Link to beginning of story:

https://steemit.com/fiction/@justephen/justin-time-chapter-1-an-original-novel

Link to Chapter 22: Spiritual Traveling

https://steemit.com/fiction/@justephen/justin-time-chapter-22-an-original-science-fiction-novel

Chapter 22 Review:

With the help of Blair, Justin spends much of his time learning how to spiritually travel when in a comatose state. Blair and Justin build the time traveling device. Justin is finally ready to travel back in time. His first set of instructions is to warn himself (little Justin). Little Justin must delay getting into the car the following morning as to avoid the major car accident.

Chapter 23: Journey in Time

Justin awoke in a vacant field. His spirit standing alone. Directly next to him on the moist ground laid an embryo. Within minutes, he observed the embryo development into a full sized human being. Completely naked and motionless. It was just laying down. A moment later, Justin's cloths arrived next to the body. He just stood there for a moment shocked. It felt surreal viewing his own body. Then he realized he had to enter the body as the instructions articulated.

When he entered the body it came to life. He found himself just laying down on the moist grass. He realized he was just laying there stark naked. He quickly put on his cloths, grabbed his watch and looked around. He had nine minutes to travel to the instructed location. First, he was instructed to walk towards the fence. When he approached the fence he realized where he was. In the distance on the other side of the fence he saw the kangaroo exhibit next to the koala's.

Justin grabbed onto the six foot fence and proceeded to climb. It was an easy climb for him. As he swung over to the other side of the fence, his pant leg had snagged and was stuck on the fence. Realizing time was of the essence, Justin panicked and pulled real hard. He ripped a hole in his pant leg on the wired fence and was now entangled within the pant leg.

'I can't believe this!', he thought.

As Justin pulled harder and harder, it got worse and worse. After about five minutes, he finally freed himself. Justin ran down towards the food stands. As he approached the open area, he remembered that it was important that his mother doesn't see him. So he crept behind the cotton candy vendor and looked around. There he saw himself with his mom and Blair eating ice cream. It was too late. He lost the opportunity. He blew it. Justin just stood there in disbelief.

'What do I do now?', he thought.

Suddenly, he noticed the younger Justin glancing at him. Justin quickly ducked down and kept himself hidden. Crouching down he then slowly walked away. For the next couple of hours he followed little Justin being very careful not to be seen. He was hoping there would be another opportunity.

Finally looking at his watch, he realized he had to get back to his spawning location. If he was late, the molecular structure of his body would break down and dissipate. Justin was very upset, but had to return quickly. He returned back to the fence, cleanly hopped it and ran back. He arrived just in time. He closed his eyes preparing for his journey back.

Justin opened his eyes and looked around. He didn't see Blair. As he unhooked himself, he noticed that things look a little different.

He yelled out, "Blair! Blair! Where are you?"

Leaving the lab, Justin ran up stairs through the cupboard and yelled again. "Blair! Blair! Where did you go?"

As Justin looked around he noticed his home was decorated differently. He went into every room in the house looking for Blair.

'Maybe he is playing a joke', he thought. Then he noticed that Katie wasn't around either.

"Katie? Katie?, are you here? Where are you?”

Justin sat down and then realized that either because his pant leg got snagged or because little Justin saw him, caused this chain reaction.

“Oh my god”, he panicked more. “I need help! What do I do! I need to speak to someone!”

Then he thought of Kirstin. 'I know I am not suppose to tell her, but I have nowhere else to turn and things are already screwed up.', he thought.

He called Kirstin and she answered, "Hello?"

"Hi Kirstin. Thank god you are there.", he cried.

"What are you talking about?, she said. "Who is this? How do you know my name?"

“You know. It's me. Justin."

"I don't know who you are, but I don't appreciate prank calls!", she yelled as she hung up.

Justin was stunned. After a few moments, he thought to himself, 'I am in a completely different parallel universe. Think think think. Calm down and think. Okay..I need to go open the safe, maybe there will be instructions.'

Just went downstairs and opened the safe. Inside, he found nothing. No letters. No instructions. Just an empty safe.

'Now what?', he thought, panicking more.

What should I do? Think! Okay, I have an idea. If I go back the day before the zoo, I may be able to repair it.'

Justin's heart was beating rapidly and he had to keep telling himself to stay calm. No matter how much he tried to calm down, he couldn't. He was afraid that he changed everything and was eternally trapped in this universe. He went back to his time device and decided to try again. I will give myself six hours. That should be plenty of time.

Justin remembered when he was a young boy, that whenever his mother tucked him in, he would spend about 30 minutes in his room playing until he was actually tired enough to go to sleep. He thought that would be the perfect time to find young Justin by himself.

'I will tell him very quickly to wait before he enters the car and then I will leave. A quick in and out. I pray this works.', he thought biting his lower lip.

With his heart racing, he nervously approached the time device. He was still panicking and unfocused. Justin set the coordinates to the desired time and location. He thought the nearby park next to his parents house would be the perfect location. It was a very quiet park with plenty of trees. He would not be seen there. Finally, Justin flipped the final switch. He closed his eyes and did his best to concentrate.

As Justin's spirit arrived he looked around. This didn't look like the park. He looked down and he saw his shell starting to grow. He then looked around and noticed goal posts. There was one on each side. There were also bleachers. He was in the middle of a football field. Then he saw a banner. It was his old high school football field.

He started cursing himself as he must of either put in the wrong coordinates or lost focus. Regardless, he was a long distance away and he had to be there within 45 minutes or little Justin would be asleep. As he waited for his body to fully develop, he also noticed it was raining. Evidently it had been raining for a while as the field was soaking wet. There was quite an downpour. With his body finally fully developed laying in the wet grass, he quickly entered it. He felt wet and cold. He put on his cloths laying near by. He glanced down at his watch. He also put on his lucky sweater.

"Some luck you are.", he said to the sweater.

'Okay. I am about five miles away and I have 40 minutes left. This would of been a piece of cake when I was at the top of my game. It should still be no problem.' he said to himself as he started to run towards his parents house.

After just a few steps, he tripped over a sprinkler ripping his pants again and then slipped and landed face first in a puddle of mud. His pants were torn from the thigh all the way down to the ankle. His sweater and cloths completely covered in mud.

“Wow, everything is going wrong right now.”

He immediately got up and then, stepped in some dog crap.

“What? This is really happening?”

“I have to keep going.”, he encouraged himself.

He continued with his five mile trek. Although he kept a decent pace in the pouring rain, after a few miles he was sweaty dirty, stinky and drenched. He kept referring to his watch to see how he was doing for time. As he was running he remembered that ruffus would be there so he needs to be extra quiet and stealthy. He was getting close as the wind started blustering.

Finally, he approached the house. Justin's bedroom light was still on. Tired and out of breath he started climbing a palm tree which was planted right next to the side of the house. As he was climbing he started feeling notorious, but knew he had to continue. He quietly climbed to the roof and covertly traversed a ledge and made his way to young Justin's bedroom window on the second floor. He looked inside and noticed that young Justin had already fallen asleep.

Suddenly a big bellow of wind swooped across and nearly knocked Justin off the ledge. He regained his balance and could feel his heart racing. He couldn't believe that he had to do this. As frightened as he was, he had to continue. He quietly opened up the bedroom window and climbed inside. He quietly made his way to Justin's bed where Justin was sleeping.

Suddenly, a huge burst of wind blew the bedroom window wide open with a loud bang. Ruffus, from downstairs started barking. Justin jumped back, heart pounding, sweaty, filthy and knotted hair.

Seven year old Justin woke up and immediately stared at the window where it had slammed. The window was wide open and the cold wind was blowing hard, so little Justin got up and closed the window. He stared at the window for a moment and then real quickly he turned his head in the other direction and stared directly at Justin. He didn't say anything, but his eyes were locked and mouth open.

Justin shocked as well, hesitated for a moment and then regained his composure.

Holding his finger to his mouth, he said, "Shh be quiet."

He slowly approached the seven year old and then the boy let out a loud shriek! Justin stopped in his tracks.

A deep voice yelled, "Justin. Whats wrong?"

Ruffus barked even louder. Justin heard foot steps running up the stairs.

Justin immediately said to the little boy, “Wait ten minutes before you enter your moms car tomorrow morning.”

He then quickly ran and jumped through the window ripping his favorite sweater. Glass flying everywhere. He rolled and landed on the unlit front lawn. Slowly gaining his composure, he shuffled to a nearby bush against the front wall adjacent to the street. Justin rested for a moment and did a quick anatomy check to make sure he was alright. Then the lights went on illuminating the whole front yard.

"Who is there? I see you. Don't move. This gun is loaded!", he heard his dad say.

At first, Justin wasn't sure what he should do. Then he realized that if his dad sees him that could severely change events. He had no choice. Remembering his track and field skills, he thought he could climb and jump the wall real quickly. 'Okay he thought. Here goes. One, two, three.'

In one quick swoop, Justin jumped the wall, but not before William let out a shot.

"Ouch.” Justin then high tailed away. Justin was hit in the arm. He first ran to the neighborhood park and hid behind some trees. There he ripped more of his already ripped pants and made a small tourniquet for his arm. After resting for about 15 more minutes, Justin started jogging back to the high school football field.

He started thinking. 'Did the young Justin understand him? When he returns back, what will his place look like'. Although things didn't quite go as planned, he did accomplish his goal. His mind was flooded with thoughts for the next five miles.

Finally reentering the football field, Justin retreated back to the 34 yard line which was the exact place he spawned earlier. He still had about an hour to go before he was do to arrive back. Justin just laid on the grass physically exhausted, his mind however, was still racing.

End of Chapter 23:

You may want to refer to Chapter One and Chapter Two

Chapter 1: https://steemit.com/fiction/@justephen/justin-time-chapter-1-an-original-novel

Chapter 2: https://steemit.com/fiction/@justephen/justin-time-chapter-2-an-original-novel