Pinky Promises - Chapter 5
Becker pulled up onto the pavement before the gate that led to the caravan. There was some music playing but he wasn’t really listening to the words but thought that he might have heard the tune before. He watched as the cars drove past towards the same direction they’d be heading in, never thinking he’d be a part of the school run traffic.
He was on the verge of going to knock on the door before he saw two figures walk up the path towards him. Becker got out of the pickup, opening the back door ready for his passengers.
“Morning!” He beamed.
“Becker!” Fern let go of her father’s hand and came running towards the gate and started to climb over, even though the bag on her back looked like it wanted to pull her back towards the floor.
“You excited?”
“Sort of, will you be there?” She asked, standing at one of the last metal bars waiting for him to get into position. When he did, arms waiting, she jumped towards him and he spun to pop her into the dinosaur car seat that waited for her.
“No, I won’t be there, but I might be able to come and pick you up later on. That okay?”
“Pinky promise?” Fern pressed, trying to shuffle her bag off her shoulders as she got ready for the seatbelt to be pulled across her body.
“Oooft. I guess I can. We have been quite quiet recently.” Becker offered his little finger to finalise their agreement.
At that he saw Connor skulk towards the front of the car, checking for traffic before jumping in.
“I didn’t know you could iron.” Becker joked as he closed Fern’s door behind him and moved towards the driver’s seat, waiting for a reply.
“Neither did I.” Connor smiled glancing a smile towards him.
There wasn’t a crease to be seen in Fern’s school uniform, shades of navy and blue as neat as they could be. Even the bow in her hair aligned perfectly with her crown but Becker didn’t really think anything of it, Connor could ace anything if he put his mind to it.
Fern enjoyed the music that played through the car, head bobbing along to the singing and she even started to memorise the words to some of the choruses of the more popular songs. Becker made sure all of his windows were closed whenever she was with him, hoping it blocked out most of the noise for any passers-by as she hadn’t quite managed to perfect the notes yet. Not that he’d ever tell her.
“Will there be songs at school?” She asked, trying to find Becker’s eyes in the rear-view mirror.
“Sometimes.”
“Okay.”
Becker sat in the car as he watched the two head towards the school gates after he got to say a quick goodbye. Connor had pulled his sleeves into his palms but still held his daughter’s hand. He knelt in front of her as they reached a group of busy parents and kids and pressed a long kiss on her forehead.
From the man that walked through the anomaly months ago, he really had adapted to suit the modern world that had carried on without him. Fern was true to her namesake, hardy and resilient. The kid feared nothing at all, apart from spending time away from her father.
At some point he’d stopped watching them, leaving them to their farewells and eyes distracted by other goings-on around him. He was interrupted by the door opening quickly and almost slamming shut.
“Sorry,” Connor mumbled, using his sleeves to dab at his nose now.
“You okay?” Becker asked before pressing the clutch to the floor, the engine purring alive in response.
“Yeah.” He was looking out the window now, probably looking for a face of freckles or a bobbing bun amongst the crowd. “Wish Abby was here to see this. She’d be proud.”
Becker didn’t know what to say, not knowing if Connor wanted anything to be said or if he was happy in the silence between them.
“She would be proud, Connor. Really proud, of both of you.” He’d started to drive now, making room for other cars waiting to drop off reluctant kids. Connor was still staring out of the window and Becker could see his wrist hovering just by his mouth, waiting to wipe any signs of emotion so that he wouldn’t see.
“I have to prove it wasn’t me, Becker.” Connor turned to look at the road in front now fingers still clutching at his sleeves.
“Connor… this is a good time to concentrate on yourself.”
“Doing what?”
“I don’t know. Just… it’ll sort itself out eventually, won’t it? These things always do.” Becker slowed down to try and talk as much sense into Connor as he could before they arrived at the caravan.
“Not before they all hate me, if they don’t already.”
“Con-” He tried to plea.
“Do you believe them?” He could see Connor looking at him now and Becker took a quick glance in return, choosing his words carefully, treading lightly.
“I wouldn’t blame you if it was you.”
Connor wasn’t angry or sad like he had been, he still stared at Becker before turning towards the dashboard again. “I’ll prove it wasn’t.” He unclicked his seatbelt at the end of his street, before Becker reached the gate and pulled to the side.
“How?”
Connor didn’t answer the question and opened the door to step onto the pavement. His hands had let go of his sleeves by now as one grasped at the side of the door, his head peering in from the outside.
“See you later?” He asked.
*
Connor walked along the gravel path, hearing the engine pull away from the driveway. Things hadn’t stopped running through his head since the day he’d been told he wouldn’t be allowed back at the ARC. Jess and Becker were the only ones that would speak to him and Fern. Danny wouldn’t return his calls and from what he could tell Lester had blocked his number.
The nights were lonely again as Fern slept in her room and he flicked through the dated TV, not for anything to watch but for noises that would take him back to the Cretaceous if he closed his eyes. The weather was getting warmer so he’d spend hours sat in the doorway, looking towards the stars he could see, most blocked by light and overarching trees.
He’d bought himself a laptop but wasn’t sure why, not able to figure out a starting point for trying to prove his innocence.
Connor reached the door now and could hear his kettle slowly hiss to a boil. She was sat by the table when he walked in, legs crossed and back straight as she worked.
“He didn’t really think you’d ironed, did he?” Jess asked, shouting slightly to be heard.
“Apparently so.” Connor laughed, finishing off the cups of coffee she’d started to make.
“Well, we better get started before he finds out what we’re up to.”
“You don’t have to help, you know.” He was stirring a spoon in the cups to the sound of Jess typing quick and loud.
“No offence, Connor, but this is much bigger than just you. They’re coming after all of us and since Becker and I have only just got our mortgage, I don’t think it would look good if we suddenly started missing payments because we both lost our jobs. Now, if you don’t mind, we have work to do.”
“Yeah, fair enough.” Connor smiled, carrying their cups of coffee over to the tiny table, wondering how much they’d manage to drink before they got cold.
“So, the thing in the box -”
“Ammonite.”
“Yeah, ammonite. You definitely didn’t bring it back with you?”
“No, everything I had was incinerated.”
“So, we’re looking for anything between…?” Her fingers hovered over the keyboard as she waited for Connor to answer.
“Uh… um, Jurassic and Late Cretaceous.”
“Okay, so before your anomaly the last one it could have come through was…” She typed at a speed he never really managed, even when he was at his best with computers. He could read the code on the screen by now, after nights of practice when sleep seemed far away. “… about three years ago, when the ankylosaurus came through.”
“And?”
“Creature incursion, no injuries, excessive damage, some claims, anomaly locked. It wasn’t unlocked, so no one could have gone through, picked it up and come back.” He’d lost track of the screen now, as she jumped between tabs. “How long do you think it could have been out of water? They live in water, right?”
“Yeah, it looked old, it was dry. I don’t know.”
“Well, what would you say? A year, two years?” Jess worked through the data on the screen and Connor caught glimpses of photos surrounded by words and dates. There were transcripts of radio conversations and videos confiscated from the phones of witnesses.
He saw Danny’s face looking out at him as she flicked through the documents. He’d managed to find his way back a couple of years before Connor, having worked his way through different anomalies and eventually arriving home.
“Wait, stop. What about Danny’s?”
“Danny’s?” Jess stopped on the man’s face, eyes scanning through the details of that day. “Um, they reckon Eocene.”
“Right.”
“No ammonites?”
“Well, fossilised ones, yeah.”
They sat in silence now, both thinking. It didn’t make any sense, not without someone unlocking an anomaly and trekking through a time unknown to them, just to be able to add to the evidence to incriminate him. Everything he had owned and crafted in the Cretaceous period had been confiscated and destroyed just before their disinfectant shower, and even if they hadn’t there was nothing that could be used to prove the existence of the fractures in time.
“Whoever it is, they know what they’re doing.” Jess closed the tabs and sat back against the old folding chair they’d found in one of the rooms during their big tidy. Rust stained the hinges but it suited the caravan perfectly, blending in with the concoction of oranges that spread across the sofa and up the curtains.
“That’s what I’m afraid of.”
“What about the phone? Do you think that could be something?”
“I’ve looked through it, there’s nothing. I called the numbers and they are journalists but they were only ever given my name.” They were silent again now, neither had touched their drinks as the steam started to disappear from the cups. “Do you think we’re wasting our time?”
“No, no, definitely not. They’ll mess up, they always do. I’ve checked CCTV but the lockers aren’t covered. Well, not yours at least -”
“Convenient,” he chimed.
“- and I tried the biometrics, but there’s so much traffic in and out we can’t go pointing fingers at everyone.”
“Who issued me my locker?” Connor pulled one of the stools now, they were a little short for his liking as his knees almost reached his chest as he sat but it was better than standing.
“Oh, uh, Walsh. Toby Walsh. Admin assistant, handles the day-to-day stuff that no one else really wants to. Like issuing lockers.” At that, she started to type at a faster speed than before, Connor’s eyes not able to keep up with the screen. “This… is…” Few more clicks. “Toby.”
Connor recognised his face from the whispers that he’d overheard before they’d scattered as soon as they’d seen him. He was young with a haircut that could have belonged to a soldier in one of Becker’s units, shaved to the skin around his ears but longer across the top. Mean eyebrows frowned naturally above dark eyes and his mouth was straight and stern for the photo.
“He was talking about me before all this.”
“Hmm. Okay, well, I can keep an eye on him.” Jess suggested, looking at as much information as she was allowed to view. She placed her hand on his just for a second, just enough for Connor to register the warmth of her touch. “You’ll be back at the ARC in no time and everything will be back to normal. I promise, Connor.”
“Yeah. I hope so.”
“Trust me, I’ll do anything to stop Becker moping around like his favourite shotgun was eaten by a G-Rex.”