Chapter 4: Time Travel Anomalies

You know everything science fiction says about the rules of time travel? You can’t be two places at the same time. You have to avoid contact with yourself in the past. Anything you do in the past could change the future. You can go ‘back to the future’. From my experience, I’d say they’re all bunk. I don’t believe you can go back and change history. What’s done is done. You’re a kind of observer. It’s the things that aren’t history that you can affect.

Think about what Kyle was doing. Or rather what Despain was doing. I mean whoever the time traveler was who was giving Despain information about where to get the loot. I was pretty convinced that there was some 20th century traveler who was looking out of Despain’s eyes when Kyle sat across from him. Next time I got there, I was going to look in a mirror when I took possession of Kyle and watch for subtle changes. Maybe Kyle couldn’t notice it, but I could.

Anyway, I did some research about lost treasures in the library when I was in my junior year in high school. There were a ton of bank robberies in the late 1800s and early 1900s where the robbers were caught, but the money was never recovered. I suppose some of them were simply because there was a tendency to shoot first and ask questions later. You can’t get good answers about where they hid the money if they’re dead.

Despain was passing on all the accumulated knowledge of where the heist was going to take place and which direction the robbers were headed, where the shootout would be, and what was recovered. Kyle was there waiting for them like he was at Big Horn. When the shooting started, he slipped in, picked up the loot and left. Absolutely no history change. Clean as a whistle. So, while I was studying in school to pass stupid Algebra Two, I spent all my available spare time researching lost treasures in the Old West.

I figured newspapers were the key and most of the newspapers of that era were put on microfiche. I found out that various genealogical libraries had huge collections of old newspapers.

I knew the timeframe I was looking for, so I just started digging through every edition of every paper from the early 1890s. I found a lot.

A Broken Heart

The first time I saw Geneive in school—yeah, the very first day of school, just as the first bell rang—she looked daggers at me and I don’t think I’d ever seen her so angry. Hell! She dumped me. What did I do? She marched right up to me in the hall before class even started and got right in my face. That’s a good trick for a girl who’s fourteen inches shorter than me.

“You bastard! Not one call! All summer and you never called me once. Who is she? Who did you dump me for? I’m going to tear her eyes out, you fucking bastard!” Holy shit!

“Whoa, girl! What are you on about? I come down off the mountain and call as soon as I get in the house and you won’t even talk to me. You send your mother to tell me not to call you anymore. What right do you have calling me names, bitch?” I said that last a little too loudly and a bunch of people stopped in the hall and looked at us. I guess they figured there was going to be a good fight and they wanted to watch.

“You never called,” Geneive insisted.

“I did. The minute I got down from the range on July 24. Your mom said you couldn’t talk and I shouldn’t call again this summer. What was I supposed to think? You dumped me over the phone at Christmas. This time you used your mom.”

“Oh shit!” Tears sprang to Geneive’s eyes. “Don’t kill me, Cole. I didn’t do that. Honest. I fucked up royal when I broke up with you at Christmas. I would never break up with you again without facing you. Never. Oh fuck, Mom. Why would she do that?”

“You didn’t tell her to break up with me?” Geneive shook her head vigorously and tears were flying every which way. Fuck! Why do parents interfere so much? I reached out and pulled Geneive into my arms. She fell against my chest and sobbed. Mr. Carson, my Algebra teacher came out of the room and looked at us sternly.

“This is a school and we have classes. The hall is not the place to deal with your personal differences or your love life. The bell rings in ... forty-four seconds. Get to class.”

I bit back a retort and quickly whispered to Geneive, “Meet me after school.” She nodded and rushed away. I sat down at my desk in Algebra just as the bell rang.

What a waste. The first day of classes is a walk-through. The periods are twenty-five minutes long—just enough to get our textbooks and seating assignments if the teacher is a tight-ass like Mr. Carson. By noon, classes are out for the day. That meant that Geneive and I were free to have lunch together and not go back to class. She piled into the truck and slid over next to me like it was old times. We still had to talk, so we went to Sonic and got burgers and shakes and sat there to eat them.

“First of all, Cole, I never told Mom to break up with you. I really learned my lesson last year and if I ever break up with you again, it will be face-to-face just like we are sitting right now. Please don’t hate me.”

“I don’t hate you, Geneive. I was hurt that you wouldn’t even talk to me. Didn’t you know I’d call as soon as I came down?”

“I ... I wasn’t myself this summer. After the third time I didn’t go in to work, Mom got really mad at me and grounded me. I didn’t mean to keep forgetting things. I forgot to let the dog out. I forgot to go to work. I forgot what shoes to wear when I was working. It’s like I wasn’t all there. Mom got really pissed at me. Dad, too. The more they yelled at me, the worse it got. Then when I thought you didn’t call me, it got worse yet. I was like a zombie. I don’t think I really snapped out of it until I saw you this morning just as the first bell rang. I was so heart-broken to think you just abandoned me.”

“I won’t abandon you, Ginny. No matter how rough things get, I won’t abandon you.”

“You would for her, though,” Geneive said softly. She didn’t know about Mary Beth specifically, just that there was someone else I loved. Damn it. Two someone elses. I admit that if I could just go back and be with my Laramie and my little baby, I’d probably abandon everything. But I also knew that wasn’t going to happen and there was no sense even thinking about it.

“She’d never ask me to leave you, darlin’. I’m sorry I can’t give you better. If you figure you need someone that’s better than me, I understand. As much as I’d never abandon you, I’d never hold you back, either.”

“That sounds a lot like love, Cole.”

“Yeah. It’s a lot like love.”

We stayed an ITEM for most of the fall and winter and it was a lot like love. But all the way back then, the first ripples of trouble for the family were showing up. That fall Joe Teini moved to town.

I had no idea who the hell Joe Teini was. He’d gone to high school in Laramie and then went to college a few years before I was aware of other people. He was in his mid-twenties. He was apparently rich. And he stole my girlfriend.

What would Jason do?

Well, she chose what she wanted. We’d been dating and fucking like rabbits for almost a year and a half and I’d pretty much decided she was the one. She came out to the truck on Friday night for our usual date and sat by the door. She asked me not to move the truck. She hardly looked at me as she broke up with me. But she did it face-to-face like she said she would.

“There’s a group that meets on Wednesday night at the restaurant,” she said. “They have the private dining room and Daddy has me on that night to help wait the tables. And there’s this guy who has been really nice. And he asked me out. And I want to go. Cole, I would never cheat on you, so I’m breaking up. I really had fun this year.” Tears were pouring down her cheeks and I guess there were some on mine as well. “I loved you, Cole.” I reached across the seat to touch her, but her hand was already on the door handle. Lights hit the rearview mirror and a little sports car came screeching into Geneive’s drive behind me. “Goodbye,” she said and piled out of the truck to run to the car.

April Fool! I kept waiting for her to say it, but she didn’t come back to the truck. The car pulled out around me and spun gravel into the side of my truck.

A goddamned Corvette. I couldn’t believe it. She dumped me for an older guy in a black Corvette! The whole thought of it left a bad taste in my mouth. Geneive would probably be pregnant before the summer was over and he’d either dump her or they’d be getting married. I was wrong on both counts, but I didn’t find that out for a few months.

I guess Geneive was my first broken heart.

Mary Beth and I got away for spring break under the ruse that she was going to move to an apartment in Boulder and needed my help moving. She got our families to agree that I could go to Boulder to help.

I moved her.

The move from one apartment to another took about two hours. The emotional and sexual outpourings took six days.

I was in a bit of a funk. Let’s face it, I’d just been dumped for a guy in a ‘Vette. During the previous summer, I’d found out that Laramie and Kyle were real and not just something I dreamed or hallucinated. At least I had a bit of evidence that said they were, but there was no way I could get back. All I had were initials carved in an old tree that looked like what I remembered carving when I’d made love to Laramie and told her that I would love her as long as a tree stood in the forest.

So, having a week with Mary Beth was great therapy. As soon as we got her moved into her new apartment, we went out grocery shopping and condom shopping. The only other time we left the apartment that week was to go buy more condoms.

“Cole. Cole! Oh, my God, Cole! What are you doing?”

“I am burying my face in the sweetest muff on the Front Range,” I answered from between Mary Beth’s legs. And I wasn’t lying either. Once I’d finally convinced her that I really wanted to eat her, Mary Beth was a convert. She even trimmed up her pussy hair so I wouldn’t get so much in my mouth. When she arched her back and squealed for the third time she grabbed my ears and pulled me up next to her.

“No more. Please, not right now. I can’t take any more. I don’t care if Geneive dumped you, I’ve got to call her and thank her. She taught you well. Oh god, Cole. I’m exhausted. How am I ever going to recover? I love you!”

“I love you, Mary Beth. Damn, I wish life was always as simple as when I’m with you. When I’m here in bed with you, everything makes sense. You are my rock.”

“You mean you just want every day of your life to be a non-stop fuckfest,” she laughed.

“Hell, Mary Beth, you know I love us fucking. But I loved fucking Geneive, too. It gives me the creeps to think of that other guy fucking my Ginny’s pussy. But it’s more than that with you, Mary Beth. It’s not about fucking—or at least not all about fucking. I can’t see myself ever without you. I can’t imagine life without you. Sometimes I think we’ll just have to find a place where first cousins can marry and the hell with everything else. I know I’m only seventeen, but honey, you are enough for me. In fact, you’re all I ever want.”

“Shh. Shh. I love you, Cole. And I don’t care what the laws are either. But we can be all that for each other without getting married. Honey, I want you to have a real relationship with a girl you can marry and have babies with. I want to live next door to my little cousins and when your wife lets you out at night, I want to be there to love you, too. She’s out there someplace, Cole. That woman that can love you and still let you love me. Hell, maybe she’ll even love me. That would be a kick, wouldn’t it? Come here.” I leaned over to kiss Mary Beth and instead she licked my face.

“What?”

“I’m just checking to see what a little pussy tastes like. I don’t mind eating it off your face.”

“Geez, you can talk dirty!”

“And look what it did to your cowboy. I think he wants to go for another ride.”

“Aren’t you too sore?”

“I think I just flooded the corral. Get that rubber on and do me again, lover.”

After our week together, Mary Beth and I were more in love than ever. She told me in no uncertain terms, though, that I had to find myself another girlfriend and not think about her all the time.

“So, are you going to find a boyfriend and forget about me?”

“Yes,” she said firmly. “I’m not going to think about you at all this year.”

“Not going to go stand in that courtyard and think about kissing me?” I teased.

“No. Oh, Cole. Every night I’m going to lie down here in this bed and think about making love with you right here. I can’t kid you. I’m going to miss you every day of the year and I’m going to hunt you down in the mountains in the summer if I have to in order to be back in your arms. But we have to date other people and we have to be prepared for not being together. There just isn’t any way that we could get away with it.”

“No matter who I’m with, Mary Beth, I’ll always love you and I’ll always be your lover. If a girl wants to be with me, she’s just going to have to accept the fact that I love you, too.”

We hugged each other and cried a little and then made love one more time before I got in my truck and drove north.

And then spring break was over and I had to go back to school.

I dated a couple girls that spring before school was out. Nothing serious. Movie. Burger. Home. Little peck on the cheek and “Let’s do this again. Sometime.”

I think maybe girls were a little tentative about going out with a guy whose last relationship was known to be hot and heavy. I guess I was a little tentative about it, too. I just wasn’t ready or willing to let anybody else get that close.

I was pretty much relieved when school got out and I mounted up the next day to ride up to the herd for the summer. At least up here, with a little luck, I’d hear a hawk and go find Laramie. I was taking the high range again during the summer. Mom convinced me to take a week’s break and come home for my 18th birthday on the Fourth of July. I got delayed a couple weeks, though, because of storms up on the range. I held myself together by thinking about being back with Mary Beth. The day finally got there.

We were snuggled together in a hodgepodge of open sleeping bags and blankets on the air mattress basking in the glow of some pretty exhausting licking and kissing. I’m sure there wasn’t a living thing within a mile of us. They’d all be scared off by the noise we were making. We spent five days together up in the Tetons. I thought it was a little strange how my folks never blinked an eye about me going off camping when I’d been camping on the range for two months. And I was almost sure they knew Mary Beth was going with me.

The break was over all too quickly and I headed back to the range. The days are quiet with the herd, but they are long. I really didn’t mind. We rode twelve hour shifts, give or take, and with three of us, one slept, one cooked, and one was on the range. Of course, occasionally something happened to upset the schedule, like the thunderstorm last year that spooked the cattle and led me to that steer caught under a tree. It was different this time.

“Cole, Jack’s got a belly ache. I think it might be bad,” George said when I’d just got in from riding herd all night. I was ready to slide into my bedroll and be gone for the day. “I radioed your dad and he’s sending a truck up to get him to the hospital. But I don’t think Jack can make it to the trailhead by hisself. I think it’s his ‘pendix. You’re going to have to grab some grub and ride back out to the herd while I get Jack loaded out. I’ll try to get back as soon as possible.”

“Sure,” I yawned. “No big deal. Take care, Jack. You’ll be fine,” I said. I grabbed what was left in the coffeepot and piled some ham on a hard roll then mounted up again. Buttercup wasn’t happy about turning back to the pasture, but she’s a good horse and complied. We just sat out on the hill overlooking the herd while the dogs circulated.

I looked up in the sky and saw a hawk doing lazy circles high overhead. I wasn’t sure if it was there or if I was dreaming. I just knew that if that hawk screamed, I was going to go see Laramie. I just thought up at it.

Screech, damn it. Take me away.

Traveling: A Winter’s Love

I damned near got us killed. Redtail cried and I was slammed into Kyle’s body hard. I jerked his head around to look for his horse before it registered that it was snowing all around. I caught sight of his buckskin a dozen paces away and turned to go get him.

“No!” Kyle screamed inside my head. I felt the bullet whistle past my head before I heard the shot. I guess body reflexes respond without conscious effort. I never left the helm, but Kyle’s body spun and his hand drew the Smith and Wesson Model 3 as I dove to the ground and fired back. I watched in horror as a towering man raised his gun and then fell forward as his chest blossomed in blood.

I’d just killed a man.

I knew Kyle had killed before. I’d seen it in his memories. But that didn’t seem to affect me the way this did. I’d been in control of the body when the hand drew the gun and fired. I retreated as Kyle took over, approached the man, and put another round in his head just to make sure. He ejected the spent cartridges and reloaded as he kept looking around as if expecting another enemy to emerge from the trees. The snow was coming down so heavy I could barely see as far as the trees, but I heard the horses stamping. He grabbed the dead man by the collar and dragged him to the campsite a dozen yards away. Two men slumped over a chest and a third man lay in the snow a few feet away. There were three horses and a mule hitched to a buckboard. Kyle retrieved the gun that had been fired at us and locked the bandit’s hand around the grip. I rummaged around in his mind for what had happened just before I arrived.

Kyle had been waiting—right where I would have told him to. I’d read about the Wells Fargo robbery last Christmas. According to the articles, the robbers had had a falling out and killed each other fighting over the loot. I was puzzled, though. The reports said that a posse tracking in the early spring had found the campsite, the bodies, and all the gold in the Wells Fargo strongbox, unopened and untouched. If Kyle took the strongbox, that would change what was recorded in history.

We walked right past the men slumped over the Wells Fargo box and headed to the buckboard. There were three more boxes on the bed of the wagon. These, Kyle hoisted one at a time and loaded on his mule. They were lighter than I expected gold to be, but Kyle didn’t open them. When he was loaded, he went to the robbers’ picket line and loosened all the horses. He didn’t saddle them, but left the saddles where they’d been stacked for the camp. The mule, he ponied along with his own and we headed out of the snowy pass where they’d camped. The horses stamped and headed back down the trail the way they’d come.

Kyle had scouted the area well and I wondered how long he’d been camped there waiting. The trail we took would have been treacherous in summer, but with over a foot of snow, it was nearly impassable. Our camps were meager and rations were tight for both Kyle and the animals. At the first camp, he redistributed the packs and opened the wooden boxes. Instead of gold, there were stacks of Franklins in the three boxes. Kyle distributed the bundles of money in oilcloths and put it all in the mules’ side-bags. Then he broke up the boxes and used them for fuel for our campfire.

It seemed to me that Despain’s time traveler had access to a lot more information than I’d been able to gather so far. How the hell did he know to tell Kyle to leave the gold and take three other boxes? Currency wasn’t going to be a problem. Wyoming was a State of the Union now. This was all legal tender and easier to carry than gold. On the other hand, I had to figure out how easy it would be to cash that legal tender in my time and how durable it would be. He had to have some other plans. Whatever they were, I was making some plans as well.

It was the middle of winter and the chance that Redtail was going to swoop down out of the winter sky and snatch me back to my own time seemed remote. In my own time, I wasn’t seeing more than one a year. It was winter and it seemed to me like the best place to spend it would be with Laramie.

When we reached Boulder, I let Kyle enjoy himself for a couple of days while he got clean and got laid. He didn’t resist, though when I prodded him to keep moving north and even seemed content, somehow. I relaxed and let him be the guide as he followed the trail and then cut west after we crossed into Wyoming to pick up the Centennial Ridge, avoiding N.K. Boswell’s ranch. I filtered through his memories as they came up and he seemed to actually be pushing some of them at me. He settled back in his own mind and I swear he willingly gave over control to me as we trudged through snow up to the horse’s belly toward Laramie’s hut.

“Hallo the cabin!” I called as I was approaching. The hides covering the opening twitched and then Laramie came out holding a rifle.

“Kyle?”

“Laramie, honey, can I stable my stock and come in?”

“Kyle!” she yelled as she set aside her rifle and did her best effort at running through the drifts to me. I slid off the horse and held her in my arms. Well, I kind of held the layers of skins that were wrapped and tied around her with the layers of cloth and coats that were wrapped around me. It was damned cold out here.

It took close to an hour to get the horse and mules stabled in the little lean-to behind her hut with her pinto and two cows. A thermal spring kept water running into their trough. Kyle had a canvas that we’d used for shelter about the size of a wagon cover and we extended the lean-to with it so that all six animals were comfortable and warm. I saw there was plenty of firewood stacked next to the hogan and there seemed to be a good haystack beside the lean-to. Laramie led me inside and unwrapped the layers from each of us. The hogan was warm—a small space with lots of furs, a fire, and four people. I greeted Theresa Ranae and she nodded in my direction then held out the baby.

My daughter. My little Kaylene. Hell, she was eight ... almost nine months old now and burbling happily as she grabbed toward my wispy beard. As blond as Kyle was, the hair on his face wasn’t all that thick. The hair on his head, though, was long and Kaylene loved getting her fingers tangled in it.

“You’ve come back,” Theresa said. “How long this time?”

“I never know, Theresa,” I said. “But it’s winter. Have you seen any hawks circling this month?” She shook her head.

“Is that what it is?”

“The redtail hawk. Whenever he screeches, my ... personality changes. The other doesn’t bear you ill will, but I don’t completely trust him. If we are together when the hawk cries, you must get away.”

“Skin walker,” Theresa said. “My husband knew of such.”

“Redtail,” Laramie whispered. “It is like you were among my father’s people. When you are in the town of the white people you are Kyle Wardlaw. When you are with me, you are Kyle Redtail.” I smiled and pulled Laramie close to me as I held our daughter in my arms and settled into the furs with the two of them.

“Have you filed a claim and purchased land?” I asked.

“There was too much to do in late summer. We needed wood, hay, furs, meat, vegetables. We needed a place for the animals. And we needed to trade for tools and bullets. I could not leave.”

“We should have gone south with the People in September,” Theresa said. “But you changed things. This is now her home and we’ll stay here. It is not easy. But the other Kyle helped.”

“He what?”

“I saw him. He didn’t come near, but we could hear him cutting and splitting wood. At night, he came and built the fence for the animals and made the water trough. We ‘found’ a haystack less than a mile from here with wagon tracks leading away. All the wood was cut to make the shelter. Even when you are not here, he seems to want to help.”

“I’ll be damned,” I said. I knew Kyle wouldn’t hurt them, but I never thought he would help. I searched through his memories and saw that he didn’t want me to be angry with him when I returned.

“I’m glad he helped,” I said. “And now that I am here, I will continue to help. I will hunt and bring more wood and do what is necessary for a man to do to care for his family.”

“Does that include lying with your wife?” Laramie asked. I blushed. Damn! Her mother was right here beside us. In fact, I noticed that the bed furs were all in one place now. I supposed the three of them slept together for warmth.

“Do not worry, Kyle Redtail,” Theresa laughed. “When my husband first took me, his mother lay in the same furs. Having our family together does not need to dampen your ardor. I am an old lady, but I will relive my youth.”

“I hope you live long, Mother,” I said. I meant it with every fiber of my being.

It was still a little awkward. Theresa slept nearest the fire and cradled Kaylene in her arms as the two drifted off to sleep. Laramie and I kissed and I marveled again at how sweet her mouth was. I was still a little embarrassed and uncomfortable. Imagine making love to your woman with her mother and daughter in the same bed. I guess the saving grace was that there were no springs in this bed of pine needles and furs, so at least we weren’t bouncing Theresa around.

Laramie seemed not to have any such compunction. I thought we’d be keeping all our clothes on and sneaking our love quietly. It was not long, though, before we lay naked with our skin pressed against each other.

“Laramie, I love you,” I whispered as I stroked her milky breasts and moved my hand toward her hot center. “Throughout this life and all others. I’ve always loved you.”

“You speak strangely, Kyle Redtail. But I love you. You bring heat to my loins when I am with you and a strange emptiness when you are gone. Fill me, Kyle Redtail. Fill me with your love.”

I moved my hips and Laramie guided me into her warmth. For a moment as we joined fully together, we just lay still and enjoyed the feeling of being connected. I think Kyle was surprised that we didn’t immediately start humping and I felt an involuntary twitch as my hips pushed forward. But this was another new experience—the pure joy of being connected to the woman I loved. Slowly we began moving together, each intent on the other’s pleasure. I was in no rush to come to completion. I wanted to feel each ripple of her cunt as she pulsed around me and headed toward her own orgasm.

It was quiet—comparably. We’d both howled our joy to the moon on other occasions, but this time we kept our lips together and our tongues engaged as she shuddered her release, moaning into my mouth, and I filled her with an abundance of my semen.

Perhaps tonight we were making another child. I would have no trouble with that at all.

The winter passed and the four of us grew closer as a family, even with Kyle occasionally asserting himself to go hunting or tend his animals. He was pretty docile and retreated immediately whenever Laramie came into view. I think he was content to experience love and family that he’d never known. I let him have these outings. I remembered all too well how it had been the last time as I simply rested in the back of his mind while he hunted in the Big Horn. We celebrated Kaylene’s first birthday as a family.

When I was in control of his body, I slept. When Kyle had been in control last time, I was cursed to be awake all the time, even though he slept. I wondered if he had the same experience. I got my answer when I awoke one morning and discovered that I was slipping quietly in and out of Laramie, my hand softly caressing her breast. An embarrassed Kyle retreated as I came back to consciousness, but I was at peace. It was his body and I knew he enjoyed my couplings with Laramie as much as I did. I’d certainly experienced a number of his whores.

“We really need to get you to town as soon as it starts to thaw to file your claims and to buy property,” I said. “The world is changing rapidly and soon all the land will be claimed.”

“Who could want all of the land?” Laramie asked. “Is there not enough for everyone?”

“White men are greedy,” I said. “Wyoming is big and will never have as many people as the rest of the Union. Part of that is because of the big claims of men like N.K. Boswell. His ranch keeps getting bigger and bigger.”

“But, Kyle. I cannot simply go to Laramie and present a sack full of gold coins and buy land. I’m half Cheyenne. They would want to know where this money came from.”

“That’s true,” I said. “We’ll have to think this through.”

“I can buy land,” Theresa said. “I am white. No one would ask.”

I looked at Theresa. She was getting old. I guessed she must be at least forty. Her hair gleamed silver when she went out in the sun. Still, even though she was worn and worked hard, she was definitely a white woman. That might just work.