Fade to Grey (13 page)

“Let me see. Yes, here it is. I’ve still got it.” Donna slipped the catch together and placed it back into her pocket. She patted it firmly as if to prove it was deep and safe.

“What do we do now?

“Let me think. We need light. I had a flashlight the night I left.”

Royce wondered what a flashlight was, but Donna seemed to feel that might help them see.

“Feel around for it on the window ledge while I get my clothes.”

“What does it look like?”

“I forgot you didn’t know. It’s, um, a silver tube with glass at the end. It’s got a button that turns it on.”

“Sort of like a spy glass?” Royce felt his way to the window and fumbled until he felt something cold and metallic. He guessed that must be the flashlight. There was a bump on one side; that must be the button. It didn’t feel like a shirt button, though. He pressed it but nothing happened. “I have it.”

“Good, shine some light over my way.”

Royce continued to press the button.

“You have to slide the button up with your thumb,” Donna said.

Now Royce was looking at the fat end of the flashlight when he slid the button. A white blaze of light blinded him and he hurriedly turned it away from his face.

“Blazes! I’m blind in my good eye!” He heard Donna laughing. “That’s not funny! This is a horrible device.”

“I can see now you’ve got the hang of it.” Donna watched as Royce waved the light around and around the room, trying to illuminate every object in there.

“You’re playing with it. I was afraid for a minute that the batteries were dead when it didn’t come on.”

“What are batteries?” Royce asked.

“Remember the chemicals I told you women dye their hair with? Sort of like that.”

“Right. I can see you now. What are we doing next? Going to Chicago?”

“We could, but that’s ninety miles away. I hate to drive in the dark.”

“We could go to my cottage until daylight,” Royce said.

“It’s not there anymore. At least I don’t think it is. It was torn down years ago. Let me think.”

“What about the Bradenton house?”

“That’s plausible, but there’s no electric or heat. I think it best that we go to the Holtzclaws. We could have food and shelter until tomorrow. Let’s go outside and see if my Cadillac is still there.”

Royce didn’t have a clue what a Cadillac was, but he was eagerly anticipating seeing it. It was probably a type of wagon or buggy.

They opened the tack room door and Donna focused the flashlight onto a huge metal box. It was the biggest blue box that Royce had ever seen. It had glass windows in it, two on each side and one in the back. The one in the front was very big. Really, it was more like a low small hay wagon. He walked around it in amazement. He ran his fingers over the outside and thought how smooth it was, almost slippery. When he got to the passenger door, he felt a crack in the metal. A hinge. So that was how you got inside, through the doors. There were knobs or handles on the doors. He wasn’t sure how to open them, he would wait until Donna unlatched one first. He saw it had rubber wheels, huge, black and thick. Inside each of the wheels was a metal cover that reminded him of a large platter. There were no wooden spokes. Perhaps the spokes were under the metal plates. He guessed that more things in the future were made out of metal. He watched Donna coming out of the building with her bundle of clothes. She nonchalantly walked up to her box on wheels and dug her fingers into the side and pulled upwards. Suddenly, the inside of the metal wagon was flooded with a golden light and some sort of church bells began pealing.

“Here, I forgot this is strange to you.” She walked around to the passenger side of the vehicle and opened his door. She waved her hand for him to get in.

Royce did as she wished, sinking into the soft leather seat. Before he knew it, she had closed the door on him. He felt a twinge of fear; perhaps this was really a large metal coffin. But he steeled his nerves for what was ahead. Bravely, he looked out the window and at all the dials and strange gadgets on the dashboard.

Donna got back in and twisted a knob on the handle. With a roar, the engine started. Royce shoved his legs forward in fear. What was next? Strange music came out of a black slot on the dash. He turned to Donna to watch the expression on her face. She seemed calm.

“It’ll take a minute or two to warm up. It’s good we’re dressed warm.”

“Yes, it’s good we did. What is this conveyance?”

“This is a horseless carriage. An automobile. We just shorten it and call it a car.”

“Horseless carriage. Amazing,” Royce said. “What makes it run? Chemicals?” Other things seemed to work off these chemicals Donna talked about, so perhaps this car did also.

“Cars run off a fossil fuel called gasoline. Man figured out how to harness the power of horses and put it under the hood.”

“How fast can this go?” Royce asked.

“Very fast,” Donna said. “Faster than the fastest race horse. We’ll just go slowly since we’re traveling to the Holtzclaws. But tomorrow when we go to Chicago, we’ll open it up on the freeway.”

Royce felt a thrill at these words. He loved to ride a good fast horse at a gallop across fields. He watched Donna pulling a knob on the dashboard in front of her and powerful shafts of light illuminated the stand of pear trees where his cottage had previously stood! Two beams of some kind of light split the darkness! While he was studying this phenomenon, Donna flicked a stick on the wheel and the lights got even brighter!

She pulled down on a thick stick with a knob that was between the seats and they began rolling forward. He was a bit frightened, but he had ridden in many a carriage that a woman drove. He hunched on the edge of the seat, closer to the big curved glass, but he settled back into the leathery softness and rested his arm on a convenient padded ledge on the side of the door. As they pulled out onto the lane, a warm poof of air flitted across his face. He didn’t know how the car generated heat; surely there wasn’t fire in the front or hot coals? He moved his hands up to the black slits to warm them.

“Feel good?” Donna asked.

“Yes, wonderful. The warmth is comforting,” he said. “Now my rump is even warming!” He palmed the seat to feel warmth emanating out of it. “The undercarriage isn’t on fire is it?”

Donna laughed. “This car has heated seats also. They’re wonderful in Chicago winters.”

“I can see that. I suppose much better than a wool blanket thrown over your cold legs.” Royce said. His bum was certainly enjoying the heat. “It smells heavenly in here. Like Lilly’s cookies or cakes baking.”

“It’s the vanilla air freshener.” Donna nodded to a little piece of paper dangling from a mirror.

Royce reached up to take it and sniff it. It was so fragrant he could almost imagine eating a chunk out of it. He sighed. It was all he could do not to.

“Does this
car
travel well in the snow also?”

“Of course! Just so long as it’s not too deep. I’ve got good quality snow tires on it.”

Royce thought that must be quite a sight to see, this huge metal box thundering across snow and ice. He secretly wished that would happen while he was here with Donna in the future.

“What year is it?” he asked her.

“I believe it’s the same as when I left—2010.”

Royce whistled through his teeth. Two thousand and ten. Imagine that! Never did he think he would see the future, unless he lived to a ripe old age of fifty or so. He looked at Donna, fearlessly turning the wheel as they approached the stage road. Except now it had a large red sign that her lights glared on.
STOP
! it said. She obediently stopped, even though there was no one around and her lights seemed to shine a far piece. She neatly turned the wheel and continued driving. Only this time, the rubber tires rolled smoothly. Royce peered out of the curved glass to see what the surface was on the road.

It was perfectly flat and grayish-black. Someone had neatly painted a nice white stripe down the center. Who on earth would have done that? It appeared the same person had painted white stripes on the side of the road also. As he stared out of the side windows at the stripes, suddenly he was startled by a loud roar and a blast from a horn that came quickly behind them. Shoving himself far into the right side of his door, Royce stared out of Donna’s driver’s side window. A huge vehicle, as big as a barn, overcame them and thundered past in the darkness. Dozens of colored lights glowed along its sides and top. Though he had thought the tires on Donna’s car large, this vehicle had even bigger tires! And there were more of them! So many he could not count as it sped on ahead.

“Darn semi-trailers! They think they own the road!” Donna steadied the wheel as their car shook a bit.

“What…what was that? It roared past us as loud as Mister Bradenton’s bull!” Royce’s eyes were wide with fear.

“Just a truck.”

“A truck! What is inside it?”

“It could be anything and nothing. It could have delivered its load and is heading back to a distribution center. It could be full of vegetables, or hanging meat. It could have clothing in there, or furniture. Just whatever a person wants to transport across the country.”

Royce pondered what she said. The truck was so large; he thought it could hold the harvest of three or four huge fields, all by itself.

As they neared the turnoff for the Holtzclaw’s road, Donna once again flipped a stick on the side of the steering wheel. This time, a green diagram blinked on the dashboard and chiming began. Royce thought it looked like an Indian arrowhead pointing to the left. They pulled into the Holtzclaw’s driveway and Royce noticed many cars of differing shapes parked randomly around the yard. He would have liked to have looked into all of them, but thought he would let Donna take the lead in this adventure. After all, this was her time. Donna pulled up next to a large white vehicle, not exactly shaped like her car. It was boxier and much higher off the ground. The tires were huge.

“That’s the Schroeder’s new SUV. Isn’t it beautiful?” Donna saw Royce looking the vehicle over.

“Yes, it’s wonderful. What’s an ess-you-vee?”

“Sport utility vehicle,” Donna said.

“Sports—now that’s something I can understand. And utility also. So this vehicle is for sports and working also?”

“In a sense, yes.”

They sat silently in the car. Occasionally figures could be seen passing in front of lit windows. One time someone came out on the porch. Royce saw the glow of his cigar or cigarette from where he was sitting. He smoked leisurely, then before snubbing out the butt, glanced over at Donna’s car.

“Donna?” Royce asked.

“Yes?”

“We need to go in before someone gets suspicious. I know you’re stalling.”

“Um, you do?” Donna drummed her fingers on the wheel.

“You’re trying to think how to introduce me, aren’t you?”

“Yes I am. Are you nervous?”

“Yes, a little bit. I am just wondering how people are here…in the future.”

“Basically the same as they’ve always been. They work, they love, they eat, and they fight.”

Donna smiled at the thought of how little mankind had changed in less than two hundred years. She smiled at Royce. “Let’s go in. We’ll give it our best shot.”

Royce jumped when Donna touched a button and he heard a loud snap from the side of his door.

“Sorry. Electric door locks.”

Royce didn’t know what electric was and he saw no padlock on the door either. Shrugging, he sat still, unsure how to get out of the car.

“Reach for the handle and pull it towards you.”

Royce reached for the only thing that could have been the handle and pulled it. The door opened a bit. He pushed it further with his elbow and jumped out. Though he enjoyed the ride, he had to admit it was a bit claustrophobic.

He and Donna walked up to the house together. When he reached up to knock Donna put her hand on top of his.

“Be yourself. I don’t think anybody will notice you’re different.”

“Right-oh,” Royce said, smiling. “I am starting to look forward to this.”

Georgina Holtzclaw opened the door with a laugh. Royce found himself being greeted by a busty teenage tiger, complete with whiskers and tail, holding an orange candy bucket.

“Hello! Who might you be?” she said, seductively popping a sucker in and out of her mouth. Then, seeing Donna behind Royce’s shoulder, her eyes lit up. “Ms Bradenton! I wondered what happened to you!”

Donna, startled, didn’t know quite what to say. Sometimes saying nothing will get you time to recoup. She figured Georgina would be momentarily startled by the presence of Royce, her apparent date. She was correct. And bringing an unannounced date was not her style either. She had been prompt to answer the party invitation RSVP very clearly, that only she would attend.

Royce smiled at Georgina. She was a comely lass; buxom in orange stripes and fair haired. Her eyes twinkled behind her black mask. Curling wiry whiskers tickled her cheeks, curving down to touching full pouting lips. He got the impression that she was desperate to act older than her age, which he figured to be around fourteen. Deciding to subtly ignore her, he noticed delicious smells emanating out of the house. Some were heavy and yeasty, as if someone had been baking bread. There were underlying spicy scents. A citrus fragrance floated through the air, light and tantalizing. He wondered where it came from. He remembered that it had been a long time since his last meal and his mouth began watering.

Donna slipped her hands around his waist, surprising him.

“Hi, Georgina! I want you to meet Royce,” Donna said. Her hands clasped together in front of his shirt.

Royce, surprised by her public display of affection, involuntarily tightened his stomach muscles. What was she up to? And why was she acting in this bold manner?

“Pleased to meet you, Royce.” Georgina slowly and gently offered her gloved hand. Royce shook it in the same manner, half expecting a little palm tickling from the girl, but she wasn’t that brave yet. She was still treading the line between child and woman and neither was quite a comfortable fit to her.

Donna released her grip on him and took him by the hand. She led him through the door. He thought Georgina was standing a bit too close deliberately, so he would have to squeeze by her. He didn’t think he was mistaken. He had other things to occupy him now. He couldn’t be bothered by a flirtatious teenager.