When All is Null and Void

Chapter Forty-One

When the falling starlight began to fade away, Danielle couldn't tell where it ended and the misty evening began. Danielle stood with Alexander and Caleb on a quiet, cobbled street. It was mid-evening. The sun was low, and no one seemed to be out anymore. An inky sort of feeling lay over the darkening streets, where flickering light of flame-filled sconces came from nearly every window.

Somehow she'd been made up in a dress skirt which flowed freely toward her ankles, but kept close to her thighs. Danielle had a shirt tucked within the skirt, and a short outer coat on her shoulders. She removed the hat from her head, which was white, with three feathers sticking up at the front. Danielle had worn clothes similar to these when she'd played Katherine Plummer in NewsiesSophomore year. Except these were real, not props. Brain stuttering like a scratched CD, Danielle's jaw dropped.

"The last time we Hopped my clothes didn't change..." she was breathless. Caleb and Alexander were both wearing impeccable dark coats which hung to their mid-thigh over pinstriped pants and shining black shoes. She glanced at her own shoes. The small boots pinched the tips of her toes together.

"I've been Hopping a lot longer than Caleb. The clothes extended to you because my ring know to include you."

"Where are we?" Caleb asked as he looked around at the buildings. They all seemed somewhat familiar to Danielle, and she was pretty sure they were in, or near, the River Thames in London. She'd been in the city the previous summer for a month long exchange trip. The air had had the same scent then as it did now, slightly smoky and wet.

"London. Christmas Eve of 1893." Alexander spoke as if there something important about this day, but when asked about it, he simply said, "I just chose a random year."

"It doesn't seem all that exciting..." Caleb said, and he started walking down the street. "Are you sure there aren't any...I don't know, giant Christmas trees or something?"

"Is that criticism of my choice of destination I hear?" Alexander followed Caleb at a quick pace, and Danielle—having trouble keeping up because of the way her boots kept getting caught in between cobblestones—listened to their lighthearted banter. Somehow she couldn't believe she was in the 1800s. It might have been easier if she had seen other people, but it was only Caleb and Alexander.

The fleeting shadow of a man passed in a window, and when she glanced back up to Caleb and Alexander, they were a little farther away. "Guys!" she hissed, nearly jogging to catch up. They looked back.

"Why are you walking so slow?" Alexander asked. "Keep up!"

"I'm trying, but you two are taking giant steps while I'm back here getting stuck in the ground!" She gave an unladylike grunt as her heel sank into a rut again. Caleb and Alexander hoisted her out.

They turned a corner and found themselves looking at the Tower Bridge. The sight took Danielle's breath away. When she'd last seen it, the bridge was fully built and functional. At the moment, in the dimness of the setting sun, she saw the outlines of people walking along the river, and the outline of the bridge mid-construction was so fascinating and surreal and weird. Her brain skipped a beat again. She was struck speechless, and for a moment she was able to fathom the idea she'd traveled through time to this moment.

Where before Danielle hadn't seen anyone in the flesh, she now saw many people. Most were bustling about quickly, as if they didn't want to be out when the sun went down.

She'd read about the way London became dangerous at night, and she'd even experienced it herself last summer. Her host family had asked her to be back before sunset, to make sure she was okay. She saw it on the faces of a few hard-looking women who brushed past the three foreigners. Danielle almost giggled at the way they weren't only foreigners to the country but to the time as well.