Family of Spies Page 3

  What…what just happened?

  Chapter 7

  Ford finally managed to speak. “Why did you throw water on me?”

  “I didn’t have a choice. I couldn’t wake you up. You were in some sort of freaky trance. What happened to you?”

  “I’m not sure.” The picture of the restaurant lay in his lap. He must have dropped it when Ellie shook him. A shiver ran down his neck and it wasn’t from the cold water. “I was sitting here, holding the photo and then presto, everything went blurry and the room…changed.”

  “Changed?”

  “Yeah, everything morphed into a restaurant.” Ford’s hand shook as he pointed to the photo. “I think it was that restaurant—Les Deux Magots.” Definitely not a bug café.

  Ellie picked up the picture. “Your bedroom morphed into…this restaurant?”

  “Yes. It was like I was there. I could see and hear everything, but—”

  “Are you saying you magically shrank into this photo?” Her brow furrowed.

  “No. I mean…I don’t think so…I didn’t shrink, exactly…” Was he somehow being transported into a different time and place, through old photographs, like some kind of modern-day Alice in Wonderland? That just didn’t feel right. “If I actually shrank, you would’ve seen it.”

  “Right, so what happened?”

  “It’s hard to explain. It’s sort of a feeling of…” he struggled to find the right words. “…of déjà vu, as if I’ve seen everything before and I’m just reliving it, or remembering it. But at the same time, I felt like I was really there in that restaurant surrounded by real people, but I couldn’t have been…”

  “Well, obviously you weren’t really there because you were right here on your bed and I was standing right next to you, watching you stare into the great beyond.”

  “No, that’s not what I meant. When I touched the picture and I went wherever I went, I tried to talk to a waitress and she couldn’t hear me.”

  “Actually, you did mutter a whole bunch.”

  “Really? What did I say?”

  “I dunno, just some mumbo jumbo—French mumbo jumbo. And you mumbled my name a few times. Maybe you were having some sort of awake dream?”

  Ford shook his head. “That doesn’t seem right either.” All the blood rushed from his face. “Everyone in that restaurant spoke French and there was this one man who looked like I should know him. I felt like I’d seen him before…or something. And then he…he sat down with Nazis. And it felt so real. They felt so real.” He clenched his comforter. “What do you think is happening to me?”

  Ellie didn’t reply, which was strange and made Ford nervous. Even if she didn’t have an answer to something, she always had an opinion. A loud opinion. But this time she was too quiet.

  Ford’s booming heartbeat filled the silence.

  Dad poked his head back into the room. Both Ellie and Ford jumped.

  Ford hoped he appeared calm. “Hey…Dad.”

  “Why haven’t you showered yet? I can’t hold off a pair of worrying moms for much longer. And kids, I need you to go easy on Gavin. He’s had a rough year, which is why he’s with us this summer. He’s had a tough time.”

  Gavin’s had a tough time? What would Dad say if he knew Ford just had a Nazi hallucination? “He’s had a rough year?” Ford asked, wondering what rough would look like to a brilliant math prodigy. Ford struggled to get Bs, even in Phys. Ed.

  Dad peered over his glasses at Ford. “Just be nice, okay?”

  “Okay,” Ford and Ellie said in unison, watching him disappear down the hallway.

  “Pffff. What could Gavin be stressed about? He’s got it made,” Ford said, not adding that Ellie had it easy, too. Ford knew he sounded bitter, but it sucked that he was the only one who hadn’t inherited the genius genes.

  “I think it would be pretty nerve-wracking going to university in another province when you’re only sixteen. He left everyone he ever knew behind and it’s not like he’s the most outgoing guy. Didn’t Gavin get too homesick to go to sleepaway camp?”

  “Yeah. My parents had to drive out to Camp Augusta to pick him up after three nights when he was fourteen.” Maybe Gavin wasn’t having the time of his life after all. He swallowed a nauseating lump that rose in his throat. Maybe he’d been too hard on his brother. “I wasn’t exactly happy he was coming to Paris. Do you think he could tell?”

  “Ah, yeah. You have perfected ‘jealous brother’ face. At least now you can make it up to him.”

  “Yeah, I guess so.”

  “Anyway, we have to hurry. I’ll go grab my backpack. I’ve got all of Great-Granddad’s old photos in there, my phone, and—”

  “Ellie,” Ford interrupted her. “You never said what you thought was happening to me.”

  “We’ll figure it out.” She flashed her normal, confident smile that made her eyes twinkle. “But first, you need to rid yourself of that nasty B.O.”

  “Ok, ok.” He popped a strawberry in his mouth and climbed out of bed.

  She flew to his doorway and then stopped dead. “And one more thing. We have to tell Gavin.”

  “No way. He’s never going to believe me. What if he tells Mom and Dad and they think I am completely nuts? What if he teases me for the rest of my life? What if—”

  Ellie faced him, hands on her hips. “No more what ifs. He is your brother, he will believe you and he is insanely smart and it will help you make amends for being such a crummy brother.”

  “But—”

  Ellie shushed him with her finger. “Plus, you promised your dad you would be extra nice.”

  Ford shrugged. The last person he wanted to know about these weird visions was Gavin, but it was no use arguing with Ellie. “Fine.”

  “Do you or do you not want to find out why you keep spacing out on me?”

  “Of course.” Not only was he curious, he was totally freaked out. Yet these hallucinations—or whatever—they sort of thrilled him and that freaked him out even more. How was it possible for one person to feel so many conflicting emotions at the same time?

  Ellie eyed him. Her eyebrows creased like they always did when she was deep in thought. “You’re scared,” she declared.

  “Uhm—”

  She stepped closer, pulling off her cap. Her loose hair fuzzed around her head like a halo. She stood with her nose millimetres from his and stared directly into his eyes. “Me too,” she admitted, her eyebrows relaxing into their normal position. A huge smile took over her face, her eyes alight. “Don’t you just love that feeling?”

  “Ah, not really.”

  She laughed. “Poor you! Now get ready!”

  Ellie skipped out of the room, leaving Ford alone with his thoughts and the photo of the Les Deux Magots on his pillow. He leaned over his bed, examining the restaurant in the picture. His hands balled into fists, hiding his fingers so they wouldn’t strike out and grab it. Intuition told him that if he was going to have another episode, Ellie should be nearby.

  Intuition also told him it wasn’t a matter of if he had another episode, but when.

  This time Ford planned to be ready.

  Chapter 8

  “So what do you think?” Ford asked Gavin.

  Ford had expected his brother to laugh and tell him he was stupid, well maybe not stupid exactly. Gavin was never really mean, but he had a way of talking that confused Ford and made him feel stupid. Now Ford was confused again by Gavin, but it wasn’t because of what he said. This time it was his brother’s silence. Gavin hadn’t uttered a word since they sat down in the coffee shop. He just sat there, stone-cold quiet, while Ford told him about his hallucinations or episodes or—whatever they were. The only sound Gavin made was slurping his cappuccino.

  “I’m not sure what to think. I wonder…” Gavin’s words trailed off. He folded his napkin over and over into a tiny square. Ford’s hands began to sweat as he waited impatiently for Gavin to continue. His brother unfolded the napkin to its original size and pointed to it. “Isn’t that interesting? Depending on how you look at something, your perception of it changes. Is this a large napkin or a small square? The answer? Both.”

  Ford shook his head, puzzled. “What has that got to do with these episodes I keep having?” This was the kind of talk that Ford hated.

  “Maybe nothing, but the most difficult math problems have often been solved by looking at them in a different way.”

  “What the heck does math have to do with me?” Math, the foreign language that left Ford confused for days.

  “Not math directly, but there is a philosophical quest—” Gavin stopped talking as Ford sighed and rolled his eyes. “Right, not interested in philosophy. Did you tell Mom and Dad about this?”

  Ford scoffed. “Of course not. Mom would have stuck me on permanent bed rest and Dad would have gone along with her.”

  Gavin nodded. “True.”

  Ford was afraid to ask Gavin the next question. “What I really want to know is, do you think I am going crazy?”

  “Crazy? No way. There has to be an explanation. We just need to look at this from a different angle, an angle that may not be obvious. We’ll find you some answers.”

  Ellie bounded towards them with a bag of fresh croissants. “Sustenance,” she said as she plunked her backpack on the table. Hot chocolate sloshed over the rim of Ford’s mug.

  “Gavin thinks we’ll find some answers,” Ford said.

  “See! I knew you’d be an asset!” Ellie said to Gavin. “Ford wasn’t so sure.”

  “What? I-I,” Ford stuttered, glaring at Ellie.

  “Don’t worry a
bout it. I know we don’t always get along. Sometimes I can be a know-it-all. At least that’s what I’ve been told,” Gavin said, blushing.

  “Hah! Me too! But how is it our fault that we know so much?” Ellie laughed and passed the Les Deux Magots postcard to Gavin. “This is the photo Ford touched back at the apartment. This is the restaurant he zoned out to or into or—whatever you want to call it.”

  Gavin flipped it over in his hands, then looked at Ellie. “Nothing happens when you or I touch it, so it must be Ford specific.” He shifted his attention to Ford. “Did anything really stand out for you when you had this…vision?”

  Ford nodded. “Yeah, there was this man, he was around the same age as Dad, with short, sandy-blond hair, a moustache, and grey-blue eyes. I felt like I knew the guy—like I’d met him before.” Ford looked down at the table as fear rolled up from his belly. “And there were Nazi officers with him.”

  “Nazi officers? Like during World War 2?”

  “I guess.”

  “Hmmm. And you said you felt like you’d met this man before? Huh. It does sound impossible, except…Ellie, can I see the stuff from the briefcase?” Gavin asked.

  “Sure.” Ellie withdrew a bundle of photos, postcards, and letters from her backpack.

  Gavin leafed through them. “Aha. These ones will do.” He pulled three black-and-white photos from the pile and held them in front of Ford. Two pictures were of dark-haired German officers and one was of a civilian in a dark suit with lighter hair. “Does the man from your vision look like any of these men?”

  “That one.” Ford pointed at the photo of the man in the suit. “Who is it?”

  “That, little brother, is our great-grandfather, so in a way you do know him. At least through family stories and old photos.” Gavin flipped it over. “Someone’s written ‘Paris, 1944’ here.”

  Ellie sat back in her chair. “So, you think Ford is connecting with our long-dead great-grandfather? That is too weird to be true.”

  “Actually, it’s not entirely weird. Ford is simply experiencing something that is unexplainable, at least unexplainable to us. In science, we seek answers to the unexplainable all the time and, like scientists, we need to think outside the norm if we are going to work this out.” Gavin tapped the handle of his cappuccino mug with his thumb. “I have an idea and I need you to keep an open mind…”

  “O-kay…” Ford replied slowly. He tensed at his brother’s hesitation.

  “Good. Now, you may think I am going to the extreme and it’s going to sound bizarre coming from me, but I really think we need to research psychic phenomenon.”

  “Psychic what?” Ford asked, his heart skipping a beat. His hands began shaking again. He pressed them to his thighs to steady his nerves. Or was he shaking more from excitement? Maybe Gavin was getting close to the truth.

  “Psychic phenomena. Extra-sensory processing, known to most people as ESP, and there’s telepathy, time travel, clairvoyance,” Gavin said. “There are all sorts of different fields of study into the paranormal.”

  Ford laughed, which sounded hollow. “I thought you would have some sort of scientific answer.”

  “Science doesn’t always give us easy answers. Sometimes we have to think creatively.”

  “How do you know so much about all this psychic stuff, anyway? I can’t imagine they have an Introduction to the Paranormal class at McGill University.”

  “No, but I watch a lot of late-night documentaries while my roommates are out partying.”

  “Oh.” Ford couldn’t imagine a more lonely existence. No wonder Gavin came home for the summer.

  “Paranormal. Hmmm. Interesting idea, unlikely but interesting,” Ellie said, pulling her laptop from her bag. She placed it on the table and lifted the screen. It blipped to life within seconds. “Clairvoyance. Why didn’t I think of that?”

  “Maybe because you’re the kind of person that has to see it to believe it and maybe you don’t have all the answers to everything,” Ford said.

  Ellie punched him in the arm. “Funny.” She began typing and within seconds an entire list of entries popped onto the screen. Ford watched Ellie run her finger down the left side of the monitor reading Google results out loud. “Clairvoyance—witchy woman; Clairvoyance—The Board Game; Clairvoyance—How to Predict Lotto Numbers; Clairvoyance by Chloe—First 10 Minutes Free. That’s it! Chloe the clairvoyant. She sounds like a winner!”

  “No way. Keep going.”

  Ellie scrolled to the bottom of the screen.

  “How about…” Ford said as Ellie scrolled through entry after entry. “This one. Clairvoyance—A Gentle Beginning—Madame Bellerose—Appointments Available—379 Rue D’Hugot, Paris. This one looks good.”

  Ellie typed the address into her phone. “It’s too far to walk, so we’ll have to catch a bus.”

  Ford clicked on the entry. An enormous, black, wrought-iron clock filled the screen.

  “What is that?” Ellie asked. “It’s crazy. It has…sixteen hands! It must be some sort of modern art creation from some wacko artist. This is a dead end.”

  Ford scanned the clock face. He was sure he’d never seen it before, but it seemed right to him. The clock dissolved and the screen darkened to a charcoal grey. Four pencil-thin black words slowly appeared.

  Time. Is. Not. Linear.

  Gavin leaned in close, then looked up at Ford and Ellie. “This is not a dead end. This may be the beginning.”

  “Time is not linear. What does that even mean?” asked Ford.

  Ellie sipped her hot chocolate. “Maybe you’ve uncovered yet another mystery.”

  “Or uncovered some answers,” said Gavin. “It’s funny, Einstein believed in timelessness. He believed that the past, present, and future all happen simultaneously. It is all part of his Theory of Relativity. But then, and this is where things get really interesting—this other physicist, Richard Feynman, developed his own theory called Sum over Histories, which led him to describe time simply as a direction in space.”

  “My dad gave me Feynman’s book to read this summer! So far Sum over Histories is really cool.” Ellie said, her smile engulfing her face.

  “For sure. You’ll love it. And of course, there’s Stephen Hawking, who in my humble opinion is tied with Einstein as the most influential physicist of all time, no pun intended. He has an even more exciting theory called Imaginary Time, meaning—”

  “Stop!” Ford said.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Gavin, you lost me at timelessness, and Ellie, I cannot get past the image of you reading about science theory on your summer holiday.”

  Ellie laughed. “Sorry, Cuz.”

  Ford laughed with her. “Can you just give me a quick summary?”

  Gavin nodded. “I’ll try. What all those physicists are suggesting is that we don’t really understand how time works and, in fact, many different universes or realities of our world could be happening at the same time. It also could mean the past, present, and future are all happening right this very moment, not just in a straight line forward.”

  “Sounds like a sci-fi novel,” Ford said.

  Gavin thumped Ford on the back. “It is exactly like a sci-fi novel.”

  A warmth spread through Ford. For once he understood something scientific that came out of Gavin’s mouth. “Huh. Maybe what’s happening to me is that somehow I am tapping into the past while being here in the present and, for whatever reason, I am connecting with Great-Granddad.”

  Ellie shook her head. “I don’t know about that. That’s a huge leap. You have to remember these are just theories.”

  “No, Ellie. I think Ford may be onto something.”

  She stared at Gavin as if he had a third eye. “You can’t be serious.”

  Gavin smiled at Ford. “100 percent serious. Scientists must keep their minds open to all possibilities. That’s how some of the greatest thinkers have made the most important scientific discoveries. It takes a dreamer to come up with an idea or concept that no one else has even considered.”

  Ford grinned and returned to reading the clairvoyance webpage. “We can make an appointment online.” He clicked on the website’s calendar and typed in his name and email address “We’re in for eleven o’clock.”