Seeing a woman run across the street in naught but a bathrobe was not on anyone's Bingo card that morning. 

Stelle led me back to our hotel in record pace, hardly stopping for the speeding cars. On the way there I couldn't help but notice all the Christmas decorations the shops were putting in their display windows. Tinsel and gold and silver balls hanging from enormous green trees. Lampposts were bedecked with wreaths and wrapping paper was on sale. A summery Christmas was certainly nothing I was used to. 

In the lobby of the hotel a woman stopped us. It was Trouble. She looked different. She had gotten a haircut and had a more simple makeup look. Stelle looked peeved at being intercepted but let go of my hand. "Can I talk to you for a minute?" 

Grateful to catch my breath I nodded. "Sure." I looked back at Stelle who crossed her arms and sighed. Trouble led me to an empty corner of the lobby. She looked around, making sure no passing people overheard us. Stelle paced and grabbed a muffin from an unattended basket on the front desk. "What is it?"

"I....thought about what you said," she sighed. "About the group not really being my friends." I could see hurt in her expression. "You were right."

"Did something happen?" I didn't mean to pry. She shook her head.

"No, but...you know how it is." I nodded, making sure my robe was closed all the way. Trouble looked down at my getup and raised an eyebrow. "What's up with you?"

"Nothing," I lied. "I was staying over at a friend's place and was in a hurry to get back." I looked back at Stelle who was getting crumbs all over my set of clothes. Beside the muffin basket was a snow globe and a Santa statue. In fact, the whole hotel lobby seemed to transform overnight. Wreaths and garlands and a huge tree with lights and ornaments decorated the place. It really felt out of place with how warm it was outside. I didn't think I'd ever get used to it. "So...you're not a Glamour Girl anymore?"

"I guess not," she said. "Don't get me wrong, I'm still a groupie. But...." I noticed a sparkle in her eye as she spoke. Like she had something up her sleeve. "I think I'm going to do this alone. With a new name."

"Oh?" I said. 

"Yeah....and I might take your advice," she said. "About just...being friends with the bands." I smiled. She shrugged. "Maybe they'll like it better, who knows?" 

"What matters is that you like it better," I said. "I hope it goes well for you." Trouble straightened up and nodded, giving me a small smile. 

"I think it will," she said. "Ever since leaving the group I've had a bit more confidence in myself."

"That's good!" I said. I turned around to see Stelle eating the entire basket of muffins out of stress. "I should probably go. What's the new name?"

"Oh....I suppose I'll go with Candy," she said. "Nickname for Candace."

"I like it," I said. "Much better than the ones I came up with." Holding the basket of muffins in her hand and one in her mouth, Stelle came up to us and tapped me on the shoulder. 

"Mmmmph mm mmmmph," she said. 

"I remember you," Candy said. "You're the band's photographer, right?" Stelle nodded and took another bite. "I hope to see some of those photos in the magazines. Well....guess I gotta get going. Start my new groupie adventure. Nice seeing you both again."

"Bye, Candy!" I called as she walked out the hotel doors. "Good luck."

Stelle swallowed her muffin and grabbed my hand, balancing the basket and my clothes with her other arm. "Come on, you need to hear this."

**********

"American news reports say the longest coma anyone has ever been in has come to an end. Alabama woman Elaine Esposito has died after being unconscious for thirty seven years...."

Stelle switched the radio off and we sat there in silence. Wheels squeaked outside the hotel room from carts and elevators dinged. The traffic was busy outside despite being a Sunday morning and cars kept zooming past the open window. I chanced a glance at Stelle who was sitting on the chaise lounge with her hands on her lap. She looked up at me. "They covered the story earlier today," she said. "I was looking for some music to listen to while I got ready and...." She pointed at the radio with a shaking hand. "Isn't that the woman you were talking about?"

"Yes," I sighed. "That's her." Stelle closed her eyes and turned a bit pale. I thought she was going to faint for a second before the color slowly returned. 

"So....so you really are...." She couldn't seem to get the words out. She choked on them. "...what you say you are?"

I nodded. Stelle covered her face with her hands and shook her head. "Now, don't freak out...."

"How can I not freak out?" Stelle spat, her eyes wild. "Everything I've ever known about the world turns out not to be true. Time travel doesn't exist!"

"Only....that it does," I squeaked. Stelle stood from the lounge and grabbed her camera off the counter. She fidgeted with it and aimed it at me. Taken by surprise I almost jumped out of the way. 

"Stay put," she ordered and I held still. She pressed the button and nothing. She slammed her finger down repeatedly over the button and nothing. I winced, waiting for a sudden flash. Then, turning around, she aimed her camera at a painting on the wall and it clicked as it snapped a photo. "Is that why I can't take your picture?" she asked, turning back to me. "My camera works just fine on anything else and when it's pointed at you...." She tried again and still nothing. "Just like the other day backstage."

"It must be," I said. "Maybe...whatever sent me here doesn't want proof that a time traveler has been on the loose. If someone got a photo of me in 1978...." Who knows, maybe they'd think it was a very impressive case of Photoshop. "I don't think any of you were supposed to find out..."

"Who else knows, Angus?" she asked. I nodded. "And does he believe you?"

"He said he did," I mumbled. "Maybe he was just being nice..."

Stelle paced the room and ran her hands through her tangled hair. "He said you wrote all that stuff down in the notebook," she said. "And he didn't want to believe it."

"No, he didn't," I said.

"And when I talked to him and told him what you told me....." Stelle looked down at the floor like she was talking to herself. "This can't be true...." She stared right at me and I wanted to crawl under the sofa and die. Did Stelle hate me now? Not just for keeping a secret but for being a freak of nature? "I can't be friends with a time traveler, I just can't be...." My heart leaped at the hope that we might still be friends. "What else happens in the future? You said something about Sid Vicious, anyone else? Tell me!" She got very close to my face and grabbed my shoulders. "Does something happen to me? Will I marry Janis?"

"Uh....if you want to, sure," I said. Stelle frowned. 

"Well what's that supposed to mean?"

"I don't know any more about your future than you do," I said. "I know some big events but I'm not sure I'm supposed to go around telling anyone."

"Then what good is it going back in time if you can't do anything with it?" Stelle asked. "Why go back at all?"

I thought back to all those people who talk about having a mission when going back in time. Saving someone from dying or killing an evil world leader to prevent something catastrophic. Or they bring up the paradox about killing your grandfather or someone and use that to prove time travel isn't possible. But who the fuck would kill their grandfather in the first place? Maybe whatever sent me here didn't want me to kill anyone. What happened in the past, has happened. There's no changing it. We're in charge of our own futures based on choices we make in the present. I can't save anyone from dying and I can't change the course of world events. 

"Maybe...." I said taking a deep breath. "Maybe I've just been sent here...to have fun."

"Fun?" Stelle asked. "You just got zapped to the past to party?" She started laughing and I couldn't help but join in. "Man, whatever you did, send it my way. I'd love to see the swinging sixties at the age I am now."

"So you believe me?" Stelle shrugged and collapsed on the chaise lounge. 

"I guess there's no other explanation," she said. "What you wrote in your notebook, how you seemed to know little things about Angus without him telling you-" I gave her a look and she shrugged. "He might have mentioned that when we talked."

"Oh," I said. Totally embarrassing....

"That's why my camera refuses to take your picture and that's how you knew what was going to happen to that Elaine....woman," she said. "Everything adds up but I just can't believe it's possible to actually travel back in time...."

"You're not going to tell anyone, are you?" I asked. "Because it should be my responsibility to tell people if I choose to."

"I can't tell anyone?" Stelle asked, sounding extremely disappointed. "Not even Janis?" I shook my head. "What good is being friends with a real time traveler if you can't tell anyone?"

"Because it's a secret and friends keep secrets," I said. Reasonable secrets, mind you. "Maybe when the time is right I'll tell the other boys in the band but not right now. These things have to be done delicately."

"Maybe that's why the gods chose you," Stelle said. "You're responsible. I'd be telling everybody I saw on sight if it were me."

"I wanted to," I said. "It's hard telling lie after lie and trying to remember what I told everyone." Stelle smirked.

"Lies? Like the one you said about having a VD?" I felt my face flush a deep crimson and Stelle shrugged with a tiny smile. "Everyone kind of overheard....word got out....don't worry, none of us believed it. I know guys can be creeps sometimes."

"He was the biggest," I muttered, crossing my arms. 

"Is there anything about the future you can tell me?" she asked, giving me very large puppy dog eyes. "I won't tell anyone, I swear....I'm just curious."

"Well...." Now what could I tell her? Almost everything I knew was something shitty. That's what the news loves to show. They announce way more bad things than good things and if you want to hear the good things you have to make an effort to look. "The Beatles released another song recently," I said. I still couldn't believe a song credited to all four Beatles was released in my lifetime. Stelle didn't need to know John and George had passed away, right?

"Really?" Stelle asked, raising her eyebrows. "Wow....like, a full album?"

"Just...just a song," I said. "Called Now and Then."

Stelle nodded thoughtfully. "Well thank God they're still around," she said. "I've loved that band ever since Ed Sullivan." I swallowed. "Anything else?"

"Uh..." Now I was scrambling for something interesting. Stelle was English.... "In 2012 the Clock Tower will be renamed as Elizabeth Tower," I said. 

"After the Queen?" Stelle asked. "Really...." She put a hand to her chin and considered it. "How's the Queen doing, by the way? Or....do we have a new one?"

I shifted my weight. I wasn't a follower of the royal family but this was a pretty damn big deal. "You'll have a king in my time," I said. Stelle's shoulders slumped.

"Oh," she said. She thought back to what I assume was her knowledge of the monarchy. "Okay, I see," she said nodding. "It would be a king, wouldn't it?"

I stepped toward my pile of clothes that Stelle left in a heap on the sofa next to the empty muffin basket. "If that's all I can help you with," I said, grabbing them. "I think I'll change into something else." Angus' bathrobe, as cozy as it was, was getting a hassle to keep closed all the time. 

"Okay," Stelle said, absentmindedly. "Wait!" I stopped in my tracks toward the bathroom. "Get dressed quick, we're going to be late."

"Late for what?" I asked.

Stelle started rummaging around the room for clothes and makeup while I stood there expectantly. "I can't believe I forgot," she muttered. 

"Forgot what?" I asked. "Where are we going?"