Page 23 of Lost Memories (Secrets of Mackinac Island 1)

Here’s the thing. When your agent tells you that he can either get you a gig at a local community theater for the spring and summer—or he can get you a gig as Jane Seymour’s personal assistant—you take the PA gig. Right?

Jane. Seymour. She’s only one of the most gorgeous, most famous, most acclaimed actresses of the decade. I met her briefly after the interview, and she looked at me so regally from high up on that long neck of hers and seemed to assess me.

“You want to be an actress?” she asked me.

“More than anything,” I told her. I actually said this to acclaimed actress Jane Seymour.

“I can see it in you,” she said. “You have this light behind your eyes. You want it more than the others.”

At first, I expected that my PA duties would keep me in Los Angeles, perhaps spending long nights on set with her and interacting with other celebrities. But she recently informed me that she took a last-minute role that involves “a bit of travel.” She’s always so delicate about her words.

In any case, I’m off to Michigan! Before this, I could have hardly pointed out Michigan on a map (this is mostly a joke, by the way). Apparently, there’s this island between the lower peninsula and the upper peninsula. Another actress in the film showed me a picture and it looks like the way I always imagined Greece or Italy to look.

One of the stranger parts of all of this is Jane Seymour’s co-star. Christopher Reeves! I mean, come on. He’s literally superman.

As Elise read, her eyes bugged out of her head. Jane Seymour? Elise knew of her, of course. She was probably forgotten in quite a few circles, but those gorgeous, big eyes, that long neck, that slender figure, that porcelain skin—it was burned into Elise’s mind, absolutely.

Elise added up the dates. Right then—in this impossible after-death, Allison Darby was sixty-eight years old. This meant that she had been twenty-four or twenty-five at the time of the Mackinac Island stint in her career.

Elise could feel the youth and vitality behind the words. She could feel the excitement for this new era of her life.

I’ve hardly ever left Los Angeles. I don’t know any other world. But now that I spend long days with Jane Seymour, running lines... it’s like I’ve discovered this new side of myself. I feel a hope I’ve never experienced before.

We’ll leave for Michigan in about two weeks. Until then, Jane and I have been in preparation.

The film itself is called Somewhere in Time. The general premise is a bit wonky, I suppose—although, in my mind, it’s frankly beautiful, as well. Essentially, Jane Seymour’s character—named Elise McKenna...

What? Elise bucked up from the couch and blinked at the name.

Elise.

The main character in the film was Elise.

“What’s up?” Penny asked. She reached for the bottle of wine and poured it soundly into the glass.

“Um. Nothing,” Elise responded. “Have you ever heard of the film Somewhere in Time?”

Penny shook her head. “No. But this one’s almost over. Want to switch?”

Elise nodded vehemently. “Yes, please.”

Penny clicked around on Amazon and eventually found the film, which was released in 1980. The film looked like it was set in an older time, with both Christopher Reeves and Jane Seymour wearing period clothing.

“Is this really it?” Penny asked.

“Yes,” Elise affirmed. “Let’s just watch it.”

Elise decided that she wanted to ingest the film personally before she read more about it in the diary.

She was in for a wild ride.

Essentially, the film starts out in “modern-day” Chicago, where Christopher Reeves works as a playwright. This, in turn, spiked Elise and Penny’s interest—especially Elise, who loved playwriting and screenwriting more than life itself. At the premiere of one of Christopher Reeves’ plays, an old woman appears and gives him an old clock. Later, Christopher Reeves falls in love with a woman’s old photograph from years and years ago and does a bit of research to discover that that very same old woman who’d given him the clock was the woman in the photograph.

Thus begins a chaotic search for time travel, which results in Christopher Reeves going “Somewhere in Time” to discover his love.

Throughout the film, both Penny and Elise were captivated. Elise held the diary with stiff fingers throughout, feeling as though the diary was the vessel through which she could feel the actual heartbeat of the film.

“It’s beautiful there,” Penny marveled throughout.

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