The In Her Own Time Spare Parts
Files: A Letter That Was Never Delivered…From Fellow Time Traveler Crow to Bean
Dear Rebecca,
I know I can never send this
letter. There is no way to deliver it
from my time to yours, and it would be wrong for me to mail it even if I
could. These words are going into the
fire as soon as I finish writing them, despite the waste of paper and ink.
Ah, Rebecca—I’ve seen you ball up
a piece of paper that you made one too many typos on and toss it into the waste
basket. If you were born in my time, you
would never do that. But you live in a
time of electricity, of music and pictures that travel miles through the
air….and you live in a country where my family spilled their blood when The
Colonies turned their back on the Crown.
How is it that country—your country—grew into the most powerful nation
on earth anyway?
You know I’m only a runaway to
your time. You don’t know the
consequences I will face for the rules I have broken. I have learned more than
anyone should know. I have learned how to hide so no one can fully see me for
who I am—except for you. I cannot bear
to involve you in my flight any further, but I also cannot bear to stop
watching over you.
Zak will never know how lucky he
is.
Your white-coated, careful
doctors will never be able to cure the sickness that is in me, I’m afraid,
because the strain of being where I shouldn’t grows greater daily. But my friends! My dear friends in the sweet future you take
for granted! How I love all of them! How
I wish that future were really my present.
We all own our own times—and our
times own us.
Please stay safe in all of your
travels, Rebecca—my Bean. Please.
Yours most tenderly,
Crow
* * * * *
In Her Own Time
The Bean Books, #2
by Christine Potter
Romance/Time
Travel/Suspense
63K,
Evernight Teen Publishing
Summer 1970: Bean Donohue’s sixteen, she’s
finally got a good band together, and she’s crazy in love with her artist
boyfriend Zak.
She’s also about to get the coolest summer job ever, and her impossible mom’s conveniently out of town.
She’s also about to get the coolest summer job ever, and her impossible mom’s conveniently out of town.
So why does she keep
ending up in 1953…or 1779? And who's that guy with the black ponytail and
the Kent State t-shirt?
He knows way too much about her. Should Zak be worried—or should Bean?
He knows way too much about her. Should Zak be worried—or should Bean?
14+ due to
sexuality and adult situations
Excerpt:
Bean found herself alone, just outside the
house. The air was sharp. Tall trees that had just been in full summer leaf
were suddenly bare, and smaller than they’d been seconds before. Bean tried to peer
back in through the kitchen window, but the lights were off, and she couldn't
see anything. She stood in her side yard, sometime in the past. It was
happening again…
And It was enough of a shock
that she didn’t even know how she felt. She’d been glowing from the night
before with Zak, happy to have had Sam pound on her door with music and
laughter. Bean stuck her hands in the pockets of her thin blue cotton robe, and
looked up. The sky looked like early afternoon: pale sunlight behind a thin,
high layer of clouds. In front of her house, underneath the living room windows
stood three overgrown barberry bushes. Bean had never seen them before. The
ground was hard and cold, and she was barefoot.
Alrighty, then. Damn
it. Lately, Bean had been perfectly fine with life in 1970. What
year is this supposed to be? She had no idea.
Zak said love is always why this happens, she thought.
But then she felt the happiness beginning to leak out of her. If Zak were
right, why had she slipped backwards just now? She had a whole June weekend to
spend with him, feeling nothing but love…and now, this.
It made no sense. All she could do was watch, deal, and try to keep warm.
It really was pretty chilly. She tried jogging
in place to warm up, which helped a bit. Her toes were soon numb, though.
After a few minutes, a black car with big, round bumpers pulled into the
driveway and clattered to a halt. There was the rasp of an emergency brake
being set. And Bean’s father—very
young, and too thin for his thick, grey winter coat—got out of the driver’s side. Bean put a hand
over her mouth, and watched as he ran urgently around to the passenger’s door. He yanked it
open.
“Can you make it?” Bean’s dad called into the
car.
“Of course I can
make it,” said her mother’s voice. A high-heeled
shoe and a nylon stocking-covered leg emerged. Then came the rest of Bean’s
mom, wearing a brown tweed overcoat and a floppy green beret. She walked a bit
unsteadily, clutching a bundle of white blankets wrapped around a baby, which
began to wail.
“Sh-sh. Sh-sh-sh,” said Julia as she wobbled up
the walk. She stopped when she got to the front door.
“You wouldn’t happen to have remembered the
house keys, would you, Tom?” she called. Tom patted down three pockets in his
coat before something jingled. He rushed a key into the lock. Then he looked
back at the car. Both its front doors now stood wide open, and he sprinted back down the
walk toward them. Bean sucked in her breath hard, taking it all in. Was that
her days-old self,crying, inside the house? Sixteen-year-old Bean felt a little
weepy, too. It’s 1953, then, she thought. Just after my actual
birthday. Wow…
The wind blew and she shivered.
And then there was a hand on her
arm.
Book 1 in The Bean Books series
is now available:
Time Runs Away With Her
About the Author:
Christine Potter lives in a small town not far
from the setting of Time Runs Away With
Her, near the mighty Hudson River, in a very old (1740) house with two
ghosts. According to a local ghost
investigator, they are harmless, “just very old spirits who don’t want to
leave.” She doesn’t want them to.
Christine’s house contains two pipe organs (her
husband is a choir director/organist), two spoiled tom cats, and too many
books. She’s also a poet, and the author
of two collections of verse, Zero Degrees
at First Light, and Sheltering in
Place. Christine taught English and Creative Writing for years in the
Clarkstown Schools. She DJ’s free form
rock and roll weekly on Area24radio.com, and plays guitar, dulcimer, and tower
chimes.
All purpose me on FB: https://www.facebook.com/christine.potter.543
Series FB page: https://www.facebook.com/beanstravels/
My blog: http://chrispygal.weebly.com
Twitter: @chrispygal
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chrispygal/
* * *
Giveaway:
$10 Evernight Teen GC and an ebook copy
Please leave your answer to thee questions in the comments :)
a Rafflecopter giveaway
$10 Evernight Teen GC and an ebook copy
Please leave your answer to thee questions in the comments :)
1. Suppose you were my main character, Bean. What time period would you like to be swept back into--and why?
2. These books believe in ghosts. Do you? Ever seen one?
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