by Zoe Matthews
“I went to the mountains specifically to gather herbs for our shop. I wonder if the herbs in my time and these herbs in your time are from the same plants. There is some type of link between the ground with the herbs on it in my time and your herb garden.” She looked around and saw some large rocks scattered around the field they were standing in. She picked up one and placed it on the singed grass. Picking up another one, she put it next to the first rock.
“What are you doing?”
“There was a circle of rocks right around the area I disappeared from in my time. I’m just making the circle in your time.”
Keegan looked at her for a few seconds, watching as she put a third rock in its place. Then he found his own rock and started to help form the circle. It took awhile, but they finally finished the circle, although Megan made Keegan replace some of the rocks he had chosen because she felt they were too small.
“The rocks that formed the circle in my time were quite large, although parts of them were buried in the dirt, probably due to erosion over time,” Megan explained.
When they were done, they stood side by side and looked at the completed circle. She found it odd that she was looking at a circle that was made in this time, that was still around in her time, but was formed in this time. It was hard to understand how it all worked.
The entire time they were working, not once did Megan see a flash of light or felt a spark. Did that mean she was going to be stuck in Keegan’s time, forever?
****
Keegan looked at Megan as she studied the circle they had just made, trying to figure out how it all worked. He knew she was worried about being forced to stay in his time, and he didn’t know how to help her.
Kimberly and Nicky’s family had come to his time using two keys, but they no longer had access to them. A man who Victoria had received the first key from had collected them right after Nicky’s brother, Justin, his son and his parents, arrived in the late 1800s, thereby forcing them to stay. They all were able to adjust to the huge change in their lives, although it had taken some of them longer than others. Justin married Keegan’s sister, Bridget. Justin’s parents worked for Victoria and Collins until they died and now Douglas and Michelle were living on the ranch, enjoying being close to their children and grandchildren. He did know that Justin’s son, Garrett, struggled with living in this time period. He missed the technology and advantages the future had in the time he was born.
Would Megan be forced to stay? He immediately made a promise to himself that if that was the case, he would do whatever he needed to in order to help Megan adjust. In fact, he’d marry her if he needed to.
Keegan shook his head as the thought of marriage entered his brain. Marriage? Was he really willing to marry a woman he barely knew? Especially a woman not from his time? He shook his head again. He was getting ahead of himself, although he had to admit he felt an unusual bond with her, something he hadn’t ever felt with any woman from his time. It was almost like he knew her somehow, but how could that be?
“I think we need to talk to Kimberly and Nicky,” Keegan suggested, doing his best to get his mind off of his feelings for Megan. “They might have some insight on what we’ve discovered about my herb garden and the herbs you gathered.”
Megan looked at him solemnly. “Sure.”
But Keegan could tell she was feeling very discouraged. “We’ll figure this out. I promise.”
Megan smiled at him. “Thanks.”
He took a step away from her because he had the sudden desire to pull her into his arms. He noticed that Megan’s face went from looking worried and concerned to a little disappointed, and he wondered what she would have done if he had followed through with his feelings. He instantly made a decision.
“Let’s go talk to Kimberly and Nicky now,” Keegan suggested, even though he had said earlier that they would need to wait until that evening. “They can tell you their stories.”
Chapter 10
After lunch, Keegan left to help Patrick and Shaun with some things that needed to be done around the ranch. Megan stayed behind with Nicky and Kimberly. She sat at the kitchen table, watching them silently as they interacted with their children. She asked Kimberly and Nicky how old their children were. She found out that Richard and Katherine were twins and were born when Kimberly had been married to Patrick for only a year. They were now eleven years old. Kimberly also had a younger daughter, Josephine, who was five years old. Both girls were busy washing dishes, while Richard followed his father out into the sunshine, glad that his Aunt Nicky had declared school was over for the day. Nicky and Shaun were also the parents of three children; Jonathon, who was eight, Patricia, who was five, and Sophia, who was three years old. Colleen was also part of the family, a lovely part Indian young woman who, at 19 years of age, had left the ranch and was living in Denver, helping Bridget and Justin with their art gallery.
“So, do you homeschool your kids here at the ranch?” Megan asked after Richard left the cabin.
Kimberly smiled at her. “Yes. There isn’t a school nearby, and we live too far away from Denver to send them to school there.”
Nicky nodded as she got the broom from a corner and started to sweep the wooden floor. “Although I did hear that Deer Creek, a town that is nearby, will have a school soon. If they start one, we’re thinking of sending the older kids there.”
“Can I ask you both some questions about…” Megan hesitated as she looked at the girls who were helping their mothers. She wondered if they knew their mothers weren’t really part of this time period.
Nicky smiled at Megan with understanding. “I need to put Sophia down for a nap. The others can go weed the garden with their grandma. Then you, Kimberly, and I can have a chat.”
Megan nodded and then decided to make herself useful. “Can I help with something?”
“If you want to cut up some vegetables for a stew for dinner, that would be great,” Kimberly answered, gesturing to a pile of carrots, onions, and potatoes sitting on the end of a counter.
Megan got to work after finding out that Kimberly didn’t want the carrots or potatoes peeled. She found it interesting that they were having stew for dinner again. It was another reminder that things were different in this time period. Stew was easy to make, nutritious and filling. Megan thought about the variety of foods she was used to eating. She never had the same dish twice in the same week. For awhile Megan worked quietly, washing the vegetables in clean water before cutting them up. She listened as Nicky and Kimberly interacted with their children and liked what she witnessed. It was obvious that both women were very comfortable living in this time period. They worked on a wood stove and pumped water from an outside well. They kept their homes clean with just a broom and good old-fashioned elbow grease. The homes were decorated simply, but Megan could tell the women did their best to make them warm and inviting.
She assumed they spent much of their days growing, preparing, and cooking food for their families. She marveled how much Kimberly and Nicky had given up to be willing to live in a different time period because of love. Would she be willing to do that?
Megan finished cutting up the last potato and dumped it into a large cast iron pan full of water with the other vegetables. Kimberly took a piece of beef and cut it into small pieces and added it to the vegetables. She added wood to the stove and then placed the pan on top.
“How do you know how much wood to add?” Megan asked curiously.
“Lots of practice,” Kimberly grinned at her. She glanced at her eldest daughter who was looking at Megan with confusion at her question.
“I’ll finish drying the dishes, Katherine. Why don’t you take Josephine and Patricia out to the garden? Finish weeding that last row of beans and then start on the carrots.”
Katherine’s face fell. “Do I have to, Ma? I want to hear why Megan dresses so funny and why…”
“Yes, dear,” Kimberly interrupted her as she placed a hand on her daughter’s shoulder. “There are some th
ings you don’t need to know.”
Katherine sighed but turned to her little sister and young cousin. “Come on. Let’s go.”
“If you get those rows done before dinner, you can help Pa with the sheepdogs, alright?” Kimberly asked.
Katherine’s eyes brightened. Obviously, working with the dogs was a great bribe for her. “Sure, Ma.”
After the girls left, Nicky had returned from putting Sophia to bed, and the three women sat around the kitchen table, but now that they were together, Megan didn’t know what to say.
“I’m sure you have quite a few questions,” Nicky said with a grin.
“I’d like to know your stories, how you both ended up in the early 20th century,” Megan decided to ask the biggest question she had.
Over the next hour, she heard Kimberly’s and then Nicky’s story. Evidently, in 2005, Kimberly and Nicky shared a townhouse together. They had been friends since they were teenagers. In fact, Kimberly was a foster child and lived with Nicky’s family while she was in high school, and they considered each other sisters.
Kimberly found an ad in a Denver newspaper that looked very different and old-fashioned compared to the other ads. It advertised for a mail-order bride. Nicky dared Kimberly to answer it, which she did. The ad turned out to be from 1892. It was placed by a woman named Victoria Hilton. She had a mail-order bride business that she operated out of her home in 1892. She also had access to two keys that time traveled people from one different time period to another. Victoria used the keys to help Patrick find a wife. Kimberly exchanged letters with Patrick with the help of the time travel keys for a few months and decided she wanted to meet him. After getting used to the idea of a golden key that can time travel, Kimberly decided to give it a try. She lived at the ranch for about a month, and they fell in love, although Kimberly had kept the fact that she was from 2005 a secret from Patrick and his entire family. Once she had decided she wanted to marry him, she told Patrick and, after the initial shock, he still wanted to marry her.
Kimberly really wanted at least one person from her time to attend her wedding, so Collins, Victoria’s butler and the man who helped her with the mail-order bride business, traveled to 2005 to get Nicky. She met Shaun at the wedding, and although she did go back to 2005, she and Shaun exchanged letters with the help of the keys. Soon Kimberly became pregnant and Nicky wanted to be with her when she had her baby, which turned out to be twins, so she used a key and came to 1893 to help. She stayed the summer, fell in love with Shaun, and they eventually married.
Megan enjoyed listening to their stories, although she knew she was getting the short version. Both Kimberly and Nicky quickly told her how Keegan’s sister, Bridget, decided she wanted to have an adventure. Using the keys, she traveled to the future and met Nicky’s brother, Justin. Eventually, Justin, his son, and their parents used the keys to travel to the past. While they were there, the man who had given Victoria the first key showed up, a man Kimberly called ‘the Irish man.’ He eventually took both of them for safe keeping.
Then Kimberly mentioned a third key. There was a man named Golin who was from the medieval times. He somehow found his own key, then found out that Victoria owned two of her own keys, and wanted hers. He had great plans with all three keys, mainly to change history. Soon after Justin and his family arrived in Bridget’s time, Golin showed up, kidnaped Nicky’s step-daughter, Colleen, and barricaded them both in the barn, demanding that the two keys be given to him in exchange for Colleen’s freedom.
They couldn’t just give Golin the keys because they were hidden deep in a cave for safe keeping. Before they could figure out how to quickly get them, Golin knocked over a lantern and the barn caught on fire. They were able to rescue Colleen, but Golin had died in the fire. Patrick searched Golin’s body for the key, but couldn’t find it. After the fire was out and Golin was buried, they looked through the rubbish of the barn, but Golin’s key was never found. They later found out that the Irish Man had somehow been able to get the keys from the cave. As far as they knew, the man still had them. They had never seen or heard from him again.
“So, let me see if I understand this,” Megan said, her mind swimming with all the information Kimberly and Nicky had just thrown at her. “There were three golden keys, two of them were taken by this Irish man, and one just…disappeared?”
“Yep,” Nicky said with a smile. “We’ve never found Golin’s key.”
“Most of us figured the key transported itself to another time,” Kimberly added. “But Patrick thinks it’s still on the ranch somewhere.”
“I wonder if it is. Maybe somehow the key brought me here,” Megan suggested slowly.
Kimberly’s face lit up. “You know, you might be right. The area where the herb garden is? It’s where our old barn used to be.”
“We never found it, but it could have been buried in the ground after the fire, and we just didn’t see it,” Nicky added.
Kimberly shook her head. “Patrick isn’t going to like this.” She turned to Megan who felt very confused at her statement.
“Although my husband loves me very much and is glad Shaun found Nicky and Bridget found Justin, he feels we have changed history; the history of this time, and the history of the future. He feels very strongly that there will be repercussions one way or the other.”
Megan sighed. “I have to admit, he’s probably right.”
“Maybe. But right now, we need to figure out how to get you back to your time. I don’t think you should stay,” Kimberly responded.
“I don’t want to stay. I’m sure my mother will be worried about me, and I need to be around to help her with our shop,” Megan agreed.
Richard and Jonathon ran inside demanding their mothers’ attention, and Megan knew the talk was over. She stood and waited for a break in the conversation before telling Kimberly and Nicky that she was going to walk around for awhile. She needed time to herself, and she wanted to think over all that she had been told and learned that day.
****
That evening, after they ate the delicious stew Megan had helped prepare, along with biscuits, and an apple pie for dessert, the children were sent outside to play until the last of the sun’s rays set for the day. The adults sat in wooden chairs under a large shade tree. Megan learned that this was how the family always ended their days before bed; spending time together enjoying each other’s company. Even though it was October and the ranch was located deep in the mountains, the days had been very warm, so sitting outside in the evenings was still possible. She found it very different from how things were done in her time. People usually went out to dinner or watched a movie in the evenings. If people stayed home, they’d watch TV or browse through different social media apps on their phone. She had never seen a group of adults sit together in the dusk enjoying each other's company while their children played together. Life was definitely slower in this time period, and she found she actually enjoyed it once she allowed herself to relax.
Keegan had taken the chair next to her, although he hadn’t said a word. Megan watched him out of the corner of her eye and noticed that he watched the kids run around playing some sort of a game of tag, although Megan couldn’t figure out what the rules where. Apollo sat next to her, sleeping.
She half-listened as Kimberly told Patrick about their talk that afternoon and the conclusion they came up with that the missing key had likely been buried under the barn rubble in the ground. She started to think about some of the books she had read about time travel and a thought formed in her mind. The more she thought about it, the more it made sense to her, but she wasn’t sure if it would be accepted by people who lived almost a hundred years before her time.
Patrick groaned. “I was really hoping that that key was long gone. After all, it has been eight years.”
“We need to figure out what happened so Megan can get back home,” Nicky told everyone.
“I have a theory,” Megan blurted out. “I think I know what could have happened.”
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Everyone looked at her and waited for her to continue.
“In my time, there are a lot of books and movies about time travel. Maybe Kimberly and Nicky remember that. Time travel is considered fictional, but people are fascinated by the idea anyway. Obviously, it’s not fictional, considering how Kimberly, Nicky, and all of her family came here using the keys. Anyway, one of the ideas that are used in these books is portals.”
“Of course. Portals,” Kimberly exclaimed and then looked at Patrick. “Portals are another way people can travel through time. It’s kind of like an invisible tunnel that carries people from one time to another.”
Megan continued. “Maybe this key that disappeared was buried under the dirt during or after the fire. Over the next eight years, it was buried even deeper under the dirt. Somehow there is some connection between my time and yours. I’m not sure how that works.”
“Tell us again exactly what happened just before you arrived in our time,” Shaun suggested.
“Okay,” Megan said and took a deep breath. “My mom told me to take a day off from helping in our shop. I love to hike in the mountains with Apollo, so the next day I decided to hike this certain trail that I knew about, that had a whole bunch of herbs growing wild in the middle of a field on Federal Land. I figured I could gather some of these herbs, and we could use them to make some of our most popular teas. It would save us some money while my mom figured out what we should do about our lease.”
“I don’t see how gathering a few herbs would have saved very much money,” Nicky interjected.
Megan shrugged her shoulders. “Probably not, but it seemed like a good idea at the time. Anyway, I was walking around this field and saw the circle of rocks. Apollo ran through the circle. Just as he did that, I saw a bright flash of light, and then it was like he disappeared into thin air. I was frantic. How could a dog just disappear like that? I ran into the circle and again saw the flash of light. Then suddenly I was on the ground on your ranch. I don’t remember much after that until I woke up in your house.”