Tom Jenkins and Will Robertson stood in what would be the common room for three apartments that would belong to Merritt, Devon, Hannah, Emma, and Addison. They were finished and waiting on final inspection, but being there at that time had nothing to do with the apartments at all.
“Why do you think the meeting was to be here?” Will asked.
“No clue,” Tom replied. “And no clue what’s going to happen.”
Will looked at the stairs that descended directly from the common room to the street as the sound of the door opening echoed in the empty space. Shay Ryder was the first to appear.
“Everyone is here,” Shay said. “We all slept over at Merritt and Emma’s”
When all were present, Tom pointed at cushions around the otherwise empty area. “We drug the cushions up from the theater’s green room. It’s an hour earlier in Memphis… We think some of them might be sleeping when they shift. Play it safe… everyone can have a seat.”
Merritt looked around and picked a seat beside Hannah. "Sit here and then what?”
Emma answered. “We time shift. Maybe back to 1880… That's what we've been guessing…"
"We still don't know what happened to the people that shifted to 1984," Hannah added. "We assumed someone had to swap into that timeline… What if we end up… there…?"
Will looked around at the eight nervous young people as Kent summed up everyone’s thoughts. “This is crazy. What are we to do when we get there?”
Emma answered again. “I s’pose we’ll find out, some way.”
~~
Exactly at 6:59 Will and Tom watched as the room filled with green and yellow glowing smoke. The young people sat still looking around at each other. Flickers and sparks permeated the smoke, then in the span of a few seconds it wisped away.
The young people mostly seemed a little dazed, but Merritt was alert, looking around until he saw Will and Tom. “Oh, brother… again? Where am I and who are you? You look like man that runs the theater where Emma works, and you look like a man that lives down my street."
Then, Emma spoke up. “We ain’t in 1880! Are we back to normal?”
“We don’t exactly know what’s happening…” Will said, then he gave a quick recap of what had happened, explaining how he and Tom were involved in the lives of the people in 2024.
About then, Devon woke up. His eyes gaped open as he looked around. “Heaven Loudy help me!”
Merritt moved to him quickly. “It will be alright. Take it easy.”
Devon seemed to trust Merritt’s words, but a breath later, he exclaimed, “Loudy, Loudy, I dun turned white! I’m a white man! Is my face white, too?"
"White as your arms." Addison looked over at him. “Calm down friend, I’ve done turned into a woman!”
Hannah looked over at Addison. “Who are you?”
“Addison Magee from the theater where Emma works. I was, anyway.”
Tom smiled. “That’s still your name, and you still work in a theater.”
Then, Shay seemed to become aware of herself. “Where, pray tell, are my clothes? Why are all the women wearing trousers or whatever is left of whatever I had on b’fore the legs were torn asunder from them?”
“Who are you?” Emma asked.
Tom and Will intervened. “Shay, calm down. There is so much you need to know, and we’ll explain it in bits.”
Then began a long, long explanation. Merritt (born 2000), Emma (born 1965), and Hannah (born 1962) confirmed a lot of it, then Kent made a surprising comment.
“You shifted from 1984? I did too. I shifted about two weeks ago. I was doing some volunteer construction work in the Bronx and was escorting one of the other volunteers to her car. She got in and I shut the door. Bam! Smoke and sparkles, and I’m standing in Memphis a century earlier being the bodyguard for Shay Ryder, daughter of railroad tycoon David Ryder. Shay was born in 1857. I was… as you say, this version of me… was born in 1958.”
Shay looked at him and shook her head. “Impossible! You went there with me.”
Kent shrugged. “Different me, then. I’ve not got around to telling anyone that I shifted, ‘cause I figured I’d gone insane and if not, anyone I told would think I had.”
Shay had left her family’s new Bank Street town home in June to go to Memphis to help with the Sisters of St. Marys who had established themselves there during the yellow fever epidemic. Kent had worked for the railroad and her father had hired him to be her bodyguard on her travels.
“Okay, what now?” Emma asked.
Will pointed at Hannah and Merritt. “You two have to come with me to work.”
He looked at Devon. “I’m afraid it might be too much for you, today. Devon will have to take PTO.”
Emma looked at him. “I’ll explain it all. When I figure it out.”
Merritt looked at Emma. "PTO… Paid time off… vacation days…"
Tom nodded. “Emma, we knew you were from 1984. We thought you could help the others settle… down… Kent, you, too.”
“Settle down…” Kent laughed. “Just like that… Jump 144 years into the future and mellow out.”
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