Harker's Story

     It was late in the evening, with a thin layer of purpling darkness covering the town, but the lights outside the front doors of his house shone brightly, and the twinkling lights that illuminated the garden path sparkled merrily in the gloom of the night like glittering beacons.

     All the curtains inside the windows were drawn, but as Harker hovered at the front gate he caught a glimpse of movement in one of the upstairs rooms.

     Aren.

     His housekeeper was awake, it seemed, patiently awaiting his master’s return home. The Krawk had sent word ahead from Meridell to let the Lutari know that he was on his way back to Neovia once he had secured his prize. He had mentioned nought of Jorge’s mysterious cellmate whose identity had at last been unveiled.

     Harker had thought that was something best spoken of in-person and hadn’t wished to risk having any letters intercepted with such grave tidings. In truth, however, he found it was something he wished he need not speak of at all, and would sooner have put the whole sordid mess behind him. He was reluctant to confide even in Aren, who was likely the closest thing he had to a true friend since he had lost his sister all those years ago.

     It was that true friend now who opened the front door a few minutes later to the Krawk’s soft knocking, and enveloped him in a tight – and somewhat startling – embrace.

     Aren knew his master was seldom an affectionate fellow – except perhaps towards his Kadoatie – but was so pleased to see him returned safely from his travels that he was somewhat overcome at the sight of him, and Harker gave him a patient pat on the back while the Lutari sniffled into his shoulder.

     “Aren, are you crying?”

     “No.”

     Harker gave his housekeeper a moment to compose himself before gently extracting himself from his embrace.

     “Oh, but it is good to be home.” He gave the Lutari’s arm a gentle squeeze as he stepped inside the wide, comfortable hallway. Aren had the downstairs fireplace burning, and the warmth spread throughout the rooms like thick honey, sweet and familiar. “I was only gone a day or two, but I’ve never been one to be too long away from home.”

     “Oh,” Aren began as they headed down the hallway towards the main sitting room. “Miss Petunia stopped by earlier this evening. I hadn’t thought to cancel your weekly Godori game with her, I’m sorry.”

     “Oh, never mind that. It was all very last minute – you can’t be expected to remember everything. I trust she wasn’t upset?”

     “Not really. Curious, though.”

     Harker had intended to keep his sudden departure from town a secret – particularly from Henry. He didn’t think Petunia would be particularly loud-mouthed about it, though.

     “Did you reschedule?” He wasn’t really interested in Godori at this point in time, but thought it polite to ask.

     “Next Wednesday, after supper.”

     Next Wednesday. Harker wondered where he might be, and if he would be at home playing Godori with Petunia.

     He doubted it.

     “Emmanuel!” He let out a startled – albeit pleased – noise at the sudden appearance of his Kadoatie, running down the stairs and rubbing up against his leg. “Here, boy.” He scratched the Petpet under the chin and it gave a contented purr. “I hope he wasn’t any trouble?” He inquired of Aren, who reached down to give the Petpet a fond pat.

     “Not at all, sir. I think he missed you, is all.”

     “I guess that makes two of us.” He shrugged his backpack off his shoulder and scooped Emmanuel up in his arms. “Bring that upstairs for me, will you? We’ll convene in the library after I’ve freshened up a bit. It was a long journey and I should like a shower to wash the dust off. Meridell is very dirty, you know.”

     Later, after Harker had showered and changed into a fresh pair of pyjamas, eaten a quarter of the chicken pot pie Aren had cooked for supper, and given Emmanuel some attention, they once again returned to the library to remove Harker’s time travel device from the safe in the wall.

     They sat together on the couch, Harker holding the device and Aren holding the book. The Kadoatie lay curled on the large plush rug under the coffee table, snoring softly.

     “Are we really going to try this, sir?” Aren was nervous at the thought. “I know why you said you hadn’t until now – but are we sure this is a good idea? There’s still the possibility that you’ll get stuck in there – and it would be all my fault!”

     “If not now – when? I might never have a chance to use this again now that Jorge knows of its existence. He could be sending any number of villains after me to retrieve it.”

     “Yes, I suppose so. Oh, Jorge.” The Lutari heaved a loud sigh. “He’s always getting himself into all sorts of trouble.”

     “There’s a specific day I want to return to,” the Krawk continued blithely as if he hadn’t even heard. He was in his own little world, Aren realised. “I haven’t attempted it yet in the case I got trapped in the machine, as we both know. But now that I have you – Aren, I need you to operate this device for me. I’ll upload my memories to the device and set the date that I want to return to. I want you to allow me one hour in the past, then use the device to bring me back.”

     “How do I do that?”

     Harker plucked the instruction manual from the Lutari’s lap and waved it in the air.

     “With this.”

     “Oh, Mister Harker – what if I get something wrong? What if you’re stuck in the past – or worse, stuck in the machine? Oh, I could never live with myself if I bodged this up for you.”

     “We don’t have any other options.” Harker tried to sound patient but in actuality, he was brimming over with anticipation. “Jorge will be trying to get this book back. Now – I’m not sure how much reach he has while he’s stuck in the dungeons – but I know he’ll be trying his darnedest to get it back. The first trip we need to make is back to when you were writing a letter to your brother and made mention of the book. We need to stop you telling him of its existence in the first instance, and therefore in the present (today), he won’t be looking for it. Make sense?”

     “Kind of.” Aren looked dubiously at the wristwatch. “If we stop Jorge from ever learning about the book in the past, he won’t be looking for it in the future. I get that – but won’t that cause a paradox, sir?”

     “Paradox shmaradox. The universe is vast and infinite, Aren. Surely it can compensate around one small – albeit hugely annoying – Lutari. If this goes according to plan I can use the machine for the reason I build it in the first place.”

     “Which is?”

     “All in good time, Aren. For now, let’s focus on getting it to work.”

     Harker handed the book to his housekeeper and settled the wristwatch device comfortably on his lap. He was fiddling with some of the dials on the side and Aren opened the book to the first page.

     “Property of Dr F Sloth – nosy Neopians will be dematerialised.” He read aloud. “The first few pages are on how to build the machine itself – we don’t need those.” He flicked through a dozen or so pages before finding the bit he was looking for. “Ah, here we go. ‘How to operate’. That’s what we need.”

     It took the better part of the night – and some of the early hours of the following morning but eventually Harker had a time travel machine that worked – in theory. He had uploaded his memories to the internal matrix as instructed by Sloth’s manual and Aren thought he had a pretty good idea of how it worked after reading the book through several times.

     Eventually it had come time to test the machine, and they could put off the inevitable no longer. They set the time and date on the device to a short time before Aren wrote the letter to his brother and they exchanged nervous glances as Aren input the destination.

     Harker was as excited as he was anxious. If this worked – he could return to a day that had occurred over ten years ago, and stop something happening that had shaped his life in a misfortunate way.

     But first – Jorge.

     “Are you ready, Mister Harker?”

     The Krawk gave a tight nod as his housekeeper flicked the tiny lever on the side of the wristwatch, and together they grasped each other’s hands as a brilliant white light flooded their vision, before fading into absolute darkness.

     To be continued…