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.”
“Meaning what?”
“Meaning that something happened. We’re clearly not in the 1990s, anymore,” she stated, trying to sound as if this were a situation she’d run into before. The truth was that her instincts were on red alert. And, as her grandmother had always told her, Susannah had always had excellent instincts. She and Kane weren’t dead. They weren’t hallucinating. She felt sure of that. Which left precious few alternatives.
Susannah paused, only now noticing a paper pasted to the lamppost Kane had walked into. Peering closer, she gasped as she read the date on the handbill advertising a circus coming to town. Her instincts had been right. “Look at this handbill!”
“Unless it’s got directions to the nearest hamburger I’m not interested,” Kane muttered, rubbing the goose egg quickly rising on his forehead.
Someone was approaching them on the sidewalk. A man wearing a hat, and using a cane. A bushy muttonchop beard covered a great deal of his face. His clothing was like something from a movie set—one of those period pieces the film critics liked so much.
Was the man able to see them? Susannah wondered. Hear them? There was only one way to find out. “Excuse me, sir,” she hesitantly asked. “Could you tell me the time, please?”
The gentleman gave her a leery look, which meant he could see her and hear her, as well. Thank heavens! Relieved that at least she and Kane weren’t invisible, Susannah released the breath she hadn’t even realized she’d been holding.
Pulling
