I spot a scar on his jawline. “What happened here?” I touch the mark gently and notice a fading bruise.
He smiles. “It’s nothing. It doesn’t matter now.”
“How long has it been for you… since we were last together?”
The light in his eyes dims. “A very long time, but we can talk about that later.”
He alternates between hugging me, checking to make sure I’m real, and planting kisses all over my face.
I laugh and pull him close, letting the touch of his body anchor me in the present. “You’re really here.”
“I am.”
“Oh, Will.” I pull away to look at him. “I have so much to tell you.”
“And I, you.” He weaves his fingers through my hair.
“First, why didn’t you come find me last night?” I ask.
“I did, but you looked right past me. It was devastating.”
I rack my brain trying to think of when I might have seen him, but I have no memory of it. Then again it was months ago for me. And he would have been a stranger.
“I knew then you hadn’t traveled yet. You’d have had no idea who I was. I couldn’t take a chance that I’d change something, so I said nothing.”
“I’m so sorry. I wish I could have talked to you.”
“Last night was the longest of my life. I was terrified you wouldn’t be here today, or if you were, that you still wouldn’t know me.”
“Of course I would know you.” I trail my fingers over his arms.
“No, according to Professor Smith, it’s possible you might not have. But now that we’re both here at the same time, we have to go and see if he can figure out how to keep us together.” He links his fingers through mine. “I’m never leaving you again.”
“You mean… you don’t want to go back home? You want to stay with me?”
“Abbi, you are my home.”
I give him another long kiss. “The professor is on the Terrace waiting for us.”
“Right now?”
“Yes. Let me quick text him.” I pull out my phone and text Colton and his dad.
Will watches intently. “I found a gizmo like that on my nightstand, but I can’t begin to figure out what to do with it.”
“That’s all right. I’ll teach you.” I kiss his cheek. “Come on, we’ll meet him and my new cousin there.” I look up for his reaction.
“Who?” Will stops short and narrows his eyes. “Why do I get the feeling something else is going on here?”
I grip his hand in excitement. “I found Ruby’s baby!”
“When?”
“While you were at the stag party, I got a letter from Ruby.”
Will’s eyes light up as I spill the whole story. “Professor Smith is Ruby’s baby?”
I nod and he breaks into a huge smile. “That’s amazing.”
“Can you believe it? He is my grandmother’s brother!”
He sweeps me into another hug and twirls me around like we’ve just won the lottery, and I feel like we have.
* * *
The modern-day familiarity of the Terrace is like an old friend, so much bigger than it was in my trips to the past. Music is playing and boats bob out on the water. Hundreds of bright tables and chairs are filled with students kicking back and enjoying the mild fall day.
“It’s changed so much,” Will says, giving a low whistle.
I hug his arm, fully intending to be here for him in this foreign era.
A group of girls takes turns posing for pictures in an oversized sunburst chair. There’s an outside concession stand selling beer, and the scent of brats and burgers on the grill fills the air.
“I could get used to it,” he says, taking it all in.
“Abbi, Will! Over here.” Wally waves from a round green table, where he sits with Professor Smith.
Will squeezes my hand and we join them.
“Hi. I’m Wally. It’s incredible to finally meet you.” He shakes Will’s hand.
“My pleasure. Professor Smith has told me a lot about you over the years.”
The professor smiles broadly. The fact is not lost on me that he and I have sat together on this same terrace at various times throughout my travels.
We take seats. “Colton is on his way,” Wally says.
Misty eyed, the professor says, “I never thought I’d see this day.”
Will and I, and our time travel, have been a part of his life since he started college. Now he’s an old man, witnessing us finally back together. It’s no wonder he’s emotional.
“Me neither.” Will looks at me and presses his knee to mine.
Colton appears, out of breath, as if he ran all the way from Picnic Point. “Hey, Gramps,” he says, but his eyes dart to Will and me, studying us as if he can find some sign that we have truly traveled through time.
“Hi, Colton.” Will stands. “I can’t believe you’re tied into this too.”
“Dude, is it true? You’re some sort of time traveler from, like, a century ago?”
Will laughs. “I’m afraid so.”
Colton shakes his head, still struggling for it all to make sense.
“Relax, Colton. Give it some time to sink in,” his grandfather says.
Colton drops into an empty chair, shaking his head in amazement.
Will and I grin.
I look around and sigh. I’m really back. “Professor—”
“You don’t need to call me professor. I think we’ve known each other long enough, plus we’re family now!” he says with delight. “How about Smitty, like back in my college days?”
I recall the awkward young boy I first met. “Uncle Smitty,” I say fondly and lean over to peck him on the cheek. “So… how did I get here?”
Smitty takes a deep breath. “You see, while I’ve cracked the why and how of your time travel, I never could determine how to control it. It’s my firm belief that you and Will both landed back here of your own free will. Or, perhaps I should say, fate.”
Will and I just stare at him blankly.
“Over the years, I’ve done a lot of research on sound waves, quantum theory of gravity, energy fields, and string theory.”
The rest of us look around the table at each other, already lost. Colton looks at his grandfather like he’s speaking Portuguese.
“Dumb it down, please, Grandpa. We aren’t all geniuses,” Colton says.
I notice a twinkle in the professor’s eyes.
“All right. Let me see.” He pauses and I can almost see the wheels turning in his brain. “Based on string theory, everything in the universe, from the tiniest particles to distant stars, is made from one thing: unimaginably small strands of vibrating energy called strings. It also theorizes there are many parallel universes similar to our own, connected by these strings.”
“So there are all kinds of different versions of us sitting around a table eating lunch?” Colton asks, his mouth hanging open in shock.
“It’s much more complex than that. While the theories I’ve mentioned have been around for decades, the idea of how one parallel universe might intersect with another has never been proven.”
He takes a long sip of his beer and leans back in his chair. “I believe what happened to you and Will occurred due to several factors. One being the sound waves created by the bells ringing in the Carillon Tower.”
“What are the other factors?” I ask.
“This is where things become a bit more sketchy. My theory is that a vortex formed in your dorm room precisely where your bed is, which explains why everything on the bed traveled with you. The same type of vortex exists in Will’s dorm room.”
“And what caused this vortex?” Will asks.
“A number of occurrences. I’ve done extensive research on the effigy mounds located near the dorms. Nat
ive Americans understood unseen energies. I believe their mounds created some sort of magnetic field. In fact, at one time, an effigy mound was located exactly where Elizabeth Waters dorm is, and disturbing that mound stirred up another energy.”
I look at Will with wide eyes. We were onto something back in 1930.
“In addition, I analyzed the dates both of you traveled, and it always occurred during a full moon, which affects gravity, tides, and magnetic pull.”
Around the table, we sit silently, trying to take this in.
“Do you think other people time traveled from our rooms?” Will asks.
“I can’t say for certain, but I haven’t found any such evidence.”
“Then why us?” I ask, looking at Will, squeezing his hand.
He nods. “Now that I’ve learned that your grandmother was on her deathbed, longing for the identity of her lost sibling, I think that deep-seeded emotional need was the final ingredient that brought all the factors together into the perfect storm for time travel.”
He takes a breath and adjusts his glasses, seeming to get a hold of his emotions. I can’t imagine what he must be feeling right now to have learned that he is the lost sibling.
“Abbi, you were mourning the loss of your grandmother so strongly. You were longing for family and whether you realized it or not, you needed to fulfill your promise to her. That, combined with the energy of the hatbox and the other factors, weakened the walls of the universe, transporting you to a parallel universe in a different time. And Will was in a similar situation. He came to the university because of a deep-seated thirst for knowledge and to build a better life for himself. He’s much like me in that way.” The professor smiles fondly. “But then he lost his family and was left mourning and desperate for love. We must never underestimate the power of intense longing. I believe it’s what brought you two together.”
“Smitty,” Will says, and I smile at his familiarity with the professor. “Now that Abbi and I are both finally here in this time, how do we stay?” He takes hold of my wrist, tethering me to him.
It’s the only answer I’m looking for too. The odds of us finding each other in the randomness of time can’t be a coincidence. We’re meant for each other. I’m sure of it, and I know Will is too. And after everything we’ve been through, we can’t risk being separated again.
Smitty leans back in his chair. “That should be relatively easy.”
Will squeezes my hand. “Easy would be nice for a change.”
“We need to get you away from the vortex,” Smitty says with a serious set to his eyes.
“You mean they can’t sleep in their dorm rooms?” Colton asks.
“Exactly. And I’d feel much safer if they were away from the effigy mounds and the Carillon Tower as well.”
“So we need to find new dorms?” Will asks.
“More than that. You’ll have to move off campus, and I suggest you do it immediately. Even though the circumstances have changed—you’re both happy, and Abbi has resolved her grandmother’s mystery—and mine!—I just don’t want to risk having either of you anywhere near that vortex. In fact,” he turns to Colton, “while I don’t think you’re likely to be going anywhere, I’d sleep better knowing you found a new room, perhaps one of the dorms far from the Carillon Tower.”
I look to Will, then back to the professor. “But, where will we go?”
“I thought you might stay at my house. At least until you have time to find something closer to campus. I’ve been holding on to that big old house all these years in case you needed it. We have more bedrooms than we could ever use. Of course, I understand that two young kids like you might be mortified to move in with a couple of fossils like my wife and me.”
Will and I smile and nod knowingly at each other. “We’d love to stay with you. At least while we make a plan,” Will says, then adds, “And I could get some advanced physics tutoring from the best in the field.”
“And you and I can make up for lost time,” I say to Smitty. “Oh, and I’ll have to get my mom to come to town so you can meet her. I’m not sure if we should tell her about the whole time travel thing right away. But she’ll understand from the things Grandma sent in her hatbox how I looked into the past and found you.”
I experience a twinge of sadness that I’ll never get the chance to share the news with Grandma. Then I think back to the day I introduced Sharon and Smitty in the Liz Waters lobby, and I smile. There’s a sense of peace in realizing that she’s probably looking down on us, celebrating from above that I was able to tell Smitty in time. And I think that was the point all along.
“I would love to meet my sister’s daughter. My niece.” Smitty’s face radiates happiness, and I catch a glimpse of the hopeful young man I met long ago.
* * *
That night Will and I stand on Smitty’s back deck and look out over the water. The air is cool and the moon is full. Lights from campus twinkle from far across the lake. I shiver and Will slips his arm around me.
“Abbi, I know the reason I time traveled was to find you.”
Turning to him, I place my hand on his chest. “Thank God you did.”
He brushes a lock of hair from my face and gazes into my eyes. “You are my soul mate. I know we’re too young to a make any permanent commitments, and we’ve shared the most life-altering experiences—”
I silence him with a kiss. “Will, I’m forever connected to you.”
Joy spreads across his face. “I’m glad to hear that, because I’ve traveled a long time to find you.” He grazes his lips over mine. “You look happy,” he says in his low, husky voice.
“I am. I’ve gained a family, and now I have you.”
“Until the end of time.” He kisses me, and from across the lake, we hear the distant sound of a bell’s chime.
Author’s Note
Thank you for reading Waking in Time. There really was a Ruby and her life was the inspiration for this story. Unfortunately, very little is known about her. The clues to her life came to me as I was exploring genealogy. Any relatives who knew Ruby had long passed away, so all I had to work with was a birth certificate, a photo of a young nun, and family lore.
When Ruby was two years old, her mother died suddenly. The story goes that her twenty-two-year-old mother received a fright from something outside the window and fell over dead while Ruby sat in her highchair. Little Ruby was shuffled around to different family members until her father remarried. Ruby referred to this woman as her wicked stepmother. Early pictures show the disdain on the stepmother’s face and the apprehension on Ruby’s.
As a teenager, Ruby was shipped off to boarding school, where she met a young man named Walter. I contacted the boarding school and they shared records showing Ruby’s unexplained absence for one year, and then her sudden reappearance the next.
I also discovered that Walter went off to fight in World War I around that same time. It wasn’t until later when I found a photo labeled, Sister Mary Ruby, Me At The Convent, that I felt certain Ruby, who was not Catholic, was sent away to have her baby and give it up for adoption. While this may seem unlikely in today’s world, it was quite common at that time and for decades to follow.
Walter eventually returned from the war, and he and Ruby were soon married and had three more children. Sadly, Ruby died from cancer at age forty-four while her daughter was away at college. Walter died of a heart attack three years later.
As I unraveled Ruby’s story and the mysteries of her life, it broke my heart not to know what became of the baby she was forced to give up. Despite my best efforts, I was never able to discover what convent Ruby was sent to, ending all chance of finding Ruby’s child.
Saddened and frustrated, I decided to write my own version of Ruby’s story, giving her child a bright future and a loving family.
Here’s to you, Ruby. You will never be forgotten.
; For photos and more on Waking in Time, please go to:
www.AngieStanton.com.
Facebook.com/AngieStantonAuthor
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The Facts Behind the Story
Many aspects of Waking in Time are factual, and great effort was made to bring a truthful representation of the fashions, buildings, and events covered throughout the book. That said, creative license was taken when necessary to aid the story, so for any historians out there, my apologies for tweaking a couple of details.
Here are a few tidbits from the story that are true.
The Sterling Hall bombing is a devastating piece of the University of Wisconsin’s history. One man died, four were injured, and years of research by teams of graduate students and professors was lost. Sterling Hall still stands today.
Many effigy mounds exist around campus, including on Observatory Hill and Picnic Point. It has been reported that there are more effigy mounds on the UW campus than any other place in the country. Unfortunately, several of the mounds have been destroyed over the years due to campus construction, notably one for the building of Elizabeth Waters dormitory.
The colorful Union Terrace chairs are an iconic symbol that date back to the 1920s in various styles.
Cheap Trick had a fondness for Madison and its supportive fans. They performed at Headliners throughout the seventies and after reaching fame, and occasionally snuck into town for a performance in the early 1980s.
The dates that Elizabeth Waters dormitory and the Carillon Tower were built have been altered to serve the story.
As a child, my family would occasionally trek to Picnic Point where I was fascinated by stories of buried treasure. Clearly that never left me.
Acknowledgements
Writing a book takes a village, but in this case, it also takes a team of University of Wisconsin alumni spanning more than seventy years to get a clear picture of life on campus throughout the decades.
Many thanks to the following for sharing their amazing stories:
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