Greetings all; in my stories my characters exist in my head, but there might be real life inspirations for some of them. Who knows?
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Author's note: I know female hysteria isn't a thing, but men in the Victorian Era decided that it was, rather than try to better understand women.
~~
In the near future I traveled to the past.
Ever since Einstein figured out that travel through time was possible scientists have tried to create a black hole and the accompanying wormhole he described, however they lacked a power source that had negative energy density until Artificial Intelligence figured out how to make synthetic exotic matter, and now time travel is a routine thing. People use the technology to go back in time to witness historical events, experience what life was like in past eras, live out fantasies of theirs, go back and observe a past life they lived, etc, etc.
I'd always wondered if I had lived before so I contacted a nearby time travel company and scheduled an appointment with its spiritualist. She looked at my palms and measured the length of my fingers, then with conviction in her voice told me that my spirit had been recycled many times and it last resided in my great great grandfather before it entered me. I passed that information on to the time travel company's genealogist and asked her to find out who my great great grandfather was. She contacted me a few days later and informed me that his name was Moses Johnson and he was born in Georgia in 1859. He graduated from Howard College Medical School on the 27th of May 1881, and arrived in Fredericksburg Kansas six weeks later. He met my great great gram Celeste Washington there, and after they were married they moved to Topeka in 1882, yadda yadda yadda.
I'd always been fascinated by life in the old west and I also thought it would be neat to witness my great great grandfather meeting my great great gram, so I immediately spoke to one of the time travel company's travel agents and had her explain how going back to my past life would work. She said that I would know what my great great grandfather was thinking and feeling while observing him from a third person perspective as he lived his life. I felt comfortable with the scenario she described so I signed on the dotted line committing to the trip.
After I paid for the trip the travel agent gave me a pocket watch looking device that would signal my assigned portal to collapse the wormhole and instantly bring me back to the Transportation Center when the Home Button was pressed. Then I stepped into a transport portal and it roared to life. A second later I felt a puff of air coming from in front of me at the same time I saw a flash of light, and then I found myself seeing the world as my twenty two years old great great grandfather Dr Moses Johnson saw it.
~~
My great great grandfather's first few days in Fredericksburg.
He stepped off the noon train on a Saturday in Hays Kansas and a man called out to him from his left. "Dr Moses Johnson I presume... I'm Thomas Osborn" said the man who'd called out.
"Yes sir, it is," he replied after he located the rather diminutive wiry built white man.
"How was your trip? asked Thomas as he walked towards him while offering his hand to shake.
"Uneventful, thankfully," he responded as he too extended his hand.
"Uneventful is good in this still untamed part of the country," remarked Thomas as they shook hands firmly. Then he turned to his right to introduce his wife Emma.
I'd noticed that she'd been smiling from ear to ear from the instant she saw my great great grandfather.
"Hello Dr Johnson," said Emma with a warm smile as she took a step in his direction and offered her hand to shake, which was proper etiquette in that era if a man and a woman shook hands.
"Hello Mrs Osborn, it's a pleasure," he stated evenly as he approached her with his hand out in front of him.
As he closed the distance he made several observations; she was shorter than her husband and she had a curvey body. Her pleasant looking face was in the latter years of its prime, and her red hair was styled in a single braid that was rolled into a conservative bun, but there was a youthful brightness in her blue eyes. When he grasped her hand he marveled at its softness.
"Thank you Moses... I'm so glad you accepted our offer to spend your first year as a doctor in Fredericksburg," she remarked charmingly, then she stared at their clasped hands for a moment and I thought the sparkle in her eyes got a little brighter when she looked up at him and said, "So tall dark and handsome," and then she paused for a couple of seconds before adding, "You know... I haven't been examined by a doctor since I left Chicago over a year ago... perhaps I can be your first patient."
My great great grandfather looked at Thomas quizzically and said, "I was expecting to only be tending to colored people."
"Oh don't be silly... a doctor is a doctor," stated Emma as she loosened her grip. My great great grandfather followed suit, but when he started to pull his hand away she grasped his index finger and gave it a couple of very quick but provocative squeezes. He acted like he didn't notice her flirting, but his dick throbbed.
Thomas seemed to be oblivious to his wife's mischievous behavior as he said, "As you know I was an Abolitionist, and during reconstruction I joined forces with Reverend John Smith to found Fredericksburg for colored people who wanted to leave the south and live in a town where they could govern themselves. Therefore any white person who chooses to live there believes in equality and they won't care that you're colored, they'll just want a doctor who knows what he's doing."
My great great grandfather had heard that Kansas was safer for black people than southern states were and he was relieved to hear Thomas say that.
"Indeed they won't care," confirmed Emma. "Especially considering that our current doctor isn't a doctor at all, he's a barber and a horse salesman."
"He owns a barber shop, a bath house, and the livery stable. He's done some doctoring because there was no one else to do it," said Thomas.
"I see," remarked my great great grandfather.
"Right then, let's get your suitcase and trunk loaded on the buckboard so that we can be on our way," stated Thomas.
~~
The bumpy forty five minute ride from Hays to Fredericksburg was across empty prairie except for a few trees scattered here and there.
"There's a lot of nothing out there isn't it?" remarked Emma questioningly after glancing back at my great great grandfather several times and observing the expression on his face as he looked at the terrain surrounding them.
"It sure is compared to Georgia," he agreed.
"You'll get used to it," she stated.
"Yes ma'am," he said as he looked at the open prairie to his right and then to his left.