"I freaking love science," Lacy Loud said with a gleam in her eye. Her purple mittened hands closed into fuzzy fists and a tremor of excitement raced through her body like a slight jolt of electricity. Beneath the rim of her purple cap, her brow angled downward in a V of enthusiasm that everyone said made her look just like her mother, and her prominent front teeth - inherited from her father - bared in a mad grimace.
It was early Friday morning and she and her friend Katy were trudging through almost a foot of snow on their way to school. Fat, wet flakes fell diagonally from the off white sky and pelted their backs. People shovelled their cars out from beneath heaps of fluffy white and a snow plow with rust along the wheel wells lumbered by, the single light atop its cab flashing orange and its blade pushing snow out of its way with a metal on stone scraping sound that would have sent a shiver down Lacy's spine if she had been aware of it. Lacy was short like her mom and the snow was nearly up to her knees. Her woolen socks had been wet for the last three blocks, but she didn't care. She had fresh socks and a pair of tennis shoes in her backpack to change into.
Katy, a strawberry blonde with freckles and greenish eyes, was almost a full year younger than Lacy but the same height, and Lacy couldn't remember seeing her boots one time since they started their six block trek to school; the snow seemed to get a little deeper every couple of minutes.
The winter of 2041 had been a brutal one in Michigan and even though it was only late January, the Royal County School District had used up all of its allotted snow days. Any more, and they'd have to start subtracting from summer vacation, something that no one wanted to happen - summer was short enough as it was, using days to make up for missed time would make it even shorter.
Because of this, the schools would stay open on a voluntary basis. That is, if you didn't want to come in, you didn't have to. It wouldn't count against you as long as you made up the work. If there was a blizzard or something, they'd obviously have to close, but the snow wasn't really that bad. The streets were all plowed and it was supposed to stop soon, so Lacy doubted the school would shut down at the last minute.
"Science gives me a headache," Katy said. Her face peeked out from beneath the furry hood of her jacket. Her hair was tucked under a red knit cap and her puffy blue jacket squeaked with every step she took.
Lacy had been friends with Katy ever since Lacy and her parents moved to Oak Grove when Lacy was six. They had sleepovers together, rode bikes together, and, more recently, talked about boys together. Lacy turned thirteen in September and was just beginning to realize that boys weren't as gross as she thought. Oh, they were still gross, but they could also be kind of cute sometimes. There was a boy in her history class named Dylan who had the bluest eyes she'd ever seen, and she occasionally caught herself gazing into them and feeling butterflies in the pit of her stomach. Katy felt kind of the same way, so at least Lacy knew she wasn't alone.
One thing that Katy did not feel the same way about was science. Katy liked English - bleh, boring - and lunch (as the little pooch on her belly could attest). Lacy was science all the way. Science was awesome. Yeah, the book work could get a little dull, but it was still really interesting. The experiments, though..that's where it was at. She loved messing around with chemicals and seeing how they reacted. When she was five, she pestered her parents for a junior chemistry set, and when she finally got it for Christmas, she almost wet herself with joy. She stuck everything she could get her hands on under the microscope to see what it looked like. The teeny tiny germs and stuff were really cool. A lot of girls might have ben grossed out, but not her. She loved it.
Her Aunt Lisa encouraged her love of the scientific arts and let her help out around her home lab. Lacy mainly took notes and watched over Aunt Lisa's shoulder, but sometimes she got to do hands on work, which she loved.
Every day after school, she went over to Lisa's house across town and put in an hour or two of work before Mom and Dad picked her up on their way home from work. Usually, Lisa's work was fairly routine stuff, but lately, she had been working on a super secret awesome project that only one other person knew about. Can you guess who that person is?
Hint.
It was Lacy.
She took great pride in Aunt Lisa trusting her with a secret that big. This wasn't a little thing, oh no, it was huge, massive, world-changing. If Aunt Lisa succeeded, her name would be in all the history books with Newton and Einstein...and so would Lacy's, since she was the helper. I will be sure and acknowledge your participation, Aunt Lisa told her. Just so long as you stop bouncing on your heels and breathing heavy. You're breaking my concentration.
Okay, she was bouncy, but she did that when she was excited. She was about to be one of the most famous people ever, could you really blame her for being a little giddy? How could you spend every afternoon watching history being made and not be excited? You'd have to be a total science hater.
Like Katy.
Poor, dumb, benighted Katy, the little girl who couldn't understand the sheer amazingness of science. Lacy pitied her. "Science gives me a girl-boner."
She and Katy both giggled. That was a line from The Abby Mason Show, a sitcom on Nickelodeon. Lacy and Katy watched it every Friday night. In the last episode, Abby said a dress she saw on sale gave her a girl-boner and Lacy started saying it because it was funny. She had no idea what a boner was until she said it in front of Mom. Your chicken alfredo gives me a raging girl-boner, Mom. Mom's jaw dropped. LACY RITA LOUD!
At that moment, Lacy knew it was a bad word...or else Mom wouldn't have used her full name.
They were approaching the middle school now, a low L-shaped building with a breezeway. Buses pulled into the horseshoe drive and stopped at the curb, and groups of kids streamed out of every side street, back alley, and avenue like pilgrims on their way to Mecca. Lacy and Katy crossed the street and went in through the main doors, their boots squeaking and slipping on the slick tiles. At the four-way intersection past the main office, they split up. "I'll see you later," Katy said.
"Later," Lacy said.
Her locker was down the hall and around the corner, right next to the nurse's office. She breezed right past it and went to the girl's locker room off the gym. She sat on the bench, took off her boots and socks, and changed into her tennis shoes. She stowed her boots in her locker and hurried to other locker, where she shrugged out of her coat, hat, and mittens. Beneath, she wore a dark blue sweatshirt. Her pale brown hair was messy and stuck out at weird angles, and when she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror on the back of the locker door, she cringed a little. Hat head was something all cold region dwellers had to deal with every winter, but she had a habit of forgetting it existed until she saw her reflection. Or someone pointed it out. Whichever came first.
She had a brush somewhere around hereā¦
The locker was neatly and fussily organized so finding the brush was far easier than it should have been. She ran it through her hair until she no longer looked like a troll doll, then put it back and grabbed her books.
On her way to class, she crossed paths with a few of her friends. There was Amanda from science class, Veronica from math, and Sherman from history. Lacy wasn't one of those stuck up popular kids who flocked around together like clusters of cells even though she was cool with a few of them and could be if she really wanted to, she hung out with anyone just as long as they were cool. Sherman was what some might call a "geek" or a "nerd" or "a total freaking dorktard," but he was smart and Lacy liked smart people. Then again, she liked dumb people too. Amanda was totally lost in science class and whenever they were paired together for a project, Lacy had to do all of the heavy lifting, but she didn't mind. Like her history teacher was fond of saying: From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs. Lacy had the ability to knock a science project out of the park, and Amanda needed someone to carry her so she didn't totally fail.
The bell rang just as Lacy got to class. Right on time, like always. Lacy liked being punctual. Her mom flew by the seat of her pants sometimes and it was kind of irritating. Lacy was more like her father in that respect, but even he wasn't the greatest. He had a way of getting wrapped up in something and losing track of time. He was an in-house artist for a small comic book publisher, drawing everything from anime-style fighting junk to 'wholesome" (whatever that was). He'd start a panel and get up to use the bathroom only to realize six hours had passed in what felt like two. Like come on, set an alarm or something.
Taking her seat at the front of the room, Lacy opened her book and flipped to Chapter 5 so she'd be ready when class began. The other kids trickled in by ones and twos and the teacher rushed in just after the final bell rang, a cup of Starbucks coffee clutched in one hand. "Sorry I'm late," she huffed, "I kept sliding off the road."
On a normal day, Lacy was attentive in all her classes (even if she didn't like them), but today her mind wandered and she had a hard time focusing. She and Lisa were nearing a breakthrough in their super-secret-project and Lacy was starting to get really stoked. Lisa said they might be able to start "active-involvement testing" soon, and Lacy had been looking forward to that for months. She was amped...but kind of nervous too. This was uncharted territory. They didn't know what would happen and couldn't accurately anticipate what impact their invention might have. She thought of the men who built the first atomic bomb and how they were afraid it would tear a hole in the atmosphere, ending all life on earth. She and Lisa were messing with the fabric of the space-time continuum, there was no telling what might happen.
That was cool...but scary too.
When the bell rang for lunch, she took her books to her locker, shoved them in, and went to the cafeteria. She and Katy sat at the end of a table near the door and stared down at their food with puzzled frowns. "What do you think it is?" Katy asked.
"It looks like a rib patty," Lacy said and prodded it with her fork. "See the ridges?"
"I don't know," Katy said, "it's brown. Aren't rib patties supposed to be...not brown?"
Good point. Lacy carved a little piece off with her fork and lifted it to her nose. "It smells like Salisbury Steak," she said.
Katy did the same. "It does," she agreed.
At least they knew it was edible.
The mystery meat turned out to be bland and chewy just like every cut of beef, pork, and chicken the school had ever served. That wasn't a good thing, but it wasn't particularly bad, either. You can get used to things you don't like, and Lacy was used to Grace Miller Middle's fare.
Lacy's first class after lunch was gym. She had a hard time calling it a "class" since you don't really learn anything, but whatever you wanted to classify it as, she loved it because she got to be active, and she liked being active just as much as she liked science. She changed into a pair of gym shorts and a T-shirt and lined up with the other kids. The P.E. teacher, a woman named Ms. Lambert with bushy hair and a whistle, stood against the wall with her arms crossed over her chest while everyone ran laps. Lacy gave it her all and led the pack for a little bit, but then she fell behind. When it was all said and done, she was third to last and fighting a hot stitch in her side. Her lungs burned and for a moment, she thought she was going to launch into an asthma attack like she used to when she was little, but the fire in her chest died out and she was good again. She hadn't had an asthma attack since she was seven so it was probably gone for good, but she lived in secret terror of it coming back; sometimes, right when she was falling asleep or waking up, she could feel the breathless, gripping sensation of choking.
At the end of the day, Lacy pulled on her boots, her coat, her hat, her scarf, and her mittens and met up with Katy at the flagpole. Katy was bundled up so tightly that she looked like the Michilin Man, an image that brought a smile to Lacy's lips. "Are you going to your aunt's house?" Katy asked as they struggled along the snowy sidewalk.
"Yep," Lacy said. "We're going to start testing soon. I can't wait."
Katy sighed. "I wish you'd tell me what it is already."
"Sorry," Lacy said, "that's top secret."
"You know I won't tell," Katy said, a pleading note in her voice.
Oh boy, here we go again.
Because she was Lacy's best friend, Katy thought she was entitled to know everything. Lacy trusted her one hundred percent to keep normal secrets like what boy she liked and stuff, but this was BIG with a capital B-I-G. Lacy herself could barely keep from blabbing about it. Katy wouldn't last five minutes. Because of that, Lacy had to keep it under her hat.
She told Katy this already and it led to a huge argument. I'm your best friend, Katy said, why don't you trust me?
Lacy tried to explain, but Katy didn't listen. She wanted to act all snooty and stop talking to Lacy, so that's what happened for a while. They eventually patched things up and never talked about Lisa's secret project again. Oh, they both brought it up here and there, but the other ignored it for the sake of their relationship.
"Aunt Lisa said if I told anyone, she'd never let me come back to her lab ever again."
"Oh, no," Katy said sarcastically, "not Lisa's lab."
A dark shadow flickered across Lacy's face and her forehead pinched severely. "That might not mean anything to you, but it does to me."
"Fine," Katy said, "don't tell me."
"Good, I won't."
They walked the rest of the way in terse silence. At her house, Katy broke from Lacy and crossed the street without even saying goodbye. Lacy considered flipping her off but decided against it. Lacy's house was half a block up, a one bedroom ranch with a pitched roof, shakes, and brick around the front door. Mom's car was in the driveway but Mom's car was always in the driveway; it broke down last week and she was relying on Dad to take her to work. Dad was at some kind meeting or function or something to do with comic books so the windows were dark and heavily curtained, and anybody passing by couldn't be forgiven for thinking the house was abandoned.
Aunt Lisa's house was clear on the other side of town, and to get there, Lacy had to cross a busy intersection, cut across the town park, and walk up a really steep hill. Lisa's house was at the top and by the time Lacy got to the front gate, she was panting for air. She leaned against the fence and caught her breath. Whew, that snow was a bi-otch. It was like walking underwater. Which was fitting, she guessed, since snow was frozen water.
Pushing open the gate, Lacy went up the walkway.
Now, Lisa's house was a little, um, different. A three story Victorian with spires, gingerbread trim, and ramparts like a castle, it looked exactly the way you'd expect the home of a mad scientist to look. All of the kids in town said it was haunted and dared each other to run up and ring the bell. People whispered about strange lights emanating from the basement windows at night, and there were rumors that every so often, the hellish screams of damned spirits drifted through the cracks. Dumb, huh? Those weren't ghosts screaming, they were test monkeys that Lisa occasionally shipped in from overseas. It was highly illegal and she could wind up in federal prison, which is why the "screams" only happened every so often.
Lacy guessed she couldn't blame the neighbors for thinking the place was haunted. When you're dumb, science can seem like pure magic.
Fishing her key from her pocket, :Lacy unlocked the door, punched in the security code, and leaned into the scanner box so it could read her eye. When the light flashed green, she went in and closed the door behind her.
A tile floored vestibule featuring a tiled floor fronted a narrow staircase led up to the second floor. The wallpaper was blue with an old fashion floral print pattern and brass lamps on the wall cast mudded pools of light. An archway guarded the dimly lit parlor on the right, and a set of French doors opened onto a den on the left. Wing-backed chairs crouched in the shadows and a low, comfortable fire crackled in the hearth. A hall provided access to the kitchen at the back of the house, and a set of stairs descended to the cellar. At the door, Lacy punched in a series of numbers, submitted to another eye scan, and pressed her index finger to another scanner that took her print and instantly matched it against its database. The latch released with a metallic thunk, and she went in.
Lacy had heard it said that there are two sides to every city. You have the glitz and glam you see on TV, and then you have the dark underbelly, one as different from the other as night is from day. If that was true, then there were two sides of Lisa's house. Upstairs, the fixtures and furnishings were antiques, and if you squinted, you could almost believe you were in the year 1891 (just ignore the light sockets, television, and laptop charging on the end table). It was warm, sleepy, and unassuming. Here, below ground, things were totally different. For starters, everything was chrome and sterile, like an operating theater. The overhead lights were white and bright, stinging your eyes. Futuristic machines were set up along the walls and a bank of computers crowded a metal table. After the antiquated tranquility of the first floor, the cellar was a jarring and unexpected, like a scream in an empty room. If it was 1891 up top, it was 3091 down here, and you'd never imagine such radically different environments could exist under the same roof.
The woman, the myth, the legend, the Lisa, bent over a computer hooked to a large, tube-shaped machine that looked kind of like a telephone booth. Her messy hair and the wrinkles in her lab coat bespoke long, sleepless nights. Her thin, spidery fingers blazed across the keyboard, and the screen flashed. The tube's door slid open with a thunk and it began to whirr and hium. "Are we testing it?" Lacy asked hopefully.
"Yes," Lisa said. She punched a button with a flourish and stood up to her full height.
YAY!
"Retrieve the drone."
In order to test the machine, Lisa had designed a special drone equipped with recording capabilities, tank-like tracks, and propellers in case they needed it to fly. It was roughly the size of a toaster and could be operated by remote control.
Lacy crossed the room, fetched it from a shelf, and brought it over. "Put it in the chamber," Lisa ordered.
Obeying, Lacy sat the drone carefully in the tube and blacked away slowly, as though one sudden movement would destroy Lisa's entire life's work. Lisa plugged a cord into the machine and another into the drone itself. She bent over the computer again and typed in a command. The door slid shut, pinching the cord, and steam seeped out from beneath the machine. Lacy's heart started to pound and she fisted her hands to her chest. Was this it? Where are they finally gonna do it?
"I haven't the faintest idea what will happen," Lisa said, "but I anticipate a molecular disturbance in the nanosphere." She turned away from the computer, bumped into Lacy, and almost fell over. She laid her hands on Lacy's shoulders and gently moved her toward the computer where a number of readouts measured everything from barometric pressure to the precise microsecond. "Keep an eye on these."
Sure thing.
With one eye.
Because the other one would be on the machine.
At her computer, Lisa pressed a button, and the machine started to hum louder. More steam curled out from underneath it, and it began to tremble ever so slightly. Lisa glanced at it over her shoulder, and Lacy couldn't help but see a strange and unfamiliar look in her eyes.
Apprehension.
Lisa Loud was a certified genius and exuded the unshakable self-confidence of one, but this wasn't gene splicing or atom splitting - this was newer, bigger, and better. At best, she would win a Nobel Prize for this. At worst, she would rip the fabric of reality to shreds and doom the entire world to the void.
The pressure was immense.
Green, pink, and red lights flashed in the porthole window looking into the tube. The machine shook like a tea kettle on the stove and emitted a low whine that increased by degrees until it pierced Lacy's ears and dug into her brain like the tines of a fork. She held her breath and watched, mesmerized. The air around it was shimmering now and a smell of burned ozone pinched her nostrils. The whine grew higher, higher, stabbing her brain and making her wince. The light turned bright white and shot from the window in an eye melting beam, and she and Lisa both whipped their heads away. The readouts went crazy: Localized barometric pressure was through the roof, the temperature was down.
The shaking intensified...then, all at once, the tube winked out of existence. Steam lingered in the air but the spot where the machine had just been standing was empty, the cord between the drone and the computer seeming to disappear in midair. Lisa came over to the computer, typed something in, and called up a screen that depicted a cross section of the tube. It was surrounded by red, green, and yellow infrared. She grabbed the remote, pulled out the telescope antenna, and pointed it at the cord. "Plug me in."
Lacy jammed a second cord into the remote.
"Keep your eyes on the screen and tell me what to do."
Lacy nodded.
Lisa worked the controls, and on screen, the drone left the tube. It drove straight ahead then came to an abrupt stop. "Turn left," Lacy said.
The drone turned left. A second later, it came to another abrupt stop, as though it had hit something.
"Right."
They repeated this process until the drone had made a complete circle. Lisa cautiously navigated it back into the tube, sat the remote down, and went to typing on the computer. Lacy watched over her shoulder with bated breath stumbled backwards when Lisa turned and bumped into her again. "Will you get out of my way?" Lisa snapped.
Lacy took no offense to her aunt's tone. That's just who Lisa was. She did, however, slide over to the edge of the table where Lisa couldn't bump into her unless she walked over and did it on purpose.
The air around the cord - plugged seemingly into nothing - began to shimmer again, and with a flash of light, the tube reappeared again. Steam curled around the edges and a light layer of frost covered the exterior. The door opened, and Lisa got the drone. She sat it next to the computer, logged into its internal drive, and called up the video it had taken. Lacy and Lisa huddled together to watch, both of them tense with excitement. The first shot was of the doors sliding open to reveal a snow-shrouded woodland. Lacy's heart skipped a beat and she leaned in until her face almost touched the screen. The tube hadn't, as per the readout, moved a single inch. That forest was in this exact same spot...only in the past.
"When did you send it back to?" Lacy asked.
"January 23, 1741, 4:12:025pm" Lisa said. "Exactly three hundred years ago."
The drone left the tube, its tracks crunching the snow, and promptly bumped into a tree. It turned and bumped into another. It turned, and that's when they saw it.
"LOOK AT THAT!" Lacy squealed and jammed her finger against the screen, almost knocking the computer over. Lisa paused, adjusted her glasses, and squinted. A group of five people stood among the trees, crouched defensively over and watching the drone with something approaching terror. "INDIANS!"
"They do appear to be indigiionous peoples," Lisa agreed and hit PLAY.
The drone moved, and the Indians fell back a step. A brave at the front of the pack lifted a bow and shot an arrow that narrowly missed the drone. Ignoring him, the drone took a left and started around the side of the tube. The Indians studied it warily, and were presumably still there when the tube jumped back to the present.
"Amazing," Lisa breathed.
"We did it," Lacy said more to herself than to Lisa, "we did it. WE REALLY WENT BACK N TIME!"
Laughing with uncharacteristic glee, Lisa swept her into a spine breaking hug. "We've done it! Hahaha! We've done it." She spun Lacy around, and for a terrifying second, Lacy's feet left the floor. She let out a trembling "Whoa!" she held onto her aunt as tightly as she could to keep from flying out of her grasp. Lisa sat her down and affectionately mussed her hair. "Do you have any idea how momentous this is? We've successfully undertaken time travel, something people have dreamed of for centuries. We will be celebrated for this. We will be considered two of the most important people in the annals of history."
"I know," Lacy squealed. She clasped Lisa's hands and bounced with excitement. Lisa threw caution to the wind and bounced with her. "We did it! We did it!" they chanted.
Pulling away from Lacy's grip, Lisa flew over to the computer. "I have to study the data," she said, fingers dancing across the keyboard. "If possible, I want to send a living subject next."
"Me?" Lacy asked and clawed at Lisa's sleeve. "Can I do it?"
"Absolutely not," Lisa said, and Lacy deflated. "It's too dangerous. As of right now, I have no way of knowing what sort of affects time travel will have on living organisms. The drone seems to have come through fine but I have to know what sort of atmospheric conditions such a jump entails. Notice the ice on the outside of the pod. I surmise that it is cold out there, perhaps too cold for little girls to survive."
Out there.
That phrase struck a curious mixture of dread, wonder, and mystery in Lacy's heart. Out there between worlds, dimensions, times, an unstable and unknown void of endless space where no light shone, a crack betwixt the here and there. What would happen if the time machine broke down in the middle of a jump? Would it be lost in oblivion? She thought back to the early days of space exploration, where the Soviet Union sent dogs and men into space. There were horrifying rumors that people in other countries with ham radios picked up transmissions from doomed cosmonauts long before the first acknowledged manned space flight as their ships malfunctioned and drifted into deep space, never to be seen again. Imaging the terror and panic of those men as they floated out into the ether and watched earth recede until nothing remained but the cold darkness of deep space made Lacy feel like she was going to have an asthma attack. She would love to be the first human to travel back in time, but only if it was safe. If not...Lisa could do it.
Lacy's phone vibrated in her pocket and she dug it out.
A text.
From Mom.
Here.
"I gotta go," Lacy said and shoved her phone back into her pocket.
"Alright,' Lisa said without looking up from the screen, "I'll see you tomorrow."
"Bye."
Lacy left the lab, climbed the stairs, and went out the front door. The sun was low in the west and a cold wind gusted down the street, making her shiver. Dad's car idled at the curb, exhaust rising from the pipe like dragon's breath. Lacy ducked her head against the chill and hurried down the walkway. She opened the back passenger door and slid in, pulling it closed behind her. "Hey," Mom said.
"Hi," Lacy said and buckled her seatbelt.
"Have fun with Frankenstien?" Dad asked and pulled away from the curb.
"Yes I did," Lacy said. Normally, she would have fondly rolled her eyes and told Dad he was mean for calling Aunt Lisa that, but today she barely even noticed. "We made the biggest discovery ever."
Dad chuckled. "You found your mom's ego, huh?"
Mom glared at him. "Shut up, Stinkcoln. They probably found your credit score."
"Actually," Dad said, "a high credit score's a good thing. So yeah, they probably did."
They pulled a U-turn and started down the hill at a crawl. Slushy brown snow coated the street and black ice trimmed the edges. "No it's not," Mom said, "a low credit score's a good thing. A big one means you're a loser."
"This isn't golf, Lynn."
"Your face isn't golf."
Now Lacy did roll her eyes. Her parents were the biggest dweeboes on the face of the earth. They were always calling each other names, horseplaying, and hugging and kissing one another in front of God and everyone. Deep down, she loved it. Up top, though, it was super embarrassing.
Without warning, the car fishtailed and Lacy's heart jumped into her throat. A shocked gasp ripped from Mom's throat and she braced herself for impact. Dad cooly turned the wheel a little and reduced speed. The car slid back and forth on a sheet of ice, then its wheels gripped pavement and it evened out.
Lacy let out a breath she didn't know she was holding and Mom relaxed. "Be careful," she said to Dad, as though he hadn't just saved them from crashing.
"Stop talking smack," Dad said, "let me focus."
"Go on and focus then."
"I will."
"Good." She stuck out her tongue, and they both giggled like children.
"Your mother's a nutcase," Dad said into the rearview mirror.
"You're both nuts," Lacy said.
"What does that make you?" Mom asked.
Lacy smiled. "Normal, I got half and half from each of you."
They were on Main Street now, where the streets were clear and free of ice. Sheer walls of dirty snow clogged the gutters and covered the sidewalks. People slipped, slid, and flapped their arms to keep from falling down and most of the stores along the way were already closed despite the early hour. Lacy strained to see the dashboard clock between the front seats, It was barely 4:30 in the afternoon. To be fair, it was already twilight, and with the sun sinking and the wind picking up, she wouldn't want to stay open either.
Five blocks from their street, Dad hissed. "Damn it."
Lacy looked up just as white smoke began to seep out from the cracks around the hood. The CHECK ENGINE light flashed and a beeping sound seemed to come from everywhere. "What's wrong?" Mom asked.
"I don't know, let me mentally commune with our failing engine and find out," Dad said. He started to turn into the parking lot of Flip's II, Flip's Oak Grove location, but the engine stalled, and he barely made it to the curb. "Shit," he said. He unbuckled his seatbelt and swung open the door. "I'll be right back."
"Don't get frostbite," Mom said with a sly little grin.
"Do you need help, Dad?" Lacy asked. She didn't know a lot about car engines, but her Aunt Lana showed her a few things.
A pick-up truck blasted by in the street going way too fast, the wind displaced by its passage rocking the car. "Uhhh...no, you better sit this one out, it's dangerous."
Lacy almost laughed. Dangerous? Dangerous? Theoretically, she could have been sucked into a black hole today, where she would be forever trapped between worlds like a fly between two window panes. This guy didn't even know the meaning of that word.
Dad got out and slammed the door, cutting off Lacy's protests. A sullen expression settled over her features and she crossed her arms savagely over her chest. She was an historical figure now, she didn't have to put up with being treated like a child.
At the front of the car, Dad lifted the hood and a cloud of smoke rushed out only to be dispersed by the wind. Mom undid her seatbelt and twisted around in her seat; Lacy made a conscious effort to soften her features but Mom was too quick on the upchuck, as Dad was fond of saying. "What's wrong?" she asked.
Her tone was casual, conversational, with just a hint of motherly concern. Lacy was extremely close to both of her parents. Dad was her rock, her storyteller, and, until she outgrew it, her constant playmate. Mom was her best friend and mentor. They both punished her when she needed it (and sometimes when she didn't, in her opinion) but neither one was strict or intimidating the way some parents are. Lacy could talk to them about anything and they would never judge or scold her.
She couldn't talk about hers and Lisa's super secret project, though, and therefore, she couldn't honestly tell Mom why she made a mean mug at Dad. I don't like Dad treating me like a baby when I just helped discover time travel. I'm a full-grown woman now. "Nothing," she said.
"You don't shoot daggers for nothing, kid," Mom said. "What's up?"
Lacy sighed. "Dad treated me kind of like a little baby and I didn't like it."
A minivan shot by in the street, rocking the car. "To be fair, it is dangerous," Mom said. "People drive way too fast on this street. One wrong move and BAM."
"I won't make a wrong move," Lacy said. "I'm twelve. I know how to use my legs."
"So does your Aunt Lola," Mom said, "that didn't stop her from falling off the runway once and busting her butt."
Lacy wasn't Lola, but okay.
It really wasn't a big issue, Dad telling her to stay in the car, but he did sometimes act like she was a doofus who couldn't handle things on her own. Mom wasn't as bad, but she did it sometimes too. Case in point, she wanted to watch an R-rated movie and they wouldn't let her. Dad said it was too scary and Mom said she'd have nightmares. No she wouldn't. She watched scary movies with Aunt Lucy a few times and they never gave her nightmares. Except for this one time when she watched Kingdom of the Spiders and dreamed she was covered in girl eating arachnids, but that didn't count. Anyone would have a nightmare after watching millions of spiders taking over a small town. I mean, there was total pandemonium - cars crashing, people screaming, kids covered in spiders and dying in the streets. That movie did not play.
Lacy didn't like being treated like a kid. End of story.
She said as much, and Mom reached out and ruffled her hair. "But you're my kid."
"Stop," Lacy said and pulled away.
Mom laughed and reached into her pocket. "Alright, Miss Bigshot, if it'll make you feel better, I'll let you go in and buy me a chilidog."
While going inside a store was absolutely not on the same level as helping Dad with the car, a Flippie Dog covered in chili did sound good. Mom slipped a twenty out of her wallet and handed it to Lacy. "Get one for your dad and yourself too."
"I was just going to eat half of yours," Lacy said.
"Oh, no you weren't."
Lacy opened the door and stuck out her tongue. Mom playfully lunged for her, but Lacy was ready and jumped out of the car like a paratrooper diving from her plane. "Extra onions!" Mom called, but the slamming of the door cut her off. Snow crunched under Lacy's boots and a strong wind threatened to knock her over. Dad looked up from the engine block and furrowed his brow suspiciously.
"I'm getting Flippie Dogs," Lacy explained.
"Ah," Dad said, "I should have known. Your mom loves those things."
Well, who doesn't? "Do you want chili on yours?" Lacy asked.
A red Toyota raced by, followed by a box van. Droplets of water kicked up by their tires splatted the side of Lacy's face. "Sure," Dad said. "No onions."
"Okay."
Lacy turned around and picked her way across the icy parking lot, walking as carefully as she could to keep from slipping and busting her butt like Aunt Lola. Rock salt was scattered in front of the entrance like chicken feed and inside, a line of flattened cardboard sheets led from the door to the counter. Flip sat by the register and paged through a magazine, a sour expression on his wizened face. "Wipe your goddamn feet," he grumbled.
As much as Lacy loved Flippie Dogs and Flipeez, she hated Flip. He was such a jerk. And a cheapskate too. Every time she came in, he stared at her, and the moment she was out of his sight, he'd yell. "Don't you steal from me, little girl."
Blowing a petulant puff of air, Lacy wiped her feet on one of the cardboard squares. When her boots were as dry as they would ever get, she went over to the counter. Hotdogs wrapped in foil baked beneath a warming lamp and wilting slices of pizza that looked barely edible lay limply on paper plates, putting Lacy crazily in mind of those ASPCA commercials where dogs and cats beg with their eyes for you to adopt them. Lacy hated those commercials because they always made her tear up. Awww, poor puppies and kitties.
A pair of tongs sat on the counter, probably covered in germs. She used them to grab three hotdogs. She added chili, mustard, ketchup, and relish to all of them, and onions to hers and Mom's. The bell over the door dinged and Lacy looked over her shoulder. A woman in a long coat came in, closely followed by a black man in a bomber jacket and a knit cap. The woman went to the counter and the man made a beeline for the beer cooler along the back wall. Lacy didn't think they were together.
She put the hotdogs into containers and carried them to the counter, where she stood behind the woman, who was digging through her purse. "I know I have it here somewhere," she said. Flip just glowered at her.
While Lacy waited, she peered out the plate-glass window overlooking the parking lot. Dad was still bent over the engine but it was no longer smoking. That was a plus.
She caught a flash of movement from the corner of her eye and turned her head just as a cement mixer barreled down the street. From the way it was moving, she could instantly tell that there was something wrong with it. Its big tires hit a patch of ice and it slid. The driver overcorrected, and it angled to the left.
Right toward Dad.
Lacy barely had time to register what was happening before the truck slammed into the car with a metal BANG that she could feel in her bones.
One minute, Dad was standing there, the next he was gone. The car's front end crumpled and disappeared under the truck's big tires. "GODDAMN!" the black man yelled. The woman spun around and her hand went to her mouth. "Oh, my God."
For a second, Lacy was frozen in shock, the world slowing to a crawl, then the hotdogs dropped from her hands and she was running toward the door. "Mom! Dad!"
She slammed into the door so hard that it hit the wall behind it. The truck had come to a stop, the car partially underneath it. Passing vehicles halted and people ran toward the wreck from the other side of the street. Lacy slipped, skidded, and almost went down, but didn't stop. A thousand awful thoughts raced through her head and panic clawed at her chest. She stepped wrong and fell to her knees, hot tears welling in her eyes. She tried to get back up but slipped again. She had to make sure her parents were okay. They were hurt. They needed her.
Getting to her feet, she ran the rest of the way. A group of people surrounded the car and the driver of the truck stood beside his rig with a dazed expression. "The brakes," he mumbled, "I-I couldn't stop."
Lacy tried to push her way through the crowd, but someone pulled her away. "LET ME GO!" she shrieked. "MY MOM AND DAD! LET ME GO!"
"Honey, calm down, it's -"
"LET ME GO!"
She wrenched away and stumbled. Her eyes went to the mangled wreck, then to something lying on the ground.
A severed arm.
Coldness came over her and her knees began to quiver.
When she recognized the bloody orange fabric swaddling it...her father's favorite color...:Lacy Loud fainted.
