After all these years, he and Wallace were together at last, sharing their chores, meals, and idle time, able to play an occasional friendly game of chess or a hand of cards, living as a family who cared for one another should. Yes, he had everything he needed, and should never pass up the opportunity to say thanks. He dismounted, knelt down on one knee, and said a short prayer of thanksgiving before continuing home.
Just as he was looking over his small cabin, visualizing its expansion potential, he noticed movement. He stepped aside to get an unobstructed view and saw it. There was a man on his porch. And he was rifling through Evie’s coat!
“Lord, keep her safe,” he prayed quickly as he flipped the horse’s reins over a branch. He looked back to make sure Evie was still at ‘her’ tree, and then quietly sprinted through the woods to the back of the house.
The visitor never looked up as Jody neared. He was intent on the object in his hand, unaware that Jody had approached from his blind side, and was standing right behind him, just over an arm’s reach away.
“Takin’ to theivin’ there, have ye nephew? Or do ye still consider yerself my kin?”
Ian dropped the item, spun around, and grabbed his dirk, all in one fast, smooth movement. “Jeez, Jody, I coulda killed ye! Dinna ye ken better than to sneak up on me?” Ian, extremely embarrassed, quickly tried to regain his brave Indian warrior persona, lowering his voice to a scold by the end of his speech that had started out as a squeak.
“What’s yer answer, Ian?” Jody asked stonily, not allowing any emotion to show on his face or in his voice.
“No, I ain’t theivin’, and I guess yer the one to say aye or nae on the kin part, ye see...”
Jody didn’t let him finish. “I ketch ye hot-handed with somethin’ ye took outta Evie’s coat, and ye say ye ain’t theivin’? Why are ye riflin’ through it then?”
“It’s this,” Ian said gruffly, still trying to be strong. He handed Jody the little black box that had been in the inside zippered pocket of Evie’s jacket ever since he had returned it there months ago.
Jody took it and rubbed his thumb over its smooth surface. Then he held it up to the sunlight to get a better look at it. He hadn’t pulled his dirk on his nephew and was glad of it now. He wanted to use both hands to hold and examine the strange piece.
Ian watched him silently, waiting for his uncle to speak first.
Jody knew his nephew wanted him to start the conversation, but that’s not what he wanted. He’d wait and see what the irresponsible cur had to say about his absence. Jody continued his examination of the small, solid object with metal inserts, holding it further away from his face, squinting to see better.
That was Ian’s opening. “Eyes nae so good anymore, eh, uncle?” he asked jovially. Maybe his little-boy-nephew attitude would work with Jody. Right now, all he wanted was to get away before someone else showed up. He hadn’t planned on meeting anyone, especially his uncle. He had seen Evie out in the woods, sitting quietly; he knew she wouldn’t be here soon. No telling where Sarah was. Hopefully he wouldn’t meet up with her either. He had just wanted to get one more look at that box, and then he’d be gone forever.
That wee box: it haunted him when he tried to sleep. Even when awake, he heard the voice. “Hi, tell Danny you found her fone.” The face—the woman looked just like Evie, but was so much older, and that voice—it had to be hers. He had to see that face and hear the voice just one more time…
“Weel, when ye get older, the eyeballs get firmer, Sarah tells me,” Jody said, bringing Ian back to reality. “Oh, she’s still my wife, and I keep her by my side as much as I can,” Jody added snidely, looking down his nose at his nephew who had managed to make his way to the bottom step of the porch.
He returned to a civil tone and continued, “And, when they get all hard like that, they don’t react to light like they did when younger. I doubt ye’ll have to worry about it, though.” He glared at Ian. “I dinna think ye’ll live that long.”
Ian unintentionally gulped, then realized the rip he had just revealed in his emotional shield, and stood up straight. “I meant to return earlier and tell ye, Uncle Jody, that I canna come back as a husband to Evie. Ye see, right after I left her here, I got tangled up with some rather unsavory sorts and weel, they…er…um…weel…”
Ian slouched and shook his head in mock dejection. “I’m not a whole man anymore. I couldna serve a wife properly. Evie would be better off with another husband. She could jest say that she was a widow, and that would be almost right since I’m not a whole man anymore. I guess that would make her almost a widow. I jest dinna think she should be tied down to me like that.”
Ian was sweating even though the air was cool. Jody had been a card player long enough that he could tell when someone was lying. And Ian was definitely telling a whopper.
Jody looked away from him and held the shiny part of the small box up toward the sun. As he turned it, he noticed a little orange flash appear, as if a wee fire had been lit. He glanced over at Ian, who looked as if he was trying to keep from soiling himself. He hadn’t seen the orange light. “What did ye want with this?”
“Oh, nothin’, I guess. I better be goin’ now,” Ian said as he sidled away, unwilling to look Jody in the eye. He started walking backwards, eyes still on the ground, moving faster as he spoke. “Tell Auntie Sarah “hallo” and tell Evie I’m sorry it dinna work out.”
Ian turned around and practically ran away, his brisk trot not quite a sprint, never looking back.
Jody started to yell out after him. He wanted to say, “Why dinna ye tell her yerself, ye coward?” but stopped before the first word was out. Even if Ian still had his balls—and he probably did—emotionally, he didn’t. Evie was better off without him, like he said.
The little orange blinking spot on the box was now green and steady. He sat down hard on the bench, suddenly fatigued—physically and emotionally. He and Evie had a lot to talk about, and it wasn’t going to be easy.
“My horse!” he exclaimed, suddenly alert and energized. He had completely forgotten about Aries and left him in the woods. He took a deep breath, looked at the wee box one more time, and then stuck it in his sporran. He slapped his knees and got up. “What’s an uncle to do?” he said. “Jest keep puttin’ one foot in front of the other, I suppose, jest one step at a time.”
Ӂ Ӂ
Jody sneaked back to his horse and waited, making sure Evie returned to the house before he did. He watched as she walked up to the porch. She looked puzzled. Did she know what had just happened? Had she seen Ian? Well, the puzzlement didn’t last long. She hollered to see if anyone was home, picked up her coat, and went inside. He did notice, though, that she had turned around and looked long and hard into the woods before she went inside. She must have sensed something—or someone.
He went into the barn, unsaddled his horse, and gave him hay and a fistful of oats. “Ye sure have it easy, Aries. No women, no balls, and yer food brought right to yer face. Then again, I’d rather work fer my food than be without my woman or my balls.” Jody chuckled and walked to the house without even the slightest idea of what he was going to say to Evie.
He didn’t have to worry about it, though; Evie started the conversation.
Ӂ Ӂ
“Oh, hi, Jody,” I said when he walked in. Jody always made sure he made plenty of noise coming up the steps. I knew it was because he didn’t want to scare me. “I’m glad you came back early. Either I’m going crazy or something weird is going on. You don’t think I’m crazy, do you?”
“Nae, I dinna think yer crazy. With what ye and Sarah have been through—comin’ here from a forward time—it’s amazin’ that yer sane at all. What’s botherin’ ye, lass?”
“Just a while ago, when I came back from gathering wood for the baskets, I could swear that someone had been here. I couldn’t see or smell anyone, and nothing was out of order, but…well, I could almost swear that Ian was here, or had been. It was as if I felt his presence rather
than saw or heard him. Do you know what I mean?”
“Aye, I ken what ye mean. Keep listenin’ to that little voice inside of ye, lass. It seems to guide ye well. I came back earlier today and found Ian on the porch. He was riflin’ through yer jacket. This is what he wanted.” Jody reached into his sporran and brought it out, “This wee black box with the green spot on the side.”
“A cell phone? I had a cell phone in my coat?”
“Weel, if that’s what this is, then that’s where it was. He seemed to want it terrible bad—bad enough to come here and chance bein’ found. After he had it, he dinna seem to want to take it. What is a sell fone?” Jody asked as he offered it to me.
I looked at it suspiciously, but didn’t take it. Instead, I went to the kitchen chair, sat down, and stared at the door with unseeing, vacant eyes, stunned. Jody didn’t say anything to me, but respected my newly attained shocked status, and quietly let me gather my wits.
Jody was very curious about the shiny flat box. It reminded him of the little Bible he had had in prison. This was a bit smaller, and seemed to be solid. One side had a shiny surface—like smoky glass. He held it up again and noticed that it was as reflective as a high quality mirror. He set it into the clay candlestick holder, propped up against the unlit candle. The little speck of green on the side had turned red.
I took a deep breath and blinked rapidly as I came back to myself. I tried to lay my head down on the table—my belly was in the way, though. Actually, I wanted a deep, dark closet to crawl into, but I had to deal with this. I sat up—elbows planted on the table, my chin resting in my hands—and began my soulless dissertation.
“A cell phone is a communications device. It often has a GPS in it, that’s global positioning system, which uses satellites to pinpoint its location. This smartphone version can take pictures, cruise the internet, do calculations, play music, and much, much more.”
I looked over at Jody’s wide-eyed and slack-jawed reaction to my explanation. “Oh, when I remember 21st century stuff, I forget that you don’t know what I’m talking about. That probably sounded Greek to you, didn’t it?”
“No,” Jody began slowly, “I ken how to speak a bit of Greek, and that’s no Greek. The only words I recognized were pictures and music. Are ye tellin’ me that this wee box can make music and all those other things ye were talkin’ about?”
“Yes, but I don’t know if I want to turn it on. I’m afraid it’ll be like Pandora’s Box. I don’t know if there are any evils in there, but I’ll bet there is information about my past life in it. I don’t want to know about who I was and where I came from—at least not yet. I like it here and now in 1781.”
“Are ye sayin’ that ye canna miss what ye dinna ken ye had?” Jody asked.
I paused. I started to speak, then stopped, started and then stopped again. Finally, I managed, “How do you say it, ‘better the devil you know than the devil you don’t’?”
“Aye, that’s it, and true it is. What do ye want to do with this? Ye could use it as a mirror. It has a wee light on it. It would be easy to find in the dark.”
“And why would I need a mirror in the dark?” I asked with a chuckle. “Thanks, Jody, you always seem to make me feel better. Just put it in a safe place, and if I get curious about it, I’ll come to you. We can look at it together.”
“I’ll put it back in here,” he said and put it into his sporran. “It’s unlikely anyone will take it without me kennin’ about it if it’s in here. Now, since it’s jest the two of us, how about an early dinner? I’ll chase down some eggs if ye wouldna mind fixin’ some of those egg burritos. José sent along some more of those long keepin’ tomatoes fer ye.”
“Sounds like a good plan. I’ll get right on it.”
I began to gather together the flour, lard, salt, and a bowl for the tortillas, and Jody went outside on an egg hunt.
And that was all there was to it. I had a possible link to my past life in Jody’s sporran. I didn’t want to access it now—and might not ever want to know what I was all about BI—Before Ian.
I wasn’t even sure if it was my cell phone, but I did feel a certain familiarity with it. I knew that the little green light Jody mentioned meant that someone had recently put the phone in the sun so the solar panels had charged the battery. If it had been in my coat for all those months, the battery was surely dead when Ian grabbed it earlier today. And if Ian had returned just for the phone, it had to be because he had seen it before. He had probably seen it when the battery was charged, too. That would be within the first few weeks we were together, if the phone was fully charged when I first ‘got’ here.
I wondered if Ian had seen something on the phone that made him dump me on Sarah and Jody. Well, to hell with him and wondering! I was here now, with people I had chosen as my family. If Ian couldn’t stand to be with me, at least his Cousin Wallace, Uncle Jody, and Aunt Sarah wanted me.
“Pbbbt on you, Ian Kincaid,” I said, then paused. “Did I just say that out loud? Uh, oh—I’m talking to myself again.” I grinned from ear to ear. “I am not talking to myself,” I declared loudly, “I am talking to my babies. Babies, you have a mother and lots of other kin on hand, and one day you’ll also have a father to hold you and love you and help your sometimes frazzled mommy. Now, let’s get something to eat. We’re hungry.”
**36 Twins
March 3, 1781
The gloominess of the overcast late afternoon made finding eggs a challenge for Jody. The chickens were out ‘free ranging,’ as Evie called it, darting about, exploring the dark places underneath bushes and stacked firewood, scratching and pecking for the protein portion of their daily fare, and possibly a stray seed or two that hadn’t already been devoured. Unrestricted by their little boxes, they laid their eggs whenever and wherever the urge hit them. It took him a while, but Jody found eight eggs—nine, if he included the one he had accidentally stepped on. That was more than enough for just the two of them.
He was almost to the house when he heard it: a horse was approaching, and it sounded winded. Someone had been riding hard, but was smart and was letting the animal cool down before coming to the barn. As it got closer, he recognized the sound of the horse’s gait: it was Sarah’s pony. He set the egg basket down on the porch and ran up the path to greet her.
“Ho, there, Jessie,” he called out as he grabbed the small horse’s halter. “Sarah, what are ye doin’ home now? I thought ye had a bairn to bring into the world. And why are ye ridin’ so late in the day? Ye ken it isna always safe.”
“Hello, Jody; nice to see you, too,” Sarah replied coldly.
“Sorry, ye gave me a fright,” Jody said. “Are ye ailin’?” Sarah shook her head in reply and accepted his help in dismounting. “Then why did ye come back so soon and so close to mirk?”
Sarah snuggled into his arms and shrugged her shoulders, letting him know wordlessly that she didn’t know why. Jody gave her a quick kiss, took the horse’s reins, and the three of them walked together to the barn.
Once inside, Jody quickly unsaddled the horse. He grabbed the brush from the peg near the door and started brushing the pony dry. Jessie wasn’t lathered, but she was quite sweaty.
Sarah reached into the wooden box that held the oats and scooped out a cupful for her horse. Jessie deserved it. She wasn’t a powerful pony, and making two long trips in the same day was more than she was used to. A journey into town once a month was the usual extent of her travels, with maybe a couple of doctor’s visits in between. She was an older horse, but still obedient and strong. Sarah decided to reward her with a second cupful of grain for her efforts.
“Now dinna be givin’ her a sair wame with too many oats,” Jody scolded. He reached up and murmured in Gaelic to the nag. “Yes, yer a good mare and I thank ye, but dinna be lettin’ well-meanin’ women knot up yer wame.”
He turned his attention back to Sarah, who had overheard his admonishment and was returning the second helping of oats back to the lidded box. “What happene
d out there today? Are Mrs. Donaldson and her bairn awright? And where’s Hannah? Did she stay with her?”
“Mrs. Donaldson is fine. I think she miscalculated her due date by a month. She’s plenty big all right, but not ready for delivery. I’m not positive, but I’m pretty sure I heard two heartbeats when I checked her. I left Hannah with her, just in case. She’ll be a big help as a babysitter, cook, and housekeeper. Those four little Donaldson girls sure have a lot of energy. If Mrs. Donaldson is having twins, she should be on bed rest for the next few weeks. I don’t think Mac can handle his chores, the cooking, cleaning, and all those little girls without an extra hand. Hannah was more than willing. Girls would rather do anyone else’s chores but their own. That, I think, will never change. Mona was the same way.”
“Then why did ye come home tonight? Ye could have waited fer the morn and not afeart me.”
“Oh, that isn’t why I came back early. I know it sounds crazy, but I felt like Ian was here. I wanted to get back here and give him a piece of my mind. Now that I’m here, though, I wonder why I acted so impulsively. He’s not here, is he?”
“Nooo,” answered Jody slowly, “but he was.”
“I knew it!” Sarah exclaimed, and then chewed her bottom lip, trying to figure out what her errant nephew could be up to. She huffed, angry and disappointed in him. “What happened? Did he see Evie, and did she see him?”
“Nae, they dinna see each other. He dinna want to see me either, but I came up behind him—and he dinna get a chance to run and hide, the coward. He dinna even ask about the bairns, or bairn. I dinna think he kens there’s more than one. He lied to me, sayin’ that he’d been castrated, that Evie should go on with her life and get marrit to someone else.”
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