Lake Roosevelt

by Smith, Dean Wesley

Kelli got out, a notebook in hand, and smiled at him as she headed for the front door of the restaurant. “Sorry to be in a rush, but that coffee on the coast has been demanding an exit for the last hour.”

  “Yeah,” he said, following her. “Thought about stopping and then just got thinking.”

  He got to the door ahead of her and held it open.

  “Thinking about me, I hope,” she said, brushing past him, smiling, then turning and heading for the restroom sign.

  “Who else,” he said, laughing and following her.

  “Right answer,” she said as she pushed open the women’s room door and went in.

  After clearing out the coffee from the previous meal, he headed back into the dark, wood and plant restaurant. Everything was made of dark wood planks and the floors were stained a lighter oak color. Plants of all sizes and forms seemed to be filling every nook and cranny in the place. All the sounds in the place felt muffled from all the plants.

  The place smelled of steak, almost so thick it was amazing the walls and the leaves weren’t coated in steak grease.

  He went back to the wooden front desk where a young college-aged girl with pixie brown hair greeted him with a bright smile.

  “Duster Kendal party?” Jesse asked. “Are they here?”

  “They are,” the young hostess girl said. “Follow the main aisle all the way to the back. Door labeled Stetson.”

  “Find them?” Kelli asked, coming up to him as he was about to head for the back.

  “They are here,” Jesse said, nodding. “Follow me.”

  “Twice in one day,” she said, laughing.

  Clearly she was in a much better mood after calming down and the drive.

  When they had wound their way to the Stetson room in the back, Jesse opened it for her and she went into the small banquet room ahead of him. It also looked like the rest of the restaurant, with wood planks on the walls and plants hanging from high rafters, as well as sitting in corners.

  A table for six was set. Duster and Bonnie sat at one end, with Duster at the head of the table. Dawn Edwards and Madison Rogers sat in the middle on one side.

  All of them stood as they came in.

  Bonnie was dressed in her casual look. Dark slacks, a light-blue silk blouse, and she had her long brown hair pulled back. Bonnie was tall, just a few inches shorter than he was. She had a classic beauty that was hard to ignore.

  Duster had his long coat hanging up on a coat rack to the right of the table near a tall tree-like plant and his cowboy hat on the stand as well. He wore his brown hair cut short and had on a simple blue dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up. He was as tall as Jesse, but seemed to command a room more than any person Jesse had ever met.

  Madison was about Bonnie’s height at around five-foot-nine, had dark hair, and also was dressed casually in dark slacks and a dark blue shirt with the sleeves buttoned.

  Dawn was the shortest one of the group by a long ways, but looked thin and strong. She had long brown hair, also pulled back, and wore the same casual style as the rest with dark jeans and a silk blouse with no jewelry.

  “Glad you made the drive from the coast safely,” Bonnie said, coming forward first to shake Kelli’s hand. Then Duster shook her hand, then Bonnie turned and introduced her to Dawn and Madison.

  From what Jesse could tell, Kelli was stunned to meet them here.

  “Honored,” she said to both of them. “I am such a fan of your books.”

  “And we are of yours as well,” Dawn said.

  Jesse shook all their hands as well, even though he knew them all. He had investigated both Dawn and Madison at one point. But he hadn’t seen them for almost a year.

  Then Jesse went to a spot beside Bonnie so that Kelli could have the place at the end of the table, facing Duster.

  As they all got seated, Madison said to her. “I hear you discovered you were being vetted before you should have discovered it?”

  Kelli laughed. “Yeah, an accident. I just never forget a face and I had seen Jesse’s face in a picture from Roosevelt Idaho in 1908 and knew that couldn’t be. At first I thought he was a ghost or something.”

  “He is such a good investigator,” Duster said, smiling, “I’ve often wondered if he was a ghost.”

  “So how could he be in that picture?” Kelli asked, getting right to the point.

  Jesse watched as Bonnie and Duster and Dawn and Madison all had to suddenly look down at their plates or straighten their napkins or something.

  Kellie glanced at Jesse with a puzzled look and he just shrugged. He had no idea what was going on. Not a clue.

  After a moment a waiter wearing western jeans and a cowboy red and black plaid shirt came out of the back with menus and some drinks for the four of them, then he took Kelli and Jesse’s drink order and left. Both of them once again ordered coffee.

  “Before we try to even begin to explain all this,” Bonnie said, “can I ask what you were doing at our favorite all time historical diner on the coast?”

  “Been following a trail for my research,” Kelli said. “The diner was just a lucky find.”

  Madison and Dawn looked at Kelli and then at Jesse. “Don’t tell me you guys had dinner at the Whale Cove Diner?”

  Jesse laughed. “We did, and yes, we had the chicken fried steak and banana cream pie.”

  Madison turned to Duster. “What the hell are we doing here? We should be over there eating.”

  Both Bonnie and Duster laughed. “We figured that if we gave Doctor Rae here too much time to think about all this, she would bolt.”

  “Call me Kelli,” she said. “And you might have been right.”

  “So can I ask what you were researching?” Dawn asked. “Another past crime I hope?”

  Kelli glanced at Jesse. “You know, don’t you?”

  He just shook his head. “I just vet a person’s past stuff, criminal actions, that sort of thing. I don’t snoop into e-mails or private research or anything like that.”

  “Oh, sorry,” she said, looking at him with a worried expression.

  He nodded back at her that it was all right. Again he didn’t blame her at all.

  She turned to Dawn. “I’ve been following the possible theft of about 30 Season Medals that Lewis and Clark gave out to Native American leaders during their trip.”

  Jesse had no idea what she was talking about, but clearly Dawn and Madison did.

  “Season Medals?” Dawn asked. “I thought Lewis and Clark gave away all fifty-five of them that they had on that first expedition.”

  “They did,” Jesse said. “But starting around 1880 or so, a man by the name of John Simon Bushnell started a quest to buy or barter from the Native Americans as many of the medals as he could get back.”

  “He did?” Madison asked. “Wow.”

  Kelli nodded. “He is rumored to have managed to get thirty or more of the Season Medals by 1906. He was shot in Roosevelt, Idaho, at some point, no one is certain by who or why. His name is on the plaque there in the Roosevelt cemetery.”

  Jesse was fascinated. He liked her books and this sounded like she could make this story riveting.

  “And the medals vanished with his death?” Duster asked.

  “They did,” Kelli said, nodding. “But since he was shot, there is speculation that the medals were stolen from him. He had been along the Oregon Coast before going to Roosevelt, so I was tracking any evidence I could find along the coast before heading to Roosevelt.”

  “Do you remember the man’s name she is tracking?” Duster asked Dawn and Madison.

  “No,” they both said at the same time.

  “But I do remember,” Dawn said, “that someone was shot in a small cabin near Roosevelt in late October one year, after the valley had already closed up for the winter because of snow. It never crossed my research as important, so I paid it no attention.”

  “So these medals would be worth something if found today?” Jesse asked.

  “Besides historical importance,” K
elli said, “a great deal of money. A few that have surfaced that are authenticated that Lewis and Clark gave away have sold at upwards of hundreds of thousands each.”

  “A million dollar lost treasure,” Jesse said, nodding.

  “A fascinating crime in my opinion,” Kelli said. “Great history that most don’t know about wrapped into a crime. A perfect book.”

  The other four at the table nodded.

  Jesse couldn’t agree more.

  At that point the waiter came back with his and Kelli’s drinks, then took all their orders and left.

  “Since you won’t explain the picture, what’s this offer?” Kellie asked Bonnie and Duster as the waiter left.

  Jesse loved how Kelli just dove right at the point.

  But again, just silence filled the room.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  July 14th, 2016

  Portland, Oregon

  KELLI STARED AT the silent four, then said, “Let me make this simple for you. First tell me how I found a picture of three of you and me standing on a wooden sidewalk in Roosevelt, Idaho?”

  Duster laughed. “That’s like the hardest question you could ask.”

  Kelli noted that Dawn and Madison both nodded.

  “Let me start a little before that,” Bonnie said. “I will tell you that the photo is accurate, taken by the photographer who is credited for the picture. I know that without looking at it because none of us here have any reason to doctor any pictures for any reason.”

  Duster and Dawn and Madison all nodded.

  “You said you got that picture from the Idaho historical society about a year ago. Right?” Jesse asked her.

  Kelli nodded, not having any clue as how to make sense of what Bonnie said.

  “And that picture is a digital copy or a paper copy?”

  “Both,” Kelli said, looking at Jesse. “On the paper copy I have the copyright information on the back, when I obtained it, and so on. Then I scanned all pictures in to take with me for reference if needed.”

  Jesse pointed to a wide silver metal bracelet on his wrist. “I have been wearing this since I bought it from an artist outside of Cascade, Idaho, just six months ago.”

  Kelli nodded.

  “I am wearing it in the photo,” Jesse said.

  Kelli could feel a cloud of confusion crossing over her mind. How in the hell could that be possible?

  Then Jesse turned to the rest of the table. “I know, for some reason, you want Doctor Rae here to understand, to help her with her research. But I’ve been friends with you all for years. I think as a friend I’m owed a clear explanation. Don’t you?”

  All four nodded.

  “We did not doctor any photos,” Bonnie said. “That photo, if it says it was taken in 1908, and you have it authenticated, was taken in 1908 in Roosevelt, Idaho.”

  “Now you’re starting to make me mad,” Jesse said, sitting back.

  Duster looked at Kelli. “Doctor Rae, you read the information we sent you? Jesse knows us all, but you need to be up to speed with who we are.”

  “I read it,” Kelli said. “And did a little more digging on my own.” She kept her voice low and even because she was getting just as angry as Jesse.

  “We are both theoretical mathematicians,” Duster said indicating himself and Bonnie. “We specialize in the theory of alternate timelines. And how matter and energy and time are all wrapped in together.”

  Kelli nodded for Duster to go on.

  “In our theories, we suggest, and have proven, that there is a physical hub where all alternate universes express themselves in a physical form.”

  “You are losing me quickly,” Kelli said.

  “Think of it this way,” Bonnie said. “If Jesse had decided to just wait in his car for you to finish dinner in Whale Cove instead of going inside, and you would have never seen him, we all would not be sitting here right now. That’s an alternate universe from the one we are in.”

  “Every decision we make, big or small, creates another alternate universe,” Duster said. “Sometimes those alternate universes just blend back into each other since the results make no long-term difference.”

  “So if I order steak versus a chicken here at dinner two alternate universes are created?” Kelli said. “That’s silly.”

  “Not silly,” Bonnie said. “Mathematically proven. Imagine if the chicken was tainted and you got sick because of the choice and missed an important clue in your research. But if you had the steak, you didn’t get sick, wrote the book, and changed things. Every decision we make has repercussions off into the future. Most decisions change nothing, but your decision to come here when you could have just driven off is a decision.”

  “That’s billions of timelines,” Kelli said, not even able to grasp that much.

  “Far, far more than that,” Duster said.

  “So what does all this have to do with the picture?” Jesse asked.

  “You said the four of us are in the picture,” Duster asked, indicating her and Jesse and Madison and himself.

  Kelli nodded.

  “In another alternate timeline, the four of us went back into the past, into this timeline to Roosevelt in 1908,” Duster said, “more than likely to help you research your book, and without our knowing it, some photographer got our picture.”

  Kelli just looked at Bonnie and Duster. “You can travel back in time?”

  “Back in the past of other timelines, yes,” Bonnie said, “as crazy as that sounds.”

  “We go back to do research all the time,” Dawn said. “Since almost all timelines are nearly identical to the one we are in. We have spent a lot of time in Roosevelt before the flood buried it, actually. We would love to help you research the Season Medals.”

  “You could even meet John Bushnell if you wanted,” Madison said. “Actually find out why he was after the Season Medals in the first place.”

  Kelli sat back, more stunned than she wanted to admit as the waiter started to bring their food. If she wasn’t sitting with two of the most respected historians in the world, and the two most acclaimed mathematicians of all time, she would be headed out the door.

  And she most certainly would if she had any other explanation for that photograph.

  Actually, photographs. She knew without a doubt that she was sitting across the table from one of the great Marshals of the Old West. And Bonnie Kendal was known as the Angel of San Francisco for her good deeds there.

  How in the hell was this possible?

  Could they really be telling the truth?

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  July 14th, 2016

  Portland, Oregon

  JESSE JUST SAT there staring at four people he wasn’t sure he knew any more. They had just come up with the craziest story he had ever heard. And yet damned if he could think of another explanation for that photo. Or why Kelli Rae would have it.

  The steak in front of him, a nice top sirloin cut, smelled wonderful. The plate had a baker on it with garnishments left on the side as he had asked. And beside his plate was a dish of steamed asparagus that looked crisp and green.

  It was going on four hours since he had eaten that piece of banana cream pie, so he was hungry. He just wasn’t sure, with the discussion, if he had an appetite or not.

  He dug into the steak, let the wonderful, warm juicy flavor of the first bite almost melt in his mouth, and decided to just eat.

  “We have no doubt,” Duster said after the waiter had left, “that you both think all four of us have lost our minds.”

  “We both thought they were crazy,” Dawn said, nodding, “the first time they told us what they were doing.”

  “Only way to believe it is to see the nexus,” Madison said.

  “The nexus?” Kelli asked, slightly before Jesse could because he was chewing on a piece of wonderful steak.

  “We theorized,” Bonnie said, “that all time and matter and energy come together in a physical form. We accidently found the place.”

  “That�
��s the offer we wanted to make to you, Doctor Rae,” Duster said. “We wanted to offer you access to the nexus for your research in your projects. No strings attached.”

  Kelli said nothing, looking stunned.

  Jesse thought back over the people that Bonnie and Duster had had him research over the years. “How many people know about this place?”

  “Fourteen,” Bonnie said, “counting the six of us at this table.”

  “So that’s why you’ve had me research historians and the two mathematicians that work for you,” Jesse said. “But why the architect and interior designer?”

  “You won’t believe this anymore than anything else,” Bonnie said, laughing.

  “Try me,” Kelli said.

  “For the first number of years going back into time,” Duster said, “we had always heard about a huge lodge built on Monumental Summit above the town of Roosevelt. But we could never find evidence it was there.”

  “Of course it’s there,” Jesse said. “I’ve even spent a few nights in it.”

  “As have I,” Kelli said.

  “That’s because we went back, six of us, including the architect and a historical designer you vetted,” Duster said to Jesse, “and we built the lodge.”

  “And at the same time,” Bonnie said, “the same group of us from another timeline came to our timeline and built the lodge here.”

  “So the six of us all remember the lodge not being there and the lodge always being there,” Madison said, shaking his head.

  “It’s why we hired two more mathematicians to help us figure out how that was possible,” Bonnie said.

  “It’s the same way those pictures happened,” Duster said. “It’s us, but from other timelines going into the past of this timeline.”

  Jesse just shook his head and stared at his half-eaten steak.

  Duster put down his fork and looked directly at Jesse, then at Kelli. “Here is what I would like to do, if you are willing to trust us, give us a little rope to our crazy story, give us a chance to show you one of the great wonders of the world.”

  “You want to show us the nexus thingie?” Kelli asked.