OverTime 03: Slipping (First 70 Chapters)

Chapter 49: Asylum (Lillabit)

"That you did."

At least that explained why I'd grabbed the mirror. Sleep logic isn't the same as awake logic.

I felt marginally relieved, but equally disappointed. I missed Maddie. I missed all of them. How cruel was it, that the only time-traveler left was the one who was probably coming to kill me?

Jacob finally spoke to me, again. "Ain't no ghosts. Ain't from the future. Need you right-minded."

I had to remind myself that I'd given him permission to not believe me about the time traveling. It still hurt, just a little. "I am right-minded," I insisted.

He said, "Good."

He even kissed me on the cheek!

But I wasn't completely sure he believed in my sanity, either.

I pointed this out to Benj that afternoon, while I sat snuggling with Sundae. Have you ever hugged a cow? You really should give it a try. She wouldn't lie down on command, but if she did happen to settle for awhile, during the day, I would sometimes get down on the ground with her. This proved much easier in boy-clothes. Often I would wrap my arms around her neck and pet her slab shoulders and scruffle behind her fuzzy ears. She would rest her brown-and-white head on my chest, and I would tell her all my troubles while she sighed her bovine contentment. At other times, like if I was enjoying a good book, I would use Sundae as a backrest as I sat and read, and she napped and snacked.

Reminder: Not only did I have no female friends in 1878. I had no pets. At one point in my walking, I'd even came across a nest of baby skunks, and they looked so much like kittens that, despite all logic, I'd been very tempted to try adopting one. Instead, I counted myself lucky not to have gotten sprayed, and I made do with my horses and my cow.

See? As I reminded Benj, I really was still sane.

"He knows you are of sound mind," agreed my friend, balancing in that cowboy crouch he and the others found so comfortable, and which I could never manage for more than a few minutes, tops. "I doubt I ever seen Jacob admire a gal so much as he admires you."

Really? I definitely liked hearing that. I even believed him.

Jacob had held me on his lap, and rubbed my feet!

And yet... "Well he sure seemed touchy about--" The ghost. "My dream, and the sleep-walking," I edited.

That didn't feel quite right, either.

Benj reached out and scratched the bridge of Sundae's broad nose, between her huge, long-lashed eyes. "I reckon you should talk to him about the first Mrs. Jacob Garrison."

I said, "Hah." Because I doubted Jacob would ever talk to me about his first wife. "I can hardly get him to talk to me about me. If there's something about Lisle that I need to know, you should probably tell me."

Benj spread his hands, to indicate his helplessness to do such a thing. But he still looked troubled.

Speaking of helplessness and trouble, I asked, "Has there been any sign of Slade Callahan following us?"

Benj said, "Mrs. Lisle Garrison... she struggled some, after the babies."

Wait. I was pretty clear that Jacob only had one child, not counting the little Jacob Jr. I was busy growing inside me. I had one stepchild. At Benj's use of the plural, I sat up from my cow. "Babies?" I knew what that had to mean. "Lisle and Jacob lost a baby?"

Benj worked his cheek. "I ought not to be tellin' you this."

And yet he was. My hand slid protectively over my abdomen, through the rough, brown boy pants I wore. "When?"