Read Online An Acceptable Time by Madeleine L'Engle - Free Book Online

somehow or other I’ve blundered into it.” She tried to laugh. “Is Zachary in it, too?”
    The bishop shook his head slowly. “I think not. No. His seeing Karralys when he came to our time is one thing. Going through the time gate himself is quite another.”
    “If Zachary hasn’t gone through the time gate, then he’s not in the tesseract?”
    “I think not,” the bishop repeated. “Nor is Louise, even if—whether she believes it or not—she sawAnnie.”
    “Polly,” Mr. Murry queried, “you’re sure Zachary saw this person?”
    “Well, Granddad, yes.”
    Her grandfather had the hot water running, and he held his hands under the tap, nodding slowly. “Going somewhere with Zachary should be all right. Away from here, but not too far away. Nowhere near the star-watching rock.”
    “Just lie low till after Samhain,” the bishop urged. “And don’t go swimming unless one of your grandparents is with you.”
    She nodded. “Okay. Samhain. What does that mean?”
    “It’s the ancient Celtic New Year’s festival, when the animals were brought down from their grazing grounds for the winter. The crops were harvested, and there was a great feast. Places were set at the festival dinner for those who had died during the previous year, as a sign of honor and faith in the continuing of the spirits of the dead.”
    “It sounds like a sort of combination of Halloween and Thanksgiving,” Polly said.
    “And so it was. Pope Gregory III in the eighth century dedicated November 1 All Saints’ Day, and October 31 was All Hallows’ Eve.”
    “So,” Mr. Murry said dryly, “the Christian Church, and not for the first time, took over and renamed a pagan holiday.”
    The phone rang again, interrupting them. Mr. Murry went to it. “Yes, Louise, he’s here. It would seem that somehow or other Polly walked into three thousand years ago this morning, if such a thing is to be believed…No, I find it difficult, too…Yes, we’ll call.” He turned back to the table.
    “My little sister is a doctor,” the bishop said.
    “All right, Nason. We know your sister is a doctor.”
    “I made the mistake—if it was a mistake—Annie cut her finger deeply, badly. It needed stitching, and Cub, the young healer, is not experienced enough, and Karralys was away, so I brought Annie home with me.”
    “To now—to the present?” Incredulity, shock, and anger combined in Mr. Murry’s voice.
    “Just long enough for Louise to fix her finger. I took her right back.”
    “Oh, Nase.” Mr. Murry groaned. “You can’t play around with time that way.”
    “I couldn’t play around with Annie’s finger, either.”
    “Did Louise go along with you in this—this—”
    “She wasn’t happy about it, but there we were in her office and—to tell you the truth—she had never seen Annie before, so it didn’t occur to her to think in terms of three thousand years ago. Her first reaction was that Annie needed help, and quickly, so she did what had to be done. When I told her who Annie was, she didn’t really believe me, and I didn’t press the point. She just told me to get Annie back to wherever or whenever it was she came from as quickly as possible.”
    “Nason.” Mr. Murry stood up, sat down again. “This isn’t Star Trek and you can’t just beam people back and forth. How did you do it?”
    “Well, now, I’m not exactly sure. That’s part of the problem. Don’t shout at me, Alex.”
    “I’m beyond shouting.”
    “Granddad.” Polly tried to calm things down. Now that her grandparents were taking charge, the adventure began to seem exciting rather than terrifying. “Your tesseract thing—what you’ve been working on—space travel—it’s to free us from the restrictions of time, isn’t it?”
    “Yes. But purely for the purpose of extra-solar-system exploration. That’s all. We don’t know enough to play around with it, as I know from my own experience.”
    The bishop spoke softly. “We climbed the