The Necklace - The Dusky Club, June 1962, Linda S Rice [manga ebook reader .TXT] 📗

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 woman looked quite ancient. Both were dressed in flowing garments of 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. “My name is Susan, and I’m 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 are 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, entrees, and more wine. Both of the girls felt 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.”

Lynn 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 when we are 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 regarding this person. And, it awaits her in the past.”

“What are you talking about?!” exclaimed Susan. She hiccupped. “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 most essential about herself by doing this.”

“How can you know that? How did you even know his name?” asked Susan, sounding startled and 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. “Imagine me popping into the Dusky Club, like fifty-two years in the past, and there is James, live and in person. Whoa!” She hiccupped again.

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…then you’d quit thinking about him…”

“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. “And hopefully, you’ll realize that what you have in the present with Donald 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 on the verge of being 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 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 three candles were burning in Marta and Mika’s cabin when Lynn and Susan arrived five minutes before midnight, all of them deep down in glass jars of the primary colors blue, red and yellow. There was the 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’d like the ability to play the piano...play by ear...play reading music...whatever… just 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