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nodded.
    "Then how did you meet my brother?" Ben asked.
    Mary Beth giggled.
    "He tried to break into my house."
    Ben glared at his sibling.
    "What's going on, Mark? Don't mess with me."
    "I won't," Mark said. "I'll tell it to you straight."
    "Huh?"
    Mark smiled.
    "Take a seat, Ben. We have a lot to talk about."
     

CHAPTER 7: MARK
     
    Thirty minutes and a dozen questions later, Mark walked out of the kitchen, pulled a light jacket from a nearby closet, and returned to the others. He put on the jacket, pushed in his chair, and looked at Mary Beth.
    "Are you ready to go?" Mark asked.
    "I'm ready," Mary Beth said.
    "Can I come too?" Ben asked.
    Mark shook his head.
    "I want you to stay."
    "Why?"
    "I want to test a theory, that's why," Mark said. "Take a shower. Get dressed. Eat breakfast. Make coffee. Or, better yet, stay put. Just don't follow us."
    "That's not fair," Ben said.
    "It may not be fair, but it's what I want you to do. If my theory is correct, we'll be back in less than a minute. Then you can do whatever you want. OK?"
    Ben huffed.
    "OK."
    Mark glanced at the kitchen clock and then at his watch, which had never stopped running. He set the watch to the time on the clock.
    "Is anything wrong?" Mary Beth asked.
    "No," Mark said. "I'm just getting my bearings. I'm pretty sure it's nine o'clock."
    Mary Beth smiled.
    "It's eight where I come from, mister."
    Mark laughed.
    "I suppose it is. Shall I set my watch again?"
    "No," Mary Beth said. She giggled. "We're confused enough."
    "I agree. Let's go."
    Mark waited for Mary Beth to pass and then followed her into a hallway, through a door, and down the stone stairs to the basement. A minute later, the two passed through the tunnel, opened the outer door, and walked up the brick steps to the backyard and the morning of June 2, 2017.
    Mark followed Mary Beth to a spot in the middle of the lawn, stopped, and then took a moment to assess his new friend. She was kind, he thought, and incredibly open-minded for someone who had been asked to believe the impossible on short notice. With long brown hair, blue eyes, a button nose, and a dash of freckles, she was also very pretty. Mark pondered his good fortune until a soft voice pierced the moist air and brought him back to the present.
    "What do we do now?" Mary Beth asked. She looked at the mansion and then at Mark. "We can't go back through the tunnel. We'll just end up where we started."
    "I know," Mark said. "We have to go through the front."
    "What if the door is locked? I'm pretty sure it's locked."
    "Isn't your family in the house?"
    "My sister is," Mary Beth said. "She's sleeping upstairs."
    Mark smiled.
    "Then it's time to wake her up."
    "I was afraid you would say that."
    The two walked in a light rain to the front gate, the one Mark had accessed on his second trip to 2017, and passed through unnoticed. No women talked or laughed on the sidewalk directly in front of the Painted Lady. No neighbors peeked out their doors or windows.
    Mark followed Mary Beth around a sleek Ford in the driveway and up a dozen brick steps to an imposing front door that hadn't changed much in nearly six decades. He smiled at Mary Beth when they stopped on the small porch and looked at each other.
    "I'll let you do the honors since I haven't met your sister."
    Mary Beth stared at him.
    "Thanks."
    She rang the doorbell and waited for someone to stir. No one did.
    "Is she a heavy sleeper?" Mark asked.
    Mary Beth nodded.
    "She once slept through a war movie at a theater."
    Mark laughed.
    "Are you kidding?"
    Mary Beth shook her head.
    "She values sleep as much as food."
    Mary Beth rang the bell again. Silence followed.
    Mark smiled.
    "Maybe she went for a walk."
    Mary Beth glared at the joker.
    "I don't think so."
    She rang the bell a third time.
    Mark listened for noises within the house and this time heard some. He heard a door slam and someone walk through the hallway toward the front door. He grinned.
    "Sleeping Beauty has risen."
    "Try the bride