Friday, May 7, 1824
6:00 a.m.
Vienna, Austria
WHEN the light dissipated, the Fab Four looked out the windows and saw a huge meadow surrounded by trees. There was a river flowing through this meadow.
“Where are we?” asked Ringo.
“I don’t know.” said John, “We’re supposed to be over the Vienna, Airport. But I don’t see any airport or any planes for the matter.”
“What makes you think that we should be over the airport?” asked George.
“This thing-of-a-jig.” said John pointing next to the indicator object. The object next to the indicator looked somewhat like a map or something. “When I turned this huge thingy on,” he went onto say, “I saw this.”
Paul went to look out the window again and said “There’s a city a few kilometers from here. It could be Vienna.”
All of a sudden there was some stirring from the women who fainted.
“Hey look,” said George, “I think the ladies are coming too.”
“Alright.” said John, “I’m going to lower this car, and we’re going to get out and go into town and surprise Astrid.”
“How are you going to do that?” asked George.
“I plan to make a dive…” said John before he noticed a button that said DESCENT, “…well I could push this button.”
John did and the car lowered itself until it made a soft landing on the ground next to the banks of the river. Just then, the two ladies came too. The Beatles opened the door and got out.
“Thanks for the ride ladies.” said John and the ladies fainted again.
“What is it in us that makes these ladies faint?” asked Paul.
“Because you’re cute, Paul.” said Ringo.
“Naw.” said John, “It’s because of your nose, Ringo.”
“Aw quit picking on me nose.” said Ringo.
“Then, stop having this inferiority complex, Ring.” said John as he and his companions closed the door.
As they did, the car disappeared.
“The car.” exclaimed Ringo, “Where did it go?”
“Let’s see.” said Paul, “If I recall the girls were pounding down the car, John was fiddling with the buttons. Then we noticed that the girls were acting funny like they didn’t know where the car was. John stuck his head out and scared off the chicks. Then he invited us to look at the side of the car and all we saw out there was air…”
“Paul.” said John, “Does it matter where the car is? Let’s just go into town a drop in on Astrid.”
After that, the Beatles did.
++++++
It took another half hour before Clara and Calpurnia regain their senses. When they did, they discovered that the Beatles were gone. Not only them, but the girls surrounding the car.
“What happened?” asked Calpurnia, “Where did the Beatles and those girls go?”
“I don’t know.” said Clara as she sat up straight. Then, she looked out the window and exclaimed “It’s not where they are, it’s where we are.”
Calpurnia sat up and looked out the window too. Gone was Shea Stadium and the parking lot. What was there in their place was a meadow and a nearby river.
“Where did that stadium go?” asked Calpurnia,
“Nowhere.” said Clara, “It’s a matter of where we went.”
“And that is…?” asked Calpurnia.
Clara looked at the time circuits it read:
MAY 7, 1824 6:00 a.m.
Destination Time
May 7, 1824 7:30 a.m.
Present Time
August 15 1965 9:30 p.m.
Last Time Departed
Vienna, Austria
Destination Location
“Vienna, Austria?” exclaimed Clara, “1824. My God, we’re further in the past.”
“How far?” asked Calpurnia.
“Well, at least we’re still your future.” said Clara, “But we’re in a time before I was born.”
“Before…” asked Calpurnia, “Oh yes. Chronologically, you’re older than your husband by a century…”
“That’s right.” said Clara.
“But the question is, how did we get here?” asked Calpurnia.
“That’s a good question.” said Clara as she pushed a button and a television monitor popped out. “The last thing I remember is that we were in the car waiting for the traffic to clear. And then, the Beatles mistook our car for one of theirs and then…” activating the screen, she went onto say “…I don’t remember what happened next. Or how we got here.”
“The last thing I remember was some girl ripping her blouse off.” said Calpurnia, “And then I passed out.”
“Wait a minute.” said Clara, “I remember coming too and then vaguely recall someone saying ‘Thanks for the ride, ladies’. He looked like one of the Beatles.”
“I remember something like that too.” said Calpurnia.
Then, the screen went on.
There they were the Beatles fiddling with the controls of the time machine and then the brilliant flash of light. Clara fast-forwarded it to where the Beatles got out of the car.
“My God.” she said, “They went back in time with us. And now they’re in a place where they don’t belong.”
“But where did they go?” asked Calpurnia.
Clara looked out the window and noticed some footprints in the dirt heading in a certain direction.
“I think they went that way.” she said.
Immediately, she pushed the button for the cloaking device and activated the hover circuits. Lifting the car off the ground, she surveyed the direction the Beatles were heading in.
“They must’ve headed into that town.” she said, “I’ll…”
“Clara. I’d think you’d better look over here.”
She did and down where Calpurnia was looking was a man with his oxcart on his knees looking at them and had his hands together as if to pray.
“What’s he doing?” asked Calpurnia.
“I don’t know.” said Clara, “Unless…” She looked at the button marked CLOAKED and said “Oh no!”
“What is it, Clara?”
“The cloaking device. They must’ve been playing with it.”
Immediately, she pushed the button and looked down. The man bowed down. Then, he got up and left. Clara landed the car and got out. It was cloaked when they came to this year.
“What is it Clara?” asked Calpurnia.
“The cloaking device. It’s been on for some time and it’s not supposed to be on for an indefinite period.” said Clara.
“Is there a problem with that?”
“It is.” said Clara, “It means that the car could turn visible anytime now and we couldn’t do anything about it. And we can’t drive it into a populated area in 1824 in broad daylight. Which means we’ll have to hide it somewhere and go into town on foot.”
“I understand.”
“Which leads to another problem.”
“And that is?”
“Our clothes. We’re costumed out of date for this era. We can’t go into town wearing these kinds of clothing.”
“So we go back to the future and look for some outfits that’ll mix in with this year.”
“We can’t. Calpurnia there’s something that you need to know.”
Calpurnia turned sat back to listen to this one.
“One day Emmett took Marty back in time to see the birth of the Beatles.” said Clara, “It was to the summer of the year 1957 and the town of Liverpool, England, Britain to you. Anyway, Marty’s mother Lorraine was there on an student exchange program. But she had a brief falling out with her future husband George and was desperate for love in the worse possible. She saw Marty a chased him down the street to this festival where John Lennon was performing.”
“One of the Beatles.”
“Yes. Marty found himself onstage performing some music. It turned out the be the music that Lennon was supposed to be playing. And when Marty was finished so was John’s career. When my husband and Marty came back to the future, the saw that the world was on the brink of nuclear annihilation as a result of the fact that the Beatles never existed. Both time travelers left their time moments before the first nuke was to strike the earth and had to make sure that Lennon would give a performance.”
“And by what you’re saying, the Beatles have once again ceased to exist, the world in your time is under that same dark cloud once more. Possibly already destroyed.”
“Correct. And that’s why we can’t go back to the future now. But where are we going to get the clothes on such a short notice?”
Clara looked around. Then, she noticed some women disrobing and swimming naked in the river. Seeing the clothes on the bank, Clara motioned Calpurnia to follow her stealth fully towards them. Once there, she took a some clothing from the rocks and gave some to Calpurnia.
“Theft?” whispered Calpurnia.
“It’s called stealing from the rich and giving to the poor at a later date.” said Clara, “Now let’s go back to the car and…”
Clara was stopped in mid-speech when she and Calpurnia ran into a man who had a canvas on an easel and a palette in one hand and a paintbrush in the other.
“I gather you’re no peeping Tom are you.” said Clara. The man responded in German. Realizing that she wasn’t wearing a translator but Calpurnia did, Clara asked he “What did he say?”
“He’s asking us what are we doing making off with his models’ clothes.” said Calpurnia.
“Models.” repeated Clara, “He must be an artist. Tell him we need them but we’ll bring them back as soon as possible.”
Calpurnia turned to the artist and said “We need them but we’ll bring them back as soon as possible.”
The man replied in German again.
“What did he say?” asked Clara.
“He says he wants them back now so put them down and leave or he’ll call the constable.” said Calpurnia.
“Tell them that’s there’s two of us and one of him.” said Clara, “And if you don’t want to fight ladies…say it.”
“There’s two of us and one of him.” said Calpurnia to the artist, “And if you don’t want to fight ladies…”
The artist laughed. Then he spoke again in German.
“What did he say?” asked Clara.
“He says turn around and look behind you. I mean us.” said Calpurnia.
The two time travelers did. And right behind them were the models he was painting. The got out of the river and were wearing towels.
“What do we do now?” asked Calpurnia.
“Ask him if he’s having an affair with any of these models.” said Clara.
“What?” asked Calpurnia.
“Just do it.”
“Alright.” said Calpurnia, “Are you having an affair with any of these models?”
The artist was outraged. He spouted off in German.
“What did he say?” asked Clara.
“Well…” said Calpurnia, “I don’t think I should repeat it. It sounds pretty vulgar.”
“Oh.” said Clara, “Well tell him that we should tell his wife about them.”
Turning to the artist, Calpurnia did and the artist’s eyes bugged wide open. Immediately, Clara whipped out the sleep inducer and used it on the man. The man collapsed and the models gasped out in German.
Clara asked Calpurnia “What did they say?”
“They said ‘witchcraft’.” said Calpurnia.
“Alright.” said Clara, “Let’s get back to the car and get out of here.”
Immediately, they backtracked their steps and made their way back to the invisible limousine and got in. The models arrived at the scene but looked around only to see that the two thieves were no where to be found.
Starting the ignition, Clara said “Let’s go.” and the car sped off.
Outside the models were startled by the sound of something and thinking it was thunder, some who still had clothes went back to put them on while the two who didn’t made a mad dash back to their homes.