A Fracture in Time

By Gary T Brideau

In the first of this series, George Bentwood lives on a farm in Tennessee, builds a Time Arch, and marries, Cynthia, accused of murdering the previous owner of the farm. In the second book, Time Chasers, a coworker is caught in a time vortex. George and his friends have to chase her through time to save her life. In this story, linear time is broken into smaller pieces, and somehow George and his wife have to connect them, so Time is linear, once again. But they run into trouble because time isn't constant.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jul 21, 2022
• ISBN: 9781669839156

Gary T Brideau

I was born in a small house in Brooklyn, Nova Scotia, Canada in 1947 and moved to Bridgeport, Connecticut as a small boy. I met Lauren, the love of my life in1985 and were married years later and moved to Bristol, Connecticut. One night, I had a vivid dream that caught my attention, that spurred me to write it down, and sent it to my sister T. Jene Brideau, for an interpretation who also is a writer. She wrote and told me that the story was good. I took her encouragement and my imagination went to work. That’s when I discovered my God-given talent to write great space adventures stories. From then on, I have written over fifty stories of which only seven of them have been published with great reviews.

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Copyright © 2022 by Gary T Brideau.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 07/21/2022

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Contents

Story characters

Chapter 1 Trapped

Chapter 2 Abduction

Chapter 3 Attacked

Chapter 4 Beebe exposed

Chapter 5 Cynthia snaps

Chapter 6 In jeopardy

Chapter 7 Beebe’s encounter

Chapter 8 The truth comes out

Chapter 9 A change

Chapter 10 Cynthia gives up

Chapter 11 Tombstone Arizona

Chapter 12 Bernard is back

Chapter 13 George

Chapter 14 Beebe missing

Chapter 15 Center Hill Lake kidnapping

Epilogue

The Mystery By The Beach

Story characters

George M. Bentwood: a clean-cut man in his 40s, likes to dress in black dress pants and a blue shirt. He moved to small-town south of Knoxville, Tennessee. Saw a three-acre farm with its white picket fence for sale and bought it. George invented the Time Arch and married Cynthia.

Cynthia Celestina Atwater: born in 1857, is a tall, slender woman is 33 with long wavy brown hair and is modest in every sense of the word and has never fooled around with men, loves the Lord and married George Bentwood.

Ruth White: Born in 1855, is a tall single slender woman in her late 30s with long black hair. She is devious, sly, cunning, and dominates men using her feminine wiles and married Don Hollister.

Ruthie Susan White: Born in 1989, is a tall thin single woman in her 30s, with blond hair done up in a ponytail, wearing jeans and t-shirts. Ruthie’s parents taught her to obey even when she disagreed. So, when she dated Pastor Farnsworth, an authoritative person, she became his sex partner out of obedience and not because she wanted it. Ruthie then became cunning and sly like Mister Farnsworth.

Pastor Mark Tumwater: born in 1870 and is a tall godly man in his 20s, with neatly combed brown hair wire rimmed glasses, black pants, and white shirts. He is also easygoing, compassionate, understanding, and will go the extra mile for someone without question.

Pastor Larry Farnsworth: born in 1855, a single, short man in his 40s who likes to wear torn jeans t-shirts and has a vegetable garden. This Pastor is devious and tricked Ruthie into having sex with him one evening at his house and uses her for his selfish means.

Little Sparrow: born in 1955, is 6 feet tall with jet-black hair down to her shoulders. She is a well-built woman in her early 40s who is Ruthie White’s great, great-granddaughter.

Swift Deer: a Navajo Native American male 6 foot one, with long black hair done up in 2 braids and married Ruthie White, who he called Flying Sparrow because she was always running away from someone.

Pastor Ben Shorts: born in 1990, is a medium build man in his early 30s with neatly cut hair pastors the Pentecostal church that Pastor Tumwater did in 1890.

Mary Shorts: born in 1989, acute woman is a ball of energy married to Pastor Ben shorts.

Beebe M. Tomson: born in 1990, is 5 foot 2, a cute, petite woman in her early 30s. she wears gold wire-rimmed glasses with dark brown hair done up in a Pixie. She likes to wear jeans and a white t-shirt.

Martha Dirtbottom: born in 2000, is 5 foot 5, in her mid-20s, with shoulder-length dark, brown wavy hair. She is a Christian and is best buds with Ruthie.

Miss. Delilah Sweet: Age 33, lives in 1890 and is tall, with dark brown hair done up in a bun clad in a long gray plaid dress and used to work in a bank.

Grant Shelburne: born in 1980, is a tall young man in his forties dressed in black pants and a blue checkered long sleeve shirt. He uses a walking stick to get around.

Mitzie Brandenburg: born in 1978, is in her early thirties with long light brown hair and wears worn-out jeans and t-shirts.

Larry Acker: was born in 1990, six feet tall in his early thirties with red hair.

Maggie: born in 2000, is a 20-year-old woman clad in T-shirt and jeans and has the hots for Larry.

Don Hollister: was born in 1857, is 45 with short gray hair and had the hots for Cynthia. He will not believe that she is married to George. Don is pushy, bossy, and expects Cynthia to do what she says. He tries to get Cynthia to notice him by doing things that will get her attention, but he married Ruth White.

Dixie Rodrigues: is a thin shapely 56-year-old woman with long blond hair who lived in Tucson, Arizona, in 1890. Ever since she gave her life to Christ, she’s had a desire to talk to people and opened the first soup kitchen in Tucson and ministers to people about Christ. Dixie is a good friend of Beebe.

Thoralf Greystone: A tall man in his 30s, with short dark brown hair has difficulty hearing, blind in one eye, and has trouble walking because of a balance problem. He suffered brain cancer, hydrocephalus, hemiparesis, kidney failure, liver problems, and melanoma and is in a wheelchair. His real name is Thoralf Oakley Bjornstad, but he goes by the name of Thoralf Greystone.

Pat O’Bannon: born in 1995, is a medium built man in his thirties with short black hair who is a friend of Beebe.

Bernard Walters: A tall husky man in his late twenties clad in a dark gray t-shirt and jeans.

Chapter 1

TRAPPED

On a farm south of Knoxville, Tennessee, Little Sparrow, a six-foot-tall well-built woman in her early 40, with jet black hair down to her shoulders, took a swallow of her coffee. Then stated to George Bentwood, a clean-cut man in his 40s, My great, great grandmother, Ruthie, told me you two were time travelers, and you went swimming in Center Hill Lake in 1423. Could you fire up the Time Arch and take me there?

George Bentwood stared at his wife Cynthia, a tall slender woman in her late 30s with long wavy brown hair. She knew what he wanted to say and stated, Come on, we’ll show you the Time Arch as long as you don’t say anything to anyone.

In a room ten feet by ten feet underneath the barn, George showed Little Sparrow the Time Arch, which was eight feet tall and five feet wide and made out of die-cast Aluminum, eight inches thick, that stood against the far wall. The Arch was wrapped in two magnetic coils, which had opposite polarities, encased with his invention, the HJO Capacitor, powering the magnetic field around the Time Arch, interrupting the delicate balance between the past and future, allowing him to slip through time with ease.

Cynthia powered up the Arch to bring Little Sparrow to Center Hill Lake in 1424. Then without warning, the barn shook as a loud clap of thunder interrupted the conversation. George stated, We better power down the Arch until after the storm.

Suddenly a bolt of lightning struck the barn supercharging the Time Arch, sending out fingers of electricity that danced around the room. Faint images of people appeared walking around the lab quickly materialized. Then everything was sucked into the Arch, and all was quiet.

On a rocky outcrop high over a forest, George slowly rose to his feet and then helped his wife up.

Little Sparrow brushed herself off and questioned, Where are we?

A cute, petite woman in her early 30s, wearing gold wire-rimmed glasses, with dark brown hair done up in a Pixie dressed in yellow Baby doll Pjs, moaned, Will you give a body a chance to get dressed before you kidnap them. She helped a 5 foot 2, woman in her mid-20s, with shoulder-length dark, brown wavy hair to her feet, dressed in a dark blue bathrobe.

Little Sparrow, I would like you to meet Beebe Tomson and Martha Dirtbottom, stated George.

Little Sparrow gave them a hug saying, My great, great grandmother told me so much about you two.

George said, Beebe, Martha, I would like you to meet Little Sparrow, Ruthie’s great, great-granddaughter.

An aggravated Beebe growled, That’s nice, but why did you bring us here in the middle of nowhere? I mean, you could have let us get dressed before you dragged us off to who knows where.

Cynthia stated, You wanna back off attacking George? The Time Arch was struck by lightning, and this is the result. I am sorry you ladies were caught dressed like that, but there was no way of warning you.

Little Sparrow scanned the area saying, It looks like just about everything in the lab; was pulled in. Maybe some clothes were drawn in to.

Cynthia turned around and stared at the forest littered with everything from time Communicators to clothing.

Martha hid behind a large bush, took off her bathrobe, and gave it to Little Sparrow. Who found a pair of scissors, a needle, and thread then, made a fashionable top out of it, then gave her a pair of George’s pants found hanging on a tree.

A slightly embarrassed Martha inquired, Anybody see underwear laying around, or do I have to go commando,

Beebe picked up a red plaid blouse and a dark gray skirt and shouted, Move over Martha, I gotta get dressed,

Little Sparrow fashioned some moccasins from Martha’s bathrobe and then attached some rubber to the bottom of them that George had discarded in the Time Lab.

George found his hunting knife, gazed at the sky with its strange white glow, and said, I don’t like the looks of that.

Do you know what it is, questioned Cynthia.

I think it’s a fracture in time, but I can’t be sure.

And that means, questioned Martha.

It could heal itself or we might have to do it. Only time will tell. But right now, I say we look for shelter before it gets dark.

A quarter of a mile into the forest, the group stumbled upon a huge tree. It was hollow at the base and some ten feet across with its roots crisscrossing each other. George inspected it and said, There is plenty of room inside, all we have to do is fashion a door, and we’re all set.

Beebe asked, What about food? We can’t live on tree bark.

Little Sparrow stated, No problem, George, give me your knife, and I’ll have dinner for us in no time.

George stated, We are forgetting something, and that is to thank our Heavenly Father for keeping us safe, and by His grace and wisdom, we will get back. Beebe, do you want to lead us in prayer?

After, Little Sparrow built a fire the way her ancestors did and entered the treehouse.

Inside, Cynthia gazed up and stated, "The way the roots overlap, there is plenty of room for everybody to sleep. Oh, George and I have that big root over there on the left. One other thing, when you get up in the morning, be careful that you don’t fall.

Because the last thing you want is to break a leg or an arm."

That evening around a roaring campfire outside, Little Sparrow roasted several fleshly roots and a 15-pound animal. She handed everybody a 6-inch square piece of bark to use for a plate, then dished out the food.

Beebe took a bite of her meat and then questioned, I’m not complaining about the taste, but can you tell me what I’m eating?

"It is a Nutria. Not as tasty as a rabbit or a woodchuck, but it’s food. I saw some wild turkey tracks earlier, maybe I can catch one of them, and we can have that for tomorrow. Then I’ll show you