“I think I prefer girls in skirts,” Johnny said dryly, and tightened his hand around hers. He tossed a black look over his shoulder at the group of boys, and Maggie’s heart sang a hopeful tune. A possessive Johnny was a very good sign.
Johnny received his fair share of interested looks as well as they navigated the crowded halls to the gymnasium where the janitor’s closet was located. Jillian had kept the explanation of his presence in the small town very vague, and Johnny had kept an extremely low profile. But it was a small town after all, and he was a very good looking guy. Word spread and people, especially teen-aged girls, were curious, to say the least. This was the second time he had been seen in a very public place, and both times in Maggie’s company. There would be talk.
Shad was at the janitor’s closet with his grandfather when they arrived, and Maggie tried not to groan out loud when Shad folded his arms and stuck out his chest like a peacock. His lower lip jutted out too, and his eyebrows lowered in displeasure. He opened his mouth to say something, most likely something that would make Maggie groan even louder, but his grandpa shoved him lightly in the middle of his back and gently told him to “Get a move on, Shadrach. You know what needs to be done.”
When Shad walked away, after looking back and glowering several times, Maggie entreated Gus for a private place where they could talk. Gus led them into the gymnasium and, using the rickety railing, eased himself down onto the lowest bench of the old bleachers. Maggie and Johnny climbed up a few rows and sat above him. Johnny had kept her hand clasped in his, and Maggie was pretty sure Gus had not missed the significance of his grip. He released her when they were seated, moving away slightly and shifting so he could look at both her and Gus as they talked.
“How are you, boy?” Gus said gently, looking at Johnny with something very akin to affection in his chocolate brown eyes.
Johnny rested with his elbows propped on his knees, his hands loosely clasped, looking down at Gus from two rows up. “I’m okay, sir,” he answered quietly.
“Ah, call me Gus.” Gus waved a hand in the air, shooing away the deferential “sir.”
Johnny nodded his head, but didn’t comment further. Gus looked at Maggie questioningly, and Maggie dove in.
“Remember what you told me about your grandmother, Gus?”
Gus nodded, his gaze sharpening immediately.
“It happened, Gus. I fell asleep in Irene’s room last night. Irene had been digging through some of her old things and I was wearing her prom dress when I fell asleep. When I woke up, I was still in Irene’s room, wearing the same dress, but it was 1958. We’d been talking about the prom when we’d fallen asleep, about....Johnny and....regrets.” Maggie didn’t want to air Irene’s personal sorrow so she tiptoed through her explanation, still wanting to give Gus enough information to understand what might have triggered the time travel. “Irene’s room has all of her old things from when she was a girl. Her bed, her furniture, almost all of it is the same, and she has arranged it to look like it used to look too.”
“Last night?” Johnny interrupted, his expression one of shock. “This happened last night?”
Maggie nodded her head, entreating him with her eyes. He just stared at her, trying to make the details fit. “Is that why I woke up this morning and suddenly remembered everything? Because it just happened?”
“What happened, Miss Margaret?” Gus chimed in, clearly a little lost. “When you realized you were somewhere else, what happened?”
“My grandmother, Lizzie, she remembered me, Gus! She remembered me from the time before. She helped me. She’s just a little girl, but she’s funny and smart, and she reminds me a little of ...well, me! I was there for a day and a half, and I saw so many things. I saw Billy Kinross, and I saw Johnny’s mother,” Maggie shot a look at Johnny’s face, gauging his ability to hear what she had to say. His hand shot out and grabbed hers.
“You saw them?” he cried.
“Yes...and I saw Roger and Irene, and so much more!”
“What else, Margaret? How did you get back home?” Gus laid his hand on her leg, pulling her attention back to him.
“I couldn’t talk about the future. Every time I did, I felt like I was being pulled away, like any minute I would be wrenched back to the present. I fought it, and Lizzie seemed to accept what I could tell her.” Maggie proceeded to tell Gus about the prom, about meeting Johnny, spending the evening with him, and then how she had been pulled forward in time once again.
“I didn’t need these.” Maggie pulled her glasses off her nose and looked at them accusingly. “I put them on and it was as if I’d flipped a switch. I called for Johnny, but it was too late. And then I woke up, back in Irene’s bed. Irene was trying to wake me up. It was as if I’d just been dreaming.”
“But it wasn’t a dream,” Johnny added softly. “She was there. I never knew what happened to her. She just disappeared. I spent the next three months wondering where she was.” Johnny opened the scrapbook they’d brought along and showed Gus the picture and the missing persons report.
Gus placed a little pair of wire-rimmed spectacles on his nose and stared at the picture and then carefully read the report Clark Bailey had penned fifty-three years before.
“You say this wasn’t here before?” Gus tapped the plastic covered page.
“No,” Johnny replied swiftly. Maggie nodded in agreement. “I’ve been through that book over and over. The picture of the two of us wasn’t there either.”
“You goin’ back changed things, Miss Margaret,” Gus spoke carefully, thoughtfully.
“Not enough, Gus. Billy still died, and Johnny still lost everything, and Irene married that jerk...”
“Margaret!” Gus spoke sharply, cutting her off. “You gotta leave well enough alone. You can’t be goin’ in and tryin’ to fix things. You don’t understand the harm you could do!”
Maggie bit her lip, surprised by Gus’s vehemence.