A Laird for All Time by Angeline Fortin (room on the broom read aloud txt) 📗

wire extended, split and ended in a flattened ball of some sort on each part.  He shivered in trepidation.

He had absolutely no idea what it was.

Chapter 34

Emmy spoke softly as Connor studied the object. “I think I told you my mom had me learn to play the piano and guitar when I was growing up because studies had shown that music aided in learning of math.  What my mom never realized was that I did it because I just really like music.  When I was in high school, I’d go to see ever concert that came to town just so I could hear it live.  In my time, you don’t have to wait for a concert, hope someone can play the piano or play it yourself because we have radio, TV, CD’s and these.”  She gestured to the player.  “This object is a telephone, much as I described to you in Oban.  My own personal one, small enough to fit in my hand.  It’s not only a phone but also what we call an mp3 player.  There are many different kinds but this one in particular is called an iPhone.”  She took it from him for a moment and removed the ear buds.  She held them up, “There are for just one person to use it for music, so ignore them for now.”  She laid it back on the table, black side up.

“What does it do?” he rasped leaning away from it.

“It is a telephone.  You talk into it,” she pointed to the tiny hole of the microphone, “and can have a conversation with anyone in the world.  It also plays music.  Well it does a lot of other things too, but let’s start with the music.”  Emmy leaned forward leaning her elbows on the table.  “Go ahead, touch it.”

“That’s quite all right, I believe ye.”

“No, you don’t,” she whispered, her voice raw.

He looked so terrified that Emmy almost had to laugh.  She might have done so anyway if she hadn’t thought he would take it as a personal offense.  Men could be so touchy when their manhood and courage were brought into question!  Instead, she reached across and touched the screen with one fingertip.

Connor jerked back as the screen lit up.  A colorful picture appeared in the black field, it was a square with profile picture of a young blond woman.  Carrie Underwood it said and Home Sweet Home below that.  Emmy tapped once more on the picture and piano music emitted from the object.

“Sweet Mary, Mother of God,” he whispered in horror as a woman’s voice joined the piano.

Emmy noted a that his skin had paled dramatically and, taking pity on him, reached across, stopped the music and pulled it away from him.  For a moment, he looked like he might be ill.  Giving him a moment to collect his wits, Emmy toyed with the player.  “It plays music and much more.” Moving to a different menu, she quickly shuffled through the pictures she had loaded on it, she found one she liked and turned it around to show it to Connor.  “A picture of my mother.”

Connor saw the color image of a lovely woman with flowing blond hair that appeared to be rippling in a breeze.  She looked a lot like Emmy as she had been yesterday, seated by the sound with the wind tossing her hair.  The image was crisp and eerily lifelike and the woman in it was smiling merrily as it just caught in a moment rather than posing for twenty seconds while an exposure was taken.  He reached a curious finger to touch the screen but the image slid away and another took its place.  This one was of Emmy though she was much younger in this image.  She was in a cheek to cheek embrace with her mother and both were wearing wide grins as they stared out at him.  He touched it again and another slid into place.  From a distance this time, the women stood in front of a building with Emmy wearing a gold gown and hat with a flat square on the top.

“My high school graduation,” she said softly.  “Mom died not too long afterward.”

“She was a bonny lady,” he offered still trying to digest and understand what he was seeing.

“She was.”

“Where did ye get this…thing?” he asked finally.

“At a store,” she answered keeping her voice low and soothing.  “It is not unique by any means; millions of people own one or something similar to it.  On this, I have over 2000 songs, hundreds of photos, games, some movies and some audio books.  Books read out loud and recorded so you can listen to them when you cannot just sit and read.”

“Thousands of songs?” he repeated in amazement turning it over in his hand.  But it was so small!  Surely this was impossible. He had never dreamed of such a thing!  He had seen a cylindrical phonograph presented in Paris nine years before.  It had been large and capable of playing but a single tune.  The sound it had emitted had also been rough and uneven…nothing that could be compared to this.  Was it possible that Emmy was saying the truth?  That she had somehow traveled through time to him?  It was fantastic and absurd, yet she was here.

He shook his head.  But…

Everyone living in his castle had commented that they had never met another like her.  All had assumed it was because she had been in America for too long, but what if it was because she had been raised a century ahead of them all?

Their conversation in Oban could be taken in a different light now.  She had been trying to feel him out regarding her origins, testing his mind’s acceptance of her truth.  Again, he shook his head.  It could not be!

“If I had an app to make this easier for you, I would use it.”  Her voice was teasing but the joke was obviously beyond him.  Connor remained silent, staring at