Cathie Linz - A Wife In Time

“After you,” he said with a mocking bow that almost cut off his circulation at his Adam’s apple. The damn collar would be the death of him yet.

“I don’t know about you, but I’ve had enough of this fancy-dress stuff,” he announced as they stepped outside. “I’m heading for the closest fast-food joint and grabbing a thick cheeseburger with everything on it.” And after that, Kane planned on calling his brother.

Moving forward, he bumped into Susannah as she halted on the steps in front of him.

“Something’s not right,” Susannah murmured. Looking around, she searched for the cause of her uneasiness. She’d always been a great believer in trusting her instincts. Some people called it jumping to conclusions. Her grandmother claimed it was a touch of second sight. Whatever you called it, Susannah trusted the feeling.

The house faced a small park, one of many in this part of the city. The street had been lined with parked cars when they’d arrived. Now there were none. No cars anywhere—none parked, moving, nothing. “The cars are gone,” she noted aloud.

Kane looked around. “What cars? I came by bus.”

“There were cars parked all along the park across the street. Now they’re gone.”

“Probably only allowed to park there during the day,” he logically explained.

She shook her head. “Something just doesn’t feel right. There isn’t any traffic, either.”

“You’ve got an overactive imagination, do you know that?”

To which she replied, “I didn’t imagine that blue light upstairs. The one on the third floor. Surely you saw it, too?”

Kane didn’t answer as a couple walked by on the sidewalk. They were wearing costumes similar to those worn at the party and he was preparing to move aside to let them enter the house—when they walked past and entered a home a few doors down.

Susannah saw the couple, too, and the house they entered: a building she could have sworn was boarded up and empty when they’d arrived earlier that evening. “I’m telling you, I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” she murmured.

“So you’ve got a bad feeling,” Kane retorted. “Probably caused by that crab dip at the party.”

“Very funny. Don’t tell me you don’t feel it, too.”

“I don’t eat crab dip.”

“I’m serious. Didn’t you see that couple walk into that house?” she demanded.

“Sure, I did.” Kane shrugged. “So what?”

“They were dressed—”

“In the same kind of stupid clothes we are,” he interrupted her. “Which means that there must be several houses being used for costume parties tonight. The publishing convention is huge. There must be plenty of these fancy shindigs being put on.”

“Perhaps, but I could have sworn that that building was boarded up when we got here earlier this evening. And how do you explain that blue light, that specter thing we saw up on the third floor?”

“Holograms,” Kane instantly replied. “It’s being done all the time. Haven’t you ever been to Disney World?”

Susannah didn’t buy his explanation for one minute. “I sincerely doubt that a historical house like this would be able to invest the money required for that kind of special effects— Wait a second! Look at the lights—”

“I told you it was a hologram,” he interrupted her again.

“I mean the streetlights,” she continued in a shaken voice. “They’re not electric.”

“Of course, they’re not. This is a historic district.”

Looking around, Susannah murmured, “There are no telephone lines, either.”

“They’re mostly underground these days.”

“Not everywhere. I’m telling you, there were telephone lines here when we arrived tonight. I distinctly remember them ruining the view.”

Just then, a horse and buggy went by.

Anticipating what she was going to say, Kane explained, “For the tourists.”

Another buggy went by, and then several men on horseback. Still no sign of a car, or truck or bus. Seeing Susannah’s expression, he said, “Okay, I admit this is starting to look a little strange. They’re certainly taking this period thing to extremes. Reminds me of Williamsburg. They take this re-creation thing to extremes there, too.”

“But we’re not in a historic village here. We’re in the middle of downtown Savannah.”

“Which has a fast-food place right around the corner and a burger with my name on it,” Kane declared with a sense of anticipation.

“I’ll join you,” Susannah hurriedly said.

“I didn’t ask you to join me.”

“It’s still a free country,” she defensively countered, determined to keep him by her side—which only went to show how uneasy she was feeling. Normally, Kane Wilder would be the last man she’d want to spend any additional time with. But then, nothing about their surroundings felt normal . Even the street pavement seemed different.

No more words were spoken as they briskly walked the short distance, Susannah trying to keep up despite the hindrance of her long skirt. Concentrating on holding up her hem in order not to have it drag on the ground, she almost rammed into Kane, who was standing frozen in the middle of the sidewalk. The man was solidly built, she hazily noted, especially for someone who was said to be a computer whiz kid. But then, as she’d told Roy from Marketing, Kane Wilder was no kid. He was too good-looking for his own good and he was wearing an all-too-familiar frown on his face. “It was right here,” he muttered, “and now it’s gone.” Turning to glare at her, he demanded, “What is this?”

“I don’t know,” she replied, trying not to panic. “I told you I had a bad feeling about this.”

“I must have gotten my directions turned around,” Kane muttered. “Maybe the burger place was this way.” Pivoting on his heel, he turned right and headed down the street only to find that there was nothing but houses in what should have been a commercial business area.

Frowning, Kane gave Susannah a look that clearly stated he held her responsible for this situation. “What’s going on here? Did you slip something into my drink? Either that or the punch I drank was a hell of a lot stronger than I thought,” he noted in an undertone as yet another buggy passed them by. “I must be either drunk or hallucinating.”

“ I had nothing to drink at the party at all. And it’s highly unlikely we’d both be having the same hallucination,” Susannah observed, trying to be logical about things. It was the only way she could cope with their present circumstances—to take the situation bit by bit. Not to look at the large picture. Not yet.

“Then I must be dreaming,” Kane muttered. “That or I’m dead.”

“How do you figure that?” she demanded, chilled by his comment.

But he wasn’t listening to her anymore. “There’s only one way to find out.”

To her amazement he marched off, straight toward—

“Watch out!” Susannah shouted.

Kane ignored her warning...and walked smack into one of the metal streetlamp posts.

Picking up her skirts, Susannah rushed to his side as he stood swaying slightly.

“That was a stupid thing to do!” she told him. “What were you thinking of?”

“Hypothesis.”

She looked at him as if he’d scrambled his brain.

“I figured if I was dreaming, walking into the lamppost would wake me up,” Kane said, his voice brusque. “And if I was dead—”

“We’re not dead and we’re not dreaming,” she interrupted him.

“Fine, Einstein, then what are we doing?”

“I’m not positive,” she noted in a soft voice, as if speaking too loudly might cause them even further trouble. “But I think Einstein had a theory about this—the relativity of time.”