Lynn and Susan arrived at the Port of Galveston an hour before the ship was due to set sail. They checked in, handed their luggage to the porters and headed up to their cabin where two bottles of champagne awaited them, one from Donald and one from Ernest. By the time the horn blew, announcing their departure, they’d managed to down both bottles.
The ship pulled out of Galveston harbor at sunset into calm ocean waters and a warm breeze. Susan hadn’t had time to contact the Maître’d before dinner, so their table companions were going to be a surprise, but no matter. Along with the champagne, they’d imbibed enough wine by the time the dinner hour arrived, that meeting some new people would be amusing, and if they weren’t compatible, they could always change tables the next night.
Lynn was the first to slide into her chair in the brilliantly lit dining room, Susan following, but there was no sign of their assigned dinner companions yet. Susan beckoned the waiter to bring a wine list, and as the girls were perusing the vast amount of choices, two other ladies slid into the chairs across the table.
Lynn looked up from the wine list, a somewhat startled expression in her eyes, and muttered a small, “Oh, hello there.”
Susan glanced up, and said, “Oh my...hello,” also in a surprised tone of voice.
Their two dinner companions were dark-skinned, and the younger of the two displayed a broad smile and twinkling eyes. She appeared to be middle-aged, while the other lady looked quite ancient. Both were dressed in flowing garments of the most brilliant colors with matching turbans on their heads. The older woman nodded her head in acknowledgment to the girls.
“Your dresses are beautiful!” exclaimed Lynn.
The younger woman smiled again and extended her hand. “Thank you. My name is Marta, and this is my grandmother, Mika. We are most pleased to meet you.” She had a slight French accent.
“Same here,” said Susan. “I’m Susan, and I’m here from California visiting my friend, Lynn, who lives in Texas. We’re taking a girl’s cruise. We’ve been best friends since elementary school.”
“We’re from Haiti,” responded Marta. “My grandmother has never been on a cruise before. I wanted her to have the experience before she got much older.”
“It would be hard to get much older from the looks of her,” Susan thought.
Dinner progressed in usual cruise-style, with fabulous appetizers, soups, salads, entree’s, and more wine. Both of the girls were feeling quite mellow by this time, and the wine was making them rather garrulous.
Mika had said very little during the dinner course, and the girls were wondering if she spoke much English, until she suddenly turned to Susan, saying in a soft-spoken voice, “You would like to go visit someone in another time and place, would you not? You have been thinking of this person for a very long time.”
Susan, who was about to take another sip of wine, drew back from her wine glass and stared at the old woman. “Why, what can you mean?” she asked.
“Do not pretend you do not know what I mean,” Mika replied staring intently at Susan. “You and your friend were talking about this person just today, and this person is still in your mind.”
“Oh, come on, Susan, you know what she’s talking about,” Lynn said. “Remember, we were reminiscing about the concert we went to last year, and you were saying how you wish you could re-live meeting you-know-who in Disneyland? Then you said how cool it would be to go back into the past and meet him before he became famous. She has you figured out.” She giggled, forgetting about how she had scolded Susan for thinking of James.
“Please stop, Grandmere,” said Marta, gently laying her hand on Mika’s arm. “This lady wants no such thing. Leave this kind of thing for home.”
“But she wants to go; I can see into her soul. She has wanted this for a very long time. She has something to find out and learn about herself in regard to this person. And, it awaits her in the past.”
“What are you talking about?!” exclaimed Susan. “I think I’ve had too much wine.”
“Are you talking about time travel or something like that?” Lynn interjected.
“Don’t listen to my grandmother,” said Marta. “She imagines things. She thinks she can see into people’s souls.”
“But Marta, you know I can,” insisted Mika. “You know I can see into the souls of people. And this lady wants very much to meet this James person in the past. It has been in her heart for a very, very long time. She will learn something very important about herself by doing this.”
“How can you know that? How did you even know his name?” asked Susan, her curiosity getting the better of her.
“My grandmother thinks she is all-knowing as well as being able to read into people’s souls,” responded Marta shaking her head.
“So can you really send someone back in time?” asked Lynn, draining her glass of wine.
“That would be interesting,” remarked Susan with a giggle. “Just imagine me popping into the Dusky Club, like fifty-two years in the past, and there he is live and in person. Whoa!”
Marta was silent. Mika stared hard at Susan. “Would you want to go? It would only be for a short period of time, but I could arrange for you to go.”
“Well, I sure as hell wouldn’t want to go looking like the sixty-two-year-old I am now! He’d be what, twenty!?” exclaimed Susan.
“You wouldn’t have to go as you are now. You pick the age you want your physical body to be, and I will send you back that way.”
Lynn and Susan looked at each other, neither of them knowing what to say.
“You should do it, Susan. Really, you should,” said Lynn, thinking Susan might discover James wasn’t the paragon she’d made him out to be in her mind. “She said you would learn something from it. And just think, you could be like seventeen again!”
“And what would I learn? That he wasn’t as perfect as I’ve always thought he was? Oh come on, this is ridiculous! What would I say? And how could this even be possible?!” exclaimed Susan.
Lynn thought, “Yeah, it would be great if you found out that he was a jerk…”
“It is possible,” whispered Marta under her breath. “My grandmother can do many things others would think strange or impossible. She is much respected in Haiti for the things she can do.”
“Well, I don’t know what even to think anymore,” said Susan. “How does this work anyway? I just - poof - vanish into the past, and then what?”
“You go at a certain time, and you return one week later at the same time. What you do while you are there is up to you,” responded Marta. “My grandmother would take care that no harm came to you. If anything dangerous were to happen to you on the other side, you would return immediately.”
“But what do I do about clothes and money and a place to stay and all that kind of stuff?” asked Susan.
“It would all be arranged; you would have what you need for one week,” responded Marta.
Mika nodded, staring at Susan through half-closed eyes.
“Do it, Suz. Then you can come back and tell me everything that happened,” said Lynn. To herself, she said, “And hopefully, you’ll realize that what you have in the present is much better than anything you would have ever had with him…”
“This is just too darn crazy,” said Susan.
“But do you want to do it?” asked Marta.
Mika’s eyes were closed now, but her head kept nodding.
“Well...maybe,” said Susan. “But what in the heck would I do or say if I suddenly just showed up? He probably wouldn’t even look at me!” said Susan.
“Are you kidding me?” exclaimed Lynn. “The way you looked at seventeen would certainly have him looking at you!”
“Ha, ha,” responded Susan. “But it would sure be nice to have that seventeen-year-old body back again, even if it was for only a week.”
“Then do it!” said Lynn, suddenly feeling quite drunk. “How?” asked Susan, Looking at Mika and then at Marta.
“You come to our cabin a few minutes before midnight, and we will have it all arranged,” responded Marta. “It is very simple. And it is very safe. Don’t worry.”
Mika got up from the table with Marta following, and they left the dining room.
“I didn’t even say for sure I’d do it!” said Susan.
“You didn’t have to say anything,” responded Lynn. “The old lady knows. Are you scared?”
“I’m not scared. I just think we’re going to go to their cabin and find out it’s a bunch of hocus-pocus.”
“You should take your iPod, you know,” remarked Lynn. “You could show him how famous he’s going to be and let him listen to all the music he’s going to write.”
“You’re as nuts as they are,” said Susan. “Where in hell would I plug in an iPod in 1962 and in England? They don’t even have the same type of plugs over there.”
“Charge it up before you go,” said Lynn.
“Oh geez!” said Susan, finishing up her wine. “Let’s go watch the show in the main theater and let me think about this.”
The two old friends stumbled out of the dining room, clinging to each other’s arms and giggling.
***
Candles aren’t allowed on cruise ships, but there were three candles burning in Marta and Mika’s cabin when Lynn and Susan arrived at five minutes before midnight, all of them deep down in glass jars of the primary colors blue, red and yellow. There was an unmistakable odor of incense in the air, but neither of them could recognize what scent it was.
The door clicked shut behind them, and Marta moved forward out of the shadows. Mika was hidden behind her.
“First a few things we need to know,” said Marta, looking at Susan. “You want the body you had at age seventeen? That is no problem. Are there any other talents or characteristics you want to have or want to take with you?”
“Well, I’d like to take the knowledge and common sense I believe I now have. Other than the seventeen-year-old body, I think I’d like to be able to play the piano...play by ear...play reading music...whatever, just be able to play incredibly well...and I want to be able to dance better than I was ever able to...double pirouettes no problem...”
“Suz!” Lynn exclaimed. “When are you going to have a chance to do double pirouettes at the Dusky Club?”
“You never know...Oh! And I want to be able to sing! ...Oh my gosh! I can’t forget this! I want to have perfect 20/20 vision. I think I wore contacts when I was seventeen. It would be horrible to be all squinty-eyed and not be able to see him!”
Lynn shook her head, but then started to laugh as she thought of something herself. “You sure don’t want it to be your time of the month either, right? Don’t want to be grumpy and having cramps. They might not sell Midol or Tampax in England.”
“That is all fine. It is done. If there’s nothing else, then lay down on the bed,” Marta instructed Susan. “Lynn, sit on the floor beside her and hold her left hand.”
Susan and Lynn silently did as they were told, emboldened by more wine before coming to the cabin.
“Are you sure you want to do this?” asked Lynn looking at Susan as she laid down on the bed.
“I’m not sure...I think so...” she responded. “I just don’t know what I’ll say to him. I’ll probably get all tongue-tied or faint. That would be embarrassing! Maybe you should come with me.”
“No thanks. I’m sure you can handle it all on your own. Just don’t go falling in love or anything stupid like that.”
“Well, that’s unlikely! I’m only going to be there for seven days! What could happen in seven days anyway?”
Mika smiled from the shadows.
“I think we’re both crazy,” said Lynn. “Totally,” agreed Susan.
They both looked at Marta. Mika emerged from the shadows. She was wearing different garments and clutched a bag of what smelled like strange herbs in her right hand.
“Relax and close your eyes,” she instructed Susan.
Susan’s eyes were suddenly as big as saucers.
“What’s going to happen?” she asked.
“You will leave here in a few minutes. You will feel nothing. You will open your eyes, and you will be in the Dusky Club in Brighton, England, and the person you so wish to meet will be at a microphone singing. The rest will be up to you. You will be sitting on a stool next to a wall near the front of the club. In your purse will be a key to a room in a nearby hotel, where you will be staying. You will have money in your purse, and you will be dressed in the fashion of the day. You will have spare clothes in your room for the week. That is all. As I said, the rest will be up to you.”
Susan looked at Lynn, feeling a little frightened, but the wine had muddled her brain a bit, and she just smiled.
“Okay, sure, let’s go for it,” she said from her prone position on the bed.
Just a few more things,” said Mika. “Your friend here will be able to observe you on her iPhone. Marta will install an App on it. If she feels the desire or needs to be with you, she can come to this cabin, and we will transport her back. If she goes, however, she must return the same time as you. It is now near midnight on Friday. You will return next Friday precisely at midnight unless Lynn goes to bring you back sooner or unless you are in danger. If she does go back, you must be in agreement to return here sooner than next Friday, and she will use the App on her iPhone to transport you both back...but you must agree to it. Once she is there, you must return together. And, as I said, should a situation occur where you are in danger, you will return immediately.”
“And,” added Marta, “When you return, all that happened to you in the past will become a dim memory to you. The same will be the case for those you meet or spend time with in the past. It is important that you know this.”
Both Lynn and Susan looked at the clock next to the bed.
It was one minute before midnight. Mika began chanting and waving the bag of herbs over Susan’s prone form.
Susan began to glow and become almost transparent.
“Oh my God, no Suz, what’s happening to you?! No, no...No!” Lynn screamed as she looked at the clock, seeing the digital numbers as they registered midnight.
Suddenly, without further warning, Susan burst into particles of light like sparkling confetti and floated away up toward the ceiling and out from the sides of the bed.
Lynn fainted.