Matt went over to her and saw that she was looking at a book. It was Matt’s book that Pike had been reading, the one about famous inventors his parents had given him on his birthday.
Jia looked up at him. Her eyes were so incredibly sad, Matt felt his heart squeeze inside his chest.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “About Pike. I wish there was something I could do.”
Jia looked back down at the book. “I was supposed to take care of her,” she said, her voice a bit raspy. “I was the one to find her first on the Vermillion. Did you know that?”
Matt shook his head. He remembered Jia telling him once that Pike had been found in the Vermillion’s food pantries, eating a pile of sugar.
“Captain Vincent didn’t want her to stay at first,” Jia said, “but I convinced him because I thought she was so sweet-looking and we couldn’t figure out where or when she had come from. I couldn’t bear the thought of her being discarded and all alone in the world.”
“I’m sorry I couldn’t stop her,” Matt said. “By the time I saw her leap across I’d already turned the dials, and we just had to get away from Vincent. If you had seen what he was doing to my dad . . .”
Jia shook her head. “It’s not your fault,” Jia said. “I should have done something sooner, said something . . .”
“What do you mean?”
Jia looked at Matt. He’d never seen her look so serious. She opened her mouth. Matt knew she was about to tell him something important, but they were interrupted by a loud thumping.
“Hey, what’s that sound?” Ruby asked.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
It sounded like someone was pounding on a door.
“It’s coming from over there,” Corey said, pointing to the other end of the ship. They all moved in that direction. Mrs. Hudson drew her sword and took the lead, shepherding her children behind her.
The thumping grew louder. Then a muffled voice could be heard.
“Hello? Help!”
“There!” Ruby said, pointing to a small boat turned upside down on the deck of the ship. Someone had to be underneath it.
“Another stowaway?” Uncle Chuck said.
“Maybe Brocco or Wiley got caught on Blossom like Albert,” Jia said.
“Careful,” Mrs. Hudson said. “It could be a trap. Matthew, Charles, lift it up, please.”
Mr. Hudson and Uncle Chuck both stepped forward and lifted the boat. A man crawled out.
“Phew,” he said, sitting up. “Thanks, I thought I was maybe going to die in there, and before that I thought I was going to die out there.” He pointed to the water, then looked around and seemed to realize he was not wherever he had been before. Then he looked at Mrs. Hudson’s sword pointed at him. “And I guess maybe I’m still going to die?”
It was not Brocco or Wiley. Matt didn’t know this man, and yet he looked familiar. He just couldn’t think why.
Someone gasped. Gaga stumbled forward. “Henry?”
And then it clicked in Matt’s brain. This was Henry Hudson, his long-lost grandfather.
7New-Old Family and New New York
Matt was trying to understand what was going on. Henry Hudson was on Blossom. Henry Hudson, his dad’s dad, who had been discarded by Captain Vincent in the Hudson Bay in 1611. Somehow, in all the chaos, Matt must have traveled there and picked him up. He remembered the lone man in a boat, how they’d crashed into him during their time chase with Vincent. That must have been his grandfather, Henry Hudson. Somehow, they’d pulled him along with them.
Henry Hudson looked a lot like Matthew Hudson, except with a beard and no glasses. They were about the same age, which meant he’d just been catapulted roughly forty years into his future.
“Henry, is that really you?” Gaga said.
Henry squinted at Gaga and then his eyes went wide. “Gloria?”
Gaga’s face went from pale green to just plain green. She swayed on the spot. Matt thought she might faint, but then she stumbled to the side of the boat, leaned over, and vomited in the water. Mr. Hudson went to her and patted her on the back. Mrs. Hudson handed her a handkerchief. Gaga took it and wiped her face, then turned back around to face her husband, who she believed had died decades earlier.
Henry stumbled to his feet. His clothes were definitely from the 1980s. “Gloria, is that really you? I don’t understand. You’re so . . . you’re so . . .”
“Old?” Gaga supplied.
“Yeah . . . I mean older. And still beautiful. I mean . . . How long have I been gone?”
“That depends on who you ask,” Uncle Chuck said.
Henry cocked his head at Uncle Chuck, studying him. “You look like my great-uncle Bill.”
“I’m sure that’s a great compliment,” Uncle Chuck said.
“Will someone please tell me what’s going on?” Gaga said. “Have I gone completely crazy? Or are we all dead? We’re dead, aren’t we? And this is”—she looked all around—“some strange in-between place.”
“No, Mom,” Mr. Hudson said. “You’re not crazy, and you’re not dead. I can explain.”
“Wait, Mom?” Henry said. “Hang on. You’re not Matty, are you?”
“Yeah . . . hi, Dad.”
“Boy, time really does fly.”
“Somebody tell me what is going on right now!” Gaga shrieked.
“I will!” Mr. Hudson said. “I just . . . I’m not sure where to begin.”
“How about at the beginning,” Henry said.
Mr. Hudson laughed. “Which one?”
“Oh, come on,” Corey blurted. “It’s not that hard.” He turned to Gaga and Henry. “Listen up. We’re time travelers, okay? Our whole family. Matt invented a time-traveling compass, our mom is three hundred years old, and we’re being chased by a bunch of time pirates, one in particular named Captain Vincent. He’s the maniac who abducted us before. And he’s Charles, your son and our uncle.” He pointed at Uncle Chuck.
Gaga’s mouth opened, but no words came out. She looked at Mr. Hudson, and then Mrs. Hudson, and finally Uncle Chuck. She stared at him long and hard. “Charles. You’re . . . Charles?”
“Charlie?” Henry said.
“We call him Uncle Chuck,” Corey said. “It just sounds better.”
“Chuck . . . Charles,” Gaga said, still staring at her long-lost
