“Of course you do. Your inventions, your discoveries, the amazing ideas you’ve come up with . . .and you’re only in your mid-twenties. We’ve all benefited from your work. I’m sure you’ll take Jerry to other worlds if he keeps working with you.”
He frowned. “You don’t want him to go?”
She shook her head. “I want my son to go wherever he wants. I wish only the best for him. Just like your parents do for you.”
He looked away from her face. It showed so much emotion that it embarrassed him. Her love for her son glowed there.
“It isn’t like that,” he tried to explain. “It wasn’t like that. They wanted me to be normal like Geoff. They feel badly when I don’t behave like other people. But, Mrs. Caldecott, I don’t know how.”
“Lynne,” she responded automatically.
“And Jerry calls me Zan.” Most of the time. “He doesn’t seem to know I’m different. Or at least he doesn’t care.”
“But Zan, you’re different in good ways.” In her earnestness she leaned close to him. He tried not to show that this made him nervous. He didn’t like people in his personal space. “You’re a good looking young man and so very brilliant. Anyone would like you.”
He didn’t want to argue.
“Zan, have you ever been in love?”
This was way too much. What was wrong with Jerry’s mother?
“Maybe. When I was a kid. But nobody ever loved me back.”
“You didn’t let them get close enough,” she guessed. “Women aren’t mind readers, Zan.”
“It’s all right. I’m happy enough.”
She made a funny choking sound. “There’s nothing like having that one special person in your life, Zan. I want that for my son eventually and I want it for you too. You can’t imagine what it’s like for me and Moss. Everything is better, richer because he’s in my life. He’s center of my world.”
Zan felt so embarrassed. This woman seemed to think she had to act like his big sister. He had a brother. He didn’t need a sister.
They both looked up as Jerry ambled toward them, carrying a fishing pole. “He looks like Tom Sawyer,” his mother commented fondly.
Zan, who hadn’t spent much of his life on fiction, had little idea what she was talking about, but nodded as though he did. He was just glad this awkward conversation would be brought to an end by the boy’s return.
Lynne patted his hand in big-sister fashion. “I have a lovely niece,” she reassured him. “She’d be just about the right age for you now. I’m going to write to her.” She got up and headed toward the house.
His dismayed gaze followed her. He hated it when people tried to play matchmaker for him. Couldn’t they see he was quite content with his life the way it was.
Chapter Three
1904 Lavender
She had no place to store the information but in her own head. Eddie tried to go slowly as she read the old journals left by pioneers who settled the community, absorbing their tales into her being so they would be with her always.
So far nobody had pressed her to present any of that information, though lately she’d begun to feel a need to tell somebody.
The story of the man who had wooed his love to come to Texas with him by promising to build for her a house just like the two-story farmhouse where they lived in New England. He’d done it and that house still stood on a farm north of town, occupied by the family’s descendants. She read how the mother of the family would bake for days to entertain all her neighbors at a get-together, complete with a fiddler and a dance.
On the other hand were the sad stories, like that of the pioneer mother who, left alone with her children for days at a time while her husband went for supplies, watched helplessly as her twin daughters died, the little ones having eaten poison berries in the woods.
Joys and sorrows, they all went together, and somehow were sinking into her mind and heart. She was the repository of all that was nearly forgotten and it would be her task to pass that information on to the next generation.
She’d only taken on this work in the first place because Betsy had promised that, after a year, she would accompany her sister across the barriers into that other world she so longed to see. Even their parents didn’t realize what both girls knew from that long ago overheard conversation, that of all the people in Lavender only Betsy had been born with the freedom to move between worlds.
Betsy loved Lavender and had no wish to leave, but she’d agreed to take Eddie across for a visit, taking it for granted they would both return.
Someone, probably her great-grandfather Tyler Stephens, the mystical man who had enclosed Lavender within time, had organized this part of the library so that everything from old letters to half-written journals written on whatever had been available, were arranged by age. Some of the oldest were crumpling and barely readable. The latest placed on the shelves were her grandfather’s own memoires. She had, of course, been most tempted by those, but her first readings had exposed them as mostly about numbers and theories she didn’t understand.
Even Papa, who had been very close to his grandfather, admitted he’d never exactly understood him.
She’d only agreed to take this on because Betsy had promised to do what she wanted, take both of them on a journey to the outside world. But she had to admit that after nearly six months of exploring through the written journals and interviews with the community’s older members, she was becoming deeply involved. She had a new sense of purpose, a feeling that this history was hers.
Nobody but Betsy and sometimes Sylvie interrupted her and now she looked up with faint annoyance when Betsy, wearing an apron over her dress, bustled into the library. A faint scent of onion hung about her person and Eddie guessed she was helping out in the kitchen. Betsy enjoyed cooking and other housewife-type skills. The fact was that Betsy enjoyed most things. She had a gift for happiness.
Eddie thought sourly that particular gift had skipped past her entirely. She was always wanting more, something else, something different. It was as though she searched for something that couldn’t be found.
Her face flushed from the heat of the kitchen or from excitement, Eddie didn’t know which, Betsy waved an envelope in her face. “This is momentous,” she announced. “After all these years. Mama is going to be so thrilled. We’ve got a letter from Aunt Lynne.”
Eddie didn’t have to ask who Aunt Lynne was. She knew all about the brother, sister-in-law and little nephew her stepmother had been forced to leave behind in that other world when she came to live with them.
She also knew that Evan and Cynthia had exchanged love letters back and forth from Lavender to that larger world before they actually met, a miracle or magic, or whatever that nobody understood.
Since then Cynthia had written regularly to her family in the outside world, placing letters in the little post office downtown in the mercantile building from which they were delivered to the postal box closest to the barrier by the creek which was where Cynthia and Betsy had crossed over.
Years ago she’d run out of the limited supply of postage stamps from the time before they’d been separated into their private time zone, but Cynthia hadn’t given up in spite of that.
And in all those years, no letter had ever moved on and, of course, she’d never received one single letter herself. Something that had surprised no one.
“A letter from your aunt?” she repeated, hardly able to believe it.
Betsy nodded. “She says they are all well, the ranch is thriving, though the area is changing so much. They have a spaceport and Jeremy, she calls him Jerry, is working there. He’s fourteen now, if you can believe it.”
If she could believe in a letter from another time, she could accept anything. “Jerry’s your cousin.”
Betsy nodded. “He was a mere infant when I last saw him. I changed his diaper.”
Eddie frowned, taking it all in. “You opened your mother’s letter? But that’s rude.”
“That’s the surpri
sing part. The letter is to me, not Mama. Of course Aunt Lynne says she’s written many times before without an answer, but she had something special to ask this time.” Betsy sank into one of the cushy chairs that had been put in the library for Eddie’s benefit. “I would do just anything for my auntie, Eddie, just anything, but I don’t really have the time and you know I’m practically engaged to Jonas Henry.”
Eddie laid aside her great-grandfather’s journal. “You’re not making much sense, Bets.”
Betsy unfolded the letter and began to read.
“The thing is, Betsy darling, that we have a really sweet guy living in one of our cabins. They say he’s one of the most brilliant men of our time and he’s make countless discoveries that have benefited all of us. But, Betsy, I feel sorry for him. He’s so lonely, I’m sure he is, and has little idea how to relate to people, especially women.
I told him about you, my sweet niece, and I thought of Cynthia and her Evan. It’s not that I want you to fall in love with him, sweetheart, but I feel you could try to write to him and kind of bring him into touch with what it feels like to be human and exchanging thoughts with a beautiful kind-hearted young woman.”
“It does on from there. You’ve got to help me, Eddie. You can see what a problem I’ve got here.”
Eddie considered. “What’s a spaceport?” she asked.
2027 Oklahoma
Geoff walked with Zan back to his car, a luxury model with all the gadgets. The back door opened automatically even as the motor started and the seats warmed against the wintry day. Zan wasn’t tired even after a full day of tests of the latest propulsion system that would take the new ship out into space. He hardly ever got tired, but he’d had enough of being surrounded by other people and could hardly wait to get into the privacy of his vehicle and head for the ranch.
But Geoff put a restraining hand on his arm. He had one last thing to say. “These rides are too time consuming, Zan. We need to make better use of your energy.”
Zan frowned down at the brother who was two inches shorter than him, but who tended to command him in everything except his work. “I’m not moving back down here near the base. I like living at the ranch, even if Lynne can be . . .” He stopped abruptly, realizing he couldn’t criticize one of the Caldecotts to his brother. It felt like complaining about family to others.
Geoff looked exhausted, lines digging into his face so that he looked older than his thirty years. “I was afraid you’d say that so I’ve arranged to have one of the choppers pick you up and take you back. That’ll cut the time loss.”
Zan liked the quiet and privacy of his drive. He liked gazing out onto the rolling ranch country. But all his life Geoff had looked after him.
“No,” he heard himself saying quietly. “I don’t believe I’d care to make that change.”
Geoff looked astounded. It was as if his dog, if he’d had a dog, had bitten him. “But Zan . . .”
Zan looked him straight in the eyes and said it again, “No.”
Geoff swallowed hard. “Well, if you feel that strongly about it . . .”
Once again Zan started to get into the car. Geoff touched his arm again, keeping him in place.
“There’s something else I need to tell you. Nancy and I . . .well, we’re separating.”
Zan stared at his brother. His brother and his wife had two children. They were meant to be together always. Somehow looking at his brother’s strained face, he thought Geoff wasn’t very happy about this.
He wanted to offer words of help, but couldn’t seem to find them. Geoff had taught him a long time ago that men didn’t indulge in mushy talk. There was nothing he could say.
He got into the car and gave the verbal command that would send the driver-less vehicle on the familiar roads to the ranch, but as he drove away he couldn’t help thinking rather sadly that for most of his life he’d let Geoff run his personal life and now it was looking as though his brother was having trouble managing his own life.
If he was married to someone he loved the way Geoff loved Nancy and was fortunate enough to have two little girls, it would be forever. They would not be going their separate ways.
At the ranch, Jerry, whose internship had only been for the summer, and was now back in school, came running with an eager Einstein to meet the car and when the door opened, boy and dog jumped in, Jerry asking eagerly about the progress on the newest ship design while Einstein greeted him with the kind of enthusiasm only a dog can muster.
It was when the car pulled to a stop in front of Zan’s cottage that Jerry remembered. He reached into his pocket to pull out a crumpled envelope. “Mail for you,” he said.
Mail! That was unusual. In fact it was unique. Mail was only delivered to the ranch a couple of times a month and usually was some sort of clever high-stakes ad.
If that’s what this was, it was extremely well done. The paper looked antique and there was no pricey stamp. He slipped it into his case. He’d read it later.
Chapter Four
1904 Lavender
Eddie had finally worked her way through algorithms and theorems to some actual day to day accounts in her great-grandfather’s journals. “Evan beginning to follow me on my rounds. Young as he is, I believe he has the makings of a doctor. Can’t help being proud about this and at the same time knowing it’s laying a hard course for the little chap. I tried to turn Forrest into my assistant, but it was never what he wanted, and now with Evan, I’m not sure it’s what I want for him. A profession like medicine consumes your life, leaving little room for anything else.”
Eddie counted back the years. Evan must have been no more than seven or eight when this was written. Too bad his grandpapa wasn’t around now to see that his grandson was not only a hard-working doctor, but he also had a good marriage and three children, including Betsy as much as the two biological daughters, who absolutely adored him. He was blessed with a full life.
Though she did wonder if sometimes he didn’t want to wander the larger world, if he didn’t feel occasionally locked into a small space, the way she did
“My marriage failed because of my dedication to my work and my son is alienated from me. I try to make it up with Forrest, but we don’t seem able to connect emotionally. My grandson is my second chance.”
Eddie wasn’t sure how she felt about that. Forrest Stephens was her much loved grandfather. It sounded as though his own father had just set him aside like a failed experiment and went on to his son.
She wasn’t so sure great-grandfather Tyler Stephens was someone she would have liked very much, even though he was considered the town’s hero with a statue of him in the square and everything.
He never wrote at any length, more as though he was making notes to himself. She flipped through the thin volumes in what would have seem random in someone without her peculiar talent, crossing the years quickly, hoping to find some details about how he’d taken Lavender out of time, or into its own time. Maybe knowing that answer would be the way out.
Though Betsy had promised . . . but once again she’d announced an engagement, this time to Evan and Cynthia’s apprentice doctor. This time it seemed different, Eddie almost expected this one to end up in a wedding. She was glad for her sister, but feeling adrift once more. She could hardly insist that Betsy leave her beloved behind to fulfill her promise of travel across the barriers.
Then she found it. Her eyes caught by the words. Grandpa Tyler was writing about the outbreak of influenza and how this time it seemed different, that he suspected it had jumped from pigs to people.
He entered the results of lab experiments, beyond her ability to interpret, but the occasional comments were easy enough to understand. He was terribly afraid for his friends and neighbors as he saw the illness become more virulent and deaths beginning to occur.
He worked day and night with his patients and in the cracks in between he was busy in his lab, trying to find answers.
His handwriting grew shaky as though he was almost too exha
usted to write and his comments were terse.
“Something different here. God help us all if this breaks out of Lavender. The nature of the disease intensifies daily.”
She read as hope rose that he’d found treatment that might lessen the effects of the illness and then failed time after time.
He seemed half bemused as he wrote the last entry. “Guess we’ll have to go back to Granny’s cures from the olden days. A little touch of Irish magic . . .” The words trailed away, than one last entry was scrawled. “Forrest’s wife is sick. I don’t believe I can save her.”
No more was written and Eddie realized with horror that this time the patient was her own grandmother. She had passed away when Eddie was so young that she had absolutely no memories of her. Nobody had ever told her that Grandmama had died of the flu.
2027 Oklahoma
Zan stood with his brother and other company executives and watched the ship launch. Not since he was a little boy had he wished so much to be on board, headed for that place among the stars where the latest base was being established. Oh, he’d talked about it a little in recent years, that longing for exploration, but Geoff stepped on the idea promptly and firmly. “Leave that to the adventurous, Zan. You’re too valuable to risk on space travels.”
Zan wasn’t sure but that he was adventurous. Certainly as a scientist, he’d traveled places where others before him had not dared. Now, he thought, for once at least he’d like to take that trip physically, to run risks and see with his own eyes things other people had yet to encounter.
So it was that he was particularly thoughtful as he allowed himself to be driven home that evening. At the ranch, Jerry and Einstein greeted him with their usual joy and he was told that Jerry’s mom had invited him to supper.
Such an invitation was rare. All the Caldecotts knew that he preferred to eat alone with just his dog for company, though he occasionally tolerated the presence of Jerry, who was becoming more like a little brother all the time.
Leaving Lavender: A Time Travel Romance (Lavender, Texas Series Book 3) Page 3
