by Susan Finlay
Sofie said, “We are planning to walk back into Riesen, assuming it is there. Do you think you will be able to walk that far after already walking a lot today?”
Lotte nodded.
“Are you sure you do not know anything about what has happened to us?” Sofie asked. “We are all very frightened. If you know something—”
“I know nothing.”
LEAVING THE CAVE area, and using the sun as a compass, they began walking in the direction of town, trying to retrace their steps as well as they could considering the dirt road was gone. Even the landmarks they’d hoped to use were missing. No old mill or farm fields, nor any road signs. The gnawing fear in the pit of Max’s stomach was growing exponentially.
When they stopped for a moment to rest, Sofie looked around to make sure the kids were not too close, then whispered, “I still don’t understand what’s going on. Where is everything? It’s not only the house that’s missing.” Her voice sounded hoarse and her eyes were wide and frightened.
Max rubbed his aching forehead. “I don’t know. It certainly looks as if the mill hasn’t been built yet. Even that copse of trees you recognized back where the cottage should have been, looked younger. It sounds crazy, but all this makes me believe that we’re not in our time.” He looked down at his feet, kicking at the dirt as he resumed walking. When he glanced back at Sofie, she was staring at him.
Louder and with more desperation in her voice, she said, “Are you saying we’ve time traveled? Do you know how ridiculous that sounds?”
“Sofie, keep your voice down. We’re all scared, but let’s not scare the kids any more than necessary.” He’d been trying to tell himself, ever since they’d arrived, that he was wrong and that they were somehow lost. He couldn’t come up with another answer. Nothing else made sense. Still, saying it aloud made him feel like a fool. It was one thing to watch movies and read books about time travel; that was purely entertainment. It was a completely different thing to believe it was really possible. He shrugged. “I don’t have any better explanation, do you? Haven’t you noticed that there are no airplanes in the sky, no railroad tracks on the ground, no power lines or telephone lines crossing the fields?” He fell silent.
She looked up at the sky, but didn’t say anything.
“I guess we could be in an alternate universe, instead. But that sounds just as ridiculous.” He scratched his head and then stuffed his hands in his jean pockets. “Of those two explanations, I think time travel might be a bit more logical than an alternate universe, but then I’m no scientist.”
Sofie’s eyes grew wider, her expression disbelieving. “I am. A scientist, I mean. A geologist, though I haven’t been working in the field for a year.” Her voice suddenly cracked with emotion. “I’m not saying your theory is impossible, but—”
Max put his arm around her shoulder.
“Oh, God, Max. What are we going to do?”
He glanced at Lotte who seemed as distraught as the rest of them, and he couldn’t help but wonder what she knew and wasn’t telling them.
Suddenly, a rumbling shook the ground, startling them.
“Now what?” Max said. He pulled Sofie and Tobias behind some bushes. Ryan and Lotte followed close behind, getting out of the way as two sets of thunderous hooves came flying by.
Tobias jumped up and ran out from the bush where they were hiding. “Who was that?”
“No! Tobias, come back.”
He darted back to his hiding place and looked wide-eyed at his mother. “There were two men dressed like . . . like musketeers and they were riding horses.”
“Thank God they didn’t see us.” Max continued to check that the pair of riders kept going. “I’m glad we heard them and hid before they got too close. The dust cloud they created probably helped hide us.” His head was spinning again. He looked at Sofie and saw his own shock reflected in her face.
“Why are you glad they didn’t see us?” Tobias asked. “Maybe they could have helped.”
Ryan said, “We’d probably be tried as witches. Isn’t that right, Dad?”
“Unfortunately, I think you may be right, Ryan.”
Sofie said. “If this is the past, then we could be in grave danger, especially dressed the way we are.”
“But time travel doesn’t really exist, does it?” Tobias said. “You guys were kidding, weren’t you?”
Max gave Sofie a sideways glance. She looked as dismayed as he felt. Max said, “I’m afraid we were serious.”
Tobias scrunched his face, the way people do when they taste a sour lemon.
“Tobias, honey, time travel is theoretically possible,” Sofie said. “General Relativity showed that. Many physicists believe time travel to the future is possible.” She sighed heavily, her shoulders slumping as if they bore the weight of the world. “I’ve read about Hyperspace—folded space-time and wormholes and space as the fourth dimension. Anomalies, too.”
“Yeah,” Max said. “There’s string theory, rotating cylinders, black holes, and gravitational time dilation.”
“I suppose it could be possible for people to time travel to the past. Most physicists would argue against it.” She looked around again. “It certainly appears we may have proved them wrong.”
Tobias said, “I want to go home. I’m tired and hungry.”
“We all want to go home,” Max said. “Problem is we don’t know how. We’ll try to figure that out. First we have to find out if we’re really in the past and how we got here.”
“Maybe those riders were in a play or a renaissance festival,” Ryan said. “We have those in the U.S. Maybe they have them in Germany, too.”
Max attempted a smile. “I sure hope that’s the case, but I have a sinking feeling it’s not. We may have to find some clothes from this period, quickly, before someone sees us. We’ll need to find food, too.” He straightened up and rubbed his back. “If we can’t figure out how to survive here, we won’t be able to figure out how to get home.”
“Okay,” Tobias said. He looked and sounded glum.
Max reached over and patted him on the head. “Keep your chin up, son. It’ll be okay. We’ll figure this out.”
Ryan scowled at Max, making Max wonder if he was jealous of the attention he gave to the younger boy or just thought his father was full of hot air.
Max and Ryan were wearing blue jeans, short sleeve tee-shirts, and laced-sneakers. Tobias was wearing shorts, a polo shirt, and sneakers with Velcro. Sofie was wearing a sleeveless blouse, blue jeans, and white slip-on shoes. They would be hard-pressed to explain their clothing. Lotte would fare much better in her mid-calf-length skirt, loose blouse, and scarf.
Tobias, suddenly perking up, asked, “Do we get to dress like those men we saw? That could be fun.”
Max said, “We’ll have to wait and see what we can find.”
“Maybe we should travel at night,” Sofie said, “so we aren’t seen.”
“Well, it’ll be tougher in the dark, especially without the roads to guide us,” Max said. “But we could all use a rest, anyway.” He spotted a grassy area partially hidden behind a large clump of bushes and trees. “That looks like a good place to wait. What do you think?” He pushed the branches back and held them for the others to past through. After everyone else was reasonably comfortably seated, Tobias began leafing through the tall grass, searching for ladybugs. Max watched and smiled, remembering when Ryan used to do the same thing. His gaze traveled to Sofie, who in spite of the miserable day, seemed momentarily content watching her son. After a while, she laid down on the grass and closed her eyes. Max laid beside her, his hands behind his head, and gazed up at the sky. Watching fluffy clouds overhead, he remembered, as a boy, doing the same thing and imagining familiar objects in them, but today even the clouds looked darker, more ominous, and foreign to him.
CHAPTER SEVEN
SOFIE SAT UP and watched the sun set with Max. When it was nearly dark, she glanced at Max. She hated deferring to him simply because he was a man,
but the wrong decisions could get them all killed and she absolutely didn’t want that responsibility. “Do you think it’s safe to head into town now?”
“Probably, though in the dark it’s going to be a lot more difficult, but luckily it’s almost a full moon. Do you think you can navigate and get us to Riesen?”
Sofie had been trying to remember the topography maps she’d studied. “I think so. By the direction of the sunset, I believe that if the town exists, it should be in that direction.” She pointed in the direction she believed to be southwest.
“Okay, then.” He stood up and stretched. “I guess we’re ready.”
The boys jumped up. Lotte stayed seated. Sofie told her what was happening and which direction she thought the town should be. Lotte nodded.
They walked carefully in the moonlight, using it as their guide, picking their way around trees, bushes and thickets, serenaded by frogs and crickets. An occasional howl, however, left everyone more than a bit on edge, not knowing what else might be lurking. Twice, Ryan stumbled on downed branches, grumbling but otherwise apparently no worse for it. Tobias, on the other hand, proceeded to roust some kind of bird from its nest, scaring both he and the bird, until Ryan decided it was funny, began laughing and encouraged Tobias to laughter as well.
After Tobias calmed down, he asked “How are we going to get the right kind of clothes if we are in the past?”
Max and Sofie exchanged glances. Max sighed and rubbed his forehead. “Good question. I’m afraid we’ll have to steal them unless any of you has a better idea.”
“But that’s wrong. Mom, we can’t steal, can we?”
She sighed and shook her head. “If Max is right about time travel, I’m afraid we won’t have many options. Our money won’t be usable. We don’t have anything to trade. There isn’t another option, unless we’re extremely lucky, and based on what this day has brought us . . . well, I doubt we will be.”
“How are we going to steal clothes?” Tobias asked.
Max looked at Sofie. “Any ideas?”
“Hmm. Unfortunately that, too, will require luck. I’ve read that the ‘grosse Wasche’ came infrequently in earlier centuries. So, statistically, it’s a stretch to think we’ve got a good chance of arriving at the right time.”
“What’s ‘grosse Wasche’?” Ryan asked.
“The big wash day.”
“Did everyone wash clothes on the same day?”
“Well, that I can’t answer. I wouldn’t think so.” She turned to Lotte and translated the details of the conversation for her.
Lotte scowled and remained silent.
“Okay, let’s say we’re lucky and it’s wash week for at least some residents,” Max said. “What does that mean? How might that help us?”
“Well, wealthy people would dry their clothes indoors, but the rest would likely—weather permitting—lay the freshly washed clothes and bedding out on the grass or drape them over tree branches, hedges, or ropes. Something like that. That way they could dry the fabric and sun-bleach it, too. In winter they would dry clothes in the house or cellar and they could take ages to dry.”
“Wow,” Max said. “I’m impressed. Sounds like you know your stuff. How do you know all that?”
“I’m a researcher. I used to teach Geology at university. Now I write non-fiction books on geology and history.”
“Interesting.”
“But wouldn’t they take the clothes in by the time it gets dark?” Ryan asked.
“That I don’t know,” Sofie said. “Maybe not if they’re busy or they forget.”
Max said. “I remember back when I was four or five years old. My mom didn’t have a clothes dryer. She’d hang the laundry out on a backyard clothesline, sometimes for a couple of days.”
Sofie smiled and said, “See, we might be lucky after all.”
Max reached out, draped his arm around her, and they continued making their way carefully through grass and underbrush, and under trees, sometimes having to swerve to avoid rocks or low branches. Sofie thought they should be getting close, but there was nothing in sight. They saw no lights except from the moon, and no sounds except from insects and frogs and the occasional squirrel chitter or infrequent howl, the latter keeping everyone close. The scent of flowers filled the air. It was incredibly fragrant, and she pictured a giant air freshener hanging among the trees. Sofie smiled at the silly thought. Oh God, I’m losing it. I must be more tired than I realized.
As they pushed on, Tobias suddenly yelled out, “I see something. I think it’s a road.”
They rushed to the road, the hope giving them all a surge of energy. After ten minutes of walking on the dirt road, Tobias yelled again.
“I see something else. I think it’s the town’s wall.”
Max squinted. “I think you’re right. Oh, thank God.” He grinned and squeezed Sofie’s hand. “Now the question is how do we get inside? Do you think they have guards and curfews and such in this time period?”
“That’s hard to say.” She tried to give an encouraging smile although she didn’t particularly feel it. “Unfortunately, we don’t know the exact time period.”
“Well, no, not really,” Max said. “Can you tell anything from the clothing those riders wore?”
She shrugged. “My best guess is mid-to-late eighteenth century. If that’s so, they might have sentry guards or night watchmen.”
As they approached the wall, the prospect of seeing her town in its early days both energized her and encouraged the knot in her stomach to tighten, not knowing what awaited them. When they were finally close, the all-too-familiar wall made her smile, in spite of the potential danger, remembering how she’d explored it many times during her summer visits as a child. “I think we’ll find the north gate easily enough, but we’ll have to be careful of the sentry tower.”
“Sentry tower?” Max asked. “Does that mean we may get shot at when we try to go inside?”
“I certainly hope not.” She hoped she sounded reassuring. “If I’m right about the time period, they used turrets, or sentry towers, to spot armies who were trying to invade. Hopefully, they’ll not be watching closely for small groups.”
“What will they do to us if they do see us?”
“Again, that’s hard to say. Let us try not to be seen, just in case. Stick very close to the wall and be quiet as mice. I believe that night walking after curfew was forbidden.”
“Oh, great,” Max mumbled.
“I doubt we’re past curfew yet,” she added. Sofie took hold of Lotte’s arm and helped her along, the older woman obviously struggling to keep up. When they reached the gate to the town, Lotte sat down on the ground. Max was breathing hard. Ryan looked at them, and shook his head.
Tobias started to run past them, but Max reached out and grabbed him. “Stop, Tobias! You need to wait for us. It could be dangerous.”
Tobias groaned softly in protest. “Okay.”
Sofie looked at Max. “Are you ready?”
He nodded.
Tante Lotte and the boys stared at Sofie and Max, apparently waiting for instruction.
“Wait here,” Sofie said to the others. “I’ll check it out before we all enter.” She crept up to the gate and peered around the corner, unsure what to expect. The buildings appeared much the same, but the similarity ended there. A foul-smell assaulted her and made her want to retch. Horses were standing about, snorting and whinnying, swishing their tails to keep the flies and other clouds of flying insects at bay. Chickens and pigs roamed about freely, befouling muddy streets and confirming that they were no longer in the twenty-first century.
Someone in a house near the town wall leaned out from a second-story window and emptied a large basin down onto the street below, causing the horses and livestock to scatter. Sofie suspected that the animals weren’t the only source of the disgusting stench.
The word ‘stankgemach’ sprang to mind and she cringed, remembering something she’d read about privileged homes in eighteenth cen
tury Germany having a privy, or stankgemach, in the top story. The owners would empty the contents of the privy, or toilet, onto the streets below.
Seeing no choice, she turned back, collected the others, braced herself and carefully they entered the town.
Tobias said, “Oh, Mom, yuck, what is that horrible smell?”
“Trust me, you don’t want to know.” Sofie gazed up at the windows of houses they were walking past. Looking behind her, she whispered, “Stay close to the buildings’ walls as much as possible. We don’t want to step into something or have something poured on top of us.”
They wound their way through the streets, trying to stay in the darker areas and out of sight. But much of the cobblestone on the streets leading off from the marketplace were ankle-twistingly uneven. Worse yet, piles of firewood or other obstructions would seemingly appear out of nowhere in the darkness and Sofie kept bumping into or tripping over them, being in the lead. Occasional oil lamps, which hung from ropes that stretched across the streets, provided scant pools of flickering light, but offered little in the way of guidance for those attempting to avoid notice.
Sofie turned a corner onto another street containing both businesses and residences. In the dimness she could barely make out the trapdoors leading down into cellars and steps leading upstairs to houses, many of which were pushed out well into the street. The steps going up would trip her and make her stumble, but those going down could result in serious injury or even death, which meant she had to be extremely cautious. She conveyed her distress to the others, reminding them that they did not want to discover what passed for medical care in this era.
Most of the houses were three-story buildings, with a shop or workshop on the ground level and flats for the families up above. Sofie recognized some of them from the Riesen of the present. They were ‘Fachwerk’ or timber-framed construction, with the spaces in between the timber beams filled in with brick or wattle and daub, as Max had talked about earlier in the day.