Link To The Past

Chapter Six

Kristine rubbed her eye's to try and get used to the dim lighting of the room. As she got used to her surroundings she pinched herself, just to make sure this wasn't a dream. "Ow!" Yep. Kristine sure wasn't dreaming alright. She stood up trying to get used to the feeling of being back. Her mind then traced back through everything and she quickly remembered. The thought of Anna then came to mind, her great grandmother's house where she was staying.

Kristine took a step forward and then stopped to find that she had stepped on something. When she looked down, it was Susan's Diary. Kristine brushed off the dust that was on it and went back down to her room and looked at the clock. It read, Seven o'clock. Only two hours had passed since she was gone. "Huh. Two weeks. Two hours." She said to yourself. Kristine was then just about to walk out of the room but stopped when she realized you still had the dress. You took it off as fast as you could the only part you were slow at the corset. After a while of struggling with it, you eventually got it off. 'Thank God." She said in a whisper. How could girls wear those things? She thought to herself. Kristine then threw on some jeans and a tank top and headed downstairs. It smelt like pancakes and she hadn't had one of those for a long time it seemed like.

When Kristine entered the kitchen, Anna was in there fixing up some food.
"I figured you would sleep in," she said.
Kristine said nothing but sit down, not knowing what to say.
"Here you are." Anna placed a plate of pancakes down in front of Kristine.
"Why don't you have anyone else here with you?" Kristine suddenly asked. Anna stopped and sighed. "I am healthy enough to take care of myself. Besides, I'd rather die in the home I grew up in."
"You grew up in this house?"
"I sure did. So did a lot of the Martin children." She took a seat across from Kristine.
"Martins?" Kristine looked up from her plate with surprise.
"Did I say something wrong?"
"No no. It's just...my parents never really talk about the other part of the family."
"Hmm..."
"It's because I'm adopted. You see, the reason why I am here is that I don't get along well with my 'other side' of the family." Kristine explained.
"I see. Yes, your father was not one to talk about his own either."
"Tell me, Granny. Tell me about the Martins." Kristine took a giant bite of her food.
"We-the Martin family are good people. A part of us even served in the Civil war, and the Revolutionary War." She smiled at that.
"The Revolutionary War? Really? Do you know anymore...I mean of the Martin family during that time?"
"I do."
Kristine waited a few seconds but Anna did not seem to go on anymore. "Granny?"
Anna looked up at her as if the two of them weren't even having a conversation. She was being forgetful.
"Can you tell me more about the Martin family during the war?"
"The father, Benjamin Martin," Anna started. "He served in the war with his eldest son, Gabriel. He had six other children as well. All younger than Gab."
"You take about them as if you have been there with them." Kristine tried to joke but Anna didn't seem to get it much and continued on talking.
"Then there was Thomas." Anna paused when she said his name.
Kristine stopped eating for a few seconds and stared at her great grandmother, waiting.
And then she continued: "He had high spirits that he did. He wanted to join the war so badly, but Ben would not let him until he was seventeen."
"Did he join when he was seventeen?"
Anna sighed. "I'm afraid not. He was shot and killed. "
Kristine stopped breathing for a few seconds, swallowed her food and said, "What?" but Anna shook her head.
"No more, no more. Finish eating and I can show you the back yard."
Kristine then finished as fast as she could and placed the dirty dishes in the dishwasher and followed Anna outside. For being a great granny, she really was in pretty good health.

As the two of them walked on outside, Kristine helped Anna down the steps when she needed it. Kristine felt a similarity as she stood on the very last step. There before her eye's was a great big field of dark green grass with patches of flowers here and there and trees far off into the distance. It felt as if she had not gone back through time, instead, it felt like all that happened was a big, elaborated dream.
Clouds still looked the same.
The wind still felt the same and the warmth of the sun still felt the same. "When I was younger," began Anna, "I would run all around out here."
"It looks like a place that would be inside of a fairy tale."
Anna nodded her head at that. "Yes. It did feel like one." She then took a seat and raised her hand to another for Kristine to take one as well.
"So you really have lived here all your life, Granny?"
"Yes."
"That's so cool. I can never stay in one place for too long." She smiled.
Anna smiled back. "Would you like to hear more?"
"Yes, please go on," Kristine said eagerly.
"Margaret, Nathan, Samuel, Susan, and William. Those are the rest of the Martin children of Benjamin Martin. His wife, Elizabeth, died shortly after Susan was born. I heard that is what led to her not speaking for a while..."
Kristine then suddenly interrupted Anna. "May I ask how old Thomas was when he died?"
"Fifteen. I'm sure. I can't really remember all that well. Gabriel I know died sometime after him. It's just after he had married. If memory serves me right there was a big fire. It was a church. His wife was killed in there and I think that led to him going after the Red Coats...and that's what led to his death."
Kristine looked down at the ground as she walked. Both Thomas and Gabriel were to die and at such a young age.