Journey giggled. “No, I have some bottled water in the refrigerator.” As she stepped into the kitchen, she flipped on the light.
“What’s a refrigerator?” he asked as the two dogs came bounding up, barking their heads off.
“Hey, guys. It’s okay. This is a nice man,” she muttered as she turned to face him.
And when she did – the world stopped turning and the ground moved beneath her feet, then everything went dark.
Journey fainted, dead away.
“Whoa. Whoa.” Reno caught the girl just before she hit the floor, ignoring the two strange looking pups. “Easy, fellows. I’m harmless. I know I must look affright. I think I scared this poor girl to death.” Truly, this wasn’t the way he normally affected the opposite sex. Shifting her in his arms, he looked around for some place to lie her down. As he did, he took in his surroundings for the first time. “What in the world?” There were things in this room that he’d never seen before. Light poured from some type of chandelier overhead, but there were no candles, no kerosene, or whale oil that he could see. King bought Fancy a newfangled stove and had it shipped all the way from St. Louis, but the one he was looking at now was far stranger. And there were dozens of other items around him that he couldn’t identify at all.
In his perusal, he spotted a sofa in the adjoining room. Moving carefully by the barking dogs, he carried the woman over and placed her gently on the cushions. Despite his confusion, he couldn’t help but notice her beauty. All that lovely dark hair. Plump pink lips. His eyes began to rove down her body, but he stopped himself. After barely escaping those two miscreants, she deserved respect. The least he could do was be a gentleman.
Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, Reno forced himself to move away from her to find water. Walking by the stove, he ran his hand over the cool surface. Metal of some kind. He continued on, noting the counters were made of stone. On the counters were all manners of…containers with lids and raised places with words on them. One tall apparatus had several words, LOW, HIGH, and OFF. He pressed the HIGH word and an awful ripping noise erupted from it. “What in God’s name?” Jumping back, Reno thought he was being attacked. When nothing more happened but the infernal grinding noise, he pressed the OFF button and the racket ceased. The sudden quiet was disconcerting. Reno chuckled. “At least it scared off those yapping little dogs.” He noticed there were two or three other shiny outfits sitting around, but he chose not to mess with them.
Next, he came to a double basin built into the counter with what looked to be a water pump curved over them. With one finger, he lifted the pump handle and smiled when water poured out and down the drain. “Ha! Eureka! I didn’t even have to prime it.” He dabbled his hand in the stream and lifted his fingers to his lips. Cool clear water. Inside one of the basins was a glass. He picked it up and filled it, then pushed the pump handle down. When the water ceased to flow, he smiled, pleased with his accomplishment.
A soft moan from the woman sent him hurrying over. Along the way, he sloshed a bit of water on the tiled floor. “Dang,” he muttered. Kneeling next to her, he ran an arm under her shoulders to lift her head, holding the glass to her lips. “Drink, ma’am.”
Without opening her eyes, she did so. “Thanks.” After taking a deep, steadying breath Journey looked the man straight in the face and her heart almost stopped. “You.” she breathed softly, her hand coming up to touch his cheek. “How?” Amazement and unbridled joy bubbled up inside of her as she looked into a face as familiar to Journey as her own. Sitting up, she covered her eyes, then bowed to lay her head on her knees. “This can’t be real. I’m dead, aren’t I? Or dreaming?” She pinched her leg hard.
“Ow.” Reno was the one who yelped at the sight. “Don’t do that!” He took her hand and held it. “Things are a little strange, I’ll admit. I find I’m not familiar with some of the contraptions in this house.” He held out the glass. “More water?”