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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