“This one is for you, Sally.”
Jordan tipped the head of the shovel and allowed the dirt to slowly slip to the earth. She then stood on top of the small mound covering the hole and packed the soil firmly with her boots.
Covered with sweat and dirt, Jordan carried the shovel back to the truck and tossed it wearily into the bed. She then climbed into the cab and drove away.
Twenty minutes later, Jordan parked the truck in front of the barn and climbed out of the driver’s seat. She went directly to check out the saddler’s handiwork on Maggie’s saddle. To her dismay, the saddle was still in the repair pile.
“Damn it,” she shouted.
She headed toward the house and climbed the two steps leading to the porch. Jordan removed her cowboy hat as she pushed the kitchen door open and stepped inside. The tempting aroma of freshly baked cookies was stronger than her willpower as she reached for a cookie. Next to their cooling rack on the countertop, Jordan spotted a note from Maggie.
Jord—the saddler called and apologized for not making it out today. He had a family emergency. He said he’d be here by noon tomorrow.
Jordan read the note and cursed again under her breath. “Damn. I’ll just need to get up with Maggie tomorrow and convince her to take Sally out again since her saddle won’t be usable on Shawny.”
“Jordan, is that you?” Maggie called.
“In the kitchen.”
“Hey, you’ll ruin your dinner,” Maggie said as Jordan took a large bite of the tasty cookie.
“No chance of that happening. I’m famished.”
Maggie approached Jordan and tried to wrap her arms around her waist. Jordan took a step back. “Whoa. I’m dirty and sweaty from working in the field.”
Maggie crossed her arms. “Well then, get in the shower. Dinner will be ready soon.”
Jordan saluted while clicking her heels. “Yes ma’am!” She kissed Maggie on the cheek. “I’ll be back shortly.”
In their bedroom, Jordan stripped off her dirty clothes and threw them into the hamper. She reached behind the shower curtain and turned on the water. Once in the shower, Jordan relished the pulsating warm liquid. She basked in the feel of the needle-like spray as it massaged muscles worn sore by what seemed like endless shoveling.
Jordan remained under the spray for a long time with her eyes closed and her hands braced on the sides of the shower as the water rinsed the dirt and grime from her body. Suddenly, she felt a presence behind her. She willed her eyes to remain closed as she felt hands slide across her hips and abdomen while a soft, supple body molded itself against her from behind. One hand slipped downward, coming to rest in the curly patch below her navel while the other hand pressed firmly on her abdomen.
Whoa, this feels way too familiar. Didn’t I dream this? Did I dream it because I’m now part of Maggie’s past and this really did happen? Jordan allowed her forehead to contact the shower wall as Maggie’s fingers slipped between her folds. She moaned loudly. Oh, God, that feels so good. Just enjoy it, Lewis. Shut up and enjoy it.
* * *
Jordan reached over to silence the offending peal when the alarm went off at 6:00 a.m. As she rolled back into bed, she noticed a hollow in the pillow beside her, an indentation that clearly indicated someone had been sleeping in that spot. She smiled and reached over to discover the pillow was still warm.
You haven’t been gone long, my love, have you?
An intense feeling of déjà vu washed over her. She stared at the ceiling trying to remember when she had experienced this sequence of events before. Suddenly, she sat up in bed.
“Maggie!”
Jordan realized she had slept too long and had missed the opportunity to ensure that Maggie took Sally instead of Shawny for her morning ride. Jordan grabbed her robe from the back of the bedroom door and headed toward the kitchen.
“Maggie? Maggie, where are you? Clothes... I need clothes.” She started rummaging through the dresser. After a moment, she found a pair of jeans and a button-up flannel shirt that she hurriedly put on as she sat on the edge of the bed. She slipped on a pair of cowboy boots that had been sitting partially under the bed.
Jordan ran to the kitchen and grabbed her jacket from the hook by the door. Please don’t let me be too late, please! Jordan shrugged into her jacket and headed for the door when she noticed the note sitting on the counter. With intense dread, she opened the note and read the all too familiar words.
My Dearest Jordan,
I awoke this morning and saw your beautiful face beside me. Last night was so incredible. How did you have the energy to make love after working so hard yesterday filling the well? I wanted desperately to wake you with kisses and make love to you all day long, but I knew you needed to sleep. Thank you for filling the well. You were right. Putting it in the middle of the north pasture was a bad idea. How did you become so wise, lover? I’ve decided to take an early morning ride along the west ridge. I anticipate making love with you upon my return.
I love you with all my heart, Maggie.
Fear settled into the pit of her stomach as a searing pain shot through her temples. She grabbed the edge of the counter to steady herself as a loud ringing filled her ears and dizziness caused her balance to falter. Her knuckles were white as she held on. She closed her eyes to lessen the wave of nausea that invaded her stomach while the room seemed to spin. Suddenly, a vision rushed in and sent shock waves deep to her heart. In her mind’s eye, she saw Maggie lying at the bottom of a cliff.
“Why did I sleep so late? I’ve got to stop her. Please tell me she didn’t use her defective saddle.”
Panic clenched Jordan’s heart. She jumped to her feet and hurriedly made her way out into the yard. Within moments, she had run the distance between the house and barn and flung the barn door open. It resounded with a bang as it flew into the side of the nearest horse stall. She checked the repair pile and realized Maggie’s saddle was no longer there.
Damn it! Damn it all to hell!
Jordan desperately searched several empty stalls until she came across one containing a magnificent mustang steed.
Jordan talked soothingly to the animal as she first threw a blanket and then a saddle over the horse’s back. “Come on, big guy, we’ve got a job to do.” Ten minutes later, she led the horse out of the stall and climbed into the saddle. With a quick jab to the horse’s ribs, she was out of the barn and on her way in a full gallop across the barnyard heading for the western edge of the property bounded by Lake Champlain. As Jordan rode across the plains, she agonized over how long it was taking to cover the distance between the house and the lake. In her desperation, she was oblivious to the biting cold that chafed her cheeks as she rode.
I’ve forgotten how large this property is. God, please let me reach her in time.
Nearly a half hour later, the frozen lake came into view. The sight encouraged Jordan to dig in her heels and push her steed nearly beyond its limits as their speed increased and she felt airborne.
Maggie, please stay away from the edge. Please! I’m coming, my love, I’m coming. Please let me reach her in time.
Suddenly, Jordan heard a shot ring out. Intense fear filled her mind as she dug in her heels and urged a faster gait from her steed.
A few moments later, Jordan approached the last knoll between herself and the cliffs. As she crested the knoll, the sight she saw robbed her of breath. There before her was a rider-less horse. Jordan’s heart fell within her chest.
“Maggie! Oh, my God, no,” she screamed. Again, she dug in her heels. Within seconds, she reached the edge of the cliff and brought the steed to an abrupt stop. Jordan’s feet hit the snow before the animal was fully settled. The impact of hitting the ground so suddenly caused her to tumble into the snow.
Jordan climbed to her feet and limped to the edge of the cliff. She threw herself to the ground as she reached the edge and peered over the side. At the bottom, among snow-covered boulders and rocks, lay a decidedly female form. Her arms and legs
were askew at odd angles and her long red curls splayed out around her head.
“Maggie,” she whispered breathlessly.
Jordan looked around desperately for an easy way down the cliff and spotted a worn trail about thirty yards away. She scrambled to her feet and made her way along the edge of the cliff until she reached the path. Clumsily, she began her descent, falling several times along the way on the slippery downhill slope. Jordan was terrified that she was already too late. “Maggie, baby, please hold on. I’m coming. Please hold on.”
It seemed like an eternity before Jordan finally reached the bottom. She struggled to climb over the rocks and boulders that lay in her path and slipped several times on the ice-covered obstructions. Finally, Maggie was but a few feet away. Jordan called out to the injured woman as she closed the distance between them. “Maggie, Maggie, talk to me, sweetheart. Say something, please.” She could see the woman’s labored breathing rise from her mouth in a cloud of steam as her chest rose and fell unevenly.
Finally, Jordan reached Maggie and knelt by her side. She took special care not to move her, in order to avoid further injury to her neck or back. Instead, she gently brushed the curly locks from Maggie’s brow and gently held Maggie’s face. She leaned forward so that she was but a hair’s breadth away. “Maggie, I’m here. Hold on, my love. Please don’t leave me. John will find your horse. Help will be here soon. Please hold on.”
Maggie’s green eyes fluttered open.
Jordan gasped and fought back the sobs as renewed hope filled her heart. She took Maggie’s hand in her own and brought the bloodied appendage to her lips to kiss it tenderly. Jordan’s eyes never left Maggie’s.
Maggie smiled. “Jordan,” she rasped.
Jordan leaned down so she could more clearly hear what Maggie was saying. “I’m here, love.”
Maggie took a ragged breath and her brow furrowed in pain, but her eyes remained locked with Jordan’s. Finally, she spoke once more in a low, raspy breath. “Jordan, I love you. I always have... through all time.”
Jordan’s throat was nearly closed with emotion as she held back a sob. “I love you too, Maggie. I always will. Please don’t leave me. I need you, my love. Please don’t leave me.” Tears fell from Jordan’s eyes as she lowered her face to Maggie’s and tenderly kissed her lips. As she raised her head, she watched the life ebb from the beautiful green eyes below her. Still holding Maggie’s hand, Jordan fell back onto her knees. Her head fell back and a long, painful wail escaped her.
“No!”
* * *
Jordan’s heart was shattered as she crawled out from beneath the workbench in the tack room and slowly made her way to the other end of the barn. She stopped several times to steady herself when the sobs made it difficult for her to breathe. Finally, she reached her destination and fell to her knees on the dirt floor. It felt as though an eternity passed before she found herself floating along the tunnel.
“She’s back,” Andi said as she watched Jordan’s form appear on the platform. It was obvious from Jordan’s body language that she was in a great deal of pain. Andi waited for the rings to become still before she reached into the sphere and helped Jordan climb down from the platform. Jordan immediately wrapped her arms around Andi while heart-wrenching sobs tore through her.
“It’s okay, Jordan. Cry it out,” Andi said as she rubbed her friend’s back. “Sweetie, we missed you so much!”
Kale approached the pair after powering down the machine and wrapped his arms around both women. The trio of friends stood in their embrace for several long moments while Jordan regained her composure. Finally, she was able to speak.
“I failed,” Jordan began. “I was so close. I rode after her, but I was too late.” Jordan looked at Kale with haunted eyes. “What will it take, Kale? Why is this so hard?”
Kale inhaled deeply. “Jord, I know you don’t want to hear this, but maybe you can’t save her. Maybe she was supposed to die when she did.”
Jordan shook her head vigorously. “No. I won’t accept that. I need to try again.”
“Well, the first thing you’re going to do is have something to eat and then tell us what happened while you were gone. Maybe we can learn something from it to get the timing right the next time.”
* * *
While Jordan picked at the salad Andi prepared for her she relayed her heartbreaking account of why she was too late to save Maggie.
“I overslept. Do you believe it? The love of my life died because I overslept. I was exhausted after filling the well in the north pasture, that’s why. I was being selfish, thinking only of myself, and now Maggie is dead.”
Andi reached out to cover Jordan’s hand with her own. “Don’t think that way.”
Kale shook his head. “I warned you about playing with the time continuum. Everything you undo in the past has the potential to affect thousands, if not millions of lives in the future. Hell! Just you being there is displacing molecules that weren’t displaced before. Your presence alone can change the course of history, never mind you intentionally changing something that happened back then. That’s the primary reason I’m worried about you trying to save Maggie. Her not dying when she was supposed to could have significant consequences.”
Jordan put her fork down and removed the napkin from her lap. “All I know is that I have to try again. Forget what I may or may not have changed in previous visits. I need to go back again, and this time, do things differently. And as far as not saving Maggie is concerned, that’s not even an option. End of discussion.”
Andi patiently listened to the conversation between Jordan and Kale while trying to stay neutral. She understood that Jordan was approaching things from an emotional angle and couldn’t quite grasp the technical points Kale was making. Andi saw an opportunity to inject her own opinion when Jordan sat back and crossed her arms before her in a gesture of defiance.
“Jordan, I know how you’re feeling and I realize how important it is for you to do what you can for Maggie, but Kale has some valid points. You’ve already gone back three times, and each time you’ve had an impact on that time frame. From what you’ve told us, the first two visits were relatively harmless, mostly because you didn’t come in contact with anyone, but this last time is another story. You interacted with people, built relationships, and yes—you changed history.”
Jordan frowned as she listened to Andi. She opened her mouth to speak, but was interrupted.
“Before you say anything, let me finish. My biggest concern about sending you back a fourth time is that since you spent five months there this last time, there’s a very good possibility you’ll actually run into yourself this time. That would not be a good thing.”
Jordan’s eyes suddenly opened wide. “Run into myself? Oh, my God! I think that’s already happened.”
“What do you mean?”
“The second time you sent me back, I was exploring the barn on what turned out to be the morning Maggie died when I heard footsteps running from the house to the barn. I hid in the tack room so I wouldn’t be seen, but about ten minutes later, a woman rode a horse through the barn like a mad woman. When I stepped out of my hiding place to watch her ride away, I remember thinking that she looked just like me. Are you saying it was me?”
“It’s not only possible, but probable that it was you from the third and last time we sent you back,” Andi replied.
“How can that be?” Kale asked. “I mean, how could the third time we sent Jordan back create the chance encounter that she’d meet herself from the second time we sent her back? Wouldn’t she have been gone already from the second visit?”
“No, because the time frame we sent her back to the third time overlapped the time frame from the second time.”
Jordan rose to her feet and began to pace the floor. “Wait a minute here, guys. When I go back again, it will also overlap the time from my last visit. Are you saying I have to avoid myself when I get there?”
“Yes and no. You see, the laws of
physics dictate that the same matter cannot occupy the same physical space more than once at the same time. You can’t be standing here in more than one form in the very same place at the very same time. Physics also dictates that you cannot occupy the present and the past at the same time nor the present and the future at the same time. A problem could occur if you run into yourself in the past because you already exist there. The only way to get around that is to avoid yourself or somehow avoid touching your past self.”
“This is creepy. I mean, I guess I can avoid contacting myself physically when I go back, but what would happen if I did?”
Andi shook her head. “I don’t really know. I would assume that since it’s an impossibility to exist twice in the same space then both of you might cease to exist altogether. That’s only a guess. This stuff is based on scientific theory more than anything else.”
“What about the other Jordan?” Kale asked. “Will she know what’s going on?”
Andi frowned. “I’m not sure what you mean.”
Jordan pointed to herself. “Well, this Jordan right here will obviously know what’s going on, but I would assume the Jordan from the last transfer won’t, right?”
“Correct. You see, this Jordan has already lived through what the previous Jordan has, and she’ll go back once more with knowledge the previous Jordan doesn’t have. In effect, this Jordan will have the ability to actually change the previous Jordan’s future. She’ll be able to influence the outcome of events differently,” Andi said.
Jordan stopped pacing. “I’ll be able to influence what happened during the last visit? Is that what you’re saying?”
“Essentially, yes.”
“Then I know what I have to do. Kale, I need to go back.” Jordan yawned loudly as she completed her statement.
Karen D. Badger - Yesterday Once More Page 34
