“Okay, okay! TMI!” shouted the kids as they rushed to the bathroom.
When they got back, Luke, Isabel, David, and Julia took their places in front of the Board. It was 10:15 a.m. Mrs. Vader took David’s timer and set it for 120 minutes—two hours.
“Exactly two hours from now, at 12:15, I need you four to be outside the Porta Marino gate at Pompeii,” Miss Z instructed the team. “Do you remember where it is? That’s the same spot where we landed the first time.”
“We’ll be there,” Luke said. “We promise.”
Mrs. Vader woke up the computer and turned on the Board to warm it up.
“One last thing,” Miss Z told the group. “I know you kids. You like to fix things. You may very well feel a desire to right a wrong, to prevent a death, or change history in some way. When we see a stranger about to walk into the path of a moving car, we reach out and pull them back. It’s human nature. That’s the way our brains are wired. And it’s a good thing. That’s probably why our civilization has survived. But your job here is not to do good deeds. Your job is to take a photograph. You are photojournalists. Do you understand?”
“We understand.”
“Any people you interact with in Pompeii are almost certainly going to die. Do not become friends with them. Do not become emotionally attached to them. And by all means, do not try to rescue them. Got it?”
“Got it,” said David. “We promise to be totally cold and heartless.”
“Okay, let’s get this show on the road,” Luke said.
By this time, the Flashback Four had become accustomed to the way the Board worked. They no longer needed to be told to brace themselves, or to close their eyes. They knew the routine.
So do you.
Miss Z cranked up the Board. It did its thing.
In seconds, the kids were gone.
CHAPTER 9A NEW OLD CITY
THE FLASHBACK FOUR TUMBLED TO THE GROUND ten feet outside the Porta Marina gate, frightening a couple of goats that had been lolling around in the dirt. Luckily, there were no human beings standing nearby to ask the kids who they were and how they got there.
“Is everybody in one piece?” Luke asked as he stood up and dusted himself off. “Looks like we made it safe and sound.”
“Okay, this is the meeting spot,” Isabel reminded the others. “If we get separated for any reason, we’ll meet up again right here to get back home.”
David took out the timer. The screen read 119 minutes, and it was counting down by seconds.
“We’ve got two hours,” he told the others. “Plenty of time to scope out the town and find the perfect location to take the picture. Let’s go.”
“First I should let Miss Z know we arrived safely,” Isabel said, pulling the TTT out of her pocket. She typed into the device. . . .
WE R HERE
Soon, a reply came back. . . .
FANTASTIC! KEEP ME POSTED.
It was hot out, close to ninety-five degrees. Luke was already sweating. He wiped his forehead with his sleeve and checked the camera. Everything seemed to be in working order.
The Flashback Four were ready to get to work.
Before walking through the entrance to the city, the kids turned around to get a good look at the main attraction—Mount Vesuvius. It looked very different than it had the first time they visited. It was much higher now. The top of the mountain hadn’t blown off yet.
“In two hours, it’s going to erupt, and all that rock is going to go flying,” David said. “Less than twenty-four hours from now, the people who are still inside these walls are going to be dead.”
It was a sobering thought. Those plaster casts they had seen on the first trip were the same people who were walking around Pompeii right now.
“Don’t even think about it, dude,” Luke told David. “It’s out of our hands. We can’t save them.”
“This time, I’m just worried about saving myself,” said Julia.
GOING THROUGH PORTA MARINA GATE, Isabel typed into the TTT.
There were no iron gates, pizza parlors, or souvenir sellers this time. Instead, there was one burly guard wearing a helmet and armor and holding a sword. He looked the kids over as they passed by, but didn’t stop them or say anything. People seemed to be allowed to move freely in and out of the city. Or maybe the guards just didn’t hassle kids.
As they walked through the gate, the Flashback Four stopped in their tracks. Pompeii looked familiar, but very different. The ruins weren’t . . . ruined. The buildings were taller, newer, more colorful, and they had roofs on them. This time, everything was alive.
Pompeii was a bustling port city, buzzing with activity. The harbor was just a quarter of a mile away. The kids instantly recognized the main road they had walked down previously, Via dell’Abbondanza, even though there were no street signs. But this time it wasn’t filled with blue-jeaned, baseball-capped, picture-snapping tourists who would be going back to their air-conditioned hotel rooms that night. The people on the street actually lived and worked in Pompeii.
There were shoemakers, bakers, greengrocers, weavers, gem cutters, and barbers. There were mat makers, ointment sellers, and chicken keepers. All over the street, people were hawking stuff from stores and makeshift stalls. Many were selling and buying garum, a fish sauce that was considered a specialty of Pompeii. Merchants rushed around carrying their wares in baskets, carts, and jugs. Many had the help of donkeys, mules, and horses. You could buy just about anything here, from Far East spices to an African monkey.
There were lots of nice smells in the air—bread, olive oil, grapes, and roses from perfume makers. Fish frying. Oh, and a whiff of urine.
It was great people-watching. A group of men were kneeling down, playing a dice game. Street mimes acted out stories, trying to attract an audience that might throw them a coin or two. A musician played a lyre—a small harp that looks
