The Traveler (The Traveler Series, #1) Read online

  "I believe you. A woman who I thought was Mariana has visited me in my dreams but I never heard what she said, not until now. I feared I was going crazy like my mother did. She believed she had the sight. The ability to see ghosts and the souls of the recently departed and so much more. She took her own life when I was sixteen years of age when she could take it no longer. She said I would understand when my time came. So, if you're not my Mariana and not here to harm me, then what do you seek from me? My soul, to take it to paradise?" Daniel asked at the end, a bit afraid.

  "No Grandpa Daniel, I only wish to find the answers to my questions of how I came to be here if you are willing to listen? I'm shocked you alone, can see me. No one else can see me. I'm like an invisible ghost to them. Perhaps, it's because I don't exist yet? This is all so very confusing." Bethany declared as tears fell heavily from her ice blue eyes.

  Daniel immediately stood up and cautiously approached the young girl, curious about how no one else can see her, except himself. Her mere presence and statement of being his descendent from the distant future is almost unbelievable that is, if he had not already lived through the same circumstances with his mother, watching her talk to people that only she could see. She always said he had the gift. But he still couldn't understand how his granddaughter from over a century in the future came to be here in his time.

  "How do I really know you are from the future?" Daniel asked, still skeptical.

  "What do you want to know?" Bethany asks.

  "For starters, who is in my line of descendents from me to you, I'm curious." Daniel mused.

  "Well, according to the last page in the journal I saw, your daughter Bethany marries a man named Peter Dunn, bank cashier. They have a daughter, Clarice who married twice after her first husband dies in the war. Her son, Daniel, she named after you. He is adopted by his stepfather and ends up being Daniel Clayton. He marries Janette and has a son named Peter and ends up living to be one hundred and ten years old. Peter is my grandfather and his son Michael is my father. Does that help?" Bethany asked after reciting her ancestors from memory, in an almost bored tone of voice.

  "Holy Moses! I don't know why but I believe you. I can't believe I have a descendent that lived to be one hundred ten years old! Do I have a long life?" Daniel asks, not sure if he wants the answer to his question or not but, knowing if he needs to get his affairs in orders.

  "I can't tell you that Grandpa Daniel, it could change the course of history. What I can tell you is that you will have a long and full life with your family members but never forget that each moment in life is a gift from God." Bethany said with reverence and respect.

  "Bethany, can you tell me honey, how is it that you came to be a ghost in this time and place?" Daniel asks again. It's easier t believe the apparition in Mariana come back rather than a specter from the future.

  "In my time, I have Mariana's journal that I found under the floorboards of our attic in our house, hidden there by my grandfather and his grandfather before him, who built our home in the early 1900s. the journal had been passed down over the generations. My sister Daphne and I read it and these weird things have been happening to me. I heard voices telling me not to open the door because I might not return unchanged. The next thing I know, I fell asleep in my bed in my own time across from my sister in the attic and wake up standing in the middle of your main street here and in this time." Bethany explained as confused by these events as Daniel is.

  "No one else can see you, but me?"

  "Strangely, I believe so. I'm so confused and just want to go home." Bethany felt so completely alone and confused as she started to cry. Daniel immediately hopped up from his seat and came right up to Bethany when he hugged her she was solid. Bethany gasped and then the true tears began to fall as she felt safe in her Grandfather's arms. He put her up in a seldom used hotel room for the night and promised to check in on her in the morning after he brought her some clothes that once belonged to Mariana.

  Bethany sat on the lumpy bed in the room with her knees pulled up to her chest and her arms around them, feeling lost again. She was unsure of her purpose there but believed it had something to do with Daniel or so she though. Daniel brought her a beautiful dress and undergarments that were to be worn under it. She thanked him and then laid in bed wide awake. When she awoke the next morning she was confused for a few moments not understanding why she wasn't in her own bed across from Daphne. the thought of Daphne had Bethany shooting straight up in bed. Oh no! What must Daphne be thinking when she wakes u and I'm not there? Will she miss me? Will I cease to exist in my world? What is going on? What is the purpose? Bethany frantically thought to herself before taking several slow deep breaths in order to calm herself down.

  Once Bethany had calmed down, it was easier to take the current situation she found herself in, moment by moment. She forced herself to dress and walk out of the door. But, what she wasn't expecting was the drop dead gorgeous gunslinger who'd stopped still in his tracks and was staring at her with a mixture of emotions flirting across his handsome face with its light stubble and the most beautiful hunter green eyes she'd never seen.

  "It's a deep pleasure to make your acquaintance, ma'am. May I ask your name?" Jebidiah Cole asked the vision of pure beauty before him setting his heart to singing and his hands became the clammy mess of an innocent an untried buck.

  Bethany was shocked beyond belief and looked behind her to see who he was speaking to. Seeing no one she realized it really might be her that he was speaking to.

  "You....you can see me?" Bethany asked, bewildered that no one else but Daniel had been previously able to see her.

  "Why, yes ma'am. I sure can and you are as beautiful, if not more so than God's grace lit across the sky at dusk." Jebidiah chuckled at her strange question. "Are you just passing through ma'am?"

  "Um....no, I am cousins to Daniel Wright who owns this business. My name is Beth." Bethany said quickly using her sister's nickname for her and the first plausible excuse that came to mind on short notice.

  Bethany suddenly felt dizzy as the world around her began to go black. She awoke once again confused and with a start. It took her a few moments to get her bearings and realize that she was in her bed in the attic at home and in her own time. Her pillow was wet with tears and her sister was still asleep beside her. It was dawn, judging by the light just coming gently into the window. Bethany decided to keep what had to be the strangest and most realistic dream she'd ever had to date.

  Bethany feared she was losing her mind and decided to keep the all too real dream a secret from everyone, even from her sister who has always been her closest confidant.

  Bethany and Daphne spent the day cleaning a neighbor's attic who supported the idea of a museum. It was quite messy work as they set aside older item in boxes for Mr. Cantrell to go through while boxes of broken items and old papers are immediately brought down first to him to go through while they boxed up the rest. Anything to be saved, would be brought back up to the attic. the girls didn't complain because each residential or business attic they cleaned was twenty dollars in each of their pockets. And at the end of the summer that would add up to a nice amount for each of them. Bethany was saving up for college and Daphne was saving up to purchase her own IPod so that her parents don't have to do it for her.

  Cleaning out Mr. Cantrell's attic turned out to be quite fun as the girls found such beautiful treasures while they cleaned. They both loved history and it is a tremendous experience to find toys, tin type photos, glass photos and love letters from the early to mid 1800s, most from early settlers and now, reminders of days gone by. In one aspect, it is incredibly beautiful and in another, very sad, if one considered how young so many died and how hard life was for them back then.

  All day, Bethany could not get her dream, if that's what it was, off her mind. She was deep in thought, trying to determine if what she'd experienced in the night, was a dream. Or if she'd really travelled back to the past to meet her great-great-great-great g
randfather Daniel Wright? And who was that man, Jebidiah Cole? He looked like the local bachelor sheriff with his badge but that still didn't explain how he saw her when others walking Main Street passed by and did not see her or how she could walk right through doors as if she were a ghostly specter.

  It confounded her, unable to fully understand. Maybe her presence in the past had a purpose and maybe it didn't. Maybe it was only a chance for her to learn history first hand so that she would better appreciate what her ancestors went through so she could have a better life today.

  "Bethany! Are you going to stare off into space all day or are you going to help me carry these boxes down to Mr. Cantrell?" Daphne huffed at her sister while at the same time weirded out by the look on her sister's face. It was almost as if she wasn't there with her, not completely. She wondered what it was that had her sister so deep in thought.

  Bethany's last thought before she answered her sister was, I pray I will be able to see Jebidiah once again even if there's no chance for us to be together. I am incredibly drawn to him. "I'm here sis. Sorry, I guess I got lost in thought about the past and what it must have been like to live back then, to live when these very house were built even." Bethany said, not too far off from her actual thoughts. At least, that's what she told herself anyway.

  Shaking her thoughts away, Bethany helped Daphne carry all the boxes downstairs and while he decided what to keep or donate to their parents' new museum undertaking, one of which would display the ancient history of their town, the girls took cleaning supplies to the attic to remove layers of dust and grime. When they were finished they returned to Mr. Cantrell's side to retrieve the boxes of items he wished to keep and returned them to the attic for him. then, the girls took the donated items in boxed out of their parents' minivan, were paid with thanks by Mr. Cantrell.

  They took the boxes to the museum and carried them inside the remodeled building where their parents were sorting objects by date with the help of a friend who was an appraiser. "Oh wonderful! I will have to thank Mr. Cantrell personally for his wonderful donation!" Their mother exclaimed as she saw the wonderful items in the many boxes the girls unloaded and set on the floor in the museum for their parents to date and place.

  Once the girls were done, Daphne said she was going to Des Moines with friends to do some window shopping and then were going to catch a movie afterward. When her friends pulled on the street outside, Daphne offered Bethany to go with them but she kindly refused. She wanted to explore the top two floors of this old building as her parents had not restored them yet as they had the ornate main floor.

  Bethany asked her parents' permission to explore and knowing she'd studied a great deal of history in the pioneer time period, they more than agreed. They hoped she would find left behind treasures in nooks and crannies up there, not able to get up there themselves. Bethany, on the other hand had different ideas. She wanted to walk the floors and room she had in her dream. She was already obsessed with it. Her parents knew an ancestor of her father's had built this building but not who, why or if that was true. They'd just gotten it certified as a historical landmark. But, Bethany herself knew much more than she was willing to share with them at this time. She had to be careful as the stairs, one solid and new, were now rickety with their century old age.

  As she walked carefully up the stairs to the second floor, Bethany felt slightly dizzy as d?j? vu took over. Momentarily she saw it as it was back in 1869, beautiful and new. Once on the second floor, she turned to the right and followed it to the room at the end of the Hall. Hands shaking of their own accord, she reached out, turned the door knob and pushed on the door. It squeaked open in the sudden eerie silence. The old bed frame was still in the same place and the old wood burner of course was as well.

  "Just last night I laid on this bed and it's just as I remember it." Bethany whispered to herself. She was even more surprised to see Mariana's old dress, the one she'd worn in the past or in her dream of the past and here it is, hanging in the closet still!" She was shocked beyond belief that through all the owners, this room has remained virtually untouched. Curious which room could have been Jebidiah's. She put the dress carefully back and closed the closet door as she wondered if her parents would let her move in on this floor for the summer, at least. After all, she needed to learn how to live on her own and knew that argument just might work.

  Then, out of the corner of her eye, she saw....Jebidiah! Bethany jumped and spun on her heel to see the handsome gunslinger to be met with nothing. Realizing she was now officially insane, she laughed at herself and decided to just go with it and wandered through the rooms to find most of them, partially furnished with items. Then she reached the room at the end of the hall opposite hers.

  For some reason, as she reached out to open that last door, she felt a shockwave rage through her body, a familiar one. As she opened the door, she could have sworn that she smelled him, Jebidiah, there in the room as if he'd just left for a brief moment and would return but that was impossible! How could his scent remain over one hundred years later?

  Bethany looked around the room to find it more furnished than any of the others. The bed frame and mattress were there as well as a writing desk, a dresser, and an old duster coat that was still hanging in the closet, one that smelled like "him." She gently lifted it out of the closet and held it up to her nose to inhale the heavenly male scent. She kept looking toward the door half expecting to be caught by someone. She decided for the first time in her life, to be completely selfish. She took the duster and put it on. It was slightly longer than her own height but that was nothing that a pair of high heeled boots would take care of that issue. She thought as she debated how safe the stairs to the third floor were.

  Having decided to try it anyway, Bethany climbed to the third floor where the door to Daniel's home was closed and so she turned the door knob and entered the apartment. It was very well preserved, much of the furniture, photos and such were still there as if the place was arrested in time just waiting for Daniel and his family to return. It was eerie and beautiful at the same time. Bethany believes that her parents should only restore this floor and keep it as it is for people to see but install glass walls so they can't mess with her ancestors belongings. They will need to reinforce the stairs though or add new ones. Bethany next heads to Daniel's office. It was very well preserved as well and should be kept as such in her opinion. It even had a writing quill on the desk along with dusty parchment paper, hotel finance books, and even a glass photo of Mariana which shocked Bethany. The sketch in the journal did not do her justice. She was further shocked to see that she could be Mariana's twin sister. Now she understood why Daniel would think her to be the ghost of Mariana.

  Bethany wasn't sure if she was looking forward to falling asleep that night or not and why wasn't Daphne affected by the journal. She showed no signs of having been affected by the journal. She showed no signs of having been affected at all. Well, it wasn't like her Grandfather didn't warn her against reading it. She decided it was going to be a few days before she read the other journal, afraid she would lose Mariana's past. That is, she can deter Daphne.

  Bethany heads down to the first floor to let her parents know what she found while keeping the duster hidden in her bag, just waiting for them to notice. But they were busy and thanked her for her help, excited to see the upstairs floors for themselves. She decided to wait to ask to stay there at the building. She was exhausted from a long day of hard work and decided to head home, take a shower and then a nap to prove to herself that her dream of the past the night before was only a fluke. And yet part of her wanted desperately to see Jebidiah Cole once again.

  Chapter Three ~ Jebidiah Cole

  AFTER A NICE shower and a snack, Bethany practically fell upon the air mattress bed in the attic; she was so incredibly tired. She fell asleep almost instantly. Before she had really gotten much sleep, she was being shaken awake. Thinking sleepily that it was Daphne to stop it. The shaking stopped but then a male
voice intruded on her sleep asking, "Sweetheart, who is Daphne?"

  Once the voice penetrated through the fogginess of sleep, Bethany bolted upright in bed wide awake just before being gently shoved back down to the pillow and ed. Keeping her eyes tightly shut, afraid to open them, she asked, "Am I back?"

  "You never left, my dear. You had a mere fainting spell is all." The all too familiar voice declared.

  Bethany groaned aloud causing Daniel to laugh. She cracked her eyes open to rapidly search the room. "Where is he?"

  "You mean Jebidiah Cole, our sheriff? He is the one who caught you before your head hit the floor. He carried you, unconscious in here, laid you down carefully then came to get me immediately. I had to do some fast talking let me tell you, I was shocked that he too saw you." Daniel whispered and smiled at the blush that came upon Bethany's cheeks at the mere mention of Jebidiah. "He has been waiting right outside the door. I will give him a minute to see you so he can get to work. I will stay here, if you feel uncomfortable?"

  "No thank you, I'll be alright. I'll reassure him, thank him and send him on his way. It's as simple as that." Bethany said, still reeling that she was back in the past and not only that but it seemed as if no time had passed at all. It was another mystery to try to solve.

  Jebidiah entered and promised to keep it short as soon as Daniel let him in. Daniel's only response, a delighted chuckle. What grandfather wouldn't want his granddaughter to find true love? He kissed Bethany's forehead and whispered in her ear, "Tell Jebidiah the truth before he gets attached to you, my girl He may be able to help." Daniel then stood up and shook hands with Jebidiah before he walked out and shut the door behind him.

  Bethany felt instantly shy and cursed herself for the blush that crept upon her face. Jebidiah seemed not to see it or chose not to care and she was grateful for that.