Emperors of Time Read Online Free Page A

she
pointed to an old wooden wardrobe.  “That closet has been in this room my
whole life.  It’s one of the few things in this room that I actually
recognize.  My grandfather, who was a carpenter, made it for me,” she
said.
    “Well, um… 
it’s a nice piece of furniture,” said Tim slowly, not sure where this was
going.
    Julie rolled her
eyes.  “Right, so…  I’m going to try to use it to travel back in
time,” she said.  “If we’re not transported back in time to when I
was a baby, then we’ll know that nothing happened to me yesterday
afternoon.  And then I can just get used to the fact that my confusion
over 19th century presidents and which particular communist world power the
United States is at war with right now are just due to my shortcomings in
social studies class instead of super-advanced micro-computing.  And that
I never noticed this desk before yesterday because, well…  apparently I’m
just not particularly observant!”
    Tim
paused.  “I didn’t mean to say…” But he wasn’t sure what he didn’t mean to
say.  It was a nice wardrobe; that much had been true.  It was
tall and spacious, made of wood, with a design of moon and stars cut out from
the top of the door.
    “Don’t worry,”
Julie said, calming down.  “At least I still have science and math. 
I was as good in calculus today as ever, so maybe everything will still turn
out for the best.”  She picked the medallion up in her hand and grasped it
tightly.  “Now I’m going to put my hand on the wardrobe, and you put your
hand on mine.  It’ll only take a couple seconds to see if I’m full of it…”
    Tim obeyed,
looking curiously into her eyes as she concentrated.  
    The walls of the
room didn’t change, the wardrobe stayed right there touching Julie’s hand, with
his larger hand covering hers. 
    In fact, the
first thing Tim noticed was that the desk was gone, and for a split second he
thought he could still believe that the time travel story was still
nonsense.  After all, maybe the problem was just with this transient desk,
coming into Julie’s life last night only to vanish again this afternoon before
Tim’s eyes. 
    And then Tim saw
the baby in the crib in the center of the room. 
    Julie let go of
Tim and the wardrobe and they stepped over to the crib. 
    Julie’s hand was
on her heart. She looked just as surprised as Tim.  Neither of them could
think of anything to say as they looked down at the baby.  She certainly
had Julie’s black hair.  Her green eyes looked up at them with what seemed
to be amusement mixed with mild surprise at seeing them.
    Tim was mentally
scrambling to remember everything he could from the notebook.  It took on
brand new relevance now that he was being forced to believe it.  Or at
least parts of it.  It was still possible, he guessed, that it could have
simply brought them to a different place , and not changed their position
in time.  The bedroom still looked an awful lot like Julie’s, though, and
the wall clock (which hadn’t been there a second ago), read 1:25 rather than
3:50 like it should have.  And, of course, the wardrobe was still there.
    Just when Tim
was trying to figure out what it would mean if the things the notebook said
were actually true , both he and Julie heard the sound of footsteps in
the hallway.
    Hopkin’s
admonition that they shouldn’t change events fluttered through Tim’s mind,
right alongside the thought of how difficult it would be explain to somebody
why you just happened to be in their house, gazing at their baby.  He gave
Julie a look of sheer panic, and was glad to see that, although her eyes were
still wide with shock, she seemed to have more of a plan than he did.  She
shoved him toward the wardrobe her grandfather had made and opened one of the
twin doors. 
    They managed to
squeeze in with enough time for Julie to close the door quickly but softly,
just as the bedroom door creaked open. 
    Tim could