Dream Of Echoes

by Karen C. Webb

  “Just imagine, as far as the eye can see, nothing but beautiful blue water, dropping right off the edge of the horizon. And the waves come onshore and crash against huge boulders, sending spray into the air. There’s always a wind off the ocean out there and so much salt in the air, you can taste it.”

  Kate stopped, closing her eyes and tilting her head back as she pictured it in her mind. Never being one to waste an opportunity, I moved in closer and, slipping my hand under her hair and onto her neck, I brought my lips down to hers while her eyes were still closed. She responded instantly, as we stood there in the wilderness, making out like a couple of teenagers.

  We had some of the deer for dinner and curled up by the fire after, her head on my chest. We made plans for our future together and, although I missed my family horribly, I was looking forward to spending my life here with my true love. “Maybe I should get a job for a while. Maybe something like a lumber mill. We are going to need money to make this dream come true. And I don’t want you selling off your mother’s jewelry,” I said firmly.

  “Whatever you think is best, John Baker.”

  “No.” I sat up, forcing her to sit up too and look at me. “I know that’s the way things were done here, but it’s not my way.”

  “What do you mean, John?”

  “I mean, we make all our decisions together. Equal partners. Okay?”

  “Okay, John. I like your future ways.” She smiled up at me—her blue, blue eyes sparkling at me—until I leaned down and kissed her passionately.

  The temperature had been pretty decent all day, with a warm sun beating on our backs as we walked, but it dipped overnight and we huddled together in our blankets, sharing body heat.

  Chapter 31

  I dreamed of the lone wolf again that night. It was chasing a guy with white hair through the river, but then, as dreams are known for doing, the river turned into the Pacific Ocean and the wolf chased the white haired man right off the edge of the horizon.

  I remembered the dream when I first woke up the following morning, when I was still half awake and hadn’t yet opened my eyes. It was weird and distorted and I didn’t know who the man was. Once I opened my eyes and sat up, the dream was gone and I sat there for a minute, trying to recall it.

  We made ourselves a hot jerky soup for breakfast, saving the rest of the deer for our dinner. I knew we would need it after a full days walk. The wind off the river was strong all day and we moved uphill into the trees where it wasn’t as bad.

  “We’re getting near the gorge now,” I explained as we walked. “The winds can be pretty fierce coming upriver. Sometimes, they’re so strong, it makes the river look like its moving in the opposite direction.”

  “Walking into a headwind feels like we’re wading through water,” Kate said as she huffed and puffed.

  We finished off the deer and spent another chilly night huddled together. We had found a valley between two hills where we could make a fire and have a little shelter from the unceasing winds. Moving uphill away from the river had meant an even harder walk for us all day. It was up one hill, then back down and immediately up the next. We were both cold and exhausted and the Willamette valley was beginning to sound like Eden to me too.

  We made a little more jerky soup for breakfast, but it was really plenty of hot water and very little jerky. We still had a couple hundred miles to go and not a lot of our precious jerky left.

  The wind had let up some as we walked, but we stuck to the hills in the morning, watching for game. We were quiet as we walked and we moved slower as we kept our eyes peeled for any movement, but unfortunately, the only thing we saw was a coyote, slinking across the hill ahead of us. He looked back at us as he trotted, then quickly disappeared over the hill. I carried the Bowie in my hand, ready to throw it at the first rabbit I saw. Kate walked with the musket at the ready, but after a few miles her arms grew tired and she slung it back over her shoulder.

  We finally gave it up by afternoon and tried our hand at fishing. It was a little more difficult with our net in the bigger, wider river, but we kept at it and Kate squealed in surprise when I came up out of the water with a decent size steelhead. Our stomachs were grumbling with hunger and Kate quickly built a fire as I cleaned the fish.

  “It’s delicious,” Kate said as we stuffed ourselves on the pink meat.

  “Wonderful,” I agreed.

  We only finished off half the fish and we wrapped up the other half for later, then set out, our stomachs happily sated.

  We were getting closer to the gorge now. There were tall cliffs on our left as we walked. We either had to walk up and down hills or stay closer to the riverbank, but even then, we often sunk into deep mud. We made our camp down near the river. We found a spot between two logs where the ground was relatively dry. We built a small fire between them and made our bed behind it. I leaned back onto our packs and looked at the stars and the moon. It was a full moon and, as it rose, the silvery light played off the river. It even cast a silver tint to the grasses across the hills.

  Kate came and sat down beside me and curled up into my chest.

  “If I were home right now, I probably would have been inside, watching TV, and I would have missed all this, the way the moon plays off the water and how it turns the trees and grasses silver.”

  “Yes, but you would be warm and dry and well-fed.”

  “Okay, good point. But it wouldn’t matter if you weren’t there with me.”

  “I feel the same, John Baker. I thank God every day for sending you back through time to be with me.”

  I leaned forward and kissed the top of her head, feeling damn lucky to be alive. God had certainly taught me a lesson too. It seemed silly now to think that only a few short months ago, I had thought my life was over and I wanted to die. I would have missed out on the best time of my life, not to mention the fact that now I had finally learned the meaning of real love, not just the physical attraction, not just the chemistry between two people, but the kind of love you see between two elderly folk who’ve already passed their fiftieth wedding anniversary. We had become the best of friends and partners, and I knew that Kate was that one person I wanted to spend the rest of my life with, that one special person I would be willing to die for.

  We walked hand in hand along the river the next morning, enjoying the peacefulness of this place, the sound of the water and the breeze through the trees. I thanked God again, as I walked, for sending me back through time to spend the rest of my life with this amazing woman and for showing me just how much I had to live for.

  We took our noon break alongside the river, cooking the remainder of the fish we’d caught. It wasn’t much, but fortunately, we didn’t require much.

  “We should stop a little earlier today,” I told Kate. “Hopefully we can catch another fish and have a nice dinner.”

  “Really? Two meals in one day? I don’t think I could hold that much food, John.”

  “Okay, who taught you to be such a smartass?”

  Kate only gave me a knowing smile, blue eyes sparkling with mischief, and I pulled her close for a kiss.

  We did stop earlier as planned and I did catch a small trout as planned. Even though it was small, it was plenty for us. Our stomachs had shrunk to the point, I thought maybe Kate was right. Who needs to eat two meals every day? We were thrilled to have even one.

  We reached a small village the following day, it wasn’t even a village really, just a few houses and buildings overlooking the river. It looked more like a white man’s village with log cabins and outhouses, but I didn’t trust any strangers, after what we’d already seen in this harsh land. We didn’t see any people moving around it, but we skirted the village anyway by climbing through the hills behind it. The Columbia looked even more beautiful from up high in the hills, although it looked so different from my own time, it was hard to get my bearings.

  Late in the afternoon, we came upon an Indian village where the river looked so different than how I remembered it, I wo
uld’ve swore it wasn’t the Columbia. The river was narrow here and picking up speed as it made its way between huge black rocks. It turned to whitewater as it plunged through and a little further down, there was a good-sized waterfall with what I guessed was a fifteen or twenty foot drop.

  “None of this is here in my time,” I told Kate.

  “That’s silly, John. Where could it go?”

  “There’s a huge dam right about here somewhere,” I said pointing downriver. “It’s called The Dalles Dam. I guess it flooded all this area when they built it. Plus there’s two other dams back up the river from here. That’s why none of this looks the same to me now. I never realized this river was so narrow and shallow in the past.” Kate stared at the river, trying to imagine it as I described it in my own time. We were still up in the hills, looking down on the amazing views. As we looked down on the falls and the rushing whitewater, a bald eagle came downriver, soaring right over our heads. It was so close above us, I could see one eye when it cocked its head to look at us. What a huge, beautiful bird in this amazing time and place. I had only ever seen a couple of bald eagles in my life and certainly not from so close. Before, it had been from a vehicle window and off in the distance. Truly, this entire area I had never seen as I did now. Not just the fact of being in a different time, no, it was the fact of walking it and living it, instead of just driving past it.

  There were Indians standing in the water below us and more were standing on the bank, fishing. They looked small from where we stood on the hillside. I knew how cold that water was, even in the summertime, it never warmed up. It was fed from melting glaciers. Yet these men stood in it in the chilly spring weather as if it were bath water.

  We skirted on around them too, staying up high in the hills, and went back to hunting as we walked.

  Chapter 32

  The temperatures had improved once we were in the gorge. I knew the winds could still be ferocious, but we’d had a couple of balmy days and the temperature dropped only a little at night.

  “It’ll be getting warmer and wetter as we continue west. There’s a good chance we’ll be sleeping on some pretty soggy ground the rest of the way.”

  “That’s fine, John. I’m looking forward to getting there and building our own house. I want a garden and flowers and big trees. Are there large trees there?”

  “Huge trees. Conifers and Oregon pine and Pacific Firs. They’re some of the biggest trees in the country.”

  “How far do we still have to go?”

  “Only another hundred miles or so. Should be nothing for you, after walking all the way from Missouri.”

  “I can handle it.”

  We moved back down toward the river, thinking maybe we could catch a fish for our dinner. As we pushed through the weeds and came out onto the sandy bank, a huge white bird took flight over the river. It must have been standing in the water’s edge as we’d come down the hill. I lifted the musket and fired off a shot, leading it a little with the rifle as it took flight. The gun boomed and the bird dropped, right into the cold, swift current. I dropped the pack off my back and took off after it, splashing into the freezing water. The current was pulling the bird away from me and I had to swim hard to catch it. It felt like the icy water was sucking the very life from my muscles. I could feel my arms and legs weakening, but starvation made me determined. I grabbed the dead bird by the neck and swam straight into the bank, then made my way back upriver, where Kate stood, shading her eyes with her hand as she watched me. I held the bird up by its neck as I let out a whoop. “Dinner is served, my lady.”

  “I think that’s a crane, John. I don’t think I’ve ever eaten a water bird like that before.”

  “You’ve had duck and goose, haven’t you?”

  “Yes.”

  “Same thing, just a little bigger.”

  She started a fire while I stripped off my wet clothes, hanging them over bushes to dry. I quickly pulled on the other set of clothing, but I was still shivering from head to toe, until the flames finally blazed up into a decent size fire.

  “You know, back in 2010, I certainly never took a freezing bath, washed my clothes, and swam to catch dinner at the same time.”

  Kate threw her head back and laughed, a happy, lilting sound ringing out across the silence of our wilderness.

  “You are silly, John Baker,” she laughed. “But you sure do make me laugh.”

  “Yeah…well, you know it’s the best medicine.”

  “The best for what?”

  “For everything. Laughter cures everything.”

  “Great. I’ll remember that next time I get the measles.”

  Now it was my turn to laugh at her. Just knowing that we had a meal in front of us had lightened our mood and made our evening a joyous occasion. We dined well on the huge bird and wrapped up the remainder for later. The crane tasted much like duck, but with more of a wild game flavor. I leaned back onto a fallen log after stuffing myself, feeling sated and proud of myself. Kate came and sat beside me and I pulled her into my shoulder, my arm tight around her small waist.

  “One thing I’ve learned for sure out here in the wilderness, little one.”

  “What’s that, John?”

  “Never, ever take a meal for granted, cause you don’t know where the next one’s coming from.”

  She giggled against my chest. “You got that right, John Baker. At least once we’re established in the Willamette, we can have chickens and cows and a garden. It won’t always be this hard.”

  “I know, little one.” I brought my other arm around her too as I held her small body, my heart filled with such a deep love for her. It was getting hard to remember what my life had been like before her. It was as if she had filled a hole in my heart or as if I was never a whole person until I met her and now, I was complete.

  “What do you miss most from your world?” She asked quietly. “Other than your family, I mean.”

  I was quiet too as I considered it. I thought about all the electronics, phones, TV’s and computers; things that a few months ago I thought I couldn’t live without. And now, not even an electrical outlet. But no, I hadn’t even thought about all the electronics I’d left behind in months. I couldn’t really say I had missed them.

  “A hot shower,” I said suddenly as it came to me. “I would give my left arm for a hot shower right now.”

  “Can you describe it for me?”

  “You turn on a faucet and step into hot water, instead of heating it over the fire. It’s like standing under a hot, steaming waterfall.”

  “Mm, sounds wonderful,” she murmured into my chest. I lay down flat and pulled the blankets over us when I realized that the hard walk combined with the full stomach was putting her to sleep.

  “I love you, John Baker,” she mumbled.

  “I love you too, little one.”

  Chapter 33

  We had veered off the path, wandering through the undergrowth in search of small game. I had the Bowie knife in my hand and the small one in the scabbard tucked into the top edge of my moccasin. Kate was walking quietly behind me, watching where she put each foot to make as little noise as possible.

  We still had some of the bird left and I was hoping for another huge, happy dinner like the night before.

  All of a sudden, I heard a dull thud, like a whoomp, and I heard Kate grunt behind me. It felt like slow motion as I turned and looked into those beautiful ice-blue eyes. Her eyes were wide with confusion and terror as she slowly fell toward me. I felt frozen in shock and confusion as I watched her falling toward me. She hit the ground on her stomach before I could even move and I saw an Indian tomahawk buried in her back. An ice-cold steel gripped my heart and spread through my body as I looked at her. I could see blood pooling around her as my legs turned to rubber and I dropped to my knees beside her, my mind going numb. I heard a thwack just as I dropped down. A knife had been thrown and was sticking out of a tree behind me. Had I not dropped down at that very instant, that knife would have
been sticking out of me. I slowly pulled the weapon from Kate’s back, tossing it to the side and I watched in complete horror as the blood flowed freely. I turned her over with her head in my lap. Her blue eyes stared up into mine…imploring…beseeching. I heard a movement behind me and, turning my upper body, I brought the Bowie knife up and threw it in one swift motion, straight into the chest of a man coming toward me. I saw another knife in his hand as he dropped. He went down with a groan and I gently lay Kate’s head on the ground, ran over and snatched the knife from his grasping hands. I left him where he fell and quickly returned to Kate. “I’m gonna roll you onto your side so I can stop the bleeding.”

  She stared up at me, her face was so pale and her eyes looked huge in her little round pixie face. I gently rolled her to her side, took my shirt off and used it to staunch the flow of blood. It quickly became drenched and I applied more pressure. She seemed to be having trouble breathing so I rolled her back over, keeping my hand and shirt over the wound. It didn’t seem to be helping, though. There was just so much blood. I could feel it seeping through my fingers where I held her.

  “I love you, John Baker. You know that, don’t you?” Her voice was so weak. Nothing like my merry, happy-go-lucky Kate.

  “I know you do, little one. And I love you… more than life itself.”

  She didn’t answer and her eyes were closing.

  “No Kate, stay with me.” I shook her a little to keep her with me. There was no response and I could feel my heart beating wildly as a dark cloud of doom swept down over me. Her eyes were closed now and she didn’t open them as I called her name. I put my fingers on her neck and felt for a pulse. I kept trying and trying, moving my fingers up and down her neck. I put both hands on her shoulders and shook her again, a little harder this time. “Come on Kate…don’t you leave me.”

  She was gone. My beautiful Kate…my sweet little one…was gone. Right in front of my eyes, as I sat there, helpless. There was nothing I could do to stop her from leaving me. She looked as if she was sleeping peacefully on the ground, her long blond hair fanned out around her. But my heart knew what my mind refused to accept. I had traveled back through time to find the sweetest, purest love I had ever known, only to lose her to some madman with a tomahawk. Yet, my mind still rejected the idea. It could only be another of my crazy dreams. No way could it be more than a dream, a nightmare…it had to be. My head came up as I remembered the guy with my knife in his chest. A rage came over me unlike anything I’d ever known. It was a cold, deadly, murderous rage, a white-hot fire burning through my body as I realized what this psycho had done to my sweet Kate.