Temporal Exploring 101 - First Transit

I.38 Return of the Ruggedly Handsome Devil

The day had not started well, for me.

Before the end of first period I had already spent a couple of singularly unpleasant minutes draped face-down across Allie's lap, getting my butt spanked and being lectured about the importance of paying attention in class.

Alright, I had not been paying attention properly, I am going to admit that. But Mr Haskins had been talking about the British Empire in his lesson and, truth be told, with decolonization in rapid progress, the British Empire had, for all intents and purposes, been dead for some time already, even in the 1960s.

Okay, so probably it had been a mistake on my part to to try and explain that to our history teacher when he had accused me of not paying attention. In any case, he had promptly filled out one of the dreaded yellow slips of paper, handed it to me and ordered me to pay a visit to my tutor.

At least this time around I had known what lay ahead. The short-haired girl from the other Upper Fifth  sitting on a bench in front of Allie's office had taken one look at my face and commented: "Getting your ass beaten, huh?"

I had nodded glumly. There had been little doubt in my mind that this was exactly what was going to happen.

All too soon, my tutor had arrived on the scene.

"You're here to talk about your schedule, aren't you, Phoebe?" Allie had asked the other girl, after briefly glancing at the slip of paper Mr Haskins had given me. "I am afraid you will have to wait until I am done with Cathy here."

She had ushered me into her office. Sure enough, I had ended up across her knee. To her credit, Allie had been very matter of fact about it. When I had left Allie's office a couple of minutes later, the girl Phoebe had cast me a pitying look.

Now, almost seven hours later, I was in our dorm room, arguing with my roommate in a last-ditch attempt to prevent her from doing something phenomenally stupid.

"You can't do that. It's too dangerous."

It must have been the third or fourth time I repeated this.

Unfortunately, Natty would not listen to reason.

"This could be my only chance ever to learn anything about my family. I am not going to let you ruin that for me."

Apparently, a few days ago, a girl at our school had been approached by a man while she and her friends were visiting the nearby town of Arlesten. That guy had given her some money and asked her to deliver a message to Natty: if she was interested in learning about her family, she should meet him in a public cafe in Arlesten, at some specified day and time. The specified day was today, and the time 5:30 p.m.

I had attempted everything I could think of to dissuade Natty from meeting with the stranger. I had even told her what I had learned from Lena about the incident involving the mysterious man who had visited St. Albert's a few months ago, introducing himself as a representative of the Chochet Foundation and requesting to talk to Natty, alone. The school secretary, Sandra Bale, had been quite smitten with the man's looks, referring to him as a 'ruggedly handsome devil'. But Headmistress Stuart, ever suspicious, had asked for his ID and called up the Chochet Foundation, who had promptly told her that they had never sent any emissary to St. Albert's. Stuart had informed the police, but when they had finally arrived on the scene the man had been gone, leaving behind his fake ID.

I had even mentioned our headmistress's suspicion that the stranger might have been attempting to kidnap Natty.

All to no avail.

"How can he kidnap or abduct me in the middle of a public cafe, with tourists all around?" Natty had inquired, not unreasonably.

"Alright. In  that case, I shall accompany you," I declared.