Chapter 6: New (unwanted) Job

Olive's POV.

I had the slight feeling that Jake wasn't telling the truth. Sure I didn't doubt books in his time had more knowledge, but I had a feeling he wasn't telling me the real reason he was going back to his time.

I wonder what was in his time, what advances we had made. Everyone wanted to see America, it just seemed so amazing from the pictures. Maybe Jake would take us, he said he would one day, but by the way he said it, I wouldn't count on it anytime soon.

I walked around the beach looking for clues, just something that would point me in the direction of where this place was.

I had loved Emma like a sister for so long, I couldn't take it if something horrible had happened to. I also worried for her little baby, what was going to happen to it.

I saw these two men talking. I walked over towards them, what they were saying sounded important.

"Did ya hear." The bald tall man asked the fat bearded man.

"No, I'm partly deaf remember." They both laugh, then the fat bearded one starts hacking.

"They are hiring at the girls home, it's good money." The bald man says. Could they be talking about what I hope they are talking about?

"Beating teenagers, now that sounds fun." These men were sick.

"After a smoke, we should apply at the government office." The fat bearded one said.

"Hey, you girl, were your peepers spying on us!?" Crap. Fat approached me with a cigar in his hand.

"Answer the questions. Were your peepers spying on us?"

"No, sorry to interrupt." I played the innocent card, which most of the time I am.

"No you aren't! Look at those gloves, she's clearly been handling chemicals, she's a spy!" Bald proclaimed. Double crap.

"I'm not a spy, I assure you."

"That's exactly what a spy would say!" Fat stated.

"Give me those gloves!" Bald demands. This isn't what I wanted to happen, but I might have to go along with Jake's plan. I'm cornered by fat and bald, there's no un-fire related way out. Fat snatches my gloves, the worst mistake of his life in my opinion. I concentrate as hard as I can for the fire to not make a physical appearance. In result it radiates to my whole body, if someone touches me, they will receive a third degree burn.

Fat tries to extinguish his cigar in my palm, that doesn't work well.

"What's happenin? Why won't it go out?"

"She's a witch!" Bald announces.

"I'm not a spy, or a witch."

"She's a witch spy." These men were dopes.

"Let's take her downtown." Fat grabs my arm.

"Yuahwch!" I mentally warned them. His hand was now sizzling, Bald's attention was all on Fat, so I made a run for it.

I run back to the cave, hopefully Jake's there. I get there, he's not there. Fat and Bald are running down the beach, they've spotted me. Could this day get any worse? Out of an impulse to save my life, I run through the loop.

I'm still on a beach, but not the same one. I look around, there are many tall buildings in sight. It doesn't feel dreary outside, there is the sun beaming on me, the sunlight feels so good. There has been nothing but cold ocean air for days. I tell myself not to touch anyone.

I look around some more, I see lots of bright glowing signs. There are many automobiles rushing around. Where are all of them going? People are sitting on benches staring at something, I don't know what it is. It's shaped like a rectangle, and it's small. Other people are jogging around with plastic thingies in their ears.

I see this girl, she's about my physical age. She looks a bit like me, dark brownish red hair. She's talking to this boy, he looks a little bit like Emma with his curly short blonde hair. How nice it must be to be normal.

I decided to move on, see all that I could before it got too dangerous to stay. I feel this tap on my shoulder, but no scream. I turn around to see the red haired girl, and the blonde boy.

"Hi, I'm Tess, and this is Hayden. I think our mom might want to meet you." What was going on?

Jacob's POV.

"What do you mean, I might be your great nephew?"

"My older sister had a son, Micheal, he had a daughter named Aurora, and a son named Franklin, Frank had a boy named Jacob to honor his grandfather." Is it possible to be part of two generations at once? I was seriously getting confused, had marrying Emma in the future, which is technically the past, write me out of the future, which is now? Is there another Jacob, or am I supposed to be past and present Jacob? Everything felt very confusing. I was just going to play along so I could get some answers, it was probably wrong, but I needed answers.

"What did you mean when you said your sister wasn't any better?"

"Emma, your grandmother, she was a nice person, quite sweet, our father tormented her when she was ten, didn't stop till she ran away. A few years later, my dad is telling me he'd found her, basically threatened my life if I brought up what happened. After she came back she was different, she willingly worked with my dad, at the residence. She could lie like nothing, was very sarcastic, mischievous, manipulative, and a budding sociopath, in my opinion. She got better as the years went on, but she never really changed. When her son misbehaved, he got rewarded, he wouldn't act out around his father, he knew the deal. 'If Dad catches you, he will punish you.' What that meant was, if he knew what a horrible influence she was, he would've stayed with him instead." None of that sounded like Emma, what would've caused this? Then it hit me, her dad, what if he did something?

"I didn't know about that, thanks for telling me. Do you know why she was like that?"

"I always had my suspicions about my father manipulating her, but that could never be proven."

"Do you remember where the residence was?"

"Sorry, no. He never took me there." I look down at my watch, holy shit, it's almost time for lunch, if we're not there, Miss P will know something's up.

"It was great meeting you, I have to go. Thanks again." I wogged out of there. Wogging is a split between jogging and walking. I looked around to see nobody was following me, and went through the loop.

I bump into these two men, one's bald, one's fat with a beard.

"Sorry." I say in a rush. The bald one grabs my coat.

"Where do you think you're going?"

"Home."

"Have you seen a tall redhead anywhere?" The fat one asks. Please don't be talking about Olive. I pray to myself.

"No, sorry."

"She burned my hand."

"He sounds American. He's a spy!" Bald say. I try my hardest to put on a Welsh accent.

"No, never been to America, looks like a beautiful country, it does." I was killing it.

"Fine, just go. I'm not in the mood for this." Fat says. What the hell did Olive do?

I look around for her, she's nowhere to be found, maybe she went back to the ship? I go back to the ship, she's not there. I feel a sense of deja vu, not this again. Did she get herself arrested? No, she didn't, or those guys wouldn't have been looking for her. They were snooping around the loop entrance, maybe Olive ran through trying to shake them off? I run back to the cave, here I go again.

I look around the beach, she's not there, I look around the park, she's not there. Where the hell could she be?

I spent an hour looking for her, I almost lost it. For all I knew, she could be dead, but I couldn't think that. I hear this loud voice calling my name. To my deepest relief, it's Olive.

"Where have you been, I've been looking for you?"

"Long story short, I was listening to these two guys' conversations."

"Was one of them bald-"

"And the other fat with a beard, yes. I kind of pissed them off by listening to their conversation."

"Why were you eavesdropping?"

"Because they were talking about that place. They're hiring."

"I'm not going to go work at the place, I just want to get Emma, and get out."

"You can still do that, all you need is to know where this place is, and you will if you get the job."

"I'll think about it."

"Why?"

"You shot down my first idea, I'm just giving you a taste of your own medicine."

"Your idea was to endanger my life, mine won't."

"It's actually a good plan, I just wanted to see your reaction."

"I would punch you in the arm if I wouldn't burn you. Can we get moving, I've already been here too long?"

"Sure. What happened to your gloves?"

"That's the fault of the bald and fat man. They first thought I was a spy, apparently they thought I had been handling chemicals, so they stole my gloves for some reason."

"Same thing happened to me, well sorta."

"What do you mean by sorta?"

"They thought I was an American."

"You are an American."

"Let me finish, they thought I was an American spy."

"You, a spy. You can't even hit a wight out in the open with a crossbow." She laughed.

"Hey!"

"Hey, we already went through that greeting."

"In the way I said it, it meant I was offended. And didn't I hit that hollow right in the head?"

"Americans are weird, and that shot was lucky."

"I'm going to let that slide. What happened next?"

"Fat tried to put out his cigar in my hand."

"I bet that went well."

"No, he said I'm a witch. I told them I wasn't a witch. Then they went on to say I'm a witch spy, total dooshes those two were. One of them grabbed my arm, they got burned. Then I ran away, you can guess the rest.

"They sound like they totally deserved it."

"They did."

"Where were you for the past hour?"

"I met our great grandkids. One girl, one boy."

"What do you mean by our grandkids." Please not what I think it is.

"You and Emma's, mine and Enoch's, what did you think I meant?"

"Never mind. How did you meet them? More important, how do I have grandchildren?" Had I really been written out of this time?

"You had kids with Emma, in the past, which is technically our present. They came up to me while I was in the park, I stand by that statement, Americans are weird." The fact that she thought it was just Americans was funny.

"What did they say to you?"

"That their Mom's would like to meet me, and the fact that the girl touched my shoulder, and nothing happened."

"You sure you weren't being defective?"

"She has amber peculiarity."

"What's that?"

"She can absorb peculiarities, use them to her own free will."

"Is the girl yours or mine?"

"MIne, you got the boy. Now that I think of it, I think our grandchildren are dating."

"Do they have names?"

"Of course they have names. Tess, and Hayden, weird names if you ask me."

"Our grandchildren dating, who knew?"

"I know right."

"What about the moms?"

"Aurora was Hayden's mom, Lilly was Tess's mom."

"What happened when they saw you?"

"They kind of freaked." We had gotten to the loop entrance and went through.

"How?"

"Think squealing."

"Anything else?"

"Not now, we have to get you to that government building."

"Fine." We walked to the government building, why was I so nervous? I went up to the clerk.

"Hello, I would like to apply for a job at the Residence for Reckless Girls."

"Here, fill these out." She handed me a sheet of paper to fill out. I filled it out and gave it back to her.

"When can I start?"

"Next week."

"Why next week?"

"This will take a couple of days to process, then it goes to the head of the board there, he then sends it back." At least I knew she wouldn't be dead in a week.

"Thanks, see you in a week."

"I look forward to it." She replied grimly.

"When can you start?"

"Next week."

"For all we know, she could be dead in a week! Let's hope not."

"Not exactly," I told her everything Julia had told me. At first, she was upset I hadn't told her sooner, then she was even more worried for Emma. I told Miss P about the job, though it would be best to leave everything else out.