Rosalind wasn't able to hear or see anything else for what was most likely several minutes but when she came to, she was on the floor of a not-destroyed version of the lab with all of the lights on. What happened?
"Roz?" Edison asked nervously. "Are you alright?"
She assessed herself for damage in a mirror on the other side of the lab and saw that her chin-length, choppy light brown hair was sticking up everywhere, her blue eyes had the wild light of a cornered animal in them, and she had bleeding cuts and scrapes all over her arms and legs.
"Relax. I don't think I damaged anything critical," she told him.
Nora ran up and grabbed her hand with worry shining in her eyes. They looked almost exactly like her sisters'; they had both inherited their father's eye color while Edison's hazel eyes were like their mother's.
Everyone always said he looked just like their dad aside from his eyes. Nora's hair was baby blonde. Their mother used to say it would probably darken up as she got older because hers did but didn't live long enough to see that happen.
"Roz has lots of boo-boos. We need Band-Aids and kisses to make them better. I know where they are."
She dragged her out of the lab while their brother followed in their wake looking around skeptically. "We're home but something about this feels off…Dad isn't here and the lab looked different. Do you think what he said about that thing being a time machine is true?"
Rosalind sighed. The thought had crossed her mind but even if it was a time machine, it had obviously been broken. Who knew when they might have ended up?
"Possibly," she admitted. "I think we need to look around more to figure out exactly when we are."
As they wandered through the house, located in one of the more expensive parts of Chicago, she noticed that there weren't too many things different from the home she was familiar with. Nora was able to find the first-aid kit in the usual place too so they couldn't have been sent back terribly far…
The cuts and scrapes weren't severe enough to need stitches so she got by on disinfectant and a whole lot of bandages. Her little sister methodically kissed each and every one before beaming up at her and declaring "all better!"
Rosalind couldn't help but smile even in a situation like this. She was a sweetheart. "Thanks, Nora. Now that that's taken care of, we need to look for clues. Ed, what time is it?"
"1 PM and it seems like no one is home. I saw familiar family pictures on the mantle…does that mean the versions of us from this timeline are around here somewhere? They would probably be at school now."
That was to be expected. The more surprising thing was that Julian wasn't here. If he wasn't holed up in his lab…did that mean he was at work? He had let other family members take over the company and could barely be considered a shareholder anymore in the time they came from. If he was at work, their mother was most likely still alive.
"We need to know what year it is," Rosalind said urgently. "Is there a calendar around here anywhere?"
Edison shook his head. "No but there should be a smart device somewhere. Cassandra, what date is it?"
The AI in the smart device was named Cassandra and that word activated it. A slightly robotic voice responded. "Today is Tuesday May 25th, 2036."
The two older Shea children exchanged a horrified glance. That was the day their mother died! The time machine's programming actually worked?! Did that mean that what Julian said about the timeline resetting if they managed to prevent her from dying was true? That it was all they had to do in order to get home?
"We need to do something," Rosalind said resolutely. "Mom got mugged on her way out of work when she was going to pick us up from school. If we hold her up an extra half hour, she'll be fine and everything will go back to normal."
Edison threw his hands in the air in exasperation. "How are we supposed to do that?!"
"I…do not know. We have time to figure something out though."
They couldn't hold her up with the way they looked now. They had grown in the past two years. Her hair used to be longer and she had been three inches shorter with a rounder face. Her brother had different glasses and was missing different teeth. Nora had grown most of all.
Voices. They might be able to use a phone. Rosalind and Edison both sounded the same way they had back then. If they called their mother and tied her up on the line, they might be able to pull this off.
That was leaving an awful lot to chance though. Cell phones could be used virtually anywhere. They would need to call her work's landline. They were nearly obsolete but most businesses still used them. If they called the bookstore, there was no guarantee she would pick up but one of her employees should be able to find her.
Julian had funded her dream of owning one that doubled as a small printing office as an anniversary present a year after they got married. It had a café inside of it and plenty of comfortable places to read as well. All three of the Shea children had spent countless hours there but none had stepped foot in it after she died.
"We need to physically make sure she doesn't leave either," Edison said grimly. "But then one of us might get shot instead."
"You really think a mugger would go for a kid that doesn't look like they have money on them? Mom had that nice handbag Dad got her that put a target on her back," Rosalind reminded him.
Hiding in the convenience store across the street should be safe enough. The front window had a view of the entrance to the bookstore. They would be able to make sure the coast was clear but they would have to find a cellphone to call the store from.
She stroked her chin thoughtfully. "We need a phone and the landline number for the Book Nook. Hate to say it but I think we're going to have to steal one. No one would let a child buy a cell phone plan."
"Not steal. Borrow," Edison insisted. "I know exactly who to borrow from too. They'll never suspect a thing."
"You don't mean…"
"Yes. I'm going to borrow Dad's phone. He's always losing it anyway."
Rosalind thought this was a horrible idea. "Ed! We'll never be able to sneak into Dad's office! On top of that, we're supposed to be in school. If we get caught, our other selves will be in trouble and we might cause some sort of weird ripple effect. Don't you know time travelers aren't supposed to be seen by their former selves? It's in every time travel movie ever."
"You're forgetting something important," he said impatiently.
"What?"
He tilted his head as his gaze locked on Nora. She understood what he was getting at immediately. Their little sister was small enough to sneak under the eyeline of most adults if she was careful.
She noticed her older siblings staring at her and looked at them curiously. "What is it?"
"Nora…do you think you could play spies with us?" Edison asked with a gleam in his eye.
"Ooh, I love playing spies! What's my mission?"
Nora had been into this old TV show from when their parents were kids for the past several months because the nanny put it on for her about three teenage spies who went on secret missions to save the world. It was available on one of their streaming services and had been chosen at random but it would help them out now.
"You need to get Dad's phone but you can't let ANYONE see you. Especially Dad. Do you think you can do it? We're counting on you," he told her in a dramatic voice.
She nodded emphatically and clutched a fist to her chest. "I can do it!"
Rosalind really didn't like that they were pinning their entire plan on the sneaking skills of a five-year-old but they didn't have any other choice. She rubbed her forehead and sighed.
"Fine. Let's do this."
Nora held her hand out in front of her, expecting her siblings to place theirs on top of it so they could do a cheer indicating the mission was a go. Silly as it was, they had to keep her appeased since she was critical to their success.
They both did so impatiently and bounced their hands up and down to the count of three before she cried "Go team!"
"Go team," they echoed half-heartedly.