7
Mountain Roads
~*~
"Josie, come help me!" Dora Partoe yelled, turning off the engine of her old Toyota.
Despite her seventy-two years, Josie Clark scrambled down the steps of her cabin at the sound of her friend's panicked voice. "Can't see, you, Dora," she yelled back. "Turn off the lights!" Her eyes adjusted by the time she got to the car. "You're late. Run into a trouble?"
"You might say that," Dora said, pulling her lanky frame out of the car. "I'm afraid I've got a problem for both of us. Here…" She swung herself towards the rear of the vehicle.
Josie caught up with her as she flung open the hatchback of the car. The woman gasped as she saw the unconscious form of a young man folded up in the storage area of the car. "Dora – what on earth?" she exclaimed, dumbfounded by the sight.
"Found him in the road about five miles out from here. Darn near ran over him. At first I thought it was a dead deer, but when I couldn't see a tail – well, you know what I mean."
"Why didn't you call someone? Why did you pick him up? You know what could have happened if he regained consciousness?"
"Aw, look at him, Josie. He looks so sweet and pathetic. I don't think he would hurt a fly."
"Nonetheless… we'd better get him inside and tie him up. Then call the authorities. Hurry, come on; before he comes to!" Josie was already dragging the man's limp form from the car. She slung one of his arms around her neck and grappled him around his waist. She motioned with toss of her head. "Here; help me. Together we can get him into the house."
The man's boot-clad feet scraped the flagstone pathway as the two women heaved him towards the house. Several times, Dora, the smaller but older of the two women, stumbled over the straggly bushes edging the path.
Wheezing with the dead weight of the unconscious man, they got to the three steps leading into the house. "Why don't I take his shoulders and you take his feet? We can try to lift him up the steps," Josie gasped.
Dora dropped the arm she was holding, panting as she talked. "Yep… good idea." The women grunted, adjusting their holds.
A low moan came from the man as they dragged him up the steps. A final few feet, and they plopped him on the sofa in the front room.
"I think he's coming to," said Josie, her eyes opening wide with fear.
Dora's eyes flew around the room, searching for an answer to their new dilemma. "Over there – those table runners. We can use them to tie him up!"
Josie nodded her approval, retrieving the long pieces of fabric. "Yes—that should hold him. Hmmm. You know, Dora, I haven't been able to try my knot tying skills in years!"
"Now's your chance," Dora grinned back.
The two women quickly secured his hands and feet – and not a minute too soon; his eyes flitted open as they finished. With as much strength as he could muster in his tethered condition, he struggled to sit up.
"Who are you? Where am I?" he cried out, unable to contain his apprehension and rising panic.
Josie pushed him back down onto the sofa. "We were about to ask you the same thing, sonny. Dora here found you lying alongside the road a few miles back. What were you doing out here all alone at this time of night? Got any identification on you?"
The young man shook his head, further disheveling his thick thatch of straight black hair. Some of it fell down into his face; he tried to blow it out of his eyes.
"I'm not supposed to be here – wherever 'here' is." His eyes darted around the room. "Where's Captain Janeway? Where's Lt. Torres?"
"Who?" Dora asked. "Are you in the military or something? If you are, this is a pretty strange uniform you're wearing. It isn't even camouflage and here you are out in the middle of the wilderness." She leaned in towards him, her eyes narrowing with suspicion. "Got a name, sonny?"
"My… my name's Kim… Ensign Harry Kim," he said. His face hardened, as he seemed determined to say no more.
"Ensign?" asked Josie. "Isn't that a naval rank? You sure don't look like any navy person I've ever seen. Which navy? You look Asian – are you from some North Korean vessel trying to sneak onto our west coast? 'Cause if you are, we'll have someone here before any of your cronies can join you." She jerked her head towards her friend. "Dora, call 911… the FBI… Homeland Security… anyone – we've got to get this guy to the authorities."
"I'm on it," Dora answered, flying to the phone.
"So – are you gonna tell us or do you want to wait until Sheriff Clooney arrives? I don't think he'll be as pleasant as we are."
Panic surfaced in the man's eyes and face; he licked his dry lips. "Where...where am I?" he cried out again. "I'm supposed to be on Voyager… in engineering working on the driver coil assembly. Where did you come from?"
Dora rushed back into the room. "Got the sheriff – he's on his way." She looked at the distraught man. "What's Voyager? Josie, wasn't that some sort of unmanned NASA probe that went to Jupiter a few years back?"
Josie nodded. "Yeah; I think it was. I seem to remember reading last spring that it's now beyond Pluto." She turned to the perplexed face of their guest. "Do you work with NASA on this project? Why are you here? Just what are you trying to pull over on us?"
The uniformed man appeared even more confused, as if trying to recall long-buried facts. "NASA… unmanned probes…" A light of recall lit up his face. "Uh… ma'am, could you please tell me what year this is?"
"What year?" Dora asked. "That's a strange thing to ask…"
"Please – just humor me," he pleaded.
"It's 2003," Josie stated. "What year do you think it should be?"
He fell back onto the sofa. "2003. That's just great. What's happened to me this time?"
"What's that supposed to mean?" asked Dora.
The man opened his dark eyes. "You say you found me alongside the road. When was that?"
"About an hour ago," Dora answered. "Right in the middle of state route 47, as I was coming here to Josie's."
"Anything else… any one else with me?" he asked.
"Not that I noticed. But trust me – I wasn't going to go looking for anyone else, all alone on a dark mountain road!" Dora answered.
He closed his eyes, sighing and mumbling.
"What's that?" Josie asked. "What are you talking about?"
"Did you see anything strange?" he continued. "Any bright lights or something like that?"
Dora shook her head. "Nope, just you, laying there like a lump of road kill."
Beads of sweat sprung up on his forehead. "Look, ladies; there's no way I can explain this, either to you or to whomever you've called. It's… it's something that's got to be fixed by my friends… my colleagues…"
"I'm not calling any strangers," Josie stated firmly. "You're about all the excitement I need for right now!"
"I'm not going to hurt you," he pleaded. "Please – just call off anyone coming here; let me hide until my friends can figure something out."
The two women looked at each other. He really did seem to be just a very frightened – and confused – young man.
"If we do," Josie responded, her voice taking on a low timbre, "I'm warning you – I've got some dogs who can be very protective of Dora and me."
As if on cue, howls came from another room in the house. The young man jumped. "Ye…yes… I hear them. No trouble – please; I promise…"
Another look shot between the women. "Okay; I'll see if I can catch Clooney," Dora said, "I'll tell him… um… that you're a nephew of Josie's who was coming for a surprise visit."
"Nephew?" Josie queried. "I've got a nephew?"
"You do now, sweetie," answered Dora, going back to the phone. "Wait until I get back to untie him – and maybe you should let Turnipseed out here to be with us."
"Good idea," said Josie, going to the door that barricaded a troop of canines from the room. She cracked the door, holding back several scrambling furry bodies; a wave of manginess announced the dogs' presence along with the chorus of howls. "Come here, Turnipseed; we've got a job for you." She reached through the darkness of the crack and led a large mongrel out into the room. The man swallowed hard; the dog appeared to be about eighty pounds of muscle and brawn and bared his teeth in a snarl.
"He won't hurt you if he sees that you like us – and that we like you," responded Josie.
"I do like you," the man gulped. "You're my new best friends!" He tried to smile at the dog.
"Good," Josie answered.
Dora came back from her telephone call. "Well, Clooney wasn't too happy about being pulled away at this hour of the night and then being told he wasn't needed."
"We'll tend to Fred later," Josie said, already loosening the ties.
Freed from his bonds, the young man sighed with relief, massaging his wrists. He swung himself into a seated position. "Thanks," he sighed; his voice sounded quite sincere.
"No funny business now," Dora said sternly.
"No, ma'am!" he answered respectfully.
"You thirsty – or hungry?" Josie asked.
A wan smile spread across the man's face. "Yes, ma'am; guess that I am."
"How about a ham sandwich and a coke?"
"Coke?" he asked.
"Cola… soda… soft drink…" Josie said.
"Er… yeah; sounds good," he said, still confused.
"I'll go to the kitchen and see what I can find. Turnipseed will stay here with you and Dora."
The man looked at the mongrel sitting in front of him; his face paled. "I understand."
Josie nodded and disappeared.
Dora decided to try to make him a little bit more comfortable and sat down beside him on the sofa. "So, tell me – where are you from? Where's your family?"
"Uh… my family lives in San Francisco," he muttered. "My mom and dad, that is."
"Really?" Dora smiled. "So you're just a couple hundred miles from home. What brings you up here? How did you get here?" She leaned in towards him, lowering her voice, thinking that she could coax more information out of him by using a more familial tone.
"I… I really don't know how I got here, ma'am; it's like something just sort of transported me…"
The older woman cackled, slapping her thighs. "You've been watching too many TV shows and movies. Nothing like that ever happens in real life."
"Maybe not now," he answered.
She cocked her head. "What do you mean by 'now'?"
"I really can't…"
Josie opened the door, her hands filled with a large plate overflowing with sandwich fixings and a can of soda. "I didn't know what all you would like, so I brought a little of everything. I know that a young man like you needs lots of food."
Suddenly, the area where Harry sat fizzled and sparked like a fireworks display. The plate, all its contents and the can fell with a crash and a splunk. The two women shrieked and Turnipseed growled and ran towards the commotion.
It all happened in less than two seconds and then he was gone. Nothing was left of him – he just… disappeared. Empty space filled the area on the sofa where he had sat.
Dora's eyes overtook the rest of her face. "Josie – did you see that?"
"I didn't see anything," Josie responded, her eyes even bigger than Dora's. "And neither did you."
"But we did! That young man that I picked up…"
"…Was never here! Dora, not a word of this… to anyone!"
"But… but…" Dora muttered.
"It never happened!" Josie said firmly. "And that's that!"
Turnipseed sniffed the area, hoping to get one last whiff of the stranger. He whined, wagging his tail as he chased the empty air.
~*~
"Harry, Harry!"
Harry Kim opened his eyes, looking up into the concerned faces of Captain Kathryn Janeway and B'Elanna Torres. The captain's warm hand felt good on his cheek. "Are you back with us? That was quite a scare!"
"The doctor is on his way," B'Elanna announced. "You must have taken at least a mega joule jolt."
Harry tried to sit up, but Janeway pushed him back down. "No, don't try to get up. Let's wait…"
He blinked his eyes. "What happened? How long have I…"
Janeway placed her finger across his lips. "Shhh; it's okay, Harry. You were working on the driver coil assembly and must have cut into something you shouldn't have. The charge knocked you unconscious and you've been that way for about a minute."
Harry's head was spinning. "Captain, I don't think I was just 'out'; I think that I got tangled in some sort of time warp. I was… somewhere in the northwestern United States, almost five hundred years ago, and there were these two women who…"
"Uh, uh, Harry; no more. We'll talk later," the captain said. "It was a just dream, Harry."
Harry closed his eyes. Why did this kind of thing always happen to him? "It wasn't a dream, Captain. It was real – I was there..."
"Later, Harry," she said again.
He lay back, just as he heard the doctor and his team approach.
WHY does this always happen to me? he sighed.
~ the end ~