Nick Grant was ten years old when he discovered he had “the gift”. That is what Nick called his special ability.
It all started, when his fifth grade class took a field trip to Chicago’s west side. Nick’s class was studying the history of Chicago, the city where they lived. As a tour guide was talking to the class about the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, Nick was only half listening, as he was distracted by all of the buildings and the hustle and bustle of the city around him,
All of a sudden, it became dark. Everything looked different. The streetlights had turned into gas lamps, the streets changed from asphalt and concrete, to brick, cobblestone and even some dirt roads. There were no automobiles on the street. In their place, were a few wagons and horse drawn carriages.
Nick thought that he was imagining all of it. A moment later, the sky lit up and Nick saw that a large fire was spreading from building to building. The city suddenly came to life. People dressed in old-fashioned clothing came running out of their homes and businesses. People were panicking and running about, trying to save their city. The people started getting buckets of water to throw on the fire.
As the men and women ran by him, Nick tried to talk to them, but they could not see or hear him. Nick found that he could read their minds and hear what they were thinking. He could also feel the emotions that were feeling.
All of a sudden, it occurred to Nick, that he was watching the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, as if he were actually there.
Nick was startled when someone shook him. He looked around, and he was back in modern day Chicago. His cousin Jack was shaking him. The rest of the class was heading back to the bus.
“Are you okay Nick?” asked Jack. “You looked like you were hypnotized or in some kind of trance.”
“I’m okay,” said Nick. “I’ll tell you all about it after school.” The two of them got on the bus and the class headed back to school.
Nick and Jack were more than just cousins. They were best friends. Jack’s mom was the sister of Nick’s dad, and Jack’s dad was the brother of Nick’s mom, making them double cousins. Jack also had a twin sister named Andrea, but everybody called her Andy. Nick and his twin cousins were born a few days apart. Their families lived next door to each other. Nick was like a brother to Jack and Andy, and they were all three best friends.
When the students got back into the classroom, their teacher told them to divide into groups of three or four for a group assignment. She told them that she wanted them to write a story about the Great Fire. The story could be fictional or historical, but she wanted them to do research for the project.
Jack, Andy and Nick automatically formed into a group for the assignment. That afternoon, after school was over for the day, Nick told Jack and Andy what had happened to him that afternoon on the field trip. “It was like I had gone back in time, not physically, but in my mind. It seemed so real. I was watching the Great Chicago Fire as it happened, over one hundred years ago.”
“Do you think it was a onetime occurrence?” asked Jack.
“What do you mean?” asked Nick.
“Well” said Jack, if your mom could drive us back to the water tower this afternoon, and you went back into your time trance, we could write down everything that you saw, heard and felt.”
“Yea” said Andy, “we could ask you questions while you were in the trance and record your answers on a tape recorder. We could write the story like a reporter who was actually there.” “We could write the story as a fictional account, with real facts from the actual fire.
Nick did not know if he could go into the trance a second time, but he was willing to try. He asked his mom if she could drive them to the old \water tower, to do research for a school project.
Nick’s mom dropped them off at the Water Tower and then went to do some shopping at a nearby store. She told them to stay in the area and that they had two hours to do their research.
Nick started thinking about the fire, and looked around. At first, nothing happened. Then, suddenly, it got dark. All around him was mass confusion. Nick had succeeded in going back to 1871, with his mind.
Jack turned on the tape recorder and asked Nick to tell them what he saw. Nick started telling Jack and Andy everything he saw, heard and felt. He described the horse drawn fire wagons and the bucket brigades, and the efforts of the people to extinguish the raging fire. Nick described the people and their 19th century clothing, from the suits, to the long nightgowns. He told how they were trying to save their belongings from their homes and businesses. Jack and Andy were recording every word that Nick said.
Nick told them the names of some the people that he was observing, so that they could add the personal details to their story.
Nick wondered if he could fast-forward his vision in time. As he was thinking it, he suddenly found himself standing on the same street, but it was now morning and the fire had died out. All that remained of that part of town was the water tower. There were remnants of the buildings. There were smoldering ashes. Nick could smell the damp ashes and he could feel the despair that the citizens of Chicago felt, as they walked around the destroyed city.
Nick saw some important people walking around, assessing the damages. He learned that one of them was Joseph Medill, the Mayor of Chicago in 1871. From reading one person’s thoughts, Nick learned that it Monday, October 11, 1871.
After giving Jack and Andy descriptive details, Nick fast forwarded again and gave Jack and Andy more details as Chicago was slowly rebuilt.
Finally, after what seemed like several hours to Nick, he came out of his trance. Even though Nick had been walking around Chicago in his time trance, he was still sitting near the water tower, and had not moved.
Jack and Andy were amazed at what Nick had told them during his trance. They had two hours of tape. After they returned home, the three of them went to Nick’s bedroom to begin working on their report.
Since Andy was the best writer, she wrote the report. Jack was a good artist, so he drew pictures as Nick described the buildings and people, and the fire itself. They worked through the evening, stopping only for dinner.
When the report was finished, it was ten pm. Their report was written as it might have been reported in the newspaper by a reporter who had witnessed the fire and the rebuilding first hand. There were sketches of Chicago before, during and after the fire, as well as the rebuilding of the city. The report, including sketches, was over twenty pages long.
The next day after school, their teacher asked Nick, Jack and Andy to stay after class, so that she could talk to them. When the other students had left the classroom, the teacher told Jack, Andy and Nick that their report was one of the best papers that she had ever read.
She told them that it was well written, informative and the details made her feel like she was actually there. “It’s as if you were actually there yourselves,” she said. Nick winked at Jack and Andy. “I know that you did some research on the internet, because you knew the name of the mayor in 1871,” she said. “I knew the name immediately, because he was an ancestor of mine”.
All three of them were very pleased to see the A+ on the front of the report. They knew that they would be getting a lot of A’s on future history assignments.
Over the next few years, Nick perfected his time trance, as he now called his ability. He realized that he had to be in the actual physical location, to see the events that took place there. For example, to see the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Nick had to be in Independence Hall in Philadelphia.
Nick, Jack and Andy had made a pact to keep the time trance a secret. They did not even tell their parents. The two families often went on vacations together. Whenever they visited historical sites, they had a tape recorder to record Nick’s observations while he was in his trance. Later, they would write historical accounts with illustrations of the site.
When they started high school, Nick discovered new time trance ability. Nick and Jack were walking to the grocery store one day, when they found an elderly woman laying unconscious on the sidewalk. While Jack went to call 911, Nick tried to gently shake the woman to see if she was still alive. As soon as he touched the woman, Nick got a vision of what had happened to her, as well as a complete medical history, diagnosis, and her name and address.
When the paramedics arrived, Nick told the Lady’s name, address, and phone number. Then, Nick surprised them by telling the paramedics that the woman had suffered a stroke and when she fell, she hit her head on the sidewalk. Nick also told them that the woman was diabetic and was allergic to penicillin and was taking heart medication.
After the ambulance took the woman to the hospital, Jack and Nick took a bus to the hospital to see if the woman would be all right. By the time they got to the hospital, the woman’s son had arrived. He confirmed everything that Nick had told the paramedics. The doctors were amazed, as the woman had no identification or medical alert bracelets on when she arrived at the hospital.
One of the emergency room doctors took Nick and Jack into a private office and asked them how they knew so much information about an unconscious stranger.
Nick was very hesitant about sharing his secret with the doctor. No one but himself, Jack and Andy knew about his gift. The doctor saw that Nick was reluctant to talk and he told Nick that whatever he said in that office would stay strictly confidential.
Nick took a chance that he could trust the doctor and told him about his ability. The doctor was fascinated and asked Nick to show him how it worked. He took Nick into an examination room where an unconscious patient had just arrived. He was found in a park, and had no identification on him.
Slowly, Nick approached the man and held his hand. The doctor and a couple of nurses in the room were amazed at what happened next. Nick started spouting off a lot of information; “This man’s name is Richard White. He is twenty-five years old. About an hour ago, he robbed a Shell gas station on 45th Street. As he was running away with the money, the gas station manager fired two shots at him. Mr. White was able to get away from the area before he collapsed in the park where he was found. One bullet went through his chest, puncturing his right lung, and the other bullet is lodged in the back of his brain.”