“Thank you, dear, for doing that for us,” Bonnie said, kissing Duster.
“My pleasure,” Duster said.
Dixie just shook her head. After agreeing to go with Bonnie to spend a few fall months in a Boise hotel in 1901 to get used to all this, Duster had offered to jump back ahead of them and get them a couple of horses and supplies. In 1901 Silver City was in sharp decline and it would be difficult to get horses.
Dixie was surprised. It seemed they had figured out a way to time their arrival into the past timelines to the day. And it was easier and safer for a man in 1901 to buy horses and supplies than a lady.
So in the two minutes and fifteen seconds they had waited in the crystal cavern, Duster had spent part of a summer in 1901.
Bonnie said that more than likely he spent it playing poker and drinking at the Idanha Hotel in Boise, since he loved the place. And he said he had made reservations for them.
Dixie was shocked that Bonnie said something like that so calmly. But after being together for maybe upward of a thousand lived years, they clearly understood each other.
Dixie only hoped that some day she would meet a person that would understand her. So far, her love life had consisted of a few boyfriends who eventually got bored and left after a year and a few short-lived flings. Not much else, since school had kept her so busy and focused.
Now, because of all that work, she stood in an underground cavern that seemed to be the very nexus of time dressed as a woman from 1900. She was wearing riding clothes that a woman of the time would wear, with black leather pants, a very puffy white blouse, and riding boots. Duster and Bonnie had hoped she would come along on this and had ordered her a wardrobe of period clothing, from underwear to make-up and hair products and hats to keep her shaded. It all surprisingly fit very well.
At five four, finding clothes that fit was often a challenge for her.
They were going to let her take sunscreen and normal sports bras and her own underwear along with period underwear, plus a few other pieces of clothing, but the modern stuff had to remain very hidden.
Bonnie planned on getting Dixie settled in the Idanha Hotel in Boise, then go on down to San Francisco for a few months. She hadn’t said why and Duster hadn’t asked. He did say he would try to do some of the dishes while they were gone.
Dixie would have diaries from the times that women used to write in and would be able to make notes the entire time. Bonnie told her to write down everything to make it real when she got back.
Dixie couldn’t imagine actually living for a full two months, yet only have a few minutes pass.
Really hard to grasp that concept just yet.
Dixie stood beside the big table in the crystal room, studying everything. The wires from the machine were still hooked up to a crystal about six feet up the wall near the table. When Duster had returned, he had only taken off one wire from the machine. So they were jumping back into the same timeline he had just left, only a day after he left.
She understood the math and theory of that as well, but again the reality of it scared hell out of her.
“Got your keys?” Duster asked.
Dixie nodded. Duster had given her two keys to the mine and had shown her where the spare was hidden up the slope if anything happened to Bonnie. The plan was that if Bonnie didn’t return to Boise by October 15th, Dixie was to come to Silver City, not let anyone see her climb to the mine, and pull a wire from the machine. That would bring both of them back, no matter what had happened to Bonnie.
So that would leave Dixie alone for about two months in 1901 in Boise, Idaho, since they were going back on August 10th.
“Ready for an adventure?” Bonnie asked Dixie, smiling.
Dixie managed to nod, or at least she hoped she did. Her mind was on auto-pilot and her stomach was twisted in a knot.
“Touch the box,” Bonnie said and Dixie did.
“Have fun,” Duster said, smiling at them.
“Back in a few minutes,” Bonnie said and hooked up the wire.
Duster vanished and Bonnie stepped back from the machine.
“Let’s go see if we hit the right time and those horses are there,” Bonnie said, turning and heading for the door to the cavern that was standing open.
Dixie stepped back and forced herself to take a deep breath. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to know if it really was August 10th, 1901.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
August 15th, 1901
Brice’s Timeline
BRICE FOLLOWED DUSTER along the trail down the hill away from the mine. Duster had spent part of the morning telling Brice all the tricks to getting back to the mine without being seen in case something happened to him.
And he had given him two of the strange-looking skeleton keys to the mine and showed him how to find the hidden key up the hill above the mine.
Then they headed along a trail away from the mine. Both had on the long oilcloth coats, cowboy hats, jeans, and cowboy boots. They both had packed saddlebags over their shoulders.
Brice was surprised that even though the day was hot, the light oilcloth long coat seemed to keep him cooler by keeping the sun from him. The saddlebag was packed with money, some gold, and a few changes of clothes. Everything else he would buy on the way to Boise or in Boise after he got there. Duster was funding the entire trip and didn’t seem worried at all about money.
“I’ll explain all that to you at some point in the future,” Duster had said, waving off his money questions when Brice saw how much money he was carrying in his saddlebags in hidden pockets. “You’re here to just rest, think, and try to figure out why we can remember that lodge being built.”
It took them about two hours to hike down to a small ranch where Duster bought them two horses and saddles. So it was only a little after two in the afternoon when they headed up the hill and out of the Silver City valley.
It had been a while since Brice had ridden a horse, and after the first hour he asked Duster if they could walk for a while.
Duster had just laughed and agreed. “Takes some getting used to.”
They alternated walking and riding, not seeing hardly anyone else, until they were down on the Snake River right before dusk. Brice felt like he had been through a beating, and every muscle in his back and legs ached.
Duster quickly showed Brice how to take care of the horses for the night, then started a fire and got them the two sandwiches Bonnie had made and packed for them. After eating in mostly silence, they both rolled out the bedding they had brought on either side of the fire.
The ground was hard, but Brice didn’t care he was so tired.
He put his head on his saddlebag and the next thing he knew Duster was working the fire to get some coffee brewing and the sun was starting to color the sky in the east.
Duster managed a decent cup of coffee somehow over that fire and they again ate sandwiches and packed food. “No point in cooking for just the two of us,” Duster had said.
Brice walked around and stretched while eating and sipping the coffee and by the time they broke camp, he was feeling a little better.
They rode for an hour, walked a half-hour, rode for an hour, not really stopping for anything. They ate as they walked and talked, Duster mostly pointing out landmarks that would allow Brice to get back to Silver City from Boise on his own if he needed to.
In 1901, the road system was fairly well developed for farm wagons, and farms dotted the landscape along the river edges and up on the flats on the other side of the river once they got across on a ferry.
Just before dusk they rode into Caldwell, Idaho, and gave their horses to a stable to take care of for the night.
Compared to the Caldwell that Brice knew, this town was nothing more than a small farming town tucked in a shallow valley. But it did have a small hotel that Duster paid for rooms in.
For the second day, Brice was so tired he could barely walk. He had prided himself on being in good condition, being a runner, exercising regularly. But h
e was in good condition for 2016, not 1901. And none of this seemed to bother Duster at all.
“There should be water and towels in your room,” Duster said as they headed up the stairs, carrying their saddlebags. “Wash up and meet me near the front desk in fifteen minutes and we’ll get some dinner. And bring that saddlebag.”
Brice nodded and fifteen minutes later he found himself across the street from the hotel in a small restaurant with checkered cloth table coverings and cloth napkins and silverware. He felt better at least getting one layer of the dirt off.
They mostly ate in silence, since there were people close to them at another table. But Brice had to admit, the rib-eye steak was about as good as he had ever tasted. And the fresh bread seemed to melt in his mouth.
He had made a comment about how good the food tasted and Duster had just laughed. “Wait until you get to Boise.”
He hadn’t said anything else.
The next morning at sunrise, after a breakfast of eggs, ham, and coffee, they were again saddled up and heading toward Boise.
To Brice, it flat didn’t matter that he had slept on a feather bed in a small hotel or on hard dirt next to a river. He had slept like the dead both times.
And felt just as beat up the next morning.
He had really, really been kidding himself when he thought he was in good condition before this trip. He was a computer math geek and this trip was pointing that out clearly.
And painfully.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
August 13th, 1901
Dixie’s Timeline
DIXIE COULDN’T BELIEVE that they had finally made it to Boise. She had never considered herself out of shape, but after the first day walking and riding, she felt like an entire football team had run over her in band practice.
She had thought she was good at riding horses, but it became quickly clear that it was one thing to ride a horse for thirty minutes or an hour in a modern saddle on flat ground, another thing completely to ride a horse over rough ground with a 1900’s saddle.
Parts of her body hurt she didn’t know could hurt.
And after sleeping on the hard ground and a second day of travel, the torture was just getting worse. The water to clean off and the good dinner and the feather bed in the hotel in Caldwell had helped some, but not a lot.
She and Bonnie had talked a lot about the problems a woman had in 1901 as they walked, and the problems Dixie was going to have as a small woman. For the first bit of time Dixie would need to just stay close to the hotel in Boise and one or two restaurants until she became more comfortable with everything.
Boise in 1901 was very civilized and law-abiding, but it was still the Old West. Women would get the right to vote in Idaho in a few years, one of the first states to do so. So women had respect, but still being careful was the key.
They also talked about how memory was permanent from these trips, not physical aspects. Bonnie stressed that a few times and wouldn’t go any farther than “You’ll see.”
After the two days of riding and torture, Dixie had every plan on staying mostly in the hotel and just thinking while Bonnie was down in San Francisco.
She had remembered seeing the big stone Idanha Hotel over the last year, but it had been one of those old buildings in downtown Boise she had paid little interest to. So she really knew nothing about where they were heading or where she would be staying.
But no matter where she ended up staying, she really, really needed to let the reality that she was in the past in a different timeline sink in. Until that happened, she had no real hope of actually helping Bonnie and Duster with the math issues of what had happened with the big lodge.
A lodge that wouldn’t even be built for a year or two yet.
The day was warm and they had been riding along the Boise River for a number of miles on a wide wagon trail before finally reaching the center of town.
Families in wagons had passed them going in the other direction and a number of men had passed as well, tipping their hats as they went past. Bonnie had told Dixie to not look directly at the men, but just nod in return.
“That’s the Idanha Hotel,” Bonnie said as they rode into the edge of the larger downtown area, pointing to a massive red brick and stone building that seemed to tower over the other buildings. It also had four turrets with flags on top of them and Dixie could only imagine the rooms in those rounded turrets.
“Wow,” was all Dixie could say.
Bonnie smiled. “Wait until you see the inside of the place. Duster loves staying there and playing poker, since there’s a major poker room in the basement. I like it as well, but it’s not as nice as the places I stay in San Francisco.”
Again, Dixie decided to not ask why Bonnie was going there. Instead Dixie just studied all the stone and wooden buildings making up the downtown area. Most of them were two stories tall and the center of the town seemed to be along a wide street she remembered as Main Street.
They took their horses to the stable behind the hotel and left them there, taking their saddlebags and moving around the edge of the building to the front entrance on the corner with Main Street.
The road was still dirt and very wide, but very smooth and not really dusty, which surprised Dixie. The sidewalk was mostly stone and around town there were many, many bicycles leaning against buildings and very few horses other than ones pulling large wagons.
The downtown area seemed to hum with a slow-moving business.
All the men seemed to be dressed in dark suits with vests and the woman were all in long cloth dresses, other than a few who were also dressed in leather riding pants as she and Bonnie were.
There was no doubt, standing there on those stone front steps, that Dixie was in the real past. Even the heat and the smells of the horses coming from different directions made it seem very, very real.
Bonnie took Dixie’s arm and turned her toward the front door. They went up the front stone stairs and through two massive wooden and glass doors. Inside, the huge space took Dixie’s breath away. The floors were a mosaic Italian marble tile, and the towering ceilings were polished oak layered in between stone columns.
It was designed to just flat be stunning and it stunned Dixie.
A number of comfortable-looking seating areas with couches and chairs were scattered through the large lobby on area carpets, giving the place a comfortable feel. Light streamed through the huge windows on two sides making the inside almost as bright as the summer day outside.
Numbers of men sat reading papers, and a few women sat knitting around the lobby. Again all the men wore dark suits with vests and most of them had watch chains hanging from the vest pockets. The woman all wore long dresses that clearly had petticoats under them.
On one side of the lobby to the back was a metal cage that seemed to be an elevator with the name Otis stamped above the door. Dixie had no idea elevators had been invented in 1901, let alone had made it to Idaho.
A grand marble staircase curved upward near the metal exposed elevator. It was wide and bright and six people could stand on one stair and not touch.
An ornate oak front desk ran along one wall on the far side of a massive field of marble tile with two men in suits behind it. On the wall behind the desk were a massive number of mail boxes for each room.
“How many rooms does this place have?” Dixie whispered to Bonnie as they walked across the tile toward the front desk.
“One hundred and forty,” Bonnie said. “All wonderful.”
The two men at the front desk smiled at them and greeted them.
“We have a reservation,” Bonnie said. “I assume for two suites. The names are Mrs. Bonnie Kendal and Mrs. Dixie Smith.”
Dixie was shocked for a second about how Bonnie had given her name, but then realized that having a pretend husband more than likely made her safer.
Both men smiled again and nodded. “We were expecting you. Both of your suites are ready and paid for completely.”
Duster had clearly set
all this up ahead.
They both signed the huge ledger, Dixie making sure she signed it Mrs. W.D. Smith and beside her Bonnie nodded and said nothing.
The man behind the desk gave them their keys and told them their room numbers on the sixth floor. Then asked where their luggage might be to take to their rooms.
“It will be coming along in a few days. It was delayed, so we plan on doing a lot of shopping between now and then,” Bonnie said, laughing and smiling at the two men. “So thank you, we are fine.”
Dixie was impressed at how smoothly Bonnie said exactly the right things. Women of the time were expected to travel with large trunks and a lot of clothing.
Still carrying only their saddlebags, they turned and headed for the staircase and elevator.
“We don’t plan on riding that, do we?” Dixie asked.
Bonnie laughed. “Not a chance. Safety brakes are still a thing of the future.”
“Oh, thank you,” Dixie said.
The climb to the sixth floor was actually fairly easy. Maybe she was starting to get in better shape after the last two days.
Or maybe she was just too tired to care anymore. That seemed more likely.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
August 17th, 1901
Brice’s Timeline
BRICE WAS STUNNED at everything about the big Idanha Hotel. The ornate lobby, the fact that it had an elevator, and now the suite he was to stay in on the sixth floor. For the time he was going to be in this suite, this must be costing a fortune. Yet Duster planned on keeping his corner suite on the sixth floor the entire time he was gone as well.
When Brice had asked him why, Duster had shrugged and said simply, “Never know when I might get back.”
The hallway at the top of the stairs on the sixth floor went off in two directions. It was carpeted with a flower-patterned carpet of blue and orange that actually fit the décor of oak columns and patterned wallpaper.
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