Chapter 39

Sunday, April 16, 1848

Ed: Day 28 of the Boston to St Joseph trip

Wow! What a day! It started off innocently enough, but before noon, Cassie and I were shaken to our roots. Su Li and Tina pushed Cassie and Kate aside this morning and fixed breakfast for us. I'll have to admit, they are both good cooks.

We got a nice early start and were making good time when it happened. I was riding, thirty feet or so in the lead, when four people stepped out into a clearing a hundred yards or so in front of us. I knew immediately that something was different about them. I reined in and Cassie was beside me immediately.

"They're wearing shorts, Ed," she said.

"Yeah, I noticed that."

"It looks like they're wearing backpacks too."

"It looks like that to me too."

"Do you think they could be... ?"

"I don't know, honey. There's only one way to find out though." I turned to Kate and said, "Kate, I want you and Tina and Su Li to stay here with the horses while Cassie and I go to see who these people are."

Katie nodded and said, "We'll keep our eyes open."

Cassie and I rode over to the new people. They were just standing there, staring at us. "Howdy, folks," I said.

"Hello," the man said. "I'm Tim Gray and this is my wife, Sally, and my son, Jason, and my daughter, Cindi."

"It's nice to meet you folks. I'm Ed Hill and this is my wife, Cassie. Where are you folks from?"

"We're from Detroit. Right now, we seem to be lost."

"Have you seen anyone else since you've been lost, Tim?" I asked.

"No, you're the first. We were beginning to worry a little."

"I have to ask you some questions that are going to seem strange, Tim. Please bear with me and I think we can get everything straight soon."

"Okay."

"What is today's date?"

"May 12, 2003, why?"

"I assume you guys were on a little backpacking vacation?"

"Yes."

"Was there a big storm just before you got lost?"

"Yes, sir. The biggest storm any of us had ever seen."

"Tim, I don't know how to tell you this, except to come right out and say it. Today's date is actually April 16, 1848."

"What? That's impossible."

"I'm sorry, Tim, but it's not impossible. Highly unlikely, yes. Mind numbing, certainly. The fact is, though, you are now in the year 1848."

"Cool," I heard Cindi mutter.

"How do we know you're not just trying to pull some kind of joke on us?" Jason asked.

"Cindi, walk over to the three young women and ask them what year it is," I said. "Don't say anything to them other than that."

We watched as Cindi walked over to them. She said something and we could see Kate answer her. When she came back, she said, "They say it's 1848."

"Believe me, we know what you're going through," Cassie said. "It happened to us just about a year ago."

"Uh, you're from the future too?" Sally asked, a stunned look on her face.

"Yes, but we were kicked back here from the year 2005," Cassie said.

"Mr. Hill, who are those people over there?" Cindi asked.

"They are our family and friends," I said. "They're not from the future, so we asked them to stay over there until we'd talked to you."

"Do they know you're from the future?" Cindi asked.

"Katie, the redhead does. The other two do not," I said. "We've been kind of afraid to tell too many people. Most people are going to think we're crazy and try to lock us away."

"Ed, I don't think we have any choice now. I think we have to tell, Tina and Su Li," Cassie said.

"I guess you're right," I said. "We might as well tell these people our other secret too."

Cassie nodded, so I said, "Cassie is my wife. So is Katie. We also have two other wives waiting for us in St Joseph, Missouri."

"Wicked," Cindi giggled.

"I'll tell the girls we're going to noon here," Cassie said and rode back to the others. We watched them as they started building a fire to fix some lunch.

"We've been suspecting something was wrong," Sally said, "but we never expected it was anything like this."

"We had packed in to an area we had camped in before," Tim said. "We were familiar with the area and I didn't think we could have possibly gotten lost. After the big storm, the day before yesterday, we decided to go back to our car and find a motel for a night or two. When we got back to where the car should have been, it wasn't there."

"Neither was the parking lot or the road," Jason said. "I kept telling dad I knew we were in the right spot, but he didn't believe me."

"Okay, let's go back and talk with the rest of our group. I'll introduce you, then I'll tell them what happened to you first."

They agreed, so we walked back to where the women were setting up our noon camp. As I was introducing everyone, I saw Cassie in a whispered conversation with Kate. Kate looked like someone had hit her in the head with a hammer.

"Tina, Su Li, I need for you to sit down and talk with us for a few minutes. Cassie and Kate will fix lunch."

The two girls sat down with us and I said, "Strange things can happen to people at times. Things we can't explain. Something very strange happened to the Grays the other night."

Tina and Su Li just nodded, so I went on, "There was a big storm. Lightning hit the tent they were in. After the lightning hit they were here with us in the year 1848. Before the lightning hit, they were in the year 2003."

"How do you know they're telling the truth about that?" Tina asked.

"Because the same thing happened to Cassie, Sam, and me. The only difference was that when it happened to us, we were in the year 2005."

There was complete silence for a few minutes, then Su Li said, "Ed, that explains a lot to me. Most people think that if you are Chinese you are less than dirt. You and Cassie and Kate have treated me like I am your equal. I had wondered why you were different."

"Su Li," Sally said, "I have to tell you that we think you are our equal as well. In the time we came from, China was a world power and most people in the United States were treated as equals."

"So, what do we do now?" Tim asked.

"Well, it looks to me like you have two choices," I said. "You can either go with us, or you can walk to Fort Wayne, which is about 120 miles to the east. How much food do you have with you?"

"Not a lot," Tim frowned. "I'd say we have a couple of days worth of freeze dried food. Where are you guys going?"

"Right now, we're headed for St Joseph, Missouri. We'll meet up with the rest of our family there and then we're going on to Oregon. Do you guys have any way of hunting for food?"

"No. I've never believed in owning guns. We wouldn't know what to do with an animal if we killed it."

"Tim, that's one thing you're going to have to learn if you guys are going to survive in this time," I said as Kate and Cassie brought plates of food over to the newcomers. They served them venison steaks along with vegetables they had cooked last night and biscuits left over from breakfast.

The new people dug in like they hadn't eaten in a week. "How long have you guys been eating freeze dried food?" I asked.

"About a week," Jason said. "This is fantastic."

"Freeze dried stuff is yuck," Cindi added.

Cassie and I got a big laugh out of that. We agreed completely.

"How old are you, Cindi?" Cassie asked.

"I'm sixteen and Jason is eighteen. How old are you?"

"I'm fifteen. I'll be sixteen before long."

"You're only fifteen and you're married already?" Sally asked.

"Married and pregnant. Sally, things are a lot different now than they are in the twenty-first century. Most girls are married by the time they're fifteen," Cassie said.

"Frigid," Cindi grinned.

We talked for a while and I offered to loan the new people money and a gun to hunt with, but they finally decided they'd at least go on to St Jo with us.

Cassie got busy and tried to organize things. None of the new people had ridden much and we didn't have saddles for them anyway, so we had to double up. Cassie put Cindi behind me, Tim behind Su Li, Sally behind her, and Jason behind Katie. She said this would divide the load between the horses more equally. Tina was riding by herself, in case she saw something that would make good eating.

I knew we weren't going to be making as good a time over the next few days until we got somewhere we could buy some saddles and a couple of more horses. There wasn't much we could do about it though.

Through our conversations that afternoon, we learned that Tim had been an investment banker. He grew up in the city and had never really even liked the outdoors. Sally, on the other hand, had been raised on a farm and loved the outdoors. Once a year, Sally managed to force the issue and get everyone to go camping.

"Jason and I love camping and hiking," Cindi confided as she snuggled up against my back. "We'd spend every hour of every day in the woods if we could."

"That's sort of what it's like in this time period, Cindi. It'd like you're on a 24-7 camping trip."

"Icy!"

I really felt sorry for the new people that evening. They were so sore they could hardly walk. I told them we'd take it as easy tomorrow as we could, but that we couldn't stop completely for a day.

"Why's that?" Cindi asked.

"Two reasons," I said. "The first one is that our wife, Sam gave birth to our first child just a couple of days before we left for Boston. We've been away from our wives, Sam and Delia, for almost two months. We're anxious to see them and to see our daughter. The second reason is that we need to leave St Joseph right after we get there if we're going to make it to Oregon before snow closes the passes through the mountains."

"How long does it take to get to Oregon?" Tim asked.

"We're told it takes about six months. Sam was a history buff before we were sent back here and she was really interested in the Oregon Trail. We haven't met anyone from this time who has taken the trail before, but we're hoping to hire a guide in St Jo."

"Six months? Wow! In 2003 you could drive it in three or four days," Cindi said.

"Yep, everything moves slower here. You'll also find that things are a lot less expensive here. Wages are a lot lower too though," I said.

My girls made a nice stew for dinner while Tina went hunting. She was gone for about an hour and when she came back, she had two nice sized turkeys. She and Su Li cleaned them after dinner.

After Tina, Cassie, and I were snuggled in our tent, Cassie asked, "So, are you going to end up with two or three new wives out of this trip, Ed."

"You're kidding, right?"

"No," Katie said. "Tina adores you; Su Li worships you; and we think Cindi is in love with you already. There is something about you, Ed, that causes women to fall in love with you and men to follow you. All of your wives have talked about it, but none of us can say what it is."