Variation on a Theme, Book 6
Copyright© 2024 by Grey Wolf
Chapter 152: Superman
Friday, June 13, 1986
Here we were, on another Friday the 13th. Hopefully, it would have little in common with the infamous Friday the 13th of December. Admittedly, that one had worked out fine in the end, but I was all for a nice, friendly night. Maybe with celebrities, but still.
It only took until we were dressed and heading off to breakfast for ‘celebrities’ to come true. We met Jas and Paige in the hall and started walking to the elevators. Down the hall, a door opened and Christopher Reeve stepped out. He looked at us, smiled, gave us a little wave, and headed to the elevators himself.
Angie immediately paused, causing the rest of us to stop. We heard the elevator ding, presumably meaning Superman was off to the lobby.
“I ... that was...” Angie said.
I nodded.
“And ... oh, fuck,” she said.
“Yeah,” I said, nodding.
“Um...” Jas said, with Paige echoing her a second later.
Angie and I exchanged looks, which was enough to clue the others in.
“Something happens to him,” Jas said.
“Has to be,” Paige said.
“Um ... yeah,” Angie said.
“Preventable?” Paige said.
“Maybe?” Angie said, stretching the word out a great deal. “We have some time.”
“I’m glad you know that,” I said. “I couldn’t have told you if it was next year or a decade.”
“Close to the latter,” Angie said. “I’d spent a lot of time in Gatesville.”
“We can table it,” Jas said, with Paige nodding.
“Not urgent,” Paige said.
We resumed walking to the elevator. It was yet another reminder that people’s futures were sometimes in our hands. What if we successfully warned Mr. Reeve? Would that be a good thing? On the surface, it certainly felt like it would, but he had done so much good after his accident. If we intervened to keep him healthy, how many people might be worse off for the lack of his post-accident activism?
Some decisions are easy. There was no good I could see in letting Ted Kaczinski continue his career as the Unabomber.
This one? Not easy. Not easy at all. There was no rush, but it was a clear moral dilemma, and one we would at least need to discuss in detail with Jas, Paige, and Jane before making any decisions.
Laura, too. For all we knew, he might not have even had his accident in her first life. Nor might it be fated in this universe.
After breakfast, we were off to the Museum of Modern Art. None of us were huge fans of modern art, but that hardly mattered. The sheer scale of MoMA was enough to tip the balance. Besides, ‘modern’ is in the eye of the beholder. MoMA’s collection included works by Degas, for instance, as well as Van Gogh, Dali, and others who we definitely appreciated.
Van Gogh, in fact, gave us an amusing conversation. When we spotted ‘Starry Night’, everyone oohed and ahhed over it.
As we were walking away, Jasmine said, “Oh! I’ve always wanted to see this. I mean, in person.”
Everyone else agreed, but I was a bit slow to join in.
Angie got it first and said, “Wait! Big Brother is behaving suspiciously.”
Fortunately, there wasn’t anyone else nearby, so I said, “Well ... I did want to see this in person for a long time.”
Jasmine rolled her eyes.
“Meaning you have.”
“Eh,” I said. “I’m definitely seeing it in person for the first time.”
Three girls elbowed me in various places.
After a short pause, Paige said, “I’ll do the honors. When?”
“Somewhere in the mid-2010s?”
This time, I dodged the elbows. For the most part, anyway.
After that, Jas hugged me and said, “At least we saw it in person for the first time together.”
“Absolutely!” I said.
“Even if you also saw it a decade ago.”
“Guilty!”
Paige said, “It’s probably a sign of how warped I am that this all makes perfect sense now.”
Angie said, “Look at it this way. If it didn’t seem sensible and normal, you’d be missing out on so much.”
“Point taken!” Paige said, then gave Angie a kiss.
We made it back to the hotel around four-fifteen and just hung out in the lobby. That gave us the chance to greet Cammie and Mel with hugs when they arrived.
Cammie said, “I really can’t believe we’re here! It’s just ... I mean. You know.”
“We know,” Angie said, nodding.
Mel said, “Thanks for twisting our arms. It wasn’t much, but it was enough.”
Cammie said, “Yeah. What she said.”
More hugs ensued, after which we let them check in.
Once they checked in, we went up to their rooms with them. Hopefully, Jess and Laura wouldn’t arrive while we were upstairs.
In the elevator, Mel said, “Seen anyone famous so far? And, no, the ‘60 Minutes’ people don’t count.”
“Even though they do, too, sort of,” Cammie said. “But we expected that.”
“Just Superman,” Paige said.
Cammie and Mel both laughed, then realized we weren’t.
“Wait. What?” Cammie said.
“Christopher Reeve,” Angie said. “He’s staying a few doors down from us.”
Mel’s eyes went wide a second before Cammie’s did.
“You’re serious?” Mel said.
“Yeah. I think we’re going to have a bunch of VIPs on our floor,” I said.
They exchanged looks.
“Our lives are so surreal,” Cammie said, grinning.
“Totally surreal,” Mel said.
There were no celebrities in sight when we got to our floor, though, so we just got them settled, then headed back down after making a plan to meet for dinner in the lobby at six-thirty. They wanted to freshen up, which seemed perfectly reasonable. Angie suggested wearing ‘something nice,’ since it was their first night in New York. After all, we would be eating stadium food tomorrow.
I wasn’t sure if that was true or not. Did they feed VIPs anything special? Who knew? They hadn’t at Live Aid, but this was a very different venue.
We probably left the impression that we would decide on a dinner plan when they got to the lobby. Our surprise was, for the moment, still intact.
We made it back to the lobby about thirty minutes before Jess and Laura walked in. Jess was dressed in a very fashionable green blouse and black skirt that made her look every bit the budding movie star she was. Laura was, by contrast, doing great with the ‘girl next door’ look with a colorful blouse and blue jeans.
They spotted us, and Jess made a beeline for us.
Or me, specifically. I got the first hug and the only kiss. I imagined the girls would get kisses later, but not in the Hyatt’s lobby.
Laura didn’t lag much behind, and hugged me right after Jess let go.
“It’s good to see you,” Laura said, sighing a bit and looking up at me. “Which is maybe still surprising, if only a little.”
I chuckled and squeezed her just a bit.
“It’s good to see you, too. And it’s not the same, to be sure, but still surprising, too.”
She chuckled.
“I can imagine. I think.”
We separated so she could hug the others. Once we’d finished that, we headed over to the check-in desk so they could get their room.
The Christopher Reeve story got repeated on the elevator. Jess just shrugged, while Laura seemed genuinely a bit star-struck. She also had a hint of a reaction that told me her first-life universe was probably not different from ours, that way.
As before, there were no celebrities in sight. No non-celebrities, either. Jess and Laura decided they, too, wanted to freshen up, so we told them about the six-thirty meetup plan. I was nearly certain Jess picked up on there being a dinner plan, but I’m not sure if Laura did.
We headed to our rooms to change. Pretty much, everyone wound up in attire suitable for a nice date. No suit, no ball gowns, but we looked good.
Everyone met up right on time. Cammie and Laura shared a halfway awkward hug. Mel and Laura’s hug was less awkward, and Mel said, “It’s wonderful to finally meet someone I’ve heard so much about.
“Ditto!” Laura said, laughing a bit.
Jess hugged both Cammie and Mel, too.
All three of them laughed about it. It was amusing, certainly. Had Jess and I never dated, it was unlikely that any of us would have known her beyond ‘the amazingly pretty head cheerleader who was sometimes in one of our classes.’
“Anyone hungry?” Angie said.
A bunch of heads nodded yes.
Jess said, “I’m not allowed to be hungry. I’m ... peckish.”
That got a lot of laughter, especially from those of us who had seen Jess eat after skiing.
It also got her an elbow from Laura.
“Keep it real!” Laura said.
Jess snorted.
“Thanks! I think, anyway,” she said, grinning.
“We found a few nice places down near CBS,” Angie said. “Which is right by Central Park, so we can show you at least a few of the sights, too. It’s not too late yet.”
“Lead on!” Cammie said, with everyone else agreeing.
We split into two cabs for the fairly short ride, with Cammie, Mel, Jess, and Laura’s cabbie told to follow ours. We arrived near the Hilton, and set off into Central Park. Our scenic tour was fairly short, by necessity. We had dinner reservations, after all, and it wouldn’t do to be late.
During the walk, we caught up a bit. Cammie and Mel were enjoying Amy’s company and were glad she was staying with them. They felt like they were getting to know each other better. It certainly felt like they would be good friends, and that probably mattered to things.
Their classes were going well, and they were pretty sure Amy’s was, too.
Mel, surprisingly or not, was the first to spot our destination.
“Wait!” she said, pointing. “Is that ... um...? I’ve seen it in movies.”
“Tavern on the Green!” Jess said.
She turned, gave me a suspicious look, and said, “I don’t think I even need to ask. Of course, you got us reservations there.”
I chuckled and said, “Honestly, CBS got us reservations there.”
Jess giggled and hugged me.
“The same guy takes me to dim sum, barbecue, Chinese buffet, and Tavern on the Green! It’s a good thing I’m not dating anyone else, because I don’t know how anyone could even try to match up to that.”
Laura chuckled and said, “The thing is...”
She paused, then shook her head.
“No. I was going to say it’s a thing ... you-know-who would have done. But he never would have tried barbecue. And I doubt the dim sum place would have been at all similar.”
Jess grinned.
“Oh, it was a little family place in Houston’s Chinatown. Great food! I had a wonderful time. I had a miserable time the first time we went to the Chinese buffet. Except I didn’t, too. And the reason I didn’t was Steve. I’ll tell you that story sometime. The second time was much better. And it also has a lot to do with why we’re all here, in an odd sort of way.”
“All ears!” Laura said, grinning.
By this point, we’d gotten much closer. There was a line outside, but we bypassed it and headed to the desk. Once they found the reservation, we were whisked off to a lovely table for eight in the Crystal Room. I already knew the view was better than the food, but that was fine.
About ten minutes after we’d been seated, and after we’d ordered drinks (non-alcoholic, tonight) and dinner, a very familiar voice rang out from near our table.
“Jess Lively! Fancy meeting you here!”
Jess was out of her seat and hugging Michael J. Fox before the rest of us could do much more than turn. I caught a look at Mel as I turned, and she looked pretty clearly starstruck.
“And Steve Marshall!” he said. “I heard you would be here! And you are clearly Jasmine!”
I rose and shook hands, saying, “A pleasure to see you again.”
“Likewise,” he said.
“Pleased to meet you,” Jas said, offering a hug and air kisses, which he happily accepted.
I think we had all of the eyes at half of the tables in the room on us by this point. It’s possible that a few might have recognized Jess, but the rest of us were complete unknowns. Still, here was a bona fide Hollywood star shaking hands and hugging us. Who were we?
He had a table to get back to, and we had dinner to eat, so we parted after just a bit. From there, we settled down into a surprisingly easy dinner conversation. There were topics we obviously couldn’t touch, not here. Some of them were important, too. But it was still a great dinner, one where even the people who didn’t know each other at all had a great time talking to one another. Laura seemed fascinated with Mel’s engineering mindset, while Cammie found herself more comfortable with Jess than I imagined she would have thought possible during most of high school.
This collection of people might well share dinners from time to time for the rest of our lives, after all. And it wouldn’t surprise me a bit if at least several of us were famous when many of those dinners happened.
Around nine, just as we were mostly finished with our entrees, Michael J. Fox came back over. Jess got up and talked to him. They were exchanging words when a flash went off. It was quickly followed by another.
Michael and Jess quickly posed for a couple of pictures, after which the photographers allowed them to get back to talking.
Once Jess sat down, she said, “Well! That was ... um ... halfway between embarrassing and cool. Maybe a bit more on the cool side, which probably tells you where my head is.”
“Where it should be,” Jas said. “It’s your job now. Heck, it’s your life now. Like you said before, it’s best to just be graceful about it and try to make all publicity good publicity.”
“Spoken like our future ... whatever you are,” Angie said. “PR person? Spokesperson? Whatever the word turns out to be.”
“Spin doctor,” Laura said, then giggled a bit. “Don’t worry. It’ll make sense.”
No one felt like they could whap her, it seemed like, but I imagine plenty of people wanted to.
Jess grinned, then said, “He said to head over to the lounge around ten so we can hang out. That means all of us.”
She hesitated a few seconds, then said, “Yes, that includes you, Mel.”
Mel blushed even more.
“I ... kinda ... knew this might happen,” she said. “Except I also didn’t, I think.”
“It’s a big shock the first time,” Jess said. “And — just like the photographers — I’m not sure if saying ‘you get used to it’ is a good thing or not.”
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