“December 27th, 1889,” Duster said as he turned and led them through another door on the other side of the massive supply cavern.
Inside the other door was a very wide hallway going in both directions in the rock. And there had to be a good fifty or more doors, all closed, on one side of the hallway.
“This looks like a bad nightmare,” Ryan said.
Talia had to agree with that completely.
Duster laughed. “They are all numbered from one end to the other. Seventy doors.”
Talia didn’t even know what to think of that. This underground complex was just huge.
Duster pulled one door open about twenty steps down the hallway to the right. It was numbered 29.
On the other side of the door, the room looked like another long hallway that went deep into the rock. Along the right side were wooden tables with small wooden boxes on them. Then a floor-to-ceiling chain-link fence next to the table divided the long narrow room right down the middle.
Nestled in the rock wall on the other side of the fence was what looked like large rose quartz crystals with a flexible band around them and two wires leading from the band on each crystal to one of the wooden boxes on the table.
“Only a few of us are allowed into the area with the crystals,” Duster said, pointing beyond the fence wall. “Never touch one. Extreme high energy, more than we have been able to measure.”
“What are they?” Talia asked, staring at the beautiful crystals along the wall. There had to be sixty or more in this narrow long room. They seemed like a quartz crystal and all were slightly different shapes and sizes.
“Timelines,” Ryan said softly.
Duster again laughed. “Exactly. Each crystal is a timeline. We took all these from the Nexus and brought them here.”
“Every decision of every person creates a new timeline,” Bonnie said. “A new crystal is formed with every decision. If nothing changes, the timeline is absorbed back into the original crystal.”
Talia took a deep breath and tried to focus. “So we are in a crystal somewhere like one of those?”
“We are,” Duster said.
“And if I decided to walk away now,” she said, “a new crystal would form from that decision?”
“In an almost infinite number of timelines, you do walk away,” Bonnie said. “And in an almost infinite amount of timelines you stay.”
“So if we go back into another timeline,” Ryan said, pointing at a crystal on the wall, if we change nothing, a new timeline is not created? Correct?”
“No, it is created by you simply going into the timeline,” Duster said. “But if you change nothing, it absorbs back into the original crystal.”
“So how does this area not instantly fill with crystals from the infinite number of decisions being made in all those timelines?” Talia asked.
“The new timelines form in the Nexus,” Duster said. “We had to prove that mathematically before we even dared remove a crystal from the Nexus.”
Ryan nodded and Talia just took another deep breath.
“Will you stay here and pull the plug in fifteen minutes?” Duster asked Bonnie.
“Glad to,” she said, smiling, as Duster took one of the wires coming from the crystal and hooked it onto what looked like a battery pole sticking from the side of the wooden box.
He pointed to the pole, then the wire. “Red to red.”
Then he adjusted three simple wooden dials on the front side of the wooden box. “Year, date, and time,” Duster said.
Then as Talia watched, Duster picked up a thick work glove and put it on his right hand.
“Touch the top of the wooden box,” Bonnie said, smiling at them. “And then keep looking at me.”
Both Ryan and Talia touched the top of the smoothly polished wooden box. She had never given time travel much thought, but she never would have thought a time travel machine would be wooden on the outside.
Then Duster hooked up the second wire and Bonnie simply vanished.
There was no sense of movement.
Nothing.
“Where did she go?” Talia asked, glancing around at the long room.
“She didn’t go anywhere,” Duster said. “We did. Welcome to 1889.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
December 27th, 1889
Boise, Idaho
RYAN TOOK TALIA’S hand for comfort and the two of them followed Duster and his swirling long coat and cowboy hat back through the large supply room.
The cavern seemed almost empty compared to a moment before. Clearly they didn’t need as much stuff at this point in time and brought many things from the future. But it still had a lot, more than any large store, from saddles to coats and dresses and boots and hats.
They went back out into the large area with the kitchen and couches. Now all the furniture was period pieces and the kitchen looked more like a saloon bar than anything.
“How often do you upgrade this room?” Talia asked.
Ryan was impressed she could even get out a question. He was so stunned that jumping to other timelines was real, his brain was on mush mode.
“Every ten or so years,” Duster said without slowing down. “But behind some of that time-appropriate decorations are hidden more modern features.”
Ryan could understand that. He would have to ask Duster how they brought larger items back and how often they had to do that, considering the timeline problems.
Duster led them to an old elevator and opened the door for them.
“Don’t worry,” Duster said. “We modernized this as well.
Talia had hesitated getting onto the elevator that looked like it was made out of metal fence and Ryan was about to ask where the stairs were. The door to the elevator was nothing more than an ornate metal gate painted black.
“Elevators were fairly new in 1889, right?” Talia asked.
Again Ryan was impressed that her brain was working at all, let alone that she had that kind of information.
“A decade or so,” Duster said. “But I wouldn’t get on one until the 1920s.”
That just made Ryan shake his head again. This was real.
It couldn’t be, but it was.
The elevator was smooth and stopped in a small room with wood-paneled walls and ornate trim.
“Secret room on the main floor of the mansion,” Duster said. “You’ll learn all the ins and outs of the Institute mansion over time.”
He looked through a peephole in the wood, then nodded and pushed open a hidden doorway.
Colder air hit Ryan at once as they stepped into the ornate front room and parlor of the mansion. Two overstuffed cloth chairs and a large couch faced a massive stone fireplace in one corner. A fire was burning and that seemed to be the only heat in the room.
Brown carpets covered some of the hardwood floors under the chairs and everything in the room was done in brown tones.
Ryan instantly liked the feel of the room.
“Nice,” Talia said softly.
A large, ornate wooden desk sort of dominated an archway between the front parlor and a second room. A large guest book was open on the desk for people to sign.
The windows in the room were tall and the ceilings high, with an ornate chandelier hanging down in the middle. Heavy cloth drapes covered the windows and were closed. Three glass lanterns were lit on tables and two more on the desk, but even with the help of the fire, the room seemed dim.
Duster gave them a moment to look around, then he went to the front door and pulled it open. “If you don’t mind,” he said, “I’ll stay here.”
Ryan looked at him funny and then pushed open the screen door and stepped out into the extreme cold of the front porch.
Talia was right behind him.
He made it two steps and stopped, stunned.
The cold snapped at his face and it was snowing lightly. It was clearly still in the middle of the afternoon, but the light was dim because of the storm.
The huge oak trees that had
been beside the mansion when they drove in were now much smaller and where the driveway had been was a wagon track.
There was no Warm Springs Avenue, either. Nothing more than a wagon track, quickly getting covered by the blowing snow, went past the front of the mansion.
The mansions on either side looked new and there were no other structures at all within sight through the snow.
“We really are in the past,” Talia said, again taking his hand.
“In another timeline’s past,” Ryan said.
They stood there, shivering for a moment, then Ryan realized what he had been thinking. “Bonnie and Duster have been telling us the complete truth.”
“Yeah,” Talia said.
“And they are giving us the opportunity,” Ryan said, “to travel in time, be basically immortal, rich, and work on the most challenging project I could ever imagine.”
“Yeah,” Talia said again, her voice almost taken away by the wind and blowing snow.
“So are you going to say yes to their offer?” Ryan asked, turning to look at her.
“If you are,” she said, looking up at him. “I can’t imagine learning all this on my own. And I could never imagine myself saying that ever.”
He laughed and nodded. “I feel the same way.”
“So let’s do it,” Ryan said.
Talia nodded. “But first, let’s get out of this cold.”
“If I understand this correctly,” Ryan said, “that’s going to happen any moment.”
“Good,” Talia said, “because this dress is a damn poor excuse for a coat.”
At that moment, Ryan found himself back underground, his hand next to Talia’s and Duster’s on the wooden box, and Bonnie smiling at them, holding the wire she had just disconnected from the box.
“Welcome back to 2020,” Bonnie said.
All Ryan could do was shiver. And beside him, Talia’s teeth were actually chattering.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
December 24th, 2018
Boise, Idaho
FRED HAD ANOTHER drink as he told them about his adventure with Marcy, getting caught parking, and who she was to him and his life now. He explained that his two years with Marcy had mostly been trying to forget about being in love with Alice. It had been a fun time, but nothing really important, or life altering.
After he got done telling his story, and Dave told his about how great it was to watch his daughter being born, Sandy went back through the jukebox to visit her senior prom.
She came back smiling and laughing and told everyone all about it, right down to where she and her girlfriends spiked the punch to get the guys drunk.
Carl went back to visit his mother and when he came back he didn’t say much and no one really pushed him.
It shocked Fred both times when they just sort of popped out of existence and then back again when the song ended.
And before each song Stout asked Fred if he had any memories associated with the song.
Stout and Billy both declined to play a song, so when Carl returned and dropped back onto his bar stool, Stout moved down the bar and stood in front of Fred.
“Usually,” he said, “we only go back once, but since your first trip was an accident, are you interested in giving it another try this year?”
His question surprised Fred, for some reason. “Give me just a second to think about it.” He slid his glass toward Stout. “How about a refill?”
He nodded and moved down the bar with Fred’s special glass as Fred thought about Alice. She had turned out to be the one woman, over all the years, that he truly had loved. Now he had a chance to go see her again. And maybe tell her how he really felt.
Maybe keep her from leaving him.
Stout was offering him another gift.
And this was a very special gift.
Fred turned on his stool and looked out over the empty Garden Lounge. This evening had been one of the nicest, and wildest, he had spent in more years than he cared to remember. He enjoyed the people and he enjoyed the place.
Why leave it at the moment?
Besides, if Stout was right, he and Alice had ended up in a really ugly divorce that he hated enough to change once. Maybe he was just cut out in this life to live alone, as he had done. Maybe on this gift, this year, it was better to look the old horse in the mouth.
Stout set the glass on the napkin.
Fred turned around to face him again. “Thanks for the offer,” Fred said. “But I think I will pass this year. One was enough. Maybe next year if you want me back.”
Stout broke into a huge smile. “Every year. You are always welcome.”
Stout moved down the bar and unplugged the jukebox. “That’s it for another year,” he said.
They all toasted the jukebox and then spent the next hour laughing and talking about anything and everything, including what Stout could remember of Fred’s previous life, including how really unhappy he had been with Alice.
At a little after midnight on Christmas morning, Sandy dropped Fred off in front of the Golden Dream Hotel for Men.
He almost bounded up the front stairs, feeling younger and more alive than he had in years. He wasn’t sure why a few drinks and a trip into his own past would make him feel that way. But it did.
And for the moment that was all that mattered.
He unlocked the front door and went into the front foyer.
The place was dark, the only light the one over the old front desk cage. Hank and Michael were long asleep. In fact this was the latest Fred had stayed up in years.
He looked around at the deep shadows and the worn furniture. It was as if he was seeing it for the first time. Seeing the age and the stagnation. Nothing had changed in this room for as long as he had lived here.
He patted the back of Hank’s chair and a small cloud of dust rose in the dim light. Maybe it was time to bring some life back here.
Fred wandered over to the open area beside the cage and looked up at the high ceiling. Twenty feet, maybe. More than enough room for a Christmas tree.
Tomorrow the three of them would stop down at the Garden to have a Christmas drink with Stout. He had promised he would fix them his special eggnog.
And then Fred and Hank and Michael would go buy a Christmas tree for the hotel. It was time they started a few traditions of their own. The guys would piss and moan, but they would enjoy it. They retired sure, but they weren’t that old.
And then maybe the following week he might find an old jukebox. A real one that only gave you memories instead of trips through time.
A person didn’t always have to go into the past to change the present. As he discovered tonight, with a very special gift from the strangest gift horse he had ever met, sometimes you can do it right now.
PART THREE
The Power of Music
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
About one hundred and thirteen years earlier…
May 30th, 1905
Monumental Summit Lodge, Idaho
TALIA COULD NOT believe how identical the lodge looked in 1905 from when she first saw it four months before in 2020. Almost every detail had been preserved. Same style of 1900 cloth furniture, same polished logs for the walls and ceilings, same wide wooden staircase, same types of wooden tables and chairs in the dining area.
The air in the lodge smelled wonderfully of new timber and a wood fire. She loved it more the second time than she had the first time.
Even Dawn Edwards greeted them behind the counter when they arrived with big hugs. They had just finished building the lodge in this timeline.
The only difference Talia could see clearly was outside the scars of construction of the lodge three years earlier still showed. And Talia hadn’t come in on a helicopter, but instead on a three-day horseback ride from Boise.
And this time, she and Ryan shared a room. The same room they had made love in for the first time.
Since they had accepted Bonnie and Duster’s offer, they had both been working nonstop a
fter taking a quick trip forward in time with both Bonnie and Duster to 2120.
She didn’t get to see anything there because Bonnie and Duster just wanted to anchor them in that timeline. So they had turned around, hooked up another crystal near the back of one of the long crystal rooms, and jumped back.
Now, the entire life she would live in 2020 and forward would only take two minutes and fifteen seconds of her life in 2120. In other words, she was basically immortal. Thinking of that just made her head hurt.
Ryan had tried to explain it with math one night and she actually had understood most of that, even though it was out of her area.
And now they were spending two minutes and fifteen seconds of her life in 2020 on years in the past. After four intense months of math research plus learning how to ride a horse, learning how to dress in 1905 women’s clothing, and learning how to act as a woman of means in 1905, they had made the trip back.
The four months had allowed both her and Ryan to really get to know each other. They spent morning, noon, and nights together. As every day had gone by, she had fallen more and more in love with him.
And the research they had done had allowed them to just start to put her knowledge of sound waves with his knowledge of the physics of time and space. Bonnie and Duster had both worked with them to jump them in quick order to a working knowledge of the math of alternate timelines. That also had helped.
Now she and Ryan planned on spending most of a lifetime together running tests and continuing to work on the math in the past.
In other words, she had committed herself to spend a lifetime with a man she had only known four months and she was happy about that.
Very happy about that.
And from everything he said, he was as well.
Even with the months of practicing riding a horse, that first day from the Institute in Boise and up over some ridgelines had gotten her very sore.
The four of them had camped at a hot springs and the soak had helped, so the second day was easier and on the third day leg up to the lodge, she had felt fine.
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