said. âPeople from the future can see pretty much anything we do. Anytime.â
âThatâs creepy,â Mom said, hunching up her shoulders and shivering. âWhy isnât that illegal?â
âIt typically is in connection with the recent past,â JB said in a soothing tone. âButââ
âIâm confused,â Dad complained, his voice whiny again. âJB wasnât in the future. He was standing right here with the rest of us. I didnât hear Jordan make any noise. How did JB know he was out of his room?â
âHis Elucidator told him,â Katherine explained. âThat thing that looks like a cell phone. He got a message from the future.â
Seriously? Jordan thought. Katherine thinks weâre going to fall for that?
Nobody laughed or even smirked. The other kids all looked grim. JB frowned and put his hand over the pocket in his shirt where heâd evidently put his cell phone. Or his âElucidator.â Whatever.
âMaybe we can limit the explanations to only the information that Jordanâand, for that matter, Linda and Michaelâabsolutely need,â JB muttered, sweeping his hand toward Mom and Dad, lumping them in with Jordan. âTheyâre not going to travel through time ever again, so they wonât need to know about Elucidators.â
âBut it sounds like Elucidators and time travel shaped our livesâand our family,â Mom said in a steely voice. âDonât we need to know about them to understand our past? Whatâs the saying? âThose who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat itâ?â
Trust Mom, even as a teenager, to come up with something like that.
JB stopped beside the island in the middle of the kitchen. Jordan would have preferred to sit downâhe still felt a little dizzyâbut everyone else seemed too keyed up for that. They all stood around the island, almost as if they were squaring off and choosing sides for an argument.
âYou canât expect the Skidmores not to have questions,âChip said. It sounded like he was trying to be a peacemaker. âI mean, even Iâm confused, and Iâve been to other centuries! The separate dimensions with Jonah and Jordanâhow did that work? They were both in the same dimension back in the nineteen thirties, right?â
The nineteen thirties? Jordan thought. What?
But once again, everyone else seemed to accept this with absolute calm.
JB sighed and leaned against the island. âJonah and Jordan, like typical identical twins, were born in the same dimension,â he began. âThere was only one dimension when they were born, more than eighty years ago. Time split when they were kidnapped from history andââ
âNo, no, no, no, no,â Jordan interrupted, because he couldnât stand it any longer. âI donât know about that Jonah kid, but I was not born more than eighty years ago. Iâm thirteen! Iâm not like themââhe gestured wildly at the kid versions of Mom and DadââIâve never been any older than this! Iâve never been kidnapped, and I wasnât ever in âhistory,â and, and . . . I do not have an identical twin!â
Everyone looked back and forth between Jonah and Jordan. Jordan didnât have to be a mind reader or have any of those time-travel Elucidator hocus-pocus skills to be able to tell: Every single person in the room was thinking some variation of Dude, scream all you want. But you two are identical .
âI mean, Iâm not supposed to have a twin!â Jordan said. âItâs not right! Itâs never been this way before!â
JB looked around at the whole crowd. âAnd you thought knowing more would make things easier for him?â he asked.
âThis is hard no matter what,â Jonah said, and for some reason everyone turned to him respectfully, as though he were some wise person