Chapter One
I sat on the large rock and watch the sun set over the trees. It wasn't as spectacular as the ones Dad showed us in the past, but it still was very pretty. The last of the rays turn the tops of the trees a brilliant golden, and it reflected in the pond the rock sits by. I wait until it sinks under the treetops before getting up and going home.
I stomped my way through the underbrush, making my way back to the trail that connected our house to Grandma's house. If I wanted to make it back home before it really got dark, I would probably have to take some shortcuts. But I didn't mind, because the woods housed a town from another time. Stretching across a few miles, you could find houses, old roads, even some old school buildings. There's even the remains of the man-made lake somewhere. Otherwise, the area hadn't changed much since the twenty-first century. The school district still covered an area that was mostly forested, and the town still kept the name Hawley.
It had been an old mining town, if I remember correctly. A fairly popular one. Across the street from my house, under the dirt and the woods and the very old, overgrown park had been a canal, I think. And in the woods behind my house was where all the churches were, but only one exists. Dad still took care of the cemetery next to it, because it's on our large property.
I walked through the cemetery and got onto the path. Then I broke into a run, breathing in the late-September air. I could smell the wood stove-natural gas and coal had been long used-indicating that dinner was on its way.
I jogged over the bridge and up to the stairs leading to the screened-in porch. When I opened the door leading to the kitchen, I'm greeted with a blast of A/C. I kicked off my shoes and opened one of the two doors leading to the spiral stairwell in the middle of the house and make my way upstairs.
When I past Dad's room, I paused.
I could hear him and John-his cousin who has lived with us since the accident-talking about something do with work.
"...they stopped the ripple," John was saying. I pressed my ear against the door, intrigued. I knew about all the time-agency lingo, but I had never heard about a ripple being stopped.
"For now," Dad agreed. "But not for long."
"And you're in charge of this? I should've come to work today," John said.
"I'm just in charge of returning the children and getting the employees involved in jail."
Are the girls to know what's going on?"
"They are only allowed to know so much. You know that they aren't allowed to know major criminal activity. They're not even allowed to go into time hollows. Besides, Violet's not even thirteen years old yet. They're young."
I stepped away from the door, because the conversation began to bore me. I open the door that led to the third floor. It's a small stairwell that led up to storage attic, the office, and my bedroom. The house plan made sense until somebody who owned the house before us decided to tear up a part of the attic to make an office and another bedroom. It was pretty big and spacious, and the view of the town and the forest was amazing. I sat down at my desk and looked out the window, at the leaves that were beginning to change. My bed sat by the other window, which looked over the dairy farm. I had a lot of homework to do, so I pulled my bag to me and pulled out the large tablet that held all my school work. I pushed the conversation out of mind for the next couple days.