[COMPLETED] Ellen and her twin brother, Aaron, are time-travellers. They don't know why they have this ability, they don't know how they got it and don't know how to control it. For now they just know they are stuck out of time.
With the help of fri...
It was seven o'clock. They could hear the chimes announcing the time before seeing the cathedral itself, but as they turned the last corner and saw the sheer size of St Paul's it took their breath away.
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Most of London's buildings, untouched by German bombs, were huge, but the cathedral dwarfed them all. It felt to Ellen how the Titanic must have felt to the passengers on the quayside, before its fateful voyage. She considered St Paul's as a religious cruise liner. It appeared to cut majestically through the waves, parting the streets and buildings on either side and leaving other buildings in its wake and evening shadow.
Once more there were buildings, around the cathedral, that were nothing more than rubble. Ellen couldn't believe how so many bombs could have fallen close enough to the cathedral without damaging it. It appeared unscathed, as though it had been protected by a spiritual force-field.
'Would you look at that,' said Billy, with his mouth so wide open he was in danger of tripping over his bottom lip.
'I've never seen it before ... in the flesh,' said Brook. 'But it's overwhelming. Despite the devastation around it. I've seen images and footage of it, but it is immense. From what I read, Wren wanted to replace the previous cathedral, which was damaged in the Great Fire, with something even more impressive than the previous one and boy he did just that.'
'That's it,' cried Aaron. 'Christopher Wren ... that was part of your Uncle's message.'
'What?' asked Marianne.
'Your Uncle Earnest told us about going to the Wren's building, right? That was why we ended up going to Norwich House. But after Billy found out that we needed to be here at the cathedral we didn't question any further why Earnest had rattled on about the Wrens. Well maybe he'd become confused or didn't know that Christopher Wren was the architect of this place and only linked the Wrens to you, Marianne, considering you were talking about joining up.'
'You're right,' said Billy, clapping his hands to suggest that was another mystery solved.
'I guess so,' said Ellen.
'Ellen, you're going to cringe when I say this,' suggested Marianne. 'But it could be fate, again.'
Ellen rolled her eyes.
'Go on - indulge me.'
'Well if Uncle Earnest had just told us about the pipe, then we'd still be looking for a smoking pipe belonging to some Major. However by mishearing, and more importantly remembering there was something about the Wrens involved, we at least found our way to their headquarters. Had we not gone there then Billy wouldn't have gone back in time. Because of that we found out we really needed to be here and it was a pipe organ you needed to touch, not a smoking pipe.'
Ellen held up her palms in submission.
'I'm lost for any way to contradict you. As much as I'd love to disprove everything you just said, it all sounds right. Well, at least we've deciphered everything your Uncle told us.'
'Almost,' thought Aaron, aloud. 'There's still one last piece of the puzzle we haven't an answer to and that's who the hell is this Willis chap?'
'I have no idea,' said Brook, as they climbed the 24 steps below the Renaissance portico of the west entrance. 'But one bit of advice I'd offer is that once we get inside it might be best to steer clear of saying the word hell.'
Aaron gulped, feeling put in his place and followed the other four between the sets of paired columns and through the large doors.
