Gold Rush • The Wizard
A Professor Chalkdust and Miss Lucy Adventure • Part 12
This twelve-part serial follows the unexpected adventures of Oxford professor Emerson Caldwell Chalkdust and new teacher, Victoria Ann Curly, whom he volunteered to mentor. Both get far more than they expected thanks to a magical encyclopedia set.
In the previous chapter, the Professor and Miss Curly devised a plan to return to the past and meet with Lord Wellingham.
Start at the beginning here:
An instant later, they found themselves located outside the Murrayfield sports arena.
“If the encyclopedia entry was correct, it should be November 18th, 1905,” the professor stated.
This was confirmed when a horse-drawn carriage pulled up and asked if they needed a ride. They hired the carriage and headed to Wellingham’s estate.
Wellingham’s house was palatial. It was surrounded by beautifully manicured gardens as far as the eye could see. A conspicuous display of wealth. As they approached the door, it opened, and an elderly man with white hair stepped out.
“You are not of this time. Why are you here?” the man asked.
They were shocked. Could he have known they had time-traveled? He was far too old to be Lord Wellingham.
“No point in denying it. I have lived for 200 years. I know when something is out of its time,” the old man added.
“You must be Lord Wellingham’s father,” the professor said.
“I am Clive Wellingham. Standish is my son. This is known to all in this region. What is your name, and why are you avoiding my question?”
“I am Professor Chalkdust. This is Miss Victoria Curly and Paul Degarmo.”
“I am your great, great-grandson,” Paul blurted out.
“Are you now? Then I must assume you are from the future, and you have come with urgent news.”
“Yes. A matter of life and death,” Paul said.
“Naturally. Everything is. Before you share your urgent news, I must inquire as to how you were able to travel through time. Only the greatest wizards have the skill to cast such a spell, and I am the last remaining wizard. Are there wizards in your time?”
“No, but I was hoping you could teach me,” Paul said.
Miss Curly quickly touched Paul’s shoulder and said, “I think we are getting ahead of ourselves. “Lord Wellingham…”
“I am no Lord. I am a wizard. You may address me as Master.”
“Master Wellingham, we were able to travel here because of a spell you cast on two sets of encyclopedias your son commissioned for your grandchildren. It is those very encyclopedias that we are here to discuss,” Miss Curly stated.
“Those encyclopedias arrived just last week. I have cast no spells on them.”
“You will.”
“You must stop right there. No man should know his future. It is far too dangerous. Say no more.”
Professor Chalkdust spoke up. “I fear it is even more dangerous to stay silent.”
“You are certain I cast the spell on the encyclopedias that allowed you to travel back in time?”
“We are. Your son wrote it in his journal.”
“Then you may freely tell me anything about the future, but it is pointless. For any time-travel spell I cast will also include memory loss for anyone I interact with. Anything you say, our entire time together, will be forgotten by me and anyone else you encounter the moment you return to your time. This prevents time-travelers from telling others about the future.”
“What about actions?”
“Actions can affect the future. Which is the reason only wizards time-travel. Your presence here means I was foolhardy and irresponsible.”
“You cast the spell on the encyclopedias because your granddaughter wished to see the entries in the encyclopedia in person.”
“Then, it is true. I was beyond foolhardy and irresponsible. My love for my grandchildren is stronger than any magic or reason. But I cannot change the future. The events will occur as written in the journal.”
“But your grandchildren and Lady Wellingham will be affected by time travel. They will contract a disease and perish.”
The old wizard bowed his head, then crumpled to his knees. He let out a deafening roar of agony and pounded his fists into the earth. The ground shook with the force of an earthquake. The professor, Miss Curly, and Paul all covered their ears and fell to the ground in pain.
They all lay on the ground for several moments. When they recovered, they rose back to their feet.
“Forgive my outburst. I was overtaken by emotion,” the wizard said.
“Can we destroy the encyclopedias now? Before you cast the spell?” Miss Curly asked.
The wizard thought for a moment, then said, “Follow me.”
They entered the house and went upstairs to the daughter’s room. The bookshelf had an empty space where the encyclopedias usually stood. They went to the boy’s room and found the same thing.
“It is as I expected. The encyclopedias will not exist here while you are here. The spell will bind them together and allow them to exist only in one time period. Only one volume from each set may journey through time. The rest will remain and act as return beacons. You cannot destroy what doesn’t currently exist. Not only that, but the encyclopedias will be indestructible until the spell is broken. And only I can do that.”
“Can you go with us to the future and break the spell?” Miss Curly asked.
“I cannot. Only those who start the journey can complete it. A time-travel spell only allows travel between the present and the past. This is the past for you. But your time is the future for me and does not yet exist.”
They all looked at each other in despair.
“Why didn’t you train your son to be a wizard?” Paul asked.
“Paul, that is too personal,” Miss Curly said.
“No, I appreciate curiosity. Curiosity led me to become a wizard myself. The answer is this. Science killed magic. People no longer want magic; they want explanations. Their hearts are closed, and the heart must be open to magic for it to occur. Not only that, a wizard’s life is hard and full of heartbreak. I wanted my son to have a normal life.
“Paul is a child from my second family. I was forced to leave my first family when I did not age at the same rate they did. It was torture. I spent many years in inconsolable grief. I promised myself I would not marry again, but the heart is strong and the brain foolish, so I did. I did not reveal myself as a wizard to my second family. We had one son, Standish. Standish does not know I am a wizard.
“I can only surmise that I fell victim to the charms of my granddaughter Margaret and cast a spell on the encyclopedias. Perhaps I revealed myself then.”
“Where are Lord Wellingham and the family?” Miss Curly asked.
“They are in the city. At some function, rich folks are always throwing as an excuse to gather with their own kind. They will return tomorrow. You cannot tell them any of this. It will be too much for them to handle. No one should know when they will die. In fact, I ask you to leave now, so my own soul’s burden can end. I welcome forgetfulness now more than ever. There is nothing to be done to avoid fate.”
“I know!” Paul shouted.
Everyone looked at him.
“Go on, lad,” the wizard said.
“You can train me to be a wizard, so I can break the spell on the encyclopedias in our time.”
The wizard thought for a moment.
“It is a good thought. But it takes years of intense training to do the most basic spells. To break a spell this complex would take far too long.”
“Professor, you said time doesn’t pass for us when we are time-traveling, right?” Paul asked.
“That was our experience,” the professor replied.
“Then I can stay here as long as it takes.”
“I am very old. I would die before you could complete your training,” the wizard said.
“What if I keep coming back to this day? And every time you train me a little more. Like taking piano lessons.”
“Hmmm. I suppose it is possible. But you would have to explain it to me every time.”
“You can write it in a journal along with what I have learned. I will bring it with me each time. Then you can see it for yourself, in your own handwriting.”
“Hmm. That is all well and good for the future, but how does it help me prevent the tragedy in my own time?”
“Once I break the spell on the encyclopedias in our time, I will cast another time-travel spell without the memory loss. So I can return to your time and warn you not to cast the original spell. Or to destroy the encyclopedias.”
They all looked at each other.
“It might work. I see no other option,” the professor said.
“I agree. If there is any chance we can prevent the deaths of Loraine and my grandchildren, then we must try,” the wizard said.
“You should know that Margaret’s set has fallen into the hands of a man who wants to change history. We came here in hopes of also stopping him,” the professor said.
“Then we both have good reason to make this work,” the wizard said. “Now leave me, I beg it of you.”
“We shall. Paul will return.”
With that, the professor opened the encyclopedia and began rereading the entry.
“On 18 November 1905, the first rugby match between New Zealand and Scotland was played at Murrayfield, a sports stadium located in the west end of Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland…”
They found themselves back in the cafe parking lot in 2026. They took Paul home and left him with the necessary volume of the encyclopedia. He promised to let his servants know he had returned and then to begin his wizard training.
The Professor and Miss Curly returned to the US and resumed their lives. One afternoon, while Miss Curly was visiting the Professor, she opened up one of the remaining encyclopedias and began thumbing through it.
“Professor, look at this. The letters of an entire entry have turned red.”
“Oh my.” The Professor said and stared thoughtfully at the red entry for a few moments.
“Master Wellington said the encyclopedias would be linked. Perhaps we are seeing where Jenkins is going. There is only one thing to do.”
“You mean?”
“Precisely. We must follow Jenkins and see what his intentions are.”
“But I thought only one volume of the set could be used at a time to time-travel.”
“That is the theory. But it is nighttime in Paris. Paul will likely be asleep, and his volume will not be in use. If our San Francisco experience is any indication, then we shall only be gone a second in the current time. The same should hold true for Paul when he travels. It would be almost impossible for them to be used at the same time.”
“Well, then. Are you ready for another adventure?” Miss Curly asked.
“Indeed.”
The End — For Now
The main characters in this story were inspired by a comic I made back in 2014.
Thanks for reading and responding. You make it fun.
Mark