by Carolyn Bond
He turned pale again. “Birth control? What in the world do you do--” he broke off embarrassed. “I don’t think I care for the future much.”
“You’ll be fine.” She was glad he was stunned into a cooperating attitude, but she wondered how long it would be until the real Brain came out.
“And I must say, darling, you look ghastly.”
“And there he is,” she thought. She turned her thoughts to how she would get home. No public transportation came through here anymore. It was a good three hour’s drive to Frankfort. They couldn’t walk it. She had no phone. All there was in town was a post office.
“Who is there?” He looked around.
She ignored him. “A post office. I guess that will have to do. It’s better than mailing a letter from 1889.”
“What? You want to send a letter?” He asked.
“Yeah, I think so. Come with me.” She turned and headed toward the other end of Main Street. They reached the metal building that served as a post office. “I guess I can’t leave you here on the street.”
He puffed up at her words.
“Give me the fifty dollars,” she asked.
“Excuse me?” he asked with wide eyes.
“I need to buy some stationary and a stamp, for heaven’s sake! Do you think it’s rightfully yours since it was in your ripped jeans?”
“Fifty dollars is a rather large sum of money for you to be handling.” He fumbled in his pocket and pulled out the bill. She just glared at him.
“Thank you.” She shoved it in her pocket and pushed the door open. The postal clerk sat behind the counter. It was not nearly as glorious as the post office in 1889 that had turned trim accents and polished wood counters. She decided that at some point in history we’d given up making public offices nice. Maybe it was too costly, but it’s like we stopped respecting the public domain.
“Excuse me. I would like to buy a piece of paper and an envelope and a stamp.” The clerk gave her a packaged set with an envelope that already had postage printed on it.
“That’ll be $4.75, ma’am.”
Brian gasped. “Good Lord! That’s a week’s salary for one of my clerks!”
“Shh!” Then she whispered to him, “Please don’t say anything.”
He looked at her mortified. Apparently, her 2018 modern woman self was more than he could handle.
She thanked the clerk and put the change in her pocket. She walked over to a side counter and picked up a pen. She noticed her fingernails were bitten down to the quick. She wrote out a quick letter, dashing a tear that was close to falling from her cheek. She folded the paper, inserted it and licked the envelope. She wrote out the address on the front. Brian read the address over her shoulder.
“There really is a Mr. and Mrs. Wallingsford in Frankfort, then.” He asked.
“Yes. Now there is, anyway.”
“I had somehow concluded in my mind that you were a tramp looking to find a golden goose.”
She snorted, “Well, I guess I’m glad you have come to the conclusion I’m not that!”
His eyes narrowed, “Makes no difference, really, except that I’m glad to know that when I have you, you will be better than a dressed up tramp.”
She coughed trying to catch her breath. He still thought a lot of himself, she thought to herself. She handed the sealed envelope to the clerk and they stepped back outside.
“Okay, then. How do we get back?” she wondered out loud.
“Get back? You mean to our time?”
“Yes. I know the sprig of greenery is needed but apparently holding it isn’t enough or I would have disappeared when I picked it up off the ground.” She fished the sprig from her back pocket.”
“Give me that.” He swiped it from her hand. “You’re not going anywhere.”
He proceeded to wave it around in the air in front of him. He gave a frustrated sigh and waved it over his head. Giving up, he said, “This is pointless. I am really beginning to believe you’re batty.”
“How else would you explain it, Einstein?” She crossed her arms and leaned back on her heels.
”Einstein? Why did you call me that? Who is Einstein?”
“While you play with that sprig, I’m going to think for a minute. She walked behind the post office to sit in the shade and look at the Ohio River going by. Brian followed her a few steps behind. She sat on a bench near a back door.
She had two instances to compare. The first time she had the sprig and crashed the car. She expected to felt an impact and there was none. The second time she was falling backward. Again, no impact.
“That’s got to be it: falling. Both times I was falling.” She looked at Brian.
He immediately flopped forward onto the ground holding the sprig in front of him. He hit the brown grass with a thud.
“Ah! That kind of hurt,” he mumbled.
“Going without me, huh?” She jumped to her feet. “That’s it! It’s me! Me and falling.” She grabbed the sprig from his hand. He leapt to his feet as she was propelling herself on to the ground. He managed to grab her other hand in the nick of time and they both disappeared.
All sound stopped briefly before she found herself lying face down in the dirt behind the 1889 post office. Brian was beside her, holding her hand, also face down.
“Did you both trip, then? Good heavens. Mr. Everbright! Are you all right?” A postal clerk rushed to them and helped Lily to her feet. She brushed the dirt from her dress while the clerk was fussing over Brian. She was back in her 1889 body, like a trusty horse that runs up when you whistle. Brian was his dapper self, complete with hair crème and a bit of dirt.
“Please sir! Thank you for your assistance but you can now let me be.” Clearly agitated, Brian pushed the man back from him. He looked at Lily and gave a sigh of relief. He tugged on his jacket to straighten his clothes.
“Glad to see you are you again,” he said.
“Oh! I thought perhaps you were relieved that I was safe. What was I thinking? You’re just happy your world is in order.”
After the clerk was out of earshot, he took her by the elbow firmly and hissed in her ear. “Dearest Lily, for all I know now, the real you could be that hideous girl with hair like a drowned cat. Of course I’m relieved to see you this way. You should be glad, too. If I have no desire for you, it could go poorly for you and the whole Black family. Yes. Now I know all I need to.”
“Let me go!”
“Tell me, does that rough-as-a-cob hillbilly know the truth about you? That could be shocking for him. Or, perhaps that is why he stormed off a bit ago. He knows and he can’t stomach it.”
That hit a bit too close to home and she winced. “You really are too much, Brian. I’m going home now and honestly, I just want you to leave me alone.”
“Go on, then. You are truly a stupid girl. But, don’t think this is the end of it.” He grabbed her wrist and pulled her close enough for her to feel the heat of his leg through her dress. He leaned in close to her ear as she struggled. “You still make me burn for you. That hasn’t changed.”
She wriggled free and darted between the post office and the inn back toward Main Street and ran all the way to Black’s Farm.
Chapter 10 – The Tree of Life
In the safety of her room upstairs, Lily just wanted to hide under the covers. So much had happened. Still reeling from the trip to Lexington, she had so much passion to move forward with her plans for the girls at the school. Then, Evan stepped in and crushed her spirit with his doubts about her. Now, this bizarre jaunt back to 2018 with Brian had shown her hand to him and also answered many questions about how it all happened.
She tried to breath deep and take her thoughts one at a time. She needed to think of a way to get through to the town council and the parents. The problem was that many of the parents could not read either. They may have been taught to read by a family member, but likely, many of the farmers were pulled to the fields at an early age. It would be hard to convince them that their
daughters needed more education than they had.
Farming was changing, though. She’d heard William talk about it in Versailles. The railroads were allowing investors from far away to move goods into farming markets and creating competition. The Southern Alliance of Farmers was gaining strength. They were networking to save farming as a business. William told Bettie about a meeting they were going to have in Hardinsburg. If she could teach the girls to read the newspaper, they could read it to their fathers when news about the Alliance was reported. This would help the men know what was going on. All the girls would have to do is read it out loud, not necessarily understand it. Of, course in time they would, but for now, it would be a help to the farmers to have the information. She decided that was what she would do. She would teach the girls to read the newspaper and scan for articles about the Alliance.
She breathed a sigh of resolution. Now, she really just wanted to see Evan and have him hold her. She wanted to feel his arms around her and hear his voice in her ear. She got up from the bed and went to the window. It was getting dark and she could see firelight from his cottage window across the field. He was in there.
She hastened to slip down the stairs and out the front door. William and Bettie were talking in the kitchen. She slipped around the house and made her way across the field. On the porch of the farmhand’s cottage, she peered in the bubbled glass window to see what he was doing.
His back was to her as he sat in a rocking chair in front of the fire. She decided to knock. There was a long silent pause. She wondered if he had peeked through the window to see who was there before deciding to open the door. Finally, the door slowly opened.
“You need to go back to the main house, Lily. It’s not right that you should be here.”
“I can’t help it. I miss you, Evan. It was so long in Lexington and I missed you. Please don’t push me away. We can figure this out together.”
He sighed and stepped out onto the small porch. The sky was already dark and Lily, turning her head to look, could see movement in Bettie’s kitchen through the lighted windows. William sat at the table smoking a pipe. The field was dark now.
Before she turned back, Evan scooped her into his arms and pulled her close. The warmth of his embrace made her melt.
“Oh, Evan. You feel like home.”
“You do, too, Lily. I have thought about it all afternoon and there isn’t any logical answer to what’s happening, but I know what my heart feels. I tried to run from it once before and it was no good. I know better now.”
He briefly looked into her eyes before giving up any fears he had. Then he kissed her softly at first, and then with a passion that comes from a heart overflowing with want. He didn’t just want her body, he wanted the spirit inside her body to be with him always.
Time, culture, career, birthplace or birthright, none of it mattered. He clearly saw now that no matter what skin she had or what were her goals for her life, he wanted to be beside her. He wanted to love her and be loved.
In a breathless moment as he kissed her face she whispered. “I know what caused the time travel to happen.”
He stopped suddenly and looked at her.
“Well, maybe not what caused it, but how it works, anyway.”
“What are you trying to say?”
“When you left me earlier, Brian approached me. We had a tussle.”
“What? That scoundrel! I’ll kill him.” He looked past her into the darkness as though Brian might be there.
She held him in his seat by his hands. “No! Wait. Let me finish.”
He stopped trying to get up and listened.
“We lost our balance and fell to the ground, but not before I managed to grab a sprig of cedar trying to slow the fall. Well, we never actually hit the ground and the next thing I knew I was in 2018 with Brian.”
“What?” This time he did stand up looking at me with wide eyes.
She stood, too. “We were in different bodies. Teenagers.” She snorted, “It was kind of funny, really.”
“I see nothing funny about this. You were over a hundred years away from me. With him. How is that funny?”
“Maybe you had to be there. But anyway, it was the cedar sprig, and me, and falling. All three of those facts together, makes me time travel.”
“So how did he go with you? And are you sure it’s just you?”
“He was touching me, so he went. He tried without me, to get back, and it didn’t work. I actually tried to leave him there in the future but he managed to grab my hand and came back with me.”
“So he knows all this about you now.”
“Yes. It doesn’t matter. What’s he going to do with that information? No one would believe him.”
“I’m not sure, but I surely don’t trust him.” He paused looking away.
“Evan, what is it?”
He turned back to her. “You came back to me. To 1889. Why? You could have just stayed there. You’d found a way home.”
“Yes and no. It was a way home, but I wasn’t me. I don’t know why my body didn’t show up. Why was I in the teenage body? My car was gone. Maybe I drowned in the creek in the future. I don’t know. I could have stayed but I was in another body. No one would have recognized me. And besides, you are here. I want to marry you. I want to change education one kid at a time. This is a great place to make differences that will last for centuries. Public education is forming right now, in this time.”
“True, but being in a different body can’t be any worse than me pulling you up a muddy creek back into 1889?”
“I know. I just had to get back. I was worried it wouldn’t work again. What if there are only so many times it will work or if the stars have to be in the right place. I just had to try. Immediately.”
He kissed her lightly again. “You make me very happy. Lily Wallingsford, I shall never care what body you are in. It’s your heart I love.”
She smiled. “I feel the same for you, Evan. I had purple hair, though!” She snorted. “Would you love me with purple hair?”
“Yes. I would love you with any hair.” He sat on the bench pulling her down to sit with him again. “Lily, I want you to be my wife. Soon. We need to settle this matter. Maybe then, he will leave you alone.”
The cool spring air wafted over them giving her chills. A storm was brewing overhead and rumblings of thunder were coming from downriver. Suddenly Lily smelled the sweet scent of water in the air. Rain was close.
“I want that, too, Evan.”
“Now that I have land, we can build our house and start a family. There is so much to do. Let’s just move on and forget him.”
“Okay. You’re right.”
“Let’s marry this Saturday. Here at Black’s farm.” He decided.
“This weekend? I’ll need Bettie’s help. I don’t know what to do to get ready.”
He smiled. “I know she will help. She loves you already. Anything you need, just put it on my account. I want you to have the wedding of which you have always dreamed.”
He kissed her softly and she got lost in the wave of love she felt. She could have melted in his arms right then. He held her tightly and exhaled. A sense of relief filled her. She looked up toward the heavens and the shifting clouds opened a window to the stars. The galaxy peeked in on her and the stars seemed to wink.
Evan took her by the hand and led her out into the moonlight. By the sounds of the loud cicadas’ raspy song, he held her against him and danced a waltz in whirling circles. Her gown flung out around her as they swirled on the new spring grass. The soft breeze ruffled her hair and goosebumps rose on the back of her neck.
Evan leaned down and pressed his cheek against hers. The day’s growth of stubble tickled her senses even further. She closed her eyes and let him lead her in the dance, taking in the scent of rain, the scratch of his cheek, the katydid rubbing like a metal zipper, and the heat of his body next to her. She had never felt more alive or more whole.
He slowly stopped and pulled her ti
ghter with his arms around her. “Lily, I don’t know what magic brought you to me, but I’m grateful. I couldn’t imagine living without you.”
***
Brian stood at the window of his clothing store watching the people walk past outside. He looked down the street and could easily count twenty individuals. How many more were inside stores? In the future, he’d only seen two people. A crotchety old man and a postal clerk. No stores, no sternwheelers docking and unloading, not even a passenger train.
“There is no future in this town,” he mumbled to himself.
“What’s that you say?” his father asked.
“Oh, father! I didn’t see you. I was just wondering about the future of this town.”
“I’d say Stephensport is on a grand path! It’ll be the largest town between Louisville and Owensboro. Just look, son. Can’t you see it?” He pointed out the window at the people milling in the street.
“Perhaps, father. But what if something changes. What if we didn’t have the railroad bringing people and the sternwheelers loading coal and crops here?”
“I suppose that would be awful. Our family has invested heavily in this town buying property and even sponsoring the building of the rail station itself. If this town dries up, we would be bankrupt. But, listen son, this town belongs to the merchants and the businesses. Nothing is going to change that.”
Brian nodded, his face went pale. His father walked back to the counter and began putting new merchandise into the glass case.
Brian’s face turned downward as he looked back out at the street. “Everything we have we have put into this town. All our eggs are in one basket.”
A boy with a cotton sack crossed over his shoulder opened the door to the shop and handed Brian the morning paper before turning and darting back out. Brian scanned the headlines of the Courier Journal. His eyes caught on a particular story and he froze.
***