Echoes of Tomorrow (7 page)

With a skeptical look, Reed stared at her as though he couldn't believe such unacceptable behavior was viewed with so cavalier an attitude.  It took Elise several attempts to reassure him that she was neither offended nor compromised, and even then she felt certain he still didn't believe her.

"Well, I am sorry, also, that I hovered.  But I am so overwhelmed by all of these...devices.  It has become somewhat of a game to try and figure out the purpose of each one."  He flung his arms wide to encompass the entire room.  The gesture made the already-too-small shirt stretch tightly across his chest, exposing a generous amount of well-developed muscle.  Through the taut shirt she could see the ripples of his stomach muscles. A sudden "zing" shot through her chest and her heart thudded against her ribcage.

Lust.  Simple lust.  He's too good-looking for his own good.
  Her body didn't want to respond when she willed her heartbeat into a slower cadence.

His story of the day before settled more comfortably around Elise when she watched Reed pick up an electric can opener and jump a foot when he accidentally pushed on the lever.  When she turned on the oven to bake some biscuits and he had to open the door and gingerly check the heat with his hand, she forgot all about calling the police.

She cracked open a can of biscuits by slamming it on the edge of the counter.  Reed watched her with undisguised curiosity as she doled them out onto a cookie sheet.  She also noted he was trying desperately not to "hover."

She shot him a sheepish grin and said, "I'm sorry I snapped at you earlier.  I guess I'm not a morning person today.  Hover all you want."

Reed beamed and stepped closer, so close she could feel the heat of his body.  She had to fight the urge to lean back into him - to lean against the length of him and have him wrap his arms around her while she snuggled the back of her head against his chest.

Get a grip, Gerard,
she admonished herself when she realized how close she'd come to giving in to the urge.  She'd been too long without a man, and it was making her weird.

*******

During breakfast Elise watched Reed's discreet attempts to adjust and readjust his snug-fitting shirt.  She realized he needed some clothes that fit him better, since he didn't appear to be going anywhere.  From the look of what he'd "arrived" in, he was accustomed to tailored clothing with a precision fit.  When she brought the subject of a shopping trip up she was sure she noticed a look of relief, even though he insisted that he was fine and could make do with Don's wardrobe.

"Nonsense."  Elise grabbed her plate and cup and slid them into the dishwasher.  "We don't know how long you'll be here and you need more than one change of clothes.  We can leave right after I clean up."

"Elise, the only currency I possess is the twenty dollar gold piece I showed you, and I hesitate to give that up.  It is one of the few links I have to my past."

"Oh, is that what you're worried about?"  Elise gave herself another mental shake and tried to concoct a story on the spot.  She wasn't a convincing liar so she tried evasion.  "You don't need any money, Reed.  I'll buy you a few things and you can find a way to pay me back later, okay?"

"Well...it is true this attire is cursed uncomfortable, but I insist on paying you back some way.  Perhaps I could work off the debt by overseeing some of the work here, or doing some bookkeeping for you."  Reed's face was so earnest Elise almost laughed.

"Yeah. Sure. You bet."

*******

Reed walked through what Elis
e called the mall, making a conscious effort to keep his mouth from falling open in awe or craning his neck like a country bumpkin.  The trip into town had become more and more amazing as they got into the heavily populated areas, and everything from what he now knew to be traffic lights to billboards elicited an explosion of questions.

When a thing called a 727 glided across the sky, Elise seemed to read his mind.  Before he had the chance to choke out, "What in the name of God...?" she pulled the car to the side of the road and gave him a brief and simple description of an airplane.  She mentioned a couple brothers named Wright, then she launched into an explanation of why, even though it seems impossible to the average person, air flight is not at all amazing, and once the fundamentals are understood it's quite simple.  Then she smiled great big and told him that that particular plane was a Boeing 727, and to remember that.

He was astonished, then disbelieving.  He waited for a punchline.  Elise just nodded and eased the car back into the traffic.  He filed away a dozen questions to ask her when he had less to absorb.

Now he could see he had more to cope with than he bargained for.  He did not want to embarrass Elise or make a fool of himself, so as they strolled through the mall he fixed a blasé look on his face and tried to give the impression that he had been there hundreds of times.

Elise busily explained malls and how all large cities had them. While he tried to keep his face expressionless, she grinned and knocked her shoulder into his arm, making him sidestep awkwardly.  With a delighted giggle, she said, "That's better.  I was beginning to think you were taking your new surroundings for granted."

Reed readjusted his blasé expression.  "I was trying not to embarrass you," he said, but she just continued to grin at him.  He hooked his thumbs into his pockets, as he had seen other men do, and continued strolling along.

They swung into what Elise called a department store and headed toward the men's department.

Reed spent the next hour or so accepting or rejecting each selection, then trying on what was left.  He self-consciously suffered through choosing small clothes with  Elise in attendance.  He adamantly refused, though,  to even try on, let alone purchase, any style of short trousers.

Their next trip was to the shoe department, where Elise waved away his first selections and ordered him to try on a pair of well-padded Reeboks.

He slipped his feet into the shoes and took a few tentative steps.  Never had he worn anything so comfortable.  He felt as if he walked on pillows, and proceeded to tell Elise until she jabbed him in the ribs, indicating with a tilt of her head the young salesman who peered up at him through squinted eyes.

Elise was obviously enjoying herself immensely, and she picked out a pair of dress shoes for him as well.  He grumbled a bit that they weren't as comfortable as the other ones, but she nodded to the sales clerk and whipped out what she called a "charge card."

She led him out of the store in a different direction, but before they got too far he was brought up short by another amazing sight.

What appeared to be a staircase stood, or rather moved, in front of him. Elise called the stairs an escalator, and he insisted on stepping on and trying it out.  It took him several seconds to decide when to step, and then only because Elise shoved him in the back.  His arms flailed, and he grabbed for the rail.  Several people turned to stare.  Elise just smiled sweetly and said something about him being off his medication.

The trip back down proved much less daunting.  He turned and smiled at her with smug triumph.

On their way home from the mall, Elise made a quick trip to the courthouse.  Her search for some kind of records of Reed's existence in the past met with a dead end.  The young man who helped her made a thorough search, but returned from his task shaking his head.

"It seems, Ms. Gerard, that most records from anywhere near that time have been destroyed."

"When were they destroyed?  During the Civ...1800's?"

"Actually, it's hard to say when the damage was done.  Our biggest enemy in the records department has been the Mississippi River.  It's flooded this area so many times that I couldn't even tell you when the records you're looking for might have been destroyed.  There's a good seventy-five year window of opportunity here between the time of the records you're looking for and when the levys were built to hold back the floodwaters.  Sorry."

Elise studied the clerk thoughtfully.

"That's okay.  Thanks, anyway, for all your help."

She turned and gave Reed an apologetic look.  He wondered if the misery he felt showed in his face.  He got his answer when she took his hand in hers and squeezed.

*******

Each morning Reed would wake and immediately scan his surroundings.  When he found himself still in the guest bedroom, his emotions were torn between relief that he hadn't left Elise, and agony at being separated from a life and time that was his.  He wondered, more than he liked to admit, how he would feel if he woke in his own time to discover he had left Elise behind.  He wondered, also, about Nell, his staff, and his friends that were back in 1844 while he was here.  Was he dead?  Was he even gone from there, or was there a part of him that had been left behind?  It was not something he could begin to answer, so he tried to put it from his mind.

Elise was in much the same predicament.  Each morning she would wake and go immediately to look for Reed, to assure herself  he was still there.  With each passing day she grew closer to him, leaned on him, and she was becoming more and more worried that one morning soon she'd wake up and he'd be gone, with only the imprint of his body on his bed to prove he'd ever been there at all.

After nearly three weeks she knew she had to have a talk with him.  She'd been on a two week vacation, and that, added to her scheduled days off for that month, had amounted to three weeks.  In two days she would have to fly her first trip since Reed's arrival, and she was in a quandary as to how to explain to him that she was an airline pilot.  How could she explain to him that her job was to fly those huge planes he'd been staring at, open-mouthed?  She would have to leave him soon to fly a four day trip.

That evening at dinner they sat across from each other, finishing off a dessert of old-fashioned bread pudding.  Reed looked up from his plate with quirked eyebrows.

"You've been awfully quiet this evening."

Elise cleared her throat.  It was now or never.

"Reed...I, uh...well, I mentioned my job once and...and you were rude enough to fall asleep."  This produced an apologetic, little-boy grin.  Her heartstrings tugged.  "Anyway, my job is...that is to say...I fly those airplanes you've been running outside to look at for three weeks only I fly cargo and not passengers and I'm out of vacation time and I'm due to go back to work in two days and I have a four day trip and I'm going to have to leave you here while I'm gone!"  Elise sucked in her breath and held it when she finished, an apprehensive stare locked onto Reed.

His face was priceless! 
Oh Lord, where's a camera when you need one?

"You...fly...airplanes?"  Reed said it as if he had to think very hard between the words to grasp the reality of it.  Several minutes elapsed as he absorbed this piece of news.

"I hadn't given the topic of your income any thought at all.  The women of my time did not work unless absolutely necessary, and you seemed so...well, to be vulgar, well-off that I assumed you had an income from the plantation and an overseer to run it.  I realize now that my assumption was foolish, considering all the changes I've witnessed in the last three weeks."

"I know it's hard for you to fathom, but you know, we have talked about how the difference in the role of women today is immense, and flying is something I love.  Anyway, I have this trip, and I hate it more than I can say, but I'll be gone for four days.  I should be back here before the weekend, and then I'll have a few days off before my next trip.  Do you think you'll be okay until I get back...I mean with all the ‘devices’ to deal with?"  He still referred to everything as a device.

He waved his hand as if batting at flies.

"Give it no more thought, little one.  I feel I've mastered your machines and can fend for myself.  I have plenty to fill my days.  I'll keep busy and," this he said with a grin, "keep out of trouble.  You go on and don't give a second thought to me.  Just know that I will be more than ready to see you at the end of your trip."

Elise had only half listened after he'd called her "little one," but the comment about seeing her at the end of her trip doused the glow and brought her reeling back to reality.  A wave of nausea flowed through her and she knew she'd never forgive herself if she came home to find that he'd somehow been transported back to his own time.  Maybe she shouldn't go.  Maybe she should call in sick.  Dozens of ideas raced through her mind, but she forced them away.  She couldn't live her life around a possibility. 

How in the world had this man come to mean so much to her in such a short period of time?

*******

The next two days were like a fairy tale for Elise.  They spent every waking moment together, horseback riding, stopping for picnics, renting movies.  As Reed watched the screen, awestruck, Elise watched Reed with a soft ache building in her chest.  They stayed up until all hours of the night talking, delving into each other's personalities or looking for a clue to his being there.  Elise had dozens of questions about the house and what it was like when Reed owned it.  He promised to take her on his own type of tour of "their" plantation when she got back.