10 Pound Bag Ch. 031-035

Sonya and Matilda were back when we arrived, Sonya merely sitting in a chair and staring at the fire. Matilda, on the other hand, was excited and showed off her take of a few tiny crayfish, a turtle egg and a hand full of spring berries. I knew that much like Michelle's trout these were just examples to show us what food treasures the creek had for us. Matilda took the rabbit from Michelle with a grin, hung it from a branch on a small tree and put a bowl underneath it; she then cut the rabbit's head off with one strong and practiced slice of her knife and let it hang to drain the blood into the bowl.

I made a mental note to set up a cleaning station a little bit outside of the main camp; I was comfortable with butchering but it did create its own stench. We put up our horses and Michelle set to cleaning the shotgun while I pulled out a couple of tubs, our old-fashioned washboard and some simple cotton line. I ran the line triangular between three trees and that chore was done.

I pulled out the drone, it was time to explore west. I found the Nemaha without a problem and with plenty of battery left I followed the river northwest looking for Falls City.

I found the Nemaha Falls but I didn't find a town.

The same "Falls of Nemaha" that were engineered away in the very late 1800's after a devastating flood.

I brought the drone back to base.

*******

I sat down to my laptop and started browsing through my archives, I had them sorted by category and it didn't take me long to find what I needed from one of the colleges classes I had taken along the way. I am a bit anal and since storage is cheap I have all the documentation and research from any project or task I've done since Jr. High School.

I went through my archives and found the notes and code I needed; I fired up my editor and got to work. When Michelle came to look in at what I was doing, I bluffed her off; I wanted to have answers and data before we discussed this. She busied herself organizing the laundry station next to our utility sink. Septic quickly became a "sooner rather than later" problem to deal with.

I focused in on my code and consulted our library archive several times to check my results, I also looked at the last dates we were sure of in the Farmers' Almanac. I spent some time to create a halfway decent presentation even including video footage from today's drone flights. I was as close as I could get to correct until the skies fully cleared, but they had cleared enough and the moon rise gave early confirmation of my suspicions.

Supper was ready by the time I had finished and we were having beans and burritos; I couldn't complain about the food. While Matilda cleaned up dinner I went and fired up all the wood stoves so the tents would be warm for the evening. Michelle took Sonya and physically led her to do the evening livestock chores. When we all sat back down I cast my laptop to the big screen and started in.

"None of us know or understand what happened the other night", I started, "we are sure, however that something strange did happen and everything around us changed."

This brought agreement from everyone except Sonya.

"From what I can tell", I continued, "we are in the same place we were a couple of days back. We are on a plot of land between the Missouri and Nemaha rivers."

I ran the video footage of the rivers and the overhead footage of our camp site.

"Based on what we see here the 15 or so acres of land we are sitting on didn't change and the rivers are in the same place."

"I had to conclude that the question isn't where we are but rather WHEN we are."

That brought forth some noise.

I ended up talking over them, "We know that after that storm every single clock suddenly disagreed with daylight, and we also know that we appear to be enjoying early spring again instead of early summer.

"So, the question you should be asking is 'When are we?'"

That statement got blank stares as I expected, so I showed them the map image of Rulo. "This is Rulo as it was when we arrived," I stated.

"This was Rulo today," I then showed them the fly over footage; I was met with silence and confusion.

I jumped straight to Falls City modern followed by fly over footage and then a still shot of the Nemaha Falls, "Falls City -- Modern, Falls City -- today, and most importantly the Nemaha Falls today," I narrated.

I left the falls on the screen and said clearly and distinctly, "The Nemaha Falls were engineered out of existence after a devastating flood in the late 1800's. They are no longer supposed to exist."

I went and grabbed a beer and a bottle of wine while that sank in.

After a big gulp of my beer, I pushed on bringing up a picture of the moon. I looked up at the sky and saw the clouds had broken up and got my confirmation at that moment.

Based on the position and cycle of the moon and these other facts we see I believe our new when is probably very late March or very early April in the year 1822.

I started my moon-calculations animation running and with that on the screen I sat down and lit a cigarette.

**** Chapter Thirty-Five - Frustration and Angst ****

Eventually my animation ended after a couple of run throughs, the finish was an image of the Lewis & Clark map of this area zoomed into our locale; the caption read, "This map was published eight years ago, in 1814."

The map also showed that we were living on the edge of what was labeled, "Half-Breed Territory". If my calculations were correct then we weren't alone.

"We won't know for sure, but my guess is we only missed meeting Lewis & Clark by about fifteen years. Which is a shame really, cuz I'd really like to know the story behind that entire Sacagawea thing", I said, "woman with newborn child decides to journey with strange men across the wilderness? Really?"

Well, that brought a verbal reaction from Sonya and a smirk from both Michelle and Matilda. That comment was intended to entice a reaction and the truth is I did want her to accept our reality and re-engage with the team. I did have a choice if it really was 1822, I could simply make her a slave and sell her at the first opportunity. Did I consider that a possible course of action for me? No, but I needed to consider every option if I wanted to keep her alive in our new world. Self-entitlement had no place in our current situation and she needed to adapt and adapt quickly. Sonya was going to be a project.

The clouds had mostly fled for the evening meaning two things: A. It was going to be cold tonight. B. We could get a good picture of the moon against the horizon.

We did B and we put the pictures up against the projected phases for my estimated time frame and the group consensus was that today was April 2^nd. I didn't dare mention to the ladies that according to the cycle it could be 800 years earlier also, I instead went with positives like St. Louis society and fashions of the day. The truth is we couldn't even begin to know until we met another human. I was hoping for 1822. There was also the darker possibility that we had flipped forward in time, I didn't even want to imagine that.

So we talked about what might be out there and how we needed to approach it, obviously strolling into town like Gods From the Future would have us burned at the stake in no time flat; advanced weapons be damned.

Sonya decided she wanted to see the calculations I had used; I wasn't surprised so I cast my research and code to the screen. I first ran quickly through the formulas and logic - it was pretty simple if you were used to that stuff - and then ran through the various lunar cycles and events. Matilda and Michelle were both paying rapt attention as well.

Next I showed the compiled data from recorded lunar history that we had in our archives and compared that to my calculated output. I used the Farmers' Almanac archive we had for most of the comparison, it was historically accurate and easier to parse going back as far as 1912 (it was first published in 1812 but that data wasn't available in digital format).

My calculations were accurate to the day up to the end of available data, there didn't seem much of a chance it would deviate after that. I did lament that I probably could have found longer term data if I had more time and better research access.

I had another beer while I let all that sink in, it was a mind-numbing concept. For the hell of it I pulled up Back to the Future from our video archives and let that run; I needed a distraction after these last few days and it was still a masterpiece of work.

I decided to make some popcorn. Of course I had popcorn in my larder, I had marshmallows also; can't camp without those. The hot coals of the central fire made quick work of the popcorn. It was a bit trickier to handle without stove top and counter, but I managed to not screw it up too badly. I flavored it up as normal but as I did so I realized just how precious all of those items had become: I needed to be judicious of their use but I also needed to leverage that going forward. Parmesan cheese would be almost worth its weight in gold out here on the frontier, and I had the instructions for making it.

The popcorn was a big hit but it wasn't long before the reality of the true situation came crashing in.

Michelle was first up to bat when she asked, "What about my farm? And my niece?"

I was pleased that she beat Sonya to the punch, I feared another breakdown from Sonya.

"Let me start with what I think happened behind us", I went on, "I think that the night of the storm there was a massive emergency over at the linear particle accelerator and that all the emergency services were called in.

"That's just my guess", I continued, "but I'm sure I saw their building take that lightning strike also."

Huge pregnant pause and then I went on, "I think Oscar went out to check on us the next morning and found a huge grove of old growth trees where we used to be."

I looked directly at each of them and said, "I'm also guessing that it was a time swap, I don't know but that's my best guess."

"Naturally, nobody would listen to Oscar, with all the ruckus going on at the university site next door. Oscar isn't the sort to make a lot of noise anyway. In the end he probably just told anyone who came looking that we had planned to leave early that morning and that's all he knew."

Again, I paused and then finished with, "We will all be declared legally 'missing' in two-weeks' time; three months after that we will be legally assumed dead."

Well, that went over like the proverbial lead balloon. They were suitably gob-smacked, just as I had been when that realization came to me. I needed to go on quickly before we had another breakdown.

"Sonya", I led off with, "Your father and grandmother are now comfortably wealthy; millionaires if you will."

"It is true that they will be very sorrowful millionaires, but your employment contract has a clause which covers any time you travelled with or for me. It included any days you were out of the home office working for me."

She just stared at me in confusion, "Sonya, you specified those two as your beneficiaries and under the clause I just told you about and your special performance bonus' for this trip you left them about twenty million in cash and investments."

"I knew that this trip would be hard on you so I wanted to make sure you were taken care of", I explained, "you were my friend long before I hit the lottery. I also didn't realize this trip would be quite this hard."

Sonya was now doubly stunned; Matilda poured her a glass of wine.

I turned immediately to Michelle.

"Michelle, the paperwork you signed specified your beneficiaries, it's a requirement under the bylaws."

"I saw that," she said.

"The bylaws state that from the moment you signed closing was automatic unless your beneficiary outright rejects it with cause only you could reject it on principal," I reminded her, "it also provided insurance coverage for all assets from that point forward."

"I missed that point," she said.

I danced a little victory dance and said, "I hoped to sneak that past you! Your niece will be compensated for the assets lost in your disappearance while you were working with me."

"I wanted to protect my employees and business partners during the period where I was so high profile", I explained, "I hope I was successful even if I did accidentally rip you out of your lives."

I got curious looks from the both of them with that last statement so I went on, "I really shouldn't have called for a Lightning Storm and a Meteor Shower on same evening..."

I dead panned on, "The weren't supposed to be delivered at the same time but you know those delivery guys and how they screw up the orders."

I got a giggle from both of them and big, if only momentary, smiles; even Matilda smiled.

I finally turned to Matilda, "I tried Matilda, ask Sonya, we tried. We couldn't find anybody."

Matilda looked at me with a tear in her eye and said, "no hay nadie" (there is nobody).

I smiled and pointed at her lap and said, "Cats". She had two of them on her lap.

I pointed to Michelle and Sonya and said, "Sisters".

I pointed to myself and said, "Friend".

With that I packed my computer up and walked to my tent, it had been a long, long day. Somebody else could bank the fire tonight.