Chapter 14
L isa shook her head to clear the cobwebs.Where were they? She was still in the diner, but it looked different, yet oddly familiar. She had a plate in front of her with a half-eaten cheeseburger and fries covered in ketchup. There was a beer near her, and Emily was at her side, laughing at some joke. How did Emily get here? And where did the cheeseburger come from? She stared at her hands. Smooth, soft, no wrinkles, no ring on her finger. She looked at the greasy napkin next to her plate, then at the window that bore the name of the diner: Tom’s Restaurant. That’s where they used to go in college. Did they go back in time? Together? How did that happen? Almost in answer to her questions, she heard a voice across from her say, “What the hell is going on?” It was Stephanie, but not the nurse. The college student.
Stephanie complained louder, “I said—what the hell is going on?” She was obviously talking to Lisa. In her spandex and leg warmers, with large hoop earrings that looked like peace symbols, Emily piped in. “What’s going on is that you’re going to stay away from my friend’s boyfriend, that’s what.”
Lisa and Stephanie looked at each other directly. “Don’t get upset, Stephanie, I can explain,” said Lisa. “Just calm down.”
“Don’t tell me to calm down. This is crazy. One minute we’re alone in the diner, sipping soup, and now we’re in this—whatever this is.”
Emily turned to Lisa. “Lisa, what is she talking about?”
Clearly explanations were in order, but Lisa couldn’t do that here. She had to get Stephanie to understand. “Listen, let’s just get the check and get out of here. I have a terrible headache, but I’ll walk you home, Stephanie. So we can get to know each other better.” As she said this, Lisa motioned the waitress over. Stephanie dumbly nodded her head.
Emily wasn’t as patient. “That’s fine. Leave me stranded, why don’t you.” She giggled then. “Nah, I’m only kidding. I’m not walking anyone but me home. You guys go on and have a crazy night. I’m tired.” She climbed over Lisa’s lap and onto the floor. “Spot me on this one, Lisa? I only have a dollar on me.” With those words, she blew kisses and walked out.
Stephanie watched her intently, then turned to Lisa. “Who the hell is that? She doesn’t mince words, does she?”
“No, she never has. That’s why we’ve been friends for twenty years.”
“That’s all nice and good, but what’s going on? You don’t look the way you did a moment ago. You’re…you’re…you’re young!”
Stephanie grabbed Lisa’s left hand. “Where are your wedding rings? You were wearing a gold band and a diamond ring. Where are they?”
She looked at her own hands. “And what’s this? I’m a nurse. I have chapped, cracked hands from washing them a thousand times a day and wearing hot latex gloves. Look at my hands now. They’re soft, smooth. And my nails…. This is hot pink nail polish. I haven’t worn that color since…since…college.”
Stephanie’s voice rose to a shriek as she turned her head from side to side looking desperate. “What have you done to me? Where are we? We were just in the diner across from the hospital, and now we’re here, but I’ve no idea how we got here or even where this is. Where are we?”
Lisa wasn’t sure how to handle this. She wasn’t prepared. She didn’t know what to say, and it just didn’t seem like the truth was going to work very well in a crowded diner on Broadway. “Stephanie, look, let’s get out of here, and I can explain. I think.”
The diner was crowded. Lisa heard murmurs, and the people at the next booth gawked at them. One group of guys chanted, “Girl fight! Girl fight!”
Stephanie got louder. “You think? You think you can explain this madness, do you? What have you done to me? Did you give me some kind of drug that’s making me hallucinate? Are these people even real?” She flung her arm around as if to encompass everyone. She started wailing, holding her face in her hands. People stopped their chatter and stared at their table. A trickle of sweat poured down Lisa’s back. She tried to soothe Stephanie, but the poor woman was distraught and confused. She repeated, “Where are we? What have you done? What’s going on?”
Lisa finally paid and got Stephanie out to the street.There was too much going on at once: they had been in a diner, and now Stephanie was here. Something her mother said popped into her head. Butterfly effect. Not only had she come back in time and done who knows what to the universe, now she had brought someone with her, unknowingly. While it seemed like a great idea in theory, in the flesh, she was terrified she had caused some irreversible catastrophe. If they bumped into Adam, what then? She needed to get them somewhere safe to hide before they ran into anyone they knew.
On the corner, Lisa spotted a magazine kiosk. Tears streaked down Stephanie’s cheeks. She continued to mutter under her breath as if possessed, but at least she allowed Lisa to guide her. She pulled Stephanie by the hand, and they ran across the street. The newspapers were lined up in stacks. Lisa grabbed the first one, the Daily News . There was the date: April 29, 1982.
“Stephanie, where did you live in 1982?”
Stephanie wiped her runny nose with her sleeve before answering. “What do you mean?”
Lisa shook her head and yanked on Stephanie’s arm. “Stephanie, focus. We don’t have time for many questions right now. Where did you live in 1982, and who lived with you?”
Stammering, Stephanie waved her hands about, “I was in college. I lived on 110th, off Broadway, with some girlfriends.” Stephanie spun around appearing incredulous at the sights around her. “How did we get here—to New York, to Broadway?”
Desperate, Lisa grabbed her by the shoulders. “Never mind how we got here. Your college friends—do you think they’ll be home now?”
“How the hell am I supposed to know?” Just then, Stephanie looked at another newspaper on the sidewalk stand. The National Enquirer . “This says it’s 1982. How is that possible?” She held the paper to her face, peering at the date as if she could will it to change. She put that one down and picked up another, the New York Times . “Same date. This can’t be. What drugs did you give me?” As she reached for yet another, the man inside the kiosk yelled at her. “Hey, stop picking up and throwing down! If you touch, you buy! This isn’t the library!”
Lisa grabbed her by the hand and dragged her from the yelling man, the kiosk, the craziness of Broadway, towards the dorm she shared with Emily. “Never mind where you used to live. We’re going to where I used to live, and I’ll explain everything.”