"Exactly!" exclaimed Atticus with enthusiasm dripping from his face because his daughter was able to get his analogy.
Pinching the space between her brows, Natasha looked at her father skeptically. She wanted to ask something but was hesitant because if she did, then that meant that she somehow believed in his theories, but in reality, she didn't.
She was just a docile daughter who didn't want to hurt the feelings of her father, so no matter how weird his hypothesis' were, no matter what weird expeditions he took to prove his madness, she always supported him. Like for the past one week, he was going to the Kellog Hilltop just to check the arrival of the comet which he considered was not normal because the comet had deviated from its trajectory because of some external power influx and he believed that there was some supernatural force that was doing so.
Being a doctor she never believed in the supernatural. She never believed that there was something beyond this universe where life was running in parallel. But after the incident that happened in the morning, she was forced to question her own beliefs.
Seeing the hesitation on her face, Atticus looked at her for a while and asked,
"Did Leonard say anything to you about me? Have I upset you in some way?"
"No, dad! No way! Something happened today morning. I mean, actually it happened yesterday night but... "
"Will you tell me what happened my child?" asked Atticus a bit worried because her ever so confident daughter looked like she was struggling to even express her thoughts.
"Ermm... How do I start? See, yesterday Daniel was hosting this Halloween party at the house..."
"Yes, I am aware of that. Did he do something stupid yesterday? Do you want me to talk to him?" asked Atticus.
"No, No... Erm... Just let me finish dad."
"Ok, Ok."
"So, there were like a bunch of guys who were there at our place yesterday and half of them I didn't even know. I had never seen them before. So there was alcohol and maybe some other crazy stuff at the party too. You know what I mean. So when we went to the pool area to clean things up, there was this guy whom we found asleep there," said Natasha and then sat on the chair next to her.
"I assumed that he was drunk and a friend of Daniel and so I took him inside and helped him stay with us for the night. I mean, that was the most natural thing to do right?"
"Right my child. I have taught you well," remarked Atticus.
"But that's not it. There was a young girl who was running a high fever and had fainted in our garden. I assumed she was also at the party and maybe she took some contraband or alcohol, God knows what and probably got sick because of that. So I took her in and helped to reduce her fever."
"That's a great thing to do. So why are you so skeptical about your decision? Did Leonard say anything bad because of it?"
"No, dad! Just stop blaming Leonard for everything. He had nothing to do with any of this."
"Well I just assumed, since all the problems in your life are because of that man only," mumbled Atticus and sunk back into the sofa.
Natasha rolled her eyes and then continued,
"The thing is their clothes were weird. I mean ridiculously weird. You have seen those Greek or Roman movies with people in cloaks and stuff right?"
"Yeah!", affirmed Atticus.
"So they were dressed like that, but like in a very poor way, I mean their clothes were tattered and torn sort of and I just assumed that they had dressed up like this for the Halloween."
"Were they not?"
Natasha shook her head saying a big no.
"Oh! poor things. Did you call the police or social services to take care of them? Maybe they had been tortured by someone or case of a child trafficking maybe?"
"I wish!" exclaimed Natasha and started biting her nails.
"What do you mean Natasha?"
"Erm... The thing is, they said that I look like their mom."
"What?" exclaimed Atticus.
"And not just that, they also said that Leonard looked like their father."
"What are you saying?"
"But dad hold on. That's not the weird part," she said and took a deep breath and then looking into the eyes of her father, she said,
"They said that they had traveled to the future!"
"They said what?"
"I know! I know! I sound crazy but that's what they said. And even Daniel told that the boy was looking at everything as if he was unable to understand where he was. They talked about some fight and some kingdom and stuff. Oh! and this was not their first-time travel. Apparently they had done it before," she said and looked at him intently for a while and then asked,
"Does it ring a bell?"
Atticus looked at his daughter for a moment and asked, "And you don't think they were insane?"
"No," said Natasha and pushed her hair behind her ear.
Given that she was one of the best psychiatrists in New York and given that she was his daughter when she was confident that they were not insane or sprouted a story, Atticus sprang from the sofa and holding her daughter's arm he asked,
"So are you saying?"
"I am not saying, anything dad. I am just telling you the facts. I don't know what's real and what's not."
"Where are they?" he asked.
"I don't know. They left before I could even help them as they probably realized we are not going to believe them. But police said that they will inform us if they get to know about there whereabouts so we can just wait for their call."
"Wait for their call? No my child, if they are from the past then this place is going to kill them even before police can find them out. There is no niceness left in this world of ours."
Saying that Atticus picked up his car keys and rushed out of the door.
And the wheels of his jeep whirled.