Blackfeather, an Erotic Paranormal Romance Western Adventure
Devon Layne
Copyright ©2015, 2017 by Elder Road LLC
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Requests for permission to make copies of any part of the work should be submitted via e-mail to ElderRoadBooks@outlook.com.
This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental, improbable, and highly insulting.
Cover Art licensed from Shutterstock.com
Second eBook Edition
ISBN 978-1-939275-31-8
Cast List
Twenty-first Century
Laramie ‘Ramie’ Wyoming Bell: Narrator. Teen girl on a cattle ranch in Wyoming.
Kyle Redtail Bell: Ramie’s six-month younger half-brother.
Phile Bell: Ramie’s three-years younger brother.
Caitlin Bell: Ramie’s three-years younger half-sister.
Cole ‘Pa’ Bell: Laramie and Kyle’s father.
Mary Beth ‘Mom Mar’ Bell: Cole’s cousin/wife. Ramie and Phile’s mother.
Ashley ‘Mom Ash’ Bell: Cole’s wife. Kyle and Caitlin’s mother.
Aubrey Diaz: Ramie’s best friend in high school.
Annie Wilcox: Neighbor girl thought to be fast and easy.
Forrest Knight: High school friend of Ramie and Kyle.
Shelby Morris: High school friend of ramie and Kyle.
Merv Longsteer: Cheyenne medicine man who owns a trading post.
Kurt: Gun shop owner.
Nineteenth Century
Miranda Lewis: Teen girl who becomes Ramie’s host in 1865.
Dorothy ‘Dolly’ Lewis: Miranda’s mother.
Theresa Bell: Miranda’s stepsister.
Jonathon Bell: Miranda’s stepfather.
Harriet: Kidnapped girl.
Katie Forster: Kidnapped girl who goes with Miranda.
Beulah: Kidnapped girl who stays at trading post.
John: Owner of trading post.
Kyle Wardlaw: Young soldier. Kyle’s host.
John ‘White Horse’ Hamm: Cheyenne brave educated at Harvard working as Kyle’s translator.
1 Just Kidding
KYLE AND I couldn’t wait to get on our horses after school let out for the summer. We started out easy, but horses like to kick it a little going uphill. Before long, we were whooping and hollering and cantering up the trail to Centennial Ridge. I was thirteen-and-a-half and my best friend—my brother—had just turned thirteen. Seventh grade was behind us. YeeHah!
Kyle’s my half-brother really, but who cares? Mom Mar had me in November and Mom Ash had him in May. We do everything together—riding, roping, hunting, fishing. Even fighting with the brats. Everything. Kyle’s got my back and I got his.
By the time we’d made it up to the ridge, though, I was feeling a little punky.
“Kyle, I gotta pee.”
“Yeah?”
“You’re a lotta help. I need to head for the bushes.”
“Ah, just do it here. I gotta go, too. I’ll point this way and you point that way.”
Well, I usually find a bush to pee behind, but we hadn’t made it to the woods yet and the nearest human being to us had to be close to a mile away. So we just jumped off the horses and I faced uphill a few feet from where he faced downhill. An old raven was sitting on a rock about twenty feet away just watching me.
“Shoo, bird. I gotta piss. Don’t need an audience.” He didn’t go anyplace, but something caught his interest behind him and he turned that direction. I pulled my pants down and squatted.
I got hit with such a bad cramp I almost fell over.
“Ow! Ow, ow! Oh, shit!”
“You okay, Ramie? What’s wrong?”
“Don’t look!”
“I ain’t lookin’. What’s wrong?”
“Just stay put.” I stuffed some toilet paper in my drawers and pulled them up. My first time and I’m up at the top of a freakin’ ridge with my brother. “Kyle, get my light poncho out of my pack and toss it over my saddle, would ya?”
“What’s wrong, Ramie? What do you want to sit on your poncho for?”
“’Cause I don’t want to get my saddle bloody,” I said in a huff. Damn it! My gut hurts.
“You’re bleeding? Ramie, what do we need to do? I gotta get you down to a doctor. We need to tie off the flow. I got a bungee cord in my saddle bag. We can use that for a tourniquet,” my idiot brother said. He was panicking. Why do I have to explain this to him?
“You can’t tie it off with a tourniquet. I ain’t gonna die. Just… I got cramps. Help me up on Pooky. I want to go home.” All right, I was getting whiny. I’ve got to hand it to Kyle, though. He didn’t hesitate to do what I told him to. I could depend on him.
It was a long trip back down to the ranch. It was never as fast going downhill as going uphill. We rode along quiet-like and I tried not to be bitchy. Mom Ash warned me that when it hit, the hardest thing was not to make enemies of everyone around me. It wasn’t their fault. There was a howl off someplace south of us.
“You think that’s them damn wild dogs?” Kyle asked.
“I don’t know. Sure didn’t sound like a coyote.”
“We should take a summer hunting trip and just go shoot ’em. They’re scaring all the game away.” Well, we agreed about that, but Pa was firm that we didn’t shoot animals for sport. Oh, we hunt and fish, but animals are food. If you ain’t gonna eat it, you don’t shoot it.
“Did you peek, Kyle?”
“No!” That was a little too fast.
“Ya did, too.”
“How can you say a thing like that?”
“I know you peeked.”
“How would you know that?”
“I peeked.”
“Ramie! You…” he looked over at me. I held his eye as he tried to get his upset on. Then we both started laughing. Oh, god! That just started the cramps up again and I doubled up over my saddle horn. I felt Kyle’s hand on my shoulder.
“Is there anything I can do, Ramie?” he asked. I knew I could ask him anything.
“You got my back?”
“You know I do.” I looked up and smiled at him. It was a little weak, I suppose, but at least it didn’t come off like a grimace.
“Would you rub down Pooky so I can go on in? I’ll make it up next time. Promise.”
“Let’s just tie ’em at the post while I get you inside to Mom Mar. I’ll come out and take care of him when I get Dado. Come on. You can lean on me when you get down.” I slid off my horse and was thankful Kyle was waiting for me. He supported me on the way in and when Mom Mar saw me come into the kitchen she knew immediately what was going on.
“Kyle, I’ll take care of Ramie. You take care of the horses. Your Pa will be out to talk to you in a few minutes and explain everything. Get going.” Kyle left me with Mom Mar and headed back for the horses. It embarrassed me to think that Pa was going to go explain to him what a period was and that I’d just started mine. I was pretty sure he’d figured it out by now anyway. He wasn’t stupid—just clueless.
We had to work on the ranch that summer, but we got plenty of time to just ride. I love horses. A lot better than cows. Someday I’ll have a horse ranch.
Only thing was, we got new orders from Pa that no one could go off alone out of sight of the house. One of the hired hands radioed down that he was sure he saw a pack moving down in the valley southeast of where the herd was grazing. He wasn’t sure if it was wild dogs, coyotes, or wolves. Either way, Pa didn’t want the young ones riding out even together unless Kyle and I were with them. With our rifles.
So we mostly spent the summer wrangling Caitlin and Phile. Why Moms ever decided to add them to the litter is beyond me. They had two perfectly good kids already. I swear those two were raised by coyotes. We managed to have a pretty good time of it anyway. When the cattle came down from the upper range at the end of August, I was pretty sad that summer was almost over. School would start Tuesday after Labor Day.
“We gotta talk to them,” Mom Ash said. It was still hot and all the doors and windows were open for air. The brats were sent to bed. Kyle and I were watching TV but we could both hear our parents in the kitchen. “We can’t know for sure and they need to be prepared.”
“But she’s still my baby,” Mom Mar said.
“Honey, she’s still my baby, too,” Mom Ash said. “Both of them are. You know it’s for the best. When they get back to school anything could happen.”
“Kyle. Ramie,” Pa called from the kitchen. “Come to the office, would you please?” Pa always asked stuff like that so nicely. You didn’t make the mistake of thinking it wasn’t an order, though. When Pa asked you to do something, you did it. He never hit me. I know he laced Kyle’s hind end with his belt the day my brother almost burned the barn down, though. The brats, now, that was something else. If they weren’t getting a spanking, it was just because somebody gave up.
“What is it, Pa?” I asked. I was going to go hug him but he pulled up his chair behind his desk and motioned us to the couch where Moms were sitting. Moms were together in the middle of the couch so Kyle and I had to sit on opposite ends. This can’t be good.
“First of all, we’ve done our best to talk to you about the facts of life and you’ve lived on the ranch all your lives, so you’ve seen cattle and horses breeding. But people are more complicated than cattle. You’ve got emotions and a brain that will let you control your behavior. School’s coming up and it will be different with kids’ hormones kicking in. We just want you both to know that if you have any questions, we’re always available to talk with you. You can come to any one of us, or all of us. We’ll answer you truthfully and fully if we are able to. And if anyone approaches you sexually, just say no,” Pa said.
Mom Mar groaned. Kyle and I nodded. Say no? Some dude makes a pass at me and he’ll go home in a sack. If they find the pieces.
“Get on with it, Cole,” Mom Ash said. Apparently that wasn’t the conversation she was waiting for.
“All right, Ashley,” Pa said. He sighed. “Now that you are both more grown up, we have to tell you some things that might be hard to believe at first. Kids, you might be time travelers.”
I leaned forward and looked at Kyle. He leaned forward at the same time and Moms leaned back with a shake of their heads. Kyle and I started laughing. We were waiting for Pa to say “Just kidding.”
“We thought we’d done something wrong or something,” I laughed.
“For Pete’s sake, Cole,” Mom Mar said, still shaking her head. “You say it like that and I don’t even believe it anymore. Kyle. Ramie. Stop laughing. Your father is serious and I want you to pay attention. It might sound crazy, but it’s real—and embarrassing, too.”
Kyle and I stopped laughing. I looked at Mom Mar and could see her face turning red. Dang! What’s that about? Mom Ash was sitting there with her arms folded waiting on Pa. Pa had his elbows on the desk and was running both hands through his hair.
“All right. Settle down and I’ll tell you. We don’t know if this stuff gets passed down from generation to generation or if it was a one-time thing. We just want you to be prepared so you recognize what’s happening and don’t get yourselves or your hosts killed like I almost did. Well, did. I did get my host killed eventually.”
What followed from the mouth of our father was a science fiction story about him being sucked out of his body whenever a redtail hawk called and getting plunked down in the body of a 19th century kid. He did his best to explain how it worked, but he didn’t have much of an idea, really. The hawk called and he left his body. He said Kyle was named after Kyle Redtail, the man he inhabited in the 1880s, and I was named after Laramie Wyoming Bell, the girl he fell in love with. He even pulled his antique Smith and Wessons off the hat rack where they’d hung ever since I could remember and said they were his in 1889. And then he said Kyle and Laramie had become our great-great-great-grandparents. He even showed us the family Bible.
Then he dropped another bomb and Mom Mar turned beet red.
“The reason we’re telling you about this now is that… well, kids develop faster these days than they did in ours and we thought we were pretty fast. The first time I traveled was right in the middle of when Mary Beth and I were losing our virginity together. I never asked Grandpa Philemon how he got started. I don’t suppose you even remember him. The only other person I talked to who had traveled, though, started in the middle of her first sex experience, too. She was younger than me when she started and I was sixteen. Geneive was about your age. Her story isn’t a very happy one,” Pa said. He looked sad. “She’s gone now. None of us knew exactly why we were selected to travel. It helped us save a lot of ranches here in the county. But it seems like it created the problem, too. Maybe there won’t be any more time travel. We just want you kids to be prepared. And not to have sex too soon.”
I opened my mouth, but nothing came out. Holy fuck! Pa’s gone batshit crazy!
“Kids, go to bed now. Don’t ask questions,” Mom Ash said. “Tomorrow morning, you’ll start to think up some really good ones. Tonight, just sleep on it.”
Kyle and I kissed and hugged our parents and then headed upstairs to bed. As the oldest, I had a room all to myself. I was sorry Kyle had to share with Phile, but there were only three bedrooms plus our parents’ room. Maybe we could send Phile and Caitlin back in time. Permanently.
We were on that dang bus headed to school on Tuesday morning early. At least we didn’t have to walk to Centennial to catch it. We drove two four-wheelers a couple miles to the elementary school where we caught the bus. There were only eight of us who rode the bus from Centennial down to Laramie for junior and senior high school. Of course, it had to stop at half a dozen places along Snowy Range Road to pick up kids from the outlying ranches.
Kyle sat next to me and we started talking about what Moms and Pa told us Friday night. We didn’t ask any questions the next day or any of Labor Day weekend. I didn’t want to encourage my parents. I didn’t believe it at all. Kyle, though… he sort of loves science fiction and I think he watches too much TV.
“You going to do it?” he whispered.
“What do you mean do it? The way Pa described it he didn’t have any choice. That hawk screamed and he was gone. You can’t just decide to do it.”
“Yeah, but you know what he was doing. And that Geneive girl he talked about, too. It happened when they… did it, you know?” He was turning red. You’d think he was Mary Beth’s biological son instead of Ashley’s. Mom Ash never blushed at anything.
“Sex?” I said a little too loudly. A couple kids turned and looked at us. “If that’s what it takes to time travel, you can tell me about it when you get back. Have a boy stick his dick in me down there? No way. It’s disgusting!”
“I’m going to do it. Right on my sixteenth birthday like Pa.” He shifted in his seat and moved his hips around a little. My brother was becoming a pervert right in front of me. He was looking up front toward Annie Wilcox.
“If you’re supposed to be with another virgin, you’ll have to look further than her,” I whispered. “She ain’t going to wait till you’re sixteen.” I wouldn’t be surprised to find out Annie was already giving it out. Kyle folded his arms over his chest and dropped his chin to pretend he was sleeping. Guess that conversation is over. I took the same position. We looked quite the pair, I’m sure.
We got through eighth grade without learning anything useful. Well, I liked history the way Mr. Carlson taught it. He said history books don’t always tell the truth. He took two classes at a time for a walking tour of Laramie and showed us an official plaque right in the middle of town that had it all wrong. It made me wonder how much other stuff we get taught that isn’t true. If I could get a first-hand look at the Civil War, for example, would I think Abraham Lincoln was as much a hero as we make him out to be? Pa said there were still unanswered questions about both Lincoln’s assassination and Kennedy’s and Mr. Carlson agreed. I had to open my big mouth and Mr. Carlson ‘suggested’ I should write a paper on Lincoln’s assassination. Kyle helped me look it up on the Internet, but I suppose unless you were there you wouldn’t really know. Maybe it wouldn’t be bad to time travel.
Pa and Mom Ash took us hunting on my fourteenth birthday. Kyle and I knew our guns pretty well by then. We’d been taught how to shoot from the time we were kids and had to practice every week. Some things Pa and Moms were all in agreement about. We were ranch kids and we needed to know how to live on our own.
Mom Mar handled the base camp and the kids while we rode up into the mountains. There were only a few inches of snow on the ground in the high areas and the elk were still pretty high up. Later we might see some come down to the river, but they just don’t get along well with ranches. We found a good place and hunkered down with a thermos of soup to watch for a prize. It was a fruitless day. We were cold and wet and hungry by the time we got back to Mom Mar at the base camp. Most I saw were a couple squirrels and an old one-eyed raven that sat in a tree and just sort of watched us all day.
“Pa, why don’t we raise more cattle?” I asked as we rode home. “We’ve got plenty of pasture and range land. You said there were 5,000 head when we were born and we don’t have a tenth that now. Better yet, we could raise horses.”
“Well, little girl, we did have a season or two with a pretty big herd. But it wasn’t because we could justify supporting it. Even with 6,000 grazeable acres, that isn’t enough to support a herd that size and we had to dry feed even in the summer,” Pa said. “We were in the middle of a range war and it was all economics. The price went down and we couldn’t sell them. Dry feed alone ran us well over five million dollars. MB, that about right?”
“Yes,” Mom Mar said. “Don’t forget we had to hire close to thirty people and not all of them were cowhands. That was another million. Then when we finally got the market back, we had to fatten them on the feedlot. Rack up another couple million.”
“Don’t forget that for close to a year, none of us slept,” Mom Ash added. “I don’t mind working hard, but don’t get between me and my bed. Our bed.” She stretched. After sleeping on the hard cold ground last night, all of us were thinking about how nice our beds were. I was doing some fast calculating. Kyle looked over at me. He knew I was adding it up.
“Eight million,” I mouthed at him. His mouth fell open.
“Um… Pa? I guess I never thought about it. Are we rich?”
“Well, we don’t lack for anything. It’s part of the legacy from when I was… uh… traveling,” he said. “We created Gold Watch Cattle Company and pretty much subsidized the entire cattle operation of the county that year—well over fifty million.”
“Wow!” Kyle breathed. I could see his eyes light up. I was pretty sure he was going to go treasure hunting if he ever went time traveling. He didn’t have a practical bone in his body.
2 No Way
High school was… different. I don’t know why. It was mostly the same kids we’d been in school with since fifth grade, but last year we were the oldest kids in school and this year we were the youngest. And some senior dude I didn’t even know asked me out on a date. Oh no way, José. Troll.
On the other hand, we did hang out a lot with our friends at school. Aubrey Diaz, Forrest Knight, and Shelby Morris ate lunch with us in the cafeteria. We studied. We did chores. We rode when we could, but as winter set in that was pretty limited. We fought with the brats over who got to watch what on TV. And gave up. Kyle and I spent more time on our computers and sometimes late at night we even messaged each other across the hall.
My birthday came with the annual hunting trip. Kyle got a nice white-tail buck. I kinda gave him the shot. If he’d have missed, I’d have had my first big boy. But Kyle’s just as good a shot as I am. Sitting around the campfire, Pa gave me the birthday lecture on what a great man Kennedy was and that I was born on the anniversary of his death. Even Mom Mar rolled her eyes at hearing the story again.
“Let me tell you that when Cole and Ashley came into the house that afternoon and found me straining away upstairs, there wasn’t a thought about any dead presidents,” she said. “They were all business getting me into the tub. You came sliding out before the midwife even got there.”
“I’ve never forgiven Mary Beth for such an easy birth when Kyle took twenty-three hours of moaning and pushing before he deigned to enter the world,” Mom Ash said. “Don’t you forget, boy. Twenty-three hours of pain I endured to give you your start.”
“Yes, Mom Ash,” Kyle said contritely. We all giggled.
“Oh yuck!” Phile chimed in.
“You hush, boy,” Mom Mar said. “You balanced the scale when they had to use a can opener to get your big butt out of me. For a month after the C-section, I couldn’t even pick you up because you were too heavy.”
“Was I a hard delivery, Mom Ash?” Caitlin asked innocently.
“No honey. You didn’t start being a pain until you were about eight.”
Kyle turned fifteen in May of our freshman year and my world fell apart. Moms and Pa told him he could move out of Phile’s room and stay in the bunkhouse.
Back when we had a bunch of summer cowboys, the bunkhouse was just a couple big rooms with bunks, a locker room, shower, and toilet. But needs change over time and our two full-timers had wives and one had a kid. Pa had the bunkhouse remodeled into apartments. They weren’t big, but there were two little efficiencies, a two-bedroom, and a one-bedroom apartment. And Kyle was getting his own.
“Mom Mar, it’s not fair. I’m older than him. Why don’t I have my own apartment? I’d even keep it clean. You know what his apartment’s going to look like in a couple weeks? You’ll have to tear down the bunkhouse and decontaminate the place. Mo-om!”
“Ramie, you hush. Have some consideration for your brother. How would you feel if you had to room with Phile?”
“Why not send Phile out there?”
“You know he’s too little. Besides,” Mom Mar dropped her voice, “who would trust that little monster on his own?” We both giggled about that, but I still wasn’t happy.
I didn’t begrudge Kyle his own space. I had a room of my own and it wasn’t his fault there were only three kids’ rooms. When it came down to it, though, I missed him. He only came into the house for breakfast and dinner. I ended up studying alone and picking at the brats. I got pretty pissy with Kyle, too. Half the time he didn’t even answer my messages.
The last day of school, he headed for his apartment and I headed for the barn. I threw my backpack in a corner, saddled Pooky, and in ten minutes I was riding down toward the river. We weren’t supposed to go out alone, but I didn’t care. I didn’t have any friends and Kyle probably wouldn’t poke his head out until a Mom called us for dinner. Maybe I’d be in Albany by then. Who’d even care?
I just barely got to the river and started to skirt the watering hole when I ran out of steam. I was feeling so damned sorry for myself.
“You’re lucky, Pooky. Life is just one big long buffet table for you. You get brushed and fed. And I love you.” I hugged his neck and let the tears come. Must be getting to my time of month.
I wandered down by the water and looked up the hill. An old raven was pecking at something dead in the grass. When I looked his way he eyed me, but never moved from his meal. He had to turn his head to look at me because one eye was all cloudy.
“What do you want, old Blackfeather?” I demanded. “You’re always sneaking around and never saying nothing. Go away.” I plopped myself down and looked at the sky through my tears. Guess I was tired, ’cause I drifted off to sleep.
I came around slow-like. The sun was just starting down behind the mountain. It wouldn’t be dark for a while yet, but the mountains kind of cut the amount of sunshine in the afternoon. I glanced over to where Pooky was still ground-tied with Dado.
Dado?
I looked around and right behind me, Kyle was sitting, whittling a stick with his pocketknife. He grinned at me.
“Must be easier places to nap than out here,” he said.
“What are you doing out here?” I snapped.
“Ramie, I know we ain’t been gettin’ along all that good lately, but I still got your back. I saw you take off like a bat outa hell and I just figured I’d better get saddled and ride.”
“You really got my back, Kyle? Still?”
“Like always. I’m sorry I ain’t been friendly since I got throwed out of the house. I thought maybe you were mad at me, too,” he said.
“Kyle! Nobody’s mad at you! What do you mean throwed out?”
“I’m just like a hired hand now. Bet Pa sends me to the upper pasture with the cows all summer. I don’t know what I did. Did I hurt you, Ramie?”
“Kyle! No! I miss you. I thought you hated us all. I was so jealous of you.” I scrambled up on my knees and threw myself at my brother to hug him. I missed his pocketknife, thankfully. “I’m sorry, Kyle. How could you think you were thrown out?”
“Well, shit. Ramie, I got sent to the bunkhouse, didn’t I?”
“This is so screwed up. You wouldn’t believe the hissy-fit I threw over you getting to move to the bunkhouse while I had to stay in the house like a baby. Kyle, we used to study together and sometimes watch TV at night and then you weren’t there any longer,” I said. I hugged my brother, getting madder and madder at Moms and Pa. “Let’s go watch TV like we used to.”
We stood up and he put away his pocketknife after wiping it off on his jeans. We mounted and rode up to the ranch road then turned toward home.
“Ramie, you sure it’s okay to hang out in the house?”
“I tell you what I think,” I said. I was getting more and more pissed. “I think Moms and Pa got some explaining to do.”
“Pa, why did you send Kyle to live in the bunkhouse?” I demanded at dinner.
“You know, Ramie. Now…”
“Don’t tell me what I know. Tell me why,” I said. There was silence at the table. Even the brats dropped their silverware and watched to see the explosion.
“Young lady, you mind your manners,” Mom Mar said. Pa was frowning at me. I didn’t like it when he frowned at me. Maybe I’d really gone too far.
“Fine,” Pa said. “Your question. We gave Kyle an apartment in the bunkhouse because he’s a young man now and shouldn’t have to share a bedroom with his little brother. You have a room of your own and always have had. When we took Caitlin and Phile out of the nursery, Kyle had to share his bedroom with Phile. Now you need to drop this jealousy thing and learn to live with the fact that your brother deserves his own space, too.”
“Kyle thought he was being punished—thrown out of the house,” I said flatly.
“What? Kyle!” Mom Ash was out of her seat and around the table so fast the little ones ducked. She grabbed Kyle into a hug. “Why didn’t you tell us? That was your birthday present!” Kyle’s lip was quivering and he reached over to grab my hand. I squeezed it.
“Really? You didn’t just want to get me out of the house?”
“Why on earth would we want to do that?” Mom Mar asked. “Do you want to move back with Phile?”
“No!” Phile yelled. Mom Mar pointed a finger at him and he hushed. You could tell he was building up a head of steam, though. After all, the conversation wasn’t about him.
“I like having a room of my own,” Kyle said, “but it’s so damned lonely out there alone.”
“Language,” Pa said simply.
“Sorry, Pa. But it is. I don’t have a TV and half the time the Internet don’t even work.” I didn’t know that. I squeezed his hand.
“Well, that didn’t work out the way we intended. Why didn’t either of you just come out and tell us this right away?” Pa asked. “You’ve always been able to talk to us about anything.”
“Yeah,” I said, “but that was before you guys… uh…” I glanced at the brats, “…went crazy.” There was a moment of dawning understanding on the part of our parents. You could almost see them turn on the lights. Pa nodded a little and Mom Ash gave Kyle one more squeeze before she returned to her seat.
“When’d they go crazy?” Caitlin asked. She was digging into her mashed potatoes and peas as if nothing else that had been said this evening meant a thing. She was so oblivious to everything in the real world except Phile that it was a wonder she even heard that.
“About the day you were born,” I sniped.
“Never mind,” Mom Ash said. “It was just a misunderstanding. You’ll figure it out when you get a little older.”
“Oh,” Caitlin said, disgustedly. “Sex stuff.” That eleven-year-old could really get on my nerves.
After Kyle and I cleaned up the dinner dishes, Pa called us into his office. This time Mom Ash and Mom Mar were sitting together so there was room for us to sit beside each other. I sure hoped I wasn’t in trouble. Pa settled into his big leather chair next to the cold fireplace and pulled the ottoman under his feet.
“So, we’re crazy,” Pa sighed.
“Sorry, Pa,” I said. “It’s just so…”
“No. I understand. I just didn’t want you to end up like Geneive,” Pa said. “So here’s the deal. First, Kyle, you are not exiled. If you don’t like living in the bunkhouse, get your butt back into the house. Or Ramie, you can move into the other efficiency so you can see what it’s like to be on your own like Kyle is. But we expect both of you to be in the house for meals and there still won’t be a TV in your apartments. That’s why we have a family room. And you shoulda told me the WiFi doesn’t work.”
“We expect you to respect each other’s privacy, as well as that of the folks living in the other two apartments.” Mom Mar reminded us. I’m getting my own apartment!
“Second, just forget about time travel, treasure-hunting, and being our own ancestors. They’re just legends. Learn from them if you can. Otherwise forget it,” Pa said. He looked sad. I felt bad, but give me a break, okay?
“Uh… Pa?” Kyle said. Uh oh. I just knew what was coming next. “What happened in the uh… legends to a person’s body in the present when he went time traveling? Did he just disappear?” I rolled my eyes. I love my brother but how can he take this stuff seriously?
“Oh. No. It uh… As I understand… They say he walked around in a sort of dream-state. He kept functioning or passed out or got sick. It’s only the mind that travels to the past and arrives in a host,” Pa said.
“And the host doesn’t know someone has taken over his body?”
“I think… Experience… He is in a similar state. But you… or he… the legendary ancestor could just sit back to watch or take control. That’s what got my… his host killed. According to the legend,” Pa said.
“What about traveling to the future?” You get Kyle talking about science fiction and he’s likely to go all Dr. Who on you. And Pa was all over it.
“Only the past.” Kyle was likely to keep asking questions and we’d be there all night. I pinched him and he jumped.
“Okay. Thanks, Pa.”
Now can we go move my stuff into my new apartment?
3 Virgin Voyage
Kyle and I got to ride herd for two weeks during the summer. Phile and Caitlin weren’t happy about it because they had to stay close to home without us to watch them. We had a little responsibility on the range but it was all where we loved to be—on our horses. The guys taught us what we were supposed to watch for during the long days in the saddle.
“I’m glad you’re up here for a couple weeks,” Rafe said. He was our ranch foreman and we rode up with him to where the two summer hands and Jess, our other full-timer, were. Jess and Rafe traded a week on the upper range and a week at the ranch. “Mostly we just want you to circle the herd like we do. You don’t have to even keep an eye on them that much. Pay attention to what’s outside the herd. Birds suddenly scattering. Things getting quiet. We’re more concerned about predators this year than we’ve been in the past.”
“What are we looking for?” Kyle asked. “Mountain lions?”
“I’m not saying there aren’t any out there,” Rafe answered. “But folks are talking more about wolves than ever. And we can hear them sometimes. Mostly at night, but wolves will track in the daylight, too.” We nodded our heads and were hoping we’d get to see one.
Cattle scatter all over everywhere to graze, unlike what is usually in a movie where they’re all bunched up. A cowboy can ride five miles to circle a herd of three hundred head. Half the time they are lying down chewing their cud. We rode the perimeter letting our horses graze and watching like Rafe said. A couple times we heard them way off in the distance. Guess we hadn’t been hearing wild dogs after all. We kept our rifles with us all the time, but unfortunately, we never saw a wolf.
When Kyle and I rode down from the upper pasture, we spent one night camped out, not wanting to go back to the ranch yet. We made a fire and just stared up at the night sky while we lay back on our bedrolls. I loved being out there with just the two of us.
“You gonna do it, Ramie?” Kyle asked softly.
“Do what?” I asked. Sometimes he starts off a sentence in the middle of a conversation he’s been having with himself all day.
“You gonna, you know. Try to time travel on your birthday?”
“That old story,” I sighed. “Look up there. There’s a million stars out there. Why travel in time instead of traveling out there to a different world? It makes just as much sense.”
“You know they believe it, no matter what they say.” We saw a shooting star and pointed as we made a wish. “I sorta believe it, too.”
“I know you do. But, hell, Kyle, it’s just too weird. It would be easier if he said he dreamed it all. I’d believe that.” My eyes were getting heavy.
“Still,” Kyle whispered. “I’m going to try.”
Moms and Pa agreed! I get to stay in the bunkhouse.
I was freakin’ pumped. It wasn’t like Kyle and I spent all our time together, but we were near each other and somehow that made me feel better about the whole school year.
Kyle didn’t let up on me trying to time travel. Of course, in Kyle’s book, that meant finding somebody to have sex with on my 16th birthday.
“Look around you, Kyle. There isn’t a boy here I’d let anywhere near my coochie. Yuck!”
“Oh, come on. There’s 350 kids in our class, give or take. Statistically, half of them are guys. That’s 175 eligible guys.”
“174,” I said, looking at him. I wasn’t going to sleep with my brother. If he wasn’t my brother… Damn!
“Picky, picky. You could go with an older guy. There’s 350 of them. Another 175 if you take a freshman. Pure. Innocent. Gullible.”
“Kyle! I am not laying down my virginity in order to chase after some fantasy. Besides, we always go hunting on my birthday. What do you think I’m going to do? ‘Hi Moms and Pa. This is John Doe. He doesn’t need any other name. He’s just here for the sex.’ That is so not going to happen!”
My sixteenth birthday came and went. The wolves got my elk. I kept my virginity.
We finally saw the elk herd just below us and moving up. There were about twenty of them and we discussed which one was the best for me to take my shot at. There was only one elk tag available in this region and I got it. The herd never got close enough to take a shot.
One minute they were moving toward us, the next there were half a dozen wolves between them and us and another half dozen streaking in from the sides. Two of the herd were down before any of us could react. I pulled my rifle up but Pa put his hand on me and told us to get out our cell phones and start recording what we saw.
“Pa, we gotta do something. They’re killing them!” The big bull hooked one of the wolves with his antlers and threw him clear across the meadow. But two more were on him and in seconds, he was down. I figured they had their kill and the rest would escape, but the wolves kept attacking.
“They’re killing them all!” Kyle shouted.
“God damned killing machines!” Mom Ash shouted. She fired her rifle in the air.
“Why aren’t we shooting the wolves?” I begged. A young bull was surrounded and staggering. A cow had her belly ripped open.
“It’s against the law,” Pa said. “Touching one of those wolves is worth a quarter million dollar fine and five years in prison. This is what the fucking conservationists want.”
Only three of the herd were untouched and as soon as one bolted, a wolf was on her. The whole thing took about fifteen minutes. Pa had us switch back and forth with our cell phones so someone was always recording but we weren’t running out of battery or storage space.
I was crying. Every single elk in the herd was down. And they weren’t eating them. Not all of them. You could still hear the cows bellowing as their calves were ripped out of their stomachs. In an hour, the gorged wolves slunk off leaving fresh carcasses scattered over the field.
“Let’s go down before the scavengers get there,” Pa said. “We can’t interfere, but we can sure plaster this video all over the Internet.” We recorded the whole scene. They killed three or four for every one they ate. Buzzards were already circling overhead. We could hear coyotes moving in. Pa had us move back. My phone was dead. I looked at Kyle and he shoved his in his pocket.
I couldn’t eat anything Mom Mar cooked at camp that night. Caitlin and Phile had juvenile tags for pronghorns and hadn’t seen what we saw. It was a good thing. Even Mom Ash was crying when we got to camp.
“Why, Pa?” I asked again. “Why couldn’t we save them?”
“When a predator kills prey, it’s called natural selection. Unless the predator is a human. Someplace along the line we lost the idea that humans are part of the equation. Conservationists wanted to re-introduce wolves into our ecology. Except these wolves were never part of our ecology,” Pa said. “When we met with the FWS, we were told what we could expect if we touched one of their wolves. We weren’t asked for input. We weren’t listened to. We were simply warned.”
I didn’t get much sleep that night and we were all pretty tired the next day. I kinda figured that was my last birthday hunting trip.
Then Kyle started in.
“I’m gonna do it. Ramie, I just know that I’ll go time traveling and I’ll find treasure and be rich and everything.”
“Kyle, we’re already rich if any of what Pa told us is true. What do we need? Why do you want some old treasure? And who are you going to get to do the deed?” It was a little bit of a dig. Neither Kyle nor I had dated anyone. I didn’t know who he thought he’d get to sleep with him on his sixteenth birthday. Pa had to sleep with his cousin.
“Um… Annie Wilcox said she would.”
“Kyle! No! No, no, no. You can’t just go buy it.”
“She said she’d do it for free.”
“Yeah. Like a drug dealer gives away the first hit. Aren’t you interested in somebody? Someone who’s interested in you instead of one who gives head for twenty bucks a pop?”
“Who am I going to find like that, Ramie? Look around you. They’re all way out of my league.”
“Kyle, there’s 350 people in our class. Statistically, that means that 175 are eligible girls,” I mocked.
“174.” We looked at each other and busted out laughing.
“Let me handle it, Kyle. You’ll have to go on some dates and romance her,” I said.
“How am I going to go on a date? I can’t drive yet.”
“I can.” Kyle looked at me blankly. “Ain’t you glad you got a big sister who got her drivers’ license when she turned sixteen?” I said sweetly.
“You’d drive me on a date?” he asked.
“We’d have to double. I’ll tell Moms that I want to go out but I don’t want to get stranded with some boy thirty miles away so I want to drive and I want you to double date so I have a chaperone. They’ll think it’s really cute.”
“But Ramie. I don’t mean to sound like a pig, but I’m a pig. She’s got to be cute.”
“Oh Kyle, what girl in our entire school wouldn’t be cute if you got her naked?”
“Um… Millie maybe.”
“All right. I’ll give you that one. Don’t worry. I’ve seen this one naked.”
“When? I mean you know someone already? Who?”
“One, in the locker room. Two, yes. Three, Aubrey Diaz.” That shut him up.
“Aubrey is…”
“Don’t you dare say she’s fat. She isn’t. Maybe she’s not skinny, but believe me, what’s there is all girl.”
“You gotta be kidding. Aubrey’s hot. But she’s our friend. What if I’m no good at it and she doesn’t want to still be friends?”
“It will be fine as long as you promise that you’ll love her, Kyle. It doesn’t have to be forever, but it has to be for real. I’m not making a virgin sacrifice of my best friend just so you can time travel. She likes you and if you don’t like her, the deal’s off.”
“Yeah, but wow! Aubrey.”
Sometimes guys short-circuit. Even my beloved brother.
“So, Aubrey, you still interested in banging my brother?” I asked casually at lunch.
“Oh, my God, Ramie. You are so gross.” She paused and looked around the cafeteria to see if anyone was in earshot and lowered her voice. “I would bend over backward for that boy!” she said. “Or forward, or on my knees, or any way he wanted me. He is so hot!” I blushed, hearing her talk about my brother that way.
“Please don’t give me a description of all the things you want to do to him,” I complained. “Talk about gross. It’s my brother. Yuck!”
“It makes no difference. He looks at me and still sees a sixth grader with a skinned knee. No interest at all.”
“I wouldn’t bet on that. Look, I shouldn’t even say this, but you know how guys are. My brother wants to get laid on his sixteenth birthday.”
“Good luck with that!” Aubrey snorted. “What’s he going to do? Hire Annie Wilcox?”
“Actually, I think he’s got his eye on you.”
“Fuck off! You’re jerking me around.”
“I didn’t think you’d be interested. I probably scared him off anyway when I told him if he hurt my friend I’d geld him.”
“Don’t do that! I mean, don’t scare him off. I mean, don’t geld him either, but I might… be interested,” she said. Aubrey turned red in the face. “He’d actually consider me? I’m part Mexican and he’s so… blond.”
“Tell me about it. All those blond jokes? They’re about my brother.”
“What should I do?”
“If he asks you for a date, say yes. And just let nature take its course.”
“Be honest, Ramie. Have you done it? What’s it like?” she panted.
“No way. I’m not opposed to sex. God knows, I’ve got blisters on my clit from rubbing it so much.” We laughed. I didn’t want to admit how true it was. “But look around at what we have to choose from. Who would I even think about having sex with?”
“Adam Long.”
“Come on. I mean a real boy, not a movie star. He’s good for a putting myself to sleep after a long day, but he’s not going to come walking through the door of Laramie High and ask me out. Besides, Entertainment Tonight says he’s with Lori Monroe.”
“Yuck. What a slut. Who hasn’t she been with?”
We kept talking about movie stars and who was hot but the seed was planted. Now I just had to get Kyle to ask her out.
I got Forrest to go with us when Aubrey and Kyle went out. We all had fun. I felt bad for Shelby. She was my friend, too. After three sort of dates, all of a sudden it was like we were two couples and Shelby. I kept trying to not be a couple with Forrest but I had to have someone to go out with. Shelby was sulking a lot when we were together. By the first of April she was pissed.
“You guys just cut me out and left me on my own. Some friends. I can’t believe Kyle chose Aubrey over me. Am I not cute enough for him? I’d have put out for him. I’ve seen him stare at my tits. I know he likes them. And you! You immediately snatch Forrest up. What am I supposed to do? He was my last hope.”
“Shelby, I didn’t know you felt that way! I’m sorry. I’ll ditch Forrest. It was just so I could drive my brother on his stupid dates and not feel left out. I never meant to leave you out in the process,” I said. Dang! Shelby would have done Kyle, too? What’s my brother got?
It all fell apart anyway. Trust a boy to screw things up. Aubrey and Kyle were making progress. Definitely. There was a lot of kissy-face going on in the backseat. Forrest tried to catch me with one or two, but I managed to turn my cheek to him. I was no more interested in getting sexy with him than with my brother.
Forrest drove that night. He was pretty proud to be a newly minted driver with his Mom’s car. I left my car at Aubrey’s and we all went to the Arcade. We had a good time and I was giving Kyle and Aubrey a little time to say goodnight before I got out and headed for my car to take Kyle home. I started to reach for the door and Forrest caught my hand.
“Forrest?”
“Ramie, I gotta say this this.” He drew a long stuttering breath. Oh no. “I think I love you, Ramie. That’s it. I do. I love you.” He started leaning toward me and I could see a kiss forming on his lips.
“Forrest! No! Don’t do that. We’re friends. We’re helping Kyle and Aubrey. You know that. Don’t go spoil it all with that lovey-dovey shit. Oh God! Yuck!”
“You don’t like me?”
“Of course I like you. We have fun when we’re out. But we’re not in love.”
“Are you breaking up with me?”
“We were never going together, Forrest!” He sat there looking bewildered. I couldn’t quite get my hand out of his.
“Oh. Okay. Um. Can we just fuck, then?”
I just looked at him with my mouth open and jerked my hand out of his. I opened the door and got out, slamming it behind me.
“Kyle! We’re going home. Now!” I shouted, breaking up what looked like a pretty intense kiss.
I asked Shelby to join us the next week. Should have done that in the first place. Stupid me.
“I can’t, Ramie. I’m going out with Forrest. You broke his heart and I’m gonna put it together again. I hope we can still be friends, Ramie, but… You know… Your loss.”
I went to the library while Kyle and Aubrey did whatever they were going to do and then just walked around town for a while. That’s when I got another idea. Oh man. I’m just full of them.
“Aubrey, why don’t you come out to the ranch next weekend? You can stay with me and we’ll come back into town Sunday afternoon.”
“Really?” Kyle asked. The closer it was getting to his birthday the antsier he was getting. “That would be cool. We could go for a ride.”
“I never rode a horse,” Aubrey said.
“Don’t worry,” I plugged on. “We’ll teach you.”
Talk about a disaster. Aubrey was so afraid of the horses that the gentle mare we chose for her wouldn’t even stand still while we got her mounted. Aubrey was near tears by the time we got her back to the corral. As soon as we got the saddle off, the horse ran for the back pasture and rolled in the mud. I thought for a minute that Aubrey might join her. Now that would be a bonding experience!
I was trying to establish Aubrey coming out to the ranch to spend the night with me so she and Kyle could get together on his birthday, but horses weren’t going to do the trick.
Two weeks later, we found something that worked. She loved the four-wheelers! We do a lot of work over a lot of acres. Driving a truck sometimes isn’t practical on really rough terrain and riding a horse can take too much time. So we use three- or four-wheel ATVs to move around the ranch in a hurry. They’re no good for herding the cattle, but getting you up the mountain is no problem.
Aubrey loved it. We raced from the ranch up to the lower ridge. I let Kyle and Aubrey beat me by about ten minutes so they’d have time for some serious making out before I got there. Then I pretended I was having problems with some dirt in my gas-line and told them to go on ahead and meet me back where they left me. I figured I had a good hour or so.
I tossed my poncho down on the ground to keep from getting wet and just lay down to daydream. I looked up and saw that old raven sitting in a lower limb of a Douglas fir. He was always hanging around. Never said anything but just sat and stared at me out of one eye like I was an idiot. Well, maybe I was.
Kyle’s birthday finally came around and our pattern was so well set there was no question about Aubrey being welcome to come and help celebrate. We made sure we stayed in our rooms well past midnight when everybody was asleep before Aubrey slipped out of my apartment and went next door to Kyle’s.
I don’t know why I was so nervous. Maybe Kyle would get to go time traveling. Hell, maybe he’d take Aubrey with him. Maybe I should have let Forrest fuck me. Maybe. Maybe. Maybe.
Maybe I should have noticed sooner that the walls were so thin. And my apartment was so hot. I could hear giggles and moans coming through the wall. I sat in my bed sweating and realized I had one hand in my panties and the other pinching my nipples while I listened to them.
Oh damn! Hurry up and do it so I can go to sleep.
I staggered to the window and opened it to let a little night air in. The chill breeze didn’t seem to cool off my room and before I knew it I was back in my bed with my ear pressed against the wall.
“Yes, Kyle. Do it,” I heard Aubrey gasp.
There was a flutter at my window and that damned old raven sat right there looking at me—watching me as I rubbed my nub and listened to my brother and his girlfriend make love.
“Oh!” Aubrey and Kyle cried out together.
“Yesss,” I hissed as my orgasm claimed me.
Awkawkawkawk!
I’d never heard the raven screech before.
And then I was gone.
4 Who are you?
I was staring into a mirror. No, a darkened window that showed my startled reflection. Only it wasn’t me. The girl that looked back at me was… just not me. She was pretty. I couldn’t tell the color of her eyes but they looked startled like something had just slapped her. She was wearing a shawl and a dark dress that was buttoned up all the way under her chin.
Oh my god! It happened. I’m in a different person. I’m so sorry, Kyle. What do I do now?
“Who are you?” My host was panicking. How did she even know I was here? I didn’t try to do anything. I was panicking. She should just go to sleep or something.
I tried to pull back, but she hung onto me like I was a bad dog. I tried to take control, but she tightened my leash and held me down. It wasn’t supposed to be like this! Pa said.
“Who are you and why are you here? Go away!”
She was talking to me! She knew I was here! I could feel my heart in my throat. I could see the wrinkles in my forehead. There were tears leaking out of my… her… our eyes.
Don’t be scared. I don’t know if I was thinking it to myself or to her, but she heard me.
“Scared? You just jumped into my head. I can feel you. I can hear you. Who are you?”
Ramie. I felt compelled to answer.
“I have been possessed. I will not let you have my soul, demon!” She was beginning to hyperventilate. I couldn’t get enough air in my lungs. Her lungs. What was happening? “Demon Ramie, by the power of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, I command you out of this sacred temple of the divine and consign you eternally to the flames of hell from whence you came,” she screeched at me. The words screamed in my head. To my ears she barely whispered—could hardly speak.
I don’t actually think it works that way. Stony silence. I want to go home. I don’t believe any of this. Maybe she couldn’t hear me anymore. But I could feel tears still dripping from my… our eyes. I jerked her head back toward the dark window. Bitch. I gave her the finger. She jumped back and snatched her hand down in her lap. Hah! You can’t deny I’m here and still fight me for control. Where am I?
She refused to answer. I reached up and tweaked her left nipple. Oooh. Sensitive.
“Stop it! All right, you are still here. I will go to a priest. I will not be possessed by Satan’s damned minion.”
Stop cussing me. I’m not damned. I’m not a minion. I’m not evil. I’m just scared. Just like you are.
“Why? Why are you here in me?”
I don’t know. Honest, I don’t.
“Miranda, you’re talking in your sleep again,” the woman next to us spoke. “Wake up, dear. Now you can start over.”
“Yes, Mother,” the girl said.
So you’re Miranda. Nice to meet you, too. You don’t have to speak out loud. I can hear your thoughts.
“You can’t!” she thought. At least it wasn’t out loud.
I can. Please talk to me. Please tell me who you are and where I am.
“I am a poor sinner and you have come to torment me for my sins.”
No. I don’t give a damn about your sins.
“You are a foul being.”
I’m not. Really I’m not. I’m sorry I’m here. I don’t want to torment you.
“Why are you here?”
My Pa told us he was a time traveler and we didn’t believe him. But it’s nothing like he said.
“That is impossible.”
That’s what I said. But here I am. When am I? What date is it?
“Good Friday, the fourteenth day of April in the year of our Lord 1865.”
Oh god! No!
“Do not take the name of our Lord in vain, Demon Ramie.”
No. It can’t be. I’m dreaming. You aren’t real.
“I’m real. It is you…”
Miranda, it’s the day they shot President Lincoln!
“What? No! They can’t. Who?”
An actor. John Wilkes Booth.
“But we’ve just won the war. Lee surrendered. That’s why we are traveling.”
I was afraid to say anything. I tried not to think. When I held my breath I realized Miranda was struggling.
“Let me breathe!”
I’m sorry. I forget that when I do something it affects you, too. I wish I was in my own body. I don’t mean to make your life miserable.
I tried to relax and just be a rider, watching the world through Miranda’s eyes. Pa said he could give control to his host and just watch. But Miranda’s thoughts were flashing all over.
“Are you still there?”
Yes.
“How do you know the president will be killed?”
It’s history for me. A long time ago. Pa’s a fanatic about Lincoln and Kennedy. He lectures me every birthday. I had to write a paper about it for school.
“What can we do?”
What? What do you mean?
“I cannot sit idly by while my president is assassinated. You said you did not know why you were here. I do not know why you are here. Has this murder been committed already?”
What time of day is it?
“Nearly dawn.”
It happens tonight. Ford’s Theater around ten o’clock.
“We must tell someone.”
And end up in a loony bin? How could you tell someone that a person from the future invaded your head and told you that the president would be shot while attending a play? They would lock you up.
“Loony bin? Ah. An asylum.” Miranda was silent but thoughts continued to rage about saving the president. I couldn’t tell which were hers and which were mine. They seemed to get jumbled up together. Could that be it? Was I sent back in time to save the president?
“Are you a Confederate rebel?”
No.
“Then you must help save the president.”
I tried again to be silent and calm. Pa had done this. I could do it. He traveled in time, inhabited the mind of a young man, had his adventures, and returned.
“Demon Ramie, I command you by all the powers of heaven to save the president,” Miranda intoned in her self-righteous voice. Where did she get this stuff?
Miranda, you can’t just order me to do stuff. First, I’m in you. For all I know I AM you. I can’t do anything unless you do. Second, I have no idea what to do. You don’t even have a phone so we could call someone. And finally, I AM NOT A DEMON!
She shut up. I tried to ignore what she was thinking, but surface thoughts are hard to ignore and I was finding that Miranda was a spitfire. She was also still convinced that I was a demon who had possessed her. She was the one controlling everything. I don’t know why she thought I was possessing her. I let it slip that maybe it was my mind that she had possessed. That gave her a start.
“How do you know these things about our president?” she asked.
It’s history to me. I live a century and a half from now.
“So you know where it will occur and when and by whom.”
In general terms. I know it will be tonight at Ford’s Theater. Whenever they take pictures of clocks, they are set at 10:10 to commemorate the time. Unfortunately, I don’t have any idea where in Washington Ford’s Theater is. I don’t know what John Wilkes Booth looks like. I’ve never been to Washington. I looked it all up on the Internet.
“What is that?” How was I going to explain the Internet without sounding like a demon?
It’s like a big book that pretty much everyone can use. You just have to be careful because not everything in it is true. Like all books.
“The Bible is true.”
Right. Not going there.
“If I were to… let you have control… would you then be able to stop the assassination?”
Why don’t you do it yourself?
“How? I’m just a girl.”
So am I. I don’t want to control you, Miranda. I’ll help you if I can, but you know much more about this time and place than I do. It’s not like I’ve lived here all my life. I don’t really even know who you are or why we are on this train.
“My mother is to be married. We are to meet my new stepfather and stepsister in Washington, District of Columbia, on Saturday. There will be a wedding with some of his friends present. He is known in Washington. Then we will board the train again for Baltimore.”
You’ll be staying at a hotel tonight? In Washington?
“Mother mentioned Willard’s Hotel.”
I began to get an idea.
It was after nine-thirty when we were able to slip out of the hotel. There was quite a festive party going on in the hotel and Miranda’s mother, Dorothy Lewis, left for the party at nine after bidding Miranda ‘goodnight.’ When we were sure she was gone, we slipped out.
Of course, we went the wrong direction and didn’t realize it until we’d practically walked into the White House. Security here was nothing like it was in my day. No iron fence. No armed guards. A couple soldiers on duty at each door. We actually had to stop and ask directions from one of them. It turned out that the theater was only a block from our hotel in the other direction. I was certain Booth wouldn’t just walk through the front doors of the theater. There were two Union soldiers lounging there.
There must be a stage door. That’s the way he’ll go.
We crept around the building staying to the shadows. If only we make it in time.
I saw the horse first. A man was holding the reins and another man in dark clothes came striding toward the door.
That’s him!
Miranda bolted toward the figure screaming. He paused and looked toward us as we barreled down on him. He didn’t have time to reach for a weapon. We hit him just as he reached for the door. The impact hurt. He was a solidly built man and taller than I expected. Nonetheless, Miranda was a dynamo and he tumbled backward off the steps.
“Not tonight you won’t, you rebel cur!” Miranda screamed. She began immediately to pummel him.
“Get off of me!” he cried. “I must get inside. You don’t understand.” She continued to rain blows on his head. He gave a mighty shove and we rolled to the ground. Miranda took a deep breath to scream, but it was cut off before it gained sound.
A shot echoed from inside the theater.
“You three-penny whore!” he screamed at us. “I could have stopped it. I could have…”
His voice cut off as we locked eyes.
Kyle!
I could not gain control of her voice. Miranda turned and fled. There was a flapping of wings swooping down toward us.
Awkawkawkawk!
I was gone again.
5 Caught
“I’d join you but I’m a little sore down there,” Aubrey giggled. She was staring at me from just inside the door. What?
I got my bearings. I was sitting on my bed leaning against the wall with my hand in my pussy. Oh, fuck!
“Sore?” I said.
“Don’t give me that. Sitting where you are, I know you were listening. Was it as good for you as it was for me?”
“Aubrey, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to.” I was breaking up into tears. We failed. I got sucked into another time where I could have done something and we failed. President Lincoln was assassinated. And not only that, Kyle was there. And Miranda made him fail.
“Hey. It’s all right. I think I owe you that much. Oh god! Ramie, it was so beautiful. I came a dozen times. How many times did you come listening to us?” Aubrey asked.
“Aubrey! I wasn’t… I didn’t mean to… Once. I think I passed out.”
“That good? Wow! I was near passing out a couple times, but he just kept going and going. And I kept coming and coming. Your brother is an Energizer Bunny!” she laughed. “Can we get a little sleep before we have to get up? I’m exhausted.”
We turned down the covers and crawled in. She had no idea what really happened. And Kyle just kept fucking the whole time? Crap! What’s he made of?
In the morning, I woke up with Aubrey snuggled against my back. She had an arm across me. It wasn’t uncomfortable or anything sexy. In fact, I imagined that after having her cherry busted last night, she just wanted to be close. I rolled back a little and put my arm around her. It was after seven and Moms would be calling us for breakfast if we didn’t get up pretty soon. Aubrey sighed.
“Thank you for last night,” she whispered.
“I didn’t actually do anything,” I laughed. “I think it’s Kyle you want to thank.”
“Oh, yeah. I plan to. A lot.” She giggled and I couldn’t help but join in and be happy for her and Kyle. “But you made it happen, Ramie. And afterward, when I had to leave his room or risk getting caught, you let me cuddle with you so I wouldn’t be alone. I know how much Kyle means to you and I’m just so thankful that you trust me with him.”
“Hey, Kyle is his own man. But I’ll tell you the same thing I told him. If you hurt my best friend I’ll geld you.”
“I don’t have balls, Ramie!”
“Fine. Then I’ll spay you!”
We both broke up giggling.
After lunch, I drove them into town. I think I was more eager to get her home than Kyle was. I was bursting to talk to Kyle about time traveling. They took so long hugging and kissing at the door I fell asleep in the car. Kyle nudged me awake and we headed back toward Snowy Range Road.
“Well?”
“Well, what?”
“Ky-yle. Tell me about it.”
“That’s kind of personal, Ramie. Besides, I bet Aubrey told you all about it already.”
“You’re going to make this hard on both of us.”
“Drop it, Ramie.” His voice was cold. I started getting angry. Damn it! I saw him there.
I pulled into the ranch and followed Kyle straight to the barn. He saddled Dado without hardly brushing him down. I grabbed Pooky and got my saddle cinched.
“You don’t have to come,” he said flatly.
“Yes, I do,” I said as emotionlessly as I could. It wasn’t easy.
“Why?”
“’Cause I got your back, brother.” He looked at me and grabbed me in a fierce hug. I swear I felt tears splash on my cheek from him. Then he swung up into his saddle and was off at a fast jog. I pulled myself up onto Pooky and followed.
When we’d been out about an hour and were on the other side of the watering hole, he finally pulled up, jumped down out of the saddle, and dropped his reins. He walked to the water’s edge and splashed some of the icy water on his face. I put a hand on his shoulder.
“I know what happened. Talk to me.” I said softly. He just looked down like he couldn’t look at me.
“I don’t know how to share this with you Ramie. She’s really beautiful. It was like being lost in a dream. I didn’t plan on really falling in love with her. I don’t know for sure, but I might be. What if she doesn’t feel that way?” he said.
“Or it might be that you just got laid for the first time and she’s always going to have that special place in your heart. If you didn’t have feelings for her, I’d be pretty pissed at you.”
“We talked a lot, too. You know, all the time we’ve been dating, we were just working up to last night. We never really talked about things. She’s really different than us.”
“I guess there’s worse things. Tell me about the time travel.”
“You don’t believe in any of that. I guess I don’t either now.”
“But Kyle…”
“If any of that stuff is real, I guess you can’t just plan it and say ‘I’ve had sex, now take me away!’ The thing is, I couldn’t even get disappointed about it, even after she went back to your room. I just kept thinking how wonderful she was and how it all felt. Time travel? Well, it either happens or doesn’t. I don’t much care right now.”
“I went,” I whispered. “I know you did, too.”
“Yeah. Right. You don’t have to play those silly games with me, Ramie. I’m a big boy now.”
What the goddam fuck? He thinks he can just push this off? I saw him in the eyes of that young man we tackled. I saw him!
“Kyle…”
“I really don’t want to talk about it for a while, sister. I just kinda want to think about it.”
“Sure.”
We mounted up and rode for an hour before we got back and brushed down our horses. We really didn’t say much else. Was having sex really that much better than time traveling?
Well, if he’s going to be that way about it, fuck him.
I had plenty of time to think about it that last two weeks of school. I covered for Kyle and Aubrey so they could get it on after school a couple times. I drove him into town one last time before he got his license and parked the truck near the old train station where there weren’t many people. I went to the Arcade and drank sweet coffee at Coal Creek Coffee Company. Kyle and Aubrey stayed in the truck. I had to pound on the window and wait for them to finish when I got back two hours later. The truck really smelled sexy.
I guess I understood a bit about why Kyle didn’t want to talk. It was weird. I had a hard time believing it wasn’t just a dream, myself. I guess if I had a lover to occupy me all the time, I’d probably not want to think about it. I had to do something, though. Especially after Kyle got his license and drove himself to Aubrey’s for their dates.
I started planning my horse ranch.
It was Sunday and I was sitting in Kyle’s room waiting for him to finish in the bathroom so we could go in for dinner. I was fooling around with his computer, checking some of my favorite sites like HorseClick and EquineNow. I had some money saved and was clicking through just to see what was available when this one pair caught my eye.
“Oh no!” I screamed. “Kyle, we gotta do something.”
He came out of the bathroom in his jeans and bare feet with no shirt on. At least his pants were fastened, though the belt wasn’t buckled. He bolted to me like I was on fire.
“What’s wrong, Ramie? Are you okay?”
“Yeah, yeah. I’m fine. Quit hugging me. Look at this.” I showed him the ad.
“Pair of cart horses. Might be lame. Take both for $200.”
“The slaughterhouse will get them,” I moaned. “We’ve got to go get them.”
“Pa would kill us. How are we going to get them?” I liked the way Kyle jumped straight from the objection to the solution.
“Let’s go talk to Pa. Hurry! They could be gone already.” Bless him, Kyle shoved his feet into his boots without any socks and grabbed a shirt. I carried his laptop to the house while he snapped up his shirt. Moms stared at us as we ran through the kitchen to Pa’s office. “Pa! Pa, we gotta talk to you.”
“Whoa, kids. What is it?” Pa asked. He was in his big chair with the newspaper propped open and a mug of coffee.
“Pa, we gotta save these horses. Please. Look at them. They’re beautiful.”
“Part draft and part pinto cart horses? What do we need them for?”
“It’s not what we need, Pa. It’s what they need. Look. $200. The slaughterhouse will get them,” I complained. All right, I’m usually pretty tough, but there were tears in my eyes.
“Ramie, it says they might be lame. That’s no way to start a horse ranch. Are you sure? If they are in pain, they might have to be put down anyway.”
“I’ll pay for them,” Kyle said. He’d what?
“Kyle, I didn’t mean for you to have to pay,” I said, hanging onto my brother for support. “I just think that we could take care of them and give them a home.”
Pa had already reached for the phone and was dialing. I know he hates to see horses go to slaughter almost as much as I do. In ten minutes, he’d closed the deal. He told them we’d be there by three o’clock and not to let anyone else have them. He hung up and I jumped in his lap.
“Thank you, Daddy. Thank you!” I said. I almost never call him Daddy. I’m sixteen years old and I feel like his little baby girl again.
“Come on and let’s eat dinner. We need to tell your mothers what’s going on and, if you don’t mind, I’ll stand behind the two of you so they don’t throw anything at me,” he laughed.
By three o’clock, we were ten miles east of Fort Collins and the owner had led two tender-footed matched pintos out of the corral.
“I picked them up when I bought out a stable in Denver,” he said. “These two have just been worked so hard they can barely walk. I really expected the slaughterhouse to call. In fact, they did just after you called this morning.”
“People should be shot for treating animals like this,” Pa said angrily. “Look. There’s hardly an inch of hoof on them.”
“We’ll do our best for them, Mister,” I said. “We’ll put them in the deep pasture and check on them every day. Maybe they’ll just need a rest.”
“Well, good luck to you, kids. Send me a picture when they’re all healed up.”
It took us a few tries to get them up the ramp into the trailer. I climbed in the middle seat of the truck between Pa and Kyle. I wrapped my hands around Kyle’s arm and buried my head against his shoulder so nobody could see my tears.
We stabled the horses until we could get the vet to come out and look at them. He got here Monday afternoon and his assessment wasn’t great. The hooves had been worn down right through the sensitive laminate and into the coffin bone. He shook his head.
“They’re standing,” he said. “Keep them on a soft surface if you can. When everything dries out this summer, you might need to put them on straw or sawdust. Mostly it’s going to be wait and see.”
Kyle and I brushed them and combed out their manes and tails. We left them in the barn on a fresh bed of straw. In the morning, we carefully led them out into the near pasture. We’d moved the other horses to the south pasture. I didn’t want the other horses getting feisty with them. The pasture was lush with late spring grass and the horses loved it. Kyle and I rubbed them down again. Caitlin and Phile were standing at the edge of the pasture holding hands. If you just happened to see them, they were cute kids. It was when they were doing something or saying something that they turned into monsters.
“Ramie,” Phile said when we got closer, “can we help?” What? What did you do with my little brother?
“I suppose so,” I said cautiously. “Mostly they just need rest. You know you can’t go chasing them around like you do the other horses.”
“We don’t…” Caitlin started automatically. Then she hung her head. I’d seen them. “We won’t,” she amended.
“The vet says they need to stay off hard and uneven ground while they heal. We’re just trying to make them comfortable as we can and let them know they’re safe now,” Kyle added. “Can you do that?”
The kids weren’t paying attention. I looked around behind me where they were staring. Both horses were standing right behind Kyle and me. We stepped aside. The two horses hesitantly stepped forward and nodded their heads to Caitlin and Phile. The kids let them snuffle them and breathed softly near their nostrils. Just because they’d never shown affection to the horses before didn’t mean they hadn’t been taught how to act around them. But this was way beyond anything I’d ever seen them do. Kyle and I stepped around the kids as they started petting the horses. We left them out in the pasture.
“Bells and Bows love being here at the ranch,” Caitlin bubbled at the dinner table. She and Phile were shoveling food in as fast as they could between words.
“They hated the city,” Phile said. “They want to be ridden. They don’t want to pull carts.”
“Uh, you’ve been talking to them?” Kyle asked.
“Not really,” Caitlin said. Okay it was just a game, I guess. “They’ve been talking to us. It’s like I can hear what they’re saying.”
“Ramie, Bells said I should tell you I love you. I do, you know. Thank you for bringing Bells and Bows to the ranch,” Phile said.
Moms and Pa were sitting at their end of the table with mouths open and food or drink forgotten as they stared at us. I’m sure they were wondering who the aliens had left in place of the brats.
Kyle and I got sent to the upper pasture for two weeks. It was kind of an emergency. One of the hands fell and broke his leg. We had to send a helicopter in to pick him up. It took both Kyle and me to replace one good cowpoke. I mean that seriously. Things were tense up on the range. We’d lost two calves to wolves. But still, no one had seen the damned things.
We were on twenty-four-hour alert. That meant Kyle and I rode together right after breakfast until about six. We had a walkie-talkie so we could check in with the base camp every half hour. Somebody was always on the horn while two others slept. When we got off, they started rotations all night long. I was sound asleep before sundown.
It still wasn’t clear what we could do if we saw a wolf. The Forest Service was being kept busy verifying kills and writing checks. Of course, they only paid us for a calf, not for what we could sell it for when it matured. We had to leave dead animals where they lay until an officer could come up and register the complaint. At least we had some compensation for killed animals. They still warned us that we could chase the wolves off, but we couldn’t touch them. I wondered what would happen if I accidentally shot one. Oops.
Pa sent two more hands up by the time Kyle and I got to come home. At this rate, it was going to be as costly as Pa’s range war. We only had 500 head.
Kyle was pretty damned happy to get back to the ranch. I figured he’d call Aubrey as soon as we set foot in the house. When we got close enough, we saw Caitlin and Phile out in the pasture with our two rescued paints. The horses were just grazing. The kids were…
“Kyle? Are they picking up rocks out of the pasture?”
“Damned if they aren’t, Ramie.” We rode over and watched Caitlin and Phile as they walked back and forth over the pasture pushing a wheelbarrow. Every few feet they’d pry a rock out of the ground and put it in the wheelbarrow. At the barn corner of the pasture there was a pile of rocks four feet high.
“Whatcha doin’, squirts?” I called.
“Bells and Bows don’t like the stones in the field. They hurt their feet. We’re just clearing it out for them,” Caitlin said. I glanced at the pile over in the corner and shrugged. I looked at Kyle and he nodded.
“Want some help?” I asked.
Kyle took off Friday night and a plume of dust followed him all the way to Centennial. Aubrey sure had him pussy-whipped. Wish I had somebody. I actually spent some time with Phile and Caitlin watching TV. I swear, something’s come over those two. Ever since I brought home those horses.
I finally got tired and headed out to bed.
Around midnight, I heard the truck pull in and Kyle’s door close. I was almost back asleep when I heard Aubrey giggling in his room. What? Kyle you stupid… If Aubrey was out here, they’d either get caught in the morning or she’d need to be in my room. Damnation. I went to make sure my door was unlocked. Then I went back to bed.
Only I couldn’t sleep. I could hear them right through that thin wall, giggling and moaning. I couldn’t help myself. It was like getting addicted to porn or something. I leaned up against the wall. It’s not like I had my ear plastered against the wall, but I was close enough to hear. I pushed my panties down and pulled my t-shirt off. How could I possibly sleep with them having sex next to my head? Just a few inches away.
A flicker of movement caught my eye and that old one-eyed raven landed on my windowsill. It was almost like he was a pet these days. He was always hanging around. There was something about letting him watch me masturbate, though. His one good eye turned toward me. I stared at him as my fingers flicked against my clit. Next door, I could hear Aubrey moaning, saying, “Yes, yes, yes. Give it to me, baby.”
I threw my head back and squeezed my eyes closed as my climax rushed in on me.
Awkawkawkawk!
6 Fight
“Demon Ramie, come to me. Help me in my time of need!”
What the fuck? Where am I?
“You came!”
Miranda?
“Help me, Ramie. They’re after me.”
Who?
“I don’t know. He grabbed me and I ran. There he is!” She was panicked and backing into a corner. This wasn’t good.
“Aye, little miss. You’ll make a fine toffer,” a voice growled. A grizzled man came down the narrow alley toward us. Miranda turned to run again and tripped over her dropped basket. He grabbed her arm in one hand and her waist in the other. The war was fought to end black slavery but no one did much to stop the kidnapping of young women to press them into service in western brothels.
Let me drive.
“What does . . .?”
Don’t fight me! I took control of her body so suddenly that Miranda was as startled at her loss of control as at our aggressor’s actions. I slammed an elbow back into our attacker. I lifted my right foot and stomped with Miranda’s sturdy-heeled shoe on the man’s instep. He howled. I spun to face him as he hopped on one foot and saw the knife at his belt. Instead of running, I stepped toward him and grabbed the blade, jabbing it into his stomach. I wrenched it free and jumped back, nearly falling over the stupid basket again.
“If you get that tended to at once, you might not die,” I said with Miranda’s voice. The man looked up at me in horror as he saw his own blood dripping from his knife. He fell. I guessed it was too late for a doctor. If anyone found us, we’d be the ones hung. I scooped up our basket, wiped the blade on his back, and rushed away. I dropped the knife into the basket so it wasn’t visible and walked hurriedly toward the noise of a market.
Miranda! Where are we? The poor girl was in shock.
“Baltimore,” she answered weakly.
I don’t care what city. Do you have a home here? Can we get to it?
“Yes.” She hesitated as we looked around. “That way.” She didn’t move. Fuck! I started walking.