19. TO FIND ANOTHER DOOR

The hotel where Brent booked us into is quite nice. I love the feel of the place. To me it looks old but well kept, but I know for the time we are roaming in, it is updated and modern. Brent booked us a room with two single beds. At first, I thought we would book in as a couple to keep up appearances but then I also realised that we do not need to appear to be anything to anyone around us. We do not know anyone here and it wouldn't really matter what anyone thought of us anyway.

Brent put the two bags he brought with him with the diaries in at the foot of the single bed furthest from the door. I put the bag with our personal belongings and some essential items, on top of the other singe bed.

Brent comes to stand next to me.

"I am going to jump through the shower. I will be less than five minutes. Then I will roam around a bit and you can have all the time you need in there. How does that sound?" He waits for me to answer.

"That sounds perfect" I smile at him. I cannot wait to get into a hot shower. I want to be able to take my time without being worried that I am keeping Brent from freshening up.

Brent turns and goes into the bathroom. He turns the shower open and let the hot water run. When he closes the door, I turn and walk to the one cupboard next to my bed. The wardrobe is empty except for the scented bag on one of the shelves and the white wooden hangers hanging inside with the hotel's branding on.

I hang the few items I packed and unpack the rest of the things onto the shelves. Brent comes out of the bathroom just as I finish unpacking. He dries his hair with his towel and quickly pulls a comb through it.

I quickly duck into the bathroom while he is still busy. The last thing I want is for him to hug me when he is squeaky clean and I am still not freshened up.

I run a hot shower and quickly get rid of my clothes. I get into the shower to let the hot water run over my body. It feels soothing. I turn around in the shower and let the water run down my neck and back. After a few minutes I feel relaxed. I wash my hair and body and stand in the stream of hot water for another few minutes. When I turn the water off, I feel like a new person.

I wrap a towel around me. I brush my teeth and try to dry my hair a bit with the towel. I suddenly feel very tired.

When I exit the bathroom, Brent is long gone. I quickly get dressed and wrap a fresh towel around my head. As I curl up on my bed I wonder if Brent is out searching for dinner options. It would be really nice to have a well prepared, hot dinner to eat tonight. It doesn't take long for me to drift off into a deep sleep. The bed is comfortable and warm.

Moments later I wake up to the click of the door closing. I sit up on the bed to see Brent entering the room.

"Hey there, Little Sapling. Did you sleep well?" Brent asks as he walks over to his bed. He sits on it and waits for me to answer.

"Yes, it feels like I only slept a few seconds though." I tell him as I rub my eyes.

"Four hours" Brent smiles at me.

"Really?" I have been really tired. I still feel tired but right now I am hungrier.

"I have arranged for them to bring us dinner to the room." Brent tells me as if he can read my thoughts. The very next moment there is a knock on the door and Brent gets up to answer it. I sigh a sigh of relief to see the food being brought in on a trolley. The waiter greets us and leaves. Brent sets the food on the small dining table.

"Come now, time to eat."

We sit at the table and eat. Brent tells me about his morning. He wandered around the hotel and talked to a few locals. It is a small town and there is not a lot to do really. There seems to be an excitement among the people on the street. He was able to find out that during the next two weeks there will be a street fair. There will be parades and the circus is coming to town. The local kids are very excited about this and the mothers are all competing for the title of making the best Jam in town.

I laugh a little while Brent is telling me what he found.

"Small towns always have some kind of competition where women need to compete at making something like jam or pie. Then the women end up hating each other and accusing each other of stealing recipes."

Brent chuckles. "You are right about that. I even heard one woman tell her friend that Mildred will not win with her cheating ways this year"

We laugh a little. I feel like a whole new person having been able to take a hot shower, nap a while in a comfortable bed and then eat a good, warm, deliciously prepared meal.

"I think this is the best steak and mashed potatoes I have ever had. Thank you for arranging for dinner to be brought up to the room." I touch the towel around my head. "I didn't feel like getting dressed to go out tonight." Brent smiles at me.

"Well, it is only a pleasure. I thought maybe after we ate, we can see if we can find anything in those diaries." Brent sets his utensils down and look at me. I completely forgot about the diaries.

"Yes! That sounds like a very good idea. Shall we divide them into decades again and then work through a decade at a time?"

"Yes, I think that would be best." Brent gets up while I finish my drink and goes to unpack the bags with the diaries. He places them in decade stacks again. I join him on the floor at the foot of the beds and take a diary from the stack. The room is quiet and peaceful as we each read what is in our separate diaries.

It was about an hour later when Brent suddenly talks again, startling me from my reading.

"Oh, poor woman. She accidently locked herself in the basement when she stumbled upon the portal. She thought it was a door that led into a closet but then when she entered the closet another door appeared. She was very scared."

"She discovered it alone?"

"Yes, there is no mention of anyone else in this year." Brent turns a page.

"In this one she speaks of a barman she met. It was love at first sight. His name is Billy. They explored this town together." I look up at Brent. "It must have been around the same time of the year. She also mentions the street fair and the excitement of the townsfolk."

Brent smiles and we carry on reading. There is not a lot of information in the diary regarding the actual time travel. It is very clear that the writer of the diary was very much in love with this man she met. She tells how he takes her to interesting places and how they wander around looking at things that seems old to her but new to him.

"Ohhhh, Old to her but new to him, she met her barman love of her life in the past. He was from the other side of the portal." I say out loud, more to myself than to Brent. Brent sets the diary he was reading down next to the stack.

"She fell in love with a man from the past. I wonder if it is the same man as in the pictures."

"I am sure it is." I tell him as I place the diary, I have been reading on top of the one he placed next to the stack. I take the next diary and loosen the leather string holding it closed. I sit back against the foot of the bed and start reading again.

Brent does the same with the next diary.

She doesn't mention the portal really. It is as if she wanted to keep it a secret even though she wanted to remember everything that happened at that time.

She tells how Billy showed her different things from other towns around them. She didn't tell Billy that she was from another time. She only told Billy that she was from another place and that she didn't know the area. I was reading the fourth diary from the stack when Brent suddenly sits up straight.

"I got it!"