Class of '59 (American Journey Book 4) (34 page)

"I'll bet Piper left it there," Ben said.

Piper glared at Ben.

"I'll bet Piper did too."

Mark laughed. He loved watching Ben and Piper bicker almost as much as he loved watching them shower each other with affection. He had no doubt they would find a reason to stay together long after this difficult transition was over.

"I'm glad you
did
leave it there," Bell said to Piper. "Your 'carelessness' is the reason we are all safe, sound, and gathered here today. We all owe you a debt of gratitude."

Piper grinned.

"Thank you, Professor."

Mark looked at his host.

"How did you figure out the rest? How did you know the newspaper wasn't something Mary Beth or Piper had borrowed from a library or bought at a curio shop?"

"I didn't," Bell said. "I didn't at first. So I did some research. I went to the public library, dug up some microfilm, and started reading newspapers from the spring of 1959."

"What did you learn?" Mark asked.

"I learned a lot of things, including one thing I already suspected," Bell said. "I learned that time flows in streams that often diverge and sometimes combine. In the first running of the twentieth century, you and Ben did not encounter men with guns on May 2, 1959. You did not entertain two young women from 2017. As best I can tell, you spent a quiet, uneventful weekend at home with your mother. You did not, to my knowledge, make the news."

"Are you saying we changed history?"

"That's exactly what I'm saying. You certainly changed the history of my house. When Jeanette and I purchased the Painted Lady in 2000, I inquired about its past. I wanted to know, among other things, if the mansion Percival Bell had built in 1899 had any skeletons in its closets. I learned it did not. I was told that the most eventful thing to happen at the house was a small fire in 1988. I knew nothing about mobsters or a shooting or a family named Ryan."

"I see."

"I uncovered a different history when I went to the library twelve days ago. I learned not only about your family but also about a violent incident on May 2, 1959. I learned from news articles that three gunmen chased four young adults into the mansion and left minutes later in a black Lincoln. The adults, including residents Mark and Ben Ryan, were never seen again. Nor was the owner of the house. Your mother returned to the mansion later that evening from a trip to San Diego, but she too disappeared. She vanished before the police could ask her a single question."

"What did you do then?" Mary Beth asked.

"I dug deeper. I learned as much as I could as quickly as I could because I suspected that lives were in danger," Bell said. "It was then I concluded that at least one of the young people in this room had discovered the tunnel and used it to travel through time."

"How did you know that Mark and Ben had come with Piper and me to 2017? How did you know they were even
alive
?"

"I didn't. I guessed as much after speaking to Piper and reading the police report. The report mentioned a male voice in the background during Piper's emergency call. I concluded that the voice belonged to either Mark or Ben and that both had accompanied you to 2017."

"How did you save Mrs. Ryan?" Piper asked.

"I saved her by traveling to the past. I reprogrammed a portal I have used many times to take me back to the early afternoon of May 2, 1959."

"Why then?"

"I selected that time of day because I knew no one would be home. I knew from reading official sources that the cops had finished inspecting the mansion at noon. I also knew that Donna had not yet left her sister's home in San Diego. So I called her from a house phone, asked to meet her at a nearby restaurant when she arrived in Los Angeles, and went from there."

Piper looked at Donna.

"You agreed to meet a total stranger?"

Donna smiled.

"I agreed to meet a man and his wife at a safe public place. Professor Bell introduced himself as one of Mark's instructors and said he needed to speak to me privately – and at the earliest opportunity – about a matter of great importance. So I drove straight to the restaurant."

Piper tilted her head.

"I would
never
do that."

"Of course you would," Mary Beth said. "You ran off to Vegas with two boys you didn't know from a hole in the ground. You would meet a professor in a New York minute."

The Bells, Mark, and Ben laughed heartily. Mary Beth grinned. Piper sulked. Donna smiled warmly at Piper and placed a hand on her knee.

"I understand where you're coming from," Donna said. "I really do. People don't trust each other like they did sixty years ago. From what I have learned about this time, they don't trust each other like they did
ten
years ago. Times have changed."

Mary Beth looked at Donna.

"So what happened at the restaurant?"

"The professor told me everything," Donna said. "He said he was a time traveler from 2017 who had come to 1959 to save me and my boys."

"Why would you believe him?" Mary Beth asked.

"He showed me newspaper articles. The first, from May 4, 1959, reported Mark and Ben's disappearance. The second, from May 5, 1959, reported mine."

"That's all it took?"

Donna nodded.

"I believed the professor. I trusted his wife. I looked them both in the eyes and saw their fear and concern. It's hard to fake that."

"What happened then?" Mary Beth asked.

"We waited until dark and then drove to the mansion. We wanted to make sure we could enter a crime scene without drawing a lot of attention. I knew at least one of my neighbors would watch the house closely. He was that kind of person."

"Was anyone there when you arrived?"

Donna shook her head.

"The house was empty. It was also a mess. The men who chased you into the mansion had broken windows, overturned furniture, and pulled out drawers."

"What did you do then?" Mary Beth asked.

"I went through the place. I grabbed a large handbag from a closet, walked into every room, and looked for small belongings I could take to 2017. This was where my faith in Professor and Mrs. Bell was tested the most."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean I gathered more than photos and items with sentimental value. I collected jewelry, cash, and stocks and bonds from a safe in my bedroom. I put myself in a vulnerable position at a time I was distraught and not thinking clearly."

"Did you call anyone?"

"No," Donna said. "That was the hardest decision of all. I wanted to call my brother and my sister and tell them goodbye, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. I didn't know what to say. I also didn't know if I would ever return. That was still up in the air."

Mary Beth took Mark's hand. She looked at him with great affection and then turned to the woman to whom she owed so much.

"So you gave up your siblings for your sons?"

Donna took a deep breath.

"That's one way of looking at it. I look at it differently. I gave up maybe twenty more years with my siblings, whom I love dearly, for a lifetime with my boys."

"There's more to it though," Mary Beth said. "I can see it in your eyes."

"There
is
more. There is much more," Donna said. "Truth be told, I did not want to stay in 2017. I told the Bells I wanted to get the boys and bring them back to 1959. I wanted to deal with the hoodlums through the police and try to resume life as we had always known it."

"So what changed your mind?"

"
You
did. So did Piper."

"I don't understand."

"Then let me explain. I did a lot of thinking between the time I traveled through the tunnel and the time I met you at the hospital. I thought about how miserable Mark and Ben were the night you said goodbye. Then I thought about how happy they might be if I gave them a chance to be with the women they loved. So I decided to stay."

Mary Beth offered a tearful smile.

"Thank you."

"I would do it again, dear," Donna said. "I wouldn't even hesitate."

Mary Beth nodded but said no more. She wiped a tear, leaned into Mark's side, and let the group conversation head into a different direction.

Ben looked at Professor Bell.

"What about the mobsters?"

"What about them?" Bell asked.

"Were they ever arrested?"

"They weren't in your case. They
were
arrested and prosecuted in another case. Tommy "The Handler" Parkinson, the man with the bad ear, was convicted of homicide in 1962. His associates went to prison the next year on racketeering charges. All three were part of a crime syndicate that operated in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and Phoenix."

"So Ear Man was a killer?" Ben asked.

"Ear Man was a killer. Your family was lucky," Bell said. "Parkinson and his men would have killed all of you to obtain the sports book Mary Beth told me about."

"What happened to the book?" Piper asked. "Did anyone find it?"

"I don't know," Bell said. "None of the news stories mentioned the book. Nor did Parkinson or his associates at their trials. It's probably stuck in a drawer somewhere."

Mark laughed.

"What's so funny?" Bell asked.

"I was just thinking that's how all of this started," Mark said. "I opened a stuck drawer one day and found time-travel instructions from Percival Bell. They came with two clear crystals and a key to the basement door."

"Do you have the items with you?"

"I still have one crystal and the key."

"Where is the other crystal?" Bell asked.

Mary Beth tentatively lifted her hand.

"It's at home. I put it with my seashells."

Several people laughed.

"I'm happy you found a place for it, but I'll need to collect it before I leave," Bell said. He smiled at Mark. "The same goes for yours."

"You can have it," Mark said.

The group laughed again.

Bell stepped to the windowsill, picked up a cup of coffee, and took a sip. He studied the others, looked at them with satisfaction, and resumed the conversation.

"Are there any more questions?" Bell asked.

"I have one," Mark said.

"What's that?"

"Did your father ever time travel?"

Bell cocked his head.

"Why do you ask?"

"I'm just curious. When Mary Beth and I were back in 1959, we attended a lecture, a lecture on time travel, and spoke to a couple named Joshua and Julia Bell."

"You met my parents?"

"We did," Mark said.

"What did you talk about?"

"We talked about time travel."

The others laughed.

"That makes sense," Bell said. He smiled. "How did you meet?"

"Your father approached us after the lecture," Mark said. "He liked the questions Mary Beth had asked the speaker and wanted to get her thoughts on the subject. Then he told us he had a diary and some letters from his grandfather that suggested
he
had traveled through time."

"I see."

"Do you know anything about that?"

"I know quite a bit," Bell said. "I inherited the diary and the letters from my father when he died in 1996. It was then I learned the secret
you
learned by opening a drawer."

"Did your father do anything with the documents? Did he travel?"

"He did not. Unlike you and me and Percival Bell, he was a cautious man. He respected knowledge and power and handled both with great care."

"I sensed that," Mark said. "I also sensed that someday he would share the documents with someone who
could
do something with them. It appears he did in a roundabout way."

Bell nodded.

"Do you have any more questions?"

"No," Mark said. "I'm done."

"How about the rest of you?" Bell asked. "Do
you
have more questions?"

Four people shook their heads.

"Let's move on, Geoffrey," Jeanette said. She smiled at Donna, Mark, and then Ben. "I think our fifties family is more interested in tomorrow than yesterday."

"Then let's shift gears," Bell said. "Let's go from the past to the future and discuss how we're going to integrate the three of you into the twenty-first century."

CHAPTER 58: MARY BETH

Gulf Shores, Alabama – Sunday, October 8, 2017

On the fifth day of her engagement to Mark Ryan, Mary Beth McIntire walked west along a white sandy beach and noticed that God had misplaced the setting sun. He had placed the orange ball along the coast, not away from it, and dropped it near Biloxi.

"It's different here," Mary Beth said. "It
feels
different."

"It should," Mark said. He smiled. "It's Alabama."

She spanked him with an open hand.

"You know what I mean."

Mark laughed.

"I think I do. But maybe you should explain."

"All right, smart guy, I will," Mary Beth said. She smiled and shook her head. "It feels different here because it feels permanent."

"Isn't that a good thing?" Mark asked.

"It is if things remain permanent."

"You lost me between 'different' and 'permanent.'"

Mary Beth forced a smile as they proceeded toward a collection of beachside cottages and an uncertain future. She resumed the conversation a moment later.

"I worry about change," Mary Beth said. "I worry about losing what I have, including the people I love."

Mark tilted his head.

"Everyone worries about that."

"I know. But not everyone obsesses about it. I've obsessed lately."

"Is there a reason why?"

Mary Beth nodded.

"Today is the first anniversary of Jordan's death. I didn't bring it up earlier because I didn't want to spoil our weekend, but I've been thinking about it all day."

"Do you want to talk about it?" Mark asked.

Mary Beth smiled.

"I would rather talk about football."

Mark laughed.

"Then talk about football."

"I would if I thought it would help."

"Do you think about Jordan a lot?"