Chapter 2
Okay, think, think. You are in New York. That is impossible, but at least I can take a flight home. No idea how I am going to explain how I ended up in New York though, but that is a later worry. Good thing my passport was in my backpack with my bank cards and some cash.
Step one. Call home to my parents. It is easier if they can book a ticket from their computer. Walking to a little corner in the street, because damn, these people are in a rush, I take my phone out of my pocket and start dialling my parent's house phone. After a few moments that feel like ages, the line gets picked up. Without waiting I start talking ‘Mom, Hi, it’s me. I will explain later, but I somehow ended up in New York. Yeah, I know, how did I end up in New York while I was hiking in Austria? Honestly, I am not sure myself, but can you please help me get back?’
Silence is the only thing I hear on the phone line for a while. That is weird. I expected her to be surprised, but even then. My hopes are dashed when after a few more moments of silence I hear a voice that is definitely not my mom's say ‘I think you have the wrong number, good luck though and uhm, enjoy New York’ before they hang up the phone.
That is weird, I swear I picked the right number. Maybe in my haste, I got a number wrong. But when I look in my call history I see I dialled the right number. The same number I called yesterday. It definitely belonged to my parents then.
There are several suspicions creeping into my thoughts and I do not like them one bit. The chances of this being a dream are starting to look very small. Which means I travelled from Europe to the US in the blink of an eye. Did I also travel through time? If my phone works I cannot have travelled a lot into the past or the future.
My phone still gives the same date: October 31, 2025. But I guess phones are not made to time travel, so it is possibly as confused as I am. Continuing on I see a sign to a train station. Perfect, I should be able to check the date somewhere in the station. And maybe a money converter. If I travelled in time my bank passes might not work, so it is a good thing I always keep some cash on me. Really handy in times of travelling through time and space. Never ever thought I would have to prepare for that in my life.
Walking through the train station, which turns out to be Grand Central I cannot help but be impressed. I prefer solitude and woods over a big city, but it is impressive nonetheless. To be honest, converting money would be more troublesome in the middle of nowhere. After walking through the station I found a company that converts money and changes my euros for American dollars. This makes life a little easier for a while, although I have to be careful with my money if I want to get back to Europe on cash alone. It is a good thing I pinned some extra for my holiday, but I still need to be careful and make my way to the airport right after this.
But before I head to the airport I walk over to one of the stands in the station and buy today’s newspaper. Expecting to find a date around 10 or 20 years in the future I am shocked to see that today is October 31 and the year is 2025.
It was a little before two o’clock in Austria when whatever happened, happened. The clock in the train station says it is a quarter past nine. My watch says it is a quarter past three. I do not know the exact time difference, but 6 hours would be about right. This would mean that I did not travel in time, but just to another place. This does not make any sense. How come my parents did not pick up the phone?