Lucy: What’s the password
Priya: I brought WINE!!
Lucy: Coming!
I open the door downstairs, and Priya is standing there, in hot pink loungewear with her hair pinned off her face with various butterfly and star barrettes. She’sholding a bottle of red and a bottle of white up in the air and gives me a wink.
“Come on in,” I say as she passes me the bottle of Pinot Noir and follows me inside.
When we get up to my apartment, I pour us each a full glass of wine, and we cozy up on the couch under the quilt. Turning to look at me, she tilts her head and asks, “What’s been going on, Lucy?”
She knows me so well. And honestly, I don’t think I can stomach lying to her anymore. “Pri,” I start as I take a hefty gulp of wine for courage. “What I’m about to tell you is going to sound unbelievable, but I need you to trust me, okay?”
“Of course,” she snaps back, face serious, ready for whatever it is she thinks I’m about to say.
She has no idea.
“So…” Another sip for good measure. “My boyfriend.”
“Yes, the sexy deep-sea fisherman who’s moving across the country,” she responds as she grabs the bowl of buttery popcorn and tosses some into her mouth.
“About that,” I start. “He’s not actually a deep-sea fisherman. I lied.”
She cocks an eyebrow, intrigue setting in. “Is he a fugitive? Oh my god, he’s a porn star!”
I almost spit popcorn out of my mouth at that remark. “No, Pri!” We both laugh, and it feels nice. “He’s neither of those. His name is Dylan, and he’s a… lighthouse keeper.”
“What? A lighthouse kee?—”
“I’m not done. He’s a lighthouse keeper. From 1993.”
I lift my glass to my lips and finish what’s left in it. Priya just stares at me with wide eyes. Her mouth opens to speak, but she clamps it shut. I take that as my cue to continue.
“Do you remember that lighthouse I told you about? The one where I swore I met a lighthouse keeper?”
“Yeah, the abandoned one.”
“Yes, that one. Well, it turns out when I go inside…” I brace myself once more for this next comment. “I’m actually travelling back in time to 1993, when Dylan, the lighthouse keeper, was alive.”
“Oookay,” she says slowly as she takes another, rather large, sip from her glass. “Lucy, how much wine did you drink before I got here?”
“That’s beside the point! Trust me, it’s insane. But please, believe me, Pri. Somehow, I can go back in time and be with him. I don’t really understand how the magic works, but there was a bolt of lightning that came out of a clear sky—a bolt from the blue—and I think it somehow activated something that lets me travel to the past.”
“But… isn’t he the lighthouse keeper who died saving those two boys? That’s Killick Point, right?”
My face falls. “Yes. On October 23. We’re trying to see if there is a way to save him. And bring him here to our time.” Her eyes widen once more, glass held still at her lips, silently pleading with me to continue. I tell her everything, from how we got off on the wrong foot to discovering I was actually going back in time. I tell her about Iris and how she went through something similar, only with a very unhappy ending. How she said we can’t change the past, and how I’m so unbelievably in love with Dylan that the thought of not being with him is too much to bear.
“We have a plan, and I think it might work, but now to add to my ever-growing list of stressful things, they’re going to demolish the lighthouse the same day as the storm, and I can’t figure out when it’s happening. If they demolish it, then neither of us can make it out on the other side.”
She must hear the panic in my voice because she moves the popcorn bowl to the coffee table and pulls me in close, stroking my back to calm me down. “Shh, it’s okay. We’ll figure this out together.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you, Pri. But it all sounds so unbelievable. I didn’t believe it myself at first. I’ve been carrying so much lately, and it’s so nice to let it out.”
“Lucy, you can always tell me things. As nutty as they sound, I believe you. Promise.” She wraps her pinky around mine in solidarity and winks, and I am so thankful to have a friend like her in my corner. Someone who so easily chooses to believe and accept everything that I’ve told her, without question. That’s a best friend.
I rub my jaw and fiddle with the quilt before straightening myself out. “So that’s what’s been going on. That’s everything, I promise. I’m in love with Dylan Hart and am hell-bent on trying to save his life in less than two weeks.”
“Well, I’ll admit, this is a bit trickier than him moving across the country. Can you two communicate at all when you’re here and he’s there?”
