Chapter 4
I got into an argument with John, just before the end of the second year. The guy just would not take 'no' for an answer! While I admired his determination, it meant he had little or no thoughts for my feelings on the subject. I told him exactly how I felt, and told him if he continued to harass me with "missions", then our friendship was done.
That was the way the year ended. Levy told me to not worry about John, that he would come around. I just nodded. He wished me a good summer, and reminded me to practice.
This is not to say I had not helped the authorities on a couple cases. I had. I just did not want John dictating to me. I had a life, and wanted things for myself. Not only was I taking computer classes, but I was studying Wall Street and high finance, too.
I also found and bought an older model car. It was in bad shape when I got it. It was a 1966 Volkswagen Fastback. It needed a lot of work, which took time away from other projects, but I felt it was worth it. By the time I was done overhauling it, I had a good running car that took me wherever I wanted to go.
I packed my stuff, and made the trip home, taking it easy. It took me most of the day, but my car ran like a champ the whole way. Mom took one look at my car and laughed.
"Tom Wilshire! What on earth are you doing with that old rattletrap? Surely you could have gotten something better? Your dad left you enough for a new car if you wanted," she said laughingly.
"Well, I wanted something that was cheap to run. Do you know what kind of gas mileage I get with this car? Besides, I wanted the money to invest in the stock market. Buying this car leaves me a lot of capital," I told her loftily.
Mom just laughed. That was how my summer break started. I settled back into the routine of farm life. Not that we farmed, but there was the cow to milk every morning and every evening, the eggs to gather from the chickens, and the garden to tend.
I also found time to practice, practice, practice. I started getting flashes at first. Soon that changed, though. I could SEE what I had been doing! Time was like the skin of an onion. You peeled one layer back, only to reveal another!
That was the way I saw time. If I concentrated, I was able to look past the immediate past, and into a deeper layer of what had happened. When I focused on a specific layer or time, it fixed there. Don't ask me how I did it, but that's what happened. I was very excited!
The most recent events were bright and shining, with the next layer a little less shining, and so on. As I looked at the energy of the past, I found that the further back I went, the darker the time layer. The end of where I could see was 1800! I could tell something was there, further back, but I just couldn't penetrate that far... yet!
Now that I had that part of the problem solved, I set about trying to gather the energy into useful form. This was easier to think of, than to do. I knew if I could see and use my gift in a new way, then gathering the energy should be possible.
In the meantime, I practiced with my newfound ability. I am afraid that a lot of people thought I was probably a little crazy. I would latch onto a particular time line, and start following the events and people in it.
Thus it was that I could be seen walking around town with a sort of vacant expression on my face. I can't tell you how often I was stopped from walking into the street, or just narrowly avoided an accident of some kind.
All in all, I got a reputation that summer as being a little addlepated. Of course, Mom heard about it, and asked me what was wrong. I thought long and hard about telling her what I could do, but I still decided it was wise not to let her in on my talent. I just told her I was a bit distracted.
As the summer wore on, my ability to look into the past got even better. I could go as far back as 1789 by the end of July. My ability to go farther and farther back seemed to be getting easier. I wondered if that was because of the training Levy had me doing.
August saw me approaching as far back as 1772. Ok, I admit it. I looked in on some of the more famous battles of the American Revolution! I couldn't help it. I took a few days here, a few there, and went to known battle sites, and watched what happened. I also "found" a few items of interest from that era.
It was not as easy as it sounds. Most of the battle areas had been picked over thoroughly. Still, I spent several days actual time watching certain people, and managed to watch a soldier go off by himself to die.
The poor guy was so confused that he stumbled down an embankment, crawled into a small opening that you could call a cave, only if you were charitable. There he died, alone. He was a British officer. He was well equipped, since he was an officer. After the battle, the winners sent out parties to search for wounded and dead, but missed this one.
I then started to go faster and faster forward in time from that point. I watched closely. I found I could sort of fast forward, like watching a videotape! I watched as the dead soldier was partially eaten by animals.
I watched the seasons come and go. I watched until I caught up to my own time. I looked around. It was getting late and I was in a small gully. The opening the soldier had crawled into was gone. It had been sealed by a slide years ago, and I had to get a shovel and dig.
That was how I found myself on public land, carrying out a veritable treasure of historical items, as well as other items I was able to convert into considerable wealth. The officer had had a nice leather pouch, which held quite a few gold and silver pieces. I also had his weapons which were not in bad shape, considering. He also had been carrying a leather bag of some sort, with maps and a diary! Most everything had been protected from the elements by being in the hole, which had been sealed shut by a mudslide.
I did not spend all my summer touring battle sites, though. I invested in a couple more stocks, and put even more money into one I already owned. I was getting a very good return on my investments.
It was one week before I returned to college, that it happened. I had gone to the church I went to as a child and settled in for a sermon. I looked around with my gift's eye, and was stunned at the power that seemed to be here.
Power? How did I know there was a lot of power here? All that straining, and going to church opened the way. I gave it some thought as I sat there. Perhaps I needed a sort of specific power source? After all, people, came to church for one purpose, and they were all there for the same reason.
At other places, people's lives were all important to them, so church was a place of intense concentration on one subject. God. That had me wondering about other venues. Stadiums! There had been stadiums for hundreds, hell thousands of years!
I stood and went to the back of the church and waited for the service to end. I then idly searched through the bands of time till I found one that brought back memories! I watched a service from when I was a child.
I remembered this day! I had been twelve years old, and I was getting my new bike this very day! Dad had loaded all of us in the car, but told us to wait a minute, as he needed to do something. He went into the house. He came back out a few minutes later, and nodded to Mom. I had thought nothing about it at the time, but that was his way of saying the bike was there, waiting for us to get home.
I watched the people, and my younger self and Dad walk out. DAD! I felt my eyes tearing up at my loss. Yet here he was, as strong as I had ever known him, a tower of strength that was always there. They left, with me knowing I was going home to my new bike. It was waiting for me in the living room... the young me.
After everyone left the pastor locked up, and he too left. I could still FEEL the power of this place. I was not sure what I did, but I reached out, and walked forward into the past! Well, I stumbled, really.
In that one step I felt like I was fighting a great weight. Yet still I pushed and strained. Then there was a lessoning of the tension that was restraining me, and I stumbled eight years into the past! I was there! I knew it as surely as I knew my own name, or that the sun shines in the day.
I made my way to the side door, and let my self out using the pushbar handle to open it. It would lock itself behind me. I stepped out into my past.
"May I help you?" the church pastor asked me.
"I'm sorry. I sort of fell asleep, and found myself locked in. I am very embarrassed about it," I said, hanging my head a bit.
He chuckled. "Think nothing of it. I don't think I have seen you in the church before. Are you new here?" he asked curiously.
Uh, oh. Careful now. "Actually, I am trying to track down certain historical families from this area," I replied, thinking quickly. "I am doing a paper on the Clayton family," I finished, congratulating myself on thinking fast.
"Oh, yes! A most famous local family. Well, you have come to the right area. Perhaps when I get back from seeing a parishioner we can talk. I used to know one of the Clayton's," he enthused.
I told him I would be glad to discuss them with him, and we separated. He to his car, and I to the street, and down too the local diner. I found I was starving! Wait! I didn't have money for this time! At least my clothing didn't stand out.
I watched cars go by that I knew no longer existed. There went the Gilmore's Honda. I knew it was destined for the scrap heap, after it was totaled by Mrs. Gilmore, this very same year. It had been a local tragedy when she had died.
I was eight years in my past. I didn't have any friends, and could not go home. I panicked for a moment! What if I was stuck here! What if I couldn't get back? My stomach rumbled to let me know what my proper priorities should be.
I remembered that after church back then, there was usually a social! Great! Free food! I headed towards the VFW hall where it was usually held. Sure enough, it was already in full swing. I made my way in and joined the queue at the buffet line.
I felt a pang of regret at all the people I knew, who nodded politely to me, but didn't know me. I ate, and ate. I'm afraid I made a pig of myself, and it was noticed. Old lady Jackson cornered me and started a third degree.
Every time I tried to answer one of her questions, she would interrupt me. I finally put my plate down, and looked her in the eye.
"You must be Mrs. Jackson. Your reputation precedes you, Ma'am," I said, then walked away.
I heard gasps, and a few chuckles behind me. I made my way outside, and headed back to the church. Now that I had eaten, I was feeling much better. I was also worried about being stuck in the past.
Eight years in the past was not too bad of a place to be stuck in, really. But I wanted my own time! I started getting anxious again. I hoped like hell what Levy postulated was correct. To be sure, I wanted to get back into the church, and watch myself arrive. Then maybe, just maybe, I could latch onto the time I had left.
I waited for the pastor to come back. I stayed out of sight, and went in after he unlocked the main door. If I remembered correctly, and I did, he always opened the church for private prayer Sunday afternoons.
I was in luck. He was not in the church proper, but was in the back somewhere. Well, that was fine with me. I quickly touched on the power that was here. Yes, still a lot of juice! I sunk into the time, and watched.
I followed the most current line back to when I arrived, and I saw HOW to get back! As my other self stepped into 'here', from the future, I grabbed the time line I had just come from... um, the other me... I stepped forward into the future, or rather, into my own time! I knew I was back, for I could FEEL it! Everything felt... right.
I quickly made my way out of the church, and sure enough, there was my car! I sighed. I was back! I got into my car, and started to think. I had seen myself arrive in the past, and I saw how I had left the present to go into the past. Now that I had seen it, I was sure I could go back to the future from any point in the past as long as I had the energy to effect the transfer.
I drove home thoughtfully. When I got there, I fixed myself a large sandwich, as I was hungry again. Apparently, time travel took a lot of your own energy as well. Mom wasn't there so I lay down and napped a bit.
The beginning of my third year of college got off to a slow start. I had decided not to tell John or Levy that I had succeeded. I had already regretted telling John as much as I had, given the way we parted a few months ago. I definitely did not care to share this with either of them. I was reluctant to see how it would affect our relationship, and was worried about their reactions.
Edited By TeNderLoin