Chapter Seven: Getting the Jewel

When the little dial that told them they were at their destination lit up green,  Tookie made a lunge for the door handle right across Marianna before she could could even reach for it. But she stopped him.

"Wait!" Marianna grabbed his arm and held it hard.

"What?"  Tookie looked at her like she was crazy. "Don't you want to get the jewel and get Cheena and get out of here????"

"Yes! But we don't have a plan yet--we can't just burst into the house and demand the jewel! Think, Tookie, think!! How are we going to do it??" Marianna was almost out of breath she felt so worried and anxious.

"We're wasting time!" Tookie looked at her and shook his head slowly, for once not saying anything. It was the first time she had ever seen him look so serious. He was right. They would have to do this and fast or else--she didn't want to even think about the possibility of never seeing Cheena again. It was all like a bad dream.

"Okay, then. But don't do anything or say anything stupid. Just play it by ear, right? And let me do the talking, okay?" He nodded, looking sadder and more worried than she had ever seen him, especially with his eye getting puffier by the minute.

But when Marianna opened the door of the BRATT and they stepped out, they got the shock of their lives. There was Mrs. Nott standing right in front of them  She looked like she was expecting them.

"Here!" said Mrs. Nott "Take it! I've been waiting for this moment  since I was eleven years old!" And she stretched out her open hand--in it was the purple pendant!  She placed the purple stone in Marianna's hand as soon as Marianna stretched out her hand to receive it. Marianna just stood there speechless and Tookie's mouth was hanging open.


"But...but how did you know?" Marrianna finally stammered, looking back at Mrs. Nott. "And how did you know we would land here....?"


Marianna's voice trailed off as she looked around at the little clearing--she stared down at the large purple gleaming jewel Mrs. Nott had just placed in her left hand. Marrianna's right hand still clutched the tent she had intended to put up. Now there wouldn't be any need to pitch the tent, because they had the jewel and could go right back and rescue Cheena. Almost giddy with that happy thought, she looked back in Mrs. Nott's face.
"Thank you!" She blurted out.


"You're welcome." said Mrs. Nott, sounding kind of automatic. She looked anxious and a little worried, and she kept glancing back toward the house.


"Look," said Mrs. Nott, "I know you don't have much time and I know I don't have much time either. Marianna might come out any minute, and I don't want her to see any of this. She loves that pendant as much as I do, and her birthday is in four days. She wouldn't know what was happening if she saw me giving it to you two...."



"July 23rd?" Tookie broke in. Neither Marrianna nor Mrs. Nott had been paying much attention to him. He was squinting his swollen eye up, like he was trying to make it less noticeable. "Today's the 19th--makes sense."


Marianna glanced at him and scowled. He was always stating facts when they didn't really have anything to do with anything--like getting out of here and getting back to Cheena and rescuing her. 


"Yes," Mrs. Nott replied. "We're having a cookout and yard party for her and I know she thinks I am going to give it..."--she pointed to the jewel--"...to her for a birthday present because.......well, I just do. But now you've got to get going........" Suddenly she seemed to notice something. "What happened to your dog? Wasn't she with you when you left a few minutes ago? And what happened to your eye?" Mrs.  Nott looked like she might run in the house and get an ice pack for it, so Marianna jumped in.


"He's okay, he just got bitten by a black fly--he's like that, allergic to things. Maybe he ate something that he shouldn't have. Anyway, I want to know one more thing, really quickly and then we have to go."


"What?" Mrs. Nott looked as nervous and eager for them to leave, and Marianna felt the same way, but she couldn't help asking one more thing.


"How did you know about how we needed this?"--she held out her hand with the jewel in it. "I mean, how did you know about the BR---I mean, do you know it's a time machine? I mean--how?"


Mrs. Nott smiled at her quickly and then resumed her anxious expression.


"Okay. I'll make it quick and then we both have to go before Marianna  comes out. When I was eleven, right before my birthday I got this in the mail"--she pointed to the jewel--"I was out here--right here--and suddenly this" --she pointed at the BRATT--"appeared and a woman got out and told me that when I was all grown up sometime, two kids would appear and one of them would be named Marianna, and that I would have to give the jewel I had gotten in the mail for my birthday to them. And that she was from the future and jewel was from the past--something like that. Okay kids--good-bye!"


"Are you sure it was this--?"Marianna pointed at the BRATT.  It seemed impossible!


But Mrs. Nott was not answering. She was already striding quickly away from them toward the house.


"Yes!" She shouted back, not even turning around. Then she stopped and turned around said it once more so there was no question she meant it--yes! And then she turned and almost ran into the house.


Marianna turned to tell Tookie to get in the BRATT, but he had beaten her to it. He was in it already and at the controls. She jumped in after him and slammed the door. 


"Get out of my seat! I'm driving!" No one else was going to drive when she was on her way to get Cheena.

Chapter 6: The Mayans

What happened next, neither Marianna nor Tookie could say for sure. It all happened so quickly. Perhaps it happened because they were careless, or perhaps because they hadn't read the entire manuel, which cautioned against going into eras in which humans conducted sometimes-dangerous rituals. Either way, what happened was that they opened the door of the BRATT and were immediately grabbed and blindfolded by several, very strong people.

"Tookie!"

"I'm here!"

"Cheena?" She heard a whimper. "Don't hurt my dog!"

But it didn't seem as though they could understand her. Of course they couldn't. They were in South America, 8th century AD! Marianna could only guess that she was flipped over the shoulder of a large man, and she imagined Tookie was as well. Quickly, she tried to imagine what the natives could be thinking. They were a superstitious, ritualistic folk, so they probably thought Marianna and Tookie were aliens of sorts, or perhaps witches, or….was she stereotyping? Her teachers always told them not to do that.

Not too long after they were grabbed and taken away, Marianna felt herself being put down, and her blindfold was pulled off. She was inside a large building, a front hall of sorts, Tookie and Cheena with her, and a large group of Mayans staring at them, wide-eyed. One began to speak quickly to her, but she just shook her head and so did Tookie. The Mayans looked frantic, even scared.

"Tookie, what's happening? We need to talk to them. If we're going to get back to the BRATT, we need to."

"Wait, I think I still have…" And then Tookie took his iEverything out of his pocket. "Do you think this will work?"

The Mayans were staring at his small mobile, awestruck.

"It should. It's not like we use an internet connection anymore or anything."

Tookie began typing with his thumbs. "Translation…ancient Mayan translation….got it." He looked over at Marianna. "What do you want to say?"

It took them a good hour, but through careful translation and lots of images, a conversation much like this took place:

"Are you ones with jewel?"

"Jewel?"

"Violet jewel. Jewel to save the world."

"We are from the future. 2212. The world still exists."

"Yes, good. Then jewel must have been found. You have it?"

"No. But the world will not end."

"You don't understand. You are only alive because we got violet jewel."

"Marianna, Mrs. Nott's jewel. That pendant you were so darn fascinated with. It's purple."

"What did he say?"

"He said my ancestor from 2012--she has a violet jewel. But it may not be…"

"You must bring it to us. You came in ship. You will save us. You are a sign!"

"I don't think…"

"You must!"

Marianna's heat rose to her face. "Make me!"

One of the men grabbed Cheena and elf her in one arm and then held a knife to her throat. "You bring us violet jewel or this one dies."

Marianna froze. Her dog. Her pal. She couldn't let this happen. No matter how silly it sounded, she just couldn't.

"Marianna…"

"Tookie, they just want that pendant. Even if it's the wrong one they might let her go."

Tookie looked very serious now, more than ever, mostly because of his black eye and disheveled hair. "I can't believe what you've gotten us into. I just can't." He sighed loudly. "But if this is what we have to do, it's what we have to do." He looked her for a long time, his gaze penetrating. Was he going to cry?

The Mayan men led them back to the BRATT, the door of which was still open. They sat inside, feeling lonely without Cheena. Marianna was confident they would be back. They had to. She had to save Cheena. No other animal meant so much to her.

In a flash they were gone, heading back to 2012.

But waiting for them wasn't just Marianna-in-2012, but her mother, Mrs. Nott, with her purple pendant in hand.

Chapter Five--Coming or going

"Let's get out of here!" Tookie whispered in her ear five minutes later, and she quickly agreed, remembering the real time was getting shorter faster and if they didn't do some time-traveling soon it would run out. And yet she wanted to see that pendant again.

"How about right after dinner? I want to ask her mother about that jewel. Then we'll have to go somewhere to get the real time to stop so we'll have time to make plans on how we'll make use of the rest of the time. Mayan Calendar land, where ever that is--want to go there? I don't care." Marianna let herself look pleadingly at Tookie.

Tookie made his frog face and said okay. So next they sat down at the long table in the dining room, and she could see then that Mrs. Nott's pendant was purplish and set in a heart of silver. It was not so huge that it took attention away from the quick eyes of  Mrs. Nott, and not so small that it was ever quite unnoticed. It was just--perfect.

Tookie spoke up just when she was getting ready to ask about the pendant. It was then he made a big mistake.

"We can't stay long, we're supposed to get right back. But I wanted to meet Marianna, right Marrianna?"

But instead of looking at the other Marrianna, the one he was talking about, he looked at her, and instead of calling her "Bonny," like he was supposed to, he called her "Marianna." There was a little silence after he said it. The other Marianna looked over at him suddenly because she thought Tookie was talking to her.  She had been telling her mother about  the Mayan Calendar prediction for the end of the world, and Tookie had been listening intently, even while he appeared to be loading up on meatballs and spaghetti and corn on the cob and.watermelon. And ice cream. Marianna was always in awe of how someone Tookie's size and build could put away so much food.

When Tookie spoke, Mrs. Nott came to attention right on cue. Her response to Tookie was polite, predictable and standard. But Marianna could see something was going on in her head even while she spoke and looked perfectly normal.

"Sure, Ken, that's a good idea to let your parents know what's happening right away, any change of plans. Thank you for dropping by anyway, and when I call Billy tonight I'll tell him you came by."

Marianna noticed Mrs. Nott had a habit of touching the pendant when she was talking intently; almost absentmindedly. Marianna the daughter was talking again about the supposed end of the world.

"It's supposed to happen Mom! The Mayan Calendar says it--and these crazy people are going to kill themselves--it said so on the news!"

"Somehow I don't see that happening," said Mr. Nott, smiling ever so slightly.

"That's what she said too," said the other Marianna, looking at Marrianna. "But it could, you know. Anyone want to make a bet?"

Marianna and Tookie, pretending they were Bonny and Ken, burst out laughing after they both almost yelled "I do!!"

Supper went on until the ice cream--pistachio, Marianna's favorite, was all gone. She and Tookie did remember to say school instead of pod, so that was one good thing. Marrianna was on the verge of asking Mrs. Nott where the pendant came from several times, but somehow Tookie's and Marrianna's vocalizings about Mayans and mass suicides took over and she never did ask the questions she wanted.

 And then Tookie had said they had to go, and stood up, and made the mistake of calling her Marrianna instead of Bonny. It was an awkward moment for all, and after that, out of the corner of her eye Marrianna was aware that the other Marrianna's mother Mrs. Nott was watching her. She didn't get a chance to ask about the necklace because Tookie began saying things like didn't Mrs. Nott wish there was such a thing as a time machine so we could all fly back to the Mayan time and see where the prediction came from? She stifled a groan, wishing Tookie's sense of humor wasn't so dangerous.  She smiled at Mrs. Nott quickly and was struck by the serious expression she saw in the older woman's eyes. I t was as though she knew who Marrianna really was--not Bonny, not one of the twins, but herself, Marrianna Nott, her own daughter's namesake--her own upteen number of great great granddaughter..When they got ready to leave after helping to clear away the dishes and bring them out into the kitchen. Mrs. Nott turned to Marianna.

"My name is Rose," she said, extending her hand, and Marrianna took it, feeling a strange deja vu like she had never felt before--or had felt a million times before but couldn't quite remember.  "You may call me Rose. Please tell your mother that Billy will be back next Monday at 3 o'clock in the afternoon from camp, if you'd like to come again. Of course it's up to you if you and Marianna want to get together before then."

Mrs. Nott looked around at Tookie and Marianna talking loudly together about something, just exiting the front door.

The Notts, mother and daughter, watched them walk off up the street with Cheena--Cheena had to be rounded up twice and stopped from making friends with the gray cat--and then went back in the house and shut the door. In a flash Tookie gave the signal and all three of them, two kids and a cocker spaniel,  circled around back to behind the Nott's neighbors' hedges into the woods which stood behind the house and found their tent again and went inside. Any passing stranger would only have seen the woods, though looking out, Marrianna and Toonie could see everything. Once inside, Marianna couldn't help bursting out at Tookie:

"How did you know her last name?"

Tookie grinned and rolled his eyes and squinted and then said slowly, "It was on the mailbox"

"The what?"

"The mailbox...you know, in the old days people wrote messages to each other on real objects--usually pieces of paper--and got them to people by moving them through real space? Like in trucks and cars and planes?  Ask Andii--she's up on mailboxes--we learned that in second grade? There was a mailbox on the outside of the front door and I read it while she was talking to us asking us to come in--it said NOTT on it. So it was a good guess, right?

Marianna didn't know whether to laugh or scream at Tookie. She ended up grinning at him idiodically.

"It could have been something else!"

"So what? I would  have just apologized and said I forgot her name, sorry. We were just meeting her remember--I mean, the twins were supposed to be just meeting her then. I wonder what their real names are......."

"Bonny and KEN, Tookie--really?? I can see Bonny, but Ken makes me think of a barbie doll--a really, really old one too........" She began to giggle. Somehow they had escaped getting caught  and it was just sinking in.

Tookie was already in the BRATT again, twisting little valves around and watching screens light up.

"Where are we going?"

 "Teotihuacan, about 25 miles northeast of Mexico City, 8th century AD--then we can take our time once we get there, all we want, and won't have to keep counting real time to get back in time for supper."

"But what about the pendant? I wanted to look around and ask Mrs. Nott some questions about it. I mean...what happened to it, do you think? I mean, why wasn't something like that passed on, do you think....?" She must have conveyed some of the real disappointment she was feeling, because Tookie actually looked sympathetic for a second. Then he continued as usual in his customary montone.

"I don't know, and at this point I don't care. I told Marianna we'd be back in an hour or so and to meet us out here in the woods--I wanted to bring her something from Teotihuacan."  Tookie was trying to talk in a who cares sort of way, but Marianna could tell he liked the other Marianna. She just snorted

"Okay, let's go, Teotihuacan here we come" she said and took the passenger seat this time. Tookie was at the commands doing a take off of Captain Kirk..

Cheena bounded happily into her lap and Marianna leaned back with a sigh....what a day! As she did she glanced at the real time clock--1 hour and 45 minutes left, about. She couldn't wait to get to where they wouldn't have to keep making sure they were keeping track of real time. They could stay in Teotihuacan weeks, months, years if they wanted, and still get back home in time for supper in an hour and forty-five minutes....................starting NOW................!!

Chapter Four--Two Mariannas

Chapter 4

But before Marianna and Tookie could make any plans, they heard a low rumble from the other side of the house. Marianna felt the floor to make sure it wasn’t an earthquake, but nothing was moving; they just heard the crunch rumble crunch. And then it stopped. A few more quick loud sounds were heard, and then something finally sounded familiar: voices.
“Marianna, will you grab the milk from the back seat?”
Marianna stared at Tookie, wide-eyed. Tookie just raised an eyebrow and smirked. “What?” she said.
“You were named after someone.”
“What?”
“Marianna, who’s getting the milk from the whatever, is probably related to you, right?”
“I guess. I-I don’t know.” Marianna flushed. Why was she so embarrassed? Or was she nervous? “Let’s go see what that bagseet was.”
“Didn’t you want to learn about jewelry or something? We only have two and a half hours left.”
“I’ll get to it, don’t worry.”
Marianna and Tookie took Cheena and walked around to the front of the house. They stopped short and stared at the strange metal contraption they had only seen in history books.
“Tookie. I think that’s a car.”
Tookie tried his best not to look amazed. He took a step forward and tried to peer inside of it…from a distance. “Is the milk still in there, do you think?”
Suddenly, the front door of the house opened. Marianna and Tookie turned to see an older woman standing there with a faint confused smile. “Can I help you two?” Both were too shocked to say anything immediately, so the woman continued. “Are you the Frogman kids? The twins, right?”
Tookie looked at Marianna. “Uh, yeah….”
“Don’t be shy. Billy said you might stop by. He’s away at camp this week, but Marianna might want some company. I don’t think you’ve met her.”
And then Tookie did what Marianna least wanted him to do. He smiled broadly, relaxed his shoulders, and walked up the front steps. “No, we haven’t! But we would love to. I’m Ken and this is my sister Bonnie. Nice to meet you…Mrs. Nott.”
“Well, it’s nice to meet you too. Come on in. I’m about to start making dinner.”
Mrs. Nott opened the door and invited them in. But as Marianna walked by her, it wasn’t her kind smile and resemblance to her own mother she noticed; it was the gigantic pendant hanging from her neck.
Marianna felt chilled. She both wanted to run far away and grab the pendant straight from her neck. But instead she followed Tookie like a zombie. The house was laid out relatively the same way, and it wasn’t a surprise when they stopped in the living room. The TV was certainly a lot smaller than the ones she was used to; this one only took up half the wall.
“Marianna, this is Ken and Bonnie Frogman. Billy’s new friends he was talking about. Do you mind if they join you?”
Marianna from the future looked at the back of Marianna from 2012 and felt her stomach sink. This was her however-many-great grandmother.
But when Marianna-from-2012 turned around, Marianna was relieved to see that they didn’t look exactly alike, just how they would have in the movies. Of course they didn’t. They were 200 years apart. They looked similar, but not too similar.
“I’m just watching TV,” she said, shrugging, after glancing at them skeptically and then turning back around to face the TV. She flipped a few channels and then stopped at a news channel where an anchorwoman was reporting on a mass suicide.
“Wait,” Tookie said. “People are actually killing themselves? Why would they do that? Can’t they just…fix themselves?”
Marianna-from-2012 looked at him as if she were offended. “No, not all the time. Anyway, these are just stupid people who think the world’s going to end in December.”
“Really?” said Tookie, almost laughing.
“Yeah. I guess the Mayan calendar makes sense and all that. I don’t know. I don’t really care.”
“It won’t,” Marianna said. “Just trust me. It won’t end.”
When dinner was finally called, Marianna felt relieved. All she wanted to do was look at that pendant. And ask a million questions about it.

Chapter three Arrival in 2012

“It’s okay, it’s okay,it just said blend in, remember? We’ll be fine, we don’t need it.”
“Yeah yeah whatever,” Tookie leaned back and looked at her with grimaced lips and squinty eyes. He let out a strangled sigh and then said in his regular voice again, “it’s just that it would be nice to have something to go on.”

Suddenly Cheena barked and stared at the BRATT”s door. Tookie grinned.

“We’re here already—whereever here is. Where did you take us?

“I told you already—it’s still home, only its 200 years ago. My family has lived in our house forever—really!

Cool! Okay, do you have the tent? What about food? And real time?

Tookie always asked the most obvious questions like she didn’t know what she was doing, so Marianna gave him her worst look and wasn’t very tactful.

“Look, all that doesn’t matter, whatever you said—we’ll be back in time for supper. Three hours tops—real time, same here as at home. We both have done this in pod forever”

“Yeah but that was for education. This for-fun!” Tookie started to shake his head in that way that annoyed Marianna so much because it meant he was getting stubborn and was going to have to be convinced—and quick! Time was a-wasting! Meaning she wanted to leave now.

Tookie! Look! We can eat the natives' food…”

“The natives?” Tookie snorted and began to laugh.

“And we have an invisible tent , we just have to find a good place to pitch it.”

Marianna felt like she had to keep convincing him it was safe. Okay, it wasn’t natives it was ancestors, people in her family who lived only in stories and in the same house she lived in now. But also it was just cool, going on this trip in her new BRATT –her own!--for the first time.

Suddenly she felt very happy, like something good was going to happen. It had happened—it was happening! She was time-traveling and her parents weren’t there, just her best friend. And Cheena.

“Remember in fifth year we got sent in an old beat up BRATT back to see the real Julius Caesar and hear Marc Antony speak just because Beeger thought we should? And it didn’t even compact yet—it just dumped you there and pretty much you were on your own, just blend in? I wanted to see Hannibal Crossing the Alps….”

Tookie’s monotone was beginning to make Marrianna’s ears whistle.

“Stop! The time is going NOW and we have only three hours—let’s GO!” Marianna shouted at Tookie and he covered his ears.

Right on cue Cheena jumped up against the exit door, it opened, and they followed her out into the room—seemingly the same one they had just left—while the BRATT super compacted and stored itself in the closet, leaving just them and their tent in the middle of the room. The BRATT always determined the best time to leave you somewhere, a time when there would be no one around. That was true too this time.

“The house is empty, she said aloud, thinking Tookie was right behind her. Cheena was already heading for what was now the kitchen --but which was not the kitchen in 2012. It turned out to be a kind of library with all kinds of strange box-like metal things and wires coming out of them.

“Look! It’s old computers before they became houses."

She stared at the walls in amazement, fascinated in not finding screens anywhere, but instead pictures hanging everywhere.

But Tookie wasn't listening. he was sitting in a rocking chair, slowly making it go back and forth. It was the antique rocking chair!—only it looked new. It didn’t just look new , Marianna reminded herself—it was new.This was 201! It was mind-boggling.

“Come on! She shouted at him, knowing no one was around anyway—until she saw the cat, a gray cat slinking off into the bushes when it saw them coming through the back porch door out into the outside.. Cheena started to chase it but Tookie had her on a leash and dragged her after him instead. They ran out out od the kitchen (library?)door together and reached the garden and found a place to pitch the tent behind a great high lilac bush just where the woods started to thicken at the edge of the yard.

The tent was self-guiding and pretty much pitched itself in a matter of moments. They went inside it to make plans. from the outside no one should be able to distinguish their tent from the woods behind it, but from inside it Marianna and Tookie could see out in all directions. It maintained its own perfect temperature too 68 defree farenheit, no matter how hot or cold it got outside, hot or cold, rain or shine. It was reflexive too, adjusting itself to the needs of its inhabitants.

“Wasn’t this supposed to be cold? Didn't you say November or something? It feels and looks like July to me”

Marianna was day-dreaming. “Yeah,” she answered him slowly. “I just wanted to look around the house back in the old days in the summertime for a few minutes, before we do the November thing. It's strange--the garden looks almost exactly the way it does now at home--it is home I know, but I mean later. You know what I mean." It was easier to be in the past than to talk.

Chapter Two Take off

“What’d you say a brooch was?”

“I think it’s like a small metal thing that you put on your clothes? Wikipedia…”

“Why would you put metal things on your clothes?” Tookie snapped his gum. “That’s dangerous.” He kept snapping his gum and squinting his eyes at Marianna that she started to feel nervous and a little stupid.

“I don’t care about why. That’s not the point, okay?”

Tookie shook his head, leaned further back in the rocking chair, and then snapped his gum again. “How far back in this thing do you think I can go?”

“That’s dangerous. You shouldn’t even be sitting in that; it’s an antique.”

“Like everything else in this house.” He craned his neck around to survey the room.

Mariana stared at him, her best friend, her incredibly monotone and serious best friend, who Marianna would’ve assumed was a pedabot himself if he hadn’t had all that flesh and hair. He certainly had the personality of one. He and Andii got along just fine. Anyway, he always brought her a little down. But he also brought her a little rationality.

“So are you ready to go?” Marianna said.

“Oh. Right. Yeah. We can be back before dinner, right?”

“Sure,” she lied. As if she knew how long this was going to take. They would have to find some good disguises, and what if the climate was different? Would they need winter coats? Those don’t even exist anymore! And what if they somehow got separated? Would their chips be deactivated by going back in time? So many things could go wrong! But she had to do it. She HAD to!

They pulled the BRATT out of her closet and unfolded it. Tookie instantly grabbed the user manual and started reading all the cautions.

“Cheena!”

“They say you need to make sure you blend in.”

“Andii, where are you!?”

“And they say we shouldn’t say anything about the future, because that could mess everything up or something.”

“Can you put this collar on Cheena? I’m going to go tell my mom that we’re leaving.”

Tookie dropped the manual when he took the collar and stared at it and then the dog, back and forth. He sighed. “Fine.”

In no time at all, Marianna was back in the bedroom, with permission to leave and a backpack full of fuses. Cheena had tackled Tookie and they were wrestling on the floor. Marianna laughed and her heart grew because of the life she saw in Tookie. It was mind-boggling.

“Let’s go!” squealed Marianna, sitting in one of the two cramped seats. She slapped her leg and Cheena jumped up, though a little hesitantly. Tookie sat down in the other seat very casually, making sure to buckle his seatbelt. The BRATT company still hadn’t perfected the jostle problem. “Ready, Andii?”

Andii nodded and compacted herself into a very small version of herself, small enough to go in Marianna’s faux-wool jacket pocket. It was the closest thing she could find for a winter coat in her mother’s closet. It had to be cold in 2012!

Marianna snapped the BRATT door shut, put on the time traveling sunglasses that Tookie was already sporting, pressed the appropriate buttons, and then they were off in the dark with a bit of a jostle. And it was only two minutes into their journey that Tookie gasped and yelled out, “The manual!!”

Chapter One The question

It wasn’t that Marianna was greedy or selfish or anything—she wasn’t. She just wanted to know howcum everybody else had jewelry handed down to them from someone way back in their family and she didn’t. It just didn’t seem fair. So when she actually got what she really, REALLY wanted for her thirteenth birthday—the time machine everyone was getting—or hoping to anyway--the BRATT 3 (Be Ready for Awesome Time Travel, Model Three)—she knew exactly where she was going with it, and what she was going to try to find out. She was going to find out why no one ever, ever talked about jewelry in her family—rings, necklaces, brooches, you name it, nobody said a word about having any or giving her any or anything?

She ran into the word “brooch” in a real book once (her family had plenty of those) and asked her pedabot what one was, and Andii (her name for her pedabot) started to say “Archaic” and “fibula”—or something like that and then had a fuse blow or something. It was weird too, because usually pedabots never fused out on anything, especially when you were doing your homework. “No I didn’t do my homework, my bot fused out, sorry Mr. Beeger…” (her pod tutor)—I don’t think so!

So anyway, no one human was around that day, and when they finally trickled in, dad from his dig, and mom from her mediscript writing, and Barry excited about his new pod tutor, it turned out none of them had ever heard of a brooch—or a “fibula”—either. And then she didn’t know if they were pretending they didn’t know, or whether it was just a thing no one in the family knew about because no one in the family had ever had any—she was clueless.

—Or were they just keeping quiet—hiding something from her everyone else knew but she hadn’t been told yet?

Then mom fixed Andii, and Andii started downloading the Wikipedia on “brooch” and she learned a LOT. But it still didn’t answer all her questions.

WHY didn’t anyone in her family have any jewelry? Okay, Barry was only six, but what about the rest of them? All eight of her great grandparents were still alive and NOT ONE wore jewelry or talked about it or anything! It was just WEIRD.

So now she had the BRATT she was SO psyched!! Now she could go WAAYY back and maybe find out what had happened back there in her family (huge—you ought to see the reunions!!) that made it so she, Marianna Grady Nott, was not getting handed all these heirlooms and rings and pearls and diamonds and thingies that people her age were getting given by their relatives all the time!

And she was bringing Cheena (her dog) with her, no matter what too. And maybe, just maybe Andii too, because she really was an awesome bot as bots go. And plenty of fuses……….

And then her cell rang and it was Tookie. Tookie was thirteen too and kind of crazy, but he was her best friend. And she knew before she even picked up that he had to come too.