This story takes place during the events of the time traveller's pig during Dipper and Mabel's chase through time. Mabel makes a mistake that leaves the twins stranded in a snow storm. The two then discover secrets and revelations they were never me...
The leaves on the trees were changing colours. The warm summer breeze had a chill to it now. Back to school commercials littered every tv channel. Summer was ending. There were a few days left before Dipper and Mabel turned 13. Weirdmageddon had been won. The mystery shack was being rebuilt. It had been a few days since Soos had found the journals laying in the woods. Dipper had read through almost all of them in record time. He had decided to give the journals back to Ford as they were his. Dipper was nervous at first, thinking Ford would be mad he had kept his journals and not told him. But when he gave them to him, Ford expressed nothing but sympathy for Dipper's honesty. He was a much wiser boy at 12 (to be 13 soon) then Ford had been at 30.
2 days before Dipper and Mabel were to turn 13. That evening Dipper was carrying packed bags down stairs. He noticed the door behind the vending machine was open. It was never normally open. Dipper went down stairs to see Grunkle Ford. He was doing some packing up of his own. "Uh Great uncle Ford, is everything alright" he asked. "Oh, hello Dipper" said Ford. "Everything is fine. I was just doing some rearrangements. You know, airing out the basement. I think there's still some asbestos on these walls still". "So, what are you doing with the journals" asks Dipper. "I don't really know" says Ford. Dipper sits down next to Ford as he opens up journal 2, skimming through the pages. "I've solved almost every mystery that I ever wrote in this book Dipper" says Ford. Dipper smiles. Even though his mind would love to stay with Ford and help him solve all the other unsolved mysteries of Gravity Falls, his heart missed home. And being related to Mabel meant he was now listening to it more then his mind now. Ford then stops at a page and sighed. The smile on his face turned into a small frown. "What's wrong" asks Dipper. "Sigh, I've solved almost every mystery in this journal" he says. "except for this one".
He shows Dipper the page. The title read, "Tracks that lead to nowhere". "what is that" says Dipper. "it was January 27th, 1978" Ford says. "I was having a nice cup of coffee as the snow fell outside. Then all of a sudden, I heard a zaaaappp. I started hearing screaming. Then I heard what sounded like a futuristic machine charging up" Dippers starts looking fascinated. "I heard two people screaming after that" he says. "It was enough to make me get up and see what was going on. I heard the two voices scream and then another zaaappp noise. Then just silence".
"Whoa" says Dipper. "Along with that I noticed a blue light coming from behind the shades over the window" adds Ford. "I turned on the light and opened the door to see who or what it was that was making that noise but when I looked, I saw nothing". "Nothing but some footprints". Ford then shows Dipper a photo of the footprints he had seen. "It was strange" he says. "They started in the middle of nowhere, and just abruptly ended. I never saw any tracks leading to or away from the few footprints I saw". "What did you think it was" says Dipper. "I never really figured this one out" says Ford. "I thought maybe the snow had covered the tracks up. But that was not likely due to the amount of snowfall during the time. I left it as unsolved". "Maybe someone teleported there" says Dipper. "Maybe" says Ford. "Its been so many years. I just kind of moved on from this event to other things I guess. But it always intrigued me to figure out what had happened that evening so many years ago".
Dipper then looks at his watch. "oh, I almost forgot" says Dipper. "Grunkle Stan wanted to know if you wanted to watch The Duchess Approves with us. He says it's a pretty good show". "Tell Stanley I'll be up in a minute" says Ford with a smile. Dipper turns to head back upstairs. Just then, Ford notices something. Dipper's left shoe looked much newer then his right shoe. "Hey Dipper" says Ford. "Has your left shoe always been that shiny". "What" Dipper says a bit confused. "Oh, you mean my shoe. Well you know how I told you me and Mabel had a run in with that time traveler guy". Ford nods. "Well while we were running through time, I lost my left shoe. I had to get a new one to replace it" he says. "Last time I forget to pack an extra pair of shoes before leaving home". The two of them have a laugh about it. "So, I'll see you up there soon" says Dipper to Ford. He then gets in the elevator and heads upstairs.
"A missing shoe" says Ford to himself. He opens journal 2 up to the unknown footprints page. He looks at a small note he wrote under the photo of the tracks. "The second person was missing a shoe" it read. Ford then thinks back to something he remembered saying the first time he saw the tracks. "Whoever left these footprints and made those sounds just disappeared into thin air". He then thinks to what Dipper had told him. Him and Mabel's journey through time, him losing a shoe, the two footprints, one with a missing shoe. The puzzle pieces came together perfectly. Ford smiled as he pulled out a pen from his pocket. He then wrote on a blank spot on the page, "mystery solved". He then closed the journal, put it back on the shelf and went upstairs to watch TV with his family, the family who had helped him solve one of the last big questions he had left to answer, about Gravity Falls.
