Karen D. Badger - Yesterday Once More (30 page)

“When do you think we should do it?” Kale asked.

“Tomorrow. Definitely tomorrow.”

“Is that wise?” Andi asked. “I mean, you just had surgery today to install the power pack. Don’t you think we should give it a few days?”

“I don’t see any reason why we can’t start right away. I mean, yeah, I had surgery today, but it was outpatient. Hell, Peter gave me a clean release and sent me home just a few hours after it was done.”

“Andi’s right. It’s too soon. The power pack was just installed. At the very least, we need to give it a few days to be sure it’s functioning properly before subjecting it to something like this,” Kale said.

Jordan frowned and tried her best to look menacing to her friends.

Kale chuckled. “Give it up. Pouting won’t work with us. You’re just going to have to deal with it. Three more days, or not at all. Your choice.”

Jordan threw her hands up in the air. “No fair. Why am I always outnumbered?” She looked at Kale and Andi one more time, but realized they were not going to change their minds. “Okay. You win.” Jordan rolled her eyes and released a sigh of frustration before continuing. “All right, so hear me out. We need a way to communicate between now and Maggie’s time.”

“Communicate?” Kale asked.

“Yeah. I need a way to contact you if I need for you to bring me back quickly. For example, if Jan comes after me with a loaded shotgun because I stole her hot red-haired girlfriend away from her.”

“If you’d learn to curb your libido, you wouldn’t have to worry about things like that,” Kale said dryly.

Jordan feigned surprise. “You’re asking me to do the impossible. Hell, you’ve seen her picture. Would you be able to resist her?”

Kale grinned. Andi gave him a clearly disapproving look.

“Yes, I would be able to resist. Yes, indeed. Why wouldn’t I when I have the most beautiful woman in town to share my life?”

Andi kissed Kale on the cheek. “Good answer,” she said.

Jordan and Kale traded a grin as Andi looked away. “So, like I said, we need a way to communicate. I’ve been giving this a lot of thought, and I think I should leave something in the barn. Maybe there’s a nook that would have been there eighty-seven years ago that’s still there today. It would have to be a place that’s relatively well-hidden, so that whatever I leave in there wouldn’t be found by anyone who might own the barn between Maggie’s time and now. Also, we need to use some medium that will withstand the amount of time it would be there,” Jordan said.

“So we need to avoid things like paper,” Andi said.

“Exactly. Anything biodegradable runs the risk of turning to dust over time period separating our eras. Maybe we could use rocks, or metal of some sort,” Jordan suggested.

“How about we use a rock to mean ‘retrieve me now’, and maybe a nail or a horseshoe to let us know you’re okay?” Kale asked.

“Sounds good. Now, all we have to do is find this nook.” Jordan jumped to her feet and headed for the door.

“Where are you going?” Kale asked.

“To the barn to look for the nook. Care to join me?”

* * *

The three friends stood in the center of the barn and looked around. None of them moved.

“Who knows what was actually here eighty-seven years ago and what’s been modified? I would hate to use a spot that’s here now, but not back then. We need to find a place that’s out of the way. I would think it would have a greater chance of being original,” Kale suggested.

“Original? Out of the way? Follow me,” Jordan said.

Andi and Kale followed Jordan to the small tack room located at the end of the horse stalls. Jordan went directly to the workbench, dropped to her knees and began to clear away the hay and dirt from an area under the bench. Kale also dropped to his knees to help her. Soon, they had a large area cleared away.

“What is it?” Kale asked as she struggled to lift one of the floorboards.

“It’s stuck.” Jordan grunted as she looked out from beneath the bench. “Andi, do you see a screwdriver or something up there that I can use as a lever?”

“There’s a long spike. Will that do?”

“Perfect. Would you mind handing it down to me?”

Jordan took the spike from Andi and used it to pry the board loose. Soon, she exposed a relatively small opening in the floor. “There. What do you think?”

Kale looked into the hole. “It looks like this compartment was put here on purpose. Any idea what it was used for?” he asked.

“My dad thought this might have been a working tack shop at one time, and the owners might have used that space as a type of safe,” Jordan replied. “I used to hide all my treasures in it when I was small.”

“It looks like it might have been here from the beginning.” He turned to Andi. “We need to check it at regular intervals while Jordan’s gone so we’ll know if she needs to come home.”

“All right then. We have our communication portal.” Jordan grinned.

* * *

Three days later, Kale embraced Jordan as tightly as he could while his heart beat wildly in his chest. “This scares the shit out of me,” he whispered in her ear.

“I know. In a lot of ways, it scares me too,” Jordan confessed in a choked voice.

“Please, let us know if you made it all right. If all goes well, you should be arriving in Maggie’s barn, just as the chimp did.”

Jordan chuckled. “Just don’t send me to some alternate universe somewhere, okay?”

“I’ll try not to,” Kale said.

Kale released Jordan and walked toward the console, where he tried his best to focus on the computer screen through the veil of moisture that clouded his eyes.

Andi was openly crying as she clung to Jordan. “Whatever happens, I love you, Jordan,” she whispered before releasing her and joining Kale at the console. Andi wrapped her arm around his waist and buried her face in his shoulder.

Jordan carefully climbed into the center of the sphere and sat cross-legged on the platform. With shaky hands, she reached for the grounding filament and secured it around her ankle. “I love you, guys,” she called out before she pulled her knees up, wrapped her arms around her legs, and buried her face on her thighs below her knees.

Kale’s hand shook as he initiated the time travel program. The whooshing sound of the rings grew louder as they picked up momentum. Within minutes, both sets of rings were at critical velocity.

Andi and Kale looked at the spheres and noted Jordan’s body floating effortlessly in the center of the rings—her arms still wrapped around her legs, her face buried deeply into her thighs. Andi wiped the tears from her eyes as she monitored the speed of the rings and began to count down the seconds before surge.

Tears fell steadily from Kale’s eyes as he listened to Andi count down the last few seconds. A wave of energy passed over them as a blinding light filled the room. After the energy wave passed, Kale looked at the platform. It was empty save for the filament that had been secured around Jordan’s ankle.

Jordan fought hard to remain in the fetal position as she felt herself slowly drift off the platform. Then, without warning, she felt a tremendous force exerted on her body, and she found it nearly impossible to breathe. She fought for oxygen. Immobilized by the force, she was unable to move even a finger. A terrible tingling then spread through her body as though every muscle had fallen asleep and was now awakening.

Jordan found herself in utter darkness—the kind of darkness that supports no sound and no sensory feeling. The feeling was claustrophobic, and a deep fear welled up in the center of her being. Then, just when she believed she would die from fear, the space around her exploded into a spectacular light show. Before her appeared a multicolored mass with a dark center. The colors moved in and around each other like a giant kaleidoscope.

Jordan felt herself being drawn toward the hole in the center of the mass. Curiously, the fear she had felt just moments before evaporated as she neared the center of the mass. The colors appeared to press against the edges of the hole, creating a wider opening for her to pass through. Each of the colors touched her in different ways. She could not only see them, she could feel them as well. Red was warm. Yellow was soft and silky. Green was tart, and blue felt like a gentle breeze. Lavender smelled like the air after a rainstorm. Jordan’s senses were stimulated at every angle by the colorful beams of light.

As the center of the hole widened, it formed a funnel like the tail of a tornado. Jordan’s funnel was calm and peaceful. She looked around as she gently floated through the gravity-less passage. Beyond her protective sheath of semi-transparent color, Jordan could see an infinite display of stars shooting around her. Her heart and mind filled with a sense of tranquility as she wondered if she had died during the time travel transfer and was now being transported to heaven. A feeling of serenity filled her as she closed her eyes and accepted her fate.

“Humph!” 

Jordan lay face down in the dirt, clenching her stomach as the impact knocked the wind out of her. “Breathe, Jordan, breathe. That’s it, relax and just breathe.”

After a time, the cramps in her stomach subsided enough for her to elevate her upper body with her hands and look around. The room was very dark as the last remnants of daylight were fading away. “We’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto. Where the hell am I?”

Jordan looked around. The air was heavy with the odors of hay and animals. “I’m definitely in a barn. I just hope it’s mine.” She paused when she realized what she was doing. “Great. Now I’m talking to myself.” Jordan raised one hand to her face and brushed off the dirt from her fall to the ground. “Okay, Jordan, get your shit together and find out just where you are.”

Jordan attempted to get her knees under her so she could stand, and realized her legs weren’t moving. “What the fuck?”

* * *

“You can power down the machine now. She’s gone,” Andi said.

Kale powered the rings down. He approached the machine and stood staring at the platform. An intense sadness filled his heart, and he feared he would never see Jordan again. “What did we do, Andi? What did we do?” he asked softly.

Andi approached Kale and wrapped her arms around him. They held each other close. “You’re helping her realize her dream. She’s right. Regardless of what happened during the transfer, she would be with Maggie. One way or another.”

“Then why can’t I feel happy for her?”

“Because you’re sad for yourself,” Andi replied. “For you, the enormity of your loss outweighs her gain.”

Kale lowered his forehead to touch Andi’s. “How is it that you’re so smart?” he asked.

“Believe it or not, I learned it from Jordan. In the short time I’ve been part of your lives, I’ve learned the value of love. For Jordan, no sacrifice is too great to be with the one who owns her heart. If she were here right now, she’d be kicking your ass for feeling so sad. It’s because of your courage that she has this chance.

You’ve given her the most precious gift life has to offer. Be happy for her.”

Kale smiled and kissed the end of Andi’s nose. “If I only knew that she made it safely, I would feel so much better about it.”

Andi pulled her head back and looked at Kale, then reached up and hit his forehead with the palm of her hand.

“Hey, what was that for?” Kale rubbed his forehead.

“Duh! The communication portal,” she exclaimed.

* * *

“Son of a bitch!” Jordan slapped the dirt floor with her hand. “Goddamn son of a bitch!” She reached behind her to feel the implant and energy unit through the skin on her back. Both were easy to locate as they protruded noticeably under her skin, however the familiar vibration of the unit was absent. “How can this be? The rat and the chimp both came back with functional implants. Mine should remain functional as well.”

Jordan pushed herself onto her back and looked around her surroundings. “Okay, Lewis, get a grip. You need to know exactly where you are, and you need to get a message to Kale.” The light was fading rapidly, making it nearly impossible for Jordan to assess the situation. Feelings of panic began to grow in her chest.

Jordan strained to see in the darkness. She was just able to make out a horse stall nearby. With all her strength, she dragged herself into the stall and pulled the horse blanket down from the rail to use as a cover. Thoroughly exhausted, she quickly fell asleep.

* * *

“Okay, Shawny, time for your morning run. Maggie would take you, but she had an accident in the barn yesterday, so I guess that chore falls to me today.”

Jordan’s eyes flew open. She lay as still as possible so as to not draw attention to herself.
Did she say Maggie? Wasn’t Maggie’s horse named Shawny?

Jordan strained to see through a gap in the boards separating the stall she was in and the one where the voice came from. As she watched, a petite woman threw a blanket over a beautifully groomed mustang marked by a star-shape in the middle of his forehead. Next came the saddle. As the woman secured the saddle to the horse, Jordan caught glimpses of her appearance—short blonde hair, slim, but toned.
Jan?

“Okay, big guy, let’s go for a run,” the woman said as she mounted the horse.

Jordan pulled the blanket over her head and remained as still as possible. She held her breath. The woman rode the horse through the barn. Jordan didn’t relax until she heard the sound of hoofs galloping away.