so and Jane took his photo. She then showed it to him.”
Jestyn shook his head as he gazed at his photo. “I shudder to think what would happen if anyone got a hold of this. You must remove that painting – uh – photograph of me from it. It would endanger you. People would think you’re trying to put a hex on me. They explain anything that scares them or they cannot understand as ‘magic’ or sorcery. Witches and sorcerers are still persecuted.”
“I’ll erase it, Jestyn, if it makes you feel better,” Jane said, and showed him after she had erased his photo. She knew that no average person in town would be able to access that photo. They didn’t even have the bare basic skill to do so. They would be so afraid of technology they wouldn’t come near it with a ten-foot pole. Besides, if in the future she longed to see what Jestyn looked like in real life, she would be able to dig it out of the erased file. There was always a way to do so. But if it reassured him to have her erase his photo she would gladly do so now.
Jane went on digging in her large hand bag, “Oh, here’s a letter from a friend. Look, Jestyn, it has the date from the Post Office on it–see the year? 2015. And here is a receipt for a MasterCard purchase – again with a 2015 date.”
Jestyn took the letter and the receipt and stared at them, shaking his head.
Jane then handed him a credit card. Jestyn took it and ran his thumb over the engraved numbers. “This material–”
“Plastic,” answered Jane, “it’s a by-product of oil or other materials like carbon. And here is my recorder. I was recording my visit to see your portrait again,” said Jane as she pressed the button of the recorder. They both listened to Jane’s voice in the recorder.
“This is incredible! May I see the picture of the airplane again?”
“How do they go, these machines?” Greywick asked when Jane handed him the ticket sheath.
“They fly, like birds. They are large, streamlined cars made of metal that rise in the air. People travel in them. They are nothing like the first inventions of the airplane.”
“But, how do they rise in the air?”
“I know very little about it. I vaguely remember a high school teacher’s explanation that went something like this: the airplane gets in the air first by speeding on the runway against the wind. The pilot guides the movable flaps the airplane has on the tail and wings in order to aid the lift. Once it’s airborne, the airplane catches airstreams in the atmosphere that allow it to kind of surf these as would a surfer.
“Wow, I bet I’m now confusing you even more since you don’t even know what a surfer is. My explanation is probably flawed, Jestyn, so it’s only to give you the general idea.”
“Birds use air currents,” said Jestyn. “I believe I know what you mean, Jane.”
“Good. So, are you convinced I’m not of your era, Jestyn?”
“It would be hard not to believe you, with all this proof before me,” Jestyn assured her. “No one could have made up such things. I have often wondered how it will be a hundred – two hundred years from now. I read assiduously of any new invention because I believe with each new invention our way of life changes, bit by bit. I, too, am always trying to find new ways of doing things in the farm and to adapt any new way of doing things that I believe has merit. I can assure you, few of my peers feel the way I do. Most of them resist any kind of change, even the small changes that will improve their farms.”
“I’m glad you’re that way, Jestyn. So what do you think of all these things I have shown you?”
“I have a feeling I’m in a dream,” Jestyn replied. “I feel any moment I will wake up and you will be gone and all was just a dream. I hope you are real, Jane.”
“I think I am,” Jane said with a smile. They had made the distance between them smaller as they talked. Jane could feel his sweet breath.
“Jestyn gazed fondly at the