Timeless

CHAPTER 25

1958

“W hat did you see?” Cheryl asked, heart racing.

“Two women who looked like us. Well, I couldn’t see the one who looked like me, but I knew she looked like me because she was me. I was washing a shirt or something on a board, and you walked up through the woods, I think.”

“Telling you that my husband is off hunting?”

Diana nodded.

“I saw it, too,” Cheryl admitted. “And last night, before I went to bed, I also saw a tiny, one-room house. I was in bed. There was a man who was my husband. He was getting dressed to go somewhere and told me he was hunting for the winter. Then, another man showed up, and I knew him. He said Bess was looking forward to my visit. Then, they took off, and that was it.”

“What is happening?” Diana asked.

“I don’t know. Just now, it was like I…” Cheryl practically flopped down onto the ground, no longer caring about getting her clothes dirty or worrying about Diana’s petticoat, either. “It was like I couldn’t wait to get to Bess. I can’t describe it. I saw myself as Elizabeth. I was her, and she was me, and I left the moment the men were gone. They were on horses, so they rode off quickly, and I hurried, too. I knew exactly where to go. Out of the woods, there was another house, and there you were.”

Diana sat down next to her and said, “It was so real.”

“How did we have the same vision, Diana?”

“I don’t know. But yesterday, you got dizzy and nearly fell. I did, too, only I actually fell.” She touched just above the scrape on her knee. “And I saw myself.”

“You saw yourself?” Cheryl asked .

“I saw me, but it wasn’t me. It was maybe like an older version of me. I heard the name Harriet whispered, and I was somehow standing in front of myself as I tried to get up off the sidewalk. I didn’t know how to explain it, so I didn’t say anything. Other people were around me, and none of them said anything, either. Then, all I could think about was you.”

“Me?”

“Getting to you. It was like I couldn’t think of anything else.”

“Deb,” she whispered.

“What?”

“I thought I heard the name Deb when I got dizzy and almost fell. I don’t think I saw anyone, but I remember now, the name Deb. I don’t know where it came from. I don’t know anyone named Deb. I think there was a Debbie in school, but she was at least five years ahead of me, and I didn’t know her at all, so I wouldn’t say her name like that.”

“I’ve never known anyone named Harriet, but it was like she was just saying her own name or something. I don’t know. She smiled at me, and then she was gone. Next thing I know, you ’re falling over, I’m finding you on the bench, and I can’t stop thinking about you.” Diana smiled at her. “You brought me ice cream.”

“Because I couldn’t stop thinking about you , either.” Cheryl smiled back.

“What does it all mean?” Diana asked her.

Cheryl swallowed and decided to be brave.

“You know how Barb likes Richard?”

“Yeah, the whole school knows. He was talking about how they went all the way in class yesterday, too.”

“Do you like boys how Barb does? Like, do you think about going all the way with them?”

Diana looked into her eyes and shook her head.

“Do you?”

Cheryl shook her head as well and said, “No one knows, Diana, but I think about girls like that. When I saw the vision last night before bed, I dismissed it because I knew I’d never have a husband. Even though I can’t have what I really want, I don’t intend on marrying a man.”

“Me neither,” Diana replied.

Cheryl breathed a little easier then.

“Have you ever…”

“With a girl?” Diana asked and shook her head quickly. “By the time I figured it out, I was already on my third school, and I didn’t see the point in trying to find out if anyone there was like me because I’d only move again.”

“So, you’ve never even kissed a girl?”

“No. Why? Have you ?”

“No,” Cheryl said. “I only figured this out about myself last year, and I thought something was wrong with me at first. Besides, everyone in this town knows everyone else. I was too scared to ask if a girl felt the same way.”

“But you asked me .”

“I feel like I can trust you. No idea why. And I don’t know where the visions are coming from or why we both got dizzy. I just feel like I can tell you anything, and it would be okay.”

“As long as you don’t tell me you’re leaving,” Diana replied.

“What?”

“You can tell me anything, but don’t tell me that you’re leaving,” she repeated. “I don’t think I could handle that.”

“Oh.”

“Sorry.” Diana shook her head. “I just… I feel like I’ve heard me say that to you before, but I know that I haven’t.”

“Do you feel that way now?” Cheryl asked.

Diana nodded and said, “I know I’ve known you since last year when I moved here, but we just talked for the first time outside of class yesterday. Why does it feel so easy to tell you things?”

Cheryl shrugged and said, “I have no idea.”

“Does it feel like that for you?”

“Yes,” she replied.

“I… ”

“It’s okay. You can say whatever it is,” Cheryl assured.

“I want to kiss you. It’s all I can think about. I want you to be my first kiss.”

“Oh,” Cheryl let out. “Now?”

“I know. It’s crazy.” Diana chuckled and looked away.

“It’s not, though. It doesn’t feel crazy to me. Just… Are you sure?”

Diana turned her head back and said, “I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life.”

“Okay,” Cheryl replied.

“Okay?”

Cheryl nodded. Diana then shifted a little closer to her, and Cheryl turned her body toward her, kneeling in the dirt now. Diana did the same until they faced each other.

“I don’t know what I’m doing,” she admitted.

“Me neither,” Cheryl replied and smiled softly at her.

When Diana leaned in close, Cheryl met her halfway, pressing their foreheads together.

“Oh, wow,” Diana let out. “ This is how that feels?”

Before long, Cheryl’s instincts took over, so she cupped Diana’s cheek.

“You’re so soft.”

“My hands are a little rough. Sorry. It’s from the work.”

“I don’t care,” Cheryl said, leaning forward until their lips were pressed together.

Then, it appeared as if Diana’s instincts took over as well, and she kissed Cheryl back hard. Their mouths opened to each other like they’d done this a thousand times already, and before Cheryl realized it, she was lying on the ground. Diana was on top of her, kissing her like she never wanted to do anything else.

“This feels so good,” Diana shared, moving her lips to Cheryl’s jaw.

“Yes, it does,” she agreed. “God, I don’t want to stop.”

Diana’s lips moved back to her mouth, deepening the kiss, and Cheryl spread her legs. Diana settled between them, and when her hand moved to Cheryl’s hip and slid up her side, Cheryl gasped. She wanted Diana’s hands everywhere.

“We should probably slow down,” she managed to get out, even though she didn’t want to say it when Diana’s lips moved to her neck.

“Why? You said no one comes back here.”

“They don’t, but I’ve never…”

Diana stopped, looked at Cheryl beneath her, and said, “You are so beautiful. I don’t want to stop kissing you, but we don’t have to go any further than that. I haven’t done that, either.”

“This could be our place,” Cheryl suggested, wrapping her arms around Diana’s neck. “We could come back here more prepared next time, with a blanket or something, and maybe at night, when no one could see us, we could…”

“You want to?”

“I at least want more of this , even if that’s all we do for now.” Cheryl kissed her. “You’re beautiful, too. You know that, right? I couldn’t stop staring at you in biology yesterday. I dreamed of kissing you last night. And when I woke up, I was–” She stopped because this might be a little too much to share, considering they’d only just started kissing.

“What?”

“You know what happens when you think about things like that? What happens between your legs, I mean?”

“Oh,” Diana uttered and smiled at her. “That happened after you dreamed about kissing me?”

“It’s happening right now, too.” Cheryl nodded down. “I don’t want to stop. I just think we should.”

“It’s happening to me, too,” Diana shared.

“Yeah?”

Diana rolled off her and said, “Yeah. But you’re right. And I have to get home so that I can change and get to the shop before my dad gets mad that I’m late.”

“Can we do this again tomorrow?”

“I don’t know about right after school, but maybe after supper? He goes back to the shop then. I could meet you here, if you can get away. ”

“I can try. We’ll talk more tomorrow at school.”

“I wish I could walk down the hallway holding your hand,” Diana told her wistfully.

Cheryl rested her head on Diana’s shoulder and said, “I want that, too. But we’re about to graduate, and then, we won’t have to live here if we don’t want to.”

“I don’t want to.”

“No? Where do you want to go?”

“Well, I wanted to be a doctor, but I don’t think that’s going to happen, so I’d like to go to nursing school in a city somewhere. No more small towns where everyone knows everyone else. I want to be able to blend in when I want and stand out when I want.”

“What do you mean?” she asked, taking Diana’s hand into her own.

“I want to have an apartment with someone. A woman. I can pretend like she’s my roommate, but I don’t want that, obviously. I don’t want people to ask questions, but I want to find a place to live where I can take her somewhere and be myself. Some bigger cities have places like that. You just have to find them. Anyway, I want to be able to wear pants and maybe a jacket or something, cut my hair, slick it back, if I want, and just dance with her all night before we go home and… make love.”

Cheryl smiled and said, “That sounds really nice.”

“Where do you want to live?”

“Not here. I’d have to come back to visit my parents, but if I stay here, they’ll just expect me to marry a man from school. I don’t want that. I might go to secretary school or something.”

“Why not write for a paper?”

Cheryl lifted her head and looked at her in disbelief.

“What made you say that?”

“You write for the school paper.”

“A lot of people write for the paper in school. It doesn’t mean they want to do it professionally.”

“You also mentioned that your dad was teaching you reporter stuff. I assumed you were interested in that.”

“I am. I just… My dad teaches me because it’s fun for him. I don’t think he really sees me doing it as a job. My mom is a secretary, so she wants me to do that.”

“What do you want?” Diana asked, pressing her forehead to Cheryl’s again.

“More of this,” she answered honestly.

“Well, we both want more of this.” Diana smiled and kissed her sweetly.

“I think I’d like to have a shot at a paper. Most women get the advice or recipe columns, but maybe I could start there and prove myself.”

“Maybe you could,” Diana replied. “I should go now. If I’m late, I’ll get in trouble.”

“Okay,” Cheryl said. “Just one more?”

Diana smiled before she leaned in and kissed her once more, a little deeper this time. Cheryl knew then that she’d been right to trust herself recently when she’d decided to no longer push these feelings away because they were part of who she was. She also knew that Diana wasn’t just any girl in her high school. There was something between them that she couldn’t explain, and it was drawing them together.

After their kiss, they stood and got dressed, leaving off their socks and shoes until they were on the sidewalk. Then, they pretended like they hadn’t just been necking in the field and walked a foot apart until Diana had to leave her to get home. Cheryl turned down her own street and went inside, finding her mom in the kitchen, probably getting things ready for dinner. She headed up to her room, changed out of her somewhat dirty clothes, and flopped down onto her bed. She stared up at the bedroom ceiling and thought about Bess, the woman she’d imagined herself kissing.

“We have at least three days. They might be gone longer. Can we not put on clothes at all the entire time they’re gone?” Bess asked her.

“I think we’ll have to go outside at some point, and it’s pretty cold out there,” Elizabeth replied, looking up at her .

Cheryl could feel it. She could hear their voices, yes, but she could feel what they felt for each other, too. It was love. It wasn’t just young love like Barb and Richard, either. Bess and Elizabeth had a real kind of love that she wanted for herself but had worried she might never find. Then, she pictured Diana in that jumpsuit from the previous day, and that feeling between her legs, which she’d been taught to believe was bad, returned. She reached into her sleep pants and touched herself.

“Oh,” she let out.

She’d never done that with any purpose before, but when she pulled her fingers out, she found them coated and wanted to put them back there, but her mother yelled for her to come downstairs to help with dinner, so she’d have to wait.