Portals of Time

by Vicky McCracken

  “I’m sorry you had to be put through something like that Caitlin. I know it had to be bad,” Justin told her.

  “Thanks, but I’m much better now. I’ve vowed I will never get involved with someone who is on drugs again.”

  Justin started to tell her he didn’t do drugs or anything else but thought it would be to forward. Instead, he told her that when he was a child his mother and father had divorced and his father had moved back to Australia to help his father on his dude ranch.

  “Then, when I was fifteen, my mother was killed in a bridge accident. She had tried to miss a small boy on a bike and hit the railing which wasn’t good and her car went over the side.”

  “I know that was hard for you, with you so young.”

  “Yeah, my father came and stayed until I was out of school but then he went back.”

  “Have you ever been married Justin,” Caitlin asked leaning back in her seat.

  “No. I really haven’t even dated very much. I guess I just haven’t found someone I wanted to have a relationship with.” To himself he thought, “Until I met Paige.”

  It didn’t seem to take them long to get to Texas because they talked the whole time, each learning a lot about the other one. Just before they landed, they exchanged phone numbers but Justin was almost sure he wouldn’t hear from her at all.

  They said good-bye as they departed the plane and Justin watched as she waved at another girl who had come to pick her up. He pushed her to the back of his mind as he rented a car to drive. He smiled as he remembered his Grandpa saying, “Why do you rent cars when Helen or I could come meet you?”

  “I like having my own transportation Grandpa,” Justin had told him.

  Soon he was driving toward his Grandpa’s house. As he went through town he passed by The Clock Shop. The OPEN sign flashed on and off invitingly. Justin remembered his dream and pulled up in front of the shop. He was wondering if the one running it would be Dex as in his dream. If in fact it had all been a dream.

  As he opened the door to The Clock Shop, he heard the bell tinkle. He stood for a minute just looking around. It was just as he remembered in his dream. Maybe it wasn’t a dream. Maybe it had all been real.

  “May I help you,” a male voice said to his left.

  Justin looked at the young man who had come from the back of the store. His face wasn’t familiar to him but looking at the name on his name badge, he really thought none of it had been a dream. The name on the badge read Dex in bold black letters.

  “I’m just looking I guess. I’m Mason’s grandson.”

  “Oh yeah. Mason sold this shop to me a few years ago. He comes in sometimes to see how everything is going.”

  “I came down from Tennessee for his eightieth birthday.”

  “You tell him I’m doing fine out here. Business is really good right now.”

  “I sure will. Dex, do you remember a pocket watch my grandpa had, one with cars on it,” Justin asked hopefully.

  “A pocket watch. Let me think.” Dex scratched his head. “Seems like I do remember him having a pocket watch that he had found somewhere. I don’t remember if it had a car or cars on it.”

  “Does Grandpa have the watch?”

  “Yes, I believe so.”

  Thank you so much Dex.”

  Justin walked out of the shop with the hope that everything he thought was a dream wasn’t. His grandfather had let Dex run The Clock Shop. That part wasn’t a dream. Besides, the shop had looked just as Justin had thought it would. Then there was the part about the watch. Dex had told him his grandfather had found a pocket watch with cars on it. But what if his grandfather was really dead? No. He had spoken to Aunt Helen and she would have told him.

  He came out of his thoughts when a car behind him blew its horn. He jumped, realizing he was sitting at a green light. He moved forward and turned off onto the road leading to his grandpa’s house.

  Pulling into the driveway he looked at the house. It looked as it had in his dream. Aunt Helen came onto the porch, waving at him as he stepped from the car.

  She had cut her hair and had makeup on. She also looked as if she had lost weight. At least since he had last seen her. But then he wasn’t sure if that was only a few days ago or several months ago.

  “Justin, come in. Dad is waiting for you and I know you are tired and hungry.”

  “Sure I am Aunt Helen.” Justin closed the car door and came up on the porch where he kissed his aunt on the cheek. She hugged him and held open the front door for him to enter.

  The house was still the same as he remembered it. Helen walked ahead of him into the kitchen where the table was set for three and Justin breathed a sigh of relief as he saw his grandfather sitting at the table who stood as Justin entered the room.

  “Justin, I’m so glad you came early so we can have some time together,” Mason said hugging his grandson.

  “It’s so good to see you Grandpa.” This was true. He was so glad his grandfather wasn’t dead.

  “How was the plane ride, Justin,” Helen asked as she placed food onto the table.

  “Interesting,” Justin answered.

  “How so,” Mason asked taking a drink of the soda Helen had just set before him.

  “I’ll tell you all about it later, Grandpa. Right now I’m tired and hungry.”

  After they ate, the three retired into the living room to watch television. The next thing Justin knew was Helen waking him up to go to bed.

  The next morning, he awoke to the sound of dishes and the smell of bacon and toast. He walked down the hall to the bathroom where he showered and suddenly felt better- more awake. After dressing, he went into the kitchen where Helen and Mason were already sitting.

  “Good morning Justin. How are you this morning,” Helen asked, pouring him a cup of coffee as he sat down.

  “I feel much better this morning,” he replied. He did feel better. His head was clear. He had dreamed his Grandpa was dead and he was so glad he wasn’t. “Are you feeling alright Grandpa?”

  “Yes, for my age I am Justin. Helen, set down my pills, would you?”

  Helen laid down three pills and Mason took them with some water.

  “Do you have plans for today Helen,” Mason asked as he drank the last of the water.

  “No. I’m going to stay home today and visit with Justin.”

  “Good,” Justin said. “Boy, do I have a story to tell you.”

  “I’m up for a good story Justin. Better if someone else tells them instead of me for a change,” Mason laughed.

  “Really, this is a dream, at least I think part of it is. I’m not sure. It was so real,” Justin said.

  “Even better,” Mason said. “I’ve been reading books for the last six months or so on the meaning of dreams. I bet I can tell you what each part means.”

  “I don’t know, Grandpa,” Justin smiled. “This is a strange one.”

  “Aren’t they all,” Mason replied.

  “Let’s retire into the living room where we will be more comfortable,” Helen said as she finished the last of the dishes and cleaned off the table. “I love hearing about dreams.”

  After they were all seated in the living room, Mason said, “Okay boy, tell us about your dream.”

  “I don’t really know where to begin.” Justin was thinking where to start.

  “Start at the beginning son,” Mason told him.

  “Alright. At the beginning of my dream, Aunt Helen was calling to tell me you were dead Grandpa. That’s what started it all.”

  “Okay, I’m dead. Please go on.” Mason sat back in his chair.

  “I’m not sure all this is a dream but I’ll tell you all of it anyway. Well, the start of it was when Aunt Helen called to tell me you were dead and, of course, I flew out here. Mom and Dad came in so they were still together. Grandpa, you had been retired from the hospital for a few years and Aunt Helen said you spent most of your time in the basement. She said she thought you had slowly been losing your mind.”

/>   “I do like spending time in the basement. I’ve fixed it up into an office of sorts so Helen can work on things from the restaurant. Would you like to see? Maybe it looks like it did in your dream,” Mason laughed.

  “I would, but not now. Anyway, when the will was read, you left Helen the house and land. To Mom, you left a watch that had been Grandma’s and to top it all off no one could get anything unless I spent several days and nights in the basement reading about fifty journals you had put together.”

  “Interesting Justin,” Helen spoke up. “None of us could get anything until you read the journals, right?”

  “Yes. Let’s go see the basement now.” Justin and Helen both stood.

  Mason, however, did not move from his chair.

  “I can’t go and come up and down those steps as well as I used to so I’ll wait here. Besides, I know what it looks like.”

  Helen and Justin walked to the basement and Helen opened the door and turned on the light which flooded the steps and the room below in light. She walked down with Justin behind her. Justin had been down here before but it had been cluttered up then. It was when he was smaller. His Grandpa and Helen had hunted for him before they had found him playing in the basement. From then on, they had locked the door when Justin came to visit.

  It had been years since Justin had been down here. It looked different but not much different than in his dream. There was no bed. The desk was there on the other side of the room though. There were no shelves over it but there was a filing cabinet sitting beside the desk.

  “Grandpa’s journals were in a cabinet up over the desk.” Justin looked around for a cabinet.

  “Feel free to look in the filing cabinet. I only have papers from the restaurant in it.” Helen waved for him to look.

  “It’s still so hard for me to realize this whole thing was a dream. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want Grandpa to be dead but I wish some of the things in my dream were. I am beginning to find out that some might be.”

  “So, it was a very vivid dream,” Helen said.

  “Yes, I guess so. It’s still so real in my mind.” Justin shook his head as he pulled open the drawers to the filing cabinet. What he found were things Helen said would be there. There were no journals.

  In a few minutes they walked back upstairs. Justin was satisfied that this part had been a dream.

  “Okay Justin, what happened next,” Mason asked once they were back in their seats.

  “Well, of course I agreed to live in the basement. I started reading the journals right away. Helen had told me you would disappear for days at a time. It didn’t take me long to find out what was happening. You had found a pocket watch with some cars on it and you were time traveling.” Justin stopped and looked at his grandfather.

  “Part of that is true Justin. I did find a pocket watch when I was working at the hospital. It did have a car on it. Remember, I showed it to you the last time you were here. But I haven’t time traveled.”

  “Really Grandpa, could I see the watch?” Justin was hopeful the watch would look as it did in his dream.

  “Of course you can. Helen, could you get it. It’s in the second drawer of my dresser.” Mason waved his hands to Helen who disappeared and returned in minutes with a pocket watch which she handed to Justin.

  Justin looked at the watch. Instead of having a race track on it, it only had one car. He wasn’t even sure what kind of car it was. He signed. “It only has one car on it. The one in my dream had Texas Motor Speedway on it.”

  Mason began to laugh. “I know why you dreamed about the watch and Texas motor speedway. The last time you were here, we went to a race out there, remember?”

  Justin nodded. He did remember because that was when Mason had showed him the pocket watch, telling him he had found it at the hospital on his last day. He just wanted it to be real. He turned the watch over. He could hardly make it out but he could read it. The words read: MADE IN CHINA. His heart sank. This was all part of the dream so far.

  “So, where did I travel too? Where did you travel to,” Mason asked him.

  “Different places. Mostly back to the old west.”

  “Back where they rode horses?”

  “Yes, why?”

  Mason was laughing again. ”Justin your dream so far is easy. You see, you dreamed about the old west because of your father calling and asking you to come to visit his dude ranch.”

  “Yeah, he wants me to go out there this summer. But I haven’t ever been to a dude ranch.”

  “We were looking at pictures he sent on the computer.” Helen told him.

  “I remember now. We were, weren’t we,” Justin asked.

  “So that’s why you dreamed of the old west.” Helen answered.

  “But I met a couple named Jessie and Missy McCoy one time. Then one time I met Missy’s father and her daughter Paige. I was sheriff for a day or so. I was with Paige when she got out of the hospital and she thought we were married.”

  “You have some crazy dreams Justin,” Mason told him.

  “Have you ever met a couple named Jessie and Lori who live about ten miles toward Houston,” Justin asked.

  Both Mason and Helen shook their heads. “I don’t know anyone by that name, do you Dad,” Helen asked.

  “No, can’t say that I do,” Mason replied.

  “Well, how about taking a ride with me to see. Do you feel up to it Grandpa?”

  “Sure, nice ride might do me good.” Mason stood slowly from his chair.

  “Aunt Helen, what about you?”

  “Yeah, I’ll ride along.”

  Soon the three of them were in Justin’s rented car and on their way.

  “Do you remember where this place is,” Mason asked from beside him.

  “I sure do, Grandpa.”

  It didn’t take long to arrive at the place where The Lazy Cross Ranch should have been. Instead of a ranch, there was a subdivision. The name of the subdivision was Lazy Cross Subdivision.

  Mason began to grin. “When you were young, we used to drive by here and you would say this would be a good place for a ranch.”

  “I don’t remember that,” Justin said trying to remember.

  “So everything has a reason to fit into your dream,” Mason said.

  Justin knew he was right. Everything had been a dream, even the part about The Lazy Cross Ranch and Jessie and Missy and everyone he had met. It had all been part of his silly dream. There had never been a Lazy Cross or a Paige or anyone else he had met in his sleep. No Lori, no Bo, no Trace, no one had been real. It had all been a part of his dream.

  * * * * * * * *

  A few days later after his grandfather’s birthday party, Justin was headed back toward the airport. Once more, he drove through town and as he saw the sign for The Clock Shop, he suddenly thought he would stop and get something to help him remember everything that had happened to him over the last week.

  He parked the car and walked inside. He was looking at some pocket watches when he heard the doorbell chime. Looking up, his heart skipped a beat. Walking through the door was Caitlin, the girl he had met on the plane. Their eyes met and they smiled at each other and all at once Justin knew that this would be something he would always remember. He smiled. Who knew where this would lead? After all, Grandpa had met Grandma in this very store all those years ago. Strange? Maybe not.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Vicky McCracken was born and raised in the small town of Damascus, Virginia. She has one son and two beautiful grandchildren. In her spare time, she loves to write. She has published a book called “Treasure in the Glass.” She published “The Lazy Cross” before but decided to put it together with its sequel “The Journey” in this new book called “Portals of Time.” She hopes you enjoy this book.

  Vicky also would like to recommend books by her fellow authors in the Damascus Writers Group. You will find them listed below:

  “Candy in Paradise” and “Floyd’s Broom” by Steven Applegate;

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�The Bible Tells Me So: Old Testament Stories for Children”, “The Bible Tells Me So: New Testament Stories for Children”, “My Life and Times in Rhyme”, “Pastor’s Pocket PAL”, “Daily Dose of Encouragement”, “Fletcher’s Fables”, “Mischief & Mayhem”, and “Blessings in Bible Times” by Victoria Fletcher. You can check out Victoria Fletcher’s Books at victoriafletcher.biz