She laughed. "It's an airplane." She described, as best she could, what it was and how it worked. "It shoots up in the sky like a cannonball and you can get from America to England in a matter of hours."
"Hours? Impossible."
"That's how I came here. I assure you, in the future, it's very possible."
"Amazing."
The next picture was of her and her niece at Disney World. His whole body stilled, and he looked at her intently.
“Your daughter?” He asked, his tone neutral.
“No. She’s my niece. Her name is Lana.” She touched the screen and zoomed in on Lana’s face. “She does look a lot like me, doesn’t she?”
“So much so that if you were not in the picture with her, I would have assumed it was you at that age.”
“Yes, the women of my family breed true. We all look like my mother. My sister and I used to be like two peas in a pod. People often thought we were twins.”
“Used to?”
“She passed away four years ago in a car accident.”
“I am very sorry to hear that.”
“A drunk driver hit her car. She and her husband were killed instantly. Lana was just a baby. I was babysitting her so that my sister could go out and have a date night with her husband. I encouraged her to do so. Told her to go out and have some fun. I sometimes wonder if I hadn’t encouraged her, if she would have been at home with her baby that night, and would now be alive and raising her daughter.”
“You can not blame yourself for that.”
“I know. But I can’t help it. I still miss her so much.”
She had to get out, or she was going to break down in hysteric sobs in front of Dale. Again. What the hell was wrong with her lately? She had become such a watering pot! She shot to her feet, trying to breathe deeply, to contain her tears until she was safely out of his presence. “Excuse me, I... need to be alone.”
“Of course.” He stood, too.
She put up a hand, palm out in a staying gesture. She couldn’t bear for him to follow her. Scrambling for the door at a near jog, she exited the dining room just as her face crumbled and tears overflowed.
But where to go for some privacy in this grand house full of servants? Blindly, she threw open a door on the opposite side of the hallway, finding a snug little office that was blessedly empty. She closed the door and reclined against it. Then, slowly, she slid to the floor, hugging her legs as she rested her head on her knees.
She wept. For the sister she would never see again. For her parents and the niece she had left in the future. For the life she might never be a part of again. She was trying to cling to hope that somehow she would be able to return, but she couldn’t see how it would be possible. She had to believe that whatever force had thrown her into the past would bring her to the present again, but she had never been very good at trusting and believing in anything over which she had no control.
After her sobs died out, she sat for a while staring into nothing. Little by little, she regained a measure of calm. She had cried more in the past two days than in the whole previous year. Disgusting. She normally wasn’t such a wimp, although she deserved some slack. It wasn’t every day one was thrown into such a bizarre adventure.
But she had to pull herself together. Come up with a plan. Even if there wasn’t much she could do about her circumstances, she could take it one day at a time. Concentrate on the day to day, the minute to minute business of adapting to life in this time.
Slowly she got up, cramped muscles protesting, and opened the door of her refuge to go look for Dale. She had some explaining to do. He was his only friend and ally. She was grateful for that.
