Middle Falls Time Travel Series, Books 4-6 (Middle Falls Time Travel Boxed Sets Book 2)
Page 50
At 5:45, he jumped in the Olds, which looked like new once again, with no sign of having been tumbled by the volcanic eruption that loomed large in Joe’s memory. He knew the street the house was on, so only had to find the right address.
It was no surprise to find that Stan’s house was an immaculate little cottage, painted white with blue trim. The cobbler’s children may have had no shoes, but Mrs. Fornowski obviously didn’t need to rent anyone else’s husband.
Joe pulled into the small driveway, right behind Stan’s orange Courier pickup. He had wanted to bring a bottle of wine for dinner, but he knew the clerk at the liquor store would never sell it to him, so he settled on a spring bouquet from the florist.
The door was open, with soft music coming from inside and an aroma that made Joe realize how hungry he was. Joe knocked, and a tall, attractive woman came to the door, smiling. “You must be Joe! How nice to have you here with us!”
And you must be Mrs. Fornowski, but I never would have guessed. I had you pegged as more the Mrs. Claus-type, and here you are, looking like you stepped off the pages of Vogue.
“Hello, Mrs. Fornowski, thank you for inviting me.”
“Oh, no,” she said with a tinkling laugh. “No ‘Mrs. Fornowski’ for me. I’m Claire. Come in, come in.”
Joe stepped through the door into a cozy living room. Two high-backed chairs were arranged against the far wall, facing the television.
“Stan will be out in just a moment, he just got home from a job and needed a shower before dinner. I’ll get you a glass of lemonade.”
Joe realized he was still holding the bouquet of flowers, and said, “Oh! These are for you.”
“They’re lovely, Joe. Thank you. I’ll put them in some water, and they’ll be our centerpiece for the evening.”
Claire bustled away in the direction of the heavenly smell just as Stan came around the corner, his wet hair slicked straight back. “Much better,” she said approvingly, giving him a peck on the cheek on the way by.
“Thank you, mother,” Stan said. He did his best to appear exasperated by her, but couldn’t pull it off. “Hello, Joe, glad you made it here. I had this crazy thought that you don’t socialize much and might cancel on us.”
“I can’t say I didn’t think about it!” Joe laughed. “My mom would have climbed out of her grave and smacked me for rudeness if I had, though. I don’t want that.”
“No, we definitely don’t want that.”
“Boys, come in to dinner, now,” Claire called from the back of the house.
Dinner turned out to be beef stroganoff. Thick and rich, with thinly sliced mushrooms and beef, it was of the stick-to-your-ribs variety. After a green salad and two heaping platefuls of the stroganoff, Joe groaned. “If I ate like this every night, I wouldn’t fit through the door.”
“Oh, we don’t eat like this every night, either. I work down at the library four days a week, so poor Stan gets hurry up meals more often than I would like. But, I hoped you saved room for some pie and ice cream.”
“I am a teenage boy. I always have room for pie and ice cream,” Joe said with a smile. “Let me help you with the dishes now.”
“Nope, that is not on the agenda. You and Stanley go out on the back patio. He has one of his horrible cigars he wants to smoke, and I won’t let him do it in my house.”
Stan nodded in agreement, so they went out into the cooling night air. Mosquitos occasionally zapped their life away in the bug zapper, which reminded Joe of his last encounter with the little buggers.
The backyard was surprisingly large, with almost a third of an acre of lush green grass, flowerbeds, and several outbuildings.
Stan removed a cigar from his shirt pocket, inhaled deeply along its length, and smiled. Then he went about the ritual all cigar smokers know well, and which Joe found fascinating. Once it was properly lit, Stan took several puffs and leaned back in his lawn chair, quite satisfied with his kingdom that was contained inside a well-maintained six-foot cedar fence.
The back yard was at least a quarter acre. Claire’s flower beds dominated the landscaping near the house. A small greenhouse, filled with pots, soil, and indeterminate plants, sat in one corner of the yard. In the other corner was a larger building that perfectly matched the color and trim of the main house. The building didn’t seem out of place, but it drew Joe’s attention nonetheless. He was about to ask about it when Stan Began speaking again.
“I am happy to offer you a cigar, but something tells me you’re not a cigar kind of kid, are you?”
“No,” Joe agreed, shaking his head. “But thank you.”
“I have something else to offer you, though, and you might like it.”
Joe’s eyebrows rose. He couldn’t imagine what it might be.
“Sometimes I get jobs that are too big for one man, and I have to turn them down. From the way you negotiated with me, I will guess you’re not hurting for money. Be that as it may, I’m wondering if you would like to help me out from time to time. I can pay you four dollars an hour. It won’t be under the table, though. Claire is the bookkeeper, and she insists on everything being above board.”
Joe didn’t answer immediately.
I’ve got things coming up I want to do, but they are a ways off. I’m not going to bother to try and save JD and Bobby this time. I’m going to leave them to their fate. I don’t need the money, but that doesn’t mean I don’t need a job. Stan is a good man, and I could learn a lot from him.
“Yes, I’d like that,” Joe said, quietly.
Stan nodded. “It won’t be steady work, because I don’t get all that much work myself, but it’ll ease the load on myself a bit and I’ll share it with you wherever I can. Sometimes it’s on pretty short notice, though, because when a customer calls, it’s almost always an emergency.”
“That’s okay. The only other thing I have to do is volunteer down at the animal shelter, and that’s completely flexible.”
“There it is, then,” Stan mused. “I might have to change the logo on the truck to ‘Rent a husband, or a boy.’”
Chapter Twenty-One
Without looking for one, or thinking he needed one, Joe had found a job. Stan had said he wouldn’t be able to keep him busy, but as it was mid-summer, they were in the middle of the handyman busy season. Joe believed that Stan brought him along on jobs where he wasn’t strictly needed, but it made things easier and the days passed by more quickly.
On August 1, Joe put his house up on the market for the same price he had in his previous life. Once again, he got an offer he was happy with in short order. Even in the years of high interest rates, a recently-remodeled honey of a rambler is an easy sell.
The day after he got the offer, he told Stan that all the good work they had done had paid off.
“So, where you movin’ to, then?”
“I thought I’d look at those apartments over at the River Crest, see what they look like.”
“They look like a bunch of shoeboxes with tissue-thin walls, stacked one on top of the other.”
Joe thought back on his brief stay in the Rivercrest in his previous life. Yeah, that’s pretty spot on.
“Well, there’s not many options in Middle Falls, and I don’t want to move away.”
Stan nodded. “You’re right, not a lot of apartments to choose from here in town. When we were sitting in my backyard after dinner the other night, did you see the building that’s in the back corner of the lot?”
“Sure did. I wondered what it was, but I didn’t want to ask.”
“It’s a mother-in-law apartment. I actually built it for my mother-in-law—funny how that works. It’s not big. A little under 500 square feet. It’s got a nice kitchen in it, though, and a Murphy bed. I built it myself, so it’s solid.”
“And square, I’ll bet.”
“Every angle, you bet your ass. Claire’s Mom lived in it for a few years, but she passed away last year, and now it just sits empty. I was wondering if you’d like to stay there.�
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“I’d like to see it, if we can come up with a fair rent.”
“I was thinking $75 a month.”
Joe shook his head with a small smile on his face. “No way. Can’t do it. Maybe $125.”
“I don’t think you understand how this negotiating thing works, Joe.”
After their job was done for the day, they drove back to Stan’s property. They went through the side gate so they didn’t track through Claire’s immaculate house. Stan fished a key out of his pocket and unlocked the dead bolt. It made a solid sound when he turned it, and he smiled at Joe.
The inside of the little cottage was more spacious than Joe had anticipated. The fact that there was no bedroom made the single room spacious. There was a kitchen and eating area on one side and a good-sized living room on the other. And yes, every right angle was indeed square. The whole interior had a solid, homey feeling.
“If the offer’s still open, I’d love it,” Joe said. “It’s got a good vibe.”
Stan held the key out to him. “It’s yours from now on. Move in any time. We’ll start the rent on the first of the month. There’s an alley that runs behind the fence. You can park back there, and use the gate in the fence. That way Claire won’t keep too close an eye on your comings and goings.”
Joe chuckled. “She’s welcome to watch me as close as she wants, but I’m only likely to put her to sleep. I’m the most boring teenager in the world.”
“That’s exactly why we invited you to live here.”
TIME PASSED EASILY for Joe. He worked a few days each week with Stan, once again became a fixture at the animal shelter, and did everything he could do to prepare for his next big adventure. He wasn’t completely sure what skills he would need for that, so he did well-rounded research in weapons, guns, and self-defense, then hoped he would never need to use any of it. He got a membership at the YMCA to get in better shape and took self-defense classes one night a week.
It won’t make me Bruce Lee, but hopefully I’ll be able to handle myself a little better.
When Joe first woke up after being roasted by Mt. St, Helens, he had decided he would leave JD and Bobby to their own fates. He had done everything he could to rescue them. It had been for naught and he ended up dying himself.
But, as the news reports about St. Helens rumbled back into his consciousness in the spring of 1980, Joe began to revisit the idea. Over time, it became less about JD and Bobby, and more about Merlin, Sapphire, and their kids.
They listened. Yeah, they were taking a foolish chance by being there, but they heard me. They got out of blast radius and to safety. Or, at least I think they did. They weren’t there when we ran by on the way to our cars.
As May 18 approached, Joe made up his mind to jump into the breach once more. That Friday, he went to the hardware store and bought a new flashlight, two packages of batteries, and two cans of mosquito repellent. He even took the Oldsmobile into the garage and had it given a once over.
Not taking any chances, this time.
He pulled out of the alley behind his house early that Saturday and repeated his drive up through Portland, into Washington. This time, he remembered to stop for a burger before he turned off onto Spirit Lake Highway. As he drove, he constantly caught glimpses of the mountain before it disappeared behind the hills again.
It was jarring. There was such a disparity between what he saw in front of him, and what he had seen as he watched the massive landslide and eruption.
He pulled into the parking lot just past the bridge that crossed the Toutle River. Once again, he saw JD’s beat up old pickup truck there. He looked at the other vehicles scattered around and tried to guess which one belonged to Merlin and Sapphire. He focused on the VW van with the flower power stickers as the likely suspect.
He checked his backpack, sprayed himself from head to toe with DEET, and set off at a steady pace.
Not gonna run at breakneck speed and end up knocking myself out again.
By mid-afternoon, he came to the same spot where he had seen Merlin and Sapphire, and there they were. They had a fire built up and Sapphire was bent over a cast iron frying pan. Merlin was lounging in his lawn chair, absolutely unchanged from the last time Joe had seen him.
Joe walked toward them, raising a hand in greeting.
“Greetings, weary traveler,” Merlin said. “Can I offer you a beer?” He peered more closely at Joe, took in his birthmark, then immediately dismissed it. “Or are you old enough to partake of the nectar of the hops?”
Joe smiled and shook his head. “I am not. But, thank you.”
“Just another adventurer, wandering up to get a peek at the mountain before she blows, then?”
“Believe it or not, that’s why I’m here.”
Joe had played this conversation over and over in his mind, but could never come up with a way to say what he had to say without appearing crazy.
“Do tell.”
Joe took a deep breath. “I have no idea if you guys will believe this or not. I’ll tell you that if some strange kid walked into my camp and told me this story, I wouldn’t believe him. It feels like I have to do it, anyway.”
Sapphire straightened up, pulled the skillet off the grill over the fire and said, “Kids! Lunch! Come and get it!” She turned to Joe. “That’s a heck of an introduction. You’ve got our attention.”
“I’m just going to tell you, and let you guys do with it what you will.” He steadied himself, took a deep breath, and plunged ahead. “I’ve already lived this life. In fact, I lived more or less this exact scene, but it was later in the day last time. The volcano’s gonna blow early tomorrow morning, and anyone who’s camping in this area will be killed. The Toutle will overflow, the trees are going to be blown down by the force of the blast. I warned you about it last time, and you got out in time to save yourselves. I went on and tried to save my friends, who are camped just up ahead, and we all died. I woke up and started the whole damn thing over.”
“You’re right. That’s a lot to swallow,” Merlin said.
“I don’t expect you to believe me. I just knew I couldn’t sit home on my couch today, knowing how nice you guys were to me and let you just die. Last time through, I forgot my mosquito spray and you dug an old can of DEET out and sprayed me down. You were really kind.”
Merlin lit a cigarette and took a deep drag before he spoke. “Knowing a camping family has a can of DEET doesn’t exactly make you Kreskin, does it?”
“Nope. And neither does knowing your name is Merlin, and your wife’s name is Sapphire, even though those are unusual names. I’m sure there’s a bunch of reasons we could think of why I would know that. Maybe your coworkers sent me up here as a practical joke. Except they didn’t.”
Merlin and Sapphire exchanged a long look, filled with wordless communication. Two gangly, dirty, half naked kids emerged, a boy and a girl. Both had long hair, dirty faces and happy smiles. “Where’s the food?” the boy asked.
“Over on the table, Eat up.”
“Anyway,” Joe said, “I just felt compelled to come and tell you that. Now, you can do whatever you want with it. I’m going to hike on ahead and tell my friends, even though I don’t expect them to listen to me, either. Thanks for being so cool with me last time around.”
“What’s your name, son?”
“I’m Joe. Joe Hart.”
“Where you from?”
“I live down in Middle Falls, Oregon. Not too far. How about you guys?” I already know the answer, but it’ll seem rude if I don’t ask, I guess.
“Winlock. A guy named Merlin should be from somewhere named Winlock, right, since there are no towns in Washington named Warlock.” This seemed like a rote recital, a funny line he had used a thousand times before.
Merlin lapsed into silence, lost in thought, but raised a hand in good-bye as Joe returned to the trail and hiked on toward the mountain. When Joe got to the bend in the trail where their campsite would disappear from view, he turned and looked.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Joe picked his way down the trail. He knew he had more than enough time to get in and out, and he remembered where the small spur trail was that led to JD and Bobby’s campsite. He found it by mid-afternoon and walked into the camp to find them sacked out on sleeping bags by the fire. They hadn’t even bothered to set up their tent yet. All their gear was still stowed, except for their bags.
I guess this explains why they were up in the middle of the night when I found them last time. They hadn’t gone to bed yet.
Joe made no effort to be stealthy. In fact, he cleared his throat and went out of his way to step on several sticks in his path. They slumbered on.
Joe stood over the two of them and said, “If this was The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, you’d both be toast.”
Bobby opened one eye and squinted at Joe.
“You guys must have just got here. How in the world are you asleep already?”
“Joe? What the heck?”
“Didn’t you guys just get here?”
“Nah, we drove up and set up camp after we got off work yesterday afternoon. We stayed up until the sun was starting to come up. We decided a little nap was in order before we set up camp.”
Well, at least some things are different, then. Good to know.
JD sat halfway up, then leaned over on his elbow. He rubbed his face and said, “What the heck are you doing up here?”
“I came up here to try and save you guys.”
JD glanced from side to side. “Save us from what?”
“Save you from the damned mountain. It’s about to blow.”
“What? I hadn’t heard anything about it.”
A moment of sudden inspiration hit Joe.
“Yeah, the government made the announcement this morning. They’ve got indicators that the mountain’s gonna blow in the next 24 hours. They’ve blocked everyone from coming in. Haven’t you seen any of the helicopters that have been flying over? They’ve been broadcasting the evacuation over loudspeakers.”