He stirred, rolling over and opening his eyes.
“Morning, gorgeous,” he said. “What time is it?”
She glanced at the clock on the bedside table. “Nearlytwenty to six,” she replied.
“Come back to bed,” he said, pulling back the covers toleave her in no doubt as to his intentions. “There’s plenty of time before youcheck in.”
“I can’t,” she replied. “I’ve just come on.” It was an easylie and one she had used plenty of times before. He always accepted it.
“Can you sort me out, then?” he asked hopefully.
“I think you had more than enough last night,” she replied,based on vague memories from nearly a quarter of a century ago. She tried tomake it sound light-hearted. She didn’t want him to have any reason to suspectshe was not who she appeared to be. Later he was going to try and stop hergetting on the plane. She didn’t want to say anything now that might make himwant to bring those plans forward.
The memories of that morning were flooding back to her now.Quickly, she formed a rough plan of what she needed to do. All she had to dowas act normally until she got into the airport. Once they were surrounded bypeople, there was no way he would be able to stop her. Here, where they were inprivate, he could.
He looked disappointed at the lack of sex, but didn’t pushthe issue and went into the bathroom. It gave Kay time to familiarise herselfwith her surroundings, paying particular attention to her luggage.
There was a large, red rucksack in the room, stuffed fullwith everything she needed for the next three months. There was also a smaller,denim handbag, which she immediately went for.
It contained her purse, a notebook, pen, and various make-upand sanitary items. Her flight tickets were also there, together with herpassport, the old-fashioned, black, pre-EU edition. She quickly double-checkedthe flight and check-in times. She could check in from ten past six, so therewouldn’t be long to wait. The sooner she was shot of Alan, the better.
She felt like there was something missing from the bag asshe rummaged through, and then she realised what it was. There was no mobilephone. Of course, there wouldn’t be. She didn’t have one. Very few people in1995 did. How strange it was going to seem, living in a world where there wasno internet, no Facebook, no way at all with communicating with the widerworld. How on earth had people managed to stay in touch with each other?
Then again, maybe it was a good thing. She liked the idea ofnobody knowing where she was or being able to get hold of her. It seemed bold,even dangerous, by modern standards.
She knew she had a camera in her rucksack and lots of rollsof films, ready to photograph anything and everything on her trip. It would beodd not uploading them straight to Facebook. In this time period it would be acase of keeping the films until she got back to the UK and then taking themdown to Boots to be developed.
Ruefully she reflected that there would be no point takingany photos of the midnight sun, as she wouldn’t get the chance to show them toanyone. If she had interpreted what the angel had told her correctly, bytomorrow she would be back in 2018 and it would be as if none of this had everhappened. She was pretty sure she wouldn’t find a twenty-three-year-old Kodakfilm case in her pocket when she got home.
After Alan had finished in the bathroom she took a long, hotshower and luxuriated in the fast, powerful streams of water. It was way betterthan the pathetic excuse she had for a shower in the flat, which was more likea garden sprinkler than a power shower, which was what McVie had laughablycalled it. Even when she did have hot water, it was difficult to get enough ofit onto her to keep warm.
She worried that Alan might try and come and molest her inthe shower, but her fears were unfounded. He generally kept his distance fromher when she was on her period. Thankfully she wasn’t, but he wasn’t to knowthat. She really didn’t want that inconvenience to deal with if she was goingto be travelling all day.
When she was finished in the shower, she wrapped a towelaround herself and made her way back to the bedroom. She tried not to make ittoo obvious that she felt uneasy at him looking at her naked body and made sureshe dressed quickly. The sooner she got out of this hotel room and into theterminal building, the better.
She indulged in a little small talk as they crossed the roadto the terminal, anxious to get this over with as quickly as possible. He wasrambling on about some big golf tournament going on in America, something shehad not the remotest interest in, but she feigned interest just to pass thetime. She hadn’t remembered him being this boring. Perhaps she had just beentoo busy enjoying all the sex at the time to notice. Well, she was certainlynoticing now.
“Yeah, this new golfer, Tiger Woods, he’s playing in his firstUS Open this weekend,” he said. “They reckon he’s going to be somethingspecial.”
Although she hated golf, she had of course heard of TigerWoods. She couldn’t not have, as Alan had idolised him and gone on about himall the time.
Thankfully the check-in queue was not long at this earlyhour and she soon was free of her rucksack, watching it disappear on theconveyer. There was an hour and a half left until the flight.
“I really ought to be getting through to the other side,”she said.
“Don’t go just yet, darling,” said Alan. “I don’t want to beseparated from you until I absolutely have to. Come on, let’s go and grab acoffee.”
This was word for word what he had said the first time shehad been here. The word “darling” grated with her, but she had to smile and goalong with it. She knew what was to come, and when it did, she’d be prepared,unlike last time.
Sure enough, as soon as they were seated, it started.
“I can’t believe you’re really
