Chapter   35  It was Saturday and the older kids were sleeping in. Anabelle first met Savannah’s friend in the dining room, serving breakfast. Calvin and Cobb had been up for some time chatting in front of the large wood-burning stone fireplace, when Annabelle...

Chapter   33  In the light of a full moon, Calvin Cain stood on his front porch, gazing at the rolling hills painted white. Most years, winters were mild in the western part of South Carolina; often there was no snowfall at all, but this year a thin layer of snow...

Chapter   32  Cobb nibbled on the food from his dinner tray, but his mind was elsewhere. He felt trepidation about leaving. After all, the hospital had been his only home during the last couple of months since the accident. There was also apprehension at...

Chapter   31  Savannah took a chair next to the patient and stared at the melancholy man. Her heart went out to him. She wanted to help, but her plan seemed so utterly foolish and doomed to failure, now that she was in his presence. Wanting to change their...

Chapter   30  When she arose the following morning, Savannah was no longer congratulating herself on the brilliant opening paragraphs of her story. Instead, disquietude descended upon her as she pondered the plight of Mr. Cobb. What was Dr. Cantril’s agenda? ...

Chapter   29   For most of the evening Savannah sat squatted against the headboard of her bed, the laptop on her thighs, as she continued work on her story. It had been forty-five minutes since she had called room service, and she was ravenous. She was grateful...

Chapter   28  Savannah’s wardrobe the following day evolved from considerably more thought than her first visit. She wore an ankle-length, floral dress and nylons to conceal any skin on her lower legs. She quickly placed her hair in a bun on top—not her most...

Chapter   27   In my professional judgment, this patient is suffering from paranoid schizophrenia with delusions of grandeur combined with an extraordinarily rare time displacement syndrome. His delusion is impervious to external, irrefutable, contrary evidence....

Chapter   26  Savannah sat in her rental car in the parking structure of Layton Regional, plotting the best way to gain access to her prospective interviewee. She knew that a reporter’s access to a patient in a hospital was limited—normally written consent was...

Chapter   25  ‘Tis a shame, Savannah thought to herself. We’ll never know how old timers would fare against modern players. She had been engrossed in thought during the flight, imagining that the real Ty Cobb had been magically transported into the twenty-first...

Chapter   24  Mildly intrigued, Savannah looked at the screen. It showed an ancient photograph of Ty Cobb side-by-side with a mobile phone photo taken at a hospital in Atlanta, Georgia. The resemblance was striking. So, what’s the catch? Savannah wondered. She...

Chapter   23   Dr. Cantril studied the file. A referral had been made to his office a couple of weeks before, but he had done little more than poke his head in the patient’s room. After all, until he could communicate with the patient, there really wasn’t much he...

Chapter   21  With great care, Dr. Hale began unwrapping the bandages from the patient’s face. Gradually, the forehead became bare, then the nose, mouth and chin. The tedious process lasted several minutes until Mr. Cobb’s face was completely exposed. Dr. Hale...

Chapter   19   The smell of alfalfa invades my nostrils. I knew I wasn’t too far away, once I came to the fork in the road. There it is!—I’ve found my way home, at last. But why is there so much smoke rising from the roof. Why is light flickering through the...

Chapter   18  By the time Savannah arrived in the boardroom, every chair in the conference room had been commandeered except for the editor’s spot at the far end of the table. She stood with three others in the rear of the room. Moments later, Spencer Shields...

Chapter   17   Dr. Hale examined the photographs at the desk of his satellite office in the adjacent medical office tower. The doctor was quite impressed with the quality of several of the pictures, considering they were all taken in the early twentieth century....

Chapter   16  Savannah Cain sat at her desk on the thirty-eighth floor of the highrise. She turned away from her computer for a moment, and looked out the window at the Gateway Arch rising in the sky majestically next to the Mississippi River. From her vantage,...

Chapter   15   I wander through city streets, searching for my way home. Some boulevards are familiar, others are not. At length, I find myself on the city outskirts and the road forks to the left where there are vast fields of alfalfa. I continue past the fields...

Chapter   13  What a wondrous sight! Great glass monuments rise to the sky, eclipsing the sun and clouds. On the streets, there are vast hordes of horseless carriages passing by at reckless speeds, in exotic shapes and sizes. I stagger back, marveling at the...

Chapter   12   The patient’s eyes focused on Dr. Nazari as he entered the room; there was a flicker of recognition. “I came by earlier today. It looks like you are doing better. Now, I am going to release right arm—fortunately, it did not suffer any serious...

Chapter   10  The first rays of morning sun filter through the stained-glass windows, into the vast, muraled room. The expanse is filled with plants and elegant furnishings. In the center of the room, I am seated in a floral Davenport a short distance from a man...

Chapter   8 8:07 a.m. 911 Operator: 9-1-1.  What is your emergency? FEMALE VOICE: A man’s lying in the street in a pool of blood. Must’a been hit by a passing car. Looks like a hit-and-run. In real bad shape. He needs immediate help! 911 Operator: Did you witness the...

PRESENT DAY Chapter   7 Atlanta, GeorgiaSitting on a bar stool, Chase Ripley hunched over his third vodka and tonic—or, was it his fourth? He couldn’t remember for sure, nor did he really care. “We should get goin’, friend. I’ll take you home,” Mace did his best to...

Chapter   6 Entering from stage left, a mustached, tall man appeared, dressed in a tailored suit and derby hat. His swagger spoke of the West, not Wall Street. The crowd exploded with applause as they instantly recognized the celebrity ball player in the role of Billy...