by Susan Finlay
“Yes.” Karl looked at Monika conspiratorially. “We do not want to force to stay, but think carefully. If you stay, we help you, and if you go, we help, too. This could be a wonderful thing for you, for all four of you.”
Max smiled, relaxing a bit. “Thank you, Gramps.”
He looked at Sofie, then Ryan. “I guess we need to go for a walk and get some fresh air. We can talk and try to sort things out.”
“I think a walk is a splendid idea,” Sofie said, rubbing her forehead.
“Can we take Valkyrie with us on the walk?” Tobias asked.
Max smiled. “Sure.”
SOFIE SAT ON a flat rock, soaking in the sun, breathing in fresh pine scent wafting in the air. The slow pace of life here was something she could get used to, she told herself, but having to decide whether to make it a permanent home had given her a headache. She shrugged her shoulders and rolled her neck, trying to ease ever-tightening muscles.
Tobias was throwing pebbles into the large swimming pond, obviously unmindful of the seriousness of the decision to be made, and trying to get the pebbles to skip across the water while Valkyrie lay sprawled out in the sun-soaked grass nearby. At the moment, Sofie envied his carefree youth.
“Here let me show you how,” Ryan said.
He threw one and it skip perfectly.
“Do it again.”
He did, and then showed Tobias how to hold the stone and throw it. Tobias jumped and laughed, a huge smile on his face when he finally made a good skip. Sofie smiled. This is what Tobias had been missing out on.
Max’s pacing alongside the creek drew her attention away from Tobias. She watched him for a moment, then said, “Come sit. You look nervous.” She patted the rock, and Max looked at her momentarily, then continued his pacing.
“What should we do?” he asked. “Do you think we need to build the house?”
She took in a deep breath. “I wish I knew, but someone obviously built it, since it was there, in our time, when we started this journey. Of course, we may not have a choice. If we can’t make the time portal work, then we’ll be stuck like the others.” She paused, playing with a flower she’d picked next to the rock. “I guess if we are stuck here, staying near the portal could be advantageous. And it’s as good a place as any.”
“There is that.” Max stopped, picked up a rock, tossed it into the creek without looking, and it skipped several times before sinking.
“You did it, Max.”
Max turned around, and Tobias laughed.
Ryan said, “Show off!” He laughed and tossed another rock that surpassed Max’s.
Max laughed, nodded to Ryan, walked over to Sofie, kissed her, and then sat down in the grass near her rock. “I’ve been thinking a lot. Maybe if we get the house built there, we’ll be able to work the time portal. And we would be able to control access to it.” He paused. “I guess one of my biggest fears is that someone will get sucked through the portal by accident, like we did and like Gramps and Mom did.”
She nodded. That worried her, too.
Max said, quietly, “I don’t know what we’d do if Tobias, or maybe a child that we have together, disappeared while playing in the cellar.”
“I hadn’t thought of that,” Sofie said, looking up at Max. “That would be horrible.” A chill ran through her despite the day’s warmth. She thought about news stories from back home, on television and in newspapers, about disappearances. “Of course children and adults disappear in the twenty-first century, too. Bad things happen in our time, too. There were children who disappeared even from Riesen. Danger and fear, war and hatred, are not only a part of medieval times, they are a part of every century throughout time.”
“True,” Max said. “I guess there are no guarantees in either century. We could put some sort of lock on the cellar door or a lock on the door to the tunnel.”
“Would we actually be able to build it?” Sofie asked.
“I suppose we could if we can get some help,” Max said. “Maybe family or their friends would help. We could hire people, though I don’t know how we could pay them.”
“Hmm, you bring up a good point. We would also need to find a way to earn a living, would we not?”
“We could farm the land, I suppose. Grandma had a small farm. We could probably get a couple of cows and some chickens, grow some vegetables and fruits. We could probably grow enough food for our family. Maybe you could teach or write. Maybe I could figure out something architecture-related.”
Sofie nodded.
“Of course, Mom hinted at using our knowledge of the future, but I’m not sure about that,” Max said. “I know that I said something similar, but I was only joking. I wouldn’t want to cause some major problem, you know, like changing the future or something.”
“Yes, I guess that is something we need to consider, too,” Sofie said, sighing. “I wish I knew what effects our being here, or back in the twenty-first century, will have, or have had, on the past and the future. Could we do something here—such as not building the house—that would change the future? If there was no house to inherit, you would not come to Riesen, I would not meet you, and then how could we be here in this time together and go back? And what if we do build the house and then go back and meet our other selves and stop us from coming here. We would not build the house and . . . this is making my head spin just thinking about it. I suppose the future could actually be an alternate future, and maybe then it wouldn’t matter as much what we do.”
“Yeah, it’s too hard to figure out. With all the time traveling in our family histories, I don’t even know which period is our own damned time period. I don’t know which one we might mess up.”
Sofie laughed nervously, and Max gave her a questioning look. “It certainly is too complicated for me to figure out.”
“I don’t know about Tobias, either,” Max said. “He might not be able to go to school here, and I don’t know what kind of future he would have. Same with Ryan. He was supposed to start college soon.”
“I could home school Tobias, no problem there. Perhaps Ryan could get an apprenticeship somewhere.”
Max rubbed his stubble of a beard, apparently thinking. “Hmm, maybe . . . we could open up our own school. There are other homes in the surrounding countryside and the town, with kids who need schooling.”
Sofie smiled and agreed. “That would certainly be something we could handle. I think we have other possibilities, as well. Farming, as you mentioned, is another good option.”
Tobias, who had meandered over to where his mom sat, plopped himself down on the damp grass, leaned toward Sofie and Max and said, “I want to live here. Home is boring. We have lots to do here, and we have family here.”
Sofie considered his words. “You find it interesting now, but in time you would miss your video games and computer and television and books.”
“I do miss those things, Mom,” Tobias said, “but things are not most important. Isn’t that right?”
Sofie smiled wistfully, surprised at the wisdom coming out of her young son.
“I can help with building the house,” Tobias said. “That would be a lot of fun. And Ryan says he’ll help, too. Isn’t that right?”
“Yeah, I’ll help. I actually think it could be interesting. Anneliese and I could live there, too, couldn’t we?”
“It sounds exciting now, boys,” Max said. “But you have to realize that making a commitment to stay here and take on a huge project is not as easy or fun as it sounds. In some ways, it intrigues me, too, but we may not feel the same way a year from now. Once the reality of this time and our commitment here sets in, we may be miserable.”
Sofie sighed. “Oh, this is really difficult. If we go back, and your history or our history is changed because no one built the house, what then? We may be close to a point at which the house has to be built, or everything will change. Unfortunately, we have no way of knowing.”
“Well, maybe not if it’s an alternate universe, as you said a fe
w minutes ago,” Max said.
“I don’t know what to do. We just don’t know enough.”
Max looked at Sofie with a mixture of love and uncertainty, and she suddenly felt a great sympathy for him. Not only was he torn between living in the future or in the past, but also between family and the physical comfort of modern life.
He said, “Do you think we could really be destined to build the place, like Gramps and Mom seem to think?”
The cat suddenly ran in between them, chasing a dragonfly, breaking the tension and making Max smile.
“I guess I think the way things have progressed, it’s a possibility. On the other hand, life here is much harder than in our time. I’ve seen how hard Gerhard and Monika work. And I worry about our kids.”
“Yeah, I’ve thought a lot about that,” Max said. I’m not scared of work, mind you, but I’m not getting any younger. I guess I don’t really understand why Gramps wants to stay. At his age, I’d think he’d want to be in the twenty-first century where medical care is available.”
“Maybe he figures that since Margrit didn’t adapt well, he would have trouble re-adjusting now.”
Tobias chimed in, “Gramps likes this place, especially now that he’s found his daughter and her family. He has Anneliese, too. She’s still his granddaughter even though they aren’t blood relatives. That’s what he told me.”
Max sighed, and Tobias continued. “Mom, remember, you may have family here, too. Maybe you could find your parents and grandparents. You might have brothers and sisters, too.”
“He has a point,” Max said. “We could look for them. People don’t move around much in this century. They may very well still be somewhere near Riesen.”
“That would be interesting,” Sofie said, “although that could stir up trouble, too. We don’t know why he took me away from here.”
Max looked thoughtful, considering Sofie’s words. “Well, if we’re careful, maybe we can probe without letting them know who we are. Then, once we get some answers, we can decide whether or not to tell them.”
“While the thought is tempting,” Sofie said, “If we do stay, I suspect we will be very busy for years with house construction and obtaining the necessary resources. When would we have time to travel to search for them?”
Max bobbed his head, and said, “Yeah, another good point. That damn house is already becoming a dead weight on us and we haven’t even started it.”
Ryan said, “Maybe Konrad, Gunter, and Wilhelm would help with the house and we could get it finished quicker.”
“Some of them might be willing to help,” Max said. “But I don’t see how we could pay them much, especially not in the beginning.”
“They are teenagers,” Sofie said, “all of them. “Would they be interested in construction?”
“Well, yeah, why not? I am,” Ryan said.
“Maybe they would. We would have to ask. Maybe it could work,” Max said, trying to sound positive, even though it sounded to Sofie like he still had serious reservations. “And in answer to your earlier question, Ryan, of course you and Anneliese could live with us. But remember, Gramps might need Anneliese to help with his clock shop, especially now that Birgitta is gone.”
Ryan appeared somewhat crestfallen, apparently not having considered that aspect, but he nodded quietly in response.
Sofie said, “Certainly we could talk to all of them to see if they would be interested.”
“Then we are deciding to stay awhile?” Max asked. He looked at Sofie with an expression of both hope and ambivalence.
Worried that Max was simply going along, she said “Is that what you want to do?”
“Damned if I know,” Max said, chuckling nervously and shaking his head.
Tobias said, “I want to stay. Do I get a vote?”
“Well, Tobias, in some ways your future is more at risk than ours,” Sofie said, “but you are really too young to be making that kind of decision. Sometimes parents have to make the tough decisions like that for their children.”
Tobias pouted, but then seemed to reconsider. “I guess that makes sense. I know I won’t make lots of money here, like I might in the future time, but maybe that doesn’t matter very much.”
“Money isn’t everything, Tobias,” Sofie said, “but having choices is important.”
“You had a high paying job, didn’t you, Mom?” Tobias asked. “But you chose to quit your job because the money wasn’t enough to make you happy.”
Sofie was yet again surprised at his insight, and was proud of her son.
“How old is that boy?” Max asked.
“I’m nine-and-a-half,” he said, puffing out his chest.
“Well, you sure seem older and wiser than many adults I know.” Max walked over to a shady spot to get out of the hot sun, and sprawled out in the grass, propping himself on one elbow. He reached up with one arm, enticing Sofie over, touched her hand, and said in a quiet, tender voice, “And what are you thinking?
She didn’t respond right away, looking at him instead. Then she settled next to him, sitting in the grass, before turning to him and saying, “I think Tobias is right. Making money and having lots of things isn’t necessarily what makes us happy. I guess I’ve been searching for happiness most of my life, and maybe I was looking in the wrong places—or times.”
Hearing herself make that statement, she suddenly felt calmer, like a huge weight had been lifted. All of a sudden she felt right about her place in the world and with Max. Sofie gave him a sweet, loving smile. “Maybe we will make the wrong decision, whether we choose to stay here or choose to go back, but I’m willing to give this a chance if you are.”
Max smiled back, looking as if a cloud had lifted, and then he glanced up at Ryan. “What’s your vote, Son?”
Ryan had a look of indecision on his face. It was then that Sofie understood how much had been dumped on Ryan since they’d been on this journey.
“I think I want to stay, but I’ll miss Mom and Lisa. It’s hard, you know.” He paused, and looked out towards the pasture at the cows grazing. “There’s something I need to tell you before you make a final decision, though.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
MAX STARED AT his son and tried to keep his face blank. A confession? Or was he going to tell them that Anneliese killed her grandmother?
“Go ahead, Son. What did you want to tell us?”
“I—I saw Birgitta die.” His shoulders slumped as if strings holding them up had suddenly snapped loose. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you before. I don’t even know where to begin.”
“Start from the beginning. Where did you go after you and I argued?”
“I went for a walk in the woods. It was a stupid thing to do. Once I was in the trees, it was almost pitch black because the light from the moon and stars couldn’t get through. I turned around and started to come back, but I guess I was disoriented and had trouble finding my way out. I stumbled several times and bumped into tree branches that I couldn’t see, and was worried I was going the wrong way or in circles. By the time I finally got back to the stables I was exhausted.”
Max nodded.
“I must have fallen asleep for a few minutes. Something—some noise—woke me up. It was like that night in the barn, Dad, when those men found us. Someone opened the stable doors, and light streamed in. It was almost morning. Anyway, I jumped up. That’s when I saw Birgitta and Gramps. She lunged at me with a long knife in her hand. It was probably one of those daggers Gramps had brought with him.”
“Birgitta tried to kill you?” Max said.
Ryan nodded, and his shoulders slumped even more. “I guess I deserved it because I’d soiled her granddaughter. That’s what I think she said, anyway. I could understand only a little of her German.”
“What happened then? Did you kill her out of self-defense?”
“I—I probably would have, but Gramps grabbed her. They struggled. The next thing I knew, she fell to the ground and didn’t get up. Blood started comin
g out under her.”
Max’s mouth flew open. “Oh my God!”
Sofie said, “Why didn’t you tell us this sooner?”
Ryan’s eyes filled with tears, and he couldn’t speak. Finally, he said, “Anneliese was devastated by her grandmother’s death. She loved her and feels guilty that what we did caused all of this. She adores Gramps. He’s everything to her. How could I tell her what happened? It would destroy her.”
Max and Sofie exchanged anxious glances.
Sofie said, “We need to talk to Karl, and then I need to talk to Tante Lotte.”
“I agree,” Max said. He stood up, walked over to Ryan, and hugged him. Sofie and Tobias joined in. After they parted, Max said, “Why don’t you three wait here? I’ll find Gramps and bring him out here so we can talk to him in private.”
A SHORT TIME later, Max, Karl, and Monika arrived at the pond where Sofie, Ryan, and Tobias were waiting. They exchanged glances, but didn’t speak. Karl sat on the rock that Sofie had vacated.
“Ryan, I want you to repeat everything you told us earlier, okay?”
Ryan nodded, then retold his account without interruption. Max watched his grandfather’s face closely. The man was adept at keeping his face closed, but he couldn’t keep color from creeping in. Bright pink. Anger or embarrassment? Max couldn’t tell.
No one said anything for a long time. A bee buzzed past Max’s face. Birds chirped and flapped. The cat jumped up and tried unsuccessfully to catch a bird that had landed on a low branch, then walked through the grass sniffing for bugs.
Max, not being able to remain silent any longer, took a deep breath, then said, “Why did you and Birgitta go into the stables, Gramps? And who hit me over the head and why?”
Karl’s blank face suddenly cracked. He put his hands over his face. When he took his hands away, tears streamed down his cheeks. “I miss Birgitta more than you can possibly know. She was my life. I never wanted to hurt her. She had been trying to get me to keep Anneliese and Ryan apart. She was determined to protect her granddaughter. But I knew the girl better than she did. Anneliese was not as pure as Birgitta thought. Her father had caught her with a boy during our last trip. I could not tell Birgitta.”