Zola set down the phone, taking deep, shattering breaths. Her heart was pounding nineteen to the dozen, but she hadn't quite made up her mind as to whether it was with fear or with excitement. Betty had been very persuasive, and although Zola had promised to go along with her plans, she didn't have a great feeling about leaving WA behind and telling the government about it. But WA had never shown any real interest in her, and she always felt like a spare part there. She knew all the other Heads of Departments thought that she was a nuisance and not worthy to share the title, but in truth it wasn't her fault that she was only needed once in a while, because it meant that the other Cupids she had selected were doing well.

Zola spun around in her chair, making a split second decision to go through with her promise. In a way, Kelly had helped her with Betty's plans to bring down the agency. If she had never started taking trips to Earth it would be far too suspicious for Zola to even consider following suit. But trips to Earth had become extremely popular at the moment, and the workers in Mae's department were even starting o ask for time off, as if they were human again; the impertinence of them all! Zola would have them all punished for asking such a thing, but Mae had granted their requests saying that everyone needed a break.

Back in her day, slaves were all the range, and they were far more useful than the silly people who went about wanting to be paid for their services. This was, in her opinion, shockingly rude. You had to inherit your money and slaves, not go around trying to make your own way in life. She thought very poorly of the people nowadays, and even though Betty had appealed to her sense of being needed she still thought a man should be in charge of the investigations. Betty should be at home being a good little wife, but she must be very poor and ugly because she wasn't even married.

With that in mind, Zola got up from her chair with some struggle, then she headed to Mae's office. She noted that the size of Mae's was almost four times the size of her own, which once again reminded her of how they treated her like a poor peasant when she was in fact a very important lady.

"What is it, Zola?" Mae sighed upon seeing her, bracing herself for another argument with the woman. In her opinion Zola thought far too highly of herself based on her two husband's wealthiness in her past life. Zola pursed her lips, and Mae sighed again.

"My full name is Elizabeth." She retorted. "'Zola' was a pet name from my second husband, and you shouldn't use it." Mae hid a smile, because even Zola referred to herself as Zola. Despite her misgivings, she really did love her husbands, or at least, loved their riches.

"Elizabeth's a bit stuffy anyway. It's all the range for nicknames nowadays, you should really try to keep up with the times. I have a few newspapers here if you'd like read them - "

"I should not care to." Zola interrupted. "I have a favour to ask you. I should like to visit Earth today."

Mae was surprised, but she felt happy for Zola. Maybe she was trying to catch up to the current times after all, and this was her way of trying to do so. "Of course. I'm not your superior, so there's no need to ask. You know where the departure room is, so go on ahead."

"Th-thank you." Zola replied stiffly, hesitating a little on thanking Mae of all people. She started to walk out the door.

"Wait! Aren't you going to the change first?" Zola looked curiously down at her dress and smoothed down the non-existent ceases on the primrose yellow skirt. She then checked that her elaborate up-do was still intact. She had died at a ball they were attending, after someone had shot at her sister's husband and hit her instead, and she hadn't changed her clothes since. Seeing Zola's confusion, Mae added, "Those are lovely, but twenty-first century fashion has changed quite a bit."

Zola was surprised, but she supposed three centuries was enough time for fashion to progress. "Okay," she eventually said. "What do I need to wear?"

Mae grinned, and snapped her fingers. The cupboard behind her desk flew open, and it became clear that it wasn't a cupboard at all, but a wardrobe. It was all very neatly organised, due to Mae, and outfits dating back to the 1300s were lined up in chronological order. Mae went to the furthest part of the wardrobe, and pulled out a few outfits. "Take your pick."

Zola almost fainted. The first outfit was obviously designed with hotter weather in mind. She held up the ombré blue tank top and denim shorts with the tips her fingers as if they were about to explode. Women nowadays obviously had no sense of decency, and this was wildly outrageous. How could people don such clothes as these? The second outfit was more decent, but she was not going to waltz about looking like a peasant in a hooded
'Hollister' thing and baggy trousers. That only left option three, a knee length skirt, white blouse and matching jacket. It was very obviously something Mae herself would wear, but it beat all the other outfits, despite the shortness of the skirt.

"If I may ask," Zola said curiously. "Why do you have all these? You have a ring, you can change your appearance and outfit in a split second. Why do you have all these clothes?"

Mae flushed pink. Of all the people she could have chosen to share her secret with. "I like them." Mae admitted in a lower tone of voice. "I like dressing up and pretending to be someone else. I do it a lot, but not in depth of people. It's a different kind of magical."

Zola sniffed, unimpressed. "You could pretend to be anyone you want with your ring. You could choose to look like the Queen, and take over her palace for a day. That would be far better pretending than putting on indecent garments."

Mae felt a sudden urge to defend herself, but she couldn't think of anything else to say. Besides, Zola was using that tone of voice again that made it obvious she was trying to demean her, and it was hard to stand up to her when she talked like that. Mae settled for a feeble, "I just like it."

Zola was growing tired of the argument, and she was eager to get down to Betty to receive the recognition she full-heartedly deserved. She asked Mae to help her get ready, as she had not taken that dress off for as long as she'd been at WA. She thought the ball gown would offer a little more resistance to be taken off, but to her disappointment it slipped off easily and lay lying subdued on the floor. Mae also swapped her corset for a strange device known as a 'bra'. It was very comfortable but made her breasts stick out in an alarming fashion that would surely repeal eligible bachelors.

"Off I go." Zola declared, feeling very unlike herself in these modern clothes. Mae rolled her eyes as Zola swept from the room, determined to make a grand exit. She wondered if it was a good idea to let Zola loose on the modern world after all.

When Zola reached the departure room she scanned herself in and picked her destination : New York. She typed in the address that Betty had given her, then sat down to wait.

***

It had been the first time Zola had travelled like this, and she had to admit it hurt far more than she'd expected. She found herself standing outside an apartment block, and she leant against the wall for a moment to regain her balance. A group of college students were walking past, one wearing a rainbow coloured flag around her shoulders.

"I don't know if it's a good idea," one holding a boy's hand grumbled. "You said it was a meeting, Harriet, yet you've dragged us to a stupid gay parade in a different state."

"It's not stupid." The rainbow girl protested. "It's important to me that gay marriage is recognised all over the world. I just wish Rosie could've been here too, it's too bad that she and you had a fight before we left."

Zola zoned out of their extremely boring conversation and turned her attention to the apartments. There was a row of numbers with little silver circles beside them and a handwritten sign that informed me to press a button to use the buzzer. She didn't know what it meant, so she pushed every single one of the circles until the doors magically opened. It gave her such a fright she jumped backwards and fell over. By the time she got to her feet again the door had closed and she had to go through the button pushing regime all over again.

There were strange metal boxes standing in front of the entrance, with another button beside them. Zola suspected they were the entrances to another room, hence the button, so she pushed at it until a pair of the doors slid open to reveal a tightly enclosed space. She stepped into it curiously, wondering where the room was. There was a mirror on the other side, and lots more buttons. Zola felt quite triumphant, having worked out the key to the modern world. All you had to do was push buttons and new rooms would open up. She pressed every single button, and the doors shut suddenly behind her.

She turned back and hammered on the doors, suddenly frightened. Then the box shuddered and started moving up.

Zola screamed. She dropped to the floor and sat in the corner of the box with her knees pulled up to her chest as she quivered uncontrollably. The box juddered to a stop only a few seconds later, and the doors slid open again. Trembling, she began to crawl on her hands and knees towards the exit, but then it slammed shut again and the box went up. When it stopped a second time, she bolted out of the box and watched the doors close again, ready to trap another unsuspecting victim.

Zola was extremely proud of herself for having escaped the box. She was in a completely different place with stairs on either side of her and two doors labelled 2A and 2B in front. Betty had told her that her apartment was 6A, but she has no idea what direction that was in. There was a staircase leading up, and a staircase leading down. The box had kidnapped her and planted her here, and she was pretty sure the box had been moving up, which meant to get back to the apartment block she has to go down.

     It took Zola one and a half hours more to climb all the way up the stairs to get to Betty's apartment. It had taken several trips up and down the stairs, lots of button pressing and more terrifying trips in the box.

      And after all that, when Zola finally reached the apartment door, there was a note left on it that said, 'Zola, it's Betty. I had to nip out and do some shopping, but I'll be back for about five, and then we'll go out for dinner. In the meantime, go explore New York!'

Press vote if you liked Betty's introduction to the modern world. I loved writing about her struggles in the elevator. I know this isn't the 60s, but I liked the song and it's also about being introduced to a different time so I put it on the side. I spent a full chapter on Zola so please comment to tell me if you'd like another full chapter with her in the future or just a half chapter with the other half for Rosie. And PLEASE check out my new story, Sweeter than Sugar. There's only one chapter up at the moment, but please go look at it.

Zoe xxx