ceebeegee | Aug. 9th, 2004

My mother's birthday is this weekend. She's a Leo--a fire sign, like me--and I have the perfect birthday gift for her. She had a book as a child called A Traveller in Time by Alison Uttley--it's this really cool story about a 20th-century girl who visits a house where the Babington Plot was hatched. She starts noticing that weird things are happening in the house--rooms disappear, and doors will appear where there was none before. Eventually she starts slipping back in time to the 1500s and gets caught up in the plot, so much so that she starts forgetting that she's actually from the 20th-century. I love the idea that all times are one, simultaneous, and you can just slip between one and another. It's a great book (I found a copy of it in the library years ago and read it myself). My mother would talk about it wistfully--she had a terrific library as a child but my grandmother would just throw her stuff out from time to time. I did searches of it but it's out of print and difficult to find. Recently I've discovered the Wonderful World of eBay and did a search--nothing. I thought about it and realized I was spelling "Traveler" the American way--with one L. So I tried the British spelling, with 2 Ls--voila! I found it! A seller was having a long-ass auction that ended on the 15th, so I emailed her and asked her to add a Buy It Now option, which she did and I snapped it up. I hope I'll get it by Friday--she's mailing it out today.