“They are, aren’t they,” Bonnie said.
Carol looked at Megan and then said, “Right now I need you to do something I love a lot.”
Megan looked puzzled, then asked what that might be.
“I need you to put your arms around me and hold me very tightly.”
Megan blushed and then with a glance at Bonnie, who was smiling, stepped closer to Carol and hugged her.
“A little harder,” Carol said, noting that Bonnie was about to pull the wire from the box that would send her to 2019.
Megan squeezed Carol harder in a hug Carol wished would never end.
Bonnie pulled the wire and vanished.
Megan was still holding her.
Both of them were in 2019.
Carol kissed Megan. “We made it. Together.”
“Made what?” Megan asked, staring into Carol’s eyes and wide smile.
“We made it to the place where I can show you my secrets.”
Megan laughed. “We could have stayed in my rooms at the hotel if a hug would get you to show your secrets.”
“That was just a wonderful benefit for me is all,” Carol said, laughing.
“I enjoyed it as well,” Megan said, then kissed Carol again.
“Sorry to interrupt, ladies, let’s go back upstairs and do that a few more times, then have some dinner,” Bonnie said as she and Duster appeared just behind Megan. “We’ve got a lot to talk about.”
Both Carol and Megan blushed and then as if they were two teenagers, they went hand-in-hand back up two flights of stairs to the big cavern living room.
And then then back down again into a different cavern and repeated the hugging in the crystal cavern process twice more.
CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX
November 14th, 2019
Boise, Idaho
MEGAN WAS VERY, very puzzled at the events of the last half hour and why Bonnie and Duster and Carol had taken her down into that tunnel and then brought her back up here and then down into different tunnels twice more.
It wasn’t until she really looked at the furniture in the large cavern room as they got settled in around the kitchen counter and the things behind the counter that Megan started to get worried.
“Everything changed here since we went downstairs,” Megan said.
Both Bonnie and Carol nodded.
Duster excused himself and said, “I’ll let you two explain it all.” Then he headed for the elevator.
“You are no longer in 1901,” Bonnie said.
“That’s my secret,” Carol said, turning and staring into the eyes of the woman she loved. “I am from the year 2019.”
Megan laughed, but Carol’s expression didn’t change.
After a moment, Megan said, “You are serious, aren’t you?”
Carol and Bonnie both nodded.
“Come on,” Carol said, “Let me show you something.”
“I’ll stay here and make us a snack before dinner,” Bonnie said.
Megan let Carol take her hand and direct her to the elevator they had come down. Now it was sleek and had a full door instead of a cage. As they approached, the door slid open silently.
Carol stepped on and Megan reluctantly followed her.
“Trust me,” Carol said, “this is a million times safer than that Otis in the hotel.”
“Anything would be,” Megan said, moving on and holding onto both of Carol’s hands as the door closed.
She could feel a slight sense of movement and then the door slid back open.
They stepped into an empty room and Carol went to a place on the wall.
“Checking to make sure no one is in the Institute’s front room that shouldn’t be.”
There wasn’t, so she pushed a button and a panel slid back and Megan let herself be led into the front parlor of the mansion.
Megan was surprised that it actually looked dated.
“The Institute keeps this front entrance room looking exactly as it looked in the 1880s when the Institute was founded.”
Megan nodded as Carol led her to the large wooden front door and pulled it open.
As Megan stepped out, she was stunned at what she saw.
In fact, she wasn’t sure exactly what she was seeing.
“It’s November 2019,” Carol said. “About twelve noon. Trees are really losing their leaves and all those things going by are modern versions of the automobiles that were just getting started in 1901.”
Megan just stood and stared, holding Carol’s hand as if it were a lifeline to a sane time and place. Where before it had just been the three Victorian mansions sitting on a slight hill overlooking the river, now the entire area was full of homes and buildings of all types.
And the wagon road that had run past the mansion was now covered in some sort of pavement and strange-looking automobiles flashed past at impossible speeds.
Finally, after almost a minute of Megan looking around, she turned to Carol. “You really are from this time?”
“I am,” Carol said. “I am a medical doctor and an historian. I traveled back to 1901 to learn about strong women and their medical conditions for a book I am writing.”
“So I am a test subject,” Megan said, feeling almost angry.
“No,” Carol said, forcing Megan to look into her eyes. “You are the woman I fell in love with, the woman I want to spend lifetimes with. I had to get permission to share this with you.”
Megan could see the worry and the love in Carol’s eyes. She was telling the truth.
After a moment Megan nodded and kissed Carol who seemed to melt with relief in her arms.
Then she said simply, “I have a lot to learn it seems.”
“If we want we can stay here for a while,” Carol said. “But I would rather live in your time for now.”
“We can go back?” Megan asked. She wasn’t sure why she thought she couldn’t go back, since Carol had gone back from here to meet her.
“Of course we can,” Carol said. “We could spend months here and go back to within an hour of when we got off those horses in July 1901 to continue that wonderful day. And yet still remember the months here.”
“You are not joking?” Megan asked, actually starting to feel excited, even though what she was seeing around her scared her more than she wanted to admit.
“I am not,” Carol said. “Bonnie knows a lot more about all those sorts of things and can explain all the details, I promise.”
“So let’s go back and get a bite to eat,” Megan said, looking around at the amazing scene she never could have imagined. “And I’ll start learning about your world since you know so much about mine.”
Megan took Carol’s hand and they went back inside.
This all seemed impossible, yet Carol was very real and with her. So even the impossible might be all right as long as they were together.
CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN
November 14th, 2019
Boise, Idaho
CAROL WAS STUNNED at how level Megan seemed to be in the face of such insanity. Seeing over a hundred years into the future had bothered Carol when she had jumped forward the first time to 2119. She could only imagine what Megan was going to think, yet Megan had seemed to take it almost in stride.
Megan was an amazing woman, of that there was no doubt.
Carol and Megan and Bonnie all sat at the counter eating a light sandwich and salad. Carol and Bonnie had planned to take Megan to their favorite Italian restaurant as they had done the last time Megan had come here.
So after some talk about living in the past and how little time was spent when a person went back into the past, Carol finally got around to telling Megan what had happened.
Carol looked into Megan’s eyes and said simply, “I have a story I need to tell you before we go anywhere.”
Megan smiled. “I was wondering why the snack before dinner.”
Carol laughed, then said, “You have sat here at this counter before. In fact, you have been in this cavern three times before.”
�
��How is that possible and I not remember it?” Megan asked, looking shocked. “This cavern would be very difficult to forget.”
Carol nodded. “Let me start at the beginning. Otherwise I will make no sense and get myself confused.”
Megan nodded.
“I first met you on the sidewalk outside the Idanha Hotel in May of 1902.”
Megan looked puzzled. “We just met a month ago and I remember it was summer of 1901.”
“I was back in your time doing research on my book,” Carol said. “Remember the crystals downstairs? I was in a different crystal.”
Megan nodded, so Carol went on.
“I was staying here at the Institute, but I loved going into the Idanha and eating breakfast and having your wonderful breads. So when you went out onto the sidewalk after your baking shift, I happened to be coming by and that’s how we first met.”
“I wish I remembered that,” Megan said.
“It was you in a different timeline,” Carol said. “And you would not want to have remembered it because while we were talking you had a heart attack.”
“Oh, no,” Megan said.
“Dr. Stevens and I got you to the hospital and then we tried to bring you here to the future for an operation, but you died before we got you to the Institute.”
Megan nodded and said nothing.
“So I went back earlier, in the fall of 1901, and we met in the dining room after Bonnie and Duster and Dr. Stevens convinced you to meet with me.”
Megan again said nothing.
“We were falling in love, had spent two wonderful weeks together, when I left you to rest and when I came back to your apartment, you had had a heart attack and died.”
Megan shook her head and looked white.
“So I went back in the summer of 1901 the next time, we spent a wonderful month together, fell in love, and I brought you here for an operation to fix your heart.”
“I assume something went wrong,” Megan said.
“Before we could grow you a new heart to replace your bad heart, you died, this time in the hospital here.”
Megan nodded. “You said I had been here three times before? What happened the next time?”
“I went back even earlier and we met and fell in love again,” Carol said. “And the next time, since we already had a heart grown for you, we took you a hundred years into the future to have the surgery.”
“I did not survive the surgery, did I?” Megan asked.
Carol shook her head. “The damage to your heart and everything around it was too much for even the doctors of one hundred years in the future to fix. You were basically born with a bad heart that got worse and worse until it suddenly stopped working.”
“And even though you were from the future, you did not know when it would finally give up?”
“Every timeline is different,” Bonnie said.
“So why did you pick me for a surgery?” Megan asked Bonnie.
“Because the doctors from the future said that if you had the surgery at eleven, you would be fine for a very long time,” Bonnie said.
“Is that true?” Megan asked.
“We went and got permission from your mother and your local doctor to take you into Missoula and fix your heart,” Carol said. “But then we brought you here, to this cavern, and a surgeon from three hundred years after your time came and did the surgery.”
“So my heart is now fine?” Megan asked.
“Completely,” Carol said. “We have as much future ahead of us as we want to live.”
“Are you sure?” Megan asked. “Completely sure?”
“As much as anyone can be sure about a person’s health,” Carol said. “I can show you later where you had the surgery when you were eleven and we can run some tests then.”
“A big white space,” Megan said. “That’s all I remember.”
“I’m glad that’s all you remember,” Carol said, smiling. “Because that long wagon ride we took from your home to here and back was rough on all of us.”
Bonnie laughed. “I think it will be a few thousand years before Duster ever drives a wagon again.”
Megan looked puzzled at that.
“Don’t worry,” Carol said, “I’ll explain it all.”
Megan nodded. “I’m completely sure I don’t understand everything, or much of anything, actually, that you just told me. But I do hate that I put you through so much to get me here. I am so, so sorry.”
Carol smiled at the wonderful woman sitting next to her. “Trust me, it was worth it, my love.”
And with that she leaned over and just kissed Megan.
And Megan kissed her back, and that felt wonderful as well.
Three hours later, after a wonderful Italian dinner that was as Carol promised, nothing like Megan had ever tasted before, they went back to Carol’s condo.
And started their new life together.
EPILOGUE
May 29th, 2023
Boise, Idaho
THE DAY WAS as beautiful as could be imagined. The wonderful garden behind the Institute had been converted to a gathering place with a small stage and about fifty chairs, all filled with people talking and laughing and waiting for the event to start.
A wide aisle led through the chairs and up two stairs to where a woman stood in a suit, smiling.
Behind the people was a long table full of food and drink and a massive cake, especially made by the city’s newest sensational bakery.
As the music changed and the bridal march started, Bonnie and Duster came out of the back door of the Institute, both dressed in their finest, with Bonnie in a long gown reminiscent of the early 1900s and Duster in a suit, with his standard cowboy hat and long duster coat over the top of it.
They stopped at the bottom of the stairs and waited as Carol and Megan came out, both dressed in beautiful flowing bridal gowns.
Everyone in the audience applauded.
Carol and Megan moved down to where Bonnie and Duster stood and as they approached, Bonnie took Carol’s outside arm and Duster took Megan’s outside arm.
Then all four of them moved slowly toward the woman ready to do the ceremony.
As they neared the steps in front of the stage, they stopped. Bonnie kissed Carol lightly, then Megan, then moved to sit down.
Duster did the same and moved over to join Bonnie.
Then Carol and Megan stepped up in front of the woman.
“Are you sure?” Megan asked, smiling at her beautiful partner.
“I lost you four times,” Carol said. “You’re stuck with me now.”
Megan laughed and turned to the woman in front of them. “Then let’s do this. There’s cake to eat.”
Carol laughed. “Why do you think all these people are here?”
Everyone behind them laughed as the woman in front of them smiled and said simply, but loudly for everyone to hear, “We are gathered here not only for wondrous cake, but to watch these fine two women join their lives together for all eternity.”
The audience laughed again and Megan glanced at Carol. “Think that will be long enough?”
“We’ll make it long enough,” Carol said. “Of that, I promise.”
Megan squeezed Carol’s hand and said simply, “I know you do. You have proven that. Over and over and over again.”
If you enjoy the Thunder Mountain series, you might also enjoy the Seeders Universe novels, beginning with the first book in the series, Against Time. Following is a sample chapter from that book.
CHAPTER ONE
CALLIE SHERIDAN felt a sense of relief that she could finally see the light ahead. More than she imagined she would feel, considering she had enjoyed the three days down in the Oregon Caves. A real change and a relief from her normal grind of research and teaching undergrad classes in Paleontology at the University of Oregon in Eugene.
But after three days completely in the dark and damp of the cave, she was ready to see some natural light once again, even if it was just a rainy Oregon day.<
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She and the two graduate students with her had gotten permission from the Forest Service to go into a special area of the Oregon Caves complex, far off the normal tourist trails. It had taken them almost four of hours of hiking just to get to the tiny room. There they had been allowed to dig for signs of fish skeletons preserved in the rocks of the cave.
One of the students, Jim Williams, was in his final year, working on his thesis, married, with a child in Eugene. He stood no more than five six, shorter than Callie by a couple of inches, and had bright red hair. From the pictures Callie had seen of his new child, the red hair had moved on a generation.
Barb Hillcrest still had over a year in school to get to her thesis. Barb was a solid woman and towered over Callie at over six feet. Barb lived alone with three cats and was worried about getting back to them.
Callie liked them both, and both had turned out to be hard, hard workers during the entire time in the cave. Both had focused their studies in vertebrate paleontology, which was Callie’s specialty.
The Oregon Caves had been formed out of granite instead of normal limestone and was a gold mine for fossils from various times in history. It had taken her almost a year to get the permission from the Forest Service for the short surface dig. A cave specialist and park ranger named Dave had gone with them to make sure that they wouldn’t disturb anything in the cave with their dig except around one small area tucked in the back of a small cave.
Dave was a middle-aged guy with a gut and gray hair and had a fantastic sense of humor that kept them laughing, even though he must have been bored to tears with their conversations at times and the excitements over finds of tiny fossils.
On the way in he had kept them entertained with his stories of the cave and the names of the different rooms and how they had been named. For a pretty long distance into the cave the path had been covered with asphalt and was an easy walk, with some stair climbing and one bridge over a stream called The River Styx.
Now they were all carrying out some great samples in their backpacks that would keep them busy for months at school. The trip was a great success and she honestly had no idea what they might have found.
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