Chapter 40
T he second I step foot out the door I bump into Ben. He stands on the porch steps with hands outstretched for the door. His ball cap almost hides the wrinkles of confusion now grazing his forehead.
“Atta! I saw you leave my house and run off with my mom’s new phone! I went into the house to make sure I wasn’t seeing things. I wasn’t. You ripped the phone cord out of my kitchen and took it with you! What are you up to?” Ben asks in bewilderment. His long arms flail at his side before a smirk escapes his face as if he’s expecting this all to be a prank and that I’ll have an earth-shattering yet satisfactory explanation for him.
I don’t have time to form a response when I see Officer Berrett dragging his motorcycle across his driveway. He stops at the edge of his lawn to take a good look at us, drops his bike, and begins making his way across the street.
“I can’t talk right now, I’ve…I’ve got to go,” I say to Ben, reaching behind me for the brassy doorknob.
“Miss Atkinson, are you ready to ride?” I hear Officer Berrett holler from the middle of the street. The words leave his mouth but I already have the door open. In a flurry of panic I scramble through the door simultaneously shutting it in Ben’s face. Then I twist the lock before Ben or Officer Berrett have the chance to follow in behind me.
I know I’m being inconsiderate, but I can’t risk Ben witnessing me riding on the back of Officer Berrett’s bike. Or even having a conversation about it. They’ll probably have that conversation locked together outside. The thought makes my insides itch. But my reflex instinct has me reeling to take the next step instead, skipping over the mountain ride entirely and I don’t think I’m wrong to do so.
I can’t just hop on Officer Berret’s motorcycle with Ben in plain sight and then ride off into the mountains with the homewrecker. At least, not without betraying Ben’s trust more than I probably already have at this point.
I have no time to deal with either of them right now anyway. I’ve already decided to give time travel another shot and this was my chance.
Time travel would solve my current Marigold predicament. Whereas my trouble was once in Non-80s-Land, it was now about to reach the same kind of precipice here. The best I can do is deal with the Marigold repercussions as they come and if my test fails, like it did the first time, Tyler’s dad has key information that could solve the Marigold issue in the future.
I’ll be stuck here forced to choose between joining Marigold or living on the run from them. But as long as I had Ben and Mr. Jacobson’s trust I’d deal with everything one step at a time.
The hallway greets me with an ominous glow, as if magic is seeping out from under Little Narnia’s closet door. The apparition is likely due to my overflowing sense of hope. A mere delusion.
I approach the closet door, checking my surroundings to make sure Erica’s not snooping in the hallway. There's no evidence of Erica near but the sound of banging at the door is met with a clamor of crashing dishes in the kitchen.
I slide into the closet with haste, hiding behind the brood of hanging shirts as Erica makes her way into the living room with flustered steps and a kitchen rag in hand.
“Who is it?” she yells, expecting an answer to reverberate through the solid oak door. “Why is this locked?” I hear her say as she twiddles with the door handle.
When she answers it I have Little Narnia’s top lock undone and I’m fumbling for the bottom one with a racing heart.
“Ben!” I hear Erica say. “Atta didn’t say you were coming. Did you come to pick her up? She said she was heading out.”
“She’s riding with me actually. Don’t mind if I come in, do you neighbor?” Officer Berrett’s voice joins the conversation.
“I thought she talked to you about keeping your distance,” Ben chimes in. The closet door is still open and I can hear them through the enclosure. They’re in the living room at this point, as it seems Erica has gifted them both the opportunity to barge into our house.
I manage to disconnect Pops’ phone from the phone jack and fiddle with Grandma Harriet’s colorful transparent cord.
“Keep my distance?” Officer Berrett asks, sounding quite amused with Ben’s obvious frustration, not at all concerned about blowing my cover. “She’s the one who asked me to meet today.”
With my pulse racing, I connect the phone to the wall jack. My fingers can’t move fast enough. Their voices grow louder as they enter the hallway. They aren’t wise enough to look for me in the closet, right? They’d find it locked anyway if they tried.
I still had time to make this work.
I hear movement just outside the door in the hallway followed by Officer Berrett calling out my name while Ben prods him with questions. I can hear the concern in Ben’s voice.
Ben knocks on Erica’s bedroom door and then mine, likely hoping to find me before Officer Berrett does.
“How about you both leave? I’ll have her contact you when I find her,” Erica cuts in. I can tell she’s concerned, now that two men are becoming combative while searching for me in the confines of my own home.
“When you find her, tell her I’m waiting outside,” Officer Berrett says, abandoning his effort in the house raid.
I keep quiet, holding the Clean Wave spray in hand, listening to them search the stairs right outside the door. I quietly pop one of the cement bubble gum balls in my mouth and begin to chew. It takes everything in me not to try to conjure a chalk flavored bubble—the gum is old but it still chews.
“Ben, how about you walk with Officer Berrett back outside? I’ll let her know you stopped by,” Erica continues.
“I’m not leaving. That little thief left my house just as I was pulling in and ran off with my mom’s new phone for who knows what reason. She ripped the phone cord out of my kitchen and took the whole phone system with her,” Ben says adamantly, though there’s a lightness to his voice as if he finds it equally amusing as he does irritating.
“She stole your phone ?” Erica asks, confusion setting in hard when she utters the word.
“Is there a phone jack upstairs?” Ben asks.
“No.”
“Atta, if you can hear me, why didn’t you just ask to borrow my phone?” Ben shouts up the stairs. “She’s up to something. I just know it.”
I grab the chewed gum from my mouth, delicately with two fingers, then I stick it on the side of the phone speaker just as it was when I held it in my hands in Non-80s-Land.
My heart breaks a little knowing that if what I’m trying to attempt works, I won’t get to answer Ben or say goodbye to the version of the man who loved me. The version who’s questioning my bold actions and sanity at the moment.
I was choosing Non-80s-Land Ben. The Ben I had built most of my memories with, the Ben who wouldn’t pursue a relationship with me. The Ben I hoped would be saved by my actions in the eighties.
I was banking on the fact that by sharing our mountain mine explosion discovery with Mr. Jacobson I would be able to eradicate the Marigold threat of the future. Everything was in Mr. Jacobson’s hands. I only hoped everything would work out in the end.
I stare at the speaker of the phone in my hand and give it a spray with the Clean Wave solution using the same motion I tried the last time I attempted time travel. Then I think about what I’d said a month ago in Pops’ closet with Ben right next to me.
“Atta Mae, where are you? I bet you’re hiding because you know what I’m going to say to you when you try to explain why you ripped my phone out from the wall.” I hear Ben shout with lightheartedness.
My eyes close with regret, and I dial a pattern of numbers just the way I did the first time when the last four digits ended in 1987.
00-02-02-2023