John Harper watched his daughter cackle in delight as she played amongst the breaking waves.

Elvie loved the water, slipping into the foaming rough before dancing across the shoreline as it became too deep. The waves clipped up over her feet and onto her pants, but she had no cares in the world as she danced and dodged in a weak attempt to escape them. The seaside becalmed his daughter, soothing her angst and releasing whatever worries plagued her young mind. That was one of the reasons why he and his wife, Vivian, brought their daughter to the seaside whenever possible.

‘She’s having a blast,’ he told his wife.

‘It’s lovely outside. The weather is meant to be terrible tomorrow, but it’s beautiful today.’

The day had a warmth to it that soaked into your skin. Full sun in Australia was beautifully warm, although John thought he would end up with a decent sunburn sooner rather than later. There was a need for sunscreen or shade unless he wanted to try to impersonate a cooked lobster. From his experience, that minor entertainment factor usually ended up in intense pain.

Gulls wheeled across the clear blue sky as his wife turned to him. ‘It’s just nice to be out and about. Did you want to see a movie tonight,’ Vivian asked. ‘My brother offered to have Elvie around on a playdate, maybe even a sleepover if we want to make a night of it.’

John nodded. ‘Sounds great, but don’t forget I’ve only got an hour before I need to be back at this cursed teleconference. Honestly, what cruel person schedules one of those for the weekend?’

Viv smiled. ‘It’s an hour of fresh air you really need. Elvie and I are just here to keep you company and stop you from going stir crazy.’

‘Probably true,’ John mumbled to himself, laying back in the grass.

‘You know, it’s okay if there are things you need to do at work, honey. You do what you need to do. I can look after Elvie and…’

It was at that precise moment that their daughter simply disappeared.

A whirl of black flickered into existence beneath her feet, and she wordlessly fell into it.

John stared, horrified.

Vivian grabbed his hand in shock, tearing at it and desperately dragging them both to their feet.

‘John? Oh my God. John!’

He tried to speak but stuttered as his mind struggled to find any words. ‘I know… I know…’

Vivian’s hand reached out towards their vanished daughter, clawing the air in desperation. ‘Elvie!’ she bellowed. ‘Elvie!’

But there was no reply from their thirteen year old daughter. She was gone.

‘Hi Mum. Hi Dad,’ a voice said behind them.

John and Vivian turned in unison at the familiar words.

‘I told you I’d see you again, this day.’

There, calmly standing before them, was their daughter.

At least it appeared to be their daughter. However, to John’s eyes, she immediately appeared different. Much older, possibly somewhere around 19 or 20, if John guessed accurately. Her face had lost some of its youthfulness as it stretched and sharpened, and the waving brown hair his Elvie kept tied back, now framed and wandered across her features. Wrapped in a black cloak fringed with purple, she was not the same child that had left the beach moments ago. The freckles that marked her childhood had dissipated, and now small worry lines could be seen gently affecting the skin.

She looked tired, drawing deep breaths with her eyes closed as she sought to find her composure. And then her eyes opened…

Wow… My daughter has purple eyes… What the hell?

Without a doubt, her defining features were the beautiful purple eyes now filling with tears.

‘I’ve missed you,’ she declared, tears streaking across her cheeks as she fell into a hug. ‘Oh, Mum, Dad – I’ve missed you so much.’

John’s mind was conducting mental gymnastics as it desperately sought to process.

This was his daughter – his now older daughter – standing on the beach where his younger daughter – who just happened to be the same one – had slipped into some form of black hole.

‘What…’

‘You knew this was coming, Dad. I did my best to prepare you.’

His mind and body clashed with the discordant beliefs. There was relief, at seeing the face of his daughter again, but despair, as it was also not the face of his daughter Where was she? Where was his Elvie? What had happened to her? Was she alone, lost or sad, or just in need of her father? He blinked at the cascade of thoughts.

‘I’m sorry it had to be this way,’ Elvie said, observing her father while her mother still hugged her. ‘But I’m here to tell you that it is going to be okay.’

‘Elvie, this is a total mind f – ‘

‘Dad!’ She scolded him. ‘Don’t you dare.’

‘Since when did you get some manners?’ he responded instinctively. ‘Did someone make you take some much-needed etiquette lessons?’

Elvie giggled in her exact way, causing Vivian’s arms to further tighten. Finally, John stopped his gawking and looped his arms around the outside to hug them both. They stayed that way for some time, fixed in their position and rocking in the sun as the gulls flapped overhead and waves endlessly broke upon the shoreline.

Eventually, they separated, with Vivian wiping the tears from Elvie’s face, while Elvie did the same to her Mum. John prodded at his own while trying to disguise it.

‘I always loved this place. It’s such a beautiful beach,’ Elvie said. ‘Despite everything that’s happened, I always remembered you here, on the grass – so happy. That thought kept me going through hard times.’

John shook his head, his logical brain still struggling. ‘It’s just hard, Elvie. You – well, you’re gone, and we’ll never get that part of your life back.’

‘No, you won’t,’ Elvie told them. ‘But it does mean that I have some fantastic stories to tell you!’

‘When you first came to us,’ John said. ‘That first time… I mean, I nearly convinced myself that it was a hallucination. Maybe I’d had a bit too much to drink, you know? A large chunk of me wanted it to not be true. Really, when does an older version of your daughter turn up to tell you that she’s going to disappear at some point in the future?’

‘But it is, Dad. As you love to say, history is written, and I like it or not, I’m in it.’

Vivian said: ‘We’ve waited for this day for a long time. Worried for it, with anxious nights. I’ve always asked myself the question, when would it happen, when would my daughter leave?’

Elvie nodded. ‘I thought that would be easier than counting down the days. It has been hard for me too. Imagine travelling through time to set my own path…’ Elvie gave a small smile. ‘I needed to be here three weeks, just to recover my strength to – ’ She waved her hand in the direction of the beach where she had just disappeared.

‘It’s the missing you, my love,’ Vivian said. ‘That’s the hardest part of all of this. My love – you – just disappeared into the past and…’ She choked back a sob. ‘My girl is gone and I have no control over it!’

‘I know Mum, I know. But I also know what awaits her, and she – we – will be well. I’m not going to say that there is no pain, but we are well, Mum... We are well.’

‘It’s just hard…’ Vivian replied.

‘And what about the future?’ John interjected. ‘How can we know that you’ll be safe in the future?’

Elvie shrugged. ‘I’ve traveled to the past, Dad, not the future. I only know some of what my past holds. ’

John scratched at his stubble. ‘Well… that’s certainly continuing this process of destroying my sanity. I might have to get my Stephen Hawking books back out. There will be a need for a beer and glass of wine too – perhaps even a stiff whiskey.’

Elvie laughed. ‘I’ve missed you so much, even your terrible jokes.’

John ruffled her hair, like he did when she was a child. ‘Terrible jokes, huh. Explain to me why you speaking with a slightly British accent is not a terrible joke?’

She laughed again and smiled. Whatever their daughter had been through, it did not appear to have changed her too much. Or at least at a surface level, John internally amended.

‘I could use some food,’ Elvie said. ‘There are some things that I have certainly been craving, and I haven’t managed to eat them all yet. Besides, casting a spell that strong really takes it out of you.’

‘So that’s why you’re here?’ Vivian asked. ‘You came to this time just to send yourself back in time?’

Elvie nodded.

But Vivian didn’t let Elvie off the hook. She had a sixth sense when it came to reading her daughter. ‘But that’s not all…’

‘No Mum, you’re right.’ Elvie sighed. ‘I was going to wait before I told you this, but I guess now is a good a time as any. The truth is that I… well, young me, doesn’t want to be alone anymore.’

‘What does that mean?’

‘It’s time… It’s time to take both you and Dad back to the past.’

They both stared in shock before John responded: ‘What the...'