by gerald hall
“I hope that you will too, my dear.”
Dorothy then asked, “You never got to truly grieve for Judith, did you?” The expression of love and concern clearly evident in Dorothy’s voice.
Harold hesitated before answering.
“No, I don’t think that I ever did. I was always so busy with my businesses and various other interests. I would sometimes take time away from it all and go on ‘walkabout’, but I still never really did properly grieve for her. There were so many things that we wanted to do including having a family. But all of that was taken away from us.”
“It’s time that you finally did. I understand that you loved Judith very much. She made her life mean something to the world and you want dearly to do that as well for her.”
“Yes, you’re right. But, it’s still not easy to do.”
“It sounds like she was a very special lady. I am going to do everything that I can to help you make that difference in this world because I love you very much. I may never live up to Judith’s selfless example, but I will certainly try my best.” Dorothy declared as she pulled Harold towards her and wrapped him up in her arms, tears rolling down her face. He was crying too as he thought about Judith and about how much he loved Dorothy too.
Before Harold knew it, Dorothy was literally dragging him into the bedroom. The next few hours proved to be very cathartic for Harold as well as being very pleasurable for both him and Dorothy. There would be many such pleasurable nights for both of them after this.
Dorothy soon changed jobs from the accounting office to Harold’s main office. There, she can work much more closely with Harold and assist him with any sensitive material that he had at his office. She also would deliver correspondence and materials to the various offices in Derby.
But most importantly, Dorothy got to spend a lot more private time with Harold. Harold used this time to describe humanity’s future as had happened in his timeline. Dorothy would engage in detailed discussions with Harold as they considered about how he could possibly change the future to prevent the final war and other terrible events from happening.
Chapter Thirteen: Cavill Industries Corporate Headquarters Derby, Western Australia
October 21, 1930
Dorothy Cavill drove up to the office in one of the company trucks after delivering some drafting supplies to the shipyard. She continued to increase her involvement in Harold’s companies since learning his secrets. While it pleased Harold very much to finally have someone he that could confide in, it also continued to worry him as well. He was still worried that Dorothy might slip up and accidentally reveal the source of his knowledge to someone else.
“Is Harold in his office?” Dorothy asked Harold’s office manager after walking in with her arms full of supplies.
“Yes, Ma’am. He’s inside right now looking at a new product. Do you want me to let him know that you are here?”
“No, Thomas. That’s alright. I will just let myself in.” Dorothy said before opening the door, stepping into Harold’s office and closing the door behind her.
Harold was standing there with a rifle in his hands, looking at it very carefully. He quickly looked up when he heard the door close and saw Dorothy standing there.
“What’s that, sweetheart?” Dorothy asked after she saw the rifle in Harold’s hands. The rifle was brand new, the one-piece wooden stock still shiny from a recent application of lacquer. In most ways, the rifle looked like a slightly enlarged M1 carbine, in other words, very traditional. But the large detachable metal box magazine and wooden pistol grip, both protruding from the bottom of the rifle, were the features that made the rifle stand out in appearance.
“This is one of the prototypes of a new rifle that I intend to produce.”
“That gun is very unusual looking. Is it a design from your future?” She quietly said.
“Not exactly, it actually borrows some features from a lot of historical firearms. I saw some material in my computer database on an early rifle designed by a Russian by the name of Fedorov. I was able to obtain an actual example of this rifle which could fire a single shot with each pull of the trigger and could also fire fully automatic rapid fire like a Maxim machine gun. All that was required to change to automatic fire was a simple flip of a lever switch on the side of the weapon’s receiver. These features were later incorporated into an entire class of firearms referred to as assault rifles.”
“That sounds brilliant, Harold. What else can you tell me about it?”
“Most of the differences involve a lot of technical details. But this rifle uses a short stroke gas system and a detachable box magazine that holds the ammunition. It uses a cartridge that in between the current rifle and pistol cartridges in terms of power. The firearm’s barrel is 51 centimeters long. That’s about 20 inches. The combination of cartridge power and barrel length will give this rifle an effective range of somewhere between three hundred and five hundred meters. Overall, the rifle will still be easy to carry since it only weighs about three kilograms fully loaded. We had to substitute some lighter materials into this rifle to make it easier to carry. That dropped this rifle’s weight down by over a full kilogram from the weight of the original Federov design.
This rifle will be easy to maintain as well as have the ability to select semi-automatic and fully automatic fire at will. In this way, it will have the best of both worlds. It can replace the old .303 LeeEnfield rifle as well as a variety of submachine guns that fire pistol caliber rounds.”
“So how are you going to be able to convince the world that it is just a rifle based on an obscure Russian design? It seems that this rifle would appear to be conspicuously out of place to someone who knows about guns, at least guns of this time.”
“This rifle will still use the same Japanese Arisaka 6.5 millimeter ammunition as the Fedorov weapon. The use of that intermediate cartridge was one of the best elements of the Fedorov design. It has a reasonable effective range, yet the recoil is mild enough to be controllable even in fully automatic fire. I’ve had our firearms designer also create a new cartridge variant that combined the Arisaka cartridge case with an aerodynamic spitzer bullet that can be used in our rifle as well. This new cartridge is superior in range and accuracy to the round that the Japanese use in their bolt action rifles and machine guns. But we can still use the standard Japanese ammunition with an easy manual adjustment to the gas system that a soldier can do with a simple twist of a knob.
It sounds like everything else about this design is still reasonably contemporary as far as I can tell. I suppose that the person seeing this gun will just be a unique combination of features that will eventually be recognized as being ahead of its time. But it just won’t be too far ahead.”
“Can I shoot it? It has been such a long time since you taught me to shoot using your older guns. It would be fascinating to fire something as futuristic as this rifle.”
“Certainly, my dear. Besides, it will give me a better idea of how well people of a lighter frame can handle this rifle. In the future that I came from, female soldiers frequently found themselves in battle using weapons such as this that fired an intermediate caliber cartridge. While the women weren’t front-line soldiers by any means, they usually performed admirably under the circumstances.”
“Are you planning on recruiting women to be soldiers?” Dorothy asked.
“No. I hope that we don’t have to take such desperate measures. However, if our men are all fighting elsewhere and we were attacked, women could be part of the local militia forces. Then, the militias would have a weapon that a woman could easily use if we have to defend our homeland in the case of an emergency.”
“That is very thoughtful, Sweetheart. I just hope that it doesn’t come to that.”
“I don’t either. But it is important to prepare for emergencies just in case.”
“I agree. It’s going to be enough of a challenge getting women integrated into the workforce at our factories over the next few years. A lot of our men a
re going to end up on the front lines or even defending Australia itself. So we will need our women to work outside of the home as well.”
“That sounds like things could become very desperate during this war that is coming soon. I truly pray that it doesn’t go that far.” A worried Dorothy responded.
“I hope you are right, Dorothy. But we have to be prepared because once history starts being changed by what we are doing, it will be very difficult to see exactly what direction events will take.”
“Do you have a name for this new rifle yet, Sweetheart?”
` “I wasn’t planning on anything fancy for it. Maybe, I will just call it the CR-1 for Cavill Rifle, Model Number One. Anyway, I don’t have anything planned for the next few hours, Sweetheart. If I remember your schedule correctly, neither do you. Let’s go out to the shooting range so we can try our new rifle out.” Dorothy eagerly said.
Harold smiled. There was still lots of empty land outside of town where they could go shoot without bothering anyone. This was very unlike being in any of the big cities in the future that Harold came from.
“Let me pick up some ammunition and paper targets. Then we can meet at the truck and drive out to the range to do some target practice.”
Harold was still pleasantly surprised to see just how enthusiastically Dorothy accept what he was doing and embrace the idea of him being from the future.
After arriving at the shooting range, Harold and Dorothy took turns shooting the new rifle for more than two hours. The smile on Dorothy’s face never wavered as she shot at the targets more than two hundred meters away after getting the rifle’s sights zeroed in.
“This rifle is fantastic, Harold. I love how comfortable it is. It is so easy to hit a target with this rifle too. How many do you plan on making?”
“I don’t know yet. This is just a prototype that still needs a lot more testing to work out any possible problems with it. But I would like to begin with an initial production of one thousand rifles once my firearms engineer and I are completely satisfied with the final design.”
“I am looking forward to seeing that final design. This rifle is really fun to shoot already though. It will be hard to make it much better, I believe.” Dorothy said before putting down the rifle and continuing to talk.
“You certainly do know a lot about guns and how to handle them, Harold. I also have always been curious about how you managed to take all of those diamonds into China to convert into gold. That certainly had to be very dangerous. Did you have to use your guns to save your life during that adventure?” Dorothy asked.
“Well, things did get a little hairy on a couple of occasions. I was starting to feel like a character out of some motion pictures that I remembered. He was an archeologist who would get in all kinds of adventures around the world, armed only with a pistol, a bullwhip and a considerable amount of knowledge of ancient history.
When I was running around in China, the only thing that I didn’t have was the bullwhip. But I did have to pull out my Webley on occasion. A couple of people thought that they would take possession of my diamonds without providing due compensation. So I had to forcefully dissuade them of the notion.” Harold said in a deliberately understated manner that Dorothy found hilarious.
“Obviously, you were quite successful in your endeavors out there during your early days in the twentieth century.” Dorothy laughed.
“Yes. Of course, I had a much better ‘treasure map’. Eventually, I also got the girl as well.” Harold replied before giving Dorothy a kiss.
“I thank God that you came into my life every day, Harold.” Dorothy replied as she drew closer to her husband from the future.
Cavill Industries Corporate Headquarters Derby, Western Australia
January 28, 1931
Harold walked into his company office after meeting with the shipyard manager earlier in the day. He was surprised to see that Dorothy was not at her desk as she usually was.
“Anyone know where my wife is? I thought that she was going to be at work today.” Harold asked.
“I think that she is down at the aerodrome.” Thomas, Harold’s office assistant noted.
“Was she going to take a trip somewhere?”
“I don’t think so, Sir.” Thomas said with a straight face. Obviously, he had no idea what Dorothy was doing either.
Harold thought about things for a moment before turning to Thomas.
“I am going out to the aerodrome for a short while. If anyone calls, please tell them that I will be returning soon.” He quickly said before heading out to his truck for the short drive to the aerodrome.
Just as Harold arrived, he saw Dorothy dressed in a blouse, slacks and wearing a leather flying helmet about to get into the front seat of a small biplane trainer. She smiled as the recognized Harold walking up from his truck but at the same time, Harold could tell that she was a little disappointed.
“Hi, Sweetheart. I’m sorry that you found me. I wanted to surprise you by learning how to fly an aircraft. I thought that by having a pilot in the family, we could fly ourselves around if necessary.”
“That is very thoughtful, Dorothy. But you know that we can easily afford to hire pilots when we need them.”
“I know. But I want to contribute more than just being an administrator in your office. Besides, this is already my third flying lesson. It is so much fun up here in the sky. Please, Harold. Let me do this.” Dorothy pled.
Harold just couldn’t believe how much of Judith that he could see in Dorothy. Judith was so daring and lived her life fearlessly. Here, Dorothy was doing the very same thing without ever really knowing Harold’s first wife from a future timeline. Like Judith, Dorothy wanted to be and do so much more than the vast majority of the women of their time. She learned to shoot, drove cars and had been exploring the unknown in the form of technologies depicted in a computer database that would have been invented for over half a century yet.
“Then I don’t have much of a choice, do I? Go ahead and learn how to fly. But, be very careful. I would hate to lose you too. Alright?”
Dorothy ran up with a huge smile on her face, wrapped her arms around Harold and gave him a passionate kiss.
“Thank you, sweetheart. I love you so very much. I will be careful, I promise.” Dorothy gleefully said before dashing quickly back to the plane. The flight instructor was waiting and ready to go. Within a minute, the little biplane was roaring down the runway and up into the skies.
Harold quietly prayed for Dorothy’s safe return before going back to his office. While Harold continued to work on the many projects that were on his desk, he continued to worry about Dorothy’s safety. He knew that aircraft were far less reliable during this era than the ones of the twenty-first century. Still, he would not stifle Dorothy’s desire to explore. It was one of the parts of her that reminded Harold so very much of Judith. How could he take that away from her without destroying what else he loved about Dorothy? So Harold forced himself to wait and pray for the best.
Harold watched anxiously as the small biplane flew overhead, performing a variety of maneuvers for more than half an hour before landing at the airstrip. The biplane’s wheels bounced a couple of times before finally settling onto the ground.
After the little biplane taxied back up to the hangar, Dorothy jumped out of the cockpit with a huge smile on her face. She grabbed Harold fiercely, then hugged and kissed him.
“Did you see that, Sweetheart? The instructor actually let me land the airplane this time.”
“He let you land it after only three flying lessons?” An incredulous Harold asked.
“Oh, yes! He said that I was a natural pilot. Isn’t that exciting, Harold?”
Harold thought for a few moments before responding. This was, of course, a time when people sometimes built their own aircraft and taught themselves to fly. The aircraft of this era were also much slower. The biplane that Dorothy was in, an old Curtiss JN-4 Jenny, had particularly benign flight characteristics and a very
slow landing speed.
“I’m just glad that you are alright. You had me a little scared when you landed and bounced.”
“Oh, that was nothing, Harold. I’m sure that I will do a lot better the next time that I fly.” The smile on Dorothy’s face was even broader than before. She was totally fearless and absolutely in love with flying airplanes, it was obvious to Harold.
“Please be careful, Dorothy. I don’t want to go through losing another woman that I love so very much.” Harold said while looking directly into Dorothy’s eyes, his love and concern clearly evident.
“Don’t worry, Sweetheart. I want very much to see the coming future with you. But, I while I will be careful, I will not put myself in a glass cage either. There is too much to live for to be either too cautious or too reckless either.” A confident Dorothy quickly replied.
“When you plan on taking your next flying lesson, Dorothy?”
“Tomorrow, if I can.”
“Alright then. It would come in handy to have a pilot in the family, I would imagine.” Harold said with a small smile.
Dorothy quickly hugged and kissed Harold once again.
“Oh, thank you! I love you so very much!”
“Just don’t make me regret this, OK?”
“Of course, not. I want you to be as proud of me as I am of you.” Dorothy said with a twinkle in her eye and an expression that spoke volumes as to how much she adored Harold, her mysterious man from the future.
Harold Cavill’s Home Derby, Western Australia March 14, 1931
Harold and Dorothy were sitting in his secret room looking at material off of his portable computer’s screen. Because the small room was so crowded with papers and equipment, there was barely enough room for the two of them to sit.
“This is just so utterly remarkable, Harold. It is still very difficult for me to imagine all of the wondrous things that will be created in the future. Yet, this ‘computer’ of yours and all of the information that it holds within it are proof of such incredible possibilities.” Dorothy said, her eyes wide open in astonishment as she viewed the images on the computer screen.
