Authors: Crystal Gables
Allergic To Time (30 page)
He was gone. Vanished. Into thin air.
I jumped up and down and hugged Martin. He returned my embrace for longer than was professionally appropriate, and then we both pulled back and smiled at each other. “It actually worked,” I said, grinning at him.
“Sorry about your time machine,” he said. “I always believed in your work...”
“Oh you did not!”
We turned around to see Robert comforting a sobbing Naomi. I figured she would be okay eventually. She didn’t need that psychotic maniac in order to succeed in academia. She just needed to apply herself.
Fanny walked over and grabbed the machine up off the floor. “I’ll be taking that back, thank you,” she said, grinning at me. “I’m glad this old thing still works.” She gave Martin a brief hug and I stood back, watching them.
“I don’t know how you’re gong to get that back to Perth,” Martin commented to her.
“I have my ways.”
Robert broke away from Naomi for a second and walked over to hug me. “I can’t believe we’re all in one piece,” he said, grabbing me by the arms and looking down at me.
I stole a glance at Martin. “See? He finally got the hang of it. His plan worked.”
“Huh,” Rob replied. “Seemed more like blind luck to me. And you’re the one who actually pulled the trigger.”
I smiled.
Martin walked over to the two of us. “Good work Doc,” Rob said to him, reluctantly reaching out his hand. Martin also seemed reluctant to take it, but he eventually smiled and shook it.
“So Ann and I were thinking...” he began, draping his arm across my shoulder. “That the three of us ought to go into business. As sort of a time travel detective agency.”
“The government will probably want to get in touch with us,” I added, nodding along.
Martin frowned. “But now that we’ve gotten rid of John Raymond, there won’t be any more mysteries to solve.”
I nodded over at Fanny.
“Dude, there were time travellers long before John Raymond came along. And what if my father suddenly appears one day out of the blue, unable to breathe? We’ll have to protect them all.”
Martin sighed and took a long look at Fanny. “I guess. But I was kind of hoping for a quiet return to academia.”
I raised my eyebrow. “We don’t have jobs anymore, remember.”
He gave me a look. “You managed to come up with the theory of a working time machine: I am pretty sure we can persuade the university to take us back on.”
I broke away from Robert. “Are you serious?” I raised my eyebrow. “You’re willing to come out — publicly — in support of both time travel and my project? Because you’re going to have to be fully in support of time travel from now on, for this to work...”
He nodded. “I’ve had enough of lying.” He put his hands into his coat pockets. “So if you are willing to work on your thesis again, then all of this can go back to normal.”
I squealed and ran to hug him. I noticed that Robert did not look too pleased about the situation. “But what about the time travel detective agency?” He asked. But before we could answer, a sobbing Naomi caught his attention again and he walked over to hug her. “Hey babe, it’s okay...” he began, taking her in his arms again, winking at us over her shoulder.
I started to turn back toward Martin, beginning to say something about Naomi and Robert when he suddenly grabbed me by the arms and pulled me against him. “Martin I’m not sure we should-" but I felt his lips hit my lips and before I had a chance to think about the consequences of making out with my thesis supervisor and all the fallout that would result, he kissed me, forcefully, and I returned the action.
When we pulled away from each other Robert was giving us a
really
strange look. Martin shot one straight back at him.
“Ahem,” I said, clearing my throat. “Why don’t we all go and get a drink?”
“It’s 6:30am.”
“As good a time as any,” I said, smiling at the gang and heading towards the door.
Chapter Thirty-Eight.
Eight Months Later.
Connie Hung was glaring at me.
We walked up the hallway of the physics building towards the student lounge in silence. When we arrived she sunk into a lounge chair and crossed her arms, sulking.
“I suppose I shouldn’t even be here,” I said, looking around. “Seeing as I am not a student anymore.”
She rolled her eyes, but she gave me a weak smile. “Yeah yeah, rub it in just a little bit more.”
“Well,” I said, sitting besides her. “There’s not many people who get awarded their PhD in under two years.” I sat up straight and smiled smugly.
“I still can’t believe the board decided to give it to you.”
“Well, it is a pretty ground-breaking achievement, you know. I did invent time travel!”
Connie shot me a look
“Invent?”
“Okay, perfected. Still, it was well deserved.”
Connie still had a grumpy look on her face. “You know everyone is saying that you only got it because you’re sleeping with Martin Anderson.” She scrunched her nose up and glared at me.
My mouth dropped open. “I am not!”
“Oh, give it a rest. Everyone knows.” She slid even further back in her seat, her head now staring up at the ceiling. “Anyway, I think I deserved a little bit of the credit! I did travel through time, after all,” she added, indignant.
“Oh, who hasn’t?” I asked, waving my hand dismissively.
“Um,” she said, laughing. “Most people?”
I sat up straight and flattened the creases in my skirt. “Well, you’re in a very exclusive club now.” I gave her a long serious look. I was slightly hesitant to ask her if she wanted to join Martin, Robert and I in our secret time travel detective agency, but, well: she did have the time travel experience, and besides, she was my friend and the only other girl physicist that I knew. So after a few moments hesitation I said: “Connie, I need to talk to you about something. See, the three of us were wondering, if you wanted to-” But before I could finish I felt a buzzing in my pocket. My phone.
I grabbed it out of my pocket and saw “Incoming call: Dr. Anderson.” I just had a feeling that this was not a romantic call.
“Hello?” I asked, putting the phone up to my ear. I listened for a minute, my eyes growing wider and wider.
“What is it?” Connie asked, leaning forward. “Has someone...?”
I nodded at her, excitedly. I hung up the phone and grabbed my things, ready to run out the door, to RPA hospital.
“Wait, Anna! I’m coming with you.”
I pulled a face and halted, my heels stopping in mid jog. I spun around and looked at her.
“Connie, I’m just really not sure that you should get involved in this.”
I turned and ran toward the door as fast as I could. I heard Connie jump up and run after me, her sensible shoes beating heavily on the floor, overtaking me in no time.
THE END.
Crystal Gables is a paranormal mystery author from Traralgon, Victoria Australia. If you enjoyed this story please consider leaving a review on Amazon and telling your friends!
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