“I’m surprised they believed you,” Allie said.
“I used my iPhone to prove it. I took their picture and then showed it to them. I showed then the picture of us beside the car. What they still have doubts about are airplanes and cars. I told them we could travel in four or five hours what took us five months.”
“We’ve been from Brevard to here and back, and to Boston twice this year,” Barry told them.
“Oops,” Allie said. “I think Hiram needs changing.”
“Let me have him, and I’ll get him changed,” Angie said.
“Show me where things are, I’d like to do it. I haven’t changed a diaper since you were a baby, but I think I can still do it.”
They went into the sleeping area. “Mom, is Dad all right? He doesn’t look like he feels good.”
“He hasn’t been feeling well for the past few days. I think the trip through the wormhole affected him in some way. It didn’t bother me. I’ve been giving him aspirin, but I’m worried about him. Do they have a good doctor here?”
“They do, but compared to what we had at home, it’s primitive,” she told her mother. “You can probably treat him better than the doctor. We have no such thing as aspirin, or antibiotics. It would be a shame to have something happen right after seeing each other again. Maybe you should go back so he can be treated. I feel responsible, somehow.”
“You shouldn’t. We talked about this before we left. We’ve had a good life, and had no family after we lost you. This was our only chance to be a part of one, and we jumped at it. We haven’t looked back once.”
I brought a big bottle of aspirin with me. They recommend baby aspirin daily now, so that would be about one-fourth of a tablet.”
“We couldn’t bring much and we sold everything. Your dad had a brilliant idea and bought a lot of old money from eBay and coin shops, so we have more than enough to get started here.”
“Let’s get everything together and go tell our story,” Angie said. “We need to get Mandy and Seth too. I don’t want to tell it more than once.”
Jed put a makeshift seat in the wagon bed, and they set out for his parents. When they arrived, Jed said, “I saw Papa over at the edge of the field. I’ll go get him. I’ll take care of the horse when I get back.”
“Do you want us to wait?” Angie asked.
“No need for that, we’ll be right in.”
Sophie was making the bed when they entered. “I didn’t expect to see you today.”
“We have company and I want to introduce you to them,” Angie said. “This is my mother Alexandra, and my father, Barry. They got into Salem last night and came out this morning. Mom, Dad, this is Sophie Lewis, Jed’s mother.
“Your mother and father? I thought they drowned,” Sophie said.
“I thought so too. Jed went to get Papa. I’ll explain when they get here. It’s complicated and hard to believe.”
“It’s not hard to believe, seeing the two of you together. You look enough like her to be sisters.”
Hiram followed Jed in. “Who’s our company?” he asked.
“Papa, my mother and father, Allie and Barry Thornton. Mama, if you have coffee on, you might want to get a cup. My story is going to be long, and hard to believe. I wish Mandy was here to hear it.”
“Let me tell it first, then I’ll answer all of your questions. I hope I can anyway.
“Once upon a time, a boy named Jeremy found a girl holding on to a tree, high off the ground. Her shoes were all wet and her hair was matted. Papa, remember, you threw a rope over the limb so I could get down.
“I told you we had been swept down the creek by a flash flood. I think it was Jed that Major Adams sent down the creek searching for them, but didn’t find them. I told the Major…” She turned to her mother and father. “Major Adams was the wagon master. I told him I was from Brevard, near Independence, but he had never heard of it. Mrs. Parnell thought I was addled and my shoes were wet because I peed on them. Everything I told you was the truth, so help me. I have never lied about anything. Some things I did leave out.
“I was born on January 27, 1998.” She paused to let that sink in. “That’s right. I said, 1998. Somehow, and I can’t explain how, I went back in time to 1866. I proved it to Major Adams and asked him not to tell anyone. Remember the strange clothes I was wearing? That’s why.”
“Mandy and I became best friends and I told her. I tried to tell Jed, but he couldn’t or wouldn’t promise to keep my secret. After we fell in love, I told him too. No one else. She took out her iPhone, and thumbed to her photos. Recognize him?” she asked.
“That’s Major Adams,” Sophie said. “What is that thing anyhow?”
“It’s called an iPhone and won’t be invented for another 140 years. Mom, did you bring yours?” Her mother nodded.
“Here’s a picture of Mandy and one of Jed and me. It’s how I convinced them. That’s pretty much it from my end. I’ll let them tell you how they got here.”
“A friend saw something on the internet about finding Angie’s iPhone. That gadget. Her father had given it to her for Christmas.” Allie began. “Wait. Let me explain the internet. It is a way of sharing things. It’s sort of like a newspaper, but anyone can see what you put up if they buy the service. It mentioned Angie’s name as registering the iPhone. The company that made it had a record of the sale. We still have the receipt from when Barry bought it.
“You know about the United States Census, right?”
They nodded.
“I found a record of her marrying Jed in the church.” She glanced at Barry. “Show them the copy of the record, honey. Then in the state archives, I found a record of their land claims. Yours too. Do you recognize these as your signatures? These are Jed and Angie’s.”
“That is absolutely unbelievable,” Sophie said.
“I told you it would be hard to believe,” Angie said.
“One of the foremost scientists the world has ever known had a theory about parallel universes, side by side, one going forward and one going back in time. If you could get on the one going back, you would go back in time. Some highly intelligent at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology discovered a way to do just that. We heard about it and volunteered. We sold our farm and here we are. Our daughter was worth our taking the risk involved.”
“Can you return?” Hiram asked.
“We could, but we would have to go back to Boston to do it, and we don’t think we want to do that. This morning, I was able to do something I never thought would happen. I changed my grandson’s diaper. We had lost our daughter, and all of a sudden we have her and a grandson, as well as a son-in-law.”
“You’re going to have to share them. She’s been a part of our family since she pulled Mandy from the river. I thought she was gone, and before anyone could do anything, Angie was in the water swimming after her. We thought they would both be lost, but Angie didn’t let it happen.”
“Those two summers as a lifeguard paid off, huh Mom?” Angie said.
“What do you plan to do now?” Sophie asked.
Chapter Seventeen
I’m a Farmer
“After we get acquainted with the kids, I’d like to buy some land. It looks better than ours was back in Missouri,” Barry said. “I know a bit about dairy farming, but don’t know much about the demand for it.”
“You could do what we did, and claim 320 acres,” Hiram said. “I think raising cattle for food would be more profitable than a dairy. Every farm has a cow or two.”
“What about selling in Salem?” Barry asked.
“Getting it to town would be slow and some of it would spoil on hot days,” Hiram said.
“I was thinking the way it is in the future. We had transportation that could go from here to Salem in fifteen minutes. I’m sure you're right about the cattle.”
“I just thought of something,” Allie said. “We visited what is Jed’s place, and met a lovely couple, Julia and Roy Lewis. They’re your future relatives.
Anyway, Julia and I agreed on a way for me to write them a letter. They can’t answer it, but I want to let them know we made it safely.”
“How in the world do you plan to do that?” Hiram asked.
“A part of Jed and Angie’s cabin is part of the main house where Julia and Roy live. We’re going to put the note in a pouch or a jar and put it in the wall. They will find it in a hundred and forty years,” Allie said.
“Unbelievable,” Sophie said. “Who figured that out?”
“We did it together.” She looked at Barry. “I’m going to ask Julia to call Doctor Van Landingham and tell him about you being sick. I wonder if they knew and didn’t tell us.
“Mama, I don’t think we should spread this around,” Angie said. “It might cause the same kind of reaction I was worried about before. I don’t want to lie to anyone, and since Mandy knows, we have to tell Seth. That will make six that know the real story. I would not want more.”
“I can’t believe my children kept this a secret from us for all this time,” Sophie said. “It makes me wonder what else they didn’t tell me.
“What sort of problem are you having?” Sophie asked Barry.
“I started not feeling well about the third day after we left Boston,” he replied.
“Barry is never sick, so it has to do with the trip,” Allie said.
“Doctor Barlow in Salem is pretty good,” Sophie said. “He took care of Polly.”
“She died. I doubt he’s ever seen anything like this. I’m going to include it in my note to Julia. She should be checking the hidey hole.”
“Jed, let’s get him back home so Mother can leave the note, and Dad can rest,” Angie said.
Later…
“I’ve written the note. Now, Jed, if you can make a hole where I show you, we’ll get this in time mail.
“Facing the outside wall on the creek side, one foot up and one foot over from the corner, I need a hole, large enough to hold this, and then we need to hide the opening.”
Forty five minutes later, Jed said, “All finished. I’m glad I put a double wall on this side. The winter wind comes from this direction.”
“Roy should have opened the hole by now and they’ll be checking it. Probably already have, since we thought it was only going to be four days on the train from Boston.”
* * *
“Roy, there’s a note here!” Julia said, bubbling with excitement.
“What does it say?”
“They are in 1870, have met the family, including your third great grandparents, and their grandson.
Barry has some type of problem and she wants us to call Doctor Van Landingham and tell him. She hopes it might help future time travelers if they can figure out what’s causing it. She gave me his cell phone number.”
The call…
“Doctor Van Landingham, this is Julia Lewis. Yes, I’m from Haynes Falls. Alexandra Thornton and I set up a system where she would leave me a note, similar to what you had set up with her.
“They made it to Haynes Falls. She said it took almost eight days, and they are with their daughter and her family. She wanted me to call you and let you know her husband is not well. He’s been feeling bad since three days after they left Boston, and he is not getting any better. She said she has given him aspirin. She thought it might help you in the future with your project.”
“Did she describe how he felt?” Van Landingham asked.
“She didn’t have much space, but she said he feels very tired. That was all she said. I sense they have no regrets and her concern is for future travelers. I wish there was something we could do, but it has already happened, whatever it is.”
“Thank you, Mrs. Lewis. I do appreciate you letting us know.”
* * *
“Doctor Fujikawa, we need to talk,” Van Landingham said.
“Yes, we talk.
“Mrs. Lewis received a note from Mrs. Thornton.”
“How?” the project head asked.
“The same way we did. They arranged for her to leave a note in a specified place, and she has been checking. It wasn’t there yesterday, but they found it today.
“Mr. Thornton is ill and is not getting better. He has the same lack of energy I had, following my trip.”
“Your problem happened on the return trip,” Fujikawa said.
“Right, but remember, they had a long train trip after their injection into the past. Doctor, this is the perfect opportunity for us to move into the next phase of our experiment.”
“You want to try to save him?”
“I do,” Van Landingham said. “I’ve been feeling guilty since we didn’t tell them this beforehand. It’s the perfect chance. If we don’t, he’s headed for a massive heart attack and they don’t have the science to do anything about it.”
“This would be changing the past,” Fujikawa said. “We’ve avoided doing that up until now.”
“I’m not sure it would. They don’t belong in the past. We put them there, or at least gave them the means to get there.”
“Why not bring them back?” Fujikawa asked.
“They’re on the west coast, remember. He might not last for the trip, even if there was a way to get word to them.”
“You would do this? Risk your life to do something you’ve already done?”
“I would. I could take an extra dose of tPA with me in case I have the same problem.”
“Do it.” Fujikawa a man of few words said.
Van Landingham spent all night making the calculations necessary to bend the wormholes to match his target date. Eighteen hours later he had it.
His next stop was Harvard Medical School, where he obtained the tPA from a former classmate.
“I’m ready,” he told Fujikawa.
“You come back, we talk future,” Fujikawa said.
“I will,” Van Landingham told him.
Chapter eighteen
Back in Time
Two days later…
Charles Van Landingham boarded the train in Boston for the five hour trip to New York. Seven days later, he stepped off the train in Salem, Oregon.
“Where can I find transportation?” he asked the agent. “Depends on where you want to go,”
“Haynes Falls.”
“Never heard of it,” came the curt reply.
It was almost dark. “Is there a hotel?”
“Not yet, building one though. Ask at Hinchley’s Boarding House. It’s down the street on the corner. White house.”
“Are you from around here?” he asked the agent.
The man spat a stream of tobacco juice on the platform. “Nope,” he said, “New York City.”
That explains it. Van Landingham strode off in the direction of the white house on the corner.
“I need a room for the night,” he told the white haired lady that answered his knock.
“Come on in. I have one left, and it’s all yours. Second door on the left at the top of the stairs. I know you haven’t had a decent meal, so you come back down and I’ll fix you a plate. I’m Clara Hinchley, by the way. Who might you be?”
“I’m Charles Van Landingham,” he said.
“Settling here?”
“No ma’am. I have some business with the Lewis family.”
“Land sakes, Hiram and Sophie are popular these days.”
“You know them?” he asked.
“I reckon I do. They stayed here when they first came to town, while they were building a cabin. There was a couple in here last week to see them. I reckon they found them. I haven’t seen them since.”
“Then you can tell me how to find them.”
“Now that I can’t do, but I can tell you what I told them. Ask Mose at the livery stable. He can tell you and let you have a horse too.”
“Mrs. Hinchley, you’re a dream. Thank you.”
“Aw, you get on with that sweet talk. There’s a bit more of the stew if you have an empty spot.”
“No ma’am. I’m so full I couldn’t even p
ick my teeth. It was the best meal I’ve had since I visited my family.”
“Breakfast is at seven o’clock,” she said.
“I’ll be here.”
* * *
Mose gave Charles the same directions he had given Barry and Allie, and he found the farm with no trouble. He was unfamiliar with the custom of not leaving the carriage until invited, so he climbed out of the carriage, looped the reins over a bush and headed for the door.
He heard the click the lever action of a Henry repeater makes when it moves a cartridge into the chamber. “Hold on there, mister. What’s your business here?”
“I’m looking for the Lewis farm,” Charles said.
“You found one. Now, what’s your business here?” Jed asked.
“I’m looking for Barry Thornton.”
“You hard of hearing or something? What’s your business here,” Jed said.
“My name is Charles Van Landingham, and I’m from Boston. I have some medication for him.”
“I reckon he can use some. Let me give you a piece of advice. When you come to a body’s house, don’t leave your wagon or dismount until you’re invited. It might get you shot.”
“I didn’t know that. I am sorry. Is he here?”
“I’m Jed Lewis. He’s inside.”
“Mrs. Lewis told me about you,” Charles said.
“You from the future too?”
“I am.”
“Not going to be anybody left if y’all keep coming back here,” Jed said, grinning.
“I assure you, I’m returning as soon as possible. Right now, I’m on an errand of mercy.”
“Hello, welcome to our home,” Angie said when they entered.
“You’re Angie Thornton, aren’t you?” Charles asked.
“I am. You have the advantage. I don’t know who you are.”
“I’m Charles Van Landingham, from MIT. I need to see your father.”
“He’s not having a good day. I don’t know that he’s up to seeing a visitor,” she said.
Back In Time: A Historic Western Time Travel Romance (An Oregon Trail Time Travel Romance Book 3) Page 8