38
Paul had been spending time at the James Madison University library. His return to the Natural Bridge had not resulted in anything. He spent time at the Natural Bridge evaluating the droplets. He stood underneath them for many minutes trying to see something in them that would reveal a mystical secret explaining how William Monterey had disappeared. But nothing happened. Paul could not solve this mystery; he was stumped. He decided to spend his week researching the Natural Bridge, hoping to stumble onto something that would give him the clue he needed to help Kate Monterey bring her husband back.
Paul had grown close to Kate; he found her attractive and liked her sincerity. Helen had hinted on many occasions that she wanted to rekindle their brief romance, but Paul was not sure how he felt about Helen. She was attractive like her sister and had a beautiful smile, but Paul felt odd making a pass at her or asking her out on an actual date in the middle of this family tragedy.
Paul sat at a study table in the library; he had a mountain of history and geography books in front of him. Most were books with information about the Natural Bridge and some were books of ancient tribes and witchcraft. He had a notepad in front of him and made a number of notes but nothing concrete so far.
Helen was going to meet him shortly. She said she had something to do nearby and that it would be nice if they met for lunch. Despite his reservations, Paul was pleased Helen was taking the initiative to express her interest. The day before when they made plans to meet, Helen had taken the girls swimming and Paul had stopped by to let Kate know about his trip to the Natural Bridge that morning. Helen was wearing a two-piece swimsuit with a sheer wrap around her waist. Paul had a hard time not noticing how perfect her body was shaped. Perhaps he needed to see her like that more often.
Paul looked up from his reading every two minutes or so in the direction of the library’s main doors. Helen was just walking in when something in the book he was reading caught his attention. It was a black and white photograph of tourists under the Natural Bridge in 1922. Everybody was dressed in early 20th century attire; the ladies wore long dresses, couples walked arm-and-arm, and the men sported white straw hats like the kind they used in the political campaigns of the seventies.
“Good morning, Paul, are you ready for lunch? I’m starving!” Helen’s voice broke Paul’s concentration. Paul looked up to see Helen standing there looking better than ever. Her hair was made up and she was wearing the most amazing lip-luster he had ever seen on a woman’s lips. He closed the book he had in his hands and sprung to his feet.
“Hi Helen…” Helen had leaned forward to give Paul a friendly hug and Paul was receptive. He lightly held her extended right hand, put his left hand behind her back and kissed her on the cheek. “You look great today! And whatever perfume you’re wearing sure smells nice. I need a break. Let’s get some lunch.” Paul started to gather up the books he had in front of him.
“Find anything interesting?” Helen was looking at Paul with a coy smile.
“Well, nothing really that I can use. But I do know a lot more history about the Natural Bridge than I ever knew before. You know they mined saltpeter near the bridge and early American soldiers dropped hot lead bullets from the top of the bridge so they could solidify and cool down when they hit the shallow water at the bottom? Interesting! Oh, yeah, and this is also interesting.” Paul reached for the book he had closed and flipped through the pages to find the black and white photograph he had seen when Helen appeared. “It is the only black and white photo I have found where you can see people visiting the Natural Bridge. Want to see?” Paul slid the only open book in Helen’s direction. “And you know what is unique about this photograph?” Paul continued as if to take pride in his observational skills. Helen was looking at the photograph, glancing at the figures under the bridge and in particular the clothing the women wore.
“Look at all those women wearing those heavy full dresses. Judging from the parasols it sure looks like a warm day. Today I know I’d be out there in shorts and a tank top. But if any of those ladies had gone there dressed like that back then, I am sure they would have been arrested. We have come a long way! Thank God!” Helen pushed the book back in Paul’s direction.
“Did you notice the men are wearing the old flat straw hats?” Paul had picked up the book and held it open in front of him. “That is, all but these two men… here!” Paul’s tone changed on the word “here”. “Hold on, Helen. I need to have a closer look at this before we go. Can you pass me my notebook bag?” Helen looked down in the direction Paul had pointed to on the chair beside her. Paul grabbed the bag from Helen and opened a side pocket to extract a square handled magnifying glass.
“What do you see peculiar about the photo?” Helen had leaned over Paul’s shoulder to see through the magnifying glass.
“Oh my God!” Helen shrieked.
“You see it, too? That these two men are not wearing hats and they are concentrating on the underside of the bridge, just like William did?” Paul seemed to be pleased that she noted the same thing he did.
Helen’s face had changed its complexion; she was white and speechless. Paul looked at her to gauge her response to his question.
“Helen?” Paul now noticed that Helen was dumbfounded. “Are you okay? What’s wrong?”
“Let me see your magnifying glass.” Helen sat beside Paul with her left arm around his chair and with her right hand she held the magnifying glass over the image. “Oh… my… God!” Helen dropped the magnifying glass and placed her hand over her mouth. “I, I can’t really bring myself to say it!”
“Say what, Helen? C’mon, you’re killing me! What is it you see?” Paul reached over and put his left hand on Helen’s right wrist to pull it away from her mouth.
Helen pulled her hand toward the magnifying glass and with Paul’s hand still over her wrist she placed the magnifying glass once again slightly over the image of the two men in the photograph looking up to the underside of the bridge. One man’s face was clearly visible and the other had his back turned.
“You don’t know what William looks like, do you?”
“I can’t say that I have met him and for some reason I did not think to ask your sister to show me a photo of him. Anyway, no, I have no idea what he looks like.”
“Like this guy! He looks just like this guy! Actually if this photo was not taken in…” Helen moved the magnifying glass to the caption at the bottom. And in unison Paul removed his hand off her wrist. “1922!”
“1922!” Paul voiced in sync with Helen.
“Like I was saying, if this photo was not taken in 1922, I would have to say that this guy is William!” Helen had moved the magnifying glass over the side of the face of the man clearly visible. “I know this is not the best photograph, but I do know William’s face and profile and this man surely looks just like him. Amazingly so!” Helen turned the book more square to Paul and laid the magnifying glass over the image.
“Wow, that is amazing! Helen, what if I told you that this guy could be William? What would you say to that?”
“I would say that if that photo was taken in 1922 like it says in the caption, then you are crazy! William was born in 1972. If he was around in 1922, then he sure looked good for a one-hundred-year-old man when I saw him last! Paul, what do you mean it could be him? Are you serious? What makes you think this could be him? Boy, this keeps getting more and more interesting, am I glad I came over to stay with my sister for a while.”
“Helen, for some time now I have been thinking that the Natural Bridge has powers beyond our comprehension. We have to either totally believe your sister is nuts, or we have to find an explanation that would make sense. If William disappeared the way Kate says he did, then it could be possible that he found some type of time travel portal under the bridge and he was transported to another time. Ancient tribes believed time travel was possible. They often sacrificed newborn infants to the gods. By killing an infant they believed it was sent to a better time than their own. This was done primarily after prolonged droughts, floods or plagues. If times were bad for a tribe and if there seemed to be no end in sight, then they reached a point where the youngest child in the tribe, usually a male, was sacrificed in order to appease the gods. Oddly enough, they usually held off sacrificing a child until most disasters would have ended naturally anyway. The fact that the disaster usually ended within a short period of the sacrifice strengthened their belief that this was a good thing to do.”
Helen was listening to Paul and she wanted to show him how impressed she was with his vast knowledge of topics she had never heard about.
“Wow, you got to be kidding, you mean many children would have been killed in an attempt to send them to another time and place? Too wild! But how does that tie into William’s disappearance?”
“Well, I know William was not sacrificed. But if time travel was possible for persons who found themselves in a specific set of circumstances, then only that person at that time could fall through a hole in time. You see I feel there is something mystical at the Natural Bridge. I am not sure if I have my mother’s intuition, but I get vibes there that are real to me. I also think there could be a key in the water droplets that form on the underside of the bridge and drop to the ground.”
Paul paused for a second and looked at Helen to see if this was too much for her. “That is why it’s fascinating that the two men who look out of place in the picture are the same two who are studying the underside of the bridge. The fact that one of them may be William makes it more than fascinating. It’s amazing and may be our first real breakthrough to solving your brother-in-law’s disappearance.”
“Please go on, this is fascinating me!”
“Helen, I do think time travel is possible. I’ve always believed it was. This is the first time I’ve been close to an occurrence where it might have actually happened, and if I can prove it did happen to William, then the next thing for me to do is to figure a way to go after him and bring him back.”
“Go after him! Paul, you can’t be serious! Even if you prove that William has traveled in time… and let me qualify one thing: I am not sure I believe that right now. But the person in this photograph to me looks to be William Monterey one hundred percent. Having said that, I still find it hard to believe it is possible, but if it were why would you risk your life going somewhere you know nothing about and possibly somewhere you could not return from?”
Helen was quiet for a few seconds before she spoke again. And for some reason Paul was certain she was not finished speaking her mind or perhaps she needed to think a bit more about what she was saying.
“The last thing I want to do here is to appear to be insensitive to my sister’s loss. You know, if you can bring William back and if you truly believe chasing him through some dark tunnel will do it, then by all means go get him. But, Paul, if I lose you as well… Then what are my sister and I to do then?”
Paul was flattered to hear Helen speak that way about him. He looked at her and something came over him. He leaned forward and kissed Helen on the forehead ever so gently. “Thanks for making me feel wanted. I appreciate that very much. I promise not to do anything stupid. I wish I could say to you that I know how William traveled in time and that I could go after him and bring him back. Now that I know what he looks like, the best I can do is to keep looking for him in history. Let’s go have lunch!”