Megha landed in a dark alley,
similar to the one she was in before, but it looked old-fashioned, and more
like the scene from that one movie, Newsies. But the strange part was, there was no car crash behind her,
there were no lane dividers or reflectors on the road, and she was wearing a
different dress. She wasn't wearing the
spaghetti strap one that she had on at the party, but a long blue ball gown,
just like the ones they wore in the late 1800s. Her hair was done up in a fancy bun atop her head with a few
ringlet-type curls hanging down. While
she was pondering this strange transformation, she heard a voice calling her.
"Meg! Where are you?" came the voice
in a thick New York accent. It was
obviously Gabe's voice, because no one called her 'Meg' except for Gabe. But where he got the accent, she had no
clue. Pretty soon, he came into view,
and posed another surprise for Megha. He was dressed funny, like those people from that Newsie movie, and she
had no idea where he could have even found clothes like those.
"Meg! What are you doing? Why
aren't you at Medda's? Don't you know
you're supposed to perform?" scolded Gabe in the new accent.
"Gabe? What is up with you?" asked Megha incredulously.
"Gabe? Are you feeling alright,
Meg? Me name's Spot, remember? Spot
Conlon from Brooklyn?" he said, looking at her strangely.
"Spot? What kind of a name is
that? A dog's name?" she asked,
laughing.
"Dere's sumthin' wrong wit ya, an' I
dunno wat, but yer supposda perform a' Medda's, 'member?" said Gabe, aka Spot.
"Medda's…" she thought slowly, but
Megha didn't have much time to ponder who Medda was, or why Gabe insisted he
was Spot because two girls who looked identical to Mandy and Laura came running
up to her. They also had dresses
similar to Megha's, and had the same hairdo.
"Meg, we've been looking for ye
everywere. Where were ye, girl?" asked
Mandy, or so Megha thought, but she knew it was going to be someone else who
went by the different name.
"Guppy, dere's sumthin' wrong wit
Meg heah. She called me Gabe, so she
might not 'member yer name either," said Spot, quickly, looking from 'Guppy" to
Laura.
"Aw, how could our Meg forget us?"
said 'Guppy.' Megha suddenly realized
that she might have gone back in time, that these people were different than
her friends. She knew that Mandy's
nickname was Guppy, and that was her name here, so chances were that Laura's
name might be Fortune Cookie, since that was her nickname in the future.
"Yeah, how could I forget Guppy and
Cookie? Maybe I just don't like Spot,
and was trying to fool you," said Megha sweetly, trying to make something up at
the last minute. She had obviously
taken somebody's place in the past, and the least she could do was play the part. "You've gotta admit, it was pretty funny."
"Wha' evah ya say," said Spot,
shrugging. That worked, now all Megha
had to do was find a reason as to why she didn't show up at Medda's. She didn't even know what who Medda was, or
why she had to be there in the first place.
"That's fine," said Cookie, for it
turned out that the girl who looked like Laura was named Cookie, "but ye should
have been at Medda's fifteen minutes ago. Yer keepin' the audience waiting, and that ain't good for business,
Meg."
"Yeah well," hesitated Megha as she
tried to come up with an excuse, "I, uh, needed some time to think, that's
all."
"Sure, but ye need to take time to
think after a show, okay? Remember that
next time, cuz we're not coming after ye again."
"Yeah, sure, I won't," said Megha
uncertainly. So far, these people
didn't find anything suspicious about her, but what would happen when she had
to do this show? What was she expected
to do?
Megha reluctantly followed the two girls and Spot to a
place called Irving Hall, and they entered through a back entrance. She found herself in a backstage area, and
heard a crowed on the other side. The
crowed was larger than she thought, judging from the noise they were making,
and she knew she could never get away with this, because Megha had no idea what
she was supposed to do. Pretty soon,
someone came running up to her, and it so happened that it was another someone
whom she recognized from the future. Ann was coming to greet her, except that she was much older, and also
dressed in a similar style as the girls.
"Ah, Medda! Ye
ain't been waitin' too long, have ye? Meg heah wuz spacin' out," said Spot.
"Nah, not too long. But we've really got to be getting the show on the go, cuz remember,
Meg, you've got a solo this time," she said, looking apprehensively at Megha,
worried that she might space out again. But Megha had other problems. She was worried about what she would do the minute she got on stage,
because she obviously wasn't who they thought she was. Maybe, she thought, just maybe if
I come up with a song from choir, I can sing it. The audience won't know the difference. So as soon as Megha looked like she was
paying attention, Medda, or an older Ann, steered her through a door, and then
suddenly, she was on stage. This is
it, she was thinking, this is my moment of truth, and if I mess this up,
how am I going to explain that I seemed to have traveled back in time? Megha stared into the audience as they
stared back at her. The bright lights
blinded her, and she could feel the eyes of the many audience members watching,
searching, waiting. Waiting for her to
start. Unluckily for her, she had to
start off alone, without any piano accompaniment. She opened her mouth, unsure of what to do, when suddenly her
mind went blank and she started singing.
The words of some unknown song came flowing out of her
mouth, every note in tune and every word enunciated properly. Where she learned to sing like that, she
didn't know. She didn't even know who
she was anymore, or why she was there. All that she knew was that she was on stage, and that she was singing,
and she had to keep singing, or otherwise—she didn't know what, but she had to
keep singing. Suddenly, she stopped,
but she knew the song ended, and she returned to reality, with no memory of
what she had just done. Looking at the
audience, which was cheering madly, she made a small, shy curtsey and sidled
backstage, where she could escape the crowd. Unfortunately, the clapping and cheering was continuing backstage.
"Congradulations, Meg! That was beautiful! I've never heard you sing like that
before! It was absolutely wonderful!
You should be proud of yourself," squealed Medda, embracing her, and then
rushing off to attend to something.
"Meg! Yeh did
it! And yeh didn't ferget half de song
while yer up dere!" cried Spot, reminding her of her little spell earlier.
"Meg, girl, since when'd ya get so good? Yer gonna replace Medda!" exclaimed Guppy.
"Yeah, so when ye do, ye'll keep us on, won't ye Meg?"
added Cookie, amazed at her success.
"Sure, whatever," said Megha blandly. She wasn't sure what was going on, but she
knew that she was stuck here for a while, so she had to pretend she was
Meg. But was she turning into Meg? Because when she was on stage, she
completely forgot who she was. She didn't
have any idea of what song she was singing, except for the fact that she could
sing it, and sing it well. She wasn't
even thinking of the future when she was singing. She wasn't thinking of Mika, of her parents, of her family, or of
her friends when she sang, which was highly unusual for Megha. But was it possible that Meg didn't think
while she sang? Was it possible that Megha,
from the future, was becoming Meg? No,
it couldn't be, there were too many differences. Or were there?