Clockwiser (4 page)

I was the only one at that table who knew the answer to that question. Well, and Tim, but judging from his low American History marks, I wouldn’t bet on it.

Mr. Watson pushed away from the table. “Time to get back to work. The cows don’t wait for milkin’.”

Willie’s eyes settled on Tim. “Join us when you’re ready.”

Sara left the room and returned shortly with a short stack of linen in her hands. “The cabin’s empty. Here are some clean sheets.”

I took them from her. “Thanks. I know the way.”

The cots were stripped and all the surfaces wiped down. The fireplace ashes were gone, but the blanket I had strung like a curtain down the middle of the tiny room for privacy remained.

“Home away from home,” I said. I tossed Tim his sheets and went about making my bed. Then I flopped on my back, suddenly exhausted.

“This is pretty wild, Casey.” Tim did a half baked job of making his bed and I fully expected all of it to fall haphazardly onto the floor before he woke up in the morning.

“I know, believe me I know, “I muttered.

Tim sat on the edge of his bed when he finished, hands on knees that jiggled up and down. I wanted to reach over and put a hand on him to stop his movements, but instead I just closed my eyes.

“So, you have this whole other life,” he said, “this other family.”

“Yeah, I’m very fortunate that the Watsons have taken me in like one of their own. We’ve had a few bonding moments.”

“So what’s up with the formal names?”

“Sara didn’t think Casey was feminine enough, so she christened me Cassandra. When Nate ended up here with me I just thought it fitting that he should have a long handle to deal with, too.”

“Why do they think he’s your brother?”

“Because, you can’t hang out with the opposite sex without a chaperone unless you’re siblings. Oh, that reminds me.” I turned onto my side and propped up my head with my hand. “You need to know our story.”

“Our story?”

“We live in Springfield, and our mother just had our thirteenth sibling.”

“Thirteenth! Man, Casey, why so many?”

“I needed to come across desperate. Why else would a girl leave her own family to look for work? Besides they’re not real. Oh, I totally forgot, but I’d told Sara the baby’s name was Timothy. I hope she doesn’t remember that.”

“What baby?”

“Number thirteen. It doesn’t matter. We’re poor is all that matters. And Nate, Nathaniel, is our older brother.”

“Wait a minute,” Tim’s eyes narrowed as he considered something. “Nate stayed here, in this cabin, with you?”

“Yeah, so what of it?”

“Just, you guys don’t exactly act like siblings, if you know what I mean.”

“Well, we did then. Besides, he had a girlfriend at the time.” I scowled a little at the thought of the empty-headed beauty queen, Jessica Fuller. She’d moved on to some college guy who thankfully was going to a different college than Nate.

Tim kicked his shoes off and tested out his cot, folding his arms behind his head. “So, my sister’s a time-traveler. I’d never thought I’d say this, but you’ve jumped a hundred plus points on the cool-o-meter.”

“Happy to impress you finally.”

“What does this mean, though? You’re messing around in the past. How do you know you’re not going to change history or something?”

I repeated the theory I’d shared with Nate when he’d asked this same question. “I figure since in the present, I’ve already been back here, nothing I do here will change that. Everything I’ll do, I’ve already done. You know, when I’m there.”

“So, you’re not worried about inadvertently starting the third world war, because if you had, we’d already have had a third world war in our present?”

“Something like that.”

“Does that mean you don’t have to be afraid of dying here, either?”

“I suppose not, but that doesn’t mean I’d go off and do something stupid to prove it.”

Time travel was such a brain game and physically exhausting as well. I just wanted to sleep, but Sara was expecting me in the kitchen. And Tim was expected in the barn.

“We should go.” I pulled myself up into a seated position. Then I remembered the most important thing I needed to tell Tim.

“If I call you, come as fast as you can, okay? It means I’m feeling the trip home coming on. Just grab my hand.”

Tim saluted, “Gotcha.”

“Come on. I’ll show you the barn.”

The barn door stood ajar, and I breathed in deeply when we stepped inside. There was something comforting about the smell of hay and animal sweat.

There were a few horses in the front stalls, and the milking cows were in the back. Overhead was a loft filled with hay where some of the workers slept overnight. I’d been known to sleep there myself on occasion when I could still pull off looking like a boy.

Willie sat on a three-legged stool beside one of the cows, all of which I called Betsy. “Hey,” he said.

“I’m just showing Timothy around before I head to the kitchen,” I explained.

“Sure.” Willie stood and lifted two full tin pails of milk by their handles. “Do you mind finishing up?” He looked at Tim, and motioned to the cow nearest the door. “She’s the last one that needs milking.”

Tim’s eyes bugged open, but he nodded. He had no clue how to milk a cow.

“Here, I’ll show you how.” I grabbed an empty bucket and pulled the stool up to the last cow. “Now pay attention. Sara’s waiting for me in the kitchen.”

I showed him how to hold onto the teats (gently but firmly) and pull in a rhythm. “Think of your favorite song in a four-four beat.”

The cow’s tail flicked behind her, but I dodged out of its way. “It’s okay, Betsy,” I said, soothingly. The thwack, thwack, thwack sound of the milk hitting the bottom of the tin pail, the familiar sound, calmed her.

“Wow, Casey. Your skill set is impressive. I can see now how you managed to snag a guy.”

I shot him a blistering glare, then stood and crossed my arms. “Your turn.”

Tim took my place and reached tentatively for the cow’s under belly.

“This is gross,” he complained.

“Just do it.”

Betsy’s discomfort at his lack of confidence and skill was evident in how her tail flicked, smacking Tim in the head.

“Ouch!”

I laughed out loud. He deserved that. “I’ll leave you to figure it out. Bring the pails to the kitchen when you’re done.

I couldn’t stop chuckling. That could take a while. Poor Betsy.

We survived the first day, falling asleep within seconds of hitting the mattress. Hard work and fresh air did that to you. The next morning came much sooner than either Tim or I would’ve liked.

“I’m going to shoot that stupid rooster,” Tim said, as I nudged him to get up.

I sent him out to the barn before heading towards the kitchen. I hoped he’d do better with the milking today. Yesterday’s effort was dismal, and I covered for him the best I could.

Sara and I had porridge on the table before the guys came in from the barn. Josephine was helping Mrs. Watson sort out the needs of the younger kids.

I flashed Tim a questioning look when he followed Duncan and Willie into the kitchen.
How’d it go?
He just shook his head and scowled.

By mid-morning the kitchen was stifling hot, and I had to wipe my brow with my sleeve every two seconds. I peeled vegetables for the evening meal, slicing and cubing them before adding them to a pot of water where they’d sit until it was time to cook. Sara worked with me, ordering various kids around to help prepare lunch. We didn’t have a lot of time to talk, but I did ask her about Robert Willingsworth, a man whom Sara had liked but who’d wanted to marry me instead. He turned out to be bad news for both of us.

“Oh, I heard he’s gone south to side with the Confederates, but...” her lips turned up shyly. “I’ve met someone else.”

“Really?”I smiled with excitement. “I knew there was someone better out there for you. What’s his name?”

“Henry Abernathy. His father owns a bank in Boston. Our fathers do business together. That’s how we met. He’s very handsome and a real gentleman.”

“Ah, Sara, I’m so happy for you.” And I really was. It’d killed me to see how heartbroken she was over the Robert Willingsworth fiasco.

“I am happy,” she said, though her smile dimmed.

“What’s wrong?”

Her eyes glistened with tears. “He’s enlisted.”

“Oh, Sara.”

“He says the draft is coming to the north just like it did in the south, so he might as well get his three years of service over with. Do you really think it’s going to last three years, Cassandra?”

I knew the answer was yes, but I just shrugged, wishing there was something I could say to comfort her.

“I asked him not to enlist, to wait, just in case. But he says he wants to do his duty for the Union. Of course, that’s very noble of him, and one of the reasons I...”

“You love him,” I finished for her.

She blushed. “Yes. I do.”

I forced a smile to my face. “I’m sure everything will work out fine.”

Lunch went off without a hitch. Tim looked even more shocked from all the sudden hard labor that came with running a farm, but he was holding up exceptionally well, everything considered. He didn’t even flinch when Duncan told him they were heading out to work the fields for the rest of the day.

For me, working for the Watsons consisted mainly of food prep, kitchen clean up, and more food prep... an endless cycle. The winters were miserable because of the cold, and the summers because of the heat. I felt flushed, and worried that I was leaving a trail of sweat in my wake.

I offered to get water from the pump out back, in the hopes of encountering a cool breeze passing amongst the bordering trees. I pumped the heavy steel handle until water started pouring out, then I cupped my hands to collect it. I slurped it back, relishing the coolness that ran down my throat. I filled the pail, wishing I could just lie back in the shade, but the guys would be back for supper soon.

I took a few moments to splash water on my face. It felt cool and refreshing but instead of rejuvenating me, I felt faint and a little dizzy.

I snapped to attention. “Tim!

I ran to the cabin hoping he’d returned early. I saw his work boots by the door, but he wasn’t there. I quickly scanned the loo, and finding it empty, I ran toward the barn. “Tim! Come now!

The barn door was opened and I peeked in. Besides the animals, it appeared empty. Then I heard giggling coming from the loft.

“Tim!” I climbed up the ladder as fast as I could in a skirt. The first thing I saw when my eyes peered over the edge was Tim lying in the hay with his arm around Josephine, a finger to his lips as if to “shush” me.

“Tim!”

“Wow, take it easy,” Tim said casually, mistaking me for being angry that I had caught him making out with a Watson. Josephine blushed and buried her face in the hay.

Good thing. She missed seeing me disappear into thin air.

Tim hadn’t though. He saw the whole thing, and he heard me screaming, too.

Chapter Six

CASEY

I stood there screaming. My hands gripped the driver’s door of my brother’s car, the engine was running and there was
no driver
!

My feet did a little tap dance. I pinched myself. I came back without Tim. I left my brother in the nineteenth century! I willed myself,
go back, go back, go back!

Come on! If this wasn’t stress, then I didn’t know what was. Why couldn’t my body just listen to me for once?

“Casey?”

I jumped at my mother’s voice.

“Have you seen, Tim?” she continued, not noticing the absolute panic I tried to erase from my face. “I’m not finished with him.”

I hid my raccoon eyes, the dark circles I got every time I returned from a trip, behind my curls. “Uh, nope, I haven’t...I don’t know...”

Mom moved from the door way to the front step. She was the shortest member of our family by a good number of inches, and she kept her blond hair short and spiky. She wore a loose floral blouse over a denim skirt and flip-flops on her feet, looking every bit the home design artist she was.

“Why is Tim’s car running? Where is he?”

“Um,” I mentally raced for an excuse. “I was just fooling around...trying it out... in case I...”

“Just tell him to come find me. It’s better for him if we can talk this out before your father gets home.”

I nodded quickly and breathed out long and hard when she turned and went back into the house. I slid into the driver’s seat and turned off the engine. My fingers gripped the steering wheel and my mind raced. What to do, what to do?

Glancing in the rear-view mirror, I saw my darkened eyes and my hair springing every which way. What a wreck.