Once and Forever

by Constance O'Day-Flannery

  Maggie found her eyes filling with tears of gratitude. “You’re an angel. Thank you.”

  He winked at her. “Ah yup, that would be me, all right. Tell it to Raul.”

  He disappeared back into the mingling crowd.

  Her hands were still shaking as she struggled to open the bottle. Finally, she broke the seal and unscrewed the top. Using both hands, she raised the bottle to her lips and drank deeply. It tasted heavenly. Water… It was then that she realized in all the time she had spent in the past she’d only once been offered water. Don’t think about it….

  Pulling the bottle away, she held it in her hands as she sat back and without warning those images began to race through her mind again. Nick. Elthea. All of them… how could it all have happened? How could she have left Nick in 1598, dead on a field, and wind up in the present… at a rock concert? Her mind couldn’t handle the paradox, and she knew she couldn’t think about any of it right now or she would run into the night screaming.

  She looked down to her feet and saw her big toe was bleeding. Her shoe. She’d lost her shoe. Her left shoe… Nick’s note! The one she had saved. Gone. She had nothing, nothing to prove it had all happened!

  Something had happened to her. She believed it. She knew it.

  Malcolm had talked about this concert. She remembered that. Looking to her right, she saw another poster on a tall canvas wall opposite where she was sitting. She concentrated and read the dates.

  She had been missing for days in this time. Surely, they were looking for her. What would she say when asked? Who would believe her? She had to find her aunt! With thoughts of Aunt Edithe, Maggie reached up and pulled the pearls out from her dress. When she did, something crackled, and she reached inside her bodice to remove the crumpled parchment airplane model!

  It was real!

  Emotion filled up inside of her. Love, tenderness, devotion… She couldn’t relive it now. She had to distract herself until she was alone, for once she began grieving, she didn’t know when it would ever end.

  Avoiding the memories and what she knew was going to be painful, she looked back to the poster and held the precious paper airplane close to her heart. She read on, seeing the long list of performers… hearing the music of a familiar song playing on a stage behind those canvas walls… Reading, listening, her mind took her back to a nostalgic time when she was full of hope, young, believing that the world could be something better.

  “We shall all meet and love again.”

  Her vision seemed to scan down the list.

  U2, Seal, Pearl Jam, America, Collective Soul, Dan Fogelberg, Indigo Girls, Simon and Garfunkel, Aiden Harley, Rolling Stones, Jewel, The Eagles, Goo Goo Dolls, Fleetwood Mac, Melissa Etheridge, John Fogerty, and Creedence Clearwater Revival, Hootie & the Blowfish and it even announced Jethro Tull was coming out of retirement. The list went on and on. She leaned closer and squinted her eyes to read the smaller print….

  Featuring Steve Miller’s Fly Like An Eagle anthem of Stonehenge: 2000

  Maggie continued to read names that were blowing her mind even farther out there. It was incredible how many people were involved. Stunned, Maggie continued to read the poster announcing its message was one that continues through time.

  The strength of the human spirit.

  It was too much, after listening to Elthea for days. What was happening? She goes back in time and hears the same message from Elthea and returns to find there are millions upon millions of people who are not only hearing it, but celebrating it!

  She was very still for a moment, as a thought raced within her.

  What did Elthea say she was waiting for? A marriage of something. She couldn’t remember, but she wished with all her heart that Elthea could see this, be a part of this reunion. Still, she felt like she was truly losing her mind as thoughts flashed one after the other, refusing to be denied. . . .

  How could she have not known about this? It was happening all around her, and she had been blinded by… by worry, shame, and bitterness. And she had felt alone.

  These people were celebrating! It couldn’t be that these millions of people were living such great lives that they never had a problem. The time she had left had not been Utopia by any means. They just knew there was another way… what she had traveled four hundred years into the past to find out!

  Follow your heart.

  Aunt Edithe had first shown her it was possible. She was here, somewhere in this crowd, and Maggie’s heart lifted a tiny bit. She could breathe deeper now. She would find her aunt and then—

  “I did it!” Seamus almost popped in front of her eyes, blocking out the poster. He looked like a tall, skinny elf, grinning from ear to ear. She would focus her attention on him, she decided, until the authorities claimed her. If she tried to figure anymore of this out right now, she might just have a nervous breakdown!

  “Joni Mitchell shook my hand!”

  Maggie concentrated on him and making her lips move. “What did you say to her?”

  He leaned back and bent slightly so she would hear him better. “I thanked her for sharing her remarkable gift with the rest of this mixed-up world we find ourselves in.”

  His words seemed to break through the pain around her heart, and she smiled more genuinely. “What a beautiful thing to say to her,” she murmured. “She must have been moved.”

  Seamus started laughing. “I don’t know if she was moved, but that’s when she up and shook me hand. Imagine, Joni Mitchell shook me hand and said thank you to me.” Shaking his head, he added, “I could die a happy man. Surely, if Heaven were a moment, this would be it.”

  Stunned, Maggie stared into his eyes. Nick had said those exact words to her!

  It was as though the pain made another assault on her as memories came flooding back, squeezing at her heart and demanding recognition. She couldn’t. Not now. Forcing herself to unscrew the bottle, she brought it to her lips again and gulped. When she finished drinking, she pulled some inner reserve of strength and looked back to the man at her side.

  Inhaling, she blurted on the exhale, “So what’s this concert all about, Seamus? You might as well fill me in while we wait for Raul.” There. Let the man ramble and divert her. She would do whatever it took right now, anything to avoid memories that would only torture her.

  “Well,” he answered, pulling himself up to his normal height, “I don’t know that I’m the one who could speak for this thing. I just knew as soon as I heard about it, I wanted to be a part of it somehow.” He looked to his right with a slight laugh. “Raul must still be searchin’ for his headset.”

  “Why?”

  He looked back at her. “Why what?”

  “Why did you want to be a part of it?” In that moment, Seamus was the most important person in the place. She had to keep him talking, for if left alone with her own thoughts, she would lose it for sure.

  “Hey, your toe’s bleedin’.”

  She pulled the long skirt over her feet. “Forget it. Tell me why you wanted to be a part of all this.” She wiped her face with her hands and pushed her hair behind her shoulders as she waited with great concentration for his answer. Talk to me, she mentally pleaded, anything… tell me anything so I don’t have to think!

  “’Cause it’s like the greatest event that’s happened in my life. Bigger even than men on the moon. That was technical, but this”—he looked around him and then touched his chest— “this is about in here. Stuff you knew when you were young and then forgot when the going got tough and ya didn’t believe in yerself any longer and so ya bought somebody else’s story. Ya know?”

  She nodded. How well she knew. “So it’s a reunion with the music?”

  “Where ya been, Maggie Whitaker? You obviously went through an awful lot of trouble to get to this place. Why would ya be here if you didn’t know?”

  “Know what?” she insisted, not daring to answer his question.

  “What this is all about. It’s been advertised everywhere and is on the telly al
l over the planet right now. It’s about a reunion of the music but more. It’s for those who used to hear the message and the kids who hear it now. Ya know… reuniting the baby boomers with their kids. I mean, heck… look around ya. They’re wearing our clothes and even platform shoes. Their music may not be Earth, Wind and Fire, or Joni Mitchell, but the message is the same. Maybe we actually have something to teach each other, ya think?”

  He laughed, as though at the notion that it could be anything else. “Parents maybe remember what they already knew and some of us forgot, and the kids find out their parents had the same hopes, the same dreams… fer a better future.”

  She stared at him.

  “Ya know, the human spirit?” He was looking at her as though she had forgotten something important and then chuckled.

  “Right…” she mumbled, and remembered hearing something about it, but she’d been too wrapped up in her miserable life to pay attention. She had been killing herself with worry over a job, a failed marriage, and a stack of bills.

  “It’s our only hope now, in my humble opinion. We’ve tried everything else, besides what’s right inside of each of us,” he said in a serious voice while moving back against the canvas wall as the corridor began to fill with people. He leaned down and finished his thought. “Maybe together, two generations united, can make this here new millennium a better beginning to a brighter future. This is about peace, Maggie. Ya never know until ya try.”

  She noticed that the heavier Irish lilt left his voice while he was speaking. It was now more… well, intelligent. Instinct told her Seamus knew how to lay it on thick when the mood suited him.

  “Watch your dress there, Lady Maggie,” he called out to her as men in uniforms began to race about.

  “What did you call me?” she demanded, pulling her soiled gown to the side while people with towels and bottles of water ran to stand down the corridor by the stairs to the stage.

  “’Twas only a joke, cause of the way you’re dressed. I gotta say, you do stand out.” His smile was innocent.

  She had no more time to think about his answer as she sat in amazement, surrounded by the chaos of technical staff running about and yelling at people and into more two-way radios to “get ready to move the set, clear stage three, cue the lights, the band, and go, go go! We’re almost ready here.”

  Maggie couldn’t make any sense out of it. When the music on the main stage she had been pulled out from under reached an earsplitting, body-pounding crescendo, she heard masses of people applauding, screaming, and whistling in such unison that she was riveted by the sheer power of it. The sound seemed to mesh into a dull hum that began to fade as she closed her eyes and drew inside herself, the only place where she could find protection from the unexplainable chain of events.

  She opened her eyes and saw that the back stage was now almost lined with a different set of security guards as a group of musicians started exiting the stage and hustling through the corridor.

  “Hey, man, incredible set!”

  “They loved you! Great set!”

  The accolades were being yelled by people slapping the backs of the musicians dripping by her. She couldn’t help but gaze at the long-haired, sweating, heavy-breathing, vein-pumped, muscular bodies and towel-wrapped necks of the band players passing her. A handsome drummer, with sticks in hand, grinned at her as he walked through the crowd. Another man, tall and lanky, passed with an elaborately painted electrical guitar in hand and winked at her.

  Seamus was cheering loudly, having a terrific time, high-fiving everyone who would slap his hand.

  At least the band players didn’t seem to mind she was there. She didn’t even know who this band was, but so far they didn’t seem to think she was some crazed fan who had crashed the backstage area, was being detained by security, awaiting concert police and dressed in a filthy Renaissance costume.

  But then again… maybe she really was nuts after all.

  Aiden Harley stood on the stage, looking out to a sea of people, knowing he was experiencing a peak moment in his incredible life. This concert had been his focus for the last four years and to have caught up with the future he had envisioned so often was blowing his mind! He continued waving and, when he felt the burning at his eyes, he knew it wasn’t from the sweat pouring down his face. He’d better do something fast or he’d be crying in front of four and a half billion people across the planet.

  “Thank you!” he shouted hoarsely over and over as the applause and yells and whistles continued. People were throwing flowers, and he walked a few feet, picked up several, and threw them back out with thanks. They still accepted him, graying hair and all.

  He saved a single pink rose with a white ribbon. Waving it, as the sound grew in approval, Aiden just took it all in. All of it….

  Within moments, his whole life ran before him as he time traveled into the past with emotion…

  After spending a childhood in the grasp of a misdiagnosed illness, he’d played the guitar for company and peace. It was all that time alone going inward, instead of playing outside with other children, that enabled him to think beyond the box and question life. Then he really found his place in front of a piano. Never could he have imagined that playing with others would lead to a record deal, success, fame. He was just a kid. All he was doing was living his life and singing about what mattered to him. In the late sixties he sang about peace. In the seventies he expressed his disillusionment. The eighties taught him about balance and the nineties about focusing beyond himself. All he was doing was singing.

  He was just one voice in the crowd, but somehow he was heard… and he never took that for granted. Semi-retired, he’d thrown most of his attention toward pulling off a reunion of baby boomers with their best creations, their kids. There was something for everyone, friends, lovers, family to remember. What better time to make a pitch for peace than at the birth of the new millennium? And the response all over the globe exceeded their expectations.

  Waving good-bye to the crowd, he walked backward to the exit, wanting to acknowledge the energy he was receiving. Yeah, it was an incredible life, and to be a part of this was simply overwhelming. Whoever was writing this in the universe had perfect timing, for the crowd estimates were bigger than Woodstock. Something big was happening, and it was like a wave reaching its peak potential before crashing with power. People had had enough craziness and were remembering.

  Aiden swore that if he died right then, his life would have been complete, and, throwing a kiss, he left the stage. Energy like he had never felt was racing and buzzing through him. He barely sensed the floor beneath him. Every muscle, every organ, his entire being seemed like it was operating in perfect symmetry. He heard the wild enthusiasm continue to vibrate as he neared the stairs. Somehow these people had opened up and let him inside. They had for over thirty years. No matter how much he explored, no matter the adventure, nothing could have prepared him for this one. Again, he realized what a great gig his life had been.

  “Man… what a set! You never sounded better!”

  His road manager threw him a towel, and Aiden wrapped it around his neck while wiping his face and running it over his hair. The sweat really started pumping now that he had stopped singing and someone handed him a bottle of water. Stopping briefly, he drank deeply and looked for his band. He wanted to thank each one of them for pulling out all the stops and jammin’ like they were twenty years old again.

  When, suddenly, it was as though his entire focus was drawn to a frightened woman dressed in the most outrageous costume, a security guard standing next to her. Walking down the steps to the ground he thought if she wanted to crash and get attention, she certainly picked a surefire way.

  “Great set, Aiden. Let’s get together and talk. It’s about time for a new CD, isn’t it?”

  He shook hands with Mike Anderson, vice president of one the biggest labels around and one of the major sponsors of the reunion.

  “Sure, Mike,” he answered, while being slapped on
the back by strangers who also were trying to talk to him.

  All the while, he kept looking for the woman. He could only catch glimpses of a tattered-looking ruby dress. The crowd parted for a few moments, and his gaze was drawn to her eyes, the most beautiful eyes he had ever seen. Her face was flushed and dirty, but it was those eyes…

  They looked… hauntingly familiar.

  He watched as she seemed to realize he was staring at her.

  Something happened, so eerie that despite the sweat, he felt the hair rise on his body as her eyes got wide with astonishment. As though in slow motion, as if time had slowed down, he saw her gasp and clutch the pearl necklace at her breast. He could actually feel her bewilderment as the pearls scattered down to her lap, rolled over the soiled velvet gown, and hit the ground.

  She tore her gaze away from his while reaching down to the trampled grass at her feet, and time seemed to return, to normal. The security guard next to her bent down to help as the intriguingly lovely woman scrambled around picking up her pearls. Suddenly, people started to crowd around him again and he held his hand up to keep them back.

  “Wait a minute. Hold on,” he called, walking toward her.

  When he was a few feet away, she stopped and looked up at him. Her expression tore at his heart, her tears at something deeper. She wasn’t young, yet to him she was so vulnerable and yet achingly familiar that he bent down. Grabbing a fistful of pearls, he extended his hand.

  Slowly, as though unsure, she extended her hand and, as he emptied his into it, he found the words, “Gather your pearls, m’lady,” coming out of his mouth.

  They stared at each other in stupefaction.

  Why ever would he use that language, he wondered, kind of embarrassed since this was so public. Two more security men pushed their way through the small circle of people surrounding them, and he noticed the tall one who was with her held them back, motioning to wait.

  Aiden looked back at her and it hit like a bolt of lightning, shaking him to his very core. In an instant he knew her, just as he saw the recognition burst into her eyes and once the connection was made it all fell into place. He felt the longing, the yearning, the loss and painful separation, the promise to remember. It was as though his heart burst open with an ancient knowing… indescribable, demanding his attention. Confusion gave way to trust, faith, certainty. He knew that his life may have been incredible, but one thing had always been missing. Even though he’d had great loves, he hadn’t found her… the mirror to his soul.