Christmas in Time

by Zoe Matthews

  Chapter 4

  For the next few weeks, Garrett stayed busy. He finished working on the shed and fixed the roof on the barn. The plow blades needed to be sharpened, and he cleaned up and oiled the wheels of the cart they used to harvest hay. As he worked, he started to lose his desire for alcohol. He realized he was enjoying the outdoor work. The sun was hot, but it also felt good on his face.

  When he wasn’t working, he often spent his time next to the mysterious circle of rocks. At first, he thought a lot about how he could figure out how this portal worked. He was so angry with his family that he didn’t want to ask them for help, and he knew they most likely wouldn’t give him any information anyway. Eventually, the time he spent at the ranch turned more peaceful. He came to understand how badly Nicky and Kimberly wanted his happiness. Even his aunts didn’t know what was the best decisions for their own lives. All they could do is try, pray, and hope they made the right decisions. He eventually started to forgive them and even partially forgive his father. If there was one thing he couldn’t understand was why his father hadn’t told him there was a portal to the future on the ranch for the last two years.

  He spent one afternoon playing baseball with his nieces and nephews and had a blast. Even Katherine played, although she was starting to act like she was too old for children’s games at thirteen years of age. When they were almost done with the game, Shaun and Patrick joined them. After the game, Nicky and Kimberly served dinner outside under some large, shade trees. It was one of the best days Garrett had had in a long time. He started to think about spending the rest of the summer on the ranch, even if that would mean he’d probably need to go on the cattle drive. He had gone on a few of those when he was a teenager and had absolutely hated them. It was dusty and dirty work, and it was impossible to stay clean.

  Then came the day when he had finished all the jobs he had come to the ranch to do. After lunch, he decided to go look at the circle of rocks again. On his way, he saw his Grandpa Foster working in the family vegetable garden. He stopped and watched him work for a moment. His grandma and grandpa had traveled with them when they used the keys to travel to this time. The trip was supposed to only have been for a few days. But because the keys had disappeared, they had needed to stay indefinitely. Garrett always wondered what his grandparents thought about it all. They were forced to stay just like he was. Were they really happy in this time?

  His grandpa loved gardening. For several years, until Victoria passed away, he took care of her gardens in Denver. After she died, Garrett’s grandpa and grandma moved to the ranch. They both seemed to enjoy being around Nicky, Justin, Kimberly, and their grandchildren. They seemed happy. But he wondered, were they really? If they had a chance to go back to the future, would they?

  He was sure they knew about the portal. Were they ever tempted to use it? Garrett decided it was time to talk to his grandpa. Maybe he would get some answers from him. He walked purposefully towards where his grandpa was pulling weeds.

  “Hi, Grandpa,” Garrett greeted him when he got within hollering distance.

  The elderly man slowly straightened, and a smile spread across his face. “Hello, Garrett!”

  “I see you are keeping those weeds under control,” Garrett said as he approached his grandfather’s side after stepping over rows of carrots, spinach, lettuce, and other plants he couldn’t name right off. Keeping the weeds under control wasn’t said lightly. His grandfather attacked any unwanted plant that dared show its face the minute it poked its head above ground. No weed was going to grow in his garden if he had anything to say about it. “How about I help you for a while this morning?”

  Grandpa’s smile deepened. “I could use the help.” He gestured to a pile of gardening tools that were in a large box at the edge of the garden. “Grab yourself a hoe and come on over.”

  Garrett found a hoe that looked like it hadn’t been used yet. This was another trait of his grandfather’s. He kept the gardening tools in top condition. Once he was done for the day, he cleaned and sharpened each tool carefully so that they would be ready to be used the next time he needed them.

  For the next few minutes, Garett worked by his grandfather’s side, enjoying the time with him. His grandfather asked him questions about what he had been doing around the ranch and Garrett answered, not minding the inquisition. He realized this man was the only one who could ask these types of questions without bothering Garrett. He knew his grandfather genuinely wanted to know. He wasn’t asking because he was trying to hint that Garrett was wasting his life away.

  “Can I ask you a question?” Garrett finally asked as he tossed a pile of weeds on a nearby pile to be carted away.

  “Sure, son,” grandfather agreed. “What’s on your mind?”

  “Do you ever regret coming with us when we traveled through time with Pa?”

  Grandfather straightened again thoughtfully. “I’ve been wondering when you were going to get around to asking that question. I must admit it’s a hard one to answer. Your grandmother and I wanted to come because we wanted to see Nicky and Kimberly and to make sure they really were okay. And of course, we wanted to meet Patrick and Shaun and see Kimberly’s twins. We also didn’t want your father to disappear with you like they had. I had a strong feeling that the keys weren’t going to keep working. And I was right.”

  “But once you were here and found out you couldn’t go back, how did you really feel about it?”

  Grandpa gave a deep sigh. “At first I think it was all a big shock. I was glad we were all together. Victoria was willing to give us a job so we could support ourselves, although I have to admit that keeping that big house clean and food on the table was hard for your grandmother. She wasn’t young, and even though we were sad when Collins and then Victoria died, I was also relieved because then we could move up here, and your grandma wouldn’t need to work so hard anymore.”

  Garrett hadn’t realized that, but it did make sense to him. After all, both his grandparents were in their late 60s when the whole time travel thing happened. He wondered if his father had known how hard taking care of the large Victorian home had been on his parents, physically. He suspected he didn’t, or he was sure his father, aunts, and uncles would have done something about it.

  His grandfather continued to talk. “Over the years, I started to allow myself to say, ‘what if.’ What if we hadn’t followed you and Justin? What if Kimberly hadn’t found that key or if Nicky hadn’t been able to follow her? But life can be full of ‘what ifs.’ Sometimes it’s better to just accept what’s happened and go on. What ifs don’t change anything. They don’t make your life better.”

  “I get that, grandpa, but I’d really like to know if you regret coming with us.”

  “I’m going to be honest with you, Garrett. For the first few years, I was very angry with Victoria for even giving Kimberly that first key.”

  Garrett tried not to show his surprise but wasn’t very successful. In all of his years, he had never seen his grandfather angry at anyone.

  “It was very difficult for me to even be civil to her and to Collins when I discovered his role in using the keys. In my opinion, time travel shouldn’t be messed with. It makes me wonder if there are other time-travel devices people are using. They change history, change people’s lives. Life is already hard enough. Why try to make things harder? I suspect there are other time travel devices. But I’m not answering your question, am I?

  I never regretted going with you and your father. I did wish that Victoria had never found the keys to begin with. But Kimberly is happy with Patrick. You know that she lost her parents when she was 16 in a car accident. It was how she came to live with us, as a foster child. We just sort of unofficially adopted her. When we first arrived, I could see how happy she was here. Patrick is good to her, and he helped her to finally move on from her parents’ deaths. In fact, I don’t think I ever saw her really happy until I saw her with Patrick. Now Nicky, on the other hand, I think she could have been happy with w
homever she chose to marry. But she and Shaun have a good marriage. I don’t know if you know much about your birth mother.”

  Garrett shrugged his shoulders. He didn’t know very much, except for the fact that his mother had wanted an abortion until Justin had talked her out of it. After his birth, she told his father she wasn’t ready to be a mother. Justin immediately took over his care, with his grandparents’ help. Justin had been barely out of high school when he had been born. Even though he had never asked questions, he knew it had to have been difficult for Justin to be trying to raise a baby while also trying to support them when he was barely raised himself.

  I have never told dad that I’m grateful for what he did, Garrett thought.

  His grandpa continued. “I often wondered if your dad would ever marry. He seemed content enough designing those computer games of his and raising you. So, once we were here, I was glad he fell in love with Bridget. Your grandmother and I would have had a very difficult time if we had stayed behind and we never saw any of you again. As a person gets older, family becomes more and more important. I wouldn’t have given up the opportunity to be around you kids and grandkids.”

  Garrett had his answer. Even though his grandpa didn’t like how Victoria used the keys, he was glad he was here instead of their time.

  “And what about Uncle Keegan?” Garrett dared ask. “I know he traveled through some portal. “

  His grandpa glanced at him sharply.

  “I overheard Nicky and Shaun talking about it the first night I arrived from Denver,” Garrett admitted.

  Grandpa shook his head. “I don’t approve that you haven’t been told. You are an adult now.”

  “At first, I wanted to hightail it back to Denver and confront Pa, but I decided to stay and finish the job I was hired to do.” That and because he did need some money. “Can you tell me anything about it?”

  “I don’t feel like I can go behind your dad’s back, Garrett. I will confirm that what you overheard is true. Keegan is in the future.”

  “Will he come back? Did he find a key? How did he even get there?”

  “I’m sorry, son,” Grandpa said, letting him know that he wasn’t going to be the one who would tell him Keegan’s story.

  Garrett sighed with frustration. He wanted to throw his hoe down and immediately return to Denver. It was all he could do to continue hoeing weeds.

  “I know you’re angry, but be careful of those carrots,” Grandpa admonished him, and Garrett glanced at him sheepishly. He had been hoeing so hard he had chopped off a few of the carrots tops.

  “Sorry.”

  The two of them worked in silence for a while before Garrett said, “I suspect that the portal Keegan used is on the ranch. I think I know where it is.”

  Grandpa was quiet for a long time before he spoke. “If you do find it and figure out how to use it, I will let the family know where you went.”

  Garrett stared at his grandpa in shock. Was he giving his permission, in a round-about-way?

  “I know you haven’t been happy in this time. You’re a man now. You have the right to live where you choose to. Sometimes a man needs to travel to the place where he is meant to live…even if it ends up being a long way away.”

  For the first time in a long time, something in him broke. Grandpa understood. He felt a tear run down his face, and he turned away from his grandfather so he wouldn’t see and quickly wiped it away. Ever since they had arrived in this time so many years ago, everyone expected him to accept it, just like they had. But he hadn’t been able to. Why was that? Was it because this time period was nothing like the future? Was it because he knew what was available in the future? Or was it because the future was where he was supposed to be? His grandfather had given him a lot to think about.

  ****

  That evening after he had gone to bed, he laid awake long into the night thinking about what his grandpa told him. He knew his grandpa was encouraging him in his own way to figure out where the portal was and how it worked. He was grateful that his grandpa understood. He also thought about the part of the conversation where his grandpa was talking about “what if’s.” It did no good to think that way. Garrett recognized that that was the way he was thinking. What if Bridget hadn’t shown up in Nicky’s apartment? What if his father hadn’t wanted to see Nicky and Kimberly? What if the keys hadn’t disappeared? What if?

  Garrett understood what his grandpa was saying. What ifs never changed the past. But what if thinking that way could change his future? What if the circle of rocks he had found was the portal? What if he figured out how to use it? What if it really did take him forward to the future?

  And a big question that was in the back of his mind; what if it took him somewhere he didn’t want to go?

  Then I would just use it to come back here, Garrett thought. He rolled over onto his stomach in the position he liked to sleep in. He was going to figure out how the portal worked. He was going to do everything he could to use it to go to the future. He would stay the summer and help around the ranch, but if he hadn’t figured it out by fall, he was going to confront his father for answers.

  The next few days were busy ones. Patrick wanted to move most of the cattle deeper into the mountains so they could use their summer range. Shaun was going with him, along with Richard and Katherine, and they wanted Garrett to also go, but he refused.

  “I’ll stay and work on the ranch, keep things running while you’re gone,” he told his uncles firmly. “But don’t expect me to go on a cattle drive.”

  Garrett didn’t want to go with them, mainly because they usually left a man with the cattle to keep an eye on the cattle, and he suspected that they wanted him to be that man; they just weren’t going to tell him until they got to the summer range. He couldn’t figure out how the portal worked or if the circle of rocks was even the portal if he was in the mountains taking care of a bunch of dumb cows.

  Luckily, Uncle Patrick didn’t argue. Instead, he hired an older teenage boy from a nearby town to go with them. Once they were gone, Garrett did what he promised. He made sure things were taken care of. He helped his grandpa in the garden again, although they didn’t talk about time travel. He helped his younger nieces and nephews with their usual ranch chores. Whenever he could take a break, and he could get away without anyone knowing where he was going, he would head to the circle of rocks.

  He spent quite a bit of time looking it over. He picked up some of the rocks and then put them back, wondering if one of the rocks would trigger it. He walked and stood over every inch of it, but nothing happened. He finally wondered if it was really the portal. Maybe the kids had formed it and had used it in some type of game they made up. He felt very frustrated because if it wasn’t the portal, he was wasting his time.

  One day after he spent some time looking over the portal, he went inside the barn that had been built to replace the one that burned down just before the keys had disappeared. He remembered that day vividly, but he also didn’t understand why it had happened. A stranger had come to the ranch and had hidden in part of the forest. He kidnapped Colleen and barricaded both of them in the barn. Garrett remembered how scared he was. The man kept yelling that he knew they had two time-travel keys, and he wanted them. If they would give them to him, he’d let Colleen go. Garrett knew why they couldn’t give the man the keys. They were in a box in a cave about a mile away in the mountains for safe keeping. The man wouldn’t believe anyone that they didn’t have the keys with them. Then the barn caught on fire. Luckily, his uncles and his dad figured out a way to get into the barn, and they were able to rescue Colleen. The man had become pinned underneath a large beam, and he had died. Soon after that event, they discovered that the keys in the cave were gone. No one ever saw them again, although Victoria somehow figured out that another man who had given her one of the keys to begin with had taken them. How this man, The Irish Man, Victoria had called him, knew where the keys were, Garrett had no idea.

  The barn was rebuilt, but not
in the same place. Patrick wanted it to be a little farther away from all the cabins that were being built to accommodate their growing family. Garrett couldn’t remember where the barn that burned down was located exactly, but he wondered if it had been where the circle of rocks now was.

  Garrett wandered over to the new barn, still going over his memories of that day so long ago. When Garrett went inside the barn, he realized it could use a good cleaning. The horses that were kept in the barn had gone on the cattle drive, so no animals were using it at the moment, except a mother cat with her five kittens and the milk cow at night. He decided he would spend the next few days cleaning it.

  Early the next morning, he started his job. It wasn’t a huge job; Patrick and Shaun kept the barn pretty clean, but it felt good to do something that hadn’t been assigned to him. Aunt Nicky had packed him a lunch when she heard of his plans, so when the sun was high in the sky, he took a break and ate the sandwich and cookies near the circle of rocks. When he was done, he stayed where he was, running everything he had tried in his head to trigger the portal.