Page 87 of Right Place, Right Time
‘I did believe you, but it was hard to process,’ I tell him. ‘Just like all this is now, hearing that our great-grandparents were apparently time travellers!’ I suddenly exclaim, turning to Adam. ‘Oh, my goodness – the photos! The photos we found of Archie and Dotty. We thought they were in fancy dress, we couldn’t explain it, but they weren’t – they were actually in those years …’
Adam looks a bit white. ‘Christ,’ he simply says. ‘That’s mad.’
‘When they travelled together, they took the photos for proof, should they ever need it, that it could be done,’ Ben says. ‘You can imagine what it was like trying to disguise a fairly large camera from the forties in Victorian London, for example. People would have been immediately suspicious. It’s not like they had telephones like you young people do today, that they could easily slip into their pockets and then take secret photos on.’
‘That’s why there’s a darkroom downstairs – so they could process their own photos without anyone seeing them,’ I say, as so many things begin to make sense.
‘Exactly,’ Ben says. ‘They had the proof should they ever need it, but it was their secret.’
‘But how did you end up here, Ben?’ I ask. ‘You said it was by accident. What happened?’
‘Dotty travelled back to Cambridge in 1904 at a time when I was a bit of a rapscallion.’ Ben looks a little ashamed. ‘I had got myself in trouble with some ne’er-do-wells and I was running from them. I was a decent pickpocket back then, so I’d been recruited by a gang to work for them. But when they found out I was keeping some of my trophies for myself, they got a tad annoyed, shall we say?’
‘You sound like the Artful Dodger, Ben!’ Barney says in delight. ‘Did you find your Oliver Twist, by any chance?’
Ben smiles as he remembers. ‘Not quite. Those Dickens chaps were orphans; I actually had a mother.’ His expression changes as he remembers. ‘She wasn’t of good health, so she struggled to find work; the colour of her skin didn’t help either back then. My father had died in battle in the Boer war, so it was up to me to keep us both by doing whatever I could to get money for food and rent. Otherwise she’d have ended up in the workhouse and I would have gone too – except in those days we’d probably have been split up; the welfare system wasn’t what it is today. I know people moan about today’s system of benefits, but people in my day would have bitten your hand off for the sort of help you get given now if you’re out of work or a single parent, especially if you’re disabled in some way.’
He glances at Barney.
Barney nods. ‘I know. The system isn’t perfect these days by a long shot. But,’ he shudders, ‘the thought of living as I do now back then is something I can hardly bear to think about. There’s no way I’d have the opportunities I do now.’
‘And you’d be right,’ Ben says. ‘The poor disabled folk then.’ He shakes his head. ‘Oh, I saw some terrible,terrible things.’ He pauses for a moment to remember. ‘I’m sorry,’ he says, coming back to the present once more. ‘I keep getting distracted. Where was I?’
‘You were telling us how Dotty brought you here?’ I feel bad for prompting him. Some of Ben’s memories are clearly very painful. Especially those about his mother.
‘Ah, yes. The chaps that were chasing me that day were big, angry fellas. I was just a little scrawny fella back then and, boy, was I scared! As I was running from them, I crashed right into Dotty crossing the road. Dotty, as you can imagine, tried to keep a low profile whenever she was out of her own time, so to have me nearly bowling her over was the last thing she wanted. Anyway, she quickly recovered from our collision and realised as quick as a flash what was happening. She grabbed my hand and pulled me into this side alley, away from the thugs chasing me across the market square. But as they ran past, one of them caught a glimpse of me and followed us into the alley, which also happened to be a dead end. Dotty bravely tried to shield me from the thug, but he demanded she get out of the way. When she wouldn’t, he went to strike her, but Dotty ducked and pushed me into what I thought was a beer cellar, but to my surprise, as I went through the doors, I didn’t fall. Dotty quickly followed me, closing the doors behind her. She grabbed my hand and pulled me along this dark corridor. When we got to the other end, she pushed two more doors open and I found myself in the same office where I found you all earlier. The only difference was I was now in 1944, when only moments ago I’d been firmly in 1904.’
Ben takes a break to have sip of his whisky and to allow us to absorb all this.
‘And you’d just gone down a corridor?’ Barney asks. ‘It was as simple as that? There was no noise or funny sensations, or anything?’
‘This isn’t time travel in a TV programme or a film, Barney,’ Ben says. ‘It’s time travel in real life. Not quite as dramatic, but equally as disconcerting when it happens to you.’
‘What happened next?’ I ask, both amazed and intrigued by the incredible tale Ben is telling us. If it was anyone else, I’d already be questioning its validity. But I’ve known Ben a long time; my grandparents were friends with him too. I don’t believe for a moment he is making any of this up, as crazy as it sounds.
‘You can imagine the shock that Archie got when Dotty appeared with a little boy in tow,’ Ben continues. ‘I didn’t know then what had happened, I thought I’d only gone through a tunnel. But I remember being really surprised by what Archie was wearing – he looked very different to what I was used to seeing men dressed in. Dotty was still wearing her Edwardian clothes so looked no different, of course. Dotty explained to Archie what had happened and said she would take me back when I was likely to be safe from the men who had been chasing me. So we waited a few minutes and then we went back where we’d come from, through what looked like a cupboard from the office side, back down the same tunnel. When we came out at the other end, we were back in the same alley, but, unfortunately, we quickly discovered it was a different year. So we tried again, and again. I can’t remember how many times we went back through the tunnel that day, but each time we’d come out in a different year, decade, or even century. It was always Cambridge, but it was never 1904. In the end Archie told Dotty just to leaveme in whichever year was closest. He wasn’t an unkind man,’ Ben says, looking at Adam. ‘I think he just panicked at the situation they’d found themselves in.’
Adam nods.
‘Dotty argued with him and said she couldn’t just leave a young boy on his own. Eventually, we had to stop trying because it had got late. They explained to me that I’d have to stay with Archie until I could go back again, but they weren’t sure when that would be. Which I just accepted. I knew something had happened, but I didn’t really know what – I was just a ten-year-old boy, and, to be honest, when I got to Archie’s house that night, it was like nothing I’d ever seen before – it was huge! Remember, I lived in what we’d now describe as squalor, in two tiny rooms with my mother, fighting for every morsel of food. The size of the meals that Archie and Violet gave me – even with rationing – I thought I’d gone to heaven instead of 1944.’
‘So you never returned?’ I ask. ‘They couldn’t get you back to 1904?’
Ben shakes his head. ‘They tried – numerous times. But they simply couldn’t find a way of pinpointing the exact date and Dotty wouldn’t just leave me anywhere. By this time, I’d got used to living with Archie, Violet and George in Past Times House. It was a world away from where I used to live, and I’m ashamed to say most of the time I didn’t want to go back. I had a full belly every day and a warm bed. They even enrolled me in the local school – and even though I was the only black child in my class, I loved it there. If it hadn’t been for my mother, I think I’d have been glad it happened. But I couldn’t forget that she’d been left alone and I daren’t think what might have become of her without me.’
Ben’s head drops and he looks down into his glass.
‘Are you all right to continue, Ben?’ Orla asks gently. ‘I would take over, but obviously you know this part of the story best.’
Ben lifts his head and nods. ‘Yes, I’ll be fine.’ He takes a deep breath. ‘Eventually the war ended. By that time Dotty had disappeared, followed a little while after by Archie. They were the only ones who had any idea of how the portal worked, so there seemed no possibility of me ever returning. I had no choice but to stay with George and his mother, and that became my life. I knew I’d come from 1904. I knew I’d travelled forward in time. And I knew that Dotty had disappeared trying to get me home. But everyone had drummed it into me from the beginning how top secret that knowledge was, and that I should never share that information with anyone, other than those that already knew – which after the war was George, his mother, Violet, and Dotty’s sister, Amelia. I wasn’t going to go around saying what had happened and where I’d come from, or back then I’d probably have been locked up in an asylum. So I kept quiet. I missed my mother, of course, but I never went back, so I never knew what happened to her. I just continued to live my life from that point onwards, and here I am now.’
‘So even though you were born in 1894, you just aged from when you were ten years old in 1944?’ I ask.
Ben nods. ‘This year I turn ninety years old. You can imagine the problems I’ve had over the years registering my date of birth. I had to pretend I was born in 1934. Luckily for me, records and birth certificates could go missing back then, and births weren’t always registered. So I’ve got away with it and, in time, I’ve built up records and trails of my own, so I’ve used that as proof when it’sbeen needed. Ben Johnson – as I’m now known – was born in 1934, but Benjamin Johnson was born in 1894.’
I glance at Adam; he’s been quiet for a while. But he appears to be trying to piece all this together, as am I.
‘So what exactly happened to Dotty?’ I ask. ‘You said she disappeared trying to get you home?’
