A Trip to New London
Part 4
by Stacey (SST205 at aol.com)
12/3/01
"Well, Watson, what is your diagnosis?" said a voice with a
cultured English accent.
"She'll have a nasty bump on her head and a headache to go
with it, but I could find no sign of a concussion."
Kimberly could hear the voices as if they were coming to her
ears through a tunnel. After a moment another voice, one that
sounded like a girl's, came to her ears.
"Where do you suppose she's from? I can't say I've seen
clothes of that sort on anyone around here."
Then an odd noise came down the 'tunnel'. It reminded
Kimberly of the time she and her husband had been in a department
store, and a child was playing on an electric keyboard....
"Whiiirrrrr-beep! Whirrr-beee-urrr! Beep!"
"What? Early twenty-first century American? How in the
world would you know that, Tennyson? " came yet another
voice.
The first person Kimberly had heard, the one with the
cultured English accent, chuckled and said, "Now, Wiggins, you
know very well that our Tennyson's read books on every subject
imaginable."
"Yeah, but I didn't think fashion was his subject."
There were chuckles.
Slowly, Kimberly opened her eyes. She was on a couch in
a neatly furnished room -- the furniture was a combination of
futuristic and Victorian -- the most prominent piece being a
computer with a very large screen on the other side of
the room.
She glanced to her right. A man with sandy-colored hair,
dressed in clothing that came from the same era as the Victorian
furniture, was sitting in a straightbacked chair next to the
couch. He eyed her with a mixture of concern and curiosity.
"Welcome back, miss," he said. He had the voice with the
cultured English accent.
"Where--where am I ?" Kimberly groaned, attempting to
sit up. A pain shot down the back of her head and down her
neck, so she immediately laid back down.
"I wouldn't try moving if I were you, miss. You had a
nasty fall out there."
Kimberly shifted her eyes to see a man -- or was it a
man? His face looked plump and kindly, but his body -- what
she could see of it under the dark frock coat he wore -- she
could swear was metallic!
"I--I'm a Mrs." she said as another sharp pain shot
through her head. "Oh -- Billy -- I've got to find him...."
"Whirrrr?"
Kimberly shifted her eyes again, even though it hurt.
Three young people were in the room with the two men. One
was a girl with alert-looking eyes and short brown hair.
The second was a muscular black youth and the third -- she
couldn't quite tell his age from looking. A red bandanna
covered his mouth and nose, and an aviator's cap covered his
head.
The first thing she noticed were his large dark blue
eyes, which gazed at her with concern. A jumpsuit of
the same color covered his body. That she could
only see from his waist up because of the 'vehicle' he sat in.
"Whirrr?" came the noise again. Kimberly saw the
boy's hand touch a keyboard in front of him, and realized
that this was where the odd noise came from.
She tilted her head. The others must have seen that
she looked a bit confused.
"Tennyson's a deaf-mute," the man with the cultured
English accent said.
"He uses the keyboard to talk." explained the girl,
grinning. "Don't worry, lots of people have trouble
understanding him at first."
"He asked if you were okay." the muscular black boy
told her.
"Oh." Kimberly said, closing her eyes a moment.
The pain in her head didn't seem so bad, then. "I'm
fine, thank you, except for this headache."
"That should pass with a bit of time." the
robot-man assured her.
With her eyes still closed, Kimberly asked,
"How -- how did I get here?"
"We were on our way up here to have tea with
Mister Holmes," the girl explained, indicating herself
and the two boys. "We found you lying in the street.
Wiggins carried you up here." She jerked her thumb at
the black boy.
A light went on in Kimberly's head, and her
conversation with her husband came back to her.
"Baker Street? Isn't that from....?"
"The Sherlock Holmes stories, yes....."
She looked again at the sandy-haired man in the
Victorian clothing. "This is going to sound silly,
but -- are you -- are you Sherlock Holmes?"
The man grinned. "Yes, madam, I am. Believe me,
considering how I got here and the things I have learned
since then, your question does not strike me as 'silly'
in the least." He turned to the robot-man. "This is my
associate, Doctor John Watson, and these--" He included
the two boys and the girl with a sweep of his hand.
"--are the Baker Street Irregulars. You have sort of
been introduced to Tennyson and Wiggins--" he indicated
the deaf-mute and black boys. "The young lady is Deidre."
Kimberly grinned and nodded slightly. "It's very
nice to meet you. I just wish the circumstances were
different." She turned back to Mister Holmes. "Sir --
I really, really need your help."
On to Part 5!
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