The Keepers Book Two of the Holding Kate Series

by Cole, LaDonna

  She settled me back onto the pillows and gently lifted my legs into place, arranging a heavy scratchy blanket over me.

  “Where are we?” I asked, but I passed out before I heard her answer.

  “Come on, sit up,” Eunavae demanded.

  I wrenched one eyelid open and saw Dirk and Trip bent over my bed grinning at me. What a sight to wake up to! Gah! A pang laced through me at the thought of one of Kate’s favorite expressions. I guessed I picked it up from her.

  “Your doctor,” Dirk hooked a thumb to Eunavae, “says you have to walk today.”

  “What?” I complained, baffled.

  Trip and Dirk lifted me between them and dragged me across the floor. I don’t even think my feet touched the ground. The pain in my head and leg stole my concentration. I broke out into a sweat and begged them to put me back.

  “That’s enough for today,” Eunavae said. “But tomorrow you are going to sit up in the living room with the rest of us. Now, drink your broth.”

  She kept her word. The next day found me dozing in and out, perched in a wooden rocker with a blanket tucked around my lap. I caught bits and pieces of the conversation but couldn’t maintain a train of thought. My head buzzed, and my thoughts tumbled together. I had one clear picture in my head, Kate’s face on our wedding day. I latched onto it with an iron will and kept it front and center.

  QUANTUM PERSPECTIVE SOURCE (QPS): TARA JOHNSON

  Tara stayed with Corey.

  When he recovered well enough to sit in the living room, Tara spent hours with him, massaging his arms and legs, putting him through the range of motion exercises that Eunavae had taught her. Eunavae had to leave every day to go to her job as a nurse at the orphanage and got Mel employed as a maid. Trip took work with Dirk and Donnie.

  At first, Corey just sat and stared at the flames or dozed in the chair. Tara mourned that he didn’t seem to understand her, but she talked and talked anyway. She told him everything she could think of, his identity, where they were and what they were doing.

  No response.

  One day she handed him a cup of his favorite soup and he said, “Thank you, Tara.”

  She froze at his words, then beamed at him and bent over to kiss him on the cheek.

  Corey! The best and brightest among us, we can’t lose him. He is the one who holds us together.

  When they were on the two-century jump, Corey kept their spirits up. He refused to doubt that they would go back home. He had a single mindedness and purity of spirit that inspired the whole clan to acts and thoughts of faith. The purest soul she’d ever known, Corey’s actions were spurred by righteousness and not anger or malice. Tara strove to be more like Corey Chastain. Determined to bring him back out of whatever void his head injury trapped him in, she worked relentlessly.

  The next day he actually asked her a question. “Were we taken in the tornado?”

  “Yes. The tornado was a quantum vortex and brought us here to Garwolin, Poland.”

  “Are we safe? Is everyone safe?”

  “Yes, everyone is safe.”

  “Who are you?”

  Her heart stuttered. How damaged is his brain?

  “I’m Tara.” Her voice, saturated in despair, trembled. She cleared her throat and tossed her chin in the air to slough it off.

  “Tara,” he said the name like he had never heard it before. “Are we safe?”

  “Yes, Corey, everyone is safe.” Tara clenched her jaw and fought down the forlorn feelings the conversation evoked. At least he spoke. That had to be an improvement.

  “Corey is my name.” Not a question, more of an unsure statement. “Are we safe?”

  “Yes, everyone is safe.”

  He nodded, tilted his head back, and drifted off to sleep. Tears ran down Tara’s cheeks and her heart ached. She stepped to the kitchen window, leaned against the counter, and pressed her hands into the wood as tremors rocked through her body.

  When Tara handed Corey his lunch the next day, he said, “Thank you, Tara.”

  She smiled softly, sat beside him, and began the story. “You are Corey Chastain and part of the Keepers team at a place called Heartwork Village. We are a specialized task force trying to figure out who is manipulating the Quantum Matrix.”

  His face registered confusion and suspicion. “Are we safe?”

  “Yes, everyone is safe.” She scooted her chair closer to him.

  “The team consists of our Jump Commander, Dirk Johnson, Assistant Jump Commanders Melanie Marcus Dudgeon and Donnie Dudgeon, Eunavae Montgomery, me and Trip Carson, Team Leader Corey Chastain, which is you, and our other Team Leader Kate Wilson Chastain.”

  “Kate.” His face became peaceful. “Kate of a Thousand Years.”

  “Yes.” Tara’s heart hammered. He remembered! “Do you remember Kate?”

  “Kate,” he sighed, smiled, then fell asleep.

  Tara took his unfinished soup from him and tucked the blankets around his legs. She stared at his peaceful features and felt hopeful for the first time in a long while. She didn’t think Kate deserved him, but if the memory of Kate could bring him back, then Tara would consider forgiving her for all of her transgressions.

  Days and weeks passed and each day he would sit up a bit longer, and repeat key phrases in the mantra she sang to him, until one night after dinner, they all sat around talking. Tara noticed he really listened to what they were saying, trying to absorb the information.

  He spoke up. “What’s wrong with me?”

  Eunavae knelt beside him. “You had a concussion, remember?”

  “No.”

  “You were hit in the head by some debris in the tornado. You had a concussion and a lot of blood loss.”

  “Why didn’t you take me to the hospital?”

  A lucid question! Tara sat up straight in her chair and listened to them talk. He almost seemed like the old Corey.

  Eunavae’s face crimped to one side and she looked at Dirk. He nodded.

  “There aren’t any hospitals here.”

  “Where are we?”

  “Garwolin, Poland,” she said reluctantly, “southeast of Warsaw.”

  “Poland.” He shook his head and huffed impatiently.

  “Poland, in 1948.”

  He searched their faces for some semblance of clarity that would put meaning to her words.

  Tara leaned forward. “We talked about this Corey, remember?”

  “No.”

  “The tornados brought us here, all of us and all of our equipment. We have been here for three weeks.”

  “Everyone is…everyone is safe. You are Tara. We are Keepers?” he repeated, starting to remember the previous conversations.

  Tara’s heart leapt. “Yes, Corey, that’s good.” She looked up at Eunavae. “That is the first recall of our conversations. I think it means he is getting better.”

  Eunavae nodded. “Do you remember anything else, Corey?”

  He glanced around the room, studying their faces. Recognition registered on his.

  “What do I remember?” He breathed in a sharp breath and pain registered across his features. “Kate,” he whispered.

  “Kate’s not here.”

  He stiffened at the sound and slowly turned to face Trip.

  “No, she’s lost in the Quantum Field. We have to find her.”

  “We will.” Trip’s confidence had an effect on Corey. He nodded eagerly.

  “Poland, 1948, post war,” he recalled.

  Tara sat forward. “Yes.”

  “Everyone is safe.”

  “Yes.” Tara’s lips quivered. She turned her face away so he couldn’t see the anguished hope etched there.

  Not a question. He remembered. Thank the living God!

  He progressed swiftly after that night. Eunavae said the swelling must have decreased enough that his thought processes were back to normal. Tara didn’t understand any of the medical crap and didn’t care. Corey came back.

  Tara and Corey started taking long walks aroun
d the countryside as he gained strength. They picked vegetables from the garden and cooked supper for the others. Tara began working him out little by little until he regained his strength, speed, and agility. The old martial arts moves came back to him quickly.

  The day Tara finally knew that he had completely recovered he said the words that made all of the Poland jump make sense.

  “Gregorvitch Mattovdzky, PhD, Quantum Mechanics from Poland.”

  Tara paused from the wash bucket and swiveled to look at him. “What did you say?”

  “Gregorvitch Mattovdzky, PhD, Quantum Mechanics from Poland, he was one of the Inner Circle.” He fastened a pin on the sheet he hung on the clothesline.

  She stood up and dried her hands on her apron. “Is he why we’re here?”

  “I think Mama Ty is why we are here. I think he is the infiltrator and she is trying to let us know.”

  “Corey!”

  That night at the supper table, Corey told the other Keepers his idea. They were all as startled as Tara had been.

  “Gregorvitch Mattovdzky?” Eunavae repeated. “Wait a minute.”

  She got up, walked over to the bookshelf and selected the English to Polish book that they had all used to learn Polish. She pointed to the signature at the bottom of the last page. “Gregorvitch Mattovdzky.”

  She dropped the book in the center of the table, and they all stared at the signature.

  “Breakthrough technology has identified a type of Josephus Junction in the Quantum Matrix that spirals into the multiverse.” ~ Dr. Xiomar Kunkel, MD PhD, 2019

  QUANTUM PERSPECTIVE SOURCE (QPS): COREY CHASTAIN

  The sphere fell immediately, and we were back in QHR. Dirk rushed us through detox and we were back at First Cabin within the hour.

  I had a raging headache, and Tara and Eunavae poked some ibuprofen down me, then sent me to bed. I walked into my bedroom and suddenly stopped. I looked around the room so full of memories. I staggered to the foot of the bed. The absence of Kate overwhelmed me. I jerked the covers off of the bed and curled up in a corner. It didn’t feel right.

  Our bed. Without her.

  I couldn’t sleep, so I stared at the moon through the window and conjured up memories of her smooth skin, her vibrant eyes, her long curtain of hair, the warmth of her body, the deep tenderness of her heart. Kate, the tender soul.

  What would happen to her now? Who ran the village? Who controlled the jump assignments? If Chaps didn’t know about our mission, would he reinstitute the jumps for the other teams? How would that affect things? How could I get Kate back?

  I tossed and turned on the floor of our bedroom every night for two weeks while we waited for the bureaucratic red tape to clear us for jump status. Evidently, when we left the QHR last time, we violated some rule. A debate raged somewhere between some suits and white coats and who knew else as to whether we were stable enough to continue. I knew it would come down on my side, eventually. I did have the final word about things here. I just didn’t want to pull rank unless I had to. Besides, I had more pressing things on my mind to keep me up at night.

  Every night echoed the night before. When sleep finally did claim me, my dreams disturbed me. I ran from dragons and tornados all night. A red headed boy who resembled Jimmy, Kate’s brother, laughed at me. Not Jimmy, just a lookalike terrorized my dreams.

  I woke in the middle of the night covered in a sheen of sweat. The red headed boy featured prominently in my nightmare on this night. I ripped off my shirt, stepped out of the patio doors and spread out on one of the lounge chairs. The night air cool against my skin, accompanied by a slight breeze, fanned over me.

  “Couldn’t sleep either, huh?”

  I peered through the shadows to the sound of Dirk’s voice.

  Barely discernible in the dark, he flashed eyes and teeth.

  “Nightmares.”

  “Huh, yeah.” He crossed the patio to take the chair next to me. “Have you been able to make any sense of all this, Corey? ‘Cause for the life of me, I have no clue what’s going on.”

  I sat quiet for a moment, and then answered. “It’s like it’s right there in front of me. All the pieces to the puzzle, they are all in place. I just have to connect them.”

  “Yeah? Well that’s a lot better than me. My puzzle pieces are blank.”

  “Let’s talk it out.”

  “Okay.”

  “Mama Ty sent us to the tornado world, why?” I pressed my elbows into my knees.

  “So we could jump back to Poland.”

  “Why not just jump us to Poland?”

  “Huh. I see what you mean. The tornado city was significant.”

  “Yes, and then she sent us back to the dragon world.”

  “There and back. She sent us there and then she sent us back there.”

  “Maybe. For all we know it is the infiltrator sending us to these places.”

  “I don’t think so, Corey. Why would he give himself up like that?”

  “I don’t know. I tend to agree with you that Mama Ty sent us to the tornado world, but not the other jump to the dragon world. I just don’t see the connection.”

  “Well, we’d better hope Mama Ty can send us to the dragon world again, or Kate is lost to us.” Dirk’s words knifed through me.

  “So do you think we’ve found the infiltrator? Do you think this Gregor, Grego, Greg…” Dirk’s words strangled in his throat. He whipped his head around to me and tapped his forehead with his palm. “No freakin’ way!” Dirk rustled up a stream of curses and let them fly.

  “What?”

  “Stay here.”

  He ran to his room and came back with his compad. He thrust it into my hands, and it had the picture of Gregorvitch Mattovdzky from his dossier.

  “Yeah, he’s the one,” I said and shrugged.

  Dirk tapped at the compad screen and another picture came up. A young red headed boy sat in front of the Staying Well Fountain.

  I stared at the spitting image of the laughing boy in my dream. “Dirk, who is this? I’ve been dreaming about this kid.”

  “A dream?” His eyebrows shot up. “Did Kate or Trip ever show you this picture?”

  “No.”

  “I took this moments before the cross jump with Kate and Trip. This is Gregory Matthews, the kid we lost to the tornado.”

  I looked into his smiling face, and the puzzle pieces all locked into place.

  “The kid that went to Poland via tornado and got adopted by Jewish farmers!” I said catching on. I scrolled back to the prior picture and put them side by side. “Gregory Matthews grew up to be Gregorvitch Mattovdzky!”

  “But I don’t understand. Wouldn’t he be like 150 years old?” Tara objected the next morning when Dirk and I filled in the team at breakfast.

  “You mean like you are 232 years old?” I asked. “He was a Quantum Physics genius. He manipulated the fields. We only age when we are here. When we go back through the Quantum fields we revert back to the age we were when we left.”

  “Guys, okay, so say this is Greg. What is his motive? We agreed that Kate has been the sole focus of the jumps. Gregory adored Kate. How could he be a part of something that would harm her? It just doesn’t add up,” Trip interjected.

  “People change,” Mel said darkly, and then flicked a glance my way.

  I knew she pondered Kate’s change of heart toward me that she had witnessed in her Scriptorium. I couldn’t accept that. Even with all of Kate’s recent strange behaviors.

  “I agree, Trip. There are still a lot of unanswered questions.”

  “When are we on green status again?” Eunavae asked as she nibbled at her grapefruit.

  “I don’t know. Chaps is supposed to text me. Stay close to the cabin today. It could come at any time. Kim is bringing up replacement supplies so we don’t have to leave.”

  “Anybody up for a swim?” Tara asked.

  “Sure.”

  “Last one in digs the next latrine!”

  We raced away to chang
e into our suits.

  QUANTUM PERSPECTIVE SOURCE (QPS): EUNAVAE MONTGOMERY

  They splashed around in the pool and soaked up sunshine all morning. After lunch, Kim brought supplies and handed Eunavae a badge. She studied the badge and saw her team transfer had been complete. The new badge said, EUNAVAE MONTGOMERY, KEEPER TEAM ~ HEALER.

  “Wow, I have a new title too?”

  Kim laughed. “Yeah I figured anyone with as much medical experience as you and Corey have should have a title. Corey already had a title, so now you do too.”

  “Hey, what about me and Tara?” Trip feigned offense.

  “Oh I made up new name badges for you too. I figured you’d complain.” She tossed badges to Trip and Tara.

  Trip snorted.

  Tara laughed and read hers aloud. TARA JOHNSON, KEEPER TEAM ~ BADASS #1. She hiked a brow at Trip. “I guess that makes you Badass #2?”

  He grinned.

  “Chaps said to tell you that you go green in 2 hours and happy trails,” Kim called over her shoulder as she carted away.

  Dirk nodded, checking his text messages.

  Eunavae put her badge in her sock drawer in her and Tara’s room and spent the next hour and a half sketching pictures, a hobby she had taken up when they got back from the long jump. She wanted to remember her family she left back in the Darchori city. When two hours were nearly expired, she closed up the sketchbook and ambled back to the living room to wait with the team.

  “When we get there, let’s hit the ground running,” Dirk said.

  “Get where?”

  “I just have a feeling that Mama Ty is going to arrange for us to go back to the dragon world to save Kate,” Dirk replied. “Let’s be ready for anything, though.”

  “Yes, if Greg and Mama Ty are duking it out in there, it could get ugly for us. Stay together as much as possible,” Mel interjected.

  “So, recovering Kate is the priority?” Tara asked.

  “Yes.”

  “What if she’s…” She hesitated and glanced at Corey. “What if she’s the bad guy, now?”