“Actually,” Dawn said, smiling at her. “So are we, but when you get the chance to go first class, why not?”
Ryan had nothing at all he could say to argue with that. But he loved the fact that April said she was used to regular camping.
The later afternoon air had gotten colder and Ryan was glad for his jacket. Everyone now had on sweaters and light coats. And, of course, Duster still had on his long coat and cowboy hat.
As the sun had dropped, Duster had sat up lanterns around their camp, hanging from trees. Those lanterns and the low-level orange light from the fire made it seem almost like the campsite was inside, even though the sun was down behind Thunder Mountain peak and the shadows of the early evening were long.
There was almost no wind in the trees overhead, which Ryan guessed wasn’t normally the case for this lower area in the ridgeline. From the looks of some of the trees and plants growing along the rocks, the wind could howl over this mountain. He would have to make sure that worked into his designs.
Bonnie and Dawn helped Madison fix the meal and served it to all of them. Ryan made a mental note to ask Madison where he had learned to cook later.
April sat on Ryan’s left, Bonnie and Duster on the other side of her, and then Dawn and Madison, with Madison directly beside Ryan.
Everyone’s face was clear in the lamplight and yellow light from the flames. And the smoke was going straight up, so it just made the area feel more comfortable. Ryan loved the smell of a campfire and the occasional crack of a burning log.
Camping in the mountains didn’t get any better than this. And the weather was perfect as well.
Ryan felt slightly uneasy next to April, again like a date in high school, eating for the first time in front of a girl. But as he dug into the fantastic-tasting steak and salad with light vinaigrette dressing, the food made him forget about his nervousness.
Beside him, April was clearly enjoying her food as well.
After a short time, Duster looked over at Bonnie, who nodded.
“All right, we have some stuff to talk about.”
Ryan noticed that Dawn and Madison just nodded and kept their gazes on their food. Ryan had a hunch that what was coming next was important.
Duster then, between bites, gave an introduction of himself and Bonnie, telling Ryan and April where they met in college and how many degrees in advanced math they both had.
Ryan was impressed. He only knew of the first graduate degree.
“In fact,” Duster said, “Ryan and I met in college and have been in touch at times ever since.”
“We have,” Ryan said. “But I sure don’t remember you telling me how you got so rich.”
Everyone laughed and Duster said, “That will become very clear in time.”
Then Duster turned to look at Ryan. “You know Bonnie and I love history, right?”
“Clearly,” Ryan said.
“So we are going to have to ask both of you to trust the four of us a little bit,” Duster said.
“Try a great deal,” Madison said, laughing.
“All right, a great deal,” Duster said. “We have some secrets to tell you.”
Ryan sort of sat back in his chair. “Secret? Not illegal?”
“Nothing at all illegal,” Duster said and the other three nodded. “That I promise.”
“Is the project still building a big lodge here?” April asked.
“It is,” Duster said. “Everything we have talked about has been accurate. And we really, really need both of you to help. We just haven’t told you the entire scope of the project yet.”
“I’m not following,” Ryan said, clearly getting worried. Luckily he had finished most of his great meal because he didn’t feel like eating much of anything at the moment. This felt like some very bad news was right around the corner.
Duster looked directly at him. “I told you the location of the lodge. About this ridge a number of days ago. Right?”
Ryan nodded.
“And knowing you, you researched this and came to the conclusion that nothing would allow us to get this property for such a project. For any project, actually.”
Ryan nodded, relieved that Duster understood that as well. “Not a chance in hell.”
“But yet I am spending a large amount of money for you to design and help us build a huge lodge on this site,” Duster said. And he looked at April. “And I want you to furnish it with the best furniture and carpets and interiors. Right?”
Ryan nodded and out of the corner of his eye he saw April nod as well.
“So we can’t own the property,” Duster said, “but yet I want you to build a lodge right here. So I am crazy, right?”
“Starting to sound that way,” Ryan said, smiling at Duster.
Madison laughed. “I still think I’ve gone crazy at times myself with all this.”
“Now remember,” Duster said, “that Bonnie and I have more degrees in higher math than I want to think about, or try to remember.”
“We aren’t that old,” Bonnie said. Then she laughed. “Wait, we really are that old. Sort of.”
Duster smiled at his wife. “I still love you, old woman.”
Bonnie smiled at Duster. “Marshal, you will pay for that later.”
Duster laughed and turned back to face Ryan and April. Ryan had no idea why Bonnie had called Duster Marshal. He would ask about that later as well.
“You will not believe what I am about to say,” Duster said, “but we want to build the lodge on this site in the year 1900.”
Ryan just looked as his old friend and shook his head.
Beside him April had pushed her plate away on the television tray and was looking like she might make a bolt out of here. If she did, Ryan would go with her.
Dawn smiled. “Look, April, you said you liked my book about the history of that town down there.”
April nodded.
“I could make it as real as you said because I wrote that book over a very difficult winter of 1902 living in that town.”
Now April really looked like she was about to take off running. And Ryan felt like he might beat her to the first step.
“Duster’s family has an old gold mine that broke into a very special crystal cave,” Bonnie said. “We discovered that the cave was very, very special, a place where all branches of time exist. And using our math degrees, we worked out a way to travel back into the past in different timelines, different alternate realities, and live.”
“Explain alternate reality,” April said, her voice cold and low and clearly angry.
“If you had decided to not come up here with us,” Bonnie said, “that would have started another alternate reality, a timeline or reality where you came along, one where you didn’t. Every time a person makes a decision it starts a new reality splitting from that decision point.”
Ryan knew and understood the idea of alternate realities. “Not sure I believe alternate realities can exist because that would mean there would be millions of constantly splitting timelines.”
“More like unlimited numbers,” Duster said. “Some lines fold back into each other when nothing changes, but many, like your decision to come up here or not, create splits in the millions and millions of universes you exist in.”
Ryan just sort of nodded. Duster had been the smartest man he had ever known. If anyone could figure out what he was suggesting, it would be Duster.
“So what does this have to do with building a lodge?” April asked. “If we had gone back and built it, wouldn’t the remains still be here?”
“In another timeline, yes,” Duster said, nodding. “But our history in this timeline is set. So there are no lodge remains here in this timeline. We cannot travel back in this timeline. We can only go back in alternate timelines.”
“This is the strangest campfire story I have ever heard,” April said, shaking her head.
“Neither Madison or I believed it either last summer,” Dawn said. “Bonnie and Duster had been our patrons for our re
search, helping us with information from the past that we needed. I just believed they were great fans of the past until they showed us and brought us here.”
“We camped right here for the first time,” Madison said, pointing to the ground, “in June of 1902. And we lived the summer in the boom-town of Roosevelt. Since that first trip here, we have lived almost eighty years in that town down there, from 1901 to 1910, in different timelines.”
“We have been back here seven times,” Dawn said, “and we love it here. More every time. Which is why we want to build this lodge.”
Now Ryan just looked at them, shaking his head.
“When you travel into another timeline,” Duster said, “you are only gone from this timeline for two minutes and fifteen seconds. That’s why in one year they could travel and live so many years.”
“You can live out entire lives in the past,” Bonnie said, “over and over in various timelines. And only age just over two minutes when you come back here.”
“My head is spinning,” Ryan said, trying to contain some logical thoughts, but nothing was coming.
“You know I don’t believe a word of this,” April said.
“I know,” Bonnie said. “But I told you that you wouldn’t when you asked me about that light fixture.”
“The museum?” April asked, her voice now soft.
Ryan looked at April directly, again stunned at how beautiful she looked in the light from the lamps and the flickering orange flame.
“That is always my home when I return to San Francisco,” Bonnie said. “I always buy it from the Concords in 1891.”
“The Concords sold it to the Frank family in 1891,” April said.
Bonnie nodded. “In this timeline.”
April started to open her mouth, then shut it and just shook her head.
“However, I do know where that fixture is stored in this timeline,” Bonnie said, smiling at April. “When we get off the hill, I’ll give you the address and someone from the museum can go buy it. The owners have no idea what they have, so it won’t sell for much. Or I can buy it and donate it in your name if you like.”
“Thank you,” April said.
Ryan could tell that the response from April was only to stop that part of the conversation.
“So why are you telling us all this up here?” Ryan asked. “Is this mine close by?”
“Oh, heavens no,” Bonnie said.
“It was Madison and my idea to tell you here,” Dawn said. “When Bonnie and Duster first took us to the mine last summer, we both were scared to death and sort of feeling like we had been kidnapped. And even though they demonstrated it all, it took a long time to sink in.”
“A real long time,” Madison said, nodding. “We didn’t want to do that to you.”
“So we figured,” Dawn said, “that even if neither of you wanted to help in the construction in 1900, we could still hire you now, tell you the truth, and design the hotel now. Then with your plans, Ryan, and April’s furnishing selections, we can go build and furnish the hotel ourselves in any timeline we want, using both your plans.”
Bonnie and Duster were both nodding to that.
“So we won’t have to travel in time, if that’s actually all you want us to do?” April asked.
“Nope,” Dawn said. “We just want you to pick and lay out the furnishings for each room that Ryan designs. And it all needs to be from furniture you know we can buy in 1900.”
“So this is a here-and-now job?” Ryan asked, suddenly feeling relieved.
“Completely,” Bonnie said, “unless you want to travel with us. But you can decide that at any point in the future.”
Madison smiled. “We just need you both to design a hotel we can build right here, on this site, and furnish it as if it was built in 1900. That’s the job.”
“That I can do,” Ryan said. “But you still didn’t answer why you told us this story you all four knew we would never believe?”
“Because all four of us hate lying to anyone,” Bonnie said.
The other three nodded to that.
“I wanted you to design this because I like your work,” Duster said to Ryan, “I actually had them considering not telling you for fear you would run.”
“Can’t say I didn’t think about running,” Ryan said.
“I’m still thinking about it,” April said.
Then she looked at Madison. “But if you promise me a breakfast as good as this dinner, I might stay until morning.”
“Deal,” Madison said, smiling.
CHAPTER FIVE
May 22, 2015
APRIL SAT AND LISTENED to more of the conversation around the campfire, working to just keep her nerves level as she listened. Bonnie told them about her background and how she and Duster met in school. And then both Dawn and Madison told them their backgrounds.
Then April helped Bonnie and Madison with the dishes, drying as Madison washed.
She just let the entire time-travel silliness lay and they talked about normal stuff, including which book Madison was working on next.
Then Bonnie, as they were almost done, asked a very simple question of April.
“Did you ever find the secret basement entrance in the Sandford House?”
April glanced at Bonnie, so stunned she didn’t know what to say.
“It’s a wooden panel in the parlor, near the bookcase on the north side,” Bonnie said, sealing up the remains of the salad and packing it into a cooler. “You have to push it exactly right at the top left corner and on the trim across the right side for it to slide open and show you the staircase.”
April knew her mouth was open, but she couldn’t force herself to close it. No one could know about that basement. It had not been on the plans and she had found it by accident one Saturday when she was there by herself and she had told no one. Not even the contractor, because it would have delayed the opening of the museum. Especially considering what she found down there in that small, damp basement.
Bonnie glanced at April, then smiled. “I see you found it. But didn’t tell anyone because of the skeleton on the old couch?”
“There is just no way you could have known,” April said, turning and staring at Bonnie.
“I have lived lifetimes in that house, remember?”
April just shook her head. That made no sense and she just couldn’t let herself believe it.
“The skeleton is a guy by the name of Carson Lofts. In this timeline, he died of natural causes down there in 1938, during the Depression. He drank himself to death, but the house in this timeline was being remodeled into apartments and no one noticed, or if they did, they didn’t report it.”
“Impossible to believe, isn’t it?” Madison said.
“Considering how many other logical explanations there are,” April said, “Yes, traveling in time is hard to believe.”
“We really don’t expect you to,” Bonnie said, smiling. “We just hope you’ll design us the interior of the most beautiful lodge ever built in 1900.”
“That I can do,” April said, nodding.
She pushed the image of that skeleton in that basement out of her mind. And she didn’t want to think about how Bonnie could have known about it.
When the dishes were finished, she went over to where Ryan was still sitting staring into the fire, clearly thinking.
He was so damned good-looking there in the light from the lanterns and the yellow flickering firelight, she almost said nothing and just sat beside him, letting herself enjoy the cool air of the mountains around a campfire. But he was in this with her and she needed to talk with him.
“Take a walk with me?” she asked him, managing to keep her voice level.
He glanced up, shocked, then smiled and stood, “I would be glad to. But if we’re going to make a run for it, we’ll need heavier coats.”
Duster laughed, and April found herself smiling.
“Just a walk along the road,” she said.
Ryan handed her a small LED flas
hlight and she put it in her jacket pocket. He took another and put it in his pocket, then he said to Duster, “Mind if I take an electric lantern?”
“Be my guest,” Duster said.
April watched as Ryan took the lamp hanging on a tree farthest from the camp and turned it down so it was only a faint light, then said, “Lead the way.”
She made her way the short distance to the cars and turned down the road the way they had come up. She knew that way was fairly flat for a short distance, far enough for a comfortable walk.
She had noticed earlier that the road going the other way looked really steep as it dropped into the Monumental Creek drainage. She was up for a leisurely walk, not a climb.
They walked slowly along the rough road, until the light from the camp behind them was only a glow in the tops of the trees and the lantern in Ryan’s hand cast a soft-white glow over everything. The shadows in the forest on both sides of the road seemed to almost dance with his steps and the swaying of the light.
She could feel him beside her, and she was afraid to look at him at the moment for fear of being distracted. She was amazingly attracted to him and she had no doubt that would continue. But right now she needed to get her mind around all this craziness.
“So, what do you think?” she asked after a few minutes of silent walking.
“If it wasn’t Duster and two of the most respected historians in the country,” Ryan said, “I would think we had fallen in with four complete nut cases and should just keep on walking.”
“I don’t know Duster,” April said. “But Bonnie sure knew things about that mansion in San Francisco I was working on that she shouldn’t or couldn’t have known.”
“Don’t forget the two major historians,” Ryan said.
She nodded in agreement to that. Madison and Dawn were two of the most respected professors in western history in the country. Their books were hailed for their authenticity. They were far, far from nut cases.
“I’m so confused,” she said.
“And that makes two of us,” Ryan said.
She was very glad he said that, because she was going to feel horrid if she was the only one having troubles with this thing.
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