PAUL CHARM turned away from the window in his Brooklyn apartment and looked into the space that didn’t quite feel like home; a loft apartment a few blocks away from Tom Jenkins’s American Heritage Theater where he worked. He thought replacing the air mattress (which he thought was an amazing invention) with a real bed could be a step in the right direction.
It had been just over a month since he Translocated from 1945 Chicago to 2024 St. Louis and less than 2 weeks since reaching NYC. It was far too soon to consider the other Time Travelers friends, though he figured something akin to that would develop over time. They were all around 10 years younger than him by time walking under the sun. Most were MUCH younger when he considered the actual year of birth—all except 20 y/o Emma who was born in 1861.
When he looked out his window, he could just barely see the windows of the apartments above the theater. There was a glow from within; Christmas lights he guessed.
From Paul’s point of view, the Christmas before had been Dec. 25, 1944 and he was in the RAF waiting for Santa in the barracks of an airbase. He and his buddies sat around the Marconi radio listening to Forces Radio and swapping dreams for after the war. It was 80 years later—for Paul, 12 months had passed—and thousands of miles away. He was in a city surrounded by millions of people, but he was alone.
REBECCA FLINT stopped her Fat Boy and put down her feet. It was Christmas Eve and she had just finished what she had come to think of as a patrol lap. She had it in her head that she needed to keep an eye out on behalf of the Time Travelers living in the Leading Edge Brooklyn Moment. That’s where The New Order had dumped her. She didn’t know what she was keeping an eye out for, but she guessed she’d know it if she saw it.
She had Translocated out of 1952 at the age of 30. The days and weeks or months sort of got lost as she bounced around doing work for The New Order, but when her will to do their work was tapped out, they Translocated her to December 8, 2024. She was counting all the time-travel as a year, so that made her 31. She’d probably say she was 29 as a matter of principle.
Her last Christmas had been in 1951, and she had spent it with her brother and his girlfriend. This one, she would spend alone.
She looked down the alley toward the building where another Translocator, Paul Charm, lived. She’d be keeping an eye out on behalf of him, too. Just in case The New Order objected to what The Agency was trying to do.
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