Jonas set down the newspaper he was reading and rubbed his eyes. He’d been in this time for five days, and yet there seemed no rhyme or reason as to why. Except for Cheyenne. That puzzled him even more. Was she the reason he was here, and if she was, was he here to save her? From what? What had caused her to come back to his time dead?The more time he spent with Cheyenne, the more he wanted to know what had caused her to die. Obviously not time travel, as he wasn’t dead, at least not as far as he could tell. Sure, he hurt like hell, yeah, he had cuts and bruises; but unless this was some kind of strange afterlife, he was pretty sure he was alive.
Their looking into the old newspapers had given him no answers. As he suspected, there was nothing further about the gardener of the Honorable Robert P. Hucksinger other than he’d disappeared, and that was written off as a disgruntled servant. No foul play had been suspected. Certainly, there had been no account of a mysterious, half-dressed woman found dead. Did that then mean he’d changed time by coming here and she would no longer die? But if she no longer died, then how would there be an opening for him to come through time? Damn, it was all too confusing and complicated.As for his parents and sisters, nothing. Records were not published in the paper for servants, so he didn’t even know what happened to them. Cheyenne said she’d check the genealogical information on the web when she had time, but first she had to finish taking photographs for her show in a week. He’d offered to go with her, but she’d said she’d be fine on her own, and he could spend the time reading up on history.
What he’d found out about the past one hundred and eighteen years was that it was a time of wonder with great inventions, space travel—real pictures of the moon—and war.Too much war, one war after another. Barely did the world recover from one when another broke out. Why did man have to constantly go to war? And politics. There was nothing to be said about politics since they hadn’t changed any more than war had in the past one hundred years.
Except, apparently in 2008 anyone could become president regardless of race or sex. A change for the better. He’d known people of different races and people were people. A radical view to be sure in 1890. Maybe he’d been right when he told Cheyenne he belonged here.
It would be interesting to see just who would be elected president in 2008. If only he could be sure he’d still be here in November.
The state of the garden still made him cringe and he found himself heading for the corner of the property where his garden shed had sat. Perhaps it was still there in some semblance, and if he could just find some tools.
To his amazement, they were there. Rusted, some handles broken, but enough to get a decent start. He set the cup down, and picked up a spade.Chapter Twelve
6 comments:
Poor Jonas! He's so lost and he doesn't have a clue as to why. Being thrust into a completely different time without explanation would be rather unnerving. Now he's left alone to muddle through his thoughts. Cheyenne needs to come back and keep him company. ;b
Hey Mao,
Worse, being thrust into a different time and falling in love with a woman you think is going to die, and you don't know why or how. :(
He did see her die. In the past, but there it was. Difficult to get past that, no matter how Jonas tries to wrap his mind around it.
I thought it was wonderful that he retreated to what he knows best. Gardening.
S.B.
Yes, it consumes him to some degree, wanting to stop it if he can. You'll notice the entries follow a specific day; a bit of the ticking clock, so to speak.
The garden is something Jonas can control, when so much of what's happening around him, he can't.
Boy, thinking about all the possiblities would make my head hurt! Why was he brought there and how did she end up dead? And if she was dead then, why not now!?
Love that he's going to fix up her garden, I'm sure that will make her heart melt-it would mine!
And the sad part is, that would continually haunt you. The old "why me?" scenario. Followed by "this is too good to be true." And the "will I lose her?" question just to top that off. :D
As you'll see, it does melt her heart.
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