Sabella & Malcolm

"Something is wrong," Mark said as he closed his phone and placed it on the seat next to him.

"What did she say?" Regina asked.

"She said she wouldn't be there when we arrived," Mark replied his voice filled with apprehension, "she told me to get the key from her secret hiding place and to go inside and she would talk to us later."

"I don't find anything alarming in what she said," Regina remarked.

"It was the tone she used when she said it," Mark said. "She's keeping something from me."

Regina didn't say it out loud because she didn't want to further upset her husband, but she had to agree with him that something wasn't right with Sabella's situation.

Sabella wasn't a flighty person, especially when it came to big situations and moving to another state was a big situation for her sister-in-law.

Sabella would treat this situation like moving gold from Fort Knox meaning she would've been standing in the front yard waiting for the movers, and they wouldn't have had to call Mark about her furniture.

"We're here," Mark said pulling into Sabella's driveway.

"The movers are here too," Regina said taking note of the big moving van pulling up at the curb in front of Sabella's house.

"Sabella better have a good excuse for this," Mark said as he got out of the car and went over to talk to the movers.

Sabella sat in Malcolm's living room, her phone in her hand dreading the fact that she was going to have to call her brother back and explain her situation to him.

She didn't know what she would say to him or how she would explain what had happened to her or how it happened. All things Mark would demand knowing.

Malcolm sat on the couch watching Sabella fret, as she tried to decide how to tell her brother what happened to her.

He knew that she was afraid to tell her brother the truth because she didn't think he would believe her. But to his way of thinking telling her brother the truth was the only thing she could do.

"Tell your brother the truth, Sabella," Malcolm said.

"I guess that's all I can do," Sabella said her tone saying she knew she had no other option, "I just hope he believes me."

Sabella opened her cell phone and pressed the button that would dial her brother's cell phone. She put Mark on speaker phone because she knew he was going to be angry and when he became angry Mark liked to yell.

Malcolm sat straight up when he heard the sound of a phone ringing, filled the room. His jaw dropped when he heard Mark's gruff voice answer the phone.

"Where are you?" Mark asked his voice tense. "The movers just left. They were asking me where to put your stuff. I didn't know where you wanted anything, so I let Regina take over. And what's wrong with this place? The carpets are damp and it smells musty in here. How long before you come back home? Where are you, Sabella?"

"I'm sorry," Sabella said her voice low sounding like a small child.

Mark calmed himself down by taking deep breaths. Shouting or getting angry with Sabella wouldn't change what happened and his anger would only make things worse.

"I'm sorry," Mark said. "I shouldn't have yelled at you. I'm just upset and frustrated because I don't understand what's going on."

"I understand," Sabella said.

"Tell me what's going on baby girl," Mark said. "You know you can tell anything and no matter what it is we'll face it and work it out together."

"I hope you mean that, Mark," Sabella said her heart pounding so hard and loud in her chest, she was sure Malcolm could hear and see it, "because what I'm about to tell you is going to sound impossible, but I hope you'll believe me and know that I wouldn't lie about what I'm about to say."

"What is it Sabella?" Mark asked.

"Something has happened Mark," Sabella said. "I can't explain it or tell you how it happened, but I swear to you that what I'm about to tell you is the truth."

"Just tell me, Sabella," Mark said.

Sabella took a deep breath and began telling her brother what happened to her.

"When I arrived in Tyler it wasn't raining," Sabella said, "but later that night after I went to bed it started coming down in buckets. I was asleep in my bed when I felt water dripping down on my face. I opened my eyes, looked up and saw that the roof was leaking in the master bedroom. I got up intending to go to sleep in one of the other bedrooms, but they were worse than the master bedroom. I went downstairs planning to sleep down there, but I couldn't because the downstairs was just as wet as the upstairs. I decided the only thing I could do was to go to the garage and sleep in my car. I went out to the garage, only to discover that the garage had a leaky roof too. Knowing I couldn't do anything about what was happening until the morning I got into my car, made myself comfortable and went to sleep. The next morning when I awoke, I wasn't in the garage."

"You weren't in the garage?" Mark said. "Where were you?"

"In a field," Sabella said.

"How did you wind up in a field?" Mark asked.

"I don't know," Sabella replied, "but that isn't the strangest thing that happened."

"What could be stranger than waking up in a field when you went to sleep in a garage?" Mark asked.

Taking a deep breath Sabella told her brother the strangest part of what happened to her.

"The man who owned the field came out and asked me how I got on to his property, Sabella told her brother.

"He didn't hurt you did he?" Mark asked his tone letting everyone know that he was prepared to defend his sister.

"No," Sabella assured him. "He brought me to his home.

"Is the Hummer drivable?" Mark asked.

"Yes," Sabella replied. "There's nothing wrong with my car."

"Are you lost?" Mark asked not understanding why his sister didn't just get in her tank and come home.

"I'm not lost," Sabella said?"

"Then why aren't you here?" Mark asked. " Are you being held against your will?" Mark asked his voice turning deadly.

"No," Sabella said. "I can't come home because some how, some way, I've been sent back in time to the year 1954."

"What?!"

Sabella jumped when she heard Regina shriek. That's when she discovered that Mark had her on speaker phone.

"Hello, Regina," Sabella said to her sister-in-law.

"Where are you, Sabella?" Regina demanded, ignoring Sabella's greeting.

"I'm in my house," Sabella said, "but it's not my house. In 1954 the house is owned by Malcolm Matheson, and it's set up as a ranch of some kind called the Double M."

"You're serious aren't you?" Regina asked. "You really have gone back in time."

"Yes," Sabella said breathing a sigh of relief glad that her sister-in-law believed her.

"So you're saying that you're in this house right now but the year is 1954?" Mark asked.

"Yes," Sabella replied.

"What did you say the man who found you, name was?" Mark asked.

"Malcolm Matheson," Sabella replied.

"And the name of the ranch?" Mark asked.

"The Double M," Sabella replied.

Mark wrote the information down and told his sister, he would talk to her later, closed his phone ending the call.

"That went about the way I expected," Sabella said closing her phone.

"Glory be."

Malcolm and Sabella turned to see Mabel standing in the doorway between the living room and the dining room a stunned look on her face.

A look of panic appeared on Sabella's face because someone else knew her secret.

"How much did you hear Mabel," Malcolm asked walking over to his housekeeper.

"What's that contraption?" Mabel asked pointing at Sabella's cell phone.

"It's called a cell phone, a mobile phone," Sabella replied.

"Can I see it?" Mabel asked.

Sabella placed her cell phone in Mabel's hand. Mabel held the phone in her hand taking not of its small size and how light it was.

"Glory be," she said passing the phone back to Sabella. "You really are from the future aren't you?"

"Yes," Sabella replied.

"Glory be," Mabel said her voice showing her amazement at Sabella's words.

"We can't tell anyone else about this Mabel," Malcolm said. "Especially Sheriff Jenkins."

"I won't tell anyone," Mabel said walking over to Sabella taking her hands into hers. "What year?" she asked.

"2009," Sabella replied.

"Are things any better?" Mabel asked.

"Things have improved a lot," Sabella said, "but we still have so much further to go."

"This is remarkable," Mabel said releasing Sabella's hands and heading towards the kitchen. "It's just remarkable."

"What do you think your brother is going to do?"

Malcolm asked breaking into the silence that settled around him a Sabella after Mabel left them alone in the living room.

"He's probably doing an Internet search," Sabella replied. "Checking up on you and the rest of the information I have him."

"Internet?" Malcolm asked.

"It's something we use when we want information," Sabella said. "We search for information using our computers and the Internet, or what we call the information super highway."

"You have computers?" Malcolm said his tone showing that he didn't believe what Sabella was saying to him.

Deciding it would be easier to show Malcolm what she was talking about rather than telling him, Sabella asked him to follow her out to the garage to her car.

Once they were inside the garage, Sabella unlocked her baby reached inside and pulled out the case containing her laptop.

"This," Sabella said as she place the case containing her laptop on the hood of her car, opened it and showed it to Malcolm, "is a laptop computer."

She opened the lid of the computer revealing its keyboard and screen to Malcolm.

Malcolm walked over so that he could bet a better look at the computer.

"That little thing is a computer?" he asked not believing what he was being told.

"I'll show you, if this works," Sabella said reaching over and turning on her computer.

She watched as her computer powered up thinking that since her cell phone worked that maybe, just maybe her laptop would work also.

Sabella closed her eyes, held her breath waiting to hear a sound that she had heard so many times before but never really paid too much, attention to it.

Her breath caught in her throat s the sound she had been waiting for reached her ears sounding like angels in a heavenly choir.

"It works," Sabella said as the Yahoo yodel rung out loudly and clearly, into the air.

She sat down in front of her laptop as it finished powering up. A wallpaper of her brother and his family stretched across the screen.

Malcolm looked down at the computer and everything it was doing. He couldn't understand why hearing the yodel made Sabella so happy, but he liked the way her smile lit up her face, something has he hadn't seen done much, since he discovered her out in his pasture.

"I don't believe that this is a computer," Malcolm said pointing at the little box sitting on the hood of Sabella's car. "I've seen computers before and they are way bigger than that little thing you've got here, and it has cables and cords all over the place. That thing doesn't even have a cord attached to it."

"It's wireless, Malcolm," Sabella said pressing the button that would power down and turn off her computer because she realized from the tone of his voice that she was freaking Malcolm out.

"Is everything wireless in the future?" Malcolm asked his tone sarcastic.

"No," Sabella said closing her laptop and returning it to its case, "everything isn't wireless. I'm going back inside, I'll talk to you when your mood is better."

"I'm sorry," Malcolm said placing a hand on Sabella's shoulder to keep her from leaving after he realized that he was behaving badly.

"I understand," Sabella said, "everything I've shown you is hard for you to believe, and it's overwhelming. The things I've shown you probably surpassed anything you've thought man could conceive. It had to shake you up a bit."

That's when a thought came into Sabella's mind.

The year was 1954 and neither her mother nor her father had been born yet. It would be three years before either of her parents were born and yet here she stood.

Sabella found that she was the one dealing the feeling with being overwhelmed now.

"I'm going inside up to my room," Sabella said grabbing her laptop off the hood of her hummer.

Malcolm didn't stop her when she turned to leave this time because he figured they both could use some space and time to gather their thoughts.

Regina sat on the couch staring at her husband watching him as he stared at the piece of paper containing the information that Sabella had given him about where she was.

"What're you going to do?" she asked Mark after neither of them had spoken for a few moments.

"The first thing I'm going to do is check us into a hotel," Mark replied still staring down at the piece of paper, he held in his hand. "We can't stay here. Then I'm going to get the roof fixed, and I'm going to find out how my sister was transported back in time."

"You believe her?" Regina asked. Not believing what she was hearing her husband say.

"Yes," Mark said.

"But, how ....why?" Regina stammered.

"I don't know," Mark replied not understanding himself why he believed the fantastic story his, sister told him. "I just believe her."

"I believe her too," Regina said, "I just don't understand how such a thing could happen, and if it did happen how is her cell phone working?"

"I don't know how it happened," Mark said, "and the fact that it happened blows the hell out of all the scientific logic that says her cell phone shouldn't work."

"I wonder if her laptop works?" Regina said.

"I don't know," Mark replied. "I wouldn't be surprised if it did."

At that moment, there was a knock on the front door.

"I wonder who that could be?" Mark said as he stood and went to answer the door.

Mark opened the door and there stood Gloria Reed the woman who sold his sister the money pit he and his family were staying in.

Mark was about to lay a barrage of cuss words on this five foot, one hundred-fifteen pound, milk chocolate skin colored, weave wearing, amber colored eyed heifer when Regina came and stood beside him and took over the conversation.

"Hello, Gloria," Regina said before Mark could say what he really wanted to say to her.

"Hello, Regina its good to see you," Gloria said giving them, her most fake sincere smile, she could muster. "You too Mark."

Mark's response to her greeting was to give her a look that if it had, had the desired result would've caused Gloria Reed to burst into flames right where she stood.

"I'm looking for Sabella," Gloria said. "I came by to see how she's enjoying her first week in her new home."

"Sabella isn't here," Regina said as she pulled Mark away from the door and stood in front of him.

"She isn't," Gloria said using a tone of vice that a deaf person could tell wasn't sincere. "I hope she didn't have any problems."

"Why would Sabella have any problems?" Mark asked the tone of his voice showing that he was suspicious of his sister's friend and the question she asked. "You said yourself that this was a solid house and everything that was done to it was less than two years old. Therefore, why should my sister, your friend have any problems with her home?"

"Sabella shouldn't have any problems," Gloria said. "I just came by to see how she was doing being new to Tyler and all."

"Sabella isn't here right now," Mark said placing a strained smile on his face. "She's gone to find someone to give her an appraisal on how much it's going to cost her to have a new roof put on her new home and on the garage."

"This house doesn't need a new roof and neither does the garage," Gloria said her voice letting Mark know how insulted she was at the implication of what his words were saying. "The seller assured me and showed me documents stating that the roof on this house is only two years old, and it shouldn't need anything done for another fifteen years. Give or take a year."

"Well, somebody lied to either you or my sister," Mark said his look letting Gloria know where the blame lied.

"Look, I don't want Sabella to feel that I stuck her with a lemon or a money pit," Gloria said wondering herself how she made her vice sound so sincere. "I'm sure I could talk my boss into taking this place off her hand. Not at the price she paid for it of course, but I'm sure her loss wouldn't be that big, since she did just purchase the house."

Mark looked down at the woman standing before him as the light of understanding flashed into his mind.

Gloria Reed had conned his sister and sold her a house with known structural issues and now under the guise of friendship was offering her a way out of the trap that she lured Sabella into.

"I'm sure Mark will tell Sabella about your visit," Regina said rejoining the conversation she had been listening to and been a part of since her husband opened the door and having the same flash of understanding in her mind that her husband had in his, "but I don't think Sabella will be interested in selling her home."

Regina was amazed at the way Gloria managed to wipe away the look of amazement that appeared on her face upon learning that Sabella wouldn't be interested in selling the house back to her.

"Are you sure?" Gloria asked. "I'm sure I could talk my boss into buying the house back from her."

"I don't think Sabella will be looking to sell this house any time in the near future," Regina said. "As I said before I think she really likes this house."

"What about the plumbing?" Gloria asked. "Is she going to want the added expense of replacing all the plumbing?"

"Sabella didn't mention a plumbing problem," Mark said making a move towards Gloria.

"I don't know if there is a plumbing problem," Gloria said trying to recover from her accidental slip. "I'm just mentioning a potential problem that could've been something else the previous owner might've lied about."

"As I said before, I'll tell Sabella you came by," Regina said stepping between Mark and Gloria, "but I wouldn't get my hopes up about her selling this place because I don't see that happening."

Gloria stood on the front porch staring at the door that had just been closed in her face. Her mind searching for an excuse to give her boss as to why Sabella wouldn't be selling her house back to them.

Gloria thought that selling the house to her old high school friend and buying it back from her at a loss wouldn't be a problem because she expected Sabella to be jumping at the bit to sell it back to her once she learned about the roof and how expensive it would be to have it repaired, but it didn't look like Sabella would be selling the house back to them.

This was the fifth time the house had been sold to an unsuspecting person looking forward to buying a home in Tyler.

This particular house was a favorite because of its location and the family atmosphere of the neighborhood, people wanted to live there so selling it wasn't a problem.

It also wasn't a problem getting the same unsuspecting buyers to sell the house back to Gloria's boss once they discovered the house was in need of expensive and lengthy repairs.

Most of the buyers were anxious to sell the house back to Gloria's boss when he offered to buy it back from them at a small loss, but it didn't look as if it was going to happen this time because Sabella liked the house and wanted to repair it. Gloria just hoped her boss would understand.