September Sky (American Journey Book 1) (53 page)

"I guess this is it," Chuck said. "Are you going to be all right?"

"I think so," Wyatt said. "The professor has offered to help me to find a new home and adjust to this world of yours."

"Are you
sure
you don't want to join us?"

"I'm sure. It's safer here," Wyatt said. "It's also more interesting and visually stimulating."

Chuck laughed.

"I can't argue with that," Chuck said. He sighed. "You're doing the right thing, Wyatt. Rose would have approved. She would have wanted you to enjoy a time and a place she never had the chance to see. She would have wanted you to move on."

Wyatt looked at Chuck with moist eyes.

"I know."

Chuck gave his dear friend a long hug. He then stepped back, turned to face his charges, and instructed them to retrieve their suitcases and bags from a spot near the exit. He lifted his own suitcase and opened the door.

"Are we ready?" Chuck asked.

"We're ready!" Anna said.

Charlotte gave her husband a warm smile. She had clearly found what she'd been missing the past few days.

"Let's go then," Chuck said.

Chuck led the party of five into the dark chamber and proceeded to the exterior door. After Bell shut the interior door behind the group, the group leader pulled out the blue crystal. He held it up toward the low ceiling until the embedded overhead lights started to do their thing.

A moment later, Chuck led the group out of the tunnel, up the stairs, and onto a backyard that hadn't changed a bit in nine days and 116 years. When the others assembled around him in the middle of the lawn, he couldn't help but notice that two things had changed since April.

The first was that he was no longer a loner, a restless and driven soul who lived and worked only for Number One. He had a family now. He had an incomparable wife, an amazing son, two spirited daughters, and a baby on the way. Chuck vowed to rebuild his life around them.

The second thing that had changed was that he was not merely a witness to 1900 but rather a participant. He was now as much a part of this time as the people who had been born into it. He would make his mark on this world just as surely as he had made his mark on the last.

Chuck took Charlotte's hand, led her a few feet to the edge of the yard, and gazed at a vibrant city and a clear September sky. He took a breath and smiled. The day, the first of his new life, was off to a good start. He could already smell the citrus.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Writing may be a solitary venture, but producing a novel is not. Most authors require the assistance of others to produce works fit for the reading public, and I am no exception. I am deeply indebted to several people who offered their time, talents, and insights.

They include Cheryl Heldt, Esther Johnson, Becky Skelton, and Christine Stinson, who read the early drafts; Mary Heldt, Leslie Teske Mills, Neal Wedum, and Diana Zimmerman, who read later drafts; and Amy Heldt, Tedrick Housh, Jon Johnson, and Craig Stoess, who provided input on topics ranging from history and law to language and art.

A big thank you goes to Laura Wright LaRoche for producing the striking cover. The Indiana illustrator modified a public-domain image that was first published on a postcard by Seawall Speciality Printing of Galveston and Houston, Texas, around 1919.

I am also grateful to Aaron Yost for editing the final draft and several others for providing research assistance. They include staff from the Galveston Island Tree Conservancy, George Memorial Library (Richmond, Texas), Library of Congress, Los Angeles City Historical Society, Rosenberg Library (Galveston), Texas State Law Library, University of Texas at El Paso Library, University of Texas Medical Branch, and Water and Power Associates (Los Angeles).

While writing this novel, I consulted several published works. They include
Isaac's Storm
by Erik Larson,
Galveston and the 1900 Storm
by Patricia Bellis Bixel and Elizabeth Hayes Turner,
Story of the 1900 Galveston Hurricane
by Nathan Green,
The Complete Story of the Galveston Horror
by John Coulter,
Through a Night of Horrors
by Casey Edward Greene and Shelly Henley Kelly,
Death from the Sea
by Herbert Molloy Mason Jr., and newspaper articles from the El Paso
Daily Herald
and Galveston
Daily News
.