Artie Maitland usually loved to stay behind after school to attend one of his many clubs. Maths, creative writing and even football. He enjoyed doing them all.
Tonight was chess club which was one of his favourites as he found it challenging and was always elated if he ever won a game. But just this once, he felt the need to skip it and run straight home. He needed to find his older sister, for he had something exciting to tell her. Something more thrilling even than his beloved chess club.
Rushing through the corridor to the living room, dropping his bag carelessly onto one of the plush sofas, Artie ran over to his sister, his face flushed with excitement.
Angie currently had her head down, her thoughts solely concentrated on responding to many of the messages she had been sent on her phone. So she didn't look up, even with the rather early arrival of her younger brother.
"Angie! You'll never guess what I found out at school!" Artie said, sitting down next to her, his fingers reaching out for his bag and opening it, pulling out a carefully folded piece of paper.
Even when Artie unfolded the paper and put it in front of Angie's face so she could see it, she still didn't turn away from her mobile.
"Artie, can't you see I'm busy?" she said, her fingers moving rapidly over the keypad. "You can show me what it is later, if I haven't got anything better to do."
Artie never usually went against his older sister's wishes, as she proved she could be quite scary when she was angry. Like the time she threw his chess set out of the attic window when he kept asking her to play with him. Or the time she locked their nanny, Clara, in her room as she wouldn't let her go out to see her friends. Which was quite right too as it was a school night, after all. If Clara hadn't located a long piece of rope left over from their latest camping trip that was hidden right at the back of her wardrobe and used it to escape, God knows how long Angie would have kept her in there.
After those incidents, Artie wouldn't even dare to try and provoke Angie. But, she had to see what he had discovered. And she had to see it now.
Pulling her phone out of her grasp, Artie quickly switched it off and put it in his pocket, pushing her hand away when she tried to grab it.
"Artie! If you don't give it back right now, I swear your precious chess set won't live to see another day. Give it to me now!"
As Angie started to try and reach her mobile, where one of Artie's hands was holding on to it over his pocket protectively, with the other he put the paper in front of his sister's eyes so she could see it clearly.
"Angie, look! This photo is from 1983, during the Cold War. We were learning about it during History. It was quite an interesting subject really-"
"I really don't care about the stupid Cold War. Just give me my phone back!"
Angie tried to push away the piece of paper her brother was still holding, but he wouldn't be deterred.
"But the girl in the picture! Look at the girl! It's Clara!"
Her mobile temporaily forgotten, Angie snatched the paper from Artie's grasp, as though she didn't believe him.
"Artie, this photo is from thirty years ago." she said slowly, as though he were stupid. "It can't be Clara. She wasn't even born then! It's just someone who looks like her."
As Angie's eyes roved over the black and white photograph, as though trying to detect whether it really was Clara or not, Artie prodded at the man with the floppety hair stood next to her.
"If that's not Clara, how come Clara's boyfriend is there aswell?" Artie's lips curled into a smile as his sister's expression slowly turned into one of shock.
"Is that just someone who 'looks like him' too?"
"Ha, ha, ha." Angie said sarcastically, shoving Artie in the shoulder, still observing the photograph. How could the girl from 1983 be Clara and her boyfriend? It just wasn't possible. Or was it?
"How? How can that be Clara?" Angie had stood up from the sofa and was now pacing the room, one of her hands twirling a strand of her curly hair around her finger in agitation. "And how can that be Clara's boyfriend? This is insane!"
Artie watched as she continued muttering to herself, pausing every now and then as though in deep thought. He could almost hear her brain working overtime as she thought of all the possibilities and reasons why their nanny and her boyfriend came to appear in a photograph in an event that happened thirty years ago.
A brief smile appeared on Angie's face as she turned back to her brother, who was looking at her in slight amusement.
"Where exactly did you find this?" she asked, sitting herself back on the sofa, the picture still clutched firmly in her right hand.
Artie gasped and ran quickly from the room into the kitchen, Angie following along in his wake.
Pulling up two chairs so they could sit down, Artie pulled the pink laptop that was resting on the oak table towards him, fingers moving fast over the keyboard to find the exact website he wanted.
Angie tapped her blue painted nails against the table top impatiently as Artie eventually found what he was looking for. He pulled the laptop further towards them so they could both clearly see the screen.
"I was researching information to do with the Cold War for our History project we're doing. And I typed 'Cold War,1983' into the search engine, expecting a lot of results. The funny thing is, this is the only website that it came up with."
Angie gave Artie a look as if to say 'get on with it.'
"Anyway, I clicked on it and the first thing it came up with was the picture of Clara."
Angie scrolled down the website, entitled 'The Coldest Of Wars', right until she got to the bottom, where the very same photo Artie had printed out was there in all it's glory.
"Oh my God. It is definately Clara." Angie said, enlarging the picture so it filled up the whole screen. There was no mistaking it. It really was their nanny who had looked after them for just over a year.
"But how can it be?" Artie asked as his sister rushed to type something into the search engine.
When Angie didn't answer him, he leaned over her shoulder to see what she was doing.
Angie had typed into Google two words, 'Clara Oswald.' And only eleven results came back.
Clicking on the first one she came across, 'The Mystery Of Caliburn House', both siblings stared as another picture appeared in front of them. Again, it was of Clara and her boyfriend. But this time, it was from 1974.
"No way!" Artie and Angie both said at the same time. Artie sat there bouncing slightly in excitement as Angie clicked on yet another result, which was about Victorian London.
After scrolling through the website for a few minutes, Angie came across what she was looking for. It was another photograph, this time of Clara on her own, wearing a blue old fashioned dress and a smug smile to boot.
"Different times, different places. But it is definately them." Angie said, all three photographs now showing on the screen.
Artie ran a hand through his hair as he tried to get his head around what was happening.
"If it really is them, Angie, how did they get there?" he asked, continuing to stare at the laptop. "1974, 1983 and Victorian London. They must of got there somehow."
Angie looked at the pictures again when a thought came to her. "I bet it was something to do with her boyfriend!" she said, pointing a finger in the direction of the bowtie wearing man stood next to Clara in two of the photographs.
Artie looked at her in surprise. "How did you figure that out? There could be many other reasons how this has happened. Why do you think it's Clara's boyfriend?"
Angie sighed and shook her head in disbelief. "Because before he showed up in her life, our nanny didn't have the ability to travel through time!"
As soon as those words came out of her mouth, Artie and Angie both turned to each other as realisation hit them.
"You don't think..." Artie gasped, his arm almost knocking the laptop off the table in excitement as Angie looked at the photographs once again.
"No, it can't be. It isn't possible." Angie stared at her brother, as though waiting for him to agree with her. "Is it?"
"But it is." Artie said, folding his arms, a grin threatning to break out across his lips, gesturing to the many photos with a nod of his head.
"We have all the evidence we need."
Angie and Artie smiled as they both said the same thing at the same time.
"Our nanny is a time traveller!"
As the siblings sat there in slight shock at the life changing information they had just found out, they heard the front door open. It wouldn't be their father as he was still at work. It was Clara. She was back.
"Artie! Quick, before she sees us!" Angie whispered, grabbing his hand and pulling him out of the other exit of the room, leaving the laptop with the evidence behind.
As they both watched Clara stare into the mirror in their hallway and then go into the kitchen where they had just been, they saw her look at the laptop, her face forming a perfect expression of pure surprise.
The Maitland siblings always had a feeling something strange was going on when Clara kept disappearing for days on end. But, they never thought it could be a reason as wonderful or ridiculous as this.
As Angie and Artie snuck up behind Clara, Angie's phone she had taken from Artie's pocket back where it belonged, they both knew this was an opportunity to have an adventure of a lifetime with their time travelling nanny and her weirdly dressed boyfriend. And they wouldn't miss it for the world.
"It's you, isn't it? It's from the '70's but it's definately you..."
Hi again! I hope this drabble is OK. It's not my best.
Amy x