Leonard Sullivan put on his best smile as he entered the communal cell holding the women and children from the Pan Am flight. Four prison guards followed him in, pushing two trolleys supporting large flat screen television sets and DVD player units.
‘’If I may have your attention, ladies! I have two announcements to make. First, your cell and the adjacent one holding the men from your flight wil be kept unlocked from now on and you wil be able to freely go between your two cells to visit your husbands or other passengers and crews. Only the ends of your mutual corridor wil be guarded and locked. It isn’t much but I hope that Washington will soon act and provide you with more appropriate accommodations.’
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‘’What we need is to go home, mister.’ Replied in a feisty tone Coco Chanel, making Sullivan shrug.
‘’I am sorry, Miss Chanel, but understand that, even in 2015, we don’t know how to travel through time. Until we can learn or figure out how you got here from the year 1959, there are precious few chances that we wil ever be able to send you back in time.’’
While truthful, Sullivan realized immediately that he had chosen the wrong words, as many of the women started crying or sat down, despair on their faces. He then tried his best to make out for it.
‘’Whatever happen, ladies, I promise you that you wil all be treated decently here in this time period. Our government now knows that you are here completely involuntarily and that you are no criminals.’’
‘’And you think that no one wil try to exploit us for their own profit?’’ Replied Marilyn Monroe, sarcastic. ‘’We may now be in 2015, but I don’t believe that human nature has changed this much. As for politicians, they wil never change, and certainly not for the better.’
Sullivan couldn’t help mentally agree with her, especially with the way the American Congress had become a near-madhouse in the last five years. The same could be said as well about the rest of the World.
‘’While I agree with your opinion of politicians, Miss Monroe, I assure you that President Barak Obama doesn’t care for those who ignore or violate the human rights of others. I am sure that he will do the right thing concerning the people of your flight.’
‘’Barak Obama?’ Said one of the Pan Am stewardesses, Mary O’Mal ey. ‘’His name doesn’t sound very American to me, especially for a president.’
Sullivan didn’t know what to say to that at first. For Americans from the 1950s, Barak Obama indeed sounded most foreign as a name.
‘’President Obama is a Democrat, miss. He also happens to be the first-ever black president elected and is presently in his second term in office.’’
That created a small storm of surprised exclamations around him, some of which could have been qualified as racist. Again, the culture of 1959 was proving to be quite different from that of 2015. The prison’s infirmary had nearly run out of nicotine patches in order to provide for the people from Pan Am 164, of which a much greater proportion than in 2015 smoked, some very heavily, like the three-pack-a-day Edward Murrow.
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‘’A black president…’’ Said with a slight smile Marilyn Monroe, historical y known to have been an equal rights person. ‘’Maybe politics can improve, after all.’
‘’Let’s forget politics tonight, ladies.’’ Said hurriedly Sul ivan, trying to change subject. ‘’I have brought with me two television sets so that you could watch recorded movies to help pass the time. One set will be reserved for your children, with an appropriate selection of films for them. The men’s cell will also get two television sets. If any of you wishes to go view movies with your men, that is fine with me, as long as you return to your cell by curfew time, which for your group wil be at midnight.’
‘’What about some news, regular television programming, newspapers?’’ Asked Grace Kelly. ‘’How can we be expected to behave correctly if we know nothing of this time period?’’
Sullivan thought that over for a moment. He himself had just said that the chances of these people ever being able to go back to 1959 were about nil. They would eventual y have to be introduced to this time period, especially if they would have to integrate it.
‘’A good point, Your Highness. I will send two technicians to connect your televisions to the cable service and wil have a selection of newspapers and magazines delivered to your cells.’
‘’Thank you, Warden. That wil be much appreciated.’
While he had acted with good intentions in mind, Leonard Sullivan had without knowing it just complicated greatly the situation of the people from Pan Am 164.
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CHAPTER 4 – GOLDEN CAGE
09:18 (New York Time)
Wednesday, October 7, 2015