Disclaimer: Characters belong to Showcase and Prodigy Pictures except for the ones I've created.
Notes: Thank you for the reviews and for reading, and SkylarlySkylar, thanks for the heads up. Good to see a few people have actually seen the movie, I hardly know anyone who had. I had a bit of time, so here's chapter 2.
The story is based on the movie, Somewhere in Time, which was based on the book, Bid Time Return by Richard Matheson.
Chapter 2
All through dinner, her mind kept drifting back to the portrait. Ysabeau's face and her expression of pure trust and adoration haunted her.
Who was she looking at when that photo was taken? Who was she thinking of? Lauren wondered, briefly wishing someone would grace her with that same look.
Lauren had never been able to maintain her relationships for long, nor had she found someone who made wanted to. And here she was, at what could quite possibly be the last few months of her life, drawn to a stranger who lived in another lifetime.
"Ysabeau," Lauren said out loud as she stirred her coffee.
In 1938, Ysabeau did a play here at The Majestic - The Little Minister by J. M Barrie. Aside from her biography printed on the program, Lauren knew little of her. She was already a popular actress with a good number of high profile roles under her belt by then.
Then there were the glowing reviews of her performance at The Majestic. She commands the stage like no other, one critic wrote while another simply called her, mesmerising.
It was also noted on the plaque below her name that Ysabeau died in 2000.
She must had been a remarkable actress, Lauren thought.
She wished she was born earlier just so she could be have been here that night, watching her perform on stage.
Lauren slept fitfully.
Her dreams were odd; horse-drawn carriages down a deserted lane, Dr. Bishop cutting her head open, Tamsin offering her a root beer float and somewhere in there, the most vivid of them all, was Ysabeau, smiling at her as if Lauren had just given her the whole world.
She woke up nauseated, her body engulfed in a strange floating sensation.
It will get worse, Dr. Bishop told her.
She wondered if she would soon lose her grip on reality. Maybe it had already started; spending the entire evening and night thinking and dreaming about a woman she had only seen in a photograph was not exactly normal.
Perhaps some fresh air would do her good, a walk by the lake. And that was her intent when she left her room, but somehow, she found herself back at the Hall of History. In the clear light of day, Ysabeau Dennis was even more beautiful.
It was starting to frighten her. This need to know all she could about Ysabeau was irrational and fast becoming an obsession.
Lauren could see the headlines now, "Writer found dead clutching portrait of deceased actress in hotel room."
Then again, it may not be a bad way to die. Definitely better than being hooked up to machines in a cold hospital room.
She could hear Tamsin's voice in her head telling her, "You're obsessing over this actress because you don't want to deal with your problems."
Maybe so, but it would be one hell of an escape, wouldn't it? Lauren laughed to herself. It could be one of her projects, much like the many researches she threw herself into when she's writing a new book.
Her mind made up, she hurried out to look for Emma.
"Love walked right in and drove the shadows away, love walked right in and brought my sunniest day," Emma sang as she went about cleaning her living room.
Her singing rose above the hum of the vacuum cleaner, in harmony with the deep, raspy voice of Louis Armstrong, "One magic moment, and my heart seemed to know that love said, 'Hello', though not a word was spoken."
It took several knocks for her to realize there was someone at the door. Opening the door, she was surprised to find Lauren Lewis standing there.
"Hello there," she said.
"Hi, I'm sorry to bother you. I was told I could find you here."
Emma smiled. "It's all right. Come on in."
Lauren took a few steps forward and stopped. The surprise was evident in her tone. "This is a home."
"Yes,it is."
"Your home?"
"Yes, it is, dear." Emma grew more amused by the second. "What were you expecting?"
"I don't know. A guy named Jon at the front desk told me I can find you at the bungalow behind the hotel. I thought it was an employees' rest house. And judging by your casual attire, and the vacuum cleaner, I'm guessing it's probably your day off. I'm sorry, I really didn't mean to bother you."
Emma patted Lauren's shoulders reassuringly. "It's all right, I'm just cleaning the house. Actually, you came at the right time, I'm about to take a break. I have oatmeal cookies in the oven, care to join me?"
Lauren took a sniff, grinning. "Oh, that smells good."
"I'll take that as a yes." Emma laughed. "Take a seat, I'll be back."
When Emma emerged from the kitchen with a plate of cookies and two cups of coffee, she found Lauren looking at the framed photos on the mantle. Lauren picked up one of a young teenage girl standing in front of a fireplace and asked, "Is this you?"
"Yes, back in the days when my knees didn't hurt and my face was free of wrinkles." Emma chuckled.
"You're beautiful," Lauren glanced at Emma, "you still are."
"You don't have to flatter me, I'm already feeding you cookies."
Lauren laughed and grasped the woman's hand. "I mean it."
"Thank you." Emma held out the plate. "Now, you can have your cookie."
Lauren took one eagerly, asking as she took a bite, "How long have you been living here?"
"I grew up here. My father was one of the first few employees of The Majestic Hotel. Back then, he pretty much took care of everything on the grounds. Edward Forsham, his family owns the hotel, decided it would be easier for my father to live closer to the hotel. So, he offered him this bungalow."
"So you've been living here your whole life?"
"No, I moved out when I got married. My father passed on, then my husband, and my kids are all grown up, it just feels right to come back. But I have worked here my whole life. I was offered the general manager position once but I turned it down. Getting stuck behind the desk and attending endless meetings are not for me. I like being on the grounds, meeting people. People always ask me why I'm still working. What else am I going to do with my time? Knit?"
Emma took a sip of her coffee and continued, "Now I know you're not here to chat with an old lady about her life. How can I help you?"
Lauren smiled. "I was in the Hall of History last night and I read that there is a theatre here."
"Oh yes, it's out by far end of the lake. We don't stage as many plays as we did back then but the management wanted to keep the theatre as it is. I'm glad, it is an important part of the hotel's history."
"Well," Lauren began, a little nervously thought Emma. "There is one particular play I'm interested in. I believe it was staged in 1938, The Little Minister by J. M Barrie. It starred Ysabeau Dennis. Do you remember that play?"
Ysabeau Dennis. That's a name Emma had not heard or thought of in a long time. The mention easily brought back a rush of memories she thought she had forgotten.
A fond smile lit up her features. "Heavens, that was so long ago. It was a one night engagement, and what a spectacular play it was."
"Did you meet her?" Lauren leaned forward anxiously.
Unforgettable, that's what it was for Emma, for a few good reasons. Most of which she was unable to share.
But what she could, she did, "I did. I was 18 and had just started work at the hotel. I had never met a star before and she was a star in the truest sense. That photograph you saw was taken here on the night of the play."
A pause and Emma added, "She asked us to call her, Bo. Said Ysabeau was her professional name and only men in stuffy suits called her that."
"Bo," Lauren repeated to herself, liking the way it sound.
"She had just done a movie with none other than Errol Flynn. It wasn't the lead role but she certainly got people's attention. So you can imagine what a big deal it was to have a movie star performing in a small town like this. Suitors flocked to the hotel, thinking they would have a shot with her. She turned them all down. She was classy, beautiful and glamorous...so different from that manager of hers. "
"How so?"
"The woman was a bully in my book, always ordering people around.I certainly did not like the way she talked to Bo, she was so condescending to her, acting like she owned her. God, I forgot her name," she paused. "I think it's Morland..yes, it's Morland. Julia Morland."
Images from long ago played before Emma's eyes. "If I didn't work for the hotel, I would have told her off."
"I don't think I'd like her much too," Lauren said quietly.
"Then you would be pleased to know that Ms. Morland got her comeuppance." Emma smiled despite feeling a little guilty speaking ill of the dead but even now she had a strange sense of protectiveness towards Bo.
"Really? What happened?"
"Bo stood up to her." Emma sat back, her voice softened at the memory of the day that changed her life. "It was the morning after the play. It must have been a little past five. I had just started my morning shift when Ms. Morland came down and demanded that we send out a party to search for Bo who appeared to be missing, saying that she would take us to court if we failed to do so. Then, right on cue Bo came running in from outside, looking like she had not slept the whole night."
Lauren leaned forward. "What happened next?"
"Aren't you impatient? I'm an old lady, it takes a while for this brain of mind to remember," Emma said lightly, both amused and curious at Lauren's anxious interest in Bo.
"I'm sorry, I get excited easily," Lauren said sheepishly.
Emma let out a small laugh and continued, "Let's see, Bo marched straight up to Ms. Morland. She was fearless. They got into a heated argument right there in the lobby. For a moment there, I thought Bo was going to hit Ms. Morland. Then she did something that almost made me stood up and applauded- she fired the old witch."
Lauren smiled gleefully. "Now, I would love to have been there to see that."
Emma paused; somewhere from deep within the recess of her memory, an image appeared. She stared at Lauren, carefully studying her face. Her pulse quickened as the fuzzy image became clearer.
In the morning light, Lauren looked a lot like...no, it was not possible, she told herself. Lauren Lewis, that name...it's just a coincidence, just a coincidence.
Lauren leaned back, slightly unnerved by Emma's scrutinising gaze. "What's wrong?"
Emma said nothing, her mind caught up in days gone by. She remembered Bo's voice, teetering between anger and fear as she asked that dreadful woman again and again, "What did you do to her? What did you do to her?"
Then, there were the things that happened after the fight. The relief Emma felt when she saw...no, she told herself again, it was not possible.
"Okay, now you're really starting to scare me," Lauren said half jokingly.
Emma shook her head, hoping to push away this absurd thought and pulled her gaze away from the young woman seated across the table. "I'm sorry. I...are you sure you have never been here before?"
"Positive, absolutely, 100% sure. That's the second time you asked me that question."
Of course Lauren had never been here before, Emma wanted to believe her. "Again, my apologies. You just reminded me of someone I know."
"I guess I have a common face." Lauren chuckled. "So what happened after that?"
The story was begging to be told but Emma held back. It was simply not hers to tell. "Ms. Morland left and I never saw her again. As for Bo, she stayed on in the hotel for another month."
Sadness crept into Emma's voice as she went on, "But something changed in her. She was much more quiet, kept to herself. She spent her days walking around the lake, especially around the theatre. There was a spot, a bench she was fond of in the garden next to the theatre by the apple trees. She spent so much time there that some of the staff joked that we should just name the bench after her. There were times when I would walk by and see her there, staring ahead so intensely as if she's waiting for something...someone to appear."
Emma inhaled deeply, answering a question she knew Lauren would ask, "I don't know what brought about the change. Then one day, she packed up and left. That was the last I saw of her."
"Someone broke her heart," Lauren said quietly.
Emma looked up in surprise. "Maybe. I don't know. She never said anything to me."
They lapsed into silence for a short while before Lauren asked, "You said she did a movie. Were there any others?"
"No, I believe that was the only movie she made. I heard that she was supposed to sign a contract with MGM but she changed her mind. Actually, she stopped acting for a year after the play here, disappeared completely from public eye. Ugh, I remember the vicious rumours. Some said she had a breakdown, others said she had a child out of wedlock and that was scandalous back in the day."
"What do you think happened to her?"
Emma looked at the young woman's face, seeing not trivial curiosity but an honest need to know. "I believe it was as you said, a broken heart that sent her into seclusion." A beat. "I will tell you this, she was brave. Brave in a time the world wasn't."
"What do you mean?"
"Just that she taught me to love without fear. Because of her, I found my husband."
Lauren raised a brow, silently urging her to go on. Emma stood and picked up a photo from the mantle.
Sitting back down, she handed the photo to Lauren. "That's my husband. His name was Bobby, we were married for over 50 years. I met him that same fall. He was the hotel's gardener. I loved him the moment I saw him. Naturally, my father disapproved, he believed I was born for royalty." Emma laughed.
"Long story short, because of Bo I learned to follow my heart and it was the best decision I have ever made," Emma concluded.
Lauren opened her mouth, looking as if she wanted to know more but to Emma's relief, she sat back and said, "Now, that's a love story that should be written into a book."
"Judging from your work, I have no doubt you will do it justice but it's a story I would rather keep private." Upon seeing the surprise on Lauren's face, Emma added, "I know who you are, I recognised you from your photo on your books. My daughter and I are fans."
Lauren smiled a little shyly. "Thank you, always good to know people like your work."
"May I ask what brought about the sudden interest in Bo?"
Lauren fidgeted for a second. "I saw her photograph and I guess you could say I'm intrigued. She is becoming sort of my muse for my next project. It's a story about the theatre and a stage actress in the 1930s."
"I see. If that's the case, I suggest you visit our library. We have quite an extensive collection of books on the American and Canadian stage and its actors. Our former general manager, God bless his soul, loved the theatre. A lot of the books were from his private collection."
Lauren stood up immediately. "Where is the library?"
"You really do get excited easily," Emma chuckled. "It's on the first floor of the hotel. Take the stairs near the Hall of History, it's on your right."
"Thank you, thank you! I hope you don't mind if I make a move, should get a head start on the research."
Emma shook her head. "You could barely contain your excitement. Go, go. Would you like some cookies to take with you?"
Lauren grinned. "If you don't mind."
Emma placed the remainder of the cookies in a bag and after expressing her heartfelt thanks, Lauren took off.
As Emma watched her walked briskly up the pavement leading to the hotel with cookies in hand, she was struck yet again by the strangest sense of familiarity.
"Em honey, your mind is getting wilted from old age," she chided herself out loud.
She took another look at the disappearing figure. Impossible, simply impossible, she thought as she closed the door.
The first book Lauren found was "Stars of the American Theater" by Charles Baldwin, published in 1992.
Ysabeau, or rather Bo as Lauren came to call her, was featured on pages 103 and 104. She first studied the photographs.
There was Bo as a child in a black and white photo, already beautiful. Next to it was a photo of her as a teenager, 13 or 14 perhaps with her family. Her parents were Jack and Aoife Dennis.
Lauren could see the family resemblance and what a gorgeous family they were. Then came photos of Bo on stage - the tragic Isolde in Tristan and Isolde, the faithful Rosalind in As You Like it, the intelligent Portia in Merchant of Venice and even the playful Peter Pan.
Post 1938, Bo took to the Broadway stage with astounding success. She sang her way into audiences' hearts in Show Boat, broke hearts as the complicated Anna in Anna Christie and made people laughed in Sunny.
Lauren saw changes in her face as the years went by, yet she was as beautiful as the day the photo in the Hall of History was taken.
Next, Lauren turned to the text. Bo was born in 1915 to the rich and powerful Dennis family. At age 16, she left school to pursue an acting career full time, much to her parent's disapproval.
Baldwin wrote that Bo arrived in New York with a suitcase, her dreams and nothing much else. It was said but never substantiated that Bo met Julia Morland in the summer of 1933 at a small theater.
Morland, ever the shrewd businesswoman, saw a star in Bo despite her small role in the play. A partnership was soon formed, one that lasted till 1938.
Bo, in a 1935 interview, described her early years in the city as an eye-opener and ingrained in her a deep gratitude for her career. A career she believed would not have been possible without Morland.
Lauren noted with interest that critics thought of Bo pre-1938 as a capable actress with charms to spare but lacking in depth, attributing her success to her beauty.
It was on the stage of The Majestic Hotel in 1938 that Ysabeau Dennis was transformed from an adequate actress into a true artist, wrote Baldwin.
Baldwin went on, thus, it came as a surprise to many that it was then that she chose to retreat from the stage, reportedly spending her time at her farm for over a year in seclusion.
The artist herself appeared to have changed as well when she returned triumphantly to the stage in spring of 1940, observed the author.
"Once charming and outgoing, Dennis became a mystery, preferring to let her work speak for her. There would be no more public appearances and interviews were very rare. Even when she agreed to be interviewed, Dennis kept herself closed off, answering questions only related to her work. Yet, it was precisely her mysterious persona that drew interest from the public and kept them enthralled," wrote Baldwin.
Next, Lauren tackled "Broadway Luminaries" by Alexander Goldman.
The book featured quotes from her costars. Nathan Burke recounted her performance in Romeo and Juliet in 1945, "Seemingly without effort, she disappeared into the role so completely that it was both terrifying and electrifying to watch."
"What many do not see is her discipline and devotion to her art. She becomes the character she plays and that is truly a marvel to behold," said Jessica Bentley, another co star.
She was adored and revered by fans and critics alike, but no matter how hard many tried to pry, her private life remained a mystery, wrote Goldman.
What was known was that Bo never married, adopted a child in her later years and after retirement, devoted her life to charity work. It was written too that Bo was fond of traveling, venturing on her own to see the world in her free time.
Then Goldman pointed out, to Lauren's delight, that even though Bo credited Morland for her earlier success, it after the demise of their partnership that Bo's career reached a level that many had sought but failed to reach.
Lauren took notes, jotting down in messy strokes in her notebook. She stayed till late afternoon, ignoring the pounding in her head, hungry for every little bit of information on Bo.
She was especially interested in the first and only TV interview Bo did in 1998. She must get her hands on it, one way or another.
What had Lauren most intrigued was what happened in 1938, right here in The Majestic. It had to be a life-altering event, and she found herself cursing the fool who broke Bo's heart.
Tired now, and no longer able to ignore her headache, Lauren took a stack of the books she hadn't managed to read to the counter to be checked out.
As she waited for the library staff to do the necessary, Lauren mindlessly flipped through one of the books.
On page 89 were more photographs of Bo including the one hanging in the Hall of History. It was the photograph on the next page that stopped the beating of her heart.
Looking back at her in a full page glossy black and white was an elderly woman, a half smile on her face. Below, the caption read, "The last known photograph of Ysabeau Dennis, taken in 1999."
Lauren's knees grew weak, mind spinning like a carousel as she studied the photo. Her hair stood on end. It was her, the old woman who pleaded with Lauren to come back to her five years ago was none other than Bo Dennis.