Computers and screens filled three walls with his one large office chair in the middle.
He moved to the other side of the short hallway and said, “This is my bedroom and there is a modern, for this time, bathroom, shower, and hot tub back in there.”
He watched as she wandered past his king bed and looked into the bathroom. When she turned, her eyes were wide.
“This place is wonderful, Lee,” she said.
“You really like it?” he asked.
“I more than like it,” she said, coming to him. “I love it.”
She kissed him and he kissed her back and if it hadn’t been for their groceries sitting in the hot sun out front, they might not have left that bedroom for a while.
THIRTY-SIX
August 7th, 2018
Central, Idaho
JOAN COULDN’T BELIEVE how comfortable it was to live in Lee’s ranch. And how much she had fallen in love with the place and the man who built it.
Three weeks had passed since they got here and staying here had felt like a vacation from everything. She knew it was going to end, but at the moment, since they had no choice, she was enjoying the time.
They had quickly gotten into a routine every day. They got up before sunrise and showered and had breakfast.
Then they went out onto the front porch to sit and watch the sun come up over the mountains.
Every morning the sight took her breath away. And every morning it was different.
He had built his ranch in one of the most stunningly beautiful places on the planet, of that she was sure.
And he told her one evening that he was starting to understand that again looking at his home through her eyes and listening to her comments.
She liked that.
Lee had figured that Duster, once someone noticed Lee missing, would stay at the Monumental Summit Lodge for the night before coming here to check on Lee.
Lee said it would take Duster about two hours after he had breakfast to get here.
So after sunrise, they went back into the modern home in the hill and closed the door. She watched news from around the world, mostly, trying to get caught up on what had happened in the world since 1986.
The thing that stunned her the most was 9/11. And then how the world changed after that.
By three in the afternoon Lee was convinced that Duster wasn’t showing, so they opened the door back up and spent time both in the back apartment and in the ranch house.
But they did no cooking out there in the ranch house at all since smells from any dinner would linger and give their presence away.
Joan was completely used to the routine and was enjoying it more and more every day when a dinging sounded through the apartment. She turned off the television she had been watching. It was about eleven-thirty in the morning.
“Here we go,” Lee said from his office.
She could tell how nervous he was from just his voice. They both knew that if his friend Duster made the wrong decision, there was no telling what would happen to them.
She went into his office, pulled up a chair beside Lee, and looked at the screen Lee was studying.
A man was standing outside a white Cadillac down on the main road.
The man looked to be about thirty-five and was tall with short hair. He was dressed in jeans, a dress shirt, and cowboy boots.
“That’s Duster,” Lee said.
They watched as Duster took out a phone.
“That’s a satellite phone,” Lee said. “Signals bounce off a satellite in orbit.”
She didn’t even want to ask how that was possible. She was coming to the point of just taking modern advancements in stride but some of them just flat puzzled her.
They listened as Duster told someone on the phone to go check on the crystal.
Then Duster climbed into the large white Cadillac and sat staring down the road.
“He’s waiting, isn’t he?” Joan had asked.
“He knows what has happened,” Lee said, “but he will be unwilling to admit it without proof.”
“You think he knows about me yet?” Joan asked.
“No,” Lee said, shaking his head. “At this point he would just think I was lost in the caverns, not both of us.”
They saw Duster answer the phone after about ten minutes. Then he climbed out of the car and put on a long oilcloth coat and cowboy hat. He put a bottle of water in each pocket and the phone in another and started up the road.
Lee watched until Duster was out of sight, then sighed and sat back.
“You all right?” Joan asked, taking his hand.
“Scared to death,” Lee said. “Scared to death.”
“You trust your friend,” Joan said. “Right?”
“And he knows as much, if not more about timelines as you do, right?”
“More,” Lee said. “He and Bonnie started all this.”
“So trust them to trust you to find a way,” Joan said. “I did.”
He looked over at her and smiled, then leaned over and kissed her.
“You do know I love you, don’t you?” he asked.
She nodded. “And you know I love you as well?”
He nodded and they kissed again.
Then they went out into the living room to watch on the screens there what Duster did when he arrived.
THIRTY-SEVEN
August 7th, 2018
Central, Idaho
LEE AND JOAN watched intently on the big screen as Duster appeared out of the trees and paused to take a drink of water, then started across the open area toward the house.
Lee could feel his heart pounding. He had no idea what would happen if Duster made the wrong decision, or any decision at all. Lee knew that Duster had sent people back to find out what happened. But he didn’t know when and that was the problem.
That decision point to send people back in time to find out what happened was the key point they had to get past before time would be in the right spot.
“Are you sure he won’t try to come back here?” Joan asked.
“Positive,” Lee said. “He knows I have it rigged to blow up and he doesn’t know how to disarm it. Only you do.”
She nodded at that.
“Why is Duster wearing that long coat in the heat?” Joan asked.
“He says it keeps him cooler,” Lee said. “I think it might by keeping the sun off of him and allowing air to flow around as he walks. Never tried it.”
Duster reached the house, looking around. Then he stepped up on the front porch and opened the front door.
Lee switched the hidden camera so they could watch Duster as he stopped and studied the room.
Then Duster saw the two glasses and bottle of bourbon Lee had left on the coffee table and smiled a sad smile.
“Did he understand what you were trying to tell him?” Joan asked.
“I don’t think so,” Lee said. “But I have a hunch he will after he gets out of the moment.”
Duster then checked the back rooms and then went out onto the front porch, closing the door behind him solidly.
He took out the phone again and told whoever answered, more than likely Bonnie, that Lee wasn’t here, that they should get someone headed back in time to find out what happened.
Lee sat back, feeling partial relief.
“What happened?” Joan asked as Duster said he would meet the person on the other end of the phone call for dinner at the lodge, then took another drink and started back into the sun and down the driveway.
“He sent Craig back,” Lee said, letting the relief wash over him. “You know, the nurse who was there when we vanished. Now we have only one more step to get back completely.”
Joan looked at him with worry in her eyes. “And that is telling Duster. Right? When do we do that?”
“Ever been to the Monumental Summit Lodge?” Lee asked, smiling.
She shook her head.
“How about I buy you dinner there and introduce you to Bonnie and Duster. The lodge has fantastic steaks
and sautéed mushrooms to die for.”
“I would love that,” Joan said, smiling. “Do I have to get dressed up?”
He laughed. “I think this is a come-as-we-are dinner.”
“Perfect, just perfect,” she said.
And Lee could only agree with that. It was perfect, as long as he was with Joan.
PART SIX
A Homecoming
THIRTY-EIGHT
August 7th, 2018
Central, Idaho
DUSTER, BONNIE, DAWN and Parks sat in silence in the back dining room of the Monumental Summit Lodge. None of them wanted to even suggest anything.
There was nothing any of them could suggest. Lee and Dr. Failor were on the own.
“If they do make it back,” Bonnie asked, “how will they contact us?”
Duster shrugged. He had secretly hoped it would have been by now. But he knew Lee would be very careful to not set up any timeline issues if he could avoid them.
And they needed to do the same by not even considering making any decision on what to do or what not to do.
Duster twisted the iced tea glass in his hand, the brown tea reminded him of the bourbon and all the great discussions and drinks he had had with Lee at his ranch.
And then the image of the two empty glasses and the bottle of bourbon sitting on Lee’s coffee table came back.
Duster sat there for a moment, then just started laughing.
He glanced at his phone to see the time. He had been back at the lodge for just under one hour.
He sat up and looked at his stunned friends. “Dawn, would you put in an order for two medium-rare steak dinners, bakers with everything on the side, and sautéed mushrooms?”
Dawn looked puzzled.
“And two glasses of iced tea.”
Dawn seemed hesitant to move.
Duster laughed and shook his head. “Just trust me on this one.”
Dawn stood and headed for the kitchen as Duster turned to Parks.
“Would you call the institute and get Craig and his wife up here as fast as they can get here? Make it a rush.”
Parks just frowned and picked up his phone.
Beside him, Bonnie was looking puzzled. “What happened?”
Duster laughed. “Lee left me a message and it just got through my thick skull.”
She looked even more puzzled.
Duster shook his head. “I’ll explain in a few minutes, when Dawn gets back.”
He might not have to explain. He might be able to let Lee explain it all.
Duster figured that Lee and Joan would have waited until Duster pulled away. Then they would have walked down the road to wherever Lee had hidden the car they were driving.
More than likely that meant they were just about an hour behind him.
He glanced at his phone again.
It had been almost exactly one hour.
Parks hung up the phone and said, “They will be here in forty minutes.”
“Thanks,” Duster said.
At that moment Dawn came back in carrying two glasses of iced tea.
“Put them right there,” Duster said, pointing to two spots facing them at the end of the wooden table.
“I am assuming this means you think they are coming,” Dawn said.
“Well, Craig and his wife are coming for sure,” Duster said, grinning.
“You know,” Bonnie said, smiling at her husband, “you can be a real jerk sometimes.”
“Only sometimes?” he asked.
“No, I take that back,” Bonnie said. “All the time.”
At that moment the door to the back dining room opened and Lee walked in followed by Dr. Failor.
And then everyone was laughing and cheering and hugging.
One of the best hugs Duster had ever had was from his good friend Lee.
THIRTY-NINE
August 7th, 2018
Central, Idaho
THE AFTERNOON AIR was warm and they both carried bottles of water as Lee and Joan walked down the road from the ranch.
It seemed to Lee that they had done a lot of walking together over the last month and he hoped that he and Joan would continue that for a very, very long time to come.
From the moment Duster pulled away from the bottom of the road, it took them almost an hour to get down the road and around the fallen tree and then to where they had hidden their car.
Lee got it going and Joan said simply, “That feels wonderful.”
The air-conditioning cooled them both off quickly and Lee had to admit, it did feel great.
For the next almost two hours, it was everything he could do to just drive at a safe speed
Joan seemed more at ease with the mountain road than she had been when they had first arrived at the ranch. It seemed she had come to really love the mountains in the last three weeks.
They made it to the massive Monumental Summit Lodge safely and Lee parked beside Duster’s white Cadillac.
Then they walked over to the edge of the parking lot near the lodge. From there they could see out over the Monumental Valley and the mountains of the Idaho Primitive Area. The view must have stretched for over a hundred miles, at least.
The sun still had most of the mountains in bright light and the sky was a deep blue, but the valleys were shrouded in shadows, giving everything a sharp contrast.
“This is just stunning,” she said softly, as if afraid to breathe.
Lee knew how she felt. The view often did that to him as well.
“How they knew I was missing,” Lee said, “is because I come up here for dinner two or three times a week in the summer.”
He pointed to the long patio facing the fantastic view that ran along the face of the lodge. Numbers of people were sitting on that patio now.
“I eat on the patio when I can.”
“I don’t blame you,” she said, taking his hand and squeezing it.
“You ready to meet some friends?” he asked.
She laughed. “I’ve been ready since we ended up in that crystal cavern.”
With that, hand-in-hand, they headed inside the lodge.
“Oh, wow,” Joan said, looking around. “I had heard this place was spectacular, but nothing I had heard describes anything like this.”
She stopped and just stared at the huge polished log beams and the turn-of-the-century furnishings. A good fifteen people were seated in the main dining room and someone Lee didn’t recognize stood behind the frond desk counter.
“Ready?” he asked after a moment of letting her look around.
“You think they know we are coming?”
“I’m betting that Duster figured it out by now,” Lee said. “Impossible to get something past that man for long.”
She nodded, brushed back her hair, and said, “Let’s go see if we have a future.”
He kissed her and then led her through the dining room and to a door in the log wall in the back.
As they opened the door and stepped inside, the cheers exploded from the four people in the room.
As did the hugs and the laughing and everything else.
Then Duster pointed to where two glasses of iced tea were waiting. “Figured you two would be thirsty.”
Lee glanced at Joan who just smiled and they sat down.
“So Duster’s being a jerk and not telling us how you got him a hint,” Bonnie said.
“We drink bourbon when he comes to talk,” Lee said. “So I put out a couple glasses and a bottle of bourbon on my coffee table.”
“And you both were hiding in the back?” Dawn asked.
“For three weeks,” Lee said. “We got back on the 15th of July.”
Parks looked at Lee. “Why couldn’t you tell us then what happened?”
“Because you had already sent someone to find out what happened,” Lee said. “To avoid timeline problems, we had to wait until you discovered I was missing and you sent people to find out what happened. You did that just this afternoon.”
At that point Dus
ter picked up the phone and said to someone on the other side. “Lee and Dr. Failor are here and fine.”
He nodded and hung up.
Joan smiled. “Please call me Joan.”
Both Duster and Bonnie nodded.
“Talking to Brice and Dixie?” Lee asked. “How close did they pinpoint where we landed in the caverns?”
“One hundred and twenty years after the event,” Duster said. “If you two walked at a good pace.”
Lee glanced at Joan and then said, “Wow, they are good.”
“And how are your feet?” Dawn asked.
Lee smiled. “Thanks to the doc here, I still have both of them. We wouldn’t have made it out of there and through all that destruction if we hadn’t worked together.”
At that moment two of the most wonderful-smelling steaks arrived.
Between bites, Lee and Joan took turns telling everyone about the journey.
FORTY
August 7th, 2018
Central, Idaho
THE STEAK HAD to be the best steak Joan ever remembered eating. Ever. And wow had Lee been right about the mushrooms. They just seemed to melt in her mouth.
And the laughter and clear caring and friendship from Director Parks, Dawn, Bonnie, and Duster was amazing. They had all just instantly included her as part of their family.
And she felt very, very honored to be with such fantastic minds and wonderful people.
So when they got all done with dinner, Duster laughed. “Looks like we have two more founders since you found our hidden area.”
“I think that’s only fair,” Bonnie said, nodding.
“We are honored,” Lee said.
Joan didn’t know what to say.
“And all of us are now the only ones who know the secret of the one-hundred-year limitation,” Duster said. “Can you all please keep that to yourselves?”
Both Lee and Joan laughed. “Not a word.”
As they both started working on pieces of wonderful cherry pie, Bonnie looked at Joan. “I am assuming,” Bonnie said, “that you are curious about what happened after you left 1986?”
Taft Ranch: A Thunder Mountain Novel Page 12