Chapter 17 - Back to the Future - Again

Chapter 17 - Back to the Future Again
Jack didn't think it was all that late when he awoke the next day. Surely it was morning still...wasn't it?
...that's odd, he thought, as he came to the stairs, listening. Something's off...so quiet. As he bumped down the stairs, it came to him:
that's it. It's never this quiet. The clock! Of course.
As the old clock was one of the constants of this place, it's quietude was enough to throw off the whole order of things. Jack really couldn't remember this happening before...
He rounded the corner into the parlor and could tell all was not as it should be, and it wasn't just the absence of the old clock's ticking that was amiss.
What the--? Whatever could this mean? Furniture piled up against the fireplace like this? He spun about to face the clock. Dead still. 'Yeats!' he called. And then he strode to the bottom of the stairway. 'Aleister!? Yeats?'
No sign of Yeats, either, then.
He had a bad feeling about all this. He began running up the stairs taking two at a time, and headed first for Emmeline's room, just as Aleister
popped out of his, asking, 'What's up, Jack?' Jack opened the door to Em's room, and finding nothing and no one within, he shot a silent look at Al and
was at Alice's door next, opening it, and finding nothing there as well, he hung his head, and slammed it shut. 'Yeaaats!' he yelled, and began running back downstairs, with Aleister following.
Back into the parlor they barreled, and Jack pointed to the pile-up before the hearth. 'What do you make of that?!' he demanded of Aleister. He ran his hands through his hair and went to the window, staring outside. 'And where the hell is Yeats!'If Yeats was gone, Jack knew all was fubar'd.
'I see.' Aleister rubbed his goatee, and turned to Jack, looking altogether serious. 'They're gone, Jack. And, possibly Yeats followed.'
'WHAT!? How?' Jack threw up his hands and hovered over Aleister.
'Alice knew about the mirror. The fleur-de-lis sign of St. Germaine. And she showed me the locket that Frank had given her,which had the same engraving...I'm afraid I admitted that it  could be keyed to the same resonance that would alter the body's vibratory rate and enable one to...use the mirror to timewalk. She and Frank had encountered such portals before.'
'Aleister...'Jack couldn't believe it.'How could you?'
'It never occurred to me that they would use it!'Al
looked genuinely baffled. 'We were all getting on so well...I thought they felt perfectly safe here, and understood that it's probably the only place where they were!It was only shared info;which she already knew!'
'Yes. Exactly.'Jack sighed in exasperation, and sat down. 'Now they've gone, who knows where...and,' he
looked at Al,'...do you know?'
Aleister walked over to the mantlepiece and put a hand upon it. 'Possibly. It usually returns one to the point of departure, spatial and temporal.'
'So, they're back in San Francisco, then.' Jack stared hard at nothing.
Aleister came and sat beside him. 'Most likely, yes. But Jack, don't you see? They obviously have not the trust in us that we had hoped for. We cannot just corral them and keep them here, if they'd rather not stay.' he sighed and looked at the floor dejectedly.
'It'd probably been building up all this time, but... I wonder what drove them over the tipping point...?'
Jack leaned his head on his hand then. 'I tried to kiss her.'
Al looked up at him.
'Emmeline. Last night. She came downstairs about midnight as I was playing the piano. And I, tried to kiss her.'
'Tried?' Aleister enquired. 'Did you--miss?'
'Yes. I missed.' Jack spat out the words. 'She turned away from me, and ran upstairs.' he sighed heavily. 'She doesn't like me, much, I don't think.'
Aleister stood again. 'Beside the point,' Al replied, never one for tact. He believed he was being so, tactful, indeed.'They had to have planned this much earlier...well! If you'll take my counsel, we should just stay put here and wait and see what Yeats has to report first. We don't want to give them cause to do anything even more rash in fleeing from us...again.'
Jack only stared at the silent clock. Time would stand still, for him at least, until Emmeline and Alice were found, and he knew they were well. This was just the beginning of a very long day.
                         . . . . .
Emmeline emerged from a mirror on Alice's heels, as they found themselves standing on a dressing table, with only dim wall sconces lighting the now deserted dressing room backstage of Mendation's Theatre.
Alice stepped down onto a chair and turning to Em, took her hand and helped her down and onto the floor. 'Jacky's dressing room,' Alice whispered, confirming Em's first thoughts. 'No one here now...'
she ventured a peek outside the door and into the hallway.
Indeed, although it seemed to be only moments after their 'disapperance' and reappearance, the crowds had all gone elsewhere and only vague sounds could be heard back toward the lobby. 'We best exit quietly, soon as we may!' Alice turned to head back out into the wings to find a way out.
Emmeline followed and as she moved quietly and close to the wall she happened to notice a poster advertising an upcoming show at the theatre. She almost passed it by, but something about the woman in the poster seemed familiar to her...what was it?
She stopped suddenly as she recognized her. 'Alice!'
she spoke up, surprised.
Alice turned back and took a look at what Em was staring at. It was a poster announcing 'Direct From Paris!  The New ORPHEUS! With Margueritte Carrington as Eurydice. December 29th-Jan 1st'
'Do you see her too, Alice?'Emmeline's eyes were bright with excitement as she stared at the poster 'That's Morgana Carlysle!'
'It can't be, Em!' Alice took a closer look. 'That's just--it can't be!...It does look like her though, I'll give you that!'Alice narrowed her gaze, peering closely.
'It IS her, Alice! And I'm going to this play, and I'm going to speak to her!' Emmeline seemed dead set on this, Alice could see.'No time now, Em, let's get out of here, while we can!' Alice took her arm and hustled her out of the side exit while no one was about.
As they came out into the fresh cold night air of the city by the bay, they each breathed sighs of frosty relief. 'It's good to breathe free air at long last!' Emmeline said. 'Oh, good work, Alice! How lovely it is to be back somewhere familiar!'
'Yes, well, I'll not relax until we're both in our hotel room and have a locked door behind us! Come on!' and Alice led the way down the city block and around the corner to their small hotel which they had secured earlier. It wasn't anything fancy, but it was neat and clean and catered to theatre goers who came in at rather later hours. All seemed quiet as they went upstairs to their room and as Alice locked the door behind them, she did in fact, sit down and sigh at last with well-earned relief.
'Now. We can say at last, 'we made it!' Alice declared, putting her feet up on the bed as she removed her shoes. 'what a long, strange trip it's been! To San Francisco, Through the Looking Glass and Back Again!'
Em said nothing, but did take off her coat and shoes as well and sat upon her bed next to Alice's. After a bit, she said, 'I could use a cuppa.'
Alice laughed then. 'Ooh, Em...'she reached down into her bag and brought forth a small flask. 'Well, I don't know about tea at this late hour, but...'
She handed the silver flask to Emmeline.
'Oh, Alice!' Em took the top off and sniffed. 'Some of Jack's good cognac I'll wager...' and with a 'Merry Solstice, Alice!' she tipped it to her lips and let the bracing beverage warm her insides. 'Hard to believe it's still just gone midnite, Solstice Day here now...'Em said, handing the flask to Alice.
'That's correct, luv.' Alice took a small sip in turn. 'We'll be home again, in just hours from now, and it will be as though we only just journeyed to the City for a night and back.'
The two were quiet for a moment. 'We did the right thing, you think?' Emmeline just looked at her toes.
Alice set her flask on the night table between them, and began getting ready for bed. 'Yes, Em, I think that, well, something had to be done. I was feeling altogether too much a simple bystander in my own life!'
'Yes. That's it, isn't it? Without so much as a 'by your leave'--ambushed and abducted, really!' Emmeline stripped down to her chemise and slipped between the sheets. 'I don't like feeling out of control of my life, Al.'
Alice made a noncommittal 'hmmm'-ing noise. 'Lights out, Em?' Em nodded, and Alice turned down the wick.
All seemed quiet and peaceful again, almost as though their mad adventure had never happened. A lone fog horn could be heard outside in the distance.
'You do know of course,' Alice ventured, '...that we probably have not seen the last of Dr. Parsons and Mr. Van Horn.'
Emmeline sighed in the dark. 'No, probably we haven't seen the last of them. But I do sincerely relish their absence whilst I can!' And with that
happy thought, Emmeline drifted off exhausted down into the velvety softness of Morpheus's all-embracing realm.                     . . . . .
Outside, all was quiet and relatively still. Except for the subtle movement of a large, burly man who stood in the shadows smoking a cigarette and gazing up at the window of Alice and Emmeline's chambers.
Satisfied that they had indeed returned to their departure point safe and sound, Yeats put his cigarette out and turned the corner, heading back to the theatre, his steps quiet in the muffling fog.
                   . . . . . .
Luckily Emmeline and Alice found a train leaving just after noon and managed to get in several winks prior to their departure eastbound, as well as a near-deserted train car. As they took their seats next to the window on the bayside, Em set her bag down and taking her hat off, sighed deeply and leaned her chin on her hand. 'You know Alice, it seems a year and a day since we left Pankhurst, and not just a night and a day!'
Alice followed suit and set her hat on the empty seat beside her. 'Oh, Em. You have no idea, my dear. Oh, I'm sorry...there I go again! Of course I'm not the standard of measure for all earthly experience!'
'Oh, Alice...now you tell me!' Em smiled.
Alice looked at her friend. Glad to see her all of a piece, as it were. 'It has been quite the holiday.'Alice sighed and leaned back in her seat, glad that the train was uncrowded as yet and gazed out at the soft hillsides coated with foghats.
'"Corrina, Corrina, where'd you stay last night? Corrina Corrina where'd u stay last night? Come home this morning, sun was shining bright..."' Alice sang softly, as the train wound around the foggy foggy dew-dropped hillsides which crouched down to the bay.
The afternoon wore on as they steamed their way across the rice-paddies,and Emmeline made a rather strange observation, 'This reminds me of back home in Japan.'
'Truly, Emmeline-chan?' Alice smiled at her, then noticed Em's thoughtful expression.
'Hai...back home,'Em turned to Alice and the setting sun reflected light oddly from her eyes, orange, like a mirror.
'Everyone is gone now...' Emmeline looked down, then up at Alice, blinking. 'Hmm. Was I, asleep just now?'
'I don't think so, Em. You said some things I couldn't quite decypher. Something about Japan, I believe.' Alice looked concerned. Was Em about to 'fade out' again, as she had done? 'You seemed to speak in a foreign tongue when you were fading, you know.'
'It's strange...hypnotic,really, just watching scenery go by. ' Em didn't seem to register external stimuli just then. 'I suddenly felt I was really there! somewhere else! And it was real, as real as this is here, now! But, I knew it was not here...but very much else where. But, it was somewhere familiar to me. Someplace I missed...' Emmeline stared out at the landscape glowing in the russet hues of early sunset. 'I sometimes feel I am at home in two worlds.'
'We'll be home soon.' Alice looked at her friend, wondering...as she felt much the same way, dare she tell her friend...?
Em smiled and leaned back, looking out at the familiar plain, and the Sierras beyond, coated with their winter white. She  hearkened back to the here and now and appreciated having a home to come back to, and all her familiar comforts. She'd not chafe at too much of the same old same old for some time, she thought, as the train slowed for the bridge across the bay and Em was so grateful for the little familiar remembrances she swore never to take her small town for granted, be it ever so exasperating, at times, there's no place like home.
'Sometimes...when I'm with you, Al, because we know one another so well, I don't censor myself and just allow whatever's in my head to emerge into light...however odd it may seem. Thank goodness we're used to each other's idiosyncracies.' Emmeline
looked at Alice, smiling a little, as her gaze went back to the window.
'I do the same as well, Em. In fact, there's something I've rather thought of sharing with you for some time... Perhaps, now I can.' Alice surprised Em with this news.
Emmeline looked back at her and leaned over with a hand on Alice's arm. 'But of course, Alice! My goodness, what haven't we been through together?' Em leaned back then, smiling still.
'True,'Al replied, then gazed out at the fields, collecting her thoughts a moment. 'Well, Em, remember when we met Captain Omen and Mr. Orez...goodness, was it only yesterday, now?!--anyway, it seems so much has passed since then!'
Emmeline, still gazing at the occasional fisherman on the shore trying his luck with the bay, seemed lost in recollection,'Indeed. But, it was so good to see them again.'
'Oh, yes, for me as well.'Alice looked down then, seemingly flustered.
'Alice? Is there something...else, going on between yourself and Mr. Orez now?' Emmeline guessed this was so.
Alice laughed lightly. 'Ah, that indeed is one way of putting it! You might almost say, some one else!'
'How so?' Em was confused now.
Alice sighed then.'Em...this isn't easy to say. It's even harder to think about! But, here goes: Em, it's just this: Frank, my husband, isn't dead.'
Em stared at Alice. 'Alice?' She took her hands then. 'What do you mean?'
Alice glanced about, not knowing quite where to begin. She squeezed Em's hands, and patted them. 'I've known for awhile now. Well, it was during one of his timewalks that he...'went missing in action' as they say. As you know, the military wanted to get Frank involved in their war research; which he wanted nothing to do with, and was most adamant about it! But still, they pressured him, until he confessed to me that he felt he had to...leave. And, do it in a way that would put them off his trail for good.'
'Oh, Alice!' Emmeline registered shock. 'I'd no idea! What happened?'
'Well, he staged an experiment for some military representatives and fellow scientists at a research facility in Virginia. This, is where he supposedly 'died.' But although that is how things appeared to happen, actually he is...well, he isn't dead, but Em, neither is he here, obviously. He is, in effect, lost. Or,he has lost corporeal cohesion.'
'Alice, I...I don't know what to think! How, well, how is he? And, how are you taking all this, my dear?'
Alice sighed again, looking out the window. 'I'm taking it as well as I may. Poor Frank...you must understand, Em, this happened, well over 10 years
ago! We've been trying to well, return Frank and keep him sequestered, but our efforts have all failed. However...' she looked at Em then. 'Frank does have a way of relating in this world, somewhat.'
'How so?'
'He has found that he can share, a body, with a willing co-participant, and that I can relate to Frank, sharing the consciousness and coporeality of, oh, Mr. Orez, let's say...'
'Oh, my! Alice! But, that's...good news, yes? How wonderful of Mr. Orez! So, he knows about Frank, and has agreed to...share?'
Alice looked relieved. 'Yes, Em, it is wonderful. Mr. Orez is a very unique individual. Surely t'was grace that put him in our way, for it was his work with Candomble' in Brazil that gave Mr. Orez his proclivity for this particular type of...sharing.'
'Ah!'Em knew abit about Candomble' with it's adherents' practice of 'carrying' the gods within them. 'Amazing...oh, Alice! I'm glad you told me!
I'll certainly keep your secret safe!'
'Thanks, Em. Yes, we still have to be secret about it all. Everyone must still believe Frank to be...gone.' She leaned forward then and whispered,
'Especially Jack.'
Emmeline leaned back then, her mouth set in serious lines. 'Indeed. Yes, you needn't worry about that!
Oh, Alice! If I never see Mr. Jack Van Horn again, I should consider myself most fortunate.'
The two women sat quietly awhile, then Emmeline became pensive. 'So, with Frank still in the picture, as it were, and, now--with the return of Morgana Carlysle, events seem to be collecting about
this particular...hmmm, nexus point, was it?'
'Do you think it exists, then?' asked Alice.
'I give very small credence to anything coming out of Jack's mouth. However, I am going to go see Morgana, and I would very much like to hear whatever she has to say!' Emmeline declared, decisively.
'That would indeed be a singular revelation, I imagine,'Alice agreed.
'Good. I'm glad you are coming with! What day shall we go? I'll tell you what, we're closed New Year's Eve and the day after, of course. Let's go then, why not? Spend the new year...meeting a woman from the future, eh?' Emmeline gazed outside, letting such fancies flow.
'I don't know how I let myself be talked into...oh, Em, if you must go, I can't let you go alone! And, yes, I am curious myself, I admit. Alright! Back to Mendation's New Year's Eve it is then!' Alice gave in with good grace.
'Back, to the Future!' Emmeline held out her hand, and Alice gave it a mock-shake, then they leaned back in their seats, with Em looking pleased and flushed with anticipation, while Alice seemed abit more anxious, a slight frown upon her brow, as the train slowed for one more quick stop that would be their last before their arrival at Pankhurst Station.
No one but Yeats took notice of a non-descript pudgy fellow in a too-tight suit who was the only passenger entering the train in the throng of those exiting. But Yeats did notice and followed the man into the car reaching into his jacket as he did so.
                     ........