by Bess McBride
“I wonder if you have any ideas about what I could do to make a living. I can’t just mooch off you if I’m going to be stuck here—I mean if I’m going to live here in Kaskade for a year.” Leigh pressed her lips together. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be rude yet again. This is your time, your life. I do feel trapped, but I don’t have to be nasty about it.”
“I truly do understand, Leigh,” Jeremiah said in a soft voice. “You are not the first person to feel ‘trapped,’ as you say, and you will probably not be the last.”
She pressed her lips together apologetically and bit into her toast.
“You asked what you could do to make a living,” Jeremiah continued. “You may live here as long as you like, and I can provide for your needs as long as is necessary. It is not your fault that you were thrown through time or snatched up by this town.”
“No, no, I need to make my own way. I appreciate your offer to let me stay here, but I would need to pay room and board. I do have skills.”
“What are your skills?”
Leigh wrinkled her nose and winced with a crooked smile.
“Well, I know my medical terms, believe it or not, and I can work a computer. I can’t sew, I don’t have a teaching degree and I’m terrible at statistics, though surprisingly good at accounting. I suppose I could clean for a living.”
“What do you mean you know medical terms?”
“Don’t get me wrong. I’m not a nurse by any means. You know how I feel about that. I just mean that I know medical terms from working on disability claims for insurance.”
“I see,” Jeremiah said. He sipped on his coffee and said no more.
Leigh sighed heavily and made plans to ask Mrs. Jackson how to find employment as a maid.
“Why do you think Kaskade snatches up people?” Leigh asked.
Jeremiah pressed his lips together. “I truly do not know. If I had to guess, I would say it is some sort of metaphysical phenomenon. However, if one is less scientifically inclined, one might speculate that Kaskade is trying to survive by infusing new blood, new knowledge, new material into the gene pool.”
Leigh choked on her food. Her face broke into a smile. “Gene pool? Is that a thing in 1908? I thought that was a modern term.”
“Not at all. Animals must mate outside of their familial groupings to keep the herds healthy. Perhaps Kaskade draws on the same philosophy.”
Leigh couldn’t hold back a chuckle. “You’re teasing, aren’t you? Kaskade itself isn’t a living, breathing thing that can make choices like that.”
“Is it not? Is it not comprised of living, breathing people?”
“Well, yes, but really...” Leigh chuckled again. “No, that’s not possible. I’d be more inclined to believe in the metaphysical phenomenon—a space/time continuum thing rather than a town trying to survive by snatching new gene material from the future.”
Jeremiah’s cheeks dimpled, and Leigh caught her breath at the charming sight.
“It is farfetched, I agree. To answer your question, I have no idea why Kaskade appears in the twenty-first century and takes people, for want of a better term. I truly do not.”
“Or lets them go,” Leigh added, wondering how on earth a woman named Tanya Meadows had managed to leave the handsome doctor.
“Or lets them go,” Jeremiah said in a husky voice. “You refer to Tanya again, do you not?”
Leigh’s cheeks burned, and she dropped her eyes to her food.
“I’m sorry. It’s none of my business.”
“What do you wish to know?”
“Nothing!” Leigh said hastily.
“No?”
Leigh squirmed in her seat, promising herself that she wouldn’t hint around about the woman again. Then she burst out, “Mrs. Jackson said that she had a hard time here in the past.”
She peeked at Jeremiah’s face. He took another sip of his coffee, a slight tremor in his hand.
“Yes, that would be an accurate statement. Mrs. Jackson may have mentioned that most people have returned to the future. Tanya was one of those. She tried to assimilate to our time, but in the end, she found that she could not.”
Jeremiah’s expression grew somber when he spoke, and Leigh’s heart went out to him.
“Is there any chance that she’ll come back?”
“I suppose there is always a chance,” he said, “but to date, no one has ever returned. We do know that one individual—Matthew—wished to return, but we have not seen him. Instead, you arrived.”
Leigh winced. “I’m sorry. I hope I didn’t take his spot, so to speak.”
“I could not say.”
Leigh’s back stiffened. “Well, I’m really very sorry it was me! You have no idea.”
Jeremiah looked up in surprise. “Have I offended you in some way, Leigh? If so, I apologize.”
“Nope, not at all.” She turned a shoulder on him, though the effect seemed limited given her seat at the table.
“Leigh, I did not mean to insinuate that you are not welcome or that we preferred Matthew’s return over your arrival.”
“Kind of sounds like it though. That’s okay. I really don’t want to be here anyway.”
“No, of course you do not,” Jeremiah said, setting his cup down on its saucer with a clatter. He pushed back his chair and rose. “That is not the first time I have heard that! Excuse me. I have house calls to make.” He nodded politely and left the room abruptly.
Leigh stared after him with an unpleasant sense of guilt.
Of course she didn’t want to be trapped in the past as she was, but she didn’t need to be so obnoxious about it. Jeremiah and Mrs. Jackson had been extremely kind and solicitous of her. It behooved her to practice some gratitude.
She wiped her mouth with her napkin and stood up to go look for Jeremiah. She turned toward the parlor and heard someone moving around in the examining room. Unwilling to step into that room, she stopped in the middle of the parlor and spoke.
“Dr. Cook,” she said in a formal tone. “Can I talk to you?”
“Yes, of course,” he said. “Please come in.”
“Ummm...could you come out here? I’m having a bad case of white-coat syndrome.”
Jeremiah appeared at the doorway, wearing not a white coat but the conservative blue herringbone striped suit he had breakfasted in.
“White-coat syndrome?” he repeated. “I was not aware you were frightened of doctors’ offices. I had thought to offer you employment here in the office to manage patients and appointments, take care of my books and ordering supplies. If you are uncomfortable here in the office, then that will not be possible, will it?”
“Really?” Leigh asked. “I didn’t know that!”
“I was thinking about it at breakfast, but I am afraid I left before I could voice my thoughts.” He inclined his head in a slight bow that caught at Leigh’s heart. “I apologize for my behavior.”
“That’s why I hurried in here to find you before you left. I’m the one who should apologize, Jeremiah. I’m sure we both agree that being thrown back in time is a bit of a shock, but I didn’t have to be so nasty about it. I am grateful for everything you and Mrs. Jackson have done for me. I promise you that I won’t forget that again.”
Leigh held out a hand to shake his, as if declaring a truce. Jeremiah moved forward and took her hand in both of his, a gesture far more compelling and intimate than a mere handshake. Leigh caught her breath.
“I understand your dilemma more than you know, Leigh. Now, what is this about white-coat syndrome? I wish to offer you employment. I will pay you a salary and provide room and board. How can we facilitate that?”
Leigh gently extricated herself from his warm grasp, but immediately regretted the motion. Something about Jeremiah’s hands relaxed her, made her feel secure despite the surreal events of the past twelve hours.
“I don’t know,” she said. “I get queasy every time I get near a doctor’s office. My heart races.”
“I am so sorry
to hear it,” he said, regarding her with sincere eyes.
Leigh swallowed. “I’m sure it comes from taking care of my mother during her illness, from spending way too much time at the doctor’s office and in hospitals when I was young. I’m embarrassed to say this, but I was almost glad that if my husband had to die, it was sudden. I don’t think I could have managed if he’d had a long illness as well.”
Jeremiah’s sympathetic expression almost brought her to tears, and she pressed her lips together.
“Honestly, Jeremiah, I need a job, and you’ve been kind enough to offer me one. I could try. I have to try.”
Jeremiah looked over his shoulder toward the examining room.
“Perhaps we could try to ease you into some tasks without the necessity of entering the examining room. You could certainly greet patients and take appointments here in the parlor. You could see to my accounts here in the parlor, in the dining room or even in your bedroom. I could tell you what supplies I need, and you could order them. I would not require that you inventory them.”
Leigh drew in a deep breath. “I think I could do all that. You’d have to teach me how to do things in 1908, but I think I could handle it.”
Jeremiah nodded. “Very well. For now, I have to attend to a few patients in their homes, but I will return in a few hours, and I can instruct you then.”
“Could I go with you?”
“To visit patients?”
“Yes? No? Is that a bad idea? I could wait outside while you examine them. I would like to see the town, and frankly, I’m nervous about going out on my own right now. I don’t know what to expect, and Mrs. Jackson said that most people don’t know about us...about the time travelers.”
“That is true. I am glad that she warned you.”
“I am too. I guess I thought that since I was...the eighth? person to find themselves in Kaskade, the whole town must know by now.”
“No, we have kept the secret fairly well. Only a few people know. The mayor felt that the majority of people would not understand. Well, do any of us, really? But also he did not want the townspeople to know that Kaskade will ultimately die out.”
“Yes, Mrs. Jackson said the same thing. I’m so sorry about that,” Leigh murmured. “I used the term ‘ghost town’ with her, and she objected. She said she preferred to think of Kaskade as a ‘town lost in time.’”
Jeremiah smiled.
“What a quaint expression. I shall have to remember that. I fear that I can be pessimistic myself, as you can see. I do know that Kaskade does not ‘die out,’ as I said. I have been told that people will be required to move away when a power company makes plans to flood the town to form a reservoir. And that does not happen.”
“No, there’s no reservoir. And the town is gone. There’s just a gas station and grocery store on a corner about half a mile away. But some of the foundations are still there! I discovered one of them buried in some bushes, and I think that was the catalyst for throwing me back in time.”
“Yes, I believe that is what Matthew reported as well.” Jeremiah’s gaze traveled to Leigh’s head, and she put a self-conscious hand up to her hair. “If you are to come with me, you will need a hat. Will you ask Mrs. Jackson to loan you one? I think after we return and have lunch, I will ask Mrs. Jackson to escort you down to the ladies’ store to order some clothing.”
Leigh immediately protested with a shake of her head, but Jeremiah overrode her objections.
“Mrs. Jackson has a limited supply of clothing. She has always been frugal that way. You will need your own things. You may pay me back at some point in the future if you think you must. I will not go hungry because I purchased a few items for you.” Jeremiah’s teasing smile elicited a chuckle from Leigh.
“All right,” she acquiesced. “I’ll go see about that hat.”
She left the room and made her way to the kitchen, where Mrs. Jackson stood at a large farmhouse kitchen sink, muttering aloud to the sound of hissing and groans from the pipes.
“Is something wrong, Mrs. Jackson?” Leigh asked, coming to stand by her side. She looked into the large porcelain sink to see brackish water hissing and spitting from a spigot.
“Oh, it’s just the finicky boiler in the basement. Doctor had it installed last year, and it has been more nuisance than helpful. I would rather continue to heat water on the stove for dishes than rely on that silly thing for hot water or heat.”
Leigh knew nothing about heating and cooling other than adjusting a thermostat and turning on the hot water tap in her home. “I didn’t realize you had running hot water!” she said. “I washed with cold water in the bathroom upstairs.”
“Well, as you can see, we don’t. If you wish to bathe and cannot get hot water from the tap in the bathtub, let me know, and I’ll carry some hot water upstairs.”
“You mean you personally? Carry buckets of hot water up the stairs? I couldn’t ask you to do that, Mrs. Jackson.”
“I am used to it,” she said. “Did you need something, dear?”
“Yes. I’m going out to visit patients with Dr. Cook, and he said I need a hat. Do I really have to wear one? And if so, could I borrow one?”
Mrs. Jackson wiped her wet hands on her apron and turned.
“Yes, every lady must wear a hat. I have a nice straw hat that would look lovely on you.”
She left the kitchen, and Leigh followed her to the back door, where she pulled a cute little broad-brimmed straw hat down from one of the hooks. She signaled Leigh to follow her back into the hall and stopped before small table below a mirror.
“I like this hat,” she said. “It’s a bit fancy, but I couldn’t resist it.” She reached up and settled the hat on Leigh’s head. Rather than perch precariously on Leigh’s piled hair as she feared, the crown of the hat was deep enough to hug her head, stopping just above her ears. The perky rolled brim accented the blue ribbon and pink roses.
Leigh’s cheeks turned rosy as she looked at her reflection in the whimsical hat. She would never have worn a hat like that in her time, but it didn’t look too bad and was actually quite comfortable.
“There!” Mrs. Jackson said with a smile. “It looks far better on a younger woman than it does me. Very fetching!”
“Do all women wear hats like these?”
“Yes, they do. I love the newer styles. We wore drab bonnets when I was young, so these hats are a delight. Suzy has some lovely hats in her store.”
“I think I’ll be meeting Suzy very soon,” Leigh said, tugging at the edge of the hat to verify that it was seated quite snugly on her head. “Dr. Cook plans to ask you to go shopping with me to get some clothes. I hope that’s okay with you. I know how busy you must be.”
“That would be lovely!” Mrs. Jackson said. “I am so glad you are accepting his help. You need it.”
“Yes, I know I do.”
“Are you ready, Leigh?” Jeremiah asked from down the hall.
“She is, Doctor,” Mrs. Jackson said. “How kind of you to take Leigh out on your rounds today.”
Leigh and Mrs. Jackson walked toward him where he waited by the front door, holding a medical bag that she’d only seen in black-and-white movies.
“Not at all,” he said. “Leigh has accepted employment from me, so it is only fitting she should meet some of my patients.”
“Is that so, Leigh?” Mrs. Jackson said with a broad smile. “Good for you!”
Leigh smiled faintly. She still wasn’t sure how things were going to work, but she needed a job, and Jeremiah had been gracious enough to offer.
Jeremiah led the way to the front door, and Leigh followed. They stepped outside onto the porch, and Leigh paused to stare at the lake—familiar yet strangely different. She spotted quite a few small boats on the lake, far more than she usually saw in the twenty-first century.
“Are they fishing?” she asked, nodding toward the lake.
“Yes, some people make their living selling the fish at market here and up in Orting.”
&n
bsp; She followed Jeremiah down the wide stairs toward the dirt road that ran between the house and the lake. It seemed so hard to imagine that a road had once fronted the lake. The closest road to park her car in the twenty-first century was hundreds of yards up an embankment behind where the town must have been.
“Are we walking?” she asked as Jeremiah paused at the gate of a white picket fence that bordered the road. She looked over her shoulder toward the house, as large as she had imagined. Matching white trim highlighted the dove-gray painted siding. A few tall evergreens nestled behind the house, but the rest of the forest had vanished.
“Yes, do you mind?” he asked. “If I have to go any great distance, I ride my horse, which I keep down at the stables, but I only have a few patients to visit today, and they are all in town. I do have a buggy. Would you like me to go get it and come back for you?”
Leigh eyed the dusty road and the hem of her dress.
“No, I don’t want to be any trouble. Walking is fine. How do I keep Mrs. Jackson’s dress out of the dirt?”
Jeremiah joined Leigh in looking down at her hem near the dusty road.
“I do not have the faintest idea. The ladies simply walk.”
“Okay, so no hitching the skirt?”
“I should not think so.” Jeremiah smiled. “Are you ready? Remember, most people we encounter will not know that you come from the future, and some may be curious about you. I will endeavor to devise a story to explain your arrival here in Kaskade, if that is agreeable to you.”
“Sure!” Leigh said. “I’ll follow your lead.”
“Very well. Let us go!”
Chapter Six
Leigh resisted the urge to hitch up her skirts as she followed Jeremiah down the road, passing other large houses along the way. The size of the houses dwindled to small one-story cottages after they turned down a road leading away from the lake.
A wagon pulled by two horses rumbled down the road in their direction, and Leigh was happy to follow Jeremiah onto a wooden, albeit uneven, boardwalk. Ahead, several two-story false-fronted buildings lined both sides of the road, mixed in with smaller houses and cottages. Signs dangled over the front of the buildings, indicating they were a general mercantile, pool hall, market and hotel.
