Christmas in Time

by Zoe Matthews

  She read how a man named Golin had also found his own key, but he had plans to use it to glorify himself. He somehow found out that Victoria had two other keys, and he wanted them. Colleen remembered him. He had used his key to transport himself to their ranch and had kidnapped her one day, barricading them both in the barn. Colleen had had many nightmares of that awful day, but she hadn’t understood who he was or why he kept telling her family to give him the keys. Golin had accidentally tipped over a lit lantern, and it caught the barn on fire. He ended up dying in that fire.

  Victoria then wrote that The Irish Man had discovered that their two keys were being kept in a cave nearby the ranch for safekeeping. He found them and took them, forcing Garrett and his family to stay in their time.

  As Colleen read the story in Victoria’s words, she started to see how things might have looked in Garrett’s eyes as a young boy. They never found the key Golin had owned.

  She thought about how unique her family was to have had such experiences with time travel. It almost seemed like their family attracted the power of time travel, although how it worked, she had no idea.

  She saw a presence in the doorway. Keegan was standing there. She suddenly realized she had been in the room almost all afternoon when she should have been downstairs helping in the store. She stood up, clutching the leather book to her.

  “Oh,” Colleen stammered. “I know I shouldn’t be up here. I’m so sorry.”

  Keegan looked at her with an unreadable look on his face. “How did you manage to open the door? We’ve tried to keep the room locked from curious customers.”

  “I found a key in the kitchen with the others,” Colleen confessed sheepishly. Keegan sighed as Colleen gave him the clutch of keys she had put in her pocket.

  “I really should clear all of this stuff out. I just don’t have the heart to do it, because it is almost a museum of Victoria’s life.” Colleen knew that he had been closer to Victoria than anyone; he had lived with her for several years while he took advanced classes in town before he went to college.

  “I think it is okay to leave it for the time being, as long as someone who shouldn’t have the keys find it,” Colleen said with a grin, knowing she had done just that.

  Keegan stepped further into the room. “I have something to show you.”

  Colleen watched as Keegan lifted an old army blanket that was covering something large. She gasped with delight when she saw what Keegan revealed. It was a loom, almost the same size of her own.

  She ran a hand over it as if half expecting it to disappear.

  “I have no idea how it got here or why Victoria even put it in this room, but there it is, and it is yours for as long as you want it.”

  Tears formed in Colleen’s eyes, and she threw her arms around Keegan. He hugged her back; he then started to back away, but Colleen cried harder. It was as if she couldn’t stop and Keegan just held her.

  The last week had a been a whirlwind of emotions: experiencing a new world, discovering she probably wouldn’t be able to return to her time for at least a few weeks, and the overwhelming feelings she had for Garrett. She had been handling it all fairly well and wasn’t really disappointed in where she was at the moment, but she was overwhelmed. Seeing the loom and knowing she would be able to do something so familiar and comforting just pushed her over the edge.

  When she finally was able to get herself under control, Keegan led her to the chair he had found her sitting in, and handed her a handkerchief.

  “I’m so sorry,” Colleen said with embarrassment. “I don’t know what came over me.”

  “I’m thinking you have been through a lot lately. After all, you time traveled from 1906 to 2018 to find a good friend. You have had huge adjustments to deal with: the differences between our times, working in a new store to earn money, learning how to work with people while trying to not let them know where you are really from, and then Garrett.”

  Colleen looked at Keegan sharply, trying to figure out what he meant.

  “You love him,” Keegan said simply.

  Again, Colleen looked away in embarrassment, wondering if her feelings for Garrett were written all over her face. “It doesn’t matter. I came here to find him, but he has let me know he has no desire to return to my time. And to be honest, he does belong here. He is happy.”

  “He is happy here. Some people were meant to be born in a certain time period, and he is one of them,” Keegan agreed.

  “Are you really happy here?” Colleen asked.

  Keegan hesitated and then looked into her eyes. “Are you ready for the answer, Colleen?”

  “Yes. I know you met Megan and you agreed to stay here, for her. But it has to be hard. You were a doctor in our time. You wanted to be a doctor as long as I knew you. Now you can’t be one.”

  “I am happy here. Megan is an added bonus, of course. She is a wonderful woman, and I feel lucky that I found her. I just had to travel more than one hundred years to do so. I did have to give up my practice, but I am very happy with how it worked out. Sometimes love can override everything else.”

  “And sometimes it doesn’t.”

  “Give Garrett a chance to figure things out. Give him time.”

  “I agreed to stay here until after Christmas. That doesn’t give him very much time.”

  “What are you holding?”

  Colleen glanced at the book she forgot she was holding. “Oh, yes. I found this book in that desk over there. It is a journal of Victoria’s travels when she used the keys. She had many adventures she recorded. It is quite interesting to read.” She handed it to Keegan.

  He took the book almost reverently. “I never realized she wrote in a journal.”

  Colleen stood and walked over to the loom. “Is there any way I can have this moved into the room I’m using in your house?”

  “Sure,” Keegan agreed. “I’ll get Garrett to help me.” He turned to leave and then looked at her. “And that room you are staying in, it is your room.”

  Colleen knew what he was saying, that she was wanted.

  Later the next day, Garrett and Keegan moved the loom to a corner in Colleen’s room in Keegan’s house. Megan had a large box of yarn that was left over from her “knitting days” that she gave to Colleen. She spent an hour weaving some yarn on the loom, already planning in her head the pattern she was going to use on this first blanket she was going to make. That evening, Garrett joined them for dinner. Megan had made a wonderful enchilada casserole and a green salad. Colleen hadn’t ever had enchiladas and ate two helpings. She loved having Garrett sit across the table from her and tried to keep herself from looking at him, but she couldn’t help it. He looked so good with his dark hair, and she was growing to love how short it was cut. His eyes seemed to shine with happiness, and every time he smiled at her, she could feel butterflies in her stomach.

  “I heard you went to the library right after you got here,” Garrett said. “Did you find anything interesting?”

  Everyone stopped eating and looked at Colleen. She had forgotten about that trip. “I went to see if I could find anything about you in the newspapers.”

  “Really?” Garrett grinned at her. “Did you figure out how to use the computers to do that?”

  “Yes, the librarian was very helpful, but I didn’t find anything about you. I did find an article about your family’s disappearance in 2005.”

  “What?” Garrett asked sharply. “There was something in the paper about us?”

  “Yes. I was able to print it out. The copy of it is in my room.”

  Keegan and Megan looked uncomfortable as Garrett processed this information.

  “I’m sorry I didn’t say something to you about it sooner, but I honestly forgot about it,” Colleen said regretfully.

  “It’s okay,” Keegan said when Garrett didn’t say anything. “Why don’t you go get it?”

  Colleen quickly retrieved the article and handed to Garrett who took it and proceeded to read it silently, then set it asi
de.

  Garrett changed the subject after the article had been read, and Colleen grew more and more concerned as the meal finished. He offered to help with the dishes, to which Megan declined. He then said goodbye to everyone, saying he had to go to a certain store before it closed, and then left.

  Colleen felt awful, and she wondered if he was angry with her because she kept such important information from him for so long. But she hadn’t done it on purpose and had honestly felt that the police hadn’t figured anything out, so it wasn’t that important. She had gone to the library to find Garrett. Once Garrett showed up, she hadn’t felt it necessary to talk about how hard she looked for him. She had found him, or he had found her and the article was forgotten.

  “Don’t worry about it, Colleen,” Keegan said. “He needs to process things on his own.”

  Colleen nodded her head, but she was still worried. She wondered if she had made things worse by giving him the article, but it was something she couldn’t keep to herself.

  Chapter 14

  Garrett had invited Colleen to go sledding with him the next day, and Colleen wondered if he would still want to go. She waited anxiously by the door, and he showed up at the agreed upon time. Colleen breathed a sigh of relief when she saw him, and her heart skipped a beat, like it always seemed to do. Megan had lent her a pair of snow boots, gloves, hat, and scarf, along with the heavy coat she had used the first week she was here. She had never really enjoyed sledding as a child, but she was looking forward to going, because she’d be able to spend time with Garrett. He took her to a large hill that was located near the mountains. There were very few people sledding, but Colleen could see that the hill had been used quite a bit, because of the large number of paths that went down it.

  Garrett had brought two sleds, which were actually two large pieces of hard plastic. They each went down separately a few times, laughing and joking as they went down. Colleen didn’t usually like being cold, but she loved spending time with Garrett, so she found herself having fun.

  Garrett would try to throw snowballs at her from the bottom of the hill as she went down, and she enjoyed laughing and ducking out of the way.

  After walking back up the hill, it was Garrett’s turn to slide down. Colleen secretly formed a snowball and threw it at his back. The snowball hit its target, and Colleen whooped at her success. Garrett turned back to look at her in surprise over his shoulder, and in doing so, his sled was turned in a different direction.

  The sled swerved out of control, and Colleen watched in horror as Garrett headed straight for a tree.

  Garrett jumped off the sled at the last minute and rolled out of the way. The sled slammed into the tree and cracked right down the middle.

  “Garrett, are you alright?” Colleen called as she ran down the hill to him in panic. She couldn’t understand what was happening when she came up to him and heard laughter.

  “I didn’t know you had finally learned how to throw!” Garrett teased.

  Colleen couldn’t help herself and started laughing too. “Oh, you know I was always able to out throw you when we were kids. I am so sorry!”

  The two of them got caught in a fit of laughter and sat in the snow for a moment after finally calming themselves down.

  “I guess we’re going to have to share,” Garrett said with a grin after he tossed the broken sled in the back of his truck.

  Colleen shrugged and tried to act like she didn’t care, but in actuality, she was happy to have an excuse to be close to him. In her time, being so open with a man was frowned upon, but she knew things were different in Garrett’s time, and this was one difference she liked. He wasn’t afraid to take her hand in his when they walked beside each other or even put an arm around her, although it never stayed there very long. He had yet to kiss her though, not counting the time he had kissed her when she was sixteen years old. She was finding she wanted very much to experience his kiss, again. When she did go back to her time, she’d at least have that to remember him by.

  Garrett took her sled from her and sat down; he then patted the space in front of him. Colleen situated herself where he indicated, and Garrett’s arms went around her.

  “I hope you like going fast,” Garrett said in her ear. Using his feet, he pushed them down the hill until they were going so fast, Colleen hung onto his legs for dear life. What if the sled flipped over? But it made it down the hill safely, and she couldn’t help but laugh with joy.

  They made the trip down the hill together a few more times before Garrett noticed Colleen shivering.

  “There is a coffee shop not far away from here within walking distance. Why don’t we head there for some hot chocolate?”

  “That sounds great,” Colleen agreed.

  They dropped the sled in his truck and then they started down the street. Again, he reached to take her hand, but this time, Colleen slipped her hand into the curve of his arm. His eyes widened at her move, and then smiled at her. She knew he understood what she was trying to say.

  Once they were in the small café, hot chocolate and donuts in front of them, they talked about various things for a few minutes; then Garrett turned serious.

  “There is something I’d like to talk to you about,” he said.

  “Alright,” Colleen said, almost afraid to find out what he wanted to say.

  “I’ve had feelings for you for a long time. In fact, I can’t remember when I didn’t have feelings for you.”

  Garrett said the words so quickly, that Colleen almost didn’t understand them, but when she did, they pierced her heart. She couldn’t do more than sit and smile at him.

  Garrett must have gotten nervous at her silence, so he continued. “I actually found out about the portal a couple weeks before I used it, and that was because of you. I worried that if I used the portal, I would never see you again. I care about you so much; you have always been the one person that I could count on to see me for who I am, and not for the hard times I was going through.”

  Colleen took his hands in her own. “I have cared about you for a long time, Garrett. I have been waiting for you to figure out how perfect we are for each other since we were teenagers.”

  “I didn’t want to marry you when I was struggling so much in the past. Now, I have a way to support myself. I’ve stopped drinking completely. I’m a much better man now. Do you think you would be willing to give me a chance to prove myself to you?” Garrett asked, looking more vulnerable than she had ever seen him.

  She looked at him softly and brought her hand up to his cheek. “Of course I will.”

  All the tension left Garrett’s face, as he leaned closer to her. He brought both of his hands up to cup the back of her head and slowly pulled her closer to him, keeping his eyes trained on hers the whole time. Right before he completed the kiss, she closed her eyes. The feel of his lips on hers, the feeling of him holding her, was everything she had ever wanted. She melted into him until he pulled away gently.

  She knew it was bold of her, but she couldn’t bring herself to sit alone after feeling so close to him. She continued to lean against him as he held her. They sat like that, just enjoying each other’s quiet companionship until their hot chocolate was cold.

  ****

  Colleen sat in front of her loom working on her blanket with a thoughtful expression. She hadn’t seen her Indian family in a long time. She missed them and knew there really was no way to see them. They were forced off the land they had lived on for hundreds of years.

  It felt wrong to just accept what had happened to them; she couldn’t let herself just move on from that. Was there even anything she could do?

  She stopped weaving the blanket for a moment. There was nothing she could do to change the past. Even if she went back in time, it would be wrong to take the knowledge she now had to change history.

  However, that didn’t mean she had to forget her heritage.

  She got up and went downstairs where Megan was working on something for the shop. “Can I borrow you
r phone to call Garrett?” she asked.

  “Sure,” Megan said cheerfully. She dialed Garrett’s number for her and handed the phone over.

  When Garrett answered, Colleen got straight to the point. “I need your help with something. Can you come get me tonight?”

  ****

  When they were in the car, Colleen’s nerves were at an all-time high, and Garrett could sense it. “We don’t have to do this today.”

  “I know, but I want to,” Colleen responded with determination. When she spoke again, she sounded a little unsure. “What if they don’t want me there?”

  She had decided to go visit the descendants of the family she once knew. She had gotten the address off an Indian-Heritage website, and she was even able to track her biological line back to her maternal grandmother.