Jerry reached across the table and squeezed my hand in an effort to comfort me, but it only served to make me jump out of my seat.
“Okay, seriously, what the hell is going on? I really wanted to be nicer to you people this time, but you are freaking me out. Bri’s had her fun, but I am really not in the mood. So tell her to get her skinny ass out here, or I am going to kick it so far she really does land in the seventeenth century.”
The odd couple glanced uncomfortably at one another and then back in my direction. Morna finally spoke, “I canna make Bri come out here. I’m sorry, lass. I doona blame ye for thinking us mad. All of it seems so commonplace to me now, I forget that ’tis truly traumatic for those unaccustomed to the idea. I have magic, dear, a witch if ye like, and Bri truly is living in Conall Castle but in the year 1647. Ye willna believe it until ye are there, I’m sure. While it will be a rough adjustment, I can see that there willna be another way. Here’s the long and short of it, Mitsy. If ye really wish to see Bri again, ye will step into the bathroom, change into the dress and do as we bid ye.”
“Trust us,” Jerry whispered softly.
*
Her eyes flashed when she ordered me into the bathroom and, while I believed Morna to be harmless, in that instant, if there were really such things as witches, she could have indeed been one.
I did as she asked, the whole while trying to figure out any plausible cause for what she was talking about. Perhaps it was a role-playing thing. That nerdy thing that video-game people do where they gather in fields and pretend to be things and people they’re not, for fantasy-type battles. Surely, Bri wouldn’t be involved in such a thing.
My next thought, and the only one that truly made any sense to me, was that it was some sort of creepy cult, something that Bri had gotten sucked into after she met Eoin, and they somehow managed to brainwash her so that she actually believed all this time-travel business. If it was a cult, I imagined the only way I would ever see Bri again was to play along and act as if I believed them so that they would bring me into their secret gathering place. I wasn’t sure I could do it, but I could try. If it meant bringing Bri back into reality, I would do it whole-heartedly.
Once I stripped myself of the sweats I wore, I climbed into the dress, squirming against the hard package of something I could feel on the inside of the dress. I couldn’t do up the laces myself, so hesitantly I stepped back into the kitchen.
“Look.” I pointed a finger at both Morna and Jerry and put on my angriest “ginger” face. “This is obviously some sort of crazy-ass cult thing and, while I’ll play along so that I get to see Bri, I don’t want you to think for a moment that you’re going to be able to brainwash me. You got it?”
Morna rolled her eyes dramatically, and Jerry started laughing so hard he doubled over in the kitchen. It did nothing to calm me down.
“Believe what ye wish, lass, but in due time ye will see that ye are the one who is mad for dreaming up such a ridiculous notion.” She paused to raise her palm in my direction. “But aye, lass, I swear not to try and brainwash ye.”
I spun my back toward her. “Well, good. Just so it’s clear. I’m only here for my friend and then we are both getting the hell out of here.” I lowered my voice and spoke much more sweetly. I knew I sounded crazy, too. “Now, would you please help me with the laces? I couldn’t do them on my own.”
“Sure, dear.”
Each time she pulled on the laces, the lump on the inside of the dress pushed into my side. “What’s inside the dress? Is it some sort of tracking device? If so, I can assure you the dress is coming off as soon as I leave here.”
With the next tug, I was certain she pulled on the lace a little tighter than was absolutely necessary. “Ye no doubt have a bit of Irish ancestry in ye, doona ye dear? For ye are as mad as a wee banshee. I sewed some ibuprofen and a few other medicines into the dress. Believe me, ye will need them once ye travel backward.”
“Crazy as hell, every one of you,” I muttered the words under my breath and was rewarded with a tug so tight, it knocked the air right out of me.
“What was that, dear?”
“Nothing.” It came out weak and breathless. I should’ve kept that thought in my head.
Morna stepped away and motioned for Jerry and me to follow her. “Come along. It will take us several hours to get there. We best get on the road.”
*
“I thought Bri was ‘living’ at Conall Castle?” I asked the question sarcastically. No one lived at Conall Castle, it had been a tourist attraction for many years and was no longer inhabited by anyone.
“Ye are going to Conall Castle, but ye must travel there by way of the pond at McMillan Castle. It has magical qualities.”