Christmas in Time

by Zoe Matthews

  He bought the sandwich, left the store, and spotted a park across the street. He found a bench in the park and ate half the sandwich. After wrapping up what was left, he carefully put it in his pocket and walked around the park. He saw a large cluster of trees where some of the branches almost touched the ground. Deciding it was a good place to spend the night, he crawled under the branches. Even though he was very tired from the events of the day, he wasn’t able to sleep. Instead, he spent most of the night trying to decide what he was going to do. In the end, he realized he had two choices. He could either find his way back up the mountain and to the portal and return to the past or stay here in the future, in his time, and figure out a way to learn how to adjust to this new life.

  The thought of admitting defeat and returning back to the ranch was almost painful. This is what he had dreamed of for years. He was finally here in the future. What kind of man would he be to give up just because he was unsure of how to proceed? He would ask around for a job tomorrow and figure out how to make it. He knew he could do it. He had spent his first eleven years here after all. How hard could it be?

  ****

  When Colleen arrived at the ranch, everyone was in an uproar. Garrett was missing. No one had seen him for two days. The last anyone had seen him, he was cleaning out the barn. A message was sent to Patrick and Shaun who were on the cattle drive. They had quickly returned after making arrangements with their hired hands to continue with the cattle drive. Everyone spent the day searching in a large area around their ranch and had not seen any sign of him. They finally decided Garrett had decided to leave and had gone back to Denver without telling anyone, which really wasn’t like him, but it was the only thing that made sense. He did tend to take off on his own, but he always let someone know when he was leaving.

  “We were hoping that he was with you,” Patrick confessed with concern.

  “We haven’t seen him. If he did to go Denver, he didn’t stop at our house,” Justin said with equal concern. He turned to Bridget. “Let’s put our things in the empty cabin so we can help look for him.”

  The excitement Colleen had felt at seeing Garrett quickly turned to disappointment and worry. What could have happened to make him run off without telling anyone?

  When they were at the ranch, Garrett seemed like a different person, more relaxed and happier. It was when he was in Denver he was stressed and made bad decisions, spending his time drinking and only working when he ran out of money. She was also angry at him. Why did he always take off like this? Didn’t he care about his family?

  Kimberly and Nicky quickly prepared a lunch for everyone. While they ate, speculations were made of where Garrett was. Then Grandpa Foster cleared his throat, and everyone quieted. Colleen hid a smile. Grandpa Foster was quiet and usually just sat back and allowed everyone to talk, enjoying listening to the conversations around them. But when he had something to say, all he had to do was clear his throat, and everyone would quiet down to listen.

  “Before Patrick and Shaun left to move the cattle into the mountains, Garrett spent the afternoon helping me in the garden. We had quite the chat.”

  “Did he say something that could let us know where he went?” Justin asked his father.

  “Yes. I think I know where he is,” Grandpa Foster said.

  “Why didn’t you say something until now?” Kimberly asked.

  “Because it just occurred to me where he might have gone. But I need to tell you about our conversation first. Evidently, the night he first arrived he had gone to bed early but was thirsty, so he got up to use the restroom and overheard the adults talking in the living room.”

  “What were we talking about? I can’t remember,” Shaun said.

  “You were talking about Keegan and how he used a portal that was located on this ranch to get to the future. He learned Keegan was married and planned to stay in the future with Megan.”

  “Oh, no,” Justin groaned.

  “He was upset that the information about the portal had been kept from him.”

  “I was going to tell him. I didn’t want to tell him when he was having a hard time,” Justin said sadly. “I was afraid he would just run off without thinking things through, I guess. I just never found the right time.”

  “You know how he hasn’t been happy here and always talks about wanting to go back to his time,” Nicky said. “I can understand why you were reluctant to tell him.”

  “He asked me a lot of questions about Keegan and where he was. He had been searching for the portal and told me he thought he found its location.”

  “Did you encourage him to let it go?” Justin demanded.

  “No, son, I didn’t.”

  “Why not?” Bridget asked, confused.

  “Because Garrett is a grown man. Out of all of us, he had the hardest time adjusting to living in this time. He remembers too much, and he was young enough that his childhood memories overshadow his life now. I didn’t tell him where the portal was, but I did tell him a man needs to decide for himself what he wants his life to be and where he wants to live. I walked over to the portal this morning and noticed that the grass around the circle of rocks looked singed. Remember that was how it looked when it was used a few years ago?”

  “Oh, Dad,” Nicky breathed. “Don’t you know you basically gave him permission to use the portal?”

  “Dad’s right, Nicky. Garrett is a man, an adult. We’ve tried to keep too much from him. I mean, all the other kids know about the portal and about what happened to Keegan. It wasn’t right to not tell him. I guess I just didn’t want him to leave and for us to never see him again,” Justin said as he sighed.

  “So, he must have found the portal and somehow figured out how it works. He traveled to the future,” Grandma Foster said sadly.

  “What if the portal took him somewhere else?” Nicky asked.

  “I suspect the portal works like the keys did. You picture where you want to be, and it takes you there. Hopefully, he is in the future, where he wants to be,” Patrick said.

  “What year would it be now?” Bridget wondered.

  “It’s 2017,” Kimberly immediately said, and everyone looked at her. “I have kept track of it.”

  Patrick looked at her solemnly as if surprised she knew exactly what year it was. Kimberly was very happy living in Patrick’s time and had never shown regrets.

  Kimberly quickly reassured him. “I am very happy here with our children, our family. But the future was my time, dear. I can’t totally forget.”

  Patrick nodded his head in understanding. “I’m sure everyone in this family who is from the future could have answered that question as quickly as you did.”

  Nicky, Justin, and his parents all nodded their heads.

  “What are we going to do?” Nicky asked, bringing the conversation back to the portal. “Is one of us going to go after him?”

  Everyone looked at Justin, knowing that they would support whatever he decided. He slowly shook his head. “We have to assume that Garrett figured out how to use the portal, especially if the grass around the circle is burned. The future is where he wants to be. We’ll let him be.”

  “Maybe he didn’t use it though,” Colleen spoke up. “Maybe he is in Denver and just didn’t come home, or he went to some other city.”

  Bridget looked at Colleen with sympathy. Colleen knew Bridget suspected her feelings for Garrett were more than brotherly. “I guess we could hope for that, but I do think he went to his time, dear.”

  Colleen bowed her head and looked at her hands. Tears started to gather in her eyes, and she stood up and ran out the door. The warm sun shone down on her as she ran without thinking about where she was going.

  She ran until she ran out of breath and found herself near the river. It was a hot day so she took off her shoes and stockings and sat on a rock with her feet in the water. The water was ice cold, but it felt good against her skin, cooling her down immediately. She splashed water on her face and then closed her eyes, letting
the tears run down her cheeks.

  She had never had a desire to use the portal, although she was aware of it. She knew that the family had kept the portal from Garrett, and she had agreed with the decision. She, more than anyone, knew where his heart was. She was the only one he would talk about his previous life with, and she was always glad to listen. Some of the things he talked about and described fascinated her, things like airplanes, cars, computers, something called a TV where you could see and hear people act out what he called movies. There was so much more he described that she couldn’t understand. He had hated school in this time. He was very smart and was easily bored in the school Justin had sent him to. When he was given an assignment, he finished it in half the time everyone else did. He knew too much, understood too much, and he couldn’t tell anyone about his knowledge, except her.

  But Colleen never thought of him as a family member or a cousin. She couldn’t remember a time that she didn’t love him. Part of what started her feelings for him was because he never cared that the color of her skin was darker than his. In fact, he once told her that he loved the deep black color of her hair, that it almost looked purple in the sunlight.

  At first the love she had for him was a girlhood love, a childhood crush, but it had grown into something more. She knew she loved him like a woman. But even though it seemed he could talk to her about anything, he always treated her like a sister. She knew he never felt for her what she felt for him. Knowing this always saddened her, but she was willing to wait until he realized he loved her too. But that day never happened, and now it was too late. He was gone, and she knew she was never going to see him again. He wanted to be in the future so badly, that if the portal did work, and he really was in 2017, she knew he was going to stay there.

  She thought about the last words he had said to her, “I will always come back.” Her heart broke as she sobbed uncontrollably. Clearly, there was one thing that could keep him away from her forever. And that wouldn’t ever change.

  Chapter 7

  November, 2018 - Fifteen months later

  “Garrett, you can take your break now,” his boss, Mr. Martin, called to him.

  Garrett nodded and set his tool belt on the ground where he was working. He took the bandana out of his pocket and wiped his face. Even though it was November, he was hot and sweaty from the hard work he had been doing.

  He walked to his small truck that was parked just down the street from the house he had been sheet rocking and climbed inside. After taking a long drink of water, he unwrapped a peanut butter sandwich and took a large bite. Leaning back against the cool vinyl leather of the seat, he closed his eyes. He had been working harder than usual because they were short a man that day, and the boss wanted all the sheetrock up by the end of the day. He took another bite and thought over the last year of his life.

  When he had woken up in the park on the first morning in the future, he had seen a pawn shop and remembered that people could sell things there for money. He had discovered some money in his pocket that was from the early 1900s and a few from 1898 and 1895. He was able to sell some of them for quite a bit of money. Evidently, coins from the past were worth a lot. He had kept some of the coins, but he was able to get enough money to tide him over while he looked for work. At first, he worked on farms picking vegetables and fruit along with men who were in the country illegally from Mexico. The owner of the farm was willing to pay them cash because of the issue of no security number. By the end of the summer, Garrett had saved as much money as he could. He slept in a dirty old motel, but the cost of a room averaged only twenty dollars a night. It was all he could afford. He slowly was able to purchase modern-day clothing. He found out that the pawn shop was even willing to purchase his pants with the flap in it instead of a zipper. He probably could have sold his shirt that Bridget had made, but he wanted to keep at least one thing from the past with him. He had lived on peanut butter and oatmeal. The owner of the farm allowed him to take any produce that was overripe, and therefore not sellable, free of charge, so he was able to eat some fruit and vegetables. But then summer ended and so did the job.

  He had made friends with a man named Jose Sanchez. This man was actually in the country legally, and he helped Garrett get a copy of his social security card and birth certificate. After all, Garrett had been born in 1993 and had received those papers, even though the copies Justin had were long gone. He often wondered what his father had done with all of that stuff. His father never wanted to talk about it. After all, when they had gone back in time with Bridget, it was supposed to only be for a few days. It wasn’t supposed to be permanent.

  Jose never asked why Garrett didn’t have those papers, but he had a story all ready just in case. He was going to tell people he had lived with his parents off the grid and hadn’t needed the papers until now. But no one asked at the government offices.

  Because he now had papers telling everyone who he was, he was able to get a better job. After a few weeks of searching, he was hired on as a construction worker for a builder in a part of Denver where many new houses were going up. He was a good worker and fast, so he quickly moved up from doing grunt work to learning how to build the frames of the houses and putting up sheetrock. He didn’t mind the work, but he also was doing everything he could to move on to a job he would enjoy. Over the past months, he spent a lot of time listening and learning. He also went to the library and read everything he could get his hands on. He used their computers when he could and slowly taught himself the technology he had missed out on over the past thirteen years. Luckily, his brain remembered how some of it worked, and he quickly caught on to the changes.

  He was able to rent a small apartment and even buy a used laptop. He slept on an air mattress, had dishes he purchased from a second-hand store, a small table and one chair and an old beat-up couch he found on the side of the road one day. After riding the bus to work every day, he was able to save up enough to purchase an old truck.

  He had a few friends, although he rarely hung out with them after work. He had so much to catch up on; he wanted to spend most of his time learning all he could.

  He was relatively happy with his new life. He did miss his family, and he often wondered what had happened when they all realized he had disappeared. He only hoped they figured out where he was. Sometimes he was tempted to hike back to the portal and see if he could use it to go visit, but he never followed through with that thought. Even though he missed his family, he wanted to live in 2018, and he didn’t want anything to stop him from being able to come back. Sometimes he thought about Colleen. Probably out of all of his family, he missed her the most. He would speculate what she would think about 2018. If she came here, would she like it or wish to return to her time? There were so many things he wished he could show her. He remembered many conversations he’d had with her, trying to describe his life in the future. He knew that a lot of what he told her confused her. After all, how can you understand something you’ve never seen?

  He glanced at his watch and saw that he needed to get back to work. He quickly finished his sandwich and walked back into the half-finished house to finish the day. He wanted to stop off at the library on his way home to check another book about a programming software he wanted to learn.

  ****

  November, 1906

  The entire family was able to get together for Thanksgiving that year. The snows weren’t very heavy so far. Justin and Bridget hosted the dinner at their house in Denver. It was a treat for the family members who lived on the ranch to go to Denver. Grandma and Grandpa Foster stayed behind to take care of the daily chores while the rest of them were gone. The women spent the entire day before Thanksgiving cooking and baking. The next morning, Bridget got up early to put the turkey in the oven and everything was ready to eat by noon. They enjoyed a wonderful dinner. After everything was cleaned up, Richard and Katherine took all the younger kids sledding on a nearby hill, leaving the adults to gather in the living room.

  For a w
hile, the talk between the adults was about the ranch and how the art gallery was doing. Colleen had learned a new way to make dyes for some of the yarn she used for her blankets and explained her idea to everyone. One thing they didn’t talk about was the fact that a certain member of the family was still missing, until Justin stood up and started to pace the room in frustration. Bridget got up and touched his arm in comfort when he had paced the length a number of times.

  “I know you are missing Garrett,” Bridget said. “We all are.”

  “I just wish I knew he was alright,” Justin grumbled.