The Keepers Book Two of the Holding Kate Series (30 page)

“That’s enough for today,” Eunavae said. “But tomorrow you are going to sit up in the living room with the rest of us. Now, drink your broth.”

She kept her word. The next day found me dozing in and out, perched in a wooden rocker with a blanket tucked around my lap. I caught bits and pieces of the conversation but couldn’t maintain a train of thought. My head buzzed, and my thoughts tumbled together. I had one clear picture in my head, Kate’s face on our wedding day. I latched onto it with an iron will and kept it front and center.

QUANTUM PERSPECTIVE SOURCE (QPS): TARA JOHNSON

Tara stayed with Corey.

When he recovered well enough to sit in the living room, Tara spent hours with him, massaging his arms and legs, putting him through the range of motion exercises that Eunavae had taught her. Eunavae had to leave every day to go to her job as a nurse at the orphanage and got Mel employed as a maid. Trip took work with Dirk and Donnie.

At first, Corey just sat and stared at the flames or dozed in the chair. Tara mourned that he didn’t seem to understand her, but she talked and talked anyway. She told him everything she could think of, his identity, where they were and what they were doing.

No response.

One day she handed him a cup of his favorite soup and he said, “Thank you, Tara.”

She froze at his words, then beamed at him and bent over to kiss him on the cheek
.

Corey! The best and brightest among us, we can’t lose him. He is the one who holds us together.

When they were on the two-century jump, Corey kept their spirits up. He refused to doubt that they would go back home. He had a single mindedness and purity of spirit that inspired the whole clan to acts and thoughts of faith. The purest soul she’d ever known, Corey’s actions were spurred by righteousness and not anger or malice. Tara strove to be more like Corey Chastain. Determined to bring him back out of whatever void his head injury trapped him in, she worked relentlessly.

The next day he actually asked her a question. “Were we taken in the tornado?”

“Yes. The tornado was a quantum vortex and brought us here to Garwolin, Poland.”

“Are we safe? Is everyone safe?”

“Yes, everyone is safe.”

“Who are you?”

Her heart stuttered.
How damaged is his brain?

“I’m Tara.” Her voice, saturated in despair, trembled. She cleared her throat and tossed her chin in the air to slough it off.

“Tara,” he said the name like he had never heard it before. “Are we safe?”

“Yes, Corey, everyone is safe.” Tara clenched her jaw and fought down the forlorn feelings the conversation evoked. At least he spoke. That had to be an improvement.

“Corey is my name.” Not a question, more of an unsure statement. “Are we safe?”

“Yes, everyone is safe.”

He nodded, tilted his head back, and drifted off to sleep. Tears ran down Tara’s cheeks and her heart ached. She stepped to the kitchen window, leaned against the counter, and pressed her hands into the wood as tremors rocked through her body.

When Tara handed Corey his lunch the next day, he said, “Thank you, Tara.”

She smiled softly, sat beside him, and began the story. “You are Corey Chastain and part of the Keepers team at a place called Heartwork Village. We are a specialized task force trying to figure out who is manipulating the Quantum Matrix.”

His face registered confusion and suspicion. “Are we safe?”

“Yes, everyone is safe.” She scooted her chair closer to him.

“The team consists of our Jump Commander, Dirk Johnson, Assistant Jump Commanders Melanie Marcus Dudgeon and Donnie Dudgeon, Eunavae Montgomery, me and Trip Carson, Team Leader Corey Chastain, which is you, and our other Team Leader Kate Wilson Chastain.”

“Kate.” His face became peaceful. “Kate of a Thousand Years.”

“Yes.” Tara’s heart hammered. He remembered! “Do you remember Kate?”

“Kate,” he sighed, smiled, then fell asleep.

Tara took his unfinished soup from him and tucked the blankets around his legs. She stared at his peaceful features and felt hopeful for the first time in a long while. She didn’t think Kate deserved him, but if the memory of Kate could bring him back, then Tara would consider forgiving her for all of her transgressions.

Days and weeks passed and each day he would sit up a bit longer, and repeat key phrases in the mantra she sang to him, until one night after dinner, they all sat around talking. Tara noticed he really listened to what they were saying, trying to absorb the information.

He spoke up. “What’s wrong with me?”

Eunavae knelt beside him. “You had a concussion, remember?”

“No.”

“You were hit in the head by some debris in the tornado. You had a concussion and a lot of blood loss.”

“Why didn’t you take me to the hospital?”

A lucid question!
Tara sat up straight in her chair and listened to them talk. He almost seemed like the old Corey.

Eunavae’s face crimped to one side and she looked at Dirk. He nodded.

“There aren’t any hospitals here.”

“Where are we?”

“Garwolin, Poland,” she said reluctantly, “southeast of Warsaw.”

“Poland.” He shook his head and huffed impatiently.

“Poland, in 1948.”

He searched their faces for some semblance of clarity that would put meaning to her words.

Tara leaned forward. “We talked about this Corey, remember?”

“No.”

“The tornados brought us here, all of us and all of our equipment. We have been here for three weeks.”

“Everyone is…everyone is safe. You are Tara. We are Keepers?” he repeated, starting to remember the previous conversations.

Tara’s heart leapt. “Yes, Corey, that’s good.” She looked up at Eunavae. “That is the first recall of our conversations. I think it means he is getting better.”

Eunavae nodded. “Do you remember anything else, Corey?”

He glanced around the room, studying their faces. Recognition registered on his.

“What do I remember?” He breathed in a sharp breath and pain registered across his features. “Kate,” he whispered.

“Kate’s not here.”

He stiffened at the sound and slowly turned to face Trip.

“No, she’s lost in the Quantum Field. We have to find her.”

“We will.” Trip’s confidence had an effect on Corey. He nodded eagerly.

“Poland, 1948, post war,” he recalled.

Tara sat forward. “Yes.”

“Everyone is safe.”

“Yes.” Tara’s lips quivered. She turned her face away so he couldn’t see the anguished hope etched there.

Not a question. He remembered. Thank the living God!

He progressed swiftly after that night. Eunavae said the swelling must have decreased enough that his thought processes were back to normal. Tara didn’t understand any of the medical crap and didn’t care. Corey came back.

Tara and Corey started taking long walks around the countryside as he gained strength. They picked vegetables from the garden and cooked supper for the others. Tara began working him out little by little until he regained his strength, speed, and agility. The old martial arts moves came back to him quickly.

The day Tara finally knew that he had completely recovered he said the words that made all of the Poland jump make sense.

“Gregorvitch Mattovdzky, PhD, Quantum Mechanics from Poland.”

Tara paused from the wash bucket and swiveled to look at him. “What did you say?”

“Gregorvitch Mattovdzky, PhD, Quantum Mechanics from Poland, he was one of the Inner Circle.” He fastened a pin on the sheet he hung on the clothesline.

She stood up and dried her hands on her apron. “Is he why we’re here?”

“I think Mama Ty is why we are here. I think he is the infiltrator and she is trying to let us know.”

“Corey!”

That night at the supper table, Corey told the other Keepers his idea. They were all as startled as Tara had been.

“Gregorvitch Mattovdzky?” Eunavae repeated. “Wait a minute.”

She got up, walked over to the bookshelf and selected the English to Polish book that they had all used to learn Polish. She pointed to the signature at the bottom of the last page. “Gregorvitch Mattovdzky.”

She dropped the book in the center of the table, and they all stared at the signature.