And that felt better than he had remembered. It was wonderful as the cool night mountain air swirled over them.
She put her arms around him and held him against her.
Finally they came up for air.
“Now that was better than I had imagined,” she said.
He almost said And better than I remembered but stopped himself just in time.
“That was wonderful,” he said.
And he kissed her again.
Then when they came up for air the second time, she took him by the hand and pulled him toward the staircase up to their rooms.
“Where are we headed?” he asked, laughing.
“To do something I wanted to do the first time I saw you walk into my classroom.”
“Lead on, professor,” he said, laughing.
CHAPTER FORTY
September 5th, 2016
Dixie’s Timeline
DIXIE AWOKE IN the wonderful feather bed and rolled over and kissed Brice softly on the lips. The man was more handsome than any man she had ever met and she had wanted to kiss him for the last two months, but had managed to just keep her hands to herself and let him work.
But now, up here at the big lodge, while sitting on the big deck, he had finally asked her why she hadn’t kissed him, if it was a job rule that he didn’t know about with Bonnie and Duster.
She had laughed and kissed him and they had ended up making wonderful love in the big featherbed in her room.
But now they needed to head to breakfast, to shock Brice with the reality of the math, and then take him to the crystal cavern.
“That’s nice,” he said as she kissed him softly to wake him up just as she used to do months earlier in Boise. He had liked it then as well.
After one long kiss, she pushed back a little and said, “Time for breakfast, professor. But even with what Bonnie and Duster tell you this morning, this right here is real.”
She kissed him again before he could ask a question, then she headed for her shower, very aware that he was watching her walk naked away in front of him.
“See you downstairs,” she said, turning and giving him a big smile, then moving on into the bathroom.
She half expected him to join her in the shower, but he didn’t. And she beat him to the breakfast table in the big dining room by only a minute.
Bonnie and Duster were already there, sipping orange juice.
Dixie smiled at Bonnie and winked and Bonnie damn near fell out of her chair laughing.
“Is this something I need to know about?” Duster asked.
Bonnie kissed her husband on the cheek and said simply, “No, dear.”
Bonnie took a deep breath and tried to focus on eating her wonderful breakfast of ham and eggs and homemade bread. They were almost done when finally Brice pushed his mostly empty plate away. “All right, the suspense is killing me. What’s up?”
Dixie couldn’t eat another bite. Somehow, in Brice’s timeline Bonnie and Duster had talked him into this. But the idea of losing him now scared her more than she wanted to think about.
“You like this lodge?” Duster asked, taking one last bite of his ham before also pushing his plate forward.
“I love it,” Brice said, nodding. “I wouldn’t mind going down to see the old town under the water, but I know work comes first, if staying in this wonderful old lodge can be called work.”
“We built it,” Duster said.
Brice frowned.
“It can’t be possible,” Bonnie said. “We know, but we actually built this, paid to have it designed and furnished in 1903 in another timeline.”
“Okay,” Brice said. “So what’s the joke?”
“Math is never a joke,” Duster said. “You’ve been going over all the math since we hired you. You know mathematically that other timelines are probable.”
“Knowing mathematically and going to the alternate timelines are two very different things,” Brice said, clearly getting angry.
Dixie forced herself to remain silent, but her stomach was twisting up with worry.
“Very, very true,” Bonnie said. “But didn’t your work on math clearly show you the possibility of time having a physical nexus in each universe that in a form connects time and energy and matter together.”
“It did,” Brice said. Then he looked at Duster and Bonnie and then at Dixie, who just sat staring into his wonderful, and clearly panicked, eyes.
After a moment he asked softly, “Are you telling me you found the nexus between timelines?”
“We’d like to show it to you,” Duster said, “if you are up for an adventure today.”
Brice turned and looked at Dixie. “And you believe all this?”
“I’ve stood in the nexus,” Dixie said. “It is a crystal cave that is more stunning than anything that can be described in beauty. And more infinite than any of our calculations can imagine.”
“And you went to another timeline?” Brice asked.
“Twice so far,” she said, nodding. “One short, one for a few months.”
She did not tell him that she had met him on that trip. Duster and Bonnie had figured that telling him about their history would be up to her, and better done on a trip into the past. She had agreed.
“You know this is impossible to believe,” Brice said, pushing back slightly from the table.
“For the moment,” Duster said, “trust the math, trust the three of us, and let us show you the cave. It will make a lot more sense when you see it, both mentally and mathematically.”
Brice took a deep breath, then looked at Dixie.
“Trust us,” Dixie said, using her most convincing look. She didn’t want to beg Brice, but if she had to, she would. She was that much in love with him.
“All right,” Brice said, after a moment. “Show me this physical proof of the math. Where is it?”
“A drive from here,” Duster said, smiling and standing. “Get your stuff and I’ll check us out.”
Bonnie stood and smiled at Brice. “Remember who we are and remember the math. And if nothing else, trust Dixie.”
With that she moved to follow Duster.
Dixie reached over and pulled Brice to his feet. Then she kissed him.
He seemed very confused, which she had no doubt she would be in his spot.
“You think this is real? This nexus?” Brice asked as they turned and headed toward the huge log staircase up to their rooms.
“I don’t think it’s real,” Dixie said. “I know it is and more than anything else in the world, I want you to see it.”
He looked down at her for a moment and she smiled up into his wonderful concerned gaze.
“Either I’ve gone nuts or all of you have,” Brice said as they started up the stairs.
“Well, nuts or not,” Dixie said. “I really enjoyed last night.”
“So did I. Very much so.”
“Good,” she said. “So let’s go see a cave and then get back to more of last night as soon as possible. Keep your priorities straight there, mister.”
“You said that, didn’t you?” he asked, laughing as she opened her room door and went to get her suitcase.
“And I meant it,” she said, smiling back at him. “Now go get your stuff.”
When he laughed and moved off, she sighed with relief and packed her bag quickly.
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
September 5th, 2016
Brice’s Timeline
BRICE COULD TELL that Dixie was getting more and more nervous as Duster bounced the big Cadillac SUV up the steep grade toward the mine. She was holding on with one hand on a handle above the door and another gripping the back of Bonnie’s seat in front of her.
This was Brice’s second ride up this rut-fest of a cattle trail that Duster seemed to think was a road. And he didn’t much like it any better this time.
But the last trip up here, in just a few short hours in this timeline, he had taken two trips to other timelines and spent almost two months with the Dixie
from another timeline in a wonderful suite in Boise.
More than anything on the planet, he wanted to get back there with her now. But not the Dixie of that other timeline, but this Dixie sitting beside him right now. Except for the year of experience teaching at CalTech, she was the same Dixie he had fallen in love with.
He and Bonnie and Duster had planned that if Dixie decided to take a chance and go with them to the mine, they would follow the same routine they had done with him.
Bonnie would first take her out into the snowstorm in October 1878, then the four of them would go back to August 1901 and head to Boise.
Finally Duster pulled the Cadillac up into a stand of trees and got out.
Brice let out the breath he had been holding out of fear and relaxed.
“That was fun,” Dixie said. “If you like climbing inside the agitation cycle of a wash machine.”
Bonnie laughed as she also opened her door and climbed out.
The smell of hot pine needles and sagebrush washed through the car before Brice could get his door open. The smell relaxed him even more.
“I don’t have sunscreen on,” Dixie said as the heat hit her.
The sun was almost directly overhead and hot, even though it was September.
“Not going to be out in the sun long enough to worry about,” Bonnie said.
They left all their stuff in the car and followed Duster along a trail leading toward a big mine. On the drive here, Dixie had asked all sorts of questions, including the history of the mine and how this was found in the first place.
And she had asked how Duster and Bonnie had built a lodge in their own timeline.
“We did it, but the we that did it were from another timeline,” Bonnie had said. “Which is why we hired Brice in the first place, to help us figure out why that had happened and why we could remember both timelines.”
“Did you solve that?” Dixie had asked, looking over at Brice.
“I did with help,” Brice had said. “I’ll show you that math after we get back to Boise.”
He had decided that since they had both worked on that math solving that problem, he would wait until she understood everything before showing it to her.
They made it across the narrow trail over the old ruins of Silver City a thousand feet below them.
Brice stayed close to Dixie as Duster opened the big rock and they crowded into the entrance and then into the mine tunnel.
“Oh, shit, this is real,” Dixie said.
“More than you can ever imagine,” Brice said.
He took her hand and helped to get her through the protective holograms and then into the big storage cavern.
Then without slowing, they went on through the first cavern and into the big cavern of crystals.
To Brice, it was more beautiful than he had remembered it two months before. He got about five steps inside and just stopped, staring at the slightly rose-colored crystals shining from the walls with an energy all their own.
Small crystals, large crystals, in clusters and alone.
Billions of crystals that he could see in just a quick glance and the cavern went on into the mountain into the distance as far as he could see. He doubted he would ever get used to this place.
Dixie did the same thing he had done when he had first come into the cavern. She made it about five steps and then just sat down on the hard dirt floor.
Bonnie came over after a moment and helped her up.
Dixie had a haunted look in her eyes.
“It’s real,” Dixie said softly.
“It is,” Bonnie said.
“This is a physical representation of all of time,” Dixie whispered.
“Not all of it,” Duster said. “Just our area of it, and that goes off into infinity and other dimensions in that direction.”
Duster pointed down into the mountain and the caverns that could be seen going into the distance like looking at facing mirrors.
“Come on,” Bonnie said, “the two of us need to take a little trip.”
“We’ll get the hot chocolate going,” Duster said, smiling as he finished hooking up the machine to a random crystal on the wall and then set the date on the machine.
Brice went over and made sure the crystal on the wall where he had first met Dixie was clearly marked. It still was. And Duster was not using it.
“What are we doing?” Dixie asked.
“There’s just something I want to show you,” Bonnie said.
She had Dixie put her hand on the wood surface of the machine on the big wooden table and then nodded to Duster.
Duster connected the wires and the two women just vanished.
“Wow, that’s something to see from this side,” Brice said, shocked.
Duster laughed. “That it is. Come on. Two minutes and fifteen seconds is a damn short time to make hot chocolate.”
Brice stared at where Bonnie and Dixie had vanished, then followed Duster back toward the kitchen in the big cavern.
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
September 5th, 2016
Dixie’s Timeline
WITH DIXIE’S HELP, Bonnie almost had the hot chocolate done when Brice and Duster appeared from the crystal cavern. They both looked cold and Brice was actually shivering. He moved like his mind was not attached to his body. He managed to get to the table and sit down.
Dixie didn’t know what to say. She remembered very clearly that first short trip out onto the main tailings in that 1878 snowstorm and how cold and shocked she had been when she came back.
Finally Brice looked at her. “It is real. But it can’t be.”
“My feelings exactly,” Dixie said as Bonnie put a mug of hot chocolate in front of Brice and another in front of Duster. To Dixie it smelled wonderful and she remembered how that smell had helped calm her after that first jump to another timeline.
“The math tells you this is possible, doesn’t it?” Bonnie asked Brice.
Brice nodded as he sipped the hot chocolate.
“So trust the math,” Bonnie said, tossing a bag of small marshmallows on the table, then sliding a cup of hot chocolate in front of Dixie and then sitting down with a cup herself.
Even though it had to be over eighty outside right now, Dixie was glad for the hot chocolate. Just the memory of that intense cold on that mine tailings in the winter of 1878 chilled her.
For the next half hour they talked and finished their drinks, letting Brice get used to the idea that beyond that wall was a cavern filled with billions of alternate timelines represented by glowing crystals.
And that he could travel to any of them he wanted and stay as long as he liked.
Then Duster pushed his mug away from him and stood. “Let’s take a trip to a warmer time, stay a month or two, let you experience the past to get used to all this.”
Brice started to open his mouth, then shut it.
Dixie laughed. She had a hunch she knew what he was thinking.
“We’ll only be gone for two minutes and fifteen seconds from here,” she said, touching Brice’s hand. “No matter what happens back in the other timeline.”
Brice nodded.
Dixie knew he understood the math of it all. But knowing the math and combining that math with a reality that seemed impossible were two very different things.
“I’ll head back a couple months early, get us some horses and supplies,” Duster said. “You guys get ready. Let’s go for August 13, 1901. Morning if you can.”
Bonnie nodded.
Dixie was about to object. That had been the date she and Bonnie had gone back to when she met Brice. But that was in another timeline and if the four of them showed up that day, a new timeline would split off, one where she and Bonnie had not gone back.
And where Brice and Duster had not gone back two days later.
They would form a new timeline and that seemed perfect to Dixie.
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
August 13th, 1901
Brice’s Timeline
T
HEY HAD ALL gotten what supplies and money they would need ready and gone back to the crystal room. Duster again hooked up the wires to a random crystal that was not marked as having been used before, then set the date on the big wooden box, hooked the wire and vanished.
To Brice, he doubted he would ever get used to someone just not existing in front of him. No sound, no phasing out, just one minute there, next gone.
“Okay,” Bonnie said, making sure that Dixie was right beside her as she reset the timer on the box for two months after Duster had left.
Brice made sure he was on the other side of Dixie to help her. She was looking scared to death, but managing to hold on for the moment.
“When I say now, we all touch the box at the same time,” Bonnie said.
Dixie nodded and Brice could see she was ready.
Dixie hovered her hand over the box and Bonnie said now.
All three of them touched the box at the same time.
It felt like nothing happened.
Bonnie stepped back from the box and said to Dixie and Brice. “Let’s go see if that husband of mine got into trouble the last two months.”
“And if he did, or he’s not out there,” Dixie asked as they got to the cavern door.
“We pull the wires and yank him back to 2016 and find out what happened,” Bonnie said. “It’s happened more than once.”
“I’d love to hear some of those stories,” Brice said.
Bonnie laughed. “Have Dawn and Madison tell you the story of their first trip back.”
“Dawn and Madison?” Brice asked. He hadn’t remembered meeting anyone by that name over the last year.
“Dawn Edwards and Madison Rogers,” Bonnie said as they got to the big supply cavern.
“The two famous historians?” Dixie asked. “They go back in time?”
“They do,” Duster said, coming toward them from the kitchen area. He was dressed in his oilcloth long coat, jeans, cowboy boots, a plaid shirt, and a cowboy hat. He looked like he had just come in from outside since his face was slightly flushed and he had a glass of water in one hand.
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