"If that’s all, I'd better get going."
“No, wait. There are still things you have to know."
"Such as? How much could have changed? This place still looks the same."
"I'm sure a great deal has changed. I just don't know what, and how much of it. I was born a good few years after you left. As for this place, it looks the way it does because I recreated it from pictures and Google searches."
"What's a Google?" He furrowed his brow.
"A search engine on the internet."
The word internet sounded familiar but he didn't know why or what it meant. He'd forgotten a lot about his past, except the things that mattered, like his family and his cruel vicious step-mother. That witch had made his, and his brother Hunter’s, lives a misery. When his brother couldn't take anymore, he’d enlisted in the military, leaving Ryder to figure things out on his own. His father had been useless.
Ryder sighed. Maybe it wasn't going to be so easy to adjust as he thought. He wasn't a kid anymore, and he could feel his heart rate rising. The hairs on the back of his neck were beginning to prick and his hands felt clammy. Moisture formed on his forehead. He wiped at it with his palm. Moira’s idea for him to stay here at the diner, until he could figure things out more clearly, was good.
However, the longer he stayed in this room with this woman, the more anxiety he could feel charging at him. This room held too many memories and brought with it the fear he’d had as a child. Sounds of traffic seeped in through the open window, along with other noises, some he vaguely remembered. A lot was new, and none of it felt right. He'd been used to a more quiet existence for so long, he was suffocating in the differences. He needed some fresh air.
"Can we get out of this room?" he asked taking his hat off again and wiping his forehead.
"Yes of course, come through to the diner and I'll get you a coffee."
Ryder held the door open for her as she passed through it and followed behind, his eyes absorbing everything they landed on. So far he still couldn't see many differences. The kitchen still looked like a kitchen with large pots and pans hanging from a hooks overhead, large stoves, and staff shouting through orders.
She hadn't said his clothes were out of date and he needed to change anything, not like before. None of this was like before, except the sensation that nothing was the same anymore. It was a smell in the air, a force in the atmosphere, a lingering pressure in his head as if his brain was being squeezed. He shouldn't have come back. He didn't belong here anymore.
He looked over her head through to the diner. Time may have stood still in here, but from the large window ahead of them, he could see a whole new world. Cars rushed by, some bigger some smaller than he’d remembered them. But that wasn't all—it was the sheer number of cars. It was as if he looked out into a river of automobiles surging through the street.
Men in suits, jeans and T-shirts, a few sleeveless, some were even bare chested. Looking through the glass, one minute he felt overdressed and the next underdressed, depending on who was passing by.
The array of women’s clothes carried with it a similar theme, which stuck out for him. The women of this time seemed to be wearing much less clothing. It might well be that women wore less clothes back when he was younger, he couldn't remember, or he hadn't noticed. But growing up in a place where this type of dress would be considered scandalous, his eyebrows rose and fell several times.
He hadn't known what to expect coming forward, but this wasn't it. He didn't know where to look.
Many of the scantily-dressed women had the same device strapped on their arms and plugged in their ears that he'd removed from Raven. By the time they got to the counter, Ryder was rubbing at his eyes. He could see it but he couldn't believe it.
Timeless Healing (Timeless Hearts Book 4) Page 15
