May, 18, 1902
Outside of Boise, Idaho
SHERRI STOOD WITH Carson, holding his hand in front of their mansion as Bonnie and Duster and Dawn brought their horses up. Duster had saddled her horse for her and was leading it.
The early morning was cool, almost cold, and Sherri had on a leather jacket over her tan riding clothes as a woman of this time would wear. The area in front of the mansion was beautiful, still almost dark under the canopy of tall trees. No one had passed on Warm Springs Avenue since she and Carson had come out here to say goodbye.
“I’m scared to death,” Carson said, squeezing her hand.
“Even if you don’t live in my timeline,” Sherri said, “at least you will live in others.”
Carson nodded. “I know.”
“You can do this.”
“I’m not so sure,” he said. “But I’m going to try.”
Sherri knew that. They had talked about it a lot, but now as she was leaving, she could tell that the next four months scared him to death.
“You got the script tucked away in a safe place, some place I won’t even find?” Sherri asked.
“I do,” he said, nodding. “And since you have never mentioned it, you clearly didn’t find it in the remodel either.”
She turned and looked at him, very surprised. She knew every inch of that mansion. Every inch. That notebook he had been working in taking detailed notes of everything any of them could remember about the coming next four months was not a small notebook.
He laughed, a laugh she had come to love, and would come to love in August again.
“I’ll show you after September 20th when you all get back,” he said.
“And not a moment before,” she said. “Promise me.”
“I promise. My life depends on it.”
“And so does mine,” she said.
She reached up and kissed him. “Be nice to the future me, or the past me, as the case might be. Whatever.”
He laughed again. “Was I nice the first time around?”
“Very,” she said.
“Then I will be again.”
She laughed.
Then she kissed him one more time, long and hard, and moved to her horse Duster was holding for her near the front porch. She didn’t dare let herself linger. She had to trust the math of Bonnie and Duster.
She was either going back to a life without Carson, or a life with Carson. It would depend on how well he did.
Over the last ten days she had really, really wanted to sleep with Carson, but she knew she couldn’t. She needed to leave that first time for the very first time in August, as it had happened.
She told him everything about their month-plus together, everything they did. But even though she asked, she didn’t tell him things about herself. Bonnie and Duster had both warned her about that. He needed to discover them in the same way he did the first time, and if he knew too much about her now, he might slip.
And one slip would move the timeline over. He couldn’t change a thing until he got to 2017. Then he needed to change the outcome on that one corner. And then live naturally with Sherri the rest of the summer.
And if he did change the outcome on that corner, he still didn’t dare tell them about what had happened until they returned. If he could do that, then Duster believed the timelines would all merge and his death would exist in no timelines.
His death would exist only in four people’s memories.
But if he slipped at all, billions of Sherris would return to a future with Carson still being dead. Sherri knew Carson was faced with an almost impossible task.
But she had a hunch if anyone could do it, he could.
“See you on September 20th, 2017,” Carson said, waving to all of them as they turned their horses up the drive.
“Good luck,” Duster said over his shoulder.
Bonnie and Dawn waved.
Sherri looked back at the man she loved standing on the huge front porch of their mansion. His mansion now, her mansion in 2017. And she so wanted it to be both of their homes at the same time.
She smiled and waved and then turned back before the tears started to flow.
Over the last ten days he had been so alive, so wonderful. If she returned to 2017 and he was still dead, she wasn’t sure if she would survive the heartbreak of that.
He had to make it work.
He had to follow the script of his own future right to that corner on that mountain road.
And then he had to change that.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
August 5, 1902
Idanha Hotel, Boise, Idaho
CARSON WAS SCARED flat out of his mind. He had told Sherri that he had enjoyed the ride into town just as the sun was cresting over the western mountains this first morning. The summer sky was a deep blue, with hints of reds shadowing high clouds. The air was still crisp and dry from the night, giving no hint of the warm day ahead.
He could understand why he would have enjoyed the ride, but now he just couldn’t. Today it all really started. He had studied and studied the script he had, his actions the first time that Sherri had seen him. He needed to duplicate those actions exactly.
He just let Sandy, his mare, set her own pace and he focused on relaxing during the mile ride, watching the swallows swarm and dart along the river. Along the way he tipped his hat to neighbors and passing wagons. Boise in 1902 was a very, very civilized place.
And growing quickly. It was still only a small shadow of what it would be in 2017, but the bones of the larger city were now in place.
He loved the cool mornings and he actually enjoyed the hot days. In fact, he knew that every day until he left on September 20th would be hot. But since Boise was on the edge of the high desert and against mountains, the heat never held through the night.
He hadn’t played much poker these last few months, just on the evenings that Duster had told him he had played. He had told Sherri that he needed supplies which was why he was going into town just at sunrise, when it was still cool.
He gave Sandy to the stable behind the Idanha Hotel and went in for breakfast. When on a supply run, he always treated himself to breakfast and for the last two years of his stay in Boise, it was always in the Idanha dining room. They served the best breakfasts in town for those who could afford them.
Sherri told him that was why he had come here this morning and that made sense to him completely.
He loved the big dining room with the tall windows and stone fireplace. It felt comfortable, yet had a formal atmosphere to it that he had come to enjoy.
This morning the hotel had the windows of the dining room slightly open letting in a cool breeze. Not enough to chill, but enough to make sure the room was as cool as it could be for the coming warm day.
Since the dining room had just opened at six, he was one of the first in and was seated at his normal table against the far wall, which was where Sherri said he had been seated. From there he could see everyone who came in as well as passersby on the wooden sidewalk outside the windows along Main Street.
He ordered his normal sliced ham, three eggs, and fried potatoes, taken a sip of his black coffee, and had his hand on the Idaho Statesman morning paper that he had picked up from the lobby when Sherri entered.
She wore a light-blue summer dress with a slightly plunging neckline and a blue sapphire necklace over smooth, perfect skin. She stood no more than five-four if that and was clearly in great condition. Everything about her shouted she was a woman of means.
He damn near started coughing, but managed to hold it. She was so beautiful and this was now very, very real and happening exactly as Sherri and Bonnie and Duster said it would.
Sherri carried a wide-brimmed light-blue hat in her hands and she had long black hair that was held up on the back of her head by an ivory comb. Her white skin seemed flushed, which told of either worry, or a few recent days in the sun.
His heart was beating and suddenly the cool morning didn’t seem
so cool.
He felt like he had been caught off guard even though he had prepared for this moment since early May when Sherri appeared at his home with Duster and Bonnie and Dawn.
He didn’t much like that feeling of being off guard. He had to be on guard and relaxed if this was going to work.
He forced himself to take a deep breath and relax and just study her, since she had told him she didn’t see him until after she sat down.
Sherri’s dark eyes looked very worried and her gaze darted from one side of the room to the other, clearly expecting to see Bonnie and Duster and Dawn.
Her wonderful hands twisted at her hat and she seemed instantly uncomfortable, as if she might panic and flee out of the dining room.
Her cheeks flushed pinkish even more.
She stood there for a moment, clearly getting more and more worried as she kept glancing back at the doorway behind her and the staircase across the lobby.
A waiter approached her and said something that Carson couldn’t hear and she nodded and said something in return.
Carson knew exactly what they had both said. It was in his notes.
The waiter led her to a table directly across the large dining room from Carson and held the chair for her to be seated so that she had her back to the wall and was facing him.
She thanked the waiter and he nodded and turned away.
Now was the time. He had to look cool and interested in her.
The exchange with the waiter did not seem to ease her tension. In fact, sitting there alone clearly bothered her even more. She didn’t know where to look or what to do with her hands. Her gaze stayed focused on the table and then the hat still in her hands.
He unfolded his newspaper and watched her over the top of it so at least he didn’t seem too obvious to the others in the room or the waiters.
Finally, he watched her take a deep breath and clearly calm down some.
A moment later the waiter brought her a glass of water with real ice in it and she thanked him with a smile that took Carson’s breath away again. He had seen that smile for ten days back in May. Now it shocked him again.
Wow, she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. And that smile could melt a snowdrift in the middle of the winter.
This wasn’t really happening.
“Calm,” he repeated softly under his breath. “Stay calm.”
He watched her take a sip of the water, then another deep breath.
She was clearly getting her nerves more and more under control.
He put the paper down as, for the first time, she started to actually focus on the people in the restaurant around her.
There were only four occupied tables total. An elderly couple sat against the back wall, and two businessmen sat at a table next to the front window.
She looked at both tables for a moment, then focused her gaze on him.
He kept staring back at her, smiling, as she froze.
Suddenly, she seemed very nervous again and her cheeks turned slightly pink once again.
He nodded to her and then looked down at his newspaper as the waiter brought his breakfast.
Thank god, he wasn’t sure if he could have held that much longer.
When he looked back up, she was smiling and looking very relieved as Bonnie and Duster came in to join her.
He put the paper up in front of himself as they had said he did and pretended to read as he tried to eat.
A moment later Dawn came in and joined them.
He kept pretending to read, as they said he had done, and he kept pretending to eat as well. But reading and eating were not easy at this point.
He believed his life depended on him doing just that. Eating, reading, and staying on the script perfectly.
He knew this was going to be hard. He just had no idea how hard.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
May 20, 1902
Above the mining town of Silver City, Idaho
IT HAD TAKEN them two full days to get to Silver City. None of them did much talking and the mood was somber. Sherri couldn’t think of much to talk about, to be honest.
They had decided to stay in the Silver City Hotel that second night and walk up to the mine the next day. There was still a lot of snow between the mining town and the mine, so they were going to need to be careful and take the long way around.
She slept that night like a dead person, mostly because she was exhausted, both mentally and physically. And there was nothing at all they could do now to save Carson in their home timeline. It was up to him.
She knew he would return and not have a wreck in billions of other timelines. But in her timeline, she wanted him to do that as well.
She did not want to return to September 2017 and have him still be dead. But both Bonnie and Duster had said that was the likely outcome.
But at least she knew they had tried.
The next morning Duster took their horses and sold them to a ranch just below the town, then joined them for a silent breakfast.
At ten, as the sun was starting to warm the snow at the tops of the peaks around Silver City, they started off walking down the valley away from the town. There were very few people in the town at this point of the spring, but Bonnie and Duster didn’t want to take any chances of them being followed up the hillside.
Sherri still had on her riding clothes, with a number of layers of clothes under them. She had also put layers of socks under her boots. She had on a sun hat and riding gloves, but the bite to the mountain air seemed to just cut through everything she wore.
The climb up the hill where Duster normally drove up seemed to take forever. They stopped and rested twice, and no one spoke at all.
They finally went across to the mine tailings and all four of them checked to see if anyone was looking before spending some time to clear their tracks from the snow, make some new tracks up the hill to an open ground area, and then finally open the rock and go inside.
Sherri just sort of stumbled down the mine following Bonnie with Dawn behind her. In the big supply cave, they all changed into their future clothes, then headed silently for the crystal cave.
In the big cavern covered in crystals, they all moved toward the wooden table and the machine. She knew in a few days she would appear here on her first trip back.
Now the trip to the future, her present, scared her more than anything she wanted to think about.
“Everyone ready?” Duster asked.
“No,” Sherri said, but still moved to put her hand on the machine. She kept the image of Carson’s face clearly in her mind, as if that would help him suddenly be alive on the other side.
But at this point it was all she could do as Duster reached to pull the wire.
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
June 9th, 2017
Old mine above the ghost town of Silver City, Idaho
CARSON LOOKED AROUND at the crystal cavern after Sherri and Bonnie and Duster and Dawn vanished. His wires were still hooked up to the machine and the crystal.
Duster had been right about that happening.
Carson had followed the script he had been given exactly. Four long months of being scared out of his wits half the time.
And he had also enjoyed the month plus with Sherri more than he wanted to admit.
Now came the only real turning point. He had to make it off this mountain alive.
Then, if he managed that, he had to be very, very, very careful to not say anything until September 20th.
He put on a glove, touched the box with his bare hand, and unhooked one wire with his gloved hand. As normal, nothing seemed to change.
He carefully unhooked the other wire from the box, then the two wires from the crystal.
He took a deep breath. He was back in 2017. Sherri was waiting for him in his home, in her home, in what he hoped would be their home.
Carrying his heavy saddlebags filled with money and gold, he headed for the regular cavern. He quickly stored the money, then changed back into his
2017 clothes. It had been over twenty years since he had been here, yet only slightly more than two minutes had passed. That always felt very strange and this time was no different.
He headed down the mine, setting the alarms as he went as Duster had trained him to do. He almost missed one because all he could think about was Sherri and how wonderful that last kiss had felt just a few minutes before, yet over a hundred years in the past.
And how much he wanted her in his arms.
But now he was going to face his biggest fear. Could he make it to her alive?
He made sure there was no one outside the mine, then quickly opened the mine door and stepped out and let the big rock go closed behind him. The afternoon was warming up, but wasn’t extremely hot yet. The air felt dry and the ghost town of Silver City far below looked like it had a few early-season visitors.
His blue Jeep sat across the narrow trail in the trees near where Duster and Bonnie always parked.
Climbing in behind the wheel felt very, very strange. No wonder he had crashed. That last trip where he had met Sherri had been his fourth trip back today. He had only spent an hour in the mine since arriving here today, but it had been a couple hundred years of living and memory since he had last driven a car.
Duster had always said it was like riding a bike, a person didn’t forget. But they could sure be rusty at the skill and that’s exactly how he felt.
And he must have forgotten it had been hundreds of years since he last drove. More than likely that added to the factors of the crash.
He sat for a moment, adjusting the air-conditioning and letting the car cool.
His hands were shaking on the wheel, so he got out and walked around in the warm air for a moment, forcing himself to calm down.
Finally, he carefully backed the Jeep up and then heading across the hillside on what seemed like nothing more than a goat track. He seemed to be moving about as fast as he could walk, but for the moment, that was fast enough.
He made it across the hill and down to the valley floor and the main one-lane tourist road into Silver City.
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