Disclaimer: I own nothing in regard to GWTW
Author's Notes: Thank you for all the many reviews and the feedback.
Chapter One
Scarlett and Rhett were on their honeymoon in New Orleans. They were staying at a particularly charming hotel, the Monteleone Hotel. Rhett had said that he always stayed at that hotel. Scarlett believed it because the staff treated him with so much respect and deference. They gave him special little perks like preparing their breakfast so Rhett could take it to their room. Scarlett felt so decadent eating breakfast in bed.
Scarlett had never had so much fun as she was having with Rhett in New Orleans. Rhett had bought her clothes. Lots and lots of clothes in the latest fashion. The cutest hats. The most adorable purses. The sexiest nightgowns that were almost indecent. The food. She could not say enough about the food. Rhett's friends were so much fun, and they were so lighthearted and amusing. And the relations. Wow! Rhett had even made that fun although she would never tell him so, but he acted like he knew that she thought it was fun.
They had been in New Orleans for almost two weeks, and they had been walking around the French Quarter. Scarlett had wanted to find out her fortune. When she sat down, she had been hoping the fortune teller was better than Mammy Jinsey although looking at her husband she guessed Mammy Jinsey was accurate. The only thing the old woman had said was that she was going to marry a man with black hair. She had married a man with black hair.
Scarlett had thought it would be great fun for someone to tell her what a wonderful future she was going to have for she had known she was going to have a wonderful future. That woman had said all those hateful things about her future life. Nothing good was going to happen to her. She had left the shop terribly upset.
After much cajoling Rhett got Scarlett to accept that everything the fortune teller said was a bunch of lies. He said, "Nobody can see into the future. If someone could see into the future, why would she be eking out a living on Beale Street."
"It was so horrible what she said. All my children are going to die."
"None of your children are going to die."
"She said, 'You were going to leave me at the worst possible time."
"I'm not going to leave you at any time."
"She said 'Melly was going to die from a miscarriage."
"That's not going to happen either. Mr. Wilkes knows how fragile his wife's health is. He is not going to get her pregnant."
"She said I would be ostracized from society."
"That may happen but who cares. That is not a great loss."
When Scarlett started crying again, Rhett patted his pocket and found his handkerchief missing. He said, "You are going to have to stop crying I can't find my handkerchief."
"Oh no. I left it at that fraud's shop. We should go back."
"We will not go back for a handkerchief."
"Alright."
"Baby, she is just a fraud. She was trying to get more money out of me. Nobody can see into the future."
"You are right. Nobody can see into the future. I'm not going to let her ruin our time in New Orleans."
"That's my girl. Where do you want to go eat tonight?"
"Tujague's"
"You got it, my dear."
Scarlett thought for a moment about what the woman had said about her husband loving her then she shook it off. The fraud had just assumed her husband loved her. So that was as false as the rest of the garbage she had been spouting. Besides, she knew her love for Ashley was true love.
That evening Rhett urged Scarlett to get all dressed up. Since Scarlett loved to get dressed up, she was happy to comply. She put on all of her jewelry that Rhett had bought for her while they had been in New Orleans. It was probably too much but she didn't care. She even put on her tiara. She felt like a queen and Rhett was certainly treating her like one. Sometimes Rhett could be so kind and sweet. Unfortunately, most of the time he was an aggravating donkey. She shook off those thoughts. She was going to have an enjoyable time tonight.
The next morning Rhett found Scarlett snuggled up against him. At that moment he couldn't be happier. No that was not right. He could be happier if she said she loved him. Their time had been wonderful. She had looked at him with admiration and fondness. Soon he knew she would be in love with him and then he could tell her of his great love for her.
Rhett laid there in the bed. Enjoying this special moment. It was almost perfect. In this moment, every morning he had hope. Hope that she would love him. Hope that she would forget Mr. Wilkes. He was quite sure she had not thought about Mr. Wilkes the entire time they had been here.
Enough thinking. He was going to make love to his beautiful wife again. Rhett kissed her shoulder and her neck. She said softly, "No, Rhett it is too early
"It is never too early."
He was trying to be so very patient with her inhibitions because they were not her fault. They were what had been drummed into her. – Ladies don't enjoy relations. – He knew she would though if she ever stopped holding herself back. What he had accomplish in two weeks was to get her to have relations in the light of day. No, that wasn't right. To have relations in the morning. She still didn't want to do it in the afternoon although he had coaxed her into doing it once or twice. He had stop trying because she acted so ashamed afterwards. He certainly didn't want her to feel ashamed. He was making himself be happy with small increments. He had also gotten her to allow him to touch her and caress her down there. He had finally gotten her to touch his head and shoulders, but they were such light delicate touches. It was almost like she wasn't touching him at all. Yet he liked it so very much.
Rhett made love to his wife and had enjoyed himself so very much. He felt she had enjoyed herself as well. He certainly hoped so. When they were finished, he kissed her and asked her if she wanted breakfast and she had smiled shyly and had said, "Yes."
He got cleaned up and went to get their breakfast. After they finished eating, he had gotten her dressed. She was so incredibly beautiful to him. She put on all of her jewelry except her tiara although she did look at it wistfully. When Rhett saw Scarlett staring longingly at her tiara, he said, "Go ahead and wear it, if you want to."
Scarlett didn't answer him she just picked up the tiara and bobby pinned it on top of her hair. Rhett smiled and picked-up his wallet. After Scarlett finished securing her tiara, she picked-up her purse.
Suddenly, the walls started changing. The beautiful wallpaper was gone. The exquisite furniture was gone. Their trunks were gone. They were in an empty room that was old and decayed. There was nothing in the room but dirt, dust, and cobwebs.
Rhett walked across the room and wrapped Scarlett up in his arms. He heard her say, "Rhett, what is going on?"
"I don't know, Baby."
"Make it stop."
"I can't. Let's leave. I don't know what is happening but this building we are in isn't safe."
Scarlett nodded her head. They slowly walked to the staircase. They were on the fourth floor. As they looked at the staircase there were several missing planks. Scarlett said, "I don't think it is safe to go down those stairs."
"I don't either, but it is the only way out."
"What are we going to do?"
"We will proceed down the stairs very slowly. You will go first. If the step starts to give out on you, I can grab you and keep you from falling."
"Alright. I could not stop you from falling. I could never lift you."
"If you could, we would not be married. I would not marry a woman that was bigger than me."
That statement made Scarlett smile. She started down the stairs with Rhett right behind her. It took over thirty minutes because they had to move so slowly. With Rhett's weight being almost twice Scarlett's weight each time he stepped on a board he had to hope it stayed intact even though Scarlett had just safely traversed the step. As they started down the final flight of stairs, they began to smell something putrid. Finally, they got to the bottom of the stairs. The smell was incredibly strong on the ground floor.
"Rhett, what is that smell?"
"I would say that animals have made this building their home. That smell is their waste."
"It is awful."
"Let's get out of here, carefully. We don't want to step in anything."
By this time, Scarlett had her hand over her mouth. Her other hand was firmly grasping Rhett's arm. She was not letting him get away from her. If he went somewhere else, she was definitely going with him.
As they walked out of the building, they could both tell they were not in one of the better parts of the city. Scarlett moved even closer to Rhett. He put his arm around her waist.
They walked up three blocks and got to a much busier street with a lot more traffic. There were also a lot of people on the street. The first thing the couple noticed was that people were dressed very strangely.
All the clothing was made from fabric that was either a bright color or a bold design. The women's dresses were short. They were all above the knees, but most were even higher than that. Some of the women had boots on. Some had brightly colored tights on. The men's clothing was different also. Their clothing was made from bright fabric or strange designs.
"Rhett those women are naked."
"Not naked but practically."
"They must be whores."
"Even whores wear more than that."
"You would know," Rhett hid his smile and didn't answer her.
Scarlett said, "Some of those women are wearing pants."
"Yes, very tight pants. Very tight pants indeed."
"Rhett!"
"I was just pointing that fact out."
Scarlett scowled at him and said, "Those are very unusual suits the men are wearing."
"I would never wear something like that."
"Look at how long the men's hair is. Some of the men have extremely long hair."
"None of those older women have their hair up."
All they did was walk around for a couple of hours. They stared at the people. They saw a few carriages but there was something else on the road that went extremely fast. They stared at those fast coaches that had no horses. Scarlett stared at something that only had two wheels. She asked Rhett, "What is that?"
"It is called a bicycle. I have seen them in Paris."
They saw people protesting two things. They were protesting something called the Vietnam War and they were protesting a man named Martin Luther King's assassination. They didn't care.
They saw incredibly tall buildings. They talked about how they thought the builder had gotten them so tall.
Soon they both noticed all the people staring at them. At first it didn't really register with the couple that they were being stared at because both of them were used to being stared at, a lot. Their clothing was as odd as to the residences of New Orleans as Rhett and Scarlett thought everyone else's clothing was. Yet it was more than their clothing and their good looks. They were behaving differently than the other people.
Scarlett kept saying, "I'm scared, Rhett."
At first Rhett would reply, "It will be alright. I just need to figure this out."
After two hours when Scarlett told Rhett she was scared, he replied, "I'm scared too."
That statement made Scarlett even more scared. Rhett never got scared of anything. They found themselves in Jackson Square and they sat down on a bench. It looked the same as it had in eighteen sixty-eight. It gave them a sense of normalcy. There was a newspaper on the bench. Rhett picked up the newspaper. It was the Times-Picayune. It was the same newspaper Rhett had read the day before. That helped Rhett's equilibrium.
When Rhett looked at the date at the top of the page it read May 1st, 1968. They had somehow been transported one hundred years into the future.