Rewind Read Online Free

was real. It’s on tape.
    And I was in it.
    “Now, that’s pretty cool,” Ripley said. “How did you edit your image in like that?”
    “That’s me!” Adam protested. “I stepped in front of the lens, and I was in the image. In the past. Well, maybe not totally, physically. You saw the shape. Maybe just a part of me was there. My body aura or something.”
    Ripley nodded solemnly. “Or your body o dor. Sometimes that takes on a life of its own.”
    “Adam, you’re scaring me,” Lianna said.
    “You don’t believe me?” Adam asked.
    Ripley burst out laughing. “I believe you are seriously, seriously ill.”
    From the TV, Adam heard a faint whistling. He turned to look.
    The image was still. The angle was low, about waist level.
    The camera was resting on the desk. I was downstairs, eating. I’d left it on.
    Another figure was entering the frame.
    This one was not a ghostly shimmer.
    It was Adam. At age ten.
    Me.
    I’m watching me, not knowing I’m being watched.
    Ripley narrowed his eyes. Lianna watched intently.
    The younger Adam pulled the sheets up on his bed. Then he grabbed some books from his dresser and quickly stuffed them in a backpack.
    As he was about to leave the frame, he stopped.
    Leaning down, he picked up a book. Even in the dim light, the title was visible. Time and Again.
    The ten-year-old Adam looked puzzled. Wondering how the book got there.
    Only the fourteen-year-old Adam knew.

A tape. We should have planned for this.
    He is resourceful.
    But the girl—must not know.
    Nor the boy.
    Perhaps we should pull the project.
    Give it time.

7
    “A DAM, THIS IS CREEPY.” Lianna paced the room.
    I can convince her.
    “I saw Edgar,” Adam blurted out. “A few minutes ago, when I looked through the lens.”
    Lianna blanched. “But you couldn’t. Edgar is dead.”
    “Not four years ago. Not yet.”
    Ripley glared at him in disbelief. “You superimposed images over an old cassette.”
    “Then how did the image move that book?” Adam asked.
    “Coincidence,” Ripley said. “It fell.”
    “I pulled it down!” Adam insisted.
    Ripley grabbed the camera and thrust it toward Adam. “Okay, time traveler. You have special powers? Prove it.”
    Adam’s fingers closed around the videocamera. He looked for a place to set it down.
    No.
    You’ll be in the same room as Edgar.
    Inches from him.
    Knowing he’s about to be killed.
    And you won’t be able to do a thing.
    “I can’t,” Adam said. “Not here.”
    “I thought so,” Ripley said with a grin. “Okay, guys, we’ve had our fun. I have hockey practice in ten minutes.”
    “Adam?” Lianna said. “Was this all some kind of joke?”
    She was glaring at Adam. Disappointment, accusation, betrayal, and fear all passed across her eyes.
    He was losing her.
    His only possible partner.
    Do it, Sarno.
    Stand up for the right thing once in a while.
    He slid a pile of papers to the back of Ripley’s desk and set the camera down. “Okay. I changed my mind.”
    He turned the camera on.
    Lianna’s eyes fixed on him.
    Ripley yawned.
    Slowly Adam stepped in front of the lens.
    “I still seeeeee you…” Ripley taunted.
    Blip.
    Adam felt a momentary pull. A smear of color, the pop…
    And then, blue.
    Edgar’s blue.
    Adam was facing Edgar’s mirror. It showed an empty room.
    No reflection. As if I’m not here.
    He moved closer.
    And he saw the room wasn’t empty.
    Edgar was behind him to the left. Still sitting at his desk. Writing. His back to Adam.
    It hurt to see him. Worse than Adam expected. He felt it sharply in his gut as he turned around.
    He wanted to yell out. Warn him.
    But Adam was a phantom. A ghost. Invisible and silent.
    How can you be sure?
    Try it.
    “Edgar?” Adam walked closer, his voice little more than a whisper.
    Edgar didn’t turn around. He was writing intently.
    Adam looked over his shoulder. Edgar was recording hockey statistics. Goals and assists for each player. Game by game.
    Several columns were full of