Time-Travel Duo

by James Paddock

  “We don’t know if he is actually still around here. He knew we were on to him and disappeared. There was a break-in of a house a few days back. The evidence left behind leads us to believe it may have been him, but we don’t know that for sure.”

  “I’ll watch for him,” Charlie announced.

  All the adults laughed.

  “Good, Charlie. You call me if you see him.”

  “What does a spy look like?”

  “Tell you what. Next time we come up, I’ll bring a picture of him with me. Do you think that’ll help?”

  “Yes, Sir!”

  Chapter 44

  Thursday ~ September 23, 1943

  Are the mornings this chilly in 1987? Anne wondered. She was sitting close to the fire, nursing Elizabeth and considering if she should fix her own breakfast or accept the invitation from Gertie; or was Gertie just being nice? Anne couldn’t really tell. She felt like the odd person out in their big family.

  She shivered.

  Maybe it’s the difference in construction materials and insulation. Then, add in the humidity. I need warmer clothes. I grew up in the north. I should be used to the cold.

  “Remind me to go shopping for some sweaters when we get back to the city,” she said to Elizabeth Anne.

  Elizabeth Anne was bundled and Anne was buckling her shoes when there was a knock. “Come on in,” she yelled. The door opened and in stepped Sarah and Heather in matching print dresses. “Good morning! My! Don’t you two look pretty today?”

  “Thank you, Ma’am,” Sarah said. “Momma said you should come for breakfast.”

  “She did, huh. Well, I’m actually on my way.” She picked up Elizabeth Anne and said, “Let’s go.” Once outside and walking up the road, Anne asked Sarah what grade she was in.

  “I’ll be in eighth.”

  “You’ll be in eighth? You aren’t in eighth grade right now?”

  “No, Ma’am. School doesn’t start for another month.”

  Anne stopped walking. “Another month! You’re kidding!”

  Sarah turned and looked at her and shook her head.

  “Then when does it end?”

  “About the first of March.”

  “That’s hardly more than three months of school.”

  “You think it should be longer?” Sarah asked.

  “I’m used to school starting in August and going until the first of June.”

  Sarah made a face. “Why would you want to do that?”

  Anne knew that children in Charleston were attending school. “Well, there’s a lot to learn as you grow up and three months a year really isn’t enough.”

  “Didn’t your daddy teach you the rest of the year?”

  “No. Is that what you all do? Your daddy teaches you?”

  “Yes, Ma’am.”

  “You’re home-schooled then.”

  Sarah shrugged. “Don’t know about that. I do know the Thigpen kids are about the smartest in school. Reason I’m going into eighth instead of seventh. I skipped sixth grade.”

  “Amazing! What grade will you be going into, Heather?”

  Heather looked up at Anne then at her sister, a blank expression on her face.

  “She’ll be starting first grade,” Sarah said.

  “I’ll be in first grade,” Heather announced.

  “You will?” Anne said. “That sounds really super. Bet you’re excited.”

  Heather shook her head.

  “You don’t want to go to school?”

  Her head continued to shake.

  “Why not?”

  Heather shrugged her shoulders.

  As they approached the steps up to the porch of the Thigpen home, Gertie stepped out. “Justs in time. Sarah, everything on the table excepts silverware. You and Heather does that.”

  “Yes, Ma’am.” The girls scrambled into the house.

  “Good morning, Miss Annie.”

  “Good morning, Gertie. Thank you for inviting me.”

  “You be like family, now. We likes you here.”

  “Family would be pitching in and helping. Tomorrow morning I’ll be here earlier to help.”

  “You don’t have to.”

  “I want to.”

  “Okay.”

  There were no words exchanged but Anne did notice something pass between Gertie and Sarah. Maybe it was the eyes, or a nod of the head on Gertie’s part. She wasn’t sure. Nevertheless, Sarah was out of her seat and instructing the others in the breakfast cleanup progress. Before she knew it, the three adults were sitting at a cleared table except for coffee cups; Anne was holding Samuel Cooper and Gertie had Elizabeth Anne.

  “I love your house, Gertie. Do you mind giving me a tour? I’d sure like to see the rest of it.”

  “I woulds be glad to,” Gertie said.

  “I’ll leave you ladies,” Danny said. “Got work to do before school.” Danny left and Gertie began leading Anne around the house.

  They started upstairs where there were two bedrooms, one for the boys and one for the girls. In addition there was a “Study room,” Gertie called it. There were desks of various sizes, a chalkboard, a United States map, more books, and a corkboard in the middle of which was the newspaper photo of Nathaniel Bronson that James had given to Charlie.

  “The children will all be up here afters breakfast clean up to do their studies. Sarah is in charge of the younger children’s studies untils Danny comes back in.”

  “That’s what Danny meant by he had work to do before school. Sarah told me they don’t start school for another month. Children down in the city are already in school.”

  “Lots of farming outs here. Many families needs the kids to help in the farm work so school is just in winter. Danny believes learning comes first so he teaches them rest of time.”

  “Danny must be very smart.”

  “Oh, yes. My Danny is the smartest man I know. And he works so hard. He always building things in his shop, and working in the field, and learning the children. I cooks and works in the fields but I not smart enough to learn the children or builds things out of wood.”

  Charlie slipped into the study room past Anne and his mother and went to one of the smaller desks. Anne noticed that each of the children’s names and a list of assignments was on the chalkboard. Charlie looked at his for a few seconds, furrowed his brow, and then started paging through a book.

  “Danny says he’s making new desk for Sarah cause she grow. Charlie outgrow his too, so he move up. They all move up soon.”

  On the way back down the stairs they met Heather going up. Her big brown eyes and smiling face looked up at Anne as she passed.

  Off the living room, opposite the kitchen, was another large room. It seemed to be split down the middle, an office on one side, and a sewing room on the other. Although Anne’s eyes first lit upon a Singer treadle sewing machine, which in her day would be a prize antique, she was quickly drawn to the opposite side of the room.

  “Wow!” Anne walked up to a roll top desk and ran her fingers over it. “Just before... ah... coming here, I purchased one exactly like this.”

  “You did?”

  “Identical. Where did you get this?”

  “Danny mades this for his mother but she passed away.”

  “May I open it?”

  “Sure.”

  She slid the top open, amazed at how smooth it moved. The inside was a perfect match to the one she bought in Summerville just two months before, in 1987. A chill ran down her spine. There’s absolutely no way, she told herself. Just a coincidence. And then, without looking, her fingers slid along a series of smooth cuts.

  “Oh my God!” she said in a whisper.

  “What’s that, Miss Annie?” Gertie said.

  “Ah... Danny’s mother... was her name Annabelle?”

  Gertie looked at her with surprise. “How did you knows?”

  “I can feel the carving.”

  “Carving?”

  Anne bent down and pointed. “Right there. See.
It says, ‘For My Mother, Annabelle.’”

  “Oh!” Gertie said. “I didn’t knows thats was there. You can reads it with your fingers?”

  Anne felt the blush and said, “I guess I can,” and then redirected the conversation. “That’s a beautiful sewing machine. Do you make all the children’s clothes?”

  “Mosts of them,” Gertie said. “We buys some things.”

  Gertie spent the next ten minutes showing Anne her current projects and material while Anne wondered if the roll top desk, the same one she just ran her hands over, had been delivered. Until today, she had completely forgotten about it, about purchasing it from Low Country Wood Artists the day she jumped through time. What did Steven think? Did he send it back? And what happened with it that it winds up in the Summerville showroom 44 years from now?

  “Miss Annie?”

  Anne blinked back at Gertie. “Yes?”

  “Are you okay?”

  It occurred to Anne she hadn’t been listening. “Yes, yes. I’m fine. I was just thinking. Would you teach me how to sew?”

  “You don’ts knows how?”

  “My mother never sewed and so I never learned.” She thought about high school home economics where she actually made a dress that she blossomed out of before she finished it and so never wore. At the time she didn’t care anyway. She was more interested in science and history.

  “I sures would be happy to shows you.”

  Can I handle a treadle machine? Anne thought.

  It certainly wasn’t as easy as Gertie made it look. By noon Anne could pretty much control the speed, but her stitch line was anything but straight. In the afternoon Gertie had other chores to attend to and supper to start. Anne spent it in her own little house decorating and reading.

  Friday, she rode into Charleston with Danny to spend the weekend with Ruth and James. She and Ruth went shopping for fabric and thread, and for a sweater. Monday afternoon Danny picked her up so she could spend the week in her new home and continue the sewing lessons with Gertie.

  “Where’s the pattern?” Anne asked Gertie Tuesday morning.

  “Oh, I thought abouts ready mades patterns one time buts I learned from my mama this way. It coulds be easier I guess, but I makes my own patterns.”

  “You make your own?”

  “Oh, sure. Like the dresses the girls wear. I gets different colors and kinds of material and use my pattern. I then change little things. I puts on puffy sleeves or no sleeves or long sleeves or lace on the hem. Some has pockets. Some don’t. Some has collars of different color. Some has no collar.”

  And so Anne learned how to work from a homemade pattern, how to alter the pattern to fit her size, and how to incorporate variations to suit her taste. Although the pattern was rather basic, she did manage to come up with a design which left extra material to make Heather an identical dress. She not only learned how to scale up, but she also learned how to scale down. Heather loved the dress and wore it anytime she spent the night with Anne, which she did often. She especially loved it when Anne wore hers and they matched. “We are like sisters,” Heather announced.

  The Tuesdays slid by – quiet – uneventful.

  After dinner on Monday, October 18th, the silent signal passed from Gertie to Sarah, and the children went about clearing and cleaning. The three adults retired into the sitting room with their coffee.

  “When do you expect to hear from your husband?” Danny asked that question at least once a week.

  “I still don’t know.” Anne decided early on that the best way was to not lie; only tell the truth – to a point.

  “And you still can’t say where he is?”

  Or maybe stretch the truth a little. “He’s on a government project that’s so secret I can’t even say his location.”

  “But you are going to be able to join him, I gather.”

  “I certainly hope so. Won’t know until I hear from him again.”

  “We shore likes to meets him,” Gertie said.

  “Doubt very much he’ll come here. I’ll just go when he gives the word.”

  “Sure can’t see how he could stand not having seen his daughter who is already three months old.”

  “Three months today,” Gertie inserted. “It’s October eighteen.”

  “That’s right!” Anne looked down at Elizabeth fast asleep. “Three months already.” Three months, she thought, and here I am. “Three months,” she said again quietly. How many more? A couple? A dozen? Forever?

  Heather came out of the kitchen and stood quietly in front of the three of them. When the conversation lagged Danny said, “Yes, Heather?”

  “May I sleep at Miss Annie’s house tonight?”

  “Of course. Don’t forget your slippers this time.”

  “I won’t.” She turned and trotted up the stairs.

  “I think she minds you better than us,” Danny said.

  “It’s the aunt syndrome.”

  “Aunt syndrome? But you aren’t her aunt,” Gertie said.

  “No, but I’m playing the same role. Children always need an aunt they can confide in, tell their troubles to.”

  “Does Heather have troubles?” Gertie asked, concerned.

  “Just little ones, but important to a five-year-old. Sarah, however, is a little different. She’s been a little slower coming around to me, but we are starting to have a few conversations. Her problems are getting a little bigger as she blossoms out.”

  “Likes her boyfriend I bets.”

  “Among other things.”

  “Such as?” Danny slid forward in his chair.

  “It would be inappropriate and counter serving for me to break the trust I’ve finally gained.”

  “If she’s having problems, we need to know about them.”

  “Certainly, in some cases that’s true. But not always. In any case, she should be the one to approach you, not me.”

  The kitchen door opened and the remaining four children came out, Sarah last. While the others rushed up the stairs, Sarah took her time, navigating each step as an adult would. Her eyes roamed from parent to parent and then over to Anne. She paused briefly and then turned her attention to the steps in front of her and continued on. Once out of sight Anne said, “She thinks I’m talking to you about her. I may have to gain her confidence again.”

  Danny and Gertie looked at her doubtfully and she wondered how much different it was from 44 years from now. They had little playtime, always loaded with chores and studies. In the evening before bed they each had to read for an hour.

  Heather came down the stairs with her nightgown and slippers under one arm and her chosen book under the other. At five years old she was reading better than most children her age that Anne knew. That’s what they would do tonight. Heather would read out loud to Elizabeth Anne, something she enjoyed doing. Afterwards, they would talk about anything Heather wanted.

  Heather settled herself quietly on the floor near Anne’s feet and patiently waited. After another fifteen minutes they all said goodnight. Anne accepted the lantern Danny lit for her, and hand-in-hand she and Heather headed down the road.

  Chapter 45

  Tuesday ~ October 19, 1943

  Anne bolted awake, and then wondered if she had even been asleep. Was she dreaming or laying awake thinking? She stood and looked down at Elizabeth Anne, watched her breathe, checked on Heather and then looked out the window at the starry night. If it was a dream, it held no credibility. She never relied on anything she saw in dreams.

  This wasn’t a dream.

  She saw the words, dredged from the recesses of her memory like the page of a book on microfilm. It came from years before at MIT while researching for something else. It was a quick-scan through a chapter she found unimportant. But it was still there in her mental archives and suddenly it just popped into focus and sat her up in bed.

  It was a book full of interesting but little known facts concerning the development of atomic power in the United States. The passages, which came to her
suddenly at 2:45 in the morning, concerned the early struggles of the Manhattan Project. She knew that in July of 1943 Brigadier General Groves, Officer in Charge of the Manhattan Project, became rather concerned about the safety of Robert Oppenheimer, the Scientific Director of the project. He sent him a letter stating that due to the knowledge he possessed and the dependence which rested upon him for its successful accomplishment, he found it necessary that Robert take certain precautions; the precautions being to refrain from flying, and refrain from driving an automobile more than a few miles, and if more distance was necessary, to have an armed guard who could also serve as a chauffeur. Despite that, it was only four months later, according to the book, that General Groves flew Oppenheimer to Washington, D.C. to meet with him and President Roosevelt. The purpose was to explain to the General and the President why Robert was recommending scrapping the project.

  Anne recalled being surprised at the time she read it because nowhere else was it written that Oppenheimer was anything but full steam ahead. Since it wasn’t germane to her research, she thought no more about it.

  Until now.

  The meeting took place November 9, according to the author, and as a result Roosevelt gave the go-ahead to cease research and to stand the project down. And then there was a gap. The author could not find out what happened in between the meeting with Roosevelt, and Oppenheimer’s arrival back in Los Alamos. The report was that General Groves and Robert Oppenheimer boarded a southbound train on the morning of November 11. The General was next seen in attendance at an official function on the 15th. Oppenheimer arrived at Los Alamos by train on the evening of November 17, alone. In all his research and interviews, the author was never able to find out where Oppenheimer and Groves were in those days in the middle of November of 1943. At no time did the work slow down at Los Alamos. In fact, after Oppenheimer’s return, the momentum began picking up.

  The fire still had some hot coals. Anne pushed in a couple pieces of wood and a few chips, and blew on the glowing embers. Before long flames were again leaping and she sat on the floor thinking. Why did Oppenheimer want to shut the project down? What was going wrong? What obstacle did he come up against that he thought could not be overcome? Or maybe he had a flash of conscience. But that wouldn’t have been enough to persuade his bosses, General Groves and President Roosevelt. They were looking at tens of thousands of American lives.