Back In Time: A Historic Western Time Travel Romance (An Oregon Trail Time Travel Romance Book 3)
Page 9
“He needs to see me. Julia Lewis called me about a note your mother left.”
Angie turned, “Mom, a Charles Van Landingham from MIT is here and wants to see Dad.”
Allie hurried from the sleeping area. She hugged Charles. “You got word of my note. Tell me you brought something. He’s getting worse. His smile is crooked this morning. It wasn’t before, he was just tired all the time.”
“May I see him?” he asked.
Allie led him to the bedside.
“Are you trying to ruin a perfectly good trip into the past?” Charles asked.
Barry’s smile was distorted, one corner of his mouth was higher than the other. “Not on purpose,” he said.
“We’re going to take care of that now. Your wife probably saved your life.”
“We were thinking about seeing the doctor in town today, and you showed up,” Allie said. Do you need him?”
“I have a medical degree from Harvard,” Charles said. I’m not a neurologist, but I know how to do this. I flew with Life Flight in Boston before I went to MIT.”
“I need to mix the solution. How much do you weigh, Mr. Thornton?”
“It was one eighty, but I don’t know what it is now,” Barry said.
“We’ll go with that. Normally, you’d have a CT scan first, but since they haven’t been invented yet, we’ll have to go without it. The protocol calls for a direct intravenous dose and then an infusion. I brought everything we need, so let’s get started.”
Following the injection, the other 90% of the medication was infused over the next hour.
“What is that?” Allie asked.
“It’s Activase. Commonly referred to as the clot buster or tPA. I had to use it after my first trip. I got the treatment at Mass General, a slightly better situation than this one. He’s worse off than I was, but I didn’t have an eight day train ride. This time, it didn’t bother me.
“I just forgot to tell you about the possibility beforehand. There would not have been anything we could do to stop it, but you would have known about the risk. If you hadn’t decided to leave the note, I wouldn’t be here.”
“I never dreamed anyone would come. I just wanted you to know about it. How long does it take to start showing results?” Allie asked.
“If we’re within the four and one half hour golden window, it should show improvement within hours.”
“How did you get here so quickly? It hasn’t been that long since I left the note.”
He smiled. “I’m from MIT. Don’t forget, we have a time machine.”
“How long are you going to stay? You are going back aren’t you?”
“Doctor Fujikawa would have my head if I don’t go back. The last thing he said was, ‘You come back, we talk.’”
“He said that to me a couple of times too.”
“Do you want to come back with me?” he asked.
She picked up the toddler that was tugging at her dress. “And miss this? Not for anything in the world.
“What’s my name, Hiram?” she asked, pointing to herself.
“Gammaw,” the baby said, and he squealed when she hugged him.
“I’m going to stay around until we see how Barry does on the regimen,” Charles said.
Chapter nineteen
Back to the Future
Three days later…
“He’s doing much better,” Charles told Allie. “I have a window of return in twelve days, so I’m going to get back to Boston. I don’t want to miss it.
“Are you sure you and Barry don’t want to come with me?” he asked.
“I’m sure, but to be fair, ask Barry,” Allie said.
“No, I’m with Allie,” Barry said. “We’re going to get some land and when the little guy grows up, he can help me with it. We like it here, and now that I’m on the track to being well, we’ll like it even better.”
“I can’t say as I blame you,” Charles said. “You have a wonderful family here. You’re a lucky man.”
“I am lucky. I’m lucky we met you, and lucky you came to help.”
“I looked at that as my responsibility. Frankly, it surprised me that Doctor Fujikawa agreed to it. We actually owe you both a great deal. Not many people would be willing to do what you did with no more assurance than you had.
“It was a no-brainer for us. Only one chance to see our daughter and our grandson. There was nothing there for us except a boring life on a dairy farm and a classroom. Tell the good doctor hello for me,” Allie said. “Tell him to come see me. We’ll talk.”
“I want to get a picture of you with our family,” Angie said.
Sophie obliged by taking the group photo of the Lewis and Thornton families. “I’d bet the farm, the only three women in Oregon who’ve ever taken a picture with one of these things are in this room right now,” she said.
When the train for Sacramento left the Salem Depot, the largest crowd since the railroad first arrived was on the platform. They were all there to see the young doctor from MIT off.
Allie walked to the steps of the train with him. “Charles, you gave me my family back and you saved my husband’s life. I wish you weren’t leaving. You could have a rewarding life as a doctor here. If you ever find yourself feeling lonely and unappreciated, come back. You’re always welcome at our home.”
“I might just do that, Mrs. Thornton.”
“Allie, call me Allie.”
They hugged and he took the steps to the entrance of the car.
He waved as the car began to move. “Until next time… Allie.”
The End
Epilogue
Angie and Jed were parents of four children. Her mother was present for the birth of her namesake, Alexandra, Sophronia, named for her paternal grandmother, and Jedadiah.
The children were not told the story of their mother’s travel to the past but were told about the hardships she suffered on the Oregon Trail. They were also not told the complete story about how their grandparents traveled back in time, just they could get to know and spend time with them. To the best of anyone’s knowledge, the family secret was never revealed.
Their oldest child, Hiram, was the apple of the eyes of both his grandfathers.
Barry had no recurrence of his heart problems and died at the age of seventy seven, as computed by his granddaughter, Alex, who turned out to be a gifted mathematician.
Allie died at the age of eighty-two. The Lewis families had stopped using the family cemetery by the time they passed, hence they were missed in the relocation of the cemetery after the sale of the land for the new school.
Charles Van Landingham returned to MIT and spent his time working to help perfect the time travel equipment. Shortly after the announcement the project would no longer be funded, he disappeared..
Breaking news: KHNF has just learned another grave has been found on the site of the new school. This grave yielded similar results as the one reported when construction first began. It contained the remains of a male, between the ages of seventy-five and ninety. They have been turned over to the State Medical Examiner’s Office. Work at the site has been suspended indefinitely.
In a non-related incident, Mayor Wilbur Chastain has announced his retirement from public life, citing personal health reasons.
* * *
The first book in the series is Angie and the Farmer is free on Amazon. You may download it by clicking here.
The second book in the series is Mandy and the Widower, and can be downloaded by clicking here.
Chapter one
Author’s Notes
Quite a few years ago, my husband’s sisters found a bible while cleaning out their mother’s attic. It had belonged to their great-great-great grandmother. We developed an avid interest in genealogy. We learned Houston’s Will Clayton Genealogical Library was one of the best in the country, second only to the LDS Library in Salt Lake City. Every Saturday and Sunday, for two years we went to Clayton. We even took a vacation to Salt Lake City and did research ther
e, with spectacular success. We now have a four drawer file cabinet full of records and countless books on genealogy. My husband is a member of the Sons of the American Revolution, Barons of the Magna Carta, and the Huguenot Society.
I write romance books, but manage to let a little family history and genealogy creep in every now and then.
I am committed to producing the highest quality ebook possible. Even after five edits, an occasional error will slip through. If you encountered any obvious errors, typos or formatting issues in this text, I would appreciate your bringing them to my attention, so I can correct them making the next edition improved for future readers. Please email me at susan@susanleighcarlton.com stating the name of the ebook, the type of device you are reading it on, the version and the details of the error. I will correct it and republish it.
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Susan Leigh Carlton
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Susan Leigh Carlton lives just outside Tomball, Texas, a suburb twenty-six miles northwest of Houston. She began writing and publishing on Amazon in August of 2012.
Susan observed the eighty-second anniversary of her birth on April 17th. Susan and her husband celebrated their fiftieth wedding anniversary on April 16th, 2016, the day before her birthday.
She said, “One of the joys I get from writing is the emails I receive from readers that have read and liked my books. I even like the letters that are critical of the writing because it means the writer cared enough to take the time to write.
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