Chapter One
Yellow Boots
"Don't jump!"
A girl in a nice, bright yellow sundress stood atop the Chrysler Building. She looked down into the street below, which was crowded with people, watching her. Firemen and police urged her to come down. The girl shook her head and laughed. Closing her eyes, she held out her arms...
She felt as if something were dropping into her left yellow boot, but ignored it.
...And jumped.
The girl smiled for the first time in a month. Death was about to greet her, and she would be happy to follow him. Wind rushed into her face. She braced herself for impact that was sure to come, pressing her heels into the soles of her rubber boots. Her left heel felt as if it were pressing down on something other than the sole of a boot, but again the girl ignored it. A few minutes passed. No impact came. She opened her eyes to see what was going on.
She seemed to be in a frozen state just a few inches from the sidewalk. A split second later, she dropped onto the pavement.
"Ow," the girl muttered.
She was just about to get up, when a hand extended to help her.
"You okay, ma'am?"
She looked up to see the face that belonged to the voice. It was a man in a suit, with dark hair and kind brown eyes.
"K-Kay..." she stammered, eyes widening.
"Ma'am, are you-?" Before he could finish his sentence, the girl fainted.
"Wake up, ma'am."
The girl opened her eyes to see that they were now in a vintage building. Aliens and humans talked and walked around the vicinity, doing many different tasks. When she finally focused on the man that had tried to help her, he was staring at her intently.
"You know my name," he said.
"I...I..."
"Who are you?"
"First, where...am I?" the girl asked.
"That's classified, ma'am."
"What's the date?"
"October 5, 1969."
"Oh my God..." She began to faint again, but the man put a hand on her shoulder.
"Stay awake, please. Now, who are you?"
"E-Ember Smith..." Once again, something prodded her left foot. She reached into her boot and pulled out the item of annoyance.
"Ma'am, can you tell me what you're doing with a time jump device?"
"A time jump device?"
"That thing in your hands."
"I...the Chrysler Building..."
"Are you telling me that you purposely time jumped from the Chrysler Building?"
"I don't know...I'm not sure. I was just trying to, uh..." How was Ember going to explain her attempted suicide? It wasn't exactly a subject one could handle lightly.
"Just trying to what?" Kay persisted.
"Jump..." She did a gesture with her hand as if it were jumping off a building and splatting on the sidewalk.
Kay's eyes filled with concern. "I see. Where are you from?"
"New York, maybe...um, thirty-seven years from now."
"Thirty-seven years..." he repeated. "And what's your story?"
Ember reluctantly recounted the tales of her life, since the Men in Black found her to Camro's threats. Some things that she said gave her that twisted feeling she'd had a few weeks earlier, as if something wasn't right.
Kay leaned back in the chair. "I...I what?"
"It's a faint memory, but you...I think you beat me."
"I can't believe that I'd hit a pretty girl like you." He sucked in a breath after he had said that, like he'd said something wrong.
"But, you believe my story?" Ember whispered.
"You've got a piece of evidence there in your hands, don't you?"
"What happens now?"
"I suppose you'll just have to go back."
"No..." She began to cry.
"What do you mean 'no'?"
"I can't go back...He'll kill me...Camro will kill me for jumping, or..." She cut herself off with a giant sob.
"Calm down, ma'am. Everything will be alright. I'm not quite sure what to do, but I guess you could, ah, stay with me, until we figure things out.."
Ember bit her lip, but convinced herself that this would be fine. She would be safe. She nodded.
Kay stood up and offered his hand. A small smile nearly splashed across his face, but he forced it down. "Let's go."
