24
William and Sarah were both on horseback, heading in the direction of the Natural Bridge. After exchanging more controlled words, both agreed to return to the area where all of their problems began. After a long horse ride of more than two hours, during which neither of them said a word, they were close enough to tie up their horses and walk the rest of the way. Now they both stared at the very spot Daniel had disappeared and William had found himself, under the span of the Natural Bridge. Sarah stared at the ground beneath her feet, then slowly around her, and then at William.
“Mr. Monterey, why is it that you seem to be familiar with this spot even before I identified it as the place where Daniel disappeared?” William looked back at Sarah.
“Sarah, it seems to me that I am forever informing people around here that they are about to hear something they may not believe, but what I am about to say is true! I am here from another time. I was visiting this very area with my wife, Kate, and my daughters, Nicole and Tara.”
William’s voice cracked as he mentioned his family. His sincerity was so obvious to Sarah that she was prepared to listen to his strange tale. She looked directly in his eyes, indicating her interest and anticipation of his explanation.
“All I know is that one minute I was with my family in the year 2002, and the next, I was here in the year 1892. Your husband, along with your uncle and his men, were over there.”
William pointed downstream.
“They shot at me and chased me almost to my death to the end of the this gorge. If it wasn’t for my escape, I am sure they would have killed me. At the time, I had no idea they were searching for a baby. Now I think I know where he is!”
Sarah had longed to hear those words from the moment she met this stranger. Her face flushed with redness in her anxious state to hear the next words from the lips of this saint who seemed could help. She tried desperately to utter a word, but was overcome with emotion. Short of breath, she reached forward with both hands as if begging for mercy. William was unprepared for Sarah’s reaction. Sarah dropped to her knees and grabbed William’s legs.
“Please, tell me Daniel is alive, please take me to him.”
William reached down to collect Sarah.
“Sarah, I have only a theory as to what may have happened to both Daniel and me. The more I think of it the more frightened I am. I have been thinking about it all the way to this spot. Being here gives me even more reason to believe what I feel is possible. However, you may find it very hard to accept my explanation. Are you sure you want to hear it?”
Sarah was in William’s arms. She felt something familiar in his embrace, a warm feeling she could not explain.
“Please, Mr. Monterey, tell me what you know!”
“Sarah I think at this point it would be best if you call me William. Please, sit over here, let me see how I can best try to break this to you.”
William helped Sarah position herself on a rock. They were still holding hands. William sat beside her, looking at her and then forward to the spot on the ground marked by their many steps in the pebbles.
“Your brother Clarence made me realize the way Daniel disappeared and the way I appeared are connected. As a matter of fact, I think it happened in the same manner. The difference is that Daniel disappeared from here in 1892 and I disappeared from here in 2002. You see, Sarah, I was found as a child when I was three months old. I became an orphan of the state, this State. My parents adopted me about ten months after I was found. I never knew my true birth date. I was given July 22, 1972, as my date of birth. July 22, as it was here two days ago, for me; two days ago it was also July 22, in 2002.”
William stopped for a moment.
“I know this must sound confusing.”
Sarah was listening to every word. She was shaking her head as she spoke.
“No, please go on, I want to hear how my Daniel fits into this.”
William was pleased that Sarah had not questioned his claim to be there from her future and that she had attentively followed his story so far. To William, Sarah’s intellect seemed equivalent to his own.
“My parents were not told exactly where I was abandoned. I have never felt any compulsion to find out. One thing that was odd on our outing with my family to this location was that we were headed elsewhere until I saw the image of this bridge in full color in a book I was reading. When I saw that image, something compelled me to visit this place first. I think, now, that I must have been here before and was somehow compelled to return. I think someone’s love and torment pulled me back here, returning me here in a similar fashion to how I was removed. I think that when I was a baby of a few months old in 1972, I was found here. No one ever found my birth mother. Just a baby wrapped from head to toe with a tensor band like cloth. Similar to the way babies were wrapped at the turn of the century. That is all I knew. Now I know it may mean something to you, Sarah. I think your Daniel is that baby!”
Sarah was feeling faint. She felt so vulnerable. Could it be possible that what this man was saying was true? How could it be?
“What are you saying? That you are Daniel? You are my baby! Please do not play games with me, William, my mind cannot comprehend such an impossibility!”
“Sarah, I know this is very difficult to believe, but for me it is not difficult now. The reason it is not difficult is I know that I am here from your future. Just as sure as I am standing here in front of you now, I have been here with my wife, I have been here with my daughters. I have been in front of buildings that are five times higher than this gorge. I have been in vehicles that can travel safely ten times faster than a speeding horse. I have been in vehicles that fly in the sky, that carry more than four hundred passengers at a time and can reach Europe in less than ten hours. I have studied the history of our country and can generally tell you what will happen in the next 110 years. If I am here now, and I know where I have been, then the reality of me traveling in time is one that I must believe. If I have traveled back in time then Daniel must have traveled forward in time.”
“Even if what you are saying were true and you did come here from the future, even if my Daniel was taken there, what makes you think that you are him?”
William could sense that Sarah had not completely ruled out the possibility of what he was saying. William knew that what he was about to say would prove his point.
“Sarah, I do not want to seem presumptuous, but I know you also feel whatever it is that I am feeling between us. It is nothing I have felt before. It is not a feeling of romantic love, but in the few hours I have known you, I feel closeness to you that I have never felt for another person. I think I now know why I resemble Thomas Byronville. I believe you are in love with him. I also believe he may be Daniel’s father.”
“Stop!” Sarah was sobbing. “I do love Thomas! He is Daniel’s father! I know he is! You do look just like him. How can it be that you are Daniel? Daniel was here with me! My three-month-old baby was here with me only two days ago! Why has this happened to me? It’s the Lord’s way of punishing me for sinning against my husband.”
“No, Sarah, it is not, please do not look at it that way. There is nothing wrong with your love for Thomas…”
“Wait a minute. I know how to verify what you’re telling me!”
Sarah interrupted William. It now seemed that she was the one who knew how to solve this mystery.
“My Daniel, and his father, Thomas both have a birthmark…”
Sarah realized how great it felt to make this statement out loud. She was noticeably regaining her composure, and it seemed to William that now she felt she had a way out of this predicament. If only she could find a way to challenge William’s story and prove it to be wrong. She would not have to deal with the harsh reality that she would never see her son grow up, or that her son stood before her as a grown man.
“…both have similar birthmarks on the inside of their left legs, just above the knee.”
It was William’s turn to be completely dumbfounded. Until now he was having fun with his theories. Sure he felt they were possible, but he also had his doubts. It was all calculated speculation on his part and in some ways he wanted to shock Sarah with his anecdote. In the moment, he was angered by this interruption in his own life and wanted to sway Sarah with false hope. Why not give this nice woman hope that her son was alive and that William was her son? After all, she was just another character in this very real dream. But although he was hesitant to admit to himself, he did have feelings for her, the way a son should care about his mother.
And yes! He did have a birthmark on the inside of his left leg just above the knee.
His hands reached down to the bottom of the wide pant leg of Clarence’s pants. He watched himself slowly roll up the trousers. This was the closest that William had ever been to an out-of-body experience. His mind was already flying ahead to the next moment. He was witnessing Sarah’s reaction before it was displayed.
Sarah’s mind had seen William’s reaction to her challenge. She had played out William rolling up his pant leg. She knew the appearance of the birthmark too well. She had kissed it many times passionately and playfully. William, his stare fixed on his left leg like a beam of light, rolled up his pant leg one more gather.
There it was, as big as life itself, her son’s life. Daniel was there with her. She felt faint. Her head started spinning. She told herself not to collapse from the shock. Until now, William’s story seemed far-fetched and impossible. Sure, it was nice to fantasize that his claim could have happened somehow, but there had been no proof. William did make his case very strong, but without hard evidence she would have taken the easy way out and simply dismissed the thought of having to accept this grown man was Daniel. Even if she felt a motherly affection towards William, an affection she would feel if it was her own child… her child! Sarah had to stand. Her legs found the strength to do so; her mind had a different plan, it chose to shut down. She collapsed.