She pushed him back and said, "Joe, we have to stop Vewonica. She kiwwed aw those people."
"I know. Molly and I were going to destroy this place, but we can't get up to the ceiling to trigger a cave-in. We need to find a ladder of some kind."
"I hewp you," Samantha said. She took his hand, but before they could start out, the Fountain of Youth erupted in red light again. Joseph clapped a hand over Samantha's eyes and then closed his own to keep from being blinded. When he opened his eyes, he saw little Prudence and Wendell lying at the edge of the fountain, entangled in each other's arms.
"Pwoodance! Wendell! You're awive!" Samantha said. She rushed forward to hug her friends. "I taught you dead."
"What's going on? Where are we?" Prudence asked.
"You been gone for twee days," Samantha said. She hugged Prudence again. "But now you back."
Prudence started to cry. "Oh, Smanfa, it was terrible. The reverend…he raped me. And he killed Rodney and the whole village of natives." She broke down into uncontrolled sobs.
"Pwoodance, I don't understand. The weverend? Wodney?"
"We were back in time, about three hundred fifty years ago," Wendell said. He explained about the shipwreck, the schism between Prudence's husband and Reverend Crane, and the reverend's discovery of the Fountain of Youth.
"How can this be?" Samantha said.
Joseph clapped his hands, the three other children looking to him. "Of course, it's so obvious now!" he said.
"What?" Wendell asked.
"This algae. It's not just some stupid plants. It has temporal properties that allow it to serve as some kind of gateway through time. When you fell in, it transported you back in time. Do you see what this means?" The others shook their heads. "This whole thing here is like a time machine. We don't need a ladder or anything else. We can use this to go back in time and stop Veronica."
"But we twied before and faiwed," Samantha said.
"Yes, but you didn't know because your memories were wiped. If you go through now, you'll remember everything."
"Who should go back?" Prudence asked.
"Wet me go," Samantha said. "Vewonica is my wesponsibiwitty. I can stop her."
"Samantha, no, it's too risky," Joseph said. "Let me go."
"I'm the one who should go," Wendell said. "I'm the one who let the reverend find the fountain in the first place."
"Wendell, you can't. I don't want to lose you too," Prudence said and began to cry again. Samantha, Joseph, and Wendell argued among themselves until they heard a drum beat outside the cave. "What's that?"