Bab 9: Unbelievable
Rosalind noticed her siblings savoring being taken care of by their mother again and wanted to do the same but was guarded. This was too good to be true.
Her feeling intensified when Izzy began questioning them after dinner. "So... when are you guys from exactly?"
"I thought you didn't believe we were from the future," Edison said in a tone of vague surprise.
"Let's say I'm humoring you for now. I need more information before I can come to a conclusion. What you've told me is impossible, after all."
"2038," Rosalind answered simply.
Izzy made a thoughtful noise before continuing her interrogation. "Twenty years from now, huh...what's it like then? Has technology advanced a lot?"
"Almost everything is run with AI-compatible devices. Cars don't use combustion engines anymore unless people have a permit for it because they're considered classics. Plastic has been banned too."
She blinked in surprise at that. "Plastic is banned?"
"It's bad for the environment," Edison piped up. "Dad and some people working under him mass produced a cheaper biodegradable alternative that did all the same things."
That had happened before Rosalind was born. Once it was available to virtually everyone, environmental groups petitioned the government to ban plastic until they caved a few years later. It was basic history any school child would know.
"Your dad. Julian Shea?" Izzy clarified. She pulled out her phone—an ancient model now on display in museums—and showed them a picture from a webpage about their father. "Is this him?"
Rosalind scrutinized the picture. He was much younger and more expressionless but she recognized the look in his eyes. Dead and devoid of all hope. That was how he looked before desperately throwing himself into building the time machine after his wife's death.
"That's him alright."
Izzy rubbed her forehead as she put her phone down. "Can you prove it? You don't come across as liars to me but you have to realize your story sounds nuts."
Was she wavering? It seemed like she wasn't trying to get more information to report them. She gave off the impression of genuinely wanting to help, which lined up with the woman Rosalind knew and loved.
"That he's our father or that we're from the future?"
"Either. Both. I don't know! Give me something I can work with here," she pleaded.
Something she could work with...did Rosalind know anything about 2018 specifically from her history classes that she could work with that hadn't happened yet? She wracked her brains. 2018 wasn't exactly a historically significant year.
"All I can think of is a DNA test," she sighed.
Izzy frowned. "I don't have money for one of those and we wouldn't be able to get a hold of his DNA, only mine."
"Can't you act as though you believe us without one?"
Her eyes gleamed with amusement. "And what would that entail exactly?"
"Not reporting us to any child welfare people, letting us stay here, and helping us meet with our dad. He's the only person I can think of who can fix this thing since he made it in the first place," Rosalind told her bluntly. "Can you do that?"
"I was planning on doing the first two for the time being anyway...but you do realize that someone like Julian Shea will be almost impossible to corner. Who says he'll even help you if you make contact with him?"
Oh, he would help. He wouldn't be able to resist getting his hands on never-before-seen tech. Her father loved his toys...or he had before he lost his mind.
"Trust me. As soon as he sees this, he'll want to take a crack at it."
Izzy looked like she wanted to argue but chose not to. "That doesn't change the fact we'll never be able to get a hold of him. I hope you realize that. Normal people can't meet with public figures so easily."
"But Daddy loves you!" Nora protested. "He wants to see you."
Edison sighed. "Nora, Dad doesn't love her yet. They haven't even met at this point. He has no reason to want to see her or any of us."
"...I think that guy being in love with me is even more unbelievable than time travel," Izzy said skeptically.
Rosalind couldn't hold back a snort. His deep, abiding love for her was the reason any of this happened. From her perspective, it was the most believable part of all this.
Julian loved Izzy more than anything in the world. Even when he got caught up in his projects, he always came out of his lab the moment she called for him and excitedly told her what was going on. She was the only person allowed inside it as well. She would bounce story ideas off of him or ask for random science facts to use as he worked.
If there had ever been a time Rosalind couldn't find either of her parents, that was the first place she would look. She would stand in the doorway and see her mother sitting on the edge of a lab table leaning close to see what her husband was working on as he smiled softly at her before announcing herself.
"Well, he does. More than he loves us," Edison muttered bitterly.
"Ed," Rosalind said as she silenced him with a look. They weren't allowed to talk badly about him in front of Izzy or she might not fall in love with him later. Then none of them would be born.
Of course, she caught on to that and frowned. "Why do you say that?"
"He didn't mean anything by it. Anyway, we need to come up with a plan to meet with our dad. Are you going to help us or not?"
Izzy pursed her lips. "I want to help you but I honestly have no idea how to go about this. I would need to know more about his habits to come up with anything."
That was something they could take care of. Without school or any other responsibilities in the way, they would have nothing but time. Nora had already proved her worth as a spy so they could figure out how to follow Julian.
"We can get on that while you're at work tomorrow. What's your schedule?" Rosalind asked.
"I work 10:30-8 so if you're starting your surveillance before then, I can drop you off."
She was going to have to because she needed to be there when her father first got to work in order to get a proper handle on the situation. She would need to follow him home from work as well to find out where he was living.
This would be much easier if they had tech from back home. Tech from back home! They still had his cell phone, didn't they?
Rosalind turned to her brother eagerly. "Ed, where's Dad's phone?"
His eyes widened with understanding as he pulled it out of his pocket. "It's right here."
Izzy peered at it in disbelief. "That's a phone?! You didn't mention having future tech. I thought you said you didn't have any proof!"
"...I forgot."
The phone was a circle roughly half the size of her relic. Everything could be pulled up on a holographic screen so it didn't matter how small the phone's screen was.
As Rosalind tapped on it to make the hologram appear, her mother's eyes were as wide as saucers. She wanted proof, she could show proof.
She had to check fairly far back in her father's photo files hidden away in the unlimited storage so she did a date-specific search. What she needed were wedding photos where the two of them looked more like they did now.
"Gotcha!" she cried triumphantly once she had it.
Izzy was visibly taken aback. "That's me!"
"We told you," Edison said plainly. "Do you believe us now?"
She was wearing a sleeveless wedding dress with a simple flower crown and was beaming up at her equally smiley husband in the picture. It was impossible to doubt their love for each other since it practically oozed out of them.
She slumped back in her chair and cursed under her breath. "Unbelievable. Absolutely unbelievable. I marry someone famous. Me! And time travel actually exists!! I don't understand how any of this happened!"
Rosalind felt a bit sorry for her. It would be a lot to take in at once. How could she explain this without mentioning the murder? That would likely make things worse.
Izzy took a few minutes to collect herself before speaking again. "Okay, this proves that I marry Julian Shea but not that I'm your mother."
That was a simple fix. Scrolling through more pictures of the two of them subtly aging until she found one with the whole Shea family taken not long before she died would do it.
And just like that, Izzy was gone again clutching her head and mumbling to herself. "Three kids. I have three kids! Hang on, I died! What happened? Is that why you're here?!"
Rosalind and Edison exchanged a glance and had a silent conversation discussing how much to disclose. She mouthed "I'll take this one" at him and he nodded unhappily but didn't stop her.
"Dad couldn't live without you," she said reluctantly. "So he built a time machine and intended to go back himself to prevent it from happening but there was a lab accident and we ended up going back in time instead. It broke and sent us too far back so here we are."
She held up her wrist for emphasis. "This is it. I tried programming it but either I did it wrong or this thing only goes backwards since it's broken. We need to fix it so we can go home."
That was the minimal amount of detail she could give while being honest. Speaking badly of Julian wouldn't bode well for his future relationship.
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