TIME AND TIME AGAIN The sequel to 3037 by Peggy Holloway

paused and then kept going and walked behind the bar.  I watched him and when I looked back at Josie , she was fading.  I was going to reach out to her but I couldn’t move. I was glued to the spot.
    This time it was as if I was in a whirlpool and I was being dragged down.  Things were moving too fast and then I blacked out.
     
     
    “Mary, Mary Surratt!” someone was screaming and I opened my eyes and looked down at myself.  I was barefoot and wearing an ugly gray shift with nothing under it.
    It was quite dark in there and I noticed that there were other women in the room with me.  The floor and walls were concrete .  A thin layer of straw had been spread out over the floor and we were all sitting on the straw .
    One thin old woman, with skin that looked like leather, pointed at me, “He’s calling you, Mary.  You best get up and go over to the bar. ”   It was then that I noticed that I was in some sort of prison.
    “Mary, get your ass over here,” The man, who turned out to be a prison guard, yelled again.  “Don’t make me have to come drag you out.”  He was looking right at me.
    As I stood up he began unlocking the door.  When I got to the door he had it open and he turned me around and tied my hands behind my back with a rope.
    In all the times I had moved through time, I had never ended up as someone else, especially someone famous.  I remembered reading about Mary Surratt in a history book once, in the first life I could remember.
    Mary Surratt was the first woman executed by the federal government for treason, in 1865.  She had been convicted of supplying the gun for John Wilkes Booth, the man who killed President Lincoln.
    The guard led me outside and up some wooden steps to a platform and I saw a noose at the top of the platform.  This must be the day that Mary was hung, I thought to myself.  There was a crowd of people and some were having a picnic.  There were even children there ready to watch the execution.
    I had a loud roaring in my ears and couldn’t hear what anyone was saying but I noticed a man walking beside us with an open Bible in his hands and his lips were moving.
    I had a hard time getting up the stairs, I was shaking so badly.  When he put a black bag over my head and then the noose around my neck, I almost died of a heart attack.
    Suddenly, without warning, I felt the floor beneath my feet open up and the pressure on my neck was incredible.  I cannot describe the pain and the struggle to breathe.  It felt like it lasted a good three minutes and was a very long three minutes.   I felt the muscles in my arms and legs spasm and both my bladder and bowels released the waste from my body and I was no more.
     
     
     
    CHAPTER 16
    “ Iuga , Iuga ,” Was the first thing I heard when I woke up on a busy street.  It wasn’t a human voice, but more mechanical.  As I tried to focus on what was making the noise, I realized I was sitting in the middle of a busy street and the sound was coming from an old model T automobile.   The street was made of bricks.
    A man stopped the car and got out and started toward me.   He was wearing a white suit with a blac k dress sh irt and pink tie.  His pants were baggy , with pleats in the front.   He had pitch black hair that was parted in the middle and slicked back on each side.
    He held his hand out to help me up and I noticed his eyes were as black as his hair.
    “Where and when am I?” I asked and he laughed.  He had even white teeth.
    He led me back to this car and kept his arm around me, “You are, or were, in the middle of the main drag in downtown Chicago,” He said as he helped me into the passenger seat.
    I held out my hand, “I’m Ashley.”
    He frowned at my outstretched hand like he didn’t know what to do with it.
    “So you do know your name.  I’m Al, by the way.”
    To try and figure out the year I was in, I asked, “What kind of car is this?”
    “This,” He said as he patted the dashboard, “Is a