Time-Travel Duo

by James Paddock

  “You also look familiar. Do you have an older sister, or cousin that looks just like you?”

  Annie shook her head. “No. No brother; no sister; no cousins, except some in North Dakota who I’ve never met. I’m afraid I’m one of a kind.”

  He nodded his head. “It’ll come to me eventually.”

  “Can I go now? I’m feeling better.”

  He frowned, stared at the license for a few more seconds and then handed it back to her. “Certainly. Drive with care, and don’t get paranoid every time you see a cop behind you . . . unless his lights are on.”

  She tried to smile, but was certain she presented a smirk instead. She deadpanned her face, looked at his eyes, looked away and then looked at his eyes again. “Yes, sir.”

  “Protect and serve?” Officer Worley said to his partner once they were both inside the patrol car. “How dorky is that?”

  “She must have been pretty, this” she pulled the computer toward her, “Elizabeth Anne Caschetta. Car’s registered in her name, not her husband’s. You should have let me talk to her. I wouldn’t have gotten tongue-tied.”

  “What if it was a good looking guy? When we stopped that male model, you downright locked up.”

  “I did not. And shut up. She’s living with her parents. Too young to be separated already.”

  “It’s the way of the world,” he said and eased the patrol car into traffic, briefly locking eyes with Ms. Caschetta as he passed by. Familiar eyes; familiar face. Why’s she living with her dad? Separated? Getting a divorce? Why does she look so familiar?

  Suddenly he saw that his partner was staring at him, a grin plastered on her face. He looked forward and had to slam on his brakes before plowing into stopped traffic. Knock it off, Jeff. Makes it look like you’re hitting on her. Make for a quick trip to the captain’s office.

  Annie’s blush rose even further when the two police officers caught her looking at them as they drove by. Stupid, stupid, stupid. He’s really going to think I’m guilty of something. She took a deep breath, waited until there were several cars between her and the patrol car, checked her mirrors twice, and then pulled from the curb.

  Chapter 6

  May 17, 2007

  The light was on in her dad’s office when Annie stepped into the house. Except for that, the porch light and the nightlight at the top of the stairs, the remainder of the house was dark. She closed the door quietly, flipped off the porch light and started up the stairs.

  “That was a short meeting.”

  Annie paused and looked across the foyer at her dad’s silhouette in the office doorway. “Yeah, it was.”

  “In what capacity is he needing you?”

  “Capacity?”

  “The Energy Research Council. How is Professor Grae figuring you can get involved?”

  “Oh. Didn’t get that far. I turned him down.”

  “You know, Annie, I really think . . .”

  “I think I should get away for the summer.”

  Steven walked to the bottom of the stairs. “What do you mean?”

  “California.” She sat down on a step. “No. Too crowded. Montana or North Dakota. There’s hardly anybody there, right?”

  “Annie, I . . .”

  “No, not North Dakota. With my luck I’d run into some distant cousin and they’d start asking questions and before you know it I’d be talking about Tony again. What would I do in North Dakota anyway? There’s less than nothing there.”

  Steven opened his mouth again; closed it.

  “Montana would be better. Glacier Park. We went there when I was twelve. I remember thinking that it’d be really cool to work there. I thought it would be neat to wear one of the uniforms and take care of the mountain goats.”

  “I don’t think they hire summer help to take care of the mountain goats.”

  “I know. They probably brush the grizzly bears.”

  Steven raised his eyebrows.

  “That’s a joke, Dad.”

  “I know that’s a joke. I’m just surprised that you made one. What’s brought on this line of thought?”

  She shrugged. Steven recognized the shrug. It wasn’t the I don’t know shrug. It was the I’m not telling shrug, or the give me a second to make up an answer shrug.

  Her made-up answer came in three seconds. “I’m burned out from school and trying to recover from losing Tony. Every place I go on campus, or around Cambridge for that matter, reminds me of him. I need a complete and total change of scenery.”

  Steven considered that for a moment. Even if she suddenly made it up, it was a good point. “What’s wrong with your North Dakota relatives?”

  “Other than the fact that I’ve never met them? They’d probably ask me hard questions and treat me like an invalid, whisper behind me back. ‘Look how young she is and she’s already lost her husband in the war.’”

  Steven didn’t know what to say to that. “You could research your genealogy.”

  “I’m not old enough to care about my genealogy. Besides, I already know more about it than I really want to know. Hell, I can claim a German spy and I doubt they even know that.”

  “What about Europe? Lots of kids tour Europe for the summer, come back in the fall recharged and ready to hit the books again.”

  She thought for a while, and then shook her head. “No. I need to work, not wander lazily around. Europe would not stop me from being depressed. It would probably make it worse.” She leaned forward with her elbows propped on her knees. “Working in a park sounds better and better the more I think about it. I wonder if it’s too late?” She stood and started back up the stairs. “I’ll check it out on-line.”

  Steven continued to stare into the space Annie had vacated, wondering why, after rushing out of the house on Howard’s call, she’d returned with no more news about what he wanted other than she turned him down, and why she suddenly had a need to quit and leave Boston.

  As he started back into his office, the doorbell rang. When he opened it two Boston police officers were looking at him.

  “Good evening, Sir. I’m officer Worley. This is officer Strommer. We’re looking for Ms. Anne Waring. Is she in?”

  “Why?” Steven asked although he already knew the reason. This wasn’t the first time the police had paid Annie a visit following a near collision with Mrs. Williams. She was also the only neighbor who hadn’t recognized that Annie’s name was no longer Waring, or that she went by Annie, not Anne.

  “Are you her husband?” Strommer asked.

  Steven shook his head. “Father. Annie’s my daughter, and it’s not Waring anymore. It’s Caschetta, her married name.”

  “Anne Caschetta?”

  “Yes, but she goes by Annie.”

  “That wouldn’t happen to be Elizabeth Anne Caschetta?” the female office said.

  “Yes.”

  The two officers looked at each other. Strommer turned away and coughed. Steven could have sworn she was trying to hide a smirk, and maybe a snort. Worley addressed Steven again.

  “May we come in?”

  Steven backed up and pulled the door all the way open. The officers stepped in and he closed the door behind them.

  “Please get Ms. Caschetta, Sir. We just need to talk to her.”

  “Certainly.” Steven felt their eyes on him as he went up the stairs. At the landing he glanced down into the foyer. Worley was watching him. Strommer’s eyes were elsewhere.

  When Steven disappeared from view, Worley joined Strommer in their visual scan of the premises. “Nice place.”

  “Too rich for my blood. Wonder what this guy does.”

  “He’s a professor at MIT.”

  “They’re paying professors too much. He seems kind of nervous.”

  “Everybody seems nervous to you. You always think they’re guilty of something.”

  “That’s because everyone is guilty of something. Not that I’m complaining, Jeff. Job security.” Suddenly her eyes went up the stairs. “You’d better let me do t
he talking,” she said. “You’ll start flirting again.”

  “Since when do I flirt? I don’t flirt with you.”

  “I’m almost old enough to be your mother. You’re still a kid. You don’t know how not to flirt with someone pretty like her and your own age.”

  “She’s not my age, and I’m not a kid.”

  Strommer snorted.

  “Besides, she’s married. I’ll be fine doing the talking.”

  Annie stopped briefly at the top of the stairs. Two cops this time. “Why do police make me nervous?” she said over her shoulder.

  Her father put his hand against her back. “Because you keep trying to run over Mrs. Williams and her dog.”

  “I do not! She just always seems to be there. Sometimes I wonder if she does it on purpose.”

  He applied pressure to her back. “Let’s get it over with.”

  She took a deep breath and started down the stairs.

  As Annie’s foot landed on the foyer tile, her eyes came up to the officers; first the woman, who looked mean enough to chew a table leg, and then the man. If not for the old grandfather clock standing like a fifth person only three feet away and suddenly announcing the three-quarter hour, Annie would have sworn that time froze. Her heart and her breathing stopped. She opened her mouth to say something, found it sticky with thick saliva, closed it, sucked up some moisture, and said, “Officer Worley.”

  Strommer looked over at her partner, whose mouth appeared to be open and ready to say something, waited two seconds and then stepped toward Annie. “Ms Waring, or I guess it’s Caschetta, isn’t it?”“Yes,” Annie said and nodded her head.

  “We’re here to investigate a complaint filed by Ms Katherine Williams. She claims that you tried to hit her with your car.”

  “I didn’t even come close. For some reason she hates me.”

  “Because you think she hates you, you try to run her over.”

  “No! She’s just always there.”

  “There? Where?”

  “At the end of my driveway.”

  “I see. Tell us what happened.”

  Annie ran her fingers though her hair. “I was backing down the driveway when all of a sudden she was there, in my mirror, with her dog. I stopped. She gave me a dirty look and went on with her walk.”

  “Were you upset about anything?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “She said you were backing out rather fast. When we stopped to talk to you earlier Officer Worley here said you seemed a bit nervous, agitated. You tried to bribe him with a credit card.”

  “She what?” Steven stepped into the middle. Both Annie and Officer Strommer ignored him.

  “I did not. I thought I was giving him my driver’s license. Pulled out the wrong thing is all.”

  “What were you agitated about?”

  “I wasn’t agitated. I was being talked to by a cop. I was nervous. Isn’t everybody who gets talked to by a cop?”

  “Where is your husband?”

  “Pardon me?”

  “You’re staying here, at your parents’ home. Are you fighting with your husband?”

  “That’s none of your business. My relationship with my husband has nothing to do with anything that’s going on here. Either give me a ticket or a warning and then just leave.”

  Steven placed his hand on his daughter’s arm. “Annie.”

  She jerked away. “No, Dad. I don’t need this harassment.” She backed up. “I don’t need it. Just leave me alone!” She turned and ran back up the stairs.

  When the slam of Annie’s door finished reverberating through the house, Steven turned to Officer Strommer. “She’s right. A ticket or a warning. For the record, if it means anything coming from me, I witnessed the incident with Mrs. Williams when Annie left the house earlier. I happened to be looking out my office window. Yes, she was moving a little too fast when she backed out, but she did see Mrs. Williams, and she did stop. It’s not like it was dangerously close or anything like that. Mrs. Williams has turned a bit cranky in her old age.”

  “We understand that, Sir. Cranky or not, if her perception is that she is in danger, then she is. You need to advise your daughter to take exceptional caution, not only when leaving your residence, but any time she’s behind the wheel.”

  “I will.”

  “We should give a written warning, but we feel generous tonight. We’ll leave you to give the verbal when she is more receptive.”

  “Thank you. I certainly will.”

  The officers turned to the door, and then Strommer stopped. “Just curious; personal, not official; what is the situation with her and her husband? How long have they been separated? She’s rather young.”

  Steven glanced up the stairs, and then cleared his throat. “She’s widowed. Her husband died in Iraq three months ago.”

  Strommer’s jaw dropped open. “Oh. I’m so sorry. Shit!”

  The two officers climbed into their patrol car. “I feel like I just got kicked in the gut,” Strommer said. “I can’t believe I was standing there pounding on her about her relationship with her husband.”

  “You didn’t know.”

  “Yeah. Ignorance sure is bliss, isn’t it?”

  Chapter 7

  May 18, 2007

  Annie woke early, but lay quietly watching the morning light grow. Usually, on most such mornings, she thought about Tony until the ache in her center drove her from bed and into the hard, hot spray of the shower. This morning was different and she didn’t consciously realize it. Her mind bounced from thinking about the meeting with Professor Grae and her Grandfather, to fantasying about living in Glacier National Park. Then came the vision of the two police officers in her house and Officer Worley’s blue eyes. A rush of guilt and a flood of memories immediately followed. She rolled to the edge of the bed and sat up, determined that she would begin fighting it, that she wouldn’t let the memories drag her back down into the pit. She reached to her desk and touched the spacebar on her laptop.

  The computer awoke from its sleep mode to reveal the website through which she had been browsing and one of the many pictures that captivated her. There was something about the panorama of Glacier National Park’s snow-peaked mountains that filled her with a desire to run out and buy a camera. She had never taken pictures before, other than with her cell phone, and wondered how hard it would be to get pictures like that. She clicked over to another page that was still open. It provided information on STEP, the Student Temporary Employment Program. She looked once again at the last paragraph which said that applications were taken January through March. Last night, when she first saw it, she had been really bummed, knowing there was no way they’d accept her in May. Some schools had already let out. The park probably already had their quota of people for the summer, and a long waiting list to boot.

  But she didn’t need to work. Money wasn’t an issue. Getting away was, and staying busy. Of course she couldn’t live in the park, but she could get a motel or maybe a cabin just outside the park and spend the summer hiking around, becoming one with nature. That’s exactly what she would do; she’d wing it. She was intelligent, a genius for that matter. It couldn’t be all that hard.

  She opened a new browser session and within an hour had secured flight reservations to Kalispell, Montana and accommodations outside Glacier National Park.

  Chapter 8

  May 27, 2007

  Annie never took into account airport security. She had managed to get psyched up, made flight reservations and then obligated herself to a cabin at Grizzly Ranch. She couldn’t believe how much that cost. Even though she could easily afford it, the thought of over a thousand a week made her shiver. The lady she talked to on the phone gave her a free week because she paid for the entire summer in advance. After she’d booked everything, including a rental car, she turned her attention onto finals week.

  Now, near the end of the line at airport security, Annie remembered the last time she stood there little more than four months
before, almost in this exact same spot.

  “I still don’t like it,” Steven said. “You’ve never done anything like this before. You’re not conditioned for wilderness survival.”

  Annie pulled her mind from the regretful memory. “Wilderness survival! I’m staying in a cabin with running water and electricity. I’m not packing in and building campfires. Just day hikes and taking pictures. I’ll call when I get there and then, so you don’t get worried, a couple of times a week if I can. Depends on cell phone coverage.”

  “They might be advanced enough out there that they have regular phones. You can call collect.”

  “Yeah, I know.”

  There was a long silence. “Hey! You’re going on your first great adventure away from your old man. You’re supposed to be excited.”

  “I am excited.”

  “Then why the long face?”

  Annie lifted the backpack from the floor and hung it off her shoulder. “This is the last place I saw Tony. We were having a fight about him going off, about joining the Marines. This is where we said goodbye for the last time.” Tears started streaming down her face. “I didn’t even kiss him. I said nasty things. If only I had known that he would never come back.”

  Steven put his arms around his daughter and she rested her head on his shoulder. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”

  After a time she said, “Did you ever think about going back and changing things?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You know. The time machine. Did you ever think about going back and changing things so that mom didn’t die?”

  He pulled away and looked at her. “Are you thinking of trying to do something like that?”

  “No! Of course not. I’m just wondering. Did you?”

  Steven blew out a lungful of air. “Only a hundred or a thousand times. Fortunately, the project was destroyed, sent to the scrap yard so to speak, so even if I had tried, I couldn’t have.”

  “How do you know?”

  “What do you mean, how do I know?”

  “How do you know it was destroyed? Did you see it happen? Did you witness it?”