A Novelist

Discoveries

The next morning, Benjamin sneaked into Edmund’s room while the grandparents stayed at rest.  With pages and pens stuffed in every possible pocket, he jumped into the air and landed on the bed, popping Edmund’s body into the air momentarily.  Upon landing, Edmund shot upright.

“Hey, I’ve been doing some work,” Benjamin announced.

Edmund rubbed his eyes and snuggled back down under the covers, mumbling inaudible responses.  Annoyed, Benjamin rolled up a piece of paper and hammered Edmund with it.

"Stop it! I’m awake!”  Edmund neatened up his nightshirt and hair before breaking into a very large yawn.

"I think only our minds can travel through time.  Our bodies remain stationary, sadly.”  He gave Edmund an exaggerated sad face at that clarification.  “And you’re seeing mirrors because they’re reflecting time, and I see clocks because, well, obviously, clocks tell time.  Now, are we the only two in the entire universe who are experiencing this?  Hopefully so.”

"Listen, Benjamin, we’ve only gotten an hour of sleep.  In twenty minutes the maids will be making noise downstairs.”

"Hear me out, now—come on, don’t be such a sore wart!”  Benjamin shot a hand forward and lightly slapped Edmund in the face.  “Now, how does this opening into the future work?  I don’t know.  I really don’t have an answer for that, at least not yet.  Why can we see ahead?  Like you said last night—,”

"You mean an hour ago?”  Edmund corrected in a dull voice.

"Maybe you’re right.  Maybe we’re supposed to change something.”

"That’s terrific that you finally agree with me.  Now, will you please leave so that I may rest for ten minutes before I have to hear that bag-of-bones—,” Edmund stopped in mid-sentence and his eyes widened.  He scrambled out of the sheets and huddled close in front of Benjamin.  “I think something just made sense.  When you first arrived, you spoke with a horrible dialect—,”

"Sorry to offend thee!” Benjamin turned his back on Edmund and crossed his arms.  Partly for the show, partly because he was a bit hurt.

"Don’t behave in that manner!  Listen closely.  Our minds can travel forward, yes, but what we see in the future becomes part of us.  Therefore, we might as well have been there ourselves.”

"What are you getting at?”

"I’m saying, you’ve been in the future, but you don’t remember being there until last night—,”

 "I’m listening,” Benjamin interrupted, keeping full attention to his friend’s next words.

"Well, oh, it’s so confusing.  But it’s like you’ve made a loop in time.  You went into the future, you were there, you come back to now, and you still think as you did in the future—,”

"All right, all right, enough gibberish.  You are trying to explain to me that I don’t remember when I’ve been in the future.  But that I speak in the style of people in the future?”

"Yes. But you don’t know that because you’re not there now.  It’s almost like looking at a timeline and just moving you from here to there.”  Edmund’s face lit up at his theory and he waited for Benjamin’s approval.

"I think I know what you’re trying to say.  But I dream in skips and jumps; I don’t go in a linear sequence, which it sounds like you do.  I suppose I should be more careful with how I speak, right?”

"I suppose, dude!”  Edmund broke out in a string of laughter that resembled a chipmunk.

Benjamin couldn’t help but follow, only because he found Edmund’s laugh humorous.  “You remember people saying that, too?  Gosh, they sound strange.”

Energetically, Edmund prodded Benjamin in the shoulder.  “Not to mention ‘bro.’ What does that derive from?”

"Probably, ‘brother.’  Oh, this is even more fantastic.”  Benjamin sprung to his feet and stood up tall like a well-educated young man.  He held his hands in proper positions so that his fingers appeared as if they floated.  He raised his chin slightly and his eyebrows slanted in pretend snobbishness.  In a heavy English accent, Benjamin spoke in a raised voice, “What’s up, homie?”

The two of them broke into stifled laughter that made their cheeks burst into red circles.  Edmund reached out and slapped Benjamin on the shoulder.

"Oh, Lord.  They sound like idiots!”

"How can people talk in such crudity?”  Benjamin inquired.  “I must say, I do like the looks of the fifties.  I only saw glimpses of that; didn’t stay long because you woke me up.”

Edmund nodded his head.  “I agree with you there. But I love the progression of music—until the 2000’s. I love the jazz, rock and roll, folk, and, what is it called?” Edmund snapped his fingers and scratched the side of his head. “Oh yes, R&B.  The performers don’t sing opera or anything, but still, they sound beautiful.”

"And the women? I was like—,” Benjamin’s eyes bugged out and his jaw dropped, “I can’t explain exactly; I was astonished.”  His face turned a shade of pink and he pulled at his collar.

Edmund knocked him in the shoulder and gave him a toss of the head.  “They’re quite exposed, aren’t they?”

"To say the least.  I think I’ve only seen the twenty-first century with bits and parts here and there.  Maybe if I fall asleep again, we can talk about more things.”

True.  I finally don’t feel like I’m by myself anymore.”  Edmund gave his friend a quick smile.  Then he became quiet and pensive, appearing to move back to his lonely world.

Benjamin walked out of the room and closed the door.  Hoping to catch a few moments of sleep, he headed back to his room.  Sighing, he murmured to himself, “We can’t change history.”  The excitement had worn off and he began realizing that their discovery could put them in danger.  He winced, knowing they shouldn’t continue their secret adventure.  He had to put a stop to it, or destroy the book all together.  But he knew he was up against an encounter far greater than the novel: the author.