Lucia told Shawn to go back home. Well, not home but back to his NYU dorm room. She said that he'd had enough to deal with today. "Be safe Shawn," she warned as she sent him on his way. "I mean it. Those gamberros could be anyway waiting for you. And make sure she doesn't get attacked either." She nodded at Daphne who looked confused by their entire exchange.
Shawn nodded and thanked Lucia. "Come, Daphne, let's go," he called to her as he headed out of the room.
"But Shawn this room is—" began Daphne.
"Not now, Daph! We'll do it again," he insisted and waited outside the room for her.
Daphne didn't want to leave. She wanted to stay and see if she could go back home again. She felt scared now that she was leaving the comfort of this room and venturing somewhere that seemed so familiar yet so frighteningly different. And the worst thing: she now had to rely completely on Shawn, this boy she knew next to nothing about except that he could move through time and that he had gotten her involved in this mess. And now apparently, some bad men were looking for him. That's how that woman with the huge buttocks had described them. She had called them thugs. Knowing she would regret this so much later, she gave Lucia one last smile and followed Shawn out of the hotel room.
***
"Shawn, what was all that about?" Daphne asked once they were out of earshot of Lucia. She knew that Lucia didn't want her to know about whatever they were discussing but Daphne was a naturally inquisitive person. As a little kid, she had asked her parents and brothers all types of questions and when she grew up, she realized that some were actually very embarrassing for her parents to answer but she had no idea at that time. Once, when she was about three years old, she was playing in her parents' room with her mum while her dad was showering. But then her dad had come out of the shower completely naked and Daphne had stared at her dad and asked her mum, "What is that thing that's hanging down there?" And she pointed to her dad's front and said, "Looks like a sausage."
Daphne couldn't remember if either parent had replied but now thinking about it, she felt really embarrassed by her question. And of course now she knows what it is, though she had never seen one in real life since.
So yes, she wanted to know very badly what Lucia and Shawn were discussing just like she wanted to know what Shawn had really been doing in her hotel.
"Tell me, Shawn! It looked really serious."
"It's nothing, Daph. Just the usual trouble boys get into."
"It didn't seem like usual trouble. I heard her saying 'gamberros' and that means very bad men. Really really—"
"Yeah, I get it," Shawn said getting slightly annoyed. He didn't want to rehash how he regretted getting involved with drugs and of all people, Dimitri Vetrov! "Can we just drop it? Let's bring you to Times Square, ok? We can have something to eat and you can see it at night. That's what you wanted right?"
What Daphne wanted were many things. She wanted to be back in her time, feeling bored at her receptionist's desk. She wanted to feel safe and not have to worry about thugs after the guy beside her because let's face it, Daphne thought, if they want him and I'm beside him, they'd want me too. She had seen enough movies to know how it worked. So walking about Times Square was probably the lowest thing on her 'want list' but it was probably one of the safest places right now for them to be at since no one would think of attacking them in crowds. "Fine, Times Square it is."
Shawn and Daphane walked in silence for a bit as they made their way over to Times Square. Now and then, Daphne would let out squeals over what she saw and chatter excitedly about "How amazing!" things were or the view of what people were like in this millennium ("Gosh, this is wonderful!").
Daphne noticed that many people around her would stare at something small in their palms as they walked about or would show something on it to their friends. She saw people also putting the same contraption to their ears and speaking into it. She asked Shawn what that was. "You have one too," she said. She had seen him waving it about in the hotel room.
"Oh, yeah, that's a phone. It's what everyone uses nowadays. You can do pretty much anything you want on it. People cannot live without it."
A phone? Daphne couldn't imagine that small thing was a phone. She thought back to her huge, bulky phone at home attached to her kitchen wall and tried to imagine stuffing that into her purse. She marveled at the technology in 2014. It was simply spectacular!
Something else that Daphne couldn't believe was what the girls were wearing. She stared in shock as they walked past her in shorts and crop tops or tank tops paired with heels, in dresses of all sorts, in skinny, leg-smothering jeans with sexy, stylish tops. "Oh…my," Daphne said weakly as she took all of it in. "Do girls really wear…this?"
"Yup! All the time except in winter which is really such a pity," replied Shawn, smiling appreciatively as a tall, leggy girl wearing an off-shoulder crop top and a pair of really short shorts and boots walked past him. Her belly-button piercing was revealed and Daphne stared at it with curiosity on her face.
"What was that jewel coming out of her stomach? Why would she paste that there?" Daphne asked Shawn.
Shawn burst out laughing. "It's called a belly-button piercing! Lots of girls have it. It looks sexy. Especially if you have a hot body."
"Girls willingly pierce their stomachs? It looks so painful. Then they show it off? But…girls should be modest."
"Hardly any girl cares about protecting her modesty. Nowadays, it's all about freeing one's body. Trust me, Daph. You'll get it. Anyway, we've reached Times Square and you're in luck because the sun's setting."
Daphne was so mesmerized by the girls' fashion that she didn't realize she had stepped into the periphery of Times Square.
"Wow." One word escaped Daphne's lips as she stared at the magnificence that was Times Square. With its bright lights, billboards of all types of Broadway acts, tall skyscrapers that seemed to stretch on for miles, the throngs of people that flooded the streets and the whole lot of stores, any Times Square virgin would be overwhelmed by these sights and Daphne was no exception.
"I can't believe it looks like this now! This is just…incredible! Shawn, I want to see everything!" exclaimed Daphne and yanked on his arm and dragged him forward.
Shawn was mildly amused as he let Daphne drag him along, exclaiming at everything she saw. Occasionally, she would point at a building and say that she thinks it was an original building from her time but for the most part, everything was new to her and after a while, she told Shawn she wanted to sit down and take it in.
So Shawn brought her to the huge, double-storey McDonald's, the one that appears in every Smash episode and told her to grab a seat. "I'll get us some burgers," he said and went to the counter. Daphne then realized how ravenous she was as she had lunch a few hours ago and nothing since then. She nodded eagerly and chose to sit at the tables outside McDonald's. She wanted a good look at the goings-on of modern-day Times Square.
As the moon reached its peak, she watched as Times Square became even more magical under the night sky, if that were indeed possible. But it turns out, Shawn was right. The usually dark night sky was still blazing over this area, as all the neon lights lit up the sky and the blend of darkness and lights was beautiful. Not to mention the avid night life. While the lights indeed made the area shine so brightly, it was really the people that were in it that made the place seem more alive than any other place Daphne had been to. Didn't matter if night had fallen; people still engaged in all sorts of activities. In 1942, when night-time came, Daphne, as did many other girls, stayed indoors and got involved in domestic activities, learning from their mothers how to get things ready for the males who came home tired after a long day's work.
But not here, not in this time. Daphne liked how the girls went about doing their own things, independent of their male partners. She didn't quite like having to dote on her brothers who didn't do much in the day but still expected the royal treatment from the girls every time they came home.
As she sat pondering over these thoughts, she noticed a huge store across from her. The name of the store was bright and bold, lit up with golden lights and it read Forever 21. Daphne couldn't make out what they sold but she saw many girls her age walking out of the store with yellow bags swinging from their arms.
Shawn came back with a tray full of food and placed it on their table. Immediately, Daphne asked him solemnly, "Are they selling what I think they're selling?" She pointed to Forever 21.
Shawn didn't know what she was on about but he thought this would be good. So he said yes, Forever 21 was selling just that.
Daphne's eyes widened in disbelief. "No way!" she squealed. "America has invented something that allows girls to stay twenty-one forever? That's amazing!"
Shawn didn't know it was going to be this good. "Um, yeah, of course! We've done a bunch of other stuff too. America's great that way. You wanna go check it out?"
"No! That's not normal! I wouldn't want to be 21 forever! It's just something that amazes me. What'd you get for dinner?" Daphne looked down at the food, picked up a fry and started eating.
"Mmm… this is really tasty. But salty. What are they known for here? These fries?" She picked up more fries.
Shawn stared at her suspiciously. "Um yeah. And their burgers?"
"What about their burgers? Can I have one please? I'm starving."
"Yeah sure. Do you want the Bacon Habenero Ranch Quarter Pounder with extra bacon and cheese or would you prefer just the regular double cheeseburger?"
"What's the difference? They're just a bunch of burgers right?" asked Daphne, who had finished half a packet of fries.
Shawn's suspicions had been confirmed. "Are you serious? You don't know what McDonald's is? Like for real?"
"No, Shawn, I don't know it. Just like I didn't know about your small phones, about belly-button piercings or about the potion to stay 21 forever or about—"
"Ok, yeah, I get it. You're not from around here. I mean you are but you know…" blabbered Shawn.
"Wow congratulations, so you do get that I'm not from this time and I still don't have a clue about how things work. But to answer your question, yes, there was no Mcthingy in New York City in 1942."
Shawn gaped at her in shock and Daphne took his silence as an opportunity to grab one of the burgers as she had finished nearly the entire packet of fries and was still hungry. She unwrapped her burger and bit into it. "Mmm! This is sooo good! Seriously what is this?"
Recovering slowly from realizing that perhaps McDonald's had not been around forever, he looked at her burger and said sadly, "That's the Bacon Habenero Ranch Quarter Pounder with extra bacon and cheese. That burger was meant for me. It's my favourite."
Daphne looked down at the burger she was eating. She understood why it was his favorite. It was really delicious. "Oh no. But thanks for this though. Something's making this taste quite…different. Exotic."
Shawn nodded slowly, still sad. "That's the Habenero sauce." He grabbed the double cheeseburger, unwrapped it and started eating. Three bites and he was down to half a burger.
Seconds passed before Shawn scrunched up his wrapper and tossed it onto the tray. "Wow, time travelling sure makes a person hungry. So Daph, what else do you want to know? Anything about me?" Shawn asked and smiled at her in what he hoped was a seductive smile.
It fell flat as Daphne replied, "I would like to know what's happened from my time up until yours. Tell me everything!"
"Everything? But that's a lot! You're talking about seventy plus years here."
"Ok," Daphne relented. "Tell me the important events."
Shawn didn't have to scratch his brains that much to think of important events in world history. "Ok, for one, Japan surrendered during WWII when USA bombed two of their cities. And we're talking major bombing like—"
"Really? Oh wow! America wins! Yes! The Japanese lose! Oh, I've been so worried Shawn. You won't believe how I keep thinking that something awful's going to happen like Japan will turn all of us into slaves—"
"Yeah…that's not happening anytime soon so get over it. Um, another thing is Hitler shot himself so the Nazi reign ended and coincidentally, both happen in 1945. But six million Jews were killed."
Daphne sighed and shook her head in sadness. "That's just terrible. And so sad. I am following Hitler's success in Europe very closely and it's just such a terrible thing that he's doing."
Shawn wanted to tell her that everyone's pretty much over that as well but he didn't want to sound heartless so he shook his head and concurred with her.
"You know, I think that the year I went back to was one of the worst years America's had. I mean that's my opinion. Some would say it's the Cold War period but—"
"Wait, the what?" interrupted Daphne. "The Cold War?"
"Oh damn, that's right! You don't even know about the Cold War yet! You know, I'm spoiling too much for you Daph. What if all my stories I'm telling you have some sort of Butterfly Effect shit on like, history?"
"Have a what? No, tell me Shawn please! What's the Cold War about?"
So Shawn told her a much summarized version about the Cold War. At the end of it, Daphne was utterly confused.
"Wait. So…America and Russia went about building up massive weapon supplies on the suspicions that either of them might attack the other but no attack actually happened? They did all of this on a 'might'? That's ridiculous!" Daphne exclaimed, finishing her Bacon Habenero Ranch Quarter Pounder with extra bacon and cheese and reaching out for Shawn's packet of fries. "And this man you said…Gorbachev? He accidentally opened up his communist country's economy and wanted a more open society? Then what's the point of even being communist?"
"Yeah exactly. This entire period was just weird. But good things came out of it. Like the whole of USSR broke up into different countries, not sure if it's a good thing for Kosovo though. The country's in chaos now."
Daphne was so fascinated to know more and asked Shawn for more details but Shawn said that it was getting late and that if she wanted to explore more, they had to get a move on. So Daphne bit her tongue, licked her fingers off of salt and said, "Let's go!"