Just like the first time, Shawn was enshrouded in mist and felt that strange sensation that not everything was as normal as it seemed. But unlike the first time, he was not alone.
He looked at Daphne whose expression, Shawn thought, might have matched his the first time this had happened. While Shawn had been shocked that she had dragged him into the room, he got over that and started to enjoy himself. Now that he knew he was not in any major trouble, Daphne's expression seemed hilarious.
"Hahaha! Oh my God, Daph! Your face is priceless!" he chuckled, bending down to gasp between peals of laughter. Her eyes kept darting everywhere and she kept spinning around, as if not understanding where she should go. "Stop turning around. You look like a dog chasing its own tail! A really confused dog!"
Daphne finally stopped, turned to Shawn and said, "Are you really calling me a dog? Have you no manners? You never, ever call a girl that. You shouldn't even call a boy that!"
"Relax, Daph! I'm saying you're like a dog. Isn't that better?"
Daphne didn't think it could possibly get any worse. She was so frightened. She had followed this complete stranger into a room that had just…vanished before her very eyes. This had never happened to her in her entire two years of working here. Who was this boy? "Look, Shawn, what's going on?"
Instead of answering, Shawn sat himself on the ground that was slowly being cleared of the mist. He looked smug about something.
"Shawn!" Daphne snapped, looking visibly annoyed. "Tell me what's going on right now. Where are we?"
Shawn looked up at Daphne and thought she was really beautiful. He smiled and simply said, "Just wait a bit longer. You'll see."
Daphne let out a sigh of frustration. Why was he being such an…well…ass? Daphne hated cursing, using the Lord's name in vain and disliked having such negative thoughts about a person but Shawn deserved it! That's what he had been to her right from the start. An ass.
And what was she supposed to wait for? She walked around the space that she and Shawn were in, along what she assumed was the interior of the hotel room they had entered. She could see the mist was clearing and was looking for the room door. She didn't want to stay here a minute longer than she had to. Plus, wouldn't they be missing her downstairs at the reception area, whoever "they" were?
"Can I leave now? Some of us actually have a job to get to," Daphne said dryly to Shawn.
"Don't worry you can leave soon although good luck getting to your er…job," Shawn replied, sniggering as he said it.
Daphne was going to ask just what exactly he had meant by that but in the end, she didn't have to. The mist had cleared fully.
***
Shawn stood up as the mist gave way to thankfully, what was his current Marriott Marquis hotel room in 2014. He remembered the room just as it was before he "left" it. He was back!
"Yes! Thank God! I'm back!" Shawn exclaimed and reached out to grab Daphne by her shoulders, shaking her excitedly. "I can't believe my brilliant idea worked! No, but—can I go back again?" Shawn wondered out loud.
Daphne broke free of Shawn's grasp and stared in utter disbelief at what was around her. "What-what's happening? What's going on? Shawn…where are we?"
"Well…there's no easy way to say this Daphne," began Shawn and the smug look reappeared on his face, "but welcome to the year 2014! Courtesy of moi. Man, are you gonna have a fantastic time here! I can actually use this again!" Shawn took out his cellphone and showed it to Daphne.
Maybe Shawn thought that he would clear all of Daphne's doubts about what was truly happening by telling her she was in the year 2014 and waving his cellphone about excitedly but that piece of information and the show-and-tell didn't have that desired effect on her. In fact, if possible, she stared at Shawn unblinkingly, and looked like she might faint right there.
"Whoa, Daph ok…take it easy. Breathe in…breathe out. I had this same reaction when it happened to me this afternoon. You're fine, Daph."
That seemed to break Daphne out of her near-fainting spell and she turned to Shawn. "I will not be fine and I will not 'take it easy'. I don't know what's happening, where I am because this room looks completely different from the one I had stepped into earlier and to make matters worse, you know exactly what's happening and yet you're being such an ass about it. I want to leave!" Daphne yelled.
"Whoa ok calm your ti— uh, I mean hold your horses. Fine. Here. Come to the window. Let me show you before I tell you." Shawn grinned at her and walked to the curtains and drew it.
The glitz and glamour of Times Square was immediately revealed to both of them. While Shawn stood at the windows smiling at the scene outside, Daphne walked slowly over to the huge window to take in what was now modern Times Square.
"No way. Shawn, is this for real? Is this…Times Square? Just look at that. All the lights, the posters, like the really huge Broadway posters and—"
"You mean billboards. They're called billboards actually. Like if the display is mini, then you could call them posters—"
"Yeah ok," Daphne said, brushing him off. "It looks so much more magnificent here. Shawn, I want to go down and see it! Please can we go?" Daphne had completely forgotten her fear of now knowing what was happening to her and was starting instead, to feel excited.
Shawn looked at Daphne and saw her bright, shining eyes and the plain excitement on her face and he could not bear to refuse her. But Times Square was always more beautiful and glamorous at night and he wanted to wait till then for her to get the full effect. Right now, the sun was still shining as brightly as before, as if Shawn had not left for that long a time. Didn't he disappear for at least two hours? He knew Lucia had told him around five pm to clean out the hotel room so shouldn't the sun be going down right about now?
Shawn looked for the hotel clock on the cabinet near the bed and it read five-thirty pm. He stared at it. It was like all his time away in 1942 did not count for any time here in this era at all.
He turned back to Daphne who was staring at him with hopeful eyes. "Uh here's the thing, Daph. I thought my shift here was ending soon but it turns out no. See I thought it was close to seven pm but it's like only five-thirty pm. Let's go at seven, ok?"
Daphne's face fell but she said that she understood. "Ok. So now you're gonna tell me what's really going on. No more procrastinating." She settled herself on the edge of the huge king-sized bed and adjusted her uniform to make it look neat. She untied her blonde curls from her ponytail and shook her head from side to side so that it fell in place, framing her slim face. Then, she looked at Shawn expectantly.
Shawn sighed and sat himself on the carpeted floor, resting his back against the couch. He removed his bell boy hat and flung it onto the bed. He wished he had brought a change of clothes. He bet he smelled awful to Daphne who smelled really great, like a bunch of flowers. "Ok, here goes."
And so Shawn told her everything. He related that how when he stepped into this room, he disappeared into mist and when it cleared, he ended up on the streets of Manhattan and how everyone to him, was dressed really "weirdly funky", at which point, Daphne interrupted him. "Weirdly funky? What is that? Did you just teach me a swear word? I don't like swearing."
"No, no, it's not a bad word. Funky just means you know, out of the ordinary, not your usual 'cool' style? I don't know. It's just funky you know?"
"So the way you're dressed now? That's…funky?"
"Ha, please! Just wait. People will be staring at you and wondering which 1940s movie I've pulled you from. So anyway, can I continue?"
Daphne nodded and Shawn resumed telling her about the buildings and cars and street shops all looking so different from what he was used to and that he took refuge in a tiny diner known as "Shake It p" where he learned that he was back in 1942. From there, he wanted to find a way home and he found the 1942 version of the Marriott Marquis hotel which brought him to her. "And well, you know the rest. So yeah, that's my story. And now the same thing's happening to you too which I gotta say, is not my fault."
Daphne could point out so many reasons as to why it was Shawn's fault she was now in the year 2014 but she didn't bother. "How do I get home?" Daphne asked Shawn quite worriedly.
"I think it's this room that holds the key to going back in the past because I've been into a lot of rooms in this hotel but it's never happened before."
"So then what do I have to do?"
"Wait! Why do you want to go back so fast? You said you want to see Times Square. But there are so many other things that you gotta see in this time!"
Daphne started smiling. "Really? Like what?"
Like what? Where or how would Shawn even begin to tell her? He was going to start by turning on the huge, Toshiba LCD flat screen that was raised on a platform on the cabinet to show her what technology and the world was like when the hotel room door clicked open and Lucia Gomez walked in.
"Shawn! I need to—" began Lucia when she entered the room but seeing Daphne seated on the king-sized bed, she stopped looking around for Shawn and stared at her.
"Hi, mam!" said Daphne, sliding off the bed and bounding forward to Lucia with her hand outstretched. "I'm Daphne."
"Um, Lucia, hey!" Shawn exclaimed, quickly standing up and intercepting Daphne, who, after realizing that Lucia was not going to shake her hand, dropped it and walked back to sit on the bed. "What's up? Doesn't this room look clean?"
Lucia barely glanced around the room as she turned to face Shawn. 'Mam'? Did that girl just call her 'mam'? "Why is there a girl in your room? I gave you work to do and instead of doing it, you've been hanging out with your friend or girlfriend or whatever in the same room?" she asked Shawn furiously. "I really have underestimated what you're capable of."
Shawn knew how this looked. Yeah sure, there was this undeniably attractive girl sitting on the bed and it would have been easy enough for shit to have happened but that's not what went down and he tried to tell Lucia this.
"Lucia look, it's not what it seems. Daphne is just…she dropped by recently. Like half an hour ago. After I cleaned up. And she's just my friend—"
"Actually 'friend' might be sort of an overstretch—" called Daphne from the bed.
"It doesn't matter, Shawn. Actually…I need to talk to you about something else right now," said Lucia, her voice going down a notch so she sounded softer and more caring. Shawn became curious. He had never heard Lucia sound soft before; things usually just bounced right off her but she sounded seriously worried now.
"Ok, what's going on?" he asked, walking towards her. Daphne looked on curiously. Lucia glanced quickly at Daphne, positioned her back to her and spoke in hushed tones to Shawn about the Russians' visit and their message for him.
Shawn's face drained slightly of its color. "They came again? Oh damn! This is not good. Not good," he murmured, his stomach churning in anxiety.
"Shawn, what have you gotten yourself into?" Lucia whispered urgently to him. "How did you get involved with these…these gamberros?"
Shawn didn't know what that term meant but he knew it couldn't be anything good. She had after all, seen what Baldy 1 and 2 looked like. He sat down on the nearby couch and processed the information. He had a few more days to sell all the LSD and make a few thousand grand. He didn't think that was possible but he would try to get at least half of that to give to Dimitri.
"Shawn," began Lucia again, "is it money they're after?"
When he didn't reply, she asked, "How much do you owe them? Can I lend you the money first?"
Shawn gazed at Lucia and felt so touched by her question. He had never thought that Lucia cared so much for him. But he couldn't take her money. She was not that much older than him and he knew she sent so much of her salary each month back to her family in South America. Plus, it wasn't even her problem. It was his and his alone.
So Shawn shook his head and smiled. He patted her hand and said that it wasn't necessary. He'd be fine because he still had time.
Now that he knew he could travel in time, he had all the time in the world.