The main building was called the Historical Institute and the other two were just disguised as homes and were used as homes for Institute staff and apartments. Under all three building was a vast cavern complex that had been built in the early 1880s with workers from the East coast.
Coming up on the three homes sitting on the banks of the Boise River, you could never tell what they hid.
Carol grabbed a quick snack as she went past the kitchen in the cavern under the main building and then went down two flights of stairs to another large cavern that held supplies for this time period. There was no one around, as she expected. With only 29 people allowed back in this time period, they almost never crossed paths.
The big cavern looked more like a vast department store of anything anyone might need in 1902, all stacked on wooden tables or hung from clothing racks. She had done some shopping and added some items herself to it over her last two trips here. Each person who was allowed back had their own area of custom-fit clothing. Her area was far larger than any closet she could ever imagine having.
She went through the large supply cavern and through the second door on the right in a vast line of doors in the rock wall.
Through the door was a long, thin tunnel carved from the rock. She bet it was deeper than the length of a football field, but had never bothered to go very deep into the room.
Down the center set wooden tables with small wooden boxes on each table. Along both sides of the long tunnel, a wire fence blocked off the stone walls. Carved into the walls were niches holding thousands of glowing crystals.
She knew each crystal was a timeline similar to the one she was now in and similar, if not almost exactly like the one she had came from.
She understood the basics of alternate timelines, but most of the time thinking about it just gave her a headache. She did understand that right now in an infinite number of timelines she was doing the same exact thing.
In the future, even though she had been in 1902 this time for over six months, she was only aging just over two minutes in 2019. So she knew that when she had left, Bonnie and Duster had been sitting with Director Parks in the main cavern room eating lunch at the kitchen counter. Now she hoped they were still there.
To her six months had passed, to them it would be less than ten minutes. Another part of traveling in time that gave her a headache thinking about. But a part she really loved.
She moved down the tunnel to a table with two wires coming out of the wire fence and attaching to a box. She glanced at the timepiece on the box and made a note that it was May 28th, 1902, just a few minutes after ten in the morning.
When she came back from the future, she wanted to arrive just a few minutes after this point so as to not start a new timeline. She needed to go back to spend time with Megan in the hospital if what she was planning didn’t work out.
She put on a thick leather glove and then pulled one wire from the machine, leaving the other wire attached and the two wires attached to the crystal. She had just jumped to April 9th, 2019.
And as normal, she hadn’t felt a thing.
She headed back out of the tunnel and closed and locked the door behind her, then through the supply room and up the two flights to the cavern.
As she had hoped, Bonnie and Duster and Director Parks were still sitting there at the lunch counter. They looked almost finished with their lunches.
She had been gone six months, they had barely gotten through half their meal.
Duster was a tall man who normally wore a long gray duster and a large cowboy hat. In the Old West he was known most as Marshal Kendal. Right now he sat with his hat on the counter and his coat tossed over a chair beside him. He had on jeans and a tan dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up.
He and Bonnie had lived for more thousands of years in the past than Carol wanted to think about, but they both looked just barely over thirty.
Bonnie was a beautiful woman with long brown hair and dark eyes that felt like they could see into Carol’s most guarded thoughts. Carol would have been attracted to her instantly, but Bonnie and Duster were a team centuries old now and still clearly very much in love.
Besides being major figures in a lot of timelines in the past, here they were known as the two top mathematicians working and they had invented the ability to jump to different timelines, a secret only thirty people knew.
Director Parks was the same height as Duster with strong shoulders and a commanding presence. He always wore jeans and a dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up. Carol respected and admired him and what he was managing to do with the Institute. Not only did he run it here, but also in the past and in the future. How he kept all that straight was beyond Carol.
Duster turned and saw her coming and nodded.
“How was the trip, Doctor?” Bonnie asked.
“Cut short,” Carol said as she moved around and took a bottle of water from the fridge. She then faced the three who had given her this incredible opportunity to travel in time. She wasn’t sure if she was about to hurt her standing here with what she was about to ask or not.
But she had to try to save Megan.
Carol hadn’t felt this strongly about another human being in a long time. She couldn’t lose Megan now even though she really didn’t know her at all.
“What happened?” Director Parks asked. Then he pointed to how she was still dressed in 1902 riding clothes. “Clearly you are planning on going back quickly.”
“I am,” Carol said. “Megan Taber basically had a pretty massive heart attack while talking with me outside the Idanha Hotel.”
Duster nodded. “May 28th, 1902. The hotel restaurant was never really the same without her and that wonderful bread and desserts she used to make.”
“Doctor,” Bonnie said, looking at Carol. “There’s something you are not saying, isn’t there?”
“I was there on the sidewalk with her when she had the heart attack and I managed to bring her back to life,” Carol said, nodding. “Doctor Stevens and I got her to Saint Al’s and she is holding on there.”
“I think in other timelines before now she dies on the street,” Duster said, nodding, “if memory serves. But I may be wrong about that. I do know she dies in most timelines around the time this happened for you.”
Bonnie was nodding, frowning.
“She’s going to die anyway without some major surgery,” Carol said.
“That’s too bad,” Parks said, shaking his head.
But Bonnie was still staring at Carol. “You want to save her, don’t you?”
“I do,” Carol said, staring into Bonnie’s deep eyes. “Megan is a very special woman.”
Bonnie nodded and glanced at her husband, a worried look on her face.
Duster just shook his head and Director Parks sighed.
“Do you think you can save her, Doctor?” Duster asked finally, turning and facing Carol directly.
“Here, maybe,” Carol said, nodding. “There is a chance I can with a good heart team and if we can get her here safely.”
“So you are suggesting we bring a woman from 1902 to 2019?” Director Parks asked.
“I am,” Carol said.
“She will be forever hooked to this time period if we do that?” Bonnie said.
“I will take the responsibility of showing her and teaching her this time,” Carol said.
Silence in the big cavern.
Then Duster said, “We knew that bringing someone from the past would be a possibility at some point.”
“We did,” Parks said, nodding.
“And if we can save her,” Bonnie said, “she could make us some of that wonderful bread that melts in your mouth.”
“A complete positive point,” Duster said, smiling and looking at Carol.
“Are you sure?” Bonnie asked Carol.
“She’s wonderful and if we can save her,” Carol said, “I would like to try.”
Director Parks again sighed and then smiled, shaking his head. “I’ll get her
a phony background and identification papers and warn the hospital that we might have a major heart case headed their way in a few minutes.”
Bonnie nodded, smiled, and stood. “Let’s go. We have a woman to save.”
Carol almost jumped up and down for joy as Parks headed for his office.
Duster picked up his coat and put it and his hat on.
Then the three of them turned toward the staircase down to the cavern and the way to 1902.
With luck, in a few minutes in this time, they would return with a very sick, but still alive Megan Taber.
With a lot of luck.
CHAPTER SEVEN
May 28th, 1902
Boise, Idaho
MEGAN AWOKE IN the back of a wagon with low sides as it eased over a large bump in a road. She had remembered being in the hospital the last time she awoke, so she had no idea why anyone would be moving her.
Above her she could see the blue morning sky and some trees with new leaves.
She felt tired and her chest hurt with a throbbing pain.
Two women sat beside her in the back of the wagon, steadying her. One was Carol, the other was a stranger she did not recognize, but who seemed very concerned.
Megan could see above her head that a tall man in a duster and cowboy hat drove the team. He seemed familiar, but she couldn’t place him in her pain-filled mind.
“She seems to be waking up,” the strange woman said.
Carol leaned forward and stared into Megan’s eyes while smiling. “Welcome back.”
Megan just nodded. She had never seen such caring in another person’s eyes before. She liked seeing that from Carol.
Liked it a great deal, actually.
“I’m going to give you something,” Carol said, “to help you sleep and take down the stress on your heart.”
Megan nodded, but said nothing.
“We are doing our best to save your life,” Carol said. “Please, please just hold on.”
Megan nodded, then whispered, “Thank you. You are wonderful.”
With that, Carol gently stuck something into Megan’s arm and once again she fell into the blackness.
CHAPTER EIGHT
May 28th, 1902
Boise, Idaho
CAROL HAD BEEN stunned how easy it was for her and Bonnie and Duster to get Megan out of the hospital. It seemed that Duster had donated a very large percentage of the money needed to build the hospital.
And Dr. Stevens was there and had helped them bundle Megan up carefully and move her to the wagon on a stretcher. He also clearly knew Duster very well. As they finished loading Megan, Dr. Stevens said he hoped this would work.
Duster assured him it was the best chance Megan had and all Dr. Stevens had said was, “It’s her only chance. It’s amazing she has lasted this long.”
Carol felt the same way. Too much time had gone by, and with this sort of heart problem, time was everything.
The ride in the wagon the two miles to the Institute along the rough Warm Springs Avenue was torturous as far as Carol was concerned. She worried about every bump and jolt. Duster did a wonderful job keeping the team moving slowly and steadily, but it was still a wagon and it was still rough.
Carol sat over Megan, alternating between staring at her and then at the trail ahead.
After Megan had woken up and Carol had given Megan a sedative to put her back under, Bonnie smiled at Carol.
“Really falling for Megan, huh?” Bonnie asked Carol softly enough that Duster wouldn’t hear over the rattling of the buckboard.
Carol looked into Bonnie’s understanding eyes, then down at Megan. And then slowly nodded. “I just wished I could have moved faster, got to her before now.”
Carol was very much amazed at herself. She really was falling for Megan, a woman about to die at any moment. A woman who might die on the operating table even if they got her to the future in time.
How insane was this?
Bonnie patted Carol’s hand where it rested on Megan.
Carol again glanced up at Bonnie who was smiling softly, clearly understanding how Carol felt.
By the time Duster pulled the wagon into the long Institute driveway, Megan was dead.
Carol spent twenty minutes trying to get Megan’s heart restarted, but it was clear the weakness in Megan’s heart had finally just given way.
“Well shit,” Duster said when Carol finally shook her head and sat back.
She was breathing hard and fighting tears of loss and frustration.
And anger.
She was a doctor, she wanted to save everyone, damn it.
Especially a woman she cared about.
Megan looked beautiful even in death. Carol had a hunch she would think Megan beautiful in any situation, but now was never going to get the chance.
Around them the morning air was starting to heat up and the day promised to be a wonderful early summer day. Carol just sat staring up into the branches of the big oak trees as both Duster and Bonnie allowed the silence to go on for a minute.
Finally Bonnie said softly, “Let’s take Megan back to the undertaker, tell Doc Stevens what happened, and get Megan a good resting place up in Morris Hill Cemetery.”
Bonnie gently touched Carol’s arm.
Carol nodded. It was the least they could do.
Amazing how devastated she felt and she hadn’t really even known Megan. But it still felt like Carol’s own heart had been ripped out.
Carol reached over and pulled the blanket up over Megan’s face.
“Goodbye, beautiful one.”
As a doctor, she had seen her share of death already. But this one she knew, without a doubt, she was going to remember for a very long time.
“After we get that arranged,” Duster said, “We can go back to 2019 and do some planning on how to save Megan the next time around. We now know waiting this long doesn’t work.”
Carol had been starting to climb down off the buckboard. Her head snapped around to stare at Duster.
“Save Megan? What are you talking about?”
Duster smiled. “Infinite timelines. In an infinite number of timelines Megan dies on the sidewalk with no one there. In an infinite number, you are there, but Megan dies like this.”
Duster pointed at Megan in the back of the wagon.
“So we go and plan how we can go back and save Megan in another infinite number of timelines,” Bonnie said, smiling at Carol.
Carol just couldn’t let herself believe that was possible. She just stared at Bonnie and Duster. And then she looked around at where she was in 1902, far over a hundred years in her own history.
If standing here was possible, maybe what they were saying was possible.
And just a little of the ache left her heart. And a little hope crept into the back of her mind.
Just a little.
“I’m going to trust you on that,” Carol said, nodding. “And you can explain it to me later. But if there is a chance we can save her, I need to know what killed her here.”
Both Duster and Bonnie frowned.
“I need to take her inside and open her up to see what went wrong with her heart,” Carol said.
Both Bonnie and Duster nodded. “If I had modern equipment, I would take some scans of Megan’s body, find out what happened exactly. See if she actually can be saved. But since I don’t, opening her up and letting me inspect her heart will help a great deal.”
Both nodded and Duster turned toward the door of the Institute. “I’ll get a wheelchair and we can wheel Megan in that way.”
Carol nodded and took a deep breath and looked at the blanket covering Megan’s body. As a doctor, Carol just couldn’t understand how that woman under that blanket could be brought back to life.
But it really wouldn’t be that exact same woman.
But yet it would be.
The exact same woman.
Alternate timelines just gave Carol a headache.
But right now, she was very thankful they existed
.
PART TWO
A Second Chance
CHAPTER NINE
Six months earlier…
November 6th, 1901
Boise, Idaho
MEGAN TOOK OFF her long blue apron after a long night’s shift. She had just checked to make sure all her breads were being stored correctly for the morning breakfast rush, and her pies and cakes were stored on racks cooling.
Around her the wonderful-smelling large kitchen of the Idanha Hotel was coming alive with breakfast orders and preparation for the day.
At night she often had the kitchen all to herself. She liked it that way, but she never minded when the breakfast cooks arrived and the wait staff started to prepare the dining room.
She followed the same routine every morning before leaving for a breath of fresh air and then a bath and long sleep. Taking off her apron was the last detail in that routine.
She knew that outside the night had brought a light dusting of snow fairly early for the valley, and the air would have a sharp bite to it. But that would feel good after the long night in front of the ovens, even if she only stepped outside for a few seconds.
“Mrs. Taber,” Chef Pickner said from behind her. “There are three early diners who would like a moment of your time.”
She turned and looked into the smiling face of the man who had hired her. He was shorter than her by a good five inches and very round, seeming to play into the look that most thought chefs should be. His hair was balding and his eyebrows as bushy as she had ever seen. They often caught flour or bits of food in them and one of the other chefs was always giving him the sign to clean off his face.
She was about to object when he handed her a wicker basket full of her freshly-made bread covered in a white towel to keep the bread warm.
“Smothered in butter as you instruct,” the chef said, smiling. “Just deliver these to the table near the fireplace. Two men and a woman.”
Idanha Hotel Page 2
