“I never did get a copy of Call of the Wild. That was why I went into the bookstore to buy a book— not fly ahead seventy years.”
“There is a bookstore on the way back to your apartment; we can pick up a copy.”
Glenn put up a hand. “Oh no… I’m not going into any bookstore.”
“It’s just a bookstore, not a portal, I can assure you. I have been inside many times. But if you do not feel right in entering, then I will go in and make the purchase for you.”
“How long will that mirror image of me be in 1942? Will it be long enough to see Jewel again? Can I get a message to the other ‘me’?”
Hadley stopped and turned to face him. “You must forget about her. She cannot be a part of this world.”
“But she will be half crazy missing me like I miss her. If that part is true and there is a placeholder, a doppelganger of me still in 1942, I can find her. It’s been almost a week. My destroyer will be in the South Pacific. But, when the ship comes back…”
“You are no longer in that time or will only be for a short period.” Hadley mouth was a thin line.
“How long?”
“I do not know, but not long.”
“But, why are you sure?”
Hadley did not answer his question. The men walked in silence. Glenn declined taking time for Hadley to stop by the bookstore, but he was hungry. They dipped into the corner restaurant for a chicken dish called Marsala. The smell of the rich food rose from the bag as Hadley drew out his card made of plastic and handed it to the man behind the counter.
Maybe tomorrow, Glenn would ask how he could use these money cards.
“Well, I am going to leave you,” Hadley said as they walked the final block to his apartment. “But one of us will stop by tomorrow and spend much of the day with…”
The ground under Glenn’s feet shook. He widened his stance, and threw a hand against the cool brick wall. “What the…. am I being transported again?” he asked, as he desperately looked down, but the ground was solid again.
“Are you all right?” Hadley reached for him but the man’s image shimmered.
“I’m…” This time he was thrown to his knees. He dropped the bag on the concrete. The white paper containers and reddish yellow contents leaked across the sidewalk.
Hadley pulled him to his feet and dragged him forward. Another blast rocked through him and then the pain hit. He cried out and cupped his ears.
Hadley yelled, but he couldn’t hear what he said.
Glenn looked down. There was water and glass at his feet. The world shifted.
Suddenly, he knew where he was. He wasn’t in 2013; he was at his Quartermaster position on the bridge of the U.S.S. Sims in 1942. It was as if life sped up, stopped and then flew backwards.
Bernard, wearing a life vest waved his hands frantically in front of Glenn’s face and drew a life vest over his head and then one over his own. Blood trailed down the side of Bernard’s face. From his agitated look, Bernard was shouting, but Glenn couldn’t hear or understand him. Deafened from the explosion, everything appeared surreal.
The bridge of the destroyer was in chaos. Smoke rose in front of the windows, and strewn broken glass scattered across the floor from the instrument panels. Red cabin lights flashed distress warnings and cast an eerie glow against the gray hull and interior glass. The ship tilted. The lower decks must be taking in water; he hoped many of the men had time to escape.
He ran toward the aft window and saw flames from what he assumed was a gaping hole just out of view. It must have been a Japanese torpedo. Men raced by with extinguishers and blasted the fire raging toward them on the bridge. The lifeboats on the port side of the ship were on fire and with the deck’s tilt at such a crazy angle, it would be difficult to set the other afloat.
Glenn hooked the straps closed on his life vest. The ship pitched to the right and his shoulder crashed against the side of the ship. Kicking with his foot, he broke through the remaining glass of the damaged window and let gravity take him into the ocean. The warm seawater tasted salty as he finally broke to the surface and gulped in air.
He fought to free himself from the suction as the pull of the sinking ship threatened to take him under the water. I’m a strong swimmer. I can do this. Grateful for the summer races at the water holes back home, he frantically churned his arms and kicked free of the undertow. Flames engulfed most of the ship as the bow tipped higher.
Men flailed in the water as they fought to free a few of the remaining inflatable rafts. He recognized Bobby floating ahead of him. He swam and rolled him to his back. A large bloody gash slashed across the side of his friend’s head and he wasn’t breathing. His eyes were open and glassy. Glenn pushed him away and looked around as he slapped the sting of sea of salt water from his eyes.
Another shipmate, Frank, waved his arms. Glenn went to him. Without a second’s glance when he saw the man’s arm stuck out at a strange angle he knew it was dislocated or broken.
“Here!” he cried. He still couldn’t hear his own voice, but said the words to be understood. He stripped off his vest and put it over the other man’s head.
Frank shook his head.
“I can still swim. You can’t. You need this more than I do. You’ll be all right.” Glenn spotted a floating chunk of wood from a bunk bed and pulled it over. He helped push the other seamen up on the plank.
When he turned back, the sea seemed alive with bodies and smoke. Most of the ship was under the water. Bernard was about twenty feet from him, waving his hands and yelling. Glenn cut through the water to reach him.
As he reached Bernard, his hearing partially returned just as Bernard cried, “Glenn, watch out!”
A chunk of the flaming hull collapsed toward him. Jagged metal shards caught in the material of his Navy uniform. He fought to free himself as the ton size piece plunged below the surface. The enormous section caught in his clothes was still attached to the main decking. He felt Bernard’s hand. The debris must have caught him too.
Glenn opened his eyes as he struggled. Through the dark waters the hull of the destroyer spiraled below him in a slow circle. The colored red, green and blue lights reminded him of the traveling carnival when it came through his hometown. Bodies and the ship’s debris floated past him as he was pulled slowly deeper and deeper into the murky depths of the sea.
Freeing his right arm, he reached into his pocket for his lucky rabbit foot. That’s right, it’s not there. I gave it to Jewel. Her picture replaced his lucky talisman. He felt for the edge of the paper.
He had always thought at the time of his death there would be panic, but a sense of peace washed over him. The pain was gone. He drew the photo out of his pocket and struggled against the force of the water to bring it closer to his lips, but it was impossible. His arms were pinned at his sides by the cables. He didn’t need the photo to remember her face.
I’ll kiss the water and hope it finds you. I love you, Jewel.
Like a shroud, rope and tangled metal cables wrapped around him. Off to the side Bernard fought for freedom. It was no use. Glenn knew he was out of time. They both were, along with most of the crew.
With no more breath in his lungs, Glenn opened his mouth and inhaled water.
Something or someone shook him. He fought to pull in air but there was only water. He was twisted from the cables, no, it was hands.
“Glenn! Come on, breathe! Just breathe!” someone shouted.
This time when he expanded his chest, it filled with air not water. He coughed violently and gagged.
When he opened his eyes Hadley looked panicked, as he pushed him forward at the waist. “Can you hear me? Glenn. Say something.”
“I… I was on the Sims.” His gaze darted around the apartment. But again, there was no water and no drowning men only the beige walled
apartment with the sounds of the city.
Hadley hooked an arm over his shoulder. “It will be all right. You’re here now.”
Glenn’s heartbeat began to slow as he looked down at his shaking hands and nodded.
“You’re in this time now; that other you is gone, dead,” Hadley said.
“What did you say?”
“That other you is dead.”
Realization hit. Glenn turned towards Hadley as the blood in his veins turned to ice. “You bastard!” He shoved away. “You bastard,” he repeated. “You knew what was going to happen, that’s why all the concern about leaving me alone. You knew I was going to die on my destroyer!”
“I… did. But you did not die, you’re…”
“I did die, and you knew it was going to happen. You lied.” Pulling back his arm he punched Hadley in the jaw.
Hadley tumbled off the edge of the bed and landed on the carpeted floor. Slowly, he raised himself up on all fours, then stood and rubbed his jaw. “I deserved that. I have always prided myself on being truthful, but in this circumstance I was at a loss. It was that age-old question, ‘if you knew you were going to die, would you want to know’?”
Glenn glared at him. “That was my decision… not yours.”
“You’re right again, it was, and I know now that I was wrong. But, in the hundred years I was a guide I never came up against this. If there was a mirror image of the traveler left in the time they came from, they seemed to fade without incident. In this case, your name was on the lost at sea list. Perhaps it was the violent circumstance that temporarily transported you.”
“My ship was hit by a torpedo.”
“Yes, and your body was never found. That was on record.” Hadley sat on the floor and crossed his legs. “I hoped that somehow the you in that other time just faded… before the incident and that’s why you were listed as missing.”
“I drowned. Jesus, I felt the water in my lungs,” Glenn said, his voice bleak as he rubbed his chest. “I died along with all of my friends and shipmates.”
“Did you know Frank Barclay?”
“Yeah, I knew him.”
“He survived. He was picked up by a Japanese Navy ship and held prisoner, but when he was released, he was quoted in the transcripts of what happened that day. You saved his life.”
Glenn sat back and said more to himself than Hadley, “The man I put my life vest on.”
“He was on record for saying that you dragged him to some debris to keep him from drowning.”
“I thought they were all going to die.”
“They didn’t. About fifty survived.”
“But I didn’t and many of my friends didn’t.”
Hadley nodded his head. “It was war. Men have died for thousands of years through hundreds of wars. The man to the right dies, but the man on the left lives.”
“It’s not fair that I survived, and I’m here, now.”
“You are a traveler; you are meant to be in this century.”
“How do you know? That I wasn’t supposed to be back there with the other men?”
Hadley watched him for a long moment. “Because you’re here. You would not have been able to come through the bend in time if it was not meant to be. You would have gone into the bookstore and purchased Call of the Wild and left. But you didn’t. You came through the portal, so the Ancients had already decided that this is your century.”
He scrubbed his hands over his face. “It makes no sense.”
“If you feel that you are all right, I’ll leave you. I think I have done enough damage for one night.”
“You truly didn’t know what was going to happen to me, did you?”
Hadley shook his head. “No. I would never have put you through that. And again, for that I am very sorry.”
Chapter Five
1942
Jewel took the stack of black and white 8x10’s and slid them into the cardboard folders. She hummed to a tune on the radio and tapped her foot.
The phone jingled on its receiver and Brenda answered, “Mountback Photography, can I help you?” She paused and then said, “Sure, hold on, I’ll get her.” Brenda held the phone out. “Jewel, it’s for you.”
Jewel laid her work to the side and stood up from the wooden stool, and held the receiver to her ear. “Hello?”
“Jewel, this is Mrs. Miller.”
A client? There were a few Mrs. Millers. “Yes, Mrs. Miller. I believe we have your order, it’s…”
“No, Jewel. This is Mrs. Miller. Glenn’s mother. I doubted they would notify you directly… and well, I hate to do this over the phone, but you are a long way from us and you needed to know…” The woman’s voice cracked. “The telegraph came today… it said that my boy is dead.”
Jewel clenched the phone so tight her hand went numb. There must be another son. Did Glenn have a brother? Her mind raced. “Your boy?”
“Glenn… I am talking about Glenn. Oh God…” The woman was crying. “He’s gone. His ship was torpedoed and went down. He was among the missing. Lost at sea.”
“But lost at sea means just that… he’s lost, until someone finds him.”
“No honey,” his mother said. “There are no more survivors. He’s gone.”
Jewel paused for a long moment before saying, “I see…thank… you, Mrs. Miller, for calling. I have your re-order. It just came back from the printer. I will mail it out this afternoon. Thanks again for calling…goodbye.” She set the phone on the cradle. Picking up the package, she walked to the lunchroom and put on her coat. Brenda started to say something but she didn’t hear it because she was already out the door.
Numb, Jewel walked to the post office. She watched the man weigh the package and then handed him the money for the parcel. She didn’t wait for the change. When she came back outside, the sun was bright. Too bright. It hurt her eyes.
When she reached the boarding house she stood at the door to her room and didn’t know how she got there. She reached into her pocket for the key. Her finger touched something furry. No, she couldn’t think about that for another moment. Shoving open the door, she shut it behind her, locked it, and then moved to the drapes to pull them closed.
Jewel kicked off her shoes in the closet, took off her dress and hung it next to the other two. She started to slide the straps of her slip off her shoulders, but it seemed like too much work. Unsteady, she moved into the back to the door and reached for her coat. Sliding her hand in the pocket, she found the rabbit foot. The last night she saw Glenn, he must have slid it into her pocket without her knowing. She’d only found it when she’d worn the coat again.
She stared at it. “It was his, not mine. It was his lucky rabbit foot,” she whispered. “Why did he give it to me?” She blinked back tears. “He needed it. Why didn’t he keep…”
Clenching it tight in her hand, she moved to the bed and sat on the edge. She stared at the small furry foot for hours. Night came and the room grew dark. It didn’t matter. She couldn’t move even if she wanted to. Exhaustion finally overtook her. There were no more tears left… at least until tomorrow.
Somewhere in-between
Jewel rolled to her side and warm arms embraced her. She snuggled deeper.
“Don’t cry, it will be all right.”
“Glenn… but you’re…”
“Hush, I’m here.” He pulled back and gently kissed her mouth. “Why did I say no that last night together?”
She smiled up at him. “I’m not sure.”
“Sometimes you shouldn’t listen to your brain and listen to your heart instead.”
One more kiss from those rugged lips and she was his. Who was she kidding? She was already his.
Always his.
Once again his lips brushed hers. He scooped her tighter a
nd kissed her cheek, her jaw, and her eyebrow. “You’re so beautiful and I’ve missed you so much,” he whispered.
The kiss grew heated. She’d be damned if she was going to let him slip away this time. She broke away and stood. With what she hoped was a seductive smile, she slipped her slip’s strap off one shoulder and then the other, then stepped out of the garment. But Glenn didn’t seem to notice, he was staring at her lace-covered breasts.
He stood. Jewel helped him remove his clothes and then hers until they faced each other, naked.
Her hands tingled with the need to touch him. She ran her hands up his bared chest and felt the muscles jump from her caress. He had an amazing body. Muscled stomach, broad shoulders and just enough dark chest hair to run her fingers through. Jewel’s nails grazed his ribcage and he hissed in a breath through his mouth.
He led her to the bed and pulled her across his lap. Her hair dropped over her eye as her bare buttocks slid across him. She breathed in the taste of him. Glenn’s hand moved across her shoulder, down her arm, and cupped her breast. He thumbed the nipple.
Jewel closed her eyes and let her head drop. She should be nervous, but this was all so perfect. The way it should be. His lips closed over the bud of her breast and she sighed.
Everywhere he kissed, he nipped with his teeth, a sign of possession, showing her she was his.
He slid her off his lap and pressed her back onto the bed. Where am I? She suddenly wondered as she took a second to look at the room. The beige walls were smooth with white drapes covering the large windows. She didn’t recognize the room, but it didn’t matter.
She pulled him down on her.
The look on his face was filled with love. She shifted and a flood of sensation filled her body. He began to move against her, rocking, his hard shaft at her entrance.
I'll Be Seeing You Through Time (The Dimension Keepers) Page 3
