They were still standing in the doorway and the young woman kept glancing at Olivia with an expression she couldn’t quite fathom. It was almost as though she wanted Olivia’s approval—or her permission. But permission for what?
There was an awkward moment of silence, then Arrieta stepped back. “Please come in. I made raisin cookies and the kettle is on and...and...” She didn’t seem to know what else to say.
They entered a large foyer with a staircase before them. To the right was a small dining room with an antique pine table. To the left was what looked to be a little library with double doors that were standing open. As for the rest of the house, it was all closed doors.
Arrieta motioned for them to go into the library. At the far end was a tall bay window with a cushioned seat. The other walls had floor-to-ceiling bookshelves that were mostly empty. The only furniture was a maple desk and four lattice-back chairs. It all felt barren, as though no one had yet moved in.
The women sat down while Arrieta stood behind the desk. “I guess you want to know how this works.”
Elise nodded while Kathy and Olivia just stared at her.
“I can send you back in time.” Arrieta’s voice sounded almost like an apology. “You choose when and you stay for three weeks. Then you come back here. Anyone want cookies?”
“Time travel?” Kathy said. “I just thought this was a...a reading. But time travel? I don’t think—”
“I’m in,” Elise said. “When do we begin? How much do we pay? Will you take a rain check since I have no money?”
“Neither do I,” Arrieta said, then looked a bit panicked. “I mean... I guess that would be okay. I hadn’t thought about that. I may need to call my aunt and ask. Oh, and it’s a hundred dollars per person.”
Kathy was looking at the hope on Elise’s face. She wasn’t going to put logic into this and take that look away. “I’ll pay for everyone. So how many times do we have to come back to you before we do the time travel?”
“None.” Arrieta’s expression showed that she knew Kathy didn’t believe any of it. “I make you some tea, you drink it, then you go back in time. All in one visit.”
“What kind of tea?” Kathy’s voice was suspicious.
“It’s not drugs, if that’s what you think. It’s herbs that help you relax.” Arrieta looked around as though searching for an escape route.
Olivia spoke up. “This isn’t possible.” They all looked at her.
“The Butterfly Effect?” When they said nothing, she went on. “You change one thing in the past, no matter how small, and it will all be different.”
“You can only change what affects you,” Arrieta said. They waited for her to go on, but she didn’t.
“But I want to go back to three weeks before 9/11,” Olivia said. “I want to warn people. Or before Pearl Harbor. Or—”
“No.” Arrieta sat down behind the desk. “We’ve had people try that. One man spent his whole three weeks in jail. When he tried to warn people, he was arrested for disturbing the peace. People thought he was going to set off bombs. Another man went back so he could get a second chance at being a good father. But you know what he did?”
No one answered.
“He plagiarized songs. He had a good memory for lyrics, so he wrote them down and put his name on them. Made his kids memorize them.”
“So when he came back to the present he’d be rich and famous,” Kathy said.
“Exactly,” Arrieta answered.
“But I take it that it didn’t work,” Olivia said.
“When he got back he was exactly where he was when he left. All memory of the songs he’d stolen was gone. His ex-wife still hated him and his children had no use for him. It was a very sad case.” She took a breath. “And writers are the worst. My aunt says she’ll never send another writer back. They love to steal plots. One man rewrote Guardians of the Galaxy from memory and sent it to his agent.”
The women waited to hear the results. Arrieta raised one shoulder. “The agent loved it but later, he thought the author was crazy for saying that he wrote the book before it was put on the screen. The agent dropped him.”
“So we need to keep our noses to our own business,” Olivia said. “Is there a way to know when we step over the line?”
Arrieta shrugged. “Only what is supposed to happen will.” She stood up. “I’ll let you think about when you want to go back to.” With that, she nearly ran from the room.
Kathy stood up. “This is a joke.” Olivia and Elise stayed seated. “You two don’t actually believe this, do you?”
“I would like to go back to the morning of my wedding,” Elise said softly. “Before that day I could stand it all. I had an absolute belief that after I married Kent everything would change. I thought our parents would start being pleased by me. Kent and I would have babies and talk about where we wanted to go on vacation. Ordinary, normal things. But they didn’t happen.” Her voice was growing louder. “After I got married, everything got worse. People were even less pleased with me than before. And Kent had no interest in me at all. He—”