They walked into the back door and through the kitchen to the den. Tommy’s parents looked up from the TV when they walked in. They both looked from Tommy’s face to Jamie’s face, back and forth, trying to understand why Jamie was there.
“I know you’re surprised,” Tommy said.
“Yes,” his mother said. “Very surprised.”
“We wanted to let you know that we’re back together,” Tommy said. “We’re getting married again, but that is just a formality. We’re still married in our minds.”
Mrs. Grisham, who had looked so beaten down the last time Jamie had seen her in the grocery store in that other timeline, put her arms around Tommy and then Jamie. Mr. Grisham stood to the side at first, but then he put his arms around everyone.
They stayed and talked for a few minutes with Tommy’s parents.
“We’re going to go home now,” Tommy said. “It’s been a big day. But we’ll be getting married in the next few days. But think of us as still married.”
Tommy and Jamie walked hand in hand down to the cottage. Tommy pushed the door open and Jamie stepped in for the first time in several months, though it had been ten years in Tommy’s timeline. Everything looked the same as the last time she had been here. Tommy opened the refrigerator and pulled out a bottle of wine. He set it on the countertop and opened it.
“Let’s go to bed,” he said. He took two wine glasses from the cabinet and Jamie followed him to the bedroom. Tommy poured the wine and handed her a glass.
“I started out today, like every other day for the past decade, without you,” Tommy said. “And now, you’re here again.”
“I’m never leaving you, Tommy,” she said. “I never wanted to leave you as far as my mind can say. Never. I’ve been trying to get back to you.”
Tommy went into the bathroom and started running water in the bathtub. He came back and sat on the edge of the bed with Jamie. They took sips of the dry white wine.
“Have we decided where we want to be?” Jamie asked.
“I think so,” Tommy said. “But if you feel differently, then I’m going where you’re going.”
“I’m thinking we need to stay here,” Jamie said. “Everyone is so happy. We’re so happy. We’re not too old to have children. We can still have a good life.”
“I agree,” Tommy said. They clinked their wine glasses together, having made the decision.
Tommy went back into the bathroom and turned off the water. He took his clothes off and got in the tub. He called to Jamie. “I’m waiting on you,” he said. “Bring the wine.”
In her head, she remembered Darma and Blackbird telling her that Tommy was waiting for her. She walked into the bathroom and stripped off her clothes. She poured more wine into her glass and Tommy’s glass before she slid into the tub.
“We need to go to the overhang tomorrow and gather the things that Blackbird needs,” Jamie said.
“I know,” Tommy said. “We’ll go first thing.”
When they got out of the tub and dried off, they headed for the bed. Jamie snuggled against Tommy’s chest in the crook of his arm for a moment. But then they started kissing each other and rubbing against each other and making love to each other like there was no tomorrow. Jamie had been through so much, that she worried there might not be a tomorrow. She took what she had right then and held on. Tommy pulled her on top of him and she slid him into her. She gathered him in her arms and pulled him up so that they were both sitting, Tommy inside of her, her legs wrapped around him. She rocked her hips as Tommy thrust upward. Jamie leaned down and kissed Tommy before throwing her head back, her body back, and screaming. Tommy put his hands over her breasts and moaned, loudly.
As they lay back on their pillows, holding each other’s hands, Jamie said, “I’m afraid to go to sleep. I know it’s not the full moon yet, but I’m still afraid.”
“I’m afraid, too,” Tommy said.
“We need to learn that map, just in case,” Jamie said. “I’ve been through too much, too many timelines. We’ve got to know that map.”
Tommy took the map out of Jamie’s suitcase and brought it over to the bed. Jamie sat up and together they studied it.
“I think I’ve got it,” Tommy said. Once we get into North Carolina, we follow Route 25 for five miles. Chancy has marked that on the map. Then we turn left and go on Route 88 for three miles, then we turn left again and follow Route 97 for another seven miles. That gets us to Chancy’s mother’s place. From there, we keep going down Route 97 for a mile, then turn onto Route 123 for another .9 miles. Then we turn off to the right on a dirt road and go .2 miles. He’s got a big arrow there, pointing to the right. I guess that’s where it ends. That must be the beginning of the path to Blackbird’s cabin.”
“Do you have it memorized, Tommy?” Jamie asked. “I think I do, but we need both of us to know it.”
“Yes, I’ve got it memorized,” he said. “Hopefully, we aren’t even going to need it.”
“Hopefully,” she said.
She and Tommy got back under the covers and held on to each other. They eventually fell asleep. When Jamie woke up she reached over to the other side of the bed and felt Tommy. She sat up and looked at him. It was definitely Tommy. She had not entered a timeline where she was with someone else in some other bed, some other time.
Tommy woke up and looked at her. “Are we still in 2013?” he asked.
“Yes,” Jamie said. “It seems like we are.”
She got up and made a pot of coffee. She found eggs and sausage in the fridge and fried them up before popping pieces of bread in the toaster oven. Tommy sat at the table and she poured him some coffee. She sat down with her own cup of coffee while the bread toasted.
“It can’t change unless it’s a full moon,” Jamie said. “But as soon as we eat, we need to go to the overhang and get the things for Blackbird. Then we need to get in the car and drive to him. I don’t want to take any chances.”
“What time is it?” Tommy asked.
“It’s ten after eleven,” she answered. “We’ve overslept. Let’s get a move on.”
They ate their breakfast hurriedly, then put on their clothes.
“We need two jars,” Jamie said. “Do you have any jars in here?”
Tommy opened the pantry door and pulled out two Mason jars with lids on them.
“Get the paper and pen,” Tommy said before they walked out the door. Jamie grabbed the notepad and pen from her purse. “Don’t forget the map,” Tommy said.
Together, they walked to the opening in the woods and went in to the cool shade. They walked to the midpoint and stooped to enter the Moon Cave. Tommy got on his back and put his head through the opening. He shined his iPhone on the ceiling and took another photo for good measure.
“Sugar, it’s too tight in here for me to write anything down. You need to get it.”
He pushed himself out of the opening and Jamie got on her back and Tommy guided her head and shoulders into the hole. She put her iPhone on her chest and shined the light on the ceiling. She could see distinct lettering, but it looked like hieroglyphics.
“Hand me the pad and pen,” she said.
Tommy pushed them through the opening and Jamie grabbed them. She carefully wrote down every symbol she saw. When she was finished, she shined the flashlight all around the tiny area to make sure there was nothing else there that she was missing. She didn’t see anything else.
“I’m ready to come out now,” she said. Tommy pulled her by her hips, then her arms, then her shoulders, and she was out of the hole.
“I have no idea what this means, but here it is,” Jamie said, handing the notepad to Tommy. “I guess this is the writing Blackbird talked about.”
Tommy took the notepad from her hand and looked at it. He compared it to the photo he had taken with his iPhone the day before. “I wish I could read what it says,” he said.
Jamie sat on the floor of the overhang. She drew her knees up and leaned her head down and put her head
in her hands. She was already exhausted.
“Let’s take a break for a minute before we get the rest of the stuff,” Tommy said. He pulled the blanket out from under the rock and spread it behind them. Jamie sat down and he sat beside her. He put his arm around her. She turned to him and kissed him. Before either one knew what was happening or could stop it, they were making love. The loss they had felt in their lives was too much for them. They comforted each other for those losses.
When they were finished, Jamie lay in the crook of Tommy’s arm. And then they both fell asleep.
Chapter Seventeen
Jamie sat straight up when she woke up. It was dark, but the full moon shone down on the lake and illuminated the overhang. She looked down and Tommy lay there sleeping. She jostled him.
“Tommy! We fell asleep.”
Tommy opened his eyes. “Is it too late for us to go to Blackbird?” he said.
Jamie started to cry. “Yes, it’s too late tonight. We never even got everything we needed.” Sobs wracked her body as she wept.
“Sugar, it’s okay,” Tommy said putting his arms around her. “We’ll just get the stuff tomorrow and go. Blackbird said to get it in the time you wanted to stay. It’s still that time.”
Jamie looked down and saw her long hair shining against her arms.
“No, Tommy. You don’t understand. We’ve gone back in time. We fell asleep here during the full moon. Look at my hair.”
Tommy picked up Jamie’s hair where it lay on her arm because that’s how long it was.
“I can’t believe this,” he said. “We’ve got to get back.”
“We can’t get back,” Jamie said. “Every time I went back to 2013, it was different. I don’t think we can get to where we were before we fell asleep.”
“Then where are we now?” Tommy said. He sounded frightened. Jamie understood that. She had been very frightened when her time journey began. She was more used to the changes now.
“I hope we’re in 2001, maybe at the point I last left. I don’t know. I do know one thing. We’ve got to get out of here and figure out where we are.”
“I’ll turn on the flashlight,” Tommy said, reaching for his pants.
“You won’t have one,” she said. “There are no iPhones in 2001, if that’s where we are.”
Tommy felt in the pocket of his jeans and pulled out a small cell phone with an antenna on it.
“Let’s get dressed,” he said. They fumbled with their clothes in the shadowy light and got dressed.
They could see the lake clearly through the willow branches because it had no leaves. Jamie shivered. It was no longer a hot summer day. It was cold. Tommy grabbed the blanket and put it around Jamie’s shoulders.
“Hold onto me,” Tommy said as he left the cave. Jamie held onto the blanket at her neck and held onto Tommy’s shirt with her other hand as they climbed up to the path. The moon was shining on the lake, but not on the path. Jamie held onto Tommy’s shirt as he carefully walked down the path. The moon on the water to the left of them kept them going in a straight line.
“I’m scared, Tommy,” Jamie said.
“I can walk this path with my eyes closed,” Tommy said. “Don’t worry.”
Very slowly, they made their way and finally emerged at the end. Jamie could see the full moon above then, and it gave her comfort. Tommy took her hand and they walked beside the field that was tilled over. No tall summer corn reached for the sky. They walked beside the farmhouse where Grandpa and Granny were asleep inside—she hoped—and turned down the road to the right and found their cottage a hundred feet down on the right.
Tommy opened the door and they went inside. It looked exactly as it had the last time Jamie left it when she was still married to Tommy.
“Tommy, you need to write the map down before you forget it,” Jamie said. “We’re going to need it.”
Tommy pulled a piece of paper out of the printer that was on a desk near the kitchen. He sat at the kitchen table and began to draw. He didn’t speak as he drew the lines and wrote down the numbers. When he was finished, he handed the paper to Jamie. She looked at it and it was the same as her memory of the map.
“I don’t mind telling you, that I’m pretty freaked out right now,” Tommy said. “You look just like you used to look.”
“So do you,” Jamie said looking at Tommy’s teenaged face. “So do you.”
“What do we do now?” Tommy asked. “You’ve been through this time thing before. I don’t know what to do.”
“This time we went back together,” Jamie said. “We were together in the overhang, touching each other when we fell asleep and the full moon came. Every time I went back, I always picked up where I had left off. The last time I left, it was November and Granny and I were canning things and planning for Thanksgiving. I think we’ve gone back to that time because the willow tree had no leaves and it’s cold. I guess we’ll find out in the morning.”
Tommy got up from the table and walked to the fridge. “I sure hope there’s beer in here,” he said as he opened the door. “Hallelujah,” he said. “We’ve got a whole six pack!” He took two beers out and opened them. Jamie took the beer from his hands and drank down the biggest swig of beer she had ever drunk in any lifetime.
Tommy looked across the table at Jamie. He took her hand.
“I’m freaked out, but I sure am glad to see you, sugar,” he said. “I love you.”
“I love you, too, Tommy,” she said.
“So, what do we do?” Tommy asked.
“Tomorrow, we visit everyone and make sure exactly where we are. If we decide we don’t like this time, we can go back to the cave on the next full moon and try to move forward, but I really don’t trust that. And we might get moved to a 2013 we aren’t familiar with, whether we like it or not. I think we see where we are, and then we gather the stuff if we want to stay. We’ll have to get the writings from the cave again because all of that is gone.”
They sat at the table drinking beer until the six-pack was finished. By the end of the evening, they were laughing together. Jamie giggled so hard at one point she thought she might wet her pants. Luckily, she made it to the bathroom before that happened.
Tommy and Jamie fell into their bed together, on the sheets that Granny had picked out for them before they got married, and immediately fell asleep.
Jamie woke up and looked over to the other side of the bed. Tommy slept peacefully beside her. She was thankful for that. She looked at the clock. It was seven fifteen. She felt her hair and it was long.
“Tommy,” she said softly. When he didn’t stir, she touched his shoulder. “Tommy,” she said loudly. He woke up and looked at her.
“What year is it?” he asked.
“I think it’s 2001,” she said.
“I guess I should have known by your hair,” he said. “And your high school face looking at me.” He laughed then. She laughed with him.
“We need to get going and see what’s out there,” she said.
“I need some coffee,” Tommy said.
“We’ll get some at your grandparents,” she said. “We aren’t waiting around on anything today. And no falling asleep!”
She pulled on her jeans and a sweater she found hanging in the closet. She remembered the soft blue knit sweater from long ago. She washed her face and brushed her teeth. She put her hair up in a comb she found beside the sink.
Tommy got ready after her, and emerged from the bathroom with a smile.
“Let’s go,” he said.
Outside, it was chilly. They walked down the road to Granny and Grandpa’s farmhouse. Granny was inside making breakfast.
“Hey, Tommy boy and Jamie girl,” Granny said, using her pet names for them. “Breakfast is almost ready.”
Jamie poured cups of coffee for herself and Tommy. She handed him his cup, then poured cream from the pitcher into her cup.
“Grandpa’s in the shower,” Granny said. Jamie and Tommy looked at each other, relieved that Gran
dpa was still alive in this world.
Granny set plates of eggs and bacon and biscuits in front of Jamie and Tommy. It had been a long time since they had eaten, and they ate the food without talking. Jamie got a warm biscuit from the basket and broke it open. She slathered it with butter and strawberry preserves. She closed her eyes with pleasure when she took a bite of the biscuit.
“Y’all look like you haven’t eaten in a month,” Granny said, laughing.
“It feels like it,” Tommy said. “We’re just extra hungry today, I guess,” he added.
“It’s okay,” Granny said. “It does my heart good to see y’all eating and enjoying it so much.”
Grandpa walked in then, fresh from his shower. Granny handed him a cup of black coffee and he sat down at the table.
“Grandpa, we’ve got to take care of something today,” Tommy told his grandfather. “I’m afraid I’m not going to be able to work.”
Grandpa looked from Tommy to Jamie, then at Granny.
“That’s fine, son,” he said. “The fields are done anyway. We’ve got plenty of time to plant the cover crop.”
When they finished eating, Jamie went to the sink to start washing dishes. Granny shooed her away. “Y’all go on now,” she said. “You need to take care of your business. I can get this.”
“Okay, Granny,” Jamie said. “We’ll be back tonight or maybe in the morning. We can work on our Thanksgiving plans tomorrow.”
Granny kissed them both on the cheek before they walked out into the chilly air. They walked back down to the cottage, where Tommy’s green truck was parked in front.
“I hope I’ve still got the keys for the truck,” Tommy said. He pulled his key ring out of his pocket and opened the truck door for Jamie. She got in and sat beside her high school boyfriend, her husband, in his green truck. Tommy put the key in and started the engine.
“I haven’t had this thing for years,” he said backing away from the cottage and onto the road. He drove up to his parents’ house and stopped. They got out and walked in the back door. Tommy’s mother was washing breakfast dishes in the sink.
Come Down In Time (A Time Travel Romance) Page 16