blue skies tamara allen

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.He turned to Winfield.“How?”“Purely by accident.” Thunder rumbled and Winfield flinched.His apprehensive glance strayed to the window.“If we remain in this room, I daresay there’ll be another.”Neil struggled stubbornly against worry burning caustic paths through his veins.“You mean—”“The storm may send us farther into the future.”Susan glanced heavenward.“The lightning?” she asked, at last sounding skeptical.The storm, as if affronted, brightened the room.A preserving dose of panic seemed a viable alternative after all, and Neil grabbed Susan’s hand and pulled her away from the doorway, Winfield close behind.They stumbled into a pitch-dark hall as the storm continued to crash around them.“Three days,” Susan whispered, with a frightened glance at Neil in the flashlight’s glow.“Can it be? What are we going to do?”“You’re assuming three days,” Neil said.“If it’s the lightning, that last bolt might’ve sent us off three years or three hundred.” He shrank from the thought.“I don’t believe so,” Winfield said.“There’s a sort of—feeling about it, when it happens.Didn’t you notice?”“I noticed.” Neil frowned.“It sounds strange, but the room was changing.Everything seemed newer.” A disturbing realization struck.“We went back—and came forward again.Without even paying for a round trip ticket,” he said with a shaky laugh.Susan slipped her hand into his.“We’re okay.We only lost three days.”Only three days.Funny, to find that a relief.The idea of time travel had intrigued him all through childhood.The reality was a little too—real.It had to be even more disturbing for the man huddled beside him.Wing collar, waistcoat, buttoned boots.Winfield was a walking anachronism, and one who couldn’t be left sitting alone to face his own upturned reality.“You’d better come with us.” At Susan’s startled glance, he plunged ahead, seeing little advantage in tiptoeing around the relevant issue.“Look, whether this is for real or we’re all just stuck in some bizarro dream, there’s no way in hell we can let Joe McGowan find out about it.He’s already doing his damnedest to own New York.If this is real, we’ll be handing him the opportunity to take over the whole world.”Susan aimed the flashlight at him.“My place or yours?”Neil shrugged.“I think our guest would like that million-year-old building you call home, but I’ve got more beds.”“I thought your roommates weren’t leaving till—”“June 27th?” Neil snorted.“If it’s the 29th, they’re gone.I just hope they haven’t reported me missing.”Susan’s eyes went wide.“Oh, damn.Amos—”“I wouldn’t worry about Amos.He’ll assume you were arrested.”She gave him a dark look.“See if you’re laughing when we make the headlines.”“Well, it’s not like we were abducted by UFOs.We just traveled in time.A little.”“I’m voting bizarro dream.Either way—” Susan blew out a breath.“Let’s get out of here.”Winfield stayed beside the hall door, plucking at a waistcoat button with restless fingers.“I can’t come with you.If what you’ve said about Joe McGowan is true.” As Neil drew near, Winfield stepped back into the room like a spirit compelled to haunt it.But the storm had quieted and any hope he had of catching the next lightning bolt back to his own time was, for the moment, over.“You can’t wait.You’ll be miserably hot, there’s nothing to eat, no place to sleep.” Neil settled a hand lightly on his shoulder.“Look, the minute the weather turns bad, we’ll hop in a cab and I’ll bring you right over.We can do it a lot faster these days.” He smiled encouragingly.“All right?”Susan’s flashlight beam moved inquisitively in their direction and Neil glimpsed weary blue eyes fringed with damp lashes.He eased an arm around Winfield’s shoulders and turned him toward the stairs.“I don’t live too far away.Midtown West—er, Hell’s Kitchen.”Winfield stopped short.“Really?”Neil heard the quiet horror in his voice and, glad for the darkness, let a smile loose.“It’s much nicer now.”With no cab in sight, they headed for the train station, Susan leading the way.Keeping Winfield safely sandwiched between them, Neil followed.Precious days lost and he was heading home to wilted plants, an empty refrigerator, a hot apartment—and the unexpected responsibility of a new roommate with no experience navigating modern Manhattan.It was amazing, unbelievable, and full of potential for utter, irreversible disaster.The next summer shower couldn’t come soon enough.Chapter TwoOn the ride to Neil’s apartment, Susan checked her voicemail, to find a message from Amos, encouraging her to take the rest of the week off.It was probably just as well, since she wasn’t too sure of the wisdom in leaving Robin to Neil’s care.His bossy streak wouldn’t do Robin any long-term harm, but his penchant for ice cream sandwiches and take-out pizza might not be the best thing for a digestive system used to something healthier.She dropped her phone into her carry-all and felt around in the bag for her change purse, only to come across the doorknob she’d picked up off the floor of the house; an old brass knob with an intricate floral pattern circling the rim.Neil, at the sight of it, rolled his eyes.“I think that junk drawer’s full.”“It’s not junk.” She’d never intended to take up her dad’s practice of rescuing bits and pieces of lost history.But even habits could be passed down, it seemed.“He would’ve liked it.” The ache was still there, heavy in her heart despite the passage of five years.Neil leaned against her, a counterbalance that eased away some of the cold weight, and she tried to smile.“Guess I broke the no-tears-on-the-train rule.I just miss him.”Neil’s smile wasn’t much better, though the wry gleam in his eyes prevailed.“I can drag you around on a ten-hour East Side tour, if you want.”She had to laugh.“Life was a treasure hunt, wasn’t it?”“Yeah, and New York was the treasure.” Neil sighed.“He should’ve put that on his business card.‘Stephen Lennox, explorer and proud collector of every last discarded scrap of Old Manhattan.’ And you’re just as bad.That old key he gave you, I know you’re still trying it in every lock.”Susan stuffed the doorknob back into her carry-all.“Not every lock.I gave that up a long time ago.”“Well, now you’ve got a key and a doorknob.All you need is a door.Preferably one that leads back to reality.” His glance slid toward the opposite seat, where he’d lodged Robin between a businessman typing away on a laptop and a gray-haired woman in a flowered sundress, placidly eating a donut out of an enormous box of them [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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