Come Down In Time (A Time Travel Romance)

by Jennifer Ransom

  “Hey, son,” she said smiling. “Hey, Jamie.”

  “Hey,” they said in unison.

  “Dad just left to take Sara and Jason to school. He’ll be sorry he missed you.”

  “We’ll see him later,” Tommy said. “We were just stopping by on our way out of town.”

  “Oh?” Tommy’s mother said.

  “Yeah, we need to go to Knoxville to check out some equipment,” he said. He hugged his mother, then Jamie hugged her, and they were out the door.

  “So far, so good,” Tommy said as they got back in the truck. He headed his car down the road to Jamie’s parents’ house. When they got to the spot where Tommy had been killed, Jamie gasped. “Be careful right here, Tommy. This is where it happened.”

  Tommy slowed the truck down to a crawl. “I’m going five miles an hour,” he said. They inched by the spot and away from any cliffs before Tommy started going faster. Jamie’s parents’ house, her childhood home, came into view just around the bend. Tommy pulled into the driveway and they got out of his truck. They walked around back and went in the kitchen door. How many times had Jamie gone out of that door in the past several months? She didn’t know.

  Her mother walked in the kitchen as they came in the door. “I’m running late, y’all,” she said. “I’m supposed to be at the church early today. Your dad’s already left with Bobby.”

  “It’s okay, Mom,” Jamie said. Had she ever realized how beautiful her mother was, with her beautiful Native features? She didn’t think she had ever realized it, in any timeline. Her mother gave them each a hug, then grabbed her purse from the kitchen table and went out the door.

  “I guess it’s time to go to the Moon Cave and get the stuff,” Jamie said. She opened a drawer in the kitchen and pulled out a pad and pen. She took another pen for good measure. She opened another drawer and got a flashlight. She turned it on, and shined its light across the kitchen. She went into the pantry and got two large jelly jars her mother had saved.

  “I think we’re ready,” she said. Jamie and Tommy walked out the kitchen door and headed across the pasture. The woods were ablaze with the colors of deep crimson, orange, and yellow. They walked to the opening and went in.

  At the overhang, Jamie and Tommy pushed back the willow branches, which still had a few yellow leaves clinging to its branches.

  “Let’s get the writing first,” Jamie said. She lay on her back and Tommy guided her into the opening in the back of the cave. “Hand me the flashlight,” she said.

  Tommy handed her the flashlight and she shined it on the ceiling. The letters were there, as they had been for hundreds of years. Tommy handed her the pad and pen. Jamie put the pad on her chest and held the flashlight in her left hand. She carefully wrote down the symbols she saw on the ceiling. As she had before, she shined the flashlight around the cramped space to make sure she wasn’t missing any words. When she was satisfied she had gotten everything, she called for Tommy to pull her out.

  “No sex this time,” she said laughing.

  “Okay, sugar,” Tommy said, laughing too.

  Tommy pulled his pocketknife from his pants and began to scrape the dirt from the floor of the cave. Jamie scooped it up into the jelly jar until the jar was full. Tommy moved over to the willow branches and chose a medium-sized branch.

  “Wait,” Jamie said. “I’m going to help you with that. I don’t want to do anything wrong.” She moved over and put her hand on top of Tommy’s as he cut the branch.

  “Got it,” he said.

  When they crawled out of the overhang, she and Tommy together walked down to the lake and filled the other jelly jar with lake water. They walked up from the lake and back onto the path and headed toward Jamie’s house.

  “Do you have the map?” Jamie asked in a panicked voice.

  “It’s right here in my jacket,” Tommy said. “We’ll make sure when we get back to your house. The walk through the woods seemed like an eternity to Jamie, but they finally emerged through the opening and looked out on the pasture. Tommy held the jar of water and the branch and Jamie held the jar of dirt and the writings from the cave ceiling. They walked carefully back to Tommy’s truck and got in. Before he started the truck, Tommy pulled the map from the inside of his jacket and handed it to Jamie. She unfolded the paper and looked at it.

  “Okay,” she said. “Let’s go.”

  They drove up the highway that would take them to the North Carolina line. Jamie carefully guarded the jars of dirt and water with her hands the whole way. They had lids, but she didn’t want any jostle in the road to turn them over. Tommy turned on the radio. All they could get was a country station, and they sang every song they knew all the way to the state line. When they crossed over, Tommy slowed down so he could pay close attention.

  Jamie called out the roads and mileage to Tommy as he took one turn, then the next. They drove by Chancy’s mother’s house before Jamie even realized it.

  “That was Chancy’s house,” she said looking back. “I guess he’s in there right now, or at school, I suppose. But that’s where he’s living right now because he’s only twelve years old.”

  “I hope we don’t need him,” Tommy said. “If we get lost, we’re going to have to go to his house and have a damn good story for why we’re there.”

  “I hope we don’t have to do that,” Jamie said.

  Tommy was driving fifteen miles an hour now so he wouldn’t miss the very precise spot in the road where the path to Blackbird’s cabin started. He drove exactly as far as the map said and stopped. They got out and surveyed the woods.

  “Does this look familiar to you?” Tommy asked her.

  “I’m trying to get my bearings. It really hasn’t been that long since I’ve been here—just a few days ago—but that was in 2013. Things might be different in 2001.”

  She looked all around the side of the road. Then she spotted a large oak tree behind them. They had stopped just slightly too far up the road.

  “There it is,” she said pointing at the tree. They got their jars and branch and pad with the writings out of the truck and started walking toward the tree. Jamie looked down into the woods and saw a faint path. She hadn’t noticed any path before because she was depending on Chancy to get her where she needed to go. But now, she could faintly see it. She walked in and Tommy followed her.

  “I don’t know how you can tell where you’re going,” Tommy said behind her.

  “I can see it,” she said. “Besides, Chancy said to watch for the oak trees. They are only by the path.”

  “I hope they haven’t dropped their leaves yet,” Tommy said. “Probably not. They drop later than the others.”

  Jamie looked to her left and to her right. She saw an oak tree on both sides, so she moved ahead. As they walked, she kept scanning the woods for the oaks. “Watch for the oaks,” Darma said in her head, even though she had not even been born yet. She followed the oaks and Tommy followed her. After walking for about fifteen minutes, the amount of time it had taken her and Chancy to walk through, they came to something of a clearing. Jamie stopped. She looked to her right and saw Blackbird’s cabin nestled in the woods like it grew there.

  “It’s right over there,” she whispered, pointing.

  Tommy looked in the direction Jamie was pointing and barely made out a structure. “I think I see it,” he whispered back.

  Jamie and Tommy walked up to the door, which looked just as worn as it did twelve years in the future. She knocked. Unlike the time with Chancy, the door opened right away.

  “I’ve been waiting for you,” Blackbird said, even though he had met Jamie in 2013 and not in 2001. He looked as old as he had the last time she had seen him, though he should have been younger. Blackbird turned and Jamie and Tommy followed him inside. A fire crackled in the small fireplace. Blackbird took the jar of water from Jamie and poured most of it into the cast iron pot hanging over the fire. He took the pouch from the brick wall and put his hand in. He pulled it out in a fist and thr
ew the contents of his hand into the water.

  “The willow branch,” he said, holding out his hand. Tommy handed it to him and Blackbird put the cut end into the pot.

  “Sit,” he said to them, motioning to the floor. It was the same zigzag rug, looking just as worn as the last time Jamie had seen it. She and Tommy sat on the floor. Blackbird took a wooden bowl from the mantle and poured the dirt into it. He took the jar of water and poured the remaining lake water into the bowl. He stirred it around with his fingers until it formed a brown paste.

  He leaned over to them from his sitting position on the floor and stroked the paste onto their foreheads and their cheeks. He wiped the paste that stuck to his fingers on his shirt. The fire crackled. Blackbird got up from the floor and went to the pot and stirred it with the willow branch. This time, he took three ceramic cups from the mantle, and one by one, filled them with the liquid in the pot.

  He brought cups to Jamie and Tommy. Then he took a cup for himself. When he sat back down, he put his cup to his lips. Jamie and Tommy looked at each other and began to drink from their cups. It was the same warm, bitter tea Blackbird had given her before. When they were finished, they put the cups beside them. Tommy took her hand.

  Blackbird looked at them and they looked back. Jamie felt herself entering a dream state again. She didn’t have to look at Tommy to know that he was entering the same world. She closed her eyes and felt her body sway slightly.

  After a while, Jamie couldn’t say how long because time had lost all meaning, Blackbird spoke. “You have brought the writings,” he said.

  Jamie still held the pad with the cave writings. She handed it to Blackbird. He looked at the paper. “Yes,” he said.

  “What does it say?” Jamie asked.

  “It is a prophecy,” Blackbird said. “’Sister Moon travels through time. When she is round, two travel with her.’” He looked at Jamie and Tommy. “You are the two.”

  Blackbird threw the pad into the fire and the flames licked up around it. A fiery blue ball floated up from the burning paper and went up the chimney. Jamie pressed Tommy’s hand, though very lightly because she was still feeling dreamy. He squeezed her hand back, just barely.

  “The Moon Cave is a sacred place for our people,” Blackbird said. “It has been many ages since the cave has been used for its spiritual purposes. It may have stayed as it was forever, unused, but you stumbled on it, as you were meant to do. Sister Moon, guided by your ancestors, took you places. She showed you that time is not a line. But now, you have stabilized your journey and Sister Moon has gone back in the sky, away from the cave. Your ancestors are satisfied. They wish you well being.”

  Jamie and Tommy opened their eyes and looked at Blackbird. He looked back with a small smile. They smiled at him as they stood up. Blackbird stood and faced them.

  “Thank you,” Jamie said.

  “You’ve made our life together possible,” Tommy said to the old man.

  “You have made that happen,” he said. He smiled again.

  They walked to the door and Blackbird followed them. They turned to look at him when they stepped onto the porch. As he was closing the door, Blackbird said, “Your new journey begins now.”

  Epilogue

  Jamie set the gravy boat on Granny’s harvest table. “I think we’re ready,” she said. Granny called everyone in from the den—Jamie’s parents and Bobby, Tommy’s parents and Sara and Jason, Tommy and Grandpa. All together, eleven of them, sat around the long table with one empty chair. “Maybe we’ll have a little one in that chair next Thanksgiving,” Granny said.

  They held each other’s hands as Grandpa said a Thanksgiving blessing. “We are grateful to have all of our family with us today, and we give thanks,” he said.

  The table was full with a huge turkey, dressing, gravy, squash, mashed potatoes, green beans, rolls, and cranberry sauce. Granny filled everyone’s glasses with Grandpa’s blackberry wine. Jamie looked across the table at Tommy and smiled. He smiled back. It was a secret smile for the two of them alone. Only they knew that they were living their lives over.

  They discussed it often. “We’ve come from two different timelines,” Tommy said. “But we’re still together. I think that says it all.”

  “I’m still a doctor in my head,” Jamie said, “and I will use that knowledge whenever necessary. But I’m not ever leaving here again. I don’t know how I could have done it. Ever.”

  “We’ve got to forgive each other for things we did in other timelines,” Tommy said. “Things we don’t even know about in our minds as we live this life.” They had each suffered in their own timelines with the loss of the other. They didn’t take anything for granted anymore.

  After Thanksgiving dinner was over and the food was put up and everyone had left, Tommy said, “I want to show you something. Get your jacket.”

  Jamie kissed Grandpa and Granny goodbye. “See you tomorrow,” she said as they closed the door. Tommy took her hand and they walked through his garden, now covered in straw waiting for vegetables to be planted when the new season began. They walked around the corner of the field, fallow until the spring when it would be plowed under and the cycle of corn and soybeans would begin again.

  They walked with the woods to their left. The hardwoods were bare, but the pines stood tall and green. Tommy jumped up the little hill at the opening and put his hand out to pull Jamie up.

  “Before we go in, I just want to tell you that you are the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen,” Tommy said. “And not just on the outside—and believe me, you are hot.” Jamie laughed. “But on the inside, too,” he said. “I’m never not going to love you, in this life and timeline and in any other.” Jamie leaned up and kissed her teenage husband. Then he took her hand again and they walked onto the path.

  “I’m kind of scared to come down here,” Jamie said. “I’m afraid something might happen to make us go to 2013 again where we might not be together.”

  “Don’t worry,” Tommy said. “The next full moon is over a week away. Nothing to be afraid of. This is going to make you feel better, I think.”

  The path was narrow and Tommy held her hand as she walked behind him. When they reached the midpoint, Jamie couldn’t believe her eyes. The willow tree, which had always leaned over touching its branches into the lake, had fallen over completely. It lay partially submerged in the water, its bare branches sticking out of the surface of the lake. At the other end, above the overhang, its roots were covered in dirt and exposed to the open air. The overhang was collapsed. It would take a lot of special equipment to remove the tree, and even if someone did that—which no one would—the Moon Cave did not exist anymore.

  Jamie looked at Tommy and he smiled. “It’s gone,” he said. “It brought us together again, and now its gone. No more time travel.”

  “We really are stable now,” Jamie said. “We’re here forever.”

  “We’ve got good memories of this place,” Tommy said. “We got together here.”

  He put his arm around Jamie and she put hers around him.

  “Time to go,” she said. “Granny wants us to make a baby.”

  Tommy turned and put his forehead on Jamie’s forehead as his arms encircled her. “Can we wait just a little while on that?” Tommy asked. “I’d like to have more time with just the two of us.”

  “Of course,” Jamie said, giggling. “We’re only eighteen.” Laughing together, they walked down the path and out of the opening into the rest of their lives.

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  OTHER BOOKS BY JENNIFER RANSOM

  Love Weaver and Hand-Me-Down Love.

  rev2

  Table of Contents

&nb
sp; To my daughter, Jes, who taught me about timeless,

  I know you're out there somewhere

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight “

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen “

  Chapter Seventeen

  Epilogue

  To further support this author, please take a moment to review this book on Amazon.