Weekend Writes were a collaborative effort of 10 volunteer eHarlequin community members.
Click to see the cover I created for this title. ________________________________________________________________________________

 

The next few days were spent in playing tourist.  She visited the Royal London Wax Museum on the inner harbour the first day. The quality of the wax figures was incredible! Complete with period costume and accessories, it seemed as if they were frozen in time. If you looked carefully, some of them even watched as you walked by. Apparently this was very cleverly done with electronic eyes that slowly moved back and forth.

Walking down Royalty Row, she passed Queen Victoria, Queen Elizabeth 1 and even King Henry VIII (along with all six of his wives!).  After passing through the Martyrs of Hope where Martin Luther King looked on, the Cove of  First Canadians with Chief Dan George and a lovely Indian princess, she finally went through The Galaxy of Stars and Storybook Land to arrive at the feature figure of Mother Teresa. In her white dress and habit edged in bands of light blue, Mother Teresa's image was preserved forever here in a small wax museum so very far from her home in Calcutta.

One of the highlights of her tourist jaunts was the discovery of Miniature World in the elegant and famous Empress Hotel. The displays were all individual miniature scenes created by hand.  Everything from the wartime battles depicted in the 'Fields of Glory' display through The Great Canadian Railway, Frontier Land, Fantasy Land and Olde London Town was created with an almost uncanny eye for detail. The display even boasted two of the worlds largest dollhouses!

Jessica found herself transported back through time to where, when she was a little girl, she and Andra had each received a dollhouse for Christmas. Nothing like the ones on display of course but she and Andra had loved them just the same. "Come to think of it", Jessica muttered to herself,"mine is still packed away in the attic. I wonder if Andra still has hers?"

Wandering through the rest of the displays she came upon an area dedicated to Charles Dickens, her favorite childhood author. Here she revisited childhood friends David Copperfield and Oliver Twist. The 'piece de resistance' was Circus World, an entire range of dioramas depicting various stages of the circus as it wound it's way from it's winter home base in Sarasota, Florida through "Middle America". Having over 10,000 tiny people and taking over 60,000 man hours to create, it was the largest single display in the building. Incredible details, fantastic scenes and the sheer overpowering wonder of the creation was dazzling to say the least. Jessica couldn't believe the attention given to every minute detail right down to the eight or ten working miniature carnival rides!

Every evening, as Jessica dropped into bed exhausted from the day's activities, she silently prayed that Rem would not invade her dreams again. She still ached for him and seeing him in her dreams was sweet torment from which she would wake, yearning for that last fleeting touch. No one was listening to her silent prayers, for Rem invaded her dreams night after night. Maybe, Jessica thought to herself, they were listening to her heart instead of her head. The thought stayed with her over the next couple of days and she was beginning to think that listening to her heart might not be such a bad thing.

The yearning for Rem's presence, his warmth and humor became an almost over powering need. Sitting in her hotel room Thursday evening, Jessica decided to call Andra again. Who knew, she might even let something slip about Rem. After all, she was dating his best friend.  Getting no answer, Jessica threw her cell phone on the bed in disgust.

"What do I care what he’s doing, anyway? He’s no one special." At that thought, Jessica could no longer lie to herself. He was "special", so special that he had crept in and stolen her heart, something no man had thus far been able to do.

What was it about him that lowered her defenses and lay her at his feet like a proverbial sacrifice? Was it that he always seemed so sincere, so honest? Jessica jumped up and paced the room, back and forth, back and forth until she was afraid of wearing a path in the carpet. Grabbing up the cell phone again, she hurriedly punched in Andra's number. This time it was picked up on the first ring.

"Jessica! Is that you?" Andra's voice sounded on the verge of panic. "Where are you? Are you hurt? Do you need help?"

"Andra, slow down, for God's sake!" Jessica heard Andra's sigh of relief. "I'm fine. I just needed some time alone. Time to think."

"Why? What happened?" Now that she knew Jessica was safe, some of her fear was obviously turning to anger. "What were you thinking of, taking off like that? Didn't you know I would be worried sick? You were barely out of the hospital and you disappeared? How could you do something so foolish?"

Guilt washed over Jessica as she thought about what her sister was going through. "You're right, Andra, it was stupid of me but I really didn't know I was going to leave. It was a spur of the moment thing."

It took all of Jessica's considerable abilities--and about an hour of cajoling--to calm Andra down. Answering as many of her sister's questions as honestly as possible, Jessica finally ended the conversation by promising to be back by the end of the week. Jessica hung up, managing by the skin of her teeth not to give away where she was hiding out or why.

On the other hand, even after her initial questioning period, neither had Andra mentioned anything about Rem.

Frustrated, Jessica returned to pacing, her thoughts vacillating between, finding out if there was anything real and special between her and Rem, and deciding that he was just being friendly, that she had totally misread the signals he was sending. Unfortunately, she was such an innocent that she could not trust herself. It didn't help when she desperately wanted to believe that maybe, just maybe, they had a chance at something beautiful and special. Exhausted mentally and physically, Jessica crawled into the cold, lonely bed and cried herself to sleep.

***

Friday morning dawned bright and sunny. Walking along the narrow street Jessica headed for a small coffee shop she had found the day before. The coffee was hot, fresh and strong with homemade muffins that melted in her mouth. She sat at an outside table where she could look over the inner harbour and watch the people gather around the artisans displaying their wares on the concrete steps and walkways. Native artist displayed beadwork while next to them an old hippie sat with a sketch pad and charcoal creating caricatures for passerby's. From somewhere out of her range of vision came the mournful sound of bagpipes playing a beautiful Scottish ballad.

Suddenly, a sleek dark head caught her attention with a jolt. Hope that Rem had somehow figured out where she was, and had come to find her, surged in her breast. That flicker of hope died a dismal death when the man turned a distinctly unfamiliar face came into view.

"Stop it" she chastised herself. "Just because you've decided to finally listen to your heart rather than your head doesn't mean Rem is going to listen to you. Especially after waking up on your couch and finding you gone!"

As she wandered the streets browsing the small specialty shops, Jessica was inundated with dark heads that were held just so.
It made no sense to her at all. Rem wasn't going to pop up out of the blue, he didn't even know where she was. Shaking her head
at her own foolishness, Jessica decided it was time for lunch. Spying another of the quaint outdoor restaurants, she made her
way across the street. Another of those sleek, dark heads caught her attention. She tried to ignore it but something made her
look again.

The man sitting at the table definitely had no eyes for anyone but the woman sitting across from him. And who could look anywhere else? She was absolutely stunning! Palest wheat blonde hair gleamed in the sun with a life of it's own. The royal blue summer shift was the perfect foil for that delicate heart-shaped face and huge deep blue eyes. The look of devotion on her face was almost painful to behold. The pain suddenly turned real, very real, as it hit Jessica that the man with the stunning woman was Rem!

He breath caught in her throat and her ears roared. Taking huge gulping breaths, Jessica shook her head to clear it. She must be mistaken. It couldn't be Rem.

Could it?