Jacob Wonderbar and the Interstellar Time Warp Read online

  “Wonderbar,” Jacob said absently.

  Jacob couldn’t picture his dad as an important person, let alone one of the most important people in the entire universe. His dad couldn’t manage something as simple as a trip to the supermarket without turning it into a huge catastrophe, and he couldn’t imagine how the Astrals could have entrusted him with something as crucial as making sure time unfolded like it was supposed to. Jacob had the sudden sense that there was more to his dad than he ever knew.

  Mick waved the key. “Here’s how it works. You’ll need to specify a place and time. Say it out loud to the key, then say ‘Warp’ when you’re ready to warp. If you’re going in a group, everyone needs to be touching the key or touching another person who is touching the key. Now listen closely, because this is important. When you change the past, it can have huge, massive changes on the future. All those little things that you went back and did can have very big repercussions. You’ll never know what they’re going to be. So be very, very careful. Understood?”

  “Got it.” Dexter nodded.

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yes,” Dexter said.

  “Are you all completely one hundred and ten percent sure?”

  No one answered. Instead Jacob lunged at Mick and grabbed on to the key. He sensed that Mick was setting them up for a trap, and Jacob wanted to be the one to decide where they were going in time. Mick tried to shrug him off, but Jacob held on tightly. He grunted with the effort.

  “Guys!” Jacob shouted. “Grab on!”

  Sarah and Dexter leaped in and started pulling on the key as well.

  “My house, May second, 2012, four p.m.!” Jacob shouted. “Warp!”

  Jacob felt the air rush out of his lungs. He closed his eyes tightly as every color came rushing into his brain at once. He felt his stomach drop, then he opened his eyes and saw his front door with the familiar faded wreath.

  “Whoa,” Dexter said.

  They all looked around for a moment before realizing they were still holding on to the key. They all started pulling again, each trying to pry it free. Jacob kicked Mick in the shins over and over and Dexter bit his wrist.

  “Ow!” Mick shouted. Finally he let go and Jacob stashed the key in his jeans.

  Mick limped around trying to regain feeling in his legs. He stopped and sniffed the air. “Where are we?”

  “Earth, dummy,” Sarah said.

  Mick’s face screwed up as if he had just tasted something rather disgusting. “I don’t like the way this place smells.”

  “Move along down the road,” Jacob said.

  Mick rubbed his large belly, his eyes wide with worry. “You’re just going to leave me here? On Earth?”

  “That’s right,” Jacob said.

  “But I’m on your side!” Mick said.

  Jacob laughed.

  Mick sighed and looked at the sky. “Can’t people change?”

  “I don’t think so,” Sarah said.

  Mick stared at them for a moment and then charged at Jacob. Dexter deftly stuck out his leg and tripped him and Mick went sprawling onto the grass like a fallen elephant. He stood up, brushed himself off, and scratched his chin. Then he smiled. “This is all going according to my plan. I want you to have the key.”

  “Sure you do,” Sarah said.

  Mick narrowed his eyes, bowed, and walked away.

  “Good riddance,” Sarah muttered.

  “See you in the past!” Mick shouted over his shoulder. “I’m counting on you.”

  So what do we do with this?” Jacob asked. “Where should we start looking for my dad?”

  Sarah looked at her feet and then glanced down the street. She kicked her toe on the ground and twirled it around. “Jake, I want to help find your dad. That is absolutely our number one priority. Like, completely number one. Right, Dexter?”

  Dexter nodded. “Affirmative.”

  Sarah looked at the ground. “But I really miss my family. I haven’t seen them in weeks.”

  “But it’s technically the same day we left! They don’t even know you’ve been gone.”

  “You know what I mean,” Sarah mumbled.

  “But . . .” Jacob started. He turned away from them a moment and stared at the door to his house. He thought about his grandfather’s pipe, the heirloom he had found in outer space on his first voyage. And he remembered how he felt when the king of the universe had told him he was half Astral. He had been consumed with the mystery of his missing dad for so long. He was closer than ever to finding out what happened and now he had the time machine to go searching.

  But he didn’t even know where to begin to look. He needed to find some clues. It occurred to him that he could start searching at home.

  “Wonderbar,” Dexter said gently, pointing at the time machine. “We have all the time in the world.”

  Jacob nodded. “Okay. You’re right. Let’s go spend some time with our families and meet in the forest at sunset. And then we can go looking for my dad.”

  Sarah punched Jacob softly on the shoulder and Dexter patted him on the back.

  “We’ll find him,” Dexter said.

  They jogged together down the street in the direction of their houses.

  Jacob took a deep breath and walked into his house, bracing himself in case it wasn’t really his mom or she was even older. But there she was, in the kitchen, a normal age, and she smiled at him when he came in. His heart flooded with relief.

  “Perfect timing,” she said.

  Jacob sat down at the kitchen counter and poked at his mom’s latest culinary concoction, a green-and-yellow mess of a dish that Jacob couldn’t even identify. He smiled despite himself and knew he’d have to plan a secret meal because there was no way he was going to eat this. He thought about his unfinished business. He wondered how much his mom knew, whether she had been in on the fact that his dad was the Timekeeper or if she knew he had been lost in time.

  “Mom, what happened with Dad?” Jacob said.

  Jacob’s mom froze in place for a second before regaining her bearings. She sat down to face Jacob.

  “I’m surprised, darling,” she said, “Because normally you don’t want to—”

  “Where did he go?” Jacob asked. “What happened?”

  Jacob’s mom looked away for a moment before pressing her hands together and resting them on her chin.

  “Honey, it’s hard to explain,” she said.

  “Try,” Jacob said. “I need to find him.”

  Jacob thought back to all the times he had wondered where his dad went, the time he and Sarah found his dad on the Internet and it said he lived in Milwaukee, the postcard his dad sent him, all those missed basketball games and all the times he had to correct people when they mentioned his parents, plural, and he had to say he only had one parent. He always noticed the way they looked away in embarrassment afterward and somehow it made it even worse that they felt sorry for him.

  “I don’t know how to explain it,” Jacob’s mom said. “Sometimes you think you know someone, and it turns out you don’t.”

  “What does that mean?” Jacob asked. He wondered if she knew he was from outer space when they were married and if she had been in on it all along, but he couldn’t bring himself to speak the words. There was something that still felt so unreal about his dad growing up in space, and he couldn’t quite admit to his mom that he knew part of the truth. He wanted to see if she would be honest with him.

  Jacob’s mom cleared her throat and tapped a finger on the table.

  “Mom, tell me the truth. Please. I need to know what happened.”

  “I don’t know what to say, Jacob,” his mom said. She sounded sympathetic, but there was edge to her voice that let Jacob know he was on shaky ground. “The past is just the past.”

&nbs
p; Jacob could tell from her tone that the conversation was over. He would have to find his dad on his own.

  The sun was setting over his street when Jacob jogged toward the forest, his heart pounding with excitement. This time he wouldn’t be hopping on a spaceship and blasting off into space. Instead he would be blasting himself back in time.

  Jacob imagined the immense power that was resting in his pocket. He could go look at cavemen. He could go see how the future turned out. He could go meet Abraham Lincoln or someone from two hundred years in the future.

  He gulped. He could see who was going to win the NBA championship.

  “Hey!” Sarah shouted when she saw him. “You ready?”

  He found Sarah and Dexter sitting in the clearing in the forest where they used to hang out when they were younger, the same place where they discovered the spaceship Lucy and started their space adventures. Jacob picked up a stick and sat down on a log. The light was dimming in the forest and just a few lazy beams of orange light found their way to the scrubby dirt on the forest floor.

  “Well?” Sarah asked. “Where should we go?”

  Jacob racked his brain trying to think of where they could warp. He didn’t have the faintest clue where to find his father. Neither his mom in the present nor his mom fifty years in the future had been of any help. His dad could be anywhere and anywhen in time. All Jacob knew was that his dad was the Timekeeper, whatever that meant.

  “I really don’t know,” Jacob said.

  “Where were your dad’s last known whereabouts?” Dexter asked.

  Jacob tapped his stick on the ground. “The last time I saw my dad, my parents got in a big fight and he left. I haven’t seen him since.”

  Sarah and Dexter sat very still. A dove cooed somewhere in the trees above and a faint breeze stirred the branches above them.

  “We could go see dinosaurs,” Sarah finally said. “Dexter, you love dinosaurs more than anyone.”

  “I like dinosaurs,” Dexter said. “But I don’t want to get eaten by a T. rex.”

  “That’s the Cretaceous Period,” Sarah said. “I would want to go to the Jurassic Period anyway. I want to see an apatosaurus.”

  Dexter was silent for a moment. “I don’t want to be stepped on by an apatosaurus. And there were plenty of scary meat eaters in the Jurassic Period too. Like the allosaurus.”

  Sarah frowned. “But it would be so cool!”

  “Too scary,” Dexter said. “What about the future instead? We could see the new inventions and crazy skyscrapers and things.”

  “I know!” Sarah said. “Let’s go back to medieval times and see knights jousting.”

  “Let’s go watch the Egyptians build the pyramids,” Dexter said.

  “I want to see Michelangelo painting the Sistine Chapel!” Sarah shouted.

  “Jacques Cousteau’s submarine!”

  “Shakespeare!”

  “Marco Polo!”

  “The Incas!”

  “George Washington!”

  “Josephine Baker!”

  “Guys, come on,” Jacob said with a stern tone. “This is a serious choice.”

  Sarah and Dexter looked a little sheepish, remembering that they had started the discussion by wondering how to find Jacob’s dad before they had gotten carried away.

  Then Jacob broke out into a wide grin. “Definitely dinosaurs.”

  Sarah pumped her fists in the air. She jabbed a finger at Dexter.

  “Outvoted!” she shouted.

  The children stood around the key. Dexter, their resident dinosaur expert, was responsible for choosing the location.

  “Okay,” Dexter said. “An apatosaurus fossil was discovered in Wyoming, so I think we should go there.” He scratched his chin. “I think. I mean, as long as you guys still think this is a good idea.”

  “Listen,” Jacob said quietly and seriously. “Dexter’s right. This could be really dangerous. Stay close together. We’re warping back at the first sign of trouble. Agreed?”

  Sarah swallowed and nodded. Dexter looked pale but somewhat excited.

  They all grabbed the key. Dexter cleared his throat and said, “Key, take us to Casper, Wyoming, 150 million years ago, high noon. Please.” He took a deep breath. “Warp!”

  The air rushed out of Jacob’s lungs, and when he opened his eyes he was staring at a small clearing in front of a lush, gigantic forest. The trees looked a little unusual, like overgrown pine trees, and they soared high into the sky. He took a deep breath of warm, humid air. The ground was covered in leafy greens and ferns. He thought he spotted something flying in the distance, but he couldn’t see it clearly through the trees.

  He quickly looked around and determined that they weren’t in imminent danger, though he couldn’t be certain an allosaurus wasn’t lurking nearby, ready to eat them for breakfast.

  “Do you see anything?” Jacob whispered.

  Sarah and Dexter shook their heads.

  It occurred to Jacob that finding a dinosaur might be harder than they thought. After all, you don’t just walk into a forest and find a bear on your first try.

  Jacob stepped through the forest, feeling the soft brush of ferns against his legs. A sharp yellow plant scraped across his arms. He looked around, waiting for a stegosaurus or an allosaurus to come charging out of the forest.

  Suddenly a lizard jumped in front of Jacob. It was about three feet tall, stood on two legs, had scaly dark green skin, and it moved its head around extremely quickly. It darted out and bit an orange flower, spit it out, then grabbed a fern instead and chewed that quickly. One of its eyes stayed locked on the children.

  It didn’t have sharp teeth. It didn’t have cool armored plates on its head. It was just a mildly tall lizard. Jacob was confident they had found the least exciting dinosaur in the Jurassic era. He had seen cooler reptiles at the zoo.

  “Othnielia!” Dexter shouted.

  “What?” Jacob asked.

  Dexter shrugged. “It’s an othnielia. It’s a plant eater and it runs fast. And . . . That’s all I know.”

  The othnielia pecked at Jacob’s knee, recoiled a bit as if it was completely dissatisfied with the taste, and then grabbed another fern. It eyed Jacob suspiciously.

  “That’s it?” Sarah asked quietly. “This is what we traveled back in time for?”

  Jacob heard a rustle in the brush.

  “Shh!” he whispered.

  The children stood very still. Jacob crouched down behind a bush, and through the branches he saw some tall ferns waving. Something large was approaching. He signaled to Sarah and Dexter to be ready to grab on to the time machine and warp back to the present. Jacob braced himself to see an allosaurus or a velociraptor or a stegosaurus. A part of him hoped they would see the scariest dinosaur imaginable.

  The rustling in the ferns moved closer and closer until it was nearly in front of them.

  Jacob clutched the key.

  Sarah’s kid sister, Chloe, aka “The Brat,” walked into the clearing and stood in front of them with a big smile.

  “Surprise!” Chloe said.

  For a moment, Jacob, Dexter, and Sarah were too stunned to speak.

  “You?” Sarah finally said.

  Chloe looked like a smaller version of Sarah Daisy, only she had dark hair and was even more animated and energetic than her older sister. She was one and a half years younger than Sarah, and she always tried to sit between Jacob and Sarah during the Daisy family movie night precisely because she knew how much it annoyed Sarah. She possessed a phenomenal talent for convincing her parents that she needed to tag along whenever Sarah and Jacob went out in public, and though Jacob did not have any siblings, he was immensely relieved that he didn’t have any like The Brat.

  Chloe winked at Dexter and smiled. “Hey, Dexy.”
/>   Dexter opened his mouth to speak but seemed incapable of producing any words.

  “What are you doing here?!” Sarah shouted.

  Chloe’s face turned serious.

  “I come from the future,” she said ominously. Then she tipped back her head and cackled.

  Jacob is going to send you back in time?” Sarah asked. “To be here with us. In the Jurassic era. Why in the world would he do that?”

  “Why should I tell you?”

  “That’s it,” Sarah said. “We’re taking her back home.”

  Dexter looked wistfully around the forest. “But now that we’re here . . .”

  “No dinosaurs,” Sarah said. She jabbed her thumb at her sister. “Getting rid of this one is more important.”

  Chloe held out her hand for Dexter and grinned. “Here, Dexy,” she said. “I found this for you.”

  She dropped a large claw into Dexter’s hand. It was dark and smooth and looked like it belonged to a fearsome creature. He turned it over in his hands and tapped his finger on the sharp end.

  Chloe leaned in close to Dexter. “I think it’s from one of the really scary ones.”

  Dexter looked at Chloe and was unable to pronounce any words of thanks. He swallowed and took a few deep breaths before finally whispering, “This.”

  “Oh good lord,” Sarah said.

  “I don’t believe you,” Jacob said.

  Everyone turned to face Jacob, but his attention was focused squarely on Chloe. She smiled as if she was expecting Jacob’s accusations, and she straightened up and furrowed her brow in an overly dramatic fashion.

  “Why, Jacob Wonderbar,” Chloe said. “Whatever do you mean?”

  “Tell us why you’re really here,” Jacob said.

  “Because,” Chloe whined. “Future you said to tell you guys to bring me along with you. Everything depends on it or something.”

  Jacob glared at her and tried to puzzle out what was happening. His future self wouldn’t have sent her back in the past if there wasn’t a good reason for it. Surely there was some reason why she had managed to travel several hundred million years in the past just to tag along with them yet again. And she didn’t seem to have a time machine, so she couldn’t have gone back in time by herself. Someone had left her in the past knowing full well she would run into them.