Chapter 12 Bogg's Mother

They landed on a wooden floor, in a small room. They stood up and glanced around, aware of the sound of a hard rain pounding on the roof. There were red embers in the fireplace, and they cast a weak light in the room. As their eyes became accustomed to the dim light, Phineas spied a small bed. He walked forward and knelt beside the figure as he heard a weak, congested cough.

Jeffrey looked around for a lamp, but the fireplace seemed to be the only source of light, so he busied himself bringing the fire back to life. Soon, there was enough light to see the interior of the room more clearly.

"Ma?" Bogg's voice was soft and loving. Jeffrey sat quietly, feeling privileged to witness this emotional scene. He fought back tears when he heard the sound of Bogg's voice and his thoughts immediately flew to his parents.

Phineas reached out to touch the woman's face and she moved her hand to cover his. "Phineas?" she said softly and coughed weakly.

"I'm here," he answered.

"You're alive?"

He nodded, "I'm alive, I love you."

"I love you too," she whispered and coughed again. Then, slowly, she lowered her arm and closed her eyes, "the light's so bright."

Phineas leaned down and kissed her forehead, "you did good," he whispered in a shaking voice, but she didn't speak again. He continued to sit beside her, as her breathing became more rapid and more shallow. The rain stopped just before she took her last breath.

Jeffrey looked up when he realized she had died, but Bogg still sat beside her in silence. Finally, after about fifteen minutes, Phineas stood up and spoke. "They'll find her this morning, we can't be here," he said in a voice betraying emotion. And as one, they moved toward the door and out into the street. The first rays of sunlight were just hitting the village and Phineas quickly dodged into a space between two buildings as a woman passed by. Jeff turned and watched her enter the room they had just exited.

"Mama!" he heard an anguished cry and felt another lump in his throat.

He turned to join Bogg and noticed he was still turned away from the street.

"Ma!" the cry came again, a bit softer, and Jeffrey watched Phineas bow his head. The girl must be Bogg's sister.

They stood quietly for a few more minutes before Bogg straightened up and sniffed, then turned, "I guess we should find a place to stay. They'll bury her tomorrow, I'd like to stay for that, but we have to keep away from people, just in case someone might recognize me."

Jeff nodded and answered softly, "okay." He followed Bogg through the alleyways of the village until they came to a building set apart from the others, on the outskirts of the town. It was a pub and Jeffrey knew there were most likely rooms upstairs for rent.

The room was small, with one bed and a large sack, stuffed with straw on the floor to serve as a second place to sleep. Jeff could tell this was a very poor place and time, these accommodations were among the worst he could remember.

Phineas sat down on the bed and sighed, staring straight ahead. Normally they would toss Bogg's lucky coin for the bed, but this time it only seemed right that Bogg should get it. He looked so distracted that Jeff wasn't even sure he knew there weren't two beds in the room.

"You okay?" Jeff asked worriedly.

Bogg looked at him and nodded. "Yeah," he paused, "it just feels so strange, I mean, I've been to times hundreds of years before she was even born, and times hundreds of years after she would've died." He paused for a long minute, "it's just hard to know what's real."

Jeffrey hesitated and then walked over and put his arms around Phineas and squeezed as hard as he could and whispered into his ear "this is real."

Phineas rested his head on Jeff's shoulder as his eyes filled with tears. When they separated he reached up to wipe his face. "I didn't think seeing Grace would be so hard," he whispered, "I wanted to go to her..."

"That's your sister?"

Bogg nodded and Jeff cast his eyes on the floor. He wished that someone had wanted to comfort him when his parents died, like Bogg wanted to go to his sister. But that had never happened. Aunt Elizabeth was his only relative and she wasn't the comforting type. Not like Bogg was.

Slowly Phineas stretched out on the bed on his back, staring up at the ceiling. Jeffrey sat down on a stool beside a small window that overlooked the crowded, village and stared out, following first one, then another of the villagers as they traversed the narrow alleys. There was nothing to indicate that anything of importance had happened during the night. A woman had died, and there were only a few people who knew or cared.

He could see a graveyard in the distance, up on a small hill, and guessed that was where she would be buried. Then he suddenly realized that he didn't even know her name.

"What was her name Bogg?"

Phineas heard the question though his mind was drifting through memories of his early life.

"Catherine," he answered.

Jeffrey stared out the window as the sun reached its peak in the sky and started to descend. He had been studying the people and trying not to interfere with his partner's thoughts. In 1982, he might have spent the time watching TV, but as a voyager, he had learned how to be patient and entertain himself as he waited for things that had to unfold in their own time.

"Jeff?" the sudden mention of his name surprised him.

"Yeah?"

"I'm glad you came."

Jeff nodded, unsure what to say, "yeah."

A moment later Phineas spoke again, "I guess we need to find you something to eat," he said, and the bed creaked as he sat up.

"You too."

An hour later they had eaten in the pub beneath their room, and Jeff followed Bogg out into the narrow street. It wasn't really wide enough to be called a street, Jeff thought to himself. There were only people and a few small carts that traveled through the town and they didn't need much room. They made their way to a central square and to a shop with wooden boxes piled in front. As Jeffrey overheard a conversation between two men who were looking at one of them, he slowly realized that the boxes were coffins. This was a coffin shop. He waited outside as Bogg walked in. A few moments later his partner reappeared.

"Tomorrow morning, up on the hill," Bogg said as he walked past him, and Jeff knew he'd gone in to find out when the funeral would be. Jeffrey wondered what a funeral would be like in this time, but suddenly he realized it really didn't matter. All that mattered was that death was forever, and that's why there was so much anguish for the survivors.

He wiped his eyes as he followed along behind Bogg, chastising himself for shedding tears. This was Bogg's time to mourn, not his, he had no right to make Bogg feel like he had to comfort him, when it was really Bogg who needed the comfort.