Lost in time

Chapter 5

Magenta decides to avoid their normal evening bickering and takes the food to the table. She has too much on her mind to be worrying about the small things.

After dinner, the girls clear up and Magenta makes herself comfortable on the floor to start working on her father’s notes when her mom takes a seat next to her on the couch.

“Sweetheart, I’m sorry if I sounded rude.”

“It’s okay, mom.” She leans her head against her mom’s leg, and her mom puts her hand on her head.

“I miss him too, you know?”

“I know.” Magenta looks up, seeing the tears in her mom’s eyes.

It’s one of those rare moments they share where they know what the other one is feeling, but they don’t say the words. She and her mom might have huge differences in opinion, but they love each other dearly, and she would give her life for her mom and her sisters, and her mom knows that.

They sit there looking at the notes in his handwriting.

“He drove me insane with this damn machine.” Her mom bursts out laughing out of the blue.

“Did I tell you of the day he arrived at home with this enormous old bicycle wheel, all rusted up and convinced he was going to change the world?”

“No.” Magenta turns, looking interested.

“Oh, boy, I nearly died of laughter, and he was furious at me for almost a week. It took him months to convince the museum to give him the large front wheel of the antique bicycle. He believed it would be the perfect part to use as the centerpiece for his machine.”

“Uhm, I don’t see it.” Mystery looks at the machine.

“Oh, that’s because this was not his first try.”

They all sit closer and listen to their mom tell them the story of how their father built up the machines. How he searched for the parts and how many times he nearly gave her a heart attack each time the thing would blow up!

It’s the first time in a long time they see her laughing about the memories she shares about their father. Especially where the machine is concerned.

“When did he start building it?” Magenta looks confused.

“Oh, my darling daughter, he started building this damned thing not long after you were born. People had been warned about global warming and the ice caps melting for so long that they didn’t pay any attention to it anymore. Some even went as far as saying that it was a conspiracy. That the government started to get people to do what they wanted.” She waves her hands in the air and sighs.

“Your father got this notion into his head that if he could go back in time and convince this one person in history, he could change it all. What was his name?” She taps her index finger on her lip, looking at the carpet while she seems to be thinking.

“Oh, it’s been so long ago, I can’t even remember. It should be somewhere in that magnitude of notes. Anyway, he was convinced that if he could speak to that person and show them the devastation their wrong decision caused, he could change everything for the entire world. He even went as far as publishing some of his research in the hopes of finding investors. But of course, nobody believes that you can go back in time.”

She stands up and walks into the kitchen to make herself a cup of tea.

“So, time after time, he would build a machine, power it up and it would blow apart. With each failure, he would tell me it’s not about the number of failures but about the one time he succeeds. In the meantime, I was working to try and keep the house running and raise you four. I guess I grew to hate the machine because it took away time, he was meant to spend with you.”

She walks back to the couch, sitting down with her mug, and takes a sip.

“When I would bring it up, he would just tell me that as soon as he fixes the timeline, he will have more than enough time to spend with you without the entire continent having to move to the coastal areas. That just made me angrier at him. I felt that he was wasting precious time while I was watching you four grow up. I mean, just imagine going back in time to change global warming… It’s ridiculous!”

“I know it sounds ridiculous, mom, but I’ve checked dad’s calculations and his maths sounds. Going back in time is possible.” Mischief points at a page with her father’s calculations and then one with her calculations.

“Oh, honey, I don’t want to sound mean, but if the scientific world didn’t agree with him then, how would your calculations confirm his work now? Besides, maths alone doesn’t make time travel possible. It was a silly idea, and he shouldn’t have wasted so much time on it. We could have moved here while we still had the funds to at least live in the middle-class sector, and he could have found a job at any laboratory of his choosing. He was a highly intelligent man.” She sighs.

“But we can’t change what happened.” She puts her hands on her legs and stands up.

“Don’t break down the place, I love you, girls.” She kissed each of them good night before going to her bedroom.

***

“Dammit!” Sophia shouts as Max walks down the steel steps into the lab.

“And you tell me not to shout.”

“I don’t shout at staff or possible future staff!”

“Touché. What’s going on?”

She shows him the program that runs the machine and where the problem started. It blew right through all her circuits on the ring, and they would have to replace and reset all of them before they would be able to try again.

“So, you are saying it’s going to take longer than expected to reset.” He hums.

“Not only that, I’m saying that somewhere, something was calculated incorrectly. The sparks we saw weren’t because of the machine almost working. It was because my damn circuits were blowing!”

“What do you mean something was calculated incorrectly?”

They walk over to her whiteboard, and she starts writing down the calculation for the time link while Max reads the calculation. He might be the face of the company, have the same degree as his sister, and understand what their mother used to call their jargon.

***

When they were younger, they would write notes using mathematical equations that their poor mother never understood. Their father made quick work of deciphering their code, but he never rat them out to their mom. He just made them understand that he knew, and if he caught them doing anything they shouldn't do, he would leave the punishment up to their mom and just say he didn’t know about any of it.

***

“There!” He stops her, rolls up his sleeves, and takes his whiteboard pen.

She would write in black and he preferred writing in blue, so his opinion would stand out over hers.

“This calculation isn’t correct.”

“But it’s from the research paperwork. We’ve been through this over and over, and now you see the mistake!”

“Just run the simulation.” He tells her impatiently, and she types the new calculations into the system.

“We won’t know if it works until we have fixed everything.”

“Fine, but just run the simulation.”

She runs the simulation and he studies the graphs on the system output. She steps out of the way so he can take a seat in front of the computer.

“Here, take the driver’s seat. Your hovering is making me feel smothered.”

“Thank you, men are considered better drivers.” He grins, sitting down.

He opens a new screen to their right and his fingers start running over the keyboard.

“You know, most people don’t know what a nerd you really are.”

He laughs at her and types away like a mad man, noticing something he points at it.

“There… Do you see it?”

“Yes! How did we miss that before?”

“It’s the part of the calculation Dr. Hart never published. I used a generic calculation.”

“What? Why didn’t you ever tell me!?”

“Until today, it didn’t make a difference. You didn’t notice, did you?”

“Scoot over!” She shoves his chair over to the other set of computer screens and starts typing in the new simulation calculations.

They watch as the graph starts to run.

“Come on, come on, come on.” Max rubs his hands together, and the air is electric with his excitement. Their staff is standing around them as they watch, the two of them work.

“Are you seeing this?” She gasps.

“Yup.” He grins.

“You little fucker!! You fixed it!” She squeals.

“Yeah, now all we need is a working machine to test it.” He waves at the blown machine.

Sophia shuts down the simulation and their staff clap hands at what they just saw on the screens. Always amazed at how well they work together.

He leaves the repair of the machine in his sister’s hands and makes his way back to his office. He has to admit that he misses spending his time in the lab, but someone has to make sure they make money.

Feeling better, he tries to call the young Miss Hart again, but again her phone rings and then goes to voicemail. Surely, she couldn’t have meant that she wasn’t taking the job at all.

***

Seeing his number pop up again, she ignores the call. Why would he keep calling? She told him she was not interested. Sighing, she sits working on the calculations with Mischief. Their father’s old computer is slow, so it takes a while to process any information they have or changes they make.

“As soon as I know we have a working program, I can figure out what power source we will need.” Mischief tells her sister.

“Keep trying.” Magenta winks at her. “I know you can do it.”

“I’ve gone through dad’s research about the influencers and looked at some events myself, and I don’t agree with his assessment that talking to one person would make such a big difference.” Mystery slams her hands on the dining table.

“I think you lot have spent too much time loafing around the paperwork and behind that old junk pile. Your brains are filled with dust, and you need fresh air. We haven’t been outside for a proper run in ages!” Mayhem rolls her eyes at her sisters.

“We can go on Monday.” Magenta grins.

“Yeah, right… You always say Monday, and when I tell you to get ready, you tell me you meant next Monday.” She shakes her head at her sister.

***

Each sister had their own talent.

Mischief, with her blond hair, green eyes, and gothic look, was the perfect example of a technical whizz kid. She could fix anything, hack anything and build anything that had anything to do with technology, and it was always landing her into big trouble.

Mayhem, with her platinum white hair and ocean blue eyes, looking like she just stepped out of a sci-fi movie, dressed in her leather outfits, took care of their guns, and when needed their tactical training to make sure they stayed fit. Challenging her sisters to do and be in their best physical condition was her ultimate pastime.

Mystery, with her bright red hair, brown eyes, and long skirts, looked like your typical librarian. Which explained her passion for research and also in the end development of the machine’s new parts. Being the mother hen of the group, she tries her best to keep them all out of jail.

Magenta, with her black hair, almost black eyes, is so dark brown, wearing sweats and hoodies that did not fit any of her attributes. She has a degree in artifacts, but looking at her, you wouldn’t think so. She is the dreamer of the four sisters, pushing them all to get the machine working in the hopes that they would find their father.

***

Maximillian walks into his apartment after talking to Ben again, and from what he remembers about the girl, he has to agree with him. That couldn’t have been the same girl like the one on the CV. He decides to start the search again for someone new because this girl clearly doesn’t want the job.