Finally, Ryan took a sip of his Diet Coke, set it on the wood coffee table in front of the chairs and turned to look at her fully. “What do you think of their offer?”
“Too good and too crazy to be true,” she said. And she believed that almost to her core. But at the same time, she wanted it to all be true and she was still in awe of Bonnie and Duster, even after spending a day with them and the crazy talk.
“I agree,” Ryan said, nodding. “But I don’t see a downside in letting them prove to us tomorrow that they are either joking or that what they are saying is true.”
She agreed with that. She would have no idea why two major scientists would tell such a tall tale, but she wanted to find out why.
But mostly, she had to admit, she wanted to spend more time with Ryan.
A lot more time.
“So if we agree to this,” she said, “we’re going to be working with each other and spending time closely together. You all right with that?”
“It’s what I’m hoping,” Ryan said, smiling at her. “How do you feel about that?”
“Completely the same,” she said, returning his smile.
Silence as they stared at each other in the firelight.
Damn, she just wanted to kiss him.
It didn’t get any better than this on the romantic scale of things. She was alone with a handsome, smart man, in a giant log lodge, high in the mountains, in front of a soft wood fire.
If this didn’t end up in mad, crazy sex, something was wrong with both of them.
But she had no idea how to bridge that gap between the two chairs without standing and going over there and just sitting on his lap. That was a consideration and if something didn’t happen soon, she was going to do just that.
“Well,” he said, after they had looked at each for a very long time in the flickering light. “There is something I really need to do.”
He stood and she could feel her heart sinking. She should have just stood and moved over and sat on his lap. Damn, why had she hesitated?
He reached for her hand and pulled her out of the chair and then into his arms.
And then he kissed her before she even realized what had happened.
After a moment, she kissed him back, holding him and pushing into him.
He felt wonderful. Very strong, and he kissed better than any man she had ever kissed before.
They kissed like that for a very long time until she suddenly realized how warm she was getting, both from his kisses and the close fire.
She needed to get out of these clothes and get him out of his as well.
She pushed back from him and said, “We’re going to have a really interesting day tomorrow.”
He nodded.
She took his hand and turned both of them toward the staircase. “We need to get some sleep, don’t you think?”
He started to say something and then stopped.
At the bottom of the stairs, she stopped and turned and kissed him again. Then she said, “I think we should sleep in my room, don’t you? Your room is beside Bonnie and Dusters’ room and I would hate to wake them with our sleeping.”
He laughed and then said, “So you snore?”
“Oh, I can be much louder than that if the time and place and motion is right.”
That time he just coughed.
She led him up the stairs and to her bedroom, which was (as far as she was concerned) exactly how that scene in front of the fire should have ended.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
December 24th, 2018
Boise, Idaho
“GOD DAMN IT!” Stout shouted as the song started.
Sandy, Billy, and Carl had all been looking at Dave and Stout. But as one they turned to look at the bar stool where a moment before Fred had been sitting.
“Oh, no,” Carl said.
Sandy just shook her head. “Every year we do this and every year something weird happens.”
Stout moved down the bar and put his hand on Fred’s barstool, as if that would help bring him back.
“Damn it! I forgot to ask him if he had a memory with that song. What the hell was I thinking?”
“Don’t worry about it, Stout.” Sandy said. “He’ll be back.”
Stout picked up Fred’s glass and looked at the name. “He didn’t come back last time he left here through the jukebox.”
Stout reached over and picked up Dave’s glass. Then he headed back for the jukebox. “I want everyone holding onto the jukebox when the song ends. If he doesn’t come back this time, I want someone besides me remembering him.”
Sandy laughed. “Boy won’t Dad be in for a surprise when he gets back.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
About two years later…
June 11th, 2020
Boise, Idaho
RYAN AND TALIA didn’t get much sleep that night, and the morning shower together made them late for breakfast with Bonnie and Duster and Dawn.
Ryan didn’t care in the slightest. It had been a flat wonderful night. And at that moment he wanted to take any job, it didn’t matter, that would keep him close to Talia.
But while they were getting dressed, they talked a little about the coming decision and it was clear to Ryan that both of them had come to the same conclusion.
They both wanted to see what Bonnie and Duster had been talking about and have it proven that all that they said was real. And if it all turned out to be real, by some strange chance, both Ryan and Talia would take the jobs in a heartbeat.
So at breakfast, they had told Bonnie and Duster they wanted to see what they had to show them.
Bonnie and Duster and Dawn all applauded.
After a short breakfast and packing, Duster decided to leave his car at the Institute and all four of them flew in the helicopter back to Boise. What had been a long seven hour drive on twisting mountain roads turned out to be a thirty-five minute beautiful flight over the mountains.
They flew close by the main downtown area of Boise that looked like it had more trees than people and then to the airport.
Fifteen minutes after landing, Duster pulled a large Cadillac SUV, just like the one he had left in the mountains, into the driveway of a large mansion. Bonnie had driven that one to the airport and when Ryan asked how many of the big Cadillacs they owned, Duster laughed and said simply, “Enough.”
The road the mansion sat on was called Warm Springs and Ryan was stunned at the beauty of the street. Huge old towering oak and cottonwood trees seemed to line the entire length, forming a dark green sky over the pavement.
The mansion they pulled into after an automatic gate opened was a massive Victorian-style building with a wide front porch and a couple of tall towers stretching up seemingly into the trees. The base was made of large stone and parts of the building were brick.
Ryan could count at least four chimneys as Duster took them past the massive home and into a large parking garage in the back. Down the hill from the parking garage was a river, lined by a paved path on both sides and tall trees.
“This is just amazing,” Talia said.
Ryan couldn’t have said it better.
As they climbed out of the Cadillac, the large garage door closed. Duster moved over to a door in the sidewall. “There will be plenty of time to explore the main mansion.” He opened the door and stepped into what looked like a storage area for tools.
He eased one tool forward slightly on a wooden bench and the entire wall slid aside revealing a staircase going down.
Ryan just shook his head and smiled at Talia.
As Duster started down the stairs he said loud enough for Ryan and Talia to hear, “The underground caverns extend not only under this property, but under the properties to either side, which the Institute owns as well.”
“What exactly is this institute?” Talia asked.
Behind her Bonnie answered. “Historical Studies Institute is the official name. It is dedicated to helping research of different times in history.”
&
nbsp; “As Dawn has done?” Talia asked.
“Exactly,” Bonnie said as Duster reached the bottom of the very long stairs and punched a combination into a key pad and the big metal door clicked open. Ryan was very impressed. Clearly money was not a consideration for anything.
He had no idea how Bonnie and Duster intended he and Talia to get rich as they said, but it seemed to Ryan to be more and more possible the more he saw.
Duster led them into a large cavern that seemed to stretch into a distance. It had been carved out of solid rock and had a very high ceiling. The floor was smooth stone and ahead he could see a large living room area with a dozen couches and chairs in various groupings around a massive stone fireplace. The fireplace had a real wood fire going, burning softly.
The air seemed dry and comfortably warm.
A huge kitchen ran along one wall and a bar divided it from the living room area that could sit a dozen people. There was no one else around at all but the four of them.
Ryan just stopped near a couch and stared around, trying to take it all in.
“Is this the Nexus you were talking about?” Talia asked, staring around at the huge cavern.
“No,” Duster said as both he and Bonnie went into the kitchen area and opened a large fridge there. “Something to drink?”
“Water,” Talia said.
“Water is great,” Ryan said, moving over to the large counter and sitting on a stool before his knees gave out from just the surprise of seeing this.
“How big is this place?” Talia asked as she sat on the stool beside Ryan.
“It goes down two more levels and a pretty good distance in both directions,” Bonnie said, giving both of them a plastic bottle of cold water.
“Some of it isn’t used in this time period,” Duster said. “It was built for expansion. We’ll explain all that later after we show you what is possible here.”
“When did you build this?” Ryan asked, still trying to gather his thoughts.
“We brought crews in from the East Coast in 1880, when this was still way out in the country,” Duster said. “And we switched the crews out every few months so no one would really know the extent of what was down here.”
“And we paid them well for their silence,” Bonnie said, smiling.
“Yeah,” Duster said. “We did that as well.”
“So how many people know this is down here?” Ryan asked, looking at the furniture. It must be a vast number.
“You two are number twenty-one and twenty-two,” Bonnie said. “There are more in the Institute in the future, of course.”
Ryan looked at the dark eyes of Bonnie and then at Duster, who seemed like all this was normal.
“Why us?” Talia asked, softly.
“Because we need you two to solve this math problem with the sound and time,” Duster said. “And we figure together, with our help and the help of a few others, you can do it.”
“And if we don’t solve it?” Ryan asked, “Do you erase all this from out minds or something?”
Both Bonnie and Duster laughed. “Not hardly,” Bonnie said after a moment. “Once you are in, you are in.”
“I’m sure that you two will be solving more math and sound problems than the one we want as the years go by,” Duster said.
“So you really can travel in time?” Ryan asked. “Are we going to get to see this Nexus?”
“We can travel into other timelines,” Duster said, smiling. “And go into those other basically identical timelines at various points, which gives the sensation of traveling in time. But we cannot go back into the past of this timeline, so technically, no, we cannot travel in time.”
Ryan nodded. He actually understood all that.
“And we don’t need to go to the Nexus to do so,” Bonnie said. “Not since we built this place.”
“So you two ready to see the past of another timeline?” Duster asked, putting his water bottle on the counter.
Ryan glanced at Talia and she nodded slowly.
Ryan felt more scared and more excited than he had felt in years.
He stood and helped Talia off her bar stool and the two of them, hand-in-hand, followed Bonnie and Duster toward a side entrance to the cavern.
“Scared?” Talia asked softly.
“Terrified,” Ryan said, smiling at her.
“Oh, good,” she said. “That way both of us will be shaking at the same time.”
He just squeezed her hand as they headed forward toward a trip into the past.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
December 23rd, 1998
Outside Boise, Idaho
THE SPOTLIGHT HIT Fred square in the face and he moved to cover his eyes. Only his arm hit the steering wheel of his ’57 Chevy.
“What...?” He said out loud as he glanced around like a frightened deer caught in a hunter’s sights.
The car’s engine and lights were off and the windows were rolled up tight. Rick Nelson belted out the song on the oldies station on the radio. Sweat trickled down the side of Fred’s face and down his bare chest. The temperature inside the car must have been that of a steam bath and the spotlight was coming through the fogged-up front window.
“Oh, no!” A young woman’s voice said from beside him.
He turned to look at her. That was when the memories flooded in like light pouring through an open door between a dark room and a lit one.
Marcy was struggling to get her bra back on. The two of them had dated for two years after Alice left him. Marcy worked at the department store downtown in the men’s section and wanted him to be her husband more than almost anything.
That fact had suited him just fine because it made parking with her a lot of fun. She ended up marrying a guy from the appliance section of the store and had three kids last Fred heard.
Tonight was their first anniversary of going out and they were parked on the canal bank behind an orchard to the south of town. It was the only night they ever got caught parking by the police.
“This can’t be,” Fred said. He looked completely around the car. It was his classic restored ’57 Chevy all right. The one he wrecked in 1999 while driving drunk on New Year’s Eve.
A moment ago he was sitting in the Garden Lounge with a bunch of people who he thought were nuts and now he was back here parking with Marcy.
He held onto the steering wheel with sweaty hands.
He could still freshly remember getting here and what they had been doing just a few short moments ago. He remembered taking her bra off and almost putting his hand up her skirt. In fact, he was still aroused from all of it and he hadn’t had anything but a piss-erection in years back at the old Golden Dream Hotel.
He had said he never looked a gift horse in the mouth. The Private Investigator’s words now echoed back through his mind: “You just never know when a miracle might happen.”
So this was what she was talking about.
Marcy smacked his arm. “Hurry! Get your shirt on.”
Outside he heard the car door close and a vague shape through the fogged window started toward the door.
He had a clear memory that they had gotten dressed before the cop got to the window and the cop let them go with a strict warning to be moving along. They had laughed about it for days.
Stout had warned David not to change anything when he punched up the song. And Stout had said that the reason Fred didn’t end up back at the Garden was because he changed something when he did this music/time-travel thing the last time.
If what Stout had been saying back there at the Garden was true, and it looked like it was, he had better do some fast dressing.
Real fast.
Marcy was already buttoning her blouse as he turned around and grabbed his shirt off the back seat where his younger self had tossed it a short time before. He had it on and buttoned, in what seemed like impossible speed to his older brain, just as the cop tapped on the window.
Marcy straightened her hair as Fred rolled down the window and looked into t
he cop’s flashlight. “Wow, that’s bright.”
He remembered that was the exact same thing he had said when he didn’t have years of memories to draw upon.
The cop shined his light on him, then on Marcy.
She smiled at the cop.
Fred turned and smiled at him as well.
Then the classic Ricky Nelson stopped singing.
And Fred was back on his bar stool at the Garden Lounge.
Stout, Sandy, Carl, and Billy stood around the jukebox, touching it.
Dave stood in front of the jukebox staring at them.
“Wow,” was all Fred could say.
All four cheered and Stout held up an empty glass as if in a toast.
It felt really good to be back.
Real good.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
About twenty-two years later…
June 11th, 2020
Boise, Idaho
TALIA HELD ONTO Ryan’s hand as much as he held onto hers as Duster opened a large door into another cavern. As the door opened, the lights came up bright and illuminated a vast warehouse of clothing and supplies that seemed to span most of the last century in styles and looks.
“Amazing,” Ryan said softly.
“Bigger than a couple dozen Wal-Mart stores,” Bonnie said. “Anything you would need for any time period.
Duster moved over and handed Ryan a brown cowboy hat and a long brown oilskin coat like the one Duster wore.
Bonnie helped Talia into a dress over her blouse and jeans. The dress buttoned up the back and had a long skirt, but Bonnie said there was no point in buttoning it more than one button. They were just taking this much precaution in case they were seen from a distance by anyone. They needed to look the time period.
That scared Talia more than she wanted to admit, because up until this point, she hadn’t really believed any of the time travel stuff at all.
“What date are we going to in the other timeline?” Ryan asked.
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