“Trey! Stop Trey! You can’t do this! You’ll ruin everything! Dammit Trey, get back here!”
I can hear my dad yelling at my big brother outside. Dad knows how to throw his voice through people’s jump tears, but all the neighbors probably think he’s crazy yelling into thin air like that.
Trey won’t come back. He came to talk to me before Dad got home. He seems to think something is wrong with the Agency. No matter how many times I asked though, Trey wouldn’t tell me what it was. He just told me it was better if I didn’t know; that I wasn’t in the company yet. He said he’d come back for me if he could, but Trey isn’t coming back.
I remember the day I first jumped. It was 3rd period: Mr. Hampton’s U.S. History class, and I had a migraine. The pain in my skull had been growing and expanding since I’d woken up that morning and I was starting to feel sick. If I can just make it to the end of the day I can go home and sleep. The End of Grade tests were next week and I really needed all the in-class review work I could get.
Mr. Hampton’s constant droning was like a blunt object slowly being forced into my left temple. The kid sitting next to me was tapping his pencil against my desk so loudly I thought my eardrums might continue vibrating to the beat for several minutes after if he stopped.
When the bell rang for first lunch, I nearly vomited into the mass of curls that the girl in front of me had certainly spent a lot of time on that morning.
Suddenly lurching out of my seat, I ran from the room.
Barely making it to the bathroom in time, I began to throw up in the nearest toilet and suddenly instead of a toilet in front of me, I was back in Mr. Hampton’s history class, throwing up in the hair of the girl in front of me. In the midst of her screaming, Mr. Hampton gasping, and the rest of the class laughing, I heard the bell go off. Looking up at the clock I felt my stomach go cold. That bell was for first lunch. That bell went off five minutes ago. What the hell?
Looking around I apologized and excused myself from the room. Again reaching the bathroom I searched it for any sign I had thrown up there. Nothing. Panicking, I ran to the office and told the secretary I was sick and needed to go home. After looking at me a little funny she obliged and called my dad.
Thirty minutes later I was sitting in the back of my dad’s station wagon with my head out the window. Trey drove while my dad sat next to me trying to calm me down.
“What do you mean our whole family can time travel?!”
“Son, I need you to calm down. If you don’t relax you may accidentally do it again. This is normal. Take a deep breath.”
Gulping air, I tried to wrap my thirteen-year-old mind around the fact that time travel was real and had been possible for several millennia. Then I had to rewrap my mind around the fact that it was a gene that just so happened to run in MY family.
“That’s good, breathe Quincy- let it sink in.”
Nodding my head like an idiot I pulled my head back into the vehicle. I stared wide-eyed between my dad and my brother. They were both time travelers. I was a time traveler. Holy shit! Breathe. Remember to breathe.
Leaning my face against the cool glass of the window I finally croaked out a question. “Why was this kept a secret from me for so long?”
Trey chuckled a little, undoubtedly because of how cliché my reaction probably was, but let Dad explain.
“Well, at first it was to keep you both safe. Kids don’t keep secrets very well. Then your brother jumped for the first time and I got busy teaching him how to control it and hide it. After that, it seemed like you might not have inherited the gene. Usually it kicks in when you’re about ten, but I guess you were just a late bloomer.” He attempted to chuckle about it but after looking at my expression, he saw that I was obviously not amused.
“Hey man, don’t worry about it. Your cool new super power kicked in and now you get to do all the old-school training they put me through. Hell, I’ll even help you out where I can. Ok?”
Looking at my big brother I smiled. He was my idol. Trey was the coolest guy I knew and even though he never kept his promises, he always had my back when I needed him. Thank god he never promised to have my back. Then I’d be screwed.
He never helped me train. He never gave me any advice, not until that night.
Dad was working late and I was home doing my homework and heating up a Hot Pocket for dinner. Trey wasn’t due to come home until spring break, which was a week away. Just as the microwave dinged, telling me that my food was finished, the doorbell rang. Grabbing my Hot Pocket I walked to answer it.
Trey stood on the doorstep, battered and bruised with a sullen look on his face.
“Whoa, what happened to you? And why are you home so early? Don’t you have classes?”
“Where’s Dad?” Ignoring my questions, he pushed past me and into the foyer, glancing up the stairs like he expected ninjas to start jumping down.
“He had to work late. He should be home in an hour or so. What’s going on?”
Sighing, Trey ran a hand through his hair, pulling on it as he reached the ends. Finally making eye contact with me, I watched as he came to some sort of conclusion. “Dammit. Ok, let’s sit down. You need to know something.”
We walked into the living room and sat facing each other on the couches Mom had bought the week before she died in a car crash.
“What’s going on Trey?” I repeated. “What’s wrong?”
“Quincy, I need you to listen to me and listen closely. I know I haven’t been the best big brother to you. I haven’t kept very many of my promises and I haven’t been the best of role models but in this one case, I need you to believe me no matter how crazy I sound because I know it’s the truth.”
Thoroughly concerned now, I silently nodded.
“There are things Dad and the Agency don’t want you to know. They don’t want anyone to know. Dad is just a willing pawn in their scheme, but willing none-the-less. I’m onto something here Quincy. I’m onto something big and they don’t like it. They’re afraid I’m going to ruin their plans and they’re damn right to be afraid. I’m going to try to fix this, Quincy, and I swear to you that I will do my damndest to keep you out of this mess- but until then, I want you to promise me not to trust any of them.”
His eyes were pleading, begging me to believe he hadn’t lost his mind. Trey had always been good at causing trouble but I had never known him to be into conspiracy theories. If he really believed something was up then it had to be true.
“I promise, but I want- no, I need to know what it is that’s got you so worried.”
Trey opened his mouth to respond but before any noise could escape, Dad stormed through the front door with a look that could set hellfire to your soul.
“Damn you Trey! How could you do this!? Do you have any idea what you’ve done to this family?!”
“Done to this family? No, what I’ve done to you and your brown-nosing with the Agency!”
“You’ve ruined us! The Agency is absolutely livid and they have every right to be. Your damn ego is fogging up your common sense, Trey. It doesn’t make sense!”
“This isn’t about you and your trek up the career ladder, Dad! This is about the good of all living things! Of Time itself! Why can’t you understand that?”
Terrified I ran to my room, dropping the forgotten hot pocket on the stairs, and wrapped a pillow around my head. I’d never been able to handle fighting and had never seen those two fight like that before. What was going on? I was having trouble breathing.
Then I felt the house shake as the front door was slammed open. Pulling the pillow away from my face I crept to the top of the stairs.
“Trey! Stop Trey! You can’t do this! You’ll ruin everything! Dammit Trey, get back here!”
I knew he wasn’t coming back. Partly because he never kept his promises, but mostly because I could feel it all the way down to my core.
