Rush Revere and the Brave Pilgrims: Time-Travel Adventures with Exceptional Americans (5 page)

I had almost forgotten about Freedom until she raised her
hand like the tallest mast on the
Mayflower.
“Freedom, you have an opinion?”

Freedom’s dark eyes reminded me of that same determined stare that William Bradford gave me right before he boarded the
Speedwell.
Freedom spoke from somewhere deep within and said, “I could tell they loved their son, more than anything. They only wanted what was best for him. It took courage for the Pilgrims to leave their homes and travel into the unknown. But it takes more courage to travel into the unknown and leave someone you love behind.”

“Well said, Freedom,” I replied. “And who knows, maybe they thought they could come back for him someday. Or maybe someone else had planned to bring him to America when he was older. I don’t know. What we do know is that more than anything, the Pilgrims like William and Dorothy Bradford were real people ready to give their lives for their freedom, no matter the cost, no matter the pain, no matter the sacrifice.”

Suddenly, something yellow shot from the back of the room and would have struck me in the head if I hadn’t dodged it at the last second before impact. It hit the chalkboard behind me and splintered into several pieces.

From the back of the classroom, Liberty’s eyes were as wide as cannonballs. With a surprised smile he said, “By golly, those wooden shoes do come off! I was beginning to wonder. I think a larger size would’ve fit better. Of course, now it’s going to be rather difficult to clog in only three shoes. Anyway, the trick to getting them off is to leverage this hoof like this and wedge the other by pushing down like that and . . .” Again, the second shoe shot off like a rock from a slingshot, but this time it whizzed to the left and crashed through an outside window.

“Oops,” Liberty said.

I rolled my eyes, but before I could say anything else the door to the classroom opened. Principal Sherman walked in, looking alarmed, and asked, “Did I just hear the sound of breaking glass?” His eyes locked on the broken window. “How did this happen?” He turned to the class and then to me and asked, “Is anyone hurt? How did the window break?”

Curious, the entire class turned around to look at Liberty, and I wondered why Principal Sherman wasn’t equally alarmed at the fact that there was an actual horse standing at the back of the classroom. However, upon further inspection, Liberty was gone.

“Well, is anyone going to answer me?” Principal Sherman asked again. “Mr. Revere, do you have an explanation?”

“An explanation?” I stalled. “Well, yes, of course.” I realized that Principal Sherman would eventually find a yellow wooden shoe outside the classroom window so I began: “We were discussing the Pilgrims and how they left England to escape religious persecution and settled in Holland along their journey to the New World. I brought a wooden Dutch shoe from my trip to the Netherlands as a bit of show-and-tell and—”

Principal Sherman interrupted me and said pointing, “You mean like the one that’s broken and splintered on the floor here?”

I had forgotten about that one. “Yes, and apparently, wooden shoes are not very sturdy.”

Principal Sherman walked over to the window and saw the second wooden shoe lying on the grass near a big oak tree. “And yet that one looks just fine,” he said.

I joined him by the window and said, “Um, wood is stronger than glass?”

He was not amused. He continued his classroom interrogation: “I’ve still not heard a reasonable explanation for why the window is broken.”

“Yes, I was getting to that,” I said, wondering if this would be my last day teaching at Manchester Middle School. “Let me start by saying this has been an excellent class and—”

Before I could finish whatever it was I was going to say, Tommy jumped up from his seat and shouted, “I did it!”

I was not expecting that.

Principal Sherman took a deep breath and didn’t look a bit surprised.

I could not let Tommy take the fall for Liberty’s antics. “I can assure you that it was somewhat of a bizarre accident,” I said.

“Yes, I’m very well acquainted with Tommy’s ‘accidents.’ But not everyone loves a class clown. Tommy, you’ll report to my office as soon as class is over,” said Principal Sherman, who nearly growled when he finished.

“If you’ll permit me, Principal, I have an appropriate consequence for Tommy’s outburst,” I said.

“Continue,” the principal said while straightening his tie.

“We both know how much Tommy lo-o-o-o-oves history,” I said. “I think the appropriate punishment is to keep him after for detention in my class. I’m happy to give him an extra history lesson that he’s bound to never forget.”

I could see that Principal Sherman was pondering the idea and examining Tommy’s reaction. Tommy didn’t disappoint. His face showed pure misery. The principal smiled and said, “I like that! In addition, Tommy will write on the chalkboard, ‘I will not throw wooden shoes through glass windows’ one hundred times.”

“I like your style, Principal Sherman,” I said.

“And I like yours, Mr. Revere, especially that tricornered hat. I need to get one of those,” he said. “I’ll have the custodian clean up and repair the window immediately.” With that he turned his huge shoulders and exited the classroom.

Relieved, I let out a long breath.

“What happened to Liberty? How did he get out of the room so fast?” Tommy asked. I could hear several other students ask similar questions.

Thankfully, I was saved by the bell before I had to answer their questions. Class was over. As the students grabbed their backpacks, I said, “Tomorrow, we’ll continue the journey with the Pilgrims. Thank you, everyone. Class dismissed.”

As the students began filing out of the room, I noticed that Tommy stayed behind for his detention and extra history lesson.

I noticed that Freedom stayed as well. I was pretty sure that it was her head I saw dart back into the classroom just as Liberty and I had jumped through the time portal.

If I didn’t know any better I’d think Freedom was on to me.

F
reedom crossed her
arms and leaned back in her chair. Tommy looked back at Freedom and then back to me, shrugging his shoulders. Freedom stared at me like I might disappear if she looked anywhere else. I finally asked, “Freedom, is there something I can do for you?”

She was twisting her hair between her fingers. I could tell she was pondering whether she wanted to say something or not. She looked across the room at Tommy and then back at me. She was a pretty girl with very tan skin. She flipped back the blue feather in her hair and then pushed the rest of her long black hair behind her shoulders. Finally, she spoke and said, “He never left.”

“Excuse me?” I asked. “I’m not sure I understand what you’re referring to.” Actually, I knew exactly what she was referring to, but I decided to play dumb.

“Liberty, he’s still in the room,” she calmly said. “I can
smell him. Horses have a strong scent. And if you look closely, you can see his image outlined against the back wall.” Still sitting at her chair, she turned around and traced Liberty’s outline with her finger.

“I don’t see anything,” Tommy said as he strained to see what Freedom was pointing at.

It was apparent that Freedom had a gift. She acted as sure as if she were pointing at the sun. Questions raced through my head. Could I trust these students about the time-travel abilities that Liberty and I enjoyed? Would they be able to keep the secrets about our historical missions? I decided to take a chance and said, “As I mentioned earlier, Liberty is an extraordinary horse. In addition to his language skills, he has the ability to disappear.”

“Not disappear,” said Freedom. “He’s blending into his surroundings like a chameleon.”

Suddenly, Liberty reappeared right where Freedom had pointed, gasping for air. “I couldn’t . . . hold my breath . . . a second longer,” said Liberty, still trying to catch his breath.

“What the . . . !” Tommy exclaimed. He looked at Freedom, then to me, then back at Liberty. “Did he just appear out of thin air? That’s awesome! I mean, that’s the coolest trick ever! How do you do that?”

Explaining the impossible is never easy, but I tried my best and said, “Soon after Liberty and I met we discovered that when Liberty holds his breath he can turn invisible. Well, he’s invisible to most people,” I said, glancing at Freedom. “It’s sort of like when you hold your breath and your face begins to turn red or even purple. When you let out the air, the color in your face returns to normal. It’s the same principle with Liberty.”

“Except he turns invisible,” Tommy said. “Coolest. Thing. Ever.”

“Frankly, I’m surprised that Freedom can see through the disguise,” I said. “I’ve seen Liberty vanish at least a hundred times and I’m still not always sure if he’s in the same room.”

Freedom smiled and replied, “I’ve had lots of practice tracking animals with my grandfather.”

Tommy walked over and touched Liberty on the back just to make sure he was real. “That is so cool how you can change like that,” Tommy said.

Liberty smiled and said, “I think we need a name, you know, since we all know the secret. We could be the Four Musketeers! Or the Fantastic Four! Or the Four Amigos! Or—”

Tommy started laughing and said, “Your horse cracks me up!”

“Don’t encourage him,” I pleaded.

“I like him, too,” said Freedom. “But he is more than a horse. He must be a spirit animal. There is an Indian legend about animals that can talk to humans.”

I pondered the idea and replied, “I don’t know Liberty’s whole story. Even Liberty doesn’t know what happened exactly. Liberty, tell them what you remember the day you traveled to modern-day America.”

Liberty cleared his throat and slowly began: “It was a dark and stormy night. . . .”

“Liberty!’

“Seriously, it was! I don’t remember the year but I do remember that in the evening we used only candles and lanterns. Oh, and I remember George Washington. Oh, and Paul Revere. His story is one of my favorites because who doesn’t love the fact that he was racing a horse to warn the Minutemen that the British were coming. I mean, if you ask me, the horse is the real hero.”

I jumped in and said, “I’ve concluded that Liberty is originally from the revolutionary time period and lived during the Revolutionary War. His memory is spotty, but he has several strong memories during the 1770s. The Boston Tea Party, the ride of Paul Revere, the Battle of Bunker Hill, the public reading of the Declaration of Independence . . .”

“And I specifically remember hearing that in 1775 Alexander Cummings invented the flushing toilet!” exclaimed Liberty.

“I’ve never heard you mention that,” I said, surprised.

“It just popped into my head,” Liberty replied.

“But that doesn’t explain how Liberty ended up in modern-day America,” said Tommy.

“Or the fact that he can talk and turn practically invisible,” Freedom added.

“Yes, well, let me try to explain,” I said. “Liberty remembers a lightning storm—”

Liberty butted in: “I’m not a big fan of lightning. Just the thought of it gives me the willies.”

I continued: “It appears that lightning may have struck Liberty and created a supernatural phenomenon or a time portal that thrust him forward in time to our day. The electrical properties that charged through his body and the vortex that sent him to the future changed him physically and mentally. He can not only talk and disappear, but he’s also . . .” I paused, trying to formulate the right words.

Freedom finished my sentence and said, “A time machine.”

“What?” Tommy said, confused. “Did I miss something? Did you just say ‘time machine’?”

“He’s more like a time portal,” I said, to clarify. “He has the ability to momentarily open a time door to anywhere in
history. Well, more specifically, anything that touches American history.”

Tommy started laughing. “Okay, this is a joke. I’m onto you. This is some reality TV show called ‘The Biggest Bozo Who Believes Anything,’ right? Where are the cameras?” Tommy started looking around the room. He then looked at Freedom and back at me; both of us were dead serious.

“You believe this guy?” Tommy asked Freedom, sticking his thumb out at me.

Freedom replied, “You’ve just seen and heard a talking horse who turned invisible, but you won’t believe he can travel through time?”

“Hey, I might be crazy, but I’m not that crazy, okay?” Tommy said. He got up from his desk and started pacing the floor. He took off his baseball cap and combed his fingers through his blond hair. He sighed, “I have to think about this for a minute.”

“We probably shouldn’t show them the other thing I can do, should we? I mean, he seems a little freaked out right now,” Liberty said.

“No,” I said, firmly. I took a deep breath. “I need to finish our story. I believe the lightning created the time portal that brought Liberty to the modern day.”

Tommy put his baseball cap back on and said, “Okay, okay. Maybe it is possible. I mean, I don’t think the lightning hit him directly. Technically, a direct hit would have killed him. But I guess there’s a possibility that several bolts could have simultaneously hit the ground around him, creating an electrostatic prism, and maybe the positive and negative charge carriers combined with the acoustic shock waves created some kind of time hole that sent Liberty to the future.”

Freedom and I were stunned by Tommy’s explanation.

“Aren’t you a football player?” Freedom said. “You’re never this smart in our other classes.”

“Yeah, well, I really wouldn’t fit in with the other guys on the team if I admitted that I’m a science geek,” Tommy replied.

I patted Tommy on the shoulder and said, “Exceptional thinking, Tommy. Now then, where was I, oh yes, when Liberty arrived in our time he appeared at the intersection of Washington Boulevard and Lincoln Avenue in front of that iced-tea factory. It was late at night and I was leaving the factory dressed as Paul Revere.”

“Wait, you were dressed like Paul Revere? Like you are now?” asked Tommy.

“Yes, that’s right,” I said. “I’d been hired as part of a promotional campaign. My Paul Revere self was printed on banners, billboards, buses, even on the side of bottles. It was rather embarrassing but it paid good money. Anyway, as I was saying, I was leaving the factory dressed as Paul Revere when I had the strangest feeling I was being followed.”