Shattered Moments (4 page)

June 2010

Williamsburg, Virginia

Valerie walked out of the hospital into a hazy and stiflingly hot morning.  She stood still for a few moments, taking in the deafening noise of modern life.  She’d forgotten how loud things could be, especially on a weekday morning.  It was still early enough that people were rushing to work, and the streets were congested with rush-hour traffic, cars and buses fighting for space on the narrow street, and blaring their horns at the garbage truck that had the audacity to block half the street as the garbage men tossed bags into the back, oblivious to the frenzy they were creating.  A yellow school bus inched into view, the laughter and shrieks of kids erupting through the open windows.  They still had a few weeks of school left until summer vacation, but mentally, they were already on break, just barely sitting through these last days, eager to finally put away their books and enjoy all that summer had to offer. 

Valerie
looked up and down the street, deciding which way to go.  Her plan was to go find a jewelry store where she could sell her coins.  Seventeenth-century coins could fetch a lot of money, but she only had two left and needed to use them wisely.  They rarely used coins at home, most transactions being paid for in tobacco, so the ones she had were still from England and worth their weight in gold.  Louisa had pressed a ring into her hand as they were leaving, but Valerie was reluctant to sell it.  Kit had given it to her and would be upset to find it gone, even if it’d been used to help Alec in his hour of need.  She would leave the ring for now and hope she could get enough for the coins to last several days. Even once Alec was released from the hospital, they would have to wait a few days to make sure there was no infection and that the stitches were ready to come out.

Valerie walked down the street slowly, her eyes scanning the
still-shuttered storefronts when she suddenly stopped, astounded by an idea.  When she set the device to the future, she chose 2010, not because it had any significance, but because it really didn’t matter what year they went to as long as Alec got help, and 2010 had been the last year that she had lived in the twenty-first century.  It was now the second week of June, and technically, she was still in 2010, preparing to go to England with Louisa.  She would be gone from the twenty-first century by the end of the month, but as of now she was still very much in the here and now. 

There were now two of her:
one in her twenties, living in New York, and one in her forties, wandering around Williamsburg.  This revelation presented a whole new world of possibilities.  If she were still in the “here and now,” she still had a bank account and credit cards in her name.  She didn’t have a bank card, but she remembered her account and PIN number since she always used her birthday, so if she filled out a withdrawal slip and went to a teller, she should have no trouble taking money out.  Of course, this might present some problems later on as the search for her led the authorities to check her bank activity, but everyone would just assume that it was a case of identity theft since she was still very much in New York this week in 2010.

Valerie did a quick estimate in her mind.  They would have to stay at least until the end of the week, which would mean they’d need to find some B&B that wouldn’t ask for ID, buy clothes, toiletries, and food, and possibly do something fun since they were here anyway.  Alec might enjoy a tour of Colonial Williamsburg since he could compare it to the real thing, and maybe go to a movie
and have a few nice dinners.  Two thousand dollars should cover it she decided as she proceeded down the street at a quicker pace.  Now that she had a plan, all she had to do was put it into action. 

Valerie looked around, spotting
the familiar Citibank logo just a block away.  Bingo!  She walked into the cool lobby of the bank, conscious of her weird getup, but no one paid her any attention.  They were close enough to Colonial Williamsburg to assume she was merely on her way to work and took her job so seriously that she got into character before punching her time card.  The bank had just opened, and there were only two tellers behind the counter, both looking sluggish and sleepy as they prepared to start their day.  Valerie filled out a slip and walked over to the teller’s window, her heart pounding in her chest.  What if they called the police?  She held her breath as the teller punched in the numbers and looked up at her.  She was a young girl who looked as if she’d rather be anywhere rather than at her job.

“I’ll just need some ID,” she said, yawning behind her hand.

“I forgot my purse,” Valerie lied, shrugging her shoulders and smiling guiltily at her own absentmindedness.

“Okay,” the teller
replied without even looking up.  “Just verify some information for me, and I’ll get your money.  I need your social security number, date of birth, and mother’s maiden name.”

The social took a moment to recall, but
Valerie answered the questions and nearly jumped for joy when the teller handed her two thousand dollars in crisp, new notes.  Too bad she had no pocket or purse to put them into.  Valerie slipped into the ladies’ room and distributed the bills inside her bodice, leaving a few out to go buy herself a bag of some sort.  It would look strange if she started groping inside her dress for money as she came up to pay for her purchases.  She stepped back into the street feeling guilty as if she’d just gotten away with something.  After all, it was her own money, she reasoned with herself, but it still felt strange. 

Valerie
walked around until she came upon a TJ Maxx.  That would serve her purposes very well.  She could get a few nice things at a reasonable price.  There was no point spending a lot of money on clothes since she’d be throwing them in the trash as soon as they were ready to return home.  She secretly wished she could take the modern clothes with her and put them on from time to time, but that was just a fantasy.  Being caught with anything like that could lead to all kinds of questions that she didn’t want to answer, and when living in such close proximity to so many people, it was virtually impossible to hide anything.  Well, she would enjoy them while she could.  She couldn’t wait to shed the cumbersome skirt and bodice, and rip off the stockings that made her sweat behind the knees beneath all the layers of fabric.  Valerie pulled her cap off and shoved it into the pocket of the skirt.  She no longer had to pretend she was working at Colonial Williamsburg, and the feel of her hair around her shoulders made her smile.  It’d been many years since she walked around in public with her hair down, and she felt wanton.

Valerie
took a shopping cart and made her way down the first aisle, enjoying the cool air conditioning and the familiar song playing over the loudspeakers.  God, how she missed music.  At home, the only time there was music was when players were invited for a special occasion, which wasn’t often.  Seventeenth-century colonists were not a joyful lot and didn’t put much stock in “degenerate” amusements such as dancing and theater.  Unless a member of the family played a musical instrument, which none of them did, they went for months without hearing a tune. 

Valerie
hummed along as she cruised from aisle to aisle, just loving the feeling of being surrounded by goods.  There were so few things to buy in Jamestown.  Valerie chose a pair of jeans, a summer dress, a few tops and a pair of sandals, along with two bras and several pairs of underwear.  That should last her for a few days while she waited for Alec to be released.  He’d need some clothes as well, so Valerie detoured to the men’s department and bought him some loose summer slacks, underwear, polo shirts, and a pair of loafers.  He’d need loose clothes that wouldn’t chafe against the incision. 

Valerie threw a
colorful canvas purse into the cart and made her way to the cash registers.  She would stop at a pharmacy and pick up a few toiletries and magazines for Alec, as well as some Coke and a few chocolate bars, and then her shopping would be complete.  Sometimes she missed chocolate even more than music.  Their diet at home was very basic, the food prepared mostly from whatever they could grow or kill.  Cook occasionally made a pie or some stewed fruit; eating it raw was paramount to insanity in Cook’s opinion, but there was never any type of dessert that really satisfied Valerie’s sweet tooth.  Valerie gleefully paid for her purchases and left the store, eager to get back to Alec.  God, it felt good to shop.

Alec flipped through the pages of the magazine between taking bites of chocolate.  The painkiller had worn off somewhat and he was cranky and in pain, grumbling about the indignity of wearing a flimsy gown that left most of his backside exposed.  According to him, no man should be so humiliated, especially in a place of learning and medicine.  Valerie just smiled at him and agreed, knowing that it wasn’t really the gown he had an issue with, but the feeling of helplessness.  He was used to being in charge of a situation, but right now he probably felt like a guinea pig, with doctors and nurses coming in to check his vitals, take his temperature, and check on the incision to make sure it showed no signs of infection. 

The
glossy pictures of race cars and the bittersweet chocolate melting on his tongue soothed him a bit, as did the sight of Valerie in a flirty summer dress that bared her shoulders and stopped just above the knees.  She looked twenty years younger with her hair loose and her long legs bare beneath the hem of the dress.  It reminded him of how she looked when he first laid eyes on her, thinking her some deranged maiden who was wandering about the countryside in her undergarments.  Alec finished off the chocolate and glanced up at Valerie, who seemed very agitated as she rummaged through the bag and turned out the pockets of her homespun skirt that she’d removed only a few minutes ago.

“What’s wrong, Val?” he asked, taken aback by her
stricken expression.  She was holding the coins and Louisa’s ring in her hand, but her face was white, her eyes brimming with tears.

“Alec, it’s gone.  Oh, God, it’s gone,”
she whimpered as she sank into a chair, her legs buckling beneath her.

“What’s gone?”

“The watch — the time-travel watch.  It’s gone.  I must have dropped it while I was trying on clothes.  I have to go back to the store.” 

With that, she ran from the room, leaving Alec feeling sick to his stomach.  She had to find it.  It was probably in the room where she tried on clothes, on the floor, just waiting to be found
, unless someone else had found it already.  Maybe they’d turned it in, but maybe they simply smiled at their good fortune and shoved it in their pocket before leaving the store and destroying their only chance of returning home. Alec took a deep breath, trying to calm himself.  She’d find it; she had to.

Alec put aside the magazine and the candy bar, unable to take another bite. 
In a crisis, he normally assessed his options and tried not to assume the worst until he had a reason to, but this time it wasn’t working.  The only option was to find the watch.  The alternative was unthinkable.  Alec tried to remain calm, but he wanted nothing more than to rip out the tube hooked up to his arm, tear off the offensive gown, and go find Valerie.  He knew it was out of the question, but sitting by idly while their lives hung in the balance was intolerable. Every minute felt like an hour as he waited for Valerie to return, his thoughts spinning out of control and his blood pressure spiking enough to alarm the nurse.

**

Valerie finally returned three hours later.  Alec didn’t need to ask if she’d found the watch.  Her face was ashen, and the look in her eyes was that of someone who’d just lost all hope for the future.  Valerie’s hands were shaking, and she threw herself into a chair and burst into tears, her hands over her face as she sobbed, her whole body convulsing with grief.  “It’s gone,” she wailed.  “We’re trapped.  We’re trapped forever.  We’ll never see our family again, and they won’t know what happened to us.  Oh, Alec, what have I done?  How could I have been so careless?” 

Alec opened his mouth to comfort her, but the enormity of
the situation crashed over him, making him feel hollow inside.  As much as he liked it in the future, he wanted to go back where he belonged.  He wanted to see his home, hear the children laughing and playing, and have a game of dice with Kit as they stayed up late, talking and enjoying their brandy.  And Louisa!  She would go mad not knowing what happened to them.  Oh, God — Finn and Abbie.  What would they think if they never showed up again?  Alec took a deep breath and forced himself to focus on Valerie.

“Val, it will be all right.  We will find a way back; I promise you.”
  He had no idea what he was talking about, but it seemed like the right thing to say, and his first priority was to calm her and make her realize that she wasn’t to blame.  He could have lost the watch just as easily. 

“How?  How will we find a way back? And what of the person who found the watch?  What if they transport themselves to God knows when?” Valerie moaned.

“We can’t worry about some unknown person who found a watch and didn’t turn it in; we have to worry about us.”  And worry he did.

“Alec, how on earth
will we get back?  It’s not as if we can walk into a store and buy a replacement.  People don’t travel through time, at least not normal people.”

Valerie walked over to Alec and climbed onto the bed next to him, desperately in need of comfort.  Alec wrapped his arms around her and stroked her hair in an effort to soothe her, but he felt the erratic beating of her heart and the ragged breath against his chest.

“I think I have an idea,” he finally said to the top of her head.  “And it just might work.”