Borrowed Time

Chapter Three - Love of Steam

I learned how to farm. I had never fancied myself one to have my hands wrapped around a goat's udders drawing milk into a bucket, yet there I was. My mother would be appalled.

I could hear her voice in my head, "A proper lady does not do such work!"

My Uncle Nathan's wife did such work, and to me, my Aunt Grace was a proper lady. She appreciated my inventions and often praised me for them. There were times I felt that I had been born to the wrong sibling.

I had been with the Caledoni for a week, and was convinced that a proper lady does do such work, and art, and weaving, just like my Aunt Grace. They also enjoyed their lives, and loved their families with all of their being.

The men here were nothing like my father, they were open with the love they had for their wives and children. I felt a hint of jealousy as I would see fathers with their children, playing games and laughing. My father usually treated me like a trophy to show off that he was proper and had done his job for society. Married with a child, that, and nothing more.

Mother would be beside herself to know that in this mere week, I had enjoyed life more than I had in my nineteen years before. I felt like I belonged here with these people in this remote ancient village. My cousin Eustace's promise of sending me a copy of the New York Mirror containing Poe's poem The Raven wasn't enough to make me want to return to my world.

I had told Circinn how I had found my way to Caledonia, that I had unwittingly built a time machine. He believed me, claiming the Gods worked in ways that we mortals could not understand. He said it was fate that brought us together.

I didn't believe in fate or destiny. I believed that what ever happened to you in life was your own will and choice. I didn't make the choice to come here. It was a mere accident of a Rube Goldberg device experiment gone wrong.

Circinn and his adopted brother Aifric had promised me they would help me get my machine ready to return home, if I wished to leave. Truth be told, I wasn't in a hurry to leave my new found family. Besides the lack of technology, this was the life I had always thought I should have as a woman, equality and the freedom to speak when I felt like it.

Circinn didn't seem to be in a hurry for me to leave either. We spent a lot of time together in the morning before we joined the rest of the village for chores, and in the evenings after work was done. As we worked during the day, we were always in eye shot of each other. His smile made cleaning out animal pens a lot easier to handle.

I enjoyed spending time with the women and children, learning to weave, and listening to their stories. I was beginning to understand words of their language, and I had started to teach them English. Circinn was learning English quickly, but he had an advantage over the rest of the clan. He knew Latin, making it easier for he and I to communicate.

We made the three day trip back to the area my Rube had landed. My new found brothers and Circinn looked at it in fascination. I disassembled it, so we could carry it back to the village.

"Little sister, you will show me how it works, yes?" Aifric asked me.

He was one of the original men I had met when they had found me in the woods. He was charming, and the inspection he had given me on our first meeting was long forgotten. I had been teaching him English with Circinn's help, and he was learning it just as fast as Circinn had.

"Of course, I will show you, Aifric."

Aifric smiled and helped me load the pieces of the Rube into the sacks we had brought with us.

"I like the sound of this, umm... what you say? Steam technology?"

"Yes, steam technology; the most beautiful thing ever invented." I said.