Suspended in Time

Chapter 3 - Getting Introduced to Life 40 Years Before He Was Born

"Tell us what Kentucky is like. You grew up there?"

We were sitting around the dining room table again, but the next morning at breakfast, and it was around 7:30. I thought I would go to sleep and wake up back in my time, but no such luck. The newspaper I saw Mr. Edding reading before he left for work solidified this crazy reality—I was in 1957. How, I had no idea, I just knew that it was a fact now, and I was trying my hardest not to have a panic attack about it.

"Yes," I answered Eliza as I sat across from her and Darina, and Violet chose to sit on my left. "I currently call Los Angeles home, but I grew up in a town in eastern Kentucky that's about as big as this one."

"So not that big," said Violet. "We boast a population of 2,000 according to Dad."

"Okay, maybe mine was slightly bigger," I said. "But I feel comfortable here. Things were spread out back home, so I did a lot of hiking, hunting, outdoorsy stuff."

"Is that where your love of travel came about?" asked Darina as she drank a glass of orange juice. I loved this pancakes, sausage, berries and orange juice breakfast.

"It took part in my love of it, yes. I always loved adventure and exploring places around where I lived, and I would travel as often as I could. It's just, there are so many beautiful places to see on this planet, places that are hidden away by nature that are just waiting to be explored and appreciated. There's such a story to tell for all of them, stories that are hidden in the walls and in the items, and the owners, mirror images of the toll that time takes on those items."

"The way you talk is very pretty," Violet commented. "Are you a writer? Maybe you should narrate a show or documentary."

"I think the word you're searching for is poetic," said Darina.

I let out a bit of laughter as I skewered some pancake squares dowsed in maple syrup. "Thank you. People have said that regarding my voice and way of speaking. And, yes, I'm a writer as well as a filmmaker, and I narrate all of my videos."

"You should show them what you showed me yesterday," Darina said, then told them, "His camera is so incredible, nothing like anything I've seen before, and I see a lot of them since I work at a hotel where people are coming through traveling with cameras."

"I bet you look great on camera," Violet said. "You have pretty eyes and great bone structure."

"Violet May, please," Eliza reprimanded.

"What? It's true."

"Thank you," I said. Really, I was used to complements regarding my videos, speaking and behavior at abandoned places, not anything regarding my appearance. Well, I didn't exactly dress up to go exploring in the woods to dilapidated buildings. I didn't really know what to say with all the appearance complements.

"Show us the film you took," Violet said, her head turned to her right as she pleaded with me with her eyes. "I really want to see Darina's future house that hasn't been built yet."

"Not now since you both have to get going," said Eliza in that motherly tone that I head from my own mother several times growing up.

"Can I skip today? Please?" she begged, her lower lip jutted out at her mother. I had to smirk at it, amused. She was giving Eliza puppy eyes, too.

"No missing school unless you are ill."

"You can call the school and make something up. Please, Mother. Darina doesn't even have to work today since it's her day off. She told me she wanted to show Kyle around town. I want to go with."

This was news to me, and I liked that Darina wasn't a teen and went to high school. She was older, meaning it was okay to check her out, which I did all the time, admittedly. I met gazes with her, and I smiled, loving the idea of exploring the town. Eliza said, "No, you can go about with your sister and new friend after school."