Someday We'll Be Together

Chapter 2- The Forest

Lena woke up to the noise and commotion coming from downstairs. Half-awake, she went downstairs and found her parents scolding Max.
"My God, what's going on this early in the morning?" she asked in a sleepy voice.
"Max. He smashed the car to pieces after dropping his girlfriend off last night," Leo said as he passed by and went upstairs.
Lena frowned:
"You can't be serious."
"You're just like your father!" shouted Mrs. Fontana. Hearing this, Mr. Fontana intervened:
"What does this have to do with me?"
"Your alcohol problems are affecting your children too!"
"You're the one who lets your son go out with some weird girl after dark!"
Max took the opportunity of his parents fighting to slip away and go upstairs. Lena followed her brother.
Max continued playing video games, ignoring Lena who sat down next to him.
"Good thing I smashed the car after getting this game. Otherwise, they would never let me out," he said, grinning. Lena looked at the game Max was playing. It looked like a more advanced version of a game she had seen before.
"I think I've seen you play this before," she said, watching the game on the computer screen.
"No, this is not GTA San Andreas. It's much better. GTA 4 just came out this year. It's amazing."
As Lena continued to watch the game, she heard her phone ring. Natasha Bedingfield's "Pocketful of Sunshine," her favorite song since it came out, was her ringtone. Lena hummed along for a while, then left her brother's room and answered the phone. The caller was an unknown number.
"Hi Lena, it's Tyler."
That strange feeling filled Lena again.
"Hi," said Lena.
"Do you want to meet up for the project?"
"Sure."
"Okay, I'll pick you up from your house in half an hour. You live on... Town Springs Street, right?"
"Oh, yes, but that's not necessary. How about we meet at the market?"
"The market?"
Lena didn't want Tyler's car to be seen by anyone at home.
"Yes, and we can also grab some snacks while we work."
"Good idea, see you there then."
"See you."
Lena returned to her brother. Max asked Lena without taking his eyes off the game:
"Who was it?"
"Marla," Lena lied.
"She wants me to help her arrange some new products at the market," she continued.
Marla was Lena's best friend and three years older than her. Her father owned a small but well-known market in the town, and Marla had always been there with him as long as Lena could remember.
At that moment, Max jumped up and, in his frustration at losing the game, threw the game controller aside:
"God! This guy is such an idiot! I couldn't kill him no matter what. Have they made the missions harder or what?"
Then he turned to Lena:
"When are you going to change your ringtone? It kills me every time I hear that song."
"Maybe I'll make it one of Avril Lavigne's or Britney Spears' new songs," said Lena as she left the room.
Lena went to her room and put her phone on the table, then looked at herself in the mirror. She didn't know why she was doing this. It was as if she was trying to look good for someone, but the only person she was going to meet was Tyler, with whom she had to do a project. She took out her low-rise jeans, typical of the 2000s, from her closet. She brushed her long brown hair and quickly got dressed. She put her research notebook and lucky pen in her bag. When she left her room, she ran into Max in the hallway. When Max saw her all dressed up, he asked with a disbelieving look on his face,
"Did you get all dressed up to help Marla arrange products?"
"Yes. After all, I'm going out," Lena said as she opened the door.
"I wonder who you'll meet later," Max said. Lena turned to him and said,
"There's no one else. Then I'll go to the library for my research project."
Of course, this wasn't true.
"Who goes to the library when there's a computer at home?" Max persisted. He didn't believe Lena would go to the library.
"I need access to government archives," Lena said.
"My God, what are you, an FBI agent or something?"
"It's just for a project! I have to find an interesting place in Park Springs and research its history."
"Which place did you choose?"
"I haven't decided yet. That's why I'm going to research. Maybe I'll find something interesting."
"Good luck," Max said, shrugging. Then he went back to his room and slammed the door behind him.
As Lena was putting on her shoes at the door, she ran into her mother.
"Where are you going at this hour in the morning?" Mrs. Fontana asked in a suspicious tone.
"I have to do research at the library for my history project," said Lena in a fake tone, tired of being questioned by everyone. So much so that her mother believed it.
"Good luck," she said, smiling.
Lena couldn't understand why her mother believed her so quickly, but her mother knew she often went to the library to do research. Without running into anyone else, she managed to get outside. Listening to her favorite Britney Spears album on her MP3 player, she headed towards the market in the town square. A passing municipal vehicle's announcement interrupted her music:
"Re-elect Mayor Humphred! Progress is Georgina Hamphred's middle name. Park Springs has never been this beautiful. Vote for Mayor Hamphred!"
"Just before entering the market, she stopped by Starbucks for a coffee. As she rounded the corner, she noticed Tyler waiting for her in front of the market. She quickly took out her pocket mirror and checked herself. She fixed her hair and approached Tyler.
"Oh, hi Tyler!"
Tyler smiled when he saw Lena.
"Hi Lena."
"Hope I didn't keep you waiting too long," Lena said, feeling embarrassed.
"No, no, actually I just got here too."
When Tyler leaned back against the market door, it opened and he almost fell, but he quickly recovered, grinned, and made a gesture as if to let Lena in first. Lena entered, and Tyler followed her. At that moment, the girl placing boxes under the counter looked up at the newcomers. "Lena! So nice to see you," she said, smiling at her friend. "Hi Marla, I'm here with my school friend Tyler to grab some snacks," Lena said, getting straight to the point. She then realized she'd made a big mistake. She had told Marla how much she hated Tyler while gossiping about school. "Hi, I'm Tyler," Tyler said, unaware of the situation, waving at Marla.
Marla turned to Lena:
"Isn't this the boy you always say you hate?"
Lena cut her off and immediately changed the subject:
"Well, actually, we've been assigned to do a project together. Do you know any places worth discovering in Park Springs?"
"Hmm, let me think... There's a forest under the settlement areas. Do you know it?" asked Marla.
"Lincoln Forest?" asked Lena.
"Yes. It's the only place in Park Springs without people. If you're lucky, you might discover interesting things," said Marla.
"That's a good idea," said Tyler, flipping through some newspapers.
"Did you know a scientist disappeared in that forest a long time ago?" Marla asked.
"I'd heard about it somewhere, but that's quite an interesting topic, isn't it?" Lena asked Tyler, who was holding chips, a soda, and a newspaper.
"Oh, definitely. It sounds like a very interesting topic," said Tyler, clearly focused on satisfying his hunger as the girls talked.
As Marla rang up Tyler's items at the register, Lena noticed Tyler looking at her and then turned to him.
"Does anyone still read newspapers in 2008?" Marla asked, giving Tyler a strange look.
Tyler, taking advantage of the question, stopped looking at Lena and turned to Marla, escaping the awkward moment.
"Well, actually my dad reads them," he said.
Marla nodded.
"That'll be 5.99."
As Tyler took out some change, he asked Lena:
"Aren't you getting anything?"
"Actually, I'm not feeling hungry," Lena said, with a fake smile on her face.
Tyler handed the money to Marla and headed outside.
"Good luck with the weird kid," Marla said to Lena.
"Booyah," Lena replied, giving Marla a look that indicated she wasn't pleased with the situation.
Tyler and Lena began walking toward Tyler's car. They passed by the basketball court next to the parking lot. Tyler's eyes seemed to be looking for someone there.
"I haven't seen that one before," Lena said, referring to the chips Tyler was holding.
Tyler, his attention diverted from the basketball court, was startled.
"Did you say something?"
"I haven't seen that one before," Lena repeated.
"Oh, this? I saw it in the weekly market flyer in the best chips of the month section."
"Is there really such a section?"
"Want to try it?"
"How does it taste?"
"Like guacamole," Tyler said, offering Lena the Doritos Guacamole. Lena shook her head to indicate she didn't want any.
"Save Lincoln Forest!" said a woman suddenly, shaking a donation jar at Lena and Tyler.
She was from the Volunteers of the Municipality.
"For years, it's been a crucial green space for Park Springs! A construction company wants to build houses here with the city's agreement. Don't let this happen!"
Tyler quickly took out a quarter and put it in the jar to stop the woman from talking more.
"Thank you. Don't forget to take a flyer," she said, handing Lena a flyer. After the woman left, Tyler showed Lena his car.
"So... are we going to the forest?" he asked.
Lena nodded and got into the car. She was reading the flyer in her hand. Marla's words came to her mind. A scientist named Margaret Lincoln disappeared in that forest twenty years ago, and the forest was named after her. It said the woman had vanished suddenly during a stormy night. The town's people speculated it might have been related to her last experiment. Some even claimed she built a time machine and disappeared.
At that moment, Tyler broke the silence:
"The more I get to know you, the more I see you're nothing like the other girls at school."
"In what way?" Lena asked, looking up from the flyer at Tyler.
"In every way. Your style is so different. You do remarkable work, you don't do the boring and stupid things the others do."
Lena didn't expect to hear this from Tyler. She stared at him.
"Oh, I mean, being different isn't a bad thing. In fact, it's a very good thing," Tyler said, his voice getting quieter as he spoke, watching Lena for her reaction.
"Yeah, is that so? I didn't know you thought that. You used to call me a freak," Lena said, looking out the car window.
"You have so many qualities I got wrong; even if I apologize a million times, you wouldn't be wrong for not forgiving me," Tyler said, embarrassed.
"It's okay, I did the same to you," Lena said, smiling at Tyler.
Tyler didn't say anything. He just smiled.
Five minutes later, the car slowed down and stopped at the forest entrance. Lena and Tyler got out of the car.
"I guess you know this place better than I do," Tyler said.
"Actually, I used to come here with my dad to fish when I was a kid," Lena said.
She started walking ahead. After a ten-minute walk, they saw the sky covered with clouds. Shortly after, it started pouring rain.
"It's unfortunate that it started raining," Tyler said.
"It's not that big of a deal," Lena said.
"Let's go this way. Maybe there's somewhere we can take shelter," she added.
They took the right path at the fork. Lena realized she didn't remember ever coming here. At that moment, her foot slipped on the wet ground, and she fell. When she fell, she noticed something. The two-meter hole next to her was actually a cave.
Tyler offered his hand to help her up.
"Oh my God, look at this. We can stay here until the rain stops," Lena said, pointing down. Tyler knelt down and looked where Lena pointed.
"Good idea," he said, nodding.
Lena grabbed the tree next to her and stood up. Her pants were covered in mud, and her hair was sticking to her face. Holding onto the tree, she jumped down. Tyler followed her. When Lena turned towards the cave, she screamed:
"Oh my God!"
"W-what is that?"
Tyler turned around to see what Lena was pointing at. A human skeleton was lying at the cave entrance.
"Oh my God."
"Could there be a bear inside?" Lena asked, worried.
"I don't think so. The cave isn't deep; it's closed off at the back," Tyler said.
"And the skeleton is decayed. It must be from a long time ago," he added.
Lena approached the skeleton. She noticed a brown box partially buried in the ground next to it.
"Look, there really are interesting things here," Lena said. Tyler approached Lena and looked at what she was pointing at.
"Help me get this out," Lena said. They grabbed the rusty handle of the box and pulled. It wasn't difficult to remove the box since the ground was wet.
"Wow, look at this," Tyler said excitedly.
"It probably belonged to the person lying here," Lena said, looking at the skeleton next to her.
"Could it be the scientist the girl in the market mentioned?" Tyler said in a mocking tone.
Lena knew Tyler was joking, but the idea didn't seem far-fetched. She looked at him with a mixture of excitement and horror.
Meanwhile, Tyler was examining the lock on the box.
"We can break this and open it," he added.
Lena looked at the rusty lock:
"Right, the lock is already rusted. It shouldn't be too hard to break." She picked up a stone from the ground. She then hit the lock hard several times. After a while, the lock broke and fell to the ground. Lena excitedly opened the box. Inside, there was a notebook with yellowed pages, a Polaroid camera from the 80s, and a tape.
"I expected more valuable things," Tyler said, disappointed. "You didn't expect to find treasure, did you?" Lena said. She picked up the camera and examined it. Then she picked up the notebook and flipped through the pages. There were numerous sketches of cameras and notes written in messy handwriting. On the cover of the notebook, it said "Margaret Lincoln, 1983."
"Oh my God, we found her!" Lena said, with excitement and astonishment.
"The missing scientist?" Tyler asked, bewildered.
"Yes!" Lena said, examining the items in the box.
"How can you be sure?" Tyler asked, confused.
Lena showed him the flyer she took out of her pocket:
"Her name is Margaret Lincoln, she disappeared in this forest twenty years ago. These items belonged to her."
Tyler looked at the flyer:
"What I don't understand is, how did we find the woman no one has found for twenty years by chance?"
"Yes, it's very strange. No one found her for twenty years."
"Maybe it wasn't in anyone's interest to find her."
"Why not? A scientist does pretty important work, doesn't she?"
"I heard from my dad once. This woman used to cut off the electricity for the whole town for her experiments. She was nuts, you see."
"We need to learn more about this woman," Lena said, standing up.
"At least we have a topic for the project," Tyler said, still disappointed. Lena placed the camera, notebook, and tape back into the box and closed it. Then she started walking.
"Hey, where are you going?" Tyler called after her.
"We need to go to the library," Lena said.
"But it's still raining," Tyler said.
"We don't have time to waste. We need to learn as much as we can about this woman from the state archives," Lena said.
At that moment, Tyler, holding the camera, pressed the power button. A small green screen on the camera lit up, displaying a series of numbers one after another.
"Hey, did these Polaroids have screens on them?"
Lena looked at the camera Tyler handed to her.
"No, look, this screen has been added later."
"What do these numbers mean?"
Lena looked at the three rows of numbers on the small screen. Each sequence was different.
"We'll check these at the library. Let's hurry."
"With that, Lena and Tyler quickened their pace and soon reached the car at the forest entrance. They then drove to the library. Lena examined the notebook along the way, trying to understand the writings. The texts were in a different language, but Lena realized the equations were related to space-time continuity.
They entered the library soaking wet and headed downstairs to the state archives. Lena opened the Park Springs Archive page on one of the computers. She typed "Margaret Lincoln" into the search bar. A few old newspapers appeared on the screen, all from 1983. Below them were older, article-style documents. She clicked on one of the top newspapers. It was titled "Mysterious Scientist Disappears."
"She disappeared on November 11, 1983," Tyler said.
"Hey, give me that camera," he added, looking excited as if he had discovered something. Lena handed him the camera.
"What does it say?"
Tyler showed the flashing screen to Lena. "Current: 01112008 18:23
Destination: 05111983 17:30
Expiry: 12111983 21:25"
"What do these mean?" Lena asked.
"November 12, 1983. Could it be related to the 'expiry' date?" Tyler speculated.
"Yes, of course! These are dates, Tyler. Look, today's date is November 1, 2008. The 'current' part shows today's date. The numbers beside it are the time. It's exactly 18:23," Lena said, showing her digital watch that read 18:23.
"So if the top part shows the current time and the bottom part shows the last used date, what does 'destination' mean?"
Lena looked at the number "05111983."
"November 5, 1983. I don't know, maybe there's some information about it in the woman's notebook."
While Lena was flipping through the woman's notebook, Tyler started examining the number keys on the camera. "Is this thing also a calculator or something?"
Lena looked up from the notebook at the keys Tyler was showing. The keys looked like they had been taken from an old calculator and placed on the camera.
"I think these buttons are for adjusting the dates."
"But being able to change the current date and the last used date would be ridiculous, wouldn't it?"
"Yes, that would be quite ridiculous. So it must be related to the 'destination' part."
"But what could the date have to do with a destination? Does it let you go to the date you want?"
"Yes!" Lena shouted.
A few people in the library looked at them.
"That's it! This is a time machine, look, it even says here."
"Nonsense," Tyler said.
Lena showed him a page from the woman's notebook with a drawing of the camera. The title read "Potential Time Machine."
"So you're telling me this woman invented a time machine?" Tyler asked, bewildered.
"I'm not saying it, here is the evidence."
Tyler took the notebook from Lena.
"This is crazy, how can someone invent a time machine from a simple Polaroid?"
"She's a scientist, didn't you say she was a bit of a nutcase?"
"Yeah, but this is the craziest thing I've ever heard. I would expect a time machine to be made from something cooler. A spaceship or a car, maybe. A Polaroid doesn't make any sense. And how does it even work? Does it transport you to the date when you take a picture? Wouldn't that be ridiculous? Is the person taking the picture transported, or the subjects in the photo? Do you have unlimited transportation-"
Lena interrupted Tyler's endless questions.
"Tyler, I think all these questions are answered in this," Lena said, holding up the tape. Tyler nodded, looking at the tape in Lena's hand.