Chapter 29
It was early Monday morning, September 26th, 2016, and still dark outside.
Dalton was in bed. He just woke up. The door to his bedroom creaked open. He noticed.
In the darkness of his bedroom slipped in Chrissy through the creaking bedroom door.
She tiptoed across his floor to his bed.
The light from the full Moon gave Dalton a perfect view of her Chrissy wearing a white nightgown.
She smiled. She grabbed the covers and flipped them off Dalton's body. She got in bed and cuddled him.
"I've been thinking about you all night, Dalton," she said and planted a kiss on his lips with her erect nipples touching the bare skin of his chest. He was in heaven. It was a dream come true.
An annoying sound filled the room. Dalton tried to ignore that sound while she kissed him. That annoying sound wouldn't go away.
Dalton looked over at this bedside table. He looked back at Chrissy. She was gone. He looked back at that annoying invisible sound coming from his bedside table. You took her away! He cried out in his mind…
Dalton woke up. The morning daylight started to peek through the blinds of his bedroom window. He looked around. Chrissy was not there. She was in his room wearing a nightgown. It dawned on him that he had a dream. He closed his eyes and tried to go back to sleep and back to that dream. It didn't work.
"Darn," he said while he flipped the covers off his body and got out of bed.
He snuck into the living room.
He took a peek from around the wall and saw Chrissy still sound asleep on the couch.
He snuck away and went into the bathroom. He took a quick shower.
He walked out of the bathroom and heard some movement in the living room.
"Good morning. Are you decent?" he said while standing in the hallway so he couldn't see her in the living room.
"I am," she said. "If you're talking about me being dressed," she added with a chuckle.
Dalton went into the living room and saw Chrissy folding up the bed sheets and blanket. She was dressed in the same clothes she wore last night.
"Good morning."
"You can take a shower if you want. There's a fresh towel on the rack for you. It's blue," said Dalton.
"Thanks," she said and headed out of the living room and into the bathroom.
Dalton went into the kitchen and made a pot of coffee while Chrissy took a shower.
She was done with her shower and walked into the living room in a fresh pair of jeans and a western shirt. She packed them in her backpack.
"Coffee's ready," said Dalton while he got another coffee cup out of one of the cupboards.
"That would taste so good right now."
Dalton poured her a cup.
They walked back into the living room and sat on the couch.
"So, how should we plan our little vacation?" said Dalton then sipped his coffee.
Chrissy thought for a few seconds. "We'll need some clothes for that era. There must be websites out there that sell clothes that would be passable for eighteen eighty-eight," she said, then she sipped her coffee.
"We'll need money. There's probably coin shops in the area that sell silver dollars from around that time," Dalton said then took another sip of his coffee. "This vacation could cost us some serious cash."
Chrissy thought about that for a few seconds. "It could, but think about it. We'll be vacationing back in eighteen eighty-three. Back in the real old west."
"It would be worth it."
"It sure would," she said.
They remained quiet for a few minutes while they drank their morning coffee.
"Let's do some Internet searches," said Dalton after he finished his coffee.
"Okay," said Chrissy after she finished her coffee.
After putting their cups in the kitchen sink, they sat back down on the couch where Dalton had his laptop ready.
They found a website called the Historical Emporium that sold men's and women's old western-style clothes.
Chrissy looked over the website, and she ordered a Burgundy ladies Edwardian suit, black Victorian ankle boots, Victorian ladies Boater green and burgundy hat, and a black beaded Medallion purse.
Dalton also looked over the website, and he ordered a black cowboy hat, black vigilante vest, black Livingston brushed cotton trousers, burnt orange fundamental work shirt, black cowboys boots, and a gun belt and holster.
They paid extra for the UPS two day air so their clothes should arrive by Thursday.
They next conducted searches on coin shops located in the Phoenix area. They printed out a list, left his apartment, and headed off in his Civic.
First, they stopped for breakfast then headed off to visit the coin stores.
They took a break from shopping at the coin stores and had lunch. After lunch, they visited some more stores.
Three hours passed, and Dalton and Chrissy were back at his apartment. They each purchased ten Morgan silver dollars each after visiting all the coin stores in the Phoenix area.
While driving back to his apartment, they stopped off at a Subway restaurant and brought back dinner.
They ate their sandwiches while they watched the back to the Future III movie. Again.
Dalton thought of something ten minutes into the movie. "Horses."
"What about them?"
"We need horses. I don't want to hike all the way into Oak Creek on foot." "That would raise eyebrows."
She thought about what he said. "Good point. Have you ever been on a horse?"
"Yes, there's this place outside Phoenix that I often rented a horse for a little ride in the desert," said Dalton.
"Kent Moore's Desert Horse Ranch and Stables?" said Chrissy. "I've been there."
Dalton smiled at Chrissy. "Funny how we both went to the same place. Shame we didn't run across each other there."
"Yeah, it is funny."
"We'll have to go tomorrow and ride some horses for practice. Then inquire about renting for a longer ride," said Dalton.
"Sounds like a great idea," said Chrissy, then she paused for a second. "I wonder how much his rental fee would cost for one hundred and thirty-three years?" she said with a hint of a smile.
Dalton chuckled.
"So when should we leave?"
Dalton thought for a few seconds. "Our clothes should arrive here on Wednesday. So I'm thinking Thursday morning?"
"That sounds good to me."
They returned to watching Back to the Future III movie.
After they finished watching that movie, Dalton put in the Wyatt Earp movie starring Kevin Costner. Dalton even showed Chrissy his Colt 45 Peacemaker pistol.
"I'm taking it with me."
"Do you have any bullets?"
"No, I won't need any. It's just for show, so I'll blend in."
Dalton put his pistol down on the coffee table, and they returned to watching the movie.
Dalton got another idea ten minutes into the movie.
He glanced over at Chrissy. He had an idea. He chickened out.
He looked at the TV then back at Chrissy. Why not? He thought. "I was thinking."
"About what?"
"I was thinking," he said and paused and started to chicken out again. "I thought that it would be easier if you stayed here at my place. You know, with trying to plan our vacation and waiting on the clothes to arrive," he said, finally getting the guts but still cringed thinking he went too far.
"Actually, that's a great idea."
Dalton was jumping for joy inside but played it cool. "Great, we can go over to your place if you want to get some clothes."
"Sure."
Dalton and Chrissy got up. He turned off the DVD player and TV.
They left his apartment.
Forty minutes had passed, and they came back to his apartment. Chrissy had a suitcase with extra clothes, toiletry items, her cowboy, and pajamas.
Dalton felt like they were shacking up.
After a little freshening up, they sat on the couch and decided to watch the High Noon movie with Gary Cooper. And of course, they had to have some Oak Creek beer.
They were forty minutes into the movie. Chrissy nodded off and slumped over, and her head rested on Dalton's shoulder.
He glanced down at the top of her head. He loved the feeling but knew he should be a gentleman. "I better let you get some sleep," he said.
"Huh?" said Chrissy waking up. It took a few seconds for her to realize she dozed off.
"It's getting late, I'll go get your blanket and pillow," he said, getting off the couch.
Chrissy yawned while Dalton left the living room.
Dalton came back. "The bathroom is yours," he said when he returned with a bedsheet, blanket, and pillow.
Chrissy got up and headed to the bathroom. Dalton made her bed on the couch.
Twenty minutes had passed, and Dalton and Chrissy were sound asleep.
An hour had passed, and Dalton had a dream…
In his dream, he was an old western Town Marshal.
Inside the Marshal's Office, the three jail cells each had two outlaws inside, waiting for their trial first thing in the morning.
Marshal Trevor sat behind his desk in his chair. Cowboy boots kicked up on his desk. He drank his cup of piping hot coffee and felt proud of a good day's work of arresting the criminals.
The front door to his office slammed opened.
"Marshal, Marshal, the bank's being robbed! Bart Stone is back in town," yelled out an old man.
Marshal Trevor jumped up from his chair. He whipped out his Colt 45 Peacemaker pistol out of his holster. He twirled it around on his finger and dropped it back in its holster. "Time to do my job!" he said and strutted to the door.
Marshal Trevor was now outside on the dusty Main Street.
He strutted down the dirt. Town folk were on both sides of the street, clapping and cheering. It was almost like at ticker tape parade for a hero.
Marshal Trevor saw one of the clapping town folk. It was Chrissy. She blew him a kiss.
Marshal Trevor strutted farther down the street.
The door to the bank slammed opened.
The outlaw Bart Stone ran out of the bank. Pistol in his right hand and a cloth bag of stolen loot in his left hand.
"Stop right there, Bart Stone," yelled out Marshal Trevor while he stopped in the middle of the dirt street.
The outlaw didn't resemble the real Bart Stone but had the same name. But that outlaw stopped and faced Marshal Trevor. "You'll never stop me," said Bart Stone.
Marshal Trevor whipped out his Colt 45 Peacemaker. He twirled the pistol a few times with his fingers then fired off two shots.
Bart Stone's eyes widened in shock. He glanced down and saw two bloody holes in the middle of his chest. He dropped dead to the ground. Dead.
The town folk cheered and clapped louder.
Chrissy ran up to Trevor. She planted a kiss on his lips…
Back to reality, Trevor was asleep kissing the air. He woke up and was a little dazed. He realized he had a dream.
He got up, went into the bathroom, took a pee, then returned to bed. He was soon fast asleep.
In the living room, Chrissy was asleep. She started to dream…
In her dream, she was also in the old west.
She was in a church. She wore a beautiful white wedding dress while she walked down the aisle with an unknown man who might have been her father.
She saw a man in a suit standing next to a preacher at the altar. She didn't recognize this man.
The unknown man walked her to the man and preacher at the altar.
"Will you take this man as your husband?" said the preacher.
"Yes," said Chrissy.
The unknown man leaned in and kissed Chrissy.
Chrissy was now and old lady, with white hair in a bun, in her dream. She was sitting on a couch.
In a nearby chair was that unknown man she married. He was old, white hair, and a handlebar mustache.
Back in reality, Chrissy woke up. She glanced around for her old husband. All she saw was Dalton's TV. She then realized she had a dream. She closed her eyes and fell back asleep.
Tuesday morning arrived. It was September 27th, 2016.
Dalton and Chrissy ate a breakfast of Cocoa Krispies and two cups of coffee.
After their coffee, Dalton powered up his laptop and printed out some Google maps of the areas concentrating on Kent's Desert Horse Ranch and Stables and the Superstition Mountains.
They left his apartment and drove in his Civic to Kent's Desert Horse Ranch and Stables that was now owned by Kent Moore.
Dalton and Chrissy chatted a little, but it was mostly about their classes and other teaches at the university.
He parked his car at Kent's Desert Horse Ranch and Stables. They got out of his car.
Chrissy put on her brown cowboy hat.
Dalton glanced at her and liked what he saw. He still thought a girl looked hot when she wore a cowboy hat.
Meanwhile, John Mathers sat at his kitchen table drinking coffee. He was in deep thought, as he had something on his mind. There's been something that's been bugging him for a few days.
Angie walked into the kitchen, dressed for work. "When are you leaving for the university?" she said while she walked up to the coffee pot on the counter.
John didn't answer. He stayed in deep thought.
She poured a cup of coffee. "Something bugging you?" she said, noting his deep thought.
"Oh, yeah. There are these two students in my one class that are asking about the Kissing Bandit."
"That doesn't sound concerning," she said, taking a drink of coffee while walking over to the kitchen table.
"I know, but they were at the Police Museum and saw me with Clint. Then they mentioned how much I resemble the Kissing Bandit and how much Clint resembled Marshal Bartley."
"What did you say about that?"
"I mentioned that there are documented cases on the Internet, where people have resembled people of the past. Like for instance, Nicolas Cage resembled a Civil War soldier."
"I remember reading about that," said Angie and took another drink of her coffee.
"I hope they bought that story and stopped getting so inquisitive," he said then took a drink of his coffee.
"They should. I mean, that happened over one hundred and thirty-two years ago," she said and took another drink of her coffee. "You have nothing to worry about."
"I know, but I do if they find about Crazy Hole."
Angie thought about that for a few seconds. "Nobody had located it now. Plus with that cacti we planted ten years ago, there's no way someone can enter it."
"I guess you're right," said John, but he still had this nagging hunch that this wasn't over.
Angie and John remained quiet while they had their morning coffee.
After they were done with their coffee, Angie went off to work while John went to get dressed for another day of teaching.
Dalton and Chrissy had arrived at Kent's Desert Horse Ranch and Stables.
"I remember you two," said Kent the second he saw Dalton and Chrissy walking up to him at the stable. "But never recalled seeing you two here together."
"No, this would be the first," said Dalton.
"Good, now, how can I help you today?"
"We're looking to ride for about an hour today," said Dalton.
"And then we'll also need to rent horses later this week," said Chrissy. "We're going camping in various places, so we'll need them for a couple of days."
"Sounds good to me. We'll discuss that when you return," said Kent, as he didn't care as long as he was making some money. "Let's go get you saddled up," he said and motioned for them to come inside the stable.
Ten minutes had passed, and Dalton and Chrissy were each saddled up on a horse. They rode off out of the back gate and headed off into the mountains.
An hour into the ride into the desert toward the Superstition Mountains, they saw Miners Needle way off in the background.
"Looks perfect," said Chrissy.
"It does."
"Let's head back. This was a good practice."
Dalton nodded in agreement, and they turned their horses around and headed back to Kent's Desert Horse Ranch and Stables.
After they got back to the horse ranch and helped Kent put the horses back in their stalls, they headed off to his office.
While they were inside Kent's office and taking care of their bill, Dalton and Chrissy glanced up on the wall behind Kent. They saw a framed picture of Kent and Rusty.
"Who's this guy with you?" said Chrissy when she became curious for some unexplained reason.
"That's my older brother Rusty," said Kent glancing up at the picture. "He went off riding into the desert and disappeared about ten years ago just before they foreclosed on this place. I bought it for when he returned. But he didn't," he said, then looked sad. "I had him declared dead two years ago."
"Oh my, I'm sorry to hear about that," said Chrissy.
"Thanks. I was hoping to hear what happened to him, but haven't so far. So hopefully, one day, I will."
Dalton and Chrissy didn't think anything about what he said.
"Could we reserve two horses again on Thursday?" said Dalton. "And return on Sunday? We want to camp out in the desert for a few days."
"Have an old western adventure," added Chrissy.
"That's not a problem. What time would you like to get the horses on Thursday?" said Kent happy to rent his horses for three days since business had been a little slow this month.
"Uhh, how about nine in the morning?" said Dalton, then glancing over at Chrissy for her thought.
"Nine sounds good."
"Nine it is," said Kent while he wrote it down in his reservation book.
Dalton and Chrissy left Kent's office, got back in his Civic, and headed back to his apartment.
"Did you find that story about his brother Rusty being missing in the desert a little odd?" said Dalton while he pulled his Civic out of Kent's driveway and onto the road.
"Why is that odd?"
"I don't know, but I wonder if his brother found Crazy Hole ten years ago."
"I guess that could have happened."
"Yep, could have happened," said Dalton, and he was curious.
Dalton drove about a quarter of a mile, and he got curious. "I know where we can go next."
"Where?"
"You'll have to wait," he said.
Chrissy wondered what he was up to while he drove off down the street.
Twenty minutes had passed, and Dalton drove his Civic east on Route 88 or Apache Trail.
"Why are we way out here?" said Chrissy when she spotted Canyon Lake off to her left.
"Oak Creek was located somewhere around this area," he said.
Chrissy looked around. "It's so desolate out here."
"I know. Nice and quiet," said Dalton. "Peaceful."
Chrissy nodded in agreement.
Dalton turned into the Canyon Lake Marina and Campgrounds. "To think that we'll be here back in eighteen eighty-three," he said while he turned his Civic around in the campground parking lot.
"It's going to be so exciting," said Chrissy.
Dalton headed west on the Apache Trail and headed back to Phoenix.
When he arrived back to Dalton's apartment, his curiosity was still peaked about Rusty Moore. He grabbed his textbook from Professor Mather's class and flipped through the pages about the old west Marshals.
He finally stopped on the pages about the Marshal's of Mountain Rock. He scanned through the stories until a picture of one of the Marshal's was of interest.
Chrissy was in the kitchen, getting a drink of water.
"Chrissy, I found something of interest," he called out.
She walked out of the kitchen and over to the couch. She sat down next to Dalton.
"Look at this picture of Marshal Rusty Moore of Mountain Rock," he said, pointing at a picture in that book.
She looked at the picture then looked at Dalton. "Okay, it's a picture of Marshal Moore."
"He sure looked like Kent's brother," he said.
She looked at the picture again. "He sure does."
"Rusty Moore became the Town Marshal of Mountain Rock on September 24th, eighteen eighty-three after Marshal Jeb Paulson passed away in his sleep. Marshal Moore was Town Marshal of Mountain Rock until the town was abandoned in eighteen ninety-four. Marshal Moore moved to Tucson, where he became Police Chief of the Tucson Police Department until nineteen oh one. Marshal Moore died in his sleep in Tucson in nineteen fifteen," he read from the book.
"Maybe he did use Crazy Hole," said Chrissy.
"Would have to be before Professor Mathers and that Clint guy planted those cacti at the cave opening."
"Your friend did say they planted that cacti about ten years ago."
"That explains why Rusty went missing," said Dalton. "He went back in time."
"I wonder how many other people used that cave for a different life?"
"I guess we'll never know," said Dalton.
They thought about that for a few seconds until the hunger sounds of Dalton's tummy interrupted them.
"Food sounds good right now," said Chrissy.
Dalton thought for a few seconds. "I know the perfect place," he said.
They left his apartment and headed off to the Outlaw Steak House. This was the same restaurant John Mathers took Angie to eat when he was obsessed with being a famous old western outlaw. The restaurant hadn't changed much over the past ten years.
After a nice steak dinner, Dalton and Chrissy headed back to his apartment. They relaxed and watched the Crossfire Trail DVD with Tom Selleck.
After the movie was over, they went to their separate beds and fell asleep.
Wednesday morning arrived. It was September 28th, 2016.
This day was uneventful for Dalton and Chrissy except for the arrival of their western clothes that arrived via UPS.
They tried on their clothes and were now ready for their vacation. He even placed his Colt 45 Peacemaker in the new holster.
"We do look like we belong in the old west," said while he strutted around the room. "I could be an old western Marshal catching the bad guys," he said while he whipped out his pistol, twirled it around a few times, then shoved it back in the holster.
Chrissy chuckled, and she looked the part with that Victorian dress, boots, purse, and hat.
They took off their western attire and carefully packed them in their backpacks. Dalton packed his flashlight and