Return to 2009

The portal opened and the time-travelers found themselves on the top of the frozen hill, overlooking the graveyard. It was July 5, 2009 yet again. Norman saw his past self, talking with the Jessie of 2009. Though the conditions were different then he remembered, he smiled at the girl next to him, and she smiled back—down below, the moment they had met was taking place.
As they watched, Dr. Pea went around to a side compartment on the time-machine. Mandible spoke first. “It makes perfect sense to me that, in killing the first worm, you will negate the existence of all the worms that follow throughout history. But do you really think you’ll be able to kill this worm?” He was surprised as Dr. Pea quickly threw two small weapons to Jessie and Norman.
“Of course we will,” replied Dr. Pea, “Mandible, I trust you might remember what these are.”
“Naturally, Dr. Pea. The frozen museum of my day had several on display. Eraser-pistols…ah, and I see you have an eraser-cannon.” He gestured to the giant weapon Dr. Pea had around his neck, “but I must say, they’ll be perfectly useless against the worm. It is not of this planet, ergo it cannot simply be erased. Only natives of Dot are erasable. Surely, you, Dr. Pea, of all people—you, the knowledgeable scientist—would know this.”
“I had thought of it,” replied Dr. Pea, “but that’s not why I got these out.”
Dr. Pea raised his cannon, aiming it at Mandible. Jessie and Norman did the same with their pistols. Mandible raised his eyebrow.
“The worm doesn’t come through the portal for another 15 minutes. In that time, I would like to have some answers from you.”
Norman, holding his pistol, said, “Mandible, I had a dream last night. I dreamed of a worm passing us in the portal just before we entered 2939. I realized, however, that that wasn’t just a dream. It was a memory.”
“And it was something I’d overlooked,” said Dr. Pea, “I saw it too, but I thought maybe it was just a surge in the time-warp. But after you went back to sleep last night, Mandible, Norman woke Jessie and I and told us of the dream. It was only then that I remembered a small device that I had seen on my time-machine—a device I hadn’t put there.” He pulled out a small electronic device. “We know that you made a journey on the time-machine last night, Mandible. We knew it all along, even as you were trying to make us believe it was one of us.”
“What you missed, though,” said Norman, “was that it couldn’t have been someone during the night who transported the worm back to 1991. As I noticed when we came to 2939, my house was frozen exactly as we left it. But the worm had to have frozen Dot at the exact moment that we came into the future in order for Marcus and Martin to be frozen a few moments after we left them. Otherwise, time would not have yet been changed upon our arrival, and we wouldn’t have seen my house frozen exactly as it was before we left.”
“In other words,” said Dr. Pea, “time had already been changed once we arrived. If it had been one of us that transported the worm last night—or even if you had said it was you who had done it—none of us would have seen Martin and Marcus frozen in those positions the day before because 1991 had not yet been affected.”
“My, you all did a lot of thinking last night, didn’t you?” said Mandible in an amused voice, “Alright, you’ve seen right through me.”
“Would you care to explain what’s going on?” said Dr. Pea, holding up the electronic device, his cannon still aimed steadily at Mandible.
Mandible looked around at the eraser-guns, and then smiled. “Not at all. That device you are holding, Dr. Pea, is a time-tracer. I put it on your time-machine when you first visited 2939 on your own. It enabled me to know where you were in time, and if you were coming back.”
“But why did you try to get us to suspect one another?” asked Jessie, “You didn’t do a very good job of destroying our trust of each other, but it still begs the question of why?”
Mandible looked at Jessie and hissed, “Because I despisssssse you!”
The third eye in the center of his forehead quickly glanced towards the graveyard. The others followed its gaze as the portal opened. Norman watched as a second Mr. Burton came running out of the time-warp with the worm snapping only inches behind him. Mr. Burton 2 ushered Jessie, Norman, Marcus and the original Mr. Burton onto the first time-machine and into a second portal. The worm was left in the middle of the graveyard with the second time-machine, bewildered at their sudden disappearance.
Suddenly, it turned towards the hill and snarled at the sight of the four. Norman turned to Dr. Pea and Jessie in horror, but was just as shocked to see Mandible standing with his arms stretched up towards the worm. His eyes were closed, but the third eye stared intently at the worm. Norman hesitated in turning back to face the graveyard, petrified with the fear that the worm was watching them. He heard a sound behind him and was sure it was no longer amidst the icy gravestones.
It was approaching.