Cabrera Landing (Paperback)

Cabrera Landing by David W. Stewart Retired financial advisor Leon Wetherby buys Cabrera Landing, an isolated property on the Indian River Lagoon in Florida, to be close to his granddaughter. He immediately begins seeing unusual specters around the property, such as a saber-toothed tiger, an antiquated pirate and a young girl presumed dead for more than 150 years. While investigating these occurrences with his new friend Annabel, he consults a witch, a physics professor and an alien. Leon and Annabel discover that Cabrera Landing is a main stop on a cosmic escalator that operates between alternate universes. A mischievous cosmic creature, Hassalla uses this cosmic elevator to transport Leon, Annabel and four others to the equivalent of twelfth millennium B. C. Florida in one of these alternate universes. The small tribe of six people, three men and three women, each from a different time and culture, struggles with the hardships of primitive living. They face hunger, thirst, cold and numerous ice-age animals such as saber-toothed tigers, dire wolves and cave bears. For six years, Hassalla amuses itself with their adventures and in the seventh, allows them to produce children. The infants create additional problems for the group, especially since their spirits are bound to the astral plane of the alternate universe. A nurturing cosmic entity, Nanya is aware of the plight of the six exiles and their three babies. Nanya realizes that when Hassalla terminates its drama, it must extinguish the lives of the tribal members and abandon the infants. After eight years, Hassalla destroys the tribe and its compound in a terrifying meteor shower, however, Nanya manages to rescue the children. The spirits of the tribal members are reborn in their original universe and the spirits of Leon and Annabel are reunited. Leon's granddaughter inherits Cabrera Landing and sells it to an emissary of Nanya, which quarantines it from the world so that no other individuals will suffer the fate of Leon, Annabel and the others.