TWENTY-TWO

 

 

December 17th, 1885

Boise, Idaho

 

WADE STAYED BESIDE Sophie as they followed Duster out of the fenced crystal room and through the warehouse of old clothes and supplies. The room did not look as full as when they had gone through a few minutes ago.

That fact alone bothered Wade far, far more than he wanted to think about. And Director Parks just vanishing right in front of his eyes seemed flat impossible.

But if the story they had told was right, both things would be logical. Director Parks was still back in the present of their own timeline and since they were so far back into the past, no need for as many supplies in the warehouse cavern.

Part of him just wanted to stop and shake for a moment because he knew, just knew, they had been telling them the truth. But he still didn’t want to admit it even to himself.

Sophie seemed to be handling this a slight bit better than he was. But at the same time she wasn’t saying anything at all. And she kept squeezing his hand.

The three of them got into an elevator that looked like an antique.

“This isn’t as old as it looks,” Duster said, indicating the elevator. “We just had to camouflage it in case someone who wasn’t supposed to be in here got in. We update it every decade or so along the way.”

Wade was very glad to hear that because this looked exactly like the elevator that had been in early hotels around the1890s or so. And those had not been safe by any stretch of any imagination. A person could do an entire book on the deaths and accidents in early elevators.

The ride up three floors was quick and the elevator emptied them into a wide room with no furnishings at all. Just polished pine floors, painted walls, and two doors.

“We in the main building?” Sophie asked.

“We are,” Duster said. He pointed to his right. “That goes into the back part of the institute main building.” He moved to the second door. “This one goes into the main room.”

“I don’t remember a door into that main room,” Sophie said. “Besides the front door. Only archways.”

“Lots of secrets around here,” Duster said, laughing.

Duster looked through what seemed to be some sort of viewfinder, then turned to them and pointed to the viewfinder. “This will tell you if anyone who doesn’t belong is in the main room. As expected, no one at all is there.”

He pushed the door open slowly and led the way into the main room of the institute, the one where Wade had met Sophie months before.

The big desk was there and a fire was crackling softly in the fireplace. The same furniture sat in front of the fireplace. Even the drapes on the windows were the same and were pulled closed.

For some reason that made Wade feel better. They really hadn’t traveled in time. But then he noticed that the room had a slight chill to it. It had been a warm day outside, so some sort of hidden air-conditioning must be on, set too low.

Sophie and Wade both looked around as they stepped into the big room and the door slid closed with a click behind them.

Wade was impressed. The door now looked exactly like a wall with a large framed picture on it.

“Now that’s something from a novel,” Sophie said. “You would never know there was a door there.”

“Good,” Duster said. “Latch to open it is built into the trim on the column there beside the door.”

He pointed to it and Wade and Sophie both nodded.

“Now let’s take a look outside,” Duster said, turning toward the front door.

Duster opened the big front door and stepped outside into the gray light beyond the door.

Wade felt the incredible cold hit him almost instantly as he and Sophie moved toward the front door.

Duster moved out onto the front porch and Sophie and Wade followed. Duster pulled the big front door closed behind them.

Wade was having a very hard time grasping what he was seeing and feeling.

Impossible.

It was all impossible.

A light snow was blowing through the trees in front of the mansion. The leaves were long gone from the big trees, and it had to be ten degrees, if that.

The cold cut through his thin suit jacket and shirt like it wasn’t there.

“Wow, this is cold,” Sophie said beside him.

Through the snow he could see the stone wall along the front of the mansion, but it had no hedge growing on it as it had when he went through the main gate months before.

And the Warm Springs Avenue that he could see beyond the wall wasn’t anything more than a wagon trail.

“Welcome to December 17th, 1885,” Duster said. “It’s about two in the afternoon.”

“Amazing” Sophie said, moving toward the front of the porch.

“How is this possible?” Wade asked. His mind still wasn’t letting him accept what he was seeing and feeling.

“We stepped into another timeline,” Duster said. “One that is for every intent and purpose identical to our timeline.”

“So you were telling us the truth?” Sophie asked, looking back at Duster.

Wade could see her eyes wide and round and intense.

“We were,” Duster said, nodding. “Every word. And we have a lot more to explain, but you would not have stood for it without seeing and experiencing this first.”

“Mind if we walk out to the road?” Sophie asked, turning back to stare out into the snow.

Wade just shook his head, but he wasn’t going anywhere without Sophie and if she needed to see more, then so be it.

Duster laughed. “Be my guest. I’ll be inside.”

Together, hand-in-hand, they went carefully down the front steps and along the front stone walk quickly getting covered with snow.

Wade was so cold, he could barely feel his arms and feet, but that didn’t matter at the moment. He needed to prove to himself as well that this was actually happening.

They walked through the blowing snow without saying a word until they reached the front gate.

Wade managed to get the wrought-iron gate open and they walked into the middle of the wagon road that went past the mansion.

This was a major five-lane road.

Or it will become one in the future.

Clearly they were in the past.

And at a different time of the year as well.

The two mansions on either side of the main institute building were all that was here. No sign at all of anything else being built along this wagon road.

“They were telling us the truth,” Sophie said simply after looking first one way, then the other along the wagon track. “We are standing in 1885.”

“They are offering us this so we can research our books better,” Wade said, finally realizing what this was all about. “No wonder Dawn and Madison’s books have such crisp details.”

“I know, I just realized that as well,” Sophie said. “And if I wasn’t so cold, I’d be jumping up and down with excitement.”

“Yea, me too,” Wade said. “The impossible really is possible. We can go meet and actually talk with the people we want to write about.”

“That’s just amazing,” Sophie said.

Wade looked both directions down the wagon road, then back at the institute buildings over the wall. Then he let go of her hand and put his arm around her shoulder. “I’ve seen enough. How about you?”

She nodded.

“Let’s head back,” he said.

They had made it back through the gate and were about halfway to the front porch, both of them staggering from the intense cold, when suddenly they found themselves touching the wooden box in the long crystal room three levels underground.

Bonnie had a wire in a gloved hand and was smiling at them. Director Parks was basically standing in the same place he had been.

Bonnie and Duster were also touching the box.

Wade could feel Sophie’s legs start to get weak and he caught her and held her up. She was shivering and wet and he was colder than he had ever remembered being before.

Bonnie got on one side of Sophie and together they all headed out of the long room with Duster leading.

Wade couldn’t feel his feet, but somehow he just kept walking, helping Sophie along.

“Let’s get you both to a hot shower, dry clothes, and some hot chocolate,” Bonnie said as they headed for the door of the crystal room. “Then over some early dinner we can explain all this in more detail.”

All Wade could do was nod, but he had to admit, that sounded wonderful.

“Perfect,” Sophie said. “Especially the hot shower part.”