Eva Cohen bounced into the apartment, exuberant and full of life. She hummed as she twirled about, her auburn ringlets whirling with her. There was absolutely no mistaking her happy mood. Her roommate, Jenna Goldenberg, peered out from behind the current romance novel she was reading, without saying a word. In fact, Jenna looked up several times, unable to believe this was the same person she’d been sharing a flat with for the past two years. If this had been ‘live on stage’, Jenna would be looking back and forth between Eva and the audience.
Finally, she dryly asked, “Been a good day, has it?”
The twittery antics of Eva stopped suddenly. She looked at Jenna, batted her eyelashes (a la Streisand), and gave her a hearty raspberries. “Miss Grumbleguts, I presume?”she asked humorously, “I got a raise. I got a promotion. And best of all, I got a date with Mr. I’m-sure-this-is-the-one hunk!”
Jenna didn’t respond except by a blank expression. That slightly dashed Eva’s enthusiasm. “Otis?” Jenna still didn’t recognize who Eva was talking about. “Otis Tzolios?”
With a sigh of exasperation Eva tried to refresh Jenna’s memory further. “Jen! I’ve only been talking about this Adonis for the past couple of weeks! Where has your hearing been? You’ve been under a black cloud ever since…hey where is that guy you were seeing, anyway? Diego, wasn’t it? What happened with him? One minute he’s here, the next he’s gone from the face of the earth.”
Jenna listened to her best friend’s questions, knowing each one was tearing at her heartstrings. She found herself re-living the events of the week she’d spent a few months back. How, as she’d settled into a secluded mineral pool in the hills, Diego de la Vega had come tumbling into it, through a crack in time. She recalled all the places she’d shown him of modern day Los Angeles, and their emotional farewell.
“Diego had to return home. He’d been gone too long and knew he’d be missed.” Jenna didn’t want to elaborate on that. The less said, the better.
Fortunately Eva tuned in to her friend’s character and personality easily. She knew not to push or prod. Jenna was too quiet. Something had gone wrong. Or right. Eva carefully asked, “You’re really nuts about him, aren’t you?” Jenna heaved a sigh and simply nodded.
“Jen, is it more than that?” Eva asked with concern. Again, Jenna only nodded. Eva went and sat down next to her. “I’m sorry, Jen. Here I’ve been going on about this and that and this to-die-for piece of Greek pulchritude, and you’re sitting in misery.”
Eva thought a couple minutes, then her temper flared a bit. “So why is it you’re still here? How come you couldn’t go with him, if you two felt so strongly about each other? Something doesn’t make sense here, Jen! Can’t you go to him?”
Jenna put a bookmark in the pages she’d been reading for days without getting any further. Closing the novel, she rubbed her eyes. “Eva, I told you where he came from. I had a hard time swallowing it when Diego told me. I don’t know if I could or should try to meet up with him. My heart says to at least try. My brain screams lunacy.” Her chin began to quiver, which was a sign that tears were building up.
Eva looked at her friend. She’d changed since that stranger-than-science week. Jenna appeared to have little to no interest in any guy that came her way. There seemed to be no spark in her. “Jenna, listen to me.” She sighed. “Come on; let’s hash this out over some Taco Doritos and Pepsi. It’s the food to solve problems by.”
Jenna looked at the face that offered such a tempting thought and smiled, let out a light laugh, and nodded. The two of them polished off an entire bag of the chips and two bottles each of the pop.
“So,” Eva asked while she noisily licked her fingers clean of the taco flavor, “why can’t you try to reach him? I mean, you’ve got the time with this extended Christmas vacation, blessed be the company.” Jenna looked at Eva as if she’d grown two heads.
“Jenna, here’s what you do: take a backpack, fill it with whatever you might need, take a flashlight and go up the same pathway Diego took to get home. You’ll find out if he was feeding you a load of horse hooey or not. One way or another, at least try. If what you’re saying is true, don’t you even want to find out if you could prefer to be in that time era? I mean, look: he accidentally got here. And you showed him a great time, right? Even with all the hustle and bustle today has to offer. Wouldn’t it be worth it to see if a more simple life is what you need or want? And who says this is a better time to live? Fast pace, too much chemicals everywhere, no one’s safe anymore.” Eva was sounding as if she were sold on the idea and trying to convince Jenna.
“Evie”, Jenna said, “what would you do if you ended up in the past and something happened to you? Your headstone would read that you died before you were even born! And to try and tell someone back then when you were born…they’d throw you in the loony bin! Y’know, there are too many uncertainties that bother me. Otherwise I’d have followed him right up that tunnel he fell through and said good-bye to life as I know it.”
Eva nodded, with an air of impatience. “Yeah, yeah, yeah. Question: do you love the guy?”
Jenna’s head shot up. “Yeah! But I can’t see that it helps a whole heck of a lot!”
“Pish-tosh!” Eva shot back. “Jen-na, listen! Find out! You might find yourself better off without him, sure. But you won’t know if you just sit around here on your bum! Get to him and find out if there’s enough of that special stuff that fairy tales are made of!”
“But what about my parents, Evie? Just suppose I go back to Diego’s time, like it, and decide to stay there? That’s depriving my folks of a chance to see me possibly married, possible grandkids, meet the in-laws. ‘Oh just crawl through this tunnel in this here cave, luggage and all, and we’ll pick you up at 5!’ I can picture it! ‘Don’t forget your identification papers!’” Jenna was as agitated as Eva was. Argument for argument, Jenna didn’t feel any closer to a solution. Eva saw the turmoil. She went across the room and hugged Jenna.
“Listen, Jen. Diego said that he loved you, right?” she quietly asked. “At least that’s what you’ve told me.”
Jenna whispered an affirmative. “Then I honestly don’t think he’d leave you to solve everything on your own. It takes two to tango, right? Throw that old cliché at him and see what he says. It was a more macho time back then, but I didn’t get the impression he’d leave you to cope single handedly. And don’t let anyone railroad you into subservience. But go to him. You need to know what the future holds for you.”
Jenna let out a humorous nasally laugh. “The future?” They both started laughing. “I’d say my future could be in the past! Throw that one at the philosophers!” After they calmed down, and polished off some more Doritos, they sat down and began writing a list of what Jenna should take along. Then they logged on to the Internet to research time appropriate clothing and where they could get hold of it. With some solutions taken care of, both girls felt more at ease. The decision seemed like a confirmation with a travel agency. Jenna grabbed her CD player, some CD’s, and had Eva drive her here and there for clothes, batteries, and, of course, some Milky Ways.
Jenna had all the essentials she could think of. All she needed was some Dutch courage, and a huge leap of faith. She could picture Rod Serling standing at the threshold of the cave as Eva pulled up. “You’re about to enter…the Twilight Zone.”
“Duhhh!” she answered back. Looking over at Eva, a look of apprehension on her face, Jenna finally said, “If I’m not here by Saturday night by dark,” she didn’t have a clear-cut plan, but simply added, “I’ll somehow let you know. I just don’t know how.”
Eva’s eyes widened. “Cell phone?”
Jenna nodded. “I just have to be careful how many conveniences I take back 150 years. I could get burned for sorcery!”
Eva shook her head. “That was either the Spanish Inquisition or Salem. Just use your wits, kiddo. Be smart. You survived Brad, didn’t you?”
“Brad who?” Jenna laughed away and disappeared into the cave.
Both girls were wishing the best for each other as time began to separate them.
