Chapter 25

Punk'd?

Hanging out at a strange house with people she didn’t know wasn’t Addison’s idea of a good time.

She’d been introduced to her biological grandfather and his wife, who seemed nice enough (if apparently pretty young to really be her mother’s parent), but there was another old guy here whose loud outfit and chatty behaviour was sucking all the oxygen out of the living room.

The man, who had been introduced to her as ‘Al’, was dressed in a bright red suit with an intricately embroidered black silk shirt underneath, and he stunk of cigars.

Addison might have been a teen rebel, but she wasn’t stupid enough to smoke.

She had spent the last hour or so pretending to have her head buried in her homework in an effort to ignore the awkwardness of the situation. Apparently they were going to have dinner whenever Al’s daughter arrived. The old man kept saying they were the same age and ‘would get along like a house on fire.’ Yeah, right. If this other girl was anything like him, she doubted it.

As she sat at the kitchen table, head down in her barely-used math textbook, her evidently well-preserved grandfather wandered in, pulling a chair out across from her.

Oh, great. He wants to chat. Addison winced, and tried to put on her polite talking-to-strange-adults face.

“Calculus, huh?” he said, peering at the pages. “I love calculus—used to do it in my head for fun when I was a kid. Need some help with it?”

Addison shook her head, though the truth was that she probably could have used a tutor if she’d cared about the subject. “No, it’s okay.”

So, he too was a genius, just like her Mom. So that was two generations—too bad it had skipped her, she thought.

Her grandfather, who she recalled was named Sam, shrugged, sitting down in the chair and leaning on the table, grinning at her.

Addison withered under the cheery gaze. “What?” she asked uncomfortably. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Like what?” he seemed to catch himself, and looked bashfully away from her. “Sorry, I guess I’m just excited to properly meet you. I want to get to know you, Addison. You and your mother. I’ve already missed too much.”

Addison closed her textbook, looking up at him plainly. “Why did you miss so much? Where’ve you been all this time, Gramps?”

Sam’s smile dropped away. “Well, we’ve all been trying to figure out the best way to explain that to you—I drew the short straw, so here I am. Thing is, you may find it a little hard to believe.”

Addison scoffed. “Come on, how unbelievable could it be? What, you’re some rock star who had a one night stand or something?” She shrugged, regarding him impishly. “Or maybe aliens stole your sperm and knocked Grandma up through a probe? Just spill already.”

Sam’s deep-set laugh lines crinkled at the edges of his eyes as he chuckled. “Aliens, huh? Well, I think it may rival that scenario, to be honest. Do you know what your mother does for her job at all?”

Addison shook her head. “Nope—I just know it’s top secret government research of some kind, right? I assume it’s something to do with like, quantum physics, since that’s Mom’s speciality.”

Sam nodded. “Yeah, it’s the cutting edge of quantum physics. I know because I built the place.”

“And you’re just coming into our lives now?” Addison glared at the man. “Mom’s been working there for years and you never thought to say anything?”

Sam pursed his lips. He looked like he was about to answer her protests, but instead chose to press on with his explanation. He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a length of string.

“Addison, imagine your life as a piece of string. On one end, your birth, and the other, your death…”

Addison squinted, confused by the sudden turn in the conversation. “What…?”

“Hear me out,” Sam insisted, bringing the two ends of the string together. “Now if you tie the ends together, you have a loop. And if you ball up the string, any moment of your life can touch another, allowing you to ‘leap’ between those moments. Travelling to any point within your own lifetime.” He dropped the screwed up string onto the table, and focused his gaze on Addison. “And that’s a layman’s explanation of my time travel theory.”

Addison raised an eyebrow, trying to look unimpressed. “Time travel,” she repeated cynically.

“Yes.” Sam nodded. “Your mother works for a secret government time travel project.”

Addison tilted her head. “And the reason you’ve been absent is—what? Because you’ve been travelling in time? Is that what you’re trying to tell me?”

Without flinching, Sam replied: “Yes.”

Addison let out an involuntary laugh. “Okay, Gramps. Let’s get you to bed.”

“It’s all true,” came the voice of her mother, who was now leaning in the doorway. “We could go into the math, but somehow I don’t think that will help. I’ve… seen your report cards.”

After a moment of trying to figure out if a big practical joke was being played on her, Addison crossed her arms, studying her grandfather’s face. His eyes were clear and steady. If he was lying, he was good at it. She looked towards her Mom, who moved fully into the kitchen. Her face was neutral, and eyes a little bloodshot as if she’d been crying. Addison couldn’t see any deception there either.

“Okay. So if this time travel stuff is so top secret, why are you telling me?”

Sam leaned forward. “I thought it would be best if we start our relationship with complete honesty,” he said. “About how your mother came to be. And to do that, I had to lay the groundwork by explaining what we do at Stallions Gate.” He stole a glance at Sammy Jo before continuing. “Because… during my time leaping through time, I… well…” He struggled to continue, eyes looking away from her.

Addison’s mind raced as she put together what he was getting at.

“Are you saying that you time travelled to the past and had sex with my grandmother?”

Sam’s silence and awkward expression told her everything she needed to know.

“Okay, stop,” she said, holding up her hands. “I don’t wanna know any more than that.” She stood from the table. “Mental images… not good. I think I would have preferred the aliens.” She bypassed Sam and approached her mother. “Did you know this, Mom?”

“I only found out today too,” she replied weakly. “I understand it’s going to be difficult to adjust to knowing this, but it doesn’t change anything. Not really.”

Addison grimaced, and left the kitchen, not knowing at all what to think. There was still the option that all of this was a great big prank, she thought.

As she hurried away, she headed to the front door in an effort to get some air, and as she reached it, it swung open, smacking her in the face.

“Agh!” she cried, keeling over and covering her nose. “Jeez, who—?”

She stopped short as she caught sight of the girl with black hair and blue streaks.

“You?!” Addison pointed with surprise. “From the mall!”

“Oh—whoa, I’m so sorry!” the girl said, realising what she’d done. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, no sweat,” Addison said flatly. “I take worse beatings at kickboxing class. Who the hell are you?”

“That’s my daughter, Janis,” came the gravelly voice of Al from behind. “Heya sweetheart,” he said, stepping past Addison and planting a kiss on Janis’s cheek, before gesturing back. “This is Addison. She’s Uncle Sam’s granddaughter. I think she’s the grade behind you. Come on in and take a seat, both of ya.”

Al put a hand on Addison’s shoulder, guiding her towards the couch. “I guess Sam gave you the lowdown, huh? Janis can probably give you another perspective on everything. Why don’t the two of you get acquainted while the grown-ups serve dinner?”

He disappeared into the kitchen, leaving Addison and Janis to exchange a nervous glance.

Addison sighed, and slumped onto the couch. “So. Janis, huh?”

Janis nodded. “Yep. That’s… my name…” She shook her head. “Look, I’m sorry about staring at you through the window. That must have seemed weird.”

“Did you know we were about to meet, or what?”

“Yeah, exactly,” she replied quickly. “Dad kept telling me about some daughter of a woman he worked with and how we should hang out. Showed me a photo at one point. I recognised you from that.”

“Your Dad is…”

“A big personality.”

“Sure.”

“Al—er, Dad’s really a teddy bear when you get to know him, trust me.”

Addison snorted. “So what does he do at the time travel project?”

“You know about that?”

“Well, I’ve just been told that my grandfather took the DeLorean back to the sixties and romanced Grandma Fuller. I don’t know if I can believe it—I mean, that’s crazy, right?”

Janis laughed. “It doesn’t really work like that. It’s not a machine he travels around in like a car.” She looked towards the kitchen. “So Sam’s really in there, huh? Wow, I can barely believe it. I’m so glad he made it home.”

“Made it home?”

“He was lost in time, Addison. Nobody expected him to ever come home. Until today.” Janis was smiling, but her eyes betrayed some sadness.

So that must be why Mom’s so much happier today than I’ve seen her in a long time.

“Dinner’s on,” Sammy Jo called from the dining room. “Get it while it’s hot, girls!”

Addison hesitated to move, still eyeing Janis. “If you’re in high school, how come you know all of this top secret stuff?”

Janis smiled, standing up. “I found out by accident. Long story.” She began walking towards the dining room. “Dinner smells amazing. Do I detect paprika?”

Addison rose from the couch, following at a distance. All of this was way too weird, she thought. She wondered if she was on a hidden camera prank show. That seemed like the most likely explanation at this point.