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     “There are many jobs,” Joe continued.  “You can work in a bank where they keep all the money, for example.  That’s what I want to do, so I can get all the money I want.
”

     Most people nodded in agreement and I was suddenly laughing so hard I started coughing.

     No one said anything but waited for me to get my breath, “I doubt it works that way.  This place sounds a lot like earth.  If it works the same way, you are paid according to how good you are at what you do.

     “You can’t
become a banker just because you want to get money.  It takes a lot of training.  In fact you usually have to train for any job you do.  If it’s anything like earth, many of these jobs require that you go to school, college, or even graduate school.”

     “Oh, Ashley, that’s the other thi
ng.  They do have schools.  The
children sit in class all day and learn.  I want that for our kids.  Is that okay with
you
?”

     “Of course it’s okay with me.  I can’t wait to see this place.  It sounds so much like earth, but not the time of Charles Manson.  What were the names of some of these cars?”

     The men started talking all at once they were so excited about these cars, “Ford…Chevrolet…
Pontiac…”

     “Just those names, nothing like Pontiac Bonneville?”

     “No, just one name on each car.”

     I was beginning to get excited.  Maybe this was like earth in the fifties.  This is where my mind went off on a tangent.

     What if this were earth in the 1950s and what if everything we had done and gone through before was to prepare us somehow to go back and make sure things didn’t turn out like they did starting with the Manson family and ending up no telling where after I left.

     “Don’t you, Ashley?”  One of the women asked.

     “I’m sorry, I was lost in thought.  What were you talking about?”

     “The women that went down the hill were describing the clothes. 
The women here don’t wear much.  Their legs and arms are bare and they wear what they call hats on their heads made of straw.”

Chapter 32

     I was so excited about going down the hill the next day that I hardly slept that night.

     I woke up early and fixed breakfast for us and several other families and took it outside to one of the picnic tables.  As people got up, they came out and started helping themselves to the coffee, bacon and eggs.

     This was one of the things I loved about my life, sharing meals with other families.  Marion picked up Randall and held him in her right arm while she balanced her little girl, Toddy on her knee.

     All the children felt comfortable with all the adults and anyone could pick up any of them
to be with
.

     Some of the other women offered to clean up since I cooked the break
fast and to watch the kids for
the rest of us who wanted to could go down the hill.

     Irene joined us and we set off.  Joe had brought one of his guitars that he had made and he played it while we all sang
songs written by a man of our group named George.

      I stopped singing when I saw the cars
.  I saw a black 1954
Chevrolet and a
1950
Ford.  The town looked just like a typical town on earth in the 1950s.

     I recognized the town right away and knew I had come home to St. Augustine, Florida in the 1950s.

     We had actually landed
outside of town on state road 16.  The little two lane road was almost grown over by weeds from so little traffic. 

     We eventually made it to US1 and I looked up and down the highway to see all the small mom and pop motels that dominated this highway in the 50s
.  There were also several din
ers that I remembered.

     By now our group had started splitting off into small groups and going in all different direction
s
and there were only, Joe, Rory, Marion and me left in our group.

     So far I hadn’t commented on when and where we were and I wanted to make sure before I said anything.

     “Let’s go in this di
ner and get something to drink,” I said and then remembered we had no money.

     I looked around and realized they had already gone in.  I needed to catch up with them before they ordered something.

     They had been le
d to a booth by a waitress
with blond hair and buck teeth.  She was handing them a menu, “I’ll be back to take your order,” she said and winked at Rory.

     “I think she had something in her eye,” Marion said and I couldn’t tell if she was joking so I let it go.

     I took the menus from them, “
You can’t order anything.  W
e don’t have any money.”

     “You mean you have to have money to get something to drink too?” Joe asked.

     “You have to have money for everything.”  As I was saying this I glanced at the next table and noticed a man reading a newspaper.  It was the St. Augustine Record and I cocked my head trying to make out the date.

     He looked up and smiled and he would have been good looking except he was overweight.  It struck me then that I hadn’t seen any overweight people since I had left earth.

     He closed the paper and handed it to me, “I’m done with it if you want it,” he said and I thanked him.  The date was July 23, 1954.

     “Wow!” I said and the other three looked at me.  “We are in St. Augustine, Florida, United States of America,
on earth,
in the year 1954.
”

     “That’s before the time you left here,” Joe said. 
“
You would have been what, around 18?”

     “I would have been 18 and just graduated from high school last month.  Also, Joe, I would have married Dean next month.  He is still 18 now and I’m 36.  This is really messing up my brain.  Look at me, Joe.  Do I still look 36 or have I gone back to age 18?”

     “You’re still
the woman I love and look like you’ve always looked to me.”

     The waitress came over then and asked what we would like.  “I forgot, we have no money,” I said, “so we’ll just be on our way.”

     She stood there shaking her head as we left.  “We’ve got to find a way to get some money,” I told them.  “Also, I’m worried about the others.  They could end up in jail if they get something and don’t pay for it.  They could end up being arrested for shop lifting.”

     “For liftin
g a shop?
I don’t think anyone’s strong enough.
” Rory said
.

     I laughed, “No, for stealing something out of a shop.  We need to have a meeting as soon as we get back so I can explain about money.”

     “It seems to be mighty important here,” Joe said.

     “And it gets even more important as the years go by.  You wouldn’t believe it.”

     “How can we get jobs and earn money so that we can buy some stuff?” Marion asked.

     “I don’t see how we can because you have to have a social security card.”

     “What’s that?”

     “It’s a card issued by the government
so they can keep track of who’s
working etc. so they can tax them.” 

     I realized this could get complicated to explain to them so I finally said, “Don’t worry about it.  We’ll sort it out later.  But we need to find the others so they won’t get into trouble.”

     We were only a few feet from the diner when I heard a familiar voice and looked back.  There was Dean, the boy I had married in my other life.  He looked so young and so cute.

     He had a girl on his arm and they were laughing and talking as they went into the diner.  He looked a lot like Fabian who was a famous heartthrob who came along a few years later.

     The girl had blond hair with freckles across her nose.  Her hair was in a ponytail.  I watched as they took a booth and started kissing.

     I was smiling as I turned around to say something to Joe but realized they had left me as they made their way down the street.  I ran to catch up with them.

     We finally found everyone.  Some of them were just sitting on park benches watc
hing people go by.  Some were wa
ndering around like they were in a daze.

     We had a meeting as soon as we got back to the cave entrance.  Everyone was trying to talk at once and it was obvious that everyone wanted to live here and work, earn money, and buy things.  The men and Irene especially wanted to buy a car.

     I think Joe was more excited about the schools than about anything else.  I was just excited to be home even though it was out of my time.

    
Just as the meeting was breaking up, Pud came running in, “What are these for?”

     She was holding in her hands a stack of social security cards, one for each of the adults.  The cave had once again provided us with what we needed to live here.  But it didn’t just give us money.  If we wanted something we needed to work for it.

     Now that everyone had a social security card I tried to educate them of what they needed to do to get a job.

     “You need to concentrate on something you like to do and find something related.  For example, Joe and his band could perhaps perform in a nightclub.

     “Ginger, you enjoy sewing.  You could work in the sewing factor
y
or you and I could
open our own
business
.
I could
design clothes and you mak
e
them
.  When we earn enough money, maybe we could
open our own store.”

     They had thousands of questions and everyone wanted theirs answered first.  I had never seen everyone so excited.

     We spent the rest of the day in Cave City but I could tell everyone wanted to be down the hill.

CHAPTER 33

     The next day we all went down the hill.  No one stayed behind
and even the children went.

     Joe and I went off on our own.  I took him downtown to a nightclub I knew about called Joe’s.  He got a kick out of that. 

     The club had a live band and when we went in they were playing Blueberry Hill and the man sitting at the piano and singing looked just like Fats Domino.

     Joe took his guitar out of the case and started playing along.  The band stopped and the man at the piano said, “Hey you, with the guitar.  Did we invite you to sit in?”

     Joe looked embarrassed and I felt bad that I hadn’t stoppe
d him when he got the guitar out
.

    
But when we started out the door the man at
the piano called, “Hey, come on
back here and get up on this stage.  I think you may have a gift but I want to hear more.
”

     He gave Joe a sheet of music but Joe just stared at it.  “He doesn’t read music,” I said. 
“
But he has written some of his own songs.”

     “Great, daddy-o, lead on and we’ll follow.”

     Later, the rest of Joe’s band found us and were invited on stage.  The Fats Domino look-alike, whos
e name was Jonh
, took a break and our piano player took his place.

     They played many of the songs they had written.  The nightclub became crowded.

     We spent the rest of the day there and Joe looked like he enjoyed himself.  More and more people drifted in as the afternoon wore on and the waitress served us all snacks and beer.

     I hadn’t had anything alcoholic in a long time
except for the occasional glass of wine in the cave
and it went straight to
my head.  Joe
got pretty drunk and really played better than ever.

     When one of the ban
d
members found out we didn’t have a car, he offered to take us home in his van.  His name was Fred.

     Fred asked us if we had any money and we told him no, nor did we have a job.  “They need cocktail waitresses really bad there at the club, Ashley.  And you guys maybe could play on our night off.  It wouldn’t pay that much but I can ask Ross, the manager about it if you want.”

     We thanked him and soon arrived at the cave, “This is where you live?  Do you need a place to live?  I’m sure some of my band can put you up.”

     “No, that’s okay,” Joe said, “We
like it here.  We have everything we need.  You want to come in and look?”

     “Thank you, but I need to get back.  I’m going to be playing somewhere else tonight.”

     We had another meeting later that night and found out that several of the others had gotten jobs.