Hamelton (Dr. Paul) (11 page)

We stopped several times on the way back to let Jeff sit and settle his stomach. I found out days later that Handy had taken Hanna aside during one of those breaks and asked her to spend that night with him. She had abruptly turned him down. I can't blame her for being firm after nicely discouraging him for a week. In fact I kind of admirer her now that I have lived life more since that day because I have seen so many women confused with their own self esteem that a complimentary male confuses them into trading sex for compassion without any sincerity on either side. Hanna seemed to need emotional support but the price, even though she liked Handy, was too high a price to pay.

At the mansion William was having a meeting of all the followers he had left in the main room. There were about a dozen of them. John the Friar, the over dressed man that had put his cape over Hanna, and the two bearded men that I first met during the first dinner with William were among them that I recognized. The man I had talked to at the fountain was no longer a follower and not there.

William waved us in when he saw us. He continued his talk about energies emitting from light as we sat and listened for some time. After about an hour of what I thought was a bunch of nonsense, I told myself that he should keep to what he knows best, and motioned to the others that we should retire to our rooms to discuss the Mulligan problem. Handy whispered that he wanted to stay and listen to William for a little longer. I would have objected had I known then that he had just been turned down by Hanna. Now a woman reading this may think "Handy seemed strong enough to take being dumped by a woman he had never dated." But the misconception that because a man does not show pain, even to his best friend, he is not hurting, is not only wrong, but the pain is often magnified by the self inflicting agony of keeping the pain bottled up inside of him.

The four of us just talked as close friends for hours about the mission we were on, Hanna told stories about the town of Hamelton. The stories were interesting but unrelated to anything that was going on at the time. We eventually retired for the night before Handy returned from his classroom talk with William.

XI

I awoke with the sound of Jeff fidgeting around looking for his pants. As I sat up I looked over to Handy to see that he did make it to bed. "I slept longer today than I've slept in a month," I said to Jeff.

Jeff, smelling his shirt as he was putting it on said, "This is really a filthy time in history. They don't have showers, baths are a pain to take and the water is cold. Washing clothes takes a day. Why didn't we think to bring a change of clothes?" That was a satirical question and he was not expecting an answer. Jeff threw a pillow at Handy's head. "Wake up, we have dragons to slay." Jeff's energy level seemed to shoot up as he jumped on the foot of Handy's bed and did an animated sword fight with an invisible opponent and sword. Jeff ran the villain through then fell on top of Handy.

"Get off me," grumbled Handy, "can't you children act with the slightest level of maturity?"

"Whoa!" I mocked him not understanding the level of seriousness he had. We got ready for the day with barely a word spoken between us. We then walked across the hall to knock on the girl's room.
"Come in," was the reply. Entering the room we saw both girls sitting on one of the beds with their legs crossed. They were giggling as girls often do when they are bonding.

"This sounds fun; can we join in on the joke?" I said, not really expecting an answer, but to get a response.

Before the girls could say anything, Handy still in the hall said in a firm voice, "William is waiting with breakfast for us. We should attend." Then he turned and walked down the hall. We gave each other 'stuffy' looks then smiled as we followed him.

Looking back to that day, in pain, I wish I had taken to heart the serious predicament of my best friend. On the contrary, I was so wrapped up in the problems of the people of that time that the clues that were being thrown at me about the mental stability of the person that was the easiest for me to read went unnoticed. I have spoken numerous times about that day to counselors, who did not have a full understanding of the entire episode until they will eventually read this manuscript. They say that I did not know that Hanna had insulted him and I had no way to know how seriously he had fallen in love with her, so therefore how could I have blamed myself for not taking action at that time? My response is simple; no one else could have but me! Had I given the person that meant the most to me in my life five minutes of thought, I would have known that something was needed, but I didn't. Handy was cold and disoriented. He seemed angry at the rest of us. He had and would again break his promise to keep together as a group. Now I can see that in the state of depression he was in, he probably thought Jeff and I were teasing him that morning and the girls were talking and laughing about him. We followed Handy to the main dining room where William was in his usual place at the end of the table. There was a large assortment of fruits and breads set out on the table. Much of the food seemed picked through as if the rest of the guests had come and gone. William stood to greet us as we came in. We took our seats around him at the end of the table. We talked about unimportant matters for most of the meal to break the morning ice. Cindy had asked if he was having financial problems, how he could afford such a wonderful meal. William informed us that he had plenty of ready money to support his house and servants for months, maybe a year. The king whom he refused an invitation from was taking political action against him and those he cared for. It is the increased taxes that were being levied on the townspeople, whom he cared about, that he was trying to collect capital to pay for. He said he was still a very rich man and owned property all over England, however those people that could afford to buy property as large as his, had been instructed not to buy any of it until he had learned his lessons from the king. He said that he would be leaving soon to take a day long trip to see an old friend to ask for help talking to the king.

I asked him what he knew about the stable master in town. He said that he had traded horses for years with him and their fathers before him, "The man always makes a good profit but is a very honest person to deal with.” Hanna asked if there was anything that we could do for William that would involve dealing with the stable master. William thought for a moment then said that the stable master was going to go to the leather maker with him to order a custom saddle for one of his horses he was to soon give as a gift to a friend to pay back an old favor. We could do that for him. I said, "I do not think it's a good idea to spend money on a custom saddle right now. Is there something else we can do for you?"

A little hurt, William said, "I have no intention to close down my home. I also intend to pay all debts that I owe. This money is small when looked at the costs for all I spend. My problems with the king will pass and all will be the same as it was. The king is my friend. He is just making a point so others will not disobey him like I did. His punishment is not to hurt me, but so that others see his wrath."

Handy saying the first thing since we sat down, "Could you use my help talking to your friend today about the request to the king?"

"Yes. Yes, I would appreciate the company," William replied.

Firmly I stated, "We have things to do ourselves. We must go as a group to town today. John Handy what are you thinking?"

Handy just as firm stated, "I'm thinking that you are not my father and can not tell me what to do. I am also thinking that thanks to your decision to come here in the first place, William is having all these problems. We owe it to him to do anything to help him."

Now trapped into being more accommodating I said, "Then we will split up and take care of both missions in teams. Jeff should go with you. Is that what you want?"
"No. Do you think that I'm not competent to do this on my own?"

So I told him to go with William by himself. William apologized for being the subject of argument then suggested that we take a carriage to town today because proper women shouldn't ride horses. The actions of his guests reflect on his reputation.

William made sure that we had the money to pay the leather maker in full before we left the table.

The carriage was large and comfortable. The driver was polite and quiet. Once in town we went straight to the stable master Edmund and took him with us about two blocks to the leather maker. The leather maker seemed puzzled that Master Hamelton would pay in advance when his signature on a note could be used as money in the town of Hamelton. The business went fine but we still never found any way to help save this content man's life. We couldn't ask him because he surely didn't know himself what we were there for. After he left us Hanna wanted to take a good look at the town. We walked into every store in the town it seemed. We bought us all, including Handy, shoes because the ones we had looked too well made for this time. We also bought another set of clothes so we could wash what we were wearing. Not much else happened besides some interesting conversations with the townspeople. Our driver was waiting for us and took us back to the mansion.

William and Handy's carriage had not returned yet. We sat in the back garden rather bored waiting for them. We did decide that we had made a major mistake coming without the information regarding what we were to do there. We decided to travel back tomorrow afternoon and rethink this out from the future so we could understand what we were to do.

When William and Handy returned, William excused himself to his room. Handy sat to gloat that William's friend had been convinced to send a letter in William‟s behalf to the king. He then asked if we accomplished anything. We told him how uneventful the day was. He started talking about how I had planned everything so badly. He kept saying, "William said..." this and, "William said..." that.

Jeff said rather mad and insulted, "What have you been telling William our business for? We promised not to do that."

Handy said boldly, "I think that I can decide when he needs more help than you vote that he deserves. Besides, we further need to help him as he makes an attempt to retrieve his lost follower in the Garden of Eden. We are going to guard the Hidden Six to await his return. For now I'm going to retire to my room. I will see you all at breakfast." He turned to leave the room with us all astonished over his statements.

I said, "We were planning to go home tomorrow. We can't stand guard over a house. And what is this about your room? We all sleep together."

He replied as he walked, "I frankly don't know or care what you do, but I am going to fulfill my promise to William. As far as the rooms, William says that the mansion is mostly empty and it is foolish to share. And I'm not planning on being a fool." He finished with his back disappearing up the staircase.
The four of us had no choice but to wait until Handy decided to be more reasonable. For the time it seemed best to let things play out and see what happened. Of course at this point I realized that Handy was having some abnormal problems, but I also knew that the door to discussion was closed as far as I could see. I would need to find an opening to talk to my best friend.

XII

We were woken the next morning by Handy's knock at the door and his voice shouting through. "We are having a meeting in the library," was all he said. He did not open the door nor wait for a response.

The four of us showed up in the library without our hair even combed. William was talking to all his guests including Handy. We were the last to arrive. William said that he was going to try to get to the Garden of Eden. Once there, he was going to try to come back and push the tunnel from the side to see if he could move the time he returns. That could put him before the loss of his missing follower and could convince him not to go. He said he wanted all his followers to come with him so he could use the increased mind power to move the tunnel. He said although he wanted the, group from California Island to join him, he didn't want to risk our health. He asked if Handy and I would guard the Hidden Six for him.

After the followers unanimously voted to go with him, he excused them and spoke to us. "Each time I've gone to the Garden of Eden since your first arrival, the pulling of the tunnel has been decreasing. I don't know how many more trips I can make. I do know that you have all been loyal friends and I wish you well. There will be no trouble guarding the Hidden Six, there never is, it is just a precaution I like to take.”

“ I would think it an honor if I could give my friends a few timely gifts." He reached behind a large armchair to retrieve gifts he had stowed previously. "For the ladies I have some wonderful diamond pendants, to accentuate their beauty. For Jeff, two jewel incrusted silver armbands that were worn by my grandfather as a gift from the royal family. For Chris and my good friend Handy, I give you some of my prize possessions. My set of swords. They will serve you well. These were made for me at my birth. The smaller one is the sword I used in youth to learn the weight and balancing of the weapon until I was big enough to handle the larger one.”

Handy acquired the full sized sword, which left me with the smaller one. I did not mind because this was what I had thought was a large dagger that will later hang on my bedroom wall however much newer and untarnished. The swords came with their sheaths which were heavily inlayed with precious metals and gems.

“ And further I give one of these to each of you." He pulled out five fist sized black velvet bags and put one into each of our hands. "You said just one coin was worth a fortune in your time. Good luck to you all." He leaned back in his chair and smiled contently.

I, wanting to bite my tongue as I jingled my bag apparently holding gold coins. I said to William, "These are truly wonderful gifts, however they are really too expensive to give. And this is not our final good-bye, is it?"
"We never know which good-bye is the final one. And as far as the money, this is just a trifle in my time, and a fortune in yours, where do you think it has the most value?"