There were marks on her neck the next morning. Maggie tried to convince herself it had all been a dream, but the bruises proved otherwise. And as afraid as she was of slipping back into a time and space that Roger occupied, she was more afraid of upsetting the new possibilities that loomed on the horizon. Johnny was hers again, Saturday was the prom, and the future stretched out before her like a golden sunrise. Maggie knew she had to get out of Irene’s house. The episodes were getting worse. She only hoped that she couldn’t die in another time, that her mortality would yank her back to where she belonged. But hope was a very weak lifeline, and she knew how foolish she was being.
Still, she didn’t tell Irene what had happened. She didn’t tell Johnny either. She told herself she would. She told herself she would come clean after the dance, and then she and Irene and Johnny would make a plan. Maybe she could stay with Johnny and Jillian Bailey. Graduation was three weeks away, and then she would be free to live or do whatever she pleased. She resumed wearing her glasses to bed and slept with her iPod programmed to play only current songs. With the music of her own time pounding in her ears, she managed to sleep and live without incident the following night and then the next.
~22~
A Time to Lose
Maggie picked Johnny up at eight o'clock in the pink Cadillac. She had resisted all his efforts to be the “man” and pick her up in his Bel Air. She remembered how, in Purgatory, he had wanted to drive the Cadillac, how he said he had coveted the car when spoiled Irene Honeycutt had received it on her seventeenth birthday. Now he would have his turn behind the wheel. Plus this way they could avoid Irene and any awkwardness. Irene had helped Maggie get ready, even getting a little teary when Maggie had donned the red dress. Maggie hadn't been able to explain that the reason Irene had never found the dress in 1958 was because Maggie had worn it back to 2011, skipping all the years in between. After all, there were never two red dresses. It made Maggie’s head spin just thinking about it, and she and Irene didn’t dwell on the tangled ball of yarn that time had become.
Maggie knocked at Jillian Bailey's door and waited on the top step, the traditional roles on Prom Night reversed. Johnny answered almost immediately, and they stared at each other in awe, memories of another prom fresh in their minds.
"That's my girl," Johnny breathed. "How is it possible that you look even more beautiful than you did that night?"
"Modern make up and no nylons." Maggie grinned and stuck out one of her smooth, bare legs in her new red pumps. The original shoes had stayed behind in 1958, and Irene hadn't kept them the second time around.
Maggie beamed and straightened Johnny's lapels. "No pink carnation this time, Mister. You and I need to match." She pulled the red rose from behind her back and proceeded to pin it on.
"Let me get a picture." Jillian Bailey stood just beyond Johnny's right shoulder and ushered Maggie inside where the light was considerably better. Dusk had descended, and night was crawling into the sky.
Maggie and Johnny looped their arms around each other, and instead of smiling into the camera, they ended up looking at each other.
"Hey, you two," Jillian smiled. "Yoo hoo! Can you look right here?" She snapped away, but in the end the best shot was the first one, where they couldn't seem to tear their eyes away from each other. Jillian promised Maggie that she would send the pics to her phone.
Maggie tossed Johnny the keys as they headed for the car. Johnny smiled and opened the passenger door, helping her in.
"The old girl looks almost as good as she used to. Maybe just a little rusty around the edges," he commented as he pulled away from Jillian's house. "The transmission feels nice and tight."
"It should. You just repaired it a few months ago."
"I did?!"
"Yes, you did. I sorta helped. Well...not really. But I kept you company. Told you blonde jokes and stuff."
“Now that I can believe.” He grinned.
The prom was being held in the parking lot of the burned out Honeyville High School. The Ladies Historical Society had held their auction the night before the big dance, trying to raise money for the new school that would be built on the very same site, and giving the community a chance to rally around the seniors who had lost not only their school a few months before graduation but all the decorations and supplies they had painstakingly gathered. Irene had found the record player she was looking for and donated it as well as several other things that she claimed it was time to let go of. The auction had been a huge success, and the townsfolk then helped to set up the space for “Beneath the Stars - Prom 2011.”