1880-09-20 “High Kicks” by Hannah

This is the first entry in my journal. I am Hannah Madison, born in Scranton, PA in 1962, living in Memphis, TN. In 1880. I am a time traveler. Some unknown metaphysical phenomenon time-shifted me, Merritt, and Emma from 1984 to 1880.

How I came to be in Memphis is clouded with uncertainty. I attended Syracuse University and majored in Engineering. I had accepted a job at a company called NYC SysOps. I had stayed in the dorm after graduation to be RA for a short pre-summer term. On June 14, I laid down to take a nap.

When I woke up, it was still June 14. But it was 1880, and I was in a boarding house in Memphis. I was not an engineer, though I had all the knowledge from when I laid down for the nap. Instead… I was a burlesque dancer. 

Everything about being in Memphis was confusing. The other dancers, through conversations, revealed that they thought I was from Scranton. They also called me “doc” and I picked up on the idea that the version of me that had been there before I time-shifted had claimed to have been a doctor, trained at the Women’s Medical College of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

The woman that runs the burlesque show, Greta, has made a few comments leading me to believe I came to Memphis to work at City Hospital, but was denied a job because I am a woman.

It wasn’t long before it was clear that the boarding house was barely a notch shy of being a brothel. Brothel-like activities were not officially part of the place, but they were hardly uncommon. Let’s say my disinterest in them did not help my situation. 

Also, it should be noted that the me that came from 1984 wasn’t much of a dancer to begin with!

A couple of weeks after I woke up in 1880, I was outside the burlesque show building when a handsome, nicely dressed man walked by. There was something more to him than vision alone would perceive. I was compelled to approach him.

That was Merritt Gray, and somehow, we both knew we were time-shifted. Later, on July 4, we met Emma Knox, also time-shifted from 1984; her arrival story will be in her journal.