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Grace took one last look at the lot and the road. No taxi worked its way toward her. Nothing worked its way toward her. No matter. If Joel had already passed this way, she would find him. If he passed through later in the day, she would find him just the same. Of that she was sure. But before she could find him, she had to enter this mysterious hole in this unfamiliar place.

Grace walked toward the shaft, pulled a flashlight from a pocket of her coat, and pushed the switch. A bright beam shot forward. Thank God for batteries, she thought.

When she reached the entrance, Grace said a silent prayer. She asked for guidance and a happy outcome. On a day when so many Americans were preparing for unhappy outcomes, she needed something a bit more positive. But most of all, she needed a resolution. She needed to get the show on the road and find the answers to questions she had just begun to ask.

Grace pointed the light toward the darkness and sighed. It was time, she thought. It was time. Gathering her courage and her bag of belongings, she bravely stepped forward into the void. She entered Colter Mine on a cold December morning and left her world behind.

CHAPTER 7: GRACE

The mine worked its magic quickly. It sent Grace to a different time in less than a minute, though not the time she had anticipated. As the woman in the blue gingham dress and wool coat moved slowly through the narrow shaft, she drifted not to 2000 but – mentally, at least – to 1937. That was the year 17-year-old Grace Vandenberg and three fearless friends had explored a slightly wider cave near Nanking, China, in search of lost treasure.

Grace smiled to herself as she recalled the last summer of her idyllic youth. More tomboy than princess, she had rarely passed up an opportunity to have boy-like fun, whether exploring caves and jungles, throwing mud balls along the Yangtze, or playing tag in the village. She liked to test her mettle and push her limits and the Colter Mine was providing her with ample opportunity to do both.

The similarities were easy to spot. Both the China cave and the Montana mine had bats, dust, and manmade debris, visible reminders of human habitation. Each was deep enough to require artificial light. But only the mine had reinforced wood beams to support the rock and earth over her head and steel rails to guide her way in.

She paused every now and then to look for signs that a wayward cowboy had passed this way but found nothing to suggest that he had. As she plunged deeper into the shaft, Grace saw fewer cigarette butts and beer bottles and more dust and bats. She doubted that more than a handful of people had explored the farthest reaches of the mine since miners had extracted its gold more than forty years earlier.

The dust caused at least two significant problems. It made it hard to breathe and even harder to see. A hundred yards into the shaft, Grace found herself pining for the crisp, clean mountain air she had left behind and the bright daylight at her back. Even with a powerful flashlight, she found it difficult to see far into the distance. When she reached a spot under a beam that was visibly free of bats and rats, she turned off the light and wiped the lens with her coat.

She glanced back at the entrance and saw an opening that looked more like a dot than a circle and nothing like the gateway she had passed through. Then she looked forward and saw something she had not seen before: a blue light that flickered in the distance. Even the thick dust that aggravated lungs and coated lenses could not dim its brilliance.

The glowing room.

Grace turned on her flashlight and stepped forward, hopelessly drawn to a geologic wonder that had heretofore existed only in a letter in her pocket. Within a matter of seconds, the mysterious display was visible even through the light-reflecting dust. Filled with growing excitement, Grace picked up the pace and moved as briskly as she could in her well-worn saddle shoes.

When she reached her destination, she turned to face the room and stood in awe. Blue phosphorescent light filled a chamber about the size of a large house trailer.

Grace peered through the doorway to the attraction beyond but found no conventional source of illumination. The dazzling light seemed to emanate directly from sheer walls that looked like they had been cut from the earth with precision instruments.

Grace ducked to avoid a low-hanging beam and entered the room. Once inside, she lowered her suitcase to the ground and took stock of the place. It was even more impressive close up.

Mesmerized by the flickering blue light, she walked toward a wall and pressed a hand to its surface. The wall was cool to the touch and as smooth as glass. No wonder Joel had been drawn to this place. It was amazing.

She knew a chamber such as this would be the talk of any academic conference. But was it a portal to the future? She stepped toward the back of the room to search for clues but stopped in her tracks when she heard a rattling sound she had heard only in movies.

When Grace heard the sound again, she glanced at a far corner of the room and saw the shadow of something slither along the ground. Whatever it was, and she had a pretty good idea, it was big. The creature stopped, lifted its head, and slithered back toward her. When it rattled again, Grace screamed.

"Bad snake!" she shouted. "Bad snake!"

Grace stared at the creature with wide eyes. It was a snake all right – big, brown, and no doubt full of enough venom to put her down with one bite. Even so, Grace did not race for the exit. She instead stood her ground and shook a finger at her inhospitable host.

"You're a very bad snake. You scared me," she said. "You stay right there."

The reptile did as commanded. Perhaps impressed by the resolve of the intruder or charmed by her beauty, it advanced no farther. It formed a coil and stuck out its tongue.

Grace took a moment to catch her breath but did not take her eyes off the beast. She knew from similar encounters with snakes in the Philippines that you never turned your back on something that could slither faster than you could run. She sighed with relief as the serpent slid out of its coil and retreated toward the far wall.

Grace didn't wait for the unpredictable reptile to hand her its business card. When she was sure it would stay put, at least for a while, she stepped backward and raised her arms. She kept them raised until she felt the low-hanging beam and decided it was finally safe to look down, grab her suitcase, and leave.

She quickly re-entered the main shaft, where darkness, dust, and assorted creatures awaited. That was fine with her. Even darkness, dust, and assorted creatures were better than venomous snakes with five-inch fangs.

Grace gave the glowing room one last look and proceeded toward the mine's entrance. She was not at all sure she had fulfilled her obligations to the operators of this geologic funhouse, but she suspected that she had done all she could do for now. She saw no additional doorways or chambers, no magic levers or wall-mounted instructions – just the usual sights in an unusual place that she was now all too happy to leave.

Having seen the worst that the mine had to offer, Grace moved confidently through the dark, dangerous shaft. She no longer cared about bats that hung inches above her head or rats that scurried between the rails. She would be rid of them in minutes.

As Grace drew closer to the entrance, however, she became more anxious than confident. Something had changed in her absence and that change posed a potential problem. Thick boards now covered what had been an unobstructed opening.

The barrier was not the only change. When Grace reached the entrance, she peered through a gap between the boards and saw leaves on deciduous trees, weeds where a rusted Ford had once stood, and buildings that had aged decades in minutes. One leaned like the Tower of Pisa.

The sky too looked different. The sun loomed higher above the horizon and the air it heated was noticeably warmer and drier. If Grace had any doubts that she had arrived in another time, if not another place, they were gone – long gone.

Grace examined the obstruction and looked for an easy way out but didn't see one. What she saw was a nine- to twelve-inch opening on one side that barely accommodated her suitcase.

She knew she could never pass between the boards and the side beam wearing her coat and feared she might not be able to pass wearing her dress. But in the end, only the coat had to be shed. She pushed the coat and the suitcase through the narrow opening, turned to her side, and shimmied through the gap like a vertical limbo dancer. Petite frames had their advantages.

Grace collected her coat and suitcase and checked the time. It was nine forty-five – at least nine forty-five on December 8, 1941. What time it was in the world around her was anyone's guess. She assumed it was sometime in the year 2000. She hoped it was sometime in the year 2000. The idea that she might be stuck in another year or even another place was too unsettling to contemplate. She did not have the answers. She knew only that she had to move forward until she found a person or a place that could provide all the answers she needed.

CHAPTER 8: GRACE

Grace needed thirty minutes to descend a road that Pete needed ten to climb, but she did not mind the walk. The exercise felt nice on what she guessed was a late spring day. The breathtaking mountain scenery also allowed her to take her mind off something that was obvious the minute she had emerged from the mine: she had crossed a line and there was no going back.

As she approached the end of the narrow access road, Grace noticed that the flora and fauna weren't the only things that had changed. So had the visible signs of human development. A massive log mansion sat a stone's throw from the intersection with Gold Mine Road, an intersection that had been conspicuously free of buildings on the drive to the mine.

Grace walked across the road to a long empty driveway and finally to the steps of the two-story residence. A life-sized black bear, carved from a log, greeted her with beady eyes and menacing paws as she approached the door and rang the bell.

The visitor pressed the doorbell twice, but each time the gesture was greeted by silence. She knocked on the door, with a similar result. Grace stepped out onto a large, well-manicured front lawn and lifted her eyes. Music streamed faintly out an open second-floor window. She pressed the doorbell again. The third time was not a charm.

Sensing that someone was home or at least on the property, Grace walked around the mansion and then investigated three smaller structures that flanked the residence. She found a tool shed with an open door, a greenhouse full of flowers, and what looked like the world's largest doghouse – but no people.

The time traveler cautiously approached the freshly painted dog hotel, which featured two paned windows, a shingled roof, and a welcome mat that read KILLER. The occupant, a golden retriever, killed the living daylights out of a large leather bone but little else. When Grace summoned the pooch, he rushed forward and licked her in the face. A guard dog he wasn't.

Grace gave Killer a killer belly rub and then resumed her tour of the premises. She thought of leaving a note for the dog's owners until she realized that she had not packed a pen. She would not have known what to write in any case. She needed direct human contact and needed it soon. Helena was a long walk away.

When she reached the south side of the mansion from the spacious backyard, she looked into the distance and saw a small red vehicle race up Gold Mine Road. It slowed as it passed the house and finally came to a stop at the intersection with the access road.

Grace watched with interest from a hundred yards out as the car sat in the intersection for nearly a minute. She saw two occupants but could not tell whether they were young or old, male or female, or even residents of the area. Not that it mattered. They were her ride into town. She raced toward the vehicle with an arm in the air.

When Grace reached the end of the driveway, she waved and shouted, and appeared to gain the attention of one of the vehicle's occupants. The passenger briefly looked her way. The driver, however, kept his eyes forward. He turned onto the access road and proceeded slowly up the hill. A moment later, the red car disappeared behind a cluster of trees.

Grace dropped her arm, sighed, and walked dejectedly back to the house. When she reached the front door, she sat beside her suitcase and coat on the top step and pondered her next move. She wanted to believe that she had several options, but she knew, as a practical matter, that she had only two. She could stay put or hit the road.

Grace found the first option appealing. By curling up to the door, she could get needed rest. She was tired, both physically and mentally, and wanted a respite. She had not slept well at the airport and desired rest even more than she desired food. By sitting on the front porch, she could also keep an eye on the intersection. If Joel came walking down the mountain, she could be in his arms before he had a chance to apologize.

She liked that outcome. She liked the idea of discussing their new life together over soup and salad at a Helena diner. She did not like the idea of chasing him to Seattle, but she knew that that was most likely her next step. Joel had almost certainly passed this way.

Grace considered the mansion's residents as well. They would be back. She was sure of that. They had a dog to feed, a yard to maintain, and music to turn off. The question was how long to wait for them. Should she wait ten minutes? Ten hours? Staying put suddenly had less appeal.

So she pondered the second option: hitting the road. She thought of the red car. If there was one vehicle on Gold Mine Road, then there was bound to be more. If she started walking now, then she'd surely run into someone willing to give her a lift. The highway wasn't
that
far.

Grace gave the matter another minute and then picked up her belongings. The weather was nice and the day was young. It was time to get moving again.

CHAPTER 9: GRACE

Grace did not have to wait long for a lift. Fifteen minutes into her walk, she heard and then saw a sleek blue coupe kick up dust as it sped southward on Gold Mine Road. When the car screeched to a stop in the middle of the road, a woman who appeared to be in her early twenties rolled down her window and started talking.