Jamie laughed. “I thought I wanted to be a forest ranger when I was little. I wonder if I shouldn’t have done that.”
“I guess you could have. I’m sure you would have been the best forest ranger out there.”
Of course her mother would say that. But Jamie could tell she really did mean it.
Jamie did the dishes, and while her mother was out of the kitchen doing laundry, she got a couple of sleeping pills from her father’s bottle. Her father walked in just as she was putting the pills in her pocket.
“I’m off now, honey,” he said. “I’m teaching a class this summer.”
Jamie hugged her father. “I’ll see you later, Dad,” she said. She sincerely hoped that was true. She hoped she would see him later in the year 2001.
She got a bottle of water from the fridge. “Mom,” she called. “I’m going on that walk now.”
“Okay, hon,” she called back. “See you later.”
Jamie walked through the pasture and into the opening in the woods. As she had a month ago, she walked all the way to the end of the path, to Tommy’s side. She heard the tractor again, but this time she turned around and walked back down to the midpoint of the path and the lake. She moved the willow branches aside and crawled into the overhang. As she had before, she got the blanket and spread it out. Like before, she took two of the pills and swigged them down with the water.
She looked out at the lake between the willow branches that were full with leaves. Jamie prayed then, harder than she had ever prayed in her life. Please take me back to Tommy. Gradually, she started to get sleepy. She lay back on the blanket and looked at the ceiling of the overhang. Was it made of dirt? She wondered. Was it made of rock?
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Jamie woke up to the loud quacking of a duck. She looked out through the branches and saw a mother duck with her ducklings floating on the lake. She felt her hair. It was long. I’ve done it! she thought. I’ve gone back! She jumped up and ran from the overhang, catching her hair but not caring. She quickly untangled it and ran up the slope to the path. She ran down toward Tommy’s end. As she approached Tommy’s entrance, she could hear the tractor in the late afternoon. She stood at the opening on the little hill. She stood until the tractor came all the way around the farm and was moving along the outside of the crops. She stood waiting for Tommy.
Tommy approached and saw her standing on the hill. He stopped the tractor before it passed her and got out. His hair was the same length as the last time she had seen him in 2001, and he was clean-shaven.
“What are you doing out here, sugar?” he asked. He smiled at her.
“I was just visiting the overhang,” she said.
He walked up the little hill and took her in his arms. “I’m glad to see you,” he said. “I’ve been thinking about you while I was on the tractor. I shouldn’t do that. It’s dangerous.”
She laughed and he laughed with her. She stood on her tiptoes and kissed him.
“I think it’s time to quit for the day,” Tommy said. “I’ll meet you back at the cottage.”
He walked back down the slope and got in the tractor. He started it and drove down the perimeter of the garden, turning around to wave at her once. Jamie followed him, running all the way home.
She rushed inside the cottage out of breath. Tommy was waiting for her and picked her up in his arms. He carried her into their bedroom, their bed, and put her down on the bedspread. She smelled his earthy Tommy smell all the way there. She reached up and unbuckled his jeans, unzipped him, and pulled his jeans down. Tommy stood there in all of his manly glory. She took her own jeans off as fast as she could and pulled him to her, into her. She sighed with pleasure.
The ceiling fan whirred around and around, cooling the sweat from their nude bodies. Tommy held her hand lightly. “I’m glad we got married,” he said. “You’re keeping me on my toes!”
Jamie laughed. “I can’t help it,” she said. “You looked so sexy on the tractor today. I just had to have it.”
Tommy turned on his side and put his arm over her. “I love you, sugar,” he said.
“I love you, too, Tommy. More every day.” And more every year and every timeline, she thought.
“Granny’s probably wondering where we are,” he said. “She’ll be expecting us for supper.”
“Let’s go,” Jamie said getting up and pulling on her clothes. “I’m sure Granny’s got something good to eat and I’m starving.”
Tommy pulled her back from the edge of the bed before she could pull her jeans up. He hugged her and kissed her hair before he got off the bed and started to dress.
They walked up to the farmhouse hand in hand. Granny was taking a pie out of the oven when they walked into the kitchen. Jamie smelled the rich fragrance of cinnamon and breathed it in. It was comforting, and she needed comfort after the house of mirrors she had been living in for the past several months.
“Is that apple pie, Granny?” Tommy asked.
“It’s from the apples Jamie and I put up,” Granny said.
“Granny, I’m sorry I wasn’t here sooner today,” Jamie said. “I fell asleep at the lake.”
“Don’t you worry, darling,” Granny said. “Young people have lives of their own. I vaguely remember it.” She laughed.
Tommy walked into the den where Grandpa was watching the news. Jamie helped Granny in the kitchen. While the apple pie cooled, she and Granny peeled potatoes and cut them up to boil in a big pot of water.
“I’ve already put the meatloaf in,” Granny said. “It’s on low, so the mashed potatoes should be ready right on time. I’ve been cooking these peas for a while,” she said as she lifted the top off a big pot. “Jamie girl, can you get the bowl out?” Granny said from the stove. “Time to start the cornbread.”
Jamie pulled the blue bowl out of the cabinet and set it on the counter. She knew what to do, because Granny had taught her. She measured the cornmeal and mixed it up with eggs and buttermilk. She added salt and baking soda. The oven was hot, and Jamie slid the oiled cast iron skillet onto the rack to heat up. When it was good and hot, she slid it out on the rack and added the cornbread mixture. It sizzled when it dropped into the hot pan. She closed the oven door.
Jamie looked over at Granny, who was checking the potatoes with a fork. Granny was getting older, that was an inescapable fact. But she had many years left. As she looked at her, Jamie was filled with an overwhelming love for Granny. She was her family. She didn’t ever want to leave her again.
They had a big crop of collard greens and onions during that harvest time, along with a huge patch of large pumpkins. After they harvested the vegetables for their own needs, Tommy sold the rest at the farmer’s market. Jamie carried a wheelbarrow of pumpkins and greens up to the farmhouse and she and Granny spent two days cooking and freezing the greens and the pumpkin flesh. The onions and sweet potatoes went into the cellar. They held back two pumpkins to carve into jack-o-lanterns for Halloween.
Jamie had been back with Tommy for about a month and she worried constantly that it would end again. She didn’t know what to do to stop it, if that is what was going to happen. She didn’t know how to control the shifts to other timelines. She thought if she loved Tommy hard enough, maybe it wouldn’t happen again.
On the first of November, Jamie and Tommy lay in the bed after making love. It had been a perfect day for Jamie. She and Granny were starting to plan for Thanksgiving and she intended to learn everything she could about making a turkey and dressing dinner with giblet gravy from Granny. In that short month since she’d been back, Jamie had come to realize that Granny was a treasure trove of family tales and the way to cook.
“I’ve been thinking lately,” Tommy said into the dark room. “I feel kind of guilty that you didn’t get to go to college.”
Jamie sat up on the bed and looked at Tommy.
“No,” she said. “There is nothing to feel guilty about. I’m doing what I want to do.”
“Really, sugar?
” Tommy said. “Because I know that you’re smarter than everyone else. You have all of that medical knowledge. I just keep wondering if you shouldn’t go to college. We can handle it.”
“No,” Jamie said. “We can’t handle it. You’re wrong about that.”
“I guess I worry that you feel stuck out here on the farm when you could be going to college,” Tommy said. He closed his eyes.
“No, Tommy,” she whispered. “I want to be on the farm.” Tommy was already asleep and didn’t respond to her. She put her head on her pillow and gradually fell into sleep herself. She dreamed about Stacie and the clinic. She dreamed about Nate and how she had been engaged to him, but now he was with Stacie.
Chapter Eleven
She woke up in her childhood bedroom. Her hair was short and her bedspread was paisley. Jamie cried when she realized that she had returned to 2013, or so she thought. She cried into her 600-thread count pillowcases that her mother had redecorated with. She didn’t really know what world awaited her when she walked out of her bedroom.
When she went downstairs, the décor of the house seemed the same as the last 2013 she had been in. Her parents had updated over the years with new furniture and granite countertops in the kitchen. Jamie had no idea where to go or what to do at that point.
She sat at the kitchen table and her mother brought her a cup of coffee. Jamie needed to find out what kind of world she was in.
“Mom, do you know where I work?” she asked.
Her mother turned away from the skillet. “Jamie,” she said in an exasperated tone.
“I know you work at the Grahamville Medical Center,” she said. “I’ve been there.”
“I’m sorry, Mom. I just wanted to make sure in case. . . .” Jamie trailed off.
“In case what?” her mother said sharply.
“Just in case you ever need to know, that’s all,” Jamie said.
So, she was still a doctor. But was she engaged to Nate or was Nate engaged to Stacie or was Nate even a part of her life at all?
“Did I tell you that Nate and Stacie got engaged?” she asked. Her mother’s answer to that would tell a lot.
“No!” she said. “You did not tell me that.” She stirred the scrambled eggs. “I think they’ll make a nice couple,” she said. “Stacie is so bubbly and Nate is so serious. That could be a good combination.”
Jamie felt positive then that she had returned to the previous 2013, where Tommy was alive and Nate and Stacie were engaged.
“Have you seen Tommy’s mother lately?” she asked.
“Not since that last time when I saw her,” her mother said.
“Were you and Dad disappointed when I left Tommy?” Jamie asked.
“Yes,” her mother said slowly. “Yes, we were. But what you do with your life is not our business.”
“It is your business,” Jamie said.
“Jamie, why are you asking all these questions?” her mother said. Jamie could tell her mother was getting agitated and decided to shut up.
“I don’t know. I guess when I come home, it all comes back to me. I start wondering why I did some of the things I did. Things seem so much clearer when I’m back here.”
“I’ve got to get to work,” her mother said.
After her mother left, Jamie got a sleeping pill from her father’s bottle—it looked like he wasn’t taking them anymore so she didn’t feel bad about it. She got her water and walked to the overhang. She fell asleep and woke up with short hair. She repeated the ritual every day for the next five days with the same results. Finally, Jamie decided to go back to Grahamville. She didn’t know what else to do.
Her key still worked in her door, so she supposed she still worked at the clinic. After putting her clothes up, she called Stacie.
“How’re things going?” she asked her. “How are the wedding plans coming along.”
Stacie was effusive, as always. “Dustin doesn’t understand why we have to make such a fuss,” she said.
Dustin? Not Nate? Somehow, Jamie had fallen into a timeline where Stacie wasn’t engaged to Nate, but was engaged to Dustin. Did that mean she was engaged to Nate? Where was she?
Jamie forced a laugh. “He’ll be happy on your wedding day,” she said.
“How’s Nate?” she asked. She hadn’t thought to check her hand for an engagement ring, but when she looked down, her hand was naked.
“His dad died,” Stacie said. “He’s gone for a few days.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Jamie said. If she were with Nate, then Stacie would be surprised that she didn’t know about Nate’s father dying. Jamie didn’t know what past event had caused this 2013 series of events, but it was not the same as either 2013 she had lived so far.
“I’ll be in tomorrow,” Jamie said. “See you bright and early.”
Jamie inspected her house. All of the walls were painted different colors from her first and second 2013. The kitchen was painted sky blue, the bedroom sage green, and the living room camel. It was really amazing how a different timeline produced different choices. But she was still a doctor. She still worked at the clinic. And Stacie and Nate still worked there, too. Jamie didn’t know how the shifting sands of time worked, but she was learning that a choice in the past affected choices in the future. It might be a small choice, but it could have an affect nevertheless.
Jamie went to the clinic the next day and started being a doctor again. Nate came back a couple of days later.
“Nate, I’m so sorry about your father,” Jamie told him.
“Thanks, Jamie. He had a stroke a few years ago, so he hadn’t been having the best quality of life. Then he had another stroke and it was too big to survive.”
“Could I take you out for a drink tonight?” Jamie asked him.
“That actually sounds good. Where are you thinking?”
“You tell me. I’m still not familiar with everything.”
“There’s a place about thirty miles down the road,” he said. “It’s kind of a juke joint.”
“What’s that?”
“It’s a place that has a band every night that plays the blues. If they don’t have that, they’ve got a jukebox. It’s totally casual.”
“Okay,” she said, though she had no idea what he was talking about.
“I’ll come by and get you around seven-thirty,” Nate said. “That all right?”
“That’s fine,” she said. She had thought she would take him somewhere right after work, but apparently that wasn’t working with the juke joint scenario.
Nate knocked on her door a few minutes before seven-thirty. “Let’s go in my car since I know where we’re going,” he said. Jamie got in the passenger seat and Nate drove down the road. They talked about his father and his family for most of the ride, then talk turned to the clinic for the rest of the way. Nate took several turns and finally pulled into a parking lot in front of a building with a neon sign. Buddy’s Blues the blue neon flashed.
Inside, it was crowded with tables set close together. A bar was in the back with bright lights shining down on it. She and Nate sat down at a little table for two and Jamie noticed a band on the opposite wall setting up. A black man plucked his guitar, then spoke to another black man behind him.
Nate ordered draft beer for both of them. “It’s all they’ve got here,” he said. “I hope that’s okay.”
“It’s fine,” Jamie said. “It’s so hot out now, I like to drink beer to cool down.”
“They’ve got food here, too,” he said. “Mostly hamburgers and chili.”
By the time the sun went down, all of the tables were filled with a mixture of white and black people. Nate ordered hamburgers and French fries.
By the time the waitress brought their food, the band had started to play. Jangly songs, songs with a heavy bass beat, sad songs, blues songs.
“This is my favorite kind of music,” Nate said. He looked over at Jamie. “How are you liking it?”
“I like it,” she said. They ate their ha
mburgers and the band seemed to get more and more active with the drums and guitar. When they had finished eating, Nate stood up and asked Jamie if she’d like to dance.
She was completely shocked. She hadn’t danced with anyone since the last time she danced with Tommy, which in this timeline was a long time ago. She took Nate’s hand and he led her to the dance floor where several couples were dancing, wildly. As the beat of the music drummed into her brain, and the singer sang a lively song, Nate twirled Jamie and pushed her away and toward him. Over and over. They were both laughing by the time the song was over. They sat down and Nate ordered more beer.
And so the night went on. Jamie was in tune with the beat and she and Nate danced and drank beer for hours. Shortly after midnight, they decided to call it a night.
“We’ve got to be at the clinic in the morning,” Nate said. He took her arm and led her out to his car. Jamie fell asleep on the drive back. Nate jostled her shoulder to wake her up when they got to Jamie’s driveway. He walked her up to her door and kissed her on the cheek.
“Thanks, Jamie,” he said as he walked down her steps. “I think that’s just what I needed tonight.”
She watched him get in his car and back out of her driveway. Then she went to her bedroom and got under her covers and passed out.
Jamie worked at the clinic every day for two weeks. She was thinking the whole time, trying to decide what the secret was to getting back to Tommy. She didn’t know. She had gone back in time twice and she had come back twice to a different world each time. What else could she do, under the circumstances, but work at the clinic? Her mother was getting concerned about her, she could tell that. If she went back to her parents and went to the overhang every day, her mother would start questioning Jamie in a way that Jamie did not want. She had to hang in the 2013 she currently found herself in, at least for a while. Until she came up with a plan.
Come Down In Time (A Time Travel Romance) Page 11