It hit her with a start. They had to be worried by now. We have to get back.
Helen came to the table with bowls and spoons. A large kettle on the stove, hot with steam climbing from the rim of it, offered a soup she made from yams and corn. She looked at Beth who stared out into space. “You look so lost today. Is something wrong?”
Beth turned to her and said softly, “No, nothing, it’s nothing. Can I help you?”
“Yes, if you don’t mind, would you please get Annie from the bedroom? She has been napping, and I want her to eat some soup.” She smiled at Beth. “That little one loves to get up on the big bed in there every chance she gets.” She laughed and went on setting the table for the afternoon meal.
Beth had grown fond of the child and knew she would miss her. That is, if she ever returned to her own time. The mere thought of not getting back sent a shudder down her spine.
The little girl was on the bed, curled up like a baby. Beth touched her shoulder lightly and gave it a soft push. “Come on, Annie, Mommy wants you to come eat your lunch.”
Little eyes stared up at Beth and a smile appeared on the child’s face. She sat up and rubbed her small fists gently over her eyes with a long yawn.
As they gathered at the table, the front door opened to find a tall man standing there, an Indian blanket around his shoulders and boots high to his knees. Thomas rose and held up his hands. “Chief Paul,” he shouted. “You’re here at last. Come in and have something to eat. We have guests who have been waiting for you.” The door closed behind the worn-looking warrior as he stood so gallantly in the sights of the waiting lost couple who were now standing staring at him.
Nothing could have been more enlightening than to set eyes on the man they had waited so long to see. Carl left his place at the table to meet the chief as he came closer to them. He extended a hand to the tall man, and Chief Paul responded with a generous handshake.
“I am so glad to see you. My wife and I need to talk to you about something you may not understand, but it can wait until…”
Thomas walked up to them. “We are always happy to see the chief, but I think it would be a good idea to let him come in and eat, maybe rest awhile before getting into this, Carl.” He then held out a hand to usher the chief to the table. “We were just about to have lunch. Won’t you please join us?”
The man spoke well, with a bit of English accent, to Carl’s surprise. “You always have food for me, and I am grateful. It’s nice to meet your guests. I will be happy to talk later.” The tall chief removed the blanket and set it on the floor near the door then came to the table.
When the door opened again, a soldier came in with a bag over his arm. He stomped his feet on the small rug at the entrance and closed the door behind him. The chief waved to him to come over to the table. “Bring the bag with you,” he ordered.
“I see you’ve brought us something again. You always do, and what is it this time?” Helen asked, her curious eyes wide with wonder.
The chief laughed. “I think you’ll like this one. I was happy to have it given to us at a farm we visited on our way to the fort. I immediately thought of you, Helen.”
She was like a child on Christmas morning when she graciously took the bag handed to her. Helen loved receiving gifts, and this one couldn’t have come at a better time. With winter at their doorstep, she knew it meant being cooped up in the cabin for many months.
Everyone sat and watched her open the bag with curious eyes. She sat at the table, the burlap container straddled between her legs. She slowly untied the string holding it together and peeked inside. “Oh, will you all look at this?” She removed a brightly colored shawl and spread it out on the table. “It’s beautiful.”
The men laughed with joy at her happy response to the well-made knitted garment. Helen stood to remove her short brown one and glided the new one over her shoulders and around her chest. It hung down past her waist and covered her with all its glory.
“It truly is beautiful, Helen. You wear it well,” Beth told her as she admired the workmanship that went into making it.
The chief stood and offered a toast with his cup of rum. “Here’s to one of our wonderful homemakers who has helped so many and never complains.” He held the cup up to her. They all followed his lead in the toast and drank from their cups.
Food, drink, and most importantly, rest, had the chief and his companion settled in for the duration, until it was time to be on their way again. Helen made sure they had everything she could provide for them, including a warm and robust fire in the fireplace.
Carl had only a short conversation with the chief. “I’d like to talk to you about helping my wife and I get back to our home. It’s a place in the future. I know you’re tired, but if it’s possible when you’ve rested a bit, could we talk?”
“Of course, I will be ready to listen once I’ve eaten and rested,” the chief told him.
Accommodations were difficult, but Helen and Tom were used to offering their humble home to tired, worn travelers. It meant sleeping sitting up in their evening chairs, or lying on the wool rug like they had been since the lost couple arrived. But they never worried about their own comfort. They only wanted their guests to be taken care of.
The chief lowered himself down on the large wool rug in front of the burning logs and covered his legs with his blanket. His soldier friend put his head down, wrapped up in his arms, on the surface of the long wood table and sat there with no problem closing his eyes and drifting off. The dark of night fell with little chance for anything more to do but rest.
Beth and Carl retired to the bedroom behind a closed door. “I’m happy we have this room to sleep in. I couldn’t stay out there with all those people,” Beth told him as she climbed on to the soft feathered mattress.
“Don’t knock it; we finally have the chief in our midst, and I’m waiting to see how he will help us get back to the future.” Carl sat on the bed and removed his boots. “He doesn’t look like any Indian medicine man who performs miracles. In fact he has more of an English look about him, and he talks like he’s English.”
“I thought we were told he spent years in England.”
“Yeah, I think you’re right.”
Beth rolled over and hugged the blanket up around her neck. “I hope we find out in the morning how he can help us. I hate not knowing.”
Carl slipped in under the blankets and kissed her cheek. “I do too.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Carl crept out of the room while Beth slept quietly. Still dark out, the only light came from the glow of the fire still burning in the fireplace and a candle by the stove. Thomas and the chief sat at the table eating breakfast while Helen stood over a simmering pot stirring something.
“Good morning,” Thomas said as Carl approached them. “Come have some cooked oats and tea.”
He rubbed his eyes with a fisted hand and took a seat at the table. “Have you milked the cow already?” Helen hurried over with a bowl of steaming hot cereal. “You didn’t wake me,” Carl said.
“The good chief here offered to help, so there was no need to call upon you this time. Besides, I think you and your lady will be going along with him today, and I thought you’d need all the rest you could get.”
“Yes,” Carl faced the chief. “We hope you will help us get back to where we belong. I’d like to talk to you about it.”
“We will talk after we eat,” Chief Paul told him as he held a cup to his mouth.
“I want to explain to you, where we need to go and it may take some convincing.”
“Uh,” the chief uttered as he drank.
They all turned their heads when they heard the bedroom door open and watched Beth emerge from the room, dressed in the clothes loaned to her.
“There she is,” Helen noted. “Come eat while it’s still hot.”
Beth moseyed over to the table, eyes fixed on the chief.
The cooked oats with sweet milk and honey really hit the spot. “I�
��ve packed up some dried meats and fruits for your journey,” Helen told them as she reached for the bowls on the table to clear them off. “Thomas has some rum for you, and I want you to take a little note with you to give to the person who sent me this wonderful shawl.” She set an open hand on it and smoothed it down to her waist. “I just love it.”
Carl went outside with the chief to have the talk he so waited for. The morning was brisk but not the freezing cold it had been. With a slow sweeping breeze to ruffle all the fallen red and orange leaves on the ground, it seemed like it would be a rather a pleasant day for traveling.
“My wife and I come from another time, a time in the future. Can you understand what this means?” Carl examined the expression on the chief’s face with interest.
“You come here under your own control?” Chief Paul asked.
“No, we had no idea why we ended up here in this year and this place. We were having a weekend at our cabin in campgrounds at the Catskill Mountains and suddenly here we are.” Carl went on to tell him what had happened and how they ended up at the farm. “We were told you could help us get back to our own time, our place in the future. I hope this is true and you can help us.”
The chief walked around on the long wood planked porch holding a hand cupped around his chin and then came back to Carl. “I know a place where you can go back. We will need to go today and not waste any time. This place is not always there, only when the sun is where it is right now. So tell your wife to prepare to leave, and we will be on our way.”
“You speak such good English; may I ask why?”
“My mother was not Indian; she was from England. I spent much of my younger years there with her while my father stayed here in America with his tribe. They are both gone now, and I’ve made this country my home with my American family, but I do respect the tribe of my father.”
Beth sat at the table as the two men entered the cabin. Her eyes filled with questions she stared up at her husband with wonder of what would happen now. She rose from her chair and waited for him to tell her. Carl came to her, a smile on his face.
“Sit down. I want to tell you what’s been decided.” He took the chair next to her. “We will be leaving today with the chief. He says he can help us but it has to be soon, some idea about the sun and weather. We’re going back, Beth. We’re going home.”
She grabbed his hand. “Are you sure?” Tears burned in her eyes.
“Yes, I think so. He seems to think he can help us, but I don’t yet know how. He didn’t say. All I know, is we have to go with him and trust he knows what he’s doing.”
“What time do we leave?”
“As soon as we can be ready and he has had time to secure his things. We need to put on our own clothes and leave everything else here. Can’t take anything with us… This is what he told me.”
Helen overheard them and came up to her guests that she had grown fond of. “I take it you will be going off, then. I’ll miss having you here, but I know how much you want to go home. I would like to give you a token of your stay here, but you say you’re not allowed.” She put a hand on Beth’s shoulder. “I hope you will always remember your visit here. I know I will never forget you.”
Beth reached up and covered her hand with hers. “I will never forget, Helen. I can’t thank you enough for all you and your husband have done for us.” The tears spilled. Beth tried to hold back, but she lost control and let the tears fall. Emotions ran high as the two women embraced. For Beth, it was joy of going home and sorrow for leaving the people who were so kind to them; for Helen, a sense of loss.
Helen hurried around the kitchen area, preparing a last meal for her guests. Wanting to please them completely, she also brought down her fine china from the top shelf of her pantry. This was her way of saying good-bye with love.
Carl helped Thomas out in the barn for the last time as a final gesture of gratitude. “I’m going to miss this place,” Carl told him as they baled hay into the horse’s stalls. “It’s been a real experience for me and for Beth.”
“It’s been a delight to have you folks here, and also a great wonder for me and Helen. I’ll never understand this future place you say you’ve come from, but I hope you make it back and are happy there.” Thomas gave Carl a pat on his shoulder.
Chief Paul went down to the river to wash off some of the trail dirt while his soldier companion took care of feeding and watering the horses. Two of Thomas’s horses were readied for the lost couple to ride on their journey to a place unknown to them, a place to help them back to the future and their lives, their home.
“This is so good, Helen,” remarked Carl as they all sat at the table enjoying the meal she prepared for them. “You sure know how to fix a meatless plate of food that tastes wonderful.”
“Its corn, cheese, dried beans with chestnuts, and my bread,” she said with a proud tone in her voice. “I’m happy you like it.”
Topped off with rum, the men held their cups in a kind of salute to each other as the women began to clear the table. It was time to get ready to leave.
In the bedroom, Carl opened the dresser drawer where their clothes were stored and placed them on the bed. “I’ll be glad to get into my own clothes, Tom’s things hung on me like old rags.”
Beth slipped the blouse up over her head and dropped the long skirt to the floor. “I wonder why we can’t take something with us. You know a small token of our stay here, something to remember all of it.”
“I’m not sure I want to remember it, but I guess they don’t want us to have anything from here, at least this is how I think the chief feels about it.”
“Well, I guess we’ll soon find out why. The chief was very decisive about it. Anyway, what would we take? These people have so little, I’d be ashamed to take anything from them.”
“Carl,” Beth paused at the door and stopped him from opening it, “Do you really think Chief Paul can help us get back?”
“I sure hope so.” He took her hand. “Come on; let’s get out there.”
Chief Paul stood by the fireplace talking to Thomas. “I won’t be back this way for some time. The war is far from over. I’ll be returning to the men once I’ve had time with my family.” He put a hand on Thomas’s shoulders. “You serve as a comfort to so many when they need rest and a place to come while things are at a standstill, but it never really ends. Our last battle marked a great triumph to the cause and will be a stepping stone to total victory. The men in Congress are planning on that.”
“I have no doubt we will succeed, especially with men like you on our side. Take care, my friend, and we hope to see you soon.” Thomas reached for the chief’s strong arm and gave it a light squeeze. “God be with you.”
Helen approached Beth with tear-filled eyes and hugged her. “I won’t forget you. Please be careful, and be happy.” Beth hugged her back and kissed her cheek.
Outside, the sun beat down through the trees, offering a warmer fall day for them to travel. Carl helped Beth up on her ride while the chief and his soldier mounted their horses. One last wave as Carl sat tall on his mount and they were off.
The trail was clear and dry as they rode off into the depth of the forest. Thomas and Helen stood on the front porch watching them go.
Beth promised herself she wouldn’t complain about her bottom this time, even if it throbbed with pain from the backbone of the horse beneath her. When did they have saddles around here? she thought as she bounced up and down as the horses pranced along in unity.
Chief Paul led the way, with the soldier named Joseph following at the rear, leaving Beth and Carl between them. Nothing was said while they traveled through the vast wilderness for over an hour to a clearing where the chief stopped and dismounted. “We take a rest here before going on,” he announced.
Beth was happy to get down, to have her feet on the ground and give her bottom a well-needed rest, hopefully to restore it from the rude abuse it took. Carl led her to a large flat rock for her to rest her sore body
then he joined her sitting close next to her. “I wonder where and how long it will be before we get there,” he mentioned as he watched the chief adjust the blankets on his horse. “He doesn’t say much about this. It makes me a bit nervous.”
“Yeah, tell me about it. I have my doubts he will be able to send us or tell us how to get back, but I guess we’ll see, and I hope it won’t be long. This ride is killing me. Oops, I wasn’t going to complain. Oh, well.”
“They say he has some kind of superpower of a sort, something in the realm of the paranormal. I don’t understand all that stuff, so this may be a real adventure for me.”
“Even though I’ve read a lot about several kinds of weird things that can and do happen, I still wonder about this,” Beth said as she slid off the rock when the chief waved for them to come back to the horses. Within minutes they were back on the trail, the chief once again leading the way.
The afternoon was slipping away. The sun was about to settle on the western horizon, a hazy mist forming on the ground that had Beth worried. “I hope we’re not going to spend the night out in this without some kind of cover.”
“I doubt the chief would let that happen, Beth,” Carl told her as he rode up beside her. “Take it easy. The guy knows what he’s doing…I think.”
“Oh, real encouraging you sound. Thanks a lot.”
Ahead of them appeared what looked like a high stone wall. The chief was headed right for it.
Carl went ahead of Beth to survey the area before letting her come closer. “Stay back a little, while I take a look. I’m not sure what this is.”
The chief came to a halt near the wall and dismounted. He peered over the back of his horse to speak to his companion, the faithful soldier who traveled with him most of the time. “Help them down and prepare to return their horses to the farm.”
Outside That Door Page 19
