The Time Portal 2: Escape in Time (7 page)

Charlie was a friend so Lucky thought he had earned the right to know what he was searching for. As they walked through the trees and shrubbery, Lucky explained how Dirk had him set up to be killed and the full sequence of events leading up to his unusual gift.

Charlie listened attentively, cocked his head, and spouted off, “Now Lucky, I might be a rancher. I might not have the world’s greatest academic education but never take a rancher or a farmer for a fool. What the . . . ? Seeing things? Invisible doors? Lucky, I believe you when you say that that explosion hurt your head. I really do.”

Lucky just smiled and put his arm around Charlie and said, “Charlie, I know it’s hard to believe, what I’m telling you, but if I find it, what I’m looking for, then I’ll take you with me so you can experience it for yourself, and then you’ll understand that what I’ve told you is the God’s honest truth.”

Charlie looked at him, shook his head, and said, “Jesus, Lucky, I only met you a short while ago, but I took to you and I don’t do that with many people. I never had so much excitement at one time in my life as the times you’ve been here. Okay, sure. If you want me to believe you, then hell, I believe you mate. I trust you like you’re my own kin so yeah, I’ll play along. I believe you. Don’t worry, Lucky, I know that you’re telling me the truth, even if it’s the truth as you know it to be,” he said with a wink.

Lucky smiled and shook his head. How could he blame the guy? It was preposterous, the whole notion of “seeing” energy and walking through energy “doors.”

The men walked deeper into the woods as Lucky, slowly and methodically searched for a second portal. After hours of walking and talking, Lucky had had enough for the day. He told Charlie that he would like to return tomorrow and start fresh. Charlie agreed, stating, “Lucky, we can search as long as you want. To be honest, I’m right here in the woods where I was meant to be and having some company to tour the Outback with me is just fine, mate.”

The men turned and began their walk back to the truck. As they did, there was a movement, a lot of it, making noise, a lot of that, too. Lucky’s eyes opened wide and he froze into position. Charlie kept walking and as he did, it jumped out in front of him. Charlie turned to find Lucky with an odd look on his face and Charlie burst out laughing.

“What’s the matter, Lucky? You see portals, but you’ve never seen a skippy?” He bent over laughing. Lucky chimed in.

“Yeah, well, back where I’m from, we don’t normally have kangaroos hopping around in the woods!” he said as he, too, laughed. “I’ve been in some crazy positions, Charlie, but I just didn’t expect that out here, in all this peace and quiet.”

“Lucky,” Charlie said. “You’d have thought you’d seen Bunyip.” And he howled some more.

“Bunyip?”

“Yeah, mate. Look it up some time. Mystical Aboriginal creature. He lurks here in the Outback.” And he laughed again.

“Very funny, Charlie. Very funny,” Lucky said as he walked toward him.

The men walked around the outer ring of the woods, along the river toward the truck and as they rounded a path, there it was. The portal was right between two trees adjacent to the river. Lucky put out his both arms, signaling Charlie to stop, and said a little louder than he had intended, “I found it.”

Chapter Seven

Charlie held on for dear life as he gripped his fingers around Lucky’s belt inside the portal. When they reached the end, they looked out at the scene before them – a small stone bridge with two arches supporting it, suspended over a small, almost dry, river leading up to a picturesque little village. Lucky checked to see if anyone was around and gave the all-clear for Charlie, still holding his belt, to step outside.

“Where are we going?” Charlie asked.

“Let’s just walk in the direction of the bridge and see where it takes us,” Lucky answered.

“Hey, Lucky,” Charlie said.

“Yeah?”

“Remind me to never, ever question you, mate, for the rest of my life. Matter of fact, you have my word. This is surreal.”

“Yeah, well, I can’t say I blame you, Charlie,” Lucky said as he let out a small laugh.

Lucky and Charlie walked until they crossed the bridge. Off to the left and a little in the distance, they could see the hub of a town so they headed in that direction. As they entered the village, they passed a building on the right that had the number 1803 in large letters over the entrance of a building called the Beddgelert Hotel. Only later would the men learn that the name was eventually changed to the Royal Goat Hotel and that part of the village between the Royal Goat Hotel and the church was mainly built in the 1900s. Even though the area of Bwthyn Llewellyn dated back to the late 1500s and Church Street to the early 1800s, there were no traces of them as the buddies walked through the town. As they walked, Lucky kept looking for any other portals along the way. They passed through the village and walked south following the footpath along the banks of the Glaslyn leading to Beddgelert's most famous historical feature, Gelert's Grave, the final resting place of Prince Llewelyn's faithful hound. They stood for a moment taking in the story as written on the tombstone:
 

"
In the 13th Century Llewelyn, prince of North Wales, had a palace at Beddgelert. One day he went hunting without Gelert, ‘The Faithful Hound’, who was unaccountably absent.

On Llewelyn's return the truant, stained and smeared with blood, joyfully sprang to meet his master. The prince alarmed hastened to find his son, and saw the infant's cot empty, the bedclothes and floor covered with blood.

The frantic father plunged his sword into the hound's side, thinking it had killed his heir. The dog's dying yell was answered by a child's cry. Llewelyn searched and discovered his boy unharmed, but nearby lay the body of a mighty wolf, which Gelert had slain.
The prince filled with remorse is said never to have smiled again. He buried Gelert here".

It was a sad story and one that was legendary, yet no one knew for sure if it was true or pure folklore.

Charlie and Lucky headed back toward the portal. Charlie was now a believer. What he had just experienced was nothing short of amazing – Wales in the 1800’s, and this for a guy who had never left Alice Springs, Australia. On the drive back to his ranch, Charlie was mostly quiet, still trying to absorb what had happened and Lucky became pensive, trying to decide how best to tackle his next feat – that of securing a location for the professor’s creation – his spaceship invention. Charlie had a lot of idle land, so now was as good a time as any. That was the real purpose of the trip anyway.

“Charlie,” Lucky said, breaking the silence, “I need a large area, a few acres of property, quiet, remote. I need to rent it for a while as we work on a project. Needs to be enclosed and private.”

Charlie looked up with his eyebrow arched a bit, and said, “Hold on now, Lucky. What the heck are you up to? Nothing funny going on here, is it? Nothing . . .
illegal
?”

“No, no, Charlie, nothing like that. Oh no, what from CIA to what, meth manufacturer? No, no, I give you my word that it isn’t anything at all like that.” He laughed. “But I take no offense at the question.”

“Well, then, let’s see what we can do,” Charlie said.

“Tell ya what,” Lucky added. “If you build another barn somewhere on your property, not only will I pay for it, but I’ll also pay you to allow me to rent the property while we work on this project of ours.”

“Dang, Lucky, that’s a pretty good deal. I’ll have a construction crew over tomorrow afternoon.”

Lucky went on to explain how that when they left, Charlie would then have the barn to expand his ranch, add more horses, have a bigger space for dairy cows; whatever he chose. Both men agreed – it was a win/win all the way around. Lindstrom could live and work there in total privacy and Charlie would inherit a great real estate addition to his land.

The following morning, Lucky could smell the coffee and bacon as he came down the stairs. Charlie was busy on the phone lining up construction crews and ordering materials for delivery later in the day. That afternoon, just before three p.m., two large flatbed tractors arrived, carrying a heavy load of lumber and most of the other materials needed to build the barn. At seven the next morning, the work crew arrived. After eating a quick breakfast, compliments of Charlie, they left and joined their foreman who was standing at a picnic table, in front of where the barn would be built, with the plans spread out, the table brought there for that purpose alone. It would serve as the foreman’s table of “operations.” The foreman glanced once again at the blueprints and gave instructions to each man who quickly set about assuming his role in the building of the new structure.

The new barn would be built farther down from the existing barn, left of the ranch house. To the right of the present standing barn was a horse stable and, next to that, a corral. Beyond the corral, the new structure would stand, with ample space to expand to the left into the vacant property on that side. The house itself was rather spacious, with a six car, covered garage extending out from the right side, but built so that it had continuity with the building. Behind the home was a large parking area with a covered walkway leading to the rear entrance door and eight foot patio. Charlie’s ranch was beautiful, but quite run down and in dire need of repair. As a bachelor living in the Outback, receiving few visitors, Charlie saw no need to borrow money for repairs. Lucky had just solved that issue by investing in its upkeep with a new barn, even adding guest cottages in the back so Charlie could expand his business by making it a dude ranch and taking in tourists.

The ranch and its other outer buildings were repaired, re-shingled, and re-painted. Sam scoured countless architectural magazines and settled on a western style for the cottages, complimenting the main house. Charlie was excited with the progress and the look. Lucky was fascinated watching the orchestrated movements of the workers. It was as if they were communicating telepathically. Each man knew his job and went about it efficiently. Why, even the rest of Lucky’s gang got in on the action. It wasn’t long before Nicky Bell, Mickey, and Dukie were out there, swinging hammers and helping out when needed. Every evening was special with a winding down celebration of wine, beer, whiskey and even jugs of Charlie’s homemade moonshine. The construction crew actually enjoyed coming to work because of Charlie’s hospitality. There was always food, drink, and song.

The massive construction crew worked fast and the new barn was completed in a week. Happily, the professor, along with his plans and all the necessary work tools, moved into the sprawling barn area.

Early every morning, Dukie took his daily ten-mile run. Lucky had always hoped that he would take boxing more seriously, but he never did. He was a talented fighter, but only fought when the spirit moved him. As for Mickey, construction was in his blood. He was a gifted builder in his own right. He loved working with brick and masonry and added his personal touches along the way such as a set of brick lampposts down the road, at the entrance to the ranch, and placed an oval, wrought iron arch over the two posts with the words “Charlie Hodge Ranch” in large, artistically scrolled letters. Mickey ran electricity into the center of the brickwork and put large globes on the top of each post. Each line of bricks was perfectly level. He placed steel rebar into the center of the posts and poured concrete between the bricks. These two posts would remain long after the ranch was gone.

Lucky instructed the professor not to discuss his little project with any of the workers and he agreed. This was too sensitive a matter, way too important to too many people. No, loose lips could jeopardize not only the project, but lives as well. Lindstrom had no intention of letting anyone know what he was building.

Charlie had over seven hundred acres.

“Charlie,” Lucky asked, “do you use all of this acreage?”

“No, Lucky. I have a lot of idle land.”

“Well, how would you feel about a runway being built here? It would make it easy for me to get my plane in and out and with the ranch cottages and turning this into a moneymaker, your guests could land their private planes right here. That would make this place really special – a dude ranch, in the Outback, with its own runway.”

“Dang, mate, what’s all this gonna cost me, Lucky? Why the interest in my property?”

“I just like it here, Charlie, and this is a great retreat for me. The professor can work on his inventions, I can get away from it all, and this place brings me back to where I need to be sometimes. So easy to forget what matters sometimes, ya know?”

“Well, if that’s how you feel,” Charlie answered. “Then, crikey, mate, that would be nice. I don’t know how I can every repay you. You’ve done so much.”

“No need for repaying. Just letting us be here is enough. Let me give the runway a little more thought,” Lucky said.

Earlier in the week, Charlie had taken Lucky to his bank where Lucky had cashed a check and asked for all Australian one-hundred-dollar bills. When the construction foreman arrived for his payment the following morning after the final nail had been hammered the night before, so to speak, Lucky paid him the entire amount in cash and he asked the boss if he could see the workers together, including the foreman, one more time.

“I’d like to say ‘thank you.’ You and your team did a great job.”

The foreman, a little stunned by the sizable amount of cash just handed to him, was quick to respond.

“Sure thing, mate. I’ll contact each of them this morning and have ‘em show up later in the day right before headin’ home from their other jobs today.”

True to his word, the men trickled in one or two at a time at the end of their workday and Lucky asked if they could remain until the majority of their co-workers arrived. Lucky then gathered them all together and thanked them for their diligence with this project and their efficiency in completing the project within such an impressive time frame.