They drove along in silence for a while. She couldn’t help but notice how his eyes ate up the distant horizon. She knew Reno wasn’t seeing the present, he was looking for the past.
Meow. Meow.
“Uh, oh. Somebody’s awake.” He looked over his shoulder to see two pair of green eyes blinking up at him. “Come here, guys.”
“Are they boys?”
“Yep. I checked.”
“I’ve always had a hard time figuring out the sex of cats.”
As he brought them forward, he held one of the little guys up. “Unlike me, they’re equipment is a little shy.”
“No, you definitely don’t have a problem in that department.”
“Thank you, ma’am.” He turned Blackie around, so his tail was facing Journey. “FYI, as you say, to tell the sex of a kitten, you lift their tail. If the little genital opening is round, it’s a male. If it’s a vertical slit, it’s a female.”
“Good to know.”
“I’m glad I could teach you something. You’re always showing me up.”
“Oh, yea, right. Don’t you realize how fast you’ve picked up modern skills? I would introduce them to you one time and you’d just run with it. I’m sure I’ll be much slower to adjust to your world. For example, I’ve never used a rubboard or built a fire. I don’t have the best green thumb in the world and I’ve never made bread. Also, I can’t sew worth beans. Shall I go on?”
“No use. I had no idea you were so lacking in necessary skills.” He blew out a long breath. “Fortunately, you’re good in bed.”
“Ha!” Journey laughed and playfully slapped him on the knee. “You’re shameless.”
“I know.” He took another sip of coffee. “Let’s stop and get some milk for the kittens when you find a place.”
“All right, I’m feeling a little weak myself. I could only bring myself to eat one of those peanut and banana pancakes. They were just too rich.” She scanned the road ahead for a sign. “Help me look for a convenience store.”
“You know, I love that name. I’m going to suggest Mr. Scruggs change the Kingsland General Mercantile to the Kingsland Convenient Store.”
“I’m sure that will go over big.”
“Probably not.” He continued to gaze out the window thoughtfully. “If all goes well, I can see how a person in my situation could change the course of history in many ways greater than I’m planning.”
“I’m sure they could. At our fingertips, we have details on the rise of industries, the stock market, assassinations of leaders, wars – the possibilities are infinite. It’s scary.”
“Do you think it’s happened before?”
Feeling chilled, Journey aimed the A/C vent into the floorboard. “I don’t know. Since Lou started sharing her stories, I did a little digging myself. Of course, you can find anything on the internet. Before you rely on information, the sources need to be checked and rechecked.”
“What did you find?”
“Nothing useable.” She laughed softly. “One article did catch my attention. I think the title was Time-Traveling Celebrities. There was a long list of famous people, everybody from Nicholas Cage to Brad Pitt, and next to each name was a photograph of the movie star and another photograph from history. I have to admit, some of the resemblances were uncanny. More likely, some computer program was used to manipulate photos and the faces were morphed somehow.”
“What does morph mean?”
“Morph means…” She thought a second or two. “It’s weird how we use words with a vague idea of what they mean, but properly defining them is a challenge. Morph means to undergo some type of transformation. So, the computer program would take the two faces and overlay one on top of the other and manipulate the pixels…”
“Pixels? Stop. You are so over my head, I’m drowning. Gentry has a thick book, a dictionary, that contains every word in the English language.” He measured the thickness with his fingers. “Now, I bet that same book would have to be a foot thick to accommodate all the new words today.”
“You’re probably right.” She saw a sign for a store up ahead and noted the exit number. “I guess new words and terms are created often.”
“I don’t know what’s scarier, the idea of people traveling through time or not knowing if what you’re told is true or not.”
“You don’t know the half of it. They say history is written by the victor, and I guess that’s why books like the one in your lap are so controversial. And worse, there’s a thing called ‘deep fakes’ now. They can merge a video of two people talking, like the president and an actor who faintly resembles him, then have the actor say things the president would never say. By the time they’re through manipulating the original image, the viewer could see irrefutable evidence that their leader just declared nuclear war.”
Reno shifted in his seat, feeling uncomfortable. “If that’s true, it’s hard to believe anything, not even your own two eyes.” He wondered how much of what they were relying on was fact or fiction.
“Welcome to one of the most frustrating dilemmas of the modern age.”
After stopping for milk and snacks, they fed the kittens, then continued with their trip. Journey saw a couple of places she would’ve liked to stop and investigate, like Ruby Falls and Outlook Mountain, but she knew Reno was anxious to be on his way.
Once they were past Chattanooga, Reno pointed at a sign that said, Knoxville – 112 miles. “I used to would’ve said we had a long way to go, but speed has reduced the impact of distance, hasn’t it?”
“You’re right.” She glanced over at his lap full of sleeping kittens. “You’re becoming quite attached to those two, aren’t you?”
“Yea.” He grinned as one wiggled against him, stretching its arms over its head. “It’s going to be hard
