Chapter 11: We Traveled Three Times Today

The Present

“Ben, things are back to normal, repaired and patched. How can that be bad?” said Mr. Carlyle as he turned toward the front steps and went into his house. “Perhaps, we need to call a doctor for Luke”, said Mr. Carlyle from the front porch gesturing to Luke who was now sitting up and rubbing his head.

Rising on wobbly legs, Luke gave a quick glance toward Mary and Ben still standing near the dented can of yellow paint, then without a word ran quickly down the street cover still in yellow paint.

Mary now feeling very brave, yelled after him, “Don’t forget this Luke Nelson or next time you’ll get worse, far worse”.

Mr. Carlyle had by now gone into his house. Running in, Ben and Mary found him in the salon. Everything was just as it was before the attack by Luke. The holes in the walls were gone, the cabinets and their precious contents were back in place. Broken figurines on the fireplace mantle were reassembled.

The photo album of Mr. Carlyle’s recent travels was back in place on the table. The Stone was lying next to it, just where Mr. Carlyle had placed it.

Sitting in a huge stuffed chair, cover in pink and bright blue cloth, Mr. Carlyle leaned toward Mary and Ben and said, “You are wrong, Ben, time travel and the stone have opened up the world and even kept me alive across eight thousand years of time. I have had adventures like no other man has and now I know that I must share it.”

“No you can’t”, plead Ben, “Just listen to me. Please”.

“Oh stop Ben”, said a sterner Mr. Carlyle, “I’ve decided to share the stone with the world, the greatest minds, the greatest thinkers. They can now solve riddles whose answers have been obscured by the destruction and dust of the ages. Imagine sitting and conversing with Tutankhamen or watching Santorini explode again. You know I was there just before it blew up last time. Oh that was about 3500 years ago or so”.

“Please Mr. Carlyle, stop.” said Ben with almost a tear in his eye. “I’ve learned something from your tales of time travel, something that you have never seen. Maybe you’ve been too close to it for too long but, time travel changes the world but for bad, Mr. Carlyle. You travel ...er… I mean we travel time and bad things happen.”

“Nonsense, rubbish”, screamed a visibly disturbed Mr. Carlyle as he retreated even deeper into his over stuffed chair. “I’ve seen the great events of time. I’ve eaten with the famous figures of history. You’re speaking nonsense Ben, nonsense. I think it’s time you and Mary leave. We’ve had enough for today.”

Mary, shaken by the verbal exchange between these two friends started to rise from the couch where she was now sitting. “Please you two, calm down”, she plead.

“No”, replied Ben defiantly, “I won’t. Please listen, Mr. Carlyle, I can prove this all to you. Mary please sit and listen to me”.

“Out” screamed an angry Mr. Carlyle who appeared to try to rise from his chair in a desire to oust Mary and Ben from his house, but the overstuffed chair prevented a quick rise and before he could stand, Ben reached for the photo album lying on the table.

“Put the album back Mr. Dover”, said a serious Carlyle. “I invite you into my house, offer you great adventures and now you have the nerve to say that everything I believe and did was wrong. Out, out now”.

Quickly opening the album, Ben turned to the picture of President Roosevelt and Mr. Carlyle. Ben said, “Sir, you had this picture taken in the first few days of December, 1941, just before the attack on Pearl Harbor.”

“What is your point”, screamed an agitated Mr. Carlyle still having trouble rising from the overstuffed chair. “A coincidence of history”.

Continuing to flip the pages, Ben came to the picture of Mr. Carlyle and his friends in Poland.

“Taken late August 1939, Mr. Carlyle, just before the Nazi invasion on September 1, 1939”.
Flipping again, Ben found the picture of Mr. Carlyle in Dallas, in November 1963. “John Kennedy was killed soon after your visit to that time, Mr. Carlyle”, said a resolute Ben.

Flipping page after page and going from picture to picture trying to convince, Mr. Carlyle, Ben stated the facts of history and the links to the photos. Mr. Carlyle had settled in his chair again and was listening.

Flipping the pages, Ben said, “Here in Yekaterinburg, 1918, the last Czar was executed and communist Russia rose”.

Again flipping the album pages, “Here you are Mr. Carlyle in New York, taken September, 9, 2001”.

And more flipping of album ages, “And here, Mr. Carlyle and Mr. Edward Smith, the Titanic’s captain, taken in 1912 on the docks at Southampton England”.

“Here you are in Kodiak, Alaska in March of 1964. Do you know what happened in Alaska in 1964”, cried an almost panicked Ben? “Do you know? Do you see the pattern?”

Now Mr. Carlyle was sadly slumping in the chair which was now almost wrapping him like an envelope making it appear the he was almost trying to disappear.

With a voice filled with growing sadness, Mr. Carlyle said, “Earthquake, tsunami and people died. I never saw. I never saw”, and his head fell sadly in his hand and Mr. Carlyle began to cry.
Mary stood from the couch and went sit on the arm of the chair where Mr. Carlyle sat crying to comfort her friend.

“I am responsible”, said Mr. Carlyle and Mary reached out to comfort her sobbing friend.

“You didn’t know”. Mary was crying now. “You thought you were doing good, having grand adventures and solving the mysteries that time had buried. You didn’t know.”

Looking every bit now like an old man, Mr. Carlyle stared across the room, not moving, not blinking.

Mr. Carlyle, holding his head in his hands said, “I have seen wonders, Ark of the Covenant, the Colossus of Rhodes and more, to numerous to be counted. I have stood at Machu Piccu. I have met Nebuchadnezzar and more kings and queens than you two will ever learn about in any class. But I have saved no one, I have only brought tragedy”.

Mr. Carlyle pulled himself together, now fully realizing the link between time travel and the great tragedies of history. His mind drifted, back to when he was just Noah, husband of Naama and not the traveler of time that he was now.

His thoughts returned to the village of his birth. “How I miss my wife and my father. You know, I met him on my very first travel with the stone, surprised him in his fields”. The pausing a minute, Mr. Carlyle continued, “and on my second trip though time, I flooded my village”.

Stoically and sadly, Mr. Carlyle rose and walked to the salon window. Head hung low, shoulders drooping with sadness, he said, “Mary, Ben, I am responsible for the suffering of millions. I have helped no one, done nothing great. This must stop.”

Quiet enveloped the room. None moved and none said a single word. Mr. Carlyle returned to the soft envelope of the chair. Mary again sat on the couch periodically breaking into tears. Ben now sat crossed legged on the floor staring blankly.

Then quietly Ben said, “We traveled three times today”.

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Next Week... The Conclusion

Chapter 12: I Can't Wait To Get A Look In That Basement