Esther, Be Tender With My Love

II - Two

"Ma'am." A gentle voice called out as something was shaking my shoulder. My eyes slowly opened and I looked up to see a middle-aged guy in a white labcoat looking at me. "Hi. Sorry to wake you. Your grandfather woke up and has asked to speak to you." He informed me and left the room. I looked to my left and saw my grandpa's smiling face. My hand reached towards his.

"Hi grandpa. How are you feeling?"

"I'm feeling alright, Essie." He replied weakly. The nickname reminded me of the encounter I'd had with the ghost last night. "Listen. I don't have much time. You're not supposed to be here. You need to go to where you truly belong." His tone had went from delightful to serious in a split second.

"But Grandpa you asked me to come here?"

"That's not what I mean, Es. Look, there's a letter in my bag over there for you. In it are instructions I need you to follow." He pointed to a leather satchel next to my chair. Reaching down into the bag, I dug around for the letter he mentioned. "I know how much you miss him. That's why you're going back. He needs you."

"What?" I gave my grandpa a confused look. Did he hit his head when he had the heart attack? "Who needs me?"

"You know who. Now go. There's a key to my house in the envelope." He informed. Hesitantly, I got up from my chair to leave but not before giving him a kiss on the cheek and saying goodbye.

The past 24 hours had been nothing but abnormal and I was starting to think that I was in some parallel universe. Or maybe this was all just a weird dream that I just haven't woken up from yet.

Luckily, Grandpa's house was only a fifteen minute walk from the hospital. Once arriving at his house, I opened the letter to retrieve the key. The door unlocked with ease and I pulled out the letter to read it as I sat on his sofa. The letter gave directions on how to use the time machince in his office. It sounded easy enough.

"I really hope you haven't lost your mind Pops." I said out loud as I followed what the letter said.

Soon enough, I was almost ready to go. All that was left to do was set the date and location. Turning the knobs of the time machine, a small rectangular screen lit up that read, December 10, 1977 - Miami, Florida.

"Oh shit!" I yelled as the metal box surrounding me began to shake violently. The sound it produced pierced my ears. It was so loud; I thought I was going to go deaf. My body felt like it was being stretched apart.

But then suddenly everything stopped. More pain errupted in my body as it fell smack against a pavement. I just stayed there on the ground for a moment, trying to catch my breath.

After a minute or so, I slowly got up and took in my surroundings. The first thing I noticed was that it was dark out. The neon lights illuminated the alley way I was in. About twenty yards in front of me was a bustling street of cars. Yep, this was defiitely Miami.

So I began walking down the alleyway and out into the busy street. It appeared I was on the Ocean Drive street right next to the beach. Not knowing exactly where to go, I kept walking down the strip.

Eventually I passed by a loud and colorful outdoor venue. It was fenced off by a thick, white rope to keep out people from the streets. Next to the entrance was a big burly man wearing all black and sunglasses. His arms were crossed to show off his muscles. I guessed that this was probably a bar of some sort. It was hard to tell from the outside because there was a long line of people waiting to get in.

"Excuse me sir." I said, walking up to the bouncer. He didn't even turn his head to look at me. "Sorry to bother you, but I was just wondering if you could tell me what time it is? I forgot my watch at home."

Without looking at his watch, the man said, "1:05am"

"Okay, thanks." Awkwardly, I gave him a nod and began to walk away.

I must not have been paying attention to where I was going because the next thing I knew I ran right into something hard. The force made me fall to the ground.

"Ayyyy! Watch wheryer goin!" A man's voice slurred. He had a thick british accent which made me snap my head up at him.

"Mo! You're the drunken idiot here!" Another british voice called out. "Sorry about that. He's had way too much to drink."

"Here, let me help you up, hun." A woman with raven black hair held out her hand to me. I graciously took it and let her pull me up off the ground.

"Thank you." I gave her a grateful smile which she returned.

"I'm Linda by the way." She said.

"Esther."

"This is my husband Barry. This is his brother Robin and his wife Molly, and the drunk one is Maurice." Linda pointed to everyone and that's when it clicked. It had been too dark to see their faces before but after hearing their names, I knew exactly who they were.

"Hello." I greeted sheepishly. Barry gave me an odd look which made me very self conscious. Does he remember me?

"Wait a minute. You look really familiar. What did you say your name was again?" Robin asked as he stepped closer to me.

"Esther Ryan. We may have met before but I don't know."

"Esther Ryan! That's it!" Barry exclaimed and wrapped his arms around me. I reciprocated the action and heaved a sigh of relief that he remembered me.
"What are you doing here? How long have you bee here?"

"Actually it's a long story. I just arrived here maybe like an hour or so ago?"

"Robin, it's Esther! Remember her?" Barry asked his brother. Robin shook his head no. "She let us stay with her for a week back in what? 1968?" Robin's eyes widened in recognition and he too gave me a big hug.

"Oh shit! I remember now! How did I forget that?" He chuckled. "If only Maurice wasn't so drunk, he'd be so excited to see you." Robin looked to his left to see his twin brother swaying back and forth in place.

"We should probably get him home. Esther, you are more than welcome to stay with us." Barry offered with a hopeful smile.

"It's alright. I don't want to impose."

"Oh please! You wouldn't be imposing!" Linda spoke up. "We have plenty of open rooms at our home."

"Okay." I agreed and walked over to Maurice. Wrapping my hand around his upper arm, I guided him towards Barry's car.