Page 97 of Right Place, Right Time
Adam immediately pulls them open. ‘Thank God you’re back!’ he says, looking incredibly anxious. ‘It felt like you were gone ages. I was just about to come and look for you.’
‘Yeah …’ I say, not knowing quite where to begin. ‘I got a little sidetracked.’
‘What was it like?’ Adam asks. ‘Did it work?’
‘Yes, it worked. I went back to the twenty-ninth of February this year. I checked a newspaper and I saw myself.’
‘What? How?’
I tell Adam what happened.
‘And then you came back?’ he asks. ‘When you left the shop?’
‘Er, not immediately, no,’ I reply hesitantly. ‘I went to Clockmaker Court and I found out something quite interesting. No, not interesting, that’s the wrong word. Something actually quite worrying …’
33
‘What should we do?’ I ask Adam when I’ve finished telling him about Barney.
‘Nothing,’ Adam says. ‘What he’s never known he can’t miss.’
‘But he has the right to know he’s one of the …time travellers?’ I say, for want of a better phrase.
‘Why? Maybe he’s better off not knowing. Then he won’t have the dilemma of whether he should go back or not. If we really have found a way of controlling this portal, then it will open up all sorts of opportunities.’
‘Then Barney deserves to have that opportunity too.’
‘All right,’ Adam says reluctantly. ‘Don’t say I didn’t warn you, though.’
‘Can you guys hear me?’ We hear Barney from upstairs. ‘I don’t know if you can, but I’ve seen Rocky off and I’m wondering what’s happening down there?’
I look at Adam. ‘Not a word,’ I whisper. ‘To Barney. Not until I decide what’s for the best.’
Adam nods. We close the cupboard doors and climb the stairs together.
After I’ve repeated my story – up to the WHSmith part – for Barney, we sit down in the shop together to decide what to do next.
‘I still can’t believe that actually worked,’ Barney says, shaking his head in disbelief. ‘Imagine actually being able to travel back in time … It’s unbelievable.’
‘It is quite exciting,’ I say carefully.
‘It’s mega! When are you going to tell the others?’ Barney asks excitedly.
‘Today. There’s no point in waiting, is there? Then they can decide what they want to do.’
‘I’m sure I wouldn’t want to go in time – not permanently, anyway – though a quick trip to see a few things might be fun. But in this thing’ – he points to his wheelchair – ‘no siree Bob! As I’ve said before, going back in time with a disability is never going to be a good thing.’
Adam and I exchange glances.
‘Which of our time travellers should we tell first?’ Adam asks quickly.
‘Is that what we’re actually calling them now?’ Barney asks gleefully. ‘Time travellers.So what are we, then?’ He thinks for a moment. ‘What aboutthe guardians of time? Orthe protectors of the portal?’
‘I’m not sure we need an actual title, do we?’ I say, feeling uncomfortable. I’m not exactly lying to Barney, but I feel like I’m not telling him the truth either.
‘We have uncovered a pretty major thing today,’ Barney says, clearly still elated by our discovery. ‘Personally I think it’s the least we deserve. Ooh, maybewe’rethe timekeepers now, like Ernie said?’
‘I’m going to see Ben,’ I say, standing up. ‘To tell him what’s happened. He was in his shop earlier.’
