The Time Shifter
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Amelia finished washing her hands at the sink and went back to put up her chair, wiping her hands on her uniform. Around her, it was the usual Friday afternoon chaos. Shani and Sophie F were still trying to do a bit more on their self-portraits, whereas Charlie had packed up ages ago and already had his bag by his desk, ready to go as soon as the bell rang. The rest of the class were somewhere in between, washing paintbrushes, hanging art smocks and pegging up wet paintings.
Sophie T weaved between the tables, narrowly avoiding Erik as he flipped his chair upside down and put it on his desk. She was so focused on not spilling the jar of filthy paint-water she was carrying that she didn’t notice Charlie’s bag until she tripped over it.
She let out a little shriek of dismay and went sprawling to the floor, landing flat on the paint palette she had in her other hand. The jar of water slopped all over Dean and sent paintbrushes scattering to the carpet.
Amelia cringed as Sophie T picked herself up. The whole front of her uniform was now blotched with bright patches of colour. Her face was blotchy, too, but that was from the red flush of fury. Sophie T turned to Charlie, her eyes flashing, and opened her mouth to yell.
‘Charlie, you –’
The bell rang loudly. ‘All right, you lot!’ called Ms Slaviero. ‘Don’t forget your notes for next week’s excursion.’
Charlie grabbed his bag, ignoring Sophie T completely, and headed for the door. Amelia gave her a quick, sympathetic smile, then followed Charlie out as Ms Slaviero grumbled cheerfully to Sophie T and Dean, ‘Come on, then. Let’s get you two cleaned up.’
Outside, it was a perfect Forgotten Bay summer afternoon – the kind you wished would last forever. Amelia and Charlie began the familiar walk back up to the hotel.
‘The thing about Sophie T,’ Charlie said, ‘is that she’s always blaming someone else. She never admits it’s her fault. Like, how is it my problem that she’s stupid and clumsy? Oh wait, that’s right – because she
makes
it my problem. And another thing –’
‘Charlie …’ Amelia groaned. ‘Who cares? You don’t have to see her again until Monday. Can’t we talk about something else?’
‘OK,’ said Charlie, easily. ‘I’ll tell you what I was thinking about when I was painting: the portrait that used to be in your bedroom. You know, of old what’s-her-name.’
‘Matilda Swervingthorpe.’
When the Walkers had arrived at the Gateway Hotel, it was full of the original owner’s things from over a hundred years before: massive pieces of wooden furniture, vases, books, artist’s easels and loads and loads of paintings. Most of the paintings in the corridors and library were of bowls of fruit and landscapes, but in Amelia’s room there was a huge portrait in a heavy gilt frame.
The woman in the portrait had looked very kind, but there was something unbearable about the way her eyes followed Amelia around, especially when she needed to get changed. So Dad had taken Matilda Swervingthorpe out of her room.
‘Matilda Swervingthorpe,’ Charlie mused. ‘That’s right. I was thinking about how your dad said she disappeared.’
Amelia laughed. ‘Yeah, when he said it, I thought she must have gotten lost in the bush or fallen off the cliff.’
‘But now it’s obvious, isn’t it? She must have gone through the gateway. Do you think Tom knows anything about it?’
‘Do you think he’d tell us if he did?’
Then, up ahead, Grawk came bounding out of the bushes, his paws covered in dirt. His fur was standing all on end, and a growl rumbled deep in his chest.
‘What’s wrong with him?’ asked Charlie, eyeing the not-quite-a-dog warily.
‘I don’t know. He’s been acting strange lately – like, eating all the time and being super grouchy. He won’t even let me scratch behind his ears anymore.’
‘He sounds like James,’ grinned Charlie. ‘Except for the ears bit.’
Grawk barked at them and then turned and ran up to the hotel.
Amelia and Charlie knew better than to stand around wondering what to do. Without a word, they hitched up their schoolbags and began to run.
It was a steep hill up the headland, and Amelia had a stitch in her side by the time they reached the gates to the hotel’s driveway. Grawk barked again, and Amelia saw he was standing beside a hole he’d scratched in the long grass off to the left. His tail was stiff and his ears were flat against his head. He growled again.
Feeling spooked, and more than a little nervous of the usually friendly Grawk, Amelia slowly approached the hole. Lying in the dirt only a few centimetres below the surface was a bright white sphere about the size of a tennis ball. It gave off a low hum and was shining so intensely that Amelia couldn’t see its edges. Most amazing of all, it appeared – now that she looked more closely – to not be actually resting on the earth, but hovering a millimetre or two above it.
She crouched down to study it, Grawk still growling beside her.
‘Wow!’ said Charlie, who immediately reached down to grab it.
Amelia slapped his hand away. ‘Careful!’
‘Ow!’ Charlie looked at her reproachfully. ‘Grawk brought us here. He
wants
us to see it.’
‘He’s growling. Do you think he wants you to
touch
it?’
Charlie ignored her and quite deliberately picked up the sphere. Instantly, his hair stood on end as though charged with static electricity, and currents of blue light swirled over the surface of the globe. The look of delight on Charlie’s face suddenly vanished as he jerked his head over one shoulder and stared behind them. ‘Who was that?’
Amelia tried to follow his gaze. ‘What? Where?’
There was nothing to see.
‘I thought I saw …’ He frowned. ‘Here, try it for yourself.’
He tossed the sphere to Amelia, who flinched but instinctively caught it. She’d been afraid it would burn her but it actually felt cool in her hands, and that cool feeling swept up her arms and then through her whole body until even her scalp was tingling. She could tell from Charlie’s smirk that her hair must be puffed out like a dandelion too. She felt deeply peaceful, as though her mind were at one with the universe.
And then she saw a flash of movement and had the sense that someone was standing right behind her. She dropped the sphere into the hole and scrambled away from it.
‘We shouldn’t mess with this,’ she said, flattening her hair with both hands. ‘We should go and get Dad.’
Charlie nodded.
‘Grawk, will you stay? Guard the hole?’
He sat down obediently, but looked grim about it.
‘Good boy,’ said Amelia, reaching out to pat him. ‘Thank –’
Grawk turned his head away and closed his eyes, growling steadily the whole time.
‘Oh.’ Amelia pulled back her hand, hurt. She didn’t have time to deal with it now, though. Until they figured out what the sphere was, who put it there and why, she had to assume it was a bigger issue than Grawk’s attitude problem. ‘Come on, Charlie.’
Leaving their schoolbags with Grawk, they sprinted the last rise of the headland to the hotel and leapt up the main stairs. Forcing themselves to steady on a bit, they paused and then
walked
through the double doors into the lobby.
Just as well. The business was slowly building, and there always seemed to be some new guest just arriving, or wandering around vaguely. More and more humans were coming to stay at the Gateway Hotel, charmed by the thought of a holiday where the natural magnetism of the headland stopped all mobile phones, computers and TV from working. Amelia’s mum and Mary had heard visitors gushing about how refreshing it was to have a ‘digital detox’.
Right now, Mum was talking with a woman at the reception desk, and it was never a good idea to interrupt.
‘What’s that?’ said Charlie, pointing to a large vat by the foot of the stairs to the guest wing.
Amelia shrugged. ‘Food?’
Some of their alien guests could eat in the dining room alongside the human guests. Wearing the holo-emitters Tom lent them, they were totally indistinguishable from real humans, and lots of aliens were curious to try Earth cuisine. Amelia felt sorry for them that their only experience would be Dad’s cooking, but most seemed to enjoy it. Some aliens couldn’t digest human food, though, and so, every now and then, special room service had to be arranged. Like their very first guest, Miss Ardman, and her tank of giant centipedes.
‘Yes, but what’s it doing
there?
’ Charlie persisted.
He was right. Any non-human food should have either been in the kitchen, or safely delivered to the alien’s room. It shouldn’t be left out where any actual human might see it and get curious.
Amelia wasn’t interested in hotel procedure right now, though. She was too focused on what Mum was saying to the woman at the counter.
‘I’m sorry.’ Mum’s voice was very polite, but absolutely unbudging. ‘There are no rooms available in that wing of the hotel.’