In Another Time Page 4

  Interrupting his thoughts, Sadie prompted, “Well, Sam, you asked if you could tell me a story. I’m all yours for the next,” she checked the precious Cartier Roadster wristwatch Lala had given to her on her eighteenth birthday, “hour or so. Then I have to hit the books.”

  Sam confessed, “I don’t really know where to begin, so I guess I’ll just start at the beginning of us.” His eyes twinkled and danced dreamily as he searched for fitting words to begin telling their story.

  Chapter 6

  Another Time-October

  It was October 19, 1942. World War II was raging all around us, and the war effort was really beginning to gear up in the United States. Those days were referred to as “Scrap Days” because the government was calling on all Americans to donate any scraps of metal they could spare. You see, many of our tanks, ships, and other vehicles were in dire need of repair, and the scraps were used to either repair or rebuild them. It was such a different time. So different from the excess most Americans enjoy and take for granted today.

  That crisp, autumn, Monday morning in King’s Landing, New York, I remember the sun was intensely bright. Shading my eyes with my hand as I cut across the back of the schoolyard toward my first hour class, I noticed a mere sprite of a girl dragging a large, bulky, burlap sack to the scrap metal truck that was parked out back of Spring Street High School. I hurried over to her just as she was about to heave the sack onto the scrap heap.

  “Here, let me help,” I offered as I effortlessly grabbed the sack from her and easily chunked it onto the scrap heap.

  Well, let me tell you, she let me know, in no uncertain terms, that she was not some “damsel in distress.” I’ll never forget the look in her eyes and her first words to me.

  “Oh, my hero!” she drawled dramatically with her hand pressed against her heart feigning adoration. “Good thing the big, strong man came along just as poor little ol’ me was about to faint dead away from pure exhaustion,” she dripped sarcastically as she glared up at me and puffed a lock of golden-streaked auburn hair out of her eyes. That’s when I gasped, not because of her stinging remarks, but because for the first time, I saw her eyes. I swear, sparks were flying from those deep, swirling caramel orbs. I was so mesmerized, I just stood there, a big, hulking creature transfixed by her diminutive form and dazzling beauty. We were the perfect picture of “Beauty and the Beast.”

  “Hmm, that’s why he’d looked at me that way earlier when I flamboyantly declared my gratitude after he’d rescued my hat,” Sadie thought.

  Then she growled, rolled those stunning eyes, and hotly asked, “Well? Can’t you speak?” I snapped back briefly as I emerged from my stupor long enough to utter, “Umm, you’re…welcome?”

  “Well, great!” she said throwing her hands in the air. “Just my luck. Handsome, big, strong, but not much upstairs.” She spit out the words as she flicked her temple with her index finger. I must have looked like a big goon standing there with a goofy, confused look on my face, the epitome of the saying, “All brawn, no brains.”

  Shaking her head back and forth furiously with her hands on her hips, she’d groaned, “Ugh, men!” Then she wearily looked me up and down, stabbed the ground with her delicate foot, and rolled those blazing, gilded eyes of hers again. Just then first bell clattered, and she took off in a huff toward the back entrance of the high school.

  I was hypnotized. She was the most spectacular creature I’d ever seen. At the insistent pealing of the warning bell a minute later, I shook my head, snapped out of my fugue-like state and jogged over to the building.

  In my first-hour geometry class, I didn’t hear one word Mr. Johnson said as our exchange played over and over in my head. I thought she must’ve thought I was such a jughead. I thought she was absolutely perfect.

  After class, I looked everywhere for her, longing for the chance to redeem myself, but mostly I think I just wanted to bask in her beauty again. I combed every inch of those school grounds that day and for many days to come. I even made a point of waiting around the back of the school by the scrap truck every morning hoping I’d run into her again. She was nowhere to be found. For months I searched for her. Everywhere I went, I eagerly surveyed the area, hungry for a glimpse of her. I was a person possessed and I didn’t even know her name.

  Then one day in late November, Willie Carter, who’d been my best friend since second grade, and I were lingering over Cokes and fries at The Burger Joint. He noticed that I was poring over the crowd looking for her as usual. He sighed and offered the scenario that maybe she was just one of the girls I saw every day and that the brightness of the morning sun had played a trick on my eyes. We’d been over this several times before, and I was sure I was wearing Willie out with my insistence that she was real and my undying quest to find her. I knew he was just trying to help, but I told him that I knew what I saw. Her hair, her eyes, her voice, they haunted me. She’d stopped me dead in my tracks, literally. I wasn’t even capable of stringing together the words to utter an intelligent sentence, and I was class salutatorian, for Pete’s sake.

  “No,” I ‘d said to him, “she isn’t just some girl, she’s the girl, and I blew it. Man, I blew it. Big time.”

  Chapter 7

  Another Time-January

  Luckily, the gods smiled down on me, and I saw her again. It was a bleak, frosty Saturday afternoon in January of 1943 and Willie and I were bored. After much debate, we finally agreed that we’d drive into New York City to catch the matinee of Casablanca at the Roxy Theater. We were worried about how it would look, you know, two guys going to a movie that’d been highly touted as a romantic story. So, we concluded that it also had Nazis and fugitives and other guy stuff in it and figured our reputations would be okay.

  I borrowed my dad’s new 1942 Pontiac Streamliner. It was a beaut. Dad was quite the automobile aficionado. He owned Smitty’s Garage in King’s Landing. Upon his discharge from the Army in 1930, Dad had moved our family to King’s Landing and he’d gone to work at the garage as a mechanic for Earl Smith. For seven years he’d scrimped and saved until he had enough to put a down payment on the place. Earl had agreed to sell it to Dad upon his retirement in April of 1937.

  That car was his pride and joy. It was the only new car model produced in the United States in 1941. Because of the war, the rearmament program required the automobile industry to focus on building only defense and military vehicles, so it was quite the coup for him.

  Anyway, Willie and I had just taken our seats in the theater, and there she was, as plain as the nose on my face. She and a couple of her friends were sashaying arm-in-arm, whispering and giggling as they made their way down the aisle. They chose seats just two rows in front and to the right of us. I gasped and nearly choked on a kernel of popcorn. Willie looked at me like I had two heads.

  I leaned over, and whispered in his ear as I pointed down the aisle to the girls. “I can’t believe it! That’s her, the one in the middle. She’s the girl I saw last October. The one who’s haunted me for months now!” I was so excited, I virtually hissed at him. “I knew she was real!” I exclaimed a little too enthusiastically and punched the air with my fist. Well, that earned me several shushes from the crowd and prompted Lillian to swing around in her seat to see who was causing all the commotion. At first, she frowned at me then her eyes went wide with recognition, and she hastily propelled herself back around and scrunched down in her seat. Concerned for her, her friends ducked down and conspiratorially leaned in toward her. I could tell they wanted to peek back at me, but Lillian was furiously shaking her head back and forth and pointing toward the screen as just then the newsreel sputtered into life.

  I hardly watched the movie. Through every flicker of the film my eyes were riveted on your grandmother. The murky projector light was just enough to make out her profile. I was captivated by her dewy skin, cute little upturned nose, luminous, gold-streaked auburn hair, and those things coupled with the memory of those luminous caramel eyes, oh my, well, I fell head fir
st in love with her. There I sat totally mesmerized by her beauty while every other red-blooded American man in the theater was ogling Ingrid Bergman.

  After what seemed an interminable amount of time, the movie finally ended. My heart began thudding loudly. I felt certain Willie, on my left, and the couple on my right could hear it. All I could think about was that I didn’t even know her name, or anything else about her for that matter, but I was entirely smitten with her, and I just had to properly introduce myself. I just had to meet her. Fate had granted me a second chance and I wasn’t about to blow it this time.

  Through the span of the movie my mind had conjured up different scenarios of how to approach her without making a total fool of myself again. Sadly, the best idea I could come up with was to try the straightforward approach and simply walk up to her and introduce myself. That is, if I could string together enough words to form a complete sentence. So, I went with my plan, and much to my dismay, it was a total disaster.

  I began by stepping on her foot because I misjudged the slope of the theater aisle. As I lost my balance and my body propelled itself toward her, I had to choose whether to lurch head-on into her or curb my forward-tilting body by planting one of my feet firmly upon her tiny foot. Then, as I reined in my swaying form, I backed up and crushed a poor, little old lady into the theater wall. Again, my bumbling social skills were not helping me ‘win friends and influence people’! Oh, what she must have thought of me. Luckily, her friends snickered and whispered in her ears as she stood there, her hands covering her mouth as she glared in awe at my clumsy, hulking figure.

  It was Willie who saved me. He extended his right hand first to her and then to each of her friends, as he introduced himself as Willie Carter, best friend of Mr. Smooth, gesturing at me with the thumb of his left hand. Lillian smiled. She glanced at me and her eyes flashed and she grinned. Then she full-out laughed. I laughed uncomfortably too, not sure if she was laughing at me or with me. But, oh, how I loved her laugh. It was as refreshing as she was beautiful. I knew in that very moment that I wanted to be her everything for the rest of our lives. Nothing else mattered. So, I gathered what was left of my dignity, wove together a replete, intelligible sentence, and asked if she and her friends would like to get a cola at the corner drugstore with Willie and me. After receiving the go-ahead nods from the girls, she answered by dramatically throwing her scarf over her shoulder, placing her delicate hand over the top of mine, and saying in her best Ingrid Bergman accent, “Why, yes, Mr. Smooth. We’d be delighted to join you and Willie for a cola, wouldn’t we girls?” The girls smothered their giggles with one hand then fell into place on either side of Willie tucking their free hand inside each of his arms and traipsing behind us up the aisle and out into the overcast, chilly January afternoon.

  Chapter 8

  “Well, I must say, that definitely sounds like Lala. She’s always had a flair for the dramatic.” Sadie snickered lovingly. “Oh no, will you look at the time? I really must go study, but I’d love to hear more. Are you staying in town, Sam?”

  “Yes, I’ve got a room at the Harmony Inn on Chestnut Street. I have an open booking as I was hoping to catch up with Lillian and wasn’t sure how long I’d be staying. Now it seems I’m going to burden you with all my reminiscing.” Sam smiled and Sadie felt it again. That odd sensation like she was experiencing a déjà vu. There was just something so familiar in his manner and his looks that tugged at her memory and pulled on her emotions. “May I share another evening with you here tomorrow at the same time?” he inquired hopefully.

  “That sounds amazing, and you’re not an imposition. Really. I’m so intrigued by your story and totally interested in hearing more about you and Lala. As I told you earlier, she never talked much about her past. At least, she never did with me.” Looking around fondly, she continued, “Also, this is my favorite hangout in town. You can find me here just about any evening. Not just because my aunt owns it either.” She winked and smiled down at him as she stood to put on her coat and scarf. “Well, until tomorrow then,” she drawled as she offered her hand to Sam after dramatically flinging her scarf over her shoulder.

  She noticed the tender look in Sam’s eyes. There it was again. Was that how he’d looked at Lala all those years ago when she spoke in a similar fashion? Then as fast as it appeared, it was replaced with, what, longing, regret? Sadie’s heart nearly broke for this man she’d just met. She smiled tenderly as Sam stood, held her proffered hand in both of his, and slightly bowed his head. When he let go, she turned and sprinted out into the crisp evening air.

  *****

  Walking to his room at the inn, Sam thought about what had just happened. Running into Sadie was fortuitous. Finding out that Lillian was gone was devastating. He could literally feel his heart breaking. He was too late. He’d lost the one thing he wanted more than anything—to be with Lillian again.

  Upon entering his room, he grabbed his journal from the top drawer of the stand next to his bed and wrote:

  Mon., Oct. 11, 1988

  9:15 PM

  My Dearest Lillian,

  The greatest regret of my life will always be that I was too late to fulfill my promise. My heart is—crippled.

  Charles Dickens said it best in A Tale of Two Cities.

  “I wish you to know that you have been the last dream of my soul…”

  Please forgive me.

  Love always,

  Sam

  Placing the pen inside the journal, he slipped it into the drawer and sat at the desk. For a long time, he sat looking out the window. But it wasn’t the glow of the street lamps he saw. Lillian’s face occupied his vision. Finally, he sighed, turned away from the window and went through the motions of readying himself for bed. Once he was in bed and the light was off, the tears of loss and regret overtook him. It was the release he needed. Then he slept.

  *****

  Sadie had just changed into her pajamas and put her hair in a ponytail when her phone rang. It was Josie letting her know that it would be after ten before she could get to Sadie’s place.

  “I’ll be here! Just come on in. I’m going to spend some time studying until you get here. See you in a little bit,” Sadie said lightly and hung up the phone.

  Having three midterms this week, she knew she was really going to have to be disciplined, although she wasn’t too concerned about her two tests on Thursday. She had high A’s in both of those classes. For the next hour, she scoured her book and notes for Dr. Evans’ class, but all the while the expressions she’d seen in Sam’s eyes hung in the air just above the pages making it difficult to focus. The visions yanked at her emotions, causing her to pause several times and stare blankly at the wall. He’d looked so sorrowful. And she still couldn’t get over the sensation that she’d met him before.

  Chapter 9

  Looking up at the clock, Sadie saw that it was ten fifteen. She closed her books and jumped up and stretched. Just then, Josie tapped on her door, turned the knob and came breezing into the room holding a box of pastries with two Styrofoam coffee cups balanced on top. Sadie pecked her on the cheek and anxiously took the coffee and pastries from Josie’s arms. Dropping the coat she’d shrugged out of onto a chair, Josie joined Sadie on the couch.

  Sitting cross-legged next to each other, Sadie giggled and said, “You’re the best. Have I ever told you that you’re my favorite cousin?” She was holding a coffee in one hand and laughing as she licked icing off the fingers of her other hand which had been holding the eclair she’d just gobbled in three bites.

  Josie giggled and said, “Well, let’s see. Yes, I think you have, and I’m even better than you think because that’s decaf so it won’t keep you awake.” She grinned then added, “But you’ve never told me about Sam. What gives?” She raised her eyebrows.

  “Honestly, I don’t know. Does he look familiar to you? I swear, we just met, but there’s something there. You know what I mean? It’s like we’ve met before, but I can’t quite put my finger on it. In jus
t the short time I’ve spent with him I’ve noticed a sort of deep sadness in his eyes sometimes. Do you think Lala broke his heart?”

  “Hmm, I don’t know. I hope not. I’d never met him either until this evening. Yet, now that you mention it, something about him does seem familiar. Maybe Mom knows him? What’s his last name again? I’ll ask her about him tomorrow.” She suddenly remembered, “Oh! You know, Sunday’s Mom’s fortieth birthday. The big four-oh! Come by the house at noon and celebrate with us. I know she’ll want everyone since it’s going to be hard on her without Lala, and it’s her first birthday without Dad.”

  “I’ll definitely be there! I hope Aunt Joy won’t be too sad with Uncle Bash gone. Is there something I can do to help?” Sadie asked before adding, “And Sam’s last name is Evanston.”

  “Umm, nothing I can think of. Just show up. Jace won’t make it because his fall break isn’t until next week, but he told me he’ll be home next Thursday to surprise Mom. Lacie and Katie are going to decorate the house, and I’m making lunch for everyone.” Josie scrunched up her face and pointed at Sadie. “I saw that!”

  “Saw what?” Sadie asked innocently suppressing her giggle.

  “You know what! You rolled your eyes when I said I was making lunch! I’ll have you know, I’m a pretty darn good cook,” she said feigning hurt feelings. “I can follow the directions on a Stouffer’s lasagna and a loaf of garlic bread with the best of them.” Her face broke into a huge grin. After a few snickers, she got serious and said, “Now, let’s talk about what’s been going on with you.”

  “You first,” Sadie insisted as she watched Josie choose the sour cherry strudel with cream. “Oh, my Lord, I could eat them all! I don’t know how you work there and stay so slim!”