River of Time Read online

  “I’m sorry, squirt,” he apologized, using his nickname for her. “I was wool-gathering.”

  “I bet I know who you were thinking about,” Colleen smiled and started to walk her horse again.

  “You do, huh?” Shaun smirked at her and reached out to tug a braid that hung down her back to her waist.

  “Yep,” she nodded solemnly. “You were thinking of Nicky. Are you really going to write her? Do you think she will want to write to me?”

  Shaun’s heart clenched. This was exactly what he was afraid of. He didn’t want Colleen to become attached to any woman, especially a woman who didn’t even live in their time.

  “I’ve decided to not write her,” he told Colleen. “She lives very far away, and I think it will be hard to get letters to her.”

  “How far away does she live?” Colleen asked curiously.

  Patrick sighed. Bridget had suggested that he not tell Colleen about time travel, as it was a serious secret that would be hard for a child to keep. However, he knew it would be an unavoidable topic soon, so he decided to get it over with. “Do you remember what year we live in?”

  Colleen looked confused, and stated matter-of-factly, “1892.”

  “Nicky lives in the year 2005. So did Kimberly. That means when she traveled to meet your Uncle Patrick, she had gone from her time to ours. She traveled over years, not just distance.”

  Colleen thought about this for a while with a scowl on her face. If not for the fear of Colleen getting hurt, when she never saw Nicky again, Shaun would have laughed at the expression. “Is that why she was wearing those funny clothes?”

  Shaun was impressed about the connection she made. “That’s right. So, you can see that it would be hard to send letters to her?”

  “Well, we can at least try, can’t we?” Colleen pleaded.

  Shaun reluctantly nodded his head. He didn’t have the heart to tell her no, but he changed the subject, since they had arrived at the river. “Let’s get these horses watered. We have a lot to do today.”

  “Can I spend all day with you?” Colleen asked.

  “What about your schoolwork?” Shaun knew Bridget would probably want her to work on some reading and math, since she had missed a few days with their traveling to Denver.

  “Aunt Bridget wanted to take another day off,” Colleen reported.

  “Then, in that case, you can spend the day with me helping with the horses, but you must promise that, if I tell you to stay away from a horse or leave the field, you will immediately obey.” Shaun had plans to work with a young horse that day, and he didn’t want Colleen to be around him, if the horse got out of control.

  “I promise, Pa,” Colleen said, as she crossed her heart with a small hand and then spit in the air.

  Shaun opened his mouth to reprimand her for the spitting but laughed in spite of himself. Where had she learned to do that?

  Chapter 4

  That evening, the family gathered around the fireplace in the living room, as they usually did. Bridget and Kimberly were busy with some mending. Colleen sat on the floor stacking blocks on top of each other, trying to make a tower as tall as she was without them falling down. Patrick and Shaun were reading. Keegan had a piece of wood in his hands, but he wasn’t carving it like he usually did. He turned it over and over in his hand, but Kimberly could tell he wasn’t seeing the wood, because he was deep in thought.

  “What are you thinking about?” Kimberly asked him curiously. Usually, he would be busy carving the piece of wood into something beautiful. On one of the first days she had arrived at the ranch, he had given her a bear that he had carved himself. He had a great talent for it, and it showed with the row of animals, birds, and other objects that sat on a shelf above the fireplace.

  Keegan glanced at her, then at his brothers, then back at her. “I want to know about the future, about your time.”

  Kimberly’s eyes darted to Patrick. What would he want her to do? How much detail should she tell this family who had accepted her so readily as their own? Should they even be talking about this in front of Colleen?

  “I told Colleen where you and Nicky were from today,” Shaun announced with a slight grin, answering one of her questions. “I think we’re all interested.”

  Bridget looked up from the sock she was darning. “I’d also like to know.”

  Kimberly kept her eyes on Patrick and sighed with relief when he nodded his head slightly. This was one subject that they hadn’t really talked about yet, one that she knew needed to be addressed sooner rather than later.

  “What do you want to know?” she asked Keegan, setting her mending aside gratefully. She had learned in the last few weeks that she hated sewing. A couple weeks ago she had taken an interest in the braided rugs that lay throughout the cabin. She soon found that she enjoyed the braiding but not the sewing involved beforehand.

  “Everything,” Keegan demanded.

  Kimberly laughed. “How about I tell you what my life was like?” She noticed that everyone had stopped what they were doing, and Shaun was especially showing interest in what she was going to say.

  “I lived in what was called a townhouse with Nicky, which is basically a narrow, two-story home. There were neighbors on either side of our home, sharing walls with us. We are best friends. My parents died in an accident when I was 15. I went to live with Nicky’s family and finished my schooling while living with them.

  “I went to college to be a nurse. When I answered the mail-order-bride ad, I was working at a hospital in the ER.”

  “ER?” Keegan asked.

  “Emergency Room, a place where people would go, if they were really sick or hurt, a place where they could get medical care quickly.” She knew Keegan was planning on becoming a doctor, so she knew her medical background was especially interesting to him.

  “Nicky has an older brother named Justin, and he has a young son, Garrett, who is just a year older than you, Colleen.”

  Colleen smiled, delighted that Kimberly would include her in the conversation.

  Kimberly continued to tell them about electricity (which Patrick had heard was available to the rich in the east) and running water that would come out of the faucet hot or cold. She briefly described how they washed their clothes and that hardly anyone made their own clothing. Everything that someone needed could be purchased almost anywhere.

  She tried to explain about cars, planes, and jets, but she found it hard to describe these things to someone who had nothing to compare them to. She suddenly had an idea.

  “I’ll go get my sketch pad,” she offered. “I have drawn some scenes from my time. Maybe I can draw some of these things for you.” After everyone agreed, she left the large cabin and ran to her own.

  After finding her sketch pad and pencils that she had hidden in her trunk, she returned and let the family members look through her book. Most of what she had drawn were landscapes, flowers or trees. She wasn’t very good at portraits, but she did have a drawing of Garrett sitting in front of a TV playing a video game, and Kimberly had a fun time explaining to everyone what TVs and video games were.

  After an hour of Kimberly describing the future and her life there, Shaun spoke up.

  “The future sounds like an idealistic world,” he commented dryly.

  Kimberly slowly shook her head. “It’s true, we have many conveniences and technologies, things to make life easier for us, but there are also many wars between different countries, crime where people are killed, and robberies. I guess what I’m trying to say is the future isn’t perfect.”

  “I don’t care,” Keegan announced. “Someday I’m going to use one of those keys and go to your time. I want to see it.”

  Bridget looked at him in shock. “What are you talking about, Keegan? You can’t just up and leave…” she paused, as she realized that Kimberly had done just that.

  “Better finish school first, here in our time,” Patrick drawled with a slight smile. “You’re only 15. You’ve got time before a deci
sion like that can be made.”

  “We don’t even know how long those keys will work, anyway,” Bridget broke in quickly. Kimberly could tell she didn’t want any of her family to leave. “And what if you couldn’t come back?”

  Keegan shrugged and picked up his piece of wood again, tossing it in the air a few times. He didn’t say anything else, but Kimberly knew that the subject of Keegan traveling to the future wasn’t over. She could understand Keegan’s curiosity. After all, that was part of the reason why she had used the key to travel to 1892, to Patrick’s time and now her time. Keegan was a teenage boy who likely wanted adventure. He probably would lose interest once he continued his schooling to be a doctor.

  The clock on the shelf above the fireplace chimed 9:00 and Bridget stood. “Bedtime, Colleen.”

  The child grumbled but allowed her aunt to usher her out of the room. A few minutes later, Patrick announced he wanted to check on a few cows one last time before turning in for the night and asked Keegan to help him. After Patrick and Keegan left, Kimberly and Shaun turned their attention to their previous projects. Kimberly started a few small stitches in a tear of the shirt she was mending. The thread tangled and it was hard to pull the needle through the material. She was ready to throw the shirt at the wall when Shaun broke the silence.

  “Can you tell me more about Nicky?” he asked quietly.

  Kimberly smiled, glad to have an excuse to stop sewing again. “Nicky told me you had suggested that you write each other.”

  “Do you think writing is really a good idea?”

  “Let me tell you about Nicky,” Kimberly answered his first question. “She is like a sister to me. She loves children. She is a favorite teacher at the school where she works. Parents will specifically ask for her to be their children’s teacher. She is good at making learning fun.”

  “She accepted Colleen immediately, even though she is part Indian,” Shaun commented.

  Kimberly nodded. “That is one thing that is very different in my time. While there is still racism, it isn’t as broad. The fact that Colleen has an Indian mother wouldn’t matter in my time. Half of the kids in Nicky’s classes are mixed race, black, Hispanic, or Asian. In fact, we don’t call Colleen’s race Indian. They are called Native American.”

  Shaun’s eyes narrowed in confusion but then cleared when Kimberly let him know Nicky would never reject Colleen because of the color of her skin. “Colleen wants to write her.”

  “Nicky will never hurt Colleen; I can promise you that.”

  Shaun sighed. “I just don’t know how any type of relationship could grow into something more than friendship.”

  “Then just write her as a friend. I am a little bit concerned for Nicky. She is going to have her own adjustments, since I’ve married, and I am now living in this time period. She will need a friend. I know this might sound trite, but don’t worry about the future, not yet.” Kimberly smiled at her own words.

  Shaun was silent for a few moments and then nodded his head. “You’re right. I’ll write her like I promised.”

  ****

  Victoria carefully placed a bouquet of flowers she had just finished arranging on a marble table in the entryway of her large, Victorian home in Denver. She pulled out a handkerchief and discreetly wiped her neck. It was the Fourth of July, and, even though it wasn’t even noon, she knew it was going to be a hot day. She stepped back to admire the flowers with a smile. Large, flower gardens surrounded her home, and she enjoyed using some of them to beautify her home. She felt a presence behind her and smiled at Collins, who was walking towards her.

  “You are looking better,” Victoria commented, taking a step away from him, when she suddenly felt a desire to touch his arm. He had arrived from taking Nicky back to the future the day before and had looked very pale and weak. She knew neither of them could keep time traveling like they had been doing. Some decisions needed to be made about the keys and their future.

  “I’m well,” Collins told her in his usual formal voice, but he looked at her peculiarly, and Victoria wondered if she had something on her face. He had been giving her strange looks lately, and she wondered why.

  “I’ve let the entire staff off to enjoy Independence Day,” Victoria told him, although she knew he was aware of the fact. He knew everything that went on in her home, and, besides, she let the staff have the day off every year on Independence Day. “I think we need to talk about the keys.”

  Collins nodded. “I was going to suggest we do that. Why don’t I bring some tea into your office? We can discuss the keys there.”

  Victoria hesitated. She would rather talk in a less formal room. “Let’s talk in the parlor. We will be more comfortable there.” Collins bowed slightly and then left, heading towards the kitchen. Victoria moved to her office, her long skirts swishing around her. She quickly picked up the small wooden box that held the two keys. She wanted them near her while they talked. Maybe they would be led to the correct decision with them in their presence.

  Soon, she was settled in her favorite, stuffed chair, with Collins sitting on the sofa nearby. She held the box in her lap and waited while Collins served her some tea, adding her favorite pastry to the plate. They sipped in silence for a few minutes, and then Victoria set her cup aside.

  “I find it interesting, as we continue to use the keys regularly, how tired I have become after the trips. It didn’t use to be that way,” Victoria commented, as she glanced outside of the large window. She smiled, as she watched some neighbor children skip past her home, their parents walking behind them. She knew they were probably walking towards the city park nearby, where much of the festivities for the Fourth of July were being held that day.

  “Yes, I think it might have something to do with our age, because I haven’t used them near as long as you have, yet time travel is affecting me just as much as you.”

  “What are we going to do?” Victoria questioned. “I don’t want to stop their use. Bringing Kimberly here to our time from the future worked out very well, don’t you think?”

  “It could have gone a different way, but, yes, it did work out well. Patrick and Kimberly seem very happy,” Collins said, agreeing with her.

  Victoria nodded. “And I feel like I have gained a family. Patrick is willing to let Keegan stay here, while he attends school this fall. I am absolutely thrilled to have Keegan here.”

  “And now Shaun and Nicky want to write each other. One of us will have to deliver the letters. I just don’t know how we can do that.”

  They both sat in silence, each thinking their own thoughts. “I think we need to give the keys to Patrick and Kimberly,” Collins finally suggested.

  Victoria felt a great sadness at Collins’ words, although she had already decided the keys needed a new owner. She felt sad that it was time to give them up, but she knew it was the right thing to do. She nodded her head slowly.

  Collins looked relieved that she had agreed with him. “I can make one more trip with the keys and deliver them to the ranch.”

  “What if they don’t want the responsibility?”

  “I don’t think that will be an issue, but, if it is, we can discuss what to do next, if that happens.”

  Victoria opened the box and took out both keys. She slowly held them one at a time, running her fingers over their shape and design. The two keys were identical, although one did show more age than the other. The intricate design of the handle had a sharp contrast to the simplicity of the opposite end. The gold was worn despite the careful care she had given them, since they had come into her possession. She felt a faint buzz vibrate into her fingers from the key. It was nothing compared to what she had felt when she had first held them, which told her they were looking for a new owner. She was going to miss having the keys in her life. They had given her many adventures and experiences. She had been able to see her parents again and meet her grandmother in Ireland. In her time she had seen many places most people couldn’t travel to. But she knew that owning the keys was a
t its end.

  Collins stood and moved to her side. He bent down, kneeling by the chair she was in. “I know that you are sad, but you must know we have made the right decision.”

  Victoria nodded, smiling through her tears that ran down her face. “Yes, you’re right. Part of me wishes that I could go on one more trip.”

  Collins smiled at her. “Where would you want to go? What time period?”

  Victoria thought for a moment and then smiled. “Actually, I think I have gone everywhere I’ve wanted to visit. I want to be here.”

  Collins looked at her, with that strange look in his eyes. Victoria could never read him well, as he always kept his emotions carefully in check. The raw emotions coming from his eyes made her feel warm, but she wasn’t sure if she was interpreting him correctly. She wished she knew what he was thinking. He stood, took her hand, and helped her to her feet. “Why don’t we go to the park and enjoy the day? I will take the keys to the ranch tomorrow.”