The Cube Read online

I jumped backwards and pivoted. I silently scolded myself for wearing sandals instead of sneakers, but I managed to get a good kick into his side right under his rib cage. Joel hunched over with a groan but shot back up quickly. I was in good shape, but travelers almost always had the advantage. Better nutrition combined with better athletic training programs. Before I could make another move, Joel punched me in the gut, sending me to my knees. He picked me up, grabbed me by the throat, and flung me to the ground again. I landed hard on my hip.

  That’s gonna leave a mark.

  When I looked up, I found myself staring straight up the Some Gun’s barrel. Joel had a wicked grin on his face.

  “You’re gonna use that on me?” I snarled.

  “If I have to.” I noticed a hint of a smile on Joel’s lips and narrowed my eyes.

  I rolled over in a flash, launching my right foot into the air and kicking the gun out of his hands. We scrambled towards it, but I had a head start. I closed my hands around it, pointed it at Joel, and pulled the trigger.

  The Some Gun emitted a high powered wave of energy that blasted straight into Joel’s chest. For a split second, his eyes opened wide in surprise. He fell backwards with a thud, knocking an empty bookshelf off the wall behind him. It fell to the ground in pieces. Joel lay on his back. He was temporarily immobilized and panting heavily. I approached slowly and kept the gun pointed at him. He clutched his chest and rolled onto his side with a groan.

  When I created the Stun function prototype, I begged Ridge to let me try it on him. When he refused, I begged him to try it on me. He refused that as well. And I didn’t want to test it on a traveler. Instead, I checked my calculations several times and used the Some Gun to knock each of my stuffed animals off a fence.

  It still didn’t seem like enough data. Finally, I rigged a pulley so I could Stun myself. I was ten. The energy hit me with enough force to lift me up and throw me backwards twenty feet. Ridge came running out of his house, screaming obscenities. He scolded me for a half hour while he carried me to his place, gave me some ice packs to hold to my stomach, and let me eat all the popsicles and watch all the television I wanted.

  Which is all to say: getting stunned hurts.

  “Look,” Joel pleaded. His breathing slowed, but he was still on the ground. He held his hands out in front of himself in defeat. “I’ve got nothing. How about I lay low, buy some houses, maybe play the stock market. Nothing serious. If I go back without anything, I’m screwed. My boss will kill me.”

  I wasn’t about to let Joel stay, and he had nothing to bargain with to change my mind. I kept my eyes on him as I flicked the Some Gun over to the Back-U-Go setting. With a pull of the trigger Joel would be back in his Present and forced to face whatever consequences they set up to deal with people like him.

  “Wait, wait, wait!” he cried. His eyes watched the Some Gun nervously and his breathing picked up again. “What if I give you some information? Something is gonna happen. I know all about it. This guy I know is planning...something bigger than this. I bet you have a rule about it!”

  I flipped the Some Gun back to Stun. I was not interested in more information. I wanted to get back to the normal college life I had planned. But if he had something to tell me, Ridge would say I needed to listen.

  I raised my eyebrows and shrugged.

  “Ok, good. Listen. This guy I know. Skinny, tattoos. He’s part of a group that – let’s just say, they’re interested in animals. He’s got something going on at the zoo. He’ll be here – what is the date?” He stole a glance at his watch. I’d seen that version before. It looked like a plain white band with a slim digital readout, but different clicks and swipes performed different functions. “Ok, he’ll be at the zoo this weekend! I swear. Sunday evening. Seven.”

  My plans were disintegrating in front of me like a sandcastle at high tide. I imagined the new entry on my calendar.

  7 pm: Stop zoo guy really fast

  8 pm: Bond with roommates over stupidity of reality show

  “What’s he going to be doing there?”

  “I dunno.” Joel avoided my eyes. “Something with – with the animals. I can’t tell you, ok?”

  “But you can tell me he’ll be there?”

  “Yeah! That’s good information, right? There’s probably a rule against – against what he’s gonna do. You won’t like it. But you can stop him. And then you can leave me alone, right?”

  Nope.

  “Which zoo?”

  “Central Park.”

  Sorry, Joel.

  I flicked the switch back to Back-U-Go and pulled the trigger. Joel’s face twisted in shock before his body collapsed into a tiny dot where his chest once was. The dot disappeared into nothingness. Joel was back in his Present now.

  Back-U-Go. Another memento of eight-year-old June’s naming preferences.

  I checked my phone. Another message from Ridge, this time demanding updates. A text from Honey with the address of the frat party they were heading towards. I texted Ridge.

  Traveler gone. Gonna stop by your place.

  I played through Joel’s story while I biked to Ridge’s place in Harlem. Someone would be at the zoo. On Sunday. But Joel couldn’t – or wouldn’t – tell me why.

  I walked up the five flights to Ridge’s unit. I didn’t know exactly how he managed those steps every day. He never complained about it, but he did complain incessantly about random aches and pains.

  “I’m getting old, June!” he would say.

  I first met Ridge when he lived next door to my grandparents. He saw what I was doing while my grandparents either didn’t see or didn’t want to. He was the only one who knew what I did. He let me work on my inventions at his kitchen table. He didn’t question why I had a collection of tools and spare parts or how I knew what I was doing with them. He was in his fifties back then, a high school science teacher, and liked to talk about electrical circuits, digital technology, and organic chemistry. A few years back, he retired and moved to a new apartment in Harlem.

  I kicked my shoes off and left them by Ridge’s door. I couldn’t think of any reason why Ridge would declare his apartment a shoe-free zone; the place was always a mess. The whole apartment smelled musty, like mothballs and old chalkboards.

  Ridge sat on the sofa with his feet up on the coffee table. It was the same sofa he owned when I met him, and the same sofa where he let me lie down and watch TV when I stunned myself. It was a mustard colored couch with ridges in the fabric that turned different shades when you stroked them in one direction or the other. Almost all the furniture in his apartment was the same as when we met; Ridge said he liked old things and was set in his ways. I knew that was an exaggeration, though; he was thrilled when I showed him a new invention. Sometimes he made requests, like for a longer lasting battery, and I always obliged. Making a longer lasting battery was no small feat and required traveler technology and a good amount of trial and error. Little did I know that he only wanted them for his television remote.

  Ridge grunted hello and nodded towards the television screen. He was still watching Channel 1. Nothing new about Joel.

  No one ever told Ridge he looked good for his age. He sported a shiny bald spot on the top of his head that was growing steadily over time. He wore an old polo shirt and khaki shorts with socks pulled up over his calves. His ancient, permanently scuffed loafers sat by my sandals at the door.

  “You have any problems with him, June?” Ridge asked. I flopped down onto the couch next to him and scowled as I remembered the bruise on my hip from my fight with Joel. I touched my neck; there would be marks there from when Joel grabbed me. Ridge raised his eyebrows, but I shook my head. He’d seen me get into enough fights to know I could hold my own.

  I pulled out my calendar app and added my new appointment: something with the Central Park Zoo at 7 pm on Sunday. I showed Ridge.

  “He told me some other traveler will be at the Central Park Zoo, but he wouldn’t say what the traveler’s planning.” I pulled up a
map of the zoo. “Ugh. Something with animals? He said the traveler is interested in animals, but he also said I wouldn’t like it...” I scanned through the zoo’s website. “No special exhibits going on. Nothing that would be of any use to a traveler.”

  Ridge shrugged and changed the channel. He was addicted cop show reruns and had an uncanny knack for finding them at any time of day. He landed on a show featuring two detectives muttering over a dead body at the wharf.

  It’s always the wharf.

  “Do you want me to come to the zoo with you?”

  “No, I got this.”

  Ridge and I had a love-hate relationship with collaborating. He was more of an indoors, behind-the-scenes type guy. The scientist who works in the crime lab on one of his shows, or maybe the Chief who listens to the investigator’s plan and nods his approval, saying “Keep me posted.” And when Ridge did join me out in the world, he mostly complained about how tired he was or why we weren’t finishing faster. We worked best together right here, in his apartment, where he could have the TV on in the background.

  “So what do you think someone’s going to do who’s interested in animals but is breaking one of my rules?”

  “No idea.” Ridge got up to get a snack from the kitchen and returned with a bag of chips and a beer. He pretended to hand me the beer before snatching it away with a grin.

  “NO ONE ELSE IS INVITED.”

  It was Sunday evening, and Honey stood face-to-face with Marlene, hands on her hips. I hadn’t known Honey long, but I was impressed. Marlene was obviously used to getting her way, and Honey already seemed accommodating to a fault. Horror and shock passed over Marlene’s face while Honey stared her down.

  “Fine.” Marlene gave in. “Just the four of us. 8 pm. You can order the pizza.” She went to her room and slammed the door behind her. Honey turned to me with a satisfied smile.

  “Marlene wants to invite a girl she has a crush on. I think we should spend our last night before classes with just the four of us...You’re gonna be there, right? You missed the party the other night, and it’s our last night before classes...”

  “I know, I know.” I checked my watch. It was a little past six. I needed to leave soon to get to the zoo on time for my date with a mysterious animal-loving traveler.

  “June!” Lacey came out of her and Marlene’s room, pushing open the door that Marlene slammed shut. “Tomorrow! Class! 8 am is too early. I should have thought this through.”

  “Mmmhmm.” I made a packing list in my head. What would I need to take on this traveler? I never knew about them this far ahead of time, so it felt like a special occasion. Maybe I should bring chips and dip.

  “Your neck is still bruised.” Lacey scrunched up her face. Honey looked at me pointedly from behind Lacey’s back. No one believed my story of burning myself with my curling iron, probably because I didn’t own one and my hair wasn’t curly. Honey caught sight of the bruise on my hip that morning and hounded me about it until I left for breakfast without her.

  “I’m fine,” I said, swatting Lacey’s hand away as she reached out to touch the lingering marks that were lighter but still visible. “I don’t even feel it.”

  “June’s heading out, but she’ll be back in time for the show, won’t she?” Honey stared me down like she had with Marlene.

  It wasn’t that I had a reputation for being late or missing events, per se. I only missed one frat party. Honey was overly suspicious. It didn’t help that I wouldn’t tell her what was in the locked trunk under my bed or that one time I disappeared inside our room and locked the door. I had only wanted to update the Face Finder software in privacy.

  And then there were the bruises.

  Maybe Honey is exactly as suspicious as she should be.

  “Yup!” I headed into our room to pack my messenger bag. “U Before I!” I called out towards the main room.

  “I’ll be back by 8. Really. And 8 am is fine, Lacey. Everyone at school wants to sleep in, but my high school classes started at 7:30!”

  I shifted through my messenger bag and finally decided my usual equipment would be fine. And I got to go to the zoo. I hadn’t been to the zoo since my parents died. We were supposed to go the week after my birthday but...

  I grabbed my bag and my bike and headed out.

  A blast of hot air hit my face as soon as the dorm doors closed behind me. I checked the time on my phone again. I’ll make it, I thought. The zoo was a half hour ride away, and I focused on getting my parents out of my head while I rode. I was very lucky that I had two loving grandparents, my mom’s parents, to take care of me. Plus Ridge. And there was no sense living in the past when I was needed here in the Present.

  Central Park would be dark and intimidating at night if I didn’t have my Some Gun with me. I hadn’t stunned anyone in a while, and taking down Joel reminded me what a lifesaver it could be. I threw my bike onto the grass at my side as I approached the zoo’s entrance, gun in hand.

  I looked at my watch. 6:52.

  I tapped my feet impatiently and absentmindedly shuffled through my messenger bag again. 6:57.

  Joel said 7 pm, and to my knowledge, time travel was an exact science. Ticket in a machine, beep beep beep, arrive at precisely the stated time. I looked at my watch again. 6:59.

  I held my breath and clenched my jaw. The suspense was scarier than the looming threat of a traveler.

  Without a sound, a man appeared before me. It was the opposite of Joel’s disappearance. The man started as a tiny dot that grew into a fully formed human within a single second. He was dimly lit by the street lamps and too far away for me to see if he matched Joel’s description. I moved forward hesitantly.

  The traveler looked around, and I ducked behind a nearby bush. He looked past me and then back towards the zoo’s entrance. I noticed a shiny, metal cube in his hands. It was about half the size of Ridge’s microwave and caught the light as the traveler marched towards the zoo entrance. He had nothing else on him. Nothing in his hands, nothing over his shoulder. Just a man and a strange silver box.

  I hopped out of the bushes and aimed the Some Gun at the traveler.

  “What’s in the box?”

  Chapter 3

  I felt my phone buzz through my pocket, but I didn’t dare check it. My hands were firmly planted on either side of my Some Gun. It was set to Stun and pointed at the traveler as he stood between me and the entrance to the zoo.

  Like most travelers, the man was tall and fit. He had long greasy hair that fell to his shoulders and a metallic cuff on his ear. He wore a sleeveless silver top, lighter colored than the cube, and I could see the tattoos Joel mentioned running down both arms. Symbols I didn’t recognize ran down his right arm, and there was a tiger on his left bicep. Lucky for him, he was at least dressed appropriately for a hot August night in New York City.

  So Joel was telling the truth about this traveler’s appearance. Too bad he hadn’t been more specific about what the man was planning.

  We stared at each other, neither moving. My hands held the gun steady. The traveler’s hands gripped the shiny, flawless box tightly. I watched the cube carefully and realized it was rattling. It was like the box had a mind of its own; it shook seemingly of its own accord. The man’s hands jumped a tiny bit every time it moved.

  My phone buzzed again. It was probably the girls from my suite. We were supposed to be celebrating our last night before school started by ordering pizza and watching the premiere of U Before I, but here I was at the zoo. Send him back, send him back, send him back, I begged myself. Normal college freshmen watch TV with their roommates.

  But I really wanted to know what was making the box rattle.

  At least the other girls would find out what the show was about. I would only make it in time if I could get rid of this idiot quickly.

  “What’s in the box?” I asked for the second time. I shifted between my feet. Standoffs made me itchy; I preferred a good chase. Or even a fight like the one I had with Joel. I was still s
ore, but at least my victory was well-earned.

  The man looked me over with a sneer; travelers always underestimated me. He was a foot taller than me, and my petite frame already made people call me words like “dainty” and “delicate.” I stood straight and tall. I knew what I was doing. This wasn’t the first sneering traveler I needed to kick out of my Present, and it wouldn’t be the last.

  “You don’t know what’s coming,” the man finally spoke. “In a hundred years, none of these animals will even exist. I’m here to make that right.”

  I let out a deep sigh.

  “If you don’t get out of my way, the history books will blame you for the mass extinctions that will take place within the century.” He raised an eyebrow as his eyes focused on my Some Gun. “And if you don’t get out of my way, I doubt that’s going to stop me.”

  “Rule #2-E of Time Travel. Never mess with the ecosystem.” It wasn’t a rule I used often, but I put it in place for a good reason. Of course, this man didn’t know the rules. They were June’s Rules of Time Travel, a list I started when I was eight and added to as needed. But whether or not he had a copy, the concept was fairly obvious.

  “I have to!” he cried. “Right now there are a dozen endangered species in that zoo. Your people aren’t going to save them in time. I’m here to help!”

  I heard it all the time. If the time travelers weren’t robbing banks or starting religious cults, they thought they were the heroes my Present needed.

  I heard there really was a time when travelers were heroes. They stopped wars and prevented assassinations. They ended plagues and cured the sick. They created vaccines that eradicated diseases. Those were the actual heroes. But after too much mucking around, the time travel program was shut down.

  Or the time travel program would be shut down in the future. Time travel is a grammatical nightmare.

  Like Joel, the travelers I met were usually here illegally. Enjoying the old fashioned ways of their ancestors. Winning lotteries. Messing around with humans who weren’t as “evolved” as they were. We were shorter and fatter; we couldn’t keep up with them. That’s why when I found travelers, I sent them packing. It was a responsibility I took seriously. And this man fooling around with animal extinction needed to go; there was no telling the impact he could have if I let him “save” the animals. The consequences were too unpredictable to risk it. I wasn’t only guarding the Present – I was guarding the timeline. There was a space-time continuum to consider.