"What now?" asked Megha after the show had ended. Apart from her solo, Medda did quite a bit
of singing on her own, and the three of them, Guppy, Cookie, and herself, did a
trio. Overall, it was a huge success,
and the audience loved it, despite the fact that Megha was having a bit of an
identity crisis. But the audience
didn't know that, they simply knew that Meg was a good singer and the show had
been great.
"We go home, to bed, and wake up tomorrow, ye know the
rest, Meg," answered Cookie sleepily. "Don't
ask me now, I'm much to tired." All of
them were exhausted after the performance because they not only sang, they
danced.
"Well, then let's go home, go to bed, and wake up tomorrow,
and do the rest," interrupted Guppy. "I
think we're all going to pass out if we don't, ye know," she said sternly, but
it was obvious that she was just as tired as the rest of them, possibly even
more tired because she was the most energetic of the three of them.
"Hold on, just let me tell Medda we're leaving," said Megha
quickly. She walked over to where Medda
was talking to a group of boys in the same attire Spot was wearing and waited
awhile, not wanting to seem rude and butt in. But pretty soon, Medda turned around and noticed her.
"Ah Meg! I didn't
notice you there. Ain't you gonna
congratulate the newsies on the anniversary of their strike? My, those boys did a great job last year,"
said Medda, smiling fondly at the boys. Strike anniversary, thought Megha, what strike anniversary? She had heard nothing about a strike or a
strike anniversary, but she supposed that Meg would have been there. So, she turned and smiled at the newsies to
congratulate them politely, and then turned back to Medda.
"Look, Guppy, Cookie, and I are gonna go home, cuz it's
late, and we're tired," Megha told her, hoping that Meg didn't talk to the
newsies much because it would seem strange that she didn't pay much attention
to them. Luckily, Medda didn't seem to
notice, or she might have just thought that she was tired.
"Right, you three should take some rest after all that hard
work you've done today. I'm so proud of
you," said Medda, and Megha bid her goodbye before Medda got started over what
a great job they had done that night.
"Alright, let's go," she said as soon as she reached the
other two girls. They left Irving Hall
together and proceeded down a street in the dark. Megha hoped that Guppy and Cookie stayed at the same place as
Meg, because she honestly had no idea where she was going. Even so, she seemed to have a strange sense
of de-ja-vu. (Author's note: I have no
idea how to spell that, so bare with me and my spell check doesn't have that
word! ^_^) Down one street, down
another, down to that alley she was in before, down more streets, Megha knew
she had never been down before, but it all felt so familiar, like she had been
there all her life. Like she had walked
these streets a million times. The
scenery called on her to remember, but how could she when she had never seen it
all before? She was lost in the
memories, which never existed in the first place when Guppy and Cookie stopped
her in front of a building. There was a
sign above the door that said 'Newsgirls Lodging House,' and the many windows on
the floors above it were closed with no light seeping out. "'Newsgirls Lodging House,'" read Megha,
"We're not newsgirls, so how come we're staying here?"
"Geez Meg, I can understand why Spot was so annoyed. Ye're hopeless, always spacing out like
that. I mean, don't ye remember? Solaire let us stay here because we didn't
have a home so many years ago. What is
wrong with ye?" asked Guppy, looking at her strangely. Megha froze. She made a mistake and forgot that she was supposed to be Meg,
not Megha. How could she not know that
Meg must not have been very rich, and that she probably stayed in the lodging
house? At least Megha had learned
something from the movie which her friends loved so much although she never
seen it. But her friends weren't there
with her, they were in the future. The
friends whom she walked to the lodging house with might have looked identical
to the girls in the future, but they were definitely not the same. They were different people, different names,
different personalities, and different lives. And now, Megha wasn't Megha anymore, she was Meg, and Meg was a totally
different person, so how was Megha supposed to suddenly run her life when she
had no idea what Meg was like?
"Um, well, I was just, lost. Of course, I remember, how could I forget? It's just that, well, I'm really tired, and
I'm not feeling well so my thoughts are just a little jumbled up right now and
I can't really remember anything," said Megha, thinking of an excuse. It wasn't a complete lie, she was lost, she
was tired, and her thoughts were jumbled up, so the other two simply led her
inside without another word. But they
still looked at her strangely every so often.
Upstairs at the Lodging house, two girls heard voices
outside. Looking out the window, they
realized it was only their friends, but came downstairs to welcome them in
anyways. Both the girls had black hair,
the only difference was the length of their hair. And the older one had dark skin. Both of them were silent as they crept down the stairs so that they
wouldn't wake any of the other sleeping girls because those girls valued every
minute of their beauty sleep. They
waited downstairs in the kitchen until the tired trio from outside finally
entered.
"Meg? Guppy? Cookie?" whispered the older girl. "How was the show tonight?" She was
quiet so she wouldn't wake anyone.
"Solaire? Ye're
awake? Do ye know how late it is? Ye didn't stay up for us, did ye?" whispered
Cookie in alarm, still concerned about Meg's sanity.
"Nah, I was awake already, and I thought ye might want sumthin
te eat before ye slept. So how the
show?" she asked.
"It was great fun. You should have seen Meg, she sang so well, but she was lost before the
show, and," said Guppy, stopping, "I think she's still outta it, so we should
leave her alone until morning," she finished in a soft tone, motioning towards
Megha.
The four girls looked at Megha, as she stood there, very
nervous. It was obvious that her small
blunder meant more to them that she expected. Maybe if she played sick, she would be better by the morning.
"Couleur, why don't you take her upstairs? Then we'll all go to bed," said Solaire to the girl that had come
downstairs with her. Couleur nodded and
took Megha's hand, and led her up the stairs. She didn't quite believe what Guppy had implied about Meg being slightly
mentally disturbed, she knew there had to more to it, because her friend Meg
never forgot things unless she had a reason to forget, so Couleur was sure
there was something that wasn't right in her world, despite the normalness of
the whole situation. Once they were
upstairs and out of earshot, Couleurs asked Megha if there was anything wrong.
"Meg, are ye feelin' okay? Cuz Gup an' Cookie think dere's sumthin' goin' on in yer head, but dat
ain't true. Dere's sumthin' goin' on in
yer life, and yer gonna tell me wha' it is, cuz I'm gonna be dere fer ya
whether ya wan' me to or not," burst out Couleur suddenly, but quietly. Megha looked at her, shocked. She had obviously overlooked the fact that
Meg might have been good friends with the newsies, not just the singers at
Medda's. And now that she noticed,
Couleur looked an awful lot like Rilla… but she overlooked that fact, because
everyone she had met today looked like
someone she knew. Still, she had a
strange feeling that unlike the other girls and Spot, Couleur was really Rilla,
because she seemed to believe in her more than the other girls, but maybe that
was just the way she was, Megha thought, to keep her hopes down. So, should she tell Couleur about her little
time travel? She didn't know. Megha, for some reason, trusted Couleur more
than she knew, but if she told her, she was positive that Couleur wouldn't
believe her. Who would? Who would believe that their best friend,
who hadn't change a bit from the morning, was actually a girl from the future
who came back in time and took the place of a singer, but she looked exactly
the same, acted exactly the same except for a few slips, and even talked the
same way. She was Meg, but she was
Megha. She was from the future, but she
was from the past. So, finally, she
decided to try to be honest with Couleur, but not tonight. She couldn't tell anyone yet.
"Yeah, ye're right, something is wrong, but I can't tell you now, because you won't believe me," she said sighing, "No one will believe me." At that moment, Megha realized that she was even developing the slight accent that Guppy and Cookie had. Surprised, she knew that she was turning into Meg more and more everyday, and there was nothing she could do about it. She was even starting to forget some of her own memories. Always asking herself, why. Why was she at the party in the first place? Where was she going? Why was she going there? But as she started forgetting her future life, she knew she didn't belong in this past one of Meg. Couleur simply stood there, trying to comfort her, but pretty soon, she turned away and went up the remaining stairs, shrugging.