Naked in the Winter Wind

by Dani Haviland

  “Uh, okay. But before you go any further, what is FOY water, and what does it do?” I looked down at the steering wheel. There had to be a cruise control button somewhere. I didn’t want to trust my reflexes to keep a constant speed with the story that Simon was telling me.

  “Fountain of Youth; a couple drops of the water can keep you young or seek out broken body parts to mend. Actually, it replaces the damaged cells in the body, so if you have, say, liver failure, it will repair that. In some cases, it has even shrunk fat cells, and I see that it did that for you, too. I’ve used it for thous…er… many years with no ill effects. You drank so much, though, that it actually reversed your aging. I hear it also acted as a fertility enhancer in your case. Triplets, I understand.”

  “Hmm. So I am Leah’s mother. What was I doing in North Carolina? All of the bits and pieces of memories I have are of Alaska and the desert.”

  I was only slightly bothered by my lack of personal history, but still very curious about why I was so far from Alaska. I was also glad that the cruise control was now engaged.

  “I don’t know about you personally. If you remember that you are from both Alaska and the desert, then it is most likely true. Since you met your daughter—I assume she is your daughter—at the hospital, I would surmise that you were there to visit her.”

  “Brilliant deduction, Dr. Watson. So, I have a daughter who is older than me?”

  “No, you are still older in chronological years, but you have had a rewind of your cellular biology. I’d say you are about 18 years old physically. Are all your questions answered, madam?” he asked, looking at me for confirmation.

  I turned to him, gave a half-grin, half-grimace, and said, “It’ll do for now. Which exit do we take?”

  Ӂ Ӂ Ӂ

  About five miles and five minutes later, I had thought of more questions. “So, how did I get hurt? A musket ball wound, Leah said.”

  “You were in the line of fire, but you should fully recover. My potions can only do so much. Musket balls need to be removed before the healing can begin.”

  “Why did you bring me back? Couldn’t Sarah fix me?” I paused, waiting for the response that didn’t come. “She is okay, isn’t she?”

  “Yes, yes; at least she was when we left. She was afraid to operate so close to your heart. I was willing to bring you back to this time, but your—how do you say, ‘menfolk?’— insisted I stay with you at the hospital, and then return you to them. They were very insistent,” Simon was shuddering at the memory, “that you make it back.”

  “If you mean Jody, I see what you mean. He can be rather intimidating.” I smiled, visualizing Jody lording over the short, squat Master Simon.

  “Oh, not just him—it was the both of them. They told me I could bring you here to be mended and then returned to them, or they would pull me apart into so many pieces, that I’d never be whole again, no matter how many stitches were used. I’ll get you back to the portal site, but I’d rather not face them another time. Besides, my work there is complete, and I have other places to go. You seemed to manage fine there by yourself before. This time, Sarah, your husband, and father-in-law will be waiting for you.”

  “My husband and father-in-law? That’s right! I remember. You did a little Norwegian wedding ceremony just before the wagon ride. I’m married!” I suddenly felt warm and squishy all over as I realized that I had a husband and was now on my way back to him. A real husband and father for my babies…

  My reverie popped shut. “Hey,” I said, “Why did you leave me by myself before? I didn’t even have any water, much less food or shelter. I could’ve been eaten by wild animals the first night!”

  “Ah, but you weren’t, were you?” he said. “You are stronger and smarter than you know.”

  “Well, you’re taking a lot for granted. Oh, my God. Leah! She’ll think I’ve deserted her again. Hey, she said she didn’t want you to take me from her again. Did she know you were with me the first time I disappeared?”

  “No, at least nothing for certain. When we were in the hospital room, I could feel her inside my head. She caught me off guard; I didn’t know she was psychic. She couldn’t tell much about you, though, because she was so angry with you for being gone. She has your strength and wits. She’ll be fine. She’s a survivor. Here, take this exit, then turn left at the stop sign.”

  I followed his directions without any emotion. I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I knew I had to go back to my other family, but I also hurt—physically ached all over—when I realized that I was deserting my firstborn. Again. And this time, it was intentional. I had the choice of staying here—or going back.

  Master Simon looked over at me and put his hand on my good shoulder, “She’s an adult and can take care of herself. You have a new husband and three babies who need you. And Sarah could use your help, too. There’s a new country that requires support for both its soldiers and citizens. Come on, let’s get you back home.”

  ***49 Back home again with bananas

  “Now, I’m not going with you this time; you’ll have to go by yourself. You probably don’t remember how we made the trip yesterday because you were unconscious. I ‘carried’ you with me. This isn’t the same method of transition we used on your first trip either, so don’t worry about your landing. Actually, there isn’t any kind of drop here—it’s a horizontal pass through. There’s a very strong magnetic distortion at this site—marked by those trees—but the coin should help defray the pulses and any potentially harmful static they cause. Take a deep breath before going through, and don’t hold your own hands. You don’t want to complete a circle with either your hands or feet touching. That could be, well, just don’t do it.”

  “I feel sick,” I said. “I think I’m going to throw up.”

  “No, no; it’s just the magnetic field. If you couldn’t feel it, you wouldn’t be able to go home this way. If we went back to the monadnock—the hanging rock—you’d have too far to walk to get home to your family. Besides, they aren’t expecting you to return there. You’d be all alone again. Please, just concentrate on your breathing and…” he looked down at the bundle I held close to my middle, “are you going to take that fruit with you?”

  “You bet I am. I’ve wanted bananas for almost a year. I don’t want to eat one of them now and lose it, though,” I lifted my yellow potassium-rich booty as if they were trophy-sized trout, “so these guys are coming with me.”

  “That’s fine. Just hold your coin and focus on your family. Do you see them in your head?”

  I nodded in acknowledgement, sniffing back my fears and uncertainties.

  “Now open your eyes and proceed through there.” Master Simon pointed to a gap between two old trees. I walked forward and heard his voice, “Be safe, and I’m sorry I inconvenienced you…”

  Ӂ Ӂ Ӂ

  I awoke to someone patting my hand and someone else stroking my hair. “Get away! I need air,” I shouted, thrashing my head side to side.

  My movement woke me up all the way. “Sarah? Sarah?” I called frantically. I tipped my head back, looked up, and saw it was her. “Oh, sorry. Déjà vu all over again. Remember, Sarah?”

  “Yes, yes, I remember. But do you remember me, and all of this?”

  “Yes, I do,” I said with confidence, and smiled at my handsome, hand-holding husband. The pride quickly drained away and frustration took its place. “Damn! I forgot to ask Dr. Em—I mean, Master Simon—how come I couldn’t remember anything when I woke up the first time I was here.”

  “It doesn’t matter, does it? You remember us and we remember you, right, Sally?” Wallace asked, grinning.

  I snorted at his little joke, then winced in pain. I didn’t dare laugh—I still hurt—but kept my smile.

  Sarah grinned` and changed the subject, rubbing the edge of my hospital gown between her fingers. “They didn’t give you much in the way of a trousseau,” she said. “Although they did provide you with a nice traveling cloak,” and nodded to the plush pi
nk cotton terrycloth robe, folded beside me.

  “Yeah,” I said and peeked down the front of the standard issue cotton print smock. I was wearing one frontwards, the other tied on backwards. “But they took my underwear. I guess I’ll have to go commando like everyone else.”

  I got blank stares from both Sarah and Wallace. “No briefs, I mean, small clothes. Never mind, it’s just a phrase,” I said, and shook my head. If I didn’t elaborate on it, I wouldn’t get embarrassed.

  I put a cautious hand on my tender left shoulder. It wasn’t too bad, so I decided to find my limits. I started wiggling, trying to scoot up into a seated position. Wallace saw what I was trying to do, and was right there with me, helping me upright. Sarah moved over to my other side and just kind of hovered, wanting to help, but unneeded. I caught my breath—it was harder to do than I thought—then continued with my challenge. Wallace gently guided me the rest of the way up until I was in a standing position.

  I felt all warm and mushy, and I doubt it was from the exercise. My senses were waking up, too. The physical proximity of my husband, his voice, his smell… I looked over at Sarah. “Can you give us a moment, please?”

  “Sure, sure; I need to go check on… Well, I’m sure something needs checking on,” she said and left in a hurry, her cheeks pink with embarrassment and joy.

  I turned into Wallace’s firm body and looked up. “I need a hug,” I pouted, my bottom lip stuck out in mock drama, and then added, “but be gentle with me. I still have an owie.”

  His eyebrows crowded together in confusion. It must have been the word ‘owie,’ but he figured it out. “How about this?” he asked, and squatted down so he could hug me at my own, lower altitude. I appreciated his assumption of the awkward posture so I didn’t have to reach up. We were almost in an embrace, when he stopped and asked, “What’s this?”

  I was still clutching the awkward bundle of bananas to my middle, and it was now poking both of us.

  “Those are for later. Would you put them over there?”

  “Anything for you, Mrs. Pomeroy-Hart.”

  Wallace put the bananas next to my new, pink robe, and then turned back to me. “Now where were we?” he asked, the glint in his eye letting me know that he knew exactly where we had been.

  I didn’t say a word; just smiled and did my Groucho Marx double eyebrow pop, adding a ‘come hither’ purr.

  And he did.

  The kissing was as good as it could be, considering his awkward position, and my recently assigned status of injured reserved. He was starting to wobble, losing his balance, and reached out to steady himself on the ground. “I think we’d better continue this later,” he said. “I think there are others who want to see you.”

  As if it was his cue, Jody showed up, Sarah at his elbow.

  “Hey, Jody. See, I didn’t forget to come back. And Sarah, look here: bananas!” I was so excited that I could hardly contain myself.

  And then realization hit. I was probably not the only one who had been injured in the confrontation. “Oh, these can wait. Was anyone else hurt?” I asked.

  “Yes, but let’s not talk about it now. We need to get you back home,” Sarah said. “Do you think you can handle the wagon ride back?”

  I took Wallace’s hand and let him help me into the back of the wagon before I answered. I think I was still in shock at all that had happened.

  “Yes, I’m sure I’ll be okay. But if it’s all the same to you, I think I’ll go back to sleep. Traveling 231 years twice in twenty-four hours kind of wore me out.” I started to roll onto my left side, was rudely reminded on my recent surgery, and quickly decided to stay flat on my back. I wiggled my head to get my neck comfortable, heard the grains of rice in the burlap bag pillow shift, and then floated back into oblivion and the absence of pain.

  Ӂ Ӂ Ӂ

  I awoke to the familiar smells of home: herbs, eggs, and babies. I heard the eggs sizzling and felt someone touching my gown. It was Sarah. “Do you think you could try to feed Leo? We need to get your milk supply going again.”

  I scooted up on the chaise and gladly took my little boy to my breast. It was frustrating for both of us, though. Both my breasts were hard as brick cheeses from not nursing for so long, and my nipple was too firm for him to latch onto. Sarah handed me a teacup. “Try this,” she said.

  I must have done it when Leah was a baby. Expressing milk over the edge of a teacup came naturally. I pumped enough off of one breast to allow him to drain the rest. He didn’t act as if he was very hungry, though.

  “Just before you woke up, Mrs. Donaldson went home to be with the rest of her family. Hannah took all the girls and the twin boys home yesterday so they could be with their father. By the way, he didn’t suffer from his ordeal at the mill, and the British soldiers didn’t arrest any of the locals. Mrs. Donaldson stayed here to wet nurse your three. She told me you still had plenty of milk, but you need to feed the ones who aren’t too hungry first. That way you’ll still have some left for the others.”

  And she was right. I wound up feeding all three of my babies in that first hour of semi-lucidity. I was in my own mini-world, only aware of them and our need for each other. And my world was at peace. No muskets or mean men to ruin my day…or my body.

  I looked around and saw that the adult members of my family had divided the childcare duties while I was gone. Sarah changed the diapers, Jody did the burping, and Wallace got them settled back to sleep, rubbing their backs to soothe them into a deep slumber.

  Julian had returned to his job as the chef. The four of them had lunched in between cooking and nursery duties, but had made sure that there was a hefty portion of omelet left for me. A big mug of buttermilk completed my welcome home dinner. The simple fare was divine and literally restored both my body and soul.

  My mind was clearing rapidly. “I’m back,” I declared to everyone in the room, “I mean here, too,” and pointed to my head. “And, in case any of you were wondering, there was nothing, nobody, here I was running away from. It’s just the opposite. There were so many of you here who I cared about, that I was running to you!”

  “Well, ye did have the bairns to come back to,” Jody said. “It’s not as if ye had any there.”

  He saw my face drop. “Lass, did ye have bairns there, back there in yer own time?”

  “Well, yes and no,” I answered as I looked at Wallace.

  He wasn’t guarding his feelings at all. He looked afraid, as if he was going to lose me again.

  “I have a daughter,” I said softly, and took his hand. I brought it up to my cheek and held his fingers so they traced the side of my face from the outside edge of my eye, down my cheek to my neck and collarbone. “Would you love me if I were old?” I asked, making certain I saw his reaction. I was sure he and everyone else thought I was still dopey from my ordeal, and that was fine—actually better.

  He smiled and said, “Don’t worry; I’ll love you forever. We’ll grow old together, God willing. Wrinkles won’t make any difference to me. Age is just a number. Look at my father,” he said as he looked towards Jody. Sarah’s hands immediately went up to touch the crow’s feet beside her eyes. “Jody doesn’t care that Sarah is older than he is, right?”

  Sarah saw that he was asking her the question. “Well, biologically I’m older, but chronologically he has me beat by about 200 years,” she said with a tinge of sarcasm.

  “See,” he said, “it never made any difference to them.”

  “Yeah, well, this is different. You see, I met my daughter when I went back. Actually, she was one of the nurses who took care of me…”

  Wallace’s eyes widened. He looked over at Jody, Julian, and Sarah and saw that they, too, were as bug-eyed as grasshoppers. He started moving his head from one side to the other, gradually working up to a full-blown head shaking. “But how?”

  “Not but how, but will. Will you—would you—love me if I were old enough to be your grandmother?”

  “I knew it!” exclaimed Julian. �
��Oh, sorry, it’s not my place to speak.”

  “Go ahead; it looks like everyone else is tongue-tied,” I said, and stumbled back to the chaise.

  My chaise. I ran my fingers across the little bit of the original fine fabric that was still intact on the side of the chair. “What did you say?” I asked when I realized that Julian had been speaking to me.

  “I always knew you had an old soul in that young, nubile body. Well, Wallace, I think you have the perfect woman here. Smart and wise beyond the, shall we say, obvious years of her body. How could you possibly have a problem with that?” Julian was grinning; so proud that he had perceived the real me before I had.

  “I’ll give you an A-plus in detective work, Julian. I just wish I had found out about it earlier,” I said, unable to hide the grumble of regret.

  “Why?” asked Wallace. “I mean, yes, I must admit that I’m a little shocked and yes, I definitely want to hear more about my stepdaughter—oops, sorry about using that four letter word ‘step’—but what difference would any of that knowledge make, or have made? I still would have fallen in love with you, and I hope that you would still have loved me. Now what? You think that since you know you’re so much older than me that maybe Julian would be a better husband for you?”

  I laughed and giggled, and then started coughing from swallowing spit the wrong way. Wallace came over and patted me gingerly on the back to help me stop coughing. I looked over at Julian and saw his frowning, contorted face. “Would that be so bad?” he asked. “I’m not that old,” he added indignantly.