Chapter Ten:
Home Again
The old man, who introduced himself as Bear, listened intently as Alice told her story again.
"So," he said thoughtfully. "Your brother is the Time Walker and you are the Guide."
"What does that mean?" asked Alice.
"It means you are almost home," said Bear with a smile. "You can go home now, if you like."
"I CAN?"
"Of course, you're nearly there already."
"But, but..." Alice stammered, "We're just at the beginning of History! What about all the stuff between now and our time? I mean, my time?"
Bear explained patiently, "You are at the beginning of Human History, but all of Human History is only a blink of an eye to the Earth, and less than that to the Universe. You are almost home."
Alice started jumping up and down with excitement. "I want to go home now! Where's Zack?"
Bear pointed down the hill. Zack was running with three other boys near the edge of the river. With a whoop of joy, Alice dashed downhill, shouting for her brother.
And within a few minutes they were all in the centre of the camp saying goodbye.
"Well," said Mossflower with some asperity in her voice, "I don't understand any of this. But if Bear says you know your own way back to your tribe, then I suppose you do. Are you sure you don't need me to pack you some food, or give you some warmer clothes?"
"Come back and visit us again!" said Little Bird to Zack. "The mammoth herds will be coming this way soon, and there'll be meat for everyone!"
"I will come back!" said Zack decisively.
Alice took off her cloak and handed it to the woman who had given it to her. "Here's your coat back, thank you very much for lending it to me. I really won't need it." Zack looked at her and then after a moment's hesitation pulled his off as well. He patted the soft fur one last time as he handed it back to Little Bird.
Alice tried to think of what would be the most polite thing to say in this moment. She only got halfway through, "Thank you very much for having us over to your house..." when Mossflower suddenly grabbed her in a huge furry hug.
"Take care! Don't be bad children, and don't go wandering away from your homes again, making your parents worry!"
"Oh!" said Alice with sudden comprehension. What if Mommy was worried and sad? They'd been away for a whole night! Enough goodbyes! She grabbed Zack by the hand, "Let's go!"
Zack ran a few steps forward down the Road and something remarkable happened. Where there had been tents, suddenly mud huts sprang up out of the ground. Strangers in leather tunics stared at the two children who had appeared seemingly out of nowhere. Zack continued forward a little more and the mud huts became straight walled houses and dogs ran in the streets. A few more steps and city walls rose up in the distance. And then things moved very fast.
Ziggurats and pyramids and castles. Armies and villages and painted men on horses. Dragon headed ships glimpsed far out at sea. Horses thundering over the turf, and the crack of a musket. A man with paper wings strapped to his arms running across the grass. A funny square topped car belching smoke as it rattled over cobblestones... Alice tried to identify everything she saw, but it all sped by so fast.
And then suddenly they were back in their own bedroom. Zack tripped over his own feet as he came to an abrupt halt.
"There's no more road!" he said in astonishment. "Where did the road go?" He looked behind himself, and was reassured to see the road still there, stretching into the past. "Why'd it stop?"
Alice looked around at the wonderfully familiar bedroom which she had shared with her brother ever since he was born. Zack's unicorn... No, his spaceship, was still on the desk. Stuffed animals were lying on the floor. Their bunk bed was still unmade. "I think..." she said slowly as the idea took shape in her head, "I think if we want to see the future we have to get there in the regular way. I don't think we can just walk into the future the way we can into the past, because our future hasn't happened yet."
Zack didn't know what she was talking about, and he didn't care. He ran out of the bedroom calling, "Mom! I'm home, I'm home!"
The children's mother was typing on the computer.
"Of course you are home," she said calmly. "Where else would you be?"
Alice started talking excitedly, "We went back to the beginning of time! We saw dinosaurs and we stayed over night with Cave Men, only they didn't live in caves, they lived in holes in the ground with tents over the top! And..."
"That's nice, sweetie," said her mother, continuing to type. "I'm glad you are having fun playing with Zack..."
"It's not pretend, it's real!"
"Yes, dear. But now, I really have to work on this story. Can you please go amuse yourselves quietly?" She absently patted Zack on his head. Her eyes remained on the computer screen.
Zack and Alice looked at each other. It was obvious they had returned at exactly the same moment they'd left. No one had missed them at all.
"I think we could amuse ourselves," said Alice after a moment.
"Very quietly," added Zack, nodding.
As the children clattered back into their bedroom, the mother heard her daughter ask, "Where should we go this time?" and she smiled to herself thinking how nice it was that the children were using their imaginations to occupy themselves on this dull Sunday afternoon.
The End.