A Window in Time

by Carolyn Lampman

  “Is there anything I can do to help you?” she asked shyly as she removed her helmet, and he started to work.

  “Yeah, grab my backpack, would you? That’s where my marker balloons are. We’ll inflate some so my brother can find us.”

  “Backpack?”

  He glanced over his shoulder at her. If she was faking that look of confusion, she was the best darn actress he’d ever seen. “It’s a bag about this big,” he said, showing her with his hands. “Should be in the bottom of the gondola somewhere. I’ll see if I can reach Chuck on my cell phone.” He glanced around at the sagebrush-covered prairie. “Though I doubt there’s any service out here.”

  “All right.”

  With the speed of long practice, Tom walked along the deflated balloon folding the edges over until it lay in a long straight line. He finished within a short time and returned to Anna.

  “I couldn’t find your pack,” she said apologetically, as she held out Brianna’s windbreaker for his inspection. “This is all that wasn’t tied down.”

  “My backpack’s gone?” A quick glance at the interior of the basket showed it empty except for the propane tanks and flight instruments. “That’s really strange,” he said, scratching his head. But then, he couldn’t account for much of anything that had happened since take-off. Even the distance they’d come was unbelievable for summertime. “Without my cell phone or the marker balloons, I guess our only other choice is to head for that house I saw and call Chuck.”

  “Does he live there?”

  “No. He has a phone in his pickup. This isn’t the first time we’ve lost each other during a flight.”

  “I see.” But it was obvious she didn’t.

  “This shouldn’t take too long. You can stay here and sit in the shade of those rocks over there. I’ll leave you the canteen.”

  “I’m coming with you.”

  “It’s too hot. You could get heat stroke.”

  “So could you.”

  “I’m not wearing a long dress.”

  “No, but then I’m used to it.” She untied the sunbonnet that hung down her back and put it on. “Besides, I...I don’t want to stay here by myself.”

  The stubborn tilt of her chin couldn’t disguise the quaver in her voice, and Tom’s resistance melted like ice cream on a barbecue. “All right then, let’s go.”

  The sun beat down unmercifully as they walked through the sagebrush, skirting cactus and knee-high ant hills as they went. In spite of it all, Anna remained determinedly cheerful though Tom knew she was badly frightened by all that had happened.

  The further they traveled, the more convinced he became that he had lost his mind. Though he hadn’t been around Brianna Daniels long, she was very different from the shy, soft-spoken woman who walked beside him now. Too different. No one could change that much.

  Anna was just as he had always fancied her during the hours he had spent pouring over Lucas Daniels’ journal. He knew she was a figment of his imagination, and yet she appeared so genuine. A slightly crooked front tooth where Brianna’s were beautifully straight, and a skirt that was a little too long, added to the illusion of reality.

  But the most damning evidence of his instability was the way he felt toward her. He had been mildly attracted to Brianna, but the way he felt about Anna was completely different. From the moment she confessed she didn’t want to stay behind, the need to protect her became a driving force within him. It was all he could do not to put his arm around her shoulders and guide her steps.

  They hadn’t gone much more than half a mile when Tom suddenly realized why he was having such a bizarre hallucination. Lucas Daniels loved his wife deeply and had described her in the most glowing terms. Tom grew up thinking she was the epitome of what a woman should be and had been waiting for someone just like Anna all his adult life. If the truth were known, he was probably halfway in love with her already. The lightning, or whatever hit them in that balloon, had scrambled his brain and created the illusion. Thank God he and Brianna hadn’t been talking about a science-fiction horror movie or something.

  The walk across the prairie was long and uncomfortable, but they arrived at the ranch house far too soon for Tom. He knew it was only a matter of time before Anna disappeared back into his imagination, and Brianna took her place.

  As he reached up to knock on the door, Anna grabbed his arm and he glanced down at her questioningly.

  “Are you sure this is a good idea?” she whispered. “Everything here looks so strange.”

  Tom glanced around in surprise. It was a typical ranch headquarters with a battered old pickup and variety of farm machinery surrounding the huge trapezoid-shaped shop across the barnyard. Corrals were visible behind the shop and fields green with alfalfa stretched clear to the base of a large hill beyond. Though the fence around the yard needed a coat of paint and the lawn was overdue for a mowing, the house itself was good-sized and well kept. There was absolutely nothing out of the ordinary. “What do you mean?”

  Before Anna could answer, the door opened, and Tom turned his attention to the boy who stood in the doorway.

  “Hello,” he said with a smile. “Is your mom or dad here?”

  “Nope, they went to Riverton and probably won’t be back till after the rodeo tonight.” The boy looked over Tom’s shoulder and raised his eyebrows. “Did your car break down?”

  “No, as a matter of fact we came by balloon. We got caught in a crosswind and lost our chase crew. I need to make a phone call to tell them how to find us.”

  The boy’s face brightened. “You’re from the balloon rally?”

  “That’s right.”

  “Wow! You’re a long way from Riverton.”

  “I know. It was quite a ride. Could I use your phone?”

  “Oh, sure,” he said, stepping aside. Then a shadow crossed his face. “Well, I think so anyway.”

  “If you’d rather I didn’t come in, I can give you the number...”

  “No, it’s not that. Dad took my cell, and I’m not sure the land line is working. My experiment blew every circuit in the house.” He crossed the living room, put the phone to his ear and sighed in relief. “It’s all right,” he said, handing it to Tom. “Good thing, too. My dad is going to be mad enough.”

  Tom wasn’t surprised that the boy didn’t give Anna’s long dress a second glance. The delusion was his alone. It only took a few moments to dial the number, but Anna edged so close she nearly knocked him off balance. When he looked down she was staring at the TV in undisguised horror. Tom glanced at the screen and grinned. “That’s got to be the worst sit-com they ever came up with. My sister-in-law won’t even let her kids watch it,” he said just as his brother answered the phone. “Hello, Chuck. I think we might have broken the record this time...”

  Anna’s only answer was to step even closer. Unable to resist, Tom put his arm around her with a comforting squeeze as he repeated the boy’s directions for finding them.

  “He’ll be out there in forty-five minutes or so,” Tom said as he hung up the phone. “That will give us enough time to get back to the balloon so he can find us.”

  “I’ll give you a ride,” the boy offered eagerly. “We’ll have plenty of time to get there if we take the pickup.”

  “If it wouldn’t be too much trouble,” Tom said with a smile. “It must be a hundred degrees outside.”

  “No problem. My name’s Scott Martin, by the way.”

  “Tom Shaffer,” Tom said, sticking out his hand, “and this is Brianna Daniels.”

  “Hi.” Scott shook hands with Tom and smiled at Anna. “Nice dress. Did you make it?”

  Anna blushed a bright red. “Y-yes.”

  “My sister would turn green with envy if she could see it. She spent three days sewing her dress for the parade this afternoon, and it isn’t half as nice as yours.” He missed both Tom’s startled expression and Anna’s look of consternation as he turned and walked away. “I have to finish fixing the fuse box, but it won’t take lon
g. I only have a few more wires to replace.”

  “Shouldn’t you get a licensed electrician to do that?”

  “Nah, I know how. My dad said if I was going to keep blowing the wiring I had to learn to fix it myself. Can’t wait to see your balloon. This will be even better than going to the rally. I was supposed to go but Dad made me stay home.”

  “You must be disappointed,” Tom murmured as he gave Anna a shrug then followed Scott through the kitchen into the laundry room.

  “Yeah, but I guess I sorta deserved it. I accidentally deleted my dad’s spreadsheet program and all the ranch records last night when I interfaced his computer with my laptop. He said I couldn’t go anywhere until I had them all back on the computer.” Scott sighed. “He’s going to go ballistic when he sees this.”

  “Good Lord, what happened?” Tom stared in disbelief at the cinder block wall above the fuse box. It was blackened all the way to the ceiling, and the stench of burnt wiring filled the room.

  “I overloaded the circuits.” Scott picked up a pair of needle nose pliers and reached into the fuse box to twist two wires together. “I thought if I boosted them with tin foil it would give me the extra amps I needed, but it didn’t work out quite the way I planned.”

  “No, it doesn’t look like it. What in the world were you doing?”

  “Just working on a theory of mine.” Scott pulled out a chunk of melted metal and studied it closely. After a moment, he sighed and threw it onto the washing machine with the burnt wires and fried fuses. “I just hope my surge protector saved the PC. If I fried Dad’s computer, I’ll be grounded for the rest of my life!”

  Tom watched in amazement as the boy rewired the fuse box. His skill was nothing short of miraculous. “What’s this theory you’re working on?” he asked.

  Scott didn’t even look up from his work. “You’d just laugh at me like everybody else does.”

  “No, I wouldn’t.”

  Scott stopped and studied Tom intently for a moment. “Promise?”

  “Promise.”

  “All right but remember you can’t laugh. I think I’ve figured out how to twist the time-space continuum into a Mobius strip.”

  Tom felt as though the air had suddenly become too thin to breathe. “What—what exactly does that mean?”

  “Not much yet, but someday I hope to be able to travel through time.”

  “Scott,” Tom said in a strangled voice as he reached down and grasped Anna’s hand. “I think that day has arrived.”

  CHAPTER 5

  (July 1860)

  “If you and Lucas is married, how come he don’t know nothin’ about it?”

  Bart Kelly’s voice grated along Brianna’s nerves like sandpaper on cardboard. She resisted the urge to tell him it was none of his business. At this point she couldn’t risk alienating anyone, even the disgusting man in the back of the wagon. “Lucas has quite a sense of humor.”

  “Not that I ever noticed. What the hell is going on, anyway?”

  “Maybe you should ask him.”

  Bart looked nonplussed for a moment then shook his head. “Don’t reckon I need to know that bad. Lucas don’t like folks prying into his business.”

  It didn’t appear that he was particularly fond of people who came to visit without an invitation either. His glowering expression never changed as he listened to Seth, nor did he so much as glance in Brianna’s direction. It didn’t look promising. With Seth’s inept handling, Lucas would probably stick her on a horse and send her straight back to Platte River Bridge today.

  Before her better sense could intrude, Brianna decided to take matters into her own hands. The look Lucas gave her as she walked toward the two men was far from welcoming, but she pretended not to notice. “I think you and I need to talk,” she said, meeting his enigmatic stare squarely.

  Lucas’s jaw hardened. “There is nothing to discuss.”

  “I—uh—I’ll be in the barn if you want me,” Seth mumbled, backing away from the two of them. “I need to go check the horses.”

  Lucas’s lips thinned. “What you need is a damned good thrashing,” he said as the younger man hurried away.

  “I know you didn’t ask for this,” Brianna went on, “but neither did I. I’m as much a victim as you are.”

  “I’m not the one who came west looking for a husband.”

  “No, but then I had no way of knowing you hadn’t really sent for me.”

  “If you hadn’t been so desperate to catch a man, you wouldn’t have been fooled.”

  “Look, Lucas, we can stand here all day blaming each other, and it won’t change a thing. On the other hand, with a little effort, I think we can find a solution that will benefit both of us.”

  “I doubt that. I have no need of a wife.”

  “Maybe not, but you do need a cook.”

  “I’ve survived this long without one.”

  “On the contrary, it seems to me your cooking is what landed you in this predicament in the first place.”

  “It’s not my cooking, it’s picky eaters. Nobody could please those two.”

  “Cut me some slack, Lucas. I know darn well you don’t like to cook.”

  The look he gave her was distinctly unfriendly. “There isn’t any slack to cut. Even if there were, I doubt you could get Seth to eat it.”

  Brianna almost smiled and then thought better of it. “As long as I’m here, why don’t you let me try? If you decide you don’t like my cooking, you can always go back to doing it yourself. The way I see it, you’ve got nothing to lose.”

  Lucas crossed his arms and regarded her suspiciously. “And what do you get out of this?”

  “A place to stay, room and board.”

  “Why don’t you just go back home?”

  Brianna thought of Anna’s disparaging remarks about the home she’d left behind. “There’s nothing to go back to.”

  “Is that why you married yourself off to a total stranger?”

  She shrugged. “It seemed like a good idea at the time.”

  “If it’s a husband you want, I’m sure you can find someone willing to marry you either at Fort Laramie or Fort Bridger.”

  “According to the contract in my trunk, I already have one. Legally, I’m not sure I can marry anyone else until the first marriage is undone.”

  “It’s not worth the paper it’s written on,” he growled. “I didn’t sign it.”

  “I know, and I have no desire to hold you to it, but I need time to reconsider what to do with my life. Apparently getting married wasn’t such a good idea.”

  As far as Brianna could see she hadn’t thawed him one bit. Too bad she’d never perfected the art of feminine tears.

  “All right,” he said. “You can cook, but just until Bart Kelly leaves.”

  Brianna suppressed a sigh of relief. It wouldn’t do to let him see how much it meant to her. “Thank you.”

  “Supper’s at sundown,” he said turning away.

  “Hey, wait a minute. I can’t just—”

  He looked back over his shoulder. “Change your mind already?”

  “No, but—”

  “Then cook. I’m right in the middle of an important experiment, and I’ve wasted enough time already.” With that he walked away and left Brianna standing there with her mouth open.

  “Of all the...” Brianna watched him disappear into a long log building she assumed was the barn. He wasn’t going to give an inch, and he fully expected her to fail. A slow grin crossed her face. Lucas Daniels was in for a big surprise. She hadn’t done much cooking lately, but she happened to be quite good at it.

  She turned and went into the cabin. After the bright sunlight, the interior was dark and oppressive. She crossed the dirt floor to the single window and threw open the shutters. There was no glass in the opening, but the fresh air was as welcome as the light.

  Brianna glanced around the tiny cabin in dismay. A roomy fireplace dominated the far end of the room with a collection of blackened pans hanging n
ext to it on one side and a small cupboard on the other. Two bunks were built into the walls on opposite sides of the room. Both were rumpled and unmade as though the occupants had just risen. A heavy table and four chairs were the only movable furniture in the room aside from a flat-topped chest at the foot of one of the bunks. Brianna eyed the odd collection of wire, glass and unfamiliar pieces of metal littering it.

  What a mess. The whole place looked and smelled like it hadn’t been cleaned in a long time, if it ever had. Lucas would probably expect her to do that, too, once she convinced him to let her stay. Right now, the first order of business was supper.

  Brianna grinned to herself as she rolled up her sleeves and headed toward the fireplace. Lucas thought she’d be daunted by the fact that there was no stove to cook on. In reality, she was far more at home with the fireplace than a wood stove. Her family had gone on countless weekend camping trips during her youth, and she could cook over a campfire almost as well as she could in her modern kitchen at home.

  In no time at all she had the fire going and began digging through the cupboard to the left of the fireplace. That’s when her good humor began to fade. There was nothing to cook. Other than a tin of dried beans, a few cups of weevily flour, and a smidgeon of cornmeal, there was no food of any kind. That rat Lucas knew it, too.

  Well, she’d show him. Brianna was famous for her three-bean chili. There wasn’t any hamburger, but chili didn’t have to have meat in it. Of course, she’d always used canned beans, but if she soaked them first this should work just as well. She dumped some into a pot and searched around for the water bucket. It was next to the door and nearly empty, but there was enough to cover the beans.

  Now for the flavoring. Brianna dug back into the cupboard. She found salt and pepper, but that was about it. There were no tomatoes, or tomato sauce, or even onions. She unearthed a bottle of molasses and hesitated only a moment before pouring a bit into the pot. Molasses went into baked beans, after all.