by Bess McBride
Leigh gave up, literally and figuratively. She set her spoon down and faced the inquisitive doctor.
“Wagon? Not hardly. I drove my car, my automobile, as you say. I parked up on highway like I always do when I come here. My husband, Sam, and I used to come down here to Lake Kaskade with our canoe. So I still like to come down here, though I don’t bring the canoe. It’s too much for me to manage.” Leigh watched Jeremiah’s expressions change from pity to resignation and back to pity. She didn’t enjoy the look of pity.
“So anyway, when I finished work this evening, I came down here for a stroll along the lakeshore. A lake where there is no town. But now there’s a town, so I’m not sure what’s going on. Don’t even think about some psychiatric treatment, Doctor. I don’t like medicine and I’m not crazy. When I last checked the calendar, it was June 21, 2018. What’s the date now?”
Jeremiah blinked.
“June 21, 1908. Kaskade has shown herself again, hasn’t she?”
Chapter Three
“I beg your pardon?” Leigh asked. Jeremiah didn’t seen half as stunned as she had imagined. “Either I’m dreaming, or I’ve traveled through time. By your reaction, I’m guessing that I’m dreaming, aren’t I?”
Jeremiah’s lips twitched as if he wanted to smile again, but he sobered.
“You are not dreaming, Leigh. But yes, you have traveled through time, after a fashion.”
It was Leigh who was surprised and a little bit dazed.
“What? That’s not possible! There’s no such thing as time travel.”
“Your face has paled. Are you faint?”
“I’m sure my face has paled. I thought you would think I was nuts, but I’m a little concerned about you!”
At that moment, Mrs. Jackson returned to the kitchen.
“Mrs. Jackson, I am so glad you have returned. I was just on the point of explaining Kaskade’s eccentricity, but I have had no experience as the first person to do so. You have more experience with this than I. Could you tell Mrs. Peters what has occurred to her?”
Leigh looked up at the housekeeper with confusion.
“What’s going on?”
Mrs. Jackson sat down across from Leigh and smiled benignly.
“What year did you come from, Mrs. Peters?”
“2018.”
Mrs. Jackson nodded, seemingly not at all surprised.
“One hundred and ten years then. Doctor will have told you that the year is 1908. We are fully aware that the town of Kaskade no longer exists in your time, Mrs. Peters, that it is nothing more than a forested area. Eight years ago at the turn of the century, a gentleman appeared in town claiming to be from the future, Mr. John Harris. He stayed with us for a year but returned to his own time the following summer.
“The next year, another gentleman arrived with the same story, Mr. Robert Karnes. He too returned to his own time. The year after, Miss Katherine Borne came. She fell in love with our minister and stayed with us.
“You are the eighth person to come to us from the future. They come from different years—some from the twentieth century, some from the twenty-first century. All come to us on the summer solstice and cannot return—if they wish—until the following summer solstice. Kaskade seems to appear only on that evening near sunset.”
“Like Brigadoon?”
Jeremiah smiled. “We have heard of such a musical, but I believe that fictional village appears once every one hundred years. Fortunately, Kaskade appears every year, so the stay is not quite as long.”
“Stay?” Leigh squeaked. “No, I can’t stay here! Frankly, I think I’m still dreaming actually. I have to get up and work. I have a job, a house, a house payment! I can’t stay here in...when did you say it was?”
“1908,” Mrs. Jackson offered with a sympathetic expression. “I am afraid you have no choice, Mrs. Peters. No one has managed to leave before the next year’s summer solstice.”
Leigh pushed back her chair and jumped up. Jeremiah stood as if he was on the point of restraining her, but Leigh held out a hand.
“Don’t worry! I’m not about to fly out into the rain again. I almost drowned the last time I did that. I just need to stand.” She began to pace about the kitchen while the doctor and housekeeper watched.
“I am so sorry, Mrs. Peters,” Mrs. Jackson offered. “I know this must come as quite a shock to you. It did to all the other people who found themselves taken by Kaskade.”
“Taken? The town took me?”
“Found you?” Jeremiah offered. “Perhaps we might say that Kaskade finds people.”
“Well, that’s the cup half-full,” Leigh muttered. She might have disputed the doctor’s story as ridiculous, but the genuinely sympathetic expressions on both their faces convinced her they were sincere. Further, their historic clothing and the appliances didn’t look like they came from an antique shop.
Leigh resumed pacing, acutely aware she was being watched, but she couldn’t just sit. She stopped and faced them.
“Why does this happen? Why does Kaskade take people?” She looked at Jeremiah. “Or find them—however you want to word it.”
They shook their heads in unison.
“No one knows.”
“Is there some kind of curse? Or an old Native American legend? Or some geothermal event? Or a space-time continuum?” Leigh stopped. “I don’t even know what I’m talking about.”
“We truly do not know, Leigh,” Jeremiah said softly. “If it is any consolation, you are actually taking the news much better than have others.”
“Oh, that half-full cup again,” Leigh murmured. “Don’t tell me. Is everybody happy and positive here? Is everybody an optimist here in 1908 Kaskade?”
Jeremiah drew his dark brows together, the first sign of displeasure she had seen on his face. She didn’t like it. It didn’t suit him.
“No, I do not believe so. We have our share of misfortunes and tragedies. People fall ill, are injured, die. I imagine our Kaskade is no different than towns in your time.”
“Except it doesn’t exist. I didn’t even know there was a town here.”
“Yes, we know Kaskade will vanish forever.”
“I meant to look it up after I saw the foundation, but I didn’t get time. I wish I could tell you. Has anyone who returned to the twenty-first century come back? I’m sure they would have researched why Kaskade appears and disappears like it does.”
“No, no one who left has come back,” Mrs. Jackson stated flatly. “One young man, a delightful teacher named Matthew Wayne, returned to his time—I believe the year was 2013—with the intention of returning the following year, but he has not come back.” The housekeeper’s expression drooped as she spoke.
“You sound like you grew close to him,” Leigh murmured.
“Yes, I did. The doctor was kind enough to allow him to board with us, and I came to look upon him as a son. He grew very dear to me. He helped teach school while he was here.”
“Matthew was a fine fellow,” Jeremiah said. “Very well educated. In his time, he is a ‘com-put-er’ teacher. But as we have no such devices here yet, he taught mathematics and science.”
Leigh ran out of energy, and she plopped back down onto her seat. She clasped her hands in her lap and looked down at them.
“I really don’t know what to do,” she said with a shake of her head. “I can’t teach school. How am I going to make a living while I’m here?”
“Do not worry about that now, Leigh,” Jeremiah said quietly. “You may stay here as long as you wish.”
“Here?” Leigh repeated. “In a doctor’s office? Oh, I don’t think I can!”
“In a doctor’s house,” Jeremiah corrected. “If you do not want to board here, you could possibly rent rooms at Martha Lundrum’s boardinghouse, but she does charge. Since you most likely do not have any money on your person, why don’t you relax and stay here until you find something more to your liking?”
“I didn’t mean that I wouldn’t like to stay here. I
just have—” Leigh swallowed hard. “You know. My phobia about doctors and hospitals and—”
“I understand,” Jeremiah said. “I promise not to drag you into the examining room again. You may simply avoid that portion of the house. You shall not hear patients screaming from my office.”
Leigh bit her lip to keep from smiling. She didn’t want to smile. Nothing was funny.
“Don’t mock me,” she muttered. “Do you think this fear is easy to deal with? I haven’t been to a doctor in years because of it. Thank goodness, I haven’t needed to.”
Jeremiah’s cheeks reddened, and he rose.
“I apologize. I regret making light of your fear. If you wish to stay here, Mrs. Jackson will see you to your room. If you wish to leave, at least wait until the rain has stopped or until morning. I am for bed. Thank you for supper, Mrs. Jackson. Good night all.”
With that, Jeremiah left the room. Leigh stared after him. Mrs. Jackson tsked and rose to pick up the dishes.
“The doctor is a kind man, Mrs. Peters. I am sure he did not mean to make fun of you.”
Leigh rose to help her with the dishes.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I know I’m overly sensitive to all things medical. It’s odd, though, that I end up being found by a doctor though.”
“Perhaps not so odd. Perhaps it was Kaskade’s wish for you. At any rate, don’t worry about that tonight. Let me take you up to a room. I’ll finish the dishes later. I do wish you would consider staying with us. I did so enjoy cooking for more than just the doctor, and I do not mean to insult Martha Lundrum, but my cooking is much better than hers.”
Leigh hesitated.
“Please say yes.”
The housekeeper was hard to resist. She made Leigh feel safe. “Yes, thank you,” Leigh said.
“Good. I would have worried terribly about you if you’d gone out into the night.”
Mrs. Jackson smiled widely before wiping her hands on her apron and leading the way down the hall to the foyer. Leigh followed her up the stairs to the second floor. A red runner ran the length of the hallway, and electric wall sconces lit the way toward a door that Mrs. Jackson opened.
She ushered Leigh inside a delightful bedroom wallpapered in white with a design of tiny red roses over pale-blue stripes. The four-poster bed featured a homey quilt in a similar flowered-print design. Other furniture consisted of a bureau and wardrobe, a nightstand, several lamps and a chair set near the window.
Leigh moved to the window and pushed aside the rose-colored muslin curtains to look out the rain-spattered glass. She could see nothing but darkness. She turned back as Mrs. Jackson took a swipe at an imaginary wrinkle in the coverlet. The room was immaculate, and nothing was dusty, wrinkled or out of order.
“This is beautiful, Mrs. Jackson,” Leigh murmured.
“It is, isn’t it? This used to be Miss Meadow’s room. I thought it would be more to your liking, more feminine.”
“Miss Meadows?”
“Yes, Miss Tanya Meadows. Like you, she came from the future. She stayed here with us as well.”
“I see. What happened to her?” Leigh dreaded the answer. Had she died from some disease that could have been prevented in the twenty-first century?
“She returned to her time.”
“I see,” Leigh said, relaxing. People really did get to return. Thank goodness.
“Let me show you the bathroom.”
“There’s a bathroom?” Leigh exclaimed.
“Of course!” Mrs. Jackson smiled. “You are not the first to be surprised. The doctor is very modern and has installed all the latest appliances and fixtures.”
Leigh searched the room for another door but saw only the one leading to the hallway.
“So the bathroom isn’t en suite?”
“En suite?”
“Attached to the room?”
“No, no. The bathroom is at the end of the hall. Doctor had a linen closet converted to accommodate the fixtures. It’s very modern. You will see!”
As Leigh followed the housekeeper down the hall, she looked at several closed doors, wondering where Jeremiah’s room was and whether he had gone to bed.
Mrs. Jackson opened the door at the end of the hall to show her a quaint little bathroom with a white enamel claw-foot tub, a porcelain stand-alone sink under an oval mirror and a toilet with the tank high on the wall. Black-and-white mosaic tiling covered the floor, and a similarly colored black-and-white flowered-print wallpaper livened up the room. White towels hung from a towel rack. White lace curtains draped a small window.
“What do you think?” Mrs. Jackson asked, obviously quite proud of her “modern” bathroom.
“It’s lovely,” Leigh answered with genuine appreciation for the indoor toilet.
“It is.” Mrs. Jackson preened. “No more emptying chamber pots!”
Leigh was thankful that she didn’t have to deal with a bowl stashed under her bed, but she kept her relief to herself.
“Oh! I almost forgot,” Mrs. Jackson exclaimed. “You will need something to sleep in. I will loan you a nightgown of mine. We are both short. And I will give you some clothes tomorrow until Doctor can buy some things for you.”
“What? No! He can’t buy ‘things’ for me. I have no way to pay him back!”
Mrs. Jackson scanned Leigh from head to foot.
“You can’t wear those dungarees. I know they’re called ‘jeans’ in your time, but they are simply too snug for 1908. We do have several women who wear men’s dungarees on their farms, but even they will slip into some skirts to come to town.”
Leigh looked down at her jeans. They weren’t tight by twenty-first-century standards, but she understood what the housekeeper was saying.
“Couldn’t I just borrow a blouse and skirt for an extended period from you, Mrs. Jackson? I promise I’ll find a way to pay you back. Or did this Tanya you mention leave any clothes behind? She doesn’t need them anymore, right?”
“Unfortunately, the doctor wanted me to give her clothing to the poor. But you will want more than just one blouse and skirt! What will you wear when you wash them?”
“Mrs. Jackson, all I can think about now is taking things slowly—like getting through the next day, even the next hour. I can’t think beyond that. I’m just overwhelmed.”
“Of course you are,” Jeremiah said from behind her. Startled, Leigh whirled around to see him at the bathroom door, wearing a dark-blue dressing gown. “We understand, Leigh. Do not trouble yourself overly much right now until you become accustomed to your situation.”
“I was just explaining to Mrs. Peters that you will help her buy some suitable clothing,” Mrs. Jackson said.
Leigh, feeling a bit trapped in the bathroom—or maybe trapped at the turn of the twentieth century—excused herself to move past Jeremiah. Once freed from the confines of the room, she turned to face Jeremiah and Mrs. Jackson.
“I can’t have you buying things for me. Give me a few days to figure out how to make a living while I’m here, and I’ll buy some clothing of my own. Do they have ready-made stuff around here?”
“There is a small dress shop in town. She usually has a nice supply of ready-to-wear women’s things,” Mrs. Jackson said.
“Again, please do not worry about these mundane things right now,” Jeremiah said. “You must take things slow. I think a good night’s sleep will do much to improve your disposition.”
Leigh lifted an eyebrow. “Is my ‘disposition’ a problem?”
Jeremiah ducked his head. “I meant only that you stated you were overwhelmed, which is understandable given your sudden thrust into the past. Hopefully, when the sun rises and a new day dawns, you will feel more equal to the challenges that you will surely face.”
Leigh’s lips curved. “I feel better already,” she said. “I can’t wait for the sun to rise and a new day to dawn.”
Jeremiah’s cheeks bronzed. “Too poetic?”
“Not at all,” Leigh said. “Well, I’ll get out o
f your hair and leave you to enjoy your lovely bathroom.”
“Good night,” Jeremiah said, inclining his head. “Sleep well.”
“Good night,” Leigh said.
“I’ll go get you that nightgown, Mrs. Peters,” the housekeeper said, accompanying Leigh down the hall. She left Leigh at the door and disappeared down the stairs.
Leigh stood inside the room, looking around in a daze.
She hadn’t had a moment alone to herself since hearing that she had traveled back in time...or rather, that Kaskade had appeared and scooped her up to drag her back through time.
Exhaustion washed over her, and Leigh sat down on the bed to await Mrs. Jackson’s return. She looked down at her soiled athletic shoes, wishing she hadn’t worn an old pair. It wasn’t like she was going shopping at a shoe discount store during the next year.
Her eyelids drooped, and she laid her head down on the bed, intending to rest for a moment.
Sometime later, Leigh became aware of hands removing her shoes and lifting her legs onto the bed, followed by the placement of a warm cover over her prone body. Her eyes refused to open, and speaking seemed like too much effort. A male voice spoke in low tones in response to a female. She heard the words as if in a dream.
“I can’t understand how Kaskade chooses the people that it drags back through time,” Mrs. Jackson said. “The poor thing. I think she might struggle more than others.”
“I sincerely hope not, Mrs. Jackson, but I wonder if you are right. She has already suffered much in her life. Why was she chosen? Is it simply random happenstance?”
“I don’t know, Doctor. I really don’t know. She is a lovely creature though, isn’t she?”
“Yes, Mrs. Jackson. She is indeed beautiful, but do not make wedding plans just yet. I have no plans to marry...ever again. You know that, and you know why.”
“Oh, Doctor. I wish you would change your mind.” Mrs. Jackson sighed.
Leigh drifted into slumberland.
Chapter Four
Leigh opened one heavy eyelid and then the other to see rose-and-blue wallpaper. Warm light filtered in through the rose-colored curtains, as if the hour was late.
