War Stories: Books on WWII

If you were to search World War Two books online, you’d find you were in a pickle. There are wayyyyy too many books out there to even begin to make a dent in war literature. But luckily, we took the guesswork out of it for you and present you with these three books/series we think you’ll like.

My Secret War

By Mary Osborne

Summary: Madeline (Maddie) Beck has lived in many places and spent a lot of time apart from her career navy officer dad, but "this time feels different from the other times. It feels ominous." And so it is. Less than three months after Maddie and her mother move to Mrs. Hawkins's Mansion-by-the Sea on Long Island, New York, the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor and the United States is thrust into World War II. Her dad is no longer "on assignment to just 'safeguard' the Pacific anymore. Now he's there to fight." Maddie's thoughts turn from trying to fit in with the popular girls in her eighth grade class to doing something for the war effort, or as her dad says, "to keep the home fires burning." Her efforts to help the war turn into a frightening journey when she accidentally stumbles across a dangerous mission that may lead to dire consequences.

What we like about this book: This is one of the few books we found on the 1942 Long Beach landing. It’s witty, humorous and thoughtful, often giving you a real feel on what it would be like to be a girl during one of the darkest times in history.

Age Range: 13-17

Audience: Girls and Boys

Cautions: Maddie does get a boyfriend halfway through the story, and they do kiss. Other than that, there really isn’t any inappropriate interactions between them, but the girls talk about boys throughout the book. Younger kids may be scared by a scene towards the end of the book, but the story concludes well and nothing comes of the ‘scary threat’.

Era: 1941-1942

Special Notes: None.

Someone Named Eva

by Joan M. Wolf

On the night Nazi soldiers come to her home in Czechoslovakia, Milada's grandmother says, "Remember, Milada. Remember who you are. Always." Milada promises, but she doesn't understand her grandmother's words. After all, she is Milada, who lives with her mama and papa, her brother and sister, and her beloved Babichka. Milada, eleven years old, the fastest runner in school. How could she ever forget?

Then the Nazis take Milada away from her family and send her to a Lebensborn center in Poland. There, she is told she fits the Aryan ideal: her blond hair and blue eyes are the right color; her head and nose, the right size. She is given a new name, Eva, and trained to become the perfect German citizen, to be the hope of Germany's future — and to forget she was ever a Czech girl named Milada.

Inspired by real events, this fascinating novel sheds light on a little-known aspect of the Nazi agenda and movingly portrays a young girl's struggle to hold on to her identity and her hope in the face of a regime intent on destroying both.

What we like about this book: If you want to know what Marin’s life was like when she was younger, this is the book to read. It details the real events of what it was like to be a young Czech girl swept away in the pursuit for a perfect Aryan nation, as well as how hard it was to keep yourself when all you’ve ever known has been taken away from you. A true work of literature.

Age Range: 13 and up

Audience: Girls, but boys would get something out of this also

Cautions: There are several older references and themes throughout this book. What takes place in this story really did happen, and the author doesn’t hide the fact of the horrors that happened to people during the Nazi takeover. Children who are easily frightened by things like this should steer away from this particular book.

Era: 1942

Special Notes: Marin highly recommends this book if you want to know what it really was like in Europe during WWII. “This story doesn’t take anything lightly, it tells the truth,” she says. “If you want to see what it was like from a kid’s eyes- particularly a Czech girl like me, this is the book to read.”

Shadows on the Sea

by Joan Harlow

The U.S. is at war with Germany. Fourteen-year-old Jill Winter's mother is traveling to Newfoundland and must pass through the treacherous North Atlantic, where German submarines -- U-boats -- stalk like wolves. Jill's father, a famous pop singer, is on tour, so Jill is sent to Winter Haven, Maine, to stay with Nana.

Quarry, a local boy, says that "gossip ain't never been so good," and Jill soon discovers he's right -- Winter Haven is full of secrets and rumors. It seems everyone has something to hide -- even Nana! Jill doesn't know whom to trust, and she's worried for her mother's safety. And things get even worse when she finds a wounded carrier pigeon with a coded message attached to its leg.

Jill is determined to get to the bottom of all these mysteries, but when she uncovers the biggest secret of all, she finds herself in grave danger -- and must run for her life!

What we like about this book: So far, this is the only children’s fictional account of the 1944 submarine landing in Maine. Intriguing, fast-paced and full of adventure, there’s a mystery at every bend in this book!

Age Range: 12-16

Audience: Girls, but boys would like it too

Cautions: One of the girls in the story is rumored to have been born without married parents. This is later confirmed. Also, towards the end of the book there is one bad word spouted off by an angry father who is tired of the war and that their boys are off fighting. Younger kids might be frightened by a scene towards the end of the book, but like all kids books the heroine ends up okay.

Era: 1942

Special Notes: None.

Come back next week when we bring you to Maine to watch a historic landing- that goes really wrong!

The Dark Storm: America in World War Two

If there’s one event in history that none of us ever forget, it’s World War Two.

Though it was the second World War, it is remembered as the most horrific and horrible war in the history of mankind. Thousands of Christians shuddered and wondered if the end of the world had come, and to many it certainly seemed it had. Hitler’s Nazis stormed Europe, shocking everyone with their lightning war techniques known as Blitzkrieg (Literally means “Lightning War”), the Nazis swept through their neighboring countries with little or no resistance. At the same time, Russia overtook several of its neighbors and invaded half of Poland, (the Nazis invaded the other half that bordered their country) Italy took over parts of East Africa and the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and several outlying islands. The entire world had seemed to go crazy over the course of three years.

It wasn’t until the attack of Pearl Harbor that America joined in the war. We’d been sympathetic to the British and their allies (who joined the war on September 3, 1939, after the Nazis and Soviets invaded Poland) for two years prior to that, and had sent many supplies and even some soldiers over to England to help with the fight. But from 1939 to 1941, Americans quarreled among themselves on if they should join the war or stay out of it.

“It’s so easy to look back and say, ‘Well, all the things that the people who wanted to stay out of the war were wrong,’” author Lynne Olson wrote in an interview with Fresh Air’s Terry Gross. “...But back then, in ‘39, ‘40 and most of ‘41, people didn’t know what was going on in Europe. No one had any idea what was going to happen.”

Lynne goes on to say that, “Americans looked on the war in Europe kind of like a movie. It was something that just didn’t affect them. We didn’t have the technology. We didn’t have the instant communication. (i.e, social media) We didn’t have the ability to travel- the ability to travel quickly- to Europe like we do now. And so most Americans- not all, but most Americans, especially those living in the heartland- really didn’t feel that they had anything in common with Europe. They hadn’t been there. They thought this was a distant place that they really had nothing to do with, and they felt that way until 1940.”

No one could come close to guessing what was going on behind the front-lines, what the Nazis were doing to Jews and to prisoners of war. And no one would find out until the Third Reich was crushed in 1945, when the horrors of the concentration camps came into view.

But we’re going to focus on something a little different. We’re going to talk about the Home Front of America during World War Two. Particularly the war on espionage, a topic most of you might not know about.

Espionage is defined the by Google dictionary as “the practice of spying or of using spies, typically by governments to obtain political and military information.”

In other words, espionage is spying. Real life spies.

After the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, “FDR” was adamant that such a surprise attack like that could not happen again. The FBI was pressured to find subversives (those who are sympathetic to other countries other than America and give them information) and put them behind bars, before a disaster like Pearl Harbor could happen again. It didn’t help that for the purpose of finding spies and traitors, the military created the OSS, the Office of Strategic Services. With the FBI and the OSS on the case, you’d think they’d be happy to help each other with the many cases that would pop up during the course of the war.

Wrong. They were rivals.

It’s a long story as to why they were rivals, but OSS agents and FBI agents didn’t get along very well. They were determined to one-up each other and catch the most bad guys. Sounds ridiculous? It really happened!

During WWII, the FBI and OSS caught 44 German spies, 3 from Ireland, (strange place to have a spy from, but it’s true) 15 from Japan, and 26 from Soviet Russia, who would later join the Allies after the Germans attacked them. That’s a lot of spies!

Because of how many pages it would take to cover all these stories, Marin and I have narrowed down the list to two groups of spies we think you’d be the most interested in hearing. The first group landed in America from a submarine in 1942 on Long Island and Florida. The second group came to American shores 1944 on the coast of Maine.

Enter Operation Pastorius and Operation Elster, the two most intriguing spy stories from WWII.

The men involved in Operation Pastorius.

Operation Pastorius was a plan that the Nazis came up with in 1942, after they declared war on America. The plot included landing four spies in Florida and four on Long Island, loaded with explosives, fake IDs and $175,000 dollars in American money. Their mission was to poison New York’s water system, blow up Jewish owned stores and derail trains. They planned on being in America for two years, terrorizing the people and making no one feel safe.

Believe it or not, what blew the plan was the leader of the group himself. George Dasch had been put in charge of the mission. He had come ashore with the Long Island group, and they encountered a Coast Guard man who was on his rounds. After failing to get the man to be quiet by threatening him, Dash tried to bribe him. The Coast Guard pretended to take the bribe, but the minute he got back to his unit he told his commanding officer.

According to several documents and sources, Dasch “realized that the mission was going to be doomed after the encounter with the Coast Guard, and decided he had a secret of his own. The day after the landing at Amagansett, he called Ernest Burger, the most guarded and disciplined member of the team, into the upper-storey hotel room the two men shared. He walked over to the window and opened it wide. "You and I are going to have a talk," Dasch said, "And if we disagree, only one of us will walk out that door—the other will fly out this window." He then revealed the truth to Burger: he had no intention of going through with the mission. He hated the Nazis and wanted Burger on his side when he turned the entire plot over to the FBI. Burger smiled. Having spent seventeen months in a Nazi concentration camp, his own feelings for the party were less than warm. He too had been planning to betray the mission. They agreed to defect to the United States immediately.”

The other six members, Herbert Haupt, Edward Kerling, Richard Quirin, Heinrich Heinck, Hermann Neubauer and Werner Thiel had no idea about the plan. Dasch presented himself to the FBI, told them the whereabouts of his colleagues, and the rest of them were rounded up. All but Dasch and Burger were executed for espionage, a crime deemed worthy of death during war time. To this day you can still visit the sites where the Nazis came ashore, and in the FBI courthouse where they held the trial, there is a plaque recounting the capture of eight Nazi spies.

William Colepaugh and Erich Gimpel

Operation Elster took place on November 28th, 1944. Two spies named Erich Gimpel and William Colepaugh (an American) were put ashore by two German submariners, who are possibly the first enemy of America to land on American shores in uniform since the Mexican war of 1840s. (Hmmm, so the Nazis came ashore exactly a hundred years later…) Erich Gimpel, a trained professional spy had been given instructions to find where the atomic bomb was being made and how far in the process the Americans gotten with it. If the opportunity presented itself, Gimpel was to sabotage the project.

His mission went wrong because of William. An American born German, William decided he liked Germany better and sailed to the Third Reich during World War Two. He presented himself to the Reich government and said he wanted to be a spy on America. Erich Gimpel heard about him not long before he had to take the trip to America himself. To survive as a spy in the United States, Gimpel had concluded, he would need to take along "a proper American. He must know the latest dance steps and the latest popular songs. He must know everything about baseball and have all the Hollywood gossip at his fingertips." That said, Gimpel had to wonder where he would find "an American who was prepared to work against his own country and who at the same time was courageous, sensible, and trustworthy."

William was eager to betray his country- but he wasn’t exactly the other three characteristics that Gimpel was looking for. Still, he was the only American Gimpel could find, so he settled with William.

It was about a month into the mission that William decided to hit the bars one night in New York City. He got drunk, decided he would steal the money he and Gimpel had brought with them to America ($60,000 in small bills, the equivalent of $656,000 today) and took off for Central Station. Erich found out what happened and decided to turn the tables. He went to Central Station, found the bags and claimed to be the owner. After successfully identifying the items inside the cases, he whisked the baggage away and left William to fend for himself. In turn, William got angry, found a friend of his and hit the bars for several nights in a row. On one particular rowdy night, he confessed he was a spy for Germany. When his friend realized that William was telling the truth, he called the FBI and they picked him up.

In only a matter of days before they found Erich. Caught and tried, both William and Erich were sentenced to death, but the sentence was postponed when FDR died in office. Right after that, the war with Germany ended and President Truman pardoned the spies, saying that, “we are no longer at war with Germany, and so they are no longer enemies of America.”

Overall, there was a lot more involvement with WWII than most people realize. Not only did we have spies among us, but they were on deadly missions to destroy us from within. It is by the grace of God none of these missions were ever completed, and we can all be thankful that the war ended the way it did. Otherwise history would have had a very different story.

U-1230 and it's crew.

Little Known Fact: Did you know that the U-Boat that dropped Erich Gimpel and William Colepaugh off in Maine had a sister ship that had been torpedoed only weeks before? U-1230 was the U-boat that was commissioned to take the spies to America, and U-1229 was blown up six weeks before they took off. Allegedly though never confirmed, U-1229 supposedly carried another spy that was on a mission to Canada.

Today in History: Wow, a lot of things happened today in history! Here are some of the events of the day in 1944.

- 58th US Women's Tennis: P Betz beats Margaret Osborne duPont (6-3 8-6)

- 68th & last transport of Dutch Jews (including Anne Frank) leaves for Auschwitz concentration camp

- Canadian troops liberate Abbeville, France

- Frank Parker beats Bill Talbert for US Tennis title

- French troops liberate Lyon

- Last transport from Westerbork to Auschwitz

- Prince Bernhard appointed supreme commander of Neth Domestic Arm Force

- Tank division of British Guards free Brussels

Thanks to NPR.org interview with Angry Days and Wikipedia for contributing to this post. Come back next week when we give you some books to read!

The Unknown: Part Five

Somewhere far away that no one knows about, except the bad guys whom we've been following to this place, even though we don't know where it is...

Idiot. Major Timothy was a complete idiot.
I'd warned him, I'd threatened him, I'd done everything I could to spare his life. I didn't want to kill him, after all, he was such a valuable asset. But no, he'd failed for the last time. I'd warned him that if he messed it up one more time I'd have to do away with him. And yet he didn't manage to make sure that Trevor's watch remained lost. If he could have done that, I wouldn't have had to kill him. Too bad.
Such is the way of business, I am a man of my word. To let my word be degraded once would be a bad mark on my record. So I've had him disposed of.
Now I have the problem of finding a replacement. I need someone who I can get to do whatever I want. The CIA is well under my grasp, but I needed someone new. Someone who had no idea what he's getting into, someone who'd follow me into this mission without any guilt. A man who hasn't any realization that what we are doing is illegal. I needed an innocent bystander that would follow me around like a loyal dog.
You have no idea how hard my job is, how long I've plotted on how I was going to catch Trevor and drag him back to my headquarters. I've waited years, and Major Timothy got me farther along than anyone else. But now he's dead. What's a man have to do around here to get something done?
I need a new assistant. And I know exactly where to get one.
Trevor thinks he's so amazing and great because he can time travel. So he can jump through time lines, big deal. True, I haven't figured out how to do it, but I'm getting there. Once I have his wristwatch, I too, will time travel. Then I can fix all those messes he's made out of history.
How do I know what he's messed up, if he changed history and that's how we now know it? I created my own program that tracks when historical timelines are messed with. Told you I could invent things. Allow me to introduce you to my invention: TTGS, aka, Time Tracking Graphical System. Yes, when Trevor goes and wrecks another historical moment with one of his dumb ideas, technically no one knows about it because he changed it. So therefore we now have in our historical records that that's how it always has been, so no one really knows when Trevor's been in any given time period.
With my TTGS, I've been able to figure out when he changes history. My machine, once plugged into a computer, displays timelines throughout different periods and shows them as straight lines. Whenever one has been tampered with, that line will rise up and down to show the exact day and minute Trevor changed something. So unless there's other time travelers than Trekker, I can pinpoint when and where he was by my graph.
How does that help me catch him? Simple- I happen to have been able to partially create his time machine. It doesn't transport me back in time, which is my whole goal in the first place. I'm missing a key ingredient, one I hope to gain by snatching that miserable Scottish pipsqueak and his little sidekick. I don't know what I need to fix my time machine, but what I did figure out is I can still use it. To a certain extent, but it does work.
You see, I can tamper with time. Not travel through it and certainly not direct when I want to tamper with it, but I can change certain things. And yours truly, Trevor, has helped me do it, even though he doesn't know it.
He thinks its just a glitch that whenever he teleports to somewhere new, an item from his last excursion ends up in the new time period. So a Roman helmet could show up in Cuba during the revolution, depending on where Trevor went last and where he goes next. But you see, I'm the one who can decide what comes where and what that item is.
I won't get into the physics, it's very confusing. I will tell you this, though: remember how the dam broke when Trevor went to Grand Coulee and the workers mob went after him? I was able to place a troublemaker in that crowd, the one who tried to take him out. I made sure that when Trevor went to the gold towns that the deputy was crooked and tried to kill him. I was the one who brought in that boy to steal General Grant's battle plans. And if it hadn't been for sheer luck that Trevor managed to get out of everyone of those situations, I would have found a way to either kill him off or bring him back to the future. If he is in contact for too long with one of my tampered people or objects, I can bring both my object and him back into our time now.
Genius, I know. Again, I won't bore you with the details. You wouldn't understand how I change these people into thinking they're something they're not or how I get them there from other time periods anyways.
Without Major Timothy I have no one to make sure the people are placed where they should be, and I won't get my hands dirty. I can't have Interpol realize I'm the one who is really behind these problems I've convinced them Trevor's caused.
But I think I have the solution now. Yes, I think I know exactly who will help me bring Trevor back. And I'm going to do it in a way no one expects, nor realizes is possible. Not only will I get a new assistant, but I'll get someone who will shake the very foundation of Trevor and Marin's relationship, someone who can get Trevor's young friend to turn on him. A person that neither one realizes is alive. He himself isn't quite sure who he is, but once he sees Elizaveta (remember, that's Marin's real name, not that dumb one Trevor came up with) he'll remember it all.
 His name is Dominik Maklakov.

Part Six to come at the end of next month.

The Month Ahead

Well this was an exciting month! I really enjoyed getting to meet Andi, but I was so scared when Trevor lost 4T! So glad we found it. Odd that it was in a place we never walked. It must have been a curious gopher that carried it off. Hmmm...

You ready for next month's time period? This is one that I'm very familiar with, one that I know all too well. Next month, we're going to...

September

2014

Week	Topic	What to expect
1	The Dark Storm: World War Two	An introduction of World War Two, some historical facts, today in history and a little known fact.
2	War Stories: Book Recommendations on World War Two	Three books/series we think you'll like about WWII.
3	Beach Invasion	Trevor and I head to Maine on a very historical night, but things take a turn for the worse.
4	Beach Invasion: Part 2	Afraid and on my own, I try to leave clues for Trevor to follow and find me- before it's too late.
5	Beach Invasion: Part 3	The showdown to our frightening escapade, and a very strange meeting.

Here's a preview photo for next month's adventure. Interesting, I wonder what's so important about this particular U-Boat model? This doesn't seem to be a historical picture!

 Come back soon to find out why!

Back to the Drawing Board Part Two

Sounds like you enjoyed last week's post a lot. Special thanks to Susan Marlow for giving us permission to use her characters. (But what you don't know is they're actually real, because we really met them! Ahem, anyways...) 
Due to some interesting comments we received about our scenery grouping of Canada, we'd like to clarify that yes, we are aware Canada is not all mountains and lakes and snow. We only recorded the real conversation between Marin and me when we first arrived in California.

Enjoy this next post!

I paced the room, staring out at the moon-lit night as I mulled over the possibilities.
It was past midnight, this much I knew. My pocket watch I used to really tell time confirmed this fact, and I knew no one was awake. Everyone in the large and spacious Californian ranch house was fast asleep- except me.
And I had a big problem on my hands. The thing about it though, I couldn't figure out what it was.
The afternoon and evening had gone great. Marin had a blast, it was the first time in a long time she didn't worry about what could happen to us while we were away from the Island. She followed Andi around like a puppy dog, her eyes bright and excited at everything the twelve-year-old girl said or did. Marin had never been one to make many friends, she was too shy and quiet. I'd never seen her enjoy spending time with someone her own age, and I was glad she was having fun. Elizabeth Carter insisted that we stay the night, seeing how we didn't have anywhere to sleep. I enjoyed talking the most to Justin, who was more into my style of thinking and philosophy. Chad and Mitch were friendly, but I could tell they regarded me as a tender-foot Scotsman who didn't have any idea how to handle himself in the wild west. Which was kinda true.
Overall, there'd been nothing in our day that I could think of to wake me up at half past midnight. Certainly not anything I'd said or done, or any event that stuck out in my mind. And yet I was bothered deeply by something. A feeling I'd gotten several years before, when I'd first met Marin in Czechoslovakia and we'd escaped from the Gestapo.
I felt fearful.
This is stupid, I growled to myself. You're Trevor, you're never afraid! You're too excited and energetic to be afraid! Then why did I have this strange sense of dread inside? Like something had gone seriously wrong?
I gave up trying to brood and think up an explanation and slipped into the hallway. Marin was staying in the guest bedroom next to mine, and I gently opened the door and tiptoed in. If anyone could think up a reason to be afraid, it was Marin. No doubt she had the answer.
"Marin," I whispered.
Marin lay flat on her back, snoring quite loud and without any resolve. Any other time I'd laugh at her, but I didn't have the sense of humor tonight to do so.
I shook her and hissed, "Marin, wake up!"
"Trevor did it," she grumbled, rolling over in her sleep. "Take him to jail."
I glared at her. "Thanks a lot, lass. Now get up before I push you out of your bed." I shoved her again.
This time Marin opened one eye, looked up at me, then groaned. "Go away, I'm tired," she whimpered.
"Marin, something's wrong."
That got her attention. She sat up, fully awake and alert. "What did you do!"
I held up my hands in defense. "I didn't do anything, but something is bothering me."
"What?"
"I don't know, I woke up feeling like something was wrong."
Without skipping a beat, Marin demanded, "Did you take 4T off when you went to bed?"
I stared at her, then jerked my arm up and gaped in horror as the truth hit my over the head like a coconut falling from a tree.
So that was it. That's what had been bothering me this whole time. My wrist was bare, empty like the days when I didn't have my amazing Trevor's Time Travel Teleport. My time watch was gone.

~oOo~

It was Marin who decided it would be best to wake Andi up and get her to take us out to where we'd been earlier. The sleepy girl kinda blinked at us in surprise, but readily agreed.
Now we stared at the moonlit surface of the Californian San Joaquin Valley. I dismounted off of my horse and ran over to where we'd run into the rattle snake. "It's not here!"
Marin, troubled, slid off of Patches and came over to where I was. "You had it when we got here, how could you have lost it anywhere else?"
"What are we looking for again?" Andi asked, yawning. She dismounted off of Taffy and walked over to us, surveying the ground. "And why did we have to get up at two in the morning to find it?"
"It's a watch," I explained, "A very important watch. If I don't get it back then we're going to-to-" I didn't say anything else as I once more began to panic and search the ground. The thought was too awful to entertain. If we didn't get it back- then we were never going to get back. 
A strange, tingling sensation came over me and I happened to look down at my hands. Are they fading? They were. Just like when we teleported from one time period to another, except I didn't have my watch on me! What is happening?
I shot Marin and look and she returned it with an equally frightened glance. She too, seemed to be fading. Could it be that we're fading into our correct times because I don't have the watch? I wondered. This was bad. This was really, really bad!
"Trevor," Marin whispered. "What is happening?"
A feeling of total hopelessness washed over me. I sank to my knees and put my face in my hands. "I don't know!" I wailed. "This has never happened before, lass!"
I think by now we'd really freaked Andi out. She was standing there with her eyes as wide as the sun, her mouth forming a little O as she looked from Marin to me. "You look strange," she managed.
"We have to keep looking," I said, ignoring the obvious fact that something was very wrong indeed. I stood up, a little wobbly, and continued our search. The feeling I got when we time-traveled was coming over me, and it was like a strange force was trying to drag me away from where I was. I resisted it, I did my best to push it out of my mind, but it was pulling me... to somewhere I didn't want to go...
"Marin!" I yelled, desperate. "We have to find it now!"
She nodded in agreement. Andi, though she had no idea what was going on, joined in the best she could. Together we spread out and searched everywhere in the vicinity.
But 4T was nowhere to be found.
"This might be easier if I knew what I was looking for!" Andi finally exclaimed, exasperated.
"It's a wristwatch," Marin croaked. "A plain looking wristwatch with a map on the face."
I sat down on a stump, my legs shaking as I attempted to steady my nerves. That pull was still there, getting stronger and stronger by the second.
Everything I knew about time traveling was at odds with each other. Being separated from my time traveling watch shouldn't have caused this. If anything, I would begin to settle into whatever culture we'd landed in. Why had this happened? Why couldn't we find that watch?
My mind drifted back to the conversation at hand, then I leapt up as Andi proclaimed, "Oh, that's what it looks like? Is this it?"
She held up a 4T with a questioning look.
Marin's mouth fell open. I didn't say anything for a long time, then I opened my mouth to speak.
They say I woke up fifteen minutes later after fainting dead away. Not a very manly trait.

~oOo~

It didn't seem quite fair not to tell Andi who we were and what we did after all the trouble we put her through to find the watch. Apparently she'd seen it in the grass when they'd been rounding up cattle, but how it had gotten there when it had been on my wrist right before the rattle snake scare was beyond me. I didn't know what had happened, but I was determined to make sure we never came that close to such a situation like that again.

It surprised me how well Andi took the truth about us being time travelers. I made her promise she wouldn't tell anyone, not even her brothers. "I'm breaking a lot of rules telling you this, so you can't tell anyone," I'd said.

She'd gotten really excited about it, but she'd believed every word. "This is amazing, what is the future like? What do you do all the time? What kinds of things do people do?"

"That we can't tell you," Marin had said. "If we did you wouldn't believe us anyways, and there's some time travel rules that say we can't tell others about these things."

"No reason other than to irritate readers and fans," I explained.

Our last day in California came all too fast. I enjoyed our time with the Carters as much as Marin did, but I was more than happy to get back when it was time. We said goodbye to the family, then agreed to let Andi ride out with us. She knew we were heading back to our own time, and she wanted to see us depart.

Now we stood ready as the watch showed that we had two minutes left until we were transported back to our own time.

"It was so much fun having you," Andi said, hugging Marin. "You have to come again!"

"Yeah, maybe we'll bring Laura Ingalls Wilder along next time," I joked.

"Who's that?"

"Someone you'd like a lot," Marin answered, shooting me a look. "We haven't met her yet, but we know a lot about her."

"Time to go Marin." I grabbed Marin's hand as the dial on the face of my wristwatch began to spin faster and faster, and the surrounding area began to disappear and become our Hawaiian island.

"Goodbye, Andi!" We called.

I didn't hear her reply as the entire scenery changed and we were once more home. I knew from the look of awe on her face she no doubt said something like, "Roasting rattlesnakes!"

After all, what else would a cowgirl say?

The End

Back to the Drawing Board

Ready to head back out West with us? Good, because we’ve got some fun surprises… and dangers… that we need your help with!

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I may have miscalculated. Just a little.

Marin, on the other hand, didn’t think I’d messed up. She was convinced I’d created a disaster. These things she usually had a good insight on, but I was pretty sure it was just a mistake. She also had a tendency to overreact.

The wilderness surrounded us like a table of brown dirt and scrub brushes, there wasn’t another human being in sight. Sparse trees popped up here and there, perfect places for mountain lions and other sinister creatures to hide in. Overall, the land didn’t look all that promising for a good swim in lake Ontario. Where we were originally headed.

Yeah. I’d miscalculated.

“This isn’t Canada!” Marin exclaimed. “Můj bože! To je pustina! Tam je v dohledu žádná voda. Budeme zemřít žízní!”

I sighed and rubbed the back of my head. “I don’t understand you when you talk like that.”

For such a timid girl, she sure could be a ball of fire when she freaked out.

Marin whirled to face me, her blue eyes snapping as she placed her hands on her hips. “Forgive me, but České is my native tongue,” she stated crisply. “At least I learned your language.”

I didn’t even want to get into that argument. I knew if I did, we were going to be here for hours. “Fine. Whatever. All I’m saying is stop freaking out. Okay? Sheesh, you’d think I’d blown up Yellowstone the way you’re acting.”

Marin crossed her arms and rolled her eyes. “Technically you did, remember?”

I waved it off. “Past offenses. Now we need to figure out where we are.”

My young friend didn’t argue with that. Instead, she sighed and began to survey the landscape.

My watch confirmed that we had indeed arrived in the year 1880, which was the time we’d aimed to show up in Canada. The only problem was I hadn’t the faintest idea just where we were, hence the slight tiff Marin and I had. She didn’t like the idea of being in a strange land for several days, whereas I didn’t really care. As long as there was a nice lake to go swimming in, I was good.

“Well, since we aren’t sure where we are, why don’t we start walking?” I suggested. “We aren’t supposed to go back to the Island until Tuesday, so we might as well enjoy ourselves until that time. Whatdya say?”

Marin shrugged, her eyes clearly troubled. “I wish 4T wasn’t such a finicky time machine,” she muttered. “How could it get Canada mixed up with this place? It doesn’t look anything like Canada should!”

“How do you know?” I countered as we began to stride through the tall grass and brush. I thought I heard a strange rattling noise, but dismissed it as a cicada. “You’ve never actually been to Canada.”

“Canada has mountains, and is big, and green, and, and, not dry like this!”

“You have no imagination.”

She looked a little sheepish and tossed a blond braid over her shoulder. “All imagination I have came from you, Trevor. I never was very creative. Just practical.”

Rattle, rattle. There was that noise again. I stopped and listened, then waved it off. “Bugs are busy this time of year. I think it’s Summertime.”

At this, Marin looked a little annoyed. “Well, duh. I could have told you that.”

Rattle, rattle. Something was just ‘off’ about that sound. I didn’t like it. I couldn’t recall why, but I knew I’d heard it before and it hadn’t been fun. What was that sound?

“Hey Marin,” I began, “Maybe we shouldn’t-”

Marin stopped dead in her tracks. Her face turned white and she didn’t move a muscle. It was then that I remembered just what that familiar noise was.

Rattlesnake. And it was less than three feet away from Marin.

I froze, my mind reeling as I tried to process what was happening. What to do. What action to take!

“Great Loch,” I whispered. “Great, deep and monster-filled Loch!”

Marin didn’t reply, but I noted tears were beginning to form around her eyes. I had to do something!
The rattler tested the air with his tongue, then rattled his tail again as I inched forward. If I had a gun I could shoot the darn thing, but I didn’t have a single weapon on me. 4T wasn’t going to work because I couldn’t use it for another four days. And if I sent for a future self, he could cause the snake to strike!

So little time and no good options. Every second was a second wasted.

“Trevor,” Marin whimpered.

“Easy Marin,” I warned. “Don’t move. I’m thinking.”

“Trevor, please.”

Her voice was desperate. That edge of fear that crept in during the most dire situations was present. She was more than desperate- she was afraid she was going to die.

I hadn’t even heard the footsteps behind me until a click! Sounded in my ear, and the barrel of a rifle poked around my shoulder.

“What on eart-”

“Shuttup, don’t move and hold your breath,” a male voice whispered in my ear. “Kid, stay as still as a log. Take one step and that snake’s going to take a chunk of your leg. Not to mention I might accidently shoot you. Don’t move, okay?”

Marin didn’t move, but she rolled her eyes back to catch a glimpse of the man behind me.

The rifle barrel came forward a little more. The snake coiled, ready to strike. Whirrrr, whirrr, he warned, hissing as he proclaimed his dangerous poison.

Before I had a chance to leap back, the rifle fired, the snake bounced up and Marin was in my arms, sobbing like the little girl she was. I hadn’t moved a muscle, and now I wasn’t sure if I would be able to. The rifle shot rang in my ears and my senses were on overload.

Owww.

I glanced at the man next to me and noted his cowboy attire. Oh, we must be in the West, I decided. He had dark brown hair, blue eyes and a black vest. He was about my height, so probably six-foot-one or so. His face was set in a grim line, and he stared at the still writhing snake.

“You’re lucky I came along when I did,” he grunted. He checked his rifle barrel and then motioned to two other riders behind him. “That snake would have killed your kid there, mister.”

“Thank you,” I breathed.

Marin nodded, still too overcome with the close call to speak.

A girl about Marin’s age and a blond-haired cowboy walked over, their faces full of concern. The girl watched Marin sympathetically, then came over and put her hand on Marin’s shoulder.

“It’s okay, I’ve had more than my fair share of close calls,” she comforted.

Marin looked up, a little embaressed that the strangers were watching her.

“Thank you sir for saving me,” she sniffed, wiping her eyes. She glanced at the dark-haired girl, who was wearing her hair in braids like Marin’s.

The cowboy nodded, then gestured to me. “Mister, you do realize you’re trespassing on our property, right?”

I chuckled and wiped my head, glad to be off the topic of the near death experience and onto something a little less uncomfortable. “No, I didn’t. Real sorry ‘bout that, we’re kinda lost.”

“Kinda?” The blond cowboy raised an eyebrow. “If you’re Scottish like your accent suggests, then you’re more than lost.”

Thank you! For once someone didn’t call me Irish! “That’s right,” I answered. “My, uh, daughter and I are not quite sure where we are.”

The dark-haired girl grinned. “Why, you’re on Carter property!” She announced. “This is the Circle C Ranch. And we’re the Carters!”

I could’ve sworn Marin’s jaw dropped. I know mine did. Marin stared at the girl, then blinked. “You’re a Carter?” she whispered.

“I’m Chad Carter,” Chad introduced himself, shaking my hand. “This is my brother Mitch and our sister Andi.”

Andi nodded to Marin and smiled.

“I’m Trevor Trekker and this is Marin,” I replied. We all exchanged handshakes, though my mind was numb. Carter? Carter? The richest ranchers in California? Well, it confirmed one thing. We were in California. Darn time watch, it got California and Canada mixed up! That was strange.

“Where are your horses, Mr. Trekker?” Mitch asked.

“We lost them,” Marin offered up, casting an admiring glance at Andi. Andi was her hero, this would be like me meeting Einstein!

“You guys really don’t know what you’re doin’, do ya?” Chad muttered, a small grin crossing his face. “You might as well as come back to the ranch with us. We were rounding up a couple of strays from our herd when we chanced upon you.” He picked up the snake and surveyed it. “Looks to me we were just on time.”

“Yeah, no kidding,” I agreed.

“You can ride with me,” Andi offered to Marin. “Taffy can seat two people. Your father can ride the extra horse we brought along, Patch. Mitch’s horse has been acting a little lame lately, so we weren’t sure if he’d need to dismount and ride a different horse. It’s a good thing we brought him along!”

“Thank you for your kindness and for helping us,” Marin said. “We’re pleased to meet you.”

“Yeah,” I winked in Marin’s direction. “I think you just made Marin’s day.”

Come back next week for Part Two! Special Thanks to Susan Marlow for giving us permission to use the Carters in this story.