1 A stitch in time

The Tesla Trap by SJ KING

Chapter 1 A stitch in time Luke's sewing machine needle had gotten stuck. The fabric he was sewing for the school drama club costumes was thick and stiff, and his machine wasn't happy. He reset the needle and pressed the pedal. Soon, the soothing sound of the clacking needle filled his bedroom again.

When he had finished the seam on the jacket he was working on, Luke stretched his arms above his head and rubbed his neck. Outside, seagulls swooped through the gray Aberdeen skies and skimmed the top of the North Sea waves that he could see peeping over the rooftops. The North Sea was always a different color. Today it was a charcoal gray that matched his jeans. The laptop beside him showed images of clothes from the 1890s: suits and shirts,

dresses and skirts, and aprons. This year's play was The Time Machine, written in 1895 by a writer named H. G. Wells. Luke was beginning to feel like an expert in the fashion from that period: the shape of the suit lapels, the style of the shirt collars, and the bell-shaped skirts with tight waists. It was funny that they were doing The Time Machine, a play about time travel. Luke knew a bit about traveling through time himself. He was a member of the Timekeepers, a secret organization that kept history on track. Whenever the Timekeepers' nemesis, an evil time bandit named DeLay, went back in time to mess up history, it was up to the Timekeepers to make things right.

Luke was careful as he moved the fabric through his sewing machine. Then he noticed something. The hands on his special Timekeepers watch were spinning...backward. Luke looked up. Everything had frozen. It was the oddest thing, seeing a seagull hanging in midair outside his window. Time for another adventure! He flipped open the top of his watch. A collection of little buttons winked at him. Luke chose one and pressed it. Rainbow colors swirled through the air, lifting him off his feet. His bedroom

faded away as everything around him turned white. When the light faded, Luke was back at the History Hub. He gazed around at all the historical objects that lined the room, displayed against walls and standing on plinths. It was pretty cool to have an HQ that doubled as a museum. "Luke, here!" he said into the big, echoing space.