Taft Ranch: A Thunder Mountain Novel Read online

  “You familiar with this area?” Joan asked, turning to look at him.

  He nodded. “Spent a lot of time with my father up here hunting deer when I was young. I can get us to the Snake River. What we find there will help us decide what to do next.”

  She nodded, staring out over the valley as slowly the sun started to hit the tops of the mountains.

  “It’s beautiful, isn’t it?”

  “It really is,” she said, nodding. “But hard to appreciate when I’m this thirsty and hungry.”

  “Then let’s go find some food and water,” he said, smiling at her.

  He picked his way past her and up on a trail that looked like it would lead over to a ridgeline they could get down. Doing this without shoes was going to be tough.

  Painfully tough.

  But he really had no choice.

  NINE

  September 6th, 2728

  Snake River in Owyhee County, Idaho

  JEAN WAS STUNNED at how tough Lee was. He didn’t complain, just kept on moving, even though it became clear as each hour went by that his feet were hurting. And his black socks looked like they were caking with blood.

  And she knew he was as hungry as she was, maybe more so. She had at least had a decent breakfast what seemed like a long time ago. Actually, it had been a long time. More than seven hundred years ago, actually.

  She was finding that hard to grasp.

  Luckily for them the day hadn’t turned out to be sunny or that hot. If it had been, she doubted they would have made it as far as they had.

  She glanced at Lee who seemed to walk with pride, even though every step must have been pure agony.

  She was finding it hard to grasp that a man she only knew from being in a coma for six years, who had had a broken back, was now leading her along what looked to be an old paved highway gone to seed.

  In some places trees fifty or more years old grew from the pavement.

  By Joan’s watch, if it could still be trusted, it had taken them six hours to climb down off that first mountain, climb back up over a second ridge and then make their way along an old road down to this paved road. They hadn’t talked much since there wasn’t much to talk about.

  They needed food and they needed water.

  That was the focus.

  There hadn’t even been water in the creek in the bottom of the valley to tempt them.

  The old paved road being left to go to seed bothered her more than she wanted to admit and finally, after about thirty minutes of walking along the road, weaving in and around trees and brush growing up through it, she had to ask Lee his opinion.

  “Did you expect this kind of state of disrepair?”

  He shrugged and kept walking. “Lots of reasons for it. A new road built somewhere else, or ground cars are not needed in 2728.”

  She laughed. “I went right to the worst case reason,” she said.

  Lee nodded. “I went there at first myself. Not sure why I think civilization wouldn’t survive a short seven hundred years. But I did. Interesting that we both did.”

  “So any theories why the mine wasn’t maintained?”

  “I wish I had one,” he said. “I know that Duster and some of the other founders of the institute are actually set in 2318. What I mean by that is they were taken forward in time in the same manner I took you with me, and so when they travel back, only two minutes pass in 2318 even though they live full lives in the past. So I would have thought they would have just kept the institute going forward in time until now and beyond. I’m sure hoping they did.”

  They walked in silence for a moment as she tried to make sense of that.

  Finally, she decided to ask the question that she had wanted to ask since he first explained things in the caverns.

  “Was the trip you fell off the horse your first trip back into the past?”

  Lee shook his head. “Nope. It was the 35th full trip.”

  “Full trip?”

  “I always jump first back to 1890 and build my ranch up in central Idaho. I stay there and do research until 1920, then jump back, turning around using the same crystal, the same timeline, and going back to 1925. I would stay on my ranch then until 1950. Then back to 2018 before returning to 1955 to stay until 1980. I call that a full trip.”

  Joan just sort of walked in stunned silence. Her stomach had long since given up reminding her she needed to eat and she felt so thirsty, she wasn’t sure how much farther she could go. Now the man she was with was telling her he lived for eighty years in the same ranch and had done that thirty-five times.

  If she hadn’t already been through so much, she would be laughing.

  At that moment, as the road turned to the left, he pointed to the right and picked his way down a slight embankment and into some pine trees.

  She followed, not liking that they were now off the road and going cross-country somewhere. But Lee sure seemed to know where he was going, so she didn’t question him. She had lived in Idaho her entire life and had never once bothered to even visit this part of the state.

  After a few minutes they broke out of the trees. They were standing on a cliff face looking out over a huge river.

  “Snake River,” Lee said. “Isn’t it beautiful?”

  Joan just stood there, staring, her mouth open. Beautiful didn’t begin to describe that river. She could see for a few miles upstream as it wound its way down a lush valley and then disappeared to the left around a bend just past where they stood. The water was clear and blue and the smell was of a damp clay.

  “Now be careful,” Lee said.

  He took her hand and led her along the rocks to a trail that led down along the cliff.

  “Focus on where you put your feet,” he said, moving ahead of her but keeping a tight grip on her hand. “You don’t want to slip.”

  She was far less afraid of heights as she was of dark, enclosed places. But this still suddenly got her very tired mind and body focused.

  Sharply focused.

  She wasn’t sure she could climb down the entire cliff, but after twenty feet, it was clear she wasn’t going to have to.

  A wide ledge, about the size of her office, jutted out of the cliff face. It had a few small pine trees growing up on one side in the rocks, a large natural pool against some rocks, and from the rocks near them a bubbling stream made the most wonderful sound she had ever heard.

  “Only a sip to start with,” Lee said as they moved to the spring.

  As a doctor she knew that, but was still very glad he had warned her.

  He first splashed water on his face and then took a small sip.

  Standing beside him, she did the same.

  The feeling of the ice-cold water on her face was like nothing she had ever felt before.

  Nothing.

  And that first sip was heavenly. The best drink of anything in her life. And something she would always remember.

  TEN

  September 6th, 2728

  Snake River in Owyhee County, Idaho

  LEE SPLASHED WATER on his face and then washed off his arms and neck and hair, carefully sipping only tiny amounts of water each minute or so.

  Beside him Joan did the same. For the first time she took off her white lab jacket and really washed her face and arms as well.

  “Wish we had something to eat with this,” she said.

  “We do,” he said, “but we need to climb back up and pick it, then come down here again to rest.”

  He took one last small sip of water, then led the way, holding her hand again, back up the short twenty feet to the forest above them.

  He took a few steps back into the pine and found what he had seen on the way through. Pine cones from what were called single-leaf pinyon pines.

  He picked up the cone and studied it, seeing the nuts just under the spines of the cone.

  The pinyon pines didn’t grow in the area of his ranch in central Idaho, but here along the Snake River and down into northern Utah, they were all over the place. N
ative Americans used to eat the nuts as part of their diet and for a time in the early west, export places sent the nuts around the world.

  “Pine nuts?” she said.

  “Actually pretty good,” he said. “And good protein, but we didn’t dare eat them without water in our systems.”

  She nodded at that.

  He started gathering up cones and handing them to her. She had put back on her lab jacket, so she stuffed them in her pockets.

  After they had about ten cones full of more nuts than they dared eat in the next day, he moved over to an area along the cliff face and picked some fresh-looking dandelions. He didn’t much like the flavor of them, but he was starving and had little choice at the moment.

  “Now I know people eat those,” she said, nodding as she picked some as well and stuffed them in her pockets.

  Then they headed back down the cliff, again going slowly. When they reached the spring they both took another small sip of water.

  They put the dandelions and pinecones next to the pool of water.

  He pointed to the top half of the pool. “Hot springs come in there, water from the cold springs comes down here. Hundreds of years ago this used to be the perfect temperature to soak in.”

  She reached down and touched the water, then smiled. “Like a warm bath.”

  “Wonderful thing about Mother Nature,” he said, peeling off his shirt. “It takes a long time for things to change.”

  He sat down beside the pool and then carefully and painfully pulled off his socks. Luckily he had very few cuts. Mostly his feet were bruised and bruised badly.

  Joan had removed her lab coat again and came over to check his feet. She nodded a few times. “They could be a lot worse, considering the ground you covered in only socks.”

  “Yeah,” he said. “But right now they feel like rocks tied to my ankles.”

  “Soak them and clean them for a little while,” she said. “But not too long in the water.”

  “Thanks, doc,” he said, smiling at her.

  With that she stood above him and started taking off her shoes and then her pants.

  Underwear and all.

  Then she pulled her blouse over her head and was standing there completely naked.

  She was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. Small breasts, blonde pubic hair, not an ounce of fat on her anywhere.

  “You think if I washed the blouse and socks,” she said, picking them up without an ounce of modesty, “they would dry?”

  It took him a moment, but he nodded. “Still warm out here and that slight breeze along the river will dry them in no time.”

  She nodded, then waded into the pool, making all kinds of wonderful sounds of pleasure as she sank into the water.

  “Come on in, the water’s great.”

  He nodded, but he felt clearly embarrassed. In all his years of life, he had never been naked in front of a woman before. He had lost his virginity back in college and had a few girlfriends, but they always seemed to be more trouble than they were worth.

  She could sense his hesitation, clearly.

  She smiled. “Remember, I’ve seen you naked already.”

  He looked at her, puzzled.

  “You were in a coma for six years.”

  He laughed, clearly feeling his face blush.

  “I bet I’ve seen places on you that you haven’t seen.”

  He started to open his mouth, then shut it and just shook his head.

  “Helped change your diaper a few times as well,” she said, smiling.

  He could feel his face turning completely red. Then her smile got to him and he laughed.

  “How about we never mention that again,” he said.

  “Deal,” she said, smiling.

  With that he stood and pulled off his pants, shorts and all, then his shirt as she watched. And he honestly didn’t mind that she was watching.

  Then he slid carefully into the pool beside the most beautiful woman he could have ever imagined being beside.

  ELEVEN

  September 6th, 2728

  Snake River in Owyhee County, Idaho

  JOAN WAS SHOCKED at how seeing Lee healthy and naked was so different than seeing Lee the patient. She had never realized how good of shape he was in.

  And when he had been her patient, he had been twenty-five plus years older as well.

  Now he was an amazingly in-shape, handsome man. She couldn’t do anything but stare as he carefully worked his way into the pool.

  After they both got completely washed off, they went to work on the pine cones. For a while she stayed in the pool, pulling out the small nuts and putting them on a rock near the edge. But that got awkward, so she just got out and sat on a stone on the edge and worked at the cones there.

  Lee did the same, sitting naked on a rock beside her.

  It felt completely natural and wonderful. A mountain hot springs, a warm afternoon, a slight breeze that brought them the smell of hot pine trees and of the river below. If they weren’t so far from home and starving, she might have actually enjoyed it a lot more.

  In fact, she knew she would have.

  The sips of water they had managed to get down had upset her stomach only for a moment, and as she took more and more water, she could feel the thirst starting to abate and the hunger take over.

  “We need to make sure we chew these up really, really well,” Lee said. “Then swallow them with just a little bit of water.”

  She understood that. The wilderness way of things was exactly as she would have directed for a patient in the hospital in their conditions.

  “How many?” she asked.

  “I think we should start with about five, see how that goes.”

  She put five of the nuts in her mouth and chewed them until they were pulp. They were easy to chew, just as with any raw nut, and they actually had a bland cashew flavor. She could see how roasted with a little salt these would have been popular.

  She swallowed them with a tiny sip of water.

  Lee did the same, then they both washed some clothes. He washed his socks completely, banging them a few times on a smooth rock. And his underwear and his shirt.

  She washed her underwear, her blouse, and her socks.

  They hung the clothes on branches on one of the small pine trees so that the wind and sun would dry them, then went back to have seconds on the pine nuts.

  She was starting to feel almost human again.

  Almost.

  And clearly Lee looked like he was feeling better as well, even though he was limping.

  After their third helping of nuts, they both got back into the pool for a while.

  “I can’t tell you how sorry I am about getting you into all this,” Lee said as they settled into the water.

  She laughed. “Tell you what, you stop apologizing for that and I’ll never mention the coma stuff again.”

  He laughed. “Deal.”

  He shook her hand on that, which honestly felt wonderful. She was seven hundred years in the future, on the edge of starving and was having feelings for the naked man beside her in the pool.

  It hadn’t been that long since her last boyfriend, had it?

  “This pool feels better than I remember,” he said.

  “You here with a woman the first time as well?” Joan asked.

  “Nope,” he said. “By myself. Just out of my last year of my doctorate. Came up here to scatter my father’s ashes where he loved to hunt. Duster told me about this and how to find it.”

  She didn’t want to say anything about his father, so she asked the next question. “What field did you get your doctorate in?”

  “First one was for applied physics. Second one the mathematical theory of time.”

  He said that so matter-of-factly, all she could do was stare.

  “And you built a ranch back in the past to study time?” she asked. “Why do that?”

  “I am studying the influences of travelers like myself, and now you, on timelines,” he said
. “I needed to try to keep a low footprint myself in the past to really be able to see the influences that others left, at least mathematically, across a wide range of alternate timelines. A whole lot of mathematical theory, mostly.”

  “Oh,” was all she could say.

  “I am making progress, actually. Hope we can get out of this so I can report to Bonnie and Duster about my findings.”

  “I hope we can get out of this as well,” she said. “But for other reasons.”

  Lee laughed and nodded and then stared out over the river valley below.

  She just watched his handsome face. She had a hunch that if anyone could get them out of this mess, it would be Lee.

  She hadn’t known the awake Lee very long, but the longer she knew him, the more she felt comfortable with him.

  And not as afraid.

  TWELVE

  September 7th, 2728

  Snake River in Owyhee County, Idaho

  LEE WAS VERY happy the afternoon and evening had gone as well as it had. They had managed to keep down about ten helpings of pine nuts, a bunch of dandelions, and enough water that they both ended up peeing again, which meant they were getting hydrated.

  As the sun set, they had gotten dressed. He really felt comfortable being naked with Joan and watching her wonderful body, but they didn’t dare get chilled going into the night.

  They had decided they would stay on the wide ledge near the pool until morning because it was just safer from animals than back up in the trees. There was no sign any animals used the pool for drinking. He figured that the river below them was too close for the animals to bother with this pool.

  The night wasn’t going to be cold, but it wasn’t going to be warm either. So they had built a stone wall around where they would sleep to block any wind.

  Then they had both just lay there, using her lab coat as a light blanket, staring at the stars through the passing clouds above. No moon tonight yet, so what stars they could see were bright.