Chapter 33

Walking with Morgan and her parents from the alley where we'd met was interesting. Walking in front of me were her mother on her left, father on the right with naturally, her in the middle. It was a pleasure to see all three of them holding hands. It was the joy of being together that united them. I half felt like a puppy dog, following his master, not knowing what or where the troupe was heading toward, just happily wagging his tail, trotting along.

Morgan's head was flopping back and forth like someone watching a ping pong tournament. Both of her parents took turns tossing the ball at her in the form of questions about how we two had met. I did have to laugh at some of the more pointed ones. The best was when her father looked over his shoulder at me and then asked her directly, "When did you meet him?"

She took a misstep and almost fell down as her feet stopped working while she figured out how to answer that one. I had a theoretical answer to their conversation whiz through my head. 'Well, dad. I met him four days from now and then we went back eighty years to see where we would be living.'

From there I added, 'Oh yeah. Almost forgot. That day I met Blair, I was waiting on a soup line. Darned if his father didn't come back from 2014 to tell me I should follow him to his hotel room. There we went to, gee I forget just where in time it was, but that's when he deflowered me.'

It was interesting how her mouth was trying to say something but although her jaw was sort of going up and down a little, not a word issued forth. It almost looked like a cartoon character's mouth flapping in the breeze going, 'Yabba ... Yabba ... Yabba'.

To make matters worse, she'd looked over her shoulder, fear in her eyes, more or less crying for help. All I could do was shrug my shoulders and give her my crooked up face silently telling her I had no idea how to field that one given the current circumstances.

Right then, not waiting for Morgan to answer her dad's question, her mother asked, "So when did you meet Blair's parents?"

Oh, I could hear her answer. 'Well, mom. The first time I saw his dad. Let's see. We met in 1850. I guess that was the earliest time I met him.

'Or was it in 2014 when his mom gave me a bunch of shots. I'm on Birth Control now. We can screw all we want and I won't get pregnant.

'Isn't that wonderful?

'Oh, and dad, I remember now. That's right. It was in 2014 when Blair jumped my bones.

'It's so hard to get it straight. Well, not him. He always gets it straight in ... No, I mean ... Oh, you know what I mean.

'It's all been such a whirlwind through time and places with him it gets difficult to keep straight.'

As the possible conversation rolled through my brain, Morgan had had it. One more desperate look over her shoulder did it. I couldn't let her parents give her questions that were impossible to explain until they knew about me and my special talent. So, I gave her a 'Come Here' wave and said. "Come here Morgan. I'm lonely back here."

I know that was a terribly lame thing to say and not an excuse at all, but the only thing I could whip up in the spur of the moment. Instantly she was at my side, hugging me so tightly. I felt as if she'd tightened her grip any more my head would have popped off. Then the inner contents of my body would have squirted like toothpaste, billowing out after the tube had been given too firmly a squeeze.

Timing was with us for just as she'd dashed to me for protection, her father said, "Here we are," and held the door for us all to enter the diner. And, repeating our good luck, there was an empty booth. I said, good luck because the diner was fashioned after a railroad car. Small, but efficient in design.

You know the type. A long counter with round soda fountain style rotating seats and opposite that, lining the windows, were back-to-back booths in a long row.

At the end of the counter on the side away from the window was was a single, solitary booth. One that was sort of separated from everything else. Right then, a little privacy was warranted and that luck I mentioned was that booth was empty.

Plus it had a separation of I guessed of about six feet from the counter so the waitresses could pick up their orders. And, it was right next to the door to the rest rooms. That door had a round window in it like I'd seen in other cookie cutter diners just like this one. I'd guessed it was there so people wouldn't slap each other silly with the door as they entered and left the privacy of the hallway.

So we settled into the booth and in seconds, four glasses of water appeared with our waitress. I knew from things Morgan had told me, her family's tastes were along the line of the 'Hamburger Special'. I simply asked the waitress for four of them and an extra plate of french fries and Cokes all around, adding to my table mates, "Is that OK?"

I knew that it might be a little awkward for her parents if I offered to pay, so I'd given Morgan a twenty as we entered the diner. She was right there saying, "It's OK," as she put the crisp bill on the table adding, "I've got it. I'll pay this time."

Although, her father was the only one to even show any type of gratitude, both he and her mother showed a measure of relief. I knew money was tight for them and it was my pleasure thinking that was going to end for them.

With our order taken, the waitress wandered behind the long counter and slipped our order ticket onto the circular rotating shiny wheel, which the short order cooks were constantly spinning. It was a system still in use in places today where computerized ordering hadn't caught up yet and simplicity had stayed.

Rather than the hard look he'd given me before, he matter-of-factly asked me, "So Blair ... Where do you come from."

Well, the moment of truth had arrived. Morgan looked up at me with a mixture of fear and trepidation across her face and showing from her eyes. "It's OK," I told her.

She hugged into me like she was trying to soak up my confidence using osmosis. I'd worked out the scenario where they jumped up had run screaming from the diner, of course grabbing Morgan, never to be seen again. Well, that was not the thing I wanted.

All of a sudden, Morgan chimed in, "Blair's like Houdini."

I could see she'd gotten their attention and that little help set the tone for how to explain everything to her parents. Something you've kept secret all of your life is not the easiest thing to divulge to someone off the cuff.

Surprised at what she'd said, her mother said, "You mean he's a magician?"

"Sort of. He can do all sorts of fabulous things," Morgan told her.

She was a smart one, I thought. She was going to be a hard act to keep up with let alone follow. I wanted to show her parents I could do things, but ones way beyond simple parlor tricks. Yet not scare the begeezus out of them.