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  As the blue glow around Stonehenge subsided, I knew that a doorway of sorts was closing. I had a feeling I was probably going to be here for a while. It was early nighttime, and off in the distance, I could see smoke coming from fires. Depending on where and when you are, it may be a good or a bad thing. I figured I would wait until it got a little lighter before I started trying to find out where I was. But it was October in England, and I wasn't wearing any clothes, so it was a little hard to sleep at that point. That was not a problem because I wasn't going to be getting much sleep anyway. The smoke was now turned into a flame as I saw a torch come over the hill. Being that I seemed to have limited options, I decided to be resigned to my fate that something worse might happen to me. Things may or may not get any better by just staying where I was. So, I watched as the torchlight grew brighter and brighter until it was standing right in front of me. There stood three people clothed in primitive clothing.

  I quickly learned English is not as universal as you might think. Or at least it wasn't what they spoke in England 4000 years ago. I think there were just a handful of words I even remotely understood initially. The villagers had come to see what was happening with the blue glow. For the moment it appeared that I was amongst friends. At least that I wasn't going to be killed right away. They were not treating me as a prisoner and seem to be interested in my wounds. It was two men and a woman who I came to know as Toth, Key, and Mira. They helped me to my feet and took me back to their village. They brought me to a small hut on the outskirts, which was Mira's. She was some sort of a healer or a medicine woman. I later learned that her husband had died earlier in the spring. I think the others thought I could take his place if I survived my injury.

  I think Mira's husband died from appendicitis, but who's to know? Mira pointed to my scar when I tried to ask her about her husband. They provided me with some food, clothing, and they were able to put a splint on my leg. I helped them with this. In most cases, when this happened, they would just leave the person to die or fend for themselves. I believe they took pity on me and decided to help at that moment.

  Over the next four weeks, my wounds healed. I grew stronger, and I'd begun to once again master the English language or at least what it was. We were eventually able to identify names and talk about objects. I tried to avoid discussing where I had come from other than I had been taken hostage and abandoned at this site when the blue light showed up. This seemed to be a plausible explanation and they were content with it. They did say that the blue light appears from time to time. They know that it is important, but the reason for it has long been lost to them.

  Even though there was scaffolding and wooden structure around Stonehenge, these people were not the builders. They build a wooden structure around it, but the stones were there when they got there. They adopted it as some sort of ceremonial site because of the blue light.

  It appeared that it was preordained that I should stay with Mira. I didn't fully understand the cultural aspects. But since she was a single woman and did not have a man to take care of her, I believed the elders assume that I would simply take over that role. In time, that essentially happened.

  This was not a time of romance and young love. This was a time of survival and limited options. Growing up in this time, you knew who you would probably be paired with as an adult. This is assuming you lived that long. Tribal warfare was not uncommon. I didn't experience it during my time there, but most of the men had battle scars. Some of the women did too. For the most part, things in the region were peaceful. There were 3-4 groups in the area and there was some peaceful interaction, but groups stayed to themselves most of the year. They got together for festivals with the seasons. It served a couple of purposes.

  There was some trade and sharing. Some people were better at hunting and fishing. Others were skilled at fashioning clothing from skins. These gatherings allowed for a simple form of commerce. It also helped the gene pool. Sometimes a tribe would have too many boys and not enough girls. The festivals increased their options for finding mates. Had I not shown up, Mira probably would have been looking for a new partner at the next festival.

  During most of my time in England, I helped out and prepared for winter. I participated in a hunt of several deer, and I helped gather root vegetables that would be necessary for the winter. I became known for my artistic abilities. I carved animals on bone and wood which were popular with the locals. I was tempted to carve a car or Navy destroyer, but with my luck, it would show up in the Smithsonian in my time. There was also the upcoming solstice festival, which the group was preparing for. I made several carvings to trade.

  Each night as the sun went down, I would look over the hills towards where Stonehenge was and wonder if I would see the blue light again. Mira would sit with me and I think it made her sad. She had no concept of where I came from and I really couldn't explain it to her. I felt like I was lying to her and protecting her at the same time. What would happen if she knew where I was from? I didn't want to change history, but I suspect I may have already done that. From the time that it was apparent that I wasn't going to die from my injuries, I think Mira accepted me as her new husband. I, on the other hand, was still set on going home. Mira did her best to make me want to stay. Between those hazel eyes and that smile, I was in trouble. Redheads are hard to resist in any century. Maybe I would have stayed if I knew what I was going to be missing.

  Chapter 4 – Solstice

  I was told that the blue light does happen periodically based on the position of the moon. I waited and watched, but saw nothing. By the time the solstice festival had come along, I was a part of the clan. I think I had made at least one carving for every member of the group. They had given me a name, which essentially meant lost boy. I participated to the extent that I could in all of their activities. My ribs had healed, but I walked with a limp. It still hurt, but I was able to get around. I probably wouldn't have done as much carving if I had been in better health. I was sort of a novelty and the villagers liked having me. I don't know if I would have had the same reception if I showed up able-bodied and ready to hunt.

  Life after the festival was kind of quiet. For the next month, there was little or no activity. It was the dead of winter. There was minimal hunting and not much could be done. Then in January, I was sitting out watching the skies like I usually would do at night, and I noticed the blue light. Mira began to cry when she saw it. She walked away and I didn't know what to say so I didn't even say goodbye.

  I began to travel towards Stonehenge to see what was happening. As I got closer, I could see that it was fading. I began to run but I knew it wasn't going to last. I saw the familiar doorway shape that had welcomed me into this place. As I got closer, it faded entirely, and there I saw two bodies lying inside waiting for me. I guess I wasn't going home this time.

  Chapter 5 - Send in the Marines

  I wasn't expecting company. It never even occurred to me that someone else might come through the portal. I thought I was a fluke that only happens every few thousand years, or that the guys on the boat would be able to open the portal again. I had no clue. These guys were military, but they had a different tailor than I did. The equipment was also upgraded as well.

  When I arrived at the stone circle, I found two marines knocked out cold from the impact. "Tyler" and "Campbell" were the names on the uniforms. I propped them up in a pile while I stripped them of their weapons. I bummed a couple smokes, got comfortable, and waited for them to wake up.

  Even serving within the military, I've always thought marines were kind of an unusual group. These guys had no idea where they were, or what they had gotten themselves into. As with many Marines I've seen, they will gladly try to do the impossible just for the sake of having tried to do it. I didn't recognize a lot of their equipment. Their guns were something I'd never seen before. I could still tell that they were guns, and they had some electronic things on them. I've learned a lot since getting back, but that first time I had no idea what I was
looking at.

  Thankfully, uniforms don't change that much over time, or at least ranks don't. There are still stripes and bars after all this time. I knew what I was dealing with these guys. While I was waiting for them to wake up, I sat and watched the sun come up. I had thought about screwing with them a little bit. Can you imagine waking up and finding a prehistoric guy in rags holding your gun on you? It seemed funny at the time.

  Instead, I suppressed the urge and decided to welcome Sgt. Campbell in English when he woke up. He seemed as surprised as I was when I arrived. He wasn't very forthcoming with information initially. We both acknowledged that we were military men and that we were ultimately on the same side. He said he was involved with something that he couldn't tell me about. I just left it at that. I really couldn't tell him what had happened to me either. That kind of left us at a standoff.

  There were a couple of things that were clear though. His equipment wasn't working the way it was supposed to, so he was stranded as I was. Also, these two guys stuck out like a sore thumb. The other guy Tyler slept for another half hour, but it quickly became apparent that he had both a concussion and some internal bleeding. That was a new set of problems. All I knew was that these guys were closer to being from where I was from, and if I wanted to get home, these two were my ride.

  Over the next hour or so, we traded stories of home but didn't get into too much detail. I couldn't tell exactly where or when they were from. And they couldn't tell the same for me. It started to become apparent that they were about 50 years ahead of me, which was fine. We still had something that we could talk about. We were all men in uniform.

  Sgt. Tyler wasn't doing very well so we tried to keep him talking. We could have passed as brothers and that became significant later on. We did share some stories about growing up. He had an upbringing similar to me with losing family members. Most of the time we just sat quietly and waited for the sun to come up.

  I eventually gave them back their guns, less one of each for myself. This made them breathe a little easier, although I was taking a risk in doing it. I figured they've got to learn to trust me if they're going to be taking me home. So as the sun came up, we headed to the village. We tried to figure out the best way to keep them under wraps while we figure out how they could reconnect with the other side of the portal. They kept turning on radio type things that didn't seem to want to connect the where they were from.

  I explained to them that I had been here for approximately four months. Whatever this thing was with Stonehenge, it didn't reactivate during that time. There was a good chance that it wasn't going to reappear. Otherwise, they were going to get used to having lots of deer, fish and root vegetables.

  When we got back to my hut, Mara was as welcoming to my new friends as she was to me. She thought I was gone for good and now here I was with new friends. We found them some clothes and hid their uniforms. Mira understood that they were from somewhere else. She was willing to keep up the ruse that they were simply from another area. We could easily play them off as friends of mine that may have come looking for me when I disappeared initially.

  At this point, Campbell was doing just fine. The other guy Tyler was injured, and his condition was deteriorating. We talked constantly to try and keep him alert, but there was not a surgeon in the house. So, this was potentially a life-threatening situation for him. Mira tried to treat him with some of her herbs and tree bark. It seemed to help and he progressively got better.

  Chapter 6 – We Have Company

  As we got settled in, others in the village took notice of my new friends. They knew that these were my people and they sort of kept their distance initially. Formal greetings would have to wait. It was a day or so before I introduced them. I told everyone that these were my friends who had come looking for me. They didn't seem to connect the fact that we both showed up at Stonehenge when the blue light was present. It did sort of signal that I may be leaving at some point soon.

  I tried to explain to my new friends some of the language issues. Over the next few weeks, they figured out how to communicate with the rest of the villagers. Sgt. Campbell became very popular when he stupidly used one of his weapons to kill two deer at once. No one saw him do it, so we didn't have to explain what an automatic rifle with a laser sight was. The fact that he killed two deer by himself in one hunt was enough to elevate him to rock star status. They gave him a name that essentially meant the killer of many. I don't think they ever named Sgt. Tyler. I don't think they thought he was going to be around long enough to use a new name.

  Sgt. Tyler proceeded to get better, and we began to talk more. He frequently forgot about protocol and I learned a little bit about what was happening. The gateway, or whatever I opened, has a natural pattern of connecting time points that are similar to the Zodiac. I ended up at a natural orientation point. These guys were apparently from 50 years into the future. The only reason that they were able to match my location was that they had figured out how to use these things and be selective about dates. In 1946 we didn't know that this was even part of the equation. Although I suspected after some discussion that my friend, Doctor Einstein knew what was going on.

  They were able to open the portal, control it, and detect any changes in the timeline. And that's how they ended up with me. They called me a blip off the normal pathways. They were able to adjust their destination by 50 or so years to end up at my location. This allowed them to steer the portal in one direction or another. Otherwise, they would have ended up in my future and I would probably have met them as an old man.

  Chapter 7 - Meet Stephen Tyler

  Sgt. Stephen Michael Tyler was raised in upstate New York by his grandparents. Sound familiar? His parents were killed in a car accident and he eventually was in foster care for several years. I think his grandparents weren't initially able to take care of him originally due to some health issues. His grandparents eventually were able to regain custody. He and I looked almost alike. We also shared an interest in electricity. I didn't know what a transistor or integrated circuit was at the time, but he tried to educate me. I got a kick out of playing with the lasers on their guns initially. He had gone to school as an electrical engineer, but eventually dropped out and joined the military.

  The villagers thought we were brothers and they often referred to us that way. The matching appendicitis scars was a strange topic of conversation for the villagers. We learned a lot about one another in a short time. We were about the same age. We liked the same food although we were both getting sick of venison and root vegetables. We could never get enough trout though. We experimented trying to make hot dogs, but it didn't work out. The villages thought we were nuts. Someone figured it out eventually – thank God!

  Stephen was single and had never been married. Strangely, even though he lived in New York, he was a Red Sox fan like me. So that was kind of humorous. He always talked about how he would get crap for being a Sox fan instead of a Yankees Fan. I told him my story about seeing Babe Ruth play his final game at Fenway. He thought that was cool. They were both equally impressed that I knew Einstein. I guess I was kind of a bit of a Rock star at that point. Or it could've just been a lack of options because I was the only other person from the 20th century. I later found out that was there was at least 27 who disappeared off the Eldridge. But they were nowhere to be found. They went somewhere other than where I did.

  My new friends and I were probably old by comparison to many members of the tribe. It didn't seem like there were too many people over the age of 40. People seemed to age faster than in our time. Children were married by the time they were 13 or 14. I think Mira was probably in her early 20s, but she seemed about 10 years older. Still, beautiful!

  Chapter 8 - Soldier Number Two

  Sgt. Jonathan Campbell was from Columbia, South Carolina and had been in the military for six years. He had been married but didn't have any kids. His wife kicked him out after he got drunk and hit her one too many times. He was relatively smart, but he spent
most of his formative years in a reform school. Both of his parents were alcoholics. They disappeared on him when he was arrested at 15 for stealing a car. By the time he got out of the state facility at 17, he was homeless. A military recruiter was practically waiting for him when he walked out the door. It was a good match for Jon. He needed the structure, and they needed fearless single men like him.

  His ex-wife was a cashier at the local grocery store. She came from an abusive family and was looking for a way out. Jonathan was not God's gift to women, but she latched onto him like white on rice. He was 19 and she was 18. What could go wrong? Old patterns crept into the marriage within months and it was over by the time Jonathan was 21. This was just before his first tour ended. If he had stayed married, he might still be in twentieth-century South Carolina. Fortunately, or unfortunately, his newly found freedom made him eligible for a new military adventure.

  I never did get a name for their military unit. One of the job requirements was that you have little or no attachments. And as we talked more, they said for all practical purposes, they didn't even exist from the military's perspective. Each had done a regular tour of duty and then pulled for a special assignment. They went for some advanced survival training, some classes on archaeology, and off to the new unit they went.