The Children Who Time Lost Read online

  “She’s right,” Jenny said, joining in the embrace. “You’ll be the best mother ever. Whichever child you end up getting will have the best mother in the world.”

  Thoughts streamed through my head about how Madeline and I used to play together and the way she always smiled at me when I stroked her hair. Suzanna pulled back and stared straight into my teary eyes.

  “Aww, what’s wrong, honey?”

  Jenny also took a step back to study me.

  I shook my head and wiped the tears from my face. “I don’t know. I just can’t stop thinking about Madeline. If she were alive, she’d be getting a brother or sister today.”

  “You can’t think like that,” Jenny said. “Come here.” She gave me a tight hug and started crying, too.

  Kevin dropped a gray suitcase by my feet and smiled. I embraced him, and he held on tightly to me. “I love you so much,” he whispered in my ear.

  “I love you, too,” I said.

  He moved me toward the cream couch and sat me down. “You have to be strong, baby. This is the start of our new life. Let’s just look to the future now.”

  I nodded and wiped some more tears from my eyes while exchanging glances with everyone in the room. The telephone rang.

  “I’ll get it,” Suzanna said. She picked up the phone from its bracket on the wall and listened. “Thanks. She’ll be right down.” She replaced the phone and looked at me with a beaming smile. “They’re waiting for you downstairs.”

  I looked around the living room and stood up. “This is it. No turning back now.”

  “Be brave, baby,” Kevin said. “I’ll be waiting for you.”

  I gave him another embrace and walked toward the door. After picking up the suitcase, I kissed Suzanna and Jenny on both cheeks and walked out. When I reached the ground floor, the press were waiting for me—again, completely against protocol. There were at least ten cameras, probably streaming footage to the world. Two silver second-generation Kysos stood in the middle of the foyer, surrounded by at least twenty armed police officers.

  A small crowd had gathered inside the apartment building, with maybe two hundred people outside, all peering in. A tall woman with long black hair walked toward me with a computer tablet in her hand. I dropped my suitcase and stood upright.

  She extended her hand. “Rachel Harris,” she said. “It’s wonderful to meet you. I’m Angela Parish.”

  I shook her hand. “Hi, Angela.”

  “Will your husband be accompanying you to the departure gates?”

  “No. It’ll be just me.” I never understood why only women could go and collect the children, especially when the Lotto organizers made it compulsory that only couples could enter. But I wasn’t about to start making a fuss, although I wished Kevin could come with me.

  “Very well then,” she said. “We’d better leave at once.” She nodded at my suitcase. “You won’t be needing that. Your child’s belongings will already be packed when you arrive.” She nodded at a Kyso, which stepped forward and extended its hand.

  “I’d be happy to take your bag back to you apartment, Mrs Harris,” it said.

  I handed the suitcase over and watched it walk toward the elevator.

  Angela placed her hand around my waist and turned toward the apartment’s exit. “The other contestants are already at the facility.” She raised her hand in the air and spun it in a clockwise fashion. The Kysos faced the door and the armed officers stepped aside to create a path for me.

  “Please follow me,” Angela said.

  I followed her in silence. My knees shook as I walked. I looked into the eyes of each police officer. Most stared into space, their eyes never blinking. I couldn’t stop my hands from quivering.

  Angela looked at me. “You’ll be just fine. By the time you get to the facility, you’ll be prepped and ready for time travel.”

  “Prepped?”

  “Yes. In addition to the standard immunization, protecting against any time-tangent malfunction, we also have to prepare you for any possible infections you might catch upon exiting the other gate.” She waited just by the apartment door for the police officers outside. They had started to move the spectators away, opening a path to a van waiting for us twenty yards away.

  I continued beside Angela. Two fifth-generation Lypsos stood beside a red van that floated three feet in the air with its trunk open. “Welcome, Mrs. Harris,” one of them said in its familiar mechanical voice. “We shall be taking you to the Valencia Time Travel Facility. Will you be taking any luggage with you?”

  “No, I don’t have any luggage.”

  The Lypso that hadn’t spoken stepped forward and shut the trunk. Angela smiled at me and got into the van. She gestured for me to follow, which I did. Two middle-aged men in white jackets sat inside. The thinner of the two held a shiny metal case. I knew what was inside immediately, and a chill came over me. I swallowed with a dry throat and placed my palms together. The matte-black third-generation Lypso in the driver’s seat nodded at us before facing forward and starting the engine. My mind remained on the case in the man’s hand.

  “There’s nothing to worry about,” Angela said. “You’ll only feel the pain for five seconds. This new form of immunization is not as painless as the previous ones, but it’s much more potent. It also combats over five hundred possible viruses that could affect you after you arrive in the future.”

  I nodded. Angela nodded at one of the men and he pushed a button that closed the right door. The car rose higher in the air. My heart continued to pound. I couldn’t tell if the fear was due to my traveling so far into the future or to becoming a mother again. I leaned past Angela to look out the window. Many people waved at me, with some mothers holding their own children up in the air. The car stopped rising after we reached a hundred feet and remained stationary for a while. Then a number of police vehicles with flashing red lights pulled in front of us. The traffic enforcer moved in front of them and led the way. Our van was unsteady for the first few minutes but then started gliding smoothly.

  One of the men in the backseat placed the silver case on his lap and opened a small flap. He typed a pass code into a keypad and then took his hands away. The case shot open to reveal a glass panel that looked like a palm reader. He turned it toward me. “Can you please place your right hand on the reader, Mrs. Harris?”

  I studied the reader without moving an inch. What if a different tangent to my current reality was chosen? Would I really forget everything that happened for the last month, or would it just be some things? I met the man’s blank gaze and placed my hand on the reader. At first, nothing happened, but then I felt intense heat seeping into my fingers. It felt as if they would catch fire. I grimaced. After a while, the pain became unbearable, and I tried to lift my hand but couldn’t. I glanced at Angela, and she had the same ridiculous grin I’d noticed on the reporters the night before. I wanted to scream but held it in. A second later, the heat lessened and the pain subsided. I panted, but Angela and the men didn’t seem bothered. Then my head felt light, like I’d been given a heavy sedative. As much as I fought it, I couldn’t stop my eyes from closing.

  I saw blue skies when I opened my eyes. Angela’s smiling face also greeted me. The two men were looking out the window with sheer disinterest. I lifted my hand and saw red marks on my palm, like it had been burned. The man who had typed the pass code into the case turned toward me. “Don’t worry, it’ll heal.”

  I looked left and right and rested both hands on the back of my head, trying to recall something, anything. My memories seemed to be intact. I remembered the dinner at Gianfranco’s, the interview I had on TV the night before, and the nightmare I had about Madeline at Jarrod’s place. My biggest fear was losing even a single memory of my daughter, but they were all there, even the ones that brought me pain inside.

  I kept trying to remember as much as I could. I couldn’t think of anything that could have been missing. I sat up and rubbed my eyes. “How long was I out?”

 
“Only five minutes,” Angela said. “But everything went just as planned. No anomalies in your tangent.”

  I returned my gaze to the sky, unsure of whether to believe her or not. Sure, she said that none of my memories had been wiped, but they’d hardly tell those who had their tangents changed that it actually happened. That was the whole point of the drug.

  She briefed me on the Lotto procedures for ten minutes. After that, we flew in silence, and I stopped thinking about any of my memories that could have been erased. We reached the Valencia facility fifteen minutes later, and this time the welcoming committee was much smaller. Five men and five women—all in white jackets—waited to greet us, and as we approached them, I noticed a sea of third-generation Lypsos moving toward us. I looked past the twenty-foot wide gates and noticed a battalion of them. With their pitch-black frames, they stood with their heads arched up and their left arms across their chests.

  Worried, I glanced at Angela. She reintroduced her annoying smile and continued to lead me toward the gate. Then we entered a large open space similar to the inside of a warehouse. Many people typed furiously on computers. I glanced up to see that there were at least ten glass platforms high above where many more people sat at laptops.

  “What is this place?” I asked Angela.

  “It’s the Command Center.”

  I looked at her, confused.

  “You didn’t think all the Lypsos and Kysos in California just worked without people around to control them, did you?”

  “I don’t know. I just thought it would be somewhere else, like the Pentagon or something. I didn’t think the Space Port would be the place.”

  She started to speak but stopped when a tall man in a long gray jacket approached us in the company of two Lypsos. He had a huge, round face. His lips were so thin they looked like a slit under his nose. There were two women behind him, one with a smile on her face and the other with her head raised. She seemed to be studying the higher platforms of the warehouse. They must have been the other winners.

  “Mrs. Harris,” the man said. He smiled at Angela and she took her hand off my back. Then he shook my hand. “I’m Leonard Sinclair. It’s so good to have you here. If anyone deserves this, it’s you.”

  I smiled and nodded before looking past him at the two women. The one who had been smiling was young and very attractive. Her long dark hair glistened in the bright fluorescent light, as did her clear skin. The other woman was also pretty but masked it with the scowl on her face.

  “Oh, yes,” Leonard said, “these are the other winners. Monique Glass”—he gestured at the angry-looking woman—“and Amelia Simmonds.”

  I smiled at them. They walked past him and Amelia held on to left my shoulder. “I think you’re amazing,” she said. She was even more stunning up close, her blue eyes so prominent with her jet-black hair.

  I smiled. “Thank you. That’s such a nice thing for you to say.” I extended my smile to Monique, who stared at me with expressionless eyes.

  “So, have you been playing the Lotto long?” I asked.

  “Try the last ten years.” Monique said. A thin smile started to form on her face.

  “I’m so scared,” I said. “Are you?”

  “Like you wouldn’t believe,” Amelia said. “I just want to get there and get it done.”

  Leonard inserted himself between us, and Angela stood close behind him.

  “Right, ladies,” Leonard said. “It’s time. I trust Angela has briefed you all on the procedures?”

  We all nodded.

  “Good. I won’t bore you by repeating what you already know, but I will say this: You must never speak of what you see here or through the portal. This is a privilege we’re bestowing upon you. You’ve earned the right to be here, but you must respect the laws of the United States and the rest of the world. Is that understood?”

  We all nodded again.

  “I can’t hear you, ladies. Is that understood?”

  All three of us answered simultaneously. “We understand.”

  “Very well then.” Leonard took a step backward and Angela walked past him toward the exit. All the workers on the ground floor also rose and headed out. I looked at Amelia and Monique and then back at Leonard.

  “The rest is up to you now,” he said. “We shall not meet again. I wish you the best of luck with your new babies. You are the recipients of a great gift here, ladies. One many would die for. Treat your children well, and never look at them as outsiders, regardless of their race, eyes or hair color. In being here, you agree to the terms of the Worldwide Lotto. You shall be their legal guardians, but the state will be watching. Just as easy as it is for us to give them to you, we can take them away. I wish you all the very best.” He walked out along with everyone else on the bottom floor of the building.

  The two remaining Lypsos approached us. “Please follow us.” Their mechanical voices still sounded strange every time I heard them.

  We walked about two steps behind them, Monique on my right and Amelia on my left. Amelia extended her hand. I took it in mine. Monique did the same a moment later, and a chain was formed. The Lypsos marched forward without saying a word. I wanted to say something but thought better of it. Amelia didn’t hold back, however.

  “Was there any need for Leonard to say all that?” she said. “I mean, what idiot will treat their child badly?”

  I gave her a nervous smile and kept quiet. The Lypsos seemed absentminded, but they recorded everything they heard and saw. I wasn’t about to badmouth a senior Lotto organizer, but at the same time, I felt a bit uneasy with his words, as if we were on a short leash and could lose our children at any moment. A mother doesn’t need to hear such things on a day when her whole life is about to change for the better. We reached the end of the hall a minute later and the Lypso to my left turned around. “Stand still.”

  The other Lypso walked to a white wall and placed its palm against it. The ground beneath us shook. A bright blue light was emitted from the Lypso’s hands and ran up and down the wall like light from a computer scanner would. About ten seconds later, the wall rose into the air. The ground started to tremble again. After the wall had risen five feet, I glimpsed another room with a bright white light emanating from it. It had to be the portal.

  The rising wall was out of sight a moment later and in front of us was a large sphere. It was without color and could have been a cloud of water—what a lake would look like in the air with no gravitational pull. It was so huge we couldn’t see how high it went. Beside me, Monique and Amelia no longer held my hands but squeezed theirs together. Sweat appeared on their foreheads.

  “This way, please,” the Lypsos said.

  I hesitated and glanced at the two women. This time they met my gaze. I cleared my throat and stepped forward. The Lypsos faced the sphere and walked toward it. Gale-force winds slapped my face and it felt as if I would be lifted from the floor. When the winds subsided, the Lypsos walked into the room and we followed. I saw a man and a woman near the sphere, operating some sort of control panel with red and black buttons surrounding a silver knob. Three other people stood in a corner of the room, and two fifth-generation Lypsos were in another, with the barrel of assault rifles making up part of their arms.

  The Lypsos escorting us stopped inches from the swirling sphere and turned around. “It is time. You must step through now.”

  I swallowed and felt my hands tremble. Amelia gritted her teeth and squinted. The fear on her face summed up just how I felt.

  “You must enter,” both Lypsos said in unison. “No more time can be wasted.” They edged to the left and gestured for us to go through.

  I held my hands out and exchanged glances with both women. Amelia grasped my right hand first, and then Monique did the same with my left. I stared at the sphere. It swirled at an astounding rate, remaining as clear as crystals. There was no guarantee we would come out at the other end, but these were the risks associated with the Lotto. “Let’s do this,” I shouted.

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nbsp; I looked at both women, and they nodded. I faced the portal again and stepped through.

  Chapter Seven

  Darkness enveloped me. Pain tore through my stomach. It felt as if I were being pulled forward and backward at the same time. I struggled to keep my eyes open, although only blackness surrounded me. I no longer felt the warm hands of Amelia or Monique holding mine. All I felt was anxiety.

  My body glided forward, as if I were floating in space. The force pulling me backward and forward ceased, but I still couldn’t see anything or feel the warmth of the other women around me. I heard a grinding noise that seemed to happen within my head. Excruciating pain shot through my body, and I could feel sharp spasms in my back. I couldn’t understand what was happening to me, but my fear multiplied with every passing second.

  I wanted to scream but fought it. Maybe this was just normal. I didn’t want to seem like a coward. I hadn’t heard anyone else scream. The pain continued, as did the noise. The blackness, however, started to give way to a faint light. At first, it came and went like a flickering light bulb. I focused on the light for a second, trying to think of nothing else. My mind started to see past the fear I felt, and all I could see was the light. Then I saw Kevin’s face in the darkness. He was smiling and leaning closer to me, his soft lips inches from mine. I started to smile but couldn’t move my lips. They felt chapped and cold, as if covered in ice. I kept telling myself that none of what I was experiencing was real. I had to maintain my focus.

  I returned my attention to the light. It flickered less frequently but was the only consistent thing in my mind. Then it expanded, almost becoming blinding. I left my eyes open, unblinking and focused. The light continued growing. I squinted and thrust my arms over my face in a feeble attempt to shield them. A few seconds later, the brightness ceased.

  I could feel my feet on solid ground. The stiffness around my body had also ceased. I opened my eyes to see a corridor that stretched as far as my eyes could make out. My clothes weren’t rumpled or even torn like I thought they would be. My hair wasn’t damp or ragged. Everything seemed to be as it had been when I entered the portal.