Part 2 (of ?)
Opening her eyes, Cordelia found herself facing a
clothes rack. Miniskirts, tops, skirts, and jackets of every color and
material—including plastic and paper—filled the display. She found herself
especially taken by one skirt, a Mary Quant design mini, made of alternating
gold and silver scales that, when they caught the sunlight just so, seemed to
reflect every color in the rainbow. Turning her head to the left, she found
another display, this one of hats—red, lime green, yellow; hats with wide
brims and hats with bows; and beneath the hats—red, gold, silver, white, black
platform shoes and go-go boots. Then, she heard what sounded like a DJ’s
voice, “And that was Nancy Sinatra’s hit, ‘These Boots are Made for
Walking’. Continuing KDSL’s countdown of last year’s hits on this first
Saturday of 1967 we have number 89 on the Billboard top 100, The Hollies’
‘Bus Stop’!”
“January!” The lithe brunette groaned as the exuberant sounds of Graham
Nash, Terry Hicks, and Alan Clarke’s voices filled the air,
Bus stop, wet day, she's there, I say
Please share my umbrella
Bus stop, bus goes, she stays, love grows
Under my umbrella
All that summer we enjoyed it
Wind and rain and shine
That umbrella, we employed it
By August, she was mine
Every morning I would see her waiting at the stop
Sometimes she'd shopped and she would show me what she bought
Other people stared as if we were both quite insane
Someday my name and hers are going to be the same
“I’m stuck here for five months! That means I’m gonna have to find a place
to live, buy clothes, get a job, and try to keep my sanity while I’m waiting
for May.” Opening the large white leather purse she carried, the young Seer
took stock of her funds. “Well . . . I’ve got enough to last a week or two
at a hotel. And as far as clothes go . . .” She then, with a precision borne
of years of experience gained in shopping malls, examined the skirts and tops on
display, mentally making a list of definite yeses, maybes, and definite
no-no’s. “It could be worse . . . I guess . . .” She sighed, “I could
have been stuck in the fifties and have to wear poodle skirts and bobby
socks.”
As she listened to the music and lyrics while continuing her visual inspection,
Cordelia, remembered back to a time that, while it seemed almost a lifetime ago,
was really only four years in the past, while she was dating Xander. She
chuckled as she recalled how she had caught Giles sitting in his office one day,
when he thought no one was in the library, listening to this very song on his
portable CD. As the song continued, she began to unconsciously sing along as she
fingered the silver and gold mini. ‘Wonder what Angel and the rest of the gang
would say if they saw me wearing this?’ She continued to sing softly, her
thoughts lingering on the cursed vampire who had become her best friend and his
little baby boy,
That's the way the whole thing started
Silly but it's true
Thinkin' of a sweet romance
Beginning in a queue
Came the sun the ice was melting
No more sheltering now
Nice to think that that umbrella
Led me to a vow
Every morning I would see her waiting at the stop
Sometimes she'd shopped and she would show me what she bought
Other people stared as if we were both quite insane
Someday my name and hers are going to be the same
Bus stop, wet day, she's there, I say
Please share my umbrella
Bus stop, bus goes, she stays, love grows
Under my umbrella
All that summer we enjoyed it
Wind and rain and shine
That umbrella, we employed it
By August, she was mine
“A sweet romance! Yeah, Right!” Cordelia snorted. “As if that’ll ever
happen to me anytime in the near future—not with my job! I mean . . . it’s
not as if I’m looking to get married or anything like that, but it’d be nice
if some guy would . . .” Then, as she pulled the dress from the rack, she
grunted as she felt someone’s elbow jostling her.
“Oh! Excuse me!” Turning quickly towards the source of the voice, Cordelia
saw a slender woman a few inches shorter than her and about her age, with close
cropped strawberry blonde hair and wearing a red A-line mini, without a belt,
white boots that reached up to her calves; and her earrings, golden balls, about
an inch in diameter, hanging from slender gold chains about two inches long.
“I’m sorry . . .” The other woman said apologetically, “I wasn’t
looking where I was going.”
“That’s ok.” Cordelia smiled back at the other woman. “I was paying more
attention to the dresses anyway.”
“Groovy dress.” The other woman ventured.
“Yeah.” Cordelia, remembering that ‘groovy’ was supposed to be a good
thing, grinned back as she held the dress up to her and looked in the mirror.
“Way too expensive, though.” Her lips then turned down into a frown as she
saw the price tag.
“Bummer.”
“Tell me about it!” The time traveling Seer sighed dejectedly. Then,
realizing that she hadn’t even introduced herself, the former Sunnydale
resident chuckled. “I’m sorry, I’m Cordelia—Cordelia Chase.”
“Felicia Brennan, but everyone calls me Licia.” The other woman replied with
a smile as she offered her hand.
“Well, I’m pleased to meet you Licia! And call me Cordy.” The Seer grinned
as she put the dress back on the rack where she had found it.
Looking at her watch, Cordelia’s new friend grinned. “I can’t believe the
time! It’s already noon! Tell ya what, if you’re not doing anything, you
wanna join me for lunch?”
Feeling the growling in her stomach, Cordelia nodded her head enthusiastically.
“Sounds like a plan. Let’s go!”
************************************
As the train wheels clattered on the rails, a solitary figure crouched further
into the darkness of a corner recess in between two large crates marked ‘Heavy
Machinery’. “Please! STOP! I’m sorry . . . I’m sorry . . .” He sobbed
as he woke up, his cool skin now sticky and clammy from his sweat. Drying his
tears with the sleeve of the same black leather jacket that he had worn since
1956, the dark haired figure, hearing the squeaks made by a nearby rat, took a
deep breath, and pouncing, caught the hapless creature in his hands. His face
now reflecting his demon visage, he sunk his fangs into the rodent, draining its
blood in an effort to, temporarily at least; sate his hunger before the train
reached its next destination—Sunnydale.
***********************************
Exiting the store with her new friend, Cordelia paused for a moment to take in
the oldies version of her home town. She shook her head as she saw a brand new
1967 Camaro, white with blue racing stripes, whiz past. As she saw the Sunnydale
Theater still at the location she had always remembered it to be, she smiled
with relief, then chuckled as she read the marquee, “Georgy Girl with Lynn
Redgrave and James Mason.”
“Yeah.” Felicia said, picking up on Cordelia’s words. “Sounds like it
oughta be a gas.”
“Yeah.” Cordelia, playing it safe, agreed. “A real gas.”
The Espresso Pump was not there, of course. Instead, there was an ice cream
parlor where teenage boys wearing everything from the familiar maroon and gold
Sunnydale High letterman jackets to Nehru jackets to ordinary jeans and shirts
sat talking to teenage girls, some wearing conservative knee length dresses,
others mini-skirts that came in every color of the rainbow, while still others
wore jeans with sweaters that wouldn’t really be out of place in 1997
Sunnydale. “That’s where the high school kids hang out.” Felicia
volunteered as they passed a car with two teenage boys in it that looked awfully
familiar to the time traveler.
As Cordelia looked closer at the 1950s era Chevy convertible, she immediately
recognized it from when she saw Xander with it that time he had tried to impress
her with his coolness. One of the men, whom the Seer immediately recognized as
being a younger version of Xander’s father, yelled out to her and her new
friend, “Shake it don’t break it, babes!”
“Hop on in, chicks!” The other one, whom the former May Queen figured out,
had to be her old boyfriend’s Uncle Rory, shouted. “We can truck on over to
the park and watch the submarine races!”
“With you two squares? No thanks.” Felicia snorted as Cordelia fixed the two
boys with her best Queen C stare.
“Not if you were the only two guys left on earth and all the batteries in the
world had vanished!” The ex-bitch queen of Sunnydale High smirked as her new
friend giggled.
The two women, triumphant in their battle of wits against their unarmed
opponents, then walked away with their heads high, ignoring the elder Harris’s
shouted “Soshes” and Rory’s taunting, “Skags!”
“The Harris boys.” Felicia spat out as her and Cordelia entered the Pizza
Heaven restaurant, a place that had long closed before the time traveling seer
was even born.
“Pfft.” Cordelia snorted, and then said in a low voice, “And to think,
that twit’s gonna be Xander’s father. Xander deserves way better than that
loser!”
“Huh?” Licia asked as the two women made their way to an empty booth, “I
didn’t catch that, Cordy.”
“Oh . . .” Cordelia, realizing her mistake, stammered momentarily before
regaining her poise, “I was just saying that those two boys look like a pair
of real losers.”
“Yeah. A pair of freaks.” Felicia agreed as a waitress came to take their
order. “So . . . you new in town or what?”
“Yeah.” Cordy lied. “I just got in . . . but . . .” Her face then turned
red with embarrassment, “The airline kinda lost all my baggage.”
“Bad scene.” Licia said as she sipped her water. “You got a place to crash
‘til you get your stuff together?”
“I was planning on checking into a motel . . .I got enough money to last me
until I can get a job and afford to move into a rooming house or something like
that.” The time traveling seer responded.
“Well . . . I normally don’t do this . . . but you seem like a pretty far
out person so . . . if you want, you’re more than welcome to crash at my pad
as long as you like.”
Cordelia, realizing that the other woman was offering a place for her to stay,
smiled warmly at her generous offer, “Thanks, but I really don’t wanna crowd
you.”
“No. You’re not crowding me out or anything like that.” Felicia replied
with a wide grin. “I’ve been looking for a roomie since my last one split
from town last month.” The strawberry blonde then lowered her voice so that
only Cordelia could hear, “She kinda freaked out . . . came in one night
screaming about how these monsters wanted to suck out all her blood . . .” The
young woman then shivered slightly as Cordelia listened sympathetically. “I
think she was just on a bad trip, you know . . . she was really into tabs.”
She then gave her new friend a questioning look, “You’re not into acid or
any of that stuff, are you?”
“No!” Cordelia shook her head vehemently. “No acid or anything like
that!”
“Cool.” Felicia, hearing her brunette friend’s answer, sighed in relief.
“I mean, if that’s your scene I can dig it and all . . . I’m not telling
you what to do . . . I’m not the man, you know. But like, I don’t wanna have
to go through a bad scene like that again! Once was enough!” Then, licking her
lips as the pizza came, she continued, “Anyway, it’s a two bedroom pad, the
rent and utilities are pretty cheap. I’ve only got a black and white TV
though; color’s just too much bread. So . . . we roomies?”
“Yeah, sure . . .” Cordy grinned broadly as she realized that one of her
problems, at least, was taken care of. Now, all she had to do was build a
wardrobe, find a job, and wait for Angel and the bad guys to show—no problem!
“Cool!” Felicia face turned up into a wide smile. “Tell you what, we get
done here, we’ll cruise on to my pad and get you situated, then we’ll hit
the clothes shop again, and then I’ll give you the grand tour and later on
tonight, if you want, we can cruise on to the Bronze and check out the scene.”
“Sounds good.” Cordelia, curious as to what the Bronze was like at this
time, smiled back as she bit into her pizza.
************************************
Far beneath the ground, below where Sunnydale High’s new library stood, a
figure hidden in the shadows bowed down before the murky, foul smelling pool.
“Soon, Master. The Order of Merovinus will be here soon, and you shall arise
again—and we shall ascend to our rightful place at your side and we shall
feast upon the humans above.”
TBC...