She couldn’t believe that even a hundred years in the future from her time, this had still happened. She decided she needed just a bit more information.
She needed to have that information so she could go home and try to move past Megan. She had a hunch that was going to be the most difficult thing she had ever done in her life, but she had time.
Hundreds and hundreds of years of time.
She would do it, and having just a little more information would help her do that.
She would never forget Megan, but she would get past her.
“What was the doctor’s name again that operated on Megan?” Carol asked Parks.
He seemed startled by the question, seeming to come out of a daze himself. He looked down at the screen in front of them. “Dr. LaBeck was the lead surgeon and the one that brought the news to us.”
Carol nodded. “Think you could arrange for us to talk to him again. As a doctor, I just need a little bit more information to help me not dwell on this.”
Parks nodded and turned to a nice man behind a desk nearby. After a few minutes, Dr. LaBeck agreed to meet them in his office on the fourteenth floor.
His office looked like a surgeon’s office in a hospital might have looked a hundred years earlier. A couch, some chairs, and a large desk with a screen that seemed to come up from the desk. Three different electronic pads of some sort were stacked on one corner.
He greeted them and nodded to Director Parks.
Then he turned to Carol. “I am very sorry once again for your loss.”
Carol was thinking enough now to know exactly how to take Dr. LaBeck off the hook.
“We know you did everything you could, Doctor,” Carol said. “But for the sake of my curiosity and to settle a discussion Megan and I used to have, would there have been a time that a heart replacement operation would have worked for her?”
“Without a doubt,” Dr. LaBeck said. “If she had had the same operation at about age eleven, the malfunctioning heart would have never had the time to destroy everything around it. I am amazed she made it to the age of twenty-five, honestly, considering the amount of damage around her heart.”
That made sense to Carol. By age thirteen or fourteen, Megan was already doomed to die somewhere in the time frame that she had died.
“Why age eleven?” Director Parks asked.
Carol could have told him, but she let Dr. LaBeck do so.
“Because most of the growth of internal organs and the heart that is going to happen has happened at that point in a child’s life,” Dr. LaBeck said. “Earlier in age and the process of a heart replacement would be too dangerous. Later and the damage would have started to happen.”
Carol nodded.
“In other words,” Carol said, “there was nothing that could have been done to save Megan at her age.”
Dr. LaBeck nodded. “I’m afraid that is correct.”
Carol stood which caused both Director Parks and Dr. LaBeck to stand.
Carol reached out her hand and shook the doctor’s hand. “Thank you for giving Megan at least a small chance.”
“I wish a miracle would have happened here,” LaBeck said.
“We all did,” Carol said.
With that, she turned and headed out the door on a path back to 2019 and a life without Megan in it.
CHAPTER FORTY
June 14th, 2019
Boise, Idaho
CAROL ALLOWED HERSELF just a week to mourn Megan. She had lost her four times and each time it had seemed to rip her heart out.
But the reality of the world was that Megan would never be a part of her life in any time. Carol couldn’t go back and meet Megan again just to watch her die at any moment.
She loved Megan more than anything in the world, but she couldn’t put herself through that again.
Then after a week, Carol took Megan’s beautiful quilt and folded it carefully and put it in the top of a closet she never used and seldom opened.
Out of sight, out of mind.
Carol was under no illusion that would happen, but having the quilt in the living room to remind her of Megan every day wasn’t a good plan either.
Maybe, down the road, Carol would bring the quilt out as a fond memory. But right now everything was just too raw and painful.
And it all felt so unfair.
She had been blessed with basically being immortal, being able to live entire lifetimes in other timelines and then only have two minutes pass.
Yet Megan, the woman Carol loved, got only a short twenty-five years in one lifetime.
As a doctor, Carol knew that life was basically unfair. But this just seemed to be over an edge.
So after one week, Carol went back to her office in the Institute library, put away all her notes on the Strong Women of the West book she had started writing, and opened up a new file.
It was time she tackled the women of ill-repute book in the West she had always hoped to write some day. She didn’t have a title for it yet, but she knew she would, given time.
That would keep her mind busy for at least five years or more in real 2019 time and who knew how many decades of time back in the past. And when back in the past, she would make sure she stayed away from the Idanha Hotel.
And her plan worked.
Slowly, day after day, month after month, the pain of losing Megan dulled. It never really went away and almost everything reminded Carol of Megan.
But Carol knew she was getting better, slowly.
At one point Carol had gone into the cavern with the crystals from her trips back with Megan. For the longest time she sat and stared at the crystal with the timeline where she had first met Megan and Megan had died in front of the Institute.
And beside that crystal was another crystal, another timeline, where Megan had died in her rooms.
And beside that one was another crystal where Megan had died here, in 2019. At some point, Carol needed to return to that timeline a day or so after they had left and tell the fine people at the Idanha Hotel that Megan had died suddenly.
Then there was the crystal where Megan had died in the future. Carol needed to go back yet again in that crystal and tell the fine people who were friends with Megan about her death.
But there was no hurry. Carol could do that at any point, since even ten years from now she could jump to just a day after they left.
She had all the time in all the timelines to do that. She could wait until the pain didn’t feel so sharp and the memory wasn’t so clear.
She would wait.
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
September 6, 1898
Outside Missoula, Montana
FIVE YEARS LATER, measured by her alive time, but just over a month measured by 2019 time, on a trip into the past, Carol found herself in 1898 in Missoula, Montana.
The days were getting shorter and the nights colder. She planned on heading back south to Boise and back to 2019 in the next few weeks before the snow started to fly. She hated traveling in the fall alone in snow through the mountains. Just too dangerous, even though she felt she could take care of herself just fine. She didn’t want to have to test that.
The small farming and mining towns around Missoula had some interesting battles with the brothels during those times and she had numbers of leads to talk with women in those small towns. She figured it might be a chapter in her book at least.
As she was sitting in her hotel room in Missoula, a map spread out on her bed, planning her next few weeks, she noticed the name of a small town thirty miles east of Missoula.
Placerville.
Megan’s home town.
By September 1898, Megan would have been gone from there for four years already, widowed and living in Boise. But a number of times Megan had mentioned that she missed her mother. Her father was dead, but her mother and two sisters still ran the family farm, as much as it was.
Carol decided she wanted to see where Megan grew up. Just curiosity, more than anything else. The five years had dul
led the ache enough that Carol thought she could manage the visit.
So two days later, she rode up to the small log and wood home tucked off in some trees near a creek. It was a far more beautiful place than Megan had described.
Carol had decided to tell them she had met Megan in Boise and since she was riding by, working on her new book, she said she would stop in and say hello.
She reverted back to working on the Strong Women in the West book for her story and gave her name as Ann, her middle name. She didn’t want word getting back to Megan and making her wonder who this strange woman was visiting her family.
Turns out Megan’s mother was a strong woman in her own right.
Her name was Marie and she was short compared to Megan, but had Megan’s dark, intense eyes. If Carol ever got back to working on that book, she would have to include a chapter on Marie, of that there was no doubt.
Marie invited Carol inside to the comfortable-feeling living area and kitchen. A wooden table that showed decades of use filled one area beside the kitchen.
Marie offered Carol some tea and a shortbread cookie as she sat and Carol gladly accepted. There was no sign of the other two daughters being close by, but it seemed clear they were living here.
Marie had raised four daughters alone in this small cabin after her husband was killed by another man in a fight. Megan had been the second to the youngest, but still had pitched in and worked to help.
Carol enjoyed talking with Marie as they sipped their tea. Carol now understood where Megan got her calm and sense of humor about the tough things in life.
At one point, the conversation came around to Megan and her mother beamed and asked how she was doing. “Her last letter said she was baking at the Thunderbird.”
“Seems fine,” Carol said. “She is still baking at the Thunderbird Hotel and her breads are making her a strong reputation.”
Carol knew Megan’s history by heart and so wanted to go to Boise to meet her again, but just didn’t dare. Nothing but pain would come from it.
“She always could cook,” Marie said, smiling. “We miss her pies around here.”
“She mentioned something about having a bad heart,” Carol said. “Sure doesn’t seem like it slows her down any.”
“Never did,” Megan’s mother said, “even before it was fixed.”
“Fixed?” Carol asked, almost leaning forward too quickly for the old wooden chair she was on. It cracked in complaint, but Marie didn’t seem to notice at all.
“Sure thing. Doc said we might lose her at any point because of her bad heart, but then Doc found her some help. I couldn’t get away to take her to Missoula, so that Marshal and beautiful Bonnie the nurse came and picked her up and took her to the fancy doctors in Missoula.”
“What happened?” Carol asked, not believing at all what she was hearing. Megan had never said a word about going to Missoula for her heart.
“Two weeks later she was back, all good as new. And it was all free as well. Marshal said the nice people at the hospital paid for everything because Megan was so special.”
Carol just sat there, her mouth open like a fish out of water. She didn’t know what to think.
“Did Megan say anything about the operation and who did it?”
Marie shook her head. “Megan said she was out cold most of the time and only remembered small flashes of faces and things until she completely woke up headed back here. She did say everything was real white and smelled funny, not bad, just funny.”
Carol again just sort of sat there, staring at Marie.
“A Marshal came and picked her up. You remember his name?”
“Oh, sure, everyone around here knows Marshal Duster Kendal. He marshaled over in the mining camps north of Missoula for a time and cleaned things up there real proper like.”
Carol had nothing more to say.
Nothing.
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
July 12th, 2019
Boise, Idaho
AFTER THANKING MARIE for the fine tea and company and promising to say hello to Megan when she saw her, Carol headed at a fast ride to Boise.
The ride took her three long days of thinking and wondering and being alternately angry and excited about what she had discovered.
And she kept wondering why Duster and Bonnie would do something like that without including her, although as she had learned more and more about jumping to different timelines, they might not have done anything yet in the 2019 main timeline she had left.
In fact, her going back to 2019 and telling them might be what triggered the action. If that was the case, she was going to have to ask how that could even be possible.
So as she rode into the Institute, took care of her horse, and then got herself back into the caverns, she made herself calm down. She was in desperate need of a shower and some decent food, since she had only eaten jerky for most of the ride.
But she also needed answers.
When she unplugged the wire from the crystal, she carefully made a note on the pad below it that it was the timeline where Megan had had an operation. And noted her time in the past carefully so that she didn’t make a mistake and start a new timeline by crossing over at any point.
Then she headed upstairs.
There was no one in the large living room area, as there hadn’t been when she left this time about ten minutes earlier. She had spent almost a year in the past, but only a few minutes had gone by here. She loved that about jumping into new timelines.
So she got herself a snack of cheese and a sports drink and headed for the showers.
Thirty minutes later, refreshed, dressed in jeans and a white blouse, and feeling clean for the first time in days, she headed upstairs carrying the sports drink in her hand.
She found Director Parks in his office. It was a former bedroom of the large mansion and had wide windows looking out toward the river. He had furnished the office in period pieces, an ornate oak desk from the 1800s and a modern comfortable couch and chairs. Somehow it all fit together.
Especially for the director of an institute that specialized in history.
He smiled up at her and offered her a seat. “Just get back?”
“I did,” she said, nodding as she dropped into one of the director’s soft chairs facing his desk.
“How are you feeling?” Parks asked. In this time it had only been a month or so since Megan died the last time. So he would be worried.
“It’s been five years for me since we lost Megan the last time,” Carol said. “So up until three days ago I was doing fine.”
“What happened three days ago?” Parks asked, closing his computer screen and focusing on her, clearly concerned.
“In the fall of 1898 I was investigating some brothels outside of Missoula for my new book.”
Parks nodded.
“I noticed that Megan’s small hometown was close by, so I stopped and visited with her mother, knowing at that point that Megan had been in Boise for years already.”
“Why would you do that?”
“Same reason I think I needed to talk with the doctor in the future,” Carol said. “I just needed more closure and I am slowly getting to that point. Or at least I was.”
Parks looked puzzled.
And worried.
“I learned from Megan’s mother, a wonderful and strong woman in her own right, that Megan had had a surgery when she was eleven to fix her heart. And it had been successful.”
“What?” Parks asked, halfway coming out of his chair.
Carol smiled at that. “I had the same reaction. Damn near broke one of Megan’s mother’s chairs.”
Parks sat back, shaking his head.
“It seems,” Carol said, “that a wonderful Marshal and his nurse Bonnie came to pick up Megan and take her to a hospital in Missoula since Megan’s mother didn’t dare leave her other children alone at their farm.”
“Son of a bitch,” Parks said, shaking his head.
“Got any idea where Bonnie and
Duster might be?” Carol asked.
“They flew up to Monumental Lodge today. They don’t plan on returning until next week.”
Carol felt disappointment with that. She really, really wanted some answers.
And it seems Director Parks did as well.
“Let’s head for the airport,” he said. “Seems we are having dinner at the lodge tonight.”
Carol smiled and stood. “Good. I could use a really good meal. Should we tell them we are coming?”
“I’ll call and tell Dawn when we get to the airport,” Parks said. “That way she can save us a few trout.”
“Wonderful,” Carol said. “I really need to know what happened. Or what is going to happen as the case might be.”
“As do I,” Parks said, heading out the door ahead of Carol and turning for the stairs. “As do I.”
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
July 12th, 2019
Monumental Lodge, Idaho
CAROL LOVED THE Monumental Lodge. It sat on a saddle looking down thousands of feet in both directions over the wonderful Central Idaho Mountains.
The first time Carol had stayed there, she had simply sat for hours, having drinks and eating dinner on the wide deck that looked out over Monumental Creek and in the distance the River of No Return.
Stunning didn’t begin to describe the views from the massive log lodge.
And the lodge itself was stunning, with massive polished logs and stone fireplaces, it felt comfortable.
And it should. Bonnie and Duster and Dawn and Madison had built it in the past. In fact, in any timeline they visited where the lodge wasn’t built, they all spent the two years building it again exactly as all the others.
Carol had helped one year in the building and enjoyed it more than she wanted to admit. So she never grew tired of going back to the lodge in any timeline.
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