TIME AND TIME AGAIN The sequel to 3037 (6 page)

“Are you all right, lady?” He asked between gasps.

I tried to get up but he pushed me back down, “Let me get you something to drink.  You just relax.”

After he walked off, I sat up and looked around.  The place was crowded and I realized I had been mistaken.  It wasn’t the same club.
  This one was newer.  But it looked like the same one.  It was arranged the same with booths along one wall and a bar with bar stools opposite.  But everything looked newer.

Th
e man who had brought me inside
came back and set a tall glass on the table.  It looked like iced tea and I realized it was w
hen I sipped it
and it was sweet.

“Where am I?” I asked

“At
Rakie’s
,
in New Orleans,
” He said,
and I remembered that was the name of the club we had been looking into.

“But these seats were covered in green leather, not tan.  And where is Joe?”

“These seats were green when I bought the place but that was over fifty years ago.  How could you know that?  You weren’t even born yet.”

I looked around and noticed everyone staring at me, “Did you see my husband who was with me?”

“Lady, you were alone.  You stood there in the doorway looking inside and then you fainted and I brought you inside.”

I took a large swallow of the tea and looked around me.  Most everyone had resumed what they were doing and I was thankful for that.

The owner patted my hand, “I have to wait on my other customers.  You just sit there as long as you want a
nd relax.  My name’s Ronnie, by
the way.”

“I’m Ashley, glad to meet you.”

After I finished my iced tea, I decided to look around but wished I hadn’t.  I noticed there were large framed pictures of musicians on the walls. 

I saw a picture of Billy Holiday, one of Fats Domino, one of B. B. King and several others that I recognized but couldn’t remember their names.  I walked along the wall looking at these photos and smiling to myself until I came to one that made me feel like I was losing my mind.

I gasped when I saw it and Ronnie looked over at me with concern on his face.  It was an old black and whit
e picture of Joe and his band in the background with
Josie
standing in the front
with
her mouth close to a microphone singing.  She looked to be about 22 in this picture.

I was having
a hard
time breathing and started hyperventilating.  Ronnie brought a paper bag over for me to breathe into and I soon got myself under control enough
to point and say, “That’s my husband and his band.  And that is my daughter.”

I guess he decided to humor me and he said, “Okay.  Why don’t you go home with me after I close up here?  My wife will take good care of you.  She’s Creole and her cooking is to die for.”

“I appreciate the offer, Ronnie, but I need to get back to the cave.  Irene will help me figure this out.  When you close up will you take me to the cave?  It’s just outside of town.  I can show you where.”

He frowned, “I don’t remember ever seeing a cave around here.  Since we’re below sea level, it would be under water.  But, I’ll take you anywhere you want to go.  I’ll be closing up here in about 15 minutes.”

I was surprised, “Wow, you close early.”

He laughed, “If you call three a.m. early.”

“I must have been out for a long time then.  I fainted over twelve hours ago.”

“No, no, you were out for about three minutes.”

I didn’t argue with him.  He brought me
a
coke with a little bourbon in it and I sa
t in the booth sipping until he
closed up for the night.

CHAPTER 11

He was parked in the back of the club and, as I got into his car, I said, “This is a nice car.  What is it?”

“This here is a 2012
Toyoto
Avalon.  I just bought it.  Business is really good these days.”

I was confused.  Surely he didn’t mean 2012, but if he did it didn’t surprise me.  I gave him direction to where the cave should have been but it wasn’t there.

I started crying and he patted my hand, “Let’s go to my house and let Delia take care of you.  Don’t worry about any of this right now.”

Ronnie and his wife lived in the area of New Orleans he called the Garden District.  It was a beautiful area, with large frame houses with wraparound porches.

His wife,
Delia was a beautiful light colored black woman and told me she had been born and raised in New Orleans.  They had no children and
appeared to love each other very much.  She cooked food like I had never tasted and it was delicious.

Toward the end of the meal I was dozing off and she put me to bed.

I didn’t sleep long before I woke up feeling panicky.  I made my way to the kitchen for a glass of water and noticed that Ronnie and Delia were sitting on the front porch talking.  I made as little noise as possible and shamelessly listened to what they were saying.

“She thinks she’s the wife of the famous Moe Joe,” I heard Ronnie say.

Then I heard Delia laugh,
“Moe Joe of the famous jazz group, Moe Joe and
Josie
?”

“Yeah, that’s the one,” Ronnie chuckled.

Neither said anything for a few moments and then Delia shocked me by saying, “Didn’t Moe Joe’s
wife disappear
without a trace back in the 50s?”

“You know, I think you’re right.  She and a teenage son…what was his name…”

“Seth,” I said coming out onto the porch.  “My son’s name was Seth.”

Delia stood up and led me to a chair.  She didn’t seem to be surprised and the only thing she said was, “Talk.”

She still didn’t seem surprised at the end of two hours when I
was finally finished telling them
my story.
  I saw Ronnie watching her and waiting to see what she said.

“My family has lived in these parts for many years and has seen many strange things.  We believe that time is not linear.  After what you have been through, I think you will agree.

“Do you know what a
mo
bius
strip is?”  When I shook my head she went on to explain, “Picture a piece of ribbon.  Now in your mind’s eye twist that piece of ribbon and form a figure eight with it.
  Then tape the ends together, with the twist still in it.

“Picture yourself on the surface of the ribbon, anywhere.  You will not be able to tell where you began and where you ended.  Furthermore, you can’t tell whether you are on the inside or outside.  I believe that time is like that.”

I must have looked confused because she held up her hand and said, “Don’t worry about it.”

She sat there thinking for a f
ew minutes and
neither Ronnie or
I said anything while we waited for her to continue.

“I don’t know what has happened to you this time, Ashley and I’m not sure if I know how to get you and Joe back together.  He’s obviously stuck
in the 1950s and you’re here in 2012.  Let me think on it.  In the mean time, let’s get some sleep.”

That same morning at around 11:00 a.m. Delia fixed brunch: seafood omelets, toasted French bread, fresh fruit, and coffee.

“You cook the best dishes I’ve ever had, Delia.  I would have nev
er thought to put seafood in an
omelet.”

She smiled and I thought she was beautiful, “This dish originated at
Georgie
Porgies, a restaurant inside the Hyatt Regency.  I had it there once and came home and experimented until I got it right.  I’m glad you like it.

“I want to take you over to my aunt
Deliliah’s
house.  She lives just a few blocks from here and she’s a wise old woman.  Let’s see what she has to say about your situation.”

Ronnie said he wanted to go back to bed and get some more sleep before he had to open the club that night so Delia and I went alone.

Delia’s a
u
nt lived in a house only a couple of blocks away and built similar to Delia’s.  There was a beautiful tall tan colored woman sitting on the front porch in a wicker swing.  She looked a lot like Delia but was older.

When she saw us, she got up and met us on the sidewalk.  She hugged her niece and then turned to me
.  When she hugged me, I felt like an electrical charge went through me and the way she jumped, I knew she felt it too.

What
s
he said was, “Oh, honey, you’re out of time.  Not that your running out of time but that you are out of your time.  Do you understand?”

“No,” I said.

“Well, let’s go into the kitchen and I’ll fix us a glass of sweet iced tea and we can talk.  I sure hope I can help you, Ashley,” and as soon as she called me by my name, I realized I hadn’t told her my name.

She had put some mint leaves in the tea and it was delicious and I told her so.

She told me to tell her everything and when I was finished, she sat for a moment staring off into space.

“The last I heard,” she said, “Moe Joe
was in assisted living in Gretn
a, that’s across the bridge, the Greater New Orleans Bridge that goes over the Mississippi river.  You want to go see him?”

This was something I hadn’t even imagined and I hesitated but not for long.  The three of us left right away with
Deliliah
driving.

CHAPTER 12

The name of the place was Green Elms and it sat back from the main highway.  The small lane we drove down had big oaks whose limbs grew over the road.

The building was all on one floor and I was extremely nervous as we walked toward it.

“We’re here to see Moe Joe,”
Deliliah
said.

The woman behind the reception desk was a nervous little old lady with pink hair that matched her uniform.

“Are you relatives?” She asked and
Deliliah
said, “I’m his second wife.”

The lady didn’t seem at all surprised and led us toward one of the rooms down the hall.  Some of the doors were open and I was surprised to see that the rooms were large.  They all had a full sized bed and a sitting area and a TV.

He was sitting in a recliner
reading a book and he was still a handsome man.  His
hair had turned completely white.  I could see the shock on his face when he looked up and saw me.

He whispered, “Ashley, are you really here or am I hallucinating again?”  As he said this, tears started streaming down his face.

I bend down and put my head on his chest and, with trembling fingers, he stroked my hair.  I could hear his heart beat and the sweater he was wearing smelled like peppermint.  He had no muscle tone left and he was just an old man, but I still loved him with all my heart.  I had figured out on the way over that he had to now be in his 90s but he seemed to have all his mental capacities.

“
Josie
was here last night and will be back tonight.  She now has grandkids.  Oh, Ashley, what happened to you that day?  We were looking inside
Rakey’s
club and you disappeared into thin air.

“No one believed me and the whole band stayed there to play in case you ever turned up again. 
Josie
was so good, Ashley.  You would have been so proud of her.”

“I saw the picture of all of you in the club. 
Josie
looked to be about 22.”

“I think she was about that in that picture.”

Delia and
Deliliah
had been standing in the doorway and I called them over as I dried my eyes.  I introduced everyone and told Joe who they were.

“It’s an honor to meet you, Mr. Joe,”
Deliliah
said.

“You too, both of you.
  So you now own
Rackey’s
,” He said to Delia.  “God I miss that place.”

“Joe, what happened to the cave, and Irene,
and what happened to Seth and a
l
l the others?”

“The cave took off without us not long after you disappeared and Seth was in it. I’m sorry, Ashley.  I was going to pick him up and bring him to the apartment I had rented for us after we got a job in the club, but before I got back, it took off.

“Only the band stayed behind.  Everyone else left.  We never saw them again.  How did this happen, Ashley?”

“This is why these two women are here, Joe, they are going to see if they can help us.”

“I’ve been thinking on this since I heard about it and I m
a
y have an answer,
“
Deliliah
said.  She stared off into space and then said, “I’m trying to think how to explain this.  It’s clear to me but trying to explain it is hard.