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Chapter 10
Eva lived in a small detached home on the outskirts of Philly. She shared her house with two other people. Much to Isabella’s surprise, Liam told her that both of them were men. But neither of them were married to her or romantically involved in any way. Isabella had to remind herself, again, that this was a different time, and that women were allowed to have male friends without being considered inappropriate. Besides, wasn’t she living with an eligible, handsome bachelor herself? Her cheeks flushed thinking about their kiss last night. Earlier in the parking lot, she thought he was about to kiss her again, and a proper lady would have turned away from such an intense gaze, but she couldn’t. His eyes were intoxicating, and when his gaze burned into her, filled with his glistening desire, she wanted nothing more than to give herself to him, no matter what he asked for. But luckily, or not, it had never come to this…
Liam rang the doorbell that looked like one of those camera doorbells they saw earlier today. A woman’s voice answered through it.
“Yes, who is this?” a female voice asked in a serious tone. Liam rolled his eyes. “I know you can see me, Eva.”
“Of course I can see you, but I’m not sure who you are,” Eva replied. Liam’s hand brushed his hair which ended up scratching the back of his head.
“Eva, stop with this nonsense.” The door stayed closed. Did his sister not know who he was? Liam waited for a second but then rang again. “It’s Liam… Your brother…” He placed his face right in front of the doorbell camera.
“You look familiar, but I haven’t seen my brother in so long… I almost forgot what he looked like…” Isabella’s confusion turned into amusement as she realized that Eva was being sarcastic. Liam on the other hand was not amused at all.
“Come on Eva, you know how busy I am.”
“Ah yes. Too busy to answer your worried sister’s phone calls. Too busy to let her know you’re still alive, coz honestly, I thought you were dead.” Liam rolled his eyes and mumbled something even Isabella couldn’t understand. “I texted you last week.” If he thought that had done the trick, he was mistaken, as Eva turned quiet behind the door. A moment of awkward silence filled the air as Liam waited for something to happen. Finally, he raised his hands in an ‘I give up’gesture. “Alright, fine. I am sorry. I should stop by more often,” he said in a sincere tone.
“And return my phone calls.”
“Yes, and return your phone calls. All twenty of them.”
Silence again…
“Oh come on now. That was a joke for Christ’s sake. Look,” Liam dragged Isabella in front of the camera. “I brought a guest. A woman…” It took another ten seconds or so for Eva to finally open the door and reveal herself. She was quite pretty, but dressed rather unusually. Her black hair was placed in a bun that had colorful strings twisted into it. She wore a white t-shirt with rainbow-colored loose pants. Eva scanned Isabella from head to toe. “You got married in Vegas or something?” she asked, crossing her arms to her chest.
“No, Eva, I didn’t.”
“Too bad, that might have loosened you up a bit.” Eva stepped aside to let them in.
Her apartment was furnished with Indian-looking wood furniture. It had colorful fabrics hanging on every wall in every room. A strong scent that was reminding Isabella of incense was filling the room with light, visible smoke, just like a church. She walked over to her phone to turn off the loud music of a male voice repeating the words ‘Suffering leads to enlightenment’over and over again. Isabella couldn’t help but throw Liam a look; he caught it and whispered, “We call people like herhippy. They are like the rain. Nobody likes them but they are needed…”
“Ooooh. Hippy…” Isabella nodded in fascination as if she’d just learned something extremely useful.
Eva pointed to her couch that was covered in some sort of wool blanket. “Have a seat. Tea?” Liam and Isabella sat down on the couch. Isabella ran her fingers through the wool blanket. It was the softest material she had ever felt. Eva noticed. “Organic fair-trade alpaca wool. It’s good for your body’s energy flow. Tea?”
“Erm—yes, please,” Isabella almost stuttered. This place was fascinating. Her big eyes wandered to a framed diploma on the wall.
“Doctorate in Physics. From Harvard,” Liam explained.
“Truly incredible,” Isabella whispered, stunned. She had heard of Harvard in her own time as a university of great innovation that started to compete with Oxford in its prestige, even beat it at times.
“I told you. She’s so crazy that she’s a genius.” He shook his head in agreement over his own words.
Eva came back with a tray carrying tea and cookies.
“Thank you,” Isabella said, grabbing a cookie. She took a bite and instantly held up her hand to cover her mouth. Liam was not as polite and spat it right back out. “What the hell is this?” He made a face as if he’d just bitten into a lemon.
“Cricket flour. It’s the future. The meat and soy industry as we know it is no longer sustainable,” Eva answered him calmly putting the tray onto the coffee table in front of them. Isabella was burning to ask her for more details about this very peculiar remark and opened her mouth, but Liam elbowed her softly in her side to signal her not to.
“So, what brought you here, if I may ask? I’m Eva by the way.” She kindly smiled at Isabella, taking a seat in a chair across from them.
“Isabella. It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance.”
Eva drew her brows together. “Mhmm. I see,” she said, looking at Isabella as if she was onto something. “I guess that explains what brought you here.” Liam let out a heavy sigh. He obviously did not find Eva amusing, sister or not. “Well, I was wondering if you could help us out. Maybe you know someone who has spent some time researching the phenomenon of time lapses.” Eva leaned over and grabbed one of her cookies. “Mhmm… Why?” Her eyes stared like daggers. She was definitely suspicious. Isabella and Liam looked at each other. Eva seemed very open to the unusual, but was that enough to tell her about this predicament? Liam seemed to think it was. He took in a deep breath, and so it began.
“Isabella travelled here from far away.”
“Yes, I heard the accent,” Eva said, taking a bite of her awful cookie. “But?” She nudged Liam to continue.Was he really going to tell her? Just like that?He took in another deep breath, patting Isabella’s leg to assure her everything was okay before staring back daggers at his sister. “But from a different time.”
