Read Online Walk with Me Through Time (The Dimension Keepers) by Jennifer Conner - Free Book Online

Chapter 1

    Hadley Easton took the watch from his pocket and flipped it open to check the time. He wasn’t sure why— the hands never moved. Time seemed to flow everywhere except inside the portal where the bookstore stood. Here, time felt suspended.
    To protect the writing desk, he sat with his boots perched on the leather blotter and sighed as he bounced a rubber band ball off a stack of books. There was usually more traffic. He grabbed the ball and swung his feet down just as Irvin Fink, the middle-aged man he’d been waiting for, stumbled into the back of the bookstore.
    Irvin looked dreadful, like he would drop at any moment. Perspiration ran in rivulets down the sides of his cheeks.
    “Good God, sir, here take a seat.” Hadley scooted a wooden stool over and guided the man to sit.
    “Am I really here? Who are you?”
    “I’m Hadley, I’m your…” he paused for a second, “guide.” Better to leave it simple. He could never tell anyone what his job truly was, since he wasn’t sure himself.
    Dimension Keeper? Time-Watcher? Space Guidance Counsellor?
    Irvin reached in his coat and wiped the sweat from his brow with a linen handkerchief. “I kept seeing this place in my dreams.” He looked up with desperation on his face.
    Hadley took a seat in front of him and tried to assure Irvin. “You are heading to where you should be.”
    “I don’t understand. I came in…” Irvin looked over his shoulder. “I’m not sure how I got back here. I came in the front door of a bookstore.”
    “You did, people come in by what appears to be the front door, but this is a special place. Arrivals are in the back. Departures are at the front door. The front is for people such as yourself who may not find themselves in the time they should be, living in a different century.”
    “Is this a trick? Magic of some kind?”
    Hadley shook his head. “This place and many others are portals, sprinkled throughout the centuries. You were somehow born into the wrong time. I wager you spent much of your life confused and depressed. My guess is you dreamed of your time for many years.”
    Irvin’s eyes widened. “How did you know?”
    “No one is sure why, but as if guided by a beacon you knew you must come here.”
    “Young man, if you know so much, tell me… what is my time?”
    “I think you know better than I.” Hadley picked up the packet lying on the desk. “According to your paperwork, you should live in 1429, during the Italian Renaissance. You are noted as having a deep influence in the development of their new government, along with growth in psychology, sociology and art.”
    Irvin stared at him with a look of disbelief. “I… no one knows about this… not even my late wife. I never mentioned the dreams, they would think me mad. Since I was a child, I’ve dreamed that I lived in Italy… or should live there.”
    “You know you must move on, and I am here to guide you home.”
    “Home,” Irvin repeated and stood on shaky legs.
    “I assume you speak Italian?”
    The man nodded. “I’m not sure how, but I do. I took lessons, but I seemed to already have had a grasp on the language.”
    “Good.” He smiled. “Then we should go.” Hadley ushered him toward the front exit.
    How many people had he guided in the months since he started? When would he have the chance to experience the rest of the world like the people he assisted? Soon, when he fulfilled his necessary commitments, he would leave here. He would go home for a visit and then be off to visit Roman ruins and the pyramids of Egypt. In his own time and not someone else’s.
    Hadley opened the heavy door and watched Irvin’s eyes widen. Tall spires of churches dotted the landscape of fifteen-century Italy. He took Irvin’s elbow and led him out the door.
    Instantly, a flood of people filled the streets walking through his apparition. In this time frame, he didn’t exist. He was Irvin’s guide, but to the people around them, Hadley was invisible. A