36
Killing the wolf now seemed less wrong to William than at first. He remembered his high school friend, Cosmo, who was born in Italy. Cosmo came from a small Italian hill town. He immigrated to the U.S.A. with his family when he was fourteen. Cosmo told stories of how he grazed sheep on the mountains near his town and how he lost many of his lambs and full-grown sheep to wolves. He never saw a wolf attack his flock; all he would find were the dismembered remains of his animals. For a moment, William thought of this kill as revenge for his Italian friend’s sheep. Cosmo had estimated that he lost over twenty sheep in one year alone. It had stuck with William how Cosmo spoke about his sheep as if they were members of his immediate family. William could see the pain in Cosmo’s face when he talked about finding his dead sheep. He knew each sheep individually. Cosmo missed his flock. In the U.S.A. he was a loner. He did not belong.
William recalled in his senior high school year, the day that he and Cosmo became friends. They were in the cafeteria eating lunch. William was sitting with his usual group of friends, telling jokes; Cosmo was sitting a seat away from him, eating alone. William’s friends poked fun at the type of sandwiches Cosmo brought to school. Thick homemade bread with peppers, or an egg omelet, a “Frittata,” said Cosmo. William knew that Cosmo was different, but he also felt he was way more mature than his friends. His mannerism was that of a grownup. He did not act childish at all. To Cosmo, everything was serious. His outlook on life was genuine. He loved nature, and he would give the shirt off his back. On this day William had left his lunch money at home, and he figured that when he joined his friends, one of them would spot him a dollar or two until the next day. His friends were too busy acting up so William just sat there. He felt awkward interrupting their antics to borrow money from one of them. Cosmo always brought more to school than he could possibly eat. It was obvious his mother made and packed his lunch. He was probably the only guy in the cafeteria who had never stood in line to buy anything.
“Would you like to try my mother’s Frittata?” William was caught off guard. This was the first time Cosmo had spoken to him, and as far as he could remember, the first time he had seen Cosmo speak with anybody. William looked at Cosmo and he could see he was being very sincere and that he had noticed he had nothing to eat. William shifted his stare to the wax paper that Cosmo had slid in his direction and to the wedge of shiny yellow and white, inch-thick omelet. He looked over at his friends, who seemed dumbfounded. Some years later when he saw the TV commercial where Mikey ate the cereal his friends would not try, he always thought back to this moment.
William’s need for food overcame his reluctance; he reached for the Frittata.
“Thanks, I guess I should try something different.”
William’s friends looked at him like he was about to take a forbidden drug for the first time and waited for his reaction to his first dose.
“Wow!” William had not imagined how good this Frittata would be.
“This stuff is great, what did you say it’s called?”
“Frittata,” Cosmo answered proudly. “It’s made with asparagus and ‘porcini’ mushrooms,” he added.
“This is really good! Hey you guys, want a taste?” William turned to his friends, who seemed to be shocked that he had actually accepted food from some weird Italian kid who was the biggest loner in school.
“You need to eat it with bread.” William turned back to Cosmo, who had slid a full slice of thick homemade bread in front of him.
“No man, that’s all right, I don’t want to eat your whole lunch. This Frittata is great, I’ll just finish it.”
“You are not supposed to eat it without bread, that would be impolite.”
The outburst of laughter from William’s friends was so loud that some of the kids at distant tables actually stood up to see what had happened.
“Yeah, Will, where’s your manners?”
“What’s the matter, Will, don’t you know how to eat freetette?”
“Hey guys, why do you think they call it free thatha? Hey, ‘cause it’s free!”
Just then William realized how immature his friends were. Cosmo had not blinked at the smart remarks. He looked at William and simply said, “Try my mother’s bread; I think you will like it.”
William reached forward and took the slice of bread; he broke off a piece about the size of the remaining Frittata and placed the Frittata on top. William was doing what he had seen Cosmo do when he ate his lunch. He was trying very hard to show his friends that he did not appreciate their outbursts.
“You know what? This is the most amazing bread I have ever eaten.”
William turned and looked at his friends, who were silent but smirking. “And since none of my other friends noticed I had no lunch today, I may just have to finish the rest.
“Hey Cosmo, what’s on this bread? Talk about tasty!” William turned away from his friends and slid closer to Cosmo.
“My mother rubs olive oil and just a bit of salt on the bread so it doesn’t go dry.”
“Hey thanks, this is really good! I wish my mom made stuff like this.”
From that day on William never bought his lunch again, and he and Cosmo became best friends. The funny thing was that Cosmo brought the same amount of food he had brought before he shared his lunch with William; the only difference was he never took anything back home now.
William and Cosmo could talk for hours. Cosmo loved talking about his hometown of Miranda in Italy. How he missed his mountains and the fresh water from the natural springs. How he wanted to return. One day Cosmo got his wish. His father decided that he also missed his homeland and made arrangements to take his family back.
When Cosmo left he was eighteen, spoke perfect English, and worked harder than anybody William had ever met. William remembered saying goodbye to his friend and telling him to get the wolves before they got to his sheep.
Cosmo smiled and said, “The wolves, they are God’s creatures and they have to eat like we do. If I work so that they can survive, the balance of nature will be kept and my mountains can remain as they have been for thousands of years.”
William knew he would miss Cosmo. They never wrote each other and William never again heard his voice. But William was grateful for his friendship and the lessons Cosmo taught him about survival and respect for nature. William knew those early lessons contributed to the person he was at that moment. Now, more than ever, he remembered his old friend and also longed to return to his home and his family.
William forced himself to end his reverie and focused once again on the need to find food. As he turned, he caught the sight of a rabbit crossing the path ahead and disappearing into a hole in the ground that was almost hidden by vegetation. Instinctively he raced to the rabbit hole. After some probing with a stick and rock, William had killed yet a second fur-clad animal. William’s only tools were sharp rocks and sticks. Before long a fire was under the suspended skinned rabbit. The nourishment from the bountiful meal was making a difference, and William was concentrating more on resolving his dilemma. He was staring ahead at the Natural Bridge, realizing that his only escape from this time and place was to return the way he had come.
Under the span of the bridge William could see no sign or any clue that would lead him forward in time. He knew that with each passage he experienced he found himself deeper in time. At that moment William had an idea, that if under the bridge he was traveling backward in time, what if on top of the bridge there was a way to travel forward in time?
This thought had not even concluded and William was now racing toward the steep canyon walls, attempting to find a way up to the top of the banks. Frantically, he grabbed at the trunks of small trees and grasses and pulled himself higher and higher. William did not feel the sharp edges of the rocks gouge his legs. He ignored the thorns that stabbed his palms. Sweat was streaming down his face, but William was focused on one thing only, to get to the top of the bridge. William could see the top of the bank was within ten feet. He was perched on a small dirt ledge with a steep wall above him. There was no way he could go up from there. The ledge narrowed; about five feet away it ended completely, but at that spot the upper bank dropped to within four feet in height. William made his move and inched slowly forward on the ledge. The first step he took proved to be too close to the edge, and the ground gave way.
William slammed down on the remaining ledge. His left knee dangled down while his groin area landed solidly on the only rock that made up the most solid part of his perch. As he fell, his body naturally moved outward in the direction of danger. William grabbed at everything in his arms’ path to try to secure himself. Nothing. His body was moving downward and he had no way to hold himself on the ledge. His only way to hold on was to slow his fall by creating friction on the dirt wall he was falling against. He held on with his right leg that now firmly lay on the rock. His left hand found a solid rock point on the wall that gave him the support he needed to avoid falling completely. With his right hand William began to feel the collapsed ledge in front of him until he found a second rock point he could grab onto. Slowly William began to pull himself up, pushing on with his left arm as he pulled with his right. His weight was equally distributed on his two arms and one leg. His left leg was still dangerously dangling. As his weight began to shift more to his right hand he was trying to find the courage to release his secure grip on the lower rock. He had reached a point where if he wanted to pull himself up he would have to let go of the lower rock and rely only on the rock in his right hand. Before pulling himself totally upward, William tested the surety of the higher rock by pulling on it a bit more than his weight. The rock gave a bit but seemed to remain in place. After a few seconds of contemplating his next move, William realized he had to pull himself upward soon. His right leg was now trembling with the responsibility of holding most of his weight. In one launch, William pushed off his small finger from the lower rock and pulled up with his right hand. He made it and stood up again on the ledge. William’s yell of joy caused a number of birds in nearby trees to spur into flight. Slowly, William backtracked on the remaining ledge behind him until he stood on a section wide enough to actually squat down on bent knee. As though in prayer, William clasped his hands over his face. With his nose trapped between his hands, he looked along the wall and studied the portion ahead of him. About five feet was solid, then the collapsed length, about two feet and then what seemed like a rock and four remaining feet to the lower bank. As the bank curved toward him, the lower wall was directly in his path. William looked down and realized he could probably return downward without much difficulty and he should find an easier way up. But just then something came over him and, without giving it a second thought, William jolted up. He dropped his right hand as his left leg shot out to propel him over the ledge. He jumped over the narrow collapse in the ledge and landed with his right foot on the rock he had seen just ahead of the gap. With all of the strength he could find he pushed off his right leg and extended his arms forward reaching for the lower top of the back. Landing on his sore groin area was not the best way to slam on the ledge, but William ignored the pain and smiled anyway, for he had made it. He pulled his body the rest of the way forward and lay on the ground breathing heavily at the very edge of the wall that had almost beat him.
Walking along the top of the bank was very different than being in the valley below. The wind was blowing stronger here. Trees making up a forest on each side of the canyon prevented William from seeing anything beyond the vegetation. He could see the top of the Natural Bridge ahead of him and the subtle curve of the canyon behind him. He was only fifty yards or so from the rock that spanned to the other side. He noted that the sheer mass of the rock could easily accommodate a future two-lane roadway.
Finally William had arrived on top of the bridge. He was walking across it, exactly in the middle. From this vantage point he was studying it, trying to find any hint of mystery. At the other side of the bridge a clearing in the forest was evident directly in the path of the bridge. The clearing went into the forest thirty feet or so, only to close up v-shaped. William turned in a fast motion to stare at the other bank, and he was not surprised to see a shallower clearing directly in line with the center of the bridge. William calculated that at some time in the past either large animals, perhaps dinosaurs or possibly ancient man, had used the bridge as a crossing point between the two banks. But how did this help him find a way to travel forward in time?
Walking back across the bridge William now looked skyward and then toward the distance into the canyon in both directions. As he looked again at the ground beneath his feet, he was certain it held no clues. Just as William felt helpless he noticed the sun was setting to the west. At the middle of the bridge, William stopped. He looked down the path of the canyon in the direction of the waterfall he had encountered during his confrontation with Matthew Bulow. As he looked at the distance he saw that the canyon narrowed to the point of the waterfall. Turning in the opposite direction the canyon widened and there was no end in sight. The sun was setting over the waterfall picture perfectly. William commenced walking again and then he stopped and looked again at the waterfall in the distance and the abrupt end of the canyon. He then turned to the openness of the other side of the canyon and saw something. William looked to his right and saw the beginning of the canyon again and said out loud, “The beginning of time.” He then looked to his left and said out loud, “The future.”
William’s head started looking to the ground, remembering how he had entered the bridge and the direction he had faced each time he had traveled back in time. He was now shifting his head left to right as if he were watching mice playing tennis at his feet. As the reality of his thoughts came to him he started to race in the direction of the bank, looking for a safe place to descend into the canyon. From the top it was easier for William to control his point of entry. He was also now more respectful of the canyon. Within minutes William was safely down at the valley of the canyon. William ran toward the underside of the bridge. The area under the bridge was shadowed and dark as the sun was no longer visible at the falls.
William believed he could initiate the time travel again this time, in the direction of the future to travel forward in time.
There was no time to think. His mind was made up. He walked as forward as he could and then looked up. His stare saw nothing. The jet-black ceiling of the bridge was too dark to follow any droplet down, let alone see any at all. His hands started to move around him as if feeling for the coming rain. Nothing, there wasn’t a single droplet. William realized his dilemma; no light, no droplets, no time travel backward or forward. His eyes closed, then his hands fell to his side and he dropped his head. With his head tilted down and his eyes still closed, his lips parted as he uttered the words, “Tomorrow I will be with my family or I will die.”
William did not sleep much. His cave was dry and he felt safe within in it, but all he could think about was getting back to his family. Daybreak could not come soon enough. Finally his heavy eyes overcame him and he reluctantly dozed off to sleep.
The sun was strong and the day was clear with very little wind. William still slept. But as the light in the cave grew stronger with the rising sun, William’s wake-up call came with the sun’s rays finding his face through the opening of the cave. William opened his eyes, then closed them again and turned away from the light. Then his mind caught up with him, and he realized that this morning was not a morning he should spend trying to prolong his sleep. He darted to his feet and turned to the direction of the cave opening and wandered out. As he stepped out, he shielded his eyes from the light and wiped his dry mouth.
After washing his face and drinking some water from the cool stream, he stood up and stared at the bridge ahead. William knew what he had to do now. There was no delaying the need to prove or disprove his theory. He could travel forward in time simply by heading in the direction of the future. William heard The Who in his mind, and as he walked he partially closed his eyes so that he could barely see shadows in front of him. The Who’s Baba O’Riley was one of William’s favorite Who songs. He had memorized the beat and the words and whenever he felt excited about a challenge, he would recall the memory of the song in his mind and hear it perfectly. This time the words to the song seemed so appropriate:
Out here in the fields
I fight for my meals
I get my back into my living
I don’t need to fight
To prove I’m right
I don’t need to be forgiven
Don’t cry
Don’t raise your eye
It’s only teenage wasteland
Sally, take my hand
Travel south crossland
Put out the fire
Don’t look past my shoulder
The exodus is here
The happy ones are near
Let’s get together
Before we get much older…
As William recalled the lyrics to Baba O’Riley, he smiled, thinking how appropriate the words of his favorite song were at that moment. He wondered if he was drawn to the song because he knew that someday it would be his guiding force.
“The exodus is here.” William had stopped walking and was voicing parts of the lyrics out loud. “The happy ones are near.” William started running and as he ran he screamed out: “Let’s get together, before we get much older.”
As William reached the underside of the bridge, he started to shake a little. Could this be it? Had he really solved this mystery? Could he travel forward in time? Was it this easy? For a second he felt apprehensive and wondered if he was being too gullible believing that he could actually travel in time forward and backward. But then after all he was there, deep in time, not in his own dimension. If he had traveled backward, and it happened, he told himself, then he could travel forward.
William made sure he was facing toward the future and started slowly walking toward the center of the underside of the bridge. He commenced turning his head upward to focus in on the water droplets that had been there each time with the exception of last night. The droplets were there. He could see them, many of them, and he felt the trance begin.
As William braced himself he was amazed how familiar this was becoming to him. In the few seconds he had, his mind started racing, thinking up all the sensations he had felt before when he had traveled in time. The places in time he had traveled to flashed in his mind. In the blink of an eye William saw the last place in time he had visited. The bullets flying over, around-and toward him! Horror crept over William’s body. He felt the force overcome his brain. He was losing consciousness. William started to resist. He let out a yell and tried to remove his stare from the underside of the bridge. Like pulling away from a very powerful magnet, William successfully pulled away and fell hard on the ground in front of him. His body slapped the ground hard. Fortunately he was able to place his arms and hands in front of him to stop his face from hitting the jagged rocks all around him.
William remained on the ground breathing heavily. He was thinking about the fact that he had just interrupted what he wanted most: to travel forward in time. He was convinced, however, that if he was successful in traveling forward and ended up exactly at the last place in time he had come from, he might quickly die of a bullet wound. For some reason William was convinced that traveling forward would place him precisely in step with where he had come from. Before he could return to Kate and his girls, William believed he would have to return to the point in time in which he had been in the midst of a battle in the Revolutionary War. He also wanted to return to his parents in the 19th Century to say good-bye before he could go home.
It all seemed so attainable, so easy. The gateway was above him. Why was he waiting? What could happen? He had come too far to be killed by a bullet. He had survived Matthew Bulow; he could survive this too, but how? William slowly got on his feet and shook the dust from his clothes. He grabbed his chin with his right hand and looked up again at the underside of the ceiling and saw the continuation of the falling drops. William quickly looked away. He wanted to keep his mind clear. He needed to calculate his next move carefully.
William was hesitant; he decided that it was best not to rush this next dive into time. William went back to the cave and sat for over an hour thinking about his predicament. He decided that he should eat and feel that he was absolutely certain of his next move. Another hour passed after his meager lunch of some berries he had gathered, William figured he had waited until two in the afternoon or so, it was now time to make a move. All at once William had a thought. He realized that if he could prepare himself for his anticipated predicament on the other side, he could survive to complete his journey.
William believed, from his limited experience, that when he traveled through time, any item that was on his body traveled with him. He calculated that his only choice was to prepare himself to be the target of a stray bullet at his next destination. All he had to do was to protect his body with makeshift armor. William had no trouble finding a large flat rock. There were many near the water. The rock he chose was large, about half the size of his chest. It was heavy, but he could hold it where he thought it would protect him without much effort.
Now it was time. William could walk toward the future and feel that if he faced danger, then at least he was prepared. The underside of the bridge was still releasing droplets. William stared upward, focusing as he walked with his body pointing straight ahead. As William became entranced, his body was no longer in his control. He started to relax. His arms began to drop. The rock began to drop. Finally the rock hit the ground, just missing William’s toes as it toppled forward away from his feet. William was not in control of his thoughts any longer. William’s body was visibly transparent. His head fell downward and followed the rest of his body. A waterfall hit the ground.