Timescape, Chapter 6: Just For Decoration

Chapter 6: Just For Decoration

LIZZIE, 1998

    It had been six months since Lizzie McGabe had come out of the old Pike House without her friends.  She had thought at first they were playing a joke on her.  But she had gone back in and looked around and they were nowhere to be found.  They had somehow just disappeared.  She had searched all the way around the house, but had never found them.  She had tried to go back home after she decided they must have ended up way ahead of her.  She had got there only to discover that her home was not her home anymore.

    Finally, she had realized that she had somehow ended up in the year 1998.  That realization had taken almost two weeks, and even then she hadn't really believed it.  Not for some time.  It felt like a completely different world.  She didn't like it at all.

    In the six months she had been in 1998, Lizzie had managed to get enrolled in school without attracting suspicion from anyone.  They thought she dressed a bit weird, but she would find a way to get some money and go shopping for trends of the time.  She figured being in school was the best way to keep people from realizing something wasn't right.

    She had found another abandoned building to stay in.  It wouldn't be a permanent solution, but it would buy her some time.  It wasn't as far gone as the Pike House had been, and it was a place nobody was likely to be poking around.  She had managed to swipe a small generator and even had a small amount of electricity, which she mainly used for cooking and temperature control.

    She thought a lot about the others.  She wondered where they were, how they were doing.  Had they also ended up in 1998?  Was there a way for her to find them?  She doubted whether Toby or Kevin would have the sense to enroll in school once they figured out what had happened.  Something really horrible could end up happening to them if they were to panic instead of remaining calm and trying to disguise themselves.

    Slinging her backpack into a corner, Lizzie flopped down onto the mattress she had put in a corner of the space she was living in.  The mattress was beginning to smell a bit off (she would have to find a way to wash the blanket and sheet), but it wasn't a big concern right that minute.  She had been mowing lawns for cash, but she was going to have to find another way.  The mowing season was soon going to be over.  There was still a little time left, though, and she had over a hundred dollars currently in her money jar.

    The next morning, she really needed to go clothes shopping, because wearing the same thing over and over was going to start raising suspicion.  She would go to a local thrift store if she could find one.  She thought hard about whether she had passed any at all, but she thought of nothing.  Instead, she fell into a restless sleep.

            *            *            *           

    Lizzie woke up just after eight o'clock on Saturday morning.  With a mission in mind, she removed most of the money from her money jar.  She left about twenty dollars to get food with later.  She took off walking and looking for someplace to buy used clothes.  She walked for almost an hour and a half before she came to a thrift store called The Second Hand.

    Walking across the parking lot, a man probably in his mid thirties caught her eye.  He looked really familiar, but she didn't know from where.  She was just certain she had seen him before.  His gaze lingered just a little too long, and she started to feel uncomfortable.  Maybe he only stared because he also recognized her and didn't know from where, but she didn't want to take any chances.

    She considered walking past the store and coming back later.  She decided that wouldn't do any good anyway, because she was on foot, and he would just follow her if he decided to.  She would probably be safer inside the store where there would at least be witnesses.  She looked away from him to avoid making eye contact and walked quickly into the store.