Detour to Otherwhen ©

by K Pelle

Chapter 11

So after running around madly all morning, I sat down to eat a quick lunch that Maybelle had whipped up for me since Anna and everyone else had eaten earlier. I was still sitting at the table, sipping a coffee and talking to Chuck about shifting things around in the quonset hut when Fran came driving back, cursing a blue streak, and stomping up to me with blood in her eye.

"Why didn't you come and get me first, instead of clearing all that damn rock off that damn road, you frigging idiot?" she demanded.  "I could have ridden up there on a horse instead of waiting to drive your jeep.  As it is, I got there just in time to tie off the damn cord.  It's a bouncing baby girl and Meredith has called her Madeline Josephine. The silly little bitch started having lower abdomen  pains and minor contractions not long after that light show finished, which is five or six hours ago.  She thought it was just an upset stomach or gas. Thank goodness Matty has delivered several kids and is a great midwife, or we could have lost that little girl."

"Well, that's good news," I smiled as calmly as I could.  "I'm glad it all worked out well in the end."

"ERRRGH, MEN!" she barked, then broke into laughter for a few seconds.  "I'll bet she never said a damn thing to you about recurring pains did she?"

"Nope, not one word, but I guess she'll know better next time it happens," I grinned.  "I'll know enough to ask next time too."

"Well, thank Bog for small mercies," Fran giggled.  "Maybe some men can learn from experience.  By the way, whoever told that girl that she was only eight months pregnant needs his butt kicked so hard he sees stars.  That newborn kid looks like she was full term and then some.  We didn't have an accurate scale, but Matty's old fashioned kitchen scale registered the baby's weight at eight pounds, four ounces, which is one big kid for a firstborn.

"I left just as Louise ripped into Mark and Wally for sitting around the kitchen while the baby was being wrapped and diapered with old, torn-up, flannel bed sheets.  She was ranting about them going back to their old house and bringing down all the baby goodies she's been collecting for months."

"Now I'm very glad you talked me into letting you take the Jeep so you could check on Meredith instead of me," I grinned again.  "It's like I've often said before, I'll gladly let the experts handle their specialties, because they know when to dig in and get to work, but they also know when to cut and run."

She giggled at that, then leaned over to kiss me on the cheek before bouncing off to find Anna and tell her about the new baby.

By then I felt I'd sat long enough, so I got up, at which point Chuck got to his feet as well.

"What now, Boss?" he grinned at me.

"Well, I think we're going to have to move the Lowdens fairly soon in order to save as many of their belongings as we can.  If Anna is right about the natives of this time period, they won't have any respect for individual property, which means if they find the place abandoned, it'll be raided and ruined.  Because of that, we need a way to move their things, a place to store their stuff and a place for them to stay until we can build them a new house to live in.  Eventually everyone will have to be living in one place and I think this is the chosen spot since we can protect it to some degree."

"Yeah, from the sound of it Wally an' his wife is gonna want ta move here too, along with all of their stuff and animals.  At least Wally has an old two-ton truck with a grain box that we can use ta move stuff," Chuck shrugged.  "He's got a trailer too, a house trailer I mean, an' I think he figures him an' his missus will tow that down here an' live in that fer a while.  Him an' me was talkin' on way back ta his place an' he was makin' sense.  He figgers his chicken coop an' pig shed is small enuf so's we c'n move 'em on the back o' his two-ton, if we take the sides off the box an' make it inta a flat deck.  He thinks we'll need to have an old fashioned style cattle drive ta move his cattle an' sheep though.  Thank goodness he's only got a few sheep, cause I hate them things."

"Yeah well, I'm not as worried about Wally's stuff," I sighed.  "The stuff up at Mark and Louise's place is more of a problem because from what they said it's right on the edge of our territory.  I know we should protect it until it can be moved, but what complicates that right now is simple exhaustion.  Not only have we all been awake for umpteen hours, but I think that light show took a lot out of everyone.  I don't know about you, but I'm starting to feel dang tired and I'm starting to wonder if it wouldn't be smart to put my head down for a while and have a snooze."

"Yeah, I know whatcha mean.  I'm gettin' tuckered too, an' the kids has all flaked out in the camper."

"Well, if they're down, I'll bet Maybelle isn't far behind."

"Oh, she an' all t'other women was smarter'n us an' took turns ta have a nap.  Maybelle dozed off while you was shiftin' rock off 'n th' road, but I was helpin' empty yer Jeep an trailer, so . . ."

"Oh, oh, here comes someone to see us," I broke in, pointing at the end of the road coming out of the gap, then I recognised Mark's car.  "I wonder what's up?"


It was Wally and Mark, who wanted me to go to the Lowden house and use Mark's tractor to grade a driveway from Mark's garage, across the ditch and out to the road.  It seemed that Mark and Louise had a huge garage with several vehicles in it.  Amongst those vehicles was a backhoe with a front end loader, a thirty-foot long RV, a twenty-eight-foot long, gooseneck camper trailer and a pickup truck rigged to haul the trailer, a snowmobile, two ATVs and a couple of older cars.  Not only that, but Mark and Louise were something of emergency preparedness fanatics and had a large stock of dried, canned and frozen foods stored at their house.  They wanted to move all of those things down to the valley as quickly as they could.

So in the long-run Anna, Maybelle, Chuck, and I climbed into my Jeep and towing my recently emptied trailer, we followed Wally and Mark over to the Lowden house.  Four hours later the big RV, the pickup and camper trailer, my Jeep and trailer, Wally's grain truck, Mark's car, as well as the backhoe, were all headed for the valley.  Nothing was empty either.  My Jeep and trailer was loaded with small household articles and food and dry good, Wally's grain truck was loaded with beds and furniture and Mark's car was loaded with more dry goods and baby stuff.  I'd even loaded a portable generator into the scoop on the front end loader and tied it in place so it could be moved safely.  However in those four hours we'd also done a lot of work, made several observations, come to many decisions and reached several conclusions, some of them quite startling.

For instance when we first arrived at Mark's place I was looking things over and realized that there was something quite strange about the boundary between 'our' territory and the 'existing' territory.  In the first place the ground levels from one side to the other didn't match very well.  I didn't go very near the edge because I was worried about the soil stability, but even from several feet away I could see that the other side was at least fifty feet lower than Mark's driveway.  However by looking along the line of the cut I could see that less than a hundred yards from the house the difference between the two levels was no more than three or four feet.

As I was looking that direction, further from the roadway I noticed that more than just the house and the garage had made the trip with us though. The cutoff between the 'old and new' territories was on a curve at Mark's place and although he hadn't mentioned it, part of his 'hobby farm' had come along on our trip.  One of the items which was still there was a fairly large wind generator and its converter shed, still loaded with storage batteries.  That wind generator suddenly jumped to the top of the list of things we needed to salvage as soon as possible, perhaps not that day, but very soon.

Right at the moment though I knew we had other work that had to be done and I was feeling quite tired.  First things first, we needed a solid driveway to salvage various things, so I headed for the big garage and shifted the big pickup truck outside so I could get at the backhoe.  Using the front end loader portion of the machine I soon had a hard packed roadbed that we could use and everyone else set to with a will to salvage items from the house.  However once I had the driveway roughly graded and had parked the backhoe back near the garage I decided to do some investigating of the various other structures which had been left behind.

Then something happened which changed my whole view of the situation.  As I walked some distance away from the house, I glanced over toward the 'existing' territory and noticed that the ground levels almost matched.  Then I had a severe shock - I saw a face, a man's face, peering at me from the bushes that grew in the 'other' area.  I was astonished, so I stopped and stared, but the stranger wasn't as indecisive as I was.  He saw me, scowled heavily and started forward, brandishing a stone-headed axe - only he didn't make it across the boundary between the 'old' and 'new' areas.  As his leading foot reached that boundary he seemed to be struck by lightning - lightning that rose from the ground - it looked almost as if he tried to leap back then, but he was too late.  There was a loud 'CRACK' - then instantly his body convulsed, and it seemed as if every muscle in his body responded so he was thrown upward and backward.  He fell to the ground, quivered and shook for a few seconds, then he died.  All I could do was watch what happened, feeling certain that if I tried to cross that line to help him I would die too.

I knew that without question, because at the instant that the lightning had shot upward, I'd noticed a strange strip running along the boundary between 'our' territory and the 'outside' area.  At first the strip looked like a dark line, a gap or space of some sort in the ground, but it was only a foot or so wide.  It didn't look like much more than a wide line where nothing grew, but when I got closer it appeared to be a gap filled with some sort of shimmering black 'nothingness.'  It seemed to be a flat black opening - a gap or a vacant, lightless emptiness of some sort - not a space filled by a black substance.  Only it wasn't really black, not completely.  When I looked closer there seemed to be a shade of deep, dark red included in the blackness, but when I leaned close enough to see that colour I could also feel heat - scorching, intense heat.  Now that I knew where to look I could see the effect of that heat, a shimmering, shifting, fierce effect which rose straight up from that narrow gap, an almost invisible boundary of overheated air.

I glanced right and left along that dark line, my eyes following that shimmering boundary and was astonished at what I saw.  Even the branches of the trees growing up to that boundary didn't cross above it, neither the branches coming from the side I was on, nor those growing out from the trees on the other side.  There was a narrow gap which began at the ground and reaching upward, but how high that barrier stretched, was something I couldn't even guess. Now that I looked closely, I could definitely see a distinctive shimmer in the air rising well above the gap, as if there was a disturbance of some sort in the flow of the air itself.  Then the breeze shifted and I felt hot air, boiling hot - no, more than that - scorching hot, perhaps even lava hot. Then I smelled a slightly sulphurous stench.  Did that come from the gap too?

As I was standing there, staring at the area near the barrier and the dead man's body, I thought of trying to throw something solid at that shimmer, just to see what would happen.  I bent over to pick up a stone about the size of a golf ball and had just tossed it at the shimmering space when I heard a voice calling me.

"Joe, come give us a hand, we want to . . ." Anna's call was interrupted by a sharp "CRACK!" and a flash of bright blue light as the stone I'd tossed hit that shimmering barrier.

That stone arced up and back over my head, but when it landed on the grass, the grass around it quickly turned black, and I knew that rapid blackening was caused by heat.  Only that pebble hadn't been hot when I threw it, not even warm, just ambient air temperature.  That meant in the brief instant it had been in the area over that gap the pebble had been heated by something - something that looked to me like lightning, but which had heated that pebble instantaneously, heated it hot enough to quickly blacken green grass.  I swung my gaze back and stared at the gap in wonder, but I didn't have long to ponder it before Anna came running up.

"What did you do?" she demanded.  "Have you been fiddling around, making some kind of bomb or something?"

"No, I just discovered that there's an invisible barrier between us and the rest of the world, so I tossed a rock at it to see what would happen.  When the rock hit the barrier, that bright flash of light and sharp sound were the result, then the rock got thrown back in the opposite direction.  I don't understand it, but it must be some sort of static electric charge, maybe something like an electric fence, but without any wires.  It's a helluva lot more dangerous than an electric fence though, because it just killed a man.  He was coming from the other side, but it zapped him, threw him back - he lay there, jerking for a bit, then he died.  I was right here and saw it happen.  That's why I threw a rock at it, to see if the same thing would happen from this side and boy, did I ever get to see the fireworks!"

"You say it was a guy who came from the other side?  What did he look like?  Where is his body?  I want to examine him and . . . OH!  If there's a barrier there that kills people who try to cross,  I can't get close enough to him to examine him, can I?"

"No, I think you'd die if you tried," I said as forcefully as possible in an attempt to let her know I didn't think any argument was possible.  "You might be right about the time frame and the sort of people we're going to meet here though, if and when the barrier dies out.  The guy was carrying a stone-headed axe and a stone-tipped spear.  It looked like what he was wearing was fur or some sort of leather clothing too, so there probably isn't a weaving industry in this area.  His body is just over there by that bush, but don't get too damn close to that barrier or whatever it is - and be careful, I don't know how close you can get before the lightning strikes."

I had an idea then, dry wood doesn't conduct electricity well.  So, while Anna was trying to get a look at the dead guy, I trotted over to the garage and picked up a broken wooden handle.  Testing with that, by holding it at one end and pointing the other end out in front of me, I found that you could get quite near the barrier, but you didn't dare touch it.  When the wooden handle did reach the area over the gap there was another sharp crack of sound and another flash of bright light.  I felt a tiny shock through the dry wood, just a slight tingle, but that handle was almost torn from my hand as the end which had approached that shimmering barrier was flung upward.  At the same time that end of the stick suddenly became so hot that it began to smoke.

"Oh my, a bit of wood thrown into that could start a fire in a hurry," Anna looked shocked.  "But, I don't understand, how can that be?  What could cause a barrier like that?"

'The first thing I can think of is that there is an electrical potential difference in our version of earth after thousands of years, or else we gained an electrical charge as we were moved here.  Of course I could be wrong, but that's one theory," I shrugged my shoulders.  "I know when planes fly from place to place, especially through clouds or a storm they can pick up static electricity, so they have to be grounded when they land or people can get shocks.  Maybe we went through the same thing only on a lot grander scale because we flew through time.  The only other option I can think of is that the curse that old shaman cast is still working in one way or another and we aren't allowed to actually contact the world on the outside."

"Does either of those ideas even make sense?" she snorted.

"I don't know.  I really don't.  The static electricity idea sounds the most reasonable to me because of what I've seen happening, but I can't think of any reason for the gap being there.  Only if it is electrical and that gap disappeared so full contact was made between something as big as the chunk of land we're on and the normal landscape there would be a helluva explosion.  If it's strong enough to be as violent as it is and if it stretches all the way around our hunk of territory, then there has to be a multi-gigawatt difference in the electrical potential between the two areas.  However if the two plates, or whatever they are, made full contact, the resulting flash would vaporize anything at or near the boundary between them, so I'm glad that gap is there.

"Now if I am correct and it is a static electric charge, then the differences in electrical potential will eventually equalize between the two areas.  If that happens we'll be able to cross back and forth with impunity, but I don't have any idea how or when that could happen, or even if it will happen.  I don't even have any idea of how to measure the voltage, or heat, or whatever it is that's causing the phenomenon.  So before you even ask, I can't give you an estimated time frame when crossing the barrier will be safe."

"I see.  So what you're saying is that we're fenced in, while the rest of the world is fenced out, and you have no idea when or even if the fence is going to come down, right?"

"I'd say that's a fairly decent simplification of what I meant, yeah," I shrugged.

"Good, let's go tell everyone what you've found and how dangerous it is before someone decides to go exploring and accidentally kills himself."

"Okay, just a minute and I'll come with you,"  I bent over and laid out a few decent sized rocks in an arrow shape with the pointed end of the arrow close to the 'gap' or whatever it was.

"Just why in blue blazes are you doing that?" Anna demanded.

"Well, this way I'll know how to find this exact spot and I can come back in a day or two to see if the gap seems any narrower,"  I grinned at her.  "If the gap lessens, I'm going to assume that the potential has lessened, and if I can find some way to measure how much, I can make an estimation of the time frame we were just wondering about."

"I thought you just said you didn't have any idea how to do that?" she frowned.

"I didn't then, but a few seconds later I decided to try this and see if it gave me any info," I grinned at her.

"You're mind must work in six directions at once, and be going ten thousand miles an hour in every one of those directions too!" she shook her head at as if she was really puzzled.

"Sorry, dear, but I doubt if my mind does that though, because I think it might be a bit painful," I laughed.

Just then I heard a shout from the other side of the barrier and saw a man standing over the dead guy, so he was only about twelve or fifteen feet from us.  He stared at us in wonder, then looked back over his shoulder and barked a few words that sounded amazingly like Na Dene.  If the language was as similar as it sounded he was calling for more warriors to come and attack some strangers.  Since I didn't particularly want to see more men killed, even if they were savages, I bent down and scooped up a handful of course sand and tiny pebbles.

"No!  Stay back!  Shaman's fire!" I shouted in Na Dene, then swung my hand in an arc aimed toward the barrier, letting the sand dribble through my fingers.

I was rewarded with an intense sheet of blue flame that must have been at least ten or twelve feet long and over twenty feet high. On top of that there was a roar of sound so loud I wanted to cover my ears.  I couldn't see what was happening on the other side of the barrier for a few seconds because of that bright blue light, but I could hear a few yells and several loud shouts, then many loud voices.  When I could see clearly again there were seven - no, eight figures standing slack jawed, simply staring at me, but all of them were now a few feet further back than the first guy had been.  Every single face I saw had a look that seemed to combine fear and respect on their dusky features, although after staring at me for a few seconds, one or two of them seemed terrified.  Each of them gripped a weapon tightly in their hands, clubs, stone axes, and stone tipped spears were the choice of most, but to my surprise there wasn't one bow or even an atlatl. Not only that, but the spears I saw were heavy and clumsy looking, obviously meant more for thrusting than for throwing.  The group seemed to be murmuring amongst themselves, but I could barely make out their voices.  I frowned at that, I should have been able to hear them clearly at that distance because they seemed to be talking aloud, not whispering.

Finally one of them had the bravery to turn to me and ask a question, and I was astonished to understand part of it, but it was muffled somehow, as if the guy was a long distance away.  Part of that might have been some sort of interference from the barrier, I couldn't really tell, but I suspected it might well be a factor.

"What ~~~ you ~~~~ ~~~~~~~ fire and thunder ~~~~ ~~~, Shaman?" the grizzled looking older figure seemed to have demanded.

"Not Understand," I answered again in Na Dene while shaking my head.  Then I used the simplest hand-signs, a clipped form of trade language, and used signs meaning the same thing as I'd said aloud.  I started by pointing a hand at him, then rolling my hand away from my mouth until my palm faced him, then pointing to myself, followed by holding a hand cupped behind my ear, then shaking my head and spreading my hands flat out to each side and shrugging in question.

He nodded, then bent down and picked up a bit of soil and like I had, he tossed it at the barrier.  When the flash had died and everything had returned to normal he pointed to the dead man and spread his hands, then shrugged the way I had.

I didn't know how to explain the man's death any more than I already had, but decided to try.  First though I jabbed a finger toward the black gap that ran between us.  Next I pointed at the tree branches, making a cutting and throwing gesture with one hand as I pointed first one direction and then the other along the barrier.  I made a walking gesture with two fingers against my palm, first pointing at myself and shaking my head, then pointed at them and shook my head a second time.  I pointed a finger at my chest, then mimed walking toward them, then used two fingers of one hand to imitate someone walking forward.  I pointed to the black space in the ground, then used the flat of my other hand and pointed first at the gap in the ground, then my finger tips, using a flat cutting motion just past them.  Still holding that hand flat, I went back to using the other hand and marched my fingers forward to the tip, then flung my whole hand up and back.  At that point I threw my head and hands back, let my head roll to one side - eyes staring blankly, mouth open and tongue hanging out, hoping to convey the idea of death as I pointed at the original man's body.

The old guy nodded his head and pointed to the dead man, then to the barrier and back to the dead man again.

I solemnly nodded my head, pointing at the corpse first, then my ear and followed that by shaking my head as if saying he wouldn't listen.  I pointed to him again, frowned deeply and made a motion of lifting a clenched fist over my head and shifted forward taking a tiny step closer to the barrier, trying to convey the idea that he had lifted his axe and attacked.  Pointing at the barrier, I clapped my hands and flung one arm back, then pointed to the corpse a last time before pointing a finger at my chest and trying to look totally astonished.

That drew a nod, then the old guy bent down and picked up a tiny stone, once more flipping it at the barrier.  The resulting crack of sound, and flash of flame certainly got his point across, so I went on.

I pointed down at the barrier, then at them, and spread my hands wide, opening my eyes and mouth wide and looking at them in supposed wonder.  I was trying to convey the idea that the barrier might be their fault, not mine and was asking them directly if it was or not.  That drew a reaction of surprise from one or two of them, then some rapid words between them before the older guy looked directly at me, then pointed to each of them in turn and shook his head slowly and emphatically.  He paused, then hesitantly and almost reverently pointed toward the sun, then in a low arc with his finger supposedly tracing the path of the barrier, then looked at me and shrugged.  In other words, none of them had done it, maybe the sun god had.

I shrugged my shoulders at that, then scratched my head and rubbed my jaw as if I was thinking, then stood straight, eyes wide open and nodding my head.  Then I pointed at the sun and swung my arm in an arc, east to west, pulled in my finger and laying my head against my hand, shutting my eyes briefly.  After that I raised my head, blinked a few times and pointed to the east, then pointed and swung my hand overhead at the sun again.  I followed that by holding up one finger and got nodded heads.  Having gotten across the idea that one finger meant a day, I held up both hands with all fingers extended, folded my fingers down before repeating the gesture a second time.  I started to do it a third time, but that last time I held up only eight fingers. 

That drew nodded heads from several men, but one genius pointed at the sun, swung it to the west, then laid his head over to one side on his hand and closed his eyes. He paused for a second, then pointed east and made an arc by holding his fingers and thumb extended with his hand side-on toward me, and I knew he meant a crescent moon as he slowly raised his hand above his head.

I nodded my head enthusiastically and held up one finger, then the sign of the crescent moon, after that I pointed to him, then to me, then to the ground.

"I get it!" Anna whispered to me. "You just asked them to come back and meet you here in a lunar month and that guy seemed to get it."

"Sorta, but really, I asked him to come back here for sure, because he seems to be the linguist in the crowd, or maybe just the smartest of the bunch."

When we looked back at the crowd, they had moved and were all standing near the body of the dead man, pointing at his burnt mocassin and lower leg, then at the cutoff line in the tree branches.  They couldn't seem to understand what had happened to him since he was so far back from the barrier.

I thought it best to explain that, so I picked up that old wooden handle again and walked forward, then poked at the barrier around knee height.  This time as the stick was thrown upward, I let go of the end, instead of holding onto it.  That handle whipped up and away, flipping end for end as it flew through the air before finally landing about thirty feet away from where I stood.  When I went to get it and held it up close to the barrier, they could all see that the end was charred.  But the best demonstration happened by accident.  One fellow had moved quite close to the barrier to see what I was showing them and when he turned, the shaft of his spear touched the barrier.  The spear was torn right out of his hand and it travelled about twenty feet up and ten feet away, then as it fell it got hung up in a fork of the branches of a tree, dangling at least three feet higher than he could reach.  All the rest of the bunch seemed to think that was absolutely hilarious, but their laughter didn't last long, instead he found a dead branch and knocked it loose and grabbed it as it fell.  After that they set about making a litter of sorts out of branches, twigs, vines and a chunk of hide.  Once that was done, they loaded their dead friend on it, then they simply walked away.

"They never said 'Goodbye' or anything," Anna frowned at me.

"Nope, after all, it's obvious that they were leaving.  Why make a big deal out of what anyone with any common sense can see is happening?" I shrugged.  "That sort of thing is quite common in some tribes, but like a lot of things, it depends on local custom.  It isn't as if they know us or have any reason to fear us right now."

That's when I got another surprise, because someone had come up behind me, but I hadn't noticed anyone approaching.

"I just seen all o' that 'cuz I come out just after you made all the bloody racket and scared everyone," Wally said quietly, but making me jump.  "Now I dunno 'bout anyone else, but I'm dang glad you're here.  That had to be the most fascinatin' show and tell I've ever seen in my life .  Those guys looked like the sort that'd eat you and me for breakfast, but neither one o' you so much as quivered and you had 'em eatin' outta yer hand.  You folks is sumpin else."

"Yep, Anna is doin' a good job o' trainin' me," I grinned.  "If I ain't careful she'll teach me to be a workin' anthropoly-whozits."

"The word you were looking for is 'anthropologist,' you Smartass!" Anna snorted.  "Instead of you learning though, I was thinking that I was learning how to communicate without words from you.  I mean, you got across the idea of a barrier, and you proved to them that it was dangerous, then you even arranged to meet them here in a month.  I think you did fantastically."

"Yeah, well I'd like ta know more 'bout this barrier thing you was explainin.'  I couldn't believe what happened ta that stick," Wally picked up a little pebble and tossed it gently, then jumped like he'd been shot at the sudden 'SNAP' and the sharp whistle as it flew off.

"Holy Crap!" he muttered.  "So that's how you made that loud noise that brung me out ta see what was goin' on?"

"Yep, just a handful of sand, slung at the barrier so it spread out," I grinned at him.  "It made quite an impression on those other guys."

"It made quite an impression on me too!  I darn near wet my pants," Anna laughed.  "I'm glad there was such a bright light between me and those savages or they might have been a lot less impressed by your squaw."

"Yeah, well right now I think my squaw should go inside and get everyone else out here so we can demonstrate what happens when anything touches that barrier."

"And why can't you do it?" she demanded.

"Because I"m going to be trying to think of a method to measure the distance across that gap without getting myself killed," I turned and frowned at the problem.

I knew there had to be some way to do it and I was concentrating on the idea, but I was already very tired, so I suppose I lost track of time.

"What's so important about the distance across the gap, Joe?" Wally asked finally, breaking into my deep thoughts.

"What?" I glanced up then, almost surprised that the whole crew were standing nearby now.

"Joe, I've brought everyone just like you asked and I've tried to explain about the gap being dangerous," Anna smiled as she explained quietly.  "Now as Wally asked, why are you so worried about the width of the gap?"

"Oh, like I said before, I've got this wild idea that the field or barrier around us developed because we moved through time.  At the same time, I imagine the field is eventually going to dissipate, but I don't have any idea of when or how that will happen.  If it is slowly dissipating though, then I think that gap must be getting smaller as time passes, and if that's so, I'd like to be able to check that difference.  Then I'll have an idea when the invasion is going to happen and we can try to be prepared for it."

"Invasion?  What do you mean by that?" Louise asked fearfully.

"Well, I think we just met an advance scouting party, probably investigating all the bright lights and noises that happened when we landed here this morning.  Now though, they've seen me and saw that I made a handful of sand turn into a scorching fire, so in their eyes, I must be a powerful shaman.  Over and above that, one guy discovered the hard way that trying to cross our borders can kill a person.

"So right about now I'll bet they've got men checking to find out just how far our borders extend and I guarantee that they're going to be keeping an eye on this place.  If I was chief of a local tribe and dependent on the local resources to survive, I'd want to find out exactly why a section of my territory had suddenly become inaccessible.  If and when those defences drop, they'll be in here as fast as possible to check us out.  Since they probably think I caused it, they'll come with as big a force as possible too, then they'll try to capture or kill me.  That way they either control my magic, or else they won't have to fear that I'll use it against them, because I'll be dead.

"That force field or whatever it is has effectively given us some relief by holding off an invasion for a while, but I have no doubt that an invasion will come when that barrier drops.  We're just going to have to be ready for it."

"Unh, Joe?  To get back to measuring that gap, does the distance have to be very accurate?" Louise asked almost apologetically.  "If not, my daddy was a surveyor and he used to say you could estimate the height or width of just about anything using triangulation.  All you have to know is one basic distance, usually the distance from you to the object, then you need to find a comparative height and distance of a known figure.  I know he used to work out the angles, heights and distances, but once you have all of those, it was just a matter of doing the math."

"Thank you, Lou!" I jumped to my feet and walked over to give her a hug.  "Mark, did you know your wife is brilliant?  She just took a big problem off my plate and tomorrow we can work out a way to measure that dang gap - not today though, since I'm too tired to think straight.  Instead, let's get our butts in gear and move all this stuff, unless of course you want to stay here for the night, since it seems you would be perfectly safe after all."

"Absolutely not!" Louise almost shouted.  "I have a brand-new granddaughter who just might need her gramma.  I also have a daughter who is a brand-new mama, and I know she'll need me!  I wouldn't feel safe here anyway, not after seeing the looks of those wild men you were talking to out here.  If we're going to have to move in the long run, let's just do it now!"

So we went to the house to finish packing up, but I only stayed to help the others for a short while, and then only because they needed some added muscle to move some heavy furniture.  After that, since the backhoe was far slower than any of the vehicles, I decided to leave before the others were ready to head out.  It's a good thing I did, because I was almost asleep by the time I got to Wally's place.  I parked the backhoe, went inside to congratulate Meredith on her baby, saw the kid, hugged Matty for helping with the birth, then hiked back up the hill to hitch a ride to the valley.  Once I reached the rock shelf where the trail turned off, I simply sat down to wait for a ride.


I think I dozed off for a while, but I awakened when I heard someone drive up and stop.

"Caught ya snoozing, did I?" Chuck laughed as I blearily got to my feet.

"Yep, but then I think I've had about five or six hours of sleep since the night before the party at your place, so my dozing off in the middle of the day shouldn't be a surprise,"  I managed a weak grin.  "That short snooze has set me back on my feet and made me feel a lot better though.  Are you leading the pack?"

"Yep, an' there's some changes has been made in who and what's goin' where an' stuff.  I talked it over with Mark an' Wally, so Maybelle an' me is gonna go get our RV an' bring it an' th' kids up here fer tonight. That gives Wally a couple more bodies what kin keep watch out, jus' in case.  We know you said thet barrier'll keep out the wild bunch, but we was thinkin' maybe there's a gap in it some'eres, so we figger Wally's place is more exposed than yours.  'Sides, you got six growed up folks to watch out fer stuff, an' you got three dogs there too."

Chuck was driving Mark's big pickup truck, with the gooseneck camper trailer behind him and he pointed back at it as I climbed in the passenger side.  "When Mark was down in th' valley, he looked at thet tiddly little camper you an Anna has bin usin' fer th' four o' ya, an' thought it must be dang crowded.  Then since Fran an' th' cop has joined up with ya too, he thought he'd let ya use th' trailer I'm haulin.' We figger the cop kin have th' camper ya was usin' an' then you an' Anna kin move inta this'n.  Maybelle an' Anna figger the two young gals'll stay with th' cop an' Fran will move in with ya.  Ya cain't turn Mark down, neither, 'cause Anna has already accepted it.  It seems him an' Louise don't much care for this thing, an' Meredith hates it, so it was up fer sale anyway.  They figger it suits you three just' fine tho' an' it's sure a lot bigger'n that lil' camper.  Yer gonna really like the bed in the master bedroom most tho, thet thing is huge.  Louise called it a California King, whatever that is, but she sez it suits ya, cuz its a lot longer'n th' one in Anna's camper."

I just sighed and watched the scenery.  I was so tired right then that any bed sounded great and that big bed sounded like pure heaven.  As long as it was fairly firm, I was going to enjoy it, at least I planned to, when the time came for me to finally lay down to get a decent rest.  I was noticing that Chuck was talking, but not really paying any attention to the meaning of his words, then he said something that broke through and I listened to him closer.

"Joe, I hate to admit it, and I've been trying to hide it as best I can, but I'm scared shitless," he said quietly, and since the habitual 'injun' accent he usually used was gone, I knew he was being extremely serious.  "I just don't know what the hell to think.  I mean what do our kids have to look forward to now?  Lil Jo can't go to a university like she planned to do.  Johnny isn't going to be able to become the rodeo rider he's always dreamed of being.  Fawn isn't going to be able to become a veterinarian or anything like what she wanted either.  All of us are stuck in this place and we've got no future that I can see."

"Well, I think you're wrong,"  I answered slowly, but kept my voice firm and clear.  "Now I'm not saying I'm not worried about things, but what I am trying to do is to look at this as a challenge.  If we are as far in the past as Anna thinks we are, then right now the group of us are the most educated people on this whole planet.  We could just give up and hide away, or we could change the future of the whole damn world.

"For an example, just think about Treaty Number Seven for a moment.  If we educate the native people around us to the best of our ability and they have thousands of years to build on that education, what will their descendants do when they're shown that treaty?  Hell, if we do it right, things may be completely turned around.  Our descendants may be sailing over to Europe and offering those bastards a chance to have a railroad, if they'll only sign a treaty with us to give us the best part of their country in exchange for a couple of disease laden blankets and a few acres of land."

He stared at me for a second, then burst into laughter.

"Oh, you smart ass son of a gun," he hooted in delight.  "There isn't much that would please me more than something like that.  I didn't realise that treaty pissed you off all that much though, it's not like it really affects you one way or the other."

"Oh come on!  Do you think Gramma or Mom would have gone through what they did if it hadn't been for that damn treaty?  And they were only two out of thousands who suffered in one way or another.  Just think of all our people who died of disease and starvation because of those damn treaties that were signed all over North America.  And while we're at it, that name, just the word 'America' is another thing we need to change - or better still forget.  I don't know for certain where the word came from, and I don't really care, but I heard once that it was the name of some dickhead Spanish explorer.  Imagine the gall, naming a whole damn continent after yourself?  That damn word has been a bone in my craw for as long as I can remember.  I know when the Frenchmen landed in Quebec they asked the natives there the name of the place, but then mispronounced it.  At least the word Canada came from the word the First Nations people used, so I don't mind it so much, but I hate the word 'America' with a passion.  Most of my annoyance is probably because the Yankees stole the damn word instead of sharing it with the whole continent - hell, both continents, north and south."

"Well, what was the native word for the continent then?"

"I don't know, but I know the word 'Kanata' was close to what the down east natives told Champlain or whoever it was.  All it means is 'home' or 'village,' but either one makes a lot more sense to me than calling the whole damn continent after some dickhead with an ego problem."

"Hmm, Kanata, huh?" he mused, then grinned.  "You know, I like it!  It sounds right! I think you just renamed this valley and I guess our tribe too, because that's what we're going to have to become - the Kanata tribe."

"Well, it's really just a different pronunciation of the word, Canada.  I mean it's not that big a change."

"Yeah, but Kanata has a First Nations 'feel' ta it when a person uses it," he grinned.  "Don't go backslidin' on me, cousin.  I like ya better when yer fulla piss an' vinegar.  It reminds me o' when we was kids an' used ta get inta trouble all the time."

"Okay, if you can remember to talk like an educated man, instead of trying to piss everyone off by sounding like an uneducated injun, then I'll try to keep stirring the pot."  I grinned back at him.  "I think it's time for you and Fran to change, because she's like you, she's developed the habit of speaking like she was a 'regular uneducated injun' which is what people expect.  Only she's really quite well educated, just like you are, and don't harp at me about quitting school in grade ten, because that wasn't where you got most of your education.  You're smart enough that you absorbed knowledge everywhere you went, but you do your best to hide it.  You can't do that now, not if we want to start a rebellion like this world has never seen before.

"When that dickhead, Columbus comes across the ocean, I want our people to be able to meet him in destroyers and battleships, maybe even a submarine, or an aircraft carrier.  I want him to go running home so scared his tail will be tucked between his legs so far that people will think he has a permanent hard on.  I'd love to have our people meet those damn conquistadors with machine guns, bazookas and claymore mines, just to teach them what it was like to be outclassed and decimated.  In order to do that, all of us have to become teachers and examples of what education can do for a man - or a woman for that matter.  That's another thing, I don't care about colour, or sex, or tribe, or whatever, I want our bunch to treat everyone equally.  In other words, I'm probably going to annoy a few of our people, but in the long run I think we'll all be better off for it.

"Now, there's one last thing I want to say, before we get all the way home.  I want to let all these things I've talked about come up naturally, so our conversation this afternoon is just between us, okay?  Don't spread it around yet, because I have to do some work behind the scenes to set it up with everyone else."

"One guy you might set off is Mark, because I think he's starting to wonder about throwing his lot in with a bunch o' injuns. He's starting to realise that he no longer has the same job as he did before and he hasn't got the support of a huge staff in a big hospital.  Even more than that, he's terrified by the fact that we're on our own, without any backup."

"Oh, I don't think he's going to be much of a problem.  Pretty darn soon he's going wake up and realise that he's the only real doctor around and all he has for staff is Fran.  Now she's going to respect him as a surgeon, but as far as we're concerned, I think her knowledge will be a hell of a lot more useful to us.  She knows a lot about native plants and about caring for people in primitive conditions, which Mark will think is either risky, totally stupid or almost miraculous.  I have hopes that he's the sort who will learn to cope as best he can though, and I really hope there will be a lot of mutual respect develop between those two.

"I think we'll have more problems with Wally, and maybe with Mimi or Ellen, but then I could be wrong.  I think Wally is dang stubborn and set in his ways, so I think he'll want to fight some of the changes we'll have to make. Mimi is a natural born rebel, which could be either good or bad, depending on if we can harness that rebellion or not.  Meanwhile Ellen is actually a rich kid, who's been spoiled in a lot of ways, but if Anna and I can keep challenging her, she could be a real asset.  Both Mimi and Ellen are brilliant, but they're both so damn young that they'll have to be guided and educated into being able to use their full potential."

"What about Anna?  What's she like, really?  We've all been so busy since you come out to the ranch that I haven't had much chance to get to know her very well."

"Anna is a forceful person, almost a driven person.  She's brilliant, and she's grounded in the real world, so she's going to accept the facts and run with them.  In some ways she is so much smarter than I am that she frightens me, but in other ways she is naive and uneducated, and yet she has an amazing ability to adapt.  Besides that though Anna is quite a reverent person, but she doesn't follow any standard religion, instead her beliefs are based on the world she can see, feel and touch.  She actually told me that the Christian belief that man was made in God's image was far too narrow and restrictive.  Her belief is, that Christians, Jews and Moslems created a god in their image instead of the other way around.

"Of course some of her beliefs just blow me out of the water, like her belief that men are really like cats.  She claims that all men fall into two categories, either like a tom cat - who bounces from one woman to another willy nilly, or like a lion who gathers a pride of females - then makes them all his."

"She believes in polygamy?" Chuck squawked in surprise.

"Actually, no, not polygamy as such, what she believes in is polygyny, which is one man and more than one woman.  She compares me to the alpha wolf in a pack, claiming that I'm a natural leader and that I should have several women to chose from, but she feels it's her job to pick the candidates.  I think Mimi and Ellen were her first choices, but they're both too young for me, so now I think she has her mind set on convincing Fran to become my second wife."

"Oh you lucky S-O-B."

"Hah, tell me that the next time you have a fight with Maybelle and you find that lil Jo and Fawn both side with her.  Just having Mimi and Ellen underfoot all the time for the last two weeks has been a real trial at times, since there are those times when women team up on guys," I snorted.  "I keep telling Anna that I have my hands full just satisfying her, but she can't seem to let go of the idea."

Chuck just laughed at that, then since we were down in the valley he asked where I wanted to park the trailer and all I could think to say was 'somewhere flat and relatively level.'  We pulled over and stopped to consider the options, but just then Anna pulled up with my Jeep and trailer.

"I was thinking we should park all the trailers and campers back near that old one," she pointed.  "Wally was telling me that there's a connection point there to the water and septic tank systems and that we could all tie into those.  His suggests tying the toilets into septic, but he thinks if we run the 'grey water' from the showers, wash basins and kitchen sinks into a grease trap first, then we can use it to subsoil irrigate any gardens we grow."

I wasn't sure that I agreed, so we parked everything out of the way for the moment, then everyone, except Tommy - who was still sleeping, went over to check out the situation.  That old trailer was parked behind a line of quaking aspen trees, but sat on a huge area that had obviously been levelled for some reason.  Anna thought it might have been where the old house had been, but wasn't sure. 

It didn't really matter why that area had been levelled, it was just another of those strange things that seemed to work out to be an advantage for us.  The grass in that area was a bit long, but we soon found the cover of a massive box set into the ground that had both sewer and water hookups with a dividing wall between the two.  I really didn't care for the whole idea of tying everything together all that much because of the problems it might cause.  Connecting several trailers to water and septic wouldn't be difficult, but finding all the pipe and fittings we'd need would be a different matter.

"Hold it, let's think about this," I said to everyone.  "We're talking about hooking up all the trailers and campers to this one set of connections, right?"

"Yeah." Anna frowned at me.

"It can't see how we could make it work," I grumbled.  "To start with, hooking up half a dozen trailers and campers would be a bloody waste of pipe and fittings, which we just don't have.  Then as well as that, too much liquid would overload any septic system if it was originally meant to service a single family home.  I doubt this septic tank and drainage field is any bigger than normal, in fact since this sandy soil would percolate so well, it might be smaller than normal.

"Instead of that, I think we need to look at that big log house as a communal area.  We could put in a big communal kitchen and use the heat from the wood stoves to heat water for showers and baths. Instead of individual toilets, spread all over in the campers and trailers, we can install three or four in different cubicles, or one room for guys and one for gals, if that's what people want. As long as the water from the toilets and the greasy water from the sinks all goes into the septic system, which might work, but even then we might be stretching things a bit."

"Talking about that idea, what are we going to cook on and heat water with, we don't have all that much propane for the stoves," Mimi spoke up.

"That's why I think a communal kitchen is the answer.  We can use wood or coal burning stoves for cooking and we can install copper coils in them to heat water at the same time.  Those coils can be connected to insulated hot water tanks mounted up in the attic, which would supply hot water for baths and showers, or for washing clothes and whatnot.  Even then we may have to limit hot water use.

"Now there is another option as far as cooking and heating water is concerned, but it's iffy right now and I doubt if it will be a constant thing," I shrugged.  "You see Mark and Louise have a wind-powered generator and I think we can salvage it.  The problem is that we don't get much wind down here in the valley, so we'd have to set it up on top of the cliffs, then string wires down the cliff to get the electrical power here.  If its sitting up on the cliff it'll be exposed to attack, so we'll have to protect it.  Then, over and above that, when the wind doesn't blow, there won't be any power anyway."

"Yeah, but at least with that we'd have electricity some of the time," Anna sighed.  "I think electricity and all the things that it gave us are what I'm going to miss most.  Heck, I'm already missing it and we haven't been here a full twenty four hours yet."

"Yeah, but just think, you'd have been without electricity for a month back in 2003 anyway, because we'd have been camping out in the hills and hunting for Métis artifacts by now," I snapped at her, then sighed.  "Look, I'm sorry to be so curt, but I'm very tired.  Right now I want a bite to eat, then I want to find my bedroll and curl up to have a few hours sleep. Okay?"

The only argument I got about that was where I was going to sleep.  I just wanted to roll out my sleeping bag in a quiet, out of the way spot, but both Anna and Fran wanted me to sleep in a 'proper' bed.  In the end I gave in rather than have an argument about something so trivial, even though it meant that Chuck and I had to do a quick levelling job on Mark's goose-neck trailer before I could go to bed.

When I lay down, I decided that job might have been worth the time, because that big bed sure did feel good.  I know I didn't think about it for long though, sleep came too easily for any thoughts or worries to concern me.

Chapter_12