Karen D. Badger - Yesterday Once More (26 page)

Jordan inspected the saddle. It looked okay, but then something caught her eye. Grasping the saddle with both hands, in one quick movement, she lifted it, spun it around, and placed it back on the rail so that the left side of the saddle was facing outward.

Jordan lifted the stirrup and threw it over the top of the saddle, then reached down to grasp the belly strap. “What the hell? How did this get here?” Jordan released the buckle holding the belly strap. With the strap in her hand, she crossed the barnyard and banged on the bunkhouse door. “Open this goddamned door!”

Seconds later, the door flew open, and Jordan stood face to face with a petite woman with short blonde hair, green eyes, and a deep cleft in her chin. Jordan thrust the belly strap toward her. “Care to explain this?”

* * *

Jordan shut off the alarm and stared at the ceiling for a long time.

“Jordan? Are you awake?”

“Come in. The door’s unlocked.”

The door to Jordan’s room slowly opened, and Kale entered.

“Truce?” he asked.

Jordan reached for the spare pillow on her bed and threw it at him. “You big dummy. Of course, truce. Get your ass in here.”

Kale grinned, picked the pillow up from the floor, and threw it back at her. He sat down on the bed beside her. “I’m sorry for leaving you all by yourself in the barn last night.”

“Don’t worry about it. I deserved it. Sometimes, I get caught up in what I’m doing, and I end up with tunnel vision. I just want this so much there’s nothing I wouldn’t stop at to get there, even if it means neglecting my health. I’m the one who should apologize.”

Kale extended his hand to her. “Apology accepted.”

Jordan tried hard to smile but managed only a cursory effort.

“Okay,” Kale said, “spill it. What’s on your mind?”

She turned her gaze to the ceiling and tried hard to hold back the tears.

“You had another dream, didn’t you?” 

Jordan could only nod, too choked with emotion to speak.

“Take your time. I’ll wait.” 

It was several minutes before Jordan finally spoke. “It wasn’t an accident. I know it. Maggie’s death was no accident.”

“You don’t know that for sure.”

“No, I don’t know for sure, but it’s something I feel in my gut. All of these dreams, these visions... Maggie is trying to tell me something. She’s trying to warn me—to give me clues.”

“What happened in this last dream?”

“For starters, she knew me, spoke to me, kissed me, and she told me she loved me. It was as though I had always been part of her life. Anyway, she came out of the barn where I was working and said she couldn’t find her saddle. She ended up taking my horse to do chores. While she was gone, I went to look for her saddle myself and found it in the barn in the very place she always put it. I thought that was really odd, so I inspected the saddle and found a sharp spur on the inside of the horse’s belly strap—you know, the strap that goes under the belly of the horse to stabilize the saddle. Oh, I forgot to mention that right after Maggie left to do chores, I saw someone sneak out of the barn. It was Jan. When I found the spur on the belly strap, I went straight to the bunkhouse to find her.”

“Are you suggesting that Jan planted the spur?”

“I guess I am. Who else would have done it? I can’t help but wonder if Maggie’s trying to warn me about something.”

“Just be careful not to confuse jealousy with guilt, okay?”

Jordan fell silent as she thought about Kale’s words. 

Kale changed the subject. “Are we ready for the next round of experiments?”

Jordan perked up considerably. Kale reached for the spare pillow and swatted her with it. “Well, then, I guess you’d better get your butt out of bed and get dressed. Andi went out and picked up bagels and cream cheese this morning, and the coffee’s brewing. Let’s get the ball rolling here, okay?”

Jordan saluted. “Aye, aye, captain!”

Kale stopped in the doorway. “Hey, don’t you have your checkup with Peter today?”

Jordan’s eyes grew wide. “Damn, you’re right. I forgot all about it. It’s sometime this afternoon. Thanks for reminding me.”

“I think Peter wants to discuss the implant schedule with you. He’s anticipating it will be ready to go in two weeks, but I think we’re actually ahead of schedule. I’d give it one more week.”

Jordan drew one leg and then the other off the side of the bed and prepared to transfer herself to her hover-chair. She glanced at Kale. “The sooner, the better.”

“Here, let me help you with that,” he said.

Jordan maneuvered the chair toward the bathroom. “Let me take care of business here, and then I’ll be right out.”

* * *

Jordan saved the final changes to the algorithm. “Okay, the new code is installed. Let’s give it a try.” Andi placed the newspaper on the platform and wrapped the grounding wire around it. She looked over her shoulder to Kale, who was standing at the control console. “All set, Kale.”

“All right then. Come over here behind the barrier,” Kale instructed. “Okay, ladies… here we go.”

Kale ran the machine through the sequences. Several minutes later, the scientists stood looking at the paper sitting on the platform.

Kale was the first to speak. “I suppose we should see how close we are, huh? I just hope we haven’t gone too far and retrieved news that hasn’t happened yet.”

“If the original calculations are correct, we should never send anything to the future,” Andi said.

“No time like the present,” Jordan declared. She maneuvered her chair toward the platform, retrieved the paper, and looked at it closely. “May 26, 2105. That was two days ago. We’re so close!”

Jordan returned to the computer and called up the algorithm. Kale and Andi watched as she made changes to the code.

“Be careful how much you add to the time. We want to be within twenty-four hours of the send date, no more than that,” Kale said.

“I intend to do just that.” Jordan typed a few numbers into the code. “There. That should just about do it. Let’s give it a try.”

Once more the hum of spinning rings filled the lab. This time, without hesitation, Kale leaned into the machine and read the date on paper. “May 27, 2015. We’re now within one day.” Kale turned and grinned at Andi and Jordan. “This is amazing. One more adjustment should do it.”

As Jordan approached the time machine, Kale prepared the control panel for the next trial run. She reached in and lifted the paper from the platform, detaching the grounding wire. “No,” she said suddenly. “No more trials.”

Kale’s head snapped up. “What do you mean? We wanted to get within twenty-four hours, remember? That means the paper has to be dated May 28 for us to claim victory.”

Jordan grinned. Andi took the paper from her and looked at it carefully. 

“Andi, when did you purchase this paper?”

Andi looked at the paper closely. “I bought it yesterday. I bought it on May 27.”

Peter sat in the chair beside the examination table and looked through paperwork.

“Despite all that you’ve been through, you seem to be in great shape,” he said. “All of your vitals are in the normal range, and I think that by the time the implant is ready, there shouldn’t be any question about your fitness to accept it.” Peter closed Jordan’s chart and looked up at her. “The whole team is counting on you to help us cross the finish line on this implant project. Are you up to it?”

Jordan placed her hands on the edge of the examining table and leaned forward. “I have never been more ready for anything in my life. Kale tells me the implant is actually only a week away from being ready. Is that true?”

Peter nodded. “Indeed, it is. I’ve already arranged for the procedure—one week from today. Assuming the implant stays on the accelerated schedule, that is.”

“Kale seemed pretty confident that it would.” Jordan fell silent for a moment. “Wow. I can’t believe it’s only a week away.”

“Are you nervous?”

Jordan grinned sheepishly. “A little I guess.” Peter sat in the chair beside her. “Okay, Jordan, there’s something on your mind. Tell me what you’re thinking.”

Jordan took a deep breath. “I’ve been without tactile feeling in the lower half of my body for the past sixteen years. Hell, I don’t even remember what it feels like to have legs.”

Peter reached forward and touched Jordan’s knee. “If it calms your fears at all, you should know that feeling will return gradually, not all at once. It will take some time for the nerve endings to grow, and eventually regenerate, over the injury site. I predict that the process will be so gradual that you won’t even notice it happening. One day, you’ll spill something hot on your leg, and it will occur to you that you can actually feel the heat—to some degree, at least.”

Jordan nodded as she absorbed Peter’s explanation, but remained quiet.

“Is there something else on your mind?”

As Jordan looked at Peter, a blush crept across her face.

“As your doctor, you know you can ask me anything,” he said.

Jordan chanced a quick glance at Peter then looked away again. “Well...”

“Yes?”

Jordan threw her hands up in frustration. “Oh, hell. It’s the sex. There, I said it. Will I be able to feel it?”

Peter’s eyebrows shot up. “Sex?”

“Peter, I was sixteen when the injury occurred. I was an innocent farm girl. I hadn’t yet begun to experiment sexually.”

Peter cleared his throat. “Ahem... I see. If all goes well with nerve regeneration, you should feel everything quite normally.”

Jordan noticed that she wasn’t the only one embarrassed by the conversation. “Maybe we should save this conversation for a later time. After the sensations begin to return.”

Peter said quickly, “Yes, that sounds like a good idea.”

* * *

Jordan set the table while Kale and Andi worked side by side, slicing meatloaf and dishing up mashed potatoes.

“So, Jordan,” Kale said as the trio settled in at the table. “How did your checkup go this afternoon?”

Jordan put a large piece of meatloaf into her mouth. “Hmm, this is good,” she exclaimed. “Peter gave me a clean bill of health. He said I could go back to work. Oh, he also scheduled the implant surgery for a week from today.”

“Next week?” asked Andi. “That’s pretty soon.”

Kale said, “Jordan cut a significant amount of time off the testing when she found the algorithm error a few days ago. We feel pretty confident that the implant will be ready in a week. The power pack is another story, though. There are at least a couple more weeks of work to complete before that will be ready.”

“Peter thinks the recovery period will be roughly two weeks. Is that enough time to complete the testing on the machine?” Jordan asked.

Kale frowned. “Jordan, I refuse to work to a set schedule with the time travel experiment. There’s too much at stake here to rush things. I won’t play with your life like that. We have several experiments to carry out on other test subjects before we can even think of trying it on you.”

Andi reached across the table and covered Jordan’s hand. “I know you’re anxious to do this, but Kale’s right. Your safety has to be our first concern.”

“And besides,” Kale added, “even if we’re successful with other test subjects, I don’t want to use you until the energy storage unit is ready.”

“Why not?” Jordan asked.

“Because we have no way of knowing if you’ll be able to recharge the old-style unit when it runs out of juice. Don’t forget— we’re sending you back eighty-seven years. Who knows if their solar electrical systems are even compatible with the ones we use today.”

As much as Jordan wanted to argue with Kale’s logic, she had to admit he was right. “Well then, I guess I need to focus my efforts on the storage unit. I’ll do anything to shorten the schedule.”

“I’m sure the lab guys would welcome your help.” Kale sat back and rubbed his stomach. “Great meatloaf, Andi. Now, if you ladies will excuse me, I’m going to load the sonic cleanser and then turn on the football game.”

Jordan grinned. “That’s a great idea.”

“Do you want to join me?”

“Not on your life. I’m actually trying to get rid of you so I can talk to Andi in private.” 

Kale raised an eyebrow.

Jordan laughed. “Girl talk. You’re welcome to stick around if you’d like, but you really don’t look good in blush.”

Kale jumped to his feet. “Ah, no, I don’t think so. I’ll be in the other room.”

Jordan and Andi laughed.

“Girl talk?” Andi asked.

“Are you telling me you’ve never had an orgasm?” Andi said, clearly surprised.

“Beats the hell out of me if I have or not,” Jordan replied. “Think about it, Andi. I haven’t had any feeling in the lower half of my body for the past sixteen years. Everything still works down there, or at least, I think it does, but since I can’t feel anything, I wouldn’t know an orgasm from a hole in the wall!”

Andi frowned. “Wait a minute. Kale told me you had a girlfriend.”

“I did. Her name was Susan.”