Paris Time

by D. B. Gilles

  “Yes, but... Juliet said she’s has Alzheimer’s. I’m sorry.” Eliza’s eyes filled with tears. “I’m supposed to meet Juliet at eight o’clock. Come with me. It’ll be an amazing surprise for her.”

  He held out his right hand. Eliza started to reach for it, then stopped.

  “No.”

  “No?”

  “Why did Juliet do this?”

  “To see you.”

  “But why? If she thought I was dead for seven years... I mean... why?”

  “To see if you were alright. To see you again.”

  Eliza smirked. “Tell her no.”

  “No what?”

  “I don’t want to see her.”

  The remark stunned Dalton. “But... “

  “Ever.”

  “She came back to find you.”

  “I didn’t ask her to.”

  “She cares about you. She needs to see you.”

  “Tell her I don’t need to see her and I don’t want to be found. She didn’t want anything to do with me before; I want nothing to do with her now. Tell her to go back. Don’t follow me. If you do I’ll scream for the police.”

  Dalton reached into his coat pocket and removed the card he’d taken from the hotel front desk. He shoved it in her right hand. “We’re staying at the Hotel de Buci. I know this is overwhelming, but if you change your mind.”

  “I won’t.” Eliza turned in a huff and headed into the crowd.

  Dumbfounded at Eliza’s reaction, as Dalton watched her disappear into the crowd he tried to imagine how Juliet would feel when he told her what Eliza said. He decided to go directly to the church they’d agreed to meet at and wait.

  He spun on his heels and started walking when out of the corner of his eye, fifty yards away, he saw Juliet walking at a brisk pace with a man in a suit who had her right arm in a firm grip. They were about to start the climb down the 300 steps.

  He knew it was Luger Pabst.

  Without wasting a second, he took off after them. He wanted to run, but because of the crowds, was only able to move at a middling jog. He rounded a group of a dozen or so tourists and felt he could move at a brisker pace. Because of the cobblestones he lost his balance and tripped, falling against an elderly woman and knocking her down.

  “Pardon,” he blurted out as he bent over to help her up. “Pardon.”

  Had circumstances been different he would’ve helped the woman sit down or at least make sure she was all right, but instead he took off again.

  Chapter 45

  Luger and Juliet walked in silence down the steps, Juliet’s eyes darting back and forth as she looked for Dalton, hoping somehow that he was nearby.

  Dalton figured they were forty yards ahead of him now. There were more people walking down the steps than up. He couldn’t move as fast as he wanted. He could see Juliet and Luger as they reached the bottom of the steps where there were several carriages and omnibuses waiting.

  Luger waived to a single carriage, nudged Juliet into the seat and said, “Twenty-two Rue de Buci”

  The driver nodded and they took off.

  For the first time since she’d arrived in Paris, Juliet’s thoughts turned to something other than finding her sister. She couldn’t stop thinking about the fact that if the man sitting next to her got The Brimstone, he would take it with him and she would be unable to return to New York.

  Dalton reached the foot of the hill as their carriage moved off. He looked for another single horse carriage, but there were none. The only transportation available was a full-sized omnibus. He doubted it would ever be able to keep up Juliet’s carriage, but he got on anyway hoping that there would be light traffic.

  Luger started talking immediately.

  “Let me get something straight. Your sister finds a way to time travel back to the past. If I interpreted what she wrote and drew in her sketchbook, I’d say she came here because she has a thing for Toulouse-Lautrec. Am I right?”

  “She wanted to study with him.”

  “What did you say when she told you she was going back in time?”

  “She didn’t tell me. I didn’t know where she went. I thought she’d been kidnapped or that she ran away or that something bad happened to her. Then I found out the truth.”

  “And you just decide to drop everything and go back in time to find her?”

  “That wasn’t my initial plan. Dalton and Proctor were going to go. I decided to go at the last minute.”

  “Explain to me Dalton and Proctor’s involvement?”

  “It’s complicated.”

  “I hate complicated explanations. What’s relevant is that The Brimstone is what brought me here and your friends and your sister and obviously, you too.” He gestured towards the sketchbook. “I’ve been studying this. Your sister certainly knows how to weave a story. Her drawings are quite good and the entries she wrote are very informative, very newsy. My grandmother was a letter writer. She would write endless correspondence to my mother and mom would say that ‘Grandma writes newsy letters.’ So does your sister. I think I know everything there is to know about her that’s relevant from what I read in this sketchbook.”

  “What are you going to do if you get The Brimstone?”

  “If?” He laughed. “When. I will be returning to where I belong. Presumably where you belong. Why, do you want to come with me?”

  Juliet just stared at him.

  “I don’t blame you. Maybe I’ll take you with me? Would you like that?”

  Juliet said nothing.

  “You can come back to New York with me. We can hang out. Do you have a boyfriend?”

  Juliet said nothing.

  “Doesn’t matter. You’re not my type. I like them older. Grey hair. But if you don’t come back with me, you’ll be here forever. How does that sound, Juliet?”

  Although she didn’t say anything, the thought terrified her.

  Chapter 46

  Proctor had returned to the suite in order to start planning his actions for the next few days. First he needed to create a new identity for himself. He would keep his name, but it would be necessary to create a history for himself. As an undergraduate at Harvard he had acted in plays so he understood the value of creating a character history. He would put it to paper, then to memory, then go over it again and again until it was hard-wired into his brain.

  Next he would have to decide where to live. He loved all of Paris, but there were certain Arrondissements that he preferred over others. He didn’t want to rush into anything. He would settle upon three or four neighborhoods and see how they stood up with regard to cafes and restaurants. He considered himself a gourmet cook. Once he made friends, he anticipated having dinner parties, which meant that wherever he lived needed to have the best shops for meat, fish, fowl, cheese, desserts and, of course, wine.

  As he started to sketch out a history for himself, his thoughts turned to Juliet and Dalton and the fact that he hadn’t told them that they had not arrived on the date they had planned. He wondered if by chance they had already discovered it on their own. And, if so, how they would react, Juliet in particular. He wondered if he should say nothing at all and act as if he hadn’t yet realized they’d landed on the wrong date.

  Then, once again, his thoughts returned to Lugar Pabst. With that man’s name and face circulating around his head it took all the joy out of planning what his life would be like.

  It will be shit until the problem of Luger Pabst is solved.

  Chapter 47

  Before her encounter with Dalton, Eliza had planned on taking a carriage to Pigalle where the Moulin Rouge would be if it were October 6th 1889, hoping for a chance sighting of Toulouse-Lautrec. But the confrontation with Dalton had been so traumatizing, she felt physically ill and for the first time since she arrived in Paris, she felt the need to sleep.

  She made her way to the carriage stand and boarded an omnibus to return to her hotel.

  She stared at the card for Hotel De Buci, turning it over and over in he
r hands so many times it began to disintegrate.

  A fresh start, she said to herself. I came here for a fresh start.

  She crumbled what was left of it and tossed it out the window.

  Chapter 48

  When they arrived at Hotel de Buci, Luger nudged Juliet out of the carriage, and still holding her by the arm, walked into the lobby.

  “Go straight to the elevator,” he said. “Don’t look at the front desk.”

  “What if Proctor isn’t in the room? I’ll need to get a key.”

  “Don’t be negative just yet.”

  The knock on the door startled Proctor. Anticipating Juliet and Dalton and perhaps even Eliza, he opened the door with a smile only to see Luger standing behind Juliet with the switchblade pressed against her throat.

  “You know why I’m here,” said Luger as he stepped into the room, shoving Juliet ahead of him. Juliet observed Eliza’s sketchbook slip out of his hand onto the floor.

  Proctor noticed Luger’s bandaged neck, bloodshot eyes and the perspiration dripping from his face. “You should see a doctor. From the looks of that wound, it’s infected.”

  “No shit. My whole body’s infected. I intend to see a doctor at New York Presbyterian when I get back. How does The Brimstone work?”

  “It’s an intricate process.”

  “Make it simple and make it fast, old man. If you don’t I’ll kill the girl.” He pressed the blade closer to Juliet’s flesh.

  Proctor knew that to lie would be risky. He decided to be completely straightforward

  “You need to set the date you want to return to.”

  “I want to return to the day I left. The day we left. Last night.”

  “It’s too early. You must be at the obelisk at a few minutes before midnight.”

  “That’s over two hours from now. I can’t wait that long.”

  “You have to. There are several steps that need to be handled before you can return. The thunder and lightning in combination with the powers of The Brimstone and the position of the moon will take you back. If you like, I can set the date for you.”

  “Show me how.”

  “It’s a complex procedure.”

  “I’m not stupid. Show me!”

  Luger watched closely as Proctor fiddled with the calendar, the compass and the timepiece. Having done it once before, Proctor felt more comfortable. Within one minute he was finished. “Done.”

  “How do I know you set it to the right date? How do I know you aren’t sending me somewhere else?”

  “You don’t. You have to trust me.”

  “Wrong answer. Actually, you will have to trust me. I’m bringing Juliet here along. Just to make sure you send me back to New York. Let’s go.”

  “As I said, you have to wait until midnight.”

  “We’re going now. Give me The Brimstone.”

  Proctor handed it to him.

  “Thank you,” said Luger. “Oh. And give me my wallet. I’m sure you have it.”

  Proctor reached into his jacket pocket which was hanging by the door, removed Luger’s wallet and handed it to him.

  “Thank you. I trust you didn’t steal any of my money, considering that it won’t be worth anything here.” Then with a swift karate chop to the neck Luger struck Proctor, knocking him out and to the ground.

  “Why did you do that?” said Juliet.

  “Shut up. You’re lucky I didn’t kill him. Being stuck here will be punishment enough. But if this thing doesn’t work, I’ll come back and slit his throat. Yours too. And when I find your sister and that other guy, I’ll kill them. Let’s go.”

  Barely ten minutes had passed since they got to the room. They walked through the lobby again, out to the street. Several carriages were waiting. They stepped into the first one.

  “Place de la Concorde,” said Luger.

  Chapter 49

  The omnibus Dalton was on moved at worse than a snail’s pace. It seemed that it either picked someone up or dropped someone off at every stop. Dalton had checked his pocket watch when he left Montmartre. Nearly an hour had passed. He gave up any hope of catching up with Juliet. He felt his only option was to return to the hotel and tell Proctor what happened.

  He heard the driver call out “Rue de Seine” and got off. He remembered the way to Hotel de Buci and arrived there to find Proctor barely conscious on the floor. Dalton helped him up and sat him on the bed.

  As he did so he told Proctor he’d found Eliza and that she had no interest in seeing Juliet. Proctor’s immediate reaction was relief that Eliza had arrived on the same day as he had hoped.

  “That’s unfortunate,” said Proctor. “But Juliet has a bigger problem. Mister Luger Pabst has The Brimstone. You have to get to the obelisk. He’s going back to New York and taking Juliet with him. You cannot let her go. He’ll kill her when they get to New York. And to make things even worse, he’s not going to wait until midnight. There’s no telling what kind of effect that will have on the process.” He handed him some francs. “Go now! Tell the driver to take you to Place de la Concorde. Give him extra money. It’s not far. Just across the bridge and down Rue de Rivoli.”

  “She’ll be devastated when she hears Eliza doesn’t want to see her,” said Dalton.

  “Understandably. But you must go now. If Luger takes her with him it will be a moot point.”

  A couple was getting out of a carriage in front of the hotel. Dalton jumped in and told the driver where to go and added the words, “Vite comme vous pouvez.” He hoped it came out right: “Fast as you can get there.”

  The driver said “Oui, monsieur,” and hit the single horse with a whip.

  For the next several minutes everything was a blur for Dalton. He went back and forth reliving his conversation with Eliza, hoping he could get to Juliet in time and wondering how she would react when he told her what Eliza said. And in the back of his mind was the fear that if Luger escaped with The Brimstone he would never return home.

  In the distance, there was the sound of thunder. Dalton looked up at the clear sky and knew that Luger had begun the process.

  “Veuillez pressé!” he screamed to the driver.

  Chapter 50

  If Luger hadn’t been burning a fever, nauseous and racked with pain, he would have taken into consideration Proctor’s advice about waiting until midnight to go back, but he was concerned that if he didn’t go immediately he would pass out.

  He checked the pocket watch he’d found inside the coat. Ten minutes past nine. The streets were less crowded and as the carriage approached Place de la Concorde he observed that it was empty except for a handful of people who were ambling by. Other than the gaslights, the square was dark enough so as not to draw attention despite the full moon.

  They got out of the carriage and went straight to the obelisk. He told Juliet to climb over the railing around it and he did the same.

  He followed Proctor’s instructions, opening the bottom of The Brimstone and holding it face up toward the obelisk. First came the dark clouds quickly blocking out the moonlight, followed by the sudden thunder and within seconds the lightning. Then came the rain.

  He clutched his free arm around Juliet’s mouth to keep her from screaming while maneuvering The Brimstone. Struggling with Juliet threw him a tad off balance. As he recovered he saw a figure running toward him.

  A man.

  Juliet saw him too and wondered if it was Dalton. But she observed that he had a slight limp, then she saw the large handlebar moustache and the man started shouting in French as he got closer and closer so Juliet knew it wasn’t Dalton.

  “Stop! Bastard! Fils de pute,” he screamed. “Vous osez rob me et voler mes vêtements!”

  With Luger’s attention drawn away, Juliet bit down fiercely on his right hand causing him to cringe in pain. By then the screaming, charging Frenchman was upon Luger causing him to loosen his grip on Juliet. She was able to dart away, jumping over the railing at the foot of the obelisk.

  Luger was take
n so off-guard by the intrusion that he was unable to gather his thoughts for a few seconds. As the man was screaming at him and shaking him, for a moment they were face to face.

  Only then did Luger recognize the oversized handlebar moustache. It was same man he had robbed earlier that morning.

  “Donne-moi mon portefeuille!” he screamed. Neither Luger nor Juliet had any idea that he was demanding his billfold back. The Frenchman managed to reach inside Luger’s coat and pull it from an inside pocket.

  As the thunder intensified, a bolt of lightning struck the obelisk and almost magically a crack opened. Luger remembered how it was when he left the obelisk in New York. He knew he would be going within seconds and unless this enraged Frenchman let go of him, he would be accompanying him.

  Weakened and exhausted, Luger managed to raise his left hand and deliver a weak karate chop to the man’s forehead, knocking him to the ground, but not rendering him unconscious. Dazed, the man glanced at Luger, then Juliet. He made a move to stand, but Luger kicked him hard in the left side which succeeded in knocking the wind out of him.

  Luger clutched The Brimstone to his chest and waited. A second bolt of lighting struck the obelisk, then more thunder boomed. He glanced at Juliet, extended his left hand and shouted, “Are you coming?”

  For a moment she started to raise her hand, but then she heard someone calling her name. At first she thought it was the Frenchman, but then she realized it was Dalton. She turned and saw him running toward her.

  “Don’t!” he screamed.

  “He’s taking The Brimstone with him.”

  “He’ll kill you when he gets there!”

  “Make a decision!” Luger screamed.

  “We’ll never be able to leave!” said Juliet, looking back and forth between Luger and Dalton. “Not ever!”

  “It’s time!” screamed Luger.

  Juliet looked at Luger whose hand was outstretched, then at Dalton who stood next to her, then back at Luger. She started to move towards Luger.