“Then gather together in a group right over here,” Maloney said. “That’s what your lady friend told me to tell you. Hurry up. There ain’t a lot of time.”
Isabel, David, and Luke rushed to form a group, throwing their arms over each other’s shoulders like football players in a huddle. Julia just stood without moving, as if she couldn’t decide whether or not to join the group.
“What’s the matter, Julia?” asked Isabel.
“Oh, I don’t know,” Julia replied. “I was thinking that I could do pretty well starting over again in 1912. Everything is a lot less expensive here.”
“You have to come back with us!” Isabel shouted.
“Why?” Julia asked defensively. “If I stay here and live the rest of my life starting now, I’ll know lots of stuff in advance that nobody else here knows. Think about it. I’ll be able to predict who’s going to win the presidential elections. I could make a fortune on the stock market because I’ll know which companies, like McDonald’s, are going to become huge. And if all else fails, I could invent the zipper.”
“What’s a zipper?” asked Thomas Maloney.
“See?” said Julia. “He has no idea what a zipper is!”
“Are you crazy?” Luke asked. “Forget about that zipper idea! This isn’t a game. This is your life!”
“What about your parents?” asked Isabel. “Your friends? You’re willing to give up the people you love just to make some money in 1912?”
Julia shrugged. She didn’t have a great relationship with her parents, even though they had given her everything she ever desired. And to Julia, friends were disposable. She could always make new ones. She was good at that. And being pretty didn’t hurt, no matter what century you live in.
The other three members of the Flashback Four held on to each other tightly.
“We’ll miss you,” Luke said. “Are you sure you don’t want to come back home with us?”
“Think about it, Julia,” Isabel told her. “It’s 1912. They have no designer clothes in 1912. No malls. No credit cards . . .”
“I don’t care about those things,” Julia said.
“Horses pooped all over the street,” Luke added. “Remember that.”
“You better make up your mind fast,” Mr. Maloney told Julia. “That wheelchair lady is gonna blast your friends outta here any second.”
“No cell phones,” added David.
Julia looked up.
“No cell phones?” she asked. “No selfies?”
“No Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, either,” David told her. “No social media.”
“No internet,” added Isabel.
“If you live to be a hundred years old,” Luke told Julia, “you might make it to the year 2000. That’s when the whole selfie thing started.”
Julia thought about it for a moment, and then rushed over to join the rest of the Flashback Four.
“Okay, okay!” she said, throwing her arms around their shoulders. “I’m in.”
“One for all and all for one!” hollered Luke.
“Oh, one last thing before you go,” said Mr. Maloney. “For everything you put me through, I should get some extra compensation, don’t you think?”
“Compensation? What’s that?” asked Isabel.
“He wants to be paid again,” Luke explained.
“Forget it!” Julia yelled. “That’s extortion! I already gave you a thousand dollars, for nothing!”
At that moment, a crackling sound filled the air. Isabel, Luke, David, and Julia stopped moving, as if they had been gripped by a powerful invisible force.
“What’s happening?” asked Isabel.
“She’s bringing us back,” Julia whispered.
Indeed, she was.
Like I said, it’s a complicated process, so I’m not going to bore you with the technological details. Suffice it to say, Miss Z activated the Board. Five multicolor bands flashed on it. They merged into one bright white light, and a few seconds later the Board began to pull the Flashback Four in, atom by atom. Molecule by molecule. The kids were flickering in the air now. They were being digitally uploaded from one century to the next.
Just as they were about to disappear, Luke called out to Mr. Maloney. “Oh, by the way,” he said. “Have fun trying to spend any of that twenty-first-century money here in 1912. It hasn’t been printed yet. They’ll just think it’s counterfeit.”
“Hey! What the—” Maloney shouted.
“So long, sucker!” yelled David.
And then they vanished.
CHAPTER 4THE END OF THE FLASHBACK FOUR
IN BOSTON, MISS Z STARED AT THE BOARD intently. There were so many things that could go wrong with the technology, not to mention the human factor. And Thomas Maloney was a wild card. There was nothing to stop him from just taking the money and running as soon as he arrived back in 1912.
“This better work,” Mrs. Vader said quietly.
“If it doesn’t, my life is over,” said Miss Z, her sweaty hands clutching the armrests of her wheelchair.
The screen suddenly lit up. Within a few seconds the bands of color fused together into one hot, white light.
“I think it’s happening!” Mrs. Vader said excitedly.
“Let’s hope we didn’t scoop up that Maloney guy again,” said Miss Z. “Or some total stranger.”
The light crackled and jumped off the Board a few feet like tiny bolts of lightning. A humming sound filled the room, and a coffee cup vibrated on Miss Z’s desk.
“Here we come!” shouted the voice of Isabel, holding hands tightly with David and Julia.
The Board was flashing like a strobe light, with bits and pieces of the Flashback Four appearing in two centuries at the same time. Miss Z and Mrs. Vader shielded their eyes.
And then, in an explosion of light, Luke, Isabel, Julia, and David appeared in the flesh a few feet in front of the Board. They fell into the room, coughing and stumbling, grabbing on to each other for support. Luke got down on the floor and kissed it, then jumped back up to hug his friends.
“We’re back, baby!” David said. “I never thought I’d live to see this place again.”
Across the room, Miss Z and Mrs. Vader were tearfully hugging each other, nearly collapsing with relief.
To the Flashback Four, Miss Z seemed older than she had been just a few days earlier. She looked grayer, more haggard. The sparkle that had been in her eyes seemed to be gone. She hadn’t slept in
