Free Wakening the Past: A Time Travel Romance (Medicine Stick Series Book 2) by Barbara Bartholomew Page A

unworthy of human consumption.
    The thought sobered her. Bobbi knew more than she should already. She’d even understood what was happening when Hart began to depart. That meant she had memories from both Hart and herself, or was she only able to recall Stacia’s past because of Hart’s visits to the past?
    She only hoped the girl was all right.
     
    Bobbi veered the nearly out of control car to the right by jerking on the wheel. She heard the truck behind them hit his brakes, than honk a long howl of reproof as he skidded on past the little Nissan. Hart slumped against her as she jammed her own smaller foot against the one already on the brake, bringing them to a jarring stop.
    She watched as Serena in her rental car zoomed on past, apparently too focused on  avoiding the truck that had suddenly slowed ahead of her to notice that Hart and Bobbi had pulled off the road.
    Everybody seemed too occupied with getting somewhere in a hurry to pay any attention to them. Bobbi, accustomed as she was to the vast populations of southern California, was not surprised that nobody pulled over to offer help, though Hart, who still had not adjusted to the idea that you could drive past your neighbors without offering help, would have felt differently.
    But Hart had gone somewhere and Bobbi wasn’t surprised at that either. Somewhere, vaguely, in some distant edge of her brain, she almost knew about this. Hart went away to Stacia’s world and Stacia came here. But there wasn’t any Hart any more, only Stacia.
    How she knew this, she couldn’t say. But somehow she did and ever since her first visit to Oklahoma with Granny last year, this awareness had moved to the forefront so that nightly she seemed to dream and understand more.
    Not that this didn’t make her afraid. Not that right now she wasn’t sitting in the little dark-blue car and wondering what she should do. She tried to shake Hart awake, but she lay limp and unresponsive against her slighter form.
    She had her phone, but she could hardly call her friends in California for help. And if she called Granny and Granny realized that Hart had collapsed virtually in the midst of the highway, she’s have Bobbi out of here and headed home before she had time to think of a good argument.
    She had no choice. She fumbled in Hart’s purse, pulling out the little phone and checking numbers until she found the one that said Alistair.
    She was just about to give him a call when Hart’s eyes opened.
    “I came back,” she said. “I had to come back.” She smiled, a slow, lazy just waking up smile. “We’re both still alive,” she said with evident pleasure.
    Bobbi drew in a deep breath, grateful not to have to call Hart’s intimidating husband. “Between us we managed,” she said .
    They sat in silence for a few minutes, Bobbi allowing Hart to regain her equilibrium. Finally she said, “We probably should go on. Granny’s likely to come back looking for us.”
    Hart shook her head, still looking pale. “I can’t risk driving,” she said.
    “I’ve never driven,” Bobbi protested, “besides I’m only fourteen.”
    Hart thought for a minute, than she took her car keys and the phone Bobbi still held in her hand and got out of the car, motioning the girl to do the same. Once out, she walked over to fling her keys into the tall grass in a nearby pasture where cows grazed. Then she made a call on her phone, “Alistair,” she said in the tone of one leaving a message rather than talking to another person. “I’ve lost my keys and can’t get in the car and am going to have to leave it on the highway about five miles before the Medicine Stick turnoff. Serena is coming to pick us up, but could you come by with the extra keys that are hanging in the kitchen when you get a chance?”
    Hart stared at her. “What if Granny doesn’t come back?”
    “We’ll call somebody, but I’ve got to have an excuse to avoid driving this car another mile. I’d be endangering everyone on