Here comes chapter two! I hope you're ready for it!
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Hoboken, New Jersey
February 6, 2014
A meatball flew across the dining room table and hit my father square in the chest, gooey spaghetti sauce making a huge splotch on his crisp, white business shirt. Both my father and I knew that Mom wasn't going to take the news well, but we hadn't anticipated a full on food fight.
"She's not going, Augusto. End of story!" My mother hollered, her usually pretty face red and contorted with pure rage.
Dad drug his eyes from the huge stain up toward his wife, a look of disbelief on his face.
"Loretta, we don't have much of a choice."
Mom grabbed two more meatballs out of the sauce pot and flung them, one splattering on the wall behind Dad and the other smacking him on the forehead.
"Like hell we don't have much of a choice! We already lost Ro and I don't want to lose Olive, too. Why are you risking our children's lives?"
"Don't you understand? I'm sending her to retrieve Rosanna!"
Mom reached for the pot again, but I pulled it away before she could dunk her hand back in. Dad stood up and walked over to her, probably going to comfort her, but she pushed him away and stormed off to the kitchen.
He sighed, sunk back into his chair, and ran his hands through his graying hair. He looked exhausted.
"Dad, I think tha…"
"Go find your mother, Olive. We'll leave later, okay?"
"But…"
"I said go!"
And with that, I threw my napkin on the table and pushed my chair back. When I made it to the kitchen, I found my mother crying, seated on the countertop with a box of tissues next to her.
"I should have married freaking Vinnie Mancosi! His family's normal!" She wailed.
I moved beside her and pushed myself onto the counter, only to slip and land ass first in the wet sink. Great…
"Mom, I've been training under Dad and Uncle Frank for years. I think I can do this." I reasoned, trying to make her feel a bit better.
In actuality, when I was supposedly 'training', I was really working the counter at the family's clock shop/headquarters, and messing around with Eddie White during my break. I got a few months of experience under my belt, but definitely not a years' worth.
"I know, I know, but I just can't lose another baby…"
"Ma, I'm eighteen. I can handle this job."
She sighed and wiped her eyes with a tissue. "Yes, but so was Rosanna when she went. She thought she could handle it too, and what happened to her, Olive?"
"She went missing." I said quietly.
My sister had been sent back in time by the family agency on official business two years ago. Everything was going as planned…but she never came home on the preset date. Dad and Uncle Frank sent multiple people, including themselves, back in time to find her but she never surfaced. No one knows what happened.
"That's right. We can't find her. An agency with hundreds of spies and millions of dollars worth of equipment and my daughter still isn't home," She sniffled. "It's been two years, and you'd think there would have been a breakthrough or something by now."
Suddenly, Dad came into the kitchen. He had his blue dress shirt on this time and looked from my mother to me.
"I'm sorry, Loretta." He said and then motioned for me to follow him before he turned and walked out of the house.
My mother hugged me to her and sobbed harder.
"I'll be back, Mom. And I'll find Ro, I promise I will." I whispered.
My mother knew that she couldn't change Dad's mind so she told me she loved me, walked me to the door, and then watched me get into the car.
"Let's do this." I said to my father and I bucked my seatbelt.
He said nothing and began backing out of the driveway. Mom was still standing there, watching us. I smiled and waved at her before we hit the road. She looked as though she just led the lamb to the slaughter. I felt a pang of sadness as we drove away from the house, but I quickly pushed it aside. Being an emotional mess could jeopardize the mission.
Only when my father and I were out of the neighborhood and heading toward the clock shop did he speak to me.
"Are you ready?" He asked.
"You bet." I said and then smiled.
He smiled back at me and then pulled into the parking lot behind the shop. Saving Time had been the family business since before I was even a fetus.
The Grimauldi family is one of the ten major families in the Space/Time Continuum Organization. Back in the day, the Ancient Evil forces threatened to severely mess with the Continuum, causing the Apocalypse and damning the human race. The Organization came together to protect humans and keep the evil at bay. We've been traveling back in time and kicking some major ass since the Big Bang. Needless to say, every Grimauldi that has ever existed worked for the Organization.
Most families run their portion of the Organization in their basements or garages, but not my father and uncle. The two seemed to have the entrepreneurial spirit and built a time traveling palace in the middle of Hoboken. On the street, Saving Time looks like your average clock repair shop. Go into the storeroom, and press the right buttons on a hidden keypad and you're sent underground to Grimauldi Headquarters. Under the Headquarters floor is the training floor and then under that is the time machine itself.
Uncle Frank was leaning on his car with a huge yellow suitcase at his feet, the keys to the shop dangling from his hand.
"Let's get a move on!" He called and headed for the door.
My dad and I followed him in and we all trooped into the storeroom. Dad flicked the light switch and the overhead bare bulb slowly came to life.
"I think Olive should do the honors, being that it's her first real mission and all." Uncle Frank said.
Dad patted me on the shoulder. "Do it."
I moved the box of spare Cuckoo clock birds and found the keypad. I punched in the code and waited as the shelves transformed into a set of stairs that made their way down to Headquarters. I had no idea how my dad and uncle figured out how to make them do that, but it was amazing nonetheless.
My dad went down first with my uncle and I following. The first floor was very modern and sleek. White walls, white tile floor, white couches with chrome end tables, silver reception desk…the works.
"Hey, Sadie," my dad said, coming to a stop at the reception desk.
Sadie was the receptionist Uncle Frank and 'outsourced' from the fifties. Her red hair was pulled into an amazing beehive and her cat eye glasses were perched on the bridge of her nose. Technically, she couldn't have been much older than I was.
"Mr. Grimauldi, I have that file for you." She said and then handed him a thick Manilla folder with a picture paper clipped to the front.
He thanked her and then made his way toward the elevator, Uncle Frank and I following.
"You need some weapons." Uncle Frank said as we piled in.
Once we let off on the training floor, my father and uncle went in search of some weapons for me. I stayed and watched some of my cousins and other assorted family members beat the crud out of stuffed dummies and practice shooting guns in the simulator. I'd gotten to do some of the training exercises before, but I certainly felt as though the other members of my family were more capable of finding Rosanna than I was.
"Olive, these are for you!" Uncle Frank exclaimed excitedly, snapping me out of my thoughts.
He handed me a small gun and a few boxes of bullets. All I was going to do find my sister. Why would I need a gun? Before I could ask, my father herded us into the elevator once more and brought us down a level to the time machine and offices. In two minutes, we were in my father's huge and expensively furnished office.
Dad took a seat behind his intricately carved wooden desk and Uncle Frank and I sat in the two leather chairs facing him.
"We haven't been completely honest with you, Olive." Dad said.
I felt the color drain from my face. "What do you mean?"
"Your mission is bigger than you think it is."
I blew out a sigh. "I thought I was going to find Rosanna?"
My dad looked at Uncle Frank for support.
"You still are looking for Rosanna," Uncle Frank mumbled "but there's more. We sort of have a theory."
"A theory that could very well lead you to your sister." Dad said.
"And that theory is…?"
My father and uncle exchanged looks, then Frank continued again.
"We think that William Shears Campbell has Rosanna."
William Shears Campbell. That name sounded very familiar to me.
"Wasn't he the suspect in the McCartney case?" I asked. "Why would he have Rosanna? She was on a completely different mission!"
"Uh…we kind of sent Rosanna to save Paul from being murdered by Campbell. We lied about that, too."
"Are you serious?" I hissed. "I thought we had Uncle Sonny sent back to save him!"
My father gulped. "We sent Ro out to stop Campbell from messing with Paul, but we sent her back a few years too soon. We think that Campbell has her."
"What do you mean by 'too soon'?"
Dad sighed. "You know the car accident Paul McCartney was supposed to die in during the fall of 1967? That was Campbell's original plan; to kill Paul in the car crash. From there, Campbell was going to 'become' Paul McCartney and use his money to try and destroy the Organization, making it possible for evil to take over the Space/Time Continuum. I have reason to believe he's involved with the Ancient Evil. We thought that we could prevent the accident, but we just couldn't pinpoint the exact date. We caught wind that the crash could happen in 1965, so we sent her there. We think that Campbell may have leaked the date purposefully and waited for Ro to travel back to '65 and got her then. She was probably part of his plan since the beginning."
I was in a state of utter disbelief. "Oh, my God. Anything else?"
"We have reason to believe that Campbell is going to kill McCartney soon through his original scheme. We think that, if he kills Paul, he'll either keep or kill Rosanna. So, not only are you going back to find your sister, you will be a bodyguard of sorts. You need to make sure William Campbell doesn't harm either of them. If you stay near Paul, you may be able to find Campbell and then Ro."
"What happens if I can't stop him? What if Paul dies?"
"Some really scary shit will go down with the universe." Uncle Frank said.
Dad slid the file he'd gotten from Sadie across the desk to me.
"This will give you some more information. Read it as soon as possible." He said.
"So, where am I going?" I asked.
"July 6, 1967. We believe the crash is going to happen some time in September. We need you to get into the Beatles' inner circle to get close to Paul. We have an apartment ready for you as well as a car. Uncle Frank has packed your things."
A little voice in my head was telling me to run and never look back. This mission was too much for me to handle. Not only did Paul McCartney and Ro depend on me, but the whole universe. Plus, I had every reason to believe my dad and uncle could have the wrong crash date. I could be risking my life!
"When do I leave?" I asked, still trying to process everything that had been thrown at me.
"Now."
And this is where our story begins! I hope you enjoyed this chapter and stay tuned!