Rebekka Oakly

Rebekka Oakly closed the book she finished reading about Annie Oakley. Her last name is similar, and she is a pretty good shot with an antique rifle. Rebekka has been a Temporal Researcher most of her life. Funny, but she knew this subject quite well. Rebekka wrote the book on Annie after meeting her and learning to shoot from her. In 1886, Rebekka was tasked with learning about her subject, Annie Oakley. She did!

She travelled to 1885, and once a year for more than a decade and a half, she met Annie while she was working in the Buffalo Bill Show. They became the best of friends, and a few times, Rebekka met her while they were travelling. But Annie always looked forward to coming to the town where Rebekka lived.

Rebekka will be meeting up one last time with Annie and her husband in the spring of 1926, knowing that Annie would die of natural causes on November 3 of the same year, and her husband of more than fifty years would die three weeks later. Some suspect a broken heart.

Chronologically, at the present timeframe, Rebekka is 41 years old. But she spent a significant time in the past, close to 70 years, so she is closer to 100 years old in her own personal version of reality.

Reality, what exactly is reality? She spent so much time traveling in the past that she absorbed more temporal energy than anyone in, well, history.

To Rebekka, there are three realities.

ONE: What she experiences moment by moment.

TWO: The history she learned in school and is dedicated to protecting.

THREE: The realities that differ between her home temporal reference and the time she is existing in.

Those realities cannot ever merge.

Her preferred timeframe for research and jumping in is the latter years of the 1800s. Simpler times, and she gets to carry a gun. Her standard costume is patterned after Annie Oakley. She saw a glimpse of herself in a wax museum on one of her first trips to the past and felt a connection. White blouse, with a long-sleeved, soft, supple leather vest and gloves. Skirt to match, cut from the same hide as the pouch hanging on her left hip with a single strap over her right shoulder. A lot of fringe and tassels. High boots, just below her knees, so they would not hinder movement if she bent down. Of course, to top it off, was the wide-brimmed hat with a brooch on the front, so everyone looking at her knew you were talking to a woman with culture.

Her weapon of choice: an 1848 rifle created by Christian Sharps, with one addition. Her implant, which she uses to record events in history without anyone noticing, has a small device inserted into the base of the rifle sight. It allows her to aim and hit objects at extreme distances, compensating automatically for distance, wind, and gravity.

She has killed an animal or two, but the primary rules of a temporal researcher are never to let anyone see you arrive or depart a timeframe and never cause injury or death to another human. Either of those rules, if broken, can lead to bad things happening in the future.

As Rebekka sat in her livingroom, she thought about her next trip. It will be the last trip to visit Annie. In the spring of 1926, Annie and her husband, Frank Butler, are alive and happy, living in her hometown, Willowdell, Ohio, about 50 miles north-northwest of Dayton.

Rebekka was writing a book about Annie, but Annie had no idea. It was a human interest biography. She plans to title it “Life with Annie Oakley,” and the subtitle will be “as seen through the eyes of Phoebe Ann Mosey.”

Rebekka has more than 30 jumps to see, watch, befriend, and understand the woman who became Annie Oakley, and she plans to let the universe know just how amazing she was.

She learned the art and skill of precision shooting by hunting to provide food for the family. She was so good at it that she collected additional animals and sold them to a store, making money for the family. Something they did not have, and something they needed.

She met her husband, Frank Butler, in a shooting competition and beat him by a single shot, 25 out of 25. That set them on the path to marriage and a life together for more than half a century.

Annie loved shooting, hunting, and teaching both women and men. Providing they listened. Tomorrow’s jump to the past will be threefold.

Part one will be to go on a hunt with a ten-year-old Annie and get her take on life, her goals, and what she sees when she looks at herself in the mirror.

Part two will be in Europe, where she will perform for Queen Victoria of England, King Umberto of Italy, President Marie François Sadi Carnot of France, and other heads of state. Specifically, Rebekka wants to witness Annie Oakley shoot the ashes off a cigarette held by the newly crowned Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany at his request.

Part three will be about 1926, to be with and say goodbye to her friend of more than two decades. This part will be to Greenville, Ohio, where Annie would leave the universe due to Pernicious Anemia at the age of 66, on November 3, 1926. But Rebecca would visit one last time.

Annie never failed to hold her audiences in awe and delight them, and her feats of marksmanship were truly incredible. At 30 paces, she could split a playing card held edge-on. She hit dimes tossed into the air. She shot cigarettes from her husband’s lips, and, with a playing card thrown into the air, she was able to put several holes in it before it touched the ground.

These are a few of the things Rebekka put into the book. Closing her journal, a journal she carried with her through time, she headed into the office. Her office is a place of mystery, where fact and fiction merge. A place where research and life itself mingle into one thing that can incite curiosity. Her office was full of history, and she was about to step into it.

She closed her journal, placed it in the oiled-leather pouch to keep it safe from the weather and rain, and put it into her messenger bag.

Stepping into the chamber, the operator verified her implant was operating. The light and power increased; she was drowning in the white light, so bright it was difficult to look at. The operator watched the chamber’s porthole, and a moment later, it was dark. She was gone.

She was already there, with Annie, her friend, for the last time.