-1-

Once upon a time there was an exceptionally interesting family. It consisted of one father and one daughter. The father, who’s name was Dr. Smith, was a marine biologist, and his house was filled with almost every kind of small, saltwater fish known to man. The daughter, who was Sydney Smith, was short for her age of 15, thin, and generally unnoticed by anyone besides her father. So consequently Dr. Smith was her best friend. Dr. Smith was a very different sort of father. He didn’t believe in the public school system but wasn’t rich enough to afford private. So he schooled his daughter alone. He taught her all about marine biology, science, math, and foreign languages. However he was quite inexperienced when it came to literature. So Sydney learned to teach herself by reading anything she came across. And with this education she was in the 12th grade according to public school standards by the time she turned 14. And this only confirmed her father’s beliefs against sending children off to be taught by strangers.
But being a scientist, Dr. Smith had to go on numerous trips to foreign lands to study marine life. And Sydney went with him on every single one. It was one of these trips that Sydney and her father planned to go on the following summer. They were to be sent to Antarctica. And usually, Sydney would use that time to catch up on her studies. However, on this trip, she planned to do some discovering herself, since she was technically finished with high school. And soon enough, the time came for them to go. All throughout the plane ride she could hardly sleep more than 10 minutes at a time. She had a feeling that something special was going to happen on this trip. Then they arrived.
The first week turned out disappointing for Sydney. The entire time she was forced to stay inside the tent and stare at her new collection of fish her father had brought her. No one was allowed to leave the tent without a special suit that guarded people from the deathly cold, and there was none extra for Sydney.
“I’m really sorry you’ve been cooped up here all week Syd. I know how you were looking forward to exploring,” said her father one evening as he was returning from his work.
“It’s okay,” she replied.
“I’m going to make it up to you, you’ll see.” But it wasn’t until the following Wednesday that he had a chance to do so.
“Hey Syd, how’s your day been?”
“Not bad,” Syd replied, wondering if her dad had forgotten about his promise.
“Well, how would you like to come with me and the team tomorrow?”
“Really?”
“I told you I’d make it up to you. We’re going snorkeling.”
“But I thought you had a limited amount of suits!” Sydney cried with amazement.
“Well, one of the guys isn’t feeling very well and is happily donating his to the cause,” said Dr. Smith.
So the next day Sydney got to see all kinds of fish that she had never even heard of. But there was one fish in particular that sparked her interest. She only saw glimpses of the creature; it was pink and curiously small. It would brush up against her suit and then scurry away in the strangest fashion.
“Dad?” she inquired after the day was over.
“What is it?”
“I kept seeing this strange fish today. It was pink and about the size of my hand.”
“Yes, I’ve seen it, only it’s too fast for us to catch and it won’t take any bait.”
“Interesting. Dad? Can I go with you snorkeling tomorrow?”
“I wish you could, but the guy who lent you the suit is feeling much better, and besides, we aren’t going snorkeling tomorrow, we’re going diving, and it’s much too cold down there for you Syd.”
So Sydney spent the next few days holed up in her tent again, thinking occasionally of the strange pink fish.
“Hey Syd, I need to talk to you.” said her father. “The team and I are going up the coast for a few days. A couple of the guys are staying behind to watch the camp and continue the research here. Do you think you’ll be alright?”
“Oh yeah. I’ll be fine,” she replied.
“Just don’t leave the tent, even if there is a spare suit, I don’t want you alone out there.”
“Okay, I won’t”
“Bye Syd.”
“Bye Dad, love you,” she called as he left the tent.
“So! I guess it’s just you and me for a few days. I don’t believe we’ve met, I’m Nancy, and you must be Sydney, Dr. Smith’s daughter. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” Sydney turned around to see a middle aged woman smiling at her. She had seen her once or twice at breakfast but had never talked to her.
“Hi,” she replied shyly, she wasn’t good at talking to strangers, or anyone really besides her father. But Nancy however, was determined to make a friend out of this shy 15 year old. She didn’t like the idea of spending 3 days with no one to talk to.
“What do you want to do? We could watch a movie, I brought my portable DVD player!” Then seeing no immediate response in Sydney’s face, quickly took a different road, “Or we don’t have to watch a movie, we could go exploring outside,” Nancy said with less enthusiasm, she had been hoping to spend her three days huddling up under blankets, getting her money’s worth off of that DVD player.
“I would love to go exploring! It’s just my dad said he didn’t want me going outside while he’s gone…”
“Oh! That’s fine! We can watch movies.”
“…But I don’t think my dad would mind if I went with you. He was probably just scared of my going alone. We could go snorkeling! I’ve always wanted to go when there weren’t a lot of people around.”
They ended up going snorkeling and Sydney was amazed at how many more fish she saw compared to the time she went before. And just when she was thinking that she would never see the pink fish again, there it was! Right in front of her, staring at her with large blue eyes was a small pink fish. Slowly, ever so slowly, she reached her hand out to grab it. And just when she thought the fish was hers, it leaped out of sight behind a rock. Frustrated, she swam around the rock with a bag of fish food, hoping to attract it, but to no avail. It always stayed just out of her reach.
“Are you ready to go back in?” Sydney could barely hear as Nancy whizzed past her. And as she went by her net caught the fish by surprise.
“Stop!” Sydney screamed, her heart pounding, if that fish got out of the net she thought she would go crazy. “Stop! You have a fish in your net.”
After a moment of confusion and struggle, Sydney got the fish safely into a plastic bag filled with water.
“At last! I’ve been trying to catch this fish for what seemed like forever!”
“Oh, I didn’t know you had such an interest in fish.”
“I don’t usually, it’s just that this fish is so different, look at it! Its eyes are huge and it’s pink! Talk about a weird fish.”
“Well, you better put it in the tank before it dies from being in that bag.” Nancy suggested.
“Right.”
“I’ll go get the camera, we can monitor it better that way.”
“That’s a good idea.” Sydney was starting to like this Nancy and didn’t think that the next two days were going to be so bad after all.
First thing the next morning she realized that all the fish were dead! The only one left in the tank was the pink fish! “I wonder what happen to them,” she thought. “How strange.”
The next day everything became stranger, when they tested the water for temperature and salinity, they had to make sure the conditions were as similar as the ocean’s in order to keep the fish alive, the temperature was fine, but the salinity levels had gone way down. They had to add a ton of salt to get things working again. The change in the water had killed the other fish. And the next day, the same thing happened again. It was as if the fish was eating the salt out of the water. Sydney wrote everything down in her notebook, she wanted her father to be as up-to-date as possible when he came back. Her father was supposed to return that night.
“Hi Syd! How has it been, not too boring I hope,” said her dad as he was coming in the tent.
“It was amazing, I went snorkeling with Nancy and…”
“You went snorkeling? I thought I asked you not to go outside…”
“I know, but Nancy went with me and I thought it would be alright. But dad, I captured the pink fish!” Dr. Smith completely forgot about his daughter’s disobedience when heard about the fish. Sydney then explained in detail everything that had happened with this strange fish.
“Well, congratulations! I didn’t think anyone would ever be able to capture that thing. I’m going to go take a look at that fish. Do you want to come?”
“Sure!” Sydney replied.
“Mind if I tag along?” Nancy asked as she appeared from the background.
“Not at all.” said Dr. Smith.
So the three of them walked into the other section of the tent where the fish were held. And once again, the salt level had dropped dramatically.
“This is awfully strange, I wonder what would happen if we didn’t add salt to the water.” Dr. Smith suggested.
“There’s only one way to find out.” Nancy said.
“But what if it kills the fish? The likely hood of us finding another one is one in a million, and then we’ll never know!” Sydney protested.
“Well, we can just try it for one day, and if the fish is showing any signs of discomfort then we’ll add more salt. One day won’t kill him.” Sydney’s dad replied.
For twenty-four hours they restrained themselves from adding salt to the water. And when they went to check on the fish, he seemed perfectly fine.
“Well, no harm appears to have come from it. How about we go see some of the other tents Sydney, I just found out that one of the other scientists brought his kid along too, you might have someone to talk to now. Nancy, you keep an eye on the fish for us.”
“No problem.”
About an hour later, after they had gotten some hot coffee and put their suits on, they left.
“He said it was tent number 7, ah! Here we are… Hey George!” Dr. Smith called as he saw his fellow scientist. And Sydney was left alone to explore the tent. The first thing she noticed was that it was a much larger tent than the one she had been living in. And it was also much warmer.
“Hi!” Sydney heard someone call from behind her. She turned around and saw a tall, thin boy looking down at her. He seemed about her age, friendly, and nice.
“Hi,” she responded.
“I thought I would be bored stiff on this trip, it will be nice to be able to talk to someone. I’m Charlie, Dr. George’s son. My dad told me Dr. Smith had a daughter.” Charlie said in a cheerful tone. The cheerfulness seemed to rub off on Sydney and she lost a little bit of her shyness.
“I’m Sydney, nice to meet you. Did you just arrive today?”
“Yeah. How long have you been here?”
“About two weeks,” she replied.
“Two weeks! Oh wow! I think I would be frozen stiff if I were here that long. You must be brave to have stayed for two weeks. I leave in a few days, I live in California and I’m not used to this kind of extreme weather.”
“Hey Syd! I see you’ve met Charlie. George, you remember my daughter, Sydney,” said Dr. Smith as he approached with Dr. George.
“Pleasure to see you again, Sydney,” said Dr. George.
“You too sir,” Sydney replied.
“Syd, I don’t think its good for you to be here in the cold this long, I’m not leaving for another two weeks, but Dr. George and Charlie are leaving in couple days. George has suggested that you go back with them to California until I get back, you wouldn’t mind, would you?” asked her father. “I would come get you on my way back.”
“Um, sure,” she replied.
“Good, it’s all settled then.”
Sydney’s dad and Dr. George then left to get some food and continue their discussion about the mysterious pink fish.
“So you’ll be coming with us. You’ll like California, have you ever been there?” Charlie asked.
“No, can’t say that I have.”
Over the next two days Charlie and Sydney became good friends. And Sydney surprised herself at her ability to talk to someone freely that wasn’t her father. So when it was time to leave, Sydney didn’t mind so much about leaving her father.

-2-

The plane ride was different from any other one Sydney had ever gone on. On her way to Antarctica, she had flown to Australia in a normal plane, and then took a boat over to the camp. But here she took a very small plane that looked fifty years old.
“Are you sure this thing is safe?” she asked Charlie as they were boarding the plane.
“Oh yeah, it’s fine, I flew this same plane coming over here.”
But Charlie’s reassuring words later proved to be wrong.
“We’re about to cross the South Magnetic Pole,” Charlie told Sydney.
Then, all of a sudden, the plane began to jerk and sway. Down it plunged toward the icy water below. Then, slowly, the plane filled with water and Charlie and Sydney searched everywhere for an escape. They came upon the door and thrust it open. Out they swam as fast as they could. And then it seemed as thought they were in a whirlpool. Around and around they spun until suddenly, it stopped. They looked around but the plane was nowhere to be seen. They considered the idea that it might have sunk, but not enough time had passed for that to happen.
“How do you loose a plane?” Charlie cried out. “My dad was on that plane, he could be dead for all I know.”
“I just don’t understand,” `Sydney said.
“It doesn’t make any sense.”
“No, I didn’t mean the plane, I meant the island,” she said as she pointed toward the direction of a shore. “We weren’t flying over any islands, yet there is one right there.”
“Oh my gosh you’re right! That is spooky.”
“Well, all I know is that we need to get ashore, and that island seems like our best bet. It isn’t too far off, we can swim there,” Sydney determined.
So they swam to island, only to find that it was deserted.
“What are we going to do now?” asked Sydney.
“We better start a fire. I’m freezing.”
They then collected whatever wood they could find and piled it on the frozen sand.
“It’s lucky I have some matches. I just hope they’re not wet,” said Charlie. And magically, they happened to still be wrapped in plastic, never opened, so they were dry as a bone. Once they got the fire going, they fell fast asleep. All the swimming and shock made them more tired then had ever been before.
Charlie, however, woke much earlier than Sydney. He got up and looked around the island. “I just don’t understand how this all happened,” Charlie thought to himself. Then he saw, not too far inland, something he hadn’t seen before, it was a tall tower, very old fashioned looking, with no windows.
“Wake up Sydney!” he called. “I found something!”
Soon they were walking towards the tower, hoping that there might be a phone or radio with which they could contact the people back at the camp. But when they got there a large brick wall guarded the tower. They went around the wall but couldn’t find an entrance. They did find, however, a place where one of the bricks had come loose from the wall. In they peered, but only to find the base of a brick tower with no appearing entrance or windows.
“There you are! You little rats thought you could escape me again, well you thought wrong. Get in there, you’re gonna get the whipping of your life!” said a large man who appeared beside them.
“But we…” they cried.
“Shut your mouths! Get along now!”
They were lead into the tower which they learned from the man was a prison. Once inside, they were thrown into a small cell.
“Why are you putting us here? We did nothing wrong!” screamed Sydney as though she were being murdered.
“Tell that to the warden, he might disagree,” replied the guard in a sneering smile.
“They must think we’re prisoners that ran away,” said Charlie. “It would explain a lot.”
“Yeah, I still don’t get it though. We can’t be anywhere near where we should be. No one would set up a prison here.”
“I have a theory. It’s kind of crazy, but it makes sense.”
“What?’ asked Sydney.
“Nothing seems right, the place, not even the time. When we went through that whirlpool, I think it might have whisked us back in time, maybe even to a different part of the planet,” suggested Charlie.
“Ha ha, very funny. I don’t think we could have traveled through time and space.”
“Well do you have a better explanation for what’s going on? Remember when I said we were traveling over the South Magnetic Pole, well maybe it pulled us to the North Magnetic Pole.”
“Listen, I know how we can clear this up, when the guard comes around again I’ll ask him what year it is and where we are.”
The guard didn’t come around again for some time, and when he did come around he wasn’t in a good mood and didn’t feel like talking. So Sydney didn’t find out the truth immediately. But she did start to wonder, to half-believe, and sort of fear, that what Charlie was saying was true. And soon she would have her confirmation.
“Hey, Sydney. Come over here,” Charlie called her from across the cell.
“What is it?”
“I found a loose brick in the wall.”
“Can you take it out?”
“I think so… Got it! Hello! I wonder if there is someone in the next cell! Hello! Anybody there?”
For what seemed like hours, there was no response. Then…
“Hello! Did someone call?” A strange and crackled voice responded. “I believe you woke me from a nice little nap.”
“Hello, sir? I am Charlie Peterson and this is Sydney Smith.”
“Mind if you’d bust another brick or so, so I can see your faces. You don’t know how long it’s been since I’ve seen a human face.”
After a while enough bricks had been taken out so that it formed a nice little window between the cells.
“Ah! Much better, that’s a pretty little girl you have there,” said what appeared to be a very, very old man.
“Oh, she’s not my girl…” replied Charlie in an embarrassed tone.
“Is that so? Huh… So what are you two in here for anyways?”
“We were mistaken for runaways, we didn’t do anything wrong,” Sydney spoke for the first time since she saw the old man. She wasn’t sure what to make of it all, whether to believe if they were back in time or not.
“I see,” said the old man.
“You wouldn’t happen to know what year it is, would you?” asked Charlie with a wink at Sydney.
“Well, I haven’t thought about that in quite some time. Let’s see, I came here in 1769, and I’ve been here about 11 years, so it should be about 1780.”
“What did I tell you?” sneered Charlie.
“Whatever.”
They grew to like the old man and the old man grew to like them. But after a month of conversations through the window in the wall, he died.
“I sure will miss his company,” Sydney said after she and Charlie had played a million games of tic-tac-toe.
“Me too.” replied Charlie. “He was a better tic-tac-toe player than you are.”
“True, you beat me two times and you beat him only once.” Sydney said with a smile.
And soon enough after their only friend was taken away, the real runaways were found and Charlie and Sydney were set free. Since the island was used merely to hold prisoners, there was nowhere for them to go. The warden said that he would let them stay at the prison tower for the rest of the week, a ship of prisoners was arriving then and they could get a ride back to the mainland.
“Might I ask one question?” inquired the warden.
“Sure,” they replied.
“How did you come to be on this island in the first place?”
“Um… Our boat sunk and we swam here,” Charlie quickly lied.
“I see. Well, I tried to find accommodations for you, but I’m afraid all we have are prison cells. I had my men clean out one of the cells and put blankets in it though, I am truly sorry for what happened.”
“Thank you, and its all right, anyone could have made the mistake,” said Charlie.
So after another week of living in the frozen prison cell, they departed. It was now perfectly clear to Sydney that Charlie was right. They were in a different time and place. Once they were settled on the boat, they were given the first real meal they had had in over a month. They had been feed nothing but watery soup in the prison, but here on the boat, the sailors were able to give them bread and dried fruit, which on an empty stomach can work miracles.
“Sydney, do you want to go back up to the deck and look around.” Charlie asked.
“Sure. Is that alright?” she asked the sailors.
“Go ahead.”
Up they went to the above level of the ship. They decided to look out over the water.
“Look at that fish! It’s pink!” Charlie exclaimed.
“I saw that fish back in Antarctica! I didn’t know they lived out here too. That fish is really strange though. I put it in a tank with some other fish, and the next day, all the other fish were dead and the salinity level had dropped.”
“Interesting.”
The ship began to rock and sway.
“…I flew this same plane coming over here… What? Huh? Sydney?” said a startled Charlie.
“Charlie? We are back in the plane, we’re back!” exclaimed Sydney.
“Finally. We must have crossed the North Magnetic Pole when we were in the boat,” Charlie suspected.
“How are you guys doing back there? Not too rough of a flight so far I hope,” said Charlie father, George.
“You have no idea,” Sydney said.

-3-

The rest of the flight was uneventful. They landed in Sydney, Australia and soon Sydney, Charlie, and Dr. George were on a flight to LAX.
“I wonder if we will do any time-traveling on this flight,” said Charlie.
“I hope not, I was looking forward to a nice long sleep,” replied Sydney.
“We are experiencing some slight turbulence due to a storm outside. Please put on your seat belts for your own safety,” a nervous voice called from the intercom.
“Great, I really have to use the bathroom, but now I’ll have to hold it,” said Sydney.
“No, go ahead, airlines always take too many safety precautions,” said a later to be proved wrong Charlie.
Sydney then stood up and walked towards the bathroom. But before she was able to reach it, she stumbled and fell onto the floor of the cabin. Charlie immediately stood up and raced towards the spot where Sydney had fallen. To his amazement and horror, Sydney was nowhere to be seen. Charlie searched everywhere, but to no avail, she had vanished.
Meanwhile, Sydney was having the time of her life. She had been transported not to the past, but to the future. Where she was she was not yet certain, but she guessed that she was somewhere in America, because of how people were talking. She was standing in some sort of line, what she was waiting for she also did not know. All she knew was that she still had to use the bathroom.
“Excuse me, where can I find a restroom?” she asked the person standing in line in front of her.
“It’s down that way, but if you leave you will have to go to the end of the line when you come back,” replied a tall, green-eyed boy about her age.
“Oh, what are we waiting for anyways?” she inquired.
“You sure are clueless aren’t you? This is an amusement park, and this is the line for bungee jumping,” he replied.
“Bungee jumping? Uh… I think I’ll just go to the bathroom,” she nervously replied.
“Oh come on, don’t chicken out now, we’re almost there.”
“I don’t know,” she said.
“We’ll go together. I’m Sam by the way, what’s your name?”
“Sydney.”
“It’s nice to meet you Sydney. Now, won’t you join me for a thrilling experience of jumping to what might seem like our death but in reality is perfectly harmless?” asked Sam as he held out his arm for Sydney to take. She then took his arm and tried desperately to shove down the terror that was rapidly bubbling up inside her.
“Excuse me, I was wondering if we could go at the same time,” Sam asked the man who was selling tickets.
“Sure, so, two tickets?” he asked.
“Yeah,” Sam said as he handed him money enough for two tickets. “My treat,” he said to Sydney with a wink.
Then, after they were connected to the bungee cords, they leapt. They soared through the air at an increasingly rapid speed, Sydney felt as though she was going to throw up her stomach. And just when she was sure that she was going to die, the pull of the bungee cord yanked her and Sam back up towards the sky. Over and over they bounced until the bouncing was done.
“Do you want to hang out? We could go get some cotton candy,” Sam suggested.
“Sure,” Sydney smiled. “Hey! An aquarium! Do you want to go in?”
“Okay, but it’s not that cool, I’ve been there before.”
Sam turned out to be right; it looked more like a museum then an amusement park aquarium. But then something caught Sydney’s eye. A small pink fish, identical to the one she had found in Antarctica, was in a tank in the corner. Below it was a plaque that held information about the fish.
“That is an interesting fish,” said Sam.
The plaque read the following:
This small pink fish was discovered in 2009 by Sydney Peterson. The fish was originally a fresh water fish, but after being tossed into the sea by an unknown source, it developed the ability to absorb the salt in it’s surrounding water, allowing it survive. However, due to the salt decrease, other fish that are near this fish perish.
“Hey look! A girl named Sydney Peterson discovered it. What do you know?”
“Yeah, funny isn’t it.” Sydney said. “Where does she live, this Sydney Peterson?” That’s weird; my last name is Smith, not Peterson. Oh! Charlie’s last name is Peterson, so I married him. That is very strange.
“Um, she’s dead, she’s been dead for about six years I think,” Sam said.
“How did she die?” asked Sydney.
“Old age, people just die sometimes,” said a bored Sam.
“Sydney!” Charlie called out through the aquarium.
Charlie had been searching for Sydney and had eventually given up. Then he had gone back to his seat and unconsciously fallen asleep. When he woke up he was in the aquarium.
“Charlie! How did you get here?” Sydney asked in astonishment.
“I’ll tell you about it later. Who’s your friend?”
“This is Sam, Sam this is Charlie,” Sydney introduced.
“Greetings,” Sam said coolly.
“Hi,” said a confused Charlie. “Sydney, can I talk to you for a minute?”
“Sure Charlie, excuse me Sam.”
They then walked out of the aquarium and into the crowd of the amusement park.
“Ok, can we please try to get out of here, I really don’t want to be stuck for hours with that guy in there,” pleaded Charlie.
“He’s actually really nice, we went bungee jumping together earlier,” said Sydney.
“Oh, I get it, you like him don’t you. Well, I have some news for you, he’s a little young for you.”
“He is fifteen!” she argued.
“Yeah, and you are what, sixty?”
“Actually I’m dead, there was a plaque in there about a fish that I discovered and I’m uh, dead now,” Sydney said.
“My point exactly.”
“Are you jealous or something?”
“Of course not, maybe, okay a little bit,” Charlie stammered.
“Don’t worry, I don’t like him like that, just as a friend. Besides…” she stopped and decided not to say what she was going to.
“Besides what?” Charlie curiously asked.
“Nothing. Forget it.”
“Come on, what is it?”
“Nothing, let’s just go back inside, Sam might think we ditched him,” Sydney quickly changed the subject.
“It’s not a bad idea, he would never find us in this crowd.”
“Charlie!”
“Sorry…”
They then walked back into the aquarium, and to Charlie’s disappointment, Sam was still there.
“Sydney! I was just talking to someone who works here and there is a book about Sydney Peterson’s life in the gift shop at the front of the aquarium, do you want to get one?” suggested an eager Sam.
“Sydney Peterson?” asked Charlie.
“Yeah, the girl who discovered this pink fish. Sydney was interested in her because they have the same name.” replied Sam.
“Oh! I get it now Syd,” Charlie said with a very large smile.
“Let’s just go get that book,” Sydney quickly and quietly replied. She was annoyed at herself for letting Charlie find out about Sydney Peterson, but more so she was annoyed at herself for a feeling she was forming for him.
After they had gotten the book, Sam had to go.
“What’s your e-mail address, I’d love to talk to you sometime or get together maybe.”
“Sure, it’s sydsmith8267@yahoo.com” she said.
“Nice try, I was looking through that book earlier. That was Sydney Peterson’s old e-mail address. If you don’t want to give it to me just say so, you don’t have to lie. See ya,” then he disappeared into the crowd.
“Well, I hope that’s the last we see of him!” said a very pleased Charlie.
“Me too,” said Sydney.
“You don’t know how nice it is to hear you say that. Let’s go.”
Magically, they were whisked back into the airplane of their own time. And Sydney finally was able to use the bathroom. The rest of the flight was uneventful. Other than Charlie’s constant smiling and euphoric state, nothing out of the ordinary occurred. Finally, after their long flight was over, they arrived in LA, only to then get on a bus to Paso Robles, where the Petersons lived.

-4-

After an uneventful week, Sydney had hoped she and Charlie could have gone on another adventure, Dr. Smith returned to bring Sydney back home. Sydney then assumed that there would have to be no more of her mysterious adventures. But her assumption was wrong.
As Sydney and her dad were getting on the plane to go home, she began to feel very strange. It was like her head was rolling off her body and falling down an endless pit. She lifted her hand to where her head should be and it was still in it’s proper place. There was no pain in the feeling, only strangeness. Then everything went black.
When she opened her eyes, Charlie was standing over her, smiling.
“Where are we?” she asked.
“I have absolutely no idea,” he replied in a care-free tone. “And you were worried we wouldn’t have anymore adventures...” he added.
Where they were was undetermined, when they were was unknown. What they did know was they were in a large room with mirrors on all the walls, floors, and ceilings. And in the center of the room was a small white light. On its own the light wouldn’t have illuminated the entire room, but with the help of the mirrors, the room was as bright as day.
“So are you coming or aren’t you?” Charlie asked.
They then stood up and went over to examine the mysterious light. It was not connected to anything and didn’t appear to have a power source. Ever so slowly, Sydney reached out her hand to touch this magnificent light. As soon as she did, everything melted away and she and Charlie were on the roof of a very tall building. In the middle of the roof, the roof was flat, there was a square pool. It reminded them of one of those hotels with a swimming pool on the roof. They walked over to the pool. Inside they saw, once again, the same little pink fish. It looked as if the fish was trying to tell them something. They leaned forward to try to see better and to their surprise, they were pulled in by an invisible force. Once in the water, they could hear the fish quite plainly.
“The world is deteriorating rapidly. There are some humans who are trying to repair this world, though their efforts are futile. I have been searching for two young humans who can dedicate their lives to traveling through time and space, changing the past, present, and future, and discouraging humans from making some of the decisions they have and will make. Hopefully that can heal the earth of her poisons. I have sent you on two journeys to show you what it is like. Now the decision is yours, if you choose not to accept, you must find two other people who are willing to take your place. You can take as long as you want discussing it, and when you have decided, jump back into the pool.”
They were then magically back on the roof, perfectly dry.
“That was weird.” Charlie said.
“You’re not kidding.” agreed Sydney.
After a long moment of silence, Charlie asked her what she wanted to do.
“I don’t know. What do you want to do?”
“Well, I know I haven’t really said it, but, I love you Sydney. And I would love to spend the rest of my life with you. If we did this you wouldn’t really have a chance to be with anyone else, constantly moving through time and space you know. So I am going to let you decide, I am going to go jump back into that pool and let you tell the fish what we are going to do. If you love me too and want to do this, then when we turn eighteen I’ll marry you. But if you don’t, for whatever reason, want to do this, then you just tell that to the fish. I know that this is a big decision for you, so I will jump into the pool and let you think in private.”
Charlie then disappeared into the mysterious water and Sydney was left alone.
Why did he have to do this to me? I am only fifteen! How am I supposed to know what to do? What am I going to do? Well, he asked me if I loved him. Do I? Yes, I think I do. But if I do this I will never get to see my family again. Oh dear...
Then, she knew what she had to do. Unsure if her idea was going to work, she dived back into the pool. And when she opened her eyes she was face to face with the little pink fish.

-5-

“What is your decision?” asked the fish.
“I have decided to accept your offer. However, can I wait three years to start?”
“Why?”
“You said it was time travel, so what does three more years matter? I just want to have the rest of my non-adult years spent as a normal teenager.”
“Very well, but the moment you turn eighteen, you and Charlie will be transported here. Good-bye.”
After a moment passed, the girl and Charlie appeared back on the roof of the building.
“I love you Charlie,” Sydney confessed.
“Yeah, I figured.” Charlie said with a smile.
Then, right there on the roof-top, both Charlie and Sydney had their first kiss.

Impressum

Tag der Veröffentlichung: 07.07.2010

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