
"Laura, I know it's you. My phone display told me that," she giggled, "so, what's going on?" Suddenly, I was paralyzed. What was going on indeed? I couldn't tell her about 'Future Emily'. This was confusing enough, even for me. How would she react to that fact? Anyway, I figured, Emily had a reason why she didn't want her 'past me' to know about her. I didn't want to sabotage her mission.
"Err... nothing really. I was just bored and was in the mood of ringing you," I was such a bad liar!! She must have heard my voice trembling. But no, she didn't seem to notice. I silently thanked the phone connection, which didn't reveal the anxiety in my voice.
"How sweet of you!" she exclaimed. "And what have you been up to, lately?"
"I wondered whether you got my e-mail," I made up, knowing she couldn't check her mails daily being abroad.
"Oh, I'm sorry, I've been in Spain for vacation since last Saturday. You remember that? Was it urgent?"
"I'm not sure. That's why I wanted to hear your opinion. Did Dad tell you about what is going on with David?"
"I guess not. What about him?" she asked. I wasn't prepared for that. I thought Dad had told her something. But then it suddenly hit me: Dad had mentioned something about not being able to get in touch with Emily. Everything finally made sense, I realized. But now, I had to answer my sister's question. And since I'm not someone who lies to her sister, I told her about the phone call from Dad and the conversation with David a day later.
"Hm, you're right. It does sound weird," she replied a few moments after I finished the story, "I promise you I'm going to get back to you very soon. But I'm afraid I have to go now. But I'll definitely think about it." Somehow I was relieved to hear that. She didn't sound suspicious, but why should she be? About three hours ago, I hadn't thought of such crazy time escapes as well. Throughout the whole conversation with Emily on the phone, I watched the 'Future Emily' scribbling tons of ideas down into her notebook. As I hung up the phone, she gazed up at me.
"So?" she asked.
"She didn't know anything about the whole deal," I said.
"I thought so," she nodded.
"Yeah right," I admitted. "But it did make me feel a lot better. At least, I know now you're not kidding me."
"Sweetheart, I would never be kidding about such a kind of thing, you know that," she assured me.
"Okay, I'm going to trust you. But promise me that I won't ever regret that."
"You won't. I swear!" she said firmly. And I believed her.