LOST IN HIS THOUGHTS, LOCKSTONE lay on the bed and stared at the cobwebs on the ceiling.

His feet hung off the edge of the bed and made it hard to maintain a comfortable position. Comfort, however, ranged far from the most important thing on his mind. Instead, he chaffed over the inability to move forward with the Hunt for Morganna. His new life occupied much of his time—so much of this different world remained a mystery to him. Until he became more acclimated and determined a way to find her, he could do nothing.

The weeks which followed his introduction into this realm were a blur in his mind. True to his word, Eddie set him up in the small loft apartment above the shop. Cramped didn’t begin to describe it, with a bed, tiny privy, and kitchen crammed in a space the size of a monk’s cell. For a large man like himself, negotiating around and through the loft presented a constant challenge. However, he wasn’t complaining.

He’d endured far worse.

One pleasant surprise was the shower. Lockstone considered himself somewhat more conscientious than most in the Kingdom when it came to personal hygiene, and he tried to take a bath every fortnight…although the goal often eluded him. However, in this world, the quest for cleanliness reached to a new level, and the ripe smell of an unwashed body frowned upon. Hence, Lockstone took to the habit of showering every night.

He soon discovered one didn’t have to haul water or heat it in order for the shower to function. You simply turned a knob and water spewed out.

Ingenious.

The shower, tiny like everything else, with the witch hunter barely able to squeeze inside. It took some time to learn how to adjust the water’s temperature, and after much cursing brought on by scalding hot or freezing water, Lockstone found an acceptable setting.

A secondhand store a block from Eddie’s shop supplied the clothes he wore, a faded pair of blue jeans, and a t-shirt. The shirt displayed a picture of an ale-like drink with script beneath it saying, “Its Five-O’clock Somewhere”. A second pair of jeans and t-shirt lay in a small, dusty chest of drawers Eddie dragged from a corner of his shop. He also had an extra pair of what Eddie called underwear. When he asked Eddie if this underwear was optional, the shopkeeper shrugged and said, “Whatever floats your boat, man”

He chose to wear the underwear.

Lockstone learned a few other important things in his short sojourn in the city Eddie called, Houston. This included the small metal tubes the would-be thieves used in their attempted robbery. They were called guns…and they were deadly.

Exasperated after repeated questioning from Lockstone concerning these weapons, Eddie, finally drove him in one of the iron wagons to a nearby gun shop. The shop contained a shooting range, and using a pawned gun, Eddie shot at a paper target with the image of a man on it. The weapon’s sound, like thunder, caused Lockstone to flinch, and fight the urge to dive on the floor and seek cover.

What the gun did to the target grabbed his attention.

The paper image was full of holes.

No crossbow could match the power and accuracy of this weapon. It took little convincing from Eddie for Lockstone to agree he needed a gun, along with the knowledge on how to use one…especially if he continued to work at the pawnshop and discourage thieves.

The witch hunter now went every night to the gun shop and practiced with the gun Eddie called a Glock. He imagined the paper image to be Morganna, the holes he shot through the target, her body. It never failed to leave him with a warm feeling. In short order, Lockstone mastered the gun’s use.

The second important thing he learned was the coinage of the Kingdom of the United States was paper. Lockstone scarce believed it when Eddie tried to convince him cash or little plastic credit cards were what all citizens made purchases with—not gold or silver! At first, he thought the little man lied in an attempt to dupe him out of his gold. However, when day after day, he witnessed customers at the pawnshop paid by Eddie in paper money or redeeming their pawned items with paper money, the witch hunter became convinced he told the truth.

With this veracity established, Lockstone questioned Eddie and learned the cash value of gold to be over one thousand dollars an ounce. Ciphering was another skill his mother taught him before she met her untimely end at the hands of Morganna. After counting the coins in his pouch, at two ounces each, he figured he had the equivalent of over twenty thousand dollars—a fact he planned to keep from the pawnshop owner.

A knock on the door intruded on his thoughts. Rolling into a sitting position, he said, “Come in.”

Eddie entered with a flat, metallic object. The image of an apple adorned the surface of the item. “What’s up, Big Man?”

Frowning, Lockstone answered, “The ceiling, of course. Is there something amiss with it?”

Eddie hesitated, then shook his head. “It’s just a figure of speech, Robert. You may speak the language, but, man, sometimes you act like you’re from a whole new world.”

The witch hunter stifled a chuckle. Actually, the old world is where I’m from. The new world is here.

“Anyway, I brought you a present…you know, to celebrate our, um, arrangement. There hasn’t been a single attempt to rob my pawnshop since the day you showed up.”

Lockstone nodded while studying the object Lucky Eddie held. “What is it?”

Taken aback, Eddie said, “You’re kidding me, right? It’s a laptop.” Seeing the confusion on Lockstone’s face, he added, “You know, a computer!”

The witch hunter shrugged. “I don’t know what a laptop or a computer is.”

Eddie looked hard at Lockstone then shook his head. “Okay, I was just trying to be nice, but if you are going to act like a dick, I’ll just put it back on the shelf for sale.”

Eddie turned to go, when Lockstone called out, “Thank you for the gift. I did not mean to make it sound I was unappreciative. I truly do not know what this—this laptop is. Perhaps you can show me?”

Mollified, the pawnshop owner turned back. “Okay, but, damn, Robert, you must be from so far back in the woods, they still use a horse and buggy. Are you sure you aren’t Amish?”

Lockstone shook his head. They’d had this conversation already—along with if he was a Mennonite.

Eddie set the laptop on the small table beside the bed, then powered it up and explained how it worked. After a few minutes, he stopped when he saw the blank expression on Lockstone’s face.

“What’s the matter?”

“Can you start over…and go more slowly this time?”

Eddie threw up his hands. “A five-year-old has a better understanding of computers than you!”

With a sigh, he leaned forward. “Okay, listen carefully. You can use the laptop to look for whatever interests you on the internet. You can search—”

“Wait!”

“Huh?”

“You said search!”

“Yeah. So what?”

Lockstone stood and peered over Eddie’s shoulder at the laptop’s screen. “By ‘search’, you mean I can find something? Perhaps find someone?”

“Of course. People use the internet to do that all the time.”

A broad smile spread across the witch hunter’s face.

“Then you must teach me how to use this…internet”

“Sure.” Curious, Eddie looked back at him.

“Do you have someone in mind.”

Lockstone’s smile crept wider.

“Oh, yes. Yes, I do.”