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Time Machine

In the gloomy estate by the bone yard, lived Tobin Jae and her twin brother Jude Alexander Wallen. Tobin was a tall, quiet, sylphlike tomboy, Tobin was always on guard, because she had to watch out for Jude, the daydreamer.

Tobin and Jude lived in Austria with their Aunt Lizah and Uncle Ludolf, because their mother had died giving birth to them, and their father had been drafted. Their father, Jarman, had been hand-picked by Adolf Hitler, to be a Nazi. At first Jarman was glad to help,but he quickly changed his mind when he saw the torture and torment that the Nazis caused.

Tobin hated Aunt Lizah and Uncle Ludolf, but they were the only other relatives to go to, because her fathers brother, Erwin and his wife Viveka had moved to America 19 years after the Great War. There was no time to wait for a reply from Uncle Erwin and Aunt Viveka.

“When do you think we'll get a letter from vater or Gunter?” Jude would ask.

Jude was 10 minutes older than Tobin, but he acted 10 years younger than Tobin.

“I don't know. Gunter doesn't even know he's fighting against vater yet, I'll bet.”

Gunter was Tobin and Jude`s older brother.  Gunter was seventeen and a half, five years older than his little brother and sister. He had moved to America to join Uncle Erwin and Aunt Viveka when the twins were two and a half. Since he was old enough, he had joined the army, the U.S. Army.

“ Tobin Jae, Jude Alexander Wallen!” screamed Aunt Lizah from the balcony window.

“What did those punks do now?” moaned Tobin.

The 'punks' Tobin was referring to  was Lizah and Ludolf`s 4 boys. They were the same age as Tobin and Jude, but ever since Tobin and Jude had moved in, they had done nothing but mischief and blamed it on the twins.

“You come here when you are called,” scolded Aunt Lizah when Tobin and Jude had finally come inside.

“What are you gonna do now?” asked Tobin “Box us in the ears?”

Jude looked at her wide-eyed and open-jawed, but Tobin didn't care. She was what Aunt Lizah called a smart-mouth or smart alack. She would pop off to  just about anybody, only to be rewarded with either an ear-boxing or a swishing. She never cried which made the adults just try harder.

“You watch your mouth young lady.” said Uncle Ludolf as he carried his big round belly into the room

“Go get something clean on, both of you.” said Aunt Lizah with disgust as she shooed the twins to their rooms to change. “Sometimes I wish we hadn't kicked Heidi out.” Aunt Lizah would say

“Me too, dear. Me too” her husband would reply

Heidi was the twins “mother”, also a very good friend of their late mother. She had taken care of the twins ever since they were born. She treated them like her own children, since she had lost her own child in birth. Heidi chose to be a “mother” because she loved children and her husband had died in a car accident, so she had no one to go home to after a long day of work. But, unfortunately Lizah and Ludolf kicked Heidi out of the house (against the twins wishes) after they had been living there for 6 months.

When the twins came down in fresh clothes, Aunt Lizah and Uncle Ludolf led them to the parlor. Once in the parlor, Uncle Ludolf shut the door, in the faces of his four boys, then sat down next to his wife.

“We just received a letter from Gunter.” said Aunt Lizah as she handed an open envelope with a piece of paper tucked in side, to Tobin, “ And ..” Aunt Lizah paused “a telegram..” She paused again, “ about your father.”

Her face looked sullen, and the room was deadly silent. Tobin calmly took the envelope and telegram from her aunt's trembling hands, though in side she wasn't calm at all.

“What about vater? What happened? Is he dead? Will we ever see him again? What about Gunter? Does he know he's fighting against vater? Is he okay?” these thoughts raced around in Tobin's head as she pulled out Gunter's letter and unfolded it...

This is what the letter said:


                                                                                                                         Sunday August 5, 1942

Dear Tobin and Jude,
I got your letter about vater. Has he written you again yet? Do you know if he's alright? Are you alright? Sorry I'm asking all these questions. I'm just worried. I'm coming to visit you for a little while. I got shot in the leg and am not useful till it heals, so they are letting me visit you. I will be there on Thursday. Then I can see you again (finally). I hope vater is alright, I'm sure you do too.

Love,
Your big bruder,
Gunter

It was Gunter's somewhat neat and simple handwriting.

“Did he get a telegram about vater?” Jude wondered. He was about to ask Tobin to read the telegram, when she thrust it into his hands.

“Read it.”

“Tobin?” Jude wondered “My tough, tomboy sister scared? Impossible.” but he opened the telegram and read it out loud...


    THE GERMAN ARMY REGRETS TO INFORM TO YOU THAT YOUR FATHER
  JARMAN WALLEN HAS BEEN CRITICALLY DISABLED STOP WE WILL SUPPLY MORE DETAILS WHEN POSSIBLE STOP

The room was silent. No one talked, no one moved, for what felt like 10 billion years, even though it was only 10 minutes. Uncle Ludolf broke the deadly silence

“Well, it's Tuesday, so Gunter will be here in one day. We had better get things ready.” Uncle Ludolf had a thing fro trying to cheer everyone up in hard times. Tobin liked that about him, because it was sorely needed right now.

“Tobin,” started Aunt Lizah in a shaky voice, “I'm sorry. About your vater.”

Tobin nodded, her father was Aunt Lizah's little brother.

“It's okay. He'll get through it. I know he will.”

So, everyone left the parlor to get things ready for Gunter's visit...

“Hello, Aunt Lizah.” said Gunter as he put his gunnysack down on the floor.

“Gunter!” cried Aunt Lizah as she rushed over to hug her nephew.

“Where are they?” asked Gunter asked his aunt

“Their out there.”  she answered, pointing towards the cemetery

“Thanks.” said Gunter as he limped out of the house to the bone yard to find his little brother and sister.

Gunter spotted a dusty-blond haired, sky blue-eyed suntanned boy next to a a dark brown, practically black, haired, and green-blue-eyed, also suntanned girl, siting on the biggest tomb stone in the cemetery. They looked serious, all most like little adults, not like the playful children they should be.

“I wonder if Tob is still into her little pranks. I'm sure I'll find out sooner or later.” muttered Gunter to himself as he limped towards the tomb stone monkeys

“Your never gonna be able to climb with us now.” was the very first thing Tobin said to her big brother, when he approached

“Tobin!” cried Jude, surprised his sister didn't even say 'hi', before mouthing off.

“Oh! So, I don't even get a 'hi Gunter! How are you doing?' or a 'I'm so glad to see you again!' before you start mouthing off to me?”

With his free hand Gunter pulled Tobin from the tomb stone and gave her a big long hug. When he let go there was tears in Tobin's eyes.

“Why did you leave us?” she asked. As she cried on her brothers shoulder.

Gunter didn't answer, he just went on holding his little brother and sister. Later they walked among the tomb stones, talking about life, the universe, and everything.

 “Come on Gun!” exclaimed Jude as he tugged at his big brothers sleeve.

Gunter had been staying at the mansion by the bone yard for a week and a half now and was occasionally limping around without the crutches. Jude and Tobin had found something that they wanted to show him, and wanted him to help them make something with it.

“I'm coming, I'm coming. I'm not as fast as you on one leg, Jude.” laughed Gunter

Jude just rolled his eyes and continued to tug on Gunter's sleeve, leading him to the old shed he and Tobin had found earlier that morning. Jude lead Gunter to the very end of the cemetery, and down a narrow, worn out path, through some very tall weeds, and under an arch covered with ivy. It was a ginormous overgrown garden. In  the front of the garden, there was a path that forked into four roads. Jude took the one farthest to the left. At the end of the path stood Tobin next to an old worn out, unkept shed …

“Look Gunter,” said Jude pointing an old empty barrel, “what can we do with it?”

“I don't know, Ju. I guess we could make a time machine.” Gunter noticed the funny look, his little brother and sister were giving him.

“What?” he asked suspiciously.

“What in the world, is a time machine?” asked Tobin.

“You don't know what a time machine?” asked Gunter in amazement.

“Duh.” said Tobin rolling her eyes.

“Wow!” exclaimed Gunter before explaining what a time machine was, as best he could.

“Can we build one?” asked Jude.

“Sure. I guess we can try.” said Gunter shrugging his shoulders.

“Okay. Lets start now.” said Tobin,marching off into the overgrown jungle.

“Kay. Do you know what we need?” Gunter called after her.

“I have a pretty good idea.” she yelled back...

Gunter slowly came down the stairs, he didn't want to leave, again. He, Tobin, and Jude were almost finished with the time machine. He wanted to be there when it was finished. He didn't want to go back into war without knowing if he was going to see his family again.

Jude and Tobin stood by the front door looking sad and gloomy. Gunter knelt down by them and gave them a big hug. He heard the taxi pull up in front of the dark and gloomy mansion. He stood up, and went out the door with out looking back. He didn't want to see his siblings sad again. Looking like he was leaving them forever, leaving their lives, and never coming back again. He didn't want to see it...

“Come on Jude!” yelled Tobin  to her brother, who, was polishing off the rest of his breakfast, very slowly. “Come on!” she said impatiently, tugging at her twins sleeve.

 “Okay! I'm done. Lets go!” said Jude jumping up from his seat.

Tobin raced outside with her twin in fast pursuit. They ran to the end of the cemetery, through the worn out path, and to the paint-worn, crooked shed.

It had been almost a month since Gunter had left to go back to America. To go back to war. So, Jude and Tobin had to finish the “time machine” by themselves.

“It's finally finished!” declared Jude as he finished painting the 'e' in the word 'machine' for 'time machine'.

“I had no idea it would be so big on the inside.” remarked Tobin standing besides her brother, admiring their finished time machine.

“I just wish Gunter was here to see it.” said Jude with a sigh.

“Me too.” replied  his sister sadly.

“Come on Jude!” cried Tobin as she climbed into the barrel.

Jude climbed in after her. The barrel was huge inside, big enough to fit three old pillows into it. For changing the “year” they used old note books with numbers written on each page, from 0 to 9. You just had to flip the pages until you got the date you wanted.

“What time should we go to?” asked Jude, flipping through the numbers on the notepad.

“I don't know.” sighed Tobin.

“Hey!” exclaimed Jude, “Do you remember about the french queen lady, Gunter told us about? The one who got her head chopped off by a guillotine?”

“Yea.” answered Tobin.

“What was her name? Was it something like Mary Antoinette?”

“It was Marie Antoinette, Jude. Marie, not Mary. There is a difference.”

Jude rolled his eyes before going on.

“When did she live? That's what I'm asking, Tob. I didn't ask what her name was.”

“You just did ask what her name was.” answered Tobin with a triumphant smirk.

“No, I did – okay, I did. But, that's not what I just asked!”

“I know.” said Tobin with the smile she used when she was messing with you, “I'm just taunting you.”

Jude grunted before muttering “More like tormenting.” to himself.

“She lived in the year 1770. At least that's the year she married Louis-Auguste. Do you want the year to be before or after she had kids?” asked Tobin

“Lets do say, the year she died.”

“Okay. She died in the year 1793.” said Tobin flipping to the 'one' in the first notebook.

Tobin flipped to the seven in the second notebook. The number none in the third, and the three in the fourth notebook. Then she pushed a red dot, that she had painted. It was supposed to be the 'button' you push when you  found the time you want to go to. All of a sudden the barrel was being jerked around.

“Jude!” yelled Tobin

“What?!”  he yelled back

“This is supposed to be pretend! Not real!”

“I know! I don't understand what's going on!”

Jude looked out the little window Gunter had carved, and saw this light blue and white light swirling around the barrel.

“Hilfe uns!” screamed Tobin in terror.

Jude turned to face his sister, “You're scared?” he asked in amazement

Tobin looked at her brother like he was a madman, “Are you verrückt? Of course I'm scared!

Jude just ignored her, and turned back to the little window.

“Dummkopf.” muttered Tobin to herself, as her brother kept gazing out the little window.

Finally after about 10 minutes in the swirling light blue and white light, it stopped.

“Is it finally over?” Tobin asked Jude, who was still looking out the window.

“Yep.” said Jude as he lifted the top of the barrel off.

Jude jumped out of the barrel and helped his sister out. Instead of being in the clothes they had came in, they were in the clothes that everyone else around them were wearing. Everyone was looking at the twins odd. Probably because they just came out of a barrel. There was a loud shout and some yelling. The twins turned to see what it was. It was a french guard yelling and running towards them.  He was yelling:

“Salut!”

“What does “salut” mean, Tobin?” asked Jude, Tobin was a fluent speaker in many different languages, which was probably good.

“It means “hey you”. Come on! Let's get out of here!” said Tobin running away form the yelling guard.

Jude followed his sister, the french guard was still chasing them, only now he was yelling:
 
“Salut! Arrêter!  Arrêter maintenant!

“Whats he saying now?” huffed Jude as he ran besides his sister

“Stop! Stop now! He's saying stop.”

“Do you think we should stop?”

“No! We keep running until we find a good place to hide.”

Jude kept quiet and kept running along side his twin. All of a sudden Tobin made a sharp turn into an alleyway.

“What are -” Jude was cut off by Tobin, who whirled around to face Jude with her finger to lips.

“Quiet! They might find us and then who knows what they would do to us!”

“Sorry.” whispered Jude as he stood in the shadows with his back against the building.

After a few minutes of hiding under the cover of the shadows of the dark alleyway, the guard along with 3 other guards ran past the alleyway. About 2 minutes after the 4 guards had passed, Tobin ran out into the open and down the way towards their barrel. Jude followed her, listening for the sound of yelling french men, more running feet slapping down on the brick avenue.

“Whoa!” exclaimed Jude as his sister pulled his sleeve dragging him down some steps that appeared to be step leading into a prison.

“What are we doing here?” asked Jude

“Hiding.”

“Qui est  là bas?” asked a voice from the darkness.

Tobin froze, making Jude stumble down the rest of the stairs. Tobin watched in horror as her brother fell down the fest of the ten stairs. She saw a dark shape emerge from the shadows, after Jude had finished his falling. Jude groaned, as he clutched his arm. He rolled onto his back, and opened his eyes. There was a woman  who looked to be in her late 30's staring down at him.

“Vous etes ok?” the lady asked in a motherly voice.

Jude saw Tobin rush down the stairs and to his side. Her face was white with panic.

“It's okay, Tobin.” said Jude sitting up, trying to show his sister that he was okay.

“You fell from a great height” said the lady.

“Please forgive my ignorance my lady, but who are you?” asked Tobin.

“I see you are not from here.” remarked the lady in broken english with a laugh.

“No, my lady.”

“I'm Marie Antoinette.”

Jude looked at Tobin, and Tobin looked at Jude. They had met Marie Antoinette! Before Jude or Tobin could do anything else Marie said:

“Do not bother curtsying or bowing. I do not wish for that folie right now.”

“Yes, my lady.” said Tobin bowing her head.

“My name is Marie. Call me Marie.”

“Yes, Marie.” said Tobin.

“Thank you. What are you children's names?”

By the time Marie had asked that Jude had finally stood up, he spoke up,

“My name is Jude Alexander Wallen and this is my sister Tobin Jae Wallen.”

“I like the names Jude and Tobin. How old are you?”

“ We're 12.”

“Aah. Your accent. I regonize it.” said Marie.

“You do?” asked Tobin. 

“Yes. You are Austrian.” answered Marie knowingly.

“Yes. Yes, we are!” exclaimed Tobin.

“But, how did you know?” asked Jude suspiciously

“I grew up in Wien. I was born at the Hofburg Palace.”

“Really?” asked Tobin, “We live quite near there.”

Marie laughed, then lead the children to a small, room, up high in a tower. She told the children why she was being kept prisoner, about her life, and how she wished she could escape.

“We could help you.” said Jude after a moment of thought.

“I'm sorry Jude, but this prison is to heavily guarded.” answered Marie sadly.

“Not for us. We sneak out of our house all the time, and that is heavily guarded.” answered Tobin with a laugh.

Then Jude explained his plan to his sister and Marie. Marie agreed it was a good plan, and she knew where she could hide, when she escaped. So, it was done, they had a plan to get Marie Antoinette out of prison... The next day, October 16th, 1793, the twins met Marie Antoinette in her small room in the apartment. The twins had found someone who looked very much like Marie Antoinette, drugged her and brought her to the prison. Now, they didn't just find a villager, but a REAL enemy of the French. Tobin had brought Marie a set of villagers clothes. As Marie changed into the villagers attire, Jude and Tobin, dressed the drugged lady in Marie's clothing. The twins had somehow found a drug that when you wake up, you don't remember a thing. Marie came into the room in the villagers clothes, and looked at the sleeping lady, in her old dress. The lady opened her eyes in a flutter, she looked around the room, and asked:

“Qui vous êtes?”

Jude looked at his sister and Marie for a translation.

“Who are you?” whispered Tobin.

“We are your servants madame.” said Marie Antoinette with a slight laugh.

“You are? What's my name?” asked the lady.

“You are Marie Antoinette, ma'am.” answered Tobin with a curtsy.

“I am? What's your names?”

Jude looked from Tobin, to Marie, and back to Tobin, then said:

“My name, madame, is Claude, this is my sister Antoinette, and our mother, Sophia.”
“Ah. You may leave. Merci.”

“Ta madame bienvenue.” said Marie with a curtsy as she left the room.

Tobin and Jude did the same, and left the room. They followed Marie down the stairs of the tower, and out into the village. Once in the village they went to a stable, and bribed the stable owner with francs Marie managed to take from one of the guards. The stable owner finally agreed on 50 francs for a beautiful chestnut stallion. Marie and the twins took the horse to where the twins hid their time machine, and gave Marie plenty of money for food, and some other things she might need for her journey back to Austria.

“Au revoir, Marie.” said Tobin.

“Goodbye, children. Visit me again?”

“Oui.” answered Jude.

With that promise Marie rode off, and the twins climbed into their time machine and went back home...
Jude and Tobin knew they change something in history, but nobody else knew. They thought it was the REAL Marie Antoinette, and not some drugged lady, who was told she was Marie Antoinette. The twins knew they would, sometime, go and visit Marie Antoinette, who was safe in her country of birth, Austria...

The twins trudged back through the worn out path, under the ivy-covered arch, and to the other end of the bone yard, and into the gloomy mansion by the bone yard, but when the twins stepped into the mansion, it didn't feel, sad and gloomy at all. It felt happy, and joyful. The twins heard laughing from the parlor, they looked at each other, both wondering the same thing:

“What in the world is going on?” They ran to the parlor to investigate.

There in the middle of the room was their father, Heidi, Gunter, a girl they had never seen before, their Aunt Lizah, Uncle Ludolf,   Aunt Viveka, and their Uncle Erwin, all talking and laughing. When the twins entered the room, everyone stopped talking and laughing, and looked from the twins to their father, and back to the twins again. Finally Jarman knelt down on one knee and opened his arms for a hug. Jude and Tobin, stood there for a moment, then ran to their father. After they had finished, they were introduced to Anah Gunter's fiance.

“Everyone,” yelled Jarman over the din of the laughter, “May I have your attention?”

“You have my full attention, banketi.” answered Tobin

“Mine to.”

Soon, enough everyone quieted down.

“Heidi and I have an announcement,” Tobin poked Jude, and smiled, they had talked about it after they   had said “hallo” to every one.

“ We are engaged to be married.” announced Jarman.

Everyone congratulated Jarman and Heidi, and Gunter and Anah, and talked about life, the universe and everything. From that day forward, the gloomy estate by the bone yard, was never gloomy, and Tobin and Jude went on changing history without anyone else knowing it...

The End
Ende
La Fin