The Left Behinds and the iPhone That Saved George Washington by David Potter Page B

killed!”
    “I did not want to believe it,” Dr. Franklin says. “I prayed it was untrue. I still can scarce bring myself to accept it.”
    “But how could you know this, sir?” says Mr. Farrington. “This news was delivered to me not five minutes ago. I have been told to inform no one other than yourself. How could you possibly know already?”
    Dr. Franklin nods at us. “These children,” he says simply, “already knew. And told me.”
    “But the revolution, sir, the revolution! The soldiers are deserting by the score! They have raided the stores and are alighting upon the countryside! They are in a mad hunger, and they claim they have not been paid by Congress what they are owed and say that they intend to take whatever they can get in recompense!”
    “So they likely shall,” Dr. Franklin says, “for, sad to say, their lament is true. General Washington has warned us plain enough: the men must be paid. But theContinental Congress has dithered, as usual. Dithered and discussed and dithered some more, as all assemblies of men are wont to do, and in the end decided nothing, did nothing. Of course, the Continental Congress has no money, no scrip, no tax-collecting authority, and therefore no means of generating revenue, save what our customs agents are able to procure. But trade has withered, hasn’t it, since we proclaimed our independence? By day’s end I fear we shall have no army, not without its general. Soon enough the British will put an end to it. And to us. Without an army of our own, we may as well be prostrate before them. The lion will show no mercy, of that I am quite certain.” Then Dr. Franklin puts a finger under his collar, as if he can already feel the noose tightening.
    It is Elizabeth who breaks the impasse. “It is his device, sir—his contrivance—that has brought him here. And that, with your help, can be made to undo what has been done.”
    “Can it?” Dr. Franklin asks me. “Can it do as she claims?”
    “It can do something,” I say. “Otherwise, how could I be here in the first place?”
    Mr. Farrington is puzzled and begs for answers, but no one takes the time to bring him up to speed, as we are certain that he can be of no help whatsoever.
    “You ask me?” says Dr. Franklin. “I scarcely believe your tale at all. But now a part of it—the essential part ofit—is confirmed. General Washington is dead. But the rest of it? What proof have you?”
    “I am the proof. I know things that could not possibly be known. You—all of you—are my history, my past. And I have the device with me. The iPhone. I was holding it in my hand … when … when … something happened.”
    “And what, precisely, happened, pray tell?”
    I think about it. It’s hard to remember. Foggy, in my mind, in my memory. But: “There were three of us. Me, Bev, and Brandon.”
    “We’ve seen them,” said Daniel. “At the farm. They were captured by the Germans.”
    “Right,” I say. “But before then … we had come in a minivan to watch the reenactment. Which was kind of pathetic, if you want to know the truth. Because we were left behind—on Christmas Day, no less. Our parents were kind of too busy. So the school was taking care of us.”
    “School?” says Sally. “What school?”
    “Minivan?” says Mr. Farrington. “What is a minivan?”
    “Reenactment?” says Dr. Franklin. “What is this?”
    “A minivan is a kind of car,” I say. “It has an engine inside, an internal combustion engine that runs on gasoline and propels the car along. The school is the Fredericksville School, which is where we go. And a reenactment is when a bunch of people get dressed up and pretend they’re people from a different time period. For example, if you got dressed up like Pilgrims, you might
reenact
theMayflower landing. So every Christmas, thousands of people gather. To watch a bunch of … reenactors … cross the Delaware. In longboats. Just like Washington did, on Christmas night of