Chapter 2
2003 – London, England at 08 GMT
Standing on the busy corner of Piccadilly Place waiting for a cab, an attractive young woman looked down at her bags sitting on the nearby curb. The bags had address labels with the initials, M.B.C. and Collinsport, Maine. She knew these were her real initials but unable to remember her birth name. She could only remember fragments of her childhood and the woman who raised her for the first five years of her life. The woman she called "Mommy" was not her biological mother. She tried to remember what "Mommy" called her, something beginning with the letter M. When she was old enough, she changed it to Max, short for Maxine. Memory fragments of her childhood mixed with her dreams left Max very confused about her early years. She didn't know if half the things she saw, as a toddler, were real or fantasy. Some of her childhood dreams still haunt her to this day.
Max could only remember fragments of "Mommy's" physical appearance as a tall, pretty, and a very protective figure. "Mommy" said she knew Max's real mother, would someday tell Max about her, but that day never came. One happy day when Max was just five, "Mommy" enrolled her in a foster home. Then "Mommy" told Max she was going to look for her father and as soon as she found him, she would bring him back to meet his little girl. "Mommy" never came back.
Over the years, Max became very accustom to the foster home and enjoyed all the teachers and administrators. Finding adoptive parents was another story. Max was prone to dreams that frightened her so much, she would act up and become uncontrollable. The potential parents always sent her back after the terrible nightmares scared everyone to death. After a while, the home couldn't find anyone who wanted to adopt a child with emotional problems, they called it. Max stayed at the foster home until she was 18 years old. When she was old enough to leave on her own, she turned her life into a series of mini adventures, traveled around the world, and took odd jobs in various countries. Since inheriting a bank account with a large sum of money, Max didn't need to work. An unknown source had been filling her account with currency ever since she was small, which now took care of all her needs. "Mommy" left instructions with the foster home that when Max became of age, her inheritance would be hers.
Looking at her bags, she asked herself if she forgot anything. She tried to recall the items she packed last night, her clothes, toiletries, shoes, money, driver's license, and her mother's possessions. Those were the only items she had of her biological mother and she treasured them. "Mommy" gave Max a small decorative box that contained some papers, a photo and a diary. She packed it away in her carry-on bag and planned to look them over while on the flight back to the states. The few papers written in her mother's handwriting intrigued her, a photograph that puzzled her, and a diary that her mother kept notes in confused her but she suspected she would eventually understand it all, one day.
After a few minutes, a London Cab drove up and stopped right in front of her. As she got into the back seat, the driver asked her where she was going. "Heathrow Airport, please."
"Right away, but it's a ways, Miss. Might cost you a few pounds," he said looking back at her through the rearview mirror. Her gleaming brown eyes sparkled with dancing green lights mesmerized him.
"That's no problem," she said, with a smile.
"Yes, ma'am," and the driver sped away down the city streets towards the motorway. The driver periodically stared in the rearview mirror at his attractive fare. Her reddish-brown hair glimmered when the sunlight hit it, her skin ivory smooth and her high cheekbones complimented her beautiful greenish-brown eyes. As the cab accelerated onto the motorway, Max looked out the window unaware of the scenery. They past the Buckingham Place Gardens and Hyde Park, however, she was deep in thought about the new adventure she was embarking upon. Her excitement grew as she thought about her visit to the state of Maine as the cab past Osterley Park and turned onto Bath Road towards the airport. Since she tended to get restless staying in one place too long, going to Collinsport, Maine had added some excitement to her life. Thoughts about her pending visit to the place her mother lived ran through her head as the cab drove into the terminal area of Heathrow Airport.
Since September 11, 2001, many travelers were getting to the airport earlier to get through the heighten security. The cab slowed just in time for Max to realize she had arrived at the airport. After paying the cab driver, Max walked up to the curbside check-in, handed the skycap her itinerary and her driver's license.
"Welcome to Heathrow Airport," the skycap said, "Ms. Maxine Calhoun," as he read her license. "You are from the states," he said, looking up into her soft eyes beaming back at him. "Have any strangers handled your luggage without your permission?" he asked, a little flustered by her beauty and enthusiasm.
She watched the handsome skycap and smiled, "No, no one has touched my bags except you and I." They both laughed.
"That's good. We cannot be too cautious, you understand," he flirted. As he bent down to pick up a bag she was handing him, he touched her hand and an electrical shock passed between them. That surprised them both. Taking her bags and placing airline identification strips on each, he added them on a large cart. "Here are your boarding ticket and papers, miss. Your gate is B12, have a nice flight, Miss Calhoun, and enjoy your stay in the States."
"Thank you," she replied taking her boarding pass and license. As she walked into the terminal building, she observed hundreds of travelers scurrying around with their luggage and boarding passes as they passed through security checkpoints. Time passed quickly as she went through all the questions at each security point. When she finally arrived at gate B12, she looked at the schedule and read that her flight departed almost immediately. She heard the final boarding call over the loudspeaker.
"Final boarding call for Flight 325, destination New York City. Please board now. Thank you."
Max handed her boarding pass to the ticket agent and followed the walkway to the plane. As she finally took her seat on the B777, Max stored her carry-on under the seat in front of her and buckled her seatbelt. Since she was a seasoned traveler, she ignored the pre-flight instructions. After the plane took off and the flight attendants finished their safety demonstrations, Max settled in for a long nap.