Chapter 11
Teaspoon walked into the bunkhouse for dinner. He didn't do much law enforcement but did spend the day nursing his toe. He found all the riders sitting at the table along with Rachel and their attention seemed to be on some kind of strange contraption that Sam held before them. He didn't know what they were looking at but found it alarming that Rachel was also being distracted and not serving the food.
"Boys! Rachel!" he greeted upon stepping inside.
Rachel looked up, "You're here already?" She then figured, "I lost track of the time." She rose to her feet, "I'll fetch the stew." She then looked to Sam and then to Teaspoon, "I'll let Sam and Lou explain things to you." She stepped out the door to retrieve the pot.
Teaspoon looked on as the riders all fell silent. He noticed the strange device but had no idea what it was or its function. "Is that one of them there fancy doctoring devices from Boston, Sam?" He sat down at the head of the table and simply waited for Rachel to return.
"No," she shook her head. "It's called a cell phone and it has a camera in it."
Teaspoon cocked his head to the side, "I thought camera were a lot bigger than that."
"It's digital." she tried to explain.
He wondered, "Digital?" To Teaspoon the term digital had to do with math. He looked at his thick fingers.
Jimmy smirked, "That there camera is from the future. Now, you say you can use this to talk to other people who are far away, Sam. How does that work?"
She hopelessly tried to explain but found it difficult considering there was a such a huge gap in technology. "It's basically a real fancy walkie-talkie. It's a radio. You need another phone and a tower to send the signal."
"You lost me there, Sam." he replied. "I don't know what a walkie…talkie…is."
Lou mentioned, "We brought a pair. We can show you." She reminded Sam of the camping gear.
"That's right!" she snapped her finger again and rose to retrieve the set of radios.
Teaspoon watched on as Sam went to her bunk and dug through her pack of gear. She came to the table with two small black devices in hand. She turned the radios on and gave one to Lou, "You stay here and I'll go outside the door. If we're too close we can get interference."
Lou took the radio and seemed to understand exactly what Sam was talking about. Sam then stepped outside the door and Teaspoon looked on as he then heard Sam's voice come over the small black radio in Lou's hand.
"Can you hear me, Lou?" the voice asked.
Lou put the radio up to her face and pressed a button, "Loud and clear."
Teaspoon then reached over and gently took the radio from Lou's hand. He never seen or heard anything like it. "How does this here thing work?" he wondered.
Lou instructed, "You push this button here to talk and then release it to listen."
The older man complied, "Sam?" He released the button.
"Hey, you learn fast, Teaspoon." she cheered over the radio.
Jimmy then stood up and went outside to where Sam stood. He took the radio from her hand and tried it himself, "Can you hear me, Teaspoon?"
Surprised by the technology he replied, "Loud and clear. I hear ya fine, Hickok." He asked Lou, "Where did Sam get this here things from?"
"The store." she shrugged. She then realized, "You would fit right in Sam's time." She then imagined Teaspoon in the future and having free range in the kitchen. He would master the microwave and the water dispenser in no time. He would be watching television endlessly and be concurring the lawn on the riding mower.
Jimmy and Sam walked back into the bunkhouse with Rachel right behind them with a pot of stew. Sam held the door for Rachel as she knew the pot was heavy and hot.
"You need any help with that?" she asked her.
"I've got it." she assured her. She noticed the radio, "What is that in Jimmy's hand?"
"Walkie-talkie." she replied. "It's a radio."
"I have no idea what that is." she reminded her.
She let out a sigh for explaining the technology was far more difficult that simply demonstrating it. "I know."
Teaspoon asked, "Where on earth did you get that contraption from, Doc?"
"The store." she replied sounding much like Lou.
Lou figured she needed to help. She tried to explain, "Sam is from the future, Teaspoon. I know how that sounds but I went there for three weeks and she helped me get back home. But now she's stuck here."
Teaspoon sat simply dumbfounded. Future? She? What the heck?! "Exactly what is all this?" It sounded like some kind of strange joke to him.
Jimmy stated nonchalantly, "Sam is from the future."
The man gave a befuddled look.
Noah explained the best he could from what he gathered in a very short time. "These here things are communication devices from the future that Sam brought. Apparently, there is some kind of lightning strike that caused Lou to go into the future by one hundred and sixty one years and was there for three weeks. Sam is a doctor from the future and she gave Lou a place to stay. And when that same lightning sent Lou back home, Sam came back too." He asked Sam, "Did I get that right?"
"You said it better than I could." she told him.
Teaspoon blinked. Surely it was some kind of joke. He looked at the radio in his hand. It was like nothing he had ever seen before and he wasn't sure just how Jimmy's voice came over it so loud and clear. He looked to Sam, "The future?"
"The year twenty-twenty to be exact." she nodded. "I'm not a guy. Everyone assumed my gender when I got back. Lou said it was because I was wearing pants."
Lou added, "You should see of what they wear in the future."
Kid asked "Some outlandish dresses?"
"No," she shook her head. "Half of them are running around with hardly any clothes on at all."
Sam laughed, "You didn't see the half of it."
Billy perked up, "The future is filled with girls running around half naked? How do we find this lightning?"
"Apparently on the trail." Sam replied amused.
Rachel asked, "So that outfit you came here in was normal for a lady to wear in the future?"
"It's sporting gear." she explained. "Yes, women can wear different kinds of clothing, some do wear dresses too. The clothing I came here wearing is designed for women to wear. So are my boots." She held up her foot. "There are women doctors in the future, women lawyers, women cops, women firefighters, women soldiers…"
Jimmy asked, "They let women in the army?"
"In every military across the globe." she nodded.
Kid scoffed, "I can't see no woman fighting in a war."
Sam gave him a look. "First, there have been woman in combat and war is not like is here. We have something called a nuclear weapon. On bomb can level a city the size of New York and beyond. Lou saw some of what we have but didn't get to go on a plane. We have flight in the future. We have something called an airplane that can take people across the county in the air."
Lou nodded, "I even saw a plane in sky. It looked like a bird but longer and with wings that didn't move. I saw pictures of what they called a rocket and a space shuttle. They go into space in the future and do…" she squinted, "What do they do in space?"
"We have satellites orbiting the planet. Most space is orbit work." she explained.
"Oh," Lou really didn't understand it but she understood it was part of life in the future.
Kid asked, "Space?"
"They went to the moon before I was born." she told him. "I'm trying to explain technology for the twenty first century to people living in the eighteen hundreds." she sounded frustrated. She picked up the phone, quickly took a picture of Teaspoon and then showed him the screen. "This device has a camera in it. See! This is your picture. I just took it. This is something that is made for the mass market. Just about everyone has one but most of us cannot tell you how it works or even fix it if it breaks. Same with the radio. They are mass produced for the public but most just know how to read the instructions and operate it. I cannot fix it or make one myself. I saw Rachel has a dress that she making in the house. I don't know how to do that. I just buy my clothing from a store. I'm lucky if I can sew up a rip and not make it look like I just sewed up a wound."
Lou calmed her, "I was able to use your technology once you showed me how. It's designed that way. I wouldn't be able to fix it either. And I can't sew up a wound." She assured her, "You got one on me there."
Teaspoon wondered, "If all this is true and not some kind of a practical joke then just what are you doing here if you are from the future, Doc?"
"I didn't come here on purpose. It was an accident. Just like Lou ending up in the future was an accident. I don't know what is behind the weather anomaly. I don't know how to get back home or if I even will. I'm just trying to fit in and survive." she explained. "I don't know how the time travel thing even works."
Teaspoon mentioned in thought, "There is some old Navajo folklore that spoke of weather doing odd things. There are these creatures called Skinwalkers…"
Sam rolled her eyes, "That's just an old tale."
He shook his head, "They are real. I saw one as a youth."
She cocked an eyebrow, "You saw a Skinwalker?"
"I did!" he confirmed.
Billy asked, "What's a Skin…walker?"
Teaspoon explained, "It's supposed to be a shaman that can turn into any creature it chooses and hunt ya down, suck the life right out of ya." he declared. "They can travel fast, cross a great distance in the blink of an eye and can bring about strange weather with them." He sat back and pondered the old tales, "The Old Chief claimed he went to another world. That a Skinwalker sent him there. He said it was not like anything he had ever seen before. They had strange machines and strange people. He described an oasis in the middle of the desert that was enormous with trees that grew taller than any tree and were made of clear crystal."
Kid looked at Lou, "Did you see any trees like that?"
"No," she shook her head.
"Wait!" Sam spoke up. "How long ago did this Chief tell you of this trip he took?"
"I was a small child." he replied.
"Least 40 years ago." she pondered. "Imagine a Native going over a hundred maybe two hundred years into the future and then coming back and trying to describe what was seen. An oasis is something you find in the desert. A skyscraper is taller than any tree and looks like it's made of glass. That could look like a clear crystal to someone who never saw a city before." She eagerly looked to Teaspoon, "What else did he tell you?"
He wandered back into his memory. He recalled the tale, "The Old Chief went to look for the Skinwalker that was taking the water from the tribe. He found the Skinwalker had captured the water in a large mouth and took it to the crystals trees." He then asked, "What ya thinking the mouth taking the water could be, Doc?"
"A pipeline." she guessed unsure. "What did he say about the oasis? Did he describe it?"
He gave a nod, "The old Chief said he saw fire that you could touch and didn't burn. It illuminated the oasis in the night time."
"Electric lamps." she figured and looked to Lou for confirmation.
She gave a nod, "That's how I would describe it."
Sam stated, "I wonder what city the Old Chief found?"
Lou gave her a look, "The one in the desert. That one! What did you call it?"" she tried to recall the name. "The one with gambling."
"Las Vegas!" she gasped. She then imagined a Native Navajo Chief wandering into the Las Vegas, Nevada. "Jeepers, that's near Area 51..." she tailed off in deep concern.
"The place with the secret military that was on the television?" asked Lou.
She nodded puckering in thought. "Remember that show we watched, Lou? The X-Files."
She cocked an eyebrow, "That was so stupid."
She shook her finger, "It is not and Fox Mulder is hot."
Lou laughed and shook her head.
"Think about it." she pleaded. "Top secret time travel experiment that is affecting the Midwest. This is huge, Lou."
"I think you watch too much television." Lou told her.
She countered, "Then explain how you got to my time and I got to yours. This isn't natural."
"Okay," she had to agree. "It could be some kind of experiment that maybe got out of their control. I can't see anyone doing this kind of thing on purpose."
"This is the government we are talking about here. What did Mulder say? Trust no one." she countered,
Lou asked concerned, "You do realize that Mulder is just a character, right?"
"I know but sometimes t.v. can kind of predict the future." she rebutted.
She sighed, "You people watch too much television."