Vanishing Alley

-9-

     That Monday morning, I woke up with such a nervous feeling in the pit of my stomach. Well, some of it was nerves and some was excitement. I was finally going to find out if there was any truth at all to that story. Of course, I didn't tell my parents about it because I already knew the lecture they would give me and frankly, I didn't need to hear everything I had already told myself since that first night after hearing the story. I was fully aware that this, most likely, was going to be a stupid waste of time, but at least it would be time spent with friends.

"So, what are your plans for today?" My dad asked me during breakfast.

"Oh, nothing special, I was just going to hang out with Amy and Philip this afternoon, if that's ok. I know I should have asked sooner."

"Sure, of course it is. Oh, I just realised... aren't Jamie and Sara supposed to be coming up this week?"

"Oh yeah! It's already the last week of July! I don't know when exactly they plan to come up, but I know it's sometime this coming week."

I couldn't believe I didn't realise we had already been there for 3 weeks! I started to wonder if Amy and Philip had also realised that Jamie and Sara were coming this week. Either way, we were going to meet-up. If we decided to wait, we would do something else. If not, we would just tell them about it later. As per usual, I left after lunch to meet-up with Amy and Philip. We almost always chose the afternoon because there was more time to hangout, unless of course, we planned to have lunch.

"Hey guys. How's it going? Long-time no see." It was a joke of course, since we had just seen each other that past Saturday.

"Very funny Clara," answered Amy. "Are you tired of us already?"

"Now who's cracking jokes? Of course, I'm not tired of you guys."

We all smiled at our little jokes as we started walking. That's when I mentioned to them about Jamie and Sara.

"Did you guys realise that Jamie and Sara are coming up to Muskoka this week?"

"Oh yeah!" They both looked at each other with the same realisation.

"Wow, I didn't realise it was already the end of July!" Philip said as he looked at Amy.

"Neither did I!", added Amy.

"So, the question now is... Do we still continue with our plan for the day? Or do we wait for them?" I asked them, kind of knowing what they'd say, and by the look on Amy's face, I was even more sure about it.

"You know, it's a fair question. But to be honest, I don't think I can wait any longer. Even if the story turns out to be fiction, I still want to try it. It's been on my mind all weekend."

"I have to agree with Amy," Philip added. "We could always tell them about it. I'm sure they won't be mad."

"So, we all agree. We're going to stick to our plan." I wanted to make sure we were all on the same page. "We're still doing this?"

Amy and Philip both looked at each other and together answered — "Agreed".

Now, truth be told, we didn't know where Helen was when she claims to have time travelled. We didn't know if she was in Canada, or the States. Maybe she was in Europe, or even somewhere in Africa. She could have been anywhere! After all, people did travel in the 1920s, albeit not with planes, but they travelled. The man who sold the watch never said where Helen lived, or where she was when she bought the watch. As we walked, we looked around and chose the most likely spot where we thought that, if it was going to happen, it would be in that area, fully aware of how ridiculous it sounded. But we were committed to it and had fully intended to go through with it, crazy or not. We chose to stop in front of a tiny shop, just like Helen did. It was narrow and sandwiched between 2 bigger stores. It looked like it was built in an actual alleyway, to be honest. We all looked at each other as if to say, in agreement, that this was it. This was where we were going to test the watch.

"Well, I guess this is as good a spot as any." I said to them, waiting to hear their thoughts and if there were any objections.

"Yeah, why not. I don't think we'll find a better spot." Amy added. "But then again, what would be considered a better spot?"

"Ok then, I guess this is it. Are you guys ready?"

They both nodded with a smile, "We're ready."

"Alright, here goes nothing." I took a deep breath and pulled the top pin on the watch. "Nothing's happening.", I said in a disappointed voice. At that point I looked down at my watch and, for some reason, I thought to turn the pin. The hands on the watch moved and I realised I had changed the time. "Oops, I think I pulled the wrong one. Sorry guys. Just give me a minute to fix the time back and I'll try the other pin. Ok, it has to be this one."

As I pulled the bottom pin on the watch, none of us could look up. We all looked at the watch with such nervous anticipation.

"Alright, you ready. On 3 - 1...2...3." We looked up and the store was still there.

"Maybe it doesn't happen right away?" Philip wondered, while Amy thought that if it worked, it would have happened right away. I looked down at my watch in disappointment. "Oh well, at least we tried, right?" I was ready to accept defeat; that the story was just that, a story. As I turned the pin to see if, for some reason, they put 2 pins to fix the time, I heard Amy calling me.

"Uh, Clara?"

Knowing nothing had happened, I didn't rush to look up as I continued to try to figure out what the other pin was for.

"Yeah, just a second."

"Clara." Now Philip was calling me. 'What could they want' I thought to myself.

"Guys, hold on, I'm just trying to figure out what this second pin does." I continued to turn it. I even took off the watch to see if it opened something in the back. I didn't know what to think about this pin anymore. When I turned it, only the seconds hand turned, well at least it looked like the seconds hand, (the watch had 3 - the minutes, the hours, and the third one that looked like the seconds). That's when I heard both of them yell...

"CLARA!!"

"WHAT??" I looked up at them, but they weren't looking at me. They were looking at the store. When I turned to see what they were staring at, I couldn't believe my eye.