Young Writers Society

Summer nodded, sitting down to join them. She sipped at her chocolate shake warily, studying the group she'd joined. They all seemed to not know where they were, and she strangely trusted them.

Trying to figure everything out, she looked around the diner, slurping her shake once more, staying silent.

"Yeah, it's hard," Adam said. "She was an amazing woman. And being here is making me think of her."

Almost on cue, the music changed. It was a song he hadn't heard in a long time. Underneath the Mango Tree. No, it couldn't be. That song was from 1962, and they were supposedly some time in the 1950s. He knew because he'd heard it for the first time as a five year old when Jay had taken him to see Dr. No.

It was one of the few good memories he had of his father. Afterwards, they'd gone camping. That night, Jay had taught him how to roast sausages by the fire.

"Adam," he said. "Are you having a good time?"

Adam had said that he was.

"Good. Because I never had a father who did stuff like this with me."

Adam had asked if they could all take a trip to the Bahamas. Unlike most parents who would brush it off with a vague answer, Jay had flat out told him it wasn't possible.

"It would be nice," he said. "Maybe one day."

Adam winced, thinking of the memory. He suddenly felt stuffy. "Excuse me," he told the others. "I need some air. This song is from 1962, by the way."

He went outside to regain his composure. The sun and the fresh air felt nice at least.

After Adam made his comment and left the diner, Gabriel and Issac immediately turned to each other. They looked at Quinn for the briefest of moments, but she was forgotten as soon as the door closed behind Adam.

"I don't think this song is from the sixties," Gabriel said, crossing his arms and pushing his chair a little farther back. "I remember hearing it in the fifties."

"I think Adam is right," Issac objected. "The years must have blurred together."

Gabriel frowned. "I have a good memory."

"I didn't say you didn't," Issac replied. He let out a sigh and mirrored Gabriel by crossing his own arms. "Does the year really matter?"

"Of course it does!" Gabriel protested.

Issac raised an eyebrow.

Gabriel, in response, let out a sigh of his own. "Look, if it is from 1962 like Adam says it is, then there's something even weirder about this place than we originally thought. I just want to make sure we have the year right-"

At this point, Quinn had tuned out of the conversation. Gabriel and Issac were both very good people, but it was easy for them to get caught up in things like this when there were other more personal things that needed attention.

Like Adam leaving when he heard the song.

Quinn pushed her chair back and quietly got to her feet, slipping out of the diner before either Gabriel or Issac could even notice she was out of her seat.

She joined Adam outside the front of the diner.

"Hi," she said, giving a wave and a small smile. "Are you okay?"

Adam smiled at Quinn.

He'd come back into the diner in a minute, he just... hadn't expected for the song to trigger such a strong memory of his father.

"That song the movie's from," he said. "Dr. No. The first James Bond movie. I know it's from 1962 because my dad took me to see it."

He looked away, took a deep breath, and gave a wry, nervous laugh. His mother had told him once that that was a nervous habit of his father's. He swallowed deeply, anxious at the thought he was imitating him. Becoming more like him. But he reminded himself he was thirty-nine, older than Jay had been when he was put in prison the last time. He'd been with Mary for longer that his parents ever had been together. Maybe it was okay. He told himself to focus, and turned back to Quinn.

"Whoever put us here is slipping," he said. "I'm sure I'm the only one here who was alive then. Maybe they forgot. They figured all of you wouldn't know the difference. Well."

Maybe the song wasn't an accident at all. Maybe it had been very intentional. But he couldn't allow himself to think about what that would mean, at least not right now.

"It just reminded me of my father, is all. He's not in my life anymore."

He stood up, ready to go back inside.

Quinn was silent for a moment. She was ready to go back inside if Adam was, but she couldn't help but think about what Adam had said.

"Mine isn't, either," she admitted. "I...don't think he ever really was."

She gave a small smile, glancing back in the direction of the diner. The smile faded as soon as she looked away. Adam's guess made sense if you didn't know who Issac and Gabriel were - or, at least, who Gabriel was - but whoever had brought them here must have known that Gabriel was a demon. Word got around, and so did Gabriel.

"I'm not sure if they're slipping," she said. She thought for another moment, her gaze returning to Adam. "Gabriel and Issac are...um..."

She faltered, unsure of what she could tell him.

"They know their music," she finally decided. "They were actually just debating it before I left. Maybe they are slipping, but it just doesn't feel right."

She let out a sigh before heading to the door and holding it open for Adam.

Harper only looked up when the people started leaving, but didn't get up. She just stayed in her seat and dipped another fry in her shake.

She ate the now-not-quite-as-hot-as-she'd-like fry and grabbed another, hoping to finish them before they got cold. Distractions, oh, sweet distractions. In the most literal way possible.

Soon enough, the food was gone, and she was left with an empty cup and an emptier basket for fries. She scowled at it. Why did all the best things have to be gone so fast?

Adam walked back into the restaurant, still in a daze from the song. They finished the meal and he insisted on paying.

It was a slow song now. It Had To Be You. The Dooley Wilson version. Heh, he supposed whoever had them trapped here was overcompensating.

The others stood up and awkwardly stood around. They'd said they'd figure it out after they ate, and now that time had come.

He turned to Harper. "If you'd like," he said. "I'll buy you new clothes. I'm sure there's a store here."

Harper perked up at that, hopping giddily to her feet, her previous somber mood forgotten. "I saw one just down the street," she chirped, "We should get going now. Who knows what time it is?" she shook her head, "Nevermind, it doesn't really matter. By nighttime, we should get a hotel or something for the night. It's too cheery a town to sleep on the street, trust me on this one."

"I wonder if the hotel here is anything like the ones we've been in lately," Gabriel mused as he got to his feet. In an exaggerated gesture, he pulled back Issac's chair to let him out. Quinn rolled her eyes as his antics with an amused smile on her face; Gabriel just gave one of his signature smirks in response.

"Well," he said after a pause, "I call dibs on sharing a room with Issac."

"You always share a room with Issac," Quinn pointed out. "And we haven't even gone to buy new clothes yet-"

"But I need to call dibs now," Gabriel protested. "You're going to leave, anyways."

She blinked.

Issac crossed his arms. "You are around Harper's age."

"I'm sharing a room with you two," Quinn argued. She mirrored Issac's posture, but it was for a completely different reason. His was to accompany his thinking expression; Quinn's was to show her disagreement. "We always share a room, and I'm not going to change that just because there's other people."

Adam didn't respond to Harper's comment about sleeping on the street. He let her lead the way to the shop that she'd noticed before. He realized then how much like Esther she really was. The same spirit, the same spunk, the same heart buried under a combative attitude. In spite of the awkwardness of their thirteen year age difference and the circumstances under which she'd been born, he'd loved her like any older brother loved their younger sibling.

They didn't look anything alike but personality wise, they were almost identical. As they started to enter the shop, he thought of a question to ask. "So, where are you from, Esther?"

His face fell. He'd called her Esther. Idiot. "I'm sorry. I know your name is Harper. Esther was someone... very close to me. You remind me a lot of her."

Harper laughed, waving him off, "You're fine, I'm one of forty cousins, family reunions are nightmares when it comes to whose name is whose." She spun around a lamppost and turned to walk backwards as she talked to him, "I'm from a little town, you won't have heard of it if you aren't from there, or have relatives there, and I know you don't."

When Gabriel heard the shift in Adam's tone, he paused.

He had been busy digging through a clothes to find something a little more in his style. If he was going to be stuck in the 50s, the least he could do was get himself a leather jacket.

(He admittedly always wore one, but that was besides the point.)

But then Adam spoke.

Harper brushed the comment off like it meant nothing, but Gabriel knew that tone. He had almost called Issac Nick once or twice - it was the kind of tone you used when you had lost someone and found someone who reminded you far too much like them.

Gabriel looked up from the clothes and studied Adam from behind his glasses, recognition and pity dancing across his face before he looked away. For a moment, he caught Issac's eye - who was in the middle of helping Quinn look for clothes - but he quickly looked away from that, too.

Snapping out of her trance, Summer looked back to the group. She began feeling dizzy from thinking to much. Summer had never had to think that hard before, and before she knew it, she had fainted.

Adam felt his heart race. Harper had shrugged off the comment about Esther. He so rarely, if ever, brought her up and she clearly hadn't understood. Oh well, no use belaboring the point now.

They found their way into a store. It was a small shop, with a section for both men and women. Now that he thought about it, as much as he dug the color blocked shirt and khakis, he could use some new clothes, ones that made him seem less like a walking stereotype of a suburban dad, even if it was a 50s version of that.

"Buy whatever you want, okay?" He told Harper. "Who knows how long we'll be here."