There was a tap on the glass above his head. “We’re still open,” an older man said, his words muffled through the thick glass. The old man grinned as Glenn walked in. “I hoped if I stayed open late tonight it would pay off.”
As Glenn looked around at the musty volumes, a strange feeling washed over him and he had to ask, “Has this store always been here?”
“Oh no. We move around a lot.”
“Were you ever in Kansas?”
The old man shrugged. “May have been. We have many branches. The name’s Arthur.”
“Glenn.” He shook the older man’s hand. “I thought I wanted to buy a copy of Call of the Wild, but now, I’m not sure.”
“That happens a lot when people come in. I think what you need is up those stairs on aisle twenty-three. Clayton will be there to help you.”
Glenn thanked the old man and followed the creaky wood floor until he reached a big red hand and finger sign that pointed up the stairs. When he reached the top of the stairs a man waited. He wore a turn of the century long coat with a stiff button collar.
“Glenn, I didn’t think you’d make it. I’m Clayton, your guide. You’re late,” he said sharply.
“Make it? Guide? I… just came in to buy a book.”
“No, there is a definite reason you’re here. You want to come, right?” When Glenn nodded, the man walked off at a brisk clip. Was he going to show him the other books to purchase? He wasn’t sure why he followed, but he did. The man pulled at the large brass antique door. It groaned under the stress but finally opened. “Come on.” He motioned with his hand. “You were late and I’m expecting another traveler at any time, so we have to hurry.”
Glenn had no idea what the man was talking about. When he stepped through the door there was a pulling and then a flash of light. He put his hands over his ears. They rang, and he felt like he was in a barrel. He shook his head.
“Well, here you are.” Clayton took the large folder and pressed it into his Glenn’s hands. “Here is all the personal paperwork and information that you will need. There should be someone in contact with you in the next...”
“They won’t be able to contact me; my ship leaves for the South Pacific in the morning.”
Clayton looked at him as though he was crazy. “You obviously are a little confused about what just happened.”
“Happened? I came in to buy a book.”
Clayton looked troubled. “No, you came through the bookstore portal. You are in the year 2013, where you are supposed to be.”
He’d had enough. “What the hell are you talking about? I need to go, I have to get back to the base.”
Clayton made a tsking sound with his tongue. “I hope there isn’t a problem. I don’t need any more problems, I’ve had enough this week. You had a choice and you chose to follow me. Right? Look around. You’re not in 1942 any longer.”
Glenn slowly turned and looked up the street. His mouth dropped open. It was still night, but the people filled the street. A boy pushed past him with a as he talked into a square device he held. A girl wore electrical cords that hung from her ears as though she was being electrocuted. She bobbed her head and sang to music that Glenn couldn’t hear. The cars were different. The buildings were different. A large silver plane that looked like a sleek bullet flew overhead.
“What’s… going on… here?” he asked and fought to keep his composure.
“It’s the year 2013. This is your year. As I said, it’s all in your travel packet.” Clayton pointed to the papers he held. . “I have to go, but I wish you the best.”
“Wait!” Glenn cried. “I’ll just go with you back through the door, and then everything will be fine.”
“Ohhh…no... you can’t do that.” Clayton shook his head. “Only guides can go back through. Once you choose to step through the door, you can’t go back.” Clayton tapped his watch. “I need to go, sir. Maybe I will see you again.” He whisked the door open, stepped through and closed it behind him.
Glenn grabbed the handle and pulled. When it opened, the doorway was filled with a brick wall. He slapped his hands against the brinks. There had to be a mistake. He ran the tips of his fingers around each brick looking for the latch or an opening. He did this for the next hour until a small crowd gathered around him to watch. Finally, he shut the door and sank down to sit on the cement.
He picked up the file and shook the pieces of paper and documents out into his lap. There was a driver’s license with his name and his birthdate listed as 1985 and directions to an apartment with color photos and maps of the surrounding city. There was also a leather wallet with five-hundred dollars in cash and a plastic card with silver numbers and a logo that said Visa in the corner. He’d figure that out later. Glenn put the papers back into the folder and hung his hands between his knees.
He’d told Jewel he wouldn’t say goodbye, and now, he might never have the chance.
He had to get back to her.
Chapter Three
1942
Jewel hadn’t slept. At four in the morning, she gave up any hope of sleep and got up. She boiled water in a saucepan on the stove and made a cup of coffee. Staring at the cup, she ran her thumb over the crazed porcelain and traced the flower pattern.
On unsteady legs, she managed to clip back her curly hair and get dressed. It was over a mile to the docks, but she needed to walk.
When she arrived, the docks were jammed with wives, girlfriends, families, and mothers. They were all there. Some were smiling, but most were crying. Being a tall girl, she could see over most people and searched for Glenn in the massive crowd.
She frowned as her gaze wandered from face to face. Jewel pressed deeper into the throngs of people. She saw a seaman with light brown hair, and started to wave, but when he turned, it wasn’t Glenn. She walked slowly back and forth up the planks of the dock and watched the men say their last goodbyes and then part from their loved ones. One by one they moved up the gangplank with the final wave and disappeared aboard the flat gray ship that blended with the sky.
She stood in the cool misty rain until the last man boarded.
She tipped her chin, and pulled in a shaky breath. She wouldn’t cry. What else was there to say if she had seen him today? There was nothing else to say other than goodbye. So why was she so sad about not having the chance to see Glenn one last time and saying the words they promised not to say? It was just like him. He was thinking of her and trying to make things easier by boarding the ship early. Unfortunately, his plan hadn’t eased her pain.
Jewel gave up her wait, and pulled her coat closed at the neck and trudged off to open the studio. When she arrived at the front of the shop, Brenda had a hip propped on the corner of the building and exhaled a ring of cigarette smoke.
“I wasn’t sure I’d see you this morning,” she said as she ground the butt out with the tip of her shoe.
“Why?” Jewel asked. “It’s a work day.”
“But…”
“Glenn sailed this morning and now it’s just another day. The day he gets back will be the one I look forward to.” Jewel flipped on the overhead light, turned the front door sign to open and went to get the cash out of the safe to fill the cash register. She ignored the fact that her hands shook.
****
After asking directions from the man at a newspaper and magazine stand on a street corner, Glenn managed to find the apartment listed on his papers. He shook the folder until the key dropped into his hand. When he pressed it into the lock, the tumblers gave. He turned the knob and pushed the door open.
The room was three times the size of his room on the base. Glenn put the folder on the table and explored the apartment. There was a minimal decorated bedroom and a bathroom with toilet and tub. Good. At least some things were the same.
He walked back into
the living room, pulled back the drape and swallowed. Off in the distance was the Golden Gate Bridge. So he was still in San Francisco. Glenn lifted the newspaper off the table and looked at the date again. April 2013 was printed in the upper corner. Seventy-one years later than it was yesterday.
He sat on the couch and scrubbed his hands over his face.
The bookstore. Why did it seem so familiar? Then it came to him.
His dreams. He’d seen the store and that man… Arthur. The dream was reoccurring, and he’d had it on many nights. Glenn chalked it up to having been in a similar store when he was child. He and his mother often traveled around to bookstores in and near their hometown .
But, come to think of it, he’d also seen this modern town—these buildings. A city of the future. He’d had a strange, gnawing pull to find the bookstore, but he’d never had the free time to look. The Navy kept him busy every waking moment.
Exhausted, Glenn dragged himself off the couch and drew a bath. Pulling off the pieces of his heavy, damp wool uniform, he folded them up neatly and lay them on the chair. As he sank into the near scalding water, he groaned in bliss. His brain was so full of questions, even one more wouldn’t fit in his cranium. As he attempted to answer one question, another popped into his saturated mind. He slid down under the water and opened his eyes. His world was as foggy as his underwater view, shimmering above him and unreal.
Toweling off, Glenn found a clean pair of pajamas in the dresser drawer. He pulled them on and fell asleep as soon as he slid back the cover and flopped face down onto the bed.
He was drawn from sleep by a tapping sound. Was it the springs of the bunk above him? Bernard was a restless sleeper. Glenn rolled to the side and patted the bed with his hand. Slowly, he opened his eyes. The bed was huge, which told him that he definitely wasn’t in his bunk at the barracks or at sea.
There it was again. Someone was knocking on the door.
Glenn rolled out of bed, found a robe behind the door and put in on. Padding out into the living room, he looked through the peep hole of the door. He wasn’t sure why. Why would anyone be looking for him in this strange new world?
“What do you want?” he asked through the door. He wasn’t about to open another door and find himself farther back in time, maybe even with dinosaurs .
“The name’s Hadley, sir. We need to talk.”
“Why? Are you another ‘guide’ from the bookstore?”
“I… was.” The man paused. “I’m here to help you, Glenn.”
He opened the door a few inches and peered out. “How do you know my name?”
A woman stepped out from behind the man and waved her fingers. “Hi, I’m Sam ,” she said with a sunny smile. “If you let us in, I think we might be able to help explain things… well, maybe make it all a bit clearer.”
The couple seemed harmless enough. Who else did he have to trust? He doubted they could make the situation any worse. Glenn opened the door and motioned for them to enter as he stepped aside.
“Why don’t you get dressed and I’ll make us coffee?” The woman’s stomach protruded beneath her sweater.
“We’re not here to hurt you.” Hadley said. “As you can see, Sam’s pregnant; the worst that may happen is she will need to use your toilet.”
“Go on.” She shooed him with her hand. “Get dressed and then we’ll talk.”
Glenn walked into the bedroom and looked at his folded navy uniform on the chair. It didn’t feel right to put it back on. Instead, he opened the closet. There was a row of sweaters, cotton shirts and Levi jeans— all in his size. He picked a set, quickly put them on and then went to join the couple in the living room.
Sam had a cup of coffee waiting for him. He took it and then asked, “Can you please tell me what is going on? If I say what happened, you’ll think I’m crazy, so I’ll let you talk first.”
“You entered a bookstore and now you are in another time,” Hadley said.
“Well… that’s the short version. I need the longer version with an explanation of how the hell I got here.
“Who was your guide?” Hadley asked as he sat in a chair and motioned for him to sit.
“Well if it’s the guy who said something about being a ‘guide’ his name was Clayton.”
“Clayton…” Hadley pondered the thought and then continued in this thick, proper British accent, “No wonder you are in such a state. A very unpleasant chap isn’t he?”
“He asked me to follow him. When I did, I ended up here.”
“Did he make it clear where you were going?” Sam asked.
“No,” Glenn said. “He was in some kind of hurry to meet the next ‘traveler.’. I thought I was following him to find a better selection of books.”
“Oh dear.” Hadley put his hands together and steepled his fingers.
“My ship’s sailing and I need to be on it.”
“You are on it. I’ve checked the records and you were not listed as absent without official leave, or AWOL as they called it. So you were listed with the men aboard the U.S.S. Sims. You can’t go back.”
“How can that be?”
“There is still a mirror image of you in that time. A doppelganger. Right now, there are two of you. One here in 2013 and one in 1942. The Ancients who set up travel to help those move unseen from their old to their new times, must have created this concept.”
“The Ancients?”
“I don’t understand how it works myself.”
“How do I get back?” Glenn asked.
“You can’t go back.”
“That’s what that Clayton kook said, but I have to.”
Hadley looked grim. “It is certain that you will die in this century and probably long in the future. Samantha and I are learning to track the travelers. We use the birth records that do not coincide with other records from different times. This century has an amazing invention called computers. They store huge amounts of data and information that is easy to retrieve. There are energy surges… never mind, this is too much information, we can discuss this another time. ”
“But why me? Why was I sent here?”
“You’re a traveler,” Sam said joining him on the couch. “You’ve had dreams, haven’t you?”
“Yes… how would you know about them?”
“We all do. Guides and travelers. This is what your dreams tried to tell you. Even if Clayton wasn’t clear, this is your time. You weren’t supposed to die on that ship in World War II, you were meant to live in this century.”
“There’s more.” Glenn paused. “I’m engaged. There’s a girl waiting for me.”
“You will need to forget her,” Hadley stated flatly. “She’s either an old woman or dead. It’s impossible to find her again. We all lose people we are close to when we travel.”
“Nothing’s impossible. I just proved that to myself in the last twelve hours. I’ll find her.”
Chapter Four
Hadley and Sam visited him at least once a day. They were right—it helped ground him in the current time. Sam felt under the weather so Hadley came over and asked Glenn if he would like to explore the current city.
“San Francisco is beautiful, is it not?” Hadley questioned as they strolled along Sidney Rudy’s Waterfront Park.
“It is. I concentrate on what’s still the same—the sky, the water, the Golden Gate Bridge. The rest will take time to get used to, like a new pair of shoes. But I’ll get through it; I have no choice if I can’t go back.” Glenn leaned over the metal railing next to the bay and watched the tide wash against the shore. The sun glinted off the surface, as he turned his collar up against the cold breeze.
After a long pause, Hadley spoke first, “The boats that float in the marina still look like boats that I remember from the past. Things and the design of them ha
ve moved ahead with technology, but they are still boats. That thought helped me adjust.”
“My grandparents came to their homestead in a covered wagon. Now people use cars. Cars are still in this world, only much smaller. How can a guy expect to kiss his girlfriend in the back of one of those mini machines?”
“In my day it was carriages, with wide leather seats… to kiss girls on.” Hadley grinned. “Though mind you, not many allowed such a thing.”
Glenn grew serious. “You haven’t said much about your past, Hadley. You were a guide? ”
“My father was not clear about my position, the Ancients or my place within the bookstore where I spent over a hundred years.”
Glenn blinked, not sure if he’d heard him correctly. “Did you say a hundred…years?”
“Yes, I was a guide in the bookstore you traveled through for a hundred years. I started in England in 1889. My father and my grandfather were all guides, but like you, I was told only half-truths. Samantha came to the bookstore to guide me out. If she had not agreed to take me and be my guide, I would still be in the bookstore instead of Clayton, I assume for eternity.”
“You don’t look a hundred years old.”
Hadley smiled. “Some days when the fog moves in, I feel that old. I’m lucky that I did not age all those years, or I fear that Samantha would not have found me as attractive as she does.”
“She doesn’t like older men?”
They both laughed before Hadley continued, “With Samantha’s help I use these machines called computers to trace any thread of information on time-travelers or the Ancients so we can help future travelers. We are trying to assist others so they do not come through as lost as you. Clayton should be ashamed of himself for doing what he did.”
I'll Be Seeing You Through Time (The Dimension Keepers) Page 2